Way back in my very first post for Funkhouser, I floated the idea of a semi-regular feature I tentatively dubbed the Don LaFontaine Awards. My idea was that movie trailers are just as an essential part of the movie-going experience as the films themselves, and therefore deserve closer critical attention. I imagined that
in a world in which I made it out to the theater every week or so, the exercise of critiquing trailers as well as the movies they precede would be both a useful and somewhat unique endeavor that you, our dear reading audience, and I might both enjoy. To no one's surprise, however, readers overwhelmingly responded with a mixture of indifference and "DAGBLAST IT AINT THIS SUPPOSED TO BE A SPORTS SITE WHY ARE YALL CRITIQUERCISING ON MOVIES." Plus, I quickly realized that the rotation of trailers in and out of theaters from week to week -- as well as the number of theatrical releases I felt like paying to see -- was such that my original idea wasn't as sustainable I thought. But on a monthly basis, however . . . well, that's how we find ourselves here.
So, without further adieu, here are my first monthly Don LaFontaine Awards for Best Trailers for Movies Released this Month (or DLFAFBTFMRTM for short . . . pronounced deLAFafBETfumREtum).
WINNER, Best There is No Way This Movie is as Good as the Book:
Ender's Game
Released Date: November 1 (in theaters now)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5ev-nOWJH8
If you know anything about the book version of
Ender's Game and/or its author Orson Scott Card, then you know that this movie is going to be even more controversial than even your average, usually-pretty-controversial book-to-film adaptations. But even without broaching the complicated question of how you reconcile a work of fiction that resonates so strongly with young people who find themselves cast into the role of
the other with the author's increasingly anti-
other public pronunciations (which has been dealt with beautifully
here), it should be clear to any fan of the book that this movie was going to be a hard one to pull off. Sure, the trailer
looks awesome. The studio obviously shelled out enough money for a competent crew of sfx folks to do their jobs well, and Harrison Ford's grizzled voice-over manages to conjure memories of
both of his iconic sci-fi
roles. But there's a fundamental difference between what makes a great movie and what makes a great book that often gets in the way of translating the latter into the former. Sometimes, what makes a book great isn't
what happens, but how the book
explains what happens. That's definitely the case with
Ender's Game. Stripped of the soliloquies and descriptions of what's going on in the character's heads,
Ender's Game is a pretty straightforward book that probably wouldn't be considered a genre classic. Oh, a book about kids in space battling each other and one of them is really good at it so he fights some aliens and saves the Earth? Cool, but not
amazing. It's the way Card gets into the characters heads that makes the book version a classic. Movies, on the other hand, excel when they
show you what's happening. Sometimes, when the acting is excellent and subtle, you can get into the characters' heads the way a book like
Ender's Game does. But usually, and especially in movies striving for broad appeal like this one, filmmakers trying to get across characters' motivations or understanding of their surroundings have the actors just stand around explaining everything to the audience. Which, at best, makes for a good-but-not-great movie. Just by watching this trailer, you can tell that this is the case for this adaption, which makes it highly unlikely that it will be as successful as the book.
WINNER, Best Latest Installment of the Most Kentucky Movie Franchise Ever:
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Release Date: November 22
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAzGXqJSDJ8
Speaking of movies adapted from books that rely on the rich inner worlds of their main characters, here's the trailer for the next installment in the adventures of Katniss Everdeen, also known as the Kentucky movie about Kentuckians living in Kentucky. In case you didn't know, the first
Hunger Games movie was a huge hit with audiences and scored pretty well with the critics as well, helping Louisville's own Jennifer Lawrence cement her status as one of Hollywood's brightest young female stars. Despite the fact that she's a fan of those Dirty Birds, JLaw has continued the trend of Kentucky producing by far the
coolest celebrities, and
Catching Fire -- which will surely clean up at the box office -- is only going to further entrench her as America's sweetheart. Even better, though, co-lead and love-triangle participant Josh Hutcherson is not only from Union, Kentucky, but is also a
well-documented UK fan. Could the
Hunger Games movies be any more Kentucky? Oh, wait, did I mention that it's partially set in a future, dystopian Appalachia? The world that the
Hunger Games is set in is a somewhat recognizable America where, in the far future, a shiny, hyper-industrialized capitol region has established a repressive metropole-colony relationship with the rest of the country. And the region where the characters played by two Kentucky-bred actors come from is basically Eastern Kentucky. So, if every person in Kentucky doesn't go watch this movie, just out of our famous loyalty to our brethren, I'll not only be surprised, but very disappointed in all of you (and I'm specifically talking to you).
