Teaser Trailer for JACKIE Starring Natalie Portman

One of the bigger surprises to come out of the Toronto International Film Festival this year was the wave of positive reactions and praise in response to director Pablo Larraín's Jackie. The film that is a biopic of the First Lady to John F. Kennedy is said to tell a searingly personal account of Mrs. Kennedy's life in the hours and days following the assassination of her husband. Starring Natalie Portman in the titular role early word is the actor will easily land in the Best Actress category at this year's Academy Awards as Larraín has given Portman a platform on which to craft a version of this person that is more introspective and nuanced than any other portrayal we've seen of this First lady on screen before. And to be honest, this first look at the film for those of us not privileged enough to attend a major film festival is completely astonishing. The visual prowess of the film seems to mirror the light, but striking gravitas of its titular character while the score is as exquisite and classy as most would imagine the real Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was. It is the narration of this teaser that really drives home the weight the film likely holds though, as the quote from the musical "Camelot," reinforces the idea of sudden change and the more sudden realizations that things will never be the same as they once were. In the stage play King Arthur speaks these words near the end as he comes to realize that the grand notions and the lofty ideas of his beloved Camelot are gone. The Jackie that is the subject of Larraín's film is very much in this same state of mind. By layering in these elements the teaser culminates with a barrage of imagery that figuratively resembles the walls of the Kennedy's Camelot falling down around them. It's more than effective-it is moving even and if Larraín's film can elicit as much of an emotional response as it does in this two-minute clip I can only imagine what the feature film experience might be like. I can't wait. Jackie also stars Billy Crudup, Peter Sarsgaard, Greta Gerwig, John Hurt, Richard E. Grant, John Carroll Lynch, and opens on December 2nd, 2016.

Teaser Trailer for PATRIOTS DAY Starring Mark Wahlberg

While Mark Wahlberg and Peter Berg's Deepwater Horizon just hit theaters this past weekend (I'll be catching up with that one tomorrow) the actor/director duo (who also worked on Lone Survivor together) have already completed their next project together and are once again working within the realm of a tragic true story that turned average human beings going about their everyday lives and jobs into heroes. Patriots Day recounts Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis's actions in the events leading up to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and the aftermath, which includes the city-wide manhunt to find the terrorists behind it. Three years removed from the marathon bombing and I can still remember exactly where I was when the news started pouring in about the events taking place at an even that was intended to bring unity and spirit to the city that was taken advantage of as an opportunity to diminish both such goals. In this rather somber first trailer we are mainly treated to a run through of Wahlberg's Sgt. Tommy Saunders as he goes about his routine before leaving for duty on April 15th, 2013. This first look is clearly meant to elicit the American spirit of the piece with more American flags popping up here than a Michael Bay flick while the trailer is scored with a piano version of "America the Beautiful" that resonates in an effective way when paired with the vague images suggesting the real terror that took place that day. While Lone Survivor was on of the best films of 2013 in my opinion and despite the fact I can't yet speak on the quality of Deepwater Horizon I'm inclined to be excited for what Berg and Wahlberg will deliver here as they seem to have tapped into a specific niche of their own that they find both interesting and artistically fulfilling. We'll find out if they can keep their streak alive when the film begins its awards-qualifying run on December 21st. Patriots Day also stars Michelle Monaghan, John Goodman, Kevin Bacon, J.K. Simmons, Melissa Benoist, Rachel Brosnahan, Alex Wolff, Michael Beach and expands wide on January 13, 2017. 

On DVD & Blu-Ray: October 4, 2016

Teaser Trailer for PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES

It's just as easy to tell the summer movie season is over by the rush of prestige pictures October begins to bring as it is by the appearance of teaser trailers for the next summer movie season. Still, besides some of the teases we received at Comic-Con this year we haven't really seen much of what we'll be getting at the cinema in the summer of 2017. That all changes as Disney has released a two and a half minute teaser for the fifth installment in their massive Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. While generally a fan of the original trilogy I can hardly remember much of anything about Rob Marshall's 2011 continuation On Stranger Tides. All of that said, this latest installment that is once again produced by Jerry Bruckheimer has courted directors Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg who are the duo behind the foreign adventure film Kon-Tiki from 2012 which was (not coincidentally) about a 1947 expedition by raft across the Pacific Ocean from South America to the Polynesian islands. Though this initial teaser doesn't give much by way of story and we don't see Johnny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow except for on a Wanted poster we do get our first glimpse at Javier Bardem's Captain Salazar that is apparently out to deliver death to Depp's Captain Jack by way of Brenton Thwaites' Henry who is definitely not Sam Claflin's Philip from the previous film. And while little more of the story is known than what this teaser tells us the script comes from Jeff Nathanson who has penned movies ranging in quality from The Terminal and Tower Heist to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Rush Hour 3 so make of that what you will when considering what we could potentially be in store for here. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales also stars Orlando Bloom, Kaya Scodelario, David Wenham, Geoffrey Rush, and...Paul McCartney? Apparently we'll get Beatles over the Stones in this latest installment that arrives in theaters on May 26th, 2017.

Initial Reaction: Video Review - MISS PEREGRINE'S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN & DEEPWATER HORIZON

I'm going to need to do some major catching up this week as this past weekend saw the release of three new wide releases and the expansion of another. It seemed only two of these will end up mattering in the long run as the Tim Burton adaptation of Ransom Riggs' best-seller, Miss Peregrines Home for Peculiar Children, ended up atop the weekend box office while the Lone Survivor reunion of director Peter Berg and star Mark Wahlberg in Deepwater Horizon finished second. The other films referenced to are the long-delayed Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite) comedy Masterminds and the based on a true story inspiration Disney flick Queen of Katwe. Both of these films have rather stellar casts considering their genres with Zach Galifianakis, Kristen Wiig, Owen Wilson, Jason Sudeikis, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones all starring in Hess' take of one of the biggest bank heists in American history while Lupita Nyong'o and David Oyelowo headlined the account of a Ugandan girl who sees her world rapidly change after being introduced to the game of chess. While I was hoping for something unexpected from Masterminds it was critically panned and only earned an estimated $6.6 million from 3,042 theaters. Queen of Katwe couldn't do any better in its first weekend of wide release making only $2.6 million from 1,242 theaters. It was Miss Peregrine who reigned supreme with an estimated $28.5 million from 3,522 theaters. The film also received a "B+" CinemaScore with audiences under twenty-five giving it an "A-" which bodes well for the YA property in the coming weeks. Deepwater Horizon finished second with an estimated $20.6 million from 3,259 theaters and also scored an "A-" CinemaScore. Filling out the remainder of the top five were holdovers The Magnificent Seven as well as Sully which continues to do impressive numbers. Thanks again to Jordan Mears for filling in for me this weekend and, as always, be sure to follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and subscribe to our YouTube channel as we have a new review (or reviews) up each week!