Let's take a closer look at "Us" trailer

The trailer for Jordan Peele's Us was just released, in time to freak everyone out during Christmas. This is a very rare situation where I didn't read spoilers and didn't read the script so it's really fun to try to figure out what is happening.

Aquaman

(spoilers!)

When James Wan, acclaimed and successful director mostly known for his horror films, was asked which movie he wanted to make - The Flash or Aquaman - he decided on Aquaman because the character is "an underdog". And Wan was right - the character was ridiculed for a very long time, with jokes at his expense, appearing most notably in South Park and The Big Bang Theory, becoming the most famous thing about the character.

Well....who's laughing now?

Soundtrack Wednesday - Aquaman

Forgotten, underrated and underseen erotic thrillers from the 90's

One thing I don't think I talk enough about is just how much I love the 90's. Granted, I was just a kid back then but I loved everything about it - the music - remember, you could turn on MTV or VH1 and there were actual music videos there? - the clothes, the spectacular hair and the movies that were released back then.

One very distinctive kind of movies we got from the 90's were (mostly) female-led thrillers, usually featuring wild sex scenes, a lot of casual nudity and truly disturbing subject matter. In other words three things we don't see often, if at all, in American movies these days.

Soundtrack Wednesday - First Man

Widows

The more Steve McQueen's movies I watch the more I realize the only film of his I truly liked was Shame. McQueen's has this jarring style which was so evident to me in 12 Years a Slave - in spite of having protagonists in his films he focuses on supporting characters too often and in the result his films completely lose focus. In the end we know a little about all of the characters but we lose sight of out protagonists for long periods of time which is detrimental to the film.

The King rises in the FINAL Aquaman trailer!

Woohoo!!!! What a gift from WB at the beginning of the week. Final trailer for Aquaman featuring tons of new footage and amazing music which is most likely Rupert Gregson-Williams score for the film! Only one more month until they will have to call the ambulance to the cinema I'm watching this in.

Soundtrack Wednesday - Suspiria

Visual Parallels: Solaris + Annihilation

Ranking: Trailers for Awards contenders 2018

With Oscar season upon us I thought it will be fun to choose the best marketing so far for awards contenders. I was originally going to do top 10 but honestly couldn't find this many good trailers - there's Welcome to Marwen which trailer is laughably bad, First Man trailers which are all pretty damn meh and stuff that looks so bland that I don't even wanna see those films (Boy Erased, Ben is Back). So I came up with 8 best ones, first 3 of which are truly spectacular.

Screaming Sunday: The Haunting of Hill House

Rating - 94/100
Plot:  Explores a group of siblings who, as children, grew up in what would go on to become the most famous haunted house in the country. Now adults, and forced back together in the face of tragedy, the family must finally confront the ghosts of their past, some of which still lurk in their minds while others may actually be stalking the shadows of Hill House.
The heroes: The Crain family.
The antagonists: The inevitably of death. I shit you not, that's basically the antagonist.
What makes it so great? The Haunting of Hill is not only the greatest thing TV or cinema has to offer in the month of Halloween but one of the Netflix finest shows to date. But what it is first and foremost is one of the greatest horrors in recent memory. We are in renaissance of horror lately. We have The VVitch, Hereditary, It Follows. But we haven't really got a ghost story in a very long time. The antagonists in all of the above were evil forces that the audience had no sympathy or even understanding for. There was still a touch of humanity there - Thomasin caring for her siblings, Annie waling after her daughter. But the most gigantic horror franchise currently is The Conjuring franchise featuring one dimensional demonic antagonists. But The Haunting of the Hill House does something that is done very rarely - we fear seeing the ghosts in it even though we feel sympathy for them.

Venom

Well, what do you know? The turd in the wind turns out to be the breath of fresh air.

