Some trailers I've seen recently, and my thoughts on them. (Links are
to youtube. Opinions are thoroughly personal. Calibration: Hatred is a
vice of narrow souls; they feed it with all their meanness, and make it
a pretext for sordid tyranny.)
Doctor Who Season 26 collection:
all right, not my usual fare for these posts, but let's face it if
you've got something like this to shift -- even in the non-piratey
world, all the stories were released individually between 2003 and
2008, so the sort of fan who may buy this has already had them for a
decade -- all you've got to work with is the new special features and
the nostalgia factor. So you might as well have some fun with it.
Jojo Rabbit:
looks a lot better than the teaser did, though still too far in the
comedy direction for my taste.
Bad Boys for Life:
yeah, for anyone who enjoyed this, we have utter contempt for you, so
we're making it farce. Meh. And for everyone else, it's just another
turn-the-handle disposable comedy.
Just Mercy:
Oscar season already?
Mister America:
why would I want to watch this story? Why would anyone? Haven't there
been enough "arrogant white man gets into politics" stories by now?
Black Christmas:
is there anything more to this than generic kid-focused horror? Why
not? Why wouldn't I watch Anna and the Apocalypse again instead? And
it wasn't even all that good.
Wrinkles The Clown:
is there anything more to this than generic kid-focused horror? Why
not?
Doctor Sleep:
looks more coherent than the teaser did, but also much more like
generic horror. To some extent I suppose that's unfair, since a lot of
generic horror copies King, but I think it's reasonable to say that
King himself is now copying King.
Like A Boss:
at least there's some female empowerment, but it feels very
by-the-numbers, descending into generic embarrassment humour by the
end. Everyone in this cast has done much better.
Radioactive (Teaser):
trailers always make it hard to tell, but much to my surprise this
looks as if it might actually be worth watching.
Midway:
because Bay and Bruckheimer did Pearl Harbor and made a lot of
money, so Roland Emmerich gets to do this battle. Sure, these pretty
boys don't look as if they've grown up in the Great Depression, but I
don't think there are many young actors these days who can. And the
action seems decent.
Countdown:
my word this looks bad. The basic idea of taking a familiar thing and
making it scary isn't a terrible one, even if it is desperately
overused, but… no, I'm just not even slightly convinced.
Groundhog Day - Like Father Like Son - Virtual Reality Game:
minigames. Great. Still, it's a good fit for the computer game
"practice until you can do it" gameplay I suppose.
In the Tall Grass:
visually interesting but rapidly turns generic. (And of course nobody
has phone GPS.)
The Secret Garden:
if you think it's timeless, why did you re-set it into the Second
World War? And indeed why did you turn it into a fantasy with blatant
magic?
Cunningham:
doesn't engage me, but looks well done.
Dark Waters:
a film that would probably have been more popular a few years ago…
with a strong side story of "city guy learns to live again in a small
town".
Scandalous:
"what was to come" was that you ran out of money, sold out to a Trump
fan and turned into just a mindless repeater of press releases.
The Rhythm Section:
very pretty conspiracy thriller, but still a conspiracy thriller and I
see it hitting the standard beats even in this trailer. On the other
hand, great primary cast and it looks is if there's a bit more action
than is usual in these things.
Fractured:
the Vanishing Hotel Room returns. Which suggests an obvious
explanation.
Ordinary Love:
people arguing about boring things, meets illness porn. Nice to see
Neeson finally being allowed to play something other than grim man
with a gun, though.
Frozen II:
OK, I guess, but it doesn't seem to have much to say apart from "these
characters are back".
El Camino - A Breaking Bad Movie:
probably more interesting if you've seen the series and know who these
people are.
Uncut Gems (Red Band):
so who are these people and why do we care about them?
Wounds:
of course it'll all be a Plot, because in these things it always is.
The Irishman:
Scorsese does what Scorsese does. He's his own genre, I guess.
Slab-sided old men don't really appeal to me.
Spies in Disguise:
I mention this only because the first trailer was released in November
last year, and this has been sitting on the shelf since then. Shows
real confidence, that does.
The King's Man:
lots of special effects in support of the same old story.
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