Sneak previews on cable

When it was released on DVD last year, I remember reading the plot summary for Blood and Chocolate, and realizing that I've already watched it before. The strange thing for me, at the time, was that I don't ever recall going to the theaters to watch it--The movie hadn't piqued my interest enough for me to want to spent money to watch it in the theaters. Nor did it garner enough interest for me to look for a way to watch it online.

What's more, I remember being able to watch a crystal clear picture version of it. I still remember very specific scenes, too. But no recollection of watching it in the theaters.

Then it hit me--I must have watched it as a sneak peak on a cable HD channel. It makes sense. They do sometimes show full-length movies that are only just getting to be released to theaters. Like the recent sneak peak of Quid Pro Quo. Which, coincidently, stars yet more people I recognize, but almost couldn't place.

There's Vera Farmiga from The Departed, and Nick Stahl from Terminator 3.

300

This has bothered me ever since the first time I saw the trailer. Now, I get that when he's riling up the troops, why he might be screaming--even 300 people is a big crowd, so you have to scream to make yourself be heard--but one Persian emissary? The conversation certainly doesn't seem like it warrants the level of screaming that can be heard.

That just seems like over-the-top acting to me. And I guess I'm not the only one: The folks at YTMND have also made several sites regarding the screaming.

• NES Version
• Dine in Hell
• Geography Lesson
• Big Trouble in...

Pan's Labyrinth

I found out about this from a YTMND site, which is also quite well done. In any case, Pan's Labyrinth looks like it could be a very good movie.

High Definition versions of the trailer and teaser are available on Apple's website.

Hey, what happened to the color?

This was a trailer included in the DVD for the new X-Men movie. Looks to be pretty funny.

New DVDs

This week, I picked up Lucky Number Slevin and The Wild. Lucky Number Slevin is an interesting crime drama/thriller/dark comedy. It's not on par with other dark comedies like Pulp Fiction, but it's still a fun ride, nontheless. The very basic gist of the movie, without giving too much away, is summed up by Lucy Liu's character in the clip above.

The Wild is one of the few computer-animated movies released by Disney, but was not done by Pixar. It has been described by some critics as "Madagascar meets Finding Nemo with The Lion King thrown in for effect." This is not untrue, as the story involves animals from the New York Zoo "escaping" captivity, roaming the city with the lion, Samson, looking for his son, who is practicing his roar, but still sounds like a little cat. Surface similarities aside, it's actually quite a different movie from Madagascar. I personally think the animation quality is much better than Madagascar, but while the story is fine, it lacks the humor in the other movies being compared to. That's not the say that the movie is completely devoid of humor--only that these moments of comedy are few, while at times it seems they're trying too hard.

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse

Riding on the coattails of Snakes on a Plane comes this "thrilling," direct-to-video movie, Snakes on a Train. Look upon this work, ye mighty, and despair!


Honestly, based on what I've heard of Snakes on a Plane from people who've seen it, it's actually pretty good. Not nearly as bad as its trailer might lead you to believe. And even that trailer looks much better than this one.