Pop Culture Princess

Pop Culture Princess
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Friday, September 30, 2011

Checking out some 2012 cinematic space in the Movie Trailer Park



While it is a tad soon to be looking towards the next year in film,ignoring it is as impossible as overlooking that display of Halloween candy that's been in your local superstore since Labor Day.

A good number of the trailers for 2012 are already online and/or at a theater near you,so we might as well shift through a handful of them to spot any sweet bargains coming down the pop culture pike.

First up is One For The Money,starring Katherine Heigl as Stephanie Plum,a Jersey girl seeking steady work who stumbles into a career in bounty hunting. This film is based on the first book in Janet Evanovich's popular mystery series and no doubt many of the fans are as we speak debating the pluses and the minuses of the casting choices.

While I haven't read the books,this does look like a zippy little flick and goodness knows Heigl could use a decent hit film here. She's a talented actress who has been stuck in the romcom doldrums for a long while and this could be her golden ticket to bigger and better things:





On the sequel front,Kate Beckinsale returns as vampire warrior woman Selene in Underworld:Awakening,where her character has been comatose for a dozen years and is revived in the future.

She soon discovers that humanity is well aware of the vampire/lycan presence in the world and are going after both supernatural races in order to destroy them. Naturally,this doesn't bode well with Selene and she joins the fray,in 3D no less.

As much as I dig seeing Beckinsale in kickass mode,how successful this movie will be in terms of story is rather questionable which is probably why it's a midwinter release in the first place:





In the remake department,The Woman in Black has Daniel Radcliffe front and center as Arthur Kipps, a young lawyer who journeys to a small town in the English countryside to settle the affairs of a reclusive resident.

Her ancestral house is said to be haunted by the specter of the title,whose visitations are often followed by the death of a child. With Kipps having a young son to protect from the vengeful grasp of the supposed spirit,the terror hits far closer to home than preferred.

The trailer is uber-creepy(in the best sense of the term) and since the original film was a made for TV production in the UK(based on a 1983 novel by Susan Hill),this new version will feel fresh to American audiences,not to mention having Harry Potter in a more mature role is a nice bonus to boot:





Since the Harry Potter films are now complete and the end of the Twilight saga is on the Hollywood horizon,YA fantasy fans can set their sights on The Hunger Games,due to arrive next spring.

Despite the endless arguments about which actress should have been signed on as Katniss,Jennifer Lawrence is a fine choice and will do credit to the role.

I suspect that if times are as tough as they are right now,The Hunger Games will strongly resonate with mass audiences who feel that they're in just as much as a life or death struggle as the kids chosen to fight for the televised amusement of a repressive and strictly class system structured society.

Not trying to be negative here,just observing how the popularity of certain sci-fi/fantasy tropes can be a real reflection of the mindset of a particular time period:



It looks like we have plenty to look forward to,movie wise,and I hope that at least
a couple of these trailers offer us treats instead of tricks. It would be nice to see
something a bit unexpected at the multiplex,making that bang for your buck a honest bargain for once:

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