Trailer Hitch

By Eric Hughes

April 15, 2009

Homer, do you know who else is gay? Broadway.

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Welcome to Trailer Hitch, BOP's look at the latest movie trailers to hit the Internet. This week: A Chorus Line lifts up its skirt, Lonelygirl15 keeps making bad movie choices and – go figure – Jason Bateman makes us laugh.

Every Little Step – Opens Friday

A Broadway revival of A Chorus Line, of which this documentary is based, opened in October 2006. It closed two years later. So if you're keeping score at home, we are in fact presented with a docu about a Broadway show that is no longer running*.

All relevance is out the window, in that you can't go see this thing, then go buy a ticket for the actual show. What you see on screen is as close as you're going to get. Hmm. With Broadway struggling to fit people in its seats, perhaps it should commission a few of these things for Jersey Boys and Wicked.

Even so. For musical lovers, this is your movie. It looks like Every Little Step takes you along for the entirety of A Chorus Line's pre-production. From the casting auditions to the rehearsals to its history, and so on. I have an appreciation for musicals, but not so much this one. So the trailer didn't do much more than whelm me.

Grade: C

Also expected to be released on this date: State of Play, Crank 2: High Voltage, 17 Again, Is Anybody There?, Sleep Dealer

*Note: A U.S. tour of the show opened in 2008 and is expected to run through June.

April Showers – Opens April 24th

Based on the Columbine High School shootings in April 1999, April Showers focuses on the survivors of such a tragic event and how they go about picking up the pieces and making an effort to understand what happened amidst the chaos and media frenzy. The project comes from writer-director Andrew Robinson, who was a senior at Columbine at the time of the shootings.

Of course, April Showers won't be a movie that audiences rush out and see. But I do feel the minute or so we see here proves the sensitive subject matter was handled with tact and supreme care. Kelly Blatz, Daryl Sabara, Illeana Douglas and Tom Arnold star.




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Grade: B

Also expected to be released on this date: Obsessed, The Soloist, Fighting, Love N' Dancing, Powder Blue, Tyson, The Garden, Julia

Perfect Sport – Opens April 25th

Lonelygirl15's Jessica Rose was certainly a sensation online. Yet her pathetic feature film resume is making me think she should consider sticking solely with the Web. After landing a role in the poorly received Lindsay Lohan vehicle, I Know Who Killed Me, she strikes again in Perfect Sport. Besides looking like it was made for about $5, the drama's got extremely weak acting. I'm struggling to come up with a single saving grace.

The movie stars Anthony O'Brien (who also wrote and directed the project) as a high school wrestler who must compete against his sister on the mat after she lands a spot on the boys' team. Sorry, but that's a bit too incestuous for my tastes.

Grade: D

Also expected to be released on this date: None

Moon – Opens June 12th

Some early buzz around Moon is that it's comparable to recent sci-fi hits like Children of Men and Sunshine. So maybe I shouldn't be so hard on this project. Yet in the end, the trailer (at least) just didn't do it for me. Its momentum noticeably picks up some in the end, when you come to realize Sam Rockwell's character may be headed towards insanity. But in a way it's too little, too late.

Here, Rockwell stars as Sam Bell, a man charged with the responsibility of potentially reversing the Earth's energy crisis by mining the moon's natural gas, Helium 3, for a company named Lunar. Save for a robot (voiced by Kevin Spacey), Sam is completely alone. (Reminiscent of Tom Hanks in Cast Away – though you've got to replace a tropical locale with the frickin' moon in order to make that connection). With two weeks left to go before his three-ear assignment expires, Sam feels out of place, and suspects Lunar of trying to replace him once Sam discovers another being on the moon.

Grade: C+

Also expected to be released on this date: The Taking of Pelham 123, Imagine That, Sex Positive

Extract – Opens September 4th

We're lucky we still get to be entertained by a guy like Jason Bateman every now and again, even after Fox made the mistake of canceling his one-of-a-kind sitcom. Here we're treated with what appears to be his first starring role in some time – Extract, from writer-director Mike Judge (Office Space). And good lord is it funny. (If you enjoy that awkward Office-y type humor).

Not much story is revealed in the trailer, but you get the idea that his character's life is stricken with a repeated series of misfortunate events. At work, employees at the extract factory he owns get hit in the nuts with flying equipment. At home, his wife (Kristen Wiig) signals it's time for bed (and no sex) once she fastens her sweat pants. Secondary players in this one include Mila Kunis, J.K. Simmons and a scruffy-lookin' Ben Affleck.

Grade: A

Also expected to be released on this date: Game, Shanghai


     


 
 

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