{"id":179,"date":"2007-08-05T15:39:18","date_gmt":"2007-08-05T05:39:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/batrock.net\/?p=179"},"modified":"2007-08-05T15:39:18","modified_gmt":"2007-08-05T05:39:18","slug":"a-brett-ratner-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/batrock.net\/?p=179","title":{"rendered":"A Brett Ratner Film"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ah, trailers. Last night, I had the delight of seeing Knocked Up<\/I> for a second time (and more of that later, because it was much better this time around). As it was when I saw it at Campbelltown, they kicked off with the more “sensitive” I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry<\/i> trailer, which I very conveniently had to take a phone call during. (On the note of that cinematic gem, wowing box offices the US over, the movie is a unifying influence: hated by homosexuals and militant religious groups alike – perhaps it’s not so bad after all!)<\/p>\n

The rest of the trailers were all new to me, though; it’s either the use of separate prints at separate cinemas or, quite likely, a second wind more than a month into the movie’s run (the same thing happened at Borat<\/I>, which I saw three times at George Street).<\/p>\n

So the first of the new ones is a big dose of what the eff for me.<\/p>\n

<\/param><\/param><\/object><\/center><\/p>\n

Brett Ratner is now big enough for his name to appear above a film’s title? IMDB is listing for next year Untitled Brett Ratner Project<\/a>? I won’t go so far as to say that he’s a vanity plate on the level of Michael Bay, but come on<\/i>! Looking over his CV, he hasn’t done a lot, and some of his films have been innocuous, but when they weren’t, dear lord they weren’t<\/I>. <\/p>\n

First I’ll go with Jackie Chan, who I’ve got little to say except for this: Shanghai Knights<\/I> ranks among the worst films I’ve ever seen. Owen Wilson was lucky that he had his work with Wes Anderson to fall back on, or I would punch him so hard in the face that his nose would finally fix itself and he would lose his cinematic trademark. You’re good value, Owen Wilson; don’t bring yourself down to this sort of level again. Despite the lack of Ratner activity, the Shanghai<\/I> franchise was another Jackie Chan “buddy movie” – so I could bring it up here.<\/p>\n

I don’t have much else to say about this trailer, besides the fact that it features an action sequence that looks pretty much directly lifted from the first Rush Hour<\/I> and it features a lot of hilarious “The French and Americans hate each other!” jokes – Chris Rock thought it was because he’s black, but nooooo<\/i>! Take that, humourous expectation! What really draws one’s attention is this:<\/p>\n

You’re Asian! Stop humiliating yourself!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What the hell is that supposed to mean? This is a movie that has a fairly amusing “Who’s on first?” with Chinese names, but then … seriously, what the hell<\/i>, Chris Rock? I’m essentially apoplectic with confusion. Are Asian people the new minstrels of Hollywood or something? They’re teaming them up with gays (please note: Asian people can be gay, too, which would make for a movie so funny<\/I> the world would create a black hole from which no laughter could escape) across the land. We are truly in a new and golden age of cinema.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, I saw the trailer for Die Hard 4.0<\/I> (strangely not going by its American title, Live Free or Die Hard<\/I>), and if that’s not going to be the best movie ever, I don’t know what is. I mean, I’d heard<\/I> that a car gets driven into a helicopter, but … seeing it in action!<\/p>\n

<\/param><\/param><\/object><\/center><\/p>\n

My relationship with dumb action movies is patchy at best. Most of the time I couldn’t be bothered, but something about a movie of this calibre just gets my blood pumping. I’ve only seen the first Die Hard<\/I>, starring Severus Snape and Carl Winslow, but I don’t think I need a lot of briefing for this movie. I think that one can pretty much just go and watch any Bruce Willis action movie and know what sort of things they can expect. <\/p>\n

Also on offer was The Bourne Ultimatum<\/I>, which had a trailer that was actually compelling, unlike the teaser that I saw at Breach<\/I> (coincidentally, that was a great movie with powerhouse performances – vindicating my undying love for Laura Linney). I’m not going to share that here, but it’s still interesting to note that a trailer can either make a movie more appealing or a total turn off.<\/p>\n

PS. When I saw The Simpsons Movie<\/I> (and more on that later, although I’m tempted instead to submit a long, drawn out yawn), I was confronted with a trailer for Ratatouille<\/I>. Sure, we’re way behind here, but it looks awesome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ah, trailers. Last night, I had the delight of seeing Knocked Up for a second time (and more of that later, because it was much better this time around). As it was when I saw it at Campbelltown, they kicked off with the more “sensitive” I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry trailer, which I very conveniently had to take a phone call during. (On the note of that cinematic gem, wowing box offices the US over, the movie is a unifying influence: hated by homosexuals and militant religious groups alike – perhaps it’s not so bad after all!) The <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film","category-trailers"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1HLZ6-2T","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/batrock.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/batrock.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/batrock.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/batrock.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/batrock.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/batrock.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/batrock.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/batrock.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/batrock.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}