RogerBW's Blog

Some trailers I've seen recently, and my thoughts on them. (Links are to youtube. Opinions are thoroughly personal. Calibration: I want a trailer to tell me what's different about this film; the marketers want it to tell me why it's like all the others…)

Mafia Mamma: rather to my surprise, there are some interesting ideas here, but it looks as though they're all drowned in the 100,000 gallons of Komedy.

Peter Pan & Wendy: I suppose it will appeal to its target audience, in which I am not numbered.

The Blackening: Well, again, I'm not in the target audience. But I think to appreciate thisthis you have to be both black in America and a fan of spam-in-a-cabin and Saw-style horror. What do I know? It could go through garbage and out the other side.

Haunted Mansion (Teaser): we're going to keep making this film until you make it a hit. Then we're going to keep making it some more.

Living: Nighy is always worth watching, but isn't this all just a bit… straightforward? Ishiguro always seems to think the audience will be terribly impressed with his ideas, which I suppose they would be if they'd never read anyone else.

Ghosted: women! Nature's little tarantulas! I mean, fine, but even the female-led version of this has been done Too Many Times.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (Teaser): at least they're not trying to do it live-action, I guess. This was never my thing back in the day so the nostalgia angle doesn't grab me.

Paint: full-blast whimsy it is, only this is based on a real person, but loosely enough that they aren't using the name.

No Hard Feelings: like Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates with all the charm sanded off.

Little Richard： I Am Everything: not my usual sort of thing, but it could be interesting.

The Little Mermaid: I guess there's still an audience for The Latest Disney Whatever It Is. Because this has basically no appeal of its own.

Chupa: ah, the case of unfortunate title translation. Sadly that looks like the most interesting thing about this by-the-numbers production. (Perhaps the worst thing about ET is that everyone thinks they cane remake it and have a success. Or that they're often right.)

Suzume: looks like fun. And Shinkai Makoto is very often interesting, if rarely good at conclusions.

BlackBerry: looks exactly like the Tetris film, and just as dull.

Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken: I like the title, but yet again we see that children don't deserve originality.

Rye Lane: looks like pretty standard romantic comedy, but maybe just a little bit of heart?

One Day as a Lion: more horrible people doing horrible things to each other.

You Hurt My Feelings: standard white people problems.

Big Shark: this looks just as rubbish as most trailers. Which I guess for Wiseau is an improvement.

Renfield (Red Band) (Final): I think Cage can hold up his end, maybe. And Hoult and Awkwafina are both reliably worth watching.

Evil Dead Rise: yeah, do you have anything actually to say, or is it just scares and women hurting and getting hurt?

Knights of the Zodiac: ah, the long-promised Saint Seiya live-action film. If you're not already a fan, though, I don't see anything here that isn't already being done in superhero films.

Master Gardener: I don't love it, but I suppose it might go somewhere when it gets away from its generic guy who doesn't do that any more roots.

Biosphere (Teaser): I don't love the actors, but at least it's not offensively bad.

Elemental: a lot of the Zootopia look, but…

Trolls Band Together: says nothing to me.

Asteroid City: all seems a bit Close Encounters along with a thick coat of quirkiness. (But I haven't seen any of Anderson's films, what do I know?)