Mike Judge’s hysterical tech-infused comedy Silicon Valley returns for a second season April 12 on HBO. If you’ve gotten through the first batch of episodes, this minute-long teaser will have you in stitches because it quickly reminds you all about how absurdly funny and crude the show can be.
Jump after the break for trailers from Netflix. Continue reading TV trailers: HBO’s ‘Silicon Valley’ and Netflix’s ‘Daredevil’ & ‘Bloodline’
The classic 1982 supernatural spooker Poltergeist, directed by Tobe Hooper and produced by Steven Spielberg, is receiving a modern franchise reboot. The new Poltergeist, though it cleverly follows the original film’s plot and borrows many of the tropes, is not connected canonically to the ’82 flick or its two sequels. Gil Kenan (Monster House) takes the reigns this time, with Sam Raimi (Evil Dead, The Grudge) producing.
[Kenan and Raimi] contemporize the classic tale about a family whose suburban home is haunted by evil forces. When the terrifying apparitions escalate their attacks and hold the youngest daughter captive, the family must come together to rescue her before she disappears forever.
The dimensional closet? Check. The static TV screen? Check. A nightmare-inducing clown? Oh, you betcha. And with the advent of so many new technologies like cell phones and tablets, I can’t wait to see how the evil spirits take advantage of our myriad “black mirrors.” The trailer is a scary-good time so sit back, relax, and say it with me: They’re here.
Poltergeist, starring Sam Rockwell and Rosemarie DeWitt, opens in 3D on July 24.
Frozen directors Christopher Buck and Jennifer Lee introduce Frozen Fever, a spinoff short that will screen in front of Disney’s upcoming live action adaptation of Cinderella. The short takes place “just a few months since we’ve last seen the gang,” explains Buck. “It’s Anna’s birthday,” Lee says, “and Elsa, Kristoff, Sven, and Olaf are throwing her a giant party.” The inciting incident? Elsa’s got a cold and “that’s complicating things,” teases Buck. Watch the featurette after the break.
Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff, and Josh Gad all return to reprise their signature roles. Plus, Frozen song writers Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez have invented an all-new original tune for the short. Cannot wait to hear that!
Frozen Fever comes to theatres with Cinderella on March 13.
Update (2/25): Disney’s released a Frozen Fever teaser trailer and it contains actual footage from the anticipated short! Plus, you’ll hear a brief snippet of the Lopez’s new song! Don’t delay–hop after the break and click play! Continue reading Sneak a peek at the new Disney short ‘Frozen Fever’ [Update: trailer inside!]
After debuting it to moviegoers who attended the limited-time IMAX presentations of last seasons final two episodes, HBO released the Game of Thrones season 5 trailer online for the masses to watch and obsess over. Here it is, embedded above, in all its glory. The premium cable network manages to pack a whole lot of action inside this two-minute clip. Let’s summarize:
Littlefinger consoles Sansa and tells her to avenge, presumably, the death of her parents. Margaery weds Tommen, and if there’s anything we learned from this show, expect death in this scene. Varys and Tyrion land in what appears to be Dorne (where Oberyn was from), and the two discuss the future ruler of the Seven Kingdoms; sounds like Varys is enlisting Tyrion to help Daenerys “climb those steps and take that seat.” Speaking of the Mother of Dragons, Dany is prepared to make a power move: “I’m not going to stop the wheel. I’m going to break the wheel.” Elsewhere, Melisandre is still playing with fire; Jon Snow leads an army into battle, and Arya–with Needle–finds herself knocking on a giant, mysterious door in Bravvos.
Speaking of the IMAX presentation, I just came out of it last night and if you’re a fan of the show I highly recommend you check it out before it vanishes from theatres. Thrones, an already cinematic series, transfers spectacularly to the big screen, both visually and sonically. The epic Battle of Castle Black in “The Watchers on the Wall” and the thrilling fight sequence with Brienne and The Hound in “The Children” are elevated to a whole new level. Click here to see participating theatres.
Game of Thrones returns April 12 to HBO.
Update (3/10): Watch a second trailer after the break! Continue reading ‘Game of Thrones’ season 5 trailer hints at Dany’s ascension to the throne
February is all about quality over quantity in terms of appealing premieres to look out for. The new month packs two specials, one highly anticipated series premiere, and the return of the show that popularized the art of binge-watching. It’s all after the break. Continue reading TV reminder: 4 premieres to look out for in February
Despite a last-second reception that will go down in history as one of the best, the Seattle Seahawks lost to the New England Patriots in an exciting, nail-biting Super Bowl that ended with a final score of 28-24. Now that the game’s over, instead of analyzing Russell Wilson’s downright barbaric decision to throw the ball instead of run it into the end zone for an easy touchdown, let’s take a look at some of the most memorable commercials that aired between the gameplay. A whole bunch of them, including the buzziest movie and TV trailers, are posted after the break.
Update (2/2): NBC and the advertisers who shelled out $4.5 million for a 30-second spot have reason to celebrate today just as much as the Pats did last night. The final tally is in and a record 114.4 million people tuned into the big game. So many eyeballs; somebody do the math. This makes Super Bowl XLIX the most watched telecast in U.S. history. Bam. Continue reading Super Bowl XLIX: the emotionally-charged commercials and buzzy trailers inside!
The Super Bowl is just a day away, and to stoke the proverbial fire, late night host Conan O’Brien pitted competitors Marshawn “Beast Mode” Lynch of the Seattle Seahawks and Rob “Gronk” Gronkowski of the New England Patriots against each other in an epically hilarious Mortal Kombat X showdown. The next-gen MK title doesn’t drop until April, but luckily Conan was able to get his hands on it for his “Clueless Gamer” segment; if you haven’t watched these, ahem, video game reviews you’re sorely missing out. This latest installment featuring NFL heavyweights duking it out before Sunday’s big game is an instant classic. Plus, MKX pushes the violence to a whole ‘nother level (fair warning!) and it looks incredible. Enjoy!
