Trailer Hitch
By Kim Hollis
October 20, 2004
BoxOfficeProphets.com
I had been excited about this film from the time I first saw it would be released at the end of 2004, but the trailer has pushed In Good Company right up to the top of my list (alongside The Life Aquatic) of holiday season films I'm most anticipating. The cast always looked intriguing, and the preview definitely gives the impression that they do gel well. Dennis Quaid, Topher Grace and Scarlett Johansson all appear to be both enjoying themselves in addition to being perfectly cast for their roles. The dialogue highlighted is both snappy and brisk. If the trailer is any indication, it definitely looks like the Paul Weitz of American Pie has continued the growth and maturation he showed in the wonderful About a Boy.
Oldboy
The winner of the grand jury prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival, Chan-wook Park's Oldboy looks to be a kinetic revenge tale. The trailer does outstanding work of making the singular premise apparent to the viewer. A man - who seems to have lost his family to bad guys - is kidnapped and held prisoner for 15 years. Though he tries to break free, he is unable to escape his cell. Suddenly, though, he is released without explanation. This appears to have been a bad idea, because he sets off on a quest for revenge that would make The Bride jealous. The film looks slick and smart, and I really can't wait.
The Ring 2
There's not much to see in this brief teaser, but it's effective nonetheless. All that really needs to be done for the sequel to the highly successful horror film is to impart the same sense of freaky dread that pervaded the original North American version. To that end, the people who cut this trailer employed a technique that blends fast cuts together to show very brief little snippets of incredibly dark and scary-looking things. It works well, but I'll be looking forward to something a bit more substantive.
Hotel Rwanda
Hotel Rwanda shows every possibility of being a star-making film for Don Cheadle. Generally an actor who plays more supporting roles, here he plays a Rwandan who is the general manager of a hotel in Kigali. When the Hutu militia began their brutal attempt to cleanse their nation of the Tutsis, Cheadle's character used his hotel and all his abilities to make the world a better place for the refugees. The movie looks to bring attention to the tragedy that took place in that nation, which is particularly important given the similar events that are taking place in The Sudan today.
Blade: Trinity (Triple H Trailer)
This might be the cheesiest thing I have ever seen. It's basically the same trailer that was released a couple of weeks ago; however, clips of wrestler Triple H in his role as a sensitive, kitty-loving vampire are interspersed throughout. Obviously, this preview was cut with the intent of aiming it at a WWE audience, and for that purpose it will probably succeed well enough. I do give credit to Hunter Hearst Helmsley (real name: Paul Michael Levesque) for being willing to lampoon himself to a serious degree here.
Bad Education
I can't wait to see this movie. That said, the teaser for the film is useless, revealing nothing whatsoever about what the film is about. There's some shots of Gael Garcia Bernal, which will definitely go a little way toward selling the film in the wake of his Motorcycle Diaries performance, but beyond that, we're given nothing other than Pedro Almodovar's name to go on.