Sometimes you can't decide if you're having one of those take-on-the world weeks, or if you're in more of a burn-it-all-to-the-ground headspace. Fortunately, the past week in movie trailer releases has both states of mind covered. Get your animated kicks with a tween and robot crime-fighting duo in Big Hero 6 then wallow in the certainty of human frailty with The Strange Color Of Your Bodies Tears, which, if the title doesn't rip your mood down, the trailer certainly will! Life is messy sometimes, so it's only fair that movies, our most populist cultural mirror, would be too. And when in doubt: Throw an underwear party with Tommy Wiseau.
The second half of 2014 is a big time for Marvel's "Really? That's Marvel?" properties. Guardians of the Galaxy is looking to foster audience relationships with the comic titan's more obscure players, and now Big Hero 6 is looking to do the same for a younger demographic. The skinny on 6 in the print universe is that they are a hero collective assembled by a top-secret consortium of politicians and businesses working on behalf of the Japanese government. In the comics as well as the movie, the puffy robot Baymax was assembled by boy genius Hiro Takachio, except now we'll know him has Hiro Hamada on screen, and the pair will obviously be leading the charge against some form of dastardly villain. Voice talent for the movie includes T.J. Miller, Alan Tudyk, Maya Rudolph, and James Cromwell, and if BH6 can tap into the distinct personalities of those fantastic performers we are feeling very optimistic about Marvel’s first animated collaboration with Disney.
Pause at: 0:57. Watch Baymax the inflatable android do some adorable DIY repair work. Then stop at 1:30 to see more robots-being-silly-with-human-objects cuteness, and 1:41 gives a glimpse of the faux Golden Gate Bridge in the hybrid city of San Fransokyo.
Song: Fall Out Boy, "My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark"
Essential Quote: "All right let me get this straight: A man in a kabuki mask attacked you with an army of miniature flying robots."—Police officer (Sounds like we have our conflict!)
We're crying already. Filmmaker Michael Rossato-Bennett follows social worker Dan Cohen, who founded the nonprofit organization Music & Memory, and who is working to spread music as a form of therapy to restore memory loss and improve the lives of patients who suffer from it. Alive Inside took home the Audience Award at this year's Cannes Film Festival, and its level of sentiment and hopefulness promises to be both soul-crushing and soul-nourishing in equal measure.
Pause at: 1:21. This is the face of true joy, but just play everything else, because you need to see all this dancing and singing in action.
Essential Quote: "Have you ever had music just hit you in a place that immediately brought you to tears? Music has that power."—"Don’t Worry, Be Happy" guy Bobby McFerrin (Yeah, well, so does this movie.)
This Christmas release has "Oscar Bait" written all over it. Louis Zamperini was a graduate of the University of Southern California, an Olympic distance runner, and a B-24 bombardier in the United States Army Air Corps—American cinema material of the highest order. Zamperini enlisted shortly after the U.S. entered World War II in 1941, and was shot down over the Pacific in his assigned plane, the Green Hornet, in May of 1943. By June, his family had received official word from Franklin Roosevelt that their son had died a hero's death in combat. Obviously, this was a pessimistic oversight, because Zamperini lived to tell his improbable story, which became a biography by Laura Hillenbrand called Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption on which this movie is based. Unbroken is the second directorial effort of Angelina Jolie, and it tells the tale of Zamperini from childhood to the Olympic stage to the 47 days he spent in a raft at sea after being shot down, and the subsequent time he spent as a prisoner of war in a Japanese internment camp. The subject matter is heavy, but still considerably lighter and more hopeful than Jolie's directorial debut, In the Land of Blood and Honey, which centered on a rape camp during the Bosnian War. It's a broad scope to cover, but this trailer is an encouraging start and we already feel invested in lead actor Jack O'Connell's portrayal of Zamperini. Queue the lofty expectations!
Pause at: 1:04. Stop here to see our hero established as an Olympian at the 1936 games, and then again at 2:24 to see him established as the defiant POW.
Essential Quote: "Louie. A moment of pain is worth a lifetime of glory."—Pete Zamperini
The first promo material for Tommy Wiseau's project The Neighbors came out years ago, but just this week a new "teaser" was released. Well, it's kind of a teaser and kind of a general Tommy Wiseau marketing video and entirely nonsensical. If you're a fan or follower of the Sphinx-like Wiseau, none of this is surprising to you, and you'll probably just be really excited he's announcing new material. Whether or not anything comes of this announcement is entirely unknown, but he's promising a September release for this sitcom about a "diverse group of personalities" all living in the same apartment building. From what we've seen so far, Neighbors makes us feel like we're watching Trash Humpers and porn and The Office all at the same time. It's pretty unpleasant, but we're guessing that's not an accident.
Pause at: 0:06. This is where Wiseau appears in a blond wig and top hat. Stop again at any subsequent second to take in the whole weird scene.
Essential Quote: "Hey Lula! How you doing? We have a party today."—Tommy Wiseau
Since anything Wiseau-related is shaky at best, we'll give you a TV trailer for something on a real network with a real release date and real actors. Terry Gilliam doesn't actually have anything to do with Syfy's upcoming 12 Monkeys series, due out January 2015, but the concept is interesting enough that a halfway decent creative team should be able to pull some life out of it. Co-executive producer Terry Matalas tells The Hollywood Reporter the show is a "complete reimagining," not just a "cover band of the film." Considering the 1995 movie was actually pretty legit in a mad genius-y kind of way, we don't see the need to run screaming in a different direction, but the aesthetic of the world feels right in this first look, and we're willing to stay open-minded.
Pause at: 0:12. Is that Željko Ivanek?! At 0:52, oh that is definitely Ivanek! And at 0:58 we get a look at how bleak the post-apocalyptic future is.
Essential Quote: "You ready to make history? Or unmake it?"—Ramse
The French trailer for this terrifyingly titled movie came out last year, but the first cut for U.S. audiences was posted this week. It's—well, it's a lot, but it's also nothing. According to various accounts, because you might not learn it from the trailer, the movie is a about a man, Dan, whose wife goes missing, and he embarks on a "hellish nightmare" mission soaked in bloody terror to find her. Variety says "This blood-spattered pseudo-Freudian nonsense is suitable only for the most avid giallo groupies," and "other devotees of ersatz 1970s Italo schlock." We know that's not an endorsement but it still gets us pretty excited in a weird way, and hardcore giallo fans deserve recognition for their own brand of twisted nerdery, too.
Pause at: 0:23. The number seven written in crayon has never looked so ominous. And we're not sure which human body parts are pressing together over shards of glass at 0:40, but we have some ideas.
Essential Quote: "I am worried."—Dan Kristensen (Frankly, Dan, so are we.)
