The Day the Earth Stood Still Movie Trailer
“My name is Klaatu Reeves and I have come to Earth to warn you of Hancock.” The first trailer for December’s big budget remake of 1951’s The Day the Earth Stood Still is now online after premiering in front of Will Smith’s ne’er-do-well superhero flick. Under an icy blue tint, the preview quickly evokes Close Encounters, The Abyss, Spielberg’s War of the Worlds, Contact and Langoliers before closing in on the modern green message, an aspect that Keanu Reeves has mentioned briefly in the press….
“The version I was just working on, instead of being man against man, it’s more about man against nature. My Klaatu says that if the Earth dies, you die. If you die, the earth survives. I’m a friend to the earth.”
The special effects by Weta Digital—the emphasis here is on a large alien orb and apocalyptic destruction—seem crisp and foreboding enough. Glimpses of a cast that includes Jennifer Connelly, Mad Men’s Jon Hamm (his first major movie role) and Kathy Bates, give the impression that director Scott Derrickson (Exorcism of Emily Rose) may have crafted a classier Day After Tomorrow. If so, that would slightly exceed most fanboys’ early expectations for the film. Alas, do you see Gort? Check out the comments.
Watch the trailer in high resolution on filmweb.no.
Synopsis: Updating the 1951 sci-fi classic’s Cold War and religious themes, Keanu Reeves stars as Klaatu, a mysterious man from another world who warns Earth’s humans that unless they change their gluttonous and harmful ways and pay more attention to the planet’s needs, aliens will swoop down and destroy them for good. :0
The Day the Earth Stood Still opens on December 12th.
Mad Men: Smoke Gets In Your Eyes (series premiere)
I think it’s really appropriate that the Emmy Award nominations were announced on the same day this show premiered, because if there’s any justice in this TV land, we’ll be hearing a lot about Mad Men at this time next year.
The television landscape is filled with a lot of shows that are just the same as other shows on other networks. Even when we say “there’s nothing else like this on TV right now,” it’s usually not true. There’s usually something a bit (or a lot) like the show we’re talking about. Mad Men is one show we can truly say is rather original. Of course, it’s original by being retro. It’s New York City, 1960. The world of Madison Avenue advertising men. And it is men, as most of the women are in the secretarial pool or gum chewing telephone operators.
But the women have power too, in ways the men don’t see.
The setting is the Sterling Cooper advertising agency. New girl Peggy (Elizabeth Moss, The West Wing) starts the day as Don Draper’s (Jon Hamm) new secretary. She’s nervous, afraid of the new technology (electric typewriters!), but she also goes to the doctor to get birth control because she knows that sleeping her way to the top might be part of the job description. The other girls pretty much confirm that.
Draper is having trouble coming up with a new ad campaign for Lucky Strikes because medical professionals and Reader’s Digest have begun examining the health effects of smoking. How can he come up with an ad slogan that will be successful in such a changing world? But Draper (Hamm, in a great performance that should make him a star) is actually the one who has the shades of a conscience (more than others anyway - all the other guys are drinking and cheating and pretty much those a-hole guys you and I know), even when he’s trying to sell us cigarettes. He doesn’t want anything to do with Peggy, even though she comes on to him, and he even apologizes to the female head of a company, a woman he insulted in a meeting. He knows the world is changing, and he’s trying to adapt.
There are a couple of questions I have about the plot developments. Would Jews really be talked about that way in the business world of 1960 New York City?
This is the best new show of the year, and I’m just as surprised as you are that 1.) it’s a summer show, and 2.) it’s on AMC. But there is something so glorious and meaty about this show. It’s for adults, and not in the same way that, say, Deadwood is for adults. This is glossy, old-fashioned entertainment, a show more about characters and social mores and the way the 1950s became the 1960s. You have to pay attention. And that worries me a bit. I can imagine people tuning into this, not knowing what to think, and finding it “slow going.” There’s nothing slam-bang about this show. It’s all about the acting and the writing and the mood and the style and the look and feel of 1960 NYC.
Oh, the look. Is it possible to have an orgasm for the eyes? This show gets everything so beautifully right. The way everyone is smoking, the cut of the suits, the haircuts, the way the characters talk, the cars, the dresses. Even small touches, like clocks on a wall or curtains in a office and the new electric typewriters the girls use, it’s all done so well that the sets are characters themselves (and not in that obviously kitschy way that modern movies usually depict the late 50s/early 60s - this is closer to L.A. Confidential than Happy Days). This isn’t is a show you just “watch every week,” it’s a world you want to live in.
