RogerBW's Blog

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

Demonic: looks like by-the-numbers horror. Blomkamp has done better, so maybe it won't be, but the trailer definitely wants me to think so.

The Boss Baby - Family Business: may appeal hugely to people who aren't me. I guess.

PAW Patrol - The Movie: "A research study, commissioned by Sky in March 2016, reported that 16 percent of surveyed British and Irish children named PAW Patrol as their favourite program." So I'm not in the target audience for this and it doesn't need my boosting. Which is good because this basically has nothing to say to me.

Reminiscence: so it's Strange Days with prettier actors, more SFX, and more tits? But I still have a copy of Strange Days.

No Sudden Move: unreliable criminals are unreliable. Oh well. For the narrative to work I need to like these people, at least some of them, and from this I don't.

Ron's Gone Wrong: …so… since we clearly don't have AI rights in this universe, why isn't it just returned as faulty?

The Eyes of Tammy Faye: horrible, horrible people. She was more of a victim than he was, but they happily colluded in making others' lives worse until they got caught. That she is praised for not actively calling for homosexuals to be "cured" says more about the rest of her culture than about her.

Free Guy: starts to look almost vaguely interesting. But still Ryan Reynolds. And they used "Baba O'Riley"? Hmm.

Midnight in the Switchgrass: "This is the story you've seen many times before, with minor variations". What I care about is the minor variations, and what I see here doesn't seem particularly compelling.

First Date: …yeah. I like the narrative contrasts and especially the cast but I really don't love the setup.

Great White: oooo-kay. Plane-sinking shark. Pack-hunting shark. This is going to be utter crap. Will it be enjoyable crap? Well, I tend to be on Team Shark in these things anyway (hi Lyz!) especially when they go to such trouble to make the humans unsympathetic.

Die in a Gunfight: rich white boys have it so hard, nobody understands that they're the first people to be in lust ever. (And this has been in development for over a decade.)

Pig: there seem to be two separate films here, the outsider chef who goes back to the big city and the theft-revenge plot. (I hope the pig gets to join in the revenge part.) They could be made to work together, but with this casting the audience (including me) is just going to be waiting for the full-on Cage Rage to get going.

Swan Song: I guess it's meant to be a comedy. May work better for people who have a sense of humour.

Annette: in order to work, a romance has to convince me that these people will be happier together than apart. The trailer doesn't. The film? Maybe.

Out of Death: Bruce, can't you just enjoy retirement? Oh dear; I often like human-focussed action, but this really doesn't have anything to inspire me.

Sing 2: apparently the first one was pretty decent by the standards of its genre.

The Harder They Fall (Teaser): nice synchronisation of music with the beats of the initial action, but, well, Western, and the subgenre of Western with lots of bloody murder. Even if it does have an excellent cast. (I've been hoping Zazie Beetz would show up in something good since her small part in Geostorm.)

Halloween Kills: I like the idea of the story of the firefighters who turn up just after the spooky murder house has been lit up, but otherwise this looks all too drearily conventional. Even with the excellent Jamie Lee Curtis.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings: is there really anything here that I wouldn't find in the Hong Kong wirework martial arts films I already have? Feels like a ripoff, even if it's a ripoff that's done well.

Clifford the Big Red Dog: well obviously it's not aimed at me, but clearly a film like this makes money on name recognition rather than actual quality anyway.

Jolt: interesting idea, but the script seems to build an awfully derivative structure round that one interesting element. Lots of explosions, and Kate Beckinsale, so that's something.

Mandibles: great title, but the comedy leaves me rather cold. "Delightfully stupid" doesn't really register for me.

The Many Saints of Newark: when I was a kid, everything was tinted blue-green. Evidently a tie-in to The Sopranos, which I haven't seen.

Don’t Breathe 2: of course a sequel to the first film was artistically necessary. The first film made money. Does at least make it clear that the old murdery man is the important thing about this series, as distinct from the characters you're meant to sympathise with.