First Trailer for SHAFT Starring Samuel L. Jackson

In the summer of 2000 I was thirteen and too young to see Samuel L. Jackson kick ass in Shaft or to know what Shaft was, for that matter. And so, never did I catch up with this billed-as-a-remake, but really more of a generequel (maybe the first of its kind?) as Jackson's John Shaft character was the nephew of the earlier film's Shaft. In never going back to catch-up with that film I also never caught with any of the three previous Shaft titles starring Richard Roundtree that were released in 1971, 1972, and 1973 with a television series picking up that same year and producing seven 90-minute movies through 1974 with Roundtree reprising his role in each. In 2000, Jackson was as hot as ever though. Leading up to Shaft Jackson was double-billed with Tommy Lee Jones in William Friedkin's Rules of Engagement and followed it up with (somewhat ironically) M. Night Shyamalan's Unbreakable; because I'm sure the guy thought nineteen years ago that two of his films that year would produce sequels, but that both would take nearly two decades to come to fruition. Speaking of Jackson, as Glass presently sits atop the box office for its third consecutive weekend the man will also appear in next month's Captain Marvel as a younger version of Nick Fury, there's no telling how much Fury might show up in Avengers: Endgame, and if the first trailer for Spider-Man: Far From Home is any indication it looks as if Jackson's Fury will be playing a fairly pivotal role in that MCU film as well. So, three Marvel movies, two sequels including Shaft to nineteen-year-old properties, and potentially two other major releases this year (The Last Full Measure and The Banker) put Jackson as not only the busiest actors in Hollywood, but considering the likely box office for each of his franchise films here, also one of the most profitable. As for the trailer itself, it looks like a mixed bag of fine enough action and some solid comedy bits-most of which will come from Jesse T. Usher's not-as-inherently-badass long lost son of Jackson’s character. Tim Story (Think Like A Man, Barbershop) directs from a script by Kenya Baris (Black-ish) and Alex Barnow (The Goldbergs). Shaft also stars Regina Hall, Alexandra Shipp, Matt Lauria, Titus Welliver, Cliff “Method Man” Smith, and opens on June 14th, 2019.

On DVD & Blu-Ray: February 5, 2019

Trailer Roundup: SUPER BOWL LIII

With the Super Bowl happening this past weekend audiences received a look at some of the bigger movies coming out this year. The Super Bowl is still the biggest television event of the year drawing between 110 and 115 million people annually though the Patriots’ 13-3 win over the Rams in Super Bowl LIII was the lowest-rated title game in ten years. Taken on those terms and considering the current price tag for thirty seconds of airtime is a record high $5.25 million ($175,000 per second) it would seemingly make sense as to why studios will pay such amounts to have that many sets of eyeballs on their product, but given the biggest slump in a decade a few companies may have felt cheated. Getting down to the real business at hand, Disney played the field largely with this year's Marvel Cinematic Universe offerings in Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame, as well as a special game day spot for Toy Story 4. Universal jumped the gun just a little dropping the full trailer for Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw on Friday while the Super Bowl spot was more or less a condensed version of that full trailer. The studio also gave us what I hope will be the final look at Jordan Peele's US before its theatrical debut next month (as well as a glimpse at his The Twilight Zone series). Paramount dropped a short clip followed by a full trailer online afterward for their animated hopeful in Wonder Park while 20th Century Fox is making one last ditch effort going all in on the James Cameron produced, Robert Rodriguez-directed, Alita: Battle Angel that debuts next week. And that's it, that's all the major movie studios were willing to spend the big bucks on this year. If you were hoping for Disney to drop more including spots for Star Wars: Episode IX and/or Frozen 2 then you'll be waiting until at least April for one of those if not longer for the other. Hit the jump to watch all of this year's big game trailers.

MISS BALA Review

Drug cartels and beauty pageants aren't exactly two things one might naturally pair together and certainly aren't two things one might believe to have similar skillsets, but in these opposing actions we find some crossover and it is in this intersection of the two as presented in 2019's Miss Bala that we find the most interesting theme director Catherine Hardwicke's (Thirteen, Twilight) film has to offer: appearance, pretense, facade. Both worlds in which these two seemingly distant activities take place present this outward appearance where it is key to maintain the less than pleasant reality behind the scenes. While no expert in either drug and weapons trafficking or in beauty pageants, it would seem that within a drug cartel what the money can buy you is obviously flaunted in the forefront while the dirty work is kept behind closed doors while with beauty pageants what is presented is the whole point and the whole point is to be pretty and appealing, but what no one sees is the hard work and dedication it takes to present such a veneer. What is interesting about this though, is that in keeping up such appearances the individual must learn to exude a certain level of confidence, to truly build this exterior based on their look and the way they carry themselves that might be completely misleading or the exact opposite of what they might be feeling inside. Of course, this could be true of any number of things and in any number of professions, but it is these parallels that the film examines and ultimately utilizes to its substantial advantage that give Miss Bala just the slightest amount of weight whereas otherwise this English-language re-make simply settles into a pattern of being a mostly interesting action noir of sorts if not ever being as fun as it feels it should be given the baked-in premise of this average, every-day protagonist discovering her own sense of worth and inner-strength that allows her to be able to combat this situation she's fallen into completely by accident. Gina Rodriguez (TV's Jane the Virgin) is more than formidable given what the role calls for and she graphs her character's arc in believable fashion, but it is the otherwise routine direction and lack of intuition into tone on the part of Hardwicke that levels the themes and character work clearly at play here.

First Trailer for FAST & FURIOUS PRESENTS: HOBBS & SHAW

A spin-off of The Fast and the Furious franchise that might have simultaneously broken-up the Furious family, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw sees Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's US Diplomatic Security Agent Luke Hobbs forming an unlikely alliance with Jason Statham's Deckard Shaw. The two had some electric chemistry when they were finally allowed to face one another on screen in 2017's The Fate of the Furious, but no one expected-least of all Vin Diesel and (apparently) Tyrese Gibson-said chemistry to result in an actual stand-alone movie where the hardened secret agent and former villain would team-up to fight what I can only assume is Idris Elba's baddie, Brixton, who no doubt has some nefarious plot to steal a valued piece of technology. Hot off the success of Deadpool 2, the film is directed by David Leitch (John Wick) with a script by Chris Morgan, the franchise’s screenwriting architect since Tokyo Drift. I'm going to be honest, I've kind of fallen hard for this franchise and I need a new chapter in this ever-expanding series of increasingly ridiculous films every couple of years and when I don't see as much coming to fruition it makes me very sad. I'm happy Johnson and Statham are able to collaborate further and have some fun with this spin-off and I sincerely hope it helps boost Johnson's floundering financial reputation (Rampage and Skyscraper were not great for his brand) while only continuing to prove what a global star Statham is (The Meg was no joke), but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't the littlest bit upset that Hobbs' side excursions will be keeping him from the penultimate chapter in the main Fast and the Furious series of films if it is to remain true that Diesel and the gang call it quits after Fast 10. Only time will tell how as much pans out, but for now Leitch, Johnson, and Statham seem to have crafted more than a worthy distraction. Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw also stars Vanessa Kirby as Deckard’s sister, Hattie, along with Eiza González, Eddie Marsan, and opens on August 2nd, 2019.