Zach Kolkin's Trailer Hitch
For November 20th
The trailers reviewed this week were primarily first looks at films
opening next spring and early summer. There was an above-average number of kid's
and family films previewed, perhaps because of the large amount of families
that go to the movies together around the holidays. In any case, several of
these new movies made fairly strong debuts as trailers, and you'll certainly
want to keep some of these films in mind as ones to watch for as we head towards
the new year.
Here's a romantic comedy (and I use the term "comedy" loosely) about two young people who promptly fall in love after first meeting each other and are
soon married. However, once they're on their honeymoon, everything seems to go wrong. Sounds like a pretty decent plot, right? I thought so. I could
even deal with the fact that the two met when she got hit in the head with a
football he had thrown. It was a little sophomoric, but fun nonetheless. The second time someone in the got hit in the head, shoved, or otherwise
comically injured, though, I thought it was a bit odd. The third time it happened, I thought it was overkill. By the fourth time, I was ready to shoot myself. Really, the only thing I was able to discern from the preview was that
these two ridiculously horny newlyweds have extremely bad luck and inevitably break something whenever they try to have sex. This is truly an awful trailer, without a single funny line, and I'm actually surprised that the producers couldn't find -some- other joke (I'm going to be nice and pretend I didn't
even hear that "Call me Pussy" line) to put in here. This movie might have had some potential to be a cute, funny romantic comedy, but judging from
this trailer, I think any chance of that is completely gone.
I've never really been a fan of the Pinocchio story, nor was I as enchanted with Roberto Benigni as the rest of the world seemed to be after the release of Life is Beautiful. Therefore, you can imagine my sentiment upon viewing this promo. First of all, is it just me, or is the idea of a 50-year-old man playing a little boy slightly disturbing? Secondly, the trailer seems to be very intent on pushing the whole notion of "Remember what a great guy you thought Roberto Benigni was a couple years ago? Well here he is again, only this time we put him in an overly sugar-coated role to make him seem even more adorable!" This angle doesn't make too much sense to me, since this is a children's film, and obviously little kids have no clue who Roberto Benigni is in the first place. It takes a really special story to make a film aimed at a young audience appeal to all ages, and the story of Pinocchio is one that has been done many times before.
Disney's recent bevy of new sequels to animated classics gets another addition here with a sequel to The Jungle Book. I'm not very fond of all these new sequels, and this one seems no exception. There really wasn't much mention of any story, and instead the trailer just showed us all the old characters with all the old songs. When there was a short bit of one of the new songs played, it paled in comparison to the original classics. Although Disney did get some bigger-name voices for this film (Haley Joel Osment and John Goodman), their presence alone obviously will not make this a worthy successor to the original classic. I'm sure kids will be quite excited to see all their favorite characters in the new movie, but I'm afraid the rest of us will just have to grin and bear it (no pun intended), and hope that Disney comes up with a few more original ideas.
Frankie Muniz (of Malcom in the Middle fame) stars in this new movie, which might as well have been entitled "The Spy Kids Hit Puberty". The storyline is simple enough; Muniz plays a kid recruited to join the CIA who unfortunately doesn't have the super-suave spy personality down yet. I was actually quite amused by the trailer, which was a lot funnier than I was expecting. I think the producers did a good job of trying to appeal to more than one age group with the spot; the kids who have gotten a few years older since the first Spy Kids was released will obviously be interested, but I think older audiences who can look at puberty with a sense of humor, rather than horror, might also appreciate the jokes here. This is a strong start for the movie's marketing; if it continues in this way through the winter, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people end up very interested in this film.
As long as there have been James Bond movies, there have been James Bond movie parodies. The most recent and most successful of these, obviously, is the Austin Powers franchise. However, the Austin Powers movies have developed a life of their own, spending much more energy spoofing pop culture and themselves, instead of the original subject of James Bond. Enter Johnny English. This film stars Rowan Atkinson (the perfect anti-Bond, in my opinion) in an obvious parody of James Bond. I was quite amused by the promo, and I got the feeling that this movie would stay more true to parodying the intended subject, rather than becoming a pop-culture giant like Austin
Powers. It will be interesting to see if audiences see Atkinson as a cheap knock-off of Mike Myers, or recognize the film as something slightly different. I think a lot of this reaction will depend on the quality of the full-length trailer, which I'm sure we will be seeing in the near future.
The phenomenon is well-documented at this point: for every big smash hit
Eddie Murphy is in (The Nutty Professor, Shrek, Dr. Doolittle), there are at least two abysmal flops (Holy Man, Pluto Nash, Showtime, I Spy). For his next role, Murphy returns to a more tried-and-true genre, that of the man-in-a-woman's-place comedy. I went into this trailer expecting the worst, but I was pleasantly surprised. Obviously there was nothing too original here, but it was funny nevertheless. I was particularly amused by the whole "I missed" bit. This is a strong start for the film's ad campaign, and hopefully the ads will show a bit more consistency than those for, say, I Spy.
As predicted in last week's column, a new trailer was released this week
for the upcoming film Solaris. This one gives the movie a different tone, focusing much more on the romantic aspect of the film. The premise is stated much more clearly in this preview- George Clooney's wife has died, and when he goes up to a space station, he finds her there apparently alive and well. I like that the producers were able to be slightly more straightforward with the storyline, while still retaining the air of mystery from the first preview.
It was also interesting to me that the movie is not advertised at all as the blockbuster sci-fi movie some were expecting, considering the names attached to the picture. This would have perhaps led to some very bewildered reactions from audiences, and I think it makes sense to let people know what they're getting into before they go and see the movie.
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