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Title:
Disaster Movie
Stars:
Carmen Electra, Vanessa Minnillo, Nicole Parker
Plot:
Over the course of one evening, an unsuspecting group of twenty-somethings find themselves bombarded by a series of natural disasters and catastrophic events.
Buzz:
Hey, who ordered another project from the Date Movie guys? I certainly didn't, and I thought Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer's diminishing spoof returns (Date remains their most successful endeavor) might have reached their end with Meet the Spartans. Alas, the sophomoric-comedy duo have managed to churn out another 2008 mid-level hit that will probably double its investment after two weeks in general release. And I have to give them some sort of credit for making Carmen Electra a genuine movie star ... right? Take that, Nicole Kidman!
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Title:
Babylon A.D.
Stars:
Vin Diesel, Michelle Yeoh, Mélanie Thierry
Plot:
Veteran-turned-mercenary Thoorop (Diesel) takes a high-risk assignment where he must escort a woman out of Russia. His client, however, is carrying a synthetic virus -- one that could bring about the end of humankind. Making his mission extra-difficult is the cult that has designs on what rests inside the young woman's body.
Buzz:
Dudes, random casting abounds for Vin Diesel's return to the sci-fi genre. But if it wasn't for this Michelle Yeoh fansite, we would have known next to nothing about the project while it was in production. The best buzz we've heard about the project? District B13 star David Belle has choreographed parkour fight scenes for both Diesel and Yeoh! And the worst? Uncooperative weather and powerplays between Diesel and director Mathieu Kassovitz first caused a production delay, sending producer Ilan Goldman (the man behind the two Crimson Rivers movies) on the hunt for snowy locales and replacements for several vital crew slots. Then, Diesel's manager apparently had to go coax Kassovitz back from a reported nervous breakdown, only to watch the director distance himself from the entire mess come red-carpet time. Seriously! And while this level of drama used results in a hot pile of celluloid garbage, the trailer is looking hot, even if the awareness for this one is strangely low. P.S. We can overlook the Kronos Quartet composition that no one should ever have used after Requiem for a Dream ...
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Title:
Traitor
Stars:
Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, David Clark
Plot:
FBI agent Roy Clayton (Pearce) heads up a conspiracy investigation which initially susses out a prime suspect: Samir Horn (Cheadle), a former special ops officer with strong ties to Afghan rebels in the Middle East. As Clayton chases Horn around the world, however, a tangled web of contradictory evidence is revealed.
Buzz:
Five fine actors guide this conspiracy thriller from The Day After Tomorrow writer Jeffrey Nachmanoff into theaters at the end of the summer-movie season. Oddly enough, Steve Martin came up with this premise back in 2002, when he was working on Bringing Down the House with producer David Hoberman, and even though it reminds me of Lennie James's character's arc on "Jericho," one interesting thing to chart here is the rise of Overture Films, the distributor that turned The Visitor into a hit this year and has optioneda handful of original screenplays for 2009/2010.
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Title:
College
Stars:
Drake Bell, Kevin Covais, Andrew Caldwell
Plot:
A wild weekend is in store for three high school seniors who visit a local college campus as prospective freshmen.
Buzz:
They took the word right off of Blutarsky's sweatshirt, and then they made (what we expect will be) an unmemorable, Superbad-lite comedy for Generation YouTube. The only person who might benefit from this road trip is star Drake Bell, who is beginning to dirty-up his Nickelodeon sheen -- even though Josh Peck out-cooled him with The Wackness. Short-film director Deb Hagan (Pee Shy) makes her feature debut, which gives us an idea: why not make this a story about three females instead of males? As Amy Poehler has said, all you need to do is change the names from female to male, and you've resolved the issue of how to write comedy for women.
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Title:
Sukiyaki Western Django
Stars:
Hideaki Ito, Koichi Sato, Quentin Tarantino
Plot:
A revolver-wielding stranger (Tarantino) crosses paths with two warring clans who are both on the hunt for a hidden treasure in a remote western town. Knowing his services are valuable to either side, he offers himself to the clan who will offer up the largest share of the wealth.
Buzz:
Takashi Miike serves up a Spaghetti Western parody co-starring one of his biggest supporters, who has been in the news lately as Inglorious Bastards heads toward its October start date. While I don't think the attention will translate into a crossover success for Miike's latest, his cult audience will either embrace or spit out his hyper-stylized comedy, which features a Japanese cast speaking phonetic English against painted backdrops.
