Trailer Hitch
By Zach Kolkin
July 11, 2005
Welcome to Trailer Hitch, your weekly look at the latest movie trailers to hit the internet. This was a great week for previews, with a number of serious contenders for the crown of Trailer of the Week. Read on to see which ad earned the title.
Can you ever just be, like, whelmed?
The Warrior
While I'm certainly not questioning the merits of this film, given its status as a BAFTA award-winner, this clip does a rather mediocre job of showing just what made The Warrior worthy of the Best British Film award. One of the problems is the absence of any spoken dialogue in the trailer. It seems that the producers are perhaps trying to hide the fact that this film is actually in Hindi (it qualifies as British since its director is, in fact, from London). Similarly, though the critical raves quoted in the ad highlight the film's visual virtuosity, the clips shown are far too short and varied to really show any of this to the viewer. Consequently, I was left not only wondering why no one was saying anything, but also confused as to what the movie was even about. Again, I have no doubt that The Warrior is, in fact, a great movie; my only quibbles are with this trailer itself, which seems to hinder, rather than advance, the film's cause.
OK, I'm intrigued
The Edukators
This German film takes the no-subtitles approach to marketing itself to a North American audience, presumably with the intention of reaching a wider demographic. It makes sense too, since The Edukators seems to a general plotline which should be fairly familiar to most moviegoers. The premise of a kidnapping gone wrong has been the catalyst for thousands of thrillers over the years, but here that story seems to take on a dimension of social consciousness that is perhaps missing from many other films of the same vein. The specific mention of Daniel Bruhl, and his role in Goodbye, Lenin! is also smart, given that movie's relative popularity here in the States (although the two films admittedly seem to have very little in common, other than their country of origin). Though in many ways, this seems like the type of film that might have difficulty selling itself in a 90 second ad, this strikes me as a very well-crafted preview that could help attract a fairly wide audience to the picture.
Underclassman
I have never seen any of Nick Cannon's previous films, but I must admit that I was surprised as to how charismatic the musician-turned-actor appears in this trailer. The movie's plotline is a permutation of a fairly standard formula: a young cop must go undercover at a prep school in order to catch a criminal ("I feel like I'm in a Britney Spears video," Cannon cracks at one point). Obviously, with a largely formulaic movie like this, a substantial part of its potential marketability comes down to the appeal and charisma of its cast. Luckily, Cannon does quite well in this department. I'm reminded somewhat of Will Smith in Hitch: the film was little more than a standard romantic comedy, but Smith's charm made the picture far more entertaining (and consequently, far more profitable) than it would have been in lesser hands. Certainly, Cannon has a long way to go before he enters the world of Will Smith-level bankability, but I can certainly see his performance here serving as a breakout role for him. This is a funny trailer, with a lot of good-looking young people. What more could a teen-oriented late-summer flick ask for?
The Great Raid
Let me get this straight – a World War II epic, being released by Miramax, gets its first trailer a mere four weeks before its opening date? That's the case here, as we get our first look at The Great Raid, a film based on the true story of a rescue mission in the Philippines in 1945. Part of the reason that this movie isn't getting the type of marketing push one might expect is that the cast and crew are fairly low-wattage in terms of star power. The director, John Dahl, is best known for helming Rounders, a movie which was made about five years too early, while the cast includes Benjamin Bratt, James Franco, and Joseph Fiennes. Still, the story looks good, and the acting certainly appears to be quite respectable. Given the extremely limited amount of effort Miramax appears to be putting into selling this movie, it's tough to say what kind of audience it will garner, but due to the movie-going public's continual interest in WWII films, this trailer, while by no means earth-shattering, is certainly good enough to attract a decent audience to the picture.
Tim Burton's Corpse Bride
This is a very entertaining preview for Tim Burton's latest stop-motion picture, Corpse Bride. Burton teams once again with Johnny Depp, who voices the main character. Although I found the ad's whimsical nature quite enjoyable, as I'm sure most adults will, I'm not sure that this tone will carry over as well to younger moviegoers, who are obviously the film's primary target audience. The voiceover is done in rhyming verse, and there is a great deal of punning wordplay that might fly right over younger kids' heads. Still, I am perhaps discounting the appeal that derives from the simple fact that this appears to be a visually gorgeous animated film, which will certainly attract a number of children. If this is the case, the witty presentation of Corpse Bride's trailer should help lure in parents right alongside their children when the film is released in September.
I'm already counting down the days
Waiting
First-time writer-director Rob McKittrick is at the helm of this very funny-looking comedy with quite a talented cast, including Ryan Reynolds, Anna Faris, Justin Long, and Luis Guzman. The film's producers include Chris Moore, whose name will be known immediately by any fans of Project Greenlight. The movie appears to be in the general vein of teen sex comedies like American Pie, focusing primarily on the life of the staff at a chain restaurant called Shenanigan's, not unlike a TGI Friday's, Applebee's, Bennigan's, etc. Reynolds in particular looks extremely funny, and the gags involving the aspects of food preparation you'd rather not think about are equally cringe- and laugh-inducing. While you always have to wonder whether a movie like this has shown its entire hand in a short trailer, effectively ruining all the jokes in the movie, I'm pretty certain that that isn't the case here. Given enough exposure, I have a feeling that this could be a breakout hit along the lines of Napoleon Dynamite, last summer's surprisingly popular picture. This is definitely a highly-recommended trailer.
Shopgirl
Steve Martin's novella, first published in 2000, has been adapted into a film, starring Claire Danes in the title role, along with Jason Schwartzman and (surprise!) Steve Martin. It's hard to believe Jimmy Fallon was originally slated to play the role that eventually went to Schwartzman, as the star of Rushmore looks perfect in the part of a struggling artist competing with an aging millionaire for the affection of Danes' shopgirl. In many ways, the tone and visual style of the trailer remind me of Lost in Translation. The association makes sense, given Martin and Murray's similar comedic backgrounds, and with the critical and popular acclaim bestowed upon Sofia Coppola's film, such comparisons can only help Shopgirl. Danes and Martin appear just as impressive as Schwartzman, and in a movie whose overall quality will rely heavily on the performances of its actors, this is certainly a good sign. On pedigree alone, Shopgirl would be one of my most anticipated releases of the fall; thankfully, this trailer does nothing to suggest that my excitement is unfounded.
The Exorcism of Emily Rose (Trailer of the Week)
Full disclosure: I generally find horror movies to be unbelievably inane. Where most people jump in fright, I, for the most part, roll my eyes. With a few notable exceptions (The Shining and The Blair Witch Project come to mind), horror movies rely on cheap scares to cover up what is almost always an absurd plot with atrocious acting. It is with this extreme prejudice, then, that I watched the trailer for The Exorcism of Emily Rose. Suffice it to say that despite my cynicism, the preview left me with chills down my spine: this is a genuinely creepy movie trailer. The story is based on an actual event, which happened in Germany in the late '70s, where a girl was officially recognized by the Catholic Church as having been demonically possessed. The movie boasts an impressive cast which includes Laura Linney, Campbell Scott, Tom Wilkinson, and Shohreh Aghdashloo. What ultimately matters, of course, is not how good the storyline or the cast looks on paper, but whether or not the movie is scary. If this trailer is any indication – and I certainly hope it is – the answer is a resounding yes.
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