You know the drill. It’s Trailer Tracker where we at Player Affinity stalk the latest trailers hitting the web like a tiger waiting in the long grass to ambush a tubby tourist taking a pee. Coming off a number of second trailers at Comic Con we take a look at the premier of Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch, but not before jigsaw comes at us in 3D in the final instalment of the “Saw” anthology. We also have the trailers for the indie sci-fi flick Monsters, Stone with Robert DeNiro and Edward Norton and The Company Men with Ben Affleck who seems to be in everything lately. Let’s pounce!
Saw 3D
Six “Saw” movies not enough for you? Ok, how about seven? The clip for the supposedly final installment in this uneven bloody series promises more beyond-the-grave mayhem and this time all in 3D. The anthology is stronger when viewed as one tale, and finally setting a finale should help the writers to wrap things up instead of stringing along so many unnecessary subplots. If, as is the case for many, the series has lost its edge, so to speak, perhaps the rumoured return of Dr. Lawrence Gordon from the original will pique your interest.
Sucker Punch
By far the biggest surprise (trailer-wise at least) at Comic Con, Zack Snyder’s upcoming original project blew minds and quickened pulses. Described as “Alice in Wonderland with machine guns,” Sucker Punch finds a young girl (Emily Browning) admitted to a mental institution where she must escape by way of an imaginary world inhabited by strange and dangerous creatures, the oddest of which isn’t a giant mechanized samurai. Snyder’s next project is The Legends of the Guardians of Ga`Hoole (or whatever it’s being called right now) and is due in theaters in September. But that tale of talking owls doesn’t hold a candle (or a flamethrower by the looks of it) to what is quickly becoming one of the must-see films of 2011.
Monsters
Independent science fiction is a hot commodity as of late. District 9 earned a best picture nomination just last year, and the low-budget Splice, while not connecting with audiences, was met with solid critical reception. Monsters, though blandly titled, looks to have some merit and draws comparison from the aforementioned Neil Blomkamp directed actioner and of course Cloverfield. Monsters does not yet have a North American release date so we may have to wait to see if director Gareth Edwards` shoestring budget can be bolstered by big ideas.
Stone
If I have to see “Academy Award nominated/winning actor/actress” one more time in a films trailer I might be forced to do something I regret and which will result with me landing in the same position as Edward Norton’s Stone in this prison drama. Also starring Robert DeNiro and Mila Jovovich, Stone is about a convicted arsonist who manipulates a parole officer by way of his seductive wife. Oscar grabbing aside, the cast doesn’t lie and Norton is easily one of this generation’s best actors and the last time he was in prison he wound up with a best actor nom for American History X.
The Company Men
What did I just say!?! Academy Award winners Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Costner and Chris Cooper star in The Company Men about the year in the life of a group of men who have been subject to a downsize. Six time Emmy-winning producer/writer-turned-director John Wells (television’s ER) helms the project which he also wrote. Whether this will be poignant or just a rehash of story elements done better in Up in the Air remains to be seen. But just look at all those acclaimed actors.
