Prototype 2 Game Trailer, featuring a song by Johnny Cash: Colour me bored.

Sorry for the link bait in the title. Haven't had a 'hit' in a while.

As for the TV ad I'm referring to... I'm so tired of it being played ad nauseum. Doesn't make me want to play at all. The web trailer is way worse though, and I'm venturing into cranky old man territory when I say "is this the kind of crap that passes for games these days?" A topic for another day, for sure.

In any case, the TV spot, which has been playing during ad breaks on sports shows lately, features Johnny Cash's cover of Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt".

Check out a great live rendition of the original here - best enjoyed in full screen:

^ that was a killer tour.

It's also not the first time that Johnny Cash has lent himself to a commercial.

Reminder: this was a real, actual thing that aired on television, and not a comedy sketch.

E.L.a.I.C. trailer: Stranger than Fiction

If you were to make the ultimate YouTube parody trailer, satirizing the entire Hollywood movie industry, you couldn't do it better than this trailer for a real live actual real thing that was actually made and everything: the trailer for Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

Ingredients:

• A-list actor: Tom Hanks
• A-list song: U2's "Where the Street's Have No Name"
• National tragedy
• Little kid who is sad
• Some other stuff

Result:

• Profit

I can barely stomach five consecutive seconds of this drivel, so I admittedly am not familiar with the source material.

NIN track in the Avengers trailer

In what's becoming a pattern, the new trailer for next summer's Avengers flick features the Nine Inch Nails track "We're in this Together".

Here are the other trailers I'm referring to -
Captain America
Resident Evil Extinction

Maybe it's just coincidence, and the people who are producing these films and trailers grew up with the music and perhaps it made an impact on their lives at some point.  Or it could be that these artists are having their music co-opted by the mainstream movie industry... Or in the case of NIN, now that Trent Reznor is an Academy Award winner, the group's music is being re-examined with the air of prestige.

I think there's something of a pattern here, and though I'm not quite sure what it is, I will be continuing to look out for the answer.

Watch the trailer for the Avengers here

via NIN Hotline

Tempered enthusiasm

Might as well give away the whole movie, eh?

As you may know, I'm a bit of a NIN/Trent Reznor geek, so I will probably enjoy this film at least for the score, from the Oscar winning composer... The movie itself - looks decent enough, and I trust Fincher to handle the material well. The thing that bugs me is that it'll be an American crew with largely British actors tackling a story set in Sweden. I think people had their doubts about The Social Network, but that turned out not too shabby...

I would be interested to know if they are in fact adapting the book straight from the book, or in fact re-making the original movie. This trailer looks much more stylized than the original film... much more promising sound track too...

Horrible Bosses Trailer features obvious song choice

Really? Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Can't Stop"? Why Bother?
I thought about referring to this as a horrible song choice, but that's not really accurate. It would make a good tie in to the movie title, but that just doesn't make that much sense. The song choice really is more like obvious, and lazy, the more I think about it. Warner probably said - "here are a bunch of songs we own the rights to, pick one, and there's your trailer." Boom. Mystery solved.

Great songs in the Zookeeper trailer can't convince me to part with my money

 This post was originally titled "Awful looking movie trailer features two awfully good songs", but in an effort to increase page views, I'm trying an experiment and changing the title.

Because Google loves when I do these types of posts, I'm going to subject you to a fairly weak analysis of the latest piece of shit movie trailer "starring" "funnyman" Kevin James, Zookeeper.  I suppose I should italicize the title there, but I don't want to encourage these people.

Yep, the trailer uses some remix of the Doobie Brothers "Listen to the Music", then backs it up with a predictable choice, the Talking Heads' "Wild Wild Life", which itself is a weird and somewhat perverse jaunt through a visual medium.  Go on, watch it.  At least so you can see Jerry Harrison dress up as Prince... and, for some reason John Goodman shows up.  Think about this video when considering how great the Talking Heads were, and how it easy it can be for great bands to go into a creative tailspin. 

Anyway, what was the point of this post?  Right, seo bait.  Here ya go:



Zookeeper in theatres Friday!!!11zomg

Captain America trailer features Tool song

From Tool's Ænima, here's "Forty-Six & 2" (now 15 years old!!!) employed like some sort of blunt instrument to bludgeon the movie-going public into watching Captain America.

I'm all for hearing more Tool in popular culture, but it seems sorely misused here.  Maybe it's just the thought that the film is set in the 1940s, and it's weird for me to hear my favourite music from high school chopped up and edited in such a perverse fashion.

Tool, A Perfect Circle and Nine Inch Nails seem to be the current shorthand for conveying aggression and masculine energy in trailers. 

