Trailer Hitch

By Eric Hughes

January 6, 2010

I still say we were supposed to fill the balloons with water, not blood.

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Welcome to Trailer Hitch, BOP's look at the latest movie trailers to hit the Internet. This week: John Travolta kicks it up a notch, Jude Law steals somebody's liver (ouch) and Carlos Mencia is in something funny.

From Paris With Love – Opens February 5th

John Travolta plays a crazed FBI agent named Charlie Wax in Pierre Morel's action-comedy, From Paris with Love. Seriously, folks, the man's nuts. (The good kind, though). And yet, never have I seen Johnny look so freakin' relaxed. He's blowin' shit up and wreaking havoc at every turn, you'd have reason to think that this just can't be the same guy who signed on for a role in Old Dogs. (Come to think of it, I still haven't forgiven him for Battlefield Earth. And, with the exception of his cameo in Austin Powers in Goldmember, I haven't seen a Travolta movie of any kind since Primary Colors). From Paris with Love may break that 12-year dry spell.

The film stars Jonathan Rhys-Meyers as a young embassy worker who is paired up with Travolta's character while he's busy working on a dangerous, potentially lethal mission in Paris. The two have a bit of chemistry, I guess, but I'm more blown away by Travolta's performance. From Paris With Love looks like an absolute ride.

Grade: A-




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Repo Men – Opens April 2nd

Not to be confused with Repo Man – that 1984 cult film starring Emilio Estevez (honestly, the two projects couldn't be any more dissimilar) – Repo Men is a futuristic, sci-fi action thriller set in a world where channels like the Home Shopping Network still exist, but their products have been upgraded to functional, albeit mechanical body parts. (Think that circular power source in the middle of Iron Man's suit). Jude Law and Forest Whitaker star as two employees of a greedy megacorp that sells its needy clients body organs at steep prices, and then sends attractive "repossession" men (I'm looking at you, Jude) to reclaim them when patients fail to pay for their new living devices in full. If you're familiar with Repo! The Genetic Opera, Repo Men is eerily similar to that.

As much as I have been attacking sci-fi lately, I must say this is yet another project that I wouldn't mind checking out. (After finding a lot to like in movies like Avatar and trailers like Daybreakers, perhaps I've turned a corner). The plotline is dark, but the comedy is funny and at times pretty zany. There's something quite Zombieland-like about Repo Men's trailer as you get a bit into it, but I can't quite put my finger on it. So, if in the end the movie fails to be thought provoking, at least it'll be entertaining.

Grade: B

Multiple Sarcasms – Opens TBA

And the award for one of the more tongue-in-cheek movie titles I've come across in quite awhile goes to Multiple Sarcasms, a Brooks Branch-directed drama about a man (Timothy Hutton) who begins writing a play that more or less mirrors his own life. The character molded after his own being examines the relationships that make his real life the way it is. Like what you may have read in Dave Eggers' A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius or a good Kurt Vonnegut, expect a number of self-referential moments.


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