Join us every week for a trip into the weird and wonderful world of trailers. Whether it’s the first teaser for the latest instalment in your favourite franchise, an obscure preview for a strange indie darling, whether it’s good, bad, ugly or just plain weird – your favourite pop culture baristas are there to tell you what they think.
Sam: It’s amazing that Anthony Hopkins can still make any random movie magnetically fascinating, even if he just shows in minor roles. Of course that was true before his Silence of the Lambs stardom and he was wonderfully supportive in Lion in Winter and 84 Charing Cross Road, but ever since amusing and scaring us all to pieces as Hannibal Lecter, he has been in a steady flow of major and minor roles – almost as often as Morgan Freeman or Samuel L. Jackson for some time. Elyse offers him another opportunity to boost a movie with his star name that seems to focus much more on the breakdown of one Lisa Pepper as the main character. Hopkins appears as her concerned doctor, but maybe there’s more to it than meets the eye in the trailer. Just like in Westworld, maybe Hopkins is pulling the stringsafter all. There’s no one as good as he in doing this subtly and steadily all throughout his career.
Julie: The gorgeously animated folktale Wolfwalkers is set in Kilkenny Ireland circa 1600. It tells the story of Robyn, who wants to be a wolfhunter, but by chance meets a very special girl who claims she changes into a wolf at night. Obviously Kilkenny during that time is not a friendly place for young girls, or wolves for that matter. When both of them have to decide the best course of action in an impossible situation, their bond is put to the test.
Matt: I have to admit that the onslaught of Marvel/Disney trailers that came out this week almost put me off – there is such a thing as too much. At the same time, I do like some of what’s been cooking in the Marvel kitchen, and I’m curious to see what they’ll do with the TV series format, especially after some people denigrated the MCU as a TV series that you had to watch at the cinema, and doubly so these days, where so many movie theatres are closed. I’m still quite curious to see what they’ll do with WandaVision, I’m kinda looking forward to the odd-couple potential in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and Loki looks like Tom Hiddleston’s having a hell of a lot of fun. All in all, after an enforced break from the MCU, perhaps I’m ready to return to that particular fictional universe to see whether they can mix things up in interesting ways.
A Damn Fine Cup of Culture 