The Half Dozen: 6 Most Interesting Looking Trailers For February 2013
It’s February again, following straight after January like it seems to every year, but I’m a closet anarchist so I still hope each year that someone will decide to mix all the months up, just to keep everyone on their toes. Sadly, February’s snuck in at the same place it does every year, so the inevitability of me having to state I’m another whole year older. This year I’m starting the final year in my thirties, and wondering what I have left to achieve before I hit the big four-oh. (Other than watching This Is 40 and scaring myself half to death, I’m sure.)
Last year I got to spend two hours of my birthday in the cinema, watching The Muppets, which turned out to be my favourite Muppet film of them all. This year, there’s plenty of possibilities of something equally as good, although I may not get to watch it on my actual birthday. But either way, hopefully February has some treats and surprises in store.
Flight
If I had to take eight directors and their body of work to a desert island, I reckon that Robert Zemeckis’ live action work would be in with a shout. From cast-iron classics such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and my all time favourite Back To The Future to early hits such as Romancing The Stone and even lesser works like Death Becomes Her, Zemeckis was never less than interesting until he started messing around with mo-cap. His first real people film in twelve years has been too long coming, but hopefully he’s back in live action for a while.
Wreck-It Ralph
I’ve had a Game Gear, a Mega Drive, a GameCube, two Playstations and my sister’s NES over the years, but I still do most, if not all, of my gaming these days on my trusty iPhone. So I’m hoping I’ll get a decent amount of the references, but also that I’ll get a decent amount of storytelling. Mrs Evangelist will be my control subject, as about the only non iPhone game she’s ever played extensively is Animal Crossing. Women, eh? (JOKING, before I get letters.)
I Wish
Sometimes it’s the smaller elements that intrigue me about trailers. With I Wish, it’s the very deliberate subtitles that first caught my eye, but also the credits at the beginning. I’d like to think I’m expanding my knowledge of cinema, but having only started expanding my own knowledge in 2008, so far the works of Hirokazu Koreeda have passed me by. Yet another name to add to the LoveFilm list, I guess.
Side By Side
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The digital evolution has placed a firm grip on cinema over the last decade, but what’s being lost in the process? Christopher Kenneally has made a career as a post-production manager, but this is his second documentary and features Keanu Reeves talking to just about everyone in Hollywood worth taking an opinion from. Side By Side is showing at the Cambridge Arts Picturehouse this Friday at 18:30 and, along with Jim Ross, Toby Miller and Sarah McIntosh I’ll be helping to host a Q & A after the film. If you’re in the area, do come and ask us a testing question or two. More details here if you’re interested.
http://www.picturehouses.co.uk/cinema/Arts_Picturehouse_Cambridge/film/Side_By_Side/
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Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence In The House Of God
2012 was a fantastic year for documentaries, so I’m hoping 2013 can come some way close to living up to it. Alex Gibney has a strong track record, including Taxi To The Dark Side and Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room, so this is as good a place as any to start with that hope.
Cloud Atlas
I’ve neither hope nor expectation that this will be any good; in fact, I’m hoping it’ll be a gigantic train wreck. I’m making a conscious effort to try to maintain a higher level of quality this year, but I’m happy to make an exception for this. However, this trailer doesn’t make this look any less mad than my expectations, with Korean Jim Sturgess and Jim Broadbent being plungered in the face. I just hope both the film and I can sustain ourselves for the two hour and fifty-two minute running time. Gulp.
The Movie Evangelist 