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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The project reminds me a bit of Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York, a movie that failed to move me – what was up with that burning house?! – like previous Kaufman releases because it was too ambitious for its own good. It tried to do too many things in too little time. (Perhaps, though, that idea could be read as intentional since the lead character faces that very struggle head on about midway through).

Whatever the case, I'm not seeing – from the trailer, of course – what Multiple Sarcasms brings to the table. I'm less excited for it then I was for Synecdoche because it seems like the people in Hutton's life that he uses as characters for the play react negatively to their portrayals – as you'd expect them to. Beyond the bickering, I don't know what else the film is offering here.

Grade: C+

Warlords – Opens April 2nd

The structure of Warlords' trailer is pretty unique; I'll give it that. What you suspect to be just your average Joe, fight for justice period flick takes an interesting turn when the preview's voice-over – which is prevalent in the first quarter or so – fades into the background, allowing for the project's principal actors to engage in combat without distraction. Of course, when your leading man is a dude like Jet Li, the decision to market the film as all action, all the time makes total sense.

Beyond that, though, the trailer is fairly mediocre. Jet Li and two other actors you've likely never heard of play a band of bandits in 1860s China who take an oath to be "blood brothers." That is, until, their situation turns sour due to political deceit and a love triangle involving a beautiful female. If you're a fan of fancy sword work and anything involving the firing of cannonballs, Warlords should be your movie.

Grade: C-




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Our Family Wedding – Opens March 19th

Holy lord. Carlos Mencia is in something halfway decent. (Emphasis on halfway). It's not that I despise the man; I just don't find him all that funny. And so when ads come on for this thing or that thing (well, mostly Mind of Mencia) and he's cracking jokes, I'm just not laughing. In Our Family Wedding, Mencia plays the protective father of his Latina daughter, who is engaged to an African-American male. Through the course of the young couple's relationship – and ensuing wedding – the two families learn they must co-exist as one (and respect the customs of the opposite family) if they hope to give the two young lovebirds the wedding that they likely deserve.

What excites me most about the project is its ensemble cast. Beyond Mencia, Forest Whitaker and America Ferrera nabbed leading roles, as well as Regina King, who impressed me late last season in the handful of episodes I saw of Southland's six-episode seasonette on NBC. (The show has since relocated to TNT). Absent from the trailer, but in the movie, are Taye Diggs, Fred Armisen and Charlie Murphy.

Grade: C


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