Category Archives: Silver Bullet – Trailer Park

The Silver Bullet ~ The Exorcist: Believer

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Synopsis: Two parents seek help when their daughters show signs of demonic possession.
Release Date: October 13, 2023
Thoughts: The landmark 1973 film The Exorcist has seen its fair share of poor sequels. Many respectable filmmakers (and even original author William Peter Blatty) have tried and failed to recapture what made that original movie so resolutely terrifying. I’m not going to sit here and tell you that this first preview for The Exorcist: Believer has made me, well, a believer that someone finally got it right, but there’s a glimmer of hope that the team that so successfully revived the Halloween series might also be the right group to revisit this tale of demonic possession. As he did with Jamie Lee Curtis with 2018’s Halloween and its two sequels, David Gordon Green again achieved a bit of a coup in securing original star Ellen Burstyn to reprise her Oscar-nominated role. I’m curious to see how her story will tie together with modern-day possessions. Rumored to be the first of a trilogy (The Exorcist: Deceiver is already slated for 2025!), it will all depend on how this is received. Though clocking it at nearly 3 minutes, it’s a more extended trailer than usual, but it’s stuffed to the gills with frights…and if I’m saying it frightened me while watching it in the bright daylight, then you know it packs a punch.

The Silver Bullet ~ JAWS (1975) – IMAX Re-Release

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The Trailer:

Synopsis: When a killer shark unleashes chaos on a beach community off Cape Cod, it’s up to a local sheriff, a marine biologist, and an old seafarer to hunt the beast down.

Release Date:  June 20, 1975 (original) / September 2, 2022 (Re-Release)

Thoughts: Even a casual visitor to this site would get a small inclination that Steven Spielberg’s boffo blockbuster JAWS from 1975 played a big part in shaping my young movie-going mind.  My idea of the perfect film, it’s a bona fide classic that I don’t need to defend because time has proven it was built to last.  I watch it at least once a year at home and make sure to catch it on the big screen any time it surfaces.  I knew this was arriving on IMAX, along with E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, and knowing that Spielberg had a hand in making it happen gives me even more confidence this will be a fantastic presentation of an already unforgettable thrill ride.  As a bonus, it’s also showing up in a separate RealD 3D conversion, though I can’t confirm if that will also be an IMAX experience.  Arriving right on time for the Memorial Day crowds, the men facing the gargantuan shark might need a bigger boat but audiences attending JAWS in IMAX shouldn’t need a bigger screen.  This trailer is well-edited and, aside from some chintzy font that makes it feel like a low-budget effort, will surely drum up some excitement from crowds watching it before current (like Nope) and upcoming releases.

The Silver Bullet ~ The Northman

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Synopsis: A young Viking prince embarks on a quest to avenge his father’s murder.

Release Date:  April 22, 2022

Thoughts: If you are wondering why the spike in previews for upcoming 2022 films, attribute it to my being won over by a nagging curiosity to take a quick peek at several titles coming down the pike with intriguing premises, interesting casts, or a mixture of both. Take The Northman, for a prime example.  Viking prince and hard-scrabble armies in bloody battles? Uh, yeah!  Cast roster that reads like a MN Movie Man must-see list? You better believe it. Director known for visceral projects that aren’t aiming to please the masses but firmly establish a sense of reality even in circumstances that lean toward fantasy? Bingo! Led by Alexander Skarsgård (The Legend of Tarzan) and featuring Nicole Kidman (Being the Ricardos), Anya Taylor-Joy (Last Night in Soho), Ethan Hawke (Zeros and Ones), Willem Dafoe (Spider-Man: No Way Home) and featuring a rare appearance by singer/sometimes actress Björk, The Northman, directed by Robert Eggers (The Witch) is already a much-anticipated title for many and you can add me to that list as well.

The Silver Bullet ~ The Lost City

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Synopsis: A reclusive romance novelist on a book tour with her cover model gets swept up in kidnapping attempt that lands them both in a cutthroat jungle adventure.

Release Date:  March 25, 2022

Thoughts: Just this month, Sandra Bullock returned to the public eye after being gone for a spell with a solid performance in the heavy Netflix drama The Unforgivable.  In February, Channing Tatum will headline Dog, a comedy with heart that will be his first onscreen appearance in five years.  These two A-listers are audience favorites that have been sorely missed and in March the two will combine forces for The Lost City and from the looks of this first trailer, both will give us exactly what we like best about both.

Yeah, it may be frightfully reminiscent of Romancing the Stone and I’m not totally confident of the chemistry between the two paying off like we think (though considering Tatum replaced Ryan Reynolds who Bullock also had iffy sparks with in The Proposal…I’m hedging my bets it’s all good) but…sometimes you just want movie stars to be movie stars and flex their more than capable muscles to charm our pants right off.  Throw in Brad Pitt (not just “Brad Pitt” but “Long Hair Legends of the Fall Brad Pitt”!) and The Lost City officially tips the scale into hotly anticipated territory.