Here's the mind-numbing non-stop action-packed sequence:



There's an alternate trailer with a different song... I have no idea what the name of that track is.

I wonder what it's like for a 15 year old kid watching this trailer and finding out about these artists for the first time.  From that perspective, then by all means, I'm all for it.  My guess is that "these kids today" will just download the music for free or just listen to individual tracks, thereby missing the enriching experience of the by-gone album era.

As for the movie itself... meh.  My wild guess is that this trailer distills all the best parts into 2:30.  Works for me.

Fincher's Dragon Tattoo Lady trailer

Leaked version of the trailer for the upcoming US remake of the popular book The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo:



Looks pretty intense. It may also give more fuel to those people who say both David Fincher and Trent Reznor have sold out.

The track is a cover of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song", sung by Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and quite obviously a production of the aforementioned Reznor. The excellent track choice works on a couple of levels... The story itself is an immigrant, and the lyrics refer to Valhalla, which is kind of a big deal in Norse mythology.

Apparently, it's kind of a funny story.

What can I say... this flick doesn't interest me that much... I think I got all I needed from the trailer: Zach G is hilarious, awkward kid who did voices on Family Guy gets a starring role, guy and girl kiss on the roof top. Happy ending. Plus the folks who directed this one also did Half Nelson, which I didn't much care for.

What I dug about Nelson was the soundtrack, done by Broken Social Scene, and they're back at it again here, putting "7/4 Shoreline" to good use in the trailer. They also plucked Ida Maria's song "Oh My God" which has lyrics that are frighteningly perfect for the subject matter.

The Social Network trailer

This is a great trailer. I especially love the use of the cover version of Radiohead's "Creep" by a Belgian girls choir. Hearing that version of the song in that context sends chills down my spine... the way the lyrics take on a new meaning sung unison by a group of young people... the global spin on it as well, everything ties back to the idea of the pervasive social network.

I'm looking forward to catching this flick next week, since it's getting rave reviews and features a score by one of my favourite artists of all time.

Regardless of how the movie turns out, the trailer will truly continue to be an excellent stand alone work of art.

Song in the Resident Evil: Afterlife trailer

My friend Adam told me to check out the new Resident Evil: Afterlife trailer, as he was pretty sure it was Tool playing in the background. He was close. Oh so close. The song is actually a remix of an A Perfect Circle song "The Outsider" by Danny Lohner.

The track definitely sounds like the aesthetic of Tool or even NIN, and it's off of aMotion, a DVD/CD combo where the CD has a bunch of cool remixes.

It's interesting to me that there's something about the music of bands that cut their teeth in the hard rock scene of the 90s that works so well with testosterone driven cinema. It could be that the kids (like myself) that grew up listening to that music are now creating/consuming these films. Ahh, the circle of life.

Here's the video game movie trailer:



Also of note is that APC and Tool will *hopefully* be coming out with new material soon. Both bands usually take their time in crafting releases, so I say: take your time boys. It's always worth it.

For more Tool news follow this site.

Tron Legacy trailer

Here it is, the trailer for the sequel to 1982's Tron... but without the much anticipated Daft Punk music! Hopefully a new trailer will surface with the French electronic duo's take on the retro classic. The imdb listing also shows a Journey track, which despite being a horrible song, would be a nice way to tie in the retro theme.



In theatres in December!

All you have to do is dream

Nice use of the Everly Brothers' "All I Have To Do Is Dream" in the new Nightmare on Elm Street trailer. Sets up the theme and is perfectly haunting. A close second might have been The Chordettes' "Mr Sandman". Of all the songs they could have picked, I'm sure glad they didn't go with Metallica's "Enter Sandman", that would have definitely put me off. Couldn't quite make out the song at the end of the trailer though.

Jackie Earle Haley takes a turn as Freddie after playing Rorschach last year in the Watchmen... looks like he's reviving his career as a genre bad-boy. This one might actually be watchable. But I'm not holding my breath.

KRS-One love

Ahh yes, how come no one ever thought of putting KRS-One's classic track "Sound of the Police" in a buddy cop comedy? Seems pretty weird to use the song in this context, especially giving Mr. One's anti-establishment leanings...

He's a really interesting speaker. Check him out on Hannity.

More music in trailers

Yes, that's OK Go with "Here It Goes Again" in the Old Dogs trailer. It's the one saving grace in a trailer for a movie that looks like it'll be pretty awful.

More songs in trailers

According to the Google analytics, my most popular post continues to be the one where I mentioned the name of the song in the latest Terminator movie.

In an effort to pander to the almighty Google, I'm going to try more of posts like that.

So, just to let you know, the Gentlemen Broncos trailer features Zager and Evans' "In the Year 2525", and the Shout Out Louds' "The Comeback".