Movie trailers: S/D

Destroy: 21 Grams, for that pompous "weight of the soul" speech.

I was doing a bit of trailer watching yesterday, in fact. Apart from Apple, there's also EZ-Entertainment and The Movie Box

Search: Spiderman 2, obv. Comedian seconded.

I enjoyed watching the trailer for The Big Bounce, but that's purely because it has a lot of Owen Wilson in it. They would have to try hard to make it look bad. Similarly I suspect the new Harry Potter movie would have been difficult to make a poor trailer for.

Destroy: The ET clip for Twisted, Ashley Judd's new thriller, which had me thinking of Adaptation's "The Three" all the way through. Also the trailer for Miracle, but that's a case where it's probably quite attractive to people who might ever have considered seeing it.

Van Helsing: Hugh Jackman is a man's man! If it moves, he'll kill it! Starring Dracula, The Wolfman _and_ Frankenstein! Followed by a trailer for Hugh Jackman beats up God. (PS I will so see this film)

Jersey Girl: I am pleased by the existence of this film, as I was worried that circumstances might cause me to see the next Ben Affleck movie, ditto Liv Tyler, and now they're contained in a film that wild horses with switchblades couldn't impel me to watch.

Ella Enchanted: Oh god oh god oh god. I am a foolish optimist (I believed the South Park trailer would be the end of Carmina Burana), and I thought Shrek was a fine film, easier to admire than love perhaps, but I enjoyed the reference-full fantasy land, and hoped a better film might be made there. Instead they've made an example of the strangest trend in teenage romantic comedies: the American in England (see The Princess Diaries, What a Girl Wants), where a sassy yank messes up the world of prissy British and teaches them how to have fun (and learns a thing or two about life). It's particularly strange here, where the heroine (from The Princess Diaries) is the only person in the film with an US accent. As always, very referential films are very hard to get the right "balance" on, and the trailer appears to have no idea what the word means.

Girl Next Door: I'm a sucker for a well-soundtracked trailer (points to I Spy and Lost in Translation for using Elvis Costello and, er, Elvis Costello) and the bookending of this "young man meets neighbour girl, falls for her, turns out she's a porn star" with Under Pressure/The Who causes me to think that someone involved has at least one idea. The trailer itself, though indicative of a sharp film, seems a little creepy: the protagonist looks mid-college, but the fact that he still lives with his parents together with his resemblance to Fred Savage takes a few ears off percieved age, leaving it the in the skeevy range.

Gotta love Norman Mailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCXbtYm3HDc

So I was watching the trailer for 'speed' yesterday and there's one of those corny trailer VO guys giving the narration. ("Jack Traven is a cop...who has to stop a terrorist...who can strike anywhere" or whatever). At what point did trailers cease using any VO whatsoever? Pretty sure the two most recognizable VO guys passed away but that's obviously not the reason. I can't remember the last time it was used.

They generally make me want to put a gun to my head these days, but I liked all four that I saw before Raging Bulltonight: 1) a50th anniversary restoration of The Wicker Man (looked like it was getting a limited release); 2) Past Lives--normally not my kind of thing, but I recognized Greta Lee from The Morning Show (still haven't seen the second season of Russian Doll), it had "Stay" (couldn't tell if it was Rihanna or a cover), and it was good enough that I want to see it; 3) Squaring the Circle, Anton Corbijn's Hipgnosis documentary; 4) a good one (probably homemade) for an upcoming screening of 2002.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDKHWRbK2_Q

(xpost) Uh, 2001.

For no particular reason, I dislike this new standard of having a 5-10 second "pre-trailer" before a trailer on YouTube.

I've probably mentioned this before: what I hate just as much as exceedingly loud and busy trailers are this new things where they have the cast and director earnestly discuss the film, often expressing the deeper meaning of some inane superhero film.

"thing"

really excruciating to watch '80s and '90s trailers with the VO these days.

goddamn that a serious man trailer is amazing

i remember it actually, & the movie lived/lives up to it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmHyOhOV_ng

Artfully skipping all the talked-about scenes