Sunday 2 November 2008

TRAILER PARK: Angels & Demons, Bedtime Stories & Valkyrie

Sunday 2 November 2008
I am one of the ten people who haven't read The Da Vinci Code. Perhaps that's why I found some entertainment in the critically-drubbed Ron Howard film adaptation released in 2005. The prequel book/film ANGELS & DEMONS has reunited Howard with star Tom Hanks (minus that notoriously bad haircut) and has just released its teaser trailer. As expected, it's just a series of very brief shots towards the end, although I loved the opening aerial tracking shot above the Vatican, and the music is appropriately spine-tingling. Fans of Dan Brown's novels might already be queuing for this, and there's certainly nothing here to put me off.

HD Download: 720P (58MB)
Release Dates: 15 May 2009 (US & UK)

I really can't stand Adam Sandler, so I watched the trailer for BEDTIME STORIES with a degree of trepidation. To be fair to him, there's a kernel of a good idea in this film's family-friendly premise. Sandler plays a father whose bedtime stories he tells his niece and nephew start to "come true". Maybe it'll make more sense in the actual film, but it's not quite the fantastical hilarity I was expecting. In some of the quick-reference examples here, it seems that Sandler's character gets caught up in strange situations that merely echo some his previous night's tales. So, straight away, the extent of the "bedtime stories come to life" concept lost some of its sheen for me.

After watching the trailer, I can't remember a single joke (beyond the funny visual of a bug-eyed pet), but the production values look high and it'll be interesting to see how Russell Brand fares in a supporting role. An impressive cast, too: Keri Russell as the love-interest, Guy Pearce, Courteney Cox, Lucy Lawless, Jonathan Pryce, Teresa Palmer and Richard Griffiths. I'm sure this will be a Christmas family hit of Night At The Museum proportions, but the trailer's explanation of the central gimmick left me a bit cold and confused.

HD Downloads: 480P (59MB), 720P (146MB), 1080P (207MB)
Release Dates: 25 December 2008 (US) & 28 December 2008 (UK)

Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg's plot to blow up Adolf Hitler with a suitcase bomb was a WWII story that fired my imagination in history class. What kind of man was he? What would have happened if he'd succeeded? VALKYRIE is a long-overdue re-enactment of those real events, starring Tom Cruise and a plethora of familiar faces, from director Bryan Singer (Usual Suspects, X Men, Superman Returns).

The third trailer didn't excite me as much as the first one, but it still looks very good. The perfect comeback for Cruise, potentially. I always enjoy well-made WWII movies (especially if they have a basis in truth), and Singer's Valkyrie looks like a particularly strong example. It's a shame this trailer decided to use a recognizable music track from Saw in its latter moments (which dragged me out of its mind-space considerably), but I'm still very eager to see this.

HD Downloads: 480P (50MB), 720P (126MB), 1080P (171MB)
Release Dates: 29 December 2008 (US) & 30 January 2009 (UK)

Note. To play trailers; right-click, select "Save As...",
rename the file to "whatever.mov" and then open.