Box Office Prophets: Trailer Hitch for November 6, 2002

Zach Kolkin's Trailer Hitch for November 6th

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This week was a fairly quiet one on the online trailer circuit, but fortunately all the previews were actually quite good. The beginning of November marks the start of the holiday movie season, and with that inevitably comes a bunch of trailers for the hotly-anticipated films from next spring and summer. For example, last week we saw the first teaser for next summer's big Charlie's Angels sequel, and this week the first promo for Pixar's latest, Finding Nemo, appeared online. Keep checking back with the Trailer Hitch in the coming weeks to see what else appears.

7. Ararat

Acclaimed writer and director Atom Egoyan's latest is previewed here, and the results are intriguing. The movie is actually a film within a film, as the making of a historical epic about the Armenian holocaust of the 1920s is chronicled from the eyes of a young man working on the production. From the trailer, it would appear that this will be quite an emotionally intense movie, understandable considering that Egoyan is himself an Armenian, and thus the story is deeply personal to him. The promo is scored excellently, a near-requisite feature for spots for dramatic movies (see El Crimen del Padre Amaro and The Pianist for recent examples). However, the plot remains something of a mystery from simply viewing the trailer. Although I certainly hate to see the entire movie given away in 90 seconds, perhaps a little more information would have been nice, as the historical basis for the story is not particularly well-known to the general public.

6. Max

One of the most fascinating theories about the origins of Hitler's hatred for the Jewish religion is that it stemmed from Hitler's dislike of a Jewish teacher he had growing up. This film builds on that theory, and features John Cusack as a Jewish art teacher who has a relationship with a young artist named Adolph Hitler. This is obviously a sensitive subject for many people, but I was impressed with the way the trailer handled it. The movie seems to be just as interested in the relationship between art and politics and the potent combination they make as it is in the origins of Hitler's prejudices. The trailer did not really show too much of Noah Taylor, who plays the young Hitler, and I would have liked to see a little bit more of him; surely it will be his performance that makes or breaks this movie. Either way, judging from the preview, this is certainly a movie to keep your eye on.

5. Shanghai Knights

A new trailer for Shanghai Knights was released this week, and the differences between it and the previous one (other than the change in release date) are slight. The scenes are presented in a different order, but really the only major difference I noticed was that the romance between Owen Wilson's character and Jackie Chan's sister was pushed more. Obviously, the promo isn't intended to do much more than make the viewer laugh at the goofiness of the whole thing, and on that level, it works. The jokes are pretty funny (who doesn't love a little England-bashing every now and then?), and I think the "This country blows" line right as it begins to rain is much more effective at the end of the preview as it is here, rather than somewhere in the middle as before. I'm sure this one will get some good chuckles from audiences, but the trailer doesn't really convey anything more than a straightforward action-comedy.

4. Intacto

This is a very interesting look at a movie which up until now I had not heard much about. The premise seems to be a secret game of some sort that can only be played by those that are unnaturally lucky. The ambiguity of the whole thing actually helped the trailer's cause, in my opinion; I was left slightly confused, but in an intrigued kind of way. For a movie advertising itself as an official selection of the Cannes, Toronto, and Sundance film festivals, though, I was a little puzzled by the brainless action movie-esque tagline: "Now...all bets are on". Perhaps this was just an attempt to have the movie appeal to a wider audience and at the same time plug the film's quality, but I'm not sure. I'll be interested to see some reviews of Intacto and see if it is indeed as intriguing as it looks.

3. Dark Blue

Lots of people complain that too many of the movies made in Hollywood nowadays are just the same recycled plotlines over and over again. Unfortunately, this film isn't going to change their minds much. Dark Blue is based on a script by James Ellroy (who also wrote the novel LA Confidential), which was then reworked by David Ayer, who also wrote the screenplay to Training Day. Due to this film coming out over a year after Training Day, however, it is inevitable that people will pass this off as a Training Day knockoff. Because of its pedigree, though, this is probably not the case. In any event, the producers (in my opinion) wisely chose not to advertise the screenwriting link between the two films here. I was surprised nevertheless that Ellroy or LA Confidential was not mentioned at all; I think this might have helped the movie stand out a little bit. Besides the obvious similarities to Training Day, though, the movie does look quite good. Russell seems to fit well into his role as the cowboy cop who doesn't think he should have to answer to anybody, and Ving Rhames also looks good as the whistleblower. This really looks like it could be a very good movie, and it will be unfortunate if it gets bogged down in Training Day comparisons.

2. Hero

Hero is the newest movie from Hong Kong to make its way across the Pacific with a great deal of anticipation preceding it. The trailer will certainly not let anyone down. From the looks of it, the film will be quite an epic, telling the intricate tale of a king who wanted to become emperor of all of China and the assassins who tried to stop him. The cast is top-notch, starring some of the biggest names in Hong Kong cinema, including some who have made the leap to Hollywood (Jet Li, Zhang Ziyi). To top it all off, the promo features some spectacular-looking martial arts sequences. Inevitably, this film will get compared to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but I really didn't get the sense that the two were that similar from the preview. While CTHD was much more of an intimate, personal tale, Hero seems to be on a far grander scale. It would have been nice to have had subtitles for the dialogue, but it was not necessary to get a good sense of the movie. I'm sure this trailer will definitely get a lot of people interested in the film.

1. Finding Nemo

Pixar makes the jump to summer for their next film, the underwater adventure Finding Nemo. First things first; the movie looks absolutely gorgeous. The underwater landscapes are spectacular and the creatures themselves look delightful. The plot seems simple enough; a father fish loses his son and has to find him again. Of course, the real story will lie in the adventures that happen along the way. It would have been nice to see a little more of what I'm sure is a huge cast of characters, but we at least got glimpses of several of them. I was pleasantly surprised to hear Ellen DeGeneres with lines that weren't annoying and even slightly funny; this looks like it could be a very good role for her. Honestly, though, this trailer really didn't need to do much beyond say "From the creators of Toy Story and Monsters Inc" to get most people excited. The rest is just ridiculously good-looking gravy.