Fall Movies Announced

Follow this link for a list of the Fall Movie premiers coming in September through December. Just a few jump out at me, but I’m sure the descriptions aren’t nearly as thrilling as the trailers will be.

Coming in September:

• ALPHA AND OMEGA: Two wolves take a cross-country road trip home in an animated adventure featuring the voices of Justin Long and Hayden Panettiere. (I saw the trailer for this and it looks cute.)
• THE AMERICAN: George Clooney plays a hitman who finds romance and tranquility in the Italian countryside as he prepares for one last assignment. (I just like George, okay?)
• BURIED: An American driver (Ryan Reynolds) in Iraq wakes up buried in a coffin with only a dying cell phone and a lighter. (I also like Ryan, but I’m curious how a two-hour movie will deal with this. I recommend my mother stay away from this one. Claustrophobia!)

Coming in October:

• SECRETARIAT: Diane Lane stars as the housewife who oversees the legendary horse to a Triple Crown victory in 1973. With John Malkovich. (Saw the trailer for this, too. I think it will be just as good as the 2003 racehorse offering, Seabiscuit.)

November:

• MEGAMIND: Brad Pitt, Will Ferrell and Tina Fey provide voices for an animated comedy about a supervillain whose life is empty after defeating his superhero nemesis. (I liked Despicable Me, so this may be just as good.)
• TANGLED: Mandy Moore provides the voice of Rapunzel in an animated musical about the fairy-tale teen with really long hair. (Yes, I’m a sucker for cartoons. Especially those based on fairy tales.)

December:

• THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER: C.S. Lewis' fantasy series continues aboard a magical sea voyage. (Can I have an AMEN!)
• TRUE GRIT: Jeff Bridges is boozy lawman Rooster Cogburn in Joel and Ethan Coen's remake of the John Wayne Western. With Matt Damon. (Cautiously optimistic. Bridges has mighty big boots to fill. But I know Damon has GOT to be a better actor than Glen Campbell. Plus, I like the Coen brothers and hope they put their usual wacky spin on this.)
• YOGI BEAR: Dan Aykroyd and Justin Timberlake provide the voices of Yogi and his pal Boo Boo in a big screen take on the cartoon bear. (This just made me laugh, in a good way. I loved Yogi and Boo Boo as a kid, and am wondering why it took someone so long to do this.)

Some of the movies I didn’t mention deserve five question marks instead of stars, such as THE ILLUSIONIST: A stage magician forges on with his old-fashioned act as rock 'n' roll sweeps Britain in this animated tale. Um. . .can’t wrap my mind around the two different things, magic and rock ‘n’ roll. But some on the list may jump out to you like these did to me.

Check out the Yahoo link for yourself.

You Tube Movie Trailers – The Lesson

At the end of my post titled “You Tube Movie Trailers – Sort Of,” I said there was a lesson for writers in the goofy little films that pair two unlikely genres.

Here it is. It’s so simple you’ll wonder why you’ve been on anxious little pins waiting for this equivalent to the Meaning of Life.

DON’T MIX GENRES.

There. Wasn’t that worth waiting for?

In all seriousness, (yes, I can be serious when I try,) I know that this is usually a newbie’s first mistake. They don’t know what they write, so they just sit down and allow stuff to flow from their fingers. I’m not saying this is a bad thing as a newbie. You must experiment to find your voice, your genre. But when it comes time to send that puppy in, you had better not have mixed him with a tiger.

Often when I ask new writers what they write, they don’t have a clue. Or worse, they have several faves and don’t know where to start. I’ve heard people state that their project started out as (for example) a historical but turned into a sci-fi thriller. This is simply a toddler taking her first steps.

I reiterate. It’s okay when you’re starting out to play with genres. Pick your favorite, and then target your publisher. In many of the guidelines, they will tell you what they want and definitely do not want. Study your market. I’ve listened to countless editor and agent panels and invariably someone will answer the question, “What do you hate,” with, “authors who send me a story in a genre I don’t sell.” And yes, hate is the word used in this context. Lesson: Don’t tick off your potential publisher.

