Smash Cut

A movie mash-up that could happen, er, “Only In My Dreams” is ready to chomp up home theaters in the form of Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus. What’s it about? Read the title! Need to know more? It stars brooding, would-be tough guy Lorenzo Lamas, former pop wonder Deborah Gibson, and a slew of not-so-special-yet-thoroughly-enjoyable creature effects.

Don’t believe me? Feast on the tasty trailer below.

Scott Adkins. Who’s he, you ask? Well, he’s the Brit-born actor/martial artist who plays the monstrous Weapon XI at the end of last weekend’s box-office smash, X-Men Origins: Wolverine. (Nope, that wasn’t Ryan Reynolds.)

But if you ask me, the more unfettered (in name and narrative) Ninja will show off Adkins’s impressive skills much better than that Hollywood franchise. Made on an indie shoestring by fan-fave director Isaac Florentine, Ninja stars Adkins as Casey, a Westerner studying ninjutsu in Japan. His talents prove so formidable that he’s asked by his sensei to go to New York City to protect the legendary Yoroi Bitsu, a sacred armored chest that contains the weapons of the last Koga Ninja.

Ludicrous? A buncha baloney? Yeah, probably, but so was Wolverine, and this flick at least promises to be more action-packed and exciting. Don’t believe me? Then check out the trailer below.

Neill Blomkamp. Remember that name, people. Because in a few months, you’ll probably be seeing it everywhere.

Blomkamp is a filmmaker whose style tends to blend a kind of docu-realism with sci-fi elements. His 2005 short film, Alive in Joburg, about an eerie alien encounter in Johannesburg, South Africa, caught the attention of none other than the acclaimed Lord of the Rings trilogy helmer Peter Jackson. The latter was so impressed that he tapped Blomkamp to direct a live-action feature of the video game hit Halo, a project that eventually fell through.

No matter. Blomkamp’s new feature, District 9, a politically-charged “what if” tale in which alien visitors are forced into slum-like internment camps on Earth, promises to deliver a gritty blend of social allegory and sci-fi spectacle that few talents seem capable of pulling off these days.

District 9 is slated for release this August, but you can enter the film’s densely-imagined world via the vividly rich and detailed official website created for the film. And you can watch the knockout trailer for it below.

Hisss is the name of the newest film by Jennifer Lynch, a filmmaker who’s probably going to forever be known — much to her bemusement/annoyance/happiness/chagrin — as the daughter of David Lynch. Or, more unfortunately, as the mind behind the critically and commercially lambasted erotic thriller, 1993’s Boxing Helena.

That’s too bad, because Ms. Lynch seems to be blossoming into an interesting artist in her own right, and proof of that metamorphosis is the trailer for her latest effort, a sensuous Bollywood-styled horror/fantasy starring the ravishingly gorgeous Mallika Sherawat as a snake woman who’s able to take on human form and wreak havoc amongst mankind.

The Official Hisss Website doesn’t have much on it yet, but keep checking it for updates in the future. And take a look at the trailer here, thanks to the good folks at Twitch.

Maybe you wouldn’t even want to, if the above one-sheet poster image is any indication.

One Eyed Monster, in case you must know, is a horror/comedy spoof that stars porn legend Ron Jeremy as an adult film star (gee, no stretch there) whose…uh…”member” (hinted at in the title, dontchaknow) ends up terrorizing the production’s cast and crew when it’s possessed by a nefarious alien presence.

Check out the not-particularly-safe-for-work trailer over at the Official One Eyed Monster Website. The film drops on DVD on April 28.

Oh-so-indie filmmaker Steven Soderbergh is back with another completely out-of-left-field opus. The Girlfriend Experience is his latest drama that promises to take us on an fictionalized but highly detailed inside look at the intimate escort/call girl “transaction” reflected in the movie’s title. The young lady providing said experience is played by none other than adult starlet Sasha Grey.

Check out the preview below.

Hey, I’m just reporting here, so don’t sue, okay? The trailer for the straight-to-video/DVD sci-fi rip-off actioner The Terminators has dropped, and while it may not have Christian Bale or a studio budget, it does have lotsa robots and big explosions!

Peep the preview below.

Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier has always been a combination of daring arthouse filmmaker and boundary-pushing provocateur, whether depicting a melding of sex and religion in 1996’s Breaking the Waves or reveling in the taboo-busting behavior of the protagonists in 1998’s The Idiots, which offered everything from the very un-p.c. mimicry of mental deficiencies through full-on penetration coital footage.

His latest movie, Antichrist, seems equally geared to raise effervescent kudos and angry rants alike. At its heart, it goes into standard supernatural horror territory: a grieving couple (played by Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg) retreat to their cabin in the woods to mend their hearts and their troubled marriage, only to find sinister forces at work which could lead to an even more hellish existence. Sure, plot-wise it could be right down there with 2006’s remake of The Omen, but as the new Antichrist trailer shows, von Trier might be willing to cross some Hollywood-safe bounds that could make the film as edgy as one we’d normally expect from him.

Watch the preview below.

Literally! The preview clocks in at around a minute-and-a-half, but only about ten seconds of it is gunplay-free. And that’s a good thing, in my book.

If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you know that I’m all about Hong Kong filmmaker Johnnie To and any offering from his Milkyway Image production company. I’ve been tracking his latest effort Vengeance, starring French crooner/thesp Johnny Hallyday, for quite some time, and posting info and teasers whenever possible.

A new entry obviously means new material, and this one’s the best yet: an international trailer for the potboiler about a French assassin-turned-chef who’s forced to pick up pistols once again when someone rubs out his loved ones. It’s stylish, action-packed, and atmospheric. In short, it’s another Johnnie To classic!

Go to the Official Vengeance Website to take a look at the goodies offered there (stills, press notes, and interviews, for starters), or paste your eyes below on the blazing trailer. Wake up and smell the cordite, kids!

Let’s face it, very few science fiction films today are cut from the same cloth as the classics. The current offerings all seem to focus more on FX-driven eye-candy than the kind of brain-teasing “what if” scenarios that can make the genre so potent. However, director Duncan Jones — who happens to be the son of spaceman Ziggy Stardust himself, David Bowie — seems to be well on his way to give sci-fi a well-needed kick in the pants with Moon.

The film tells the story of by-the-books astronaut Sam Bell (played by the always impressive Sam Rockwell, in what seems to be a solo tour-de-force performance), who’s nearing the end of a three-year solitary stint on the moon, where he’s supervised the mining of resources to fuel Earth’s ever-escalating power-needs. His only companion is a computer named GERTY. Until, that is, he discovers someone else on the lunar surface, and begins a hallucinatory journey into identity and self-discovery that could bring some chilling ramifications along with it.

Watch the hauntingly terrific new trailer over at IGN.com. The preview offers elements that hint at influences from 2001: A Space Odyssey, Blade Runner, Silent Running and Solaris: all absolutely great works from which inspiration can be drawn, in my opinion. There’s also an official website, which doesn’t have anything on it so far except a classy splash page image and an announcement that Moon will open in New York and Los Angeles in limited release on June 12.