Volume
30: Bothersome Blond Bardem Bullies Bond Badly
Skyfall
Dir: Sam Mendes – Planned release date:
November 9
After
several months of nothing but teasers and buzz from the set, we finally get our
first truly substantive look at the new Bond film Skyfall, and it is impressive. This trailer is a bit too revealing
at times for my taste—in particular, I would have preferred they keep the whole
“Bond gets shot” thing a surprise—but there’s still a whole lot of mystery
going into these final few months of anticipation. In particular, I’m thrilled
by how little they’re telling us about Javier Bardem’s villain. Past trailers
have given us nothing but a spooky silhouette, and now we see Bardem in all his
creepy, blond glory. There isn’t a whole lot to not like about the prospect of Skyfall right now, and the idea of a
Bond film that actually deals with problems closer to home is something that
gels well with the personality Craig brings to the table. Finally, we seem to
be getting the follow-up that Casino
Royale truly deserves. If we all work together, we can just forget that Quantum of Solace was ever a thing.
Cloud Atlas
Dir: Tom Tykwer, Lana & Andy
Wachowski – Planned release date: October 26
Well…
this looks like it’ll be something, dunnit? Based on a 2004 novel by David
Mitchell, Cloud Atlas is a 164-minute
epic that stars a good chunk of Hollywood and is directed by Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run) and the Wachowski siblings
(The Matrix). It’s unmistakably a gargantuan,
ridiculously ambitious project, but I’m not sure if there is a filmmaker on
this earth who can contain all the characters, stories and themes at play
within a single film. It will be a lot of fun to see the Tykwer/Wachowski team
give it a crack, and I quite like the visual aesthetic they’ve chosen, but I
fear it could become an overly-busy, unwieldy thing. Based on all I’ve heard
about this project, if it isn’t a mess it will be a miracle. That said, any
world where filmmakers like Tykwer and the Wachowskis get $100 million to put
something like this together sounds like a good world to me.
Killing Them Softly
Dir: Andrew Dominik – Planed release
date: October 19
Meanwhile,
back on Earth, we have the trailer for Andrew Dominik’s crime thriller Killing Them Softly, which got some very
positive reviews when it premiered at Cannes earlier this year. It has a cast
filled with the usual crime movie suspects—Ray Liotta and James Gandolfini, how
are you doing?—but it also has some arthouse cred along with Brad Pitt in your
starring role. This alone is a sign that you’ve got to be dealing with at least
somewhat interesting material.
Even if it’s not great, Killing Them
Softly at least has the benefit of being the exact kind of movie that I eat
for breakfast. Heck, I even liked Kill
the Irishman, a film that none of you bothered to see. So yeah, get ready
for my ‘B+’ review of Killing Them Softly!
Out this October!
The Paperboy
Dir: Lee Daniels
– Planned release date: October 5
Lee
Daniels’ Precious has its opponents,
but I mostly stand by it as a very good, appropriately tragic film. However,
Daniels’ new film The Paperboy looks
downright nuts, and the buzz coming out of Cannes seems to back this up. Some
were relatively kind to it, but just as many started slinging mud at it from
the get-go. I’d be lying if this movie didn’t at least look somewhat intriguing, but most of
the reactions seem to indicate that Daniels doesn’t approach this material with
nearly as much silliness as it deserves. The trailer sells a big-old piece of soap
opera pulp, but according to some critics Daniels seems to think his film is
destined for Oscar gold. Based on the buzz, its destiny may in fact lie in the
$5 bin at Wal-Mart.
Paranormal Activity 4
Dir: Ariel Schulman & Henry Joost –
Planned release date: October 19
The
Paranormal Activity series doomed
itself from the beginning of its second installment, when it decided to devote
the sequels to exploring the least interesting angle possible: the origin of
the demon that haunted the couple in the original movie. It would have been far
more interesting to turn it into something of an anthology series, but instead
we just get another version of the same old crap with as little invention as
possible. Outside of the ingenious little FanCam in PA3, it’s been a case of nothing but diminishing returns. This year’s
installment Paranormal Activity 4
thankfully doesn’t take us back to a nightmare of haunted sonograms, but it
still makes the vital mistake of thinking we care about the legend of Katie
Featherston. Just scare us in new and interesting ways, darn you! The first two
sequels have mostly failed to accomplish this, and this trailer for Paranormal Activity 4 simply takes us
through the same beats. But fear not! It will still make all of the money!
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