Tag Archives: trailer

John Carpenter directs Sex And The City 2 (via Bret Easton Ellis)

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Ask and ye shall receive. If you’re the author of ‘Less Than Zero’, ‘American Psycho’ etc…

Chilling. And pretty funny, too.

Shining for all the family…

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For some Friday Fun™ on Permanent Plastic Helmet, here’s an oldie (at the time of writing it’s only had a mere 2,284,155 views) but a goodie; a trailer for Stanley Kubrick’s classic 1980 chiller The Shining recut to resemble an uplifting family comedy. If the clip doesn’t make you howl with laughter, then some of the YouTube comments wildly missing the point certainly will. Credit goes to PPH contributor Guillaume Gendron (about to embark on journalism school in Paris – do wish him luck) for reminding me of it, and YouTuber neochosen for the upload in the first place. Enjoy:

There’s no other way to put this: it’s Adolf Hitler, and he appears to be Indian

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Seemingly unsatisfied that the Downfall internet meme phenomenon has rendered Herr Führer sufficiently ridiculous, Bollywood director Rakesh Ranjan has stepped up to the plate to deliver Gandhi to Hitler, a new film which was being demanded by … well, nobody, it seems.

The film focuses on two letters written by Gandhi to Hitler in which he urged the German leader to pursue his goals via peaceful means. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the film has been panned to smithereens by critics, damned as bombastic, confused and unintentionally funny. To wit, an extended quote from The Hollywood Reporter which really, really made me laugh:

“As the Fuhrer, diminutive Indian actor Raghuvir Yadav’s histrionics exceed even Charlie Chaplin’s lampoon of the murderous dictator. With his hair dyed a jet black that you usually encounter only at third-rate Atlantic City casinos, and packed into an array of off-the-rack-like suit coats, you might not guess this guy was Hitler at a Halloween party except for the square brush ‘stache. Although Hitler was not a towering figure, having a guy who is just a couple inches out of the midget range play him truly over emphasizes his physical shortcomings. In keeping with the dummkopf creativity of the casting, a tall, dark and handsome Indian actor (Nalin Singh) plays propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, who was hardly the ideal poster boy for Aryan supremacy”

None of this is to say that all actors must be physiologically similar to their real-life counterparts, and in fact there’s nothing essentially wrong with a national cinema keeping things in-house in what is essentially a make-believe medium, but still, you have to admit this is pretty funny.

Ben Kingsley was unavailable for comment.

Here, if you can bring yourself to watch, is the trailer.

George C Scott watches the trailer for the new Adam Sandler film

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This is a brilliant internet meme which is sure to soon be appropriated just as freely as Hitler’s breakdown scene in Downfall. In Paul Schrader’s 1979 film Hardcore, a fish-out-of-water Midwest businessman (George C Scott) ventures into the sordid porno underworld of California to search for his runaway teenage daughter who is busy making jazz flicks in the pits of L.A.

The below clip references the first, harrowing moment that Scott sees his daughter on film. This time around, however, he’s about to see something much, much worse…

For further reference, the appalling-looking Jack and Jill was also viciously parodied recently on South Park. Click here to see the full, hilarious scatological devastation.

Thanks to YouTuber pbonanno for the George C Scott clip.

"TURN IT OFF! TURN IT OFF!"

Mailer Trailer Madness!

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"Bold, innovative, wonderful... stinks!"

The more I discover about proto-hipster and egotistical hardnut Norman “The White Negro” Mailer’s film career, the more intrigued I become. I’ve already written about Maidstone, his rarely-seen 1970 feature that culminates in him being savagely attacked with a hammer by a demented Rip Torn. And I’m sure, at some point down the line, I’ve referenced ‘The Worst Line Reading in Cinema History‘ (and you really must watch that if you haven’t seen it), courtesy of Ryan O’Neal in 1987 potboiler Tough Guys Don’t Dance.

And now I’ve just happened across the trailer for that film, a slice of genuine weirdness featuring the man himself orating a selection of test audience comments on the film – some gently positive, others outright hostile (“….sleazy garbage!”) – in a pseudo-chilling deadpan, whilst eyeballing the camera.

While certainly unorthodox in concept, the trailer makes a decent fist of creating a refreshingly self-deprecating aura of mystique around a film which ultimately opened to poor reviews and is now widely regarded as a flop. According to Hal Hinson in the Washington Post, “You’ll see worse films than Tough Guys Don’t Dance, and God knows you’ll see better, but you’ll have to go a long way before you see anything stranger.” The same could certainly be said for the trailer. Watch for yourself below:

Classic trailer-for-a-film-that-no-one’s seen of the day

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Here is the trailer for Jerry Seinfeld’s 2002 documentary Comedian. I watched this brilliant spoof of hackneyed promos, decided that the actual film was never going to be able to touch it, and resolved to never bother seeing it.

The speaker’s desperate, frantic resorting to lazy cliches reminded me of comedy duo Stewart Lee  and Richard Herring‘s fantastically arbitrary sitcom ideas from the mid 90s, which always, for some reason, involved someone called Ian. Samples (and here, I offer my gratitude to Wikipedia) included:

Roll Reversall

Ian Roll is a driving instructor, Ian Reversall is a baker. Due to some kind of accident they are forced to swap jobs. With hilarious consequences.

Pie In The Sky

Ian Pie is the landlord of the Sky pub. In an attempt to attract custom each week he buys a different giant pie which goes wrong and ironically scares the public away. With hilarious consequences.

Myy Cup Upstairs

Ian Myy lives in a flat. His upstairs neighbour borrows one of his cups and then doesn’t return it. The series details Ian Myy’s contrived and failed attempts to get back the cup that is rightfully his.

Babes In The Wood

Two babies live in a piece of wood. Simple but brilliant.

Chalk And Cheese

Ian Chalk and Ian Cheese are two men. They are very different. As different literally as chalk and cheese. Consequently they don’t really get on but occasionally they do something which makes them realise they are more similar than they initially thought and then Ian Cheese falls in a stream to break the seriousness of the moment.

Bent Coppers

Ian and Iain Bent are brothers who are policemen. One is corrupt and the other is homosexual. They both suffer from curvature of the spine, and they’re made of copper – they’re robots in the future.

Ay On The Ball

Adam Ay, who used to do the video game reviews on Live & Kicking, loses his to legs in an accident. Zoe Ball feels guilty that he was sacked and so offers to carry him around on her back thus he is literally ‘eye on the ball’. If Zoe not available then Johnny Ball definitely is.

Fruit And Nut

Ian Fruit, a flamboyant elderly raconteur, shares a flat with Ian Nut, a dangerous schizophrenic who has escaped from Broadmoor Hospital. Ian Fruit can only eat nuts, Ian Nut can only eat fruit, but they are both allergic to fruit and nut chocolate. As Ian Nut is mad he always secretly puts fruit and nut chocolate in everything they eat. With fatal consequences.

Honey I Swallowed Some Seamen

Rick Moranis plays a hapless professor who accidentally turns himself into a killer whale. Each week he attacks a ship and eats some sailors.

Men O’Paws

It’s about cats who can talk, going through the change of life. Possible Eddie Izzard vehicle

What’s your favourite?

Ay Carumba!