Trailers everywhere! At the movies and at home this weekend I saw a whole slew of trailers and realized I hadn't written about any of them. So let's catch up with super quick trifurcated thoughts on five forthcoming features (The Grandmaster, Blue Jasmine, Out of the Furnace, Oldboy, and Runner Runner) via their current trailers.
Are you aching to see any of these movies, eager to avoid them, or withholding judgment until you see reviews? Don't be shy, lurkers. Speak your three-part thoughts in the comments.
THE GRANDMASTER
- yes - Wong Kar Wai movies are few and far between and ought to be gazed at with as much rapture as one can muster. This trailer has plenty of eye-glazingly pretty moments. Plus that gorgeous cast: Tony Leung Chiu Wai headlining, and Chang Chen & Zhang Ziyi (the young lovers from Crouching Tiger) reunited. Yes please times many despite the lack of title cards (boo) to glorify their names
- no - Wong Kar Wai's style is so stylish it could easily dip into self parody and sometimes movies that take years to make are
- maybe so - biopic. (sigh)
BLUE JASMINE
- yes - Early word is promising and since the last Woody Allen movie (To Rome With Love) it's time for another goodie. The plot/concept which seems to mix a riff on the Bernie Madoff scandal with A Streetcar Named Desire looks interesting. But in the end, Cate Blanchett and Sally Hawkins as squabbling sisters = my ticket already purchased.
- no - Andrew Dice Clay in a Woody Allen movie? Class warfare could go very tone deaf since Woody lives quite an insular life.
- maybe so - early word is promising but with hit and miss 21st century Woody you just never know; critical consensus we await thee!
OUT OF THE FURNACE
- yesnomaybeso whoops I forgot to comment on this one. Do it for me in the comments.
OLDBOY
- yes - A Spike Lee joint + Josh Brolin is a fine actor + i'm no fan of the original (I know I know I know I'm supposed to be. Shut it) which means a remake isn't sacriligeous to me and I could conceivably like it more.
- no - the original was such a successful exercize in cooler-than-thou auteur sadism it undoubtedly gave Refn, Gibson, and Tarantino multiple Os as they turned green. But sadism isn't my thing.
- maybe so - ...but I like style-for-style's-sake sometimes so it might be interesting to see how Spike Lee's meshes or diverges from Park Chan-wooks?
RUNNER RUNNER
- yes - Ben Affleck as a charming sell-your-soul-to-me devil I can buy...
- no - but Justin Timberlake as a good guy? Hmmm. Still not sold (at all) on him as a movie star.
- maybe so - The crime thriller aspects look rote but there's something about the visuals that look well sleekly designed / shot (at least in the cuisinart style of trailers). But I haven't seen Lincoln Lawyer, director Brad Furman's previous meal ticket so maybe you'll tell me how good or generic it is in the comments?
I'd share a sixth for Closed Circuit but that's one of those truly awful "it's the whole movie" trailers so anyone who has seen the trailer need never buy a ticket to the movie. Unfortunate because Rebecca Hall is worth watching a full length, don't you think?
P.S. Weird Trivia: Two of these trailers begin with alarm clock noises and two of them contain shots of people doing laps in pools.