It’s definitely a bit of a mixed bag in trailers this week. We got a little bit of superhero material. A little bit of videogame nostalgia. And the littlest bit of Hunger Games. A few more Sundance entries made their presence known. Sponsored content made us feel nervous and a pair of charming love stories made us feel the butterflies of unexpected love with spring on the horizon. There are a few more treats, but we don’t want to spoil all the surprises ahead of time. Now go ahead and tear off the wrapping to find out what movies you’re about to be so excited for—or at least perplexed by.
The One Everyone Is Talking About: Pixels (Above)
Dear sweet baby Jesus! Pixels is real! If you feel like you’ve been waiting forever for this movie, you basically have. Or you have in pop culture years, at least. The short film that gave rise to the imminent theatrical release, Pixels: Retro Gamers , came out in the spring of 2010. After it went viral, Sony optioned the short to be adapted to feature length, naturally. But now it’s finally coming out! Under normal circumstances, a movie starring Adam Sandler and Kevin James in this day and age would make us very sad, but they appear alongside Josh Gad, Peter Dinklage, and the forever-underappreciated Michelle Monaghan, and that makes us very happy. It’s also a movie that features Pac-Man and is directed by The Architect of Childhood, Chris Columbus (Home Alone, Mrs. Doubtfire, Adventures in Babysitting, etc). We hope with our whole hearts that Pixels can be this year’s Lego Movie and blow us all away.
Pause at: 1:00, 1:11, 1:22, 1:32 for so much cool stuff! Stop at 1:38 for possible subliminal messaging. Meet the “ghosts” of Pac-Man at 2:00.
Essential Quote: “Pac-Man’s a bad guy?!”
The One Everyone Is Almost Talking About: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 2
We say “almost” because this “clip” is basically just dialogue from previous movies, but still, doesn’t it make you so excited?! Is there still time to hope that that one horrible thing from the end of the Mockingjay book has been written out of the final movie? You know what we’re talking about. And you know you want it, too.
Pause at: 0:27. Is the flaming Mockingjay the coolest animation ever? We’re not saying no.
Essential Quote: “Tonight, turn your weapons to the Capitol!”—Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence)
The Super One: Avengers: Age of Ultron
Man. It’s almost like the people running marketing at Marvel know what they’re doing, because after releasing a string of ominous, crucial, life-or-death trailers, they go and give us this kicky little TV spot with the actual line “Time for some fun.” Right?! We think so, too. If the persistent images of derelict shields in snow, tender Hulk face touches, and civilians screaming with terror were bringing you down, this little tease reminds us why can’t quit those sassy bitches known as the Avengers. “It’s all in the swing,” Thor (Chris Hemsworth) says. Yeah. It’s “the swing.” Not in those flowing honey locks or in that pristinely sculpted figure. Nice “swing,” Thor. Also, we get to hear Quicksilver, aka Pietro Maximoff (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), talk and he’s totally Russian!
Pause at: 0:23. This still continues to be everything. Why yes that is a flipping motorcycle dismount throw from Cap (Chris Evans) at 0:29!
Essential Quote: “All right. It’s time for some fun.”—Ultron (James Spader)
The Documentary: Misery Loves Comedy
Amidst the continuing stream of movies trickling out from the Sundance Film Festival, we find Misery Loves Comedy, a documentary by Kevin Pollack about the compulsions and neuroses driving America’s professional funny people. Well, funny men, mostly. Whoopi Goldberg, Amy Schumer, and a few other ladies—like, a literal few—contribute their two cents to the movie, but it’s mostly just a giant cast list that says “Himself.” (No, for real, the IMDB page almost looks staged for humorous effect.) But despite the massive gender gap—and dearth of non-white people—it’s still a chance to see some American treasures talk about why they do what they do, and address the timeless comedy question: Do you kind of have to hate yourself to make people laugh for a living? And, hey, we may not get Tina Fey or Chelsea Handler, but at least there’s Freddie Prinze Jr.!
Pause at: 0:50 for young Judd Apatow. Then there’s Penn Jillette sans ponytail at 1:30. Really weird.
Essential Quote: “When you solo up there and you get the laugh, it’s like crack cocaine. Rock coc—crack. Rock cocaine.”—Tom Hanks, on comedy and his obvious extensive history with drugs
The Action One: The Transporter Refueled
But can it be a Transporter without Jason Statham? Couldn’t they just have made this exact same movie and called it something different? The Carrier? The Courier? The Driver? This doesn’t quite seem like a cooler choice than playing Daario Naharis on Game of Thrones for Ed Skrein, but do what you’ve gotta do, man. Even though we miss your very pretty face.
Pause at: 0:41 for so many bodies. Stop at 0:54 for this edition’s cargo. 1:27 has some pretty normal Transporter stuff.
Song: The Heavy, “How You Like Me Now”
Essential Quote: “People will always need guys like me, right?”
