Trailer Hitch
By David Mumpower
March 15, 2005
8) Death of a Dynasty
This feels like little more than an ego project. Damon Dash, the co-CEO of Roc-A-Fella Records, is well known as the business mind who compliments his talent, Jay-Z. The savvy financier has successfully launched a fashion line, produced hit movies and turned a nascent record company into an industry powerhouse. Death of a Dynasty is apparently his way of rewarding himself for reaching the top of multiple entertainment industries by the tender age of 33. The story is straight out of the Almost Famous mold. A young journalist tries to make a name for himself by covering a rising talent in the music industry. In the process, he alienates the musician from the man who made him famous and, presumably, also hooks up with Benihana heiress Devon Aoki along the way. I’ll leave it to you to decide which aspect of the story is more interesting. Dash directs the project, which happens to feature a lead character with the name of Dash. I can’t help but wonder if many of the actors will be forced to wear clothing which says Dash on it at determined intervals throughout the film. Damon Dash is a bright and talented man, but the trailer for his first directing effort shows he probably doesn’t have any business being behind the camera.
7) Winter Solstice
Anthony LaPaglia frontlines an impressive cast in this romantic drama. The story involves the widowing of a man with a pair of teenage sons. He finds himself wholly unprepared for the pressures of solo parenthood and is drowning in his life until he meets an effervescent woman played by Allison Janney of The West Wing. The two embark on an unlikely romance, and yes, the trailer feels every bit as generic as the description sounds. The good news is that it is propped up by the talent. Janney and LaPaglia are two of the best actors in the world, and they seem to have a spark as a struggling pair of mid-life crisis battlers who meet each other at the perfect time. With lesser actors at the helm, Winter Solstice would be an automatic pass but with those two plus the presence of Ron Livingston (who is only semi-forgiven for Little Black Book), it looks like an indie project worth a look at some point down the line. But maybe not until it’s available on Netflix.
6) Kingdom of Heaven
There is no harder marketing job in the world than to make Orlando Bloom appear menacing. It’s like sticking fangs on a rabbit. The best case scenario is to induce giggles and guffaws, but you are never going to achieve the respect, much less any sense of menace you desire. I mean, Liberace could rise from the dead and attack Las Vegas right now with an army of skeletal minions and I still wouldn’t be scared by him. And I think Liberace could wipe the floor with effeminately mousy Orlando Bloom. Simply consider this. Johnny Depp played the character of Captain Jack Sparrow as over-the-top super-gay as you can be in a movie and he still came across as the movie’s macho element.
But I digress.
A semi-bearded Orlando Bloom (don’t worry, the rest of it will grow in after he finishes puberty) is the draw here. Since I consider him to be little more than a luckier version of Luke Perry, that’s not going to sell me like it would a 14-year-old girl who likes her men safely androgynous. The clip itself reveals little about the story, instead focusing on an extended monologue from Jeremy Irons interspersed with your normal batch of swinging swords and random explosions. Some of the grander shots in the clip use the power of silence for maximum effect. Sweeping camera arcs of elaborate sets deserve that quiet moment of introspection, so the bold decision pays off. Conversely, the rising crescendo of music followed by the pounding of drums during the action sequences feels like exactly what is, another tired version of a played-out format. Kingdom of Heaven needs to show that it is not another Troy or, heaven forbid, King Arthur/Alexander. To date, it has failed to do that. The Ridley Scott name means something here, but if Oliver Stone is not above disaster, no one is safe. Kindgom of Heaven remains a to be determined.
5) Gunner Palace
Not all documentaries are created equal. Some have the good fortune to be the product of filmmakers' being at the right place at the right time to capture a zeitgeist previously not represented onscreen. Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein are two such fortunate souls. They have managed to take a few of the ideas that populate Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 and evolve them into an entire movie. Gunner Palace consists of footage acquired from recording U.S. troops stationed abroad. Specifically, they are stationed at the titular location, which was formerly the residence of deposed Iraqi despot Saddam Hussein. After bombing the prior denizens out of the location, the American military turned it into a safe haven for the troops. The documentarians follow the lives of several servicemen who are strangers waging war in a strange land. The footage has the early buzz of being incendiary, telling the story that the American media is (depending on one’s perspective) either too scared or not foolhardy enough to cover. Whether this project proves to be as pleasant a surprise as Moore’s or as dramatic a disappointment as Jehane Noujaim’s Control Room is unknown at this point but the trailer certainly captures the imagination. It promises a unique perspective on an engagement that profoundly affects Americans but that we can’t track on American news.
4) Fever Pitch
October 27, 2004 will hold a permanent place in the hearts of all the Boston Red Sox faithful. It was on this date that the team accomplished something that they had failed to do for 31,458 straight days. An 86 year vacuum was filled in that moment when Edgar Enteria hit a harmless ground ball to Keith Foulke. The Boston Red Sox, the living definition of perennial failure, won the World Series. But the news was not all good.
Jimmy Fallon was there.
