Trailer Hitch
By Eric Hughes
December 17, 2008
Welcome to Trailer Hitch, BOP's look at the latest movie trailers to hit the Internet. This week: Viggo Mortensen keeps the WWII train moving, Tyler Perry goes to jail and Sandra Bullock pretends she's Canadian.
Waltz with Bashir – Opens December 25th
Here's a movie genre you don't hear about every day: animated documentary. The rarity of such a flick, combined with pleasing aesthetics, makes this Golden Globe-nominated movie for Best Foreign Language Film look like a good pick.
Similar in appearance to something like Richard Linklater's Waking Life or A Scanner Darkly, Waltz with Bashir is about a man, Ari, who has a conversation with an old friend in a bar about a recurring nightmare where he's being chased by more than two-dozen dogs. When the pair decides there's a connection between Ari's dreams and their mission in the first Lebanon War (in the 1980s), Ari struggles to remember that period in his life and what that time may possibly teach him.
Grade: A- Also expected to be released on this date: Bedtime Stories, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Valkyrie, The Spirit, Marley & Me, Shanghai
Good – Opens December 31st
What's with Hollywood's recent love attraction with Hitler/World War II-era movies? We've already seen previews for Daniel Craig in Defiance, Tom Cruise (and his stupid eye patch) in Valkyrie, Kate Winslet in The Reader and now Viggo Mortensen in Good. Soon enough we'll get our first look at Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Bastards. Out of WWII exhaustion alone, I fear I can't give Good too high a grade, strictly out of principle.
Here, the Lord of the Rings alum plays a devoted father and brilliant scholar who is forced to join Hitler's army in Germany. Based on a 1981 stage play by C.P. Taylor, Good comes from Austrian helmer Vicente Amorim.
Grade: C Also expected to be released on this date: Defiance
Fired Up – Opens February 20, 2009
The premise: Two horny guy friends skip summer football camp to hit on some hotties at a cheerleading camp instead. The catch is one of them, played by Nicholas D'Agosto (of Heroes fame), falls for one of the girls, potentially spoiling the boys' big plan. Sounds borderline dumb and a definite skip at the Cineplex, no? Well, not quite. Starring D'Agosto and Eric Christian Olsen in the lead roles, the trailer actually makes Fired Up look kinda good. It feeds off stupid humor, but at the same time isn't a movie that should be cast off entirely.
The camp's coaching instructors include Molly Sims and the hilarious John Michael Higgins, who's oh-so-good at playing ambiguously gay men. (He's performing about the same role right now on NBC's Kath & Kim). First-time scribe Freedom Jones may be guilty of stealing from Bring it On in this one's B-story, but I won't hold it against him.
Grade: B+ Also expected to be released on this date: Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail, Youth in Revolt
Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail – Opens February 20, 2009
I'm not entirely sure what Tyler Perry's new one is supposed to be about. Granted, I'm familiar with the writer-director's famed character, who previously appeared in Diary of Mad Black Woman and Madea's Family Reunion. But the trailer to Madea Goes to Jail merely puts her in a number of odd situations that make not a lick of sense when strung one after the other. Madea gets in a car accident, shoots a gun, speaks in a church, drives a forklift, confuses a man for a woman, shares a conversation with the real Dr. Phil and then, of course, ends up in the title's aforementioned jail. There's another story concerning a guy with relationship problems, but I can't impart too much information on that one either.
The movie, actually an adaptation of one of Perry's plays of the same name, is a (very) loose sequel to Meet the Browns, released in 2008. In that one, an awkwardly placed scene that doesn't fit into the movie's ongoing storyline features Madea and Uncle Joe (both played by Perry) involved in a high-speed chase with the police. She calls to tell her daughter, Cora (Tamela Mann), that the fuzz is after her, and that she may end up in jail.
Grade: D+ Also expected to be released on this date: Fired Up, Youth in Revolt
The Proposal – Opens June 12, 2009
Wow, a Sandra Bullock movie that looks (half) decent? She's apparently grown up a lot since her Premonition/Lake House//Murder By Numbers/Miss Congeniality 2 phase. (I'm not including Crash in this string of messes. For one, I liked that one and two, she was part of an ensemble). But don't get your hopes up too much. The Proposal isn't that much of an upgrade.
Here, she plays the intolerable boss (Margaret) to Ryan Reynold's character, Andrew. The game changes, however, when Margaret finds out she'll be deported for having a faulty visa. (Like Labatt and Molson, she's a Canadian import). Margaret's solution? Pretend she's about to wed Andrew. So the pair gives the plan a go, even setting up a meeting with Andrew's family over a long weekend to see if they can stand one another.
The Proposal may play fairly well as a summer comedy. Craig T. Nelson, Betty White, Mary Steenburgen and a few others are also in this one in a supporting capacity.
Grade: C+ Also expected to be released on this date: The A-Team, Nowhereland, Hangover
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