Every week, Vern Seward takes a look at Appleis latest offerings at the QuickTime Trailer site, letting your know whatis new.
Comic books were a big part of the lives of many of us when we were young. Beyond giving us the heroes we may not have had in our real lives, comics opened the world to many young minds, graying the distinctions between right and wrong, good and evil, beauty and ugliness. For a few cents a month we could lose ourselves in the trials of Spiderman, the tribulations of the Fantastic Four, and the troubles of The Incredible Hulk. These heroes had strength and powers that boggled the mind yet they were as vulnerable as any normal person. Comic book heroes came is every imaginable size, shape, sex, race, and physical ability, and each one had his or her own set of problems.
Comic book heroes have appeared on the big screen many times, but it wasnit until recently that the technology of movie making became advanced enough to really relay the awesome powers and very human vulnerabilities that the heroes of the comic pages dealt with. The Christopher Reeveis Superman let us see the Man of Steel fly like could only be imagined before. Michael Keatonis Batman showed us the dark side of human nature, and Tobey Maguireis Spiderman made it very plain that, with great power comes great responsibility.
This weekis QuickTime Quick Picks include a QuickTime Exclusive look at the up coming movie Dare Devil. Not as popular as Spiderman, Dare Devil did enjoy a good following when Marvel Comics first introduced him. Matt Murdock, played by Ben Affleck, is a blind attorney. The childhood accident that robbed him of his sight also grants him the ability to iseei using sound based radar similar to what bats use to navigate. He becomes a crime fighter with honed but very human abilities, which makes him all the more real. The trailer is dark and moody and may remind some of Batman, but there are no odd looking penguin characters and no clown faced jokers. Dare Devilis enemy is the Kingpin, played by Michael Clarke Duncan, a very powerful man in more ways than one. The Dare Devil trailer is a good one.
George Clooney, as many of you may remember, played the role of Bruce Wayne in the fourth, and arguably the worse Batman movie, Batman and Robin, but we shouldnit hold that against him, if the trailer for the up coming file Solaris is any indication. Again, the scenes in the trailer are dark and moody, as they should be for any mystery movie, even if this one is set in space. Mr. Clooney plays Chris Kelvin (We hope they didnit choose the name because of its relationship to the measurement of extreme temperatures. Solaris: relating to the Sun, Kelvin: relating to high temperatures as those found in the Sun...hmmm), a psychologists who discovers strange happening on a space station orbiting the planet Solaris, and is soon draw into the orbiting oddness. The trailer is slick but the movie site is slicker and we suggest you check it out.
The next QuickTime Exclusive item isnit a trailer at all but a QuickTime VR view of Professor Lockhartis classroom and Hagridis Hut, courtesy of the second Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Very, Very cool.
We hadnit heard from Kurt Russell in a while, but he resurfaces in the new movie Dark Blue. He plays Detective Eldon Perry, a cop who operates just outside the law to get his job done. Ving Rhames plays Assistant Chief Holland, a man trying to put a cap on Perryis wild tactics. The story is set in L.A. a few days before four white policemen were acquitted of brutalizing Rodney King. Itis urban drama at its finest.
Based of real events, The Pianist looks like a winner. A Roman Polanski film set in Nazi-occupied Poland, a Polish pianist, Wladyslaw Szpilman, struggles to survive concentration camps and the destruction of his world. Compelling.
On a lighter note, Drumline takes a look at the half-time shows at college football games, considered by many to be the only real reason to watch college football. Nick Canon stars as Devon, a kick-butt drummer in Atlanta Ais Drum Corp. You have to wonder how much of a movie can be made from what goes on behind the scene of those wild and colorful half-time shows. If the trailer is any indication, you wonit find any deep social meaning here. What you will find is lots of cool shots of college bands and cheerleaders doing their thang. In fact, we hope the story is minimal and the segments of the bands and especially the cheerleaders comprise the bulk of the movie. Good stuff.
And now, hereis are more cool trailers for you viewing pleasure:
- Confessions of a Dangerous Mind: Sam Rockwell plays The Gong Show creator, Chuck Barris, in this adaption of the real Barrisis memoirs in which he claims to have been recruited by the CIA. Was he really? Who knows. The CIA ainit telling. Looks like fun.
- Max: A Jewish art dealer befriends a tormented German artist and tries to help him channel and build his artistic abilities. The young artist is increasingly torn between his art and his political aspirations. The young artist is named Adolph Hitler. John Cusack plays Max Rothman in this riveting tale.
- The Wild Thornberrys: A second trailer for this animated feature will keep the kids entertained, at least for a few moments.
Thatis it for this week at Appleis QuickTime Trailer site. If you havenit seen the new Finding Nemo trailer you owe it to yourself to check it out. Thereis a new full-screen version available now too. More good stuff!