So, the moral of the story is, find out your niche, watch the silly You Tubes, and enjoy your writing life.

Here are three more entertaining. . .and yet disturbing videos for your amusement.

Lord of the Bug's Life: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENaUS_OtbhY&hl=en_US&fs=1

The Dark Knight Trailer Recut - Toy Story 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QFWBFIEuig&hl=en_US&fs=1

Disney/Pixar Cars - Star Trek XI Trailer Recut: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQd5sOyuuoE&hl=en_US&fs=1

What if. . . The Movie!

Coming to theaters this month! This looks like a great movie with a redemptive message. If we want more good, clean, Christ-filled movies, we must show up at the theaters in force. I hope you all join me!

From a portion of the press release:

Jenkins Entertainment and Pure Flix Entertainment are proud to announce the theatrical release of the acclaimed feature film, “What If…”

Coming to theaters August 20th, What If… tells the story of Ben Walker (Kevin Sorbo, Hercules), who 15 years ago left the love of his life Wendy (Kristy Swanson, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and his calling to be a preacher for a lucrative business opportunity. Now with a big promotion and a trophy fiancé, he has no desire for family or faith. That is, until an angel in the form of a mechanic (John
Ratzenberger, Cheers) visits him and shows him what his life would look like had he followed his true calling. Suddenly he’s married to Wendy, the father of two kids (including Debby Ryan, Suite Life on Deck), and the new pastor of a small church. If he’s going to escape this new “reality,” he must first learn the value of family and faith. In the tradition of “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “The Family Man,” What If… offers a glimpse of the consequences of life’s choices and the joys of pursuing a second chance
of redemption.

For a list of theaters, go to this site. Note that in some cities, it doesn’t debut until September.

Go to the website and view the trailer.

You Tube Movie Trailers – Sort Of

A couple of these were sent by my friend, Kay Day, who we’ve recently discovered is my long-lost twin. We both have the same . . . um . . . eccentric sense of humor.

The following are three trailers made by talented out of work people.

What if Mary Poppins had been a horror movie? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T5_0AGdFic&hl=en_US&fs=1

The Shining as a romantic comedy? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmkVWuP_sO0&hl=en_US&fs=1

There’s a lesson for writers here. Come back later and I’ll tell you.

I know. . . cliff hangers . . . you gotta love ‘em.

Despicable Me – Review

As I stated in a previous post, I wanted to see Despicable Me out of curiosity. The early trailers didn’t reveal much, but just enough to whet the appetite. As the time of release drew near, we got more of a glimpse. We knew that a super villain suddenly is in charge of three children, all adorable girls. In fact, the tag line according to IMDb is “Superbad. Superdad.”

It could also be, “The Pink Panther meets The Spy Who Loved Me.”

I enjoyed this movie very much. Yes, it’s a cartoon, but I think we’ve established that I kinda like those. I love watching the craft of storytelling in its purest form. . .yeah, I’ll go with that. It had action, adventure, fluffy moments when the youngest girl wraps herself around the audience, and, surprisingly, quite a timely moral for our get-ahead-at-all-costs society today.

It was a teensy predictable in parts, but also held some surprises.

Steve Carell voices the main character, Gru, and does it so effectively, I would have never know it was him. As a writer, I love what they did with this character. Remember that a villain must have a reason to be bad.

You may want to take a tissue, although I didn’t blubber through this movie like I did Toy Story 3

I didn’t see it in 3D. I’m reserving my hard-earned cash for movies where it makes sense to shake hands with the characters. My choice didn’t ruin the experience, although I could see where one scene would have benefitted in the WOW-I’m-in-the-movie effect. I may have needed an empty popcorn bucket afterward.

I give this movie 4 out of 5 stars because of the predictability factor. But it didn’t ruin the movie for me, and there were enough surprises to keep my writer-brain from overanalyzing. At least, until I got home. :)

You can view the trailer at the IMDb site.

