Sucker Punch
Directed by Zack Snyder
Starring Emily Browning, Abbie Cornish, Jena Malone, Scott Glenn
Warner Brothers
Rated PG-13
Release date: March 25, 2011

Sucker Punch is the newest film from Zack Snyder, director of 300 and Watchmen, and it continues his string of visually arresting films. Snyder does not only direct adaptations of comic books (see Legend of the Guardians and Dawn of the Dead as the exceptions), but he is widely known for them, particularly with his involvement in the next Superman film. Sucker Punch is his first original screenplay though, so many were wondering what he would come up with himself. What he presents with Sucker Punch is a mix of unique genres that continues Snyder’s line of visually unique films, but has very little going on to make the viewer care about what’s happening.

Sucker Punch revolves around a young girl given the nickname of Baby Doll (Emily Browning). She is sent to an insane asylum by her stepfather in a plan to steal an inheritance that is rightfully hers. The stepfather plans to have Baby Doll lobotomized (by Jon Hamm who is becoming a master of big-screen cameos), but she plans to escape, with the help of some of the other inmates. Somehow, the plan involves the inmates taking a few necessary items, distracting the guards with some kind of dance that becomes a series of fantasy action sequences. And then Scott Glenn shows up as a wise old man relaying pointless platitudes. Trust me, explaining the plot makes my head hurt and exposes many of the movie’s flaws.

Back in July, the first teaser trailer for Zack Snyder‘s visual spectacle, Sucker Punch, was unleashed upon the world, leading everyone to wonder if it could keep up with all of the insanity it promised.

Now comes the movie’s first full trailer, giving us a much better idea of what the film is about while piling on even more visual insanity — as hard as that might be to believe!

The movie is about a group of girls who are locked up in a mental institution in Vermont who travel deep within their own subconscious to attempt to try and escape their prison. The storyline basically allows Snyder — who has previously delivered visually stunning fare in 300, Watchmen, and Legends of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole — the opportunity to play around in a sandbox consisting of every genre known to man…something that could be very, very good for we the watchers.

Be sure to click on over to the other side now to read a full synopsis and check out the full trailer now!

The trailer for Zack Snyder‘s Sucker Punch has been released.

Watch it here below.

Also, six character posters were released, which you can see here below (click images for larger, full view).

The trailer is a shorter version of the footage that Snyder debuted this past weekend at the San Diego Comic-Con, which opened to sequences hauntingly backed by Led Zeppelin’s “When The Levee Breaks.” [Read SDCC 2010: Zack Snyder’s “˜Sucker Punch’ Panel for description of the extended footage.]

The extended footage was much more captivating than this trailer, which runs about 1 1/2 minutes, so if this doesn’t grab you right away, don’t give up on it just yet.

Director Zack Snyder and his cast of Sucker Punch, his follow-up to his successful Watchmen adaptation, was on hand for the Warner Bros panel at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con.

Snyder noted that, with his co-writer, he’d been working on the story for 8 years. He was motivated by the desire to create an original property “not based on a breakfast cereal or superglue, or anything like that.”

He then introduced the panel which included Carla Gugino, Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung, Jena Malone, and Emily Browning.

Browning plays Baby Doll, whose mother dies, and is placed by her father in an insane asylum to be lobotomized and needs to discover a way to escape, if only through the world inside her mind. Hudgens plays Blondie, who fires some of the biggest guns in the film. Malone plays Rocket, who rallies the troops toward the idea of escape. Chung plays Amber, who’s loyal to Baby Doll. Gugino plays Polish psychiatrist Dr. Gorski, a dominatrix/choreographer/madame-type.

The Ruins
Unrated Edition
Directed by Carter Smith
Starring Jonathan Tucker, Jena Malone, Shawn Ashmore, Laura Ramsey, Joe Anderson
Paramount Home Video
Release Date: July 8, 2008

I’m finding that approaching this review of The Ruins is a bit more of a challenge than I expected it to be. While I have a pretty solid idea of my opinion of the film, I’m also realizing that over the years I’ve become very picky toward some genres, especially the horror genre. With that in mind, I’ll try and offer my own opinion along with a little open-minded perspective for others interested in checking this out.

The first 30 minutes or so are pretty boring, as we meet Jeff (Jonathan Tucker), Amy (Jena Malone), Stacy (Laura Ramsey), and Eric (Shawn Ashmore) — the typical hot, young group of kids on vacation — and they’re deciding whether to do the scary-sounding, “we probably shouldn’t” activity. In this case, a random German dude named Mathias (Joe Anderson) who finds one of the girls’ missing earrings invites them to join him in meeting up with his archaeologist brother at some ancient Mayan ruins. Naturally, seeing as how the man has a very friendly German accent, the kids decide to go on the adventure and after a few minor complications, they arrive at the mysteriously hidden site; this is where the chaos begins.