Trailer Park: Getaway

To be entirely honest, I never heard of Getaway until I saw a TV spot for it tonight. Until normal circumstances, I probably wouldn't have high expectations for this one since, let's face it, Labor Day weekend traditionally is a dumping ground for major studio releases. (You disagree? OK, do you remember Paparazzi? Apollo 18? Disaster Movie?)  But Ethan Hawke is an actor whose work I admire. And I'm genuinely curious to see if Selena Gomez can make a more effective transition to grown-up roles than Miley Cyrus.

But most important: I want to hear Jon Voight do his crazy-accent thing again. Just take a listen to his menacing commands to Hawke in this trailer:

Anaconda 3: Offspring

A sequel in name only to the notoriously campy Anaconda (1997) and the tragically less funny Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid (2004), Anaconda 3: Offspring bids to launch a direct-to-video franchise as a cliche-encrusted action-thriller aimed at undiscriminating genre fans. (A follow-up already has been filmed and is duly promoted on this pic's DVD.) Curiosity-seekers might take a peek, if only to see whether top-billed David Hasselhoff -- like Jon Voight in the original -- is devoured by a rapacious reptile. He isn't, however, which very likely will hurt home video sales. You can read my full Variety review here.

Independence Day

In honor of the holiday, I give you the ridiculously corny yet tremendously affecting speech given by a beleaguered U.S. President (played by Bill Pullman) to rally a final push against invading extraterrestrials in Independence Day. Seeing this clip again reminds me that, as recently as 1999, you could portray the Commander in Chief as the take-charge hero of a summer blockbuster without inviting derisive jeers from mainstream moviegoers. Flash forward to today, and you have Michael Bay's Transformers, an even bigger blockbuster that depicts the U.S. President only fleetingly, as a mostly unseen doofus with bright red socks and a taste for Ho-Hos, while a grimly determined Secretary of Defense (Jon Voight, who played the heroic FDR in Bay's Pearl Harbor) does the heavy lifting. Gee, do you think this says something about how the makers of Transformers view -- and how they assume mainstream audiences view -- the current resident of the White House?