Ok, it’s still basically just a lot of flexing and screaming. Nevertheless, the new trailer for Zach Snyder’s 300 is out, and it’s an adrenaline shot…one of the more effective previews I’ve seen in awhile. (And “Tonight we dine in Hell!” seems like it might be an apt catchphrase for all kinds of situations.)
Tag: Trailers
Secret Agent Man.
Angelina Jolie feels neglected while Matt Damon looks to a long future of waterboarding and cherry-picking intelligence for political reasons in the new trailer for Robert De Niro’s The Good Shepherd, also starring De Niro, John Turturro, Alec Baldwin, William Hurt, Billy Crudup, Joe Pesci, and Michael Gambon.
June 4th, 1968.
An all-star cast — including Harry Belafonte, Laurence Fishburne, Heather Graham, Anthony Hopkins, Helen Hunt, David Krumholtz, Ashton Kutcher, Shia LaBoeuf, Lindsay Lohan, William H. Macy, Demi Moore, Freddy Rodriguez, Martin Sheen, Christian Slater, Sharon Stone, and Elijah Wood — pay their respects to Robert Kennedy’s last day in the new trailer for Bobby, written and directed by Emilio Estevez.
Dragons and Mayans.
In the trailer bin, two December epics that I suspect will be pretty bad. First, newcomer Ed Speleers gets help from Obi-Wan-ish dragonrider Jeremy Irons in his crusade against the sinister King Malkovich in the new full-length trailer for Eragon (I haven’t read the book, but this screams Sci-Fi channel miniseries.) And the Mayan civilization enters its decline (no doubt the Jews have something to do with it) in the most recent trailer for Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto.
Royale with Cheese.
Layer Cake‘s Daniel Craig earns his license to kill in the brand new trailer for Casino Royale, which seemed pretty decent even in tiny, pixellated dial-up form.
Trailer Convoy.
Several items for the trailer bin:
* Diane Lane and Thomas Jane go on the lam to escape hitmen Mickey Rourke and Joseph Gordon-Leavitt in this glimpse at John Madden’s Tarantino’ed-up version of Elmore Leonard’s Killshot. (Johnny Knoxville and Rosario Dawson are involved in some fashion as well.)
* Chow Yun-Fat and Gong Li gear up for some trademark Zhang Yimou wire-fu (a la Hero and House of Flying Daggers) in the new teaser for Curse of the Golden Flower.
* Nicole Kidman ventures through the photographic looking-glass as Diane Arbus in Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus, the new film by Secretary‘s Steven Shainberg, also with Robert Downey Jr. (Mirrored here.)
* Helen Mirren jumps from Elizabeth I to Elizabeth II in this look at Stephen Frears’ The Queen, concerning Buckingham Palace’s reaction to the death of Princess Diana. (I have zero interest in the subject matter, frankly, but I do like Mirren, Frears, and James Cromwell, and there’s an iffy Tony Blair impression here by Michael Sheen, to say nothing of the guy playing Prince Charles.)
* Finally, Guillermo del Toro returns to the faerie Spain of The Devil’s Backbone in this rapid-edit teaser for Pan’s Labyrinth. (Being on a lousy hotel connection, I couldn’t get this link to work, but I believe the same teaser is mirrored here.)
It takes a train to cry.
Kate Winslet, Jennifer Connelly, and Patrick Wilson navigate the perils of child-rearing and infidelity in this very effective trailer for Little Children, the new film from In the Bedroom‘s Todd Field.
The Bloody Business which Informs.
Scots meet Aussies in the trailer for Geoffrey Wright’s gangsterland update of Macbeth, with Sam Worthington, Victoria Hill, and Lachy Hume.
Murders Most Foul.
Some new trailers for films I likely won’t see: Orlando Bloom, Bill Paxton, and Bobby Cannavale face trouble in paradise in the new trailer for Haven, Brian De Palma and James Ellroy return to their respective wheelhouses with Josh Hartnett, Scarlett Johansson, Aaron Eckhart, and Hillary Swank in the true-crime thriller The Black Dahlia (not to be confused with Hollywoodland), Buffy faces the Case of the Haunted House in this look at The Return, and Napoleon Dynamite takes on Billy Bob Thornton (with Todd Louiso, Horatio Sanz, Michael Clarke Duncan, and Ben Stiller in tow) in the new frat pack venture, School for Scoundrels. Ok, I might catch Dahlia for the Ellroy/Eckhart factor, although I’ve been burned by too many bad De Palma flicks of late. Snake Eyes, Mission to Mars and Femme Fatale, anyone?
Moving right out of Babylon.
In a special Africa-themed edition of the movie bin, a young Scottish doctor (former faun James McAvoy) hangs with Ugandan dictator Idi Amin (Forrest Whitaker) and Gillian Anderson in the new trailer for The Last King of Scotland, potentially crooked cop Nic Vos (Tim Robbins) spurs Patrick Chamusso (Derek Luke) to rally against South African apartheid in the trailer for Phillip Noyce’s Catch a Fire (which continues the director’s move from Patriot Games-type thrillers to global-political fare such as Rabbit-Proof Fence and The Quiet American), and things go awry in Morocco for Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett (and elsewhere for Gael Garcia Bernal and Clifton Collins Jr.) in this look at Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s Babel. (Let’s hope it’s better than Inarritu’s woeful 21 Grams.)