First Trailer for THE LEGO NINJAGO MOVIE

With the release of Warner Bros. The LEGO Batman Movie this weekend the studio has now went ahead and released the first trailer for The LEGO Ninjago Movie. Admittedly, I know nothing about whatever Ninjago is, but a bit of quick reading tells me that it is a line of sets produced by Lego. Using elements from their previous Ninja series I'm assuming this one moved a lot of units in the stores and thus the reason it has now produced its own entry in this ever-growing LEGO franchise that Warner Bros. Animation is turning over like hot cakes. Still, as I haven't played with Lego's in quite some time none of this tells me anything about what the movie might be about or what the story might entail. And so, Ninjago follows Lloyd (voice of Dave Franco) or L-loyd if you ask his father, who is a Green Ninja, who must team up with other ninjas to defeat Garmadon (Justin Theroux), the Worst Guy Ever, who also happens to be Lloyd’s dad. The trailer opens up making it seem as if this might be the first LEGO film where we're supposed to take things a little more seriously given the setting and ancient influences, but all of that is quickly dispersed when the film begins to play up the tropes of such movies. The bits given their moment here are solid and had me chuckling if not for the intent of the jokes, but the fact that Phil Lord and Chris Miller really did set a staying tone with that initial LEGO movie to the point that we'll now have two LEGO-themed movies in 2017, both of which look to be a blast simply by virtue of the fact they're well-aware of what they are. This isn't an epic action movie with sweeping landscapes or large battle scenes, but an animated movie with plastic figurines as the main characters and it would be silly to be serious. Taylor Swift‘s “Bad Blood” is a nice touch and it seems by reading the synopsis this first trailer gives away little of what story the film will actually be telling which is rather enticing and has me all the more curious to see how the film separates itself from what will have come before it. The LEGO Ninjago Movie also features the voice talents of Fred Armisen, Abbi Jacobson, Olivia Munn, Kumail Nanjiani, Michael Peña, Zach Woods, Jackie Chan, and opens on September 22nd, 2017.

On DVD & Blu-Ray: February 7, 2017

Trailer Roundup: SUPER BOWL LI

With the Super Bowl happening last night audiences were guaranteed a look at some of the bigger movies coming out this year, but sans the latest Pirates of the Caribbean installment most of what was glimpsed last night was all footage in some way, shape, or form that had been seen before. As Forbes writer Scott Mendelson wrote last week, the appearance of a new Star Wars movie every December has more or less turned the Super Bowl into a rerun exercise when it comes to movie trailers. It's an interesting trend to consider and one that likely won't be going away anytime soon, but the Super Bowl is still the biggest television event of the year drawing between 110 and 115 million people each year. Taken on those terms and considering the current price tag for thirty seconds of airtime is a record high $5 million it makes sense why studios still want to buy up the spots available as many of them mark the first time those who haven't been to the theater since Rogue One will have seen anything of the 2017 slate that they might be surprised by or excited to see. Per usual, Warner Bros. sat out the event so there was no new Wonder Woman trailer and no new look at Justice League, but Disney had a good night as it had both what was arguably the best received trailer of the night as well as the most popular. The Disney-Marvel production that will be the massive Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 generated a reported 47,800 new conversations, according to media-measurement firm comScore and was the most talked about trailer of the night. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales was the trailer with the most to gain last night and gain it did as it showed why people should still be excited for a Pirates movie while finally giving us the first glimpse of Johnny Depp's return as Jack Sparrow in a fun albeit brief shot. It also followed Guardians in popularity so the wait was seemingly worth it for this fifth film in the Disney theme park franchise. As ranked by social media response the latest Transformers flick came in third, followed by The Fate of the Furious, and then Logan. Hit the jump to watch each of the movie trailers that debuted during the big game as well as the first look at season 2 of Stranger Things just for fun.

20TH CENTURY WOMEN Review

Time is fleeting. This is a phrase heard countless times throughout our youth and throughout our life as a reminder to cherish the days we're living in as they'll be gone before we realize it. What we never realize though, is just how fleeting such times are when we're actually in them. The young man at the center of 20th Century Women, Jamie (Lucas Jade Zumann), was born in 1964 with the film opening in 1979. This makes Jamie a young fifteen as made even more apparent by his clear skin and boyish features that render him still a child in our minds rather than the adult he would have us believe he is becoming. My own father was born in 1964 and I can't say I've ever considered what the world looked like at the time of his most formative years. Hell, I don't know that I ever even realized it was the fall of 1980 when he turned sixteen-with only six years to go until he married my mother on the cusp of his twenty-second birthday. Sure, I've heard him tell stories of the things he did as a young boy with his older brother and neighborhood friends, but never did I take a minute to step back and look at the bigger picture; really consider the world they were living in at that time. With 20th Century Women writer/director Mike Mills (Beginners) explores these small, fleeting moments in time and reflects on what made what is presumed to be his mother, his mother. This isn't simply presented by the circumstances of her life, but by the circumstances of the time in which she was born. This is a fascinating way of perceiving things, but can also be rather dangerous considering the infinite possibilities one can imagine were they to consider who they or someone they know/love might have been were they born in a different time. This framing of lives through fleeting moments with the added perception of where each of the individuals chronicled came from and where they're going reveals a lot of truths, but mostly it works best by affirming what we don't always have enough time to acknowledge-that happiness comes most naturally when we're not actively trying to chase it.

THE STRIKE Review

As written and directed by multi-hyphenate Guillermo Iván The Strike could easily pass for an artist on the brink writing about his experiences as an artist on the brink, but The Strike is strangely able to transcend this typical "write what you know," "art about art" facade by making itself something of a broad comedy that relishes in making its protagonists who are struggling actors, the source of the screwball in the screwball comedy. From appearance alone with its big bold red text proclaiming its title above the characters posed in slapstick positions it would seem The Strike is an amateur attempt to capitalize on the generic comedies Hollywood once spit out in the Spring and Summer so as to make a quick buck on a relatively cheap property that thrived largely on the appeal of its stars and their reputation for bringing the funny. Rarely now do we see comedies made off the name of the star alone (unless you're Melissa McCarthy) and even rarer are the days when it seems original comedies broke out. While The Strike certainly won't buck this trend it is a competently made film that doesn't bring the funny as much as it does the philosophy. It is clear Iván wants to discuss some heavy things-mainly that of the art of acting, why it is necessary in a world gone mad, and the great weight of your skill not necessarily matching your ambition, but that he tries to do this through the guise of jokes makes for an overall off-kilter experience that tells us the heart of the film isn't in the humor, but more so in the life lessons it would like to touch on. This isn't wholly a bad thing. Given that one of the main themes Iván discusses is ambition versus reality it is apt that the film he has made has bigger ambitions within it than what the final product ultimately delivers, but the effort is clear and counts for a lot when it is obvious resources were somewhat limited. That may not sound exactly like a ringing endorsement, but trust me, it is-when one can see the promise in the abilities even if they're not fully realized in what has been produced there is still value in the piece. If nothing else, it points toward the promise to come.