Trailer Hitch
By BOP Staff
March 31, 2010
BoxOfficeProphets.com
The Sorcerer's Apprentice – Opens July 16th
David Mumpower: First of all, Jay Baruchel's agent deserves a tremendous amount of credit for getting him the lead role in three different movies. For a guy whose only show was canceled after one season all the way back in 2002 and who is mainly known for one joke in Knocked Up ("I shouldn't have gone in there."), this is one minor and two major film roles in a short period of time. We're in the age of the nerd and Michael Cera can only be in so many movies at once. Guys like Jesse Eisenberg and Baruchel are getting to fill his slack. Of course, as a fan of Baruchel, I'm okay with this. I simply have a hard time explaining it. Judd Apatow takes great care of his kids, I guess. In terms of how this movie looks, let's be honest that this is a different variation of Wanted. The slick visuals are the selling point, independent of how anyone feels about Nic Cage being given the keys to Disney's classic, Fantasia. And the visuals are phenomenal. Other than that, the main thing I take from this is that Cage has graduated from his role as the nerd in The Rock into Sean Connery's role as the grizzled veteran who provides tutelage. Somehow, I'm not expecting the same thing to happen to Baruchel in 2024.
Josh Spiegel: I saw this preview yesterday, attached to Hot Tub Time Machine, and I've gone past being annoyed that Disney has now moved past making movies from theme park rides to making movies based on segments in other movies, to just plain baffled.
Cage looks like he's going to try some variation of insane here, and Baruchel seems appropriate for the role, but....no. I just don't see this movie being anything near the success of, say, the first Pirates of the Caribbean. The movie looks similar to National Treasure (big surprise, as it's the same production team), and those movies are just snooze-worthy to me.
Also, it's worth pointing out that, even though he plays the nerdy character in The Rock, Nicolas Cage is not and has never been a believable nerd. Jay Baruchel will always be that.
David Mumpower: Josh, I completely disagree on Cage. He's one of the ugliest, goofiest looking guys I've ever seen. If he's not a nerd, I don't know what one looks like.
Michael Lynderey: Kind of a question mark, this one. Could do $100 million. Clearly it was positioned to do so by the studio, but this type of movie has a habit of going under that, especially if it doesn't have a couple of fail safes - a really big star, some incredible special effects, name recognition, etc. - to keep it from disappointing. This one doesn't have those fail safes.
July in general has a few of these weird special effects movies that really inspire the "will they or won't they" (make $100 million) question in me - Predators, Salt, Last Airbender. None of them look as commercial as your typical summer $50 million opener / $130 million totaler. I mean, I guess Last Airbender has some rabid fanbase somewhere just ready to storm the theaters, but those other three...
As for Jay Baruchel, I think he said somewhere he wants to quit acting (it wasn't quite a Shermanesque statement, though). He filmed She's Out of My League in early 2008, a role he is perfectly suited to. I usually don't consider voice acting to be a lead role, but yes, the Sorcerer film is a big role, at least in theory. But I guess they wanted a Michael Cera type, rather than one of those muscle-bound Australian imports like Sam Worthington or Liam Hemsworth (or anyone else from Australia named Hemsworth, for that matter).
I don't think the nerd thing is new at all, by the way. It's a proud old movie tradition - well, you mostly see it in teen movies - and it goes back to John Hughes at the least. That was another guy who took care of his kids, as David said.
Max Braden: The first trailer made me think of elements from a number of other movies, mostly positive: the fantasy fun of Big Trouble in Little China, the buddy comedy fun of The Adventures of Remo Williams, the special effects coolness of Jumper (without the downsides of the rest of that movie), the villainous counterparts of Spider-Man, and the magical fun of what Harry Potter would have been if he'd started after the age of Hogwarts. I especially like the way the kicking music sets the tone for the trailer. It's an obvious tent-pole movie, but the target audience does feel a little narrow to me. It skews a bit older than Harry Potter but younger than most of Bruckheimer's other movies. The love interest feels thrown in as a token grab for female audiences (is that Kristen Stewart? most people will ask). The downside is that any mention of The Vampire's Assistant (total gross: under $14 million) in the same breath will poison the box office well. I also think that Baruchel's name is irrelevant to the movie's performance. Shia LaBeouf could have been cast in the same role and probably pulled in more money, but I don't think Baruchel, unfamiliar to most audiences, is going to hurt the movie at all. This is mostly about the magic and Nicolas Cage.
