The Half Dozen: 6 Most Interesting Looking Trailers For November 2011
November. The time of year when Americans have Thanksgiving, and we give thanks that we don’t have to eat a giant turkey twice in five weeks. Eating turkey curry until the second week in January because you’re mother’s bought a turkey bigger than she is is not something I’d want to go through once in a year these days, never mind twice, but I digress. We’ve nearly made it through another year, but there’s still a few cinematic treasures to be found before we get out the stuffing.
Thanksgiving, of course, normally means a big event movie, and now that Potter’s wrapped up and everyone’s losing interest in Rupert Grint (bless), the other big franchise based on popular books has had to step into the fray with a two part finale. Yes, just to eke it out a little longer for the general dissatisfaction of everyone who isn’t a fourteen year old girl, Twilight’s back this month with the first part of the last part, Breaking Dawn. On Thanksgiving itself, the US will be giving thanks for a trio of family films: Arthur Christmas, the new Aardman animation which we are getting this month as well, and Hugo and The Muppets, which sadly we have to wait for. In a sort of cultural exchange, they’re not getting Tintin until Christmas, but I know who’s got the better deal.
Anyway, onto this month’s breakdown. I’ve excluded a couple of the big hitters at the end of the month, Moneyball and 50/50, have fairly generic looking trailers for their type, so while I’m sure I’ll end up seeing them, they’ve not made this list. As well as those listed above, not making the cut this month are Johnny Depp (The Rum Diary), Nicolas Cage (Justice) or a giant human centipede (I’m sure you can guess). Here are the half dozen that did.
The Future
I had always considered myself to be a dog person (and by that, I mean a fan of dogs, not half-man, half-dog), but the addition of a cat to our household two years ago was a life changing decision. While I couldn’t imagine life without our cat, he has become somewhat of a nemesis during work hours, regularly intruding on conference calls by standing on the phone and attempting to sleep on my keyboard which results in me occasionally sending e-mails saying the likes of:
“aierjnoiajisir0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000777r ae arjarrrrrrrrrrrr”
I don’t know what I’d do without him, although I can see why you might need a 30 day cooling off period.
Weekend
Word of mouth is already spreading on Weekend, which people are already suggesting could be one of the great romantic movies. It’s fantastic to think that British film is still vibrant and healthy, it’s just disappointing to see how badly this has struggled to get distribution, while Tower Heist and In Time clog up the multiplexes again this weekend. So do support Weekend if you get the chance – British film needs all of the support it can get.
Immortals
I live in fear of a new Tarsem Singh film; the 2000 “epic” The Cell is still one of the worst two hours I’ve ever spent in a cinema, and I watched some footage at BIG SCREEN earlier this year which looked visually impressive but made no actual sense whatsoever. It’s one thing to come up with a film which makes no sense, but to have an individual scene which doesn’t hang together from start to finish is quite another. But at least some of the YouTube comments on the trailer indicate that it’ll be a cultured audience:
“i love the end when 11-11-11 comes up”
“bla bla bla, to me it looks awesome!”
“11/11/11 is a very interesting date. That is when the hover dam is predicted to be breached. Lots of Info about it on youtube and google. ”
“man that guy with his silver bow looks badasss! not gonna lie i hope the titans will win. screw the gods in their tight golden armor.”
“OH MY GOD WTF BBQ EPIC GIEF NOW!”
The Awakening
I’m not sure that Rebecca Hall has yet made a genuinely bad movie (although I say that having not seen Dorian Gray). But whenever you come across someone who seems to be able to make generally good choices, it does make you more inclined to watch. What has m most intrigued in terms of credits, though, isn’t the names of Hall, Dominic West or Imelda Staunton on the cast list, but this:
Parked
I loved Star Trek: The Next Generation when I was at school, and I was also a big fan of the underdog. Consequently my favourite character was Transporter Chief Miles O’Brien, who rose from the humble depths of standing by the transporter console and saying “Yes, sir” to a fully fledged character with a wife and two kids on spin-off Deep Space Nine. Such was my devotion to Miles and his minimalist appearances that I think for a while my family were wondering about my sanity. And possibly my sexuality. But even now, I feel a little frisson of excitement whenever Colm Meaney pops up in a film, and despite recent appearances in everything from Robert Redford’s The Conspirator to Russell Brand vehicle Get Him To The Greek, it’s nice to see him in a starring role again. Colm Meaney, I love you just a little bit.
Take Shelter
It’s got Gary Busey! Ving Rhames with a shotgun leg! David Hasselhoff as himself! Women running with unfeasibly large breasts! Christopher Lloyd! It’s Pirahna 3DD! It’s… been delayed until January. Rubbish. Here in its place is something with the bloke who’s going to be General Zod in next year’s Superman reboot. Sorry. The Hoff will be back in a couple of months.
The Movie Evangelist 