The cast is uniformly great, from Hamm to boss John Slattery (Desperate Housewives, Ed) to new secretary Moss to creepy suckup Pete (Vincent Kartheiser), who is getting married but still wants to dip his pen in company ink. This is juicy, intelligent soap opera stuff, and I mean that in the best way possible.
I usually hate saying that at a TV show is “just like a movie,” because I think that it demeans TV a bit, as if TV is the younger brother who has to prove himself and “get better.” But Mad Men is like a movie in the sense that it’s just really well shot, like some glorious Technicolor flick of the 1950s, filling the screen with detail and life, and a respect for the audience you don’t usually see on TV.
Anyway, check it out, because…well, as I said, there’s nothing else like it on television.
Emmy unveils the Best Drama Actor semifinalists
Another day, another list of 10 semifinalists from the Emmys. This time, it’s the Best Actor in a Drama.
There are a lot of the usual suspects on the list (which will be knocked down to five nominees in the next round), including actors from Dexter, Mad Men, Grey’s Anatomy, Friday Night Lights, Breaking Bad, and House. One show that’s not represented is Lost. I thought Matthew Fox did some great work this season, especially his drunk/screwed-up scenes.
After the jump, the list of the ten semifinalists (also check out those in contention for Best Actress - Comedy, Best Supporting Actor - Drama, Best Comedy, and Best Drama).
Best Actor - Drama semifinalists
Kyle Chandler (Friday Night Lights)
Jon Hamm (Mad Men)
Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad)
Hugh Laurie (House)
Denis Leary (Rescue Me)
Michael C. Hall (Dexter)
James Spader (Boston Legal)
Patrick Dempsey (Grey’s Anatomy)
Gabriel Byrne (In Treatment)
Eddie Izzard (The Riches)
So who do you think they missed on this list? Who shouldn’t even be on the list? Great to see Jon Hamm and Michael C. Hall here, and I think they’ll be two of the final five.
Mad Men: Season One - DVD review
What’s there to say about Mad Men that hasn’t already been said? The show is beyond brilliant is every single way - acting, direction, writing, music, set design - and this DVD set contains all 13 episodes from the first season. So while it’s tempting to go back and review the episodes themselves, I’ve already done that. So let’s concentrate on the features and extras and commentaries and all of the other goodies. It’s mostly well put together set, but there is one thing that’s rather disappointing.
Packaging: I raved about the unique packaging for this set when I first heard about it a few months ago. But I have to say the package is better in theory and better in pictures than it is in the flesh. Sure, the cigarette-lighter shaped set looks neat when opened up (and even better when it’s closed and standing on your coffee table - looks like a real Zippo), but there are two problems. One, shouldn’t the DVDs be more yellow than red, to simulate the flame? And two, the DVDs sit one behind each other, with really no protection, so when you close the lid, you have to be really careful or you’ll hit and scrape the DVDs. Still, it’s pretty neat.
The episode guide/special offer ads that come with the set are well done. They sit behind the DVDs and are shaped like the curve of the DVDs so you can’t see them. It’s great that the episode guides also tell you what special features are on what disc (it’s amazing how many sets don’t do this), though it would have been good to see which actor/crew member talks on which episode (though the on-screen menu does include this info, of course).
Audio/Video: Nice and crisp on both (the pic is widescreen, though the type that takes up the whole screen, if I understand it correctly), and there is closed-captioning available too.
Extras: Every single episode of the show gets a commentary from various stars and crew members, including creator Matthew Weiner and stars Jon Hamm, John Slattery, Vincent Kartheiser, Elisabeth Moss, January Jones, Rosemarie DeWitt, and others. They’re actually pretty interesting, especially when Hamm and Slattery get together. Two guys that are obviously good friends and like to play jokes, be blunt, and get really colorful in their descriptions of what went on behind the scenes.
As for features, there are several. One is called “Establishing Mad Men” and is a fascinating look at how they put the show together (this is a must-see for fans of the show). “The Desire of the American Dream” looks at advertising in the late 50s/60s;” “Scoring Mad Men” looks at how David Carbonara comes up with the music for the show; “Pictures of Elegance” looks at the wardrobe and makeup; and “Mad Men Music Sampler” previews the Mad Men CD (out yesterday), which includes music from Carbonara, Rosemary Clooney, Vic Damone, Julie London, Ella Fitzgerald, Aceyalone/RJD2 (title theme) and more.
The verdict? An excellent set. I can’t wait to see what kind of packaging/extras they have for the second season. Maybe something shaped like a martini glass? (Note: the series is also available in Blu-ray.)
(By the way, stay tuned next month for a really cool giveaway we’re doing for Mad Men!)