Trailer Hitch

By BOP Staff

April 13, 2011

Did you just call me a &@#!!*%!!?

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Edwin Davies: This trailer has done what I had thought nigh-impossible: it had made me interested in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise again. The series lost me about half an hour into the second one, and I didn't bother with the third, but this one seems (emphasis on "seems") to have jettisoned a lot of the dead weight that made the second film such a drag for me - Knightley and Bloom, who I generally like in most things but found mindnumbingly dull in context of the Pirates series, are both gone, they seem to be moving away from that needlessly complex mythology that they built the first three around, and they seem to have traded up by bringing in McShane and Penelope Cruz.

Actually, given that I have a huge crush on her, I'll probably see this just because Penelope Cruz is in it.

The Three Musketeers 3D

Edwin Davies: I haven't read the original novel, but I'm guessing the ninjas and flying boat are a new addition? On one level, this looks appealingly crazy. It's the sort of deliriously weird take on an overly familiar story that could be really entertaining. On the other hand, the first thing that came into my mind was "Wild Wild West", which just about says it all, really.

David Mumpower: Once a decade, someone attempts a new take on The Three Musketeers. Ten years ago, it was the Yuen Woo-ping edition, featuring enough smashed barrels to qualify for Donkey Kong videogame status. Eight years prior to that, there was the Kiefer Sutherland/Oliver Platt edition that also included the toast of Michigan, Charlie Sheen. The casting on the new one is all over the place with the good (Ray Stevenson), the bad (Orlando Bloom) and the damned weird (Matthew Macfadyen from Frost/Nixon? That Percy Jackson kid?). Still, the visuals are exactly what I expected them to be as we just went through this drill with Resident Evil: Afterlife. Paul W.S. Anderson understands the importance of visuals in making/selling a movie. I also know from watching the extra features on Resident Evil: Afterlife that cinematographer Glen MacPherson is one of the few people in the world who understands how 3D should be used in making a movie. For these reasons, I'm more interested in The Three Musketeers than I had expected and this is also the same logic I'm using in predicting it will be a Resident Evil-lite type of hit film.

Jim Van Nest: I go back and forth on this one. Before watching the trailer, my reaction was, "Seriously, another crappy Musketeers film?" Then it hit me, as long as the sword fights are innovative and cool, I'll probably still go see it. And I have to say, it looks a lot better than I expected. I'm with David though, that's just some odd casting going on there, but then again, who would have looked at Oliver Platt and said, "Oh yeah, he's a Musketeer"? What I wonder, though, is whether or not Joe Moviegoer really cares about this story anymore.




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Mr. Popper's Penguins

Josh Spiegel: So, the difference between this and Alvin and the Chipmunks is that the penguins don't talk? Oh, and Jim Carrey is far too big an actor to be dancing around with penguins. I nearly forgot that. Obviously, this is just a teaser, but boy, does it look bad. I keep wanting to like what Jim Carrey does these days, but it's been a long time since 2004, when he was great in a kids' movie (Lemony Snicket) and great in a movie for adults (Eternal Sunshine). He needs to figure out what worked in 2004 and replicate it, because it sure wasn't this.

Brett Beach: I am more impressed with Carla Gugino's willingness/ease at going from movies like Elektra Luxx and Sucker Punch to this and Night at the Museum than with Carrey's attempt to infuse some juice into his career with something like this for the kid market. But even for Gugino, I can't force myself to watch two hours of penguin jokes. Depending on how the summer is rolling, this will be big...or dead.

Kim Hollis: Well, I remember loving this book and reading it about a million times as a kid. With that said, I see nothing in this trailer that remotely relates to that story - other than the fact that there is a guy named Popper and he has some penguins. It should look horrible to any self-respecting adult, but I have a feeling that the kiddies might eat it up. It will be easier to tell with a full trailer, I think. The damn dance is deplorable.


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