When the Opposing Guy is NOT the Bad Guy

Okay, confession time. I have a crush on one of the stars of The Fugitive, and it isn’t heartthrob Harrison Ford. Oh sure, he was cute in his American Graffiti/Star Wars/Indiana Jones days. But the man who has stolen my heart is Tommy Lee Jones. Rugged, great sense of humor, wonderful actor. Okay, he’s not Pierce Brosnan, who is in a different category altogether. But charisma oozes from him whether he’s playing a semi-serious man in black to comedic Will Smith, a rootin’, tootin’ space cowboy, or just doing his job as a US Marshal.

I like him.

That’s why I was happy to see him as this particular antagonist in The Fugitive.

Antagonist? But, Kathy, how can you like an antagonist? Aren’t they all villains? Don’t they either kill, maim, or destroy?

Uh, no.

The Merriam-Webster definition of antagonist is:

“one that contends with or opposes another”

Opposition need not be violent. It could be as subtle as Marshal Samuel Gerard doing his job as he tries to catch Dr. Richard Kimball, a suspect in his own wife’s murder. In this movie, Marshal Gerard is an excellent example of the definition above. As Dr. Kimball hides from the law while proving his innocence, the marshal is hunting him down, in clear opposition to the doctor’s goal.

Is the marshall evil? No. Does he wish harm on the man he’s been hired to bring in? No. He is not the villain.

A story can have more than one antagonist, and often, those sub-antagonists serve as the villains. I think you can clearly see that the killer, the man with the prosthetic arm, is also in opposition to Dr. Kimball’s goals. Kimball is closing in on him, and the killer doesn’t want to be caught. Another antagonist, and perhaps the most dastardly villain, is Dr. Kimball’s good friend, Dr. Charles Nichols. Nichols is behind Kimball’s wife’s murder, trying to silence Kimball before he can blow the whistle on Nichols’s defective drug that he’s trying to market.

My favorite scene in the movie, and one that brings my antagonist-is-not-necessarily-the-villain point home, is when Gerard corners Kimball at the end of a tunnel in a dam. “I didn’t do it!” Kimball says. “I don’t care.” Gerard answers just moments before Kimball plunges into the water to escape. Gerard is stunned as he doesn’t wish harm on Kimball, he simply wants to do his job.

The role of antagonist can change to supporter as the story progresses. We see this as Gerard investigates and comes to the same conclusions that Kimball does. Their goals become the same as they both close in on the real killer.

At the end, after Nichols and his henchman, the one-armed-man hired to kill Kimball’s wife, are taken into custody, Kimball is also placed in a squad car. Gerard reaches in, removes the handcuffs and gives him a bag of ice for his bruised hands. Kimball says, “I thought you didn’t care.” Gerard jokes, “I don’t.”

Hero and antagonist have joined forces, the true villains are hauled away, and we are confident that with this new ally, Dr. Richard Kimball will be set free.

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The Fugitive - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106977/

Toy Story 3 -- Review

I had a “me” day today, although I probably didn’t deserve it since I haven’t been overly stressed lately. But it just seemed appropriate. I spent my “me” day at the theater all by myself, munching buttered popcorn, drinking soda, and watching Toy Story 3.

Upon hearing about this third in the franchise, I feared it could never live up to the first two. Forgive my failure to review Toy Story 1 and 2. Suffice it to say, I LOVED THEM! They each get 5 stars as does TS3.

Andy’s grown up and about to leave for college when the toys find themselves given away to a daycare. I won’t spoil how they got there, but let me say that the writers handled it very well. We know from the trailer that this daycare is run by some unscrupulous toys, and Woody and the gang must get out of there with parts intact.

A tad darker than the first two, it made me think about those toys crammed into my Memories Box all these mumble-mumble years. Sammy the seal—once as important to me as Woody is to Andy—his straw hat, a flipper, and both eyes now gone, is waiting for me to play with him once again. sniff

If you’ve ever loved a toy, or ever loved a child leaving the nest, this movie will pluck your heartstrings and affect you like no other Pixar film. It ties up the series nicely, yet. . .perhaps leaves room for more. Please, Pixar, please? The principles taught in all three movies should be taught everywhere, to children and adults alike. (Politicians, you listening?)

I give this movie 5 out of 5 stars. Now, I have to dig through the garage and hug the stuffing out of Sammy.

***********

Toy Story 3 - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0435761/