Box Office Prophets: Trailer Hitch for May 30, 2003

Trailer Hitch for May 30, 2003

By Zach Kolkin

Outstanding in their field

10. The Way Home

Sure, everyone likes a feel-good family film, but is it really as enjoyable when the fact that it is a feel-good movie is shoved in your face every two seconds? The Way Home is a Korean film that, according to this trailer, will undoubtedly have you feeling all warm and fuzzy inside over and over again. The fact that this is a small-budget film is harped on time and time again, as is the fact that if you don't love this movie, you must be dead. While I'm sure that this is a great movie that is very enjoyable, this ad, with its hammered-upon emotional reactions, insults my intelligence.

9. Jeepers Creepers 2

Unlike some other horror films, the trailer for Jeepers Creepers 2 decides to come right out and show its bad guy. This is an interesting choice, as often I find that leaving the viewer to imagine for him or herself just how terrible this creature is can create quite a bit of suspense. However, this movie is a sequel, so obviously there isn't quite as much mystery surrounding the killer. The trailer does do a good job of building up suspense in other ways, though, particularly in the case of the destruction of the bus tire. Nevertheless, I think this could have been even more effective if we didn't see the monstrous villain in the act of destroying the tire, and were instead left to wonder just how it happened. For me, implied and unseen horror is much scarier than that which is onscreen.

8. Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life

The latest trailer for this sequel is quite similar to the original, in that it is simply a fast-paced compilation of action sequences set to techno music. There is a little bit of plot description (Lara Croft is trying to save the world from bad people by getting to some very powerful thing before they do), but obviously the main attraction here (besides Angelina Jolie's figure, of course) is the action. It certainly seems as though this second Lara Croft movie is simply more of the same, though that formula did work well the first time around. While this is a decent trailer, it doesn't hold a candle to the previews we have seen for the other big action chick-flick of the summer, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. Whereas that film looks like a slick, fun action flick, this movie appears far more average.

7. 28 Days Later

Let me start by saying that I really, really like the opening to this trailer. The little montage of events during the twenty-eight day epidemic is very cool, and quite effective at setting the mood for the film. However, I am a little skeptical about the fact that this film is being advertised as "Danny Boyle Reinvents Zombie Horror." I think the premise of the film is quite interesting in terms of it taking place immediately after a terrible plague, but this ad almost makes it seem as though that is merely a set-up for your typical scary movie. Hopefully, there is more to this film than simply scary-looking zombies, but nonetheless, this preview certainly caught my eye.

6. Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat

This short teaser for the new film based on the classic Dr. Seuss tale starring Mike Myers gives us our first glimpse of the title character. The style of The Cat in the Hat appears quite similar to the way The Grinch was done when Jim Carrey played him in that film several years ago. Obviously, the main attraction here is seeing this classic literary character brought to life, but I was rather unimpressed with the jokes used here. Granted, this is simply a short ad, and we most likely will see a full-length preview soon, but hopefully that spot will feature some better humor. It's also hard to tell at this point whether or not Myers is a good fit for the title role. However the full-length trailer turns out, though, I'm sure it will garner quite a lot of attention from children everywhere.

5. Mondays in the Sun

The trailer for this Spanish film relies on upbeat Latin background music and trumpeting the film's many awards to sell it. There is hardly any plot description, which is unfortunate since I felt like it would have helped attract me to the film if I knew a little more of what it was about. Nevertheless, the movie does look quite interesting.. I particularly liked the instrumental background music, and I felt it added a great deal to the movie's appeal. I would certainly like to find out more about the film, and though I wish I had learned more from the trailer itself, it certainly did do its job of intriguing me.

4. Love the Hard Way

This interesting-looking film, starring everyone's favorite Oscar winner, Adrien Brody, is the story of a romance that develops between a female grad student and a young, sleazy con man. Brody looks very good in his role, and he seems to have great chemistry with his love interest, played by the relatively unknown Charlotte Ayanna. It will be interesting to see how people react to this film, seeing as it is such a different role for Brody than his star-making turn in The Pianist. I would imagine that the film will gain a lot more attention than it might have was it not the first film for Brody after winning his Oscar. If the film is very good, as it looks to have the potential to be, it will only help Brody on his ascension to Hollywood stardom.

3. Whale Rider

Although I had not heard of the film until seeing this trailer, Whale Rider looks like an excellent family film (a rare entity these days). The story is apparently about an island culture whose tradition is to pick its chiefs through an intense competition between the young boys of the tribe. However, when a girl tries to enter this competition, it obviously causes a great deal of controversy. Although such a story obviously has the potential to make an overly saccharine movie, the preview does not appear that way at all. Instead, I was struck by how good the performances of the children seemed to be, and also by how there was no mention of this being a "heartwarming tale" or any similar language (looking in your direction, The Way Home). This is certainly a small film to watch for.

2. Marooned in Iraq

While this is probably not the best time to release a film by an Iranian celebrating Iraqi culture, here it is nevertheless. It is unfortunate that this film will probably be passed over so quickly by many moviegoers, as it looks to provide a fascinating glimpse into a world about which so little is known here in the United States. The trailer relies exclusively on voiceover, as the film itself is in Farsi. Ethnic music is used well in the background here. This certainly looks like an extremely interesting movie, showing a land which has become so familiar to us over the past months from a very different and potentially extremely enlightening perspective.

1. Capturing the Friedmans

This is a fascinating look at a documentary based on the sensational case in the late 1980s about a well-to-do Long Island family and the scandal that erupted when the father and one of his three sons were charged with many crimes of sexual misconduct. The documentary features a lot of home video footage of the family, which obviously promises to be an extremely compelling perspective on this story. As for the trailer itself, I appreciated the way the fact that the film won an award at Sundance was shown, but not hammered home. I also liked that the ad lets the footage speak for itself, much as one would hope the entire film does. This is absolutely a documentary to watch for, as it has the potential to provide a captivating and never-before-seen look at this astounding story.