The Silver Bullet ~ Aline

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Synopsis: The life story of Canadian singing sensation Aline Dieu.

Release Date:  January 21, 2022

Thoughts:  It was back in June when I heard there was a “Celine Dion biopic” premiering at Cannes and let me tell you I literally dropped what I was doing the moment the first trailer arrived shortly thereafter.  I didn’t post anything about it when it opened at the festival to some surprisingly positive reviews but now that it is arriving in theaters in January, I think it’s time to share the wealth of Aline, the ‘fiction freely inspired by the life of Celine Dion’.

I’d be so interested to read more about the logistics of using Dion’s life story and her music but not her name or the names of those in her life.  I’m at least glad that writer/director/star Valérie Lemercier’s approach appears to be one of genuine sincerity and not mocking the French-Canadian who has been such an easy target over her amazing career trajectory.  It’s an odd way in, that’s for sure, but I think it looks completely bizarre in the best way possible.  You better believe I’ll be keeping my eyes and ears open for this one the moment I can see it because as a longtime fan of Dion I’m truly fascinated in what this film has to offer.

31 Days to Scare ~ Scream (2022) – First Look Trailer

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Synopsis: Twenty-five years after a streak of brutal murders shocked the quiet town of Woodsboro, a new killer has donned the Ghostface mask and begins targeting a group of teenagers to resurrect secrets from the town’s deadly past.

Release Date:  January 14, 2022

Thoughts: It’s been 10 years since we’ve heard that familiar voice on the phone calling the latest batch of doomed flavors of the month (quick…how many of the teenage cast members of Scream 4 are still a ‘thing’?) and so the return of Ghostface is being met with an expected marked frenzy.  Going the 2018 Halloween and 2020’s The Grudge route and leaving off any numerical suffix, 2022’s Scream is the first not to be directed by Wes Craven who passed away in 2015.  In the hands of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett (also known as Radio Silence, the team behind 2019’s Ready or Not), we’re back in Woodsboro for a new series of murders that tie into the events from a generation earlier. 

As excited as I am for this new installment, I almost wish I hadn’t watched the lengthy preview because…boy does it show a lot more than I wanted to see.  I know this cast is huge and the body count has the potential to be plentiful but seeing the fates of several characters (and perhaps a healthy bit of the opening) feels like we’re being served far too much before we’ve even sat down to eat.  Fingers crossed the twists make up for the trailer spoilers, but this is the last time I’ll watch any promo materials for the film before it is released.

The Silver Bullet ~ Last Night in Soho

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Synopsis: A young girl, passionate about fashion design, is mysteriously able to enter the 1960s where she encounters her idol, a dazzling wannabe singer. But 1960s London is not what it seems, and time seems to fall apart with shady consequences.

Release Date:  October 22, 2021

Thoughts: I normally don’t get to have the “full” movie-going experience anymore when going to theaters.  Ha… “when I go to theaters” that hasn’t happened in over a year!  Sorry, let’s start again.

Back when I went to theaters, I normally didn’t get to have the “full” movie-going experience because there are rarely previews at press screenings.  Movie trailers in general don’t tend to interest me anymore because I can just look at the length and know they are going to show the majority of the film, so I don’t even bother.  It’s helped a great deal in going in blind, so I’ll usually just watch the first 30-60 seconds to get a feel and then shut it off.

With Last Night in Soho, I found that I wasn’t able to turn it off after 30 seconds, 60 seconds, 90 seconds…I had to watch the whole thing.  An eternal caveat I need to remember is that every bad movie can be edited into a fantastic trailer but there’s something about this new Edgar Wright (The World’s End) thriller arriving in October that looks like it is up to something good.  Starring exciting up and comers Anya Taylor-Joy (Radioactive) and Thomasin McKenzie (Jojo Rabbit), it shows a lot but tells a little – the perfect kind of teaser.  Other trailers may arrive as the release date grows near, but I don’t need to see anything more.  Along with the intriguing poster…I’m sold at first glance on Last Night in Soho.

The Silver Bullet ~ West Side Story (2021) 

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Directed by Academy Award® winner Steven Spielberg, from a screenplay by Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award® winner Tony Kushner,
“West Side Story” tells the classic tale of fierce rivalries and young love in 1957 New York City.

Synopsis: An adaptation of the 1957 musical, West Side Story explores forbidden love and the rivalry between the Jets and the Sharks, two teenage street gangs of different ethnic backgrounds. 