The Beauty of Youth One: Paper Towns
The funny thing about this trailer for Paper Towns, based on the book by John Green, is that it uses almost the same exact font in its title cards as The Fault In Our Stars, the other tale of young love written by Green and brought to theaters with teary fanfare. Is this the font of quirky, surprising youth romance? Towns also carries on the proud Hollywood tradition of adapting an author’s back catalogue after his Smash Hit book is successfully brought to screen. Nicholas Sparks welcomes you to the club, Mr. Green, and Gillian Flynn will be your assigned buddy now that you’ve been given an entry card. Fortunately, Towns doesn’t look like it will reaffirm our will to live by first withering our souls and making us ugly cry, and it also has the benefit of showcasing the hottest new enigmatic face in movies: our girl Cara Delevingne. What will the adorable Quiet Guy high schooler do when the girl of his dreams disappears after they spend one night of mischief together? Why, he’ll go on a whimsical scavenger hunt to find her, of course! Sounds like a charmer.
Pause at: 0:13 for someone definitely named Margo Roth Spiegleman. Pure puppy love at 2:03.
Song: Mikky Ekko, “Smile” and Twin Shadow, “To the Top”
Essential Quote: “Margo always loved mysteries. Maybe she loved them so much, she became one.”—Quentin (Nat Wolff)
The Alterna-Screen One: What Lives Inside
This one makes us feel weird. What Lives is the fourth and final installment of Hulu’s Inside series … which is a collaboration between Dell and Intel. Yeah. So it was invented for product placement purposes and heavily features the Dell Venue 87000 Series tablet, but it’s also directed by Robert Stromberg and stars J.K. Simmons, Colin Hanks, and Catherine O’Hara. It looks beautiful, and centers around a man (Hanks) who finds himself inside a fantastical realm left behind by his dearly departed artist/tinkerer dad (Simmons). So it’s all very … squishy. If you just stripped out the branding it looks like it would be really legit, but can you even say that if the movie was made for branding purposes? On the upside, Stromberg also did a little crowdfunding to support the movie, and asked people to submit sketches to the production, some of which would be used in the actual film. And that’s cool. This is the world we live in now, people. We should probably start getting used to it.
Pause at: 0:06 for …. Willy Wonka’s chocolate room? Rule #1 in action at 0:31, always go through the tiny door. Seems like fun at 0:36. Tablet Alert at 0:37.
Song: Boston, “More Than A Feeling”
Essential Quote: “I went into my father’s workshop, right? And it was my dad’s show, but … real.”—Taylor (Hanks)
The Funny One: Man Up
Oh come on! And by that we mean yes! Lake Bell is such a hidden treasure, not because she doesn’t do great work, but because not enough people talk about the great work she’s doing. And when I say “people” I mean actual people, not entertainment writers. She pops up in kooky places (In A World…, the Adult Swim show Children’s Hospital, Black Rock), but she’s always so effective and enjoyable. So, naturally, if you put her alongside Simon Pegg they’re going to make a rom-com well worth turning out for. The Playlist had a description for the movie we particularly enjoyed: “The film centers around a chaotic first date between a recent divorcee and a disillusioned singleton involving lost divorce papers, a stalker and some competitive indoor sport.” We’re interested!
Pause at: 0:17 for Lake Bell looking so datable. Like, really? It’s adorable at 1:03 and 1:07. Bell’s “the date went really well” face at 1:46.
Song: Vance Joy, “Riptide”
Essential Quote: “Sexually speaking, anything goes. Do you remember that time when you said we should … and I was like ‘I’m not gonna do that!’ And I was just thinking ‘I’m actually quite scared!’—because I couldn’t see.”—Nancy (Bell)
The Small Screen Standout: Thunderbirds Are Go!
While it’s still not quite a full trailer, this clip gives us a better look at the revamped Thunderbirds series. Hopefully we will have more details about the team soon.
Pause at: Basically anywhere to get a look at what Weta has done to bring the Thunderbirds back to life.
Essential Quote: “Thunderbirds are go!” (Obviously.)
The Foreign Cinema One: Tangerines
Tangerines has a nice story behind it. After playing to very strong critical praise at Sundance, it became Estonia’s first ever Academy Award nominee. It lost the Best Foreign Language Film category to Ida, but that’s still a huge accomplishment. Tangerines is about an old, weathered man who takes in two soldiers injured at his doorstep. The big problem is that one is Georgian and one is Chechen, and this is during the 1992 Abkhazia conflict portion of the Georgian civil war. Bad news. The old man, Ivo (played by Lembit Ulfsak, who is apparently a huge deal actor in Estonia), is sticking around in Georgia just long enough to sell his tangerine crop when the pair of sworn enemies lands in his lap, and he will nurse them back to health while he sees his crops through to the end. They vow to kill each other when they return to full health, but sharing an extended convalescence with someone can really change your perspective on things, and the everyone involved is in for a much more nuanced emotional journey than any of them realize.
Pause at: 1:17 for a very tense peace summit.
Essential Quote: “To death!”—Ivo (Ulfsak), with a very appropriate toast
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