Welcome to the Trailer Park - a monthly look at the best, worst (and maybe just weirdest) movie trailers to grace our collective bloodshot eyeballs. So sit down, turn off your phones and get your popcorn at the ready, the trailers are about to start…
1-18-08
Trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/11808/
We begin first with a movie that as yet has no official title - always helpful. This is the ‘Cloverfield/1-18-08′ film from JJ Abrams (being directed by Matt Reeves) which has been the subject of much internet speculation and debate regarding the movie’s storyline (and actual title).
Ignoring all that, we’ll look at the teaser trailer instead.
We get the Blair Witch-esque shaky-cam treatment, which apparently the whole movie will be viewed from (whether this is a good thing remains to be seen), and start at a leaving party in New York for ‘Rob’ - who is leaving for Japan it seems. Things are going well party-wise until a “thunderous” roar causes buildings to shake, car alarms to go off and so-on.
Initially it’s thought to be an earthquake, but the monstrous roar is a hint that something else is happening. The partygoers get to the roof and witness some kind of fiery explosion or attack - the monstrous roar is again heard, and more chaotic running as blazing debris begins to rain down.
After even more running, sporadic-editing and camera-dropping we are on the streets where there’s chaos and confusion, another roar, and something big that smashes a building before slamming down into the street - people scatter and look in horror as the large object turns out to be the head of the Statue of Liberty, and then the trailer ends.
As a teaser trailer it certainly does tease and the mystery - as to what the movie will ultimately be about - is kept up throughout. If it is some kind of smaller budget ‘giant monster’ movie then it’s certainly a different and modern way to introduce it.
3:10 to Yuma
Trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/lions_gate/310toyuma/
The westerns are returning en masse, and this remake of the 1957 film starring Glen Ford is the first of them. The story concerns a civil war vet and rancher (Christian Bale) who - in need of money - volunteers to escort a dangerous criminal (Russell Crowe) to the ‘3:10 to Yuma’ - a train that will transport the killer to his punishment, but things don’t go according to plan - they never do.
The remake is being directed by James Mangold, and appears to be a more traditional and grittier approach to telling a western tale.
The theatrical trailer opens with a gang of gunmen on horseback and an armed stagecoach that gets attacked by them, led by Russell Crowe’s character ‘Ben Wade’. After the gang have made off with the loot, we see Christian Bale’s character ‘Dan Evans’ arrive and view the bloody aftermath, as well as also encountering the lawmen who are hunting the criminals. Wade is captured, and Evans volunteers to be part of the posse that will escort him.
We also see Evan’s wife concerned about her husband’s welfare, and their son wanting to be part of the posse. The trouble begins as Evan’s son turns up against his father’s wishes, and the realisation that Wade’s gang is not that far behind, and a battle of wills begins between Wade and Evans.
The trailer sets everything up quite efficiently and also follows the film’s storyline very closely. The film looks promising based on this trailer, with a no-nonsense approach to both the direction and the portrayal of characters.
Rendition
Trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/newline/rendition/
This film (not to be confused with the similar UK film Extraordinary Rendition) revolves around the controversial CIA practice of ‘rendition’ - which in the briefest and basic of explanations is the extrajudicial transfer of a person from one state to another, usually to bypass laws such as Human Rights, for example. This particular film stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Reese Witherspoon and Meryl Streep, and is directed by Gavin Hood.
The trailer begins with an Egyptian-born engineer ‘Anwar El-Ibrahim’ (Omar Metwally) calling his American wife ‘Isabella El-Ibrahim’ (Reese Witherspoon) from South Africa, before he boards a flight back home to Washington. He never makes it home and is abducted and taken outside the U.S. to somewhere in the Middle-East.
A CIA analyst ‘Douglas Freeman’ (Gyllenhaal) is given his first assignment - to attend the secret detention facility and to observe and eventually be forced to participate in the engineer’s interrogation - an assignment that the analyst begins to question. During all this, the engineer’s wife is desperately trying to find out what has happened to her husband, leading her to the higher echelons of the CIA.
Because of the political and controversial nature of the film’s story, the trailer could easily have been a ham-fisted and Oscar-baiting affair, but instead it is an intelligent and straightforward overview of the film’s story and actually makes you want to watch the film, despite the uncomfortable themes the film will present.
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
Trailer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/disney/nationaltreasurebookofsecrets/
A sequel to the Indiana Jones-esque ‘National Treasure’ - this second movie once again features Nicolas Cage as treasure hunter ‘Ben Gates’ (hunting more treasure no doubt) and this time on a personal crusade to clear his great-great grandfather, who is implicated as a key conspirator in Abraham Lincoln’s death when a missing page from John Wilkes Booth’s diary turns up. It could happen.
The trailer we’ll look at is ‘trailer 2′, which begins with the inevitable shots of Egyptian treasure, pirate gold and spooky tunnels - even more inevitable is that slightly-gravelly voice-over that introduces everything, which feels like you’re being talked down to. The missing half-burnt page appears, the memory of Gate’s ‘Great Grandaddy’ is besmirched, and so the mission begins. We get the Mission: Impossible moments: gadgets, furtive glances, hidden clues and then the smiling nodding shots of Nicolas Cage as the voice-over continues to spoon-feed us the details.
‘The Book of Secrets’ - a book only the President is allowed access to - holds the key to clearing up the mess, not to mention every other ’secret’ from the JFK assassination to (you guessed it) Area 51. Obviously.
I enjoy adventure movies, I really do, but this is the kind of movie that gets labelled a ‘popcorn movie’ in order to bypass the lack of originality, and a trailer as by-the-numbers as this doesn’t help matters.
Mo Ali was born in a haunted hospital and has exceeded all expectations and kept breathing.
A digital artist, poet and writer, he needs to find some paid work before the inevitable apocalypse. To make matters worse he lives in Berkshire.