Talking Trailers: ‘Gravity’

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It has been far too long since the great director Alfonso Cuarón has graced our screens with one of his films – since “Children of Men” way back in 2006 to be exact – and with this short teaser trailer for his new sci fi flick “Gravity,” we finally get just a little taste of what we have been missing this whole time.

Just watch that trailer below and tell me you aren’t intrigued. Can’t be done, because it looks to awesome to not get your attention. And if you are familiar with “Children of Men,” you know that Cuarón favors these impossibly long one-take shots, which he will apparently be pushing even harder in “Gravity,” with rumors of at least one twenty-minute uninterrupted sequence with no cutaways of edits, and since it looks like most of this thing will be taking place in zero Gs in outer space, one can already imagine the drifting, floating, “weightless” camera work that will be employed throughout.Continue Reading …

Talking Trailers: ‘Inside Llewyn Davis’

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The Coen Brothers are back at it, this time coming at us with a period piece maybe musical comedy/drama/dramady(?) about a folk singer trying to make it big in 1960s New York City, and since this is from the makers of such films as “Raising Arizona,” “Fargo,” “The Big Lebowski,” “O Brother, Where Art Thou,” “No Country For Old Men,” and “True Grit” among other gems and classics, how can this not shoot up to the top of my must see list of the year? And the same goes for you. You know wanna see this already just based on the pedigree. Well guess what? Now there’s a trailer, t0o.

Oscar Isaac somehow landed the lead role and I am sure it made his day when he got that phone call, and you know what? Based on this trailer, he looks pretty awesome, I like the laconic, laid back look and feel, and actually this trailer is put together pretty well and comes to an interesting climax that really makes me anticipate what happens with this character and how he’s going to actually play out. It’s cool to see the Coens mixing it up with some new people, including the now always reliable Justin Timberlake, of whom they utilized both his acting chops and his musical abilities for the soundtrack. Also working on the movie’s music is T Bone Burnett, and that worked out great for “O Brother, Where Art Thou” so there’s no reason to doubt it will work here.Continue Reading …

Talking Trailers: ‘Elysium’ looks incredible

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Held under wraps for all of pre-production through post-production, Neill Blomkamp’s highly anticipated follow-up to his debut surprise hit “District 9” is coming up on us in a matter of months, meaning that Blomkamp’s had to have his fingers pried open a bit to let some tasty nuggets of information out there for marketing purposes, to wet the beak of the public, and they are off to a hell of a start with this new poster and trailer combo.

“Elysium” is the name of the great big space station on which the wealthy live, free of poverty and disease and crime and fear. Meanwhile, the rest of us poor bastards are stuck on a trashed Earth, overpopulated and decimated, a toxic waste land, where poverty, disease and fear are the name of the game. And according to this trailer, Matt Damon plays a guys who wants to get from Earth to Elysium, and apparently he needs to have a robo-exoskeleton grafted to his body, and this will somehow give him the power to break into “the most heavily guarded place in the universe,” which will somehow “save everyone” in some sort of vague way. The class warfare element is obviously going to be very intense, so what else will be inside this narrative to drive this thing home emotionally. Damon’s character says he needs to get to Elysium. But why? Is it personal? Is he trying to save someone? Get to someone?Continue Reading …