A few quick trailer impressions...

I love Apple pretty much only for their one stop shop for trailers. I know it's not 'the only' place for trailers, but the site lacks annoying ads and a comments section, so while it might lose points for not having a up-to-the-minute it gains those points back for being completely void of general idiocy.

There's quite a few movies coming out (we all know it ramps up tenfold in the summer) so I figured I'd make a few first impressions off of the trailers. It's not the best practice in the world, and while certain genre's use certain tactics to convey the overall tone of the movie, it's more important as to what the movie is. I lack real images for any of the movies because copyrights are bad, k?

1. Surrogates
From the trailer page, this movie only stars Bruce Willis, which is weird because there's a lot of women and black people in the movie, and while Bruce Willis has range, I don't think skin tone or a vagina is something they teach you in acting class.

Bruce stars as a cop (slow down, my heart. The shock will wear off soon.) in the future where everyone has a 'surrogate', a robot that more or less looks like the one controlling it, except it won't allow the user to feel pain. Basically, it's like the ultimate World of Warcraft without flying mounts. Unless you count jets.

Low and behold, someone finds out how to actually kill someone by killing their surrogate. Willis ends up at the center of all this, at one point losing his (robot) arm and getting slammed by a truck. That part looks pretty sweet. There's helicopters too.

The whole thing is apparently based on a graphic novel, which I'm sure is flattering to the author to have Bruce Willis play your main character, but it looks like every other futuristic action movie subplot: robots are bad because they are flawed. I'm sure the movie will turn a profit, at least off of Bruce's name alone.

Verdict: If you like action movies and you don't require anything more than flames and bullets, save up a few bucks and go see it.

Surrogates trailer

2. Sherlock Holmes

Robert Downey Jr. & Jude Law star as Sherlock Holmes and Watson (respectively) and go around making a huge, apparently-hilarious mess of things while using clever tricks and logic to solve mysteries.

I've never read up on or seen any Sherlock Holmes movie (and if I did, it was on accident,) but I always thought it was a more serious sort of plot, I mean, this is murder after all.

Whether or not you think it's a complete bastardization of the source material, it looks at least mildly entertaining. Robert Downey Jr. certainly has gained a knack for comedy, and Jude Law was pretty badass in Enemy At The Gates, so there's that. It's hard to glean any real plot off of the movie- apparently a guy is back from the dead, and he's apparently dangerous. Either he'll kill a bunch of people or they will find him in a room full of puppies.

Reccomendation: If you liked Ironman because you thought Robert Downey Jr. was genuinly a good actor, go see this. If you like Jude Law, go get a therapist if it's anything other than cinematic attraction.

Sherlock Holmes trailer

3. The Hurt Locker

I find movies about current events being one of two things: Horribly didactic or being almost offensive to anyone who can truely understand what people go through on a daily basis. The Hurt Locker stars Jeremy Renner as a Staff Sargeant in Iraq who is an ace at disabling bombs, and it seems he specializes in the often-booby trapped ones that are found in Iraq.

We start with Renner's character (William James) apparently disabling a car's trunk that is filled with bombs. This seems to be his first run with the unit, and to make an impression he removes all of his safety gear, with the idea that if he's going to die, he might as well be comfortable.

What the movie lacks in character development it will hopefully make up for with it's over-used message of 'these people have a lot to lose.' It's not that I don't respect that message or anything, I do very much, but we get it. I understand it's realistic and the movie is certainly going for that, but I need something other than just explosions to keep me hooked. Who is planting these bombs- is it just one person? I like cat-and-mouse games with puzzles like bombs or other lethal weapons. What I don't like is a 2-hour-long movie that slams into my head the reality of war. World War 2 movies did that, thanks.

Reccomendation: It's definately for people who are into war, and edge-of-your-seat movies- it is not for people who are looking for blood-pumping action. This movie will probably have a lot of little details built into it's story, and might turn off those looking for something more shallow.

4. Shrink

Ah, psychology movies. They get me all warm and fuzzy inside. Except this one, because whoever wrote this hasn't left California. Ever. EVER. k?

I love A Beautiful Mind because despite it's technical flaws (like the entire story of John Nash being changed to make him more appealing as a character) it comes off as a pretty haunting story about Psychological disorders.

Shrink seems to want to explain to people not only that 'stars are people too' but 'being a psycologist is hard' both of which are kind of obvious. I get the impression that Kevn Spacey's character is depressed not only because he's had so many clients that he can't care about them anymore (plot point 1) but because being in the spotlight gets really old (plot point 2) espcially if you aren't a movie star. What I fail to see is a turn of events that is not corny enough to get me to watch it. We all know how it's going to end: Spacey is going to somehow revitalize himself and realize that without his help, everyone would put a gun to their head.

I guess I'm not a big fan of such blatently happy-ending movies because it's not very genuine when the main character solves everything by the end of the movie, and usually finds love along the way.

Patch Adams is a brilliant movie because it teaches us that shit ain't gonna turn out great all the time. It's the only one I can think of right now that looked to have everything going for it plot-wise, then turned everything on it's head and sent you into such a rollercoaster of emotions that we all cried for 20 minutes when the shit hit the fan.

If this movie does this, I'll probably pee my pants, but at the same time, I guess I won't because:

Reccomendation: Wait until it's at the bargin-bin for $5 or get it off of Netflix, which will probably happen before Halloween.

Shrink trailer

Well kids, that's all for now. If you want me to look at anything that looks more interesting, let me know.