When the trailer for Bruno debuted in 2009, Universal tried to sell audiences on the critical love for Sacha Baron Cohen's previous summer comedy, Borat. It didn't work. Cut to 2011, and here comes Warner Bros. using a similar strategy in the first teaser for The Hangover Part II (it looks like those Roman numerals are part of the official title), which uses quotes about the first film to fill up much of the trailer's length. Is this highly anticipated sequel doomed to face a Bruno-like box office fate?
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After Swimming Pool became something of a surprise art house hit, the United States more or less went back to ignoring French filmmaker François Ozon, despite the fact he seemed to nearly double his output in the succeeding years. That seemed fair enough, since his output can indeed be pretty inconsistent. But after watching the trailer for Potiche, I'd like to point out that the guy at least deserves credit for audacity. After gaining international recognition for erotic thrillers, he went ahead and made a fairy tale about a flying baby (Ricky), and now, what appears to be a French version of Working Girl with Catherine Deneuve and Gérard Depardieu.
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"Find the bomb, and you'll find the bomber." So says Vera Farmiga (playing what one has to assume is the daughter of Basil Exposition) in the latest trailer for Source Code, Duncan Jones' high concept science-fiction thriller that will have its world premiere at SXSW next month. How does this new bit of marketing compare with the first trailer that was released last November?
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Do you ever have that recurring nightmare where midgets and German circus folk take commands from talking toilets and wear Hitler masks and cast spells to bring Michael Jackson back from the dead in zombie form? If you didn't before, you will now after watching this trailer for the insane-sounding German flick The Return of the Moonwalker. Happy holiday weekend!
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Jason Sudeikis was convincing as Floyd, Liz Lemon's ideal boyfriend on 30 Rock, so the obvious next question is: Can he also play the worst husband on Earth? The new Farrelly brothers movie Hall Pass lets us find out, and its red band trailer is full of the booby jokes, boners, and swear words that will scandalize junior high schools across remote parts of the Midwest. Also, Owen Wilson is Carson Kressly now.
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The trailer for Sebastian Gutierrez's Girl Walks into a Bar features of a number of faces you may recognize, including Danny Devito, Josh Hartnett, Zachary Quinto, Rosario Dawson and Carla Gugino. They spend the entire trailer firing self-conscious dialogue at each other, waving around guns and sometimes doing sexy dances (not Devito, don't worry). But really all you're going to remember here is the room full of no-name actors playing ping-pong totally naked.
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Can we all agree that the Thor marketing materials thus far have been a little less than thrilling? Good. Because now we really have something to look forward to from the Kenneth Branagh-directed Marvel actioner -- an epic-scale tent pole set on two worlds with a sense of humor about itself, lots of swirling, hammer-smashing action, fantastical villains and creatures to ogle, and the acknowledged fetishizing of Chris Hemsworth's abs.
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The first teaser for Saw director James Wan's new haunted person movie Insidious relied heavily on the technique most horror movie trailers (As well as every film Saw series) overuse: Flash-cutting tons of imagery together with noises and music that practically scream: "Be scared right now!" But look! This new trailer actually contains some tension, build-up and slow reveals! And it's pretty scary!
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Now this is the way to get hooked into Kim Ji-woon's brutal cat-and-mouse serial killer thriller I Saw the Devil: By ratcheting up the tension, the dueling nemeses, the copious blood spatter, and the kind of insane, ultra-violent vengeance that Korean cinema has rained down upon the world in recent years. Because nothing says "I must avenge my dead beloved" like hunting down her killer and becoming a face-bashing, foot-stabbing serial killer-killer yourself.
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There is something truly amazing yet unsettling about hearing James Gandolfini talk in his non-Tony Soprano voice. It has a dog-walking-on-hind-legs quality to it -- your ears do what amounts to a double take. Of course, the different voice choices are how you know when Gandolfini is "acting" and not merely doing a variation on his famed -- and brilliant -- portrayal of Tony Soprano on The Sopranos. Sometimes the accents fail (cough, Welcome to the Rileys), but they are always an interesting choice. To wit: His affectation as a sleazy reality television producer in 1970s California is perfect in the trailer for Cinema Verite. How about the rest of this movie-about-a-documentary telefilm?
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Ah, the audacity of screenwriters! Are we really supposed to believe that Sam Worthington is going to consider having an affair when he's happily married to Keira Knightley? And in turn, is Knightley really going to consider some other guy than Worthington? Okay, maybe. In any case, the trailer for this Toronto closing night film about very-attractive people considering cheating on their very attractive significant others has hit, and unlike many films in this vein that focus on the voyeuristic, mean-spirited thrill, it appears to examine the situation with a well-observed level of sincerity and gravity.
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It's possible that 11-11-11, which the trailer proudly proclaims is from the director of Saw II, III and IV, will be one of the most terrifying movies ever made. That is, until about nine months from now when November 11, 2011 comes and goes with no major apocalyptic events taking place. Unless...some sort of terrifying gate to hell or a demon world is actually going to open before the end of the year? Before this trailer, I didn't even know it was a possibility! Surely we have at least a year and a half before we have to make peace with loved ones and deities, right? This calls for some numerology research.
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Wake your sophomore year-self up and meet everyone in the dorm common room, because I have a got a treat for you. After being hastily cobbled together before the producers lost the rights, Atlas Shrugged, Part 1 has released its first trailer. And sweet, suffering Bolshevism, is it a doozy.
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As the trailer for Cracks started, I was poised for some kind of all-girls boarding school rebellion because you know, that's just what usually happens in movies about boarding schools. Either that or the headmasters turn out to be witches. But really, who would want to rebel against the gorgeous Eva Green? Not these students! They completely adore her! And she loves them right back! She loves them so, so much, and she especially loves this beautiful, rich Spanish girl...and yeah, that's when the trailer gets creepy.
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"The cost of freedom is always high. No one can foresee precisely what course it will take. One path we shall never choose -- and that is the path of surrender." So says John F. Kennedy about the Cuban Missile Crisis in the trailer for X-Men: First Class, Matthew Vaughn's '60s-set origin story of Professor X and Magneto. Wait, one second. What's JFK doing here?
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