Trailer Tracker: The Smurfs, Tangled and more

Hello and welcome back to Trailer Tracker, where we at Player Affinity pound the gavel and play judge, jury and possibly executioner to the newest trailers hitting the web. On this lovely week in June we take the blue pill and visit The Smurfs, venture to ancient Britain  with the red-band trailer for Centurion, revisit a classic fairy tale with the Disney animated film Tangled and get stuck in the Middle Men with you, a flick starring Luke Wilson about the early days of the internet.

The Smurfs

I’m really at a loss for words to describe how little I care about The Smurfs, a new Sony Pictures Animation project due out next summer.  The only thing that inspires any confidence is the voice cast, and I must say it is quite impressive.  We’ve got the likes of Neil Patrick Harris, Anton Yelchin, Hank Azaria, Alan Cumming, B.J. Novak, George Lopez, and more. Azaria alone in the role of Gargamel ups this picture's cred after he managed to elevate two mega clunkers last year; Year One and Night at the Museum: Battle for the Smithsonian.

Centurion

Director Neil Marshal, after examining a sort of primitive society in the virus-causes-end of the world film with Doomsday, goes the full monty with Centurion, a tale of the remains of a Roman legion trapped behind enemy lines. The period flick stars Michael Fassbender from Inglourious Basterds and Dominic West from The Wire. Centurion debuted overseas to mixed reviews, but this sword and sandals epic has certainly piqued my interest, especially considering the cast and director.

Tangled

It’s déjà vu all over again: a princess, a roguish protagonist, ample slapstick, a wise-cracking sidekick? Seems like Disney lite.  Tangled spins the tale of “Rapunzel” on its, ummm, hair with Mandy Moore in the role of the imprisoned damsel and all in glorious 3-D.

Middle Men

It was only a matter of time before we experienced a wave of techno-centric movies and along with David Fincher’s The Social Network about the creation of Facebook, we also get Middle Men, where in 1995, the internet is brand new and a crew of Joe Nobodies devise a way to make it big through online buying -- namely porn. Luke Wilson is joined by Gabriel Macht, all in all this looks like a fun little time at the movies.