This week's roundup is all about big names in the trailer game. Christopher Nolan, Thomas Pynchon, Paul Thomas Anderson, Liam Neeson, Keanu Reeves, Clint Eastwood, and Pixar all put their stamps on movies coming soon to a theater near you. We've got one black comedy import on the list, but other than that, it's all box-office power players. So settle in and let the Hollywood establishment amaze and appall you with the latest batch of wonderful teasers.
We already talked about this. So just treat yoself and watch it again.
Pause at: 0:41, 0:53, 0:57, and 1:15 for amazing space and then 1:36 and 1:54 for equally amazing alien world stuff.
Essential Quote: "Your daughter's generation will be the last to survive on Earth."—Michael Caine's character, keeping it real
Somehow, this is the first time a Thomas Pynchon has been adapted for the big screen. The author, whose works are soaked with pop culture references, have so far been limited to the page. It's been 51 years since Pynchon's first novel, V., was published, and 41 since his magnum opus, Gravity's Rainbow, saw the light of day. By comparison, it took Stephenie Meyer three years after the first Twilight novel came out to get an entire series about moody vampires launched in Hollywood. Hell, even Atlas Shrugged has gotten a terrible trilogy! Fortunately, our long-awaited film affair with Pynchon hasn't been placed in the hands of pretentious film school libertarians. Inherent Vice is Paul Thomas Anderson's follow up to 2012's brooding character drama The Master, and reunites him with an all-in Joaquin Phoenix (is there any other kind?). It looks funny and clever and quick and, like Anderson, is very much up to the task of taking on Pynchon's complex literary style. Also, Josh Brolin, Reese Witherspoon, Eric Roberts, Owen Wilson, Martin Short, Benicio Del Toro, Jena Malone and Michael K. Williams are here too. Let's get weird!
Pause at: 0:32. It's like Josh Brolin was born with a flat top. Normal Martin Short things at 1:50. Phoenix showing us he's the right man for the job at 1:53.
Songs: Sly and the Family Stone, "I Want To Take You Higher" and Sam Cooke, "Wonderful World"
Essential Quote: "Doc may not be a do-gooder, but he's done good."
Keanu Reeves is fully committing to the Nicolas Cage phase of his career. Between last year's Man of Tai Chi and Passengers, slated for release in 2016, Reeves will have notched seven starring vehicles in three years' time—most of which involve heavy fight choreography in dramas or thrillers. And so here we have John Wick, wherein Reeves plays a man whose dog gets killed by a band of thugs. The problem is that the dog was a gift from Wick's dying wife, and he's a highly-trained walking weapon. That means bloody satisfaction is the only possible outcome, and Wick will shoot holes into or blow up anything that stands in his way. Co-stars include Ian McShane, Alfie Allen, Willem Dafoe, John Leguizamo, and Adrianne Palicki. Show up to have fun, or don't show up at all.
Pause at: 0:09 to see Reeves and a puppy in soft focus black and white. Bad guys say "Uh-ohhhh" at 0:16.
Essential Quote: "I once saw him kill three men—with a pencil."—Michael Nyqvist as Viggo Tarasov, explaining John Wick
If you want to get emotional about the history of Pixar at the movies—and why wouldn't you?—watch this whole trailer, but if you want to get straight to the new material, jump to 0:55. Pixar is back with original new material, and the child inside each of us feels giddy already! Brave was fine and everything since Up has been based off of previous material, so this is our first opportunity in a long time to get really pumped about the studio melting our minds and hearts with the transcendent power animated storytelling. So, you know, it's not like our expectations are high or anything. Watch and let the magic unfold before you!
Pause at: Any moment between 0:00 and 0:55 to initiate nostalgia tears. Then stop at 1:24 to see all the fundamental emotions that live inside you in animated form.
Song: Aerosmith, "Sweet Emotion"
Essential Quote: "I'm Joy. This is Sadness. That's Anger. This is Disgust. And that's Fear."—Amy Poehler as Joy, introducing us to our feelings, as she has so many times before
This is a movie about law enforcement waiting for one man in a safe house to have a bowel movement. And it looks ... awesome? Ray Jenkins (Angus Sampson) is in a lot of trouble, as he has a stomach full of narcotics and a group of federal agents waiting for it to come out. Double trouble comes by way of the criminals he's hauling drugs for, and everything gets worse when you consider he'll die if he doesn't give up the product to someone. We might be most excited for Hugo Weaving appearing as federal agent Croft. His career highlights when he's not in Rivendell include a lot of delighting in human misery, so watching him play a bastard cop needling a petty criminal who's under extreme digestive duress seems sadistically fun. Hey Jenkins, never accept drugs that someone offers you in Thailand.
Pause at: 0:19—roshambo for who does the cavity search! Spot Hugo Weaving's badge at 0:27. We can't imagine we'd feel much differently than Ray Jenkins does at 0:57 and 1:35. People are growing impatient at 2:08.
Essential Quote: "The law permits us to detain you for seven days. The sooner you go to the toilet, the sooner we all go home." (Seven days??)
The moment we've feared for so long in our beloved Taken franchise has finally arrived: Famke Janssen's on-screen lives have run out as Lenore Mills, wife of a man who's pissed off a lot of people with his "particular set of skills," and she now must be avenged. Oh, and he's also been framed for her murder. We won't describe what happens, because it's happened before, and even Neeson himself once said he didn't expect there to be a third Taken because it would be preposterous. So here is our great hope: that the completion of this trilogy results in some truly off the wall beyond belief action and hand-to-hand combat sequences. Neeson better tear out a man's spine with nothing but his own strength and fury. There also needs to be a 600-car pile up. That sort of thing.
Pause at: 0:12 to see the Father of the Year. 0:38 is what happens when you try to handcuff Bryan Mills (Neeson). 2:03 is exactly what we want to see.
Essential Quote: "If you go down this road, the LAPD, the FBI, the CIA, they're all gonna come for you. They'll find you. And they'll stop you."—Bryan Mills doesn't care about your threats, agent Franck Dotzler (Forest Whitaker)
Clint Eastwood hasn't majorly impressed in the director's chair for a few years now. Invictus was the last time we really felt moved, and that was all the way back in 2009, but this trailer looks strong. Sniper tells the story of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper), who is reported to be the most lethal sniper in American military history, logging 160 confirmed kills. Things build quickly in this short trailer, and we get teasing glimpses of Kyle's life back home and already feel his internal tension between duty and morality. We know that Eastwood has a deft hand with military stories, and this looks to be right in his wheelhouse.
Pause at: 1:05 to see the kind of tough choices Kyle has to make on the ground and 1:17 for a full look at Cooper as Kyle the family man.
Essential Quote: "She's got a grenade. She's got an RKG Russian grenade. She's handing it to the kid."—Chris Kyle with the enemy in his sights