Release Date:  December 10, 2021 

Thoughts: While Oscar night was abuzz with much anticipation over who would win, when the news leaked the teaser trailer for Steven Spielberg’s much-anticipated remake of the 10-time Oscar-winning musical West Side Story would premiere sometime during the ceremony, movie fans and Broadway nerds alike were dancing on their respective fire escapes. Delayed a full year due to the pandemic and the director’s desire for audiences to experience the film in a theater, up until our first look the jury was still out as to how much the world needed a remake of what many considered a treasured classic. True, looking back at the 1962 film there were some odds and ends that don’t sit quite right when viewed through a lens of racially sensitive casting and a number of the leading actors were dubbed when they began to sing. Still, it’s hard to argue that the legendary dances and indelible images were burnt into many cinema-lovers memories.
While a radically revisionist Broadway revival that barely got a chance to open before the health crisis shuttered theaters is likely to return sometime in 2021 (I was lucky enough to see it and it was goosebump-stunning excellent), Spielberg’s version appears to keep to the original and I think that’s wise. With just a little tease of singing (from Rita Moreno, an Oscar-winner for playing Anita in the original film, an executive producer of this version and appearing in a newly created role by screenwriter Tony Kushner), it’s a mostly visual preview and it achieves exactly what it should in the short span of a preview. If anything, I’m fairly certain it was able to create the kind of excitement that shows audiences who loved the movie that this isn’t straying far while at the same time hinting at a more visceral take on the musical update of Romeo and Juliet. I know I’m more comfortable with it all after seeing this…are you?

The Silver Bullet ~ Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar

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Synopsis: Best friends leave their small midwestern town for the first time and soon find themselves tangled up in adventure, love, and a villain’s evil plot to kill everyone in Vista Del Mar, Florida.

Release Date:  February 12, 2021

Thoughts: At one point in time, I couldn’t imagine being late for a movie because it meant missing the all-important previews.  This was back when they didn’t give everything away in nearly three minutes.  Personally, I don’t think any trailer needs to be longer than 1:45; anything more than that tells me the movie needs extra help selling itself to audiences.  Now that I exclusively watch films at home, I have the luxury of being able to skip previews but one of the last times I was in a theater I remember seeing a short teaser for Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar and finding it a total gas.  Though I looked for it so I could do a short write-up, it never made its way online in any kind of good quality.  Thankfully, with its On Demand release date approaching in February, Lionsgate has posted a brand-new preview clocking in at…wait for it, 1:47.  Perfection.

Reuniting Kristin Wiig (Wonder Woman 1984) and Annie Mumolo (Bad Moms), the Oscar-nominated writers of Bridesmaids who star in the film together, the film looks incredibly silly but also incredibly necessary for the current climate.  A more grown-up version of Romy & Michelle’s High School Reunion, there’s not a whole lot of plot covered in the trailer because the title pretty much speaks for itself.  What is on display appears to be a colorful comedy with broad broads living it up in paradise and, hopefully, uncovering the same kind of intelligent laughs found in Wiig/Mummalo’s previous outing.  I’m not expecting this to be another Bridesmaids and it looks all together different but while much of the country in shivering indoors waiting out a pandemic, this could prove to be the warm burst of fresh salty sea air that gets us through to summer.  My bags are packed and I’m ready for a vacation with these two.

The Silver Bullet ~ Death on the Nile (2020)

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Synopsis: Detective Hercule Poirot investigates the murder of a young heiress aboard a cruise ship on the Nile River.

Release Date:  October 23, 2020

Thoughts:  Only a few years back in the late summer of 2017 I was expressing my doubts that director Kenneth Branagh (Cinderella) was going to be able to remake Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express and improve upon the sterling 1974 film.  Released in November of that year, it did solid business with audiences but left many critics feeling they had hopped on a slower ride than expected.  I quite enjoyed the update, actually, finding Branagh’s fussy Hercule Poirot cucumber cool fun and the rest of the starry cast more than up for the devious twists and turns Christie plotted out.  It was perfect winter weather viewing, the kind of film that deep armchairs and warm blankets were made for.  As viewers were already aware, that film ended with Poirot being called to Egypt to investigate a “death on the Nile” and come October the promise of a sequel is finally arriving.

Itself a remake of the 1978 follow-up the blockbuster smash of Orient Express, Death on the Nile is another opportunity for Branagh to gather an impressive crew of suspects and victims that board a cruise ship headed for doom.  With the sort of jaw-dropping but still believable plot machinations that only Christie truly perfected in her lifetime, some prefer the original sequel to its predecessor so I’ll be interested if Branagh can win over his original naysayers on this second round of whodunit.  This downright beautiful first look certainly bodes well for it being another tantalizing mix of A-list stars (Wonder Woman 1984’s Gal Gadot, Call Me by Your Name’s Armie Hammer, Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool’s Annette Bening) and up and comers (Emma Mackey of Netflix’s Sex Education, Letitia Wright from Black Panther, and Furious 7’s Ali Fazal) that come under suspicion when murder drops anchor.  I’m expecting another classy affair from Branagh and company…and who knows if by the end we won’t get a tease of where Poirot might be headed next.  The possibilities are endless…