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Welcome to Trailer Hitch, BOP's look at the latest movie trailers to hit the Internet. This week: Brendan Fraser does something besides a kid/adventure flick, Nic Cage ruins another big-budget action film, romance abounds, and Angelina Jolie looks hot.

Extraordinary Measures – Opens January 22, 2010

The first film to go into production from CBS Films, Extraordinary Measures stars Brendan Fraser as a father of three who gives up his high-paying corporate gig to buddy up with a brilliant, yet unconventional scientist (Harrison Ford) to develop a drug to save his two youngest children from a fatal disease. Keri Russell rounds out the cast as Fraser's wifey.

The plot sounds a bit too good to be true, but it's actually based on a true story contained in Geeta Anand's Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Cure. I wasn't aware of this little nugget before watching the trailer the first time, and as such, cast most of the preview off as slightly implausible. (It even tells you it's inspired by a true story about midway through; I admittedly must have been out to lunch). I'm not certain which parts of the story have been fictionalized, but knowing Extraordinary Measures' source material is derived from fact ushers in a surplus of warmth to the project, and a deeper respect for the trailer moments that are supposed to be read as moving.

I'm not typically a huge fan of Brendan Fraser, yet his role here as a determined father who risks the ability to provide for his family to keep loved ones alive works for me here - how could it not?! - as does Harrison Ford as his brainy scientist colleague. The first half of the trailer feels too setup and stage-y, but the second half really gels. (Eric Hughes/BOP)

Grade: B-

Season of the Witch – Opens March 19, 2010
Ron Perlman? He's bad ass. Not only does he have "the look," but his credits – Hellboy, Hellboy II, FX's Sons of Anarchy – back it up as well. Now, Nic Cage? No. Just, no. Why the Hollywood suits insist on putting him at the helm of saving us from all damnation – National Treasure, Ghost Rider and Knowing, just to name a few – I'll just never, ever understand. I, Eric Hughes, have given up.

Of course, I'm aware of the fact that I tend to hate on Nic Cage a lot, and obviously I'm OK with it. When he's dubbed the hero of a big budget blockbuster, I cringe because he's an awkward fellow who in my opinion shouldn't ever work on anything beyond your average melodrama. The Weather Man? I enjoyed it. Adaptation? Nic Cage was lovely in Adaptation. Teaming up with bad ass Ron Perlman in a 14th century period piece to eradicate his homeland of a witch believed to have caused the Black Plague? Now who's on board with that?

Season of the Witch, not to be confused with George Romero's 1973 film or Halloween's second sequel released in 1982, looks OK at best. But the unfortunate surprise of Nicolas' mug about halfway through really did me in. (Clearly). (Eric Hughes/BOP)

Grade: D

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