Multiplex - a comic strip about life at the movies
DELETED SCENES

Posts Tagged ‘drama’

 

Trailer Watch: Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

Based on an acclaimed novel, adapted by Oscar-winning screenwriter, solid cast, strong use of music, whole plot broadcast in the trailer so the risk-averse masses are reassured that everything works out alright in the end before walking into the theater… Check, check, check, check, and check. Director Lasse Hallström has been honing his Oscar-ready craft for years and has, perhaps, become a little too slick for his own good. (To my mind, he peaked with his debut, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?, while film geeks would likely cite the Criterion-approved My Life as a Dog, made in his native Sweden.)

And yet… as a trailer, at least, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen works, but even so, I’m kind of surprised this is being pushed out in March, 2012, then, rather than this month — basically a no-confidence vote from the studio as far as awards go, as the Academy voters have a notoriously short memory.

Ewan McGregor, Emily Blunt, and Kristin Scott Thomas star.

Trailer Watch: Act of Valor trailer #3

A new trailer for Act of Valor has hit the interwebs — and there’s not much more to add, really, since the trailer itself doesn’t add much to the earlier trailer I posted a while back. Viewed solely as an action movie, it looks pretty awesome, with the only major wildcard being whether or not the story can string together the action sequences well enough and the actors can be convincing enough in the quiet scenes.

There’s the obvious (and tiresome) criticism that this is nothing more than propaganda, since it was created with the approval of the Navy. But really, how are films like The Kingdom or… well, anything Michael Bay does… and video games like Call of Duty or Battlefield not the same this way? Are we so stupid that we can’t enjoy it on its own merits, divorced from who gave it the green light? I don’t think we are.

Act of Valor stars Alex Veadov, Roselyn Sanchez and Nestor Serrano. The film was directed by Mike McCoy and Scott Waugh and hits theaters on February 17, 2012.

Trailer Watch: Writer-director Angelina Jolie’s In the Land of Blood and Honey

I don’t know why I should say that I’m surprised that this looks good, but I am, and it does. It looks really good, in fact.

Written and directed by Angelina Jolie, In the Land of Blood and Honey centers around “a love affair [that] blooms between a Bosnian woman and a Serbian man during war in the 1990s.” It stars Goran Kostić, Zana Marjanović, and Rade Å erbedžija — the film’s cast is entirely local actors (if you can call the six countries former comprising Yugoslavia “local”).

The film hits screens on December 23, 2011 — which is basically shorthand for, “We think this is an Oscar contender.” There are two versions of the film, which were filmed simultaneously: one in English, and another in the Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian language (or BHS). Undoubtedly, we’ll get the English one here.

Trailer Watch: Found footage superheroes in Chronicle

I’m a little tired of the found footage thing, but Chronicle looks pretty damned interesting. The trailer shows you everything I know about the film, and likely everything you need to know about it before going into the theater. If you need some encouragement to watch the trailer, though, it’s about three kids who get superpowers (and then things get crazy).

Written by John and Max Landis (yes, that John Landis) and directed by Josh Trank, Chronicle stars Dane DeHaan, Michael B. Jordan, Alex Russell and Michael Kelly, and it hits theaters on February 3, 2012.

(Sorry to everybody outside of the US, because MTV Movies got the exclusive on this one.)