Trailer Hitch
By Eric Hughes
March 24, 2010
Welcome to Trailer Hitch, BOP's look at the latest movie trailers to hit the Internet. This week: Jason Bateman is an unexpected father, Michael Caine forces societal dregs to stare down the barrel of a gun and Carey Mulligan moves in with Susan Sarandon.
The Switch – Opens August 20th
Trust me, the trailer to The Switch is a heck of a lot better than its poster. On it, Jennifer Aniston is staring off into space at only god knows what, while Jason Bateman is giving the ol' eye to a cup used only in doctors' offices to collect urine or semen samples with a look on his face that one could argue looks like he wouldn't be too opposed to finding out what its contents taste like. It's a regrettably awkward poster to an otherwise funny looking movie. Now let's get to what this column is really about: the trailer.
Similar to the pair of mall security movies we got last year in Paul Blart and Observe and Report, 2010 is apparently the year of artificial insemination. In late December, I reviewed the trailer to Jennifer Lopez's April comedy, The Back-up Plan, about a woman (Lopez) who decides to have a baby through artificial insemination – only to fall for someone (Alex O'Loughlin) while pregnant. Similarly, The Switch stars Aniston as a woman who undergoes the same procedure, but comes to find out that the father may not be her sperm donor (Patrick Wilson), but instead her good friend Wally (Jason Bateman). They both have a drunken evening to thank for that (and Aniston's poor decision to leave the semen container in the bathroom).
Though penned by Allan Loeb, The Switch is based on a short story, The Baster, by Jeffrey Eugenides, who happens to be one of my favorite authors. For being such an accomplished storyteller, it's amazing to me that he's written just two novels (including Middlesex, one of my absolute favorites) and a handful of short stories. Though The Switch can't be a direct translation of what is probably a compelling read by Eugenides, the trailer contains enough decent material – Aniston and Bateman playing characters they're good at playing; Jeff Goldblum playing Bateman's wacky boss – that has me believing the movie could very well be a hit.
Grade: A-
Harry Brown – April 30th
For people who didn't think Clint Eastwood was enough of an elderly bad ass in Gran Torino, look no further than Harry Brown, a revenge thriller starring Michael Caine, who goes absolutely ballistic on the deadly gangs lurking within his neighborhood in modern-day England. He's stabbing people with bayonets. He's shooting people with handguns. The character Harry Brown is certainly no Alfred Pennyworth, or Dr. Wilbur Larch for that matter. What we see here is Michael Caine at his absolute grittiest. Whoever said 77 year-olds couldn't enact a little revenge?
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