It’s fitting just how personal the music video is for Kanye West’s “Only One.” When the Paul McCartney-assisted track dropped earlier this month, West spoke out about how the “stream-of-consciousness riff” came to him; the lyrics are a spiritual message from ‘Ye’s late mother Donda West to his daughter North West (Nori for short). The rapper enlisted film directer Spike Jonze (Her, Where the Wild Things Are) to helm the music video, and it plays very much like a father-daughter home video; it’s adorable and it’s touching. Watch it here.
Your favorite foul-mouthed CG-animated bear returns in a sequel to 2012’s Ted. Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane remains in the director’s chair, and he’s joined by returning writers Alec Sulkin & Wellesley Wild. Ted, voiced by MacFarlane, stars alongside Mark Wahlberg, Giovanni Ribisi, and new cast members Amanda Seyfried, John Slattery, and Morgan Freeman. MacFarlane previously worked with Ribisi and Seyfreid on A Million Ways to Die in the West. This round, Ted marries his crush and asks Wahlberg’s character to donate his sperm so he can raise a child with his wife. The roadblock here is that government requires Ted to prove he’s a person in a court of law if he wants to move ahead with child rearing. A solid plot description unfolds in the funny trailer above.
Ted 2 hits theatres June 26.
20th Century Fox is rebooting the Fantastic Four franchise with a more youthful cast, just as Sony Pictures did with Spider-Man in 2012. Miles Teller (Reed Richards / Mr. Fantastic:), Michael B. Jordan (Johnny Storm / Human Torch), Kate Mara (Susan Storm / Invisible Woman), Jamie Bell (Ben Grimm / The Thing), and Toby Kebbell (Victor Domashev / Doom) are the Marvel superhero film’s stars this time around. Josh Trank (Chronicle) directs. Here’s the current logline:
Fantastic Four, a contemporary re-imagining of Marvel’s original and longest-running superhero team, centers on four young outsiders who teleport to an alternate and dangerous universe, which alters their physical form in shocking ways. Their lives irrevocably upended, the team must learn to harness their daunting new abilities and work together to save Earth from a former friend turned enemy.
Fox (and Marvel for that matter) have been uncharacteristically quiet about this film which has a summer release date. Rumors about creative difficulties aside, this is very much a teaser that doesn’t do much in the tantalizing department. We’re briefly introduced to the updated cast and we get a strong monologue about the human desire to discover spoken by Reg E. Cathey who plays Dr. Storm. But there’s nothing here that truly amps me up, unfortunately. It looks and feels like your run-of-the-mill superhero flick–but maybe that’s because the box office has been flooded with them as of late. Who knows. Of course I have faith in Marvel, as well as Chronicle helmer Trank whose work on that film was surprisingly risky and rewarding. Here’s to hoping a beefier full-length trailer adds some oomf to this lackluster first look.
The new Fantastic Four (whose title is actually stylized like this: Fant4stic, ugh) releases August 7 in 3D.
This week, two of the most prolific social networks received some exciting updates. Let’s start with the little blue bird, and then we’ll talk about the playful yellow ghost.
Twitter is updating one feature and tacking on a completely new one. Direct Messages is getting a beefed up with the added ability to host group conversations. Private DMs can now entertain up to 20 people in one threaded conversation. You can start conversations with any of your followers and they don’t all need to follow one another in order to join and participate in the chat. When you’re added to a group chat, you’ll receive a notification about it.
I’ve been waiting for this next new feature for quite some time. Twitter is finally unleashing an official way to post video to its service. The update lets you capture, edit, and share videos that can last up to 30 seconds in length. iPhone users can upload videos from the camera roll as well (coming soon to Android). It’s a simple feature, but it has been desperately missing for ages. Twitter is confident its users will discover unique ways to interact with their followers using video–30 seconds is a helluva lot longer than Vine’s constrained 6. Video, along with group DMs, are rolling out to all users “in the coming weeks.”
Now, jump after the break to learn all about the latest addition to Snapchat’s growing story. Continue reading Twitter & Snapchat updates you should know about
Here’s your first taste of Death Cab for Cutie minus Chris Walla. The founding band member amicably parted ways with DCFC over the summer, and so this brand new single offers up the alt-rock band in a new light. No doubt, “Black Sun” still sounds like classic DCFC; frontman and lead singer Ben Gibbard remains the soulful face of the band. Fans will have to wait for nuanced differences to surface once their eighth studio album comes out; Rick Costey (a Muse, Franz Ferdinand, and Kimbra collaborator) replaced Walla as lead producer on it. Kintsugi, the followup to 2011’s Codes and Keys, drops March 31. Bassist Nick Harmer described the inspiration behind the album’s unique title to Rolling Stone: “It’s a Japanese style of art where they take fractured, broken ceramics and put them back together with very obvious, real gold. It’s making the repair of an object a visual part of its history. That resonated with us as a philosophy, and it connected to a lot of what we were going through, both professionally and personally.”
As a longtime Death Cab fan, it’s certainly sad to see Walla go after being a part of the band for 17 years, but it gives DCFC an opportunity to move forward in new directions and I’m glad that Gibbard and co. are taking it in stride. “This is an opportunity for the band to become something it could only become by losing a founding member,” Gibbard says. “It’s our goal to make records that rank amongst the best work we’ve ever done.”