Box Office Prophets: Trailer Hitch for March 4, 2003

Trailer Hitch for March 4, 2003

By Zach Kolkin

Why is it always the one with the wire?

6. Bulletproof Monk

Would this movie make up its damn mind?? The first trailer wavered between being an action-comedy and a straight-out martial arts flick, and that was bad enough. This trailer decides to bring "Matrix Rip-Off" into the list of possible genres for the film. I'm pretty sure the lines in this preview about "not letting the laws of gravity exist" were taken directly from The Matrix. Seann William Scott, though, manages to do the unthinkable in taking over Keanu Reeves' lines- he actually makes Reeves look smart. As if one blatant knock-off wasn't enough, we have some bullet-dodging, a guy jumping out of the way of a subway at the last second, and a helicopter chase sequence thrown in for good measure. I really have no idea what to expect from this film, since it appears to be trying to be so many different things at once, but whatever it is, it doesn't seem like it will be very good.

5. Rugrats Go Wild

The successful Rugrats franchise gets some new life breathed into it with this crossover story featuring the characters from both Rugrats and The Wild Thornberrys. Bruce Willis adds some star power to the flick as well, playing the voice of the family dog. Whether or not Willis' name will mean anything to a bunch of little kids remains to be seen, but apparently the folks at Nickelodeon feel strongly enough about it to make it one of the emphasized points of the spot. The combination of these two successful cartoon franchises should provide kids with a lot of excitement this summer; the jury's still out on whether parents will feel the same way.

4. Stevie

This new documentary from Steve James, the maker of Hoop Dreams, is the story of a man with a troubled childhood (also named Stephen) whom James once mentored. The film looked quite interesting, and appears to deal with a topic that is deeply personal and emotional to James quite poignantly and elegantly. The story does appear rather bittersweet, even more so since it is a work of nonfiction, but nevertheless it looks quite fascinating. James proved that he is an excellent filmmaker with Hoop Dreams, and hopefully he can continue his absorbing documentary work here with Stevie.

3. The Guests

One thing I can never get over about Ashton Kutcher is the fact that he looks like such a woman - the rosy cheeks and big lips always make him look just as feminine as whoever his love interest is in the film. In any case, Kutcher continues his string of goofy comedies with this amusing-looking movie which also stars Tara Reid. In an attempt at getting to his boss's gorgeous daughter, Kutcher unwittingly agrees to housesit his boss's mansion for one night. Things don't go as planned, of course, and the house ends up getting completely wrecked. Obviously, there isn't much to this film, but it does look like it could be quite funny. The spot is good, with a bunch of amusing scenes, but it's missing that "money shot" that the trailers of so many of the successful comedies of the past few years have relied on. If the film eventually gets a second trailer, I think it would do very well to find one hysterical gag and use that as its key selling point.

2. Spun

This is one of the most unique ads I have seen in quite some time. The spot is a send-up of those ubiquitous cooking shows, except this time the meal of the day is ephedrine dope. There's not a single second of footage from the actual film here; this cooking show clip is all there is. However, the viewer still gets quite a good sense that this is going to be a quirky dark comedy centering around drug use. Such an atypical teaser might hurt more mainstream films, but for the target audience of this film, I think it works perfectly. This is an excellent piece of marketing that could definitely help spread the buzz of this movie.

1. X2

The newest trailer for one of the summer's biggest blockbusters improves greatly on the first trailer, which I reviewed back in December. It gives us a good basic understanding of the plotline, and spends most of the time focusing on what we all really want to see - the badass superheroes. I like that each one of the character's names appears on screen. I think this will allow more casual fans to really get into the movie, as those already well- acquainted with the X-Men universe have. In short, X2 seems to have all the makings of a fantastic blockbuster sequel - the return of everyone's favorite characters from the first film, the addition of some new characters to keep things fresh, and a storyline that seems to showcase each one of the X-Men's ass-kicking abilities a little bit better than in the first movie. I personally think this sequel has the potential to be a much better and more enjoyable flick than the first film.