RogerBW's Blog

August 2020 Trailers 01 September 2020

Some trailers I've seen recently, and my thoughts on them. (Links are to youtube. Opinions are thoroughly personal. Calibration: The experiments that the Payne Fund carried out concentrated on such issues as the extent to which children learnt from film and how well they retained what they learnt; the possibility that exposure to film affected attitudes; and how moral standards might be affected by what was viewed. The findings of these studies showed that the human mind could be shaped and moulded by persons in positions of influence; and, in this context, the film maker was in an almost unique position of influence.)

Get Duked!: a ripoff of The Most Dangerous Game which makes the victims so unsympathetic that I'm close to rooting for the hunters.

I Am Woman: I guess? Doesn't resonate with me, but it doesn't have to.

DC Fandome (Teaser): it's a trailer for… a promo event?

Alone: but why is this story any different from every other piece of woman-imprisoned-by-lunatic porn?

Critical Thinking: sure, Chess is an equaliser: anyone who's got plenty of free time in quiet places to study it can learn to be good. (Also, generic underdog sports story.)

I'm Thinking of Ending Things: more Kaufman white people problems. Can Kaufmannery sustain interest in this dreary story? Maybe.

Judas and the Black Messiah: at last, something I might actually want to watch. Even with a bit of nuance to it. And it's not even meant to appeal to me.

Bad Hair (Teaser): not for me, but looks like a new take on body horror at last.

The Devil All the Time: rural sordidness or sordid rurality: you choose. (And animal cruelty and Robert Pattinson, neither of which is a point in its favour for me.)

The War With Grandpa: everything that makes him an individual is melting away, and it's a comedy.

The Secrets We Keep: looks well-made, decent cast, but somehow it doesn't grab me.

Death on the Nile: very pretty. But hasn't this story rather been done by now? (Yes, I know, the new Murder on the Orient Express made money so this was inevitable.)

On the Rocks: pretty white people problems now include a black person. Yay. (And paranoid white dad doesn't trust black boyfriend, well that'll bust the stereotypes.)

12 Hour Shift: tawdry crime… just doesn't grab me. I like Bettis here, but that's about all.

Let Him Go: tawdry rural decay doesn't really grab me either. Well, I guess it's the tawdriness.

The Suicide Squad (Teaser): all this says is "we have actors who don't look completely unlike the way the charaters are depicted in the comics". Lots of actors.

Black Adam (Teaser): if you don't know the character (as I don't), there's nothing to distinguish this from any other superhero story.

The Batman Teaser: don't keep digging him up. Just let him rest. There are thousands of films that don't get made because all the money goes on yet another iteration of the same eighty-year-old character.

Ammonite: might work. The colour palette is a bit obvious, but there's some potential here.

Enola Holmes: if we must recycle Sherlock, let's at least not idolise him. In spite of all the red flags there's something here that might just possibly work.

The 40-Year-Old Version: doesn't grab me, but there is at least something here.

Come Play: too much of the generic horror for my taste. And like most child actors, this one looks subtly wrong.

The Doorman: the basic model is one that works, and Jean Reno and Jonathan Banks make everything better. But I can't help noticing that this is not about a random hero but about an employee putting their life on the line for the benefit of their rich employer. Eh, maybe I'm just in a weird mood.


  1. Posted by J Michael Cule at 01:53pm on 01 September 2020

    Polka Dot Man? Really? I was all ready to make mock of Roger for not recognising Black Adam but The Suicide Squad seems to be working on the 'throw every last obscure villain at the wall and hope it works'.

    Speaking of BLACK ADAM I wonder when the decision to go with animation was made vis-a-vis the success of BLACK PANTHER?

    The ENOLA HOLMES trailer makes me wonder why Dr Watson is being the one with a cricket bat up his arse.

  2. Posted by RogerBW at 02:19pm on 01 September 2020

    Oh, mock my lack of knowledge of superheroes all you like. I assue that if you're Marvel or DC you know that the only thing that distinguishes your superhero films from anyone else's superhero films is your stable of trademarked characters, so you use as many of them as possible.

  3. Posted by Ashley R Pollard at 02:54pm on 01 September 2020

    You in another weird mood, driven by the horror of movie trailers...

    Would never have guessed. Ha!

    Black Adam, well Mike's already addressed Black Adam, which looks awesome, and has the Rock in it. Suicide Squad totally rocks too.

    The Doorman trailer worked for me, just because, and Enola Holmes looks like it could be a lot of fun.

  4. Posted by J Michael Cule at 07:10pm on 01 September 2020

    I must correct my earlier comment.

    It's not Watson who's being a jerk in the trailer: it's Mycroft.

    My confusion is caused by the modern trend for casting thin, athletic good looking actors as Mycroft and not fat old bastards like me.

  5. Posted by RogerBW at 07:15pm on 01 September 2020

    Clearly an artistic misstep of epic proportions.

Comments on this post are now closed. If you have particular grounds for adding a late comment, comment on a more recent post quoting the URL of this one.

Search
Archive
Tags 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 3d printing action advent of code aeronautics aikakirja anecdote animation anime army astronomy audio audio tech base commerce battletech beer boardgaming book of the week bookmonth chain of command children chris chronicle church of no redeeming virtues cold war comedy computing contemporary cornish smuggler cosmic encounter coup covid-19 crime crystal cthulhu eternal cycling dead of winter doctor who documentary drama driving drone ecchi economics en garde espionage essen 2015 essen 2016 essen 2017 essen 2018 essen 2019 essen 2022 essen 2023 existential risk falklands war fandom fanfic fantasy feminism film firefly first world war flash point flight simulation food garmin drive gazebo genesys geocaching geodata gin gkp gurps gurps 101 gus harpoon historical history horror hugo 2014 hugo 2015 hugo 2016 hugo 2017 hugo 2018 hugo 2019 hugo 2020 hugo 2021 hugo 2022 hugo 2023 hugo 2024 hugo-nebula reread in brief avoid instrumented life javascript julian simpson julie enfield kickstarter kotlin learn to play leaving earth linux liquor lovecraftiana lua mecha men with beards mpd museum music mystery naval noir non-fiction one for the brow opera parody paul temple perl perl weekly challenge photography podcast politics postscript powers prediction privacy project woolsack pyracantha python quantum rail raku ranting raspberry pi reading reading boardgames social real life restaurant reviews romance rpg a day rpgs ruby rust scala science fiction scythe second world war security shipwreck simutrans smartphone south atlantic war squaddies stationery steampunk stuarts suburbia superheroes suspense television the resistance the weekly challenge thirsty meeples thriller tin soldier torg toys trailers travel type 26 type 31 type 45 vietnam war war wargaming weather wives and sweethearts writing about writing x-wing young adult
Special All book reviews, All film reviews
Produced by aikakirja v0.1