How the Brooklyn, New York native (hey, aren't they the enemy?) came to be standing in the middle of one of the most raucous postgame celebrations in sports history is a quirk of fate. Fallon, fresh off the box office disaster Taxi, was allowed to join his more famous co-star Drew Barrymore in filming scenes for their upcoming release, Fever Pitch. In the process, an entire MLB viewing audience was shown the ending of the movie and a trivia note was added to the historic sports moment. When friends ask what talentless hack was allowed to live out the fantasy of every New England male between the ages of four and 104, the answer is of course a failed box office draw of a comedian whose natural sports affiliation involves pinstripes. Injustice, thy name is...
Now, we are given the opportunity to see the first full trailer from the production that gave us such an abomination, and the results are surprisingly positive all things considered. The clip presented does an exceptional job of encapsulating what it’s like to be a sports fan as well as what it’s like to be an outsider looking in on such compulsive madness for the first time. Sure, Barrymore and Fallon have about as much chemistry as Tom Cruise and (insert current beard’s name here), but the bit where she creates a scene in a bar shows that their comic sensibilities blend well. The Farrelly Brothers seem to be squarely back in hit mode with this one. Then again, I’m a massive sports fans who over-identifies with the Nick Horny character made famous by Colin Firth (want to see all my Braves paraphernalia or collection of Michael Vick jerseys?), so I am predisposed to like this concept despite the presence of Fallon. Your mileage may vary.
3) A Scanner Darkly
This project unquestionably has the most distinct look of any of the titles today. Utilizing a complicated technology unclearly defined as interpolated rotoscoping, the Richard Linklater production is very much a graphic novel come to life. Similar to another such title listed in this column, Sin City, the concept here is effectively implemented in a manner that merges comic book sensibilities to cinematic conventions. The two projects diverge in their subject matter. A Scanner Darkly is a science fiction story from legendary short story specialist Philip K. Dick. Its quasi-futuristic setting is predicated upon real actors, including Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder, performing on camera then transferring their efforts into a stylized look. The effect is an evolved cinematic representation of Linklater’s earlier effort, Waking Life. In fact, the existential themes from the prior work are likely to seep in here as Reeves plays a cop searching for a man whose face he happens to see in the mirror each day (well, kind of). A Scanner Darkly has the pedigree of Linklater and the mercurial brilliance of Dick championing it already, so cinema buffs are going to be all over this one anyway. The key is in ensnaring mainstream North American audiences. The clip shown here may prove off-putting to some, but I get the feeling a lot of the lurking anime and graphic novel sub-sects could make this one a surprise success. The singularly unique look should prove enticing to many. Of course, the push back to March of next year makes me wonder if the studio sees it that way.
2) The Longest Yard
Am I the only one who sees the irony in Michael Irvin appearing in a movie about a washed-up football player desperate to stay in the limelight but having his fair share of trouble with the law? I mean, Michael Irvin is the only guy in the world that Charlie Sheen can call for tutoring on stripper/hooker etiquette. We talked about the Super Bowl commercial during our last edition, and nothing has changed with the full commercial spot. Adam Sandler has picked a perfect project for his talents. It’s rife with comedic potential and, along with Bad News Bears, the best of the recent rash of re-make greenlights. Watching retired Friend Courteney Cox have a meltdown as her inebriated soon-to-be-ex wrecks her prized automobile is comedy gold. But it’s not even the funniest moment in the clip. That honor is reserved for the football in the groin, the callback to the classic ending of the original. The Longest Yard trailer also gets bonus points for appreciating the new maxim of Hollywood advertising: every movie clip looks better with Thunderstruck playing. Go back and watch how great it made Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle appear if you don’t believe me.
1) Sin City
“Walk down the right back alley in Sin City and you can find anything.” Lately, I have been immersing myself in the various titles of Frank Miller in order to have a working knowledge of the subject matter when the film is released. Since the original announcement of the artist’s union with Robert Rodriguez, I have been captivated by the expected output. I consider Rodriguez to be one of the most daring and important auteurs of this generation, and it was made clear early on that he considering this to be a defining project. That’s reason enough to pay attention, but once cast announcements came pouring in, Sin City grew to be a Who’s Who project. In fact, I expect it to be competitive in the 2005 Calvins voting for Best Cast.
Speaking of such awards, the first trailer for this project was chosen the best of 2004. That makes the latest television spot as well as the movie itself the source of high (and potentially unreasonable) expectations. Surprisingly, it matches and even exceeds such bullish assumptions. The final Sin City trailer is much more plot specific than the original commercial, as that one chose to focus upon the gritty black and white cinematic representation of the graphic novel. The latest rev focuses upon the major players from the movie who, conveniently enough, happen to be the storyline heroes/anti-heroes from the first four novels: Marv, John Hartigan and Dwight. Also making a quick appearance is Devon Aoki. The 2 Fast 2 Furious co-star (and how is that for a black mark on your resume?) portrays Miho, a character who could very well wind up being the Gogo Yubari of 2005 cinema, fitting since Quentin Tarantino directs a segment of the film. As is the case with A Scanner Darkly, Sin City might prove to be just too damn weird for mainstream audiences, but it also has a chance of reinvigorating the already tired comic book movie genre. It certainly has the look, it oozes style, and Robert Rodriguez has given it the proper amount of TLC. Color me intrigued.
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