Jim Van Nest: This is the first I've seen the trailer and I kinda like it. I'll mention right here that I really dug the National Treasure films so maybe it's no surprise that I like the look of this one.
My concern about it is calling it The Sorcerer's Apprentice. Letting everyone know that it's a live action version of one piece of their all-time classics seems not smart. It almost seems like they may have been better off changing the title and having some audience members say, "whoa, that seems a little like Sorcerer's Apprentice". Actually calling it that sets expectations that, in my opinion, will not be met, no matter how good the film is.
In a nutshell, I think it looks pretty cool but I think the public opinion will be more like "you don't screw with Mickey Mouse."
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World – Opens August 13th
David Mumpower: I very much enjoy the subverting of expectations at the start of the trailer. It makes the film look like a generic love story, although the lead actress' hair is a dead giveaway that this isn't a Nicholas Sparks-flavored film. Then, the Scott Pilgrim kinetic action triggers and the viewer recognizes this is a most unusual title. In point of fact, I think that Bryan Lee O'Malley's videogame elements and their incorporation within the story can create a small scale revolution in cinema if Scott Pilgrim succeeds. I have no idea if that is going to happen or not as I must allow for the possibility that this looks too weird for most people. I'm hopeful that it is given a chance, though. As most of you know, I am a huge fan of these books and I firmly believe that it is a series of great ideas executed cleverly. The "Gets It" bit in the trailer is the embodiment of much of the zaniness from O'Malley's works. I'd be curious to hear what those of you who haven't read them think of this. I know that it's a lot more...hectic than most trailers.
Josh Spiegel: It's hard not to be excited for Edgar Wright's newest movie; that it's Scott Pilgrim just makes things more awesome. The majority of the cast seems appropriate based on the graphic novels, and the action looks like a lot of fun.
But (and I can't believe I'm saying this), I'm not sold on Michael Cera. He's probably the only age-appropriate actor to play the character, but his nerdy awkwardness, so well played on Arrested Development, has gotten to the point where I'm a bit creeped out that, hair aside, he appears to have not aged since 2003.
Still, a minor quibble, and I'm still stoked for this one.
Reagen Sulewski: I'm not sure that there's a trailer that's ever tried harder to appeal to its core audience as this one, or has been as filled with insider references. But hey, the first step is making sure that the nerds are on-board, though I have to think it's pretty incomprehensible to the uninitiated. It definitely captures the "what the hell is going on" feel of reading the books. I do enjoy that it kind of starts off as looking like the sequel to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Max Braden: For a split second this trailer starts off well. Cute girl in pink hair, awkward guy, walking in the snow - it's Eternal Sunshine of the Teenager Mind! But then they go all comic booky? I don't like that at all. It would have been much better if they'd grounded it in reality, but then I guess it would have just been Nick & Norah's 2, and that kind of box office isn't that appealing. So this is My Super-Ex Girlfriend for teenagers. Fine, I'll see it, but it's going to have to win me over. (I know nothing of the source material.) Also, something about the way Anna Kendrick's hair frames her teeth makes her look like a chipmunk.
Michael Lynderey: So, Michael Cera and his gee-tar again.
As for the trailer - wow, just wow. I didn't know the title was so literal.
Really, this film is interesting to me in that it may be Cera's last chance for a while to test his mettle as a leading man. He doesn't have any other projects lined up yet (aside from that alleged Arrested Development movie). On the plus side, my faith in Cera was greatly restored after seeing Youth in Revolt. On the minus, this trailer and film are probably going to turn off a lot of people, so even if it's good, it might get lost in the late August shuffle.