Nov 20 2009 'Last Song' Trailer: Miley Cyrus Gets Her Shot at Bland Teenage Drama

Britney Spears had Crossroads; Mandy Moore had A Walk to Remember; now Miley Cyrus (or is it Hannah Montana when she's acting?) gets her shot at moving from pop songs to insipid melodrama with The Last Song. Based on a Nicholas Sparks book--like A Walk to Remember--the film seems to be about Cyrus/Montana visiting father Greg Kinnear's beach house, meeting a boy, kissing that boy, and the boy executing the fucking strangest, most puzzling romantic gestures he can muster. It's like watching a girl fall in love with a handsome psychotic:

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Oct 27 2009 'Green Zone' Trailer: Shaky Matt Damon Thriller Gets Political

From Paul Greengrass, the Billy Connolly-looking man who brought you Matt Damon Kicks People's Asses in Shaky-Cam Parts 2 & 3 (known formally as the latter thirds of the Bourne trilogy), I present you with Matt Damon Kicks People's Asses in Shaky-Cam in the Middle East, Green Zone (with political overtones by Talk Soup's Greg Kinnear!):

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Aug 13 2008 'Ghost Town' Poster Sees Dead People, Like That One Movie

Dreamworks has released a new poster for Ghost Town that, thankfully, doesn't have an insane, nonsensical slogan. It does, however, provide evidence that Greg Kinnear may have some kind of opaque head clause in his contract.

God, Sixth Sense references: so hot right now.

Ghost Town Poster [IMPA]

Aug 4 2008 'Flash of Genius' Trailer Would Be Better with Catchier Title, Such as...

Well, there's this now: a movie where Greg Kinnear dramatizes the life of Bob Kearns, the inventor of the intermittent windshield wiper who was involved in a huge legal battle with Ford and Chrysler after they stole the plans. It looks like your typically melodramatic ("To me, it's the Mona Lisa" is a line), inspirational, based-on-a-true-story fare, but what really bothers me is the title. "Flash of Genius"? I know that was the name of the New Yorker story that served as the film's basis, but really, that's the best we can come up with for such a quirky real-life tale? Where are the ridiculous puns? How about one of these titles?

- The Wipe Stuff
- Mr. Wiper Goes to Washington
- Where There's a Windshield, There's a Delay
- Who'll Stop the Rain? Or Wipe It, Intermittently?
- Greg Kinnear's Wipe ("Wipe" is written in bold red letters)
- Hypothetical Histories: What if Greg Kinnear Invented Intermittent Wiper Blades Then Car Companies Stole Them so He Had to Go to Court?
- Greg's Blades
- Kinnear Window
- Kinney

And if this doesn't end with Greg Kinnear returning a bittersweet wave to a set of moving wiper blades, followed by giant wiper blades coming from the bottom of the screen and wiping to credits, they've made a second fatal error.

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Jul 14 2008 'Ghost Town' Trailer Now Haunting the Internet

Dreamworks has released the trailer to Ghost Town, starring Ricky Gervais, Greg Kinnear, and Tea Leoni. It looks something like if The Sixth Sense was a broad, moralistic comedy, or like a non-Christmas Carol-based Scrooged. Gervais looks typically entertaining as another variation of a jerkier version of himself, but the film appears otherwise unwatchably trite. How are assholes still being exemplified by stealing cabs and purposely closing elevators on people? At this point, that's no longer acting like a jerk--that's intentionally imitating the way poorly-written jerks act in movies, which is more like acting like a highly-disturbed sociopath. But I guess the summary "mean-spirited man gets rehabilitated by amusing ghosts" probably sells better than "imitative sociopath haunted by memories of Talk Soup."

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Jul 8 2008 New, Nonsensical Quote-Free Shots from 'Ghost Town'

After the worrisome poster that ended up being a fake, it's nice to see something from Ghost Town that doesn't include a giant, seemingly insane quote. "This is the best script I've read in years" actually makes sense as a quote, and I'll consider it an encouraging endorsement despite the hammy photo at the top. Summary!

In Ghost Town, Ricky plays misanthropic Bertram Pincus, who dies temporarily whilst under the knife.

His thump with mortality yields a phantasmic if not fantastic consequence; Pincus gains the ability to perceive the ghostly remains of the deceased. He is not happy about this as they are apt to bother him. One in particular needs Pincus's to help break up the impending nuptials of his widow and her replacement squeeze.

Plus, if you look in the largest shot, you can see how they've found an impish, bizzaro version of longtime Gervais collaborator Stephen Merchant to stand beside the bed. How could this go wrong? (Many things could go wrong.)

New Images from GHOST TOWN [IESB]