RogerBW's Blog

Some trailers I've seen recently, and my thoughts on them. (Links are to youtube. Opinions are thoroughly personal.)

Crash Pad: realisation at the 30-second mark: oh, it's meant to be a comedy. Oh dear.

Cook Off: ha ha ha, look at the silly people.

Friend Request: Facebook will ruin your life. But not the way it will in reality, just random ghost jump-scare bullshit.

Revolt: giant walking killer robots only work if the humans don't have anti-armour weapons. It's pretty enough, but what about the people?

Jumanji - Welcome to the Jungle: noted here because "who plays board games any more" is now about 10-15 years out of date even in Hollywood.

Marvel's The Punisher Season 1: OK, fine, but what do you have to say that previous film adaptations, and indeed the original comics, haven't already said?

The Guardian Brothers: an odd approach to a trailer, with the actors explaining all the hard thinky stuff. In itself, doesn't look all that impressive.

The Secret Scripture: may well work for people who like this sort of thing, but that's not me.

Tomb Raider: what, another one? Nice Cryptex, though.

Wonderstruck: another that's simply not my sort of thing. The trailer's useful to me, at least, by putting me off; maybe the people who do like this sort of thing will be drawn in by it.

Isle of Dogs: interesting visual style, not once I've noticed in animation before. But Wes Anderson may not be able to resist his urges and simply tell a straight story.

Peter Rabbit: no book may be allowed to survive untarnished. This pile of crap was made. Deliberately. Bu actual people.

Maze Runner - The Death Cure: oh, they're being innovative. It's the final book chronologically in the series, and they're not splitting it into two films. Unfortunately that's about the only innovative thing here. Even the really terrible aerodynamic design of that transport aircraft feels borrowed from other films.

Gotti: "Mafia film" is another genre that doesn't particularly enthuse me. The filming style looks kind of seventies, presumably deliberately to match the visual style, which is odd since Gotti's fame was mostly in the 1980s.

Acts Of Vengeance: apparently this trailer is meant to appeal to people who've never seen a "man driven to extremes of violence by deaths of women" film before. Which is odd, because there's one of those coming out every week or two. Good leads, but a great big meh.

Annihilation (Teaser): it's Arrival for people who found that too thinky, and want more gunfire. Just what one would expect from Alex Garland.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer: just another "don't let strangers into your life" psychological horror.

Father Figures: because we haven't had enough films about fatherhood, and women are just receptacles.

Crooked House: Agatha Christie's most twisted tale was, well, let's call it And Then There Were None; this is one of the less satisfying ones, to my mind. And it looks as though the film is just an excuse for nasty people doing nasty things to each other. Great cast, but.

Paddington 2: the dog-to-bicycle transfer is nice, but otherwise it's very generic action-comedy. Why dig up Paddington's ball-bearing-filled corpse when you could write some original characters instead? Because there's nothing here people will pay to see without the name attached.

Brigsby Bear: doesn't tell you much about what the film's about, and certainly it doesn't seem to be as easy to characterise as most.

Newness: let me guess, they end up as a conventional monogamous binary couple, because that's the only message Hollywood wants you to hear.

The Star: nothing to add since the teaser. Written, made and probably marketed by machines.

Wonder Wheel: broken people in the nostalgic glow. Oh, Woody Allen, no surprises then.

How to Talk to Girls at Parties: yes, what punk is all about is getting boys laid. Might get beyond that, but it doesn't look like it.

Roman J. Israel, Esq.: useless lawyer is useless, but can he win the Big Game? I mean, get the client found not guilty?

The Monster Project: how is this found-footage horror film different from all other found-footage horror films? It isn't. So why make it?

Replicas: because scientists are always driven by the deaths of people close to them. And of course it's going to be horror because science in films can never be allowed to make things better.

Tonight She Comes: don't talk to strangers, be in bed by seven, never go anywhere without supervision, or Bad Things will happen to you. Meh.