Trailer Hitch
By Eric Hughes
October 8, 2008
BoxOfficeProphets.com

Isn't this the exact same picture from High School Musical 3 last week?

Welcome to Trailer Hitch, BOP's look at the latest movie trailers to hit the Internet. This week: Tom Cavanagh gains a boyfriend (and son), Nicole Kidman goes down under and Kevin James rides a Segway.

Choose Connor – Opens October 10th

Pegged by one reviewer as "for politics what Wall Street did for capitalism," Choose Carter appears to be a well-crafted film that analyzes some of politics' disheartening truths. In it, one "fortunate" 15-year-old, Owen (Alex D. Linz), scores the chance of a lifetime when U.S. Senate candidate Lawrence Connor (Steven Webber) asks him to be his youth spokesman, thrusting Owen into a corrupt (and not to be forgotten, fierce) political world of advertising, interviews and speaking engagements that most people never get the chance to see.

I say well crafted for a number of reasons, namely the trailer's (slight) grainy image quality, believable acting on the part of its players and a beautiful piano soundtrack (which may, in fact, get even more play in the actual movie). Choose Carter marks the feature-length debut of its frighteningly young writer-director Luke Eberl, who just turned a mere 22 last March.

Grade: B+
Also expected to be released on this date: Body of Lies, City of Ember, Quarantine, The Express, Ashes of Time Redux, Billy: The Early Years of Billy Graham, Breakfast with Scot, Call+Response, Fall of Hyperion, Lola Montes, Saving Marriage, Happy-Go-Lucky

Breakfast with Scot – Opens October 10th

Breakfast with Scot looks like nothing more than one of those cutesy movies that features a pretty couple (though this time played by two men - Tom Cavanagh and Ben Shenkman) becoming temporary guardians of their adorable, orphaned son Scot (Noah Bernett). Because the boy is unexpectedly thrown into their lives, Eric and Sam's respective lives are shifted upside down. But lo! It's perhaps all for the better in the end, as Eric's (Cavanagh) unwillingness to become a parent (and accepting of his personal sexual orientation) quietly dims as Scot teaches him about loving his inside self.

We haven't quite seen this type of story told in this fashion before, yet its jarring predictability (as evidenced from the trailer) leads me to believe that doesn't really matter.

Grade: D+
Also expected to be released on this date: Body of Lies, City of Ember, Quarantine, The Express, Ashes of Time Redux, Billy: The Early Years of Billy Graham, Choose Connor, Call+Response, Fall of Hyperion, Lola Montes, Saving Marriage, Happy-Go-Lucky

Australia – Opens November 26th

This November, Aussie Baz Luhrmann breaks a seven-year absence from the silver screen with Australia, a period film that reteams the writer-director with Nicole Kidman, who nabbed the lead role of Satine in Luhrmann's last project, 2001's Moulin Rouge! This time, Kidman plays Lady Sarah Ashley, an English aristocrat who falls in love with an Australian drover (Hugh Jackman). The man is charged in helping the woman move the cattle she has been left to take care of across the property.

The trailer cleverly hints at the film's back story, but doesn't give too much away in that regard. Instead, it relies more so on romanticized imagery between Australia's attractive leads. And Why not? It's Kidman and Jackman.

For those not in the know, the pair must move the cattle to save themselves from the threat of a nearby town, Darwin, being bombed. It's World War II, and the bombing of Darwin, which took place on Feb. 19, 1942, was the largest attack ever enacted by a foreign country against Australia.

Grade: B
Also expected to be released on this date: Four Christmases, Transporter 3, Fanboys, Milk

Paul Blart: Mall Cop – Opens January 16, 2009

There's nothing better than a fat man on a Segway. Just ask plus-sized Kevin James, who is seen riding on one throughout most of the trailer to Paul Blart: Mall Cop, a silly comedy slated to premiere in theaters early next year. In what looks like a quasi take-off of Home Alone (sans Macaulay Culkin, of course), Paul must assemble everything he's been trained to do - which he admits is "nothing" - to take down a random hostage situation in his mall.

The trailer has a couple of comedy gems, including Paul's pie commentary at the dinner table, his "high roller" situation with a senior citizen and staving off one of the bad guys while riding his Segway. Other gags - Paul's failure to break through glass and use of a Hello Kitty band-aid - fall a bit flat. But James is a funny guy, so I'm expecting this one to turn out just fine. Also, props to James for bringing to the screen one area of "law enforcement" we rarely see in theaters.

Grade: B
Also expected to be released on this date: Notorious; I Love You, Man; Hotel for Dogs; My Bloody Valentine

The Uninvited – Opens January 30, 2009

Early next year, Elizabeth Banks plans to shake away her good girl image built up by her mostly romantic comedy resume by taking on a more chilling role. No, I'm not talking about the 34-year-old's star turn as Laura Bush later this month in Oliver Stone's George W. Bush biopic, but rather as Rachael in The Uninvited, DreamWorks' horror film based on the 2003 Korean movie, A Tale of Two Sisters.

Here, Banks plays the new squeeze to David Strathairn's character, who recently lost his former wife to a freak fire accident. Except Rachael doesn't turn out to be everything she seems. Or so says the ghost of the former wife (Lex Burnham), who warns her two girls of Rachael's murderous intentions. Anna and Alex (played by Emily Browning and Arielle Kebbel) then take it upon themselves to convince their father that he mistakenly chose a very deceptive girlfriend.

Because The Uninvited fits neatly within the horror genre, I automatically am a little put off. But then again, this one doesn't seem to be that bad at all, considering some recent horrid titles - The Haunting of Molly Hartley, Splinter - that I've come across in writing this column. Though it at times verges on the fantastic (remember, there are ghosts in this one), I'm willing to bet it's as decent as the trailer makes it appear to be.

Grade: B-
Also expected to be released on this date: Chilled in Miami