Give me an evening with nothing to do and the new teaser trailer for Skyfall, James Bond’s 23rd outing, and naturally animated .gifs and videos get made. It is nature’s way. Before indulging me familiarise yourself with the teaser below:
What is the first thing that springs to mind upon watching this trailer? What recent cultural phenomenon has clearly influenced the latest James Bond film? Coronation Street of course! The Weatherfield tram crash has been recreated by Skyfall‘s director Sam Mendes using a tube train and it almost looks as good as the stunt created on an ITV1 budget. If you need side by side animated .gif comparison we have you covered:
The second thing my brain thought upon seeing this teaser was that it simply isn’t centred around Judi Dench enough. I have made my expectations for Skyfall pretty clear and expect much more Dench in the finished film. I have tweaked the trailer a little to better reflect what I hope the final film will be like.
Who doesn’t prefer Judi Dench looking at things to Daniel Craig running around and shooting things? Oh.
While we are clearly all film connoisseurs here at Mild Concern and watch all films regardless of their outward appearance and marketing, sometimes seeing a certain bunch of actors in a trailer gets me all excited. (see Best Exotic Marigold Hotel)
To give you an insight into how my brain reacts to this sort of trailer, and the general inane chatter I have to put up with all day long from inside my own head, I have broken down my thought process while watching the trailer for Hyde Park on Hudson, embedded below.
My reaction to the trailer for Hyde Park on Hudson can be broken down as follows:
0:12 – Laura Linney! She’s normally really good in things (and I once saw her making out in Piccadilly Circus). Let’s hope this isn’t one of her annoying roles. 0:16 – Who’s that? I don’t recognise the voice. 0:20 – Bill Murray! I love him in every single film he’s done. 0:26 – Wow, he really doesn’t sound like Bill Murray. I will hopefully get over this soon. 0:40 – Was that Olivia Colman? It probably wasn’t but wouldn’t it be great if it was? 0:49 – King of England? I guess this is King Colin Firth. This is what you get for choosing Geography over History. 0:56 – Olivia Williams too! She was great even in Dollhouse. 1:00 – Nice fake teeth you’re wearing Olivia Williams. 1:04 – It certainly sounds like Olivia Colman. (At this point I start to look up the film on IMDb) 1:14 – It is Olivia Colman. I love Olivia Colman! (And IMDb gets closed) 1:25 – Fantastic awkward wave, very Roger & Val. 1:36 – I like cocktails. 1:40 – “Based on True Events” means I might actually learn something about history. Fantastic. 2:08 – I wonder what Bill Murray was Oscar nominated for?* 2:10 – Bill Murray and Olivia Colman in the same car. Amazing. 2:12 – I wonder what Laura Linney was Oscar nominated for? Presumably not Love Actually.** 2:23 – Excellent use of the film’s title in dialogue. Kudos. 2:29 – When is soon?
* Lost in Translation, of course.
** The Savages, Kinsey and You Can Count on Me. Steady on Linney.
After I gushed over the BBC’s hugely successful and coolly modernised Sherlock Holmes series, Sherlock I thought I should at least write my first thoughts on the little we have seen of US broadcaster, CBS’s upcoming take on the detective: the whimsically titled, Elementary.
There seems to be a lot of hesitation around the series (including from myself) but there is also something infinitely cool about the fact that Johnny Lee Miller, who (in Danny Boyle’s 2011 Frankenstein play) switched between the roles of Frankenstein and Frankenstein’s Monster with Benedict Cumberbatch nightly, making this the second time the pair of them will be ‘sharing’ a role.
In the new three-minute preview (below) we don’t seem to be offered anything gobsmackingly revolutionary or particularly interesting, but if one thing is clear it is that Elementary certainly looks like it will be quite different in look and feel from Sherlock.
I don’t know whether to start with the fact that Englishman, Miller’s Sherlock puts on an uncanny impression of David Hyde Pierce (“Niles Crane, Private Detective!”) or that Dr John Watson has sex-changed into Lucy Liu.
Past the quirkiness of Rubik’s Cubing the discovering of corpses whilst cops blather about how amazing the ‘world’s most famous detective is’ it seems evident that the show is going to also heavily revolve around the chemistry and friendship of Holmes and Joan Watson (I see what they did there) – who appear to meet in a rehab centre after Sherlock’s drug problem takes him to New York.
That chemistry between the leads is arguably one of the greatest things about the BBC’s series, with Martin Freeman and Benedict Cumberbatch’s ambiguous harmony creating excellent character-driven storytelling. Worryingly, from the trailer alone, sexual tension seems pretty apparent in Elementary. Hmm, I spy my first major qualm with the show. I don’t oppose to romantic interests in Sherlock Holmes tales, just romantic interests in Sherlock Holmes tales who aren’t Martin Freeman and Benedict Cumberbatch.
From the trailer CBS’s Sherlock Holmes looks and feels more human and therefore potentially more vulnerable than the BBC’s which could allow for some great drama if he isn’t going to always remain in a Cumberbatch-bubble of non-existent emotion. Elementary has stuck with an English Sherlock but seems to have changed just about everything else so I am ready to give it a fair chance. In all the Sherlock hype at the moment it is a shame that FOX’s long-running television series, Sherlock Holmes M.D. ends next next week, too.
Anyway, never mind my rubbish opinion, watch the trailer and decide for yourself:
Looper, the time travel action film from Brick director Rian Johnson starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis, finally has its first trailer. From the footage on show it looks like Johnson hasn’t lost the visual flair that made Brick such a memorable debut.
Prepare for me to talk about this film for the rest of the year. Apologies in advance.
As re-watching all of Battlestar Galactica has stolen all of my valuable blogging time, allow me to plug the gap with a trailer.
Safety Not Guaranteed is adapted from a wanted ad and internet sensation. You can read all about this particular meme over at KnowYourMeme.com but I have shamelessly stolen the ad itself and placed it below:
The film follows three journalists investigating the man behind the ad and is exciting for the following reasons:
Aubrey Plaza – Scott Pilgrim and Parks and Recreation actress finally gets a leading role
Jake M. Johnson – A harmless version of Mark Ruffalo who gets bonus points simply for sharing screen-time with Zooey Deschanel in New Girl
Time Travel – Whether it happens or not time travel is always a draw
Time Travel (again) – If they do actually manage to time travel this could well be some Heavy-Knitwear-Science-Fiction, more on that next week.
And now for the actual trailer because that’s what you want to see and I have to do some work now:
