The Half Dozen: 6 Most Interesting Looking Trailers For August 2011
My wife and I both enjoy a trip to the cinema, but it’s fair to say that our criteria for when to go are somewhat different. I will happily watch a film if the day ends in ‘y’, but she is not always as keen. First among her list of reasons for not wanting to be in the cinema is if it’s a nice day, she can’t cope with the concept of being in a dark, air-conditioned room while it’s sunny. I get round this by spending my morning enjoying the sunshine, then descending into darkness around lunchtime and normally emerging four or five films later.
Still, if climate change is giving us anything, it’s wetter, cooler summers, which can only be good news for the worlds of Cine and houses of Picture of this world. Of course, by this point in the year, many of the bigger blockbusters have come and gone; already this month we’ve had Super 8, the understated Spielberg homage, and the umpteenth in the Planet Of The Apes series, but there’s still plenty of interest yet to come, including another franchise extender and what will be, in my continued cinema education, my first Almodovar seen on the big screen. Tasty.
Sarah’s Key
Kristin Scott Thomas seems to be virtually a film industry in herself. It feels strange to see a French drama now without her in, and she’s even popping up later this year in French set R-Patz drama Bel Ami. This time, the also-not-French co-star role is taken by Aidan Quinn and the chosen subject is World War II flashbacks, but other than that it appears to be another solid entry from the former Four Weddings star.
The Interrupters
I can only imagine a few disappointed, illiterate youths ending up watching this instead of their intended viewing of the latest comedic exploits of Will, Simon, Jay and Neil. Maybe it’ll do them good, as The Interrupters appears to be the most well timed movie ever made, and a reminder that no matter how bad things got in London a couple of weeks ago, it’s by far the only city with any trouble.
Kind Hearts And Coronets
To anyone my age, it may be that Alec Guinness is the beardy bloke from Star Wars. If that’s the case, I would strap them down and force them to watch The Bridge On The River Kwai. Unless of course I met them around now, in which case I’d pack them off to watch this Ealing comedy. If eight Alec Guinness performances don’t help to offset three short turns as Obi-Wan, then there’s plenty of other Guinness goodness waiting for them when they get back.
In A Better World
My continued quest to see all of the Best Foreign Language Oscar nominations each year will hit number four in August. I’ve already seen Incendies, Dogtooth and Biutiful, and so far I would have given Dogtooth the prize myself, but it’s maybe more an acquired taste than the others. Oscar voters gave it to this Danish drama, of course, so time will tell if my disgruntlement of last year that the wrong title won is repeated this year. As good as The Secrets In Her Eyes was, it wasn’t as good as The White Ribbon, and it was only a shade better than A Prophet. In A Better World, you have a lot to live up to.
Final Destination 5
This might feel a little out of place in such illustrious company, but I have a soft spot for horror, and for the Heath Robinson nature of the deaths of the Final Destination series in particular. I saw about ten minutes at Empire Presents: BIG SCREEN last weekend, and it was a very enjoyable 3D gore fest, making the most of its slim virtues. Whether it can maintain for the whole running time remains to be seen, but Tony Todd’s back and that alone is enough to be pressing my geek buttons.
The Skin I Live In
And finally, some Almodovar horror. Definitely the stand out trailer this month in my list in terms of oddness, it’s also one of own personal shames that I’ve never seen any of Pedro’s works in the cinema, a wrong I hope to put right before the month is out. It commits the cardinal trailer sin of being a foreign language film that doesn’t want to reveal it’s in a foreign language, but it’s just strange and menacing enough that I’ll let it off.
The Movie Evangelist 