Trailer Hitch
By Eric Hughes
March 10, 2010
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Tron: Legacy – Opens December 17th
I'm not very familiar with Tron; forgive me. I know it's an ‘80s science fiction movie. I know it's got a rabid fan base (including a dude who occasionally appears on Jimmy Kimmel Live! with a getup straight out of the 1982 flick). I also know readers of this site love the sci-fi. So, for me not to have something to say bordering on brilliant about the original film feels contradictory towards what this site strives to be (and do). But what I can say is that after watching the trailer to its follow-up, Tron: Legacy, I realize I've missed out on something special. And better yet: Tron's sequel is going to make a disgusting amount of money over Christmas 2010.
Disney probably couldn't have timed the sequel any better. Fresh off his win for Best Actor at Sunday's Academy Awards, Jeff Bridges is hot stuff. Bridges, courtesy of his masterful performance in Crazy Heart, is the cat's pajamas. He's working the room with a career in resurgence, not unlike Mickey Rourke's second coming via The Wrestler. (But in Bridges' case, he never really left. His stock just, well, skyrocketed). Bridges is destined to bring dynamite to whatever comes his way* – so long as the project is decent. Tron: Legacy is better than decent, though. Tron: Legacy looks flipping fantastic.
Troubling to me is the fact that the project's director, Joseph Kosinski, is a newb. He's best known for his work in computer graphics. Obviously, a background in computers is essential to a project like Tron 2. Yet you'd expect Disney to pass the reins to someone with more experience. (Or better still, experience). The writing, thankfully, is in good hands. Two of Tron's three credited screenwriters work on Lost.
*Does the adaptation to Lois Lowry's The Giver now have a chance?
**This will depend on your season 6 leanings
Grade: A-
Remember Me – Opens Friday
Robert Pattison's first big movie post-Twilight famedom is Remember Me, a drama with Pierce Brosnan as his father, Chris Cooper as the cop who arrests Pattison during a scuffle and Lost's Emilie de Ravin as his love interest (and Cooper's daughter). The pair discovers an instant bond after experiencing similar family tragedies.
(*spoilerish!) Remember Me's "twist" was revealed to me a short time ago, and I'll admit I was sickened that it includes X – seemingly from left field. However, having now seen the trailer, and learning that Remember Me was co-written by Rachel Getting Married's Jenny Lumet (a wonderful plus), I reverse the assumption that Remember Me exploits X for monetary gain. I may in fact actually want to see the film. (*end spoiler*)
The trailer to Remember Me shows me a number of things. First, it's been awhile since we've (or at least I've) seen Chris Cooper's mug. I've missed the guy, and it's good to have him back after his (arguable) three-year hiatus from movies. (In 2008 he appeared in a documentary; the year after he performed in the segmented New York, I Love You and voiced a character in Where the Wild Things Are). Remember Me thankfully brings back one of my favorite actors to a role he usually knocks out of the park: a meaty one. In addition, there appears to be life after Twilight and Lost for Pattison and de Ravin, respectively. Actually, Remember Me may be de Ravin's ticket out of television (if she wants that).
Grade: B
George A. Romero's Survival of the Dead – Opens May 28th
George A. Romero's sixth Dead movie, this one called Survival of the Dead, sure is hokey lookin'. It's as if the progress made through the Dawn of the Dead remake and the movies that followed has been put on hiatus. The colors are muted and the music is tame. The death sequences are trite, too. An educated guess would be that the ‘70s vibe that radiates from the one-minute tease is intentional. Yet I haven't come across anything that explicitly states that.
Like Daybreakers (but with evil zombies instead of vampires), Survival of the Dead takes place during a time when humans are the minority to a larger population of zombies. While a war wages between the living and the dead, a band of humans try to find a cure to transform the undead back to their natural state.
Grade: D
Don McKay – Opens April 2nd
Don McKay's trailer suffers from dialogue that can best be labeled cringe-worthy. Approaching a woman, Don (Thomas Haden Church) says: "My name is Don McKay." Her expression of approval: "Don McKaaaayyyy." Later, Elizabeth Shue says: "You got my letter." Don: "Yeah." Later still, Shue says: "Did I do something wrong?" Don: "I don't know. Did you?" It's stiff and super awkward. You wonder whether every interaction with Don must be this way.
Something's amiss with what's going on with Don, and the trailer does a decent job in keeping the secret under wraps. Haunted by tragedy, Don McKay returns to his hometown to reconnect with an old flame, who's dying. Then Don's instincts kick in, and he realizes she may be lying. Then a body must be disposed of, and Don's caught red handed. Not too sure what's going on here. Then again, I'm not sure whether I care.
Grade: C-