We’ve been hearing about The Adventures of TinTin: Secret of the Unicorn (directed by Steven Spielberg, produced by Peter Jackson) for what feels like decades, and finally, the first teaser is here.  Based on the beloved Belgian comic strip I’d never heard of before this, the 3D, motion-capture project “stars” Daniel Craig, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Jamie Bell, and Cary Elwes.  As far as I’m concerned, the most interesting thing about it is that Edgar Wright co-wrote the script (with Steven Moffat and Joe Cornish).  Seriously, did you guys see Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson’s last movies?  Anyway, now that the first footage is here, it sure looks… uh… motion-capturey.  Although it may have broken the record for most dramatic music ever set to footage of a guy staring at a toy boat.

[HD Available at Apple]

Here’s Jackson’s explanation for using motion-capture to Empire Magazine back in November:

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Thanks to Robopanda for sending over this clip of a 25-year-old Simon Pegg doing stand-up comedy back in 1995.  It’s obviously not a new clip, but I hadn’t seen it before, so INDULGE ME.  It’s a British audience, and pretty much every joke has to do with being British, but it still holds up fairly well (PLAID SHIRTS ARE STILL COOL!).  The most disappointing part is that the guy who introduces him says, “Our next act is 25, I’ve got suits older than that!”

It’s disappointing, because at first I thought he said “I’ve got soups older than that!” which would’ve been far more hilarious and British.

[via EpicPonyz]

Not to excuse indifference to bloggerly responsibilities on my part, but Paul is the kind of movie that isn’t a lot of fun to review.  It’s not terrible, there aren’t any glaring inconsistencies, but it just doesn’t quite work.  It’s just not that funny.  It’s usually cute, but not quite laugh-worthy, and occasionally obnoxious, but not quite grating.  The word that most comes to mind is “thin.” It’s trivial.  It’s the acquaintance you always tell yourself you should call more but don’t, and deep down you know exactly why.

It’s a bit of a blue-ball dry rub considering the people involved.  I loved director Greg Mottola’s last two movies (Superbad and Adventureland), and getting the double-team from Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (who also wrote the script) is almost always a good thing.  The plot, two nerds find a wacky alien (voiced by Seth Rogen) and have to help it escape the US government that wants to study its brain and harvest its penises for fuel or whatever, is cribbed from the standard 80s-alien-movie formula (ET, Mac & Me, etc).  But rather than the clever genre homage seen in the Pegg co-written (with Edgar Wright, whose influence might have been needed here) Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead, or the glowy, rich nostalgia of Mottola’s last two movies, what we get instead is just a series of throwaway references to every 80s alien movie, like they wrote it by going down a checklist.  Reese’s Pieces reference goes here… okay now what?  Not homage, not parody, just, as my co-viewer Brendan from the Frotcast put it, “one long wink.”

Winking at the audience can be fine, but… you should probably tell a joke first.

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Your mom's ready for her pelvic exam

I already want to see Paul, Greg Mottola’s homage to Mac & Me starring Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and the voice of Seth Rogen as a wacky alien, so I’m not going to watch this new red-band trailer.  But I will give you the opportunity, for I am but a humble public servant with a God-like talent for pelvic thrusts.  Paul opens March 18th in the US, but it’s already out in the UK, where it’s playing to mostly positive reviews, no small feat in a country full of critics who write like this:

“From time to time, clever ideas rear their heads, but they soon return to the film’s default setting of laddish japes.” [TheIndependant]

OH NO, NOT LADDISH JAPES!  Cor bloimey, guv, dey’s ruined da souffles dey ‘as!  Curse you, laddish japes!  (*gestures angrily with parasol*)  But like I said, the pans were in the minority.  And if you can get those splotchy-faced gravy chuckers to agree on anything for more than five seconds, you get hereditary title and an estate in York.

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Time for your mom's pelvic exam

Universal just released a new trailer for Paul, Greg Mottola’s homage to ET, Mac & Me, Harry and the Hendersons, etc., starring Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and a buttload of other comedic types.  It’s not the first trailer, so I don’t think I need to rehash my fervent Greg Mottola fandom for you again, but it is nice to see a trailer where no one gets hit in the nuts. Don’t get me wrong, I’d pay to see a trailer that was just Adam Levine or the Coldplay guy getting hit in the nuts over and over again, but in a movie, especially one I actually want to see, I worry it cheapens things.  And if I was the type of guy who wanted cheap, would I be dotting the I in my signature with a dollar sign?  I think not.

Paul opens March 10th, and I don’t want to get my hopes up TOO high, but 2010 was kind of a crappy one for comedy, and I’m hoping 2011 will be better.  I think I deserve that.

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