The Grand Budapest Hotel trailers

First I watched this trailer for Wes Anderson's latest film, due in March:

And my first thought was, "This looks like a Wes Anderson parody." Seriously, you can hear the Honest Trailers voice say, "Starring: Every single actor who's ever been in a Wes Anderson movie!" And they're saying and doing things that are just so...singularly Wes Anderson. He's devolved into self-parody. Maybe some people already thought he'd done so years ago.

But then this trailer mellowed the experience a bit:

I'm a fan of Anderson, I really am. I loved Rushmore back in the day (I even just bought the Criterion Blu-Ray of it). The Royal Tenenbaums is one of my favorite movies. Since then my opinions of his work have vacillated between "didn't really care for it" (The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou) to "yeah, I really enjoyed that" (Moonrise Kingdom). Not exactly damning or glorifying statements. His style was unique for two movies (which is quite a feat when you think about that logically). But now you realize he makes exactly one kind of movie and just alters the story and characters. I don't know. We'll see. I'm sure it will be good. I just find it difficult to get really excited about this. 

Just when you thought he couldn't sink any lower...

Here's a trailer for what looks like one of the worst movies in recent memory. It looks awful even by awful Adam Sandler standards. And the trailer drags on for more than 2 full minutes as if it's necessary to reveal every crude, retarded, and humorless joke to the hopeless people who will lay down money to see this garbage. Someone should tell Columbia Pictures that the crowd who are interested in this will be sold the moment they see that Adam Sandler plays not just one, but TWO (!!), roles in the movie. And one of them is a woman!! ROTFLMFAO hilarity is sure to ensue.

An Actual Tantalizing Trailer

Let me be clear up front: I do not think this trailer for The Lincoln Lawyer makes it look like a good movie at all. It looks like standard Hollywood thriller junk (from a novel that is probably standard Best Seller List artificiality) with lead actors who put on their serious faces and voices (Ryan Phillippe sounds particularly wooden).

But this is the first trailer for a Hollywood movie I've seen in I don't know how long that doesn't give away the store. At about the 90 second mark - about the point when Matthew McConaughey says, "Is there anything you're not telling me?" - before the names of the principal actors are announced to shuddering music, I expected the rest of the trailer to spell out exactly what happens in the second half of the movie. Instead it provides increasingly short flash cuts with increasingly staccato music thumps.

Universal Pulls Trailer for Vince Vaughan Comedy The Dilemma

Universal recently decided to pull its trailer for the upcoming Vince Vaughan comedy Dilemma because of its inappropriate and offensive (to some) use of the word "gay" in its opening. While I must admit I personally find the line funny as delivered by Vaughan I understand and agree with the sentiment that led Universal to pull the trailer.

(sorry, the original trailer is no longer available on YouTube)

I realize it's difficult for most people to understand why this particular use of the word "gay" is offensive to homosexuals, but I'll try. The problem with this is that "gay" has long been accepted by society as the common term for homosexuals, but it has also been appropriated as slang to denote something bad, something undesirable, something worthy of being the target of derision. I, too, am guilty of using the word this way. And while we should all make an effort to stop using the word that way, there is a difference between my using it with friends and Universal advertising their film to millions and potentially alienating a large part of their audience.

Still, the most offensive part of this trailer is its complete lack of a single funny moment. Dilemma looks absolutely awful (no surprise for a January release). And what a crap premise for a movie - this is what passes muster with studio heads nowadays? How can they stretch this "problem" out to feature length? I dread to find out. I absolutely can not believe Ron Howard has gone slumming so deep to make such garbage.

Trailer for Julie Taymor's The Tempest

Julie Taymor, who directed the visually splendid Titus, Frida and Across the Universe is back with a new film, an adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest. Here's the trailer:



I will reserve full judgment until I see the film, but I sincerely hope it doesn't turn out as bad as this trailer makes it look. I thought her Titus, an adaptation of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus was fantastic, but it looks like she may have lost the plot a bit on this one, relying heavily on CGI and turning his late great work into an action spectacular to attract the Clash of the Titans crowd.