Who can think about naked Scarlett Johansson photos today when the new trailer for Cameron Crowe's We Bought a Zoo has just debuted, amirite?? Take a look at Crowe's first feature since Elizabethtown, about a single father (Matt Damon) who moves his family into a zoo to turn things around by helping animals and stuff. Also, to fall for impassioned zookeeper Scarlett Johansson. Quite a coincidence of timing, no?
Head to Apple for the trailer debut in HD.
A few first impressions:
We Bought a Zoo is based on the experiences of Benjamin Mee, a man who also relocated his family to a zoo and wrote about it in a memoir entitled We Bought a Zoo: The Amazing True Story of a Young Family, a Broken Down Zoo, and the 200 Wild Animals That Changed Their Lives Forever. Is he as handsome as the trailer emphasizes Matt Damon to be? Does he really have more hair than the other daddies?
Fine. So maybe there are a few creative liberties being taken here with the single dad subplot. Which explains why Thomas Haden Church is given cheesy lines like, "I like the animals, but I love the humans," because OHMYGOD, did he really just say that? Sigh. It's a feel-good Christmas movie, whatever.
And oh, look! A Jerry Maguire-style office-quitting moment for Damon! Classic Crowe.
According to this movie, you don't need any special knowledge to run a zoo. I think the bears and lions and peacocks might disagree in most cases, but fine. I'm onboard. Let's do this. I'm hot and cold when it comes to Crowe, but I love the balls on Fox if they put this out early to get a jump on that post-ScarJo hacking buzz ahead of The Avengers. (Crosses fingers it's not just another Elizabethtown.)
Verdict: I'll tentatively buy this Zoo.
[Apple]