RAZZLE DAZZLE

GODZILLA: FINAL WARS
What’s the difference between a Film Nerd and a Film Geek? A Film Nerd knows Godzilla, while a Geek clicked on the trailer link before reading any further. This trailer has all the cheese you expect, and some action (including quite a bit with humans) that looks pretty darn cool. We get invisible cyber-ninjas, smashed model buildings, a well-armed military with high-tech weapons, and about a half-dozen monsters including a Mothra cameo that no great Godzilla movie could be without. (Who cares if the trailer isn’t in English.) It looks like the big lizard finally has a movie as large as he is, and my inner child just got a glimpse of film geek heaven.
THE MOMENT THAT STOLE MY MONEY: 2 quick shots (about a minute and a half in) of Godzilla giving a tail lashing to what looks like the American Godzilla …and Mothra.
TRAILER RATING: 8 out of 10

AEON FLUX
MTV’s cult cartoon (which is very good) was given a greenlight and a lot of money. And that’s where the good decisions stopped. The bad ideas are all over this trailer. Forget the cartoon, the film looks like crap all by itself. Epic crap. I’m talking THE AVENGERS 2005. The effects are at a level equal to an episode of ‘Dark Angel” and the dialogue…shudder. It’s not enough that this looks like a bad movie, it’s also a terribly made trailer to boot. Too many edits, too many shots broken up with black frames, and the music changes every 10 seconds.
THE MOMENT THAT SAVED ME MONEY: “Amateurs.”
TRAILER RATING: 2 out of 10

CAPOTE
Philip Seymour Hoffman is capable of extraordinary work, but he can also be a bit of a ham if not directed properly. The trailer makes me think he could go either way. It’s hard not to ham up Truman Capote, but if Hoffman pulls it off there’s going to be some serious Oscar consideration. Unlike most bio-pics that want to cover decades in a person’s life, this one seems focused intensely on the years that led to “In Cold Blood”. His relationship with one of the killers (played by Clifton Collins Jr.) looks especially good, as does the support of Chris Cooper.
THE MOMENT THAT STOLE MY MONEY: “Those boys get off…I’m coming to Brooklyn to hunt you down.”
TRAILER RATING: 7 out of 10

DOOM
This looks completely unoriginal and unnecessary with obvious humor and one giant miscalculation. I knew some day, somebody was going to try and recreate the look of a first-person shooter on film. It’s cool for video games where you control the character, but for a movie it’s going to grow tired very quickly. The trailer gives the impression that most of the action is shot this way. This looks like a giant disaster. Even The Rock should have been smart enough to say something.
THE MOMENT THAT SAVED ME MONEY: The non-stop first person action shots.
TRAILER RATING: 3 out of 10

GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK.
George Clooney's 2nd turn as a director looks like one of the year's absolute best films. The story is riveting, and feels directly connected to the current state of the media. The Black & White photography (courtesy of P.T. Anderson's DP Robert Elswit) is breathtaking and a perfect choice. The performances, by a cast of actors who should be bigger stars than they are, looks top drawer. And the whole project has a feeling of both anger and class.
THE MOMENT THAT STOLE MY MONEY: Six Extraordinary Americans Dared To Tell The Truth
TRAILER RATING: 9 out of 10

HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE
Harry seems to have taken a few pages from LORD OF THE RINGS. The images and music are much more epic than before and it all looks very, very good. I was iffy about handing the directing over to Mike Newell, but this looks like it could be the best Harry Potter yet (which is good since it’s based on the best Potter novel.)
THE MOMENT THAT STOLE MY MONEY: Like a friend of mine is fond of saying, “Dragons!”
TRAILER RATING: 8 out of 10

KISS KISS, BANG BANG
I wanted to like this trailer a lot, but the whole affair looks forced and overwritten, which is hard to confess because Shane Black is one of my favorite writers. Some good moments here and there, but maybe Black wasn’t ready to step into the director’s chair. I’m holding out hope that the movie is better than the trailer.
THE MOMENT THAT STOLE MY MONEY: The corpse and the trash bin
TRAILER RATING 4 out of 10

NORTH COUNTRY
This is an unusual situation because I've already seen the film and it's one of the years very best. The trailer takes a while to get going, and early scenes are played oddly for laughs. The mid-section is effective and properly conveys the powerful drama. Charlize's Midwestern accent feels a bit forced in the trailer (it's not at all) and you only get a glimpse of just how good she is in this film. The end of the trailer makes excellent use of the Oasis song "Part Of The Queue", but wraps itself too tightly in the nobility of the story, which the actual film never does. The final beat falls flat. Plus there's a character revelation that doesn't occur until near the film's end and it's a major spoiler.
THE MOMENT THAT STOLE MY MONEY: "Whether you win or lose, you stand up"
TRAILER RATING: 5 out of 10