Trailer Tuesday: Bad Boys 3, The New Pope, Soul
This week’s episode of Trailer Tuesday is special: it includes gems such as «The New Pope» and «Soul» alongside no-go trailers such as «The Invisible Man». Which one’s your favourite?
This week’s selection is a masterclass of how to make a great trailer – «The New Pope» – and one example of how not to make a trailer – «The Invisible Man». Mix in a bit of Will Smith, Apple TV Plus and my very personal favourite of the week, «Soul», and you’re up-to-date on the world of movies.
The Banker
The Apple TV Plus offer might be tiny, but if you value quality over quantity, the computer and smartphone manufacturer from California is doing just fine. In the latest Apple TV Plus movie, Samuel L. Jackson and Anthony Mackie play two African American men in 1950s racist California who buy a bank to help other African American residents buy houses in all-white neighbourhoods.
Sounds exciting. All the more so because the film is based on a true story and criminal prosecution. There's no way I'm going to miss this one.
Release date: 6 December 2019, Apple TV Plus
The New Pope
No, I haven’t seen HBO's «The Young Pope» with Jude Law as kind of a playboy pope. Maybe that was a mistake. The trailer to the spin-off «The New Pope» with John Malkovich as Jude Law's successor surely makes me think that. This is one of the coolest trailers I've ever seen. I just don't know why yet.
Is it the driving beat in the music by Charlotte Adigéry? Its hypnotic effect in interaction with neon light – what the heck are neon crosses doing in the Vatican? Or the simple promise of a showdown of the popes between Malkovich and Law?
This trailer is a masterpiece.
Release date: January 2020, HBO
Bad Boys For Life
How many times more do we have to watch ageing 90s action stars in their most successful roles of that time, declaiming slogans such as «one last time», just so they can do the same thing again in ten years?
In the case of Will Smith, I hope very, very many more times. Sorry.
Release date in Swiss cinemas: 17 January 2020
The Invisible Man
The trailer looks good. Really good. A reinterpretation of the invisible man created by Universal's monster cabinet, also including Frankenstein's Monster, the Werewolf, the Mummy or Count Dracula.
But why on earth does the trailer have to spoil the whole film?
Release date in Swiss cinemas: 28 February 2020
Soul
In «Soul», every human being is born with a soul that's shaped in a cosmic place that's beyond our imagination. The afterworld? Possibly. Joe Gardner (Jamie Foxx) is a passionate jazz musician and music teacher at a New York secondary school. His greatest dream is to have a gig with his band in a legendary New York club. But he dies in an accident. In the shape of his soul, the purest version of himself, he tries to get back into his body – back to life.
I have huge expectations for this movie. Not only because it's directed by Pete Docter, known for Pixar movies such as «Monsters Inc.», «Up» and «Inside Out». But also because «Up» and «Inside Out» are, in my opinion, two of the best movies Pixar has ever made. Docter even co-wrote the screenplay for «Wall-E». If anyone knows how to activate my emotional side and pull at my heartstrings with a 1-minute trailer, then it's Docter.
It doesn't disappoint. The Jazz overture at the beginning instantly went to my new sound to start the day. Add the beautiful animations and the essential questions of life that are thrown in – «Who am I really?» or «What's important in life?» – and I'm captured. I'll get out my box of tissues. For some real man tears.
Release date in Swiss cinemas: 19 June 2020
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I'm an outdoorsy guy and enjoy sports that push me to the limit – now that’s what I call comfort zone! But I'm also about curling up in an armchair with books about ugly intrigue and sinister kingkillers. Being an avid cinema-goer, I’ve been known to rave about film scores for hours on end. I’ve always wanted to say: «I am Groot.»