Aquaman - extended trailer breakdown

This week WB marketing department has blessed us with the 5-minute long sneak peek/trailer for Aquaman. This footage was shown exclusively to the audience at Comic Con this year. I guess WB is really trying everything to win the war that is gonna break in the box office - Aquaman premiers the same week as Bumblebee and Mary Poppins Returns. Also it's curious that lately, other than Fantastic Beasts, WB's releases were only getting one main trailer and few short ones, which were all stuffed in front of other films - A Star is Born's 4 short trailers were all put in front of The Nun. If this is the technique designed not to spoil much than it certainly doesn't apply to this extended video as after months of pointlessly refusing to confirm if Arthur's classic outfit will show up, we now actually got to see it at the end of this video. My bet is that we are getting one more trailer that will be attached to Fantastic Beasts and WB will send absolutely everyone to promote the film. So here we go, let's take a look at the new footage we get to see:

First Reformed

(spoilers!)

Screaming Sunday - Mandy

Movie rating - 84/100
Plot: A psychodelic tale of a quiet logger named Red (Nicolas Cage) who lives a life of serenity with his wife Mandy (Andrea Riseborough), in their dream cabin in the woods. But when the leader of a deranged cult (Linus Roache, who played Batman's dad in Batman Begins and I cannot stop being shocked by it after seeing Mandy) becomes enamored with Red's wife, he and his people terrorize the couple, leaving Red spiraling into madness.The psychodelic goes full grindhouse as Red, armed with a battle axe and any drugs he can find, goes on a violent rampage, enacting his revenge on the cult in the most gruesome ways.
The heroes: Nicolas Cage forging a battle axe as he is wearing sunglasses and a T-shirt.

The Nun

(spoilers!)

The Nun is the fifth entry in The Conjuring universe and unfortunately it's the biggest disappointment in it yet. While not quite awful as the first Annabelle movie, the film is disjointed, boring and makes very little sense. In truth the only people who should pray for forgiveness here are director Corin Hardy and whoever did the rewrites on the promising script.

Sharp Objects 1x08 Milk

"A child weaned on poison considers harm a comfort.”

A crucial line from the novel didn't make it into the last episode of Sharp Objects, a finale that mostly delivered and majorly surprised. And thus all of Gillian Flynn's books have been adapted (and yes, what as shame it is we didn't get Dark Places adaptation that was worthy of the novel). I've gotta say that as wonderful as Fincher's Gone Girl was Jean-Marc Vallée really did wonders here, even though you still wish for more of the scenes from the book were featured on screen.

Against the Crowd 2018

Dell is hosting his super awesome Against the Crowd blogathon again and I decided to participate. Here are the rules:

Sharp Objects 1x07 Falling

(spoiler-free!)

The penultimate, stunning episode of Sharp Objects set the stage for finale particularly for the confrontation between Camille, now barely hanging on, having lost everything with only her desire to deliver justice and protect Amma remaining, and Adora, who we all saw for the monster she truly is, in ways that book readers might not have expected.

Sharp Objects 1x06 Cherry

(spoiler-free!)

Two episodes left and the things on Sharp Objects are figuratively and literally spinning out of control with our protagonist losing her grip on reality and responsible or sane behavior more and more the longer she stays in the town and the closer she gets to her sister. This episode brought a fan favorite scene - the party Camille attends with Amma. And as all the previous episodes, it did source material justice.

Sharp Objects 1x05 Closer

(spoiler-free!)

This week in Sharp Objects we saw the event that was only mentioned in passing in the book, here expanded to the entire episode. And what a fantastic idea that was. Calhoun Day, Adora's pride and joy, provided a riveting look into the inhabitants of the town and the biggest dose of humor in the show yet.But there was so much heartbreak too.

Sharp Objects 1x04 Ripe

(spoiler-free!)

If Sharp Objects is like an acid trip, this last episode was the peak of it, so far. Halfway through the season we are deep into Wind Gap dysfunctional ways, stuck there with Camille. And with each episode we find out more and more painful things about her.

Jason Momoa Appreciation

Joseph Jason Namakaeha Momoa

1 August 1979 (Honolulu, Hawaii, USA)<

I think a man needs to be a man. To hold a woman the way she wants to be held. Just do whatever your woman wants, and you'll be fine.

Bye, bye Guardians

So this is the hill on which the cast of Guardians of the Galaxy wants to die on.

Good riddance.

Sharp Objects 1x03 Fix

(spoiler-free!)

Last episode of Sharp Objects showed quite a bit of Camille's cryptic and painful past and gave more depth - disturbing, weird and freaky depth - to both Camille's step sister, Amma and her cold mother, Adora. We also got some progress in Camille's investigation as she proves to be a more capable and relentless seeker of the truth than the city's police chief.

"Aquaman" - trailer breakdown

Yes, I know it's Thursday and by that time of the week you usually get very poorly written Sharp Objects recaps here on the Corner, but considering that Aquaman trailer dropped on Saturday and I have seen it about 1000 times already just be glad that I'm still alive (to the four people who actually read the recaps - I'll post it on Sunday).

God help us, I have thoughts about the trailer so here we go.

"Welcome home" - the first trailer for Aquaman is finally here!

Straight from Comic Con here is the trailer for my most anticipated movie ever. The stunning, amazing first look at Aquaman!

Sharp Objects 1x02 Dirt

(spoiler-free!)

The second episode of Sharp Objects is spookier and even better than the series' premiere. There are truly hard to watch scenes, especially detective Willis talking to the coroner about the recent murder victim and Camille's flashbacks of her painful memories. As all of this is going on the central relationship between Camille and her mother Adora grows even more tense.

Jason Momoa is Aquaman in the stunning first poster for the film!

(click to enlarge)

*crying noise*
*excited dolphin sounds*
*shouting*

Look at this beauty.

This is a confirmation that the release date - December 21 - stays. Mary Poppins recently moved but WB must really have confidence in Aquaman since they are sticking to the original date.

Also we have set reports - 1,2,3. So please go and read them as I fill the tub with ice and lie in it for a while.

(the first trailer for the movie is going to be shown at Comic Con this Saturday and will be released online immediately after)

Sharp Objects 1x01 Vanish

(spoiler-free!)

Sharp Objects is my favorite book by Gillian Flynn. I read all of her published novels while awaiting the movie adaptation of Gone Girl four years ago and this novel was by far the best read out of the things she has written. Flynn is extremely gifted when it comes to creating complex, dark female characters, not just the protagonists but the supporting women in her novels too. It's such a unique thing when for years it was only the men who had the right to be damaged and fight their demons and when women were expected to be perfect and pristine.

The story follows beautiful, smart and very damaged Camille Preaker (Amy Adams). Camille comes from a small town -Wind Gap in Missouri. She left the town eight years ago but now her editor sends her back there to write a story. A year ago a corpse of a young girl was found and now another girl is missing. Camille reluctantly agrees to take the assignment and goes back and as she does, so do the demons she has been battling her entire life.

Season 2 of Westworld is a huge disappointment

With the largely negative reactions to the finale and the ratings dropping throughout the entire season, people keep comparing what happened to Westworld with what happened to True Detective - great first season, disappointing second season. I actually liked season 2 of True Detective (Rachel McAdams' amazing performance in particular) so this one was an even bigger drop in quality for me. The truth is that this season of Westworld was a massive let down.

Screaming Sunday - Hereditary

Movie rating - 81/100
Plot:  When the matriarch of the Graham family passes away, her daughter's family begins to unravel cryptic and increasingly terrifying secrets about their ancestry.
The heroes: Graham family, trying to figure out just what the hell is happening.
The antagonists: Among others the sound Charlie makes which you will not be able to unhear.
Best scene: It involves a car.
Oh-oh something's not right line: Who is going to take care of me when you die?
What makes it so great? There are multiple scenes where something frightening is on the screen but there is no 'look!' signal from the director. No loud music. No zoom. Nothing that would happen in 9 out of 10 other horror films out there to draw your attention to the nightmarish element of the shot.

