Update #5 - Trailer Talk!

In my opinion, 2012 has been a really disappointing year in terms of movies so far. Zack Snyder's Man of Steel wasn't no where near as good as I had hoped, Derek Cianfrance's The Place Beyond the Pines wasn't anything too special, and Shane Black's Iron Man 3 was straight up horrible. Apart from that, none of the hundreds of remakes, sequels and spinoffs of older titles that have come out so far have managed to catch my attention, and neither have the generic Bruce Willis/Jason Statham action cashgrabs or the horrible Adam Sandler-esque comedies. I know that This is The End, Before Midnight and Side Effects are supposed to be fairly good movies, but none of them have premiered in Denmark yet, which means that the only 2013 release that I can say I fully enjoyed is Nic Refn's Only God Forgives. However, according to the newest batch of trailers, everything just might take a change for the better very soon. Oscar season is coming up, a lot of new movie are coming out, and thus, I'm gonna go ahead and give my two cents about some of them.

Spike Jonze's Her

Alright, so apart from Only God Forgives, this is my most anticipated movie of 2013. I don't know much about the director, but it stars Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson, who are two of my favourite actors working today. "Her" comes out on the 20th of November, and it's about a lonely writer (Phoenix) who develops a strange relationship with his talking computer (Johansson). No one knows much about this movie, but if the trailer speaks the truth and Her turns out to be as fun and loving as seems to be, we're all gonna be in for a great treat. I don't tend to like romantic comedies at all, but this one actually seems refreshingly different and innovative to me. I'm a little worried as to whether or not the human/computer relationship is gonna be genuine and believable, but because of the talent that is involved in the production of this movie, I'm pretty confident that Her will be able to pull it off. The actual trailer can be found here.

Ridley Scott's The Counselor

Once again, no one really knows much about this one. A short 1 minute trailer came out this morning, and what I saw reminded me a lot about movies like No Country For Old Men, Pusher and Catch me if You Can. In the Counselor, Michael Fassbender, who's one of the most talented actors in the business, plays a lawyer who suddenly finds himself in a bad spot with some drug lord, and thus has to find a way to redeem himself and safe all his beautiful cars and girlfriends. It does seem like a very generic plot that has been done time in and time out before, but then again, Fassbender is known for being very good at picking scripts, and so is Brad Pitt and Javier Bardem, who also star in this film. Corman McCarthy, the man who wrote the novels behind The Road and No Country For Old Men has written the screenplay for this movie, and it's gonna be interesting to see what Ridley Scott and his allstar cast has managed to do with it. The actual trailer can be found here.

Lee Daniel's The Butler

Alright, there has to be one of these movies every other year or so. The Butler's gonna be one of those three hour long biopics about some great freedom fighter who meant a lot to the rights of some ethical race, that wins a lot of oscars because it's about as politically correct as a movie can become. Forest Whitaker plays a butler who works at the white house in this film, and through him, the audience witnesses some historical moments and consequently how he, his family and the rest of the world reacts to these events. Apart from the fact that they've been done a quadrillion times before, I'm not saying that there's anything particularly bad about these kinds of movies or that I'm a racist bastard or anything like that, I'm just saying that I'm not gonna watch this movie for the simple reason that I'm 95 % sure that there's nothing new to be seen in it. It's probably gonna be an important movie that a lot of people are going to like, I'm just not gonna be one of them. The actual trailer can be found here.

David O. Russel's American Hustle

Okay, so am I the only one who has been eagerly waiting for this one ever since it was announced? David O. Russel's Silver Linings Playbook was the best character driven movie of 2012 in my opinion, and I absolutely can't wait to see what he and his incredible cast has done with American Hustle. This movie stars Cristian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence just to name a few, and according to the trailer, all of them are gonna be great in this crime/drama/comedy about con artists, money, fame and partying. The movie is a historical piece set in the 60's or 70's I think, which thanks to Bale's and Cooper's brilliant haircuts become very apparent very quickly, and I'm happy to say that I think this movie's gonna be both original, funny and very interesting. It reminded me of a lot of the upcoming Scorsese/DiCaprio movie called The Wolf of Wallstreet, which also seems like a funny historical movie about some con artists, but I'm definitely looking more forward to David O. Russel's American Hustle out of the two. The actual trailer can be found here. 

Neill Blomkamp's Elysium

Matt Damon playing a rugged underdog who has to travel into space in order to destroy a space station, so that he can cure himself of some life threatening disease and save his people from being oppressed? Yea, sign me up. Elysium is directed by Neill Blomkamp, the guy who directed District 9, which is one of my all time favourite science fiction movies. Several different versions of this movie's trailer has been released over the last few months, and they're all incredibly well made and gorgeous to look at, and it feels like the CGI and the explosions in it is being used as a tool to strengthen the other parts of the movie, and not as the main thing that everything else is build around, which is a huge plus in my opinion. Elysium is one of the few movies that I'm gonna be able to see in Danish cinemas as well, and based on its early reviews and Blomkamp's previous work, I can't wait to see what this movie has in store for us. The actual trailer can be found here.

Ron Howard's Rush

This one is gonna be great. I don't think there's ever been made a big Hollywood movie about Formula 1 racing before, and the talent involved in this one is almost too great for it not to succeed. Rush is about the legendary 1976 rivalry between James Hunt and Niki Lauda, two of the best Formula 1 drivers of all time, and it stars Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Brühl in the lead roles as Hunt and Lauda. 1 or 2 racers died as a result of accidents every season back in the 70's, and the trailer for Rush sets up this great dare devilish and thrill seeking atmosphere that encapsulates this reality very well in opinion. I wish Ron Howard would have opted for real cars rather than CGI cars in the entire movie, but then again, I do realise that crashing hundreds of expensive Formula 1 racers into a wall would end up being very expensive. I used to watch loads of Formula 1 with my dad when I was smaller, and I can't wait see Rush with him when it premieres in Denmark on the 12th of September. The actual trailer can be found here.

That's it for trailer talk this time. I intend to write reviews for most of these films when I eventually get to watch them, so until then, stay tuned and thank you for reading. 

//Andrew