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.
Even a couple of years after its release, not everyone has seen Oppenheimer – and some who are now remedying this aren’t necessarily enjoying it as much as most have. Check out Mege’s Six Damn Fine Degrees for an instance of this.
Meanwhile, Matt is feeling the anxiety of an ever-growing backlog of films, books, games etc. Sometimes he does wish he could just focus on catching up on all the culture he’s got at his disposal – but as a Futurama fan of the first hour, he knows that such wishes are likely to backfire.
And what else do we have for you in this week’s trailer grab bag?
Sam: When you think the world can’t get any more dreary, something miraculous happens sometimes – like Disney announcing it’s renewing The Muppet Show – at least for a very special event starring Sabrina Carpenter, Maya Rudolph and Seth Rogan – in early February! I was just a little too young to see the original seasons (1974-1981) when they first came out, but ever since YouTube and social media, Kermit, Miss Piggy, Gonzo and everybody else have become some of my favourite comfort characters. The stellar cast of guest stars stopping by (among many, many others including some of my most beloved, such as Madeleine Kahn, Roger Moore, Shirley Bassey, Julie Andrews, Liza Minelli, …) recently made me buy all the available DVD box sets. My unlikely prayers must have been heard, as, at least one more time, the Muppet Show is on again. Hooray!
Mege: You want the finest ears in town for safecracking. Why not a piano tuner? And there is, of course, a lovely lady pianist. All the pieces are in place, and they should make something extraordinary out of that material. I respond to such movies because you don‘t have to worry about a story that you have heard a thousand times already, or not in this way. And Dustin Hoffman lends his seal of quality.
Matt: Even as a kid growing up in the ’80s, I thought that Masters of the Universe was blatantly a toy ad masquerading as a TV series. And now they’re bringing it back as a live-action film? Who’s this for? My fellow Gen X dudes eager to turn their bad-taste nostalgia into mucho bucks? Or their kids – who, at this point in time, are likely to be in university? I could understand it more if there was any hint of them giving the IP something akin to the Barbie treatment – but no, the teaser makes this look like a straight-faced reboot. And, get this: apparently they got Jared Leto to play Skeletor. Okay… perhaps they are Barbiefying this? More seriously, though: it looks like one of the writers involved in this project also worked on the wonderful Laika films ParaNorman and Kubo and the Two Strings. Is there more to this than I imagine?
A Damn Fine Cup of Culture 