The impressive first trailer for Luca Guadagnino's "Suspiria" is here

Luca Guadagnino, who bored me half to death last year with the tale of a peach and Armie Hammer's relentless Oscar thirst is back and this time he made something that may actually interest me - a remake of the classic horror film Suspiria.

New trailer for Mission Impossible: Fallout gives us more glimpses of Henry Cavill and BATHROOM FIGHT

and...10 more great uses of songs in movie trailers

And one more time, here are 10 more awesome uses of songs in teasers and trailers (part 1, part 2). This time it's only movies. We'll probably gonna have these posts every once in a while since practically all I listen to are either soundtracks or trailer songs and clearly there is no shortage of awesome Imagine Dragons songs they can use flawlessly to market a movie.

Things get tiny and huge in the second trailer for "Ant-Man and The Wasp"

On the heels of devastating everyone last week, the timing was perfect for Marvel to release brand new - and very fun - trailer for Ant-Man and the Wasp aka a sequel to my second favorite MCU movie. The official synopsis for the film reads "as Scott Lang balances being both a Super Hero and a father, Hope van Dyne and Dr. Hank Pym present an urgent new mission that finds the Ant-Man fighting alongside The Wasp to uncover secrets from their past.". Even though we saw Michelle Pfeiffer, who plays Janet van Dyne, Hope's mother who is lost in Quantum Realm, on the poster released yesterday, there is no footage of her in the trailer, other than in the full costume in flashback sequence. But we do see lovely glimpses of Quantum Realm.

Avengers: Infinity War

(spoilers!)

A Quiet Place

(spoilers!)
It seems like it's a new tradition in movie world to lavish an undeserved praise all over at least one horror movie a year. As great as The VVitch was it's not exactly the scariest movie since The Exorcist which some of the reviewers were claiming. Then we had It Comes the Night, which is usually winning polls for "what is the worst instance of false marketing in the last few years?" these days. And this year it's A Quiet Place.

Visual Parallels: Wonder Woman + Captain America: The First Avenger

Both Wonder Woman ad Captain America are the most idealistic heroes in their respective universes, DCEU and MCU. Heroic, noble, compassionate and always ready to fight for the innocent in peril. While Captain America: The First Avenger is a relatively modest movie comparing to other films in MCU, Wonder Woman is so far DCEU's crowning - or only - achievement.

Annihilation

You dig in places till your fingers bleed 

Spread the infection, where you spill your seed 

I can't remember what she came here for 

I can't remember much of anything anymore 

 She's gone, she's gone, she's gone away 

She's gone, she's gone, she's gone away 

Away...*

(spoilers!)
Alex's Garland's wonderful new science fiction film Annihilation made headlines this year for quite strange reasons. The studio, Paramount - as in the studio that gave Daren Aronofsky 30 million dollars to make a movie based on a script he wrote after he, presumably, dropped acid and his eyes locked on the copy of the Bible on his bookstand - didn't have much faith in the movie. In the result, they sold the distribution rights for most of the markets to Netflix, forcing people like me to watch it at home instead of on the big cinema screen. The move proved to be misguided - the film opened to great reviews and made 3/4 of its budget in US theatrical distribution only.

10 most anticipated movies in 2018

Can you believe it's only 9 months and 20 days left in this year? This Oscar season lasted so damn long it's already 1/4 into 2018. And as great as last year was, this one is shaping up to be amazing too, with my anticipated Annihilation finally dropping on Netflix tomorrow. So what are the other films I am waiting for this year?

Soundtrack Wednesday - Annihilation

90h Annual Academy Awards

We finally live in the world where Sam Rockwell has his Oscar!!!

Mt. Rushmore of Movies - 4 most epic Sam Rockwell dancing scenes

One of my favorite people on this planet and someone I love so much that I won't murder him for losing Frost/Nixon bluray BEFORE he even watched it, m.brown is hosting his, apparently, annual Mt. Rushmore of Movies blogathon.