The Pulpmovies Trailer Park

I like Tim Burton - apart from Planet of the Apes his films have been consistently funny, inventive, anarchic and hugely watchable. And, if the trailer is anything to go by, Corpse Bride is going to be every bit as good as his previous highs.

According to the IMDb,

Victor (Johnny Depp) is travelling home with his friend to get married to his fiancee Victoria (Emily Watson). The two stop to rest in the woods, and as a joke, Victor puts his wedding ring on a finger-shaped stick in the ground and says his wedding vows. The stick turns out to be a rotted finger belonging to a murdered girl (Helena Bonham-Carter), who returns as a zombie and insists that she is now Victor’s lawfully wedded wife.

And the trailer looks fantastic.

Trailer

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In the dead of the night, near the Czech-Slovak border, two smugglers discover their truckload of illegal Indian immigrants have left a baby behind.

In a small Prague apartment, Franta (Jiri Machacek) and Mila (Natasa Burger) dream of having a child, but Franta - on probation because of his soccer hooliganism past - is not allowed to adopt, and Mila is unable to conceive. After cashing in on her savings, Mila decides to buy a baby from a pawnshop that fronts a den of thieves and pickpockets.

Meanwhile, an unusual family reunion is taking place: Academy professor Otto (Jan Triska) collapses while teaching, prompting his estranged son Martin (Petr Forman, son of director Milos) to return to Prague from Australia to see his father and his mother, Vera (Emilia Vasaryova), long separated from Otto whom she still pines for. Otto is now living with the beautiful and much younger Hana (Ingrid Timkova), who works in a refugee aid center helping immigrants to adjust to their new lives.

Up And Down is the Czech Republic’s official selection for the 2005 Best Foreign Film Academy Award and is scheduled to open in LA and NY on February 25th, 2005.

Trailer

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Langston Whitfield (Samuel L. Jackson) is a Washington Post journalist. His editor provocatively sends him to South Africa to cover the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings, in which the perpetrators of murder and torture on both sides during the Apartheid era are invited to come forward and confront their victims. By telling the unvarnished truth and expressing contrition, they may be granted amnesty.

Can the deep wounds of Apartheid be healed through reconciliation? Langston is deeply skeptical. He tracks down Col. De Jager, the most notorious torturer in the SA Police and tries to penetrate the mind of a monster, an experience that obliges him to confront his own demons. Anna Malan (Juliette Binoche), is an Afrikaans poet who is covering the hearings for radio. As a white South African she is shattered by the accounts of the cruelty and depravity committed by her fellow countrymen. Anna and Langston must both question their sense of identity. Where do they each belong? How responsible are they for what is done in the name of their respective countries? The moving testimony of the victims affects them deeply. In different ways they are both estranged from their families, and their shared experience draws them ever closer to each other. It is a story charting the unfathomable depths of human cruelty and the redeeming power of forgiveness and love.

Trailer

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Stephen Chow’s follow up to the, frankly superb, Shaolin Soccer is Kung Fu Hustle which, according to the IMDb

… revolves around a hapless wannabe gangster who aspires to become a member of the notorious “Axe Gang.” Other characters include an obnoxious landlady and her apparently frail husband who exhibit extraordinary powers in defending their turf.

Click here to see a clip from the film that was shown at a recent press conference in China. And click here to read the transcript - helpfully supplied by Monkey Peaches.

Update

Sony Classics are getting ready to release this film in the US in April, so here is a complete synopsis and the truly spectacular, very musical and incredibly entertaining - trailer.

Fan favorite Stephen Chow performs triple duties as writer, director, and star of the film. Kung Fu Hustle also features Yuen Wah, Yuen Qiu and Bruce Leung Siu Lung, with extraordinary fight sequences by master choreographers Yuen Wo Ping and Sammo Hung.

The Synopsis

A hapless wanna be gangster, Sing, must overcome his inability to wield a knife and demonstrate his mettle in order to become a member of the notorious Axe Gang. The Axe Gang, meanwhile, want to reign supreme by occupying the most coveted territory, which is a sacred street protected by an unlikely cast of characters, many of whom are highly skilled kung fu masters disguised as ordinary people. After several encounters with thugs and a fearsome adversary known as the Beast, Sing overcomes his inadequacy and realizes he is the greatest kung fu master of them all, destined to protect the sacred street.

The Trailer

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