WINNERS, Best I Liked the Foreign Version Better, Said Every Hipster Ever (tie)
Delivery Man & Old Boy
Released Dates: November 22, November 27
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tfsiz79yJg
(NSFW Warning):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrQiFKRdcxY
Seriously, guys, are there any movies coming out this month that aren't adaptations of either a book or another movie? Each of these movies is based on a successful foreign film --
Delivery Man is a reworking of the Canadian movie
Starbuck and
Oldboy is an adaption of the South Korean movie . . . well,
Oldboy (or
Oldeuboi -- I promise that's the original Korean title and not a Korean-people-talk-funny joke). I'm generally averse to anything related to Vince Vaughn, so I was prepared to savage the trailer for
Delivery Man pretty thoroughly, but I have to say that after watching it, I'm swayed by the premise. Against everything I believe in, I'm finding myself thinking that maybe Vaughn's irritatingly self-assured schlubbyness will work in this
My Name Is Earl/
Amélie of the Sperm Bank setup well enough that this will be a nice holiday season movie. So, good on you,
Delivery Man trailer. As for the second of these, if you haven't seen the original
Oldboy that Spike Lee's American adaption is based on, then you have no way of knowing how uncomfortable watching this trailer made me. Suffice to say that while being locked away for twenty years is a pretty crappy thing to have happen to you, it sort of pales in comparison to what happens at the end of the original movie. I'm not sure I want to know how closely the Mars Blackmon version hews to the original.
What did you think of the ending of
Oldboy, Demarcus?
Yeah, let's steer clear of this remake.
Way back in my very first post for Funkhouser, I floated the idea of a semi-regular feature I tentatively dubbed the Don LaFontaine Awards. My idea was that movie trailers are just as an essential part of the movie-going experience as the films themselves, and therefore deserve closer critical attention. I imagined that in a world in which I made it out to the theater every week or so, the exercise of critiquing trailers as well as the movies they precede would be both a useful and somewhat unique endeavor that you, our dear reading audience, and I might both enjoy. To no one's surprise, however, readers overwhelmingly responded with a mixture of indifference and "DAGBLAST IT AINT THIS SUPPOSED TO BE A SPORTS SITE WHY ARE YALL CRITIQUERCISING ON MOVIES." Plus, I quickly realized that the rotation of trailers in and out of theaters from week to week -- as well as the number of theatrical releases I felt like paying to see -- was such that my original idea wasn't as sustainable I thought. But on a monthly basis, however . . . well, that's how we find ourselves here.
So, without further adieu, here are my first monthly Don LaFontaine Awards for Best Trailers for Movies Released this Month (or DLFAFBTFMRTM for short . . . pronounced deLAFafBETfumREtum).
WINNER, Best There is No Way This Movie is as Good as the Book:
Ender's Game
Released Date: November 1 (in theaters now)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5ev-nOWJH8
If you know anything about the book version of Ender's Game and/or its author Orson Scott Card, then you know that this movie is going to be even more controversial than even your average, usually-pretty-controversial book-to-film adaptations. But even without broaching the complicated question of how you reconcile a work of fiction that resonates so strongly with young people who find themselves cast into the role of the other with the author's increasingly anti-other public pronunciations (which has been dealt with beautifully here), it should be clear to any fan of the book that this movie was going to be a hard one to pull off. Sure, the trailer looks awesome. The studio obviously shelled out enough money for a competent crew of sfx folks to do their jobs well, and Harrison Ford's grizzled voice-over manages to conjure memories of both of his iconic sci-fi roles. But there's a fundamental difference between what makes a great movie and what makes a great book that often gets in the way of translating the latter into the former. Sometimes, what makes a book great isn't what happens, but how the book explains what happens. That's definitely the case with Ender's Game. Stripped of the soliloquies and descriptions of what's going on in the character's heads, Ender's Game is a pretty straightforward book that probably wouldn't be considered a genre classic. Oh, a book about kids in space battling each other and one of them is really good at it so he fights some aliens and saves the Earth? Cool, but not amazing. It's the way Card gets into the characters heads that makes the book version a classic. Movies, on the other hand, excel when they show you what's happening. Sometimes, when the acting is excellent and subtle, you can get into the characters' heads the way a book like Ender's Game does. But usually, and especially in movies striving for broad appeal like this one, filmmakers trying to get across characters' motivations or understanding of their surroundings have the actors just stand around explaining everything to the audience. Which, at best, makes for a good-but-not-great movie. Just by watching this trailer, you can tell that this is the case for this adaption, which makes it highly unlikely that it will be as successful as the book.
WINNER, Best Latest Installment of the Most Kentucky Movie Franchise Ever:
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Release Date: November 22
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAzGXqJSDJ8
Speaking of movies adapted from books that rely on the rich inner worlds of their main characters, here's the trailer for the next installment in the adventures of Katniss Everdeen, also known as the Kentucky movie about Kentuckians living in Kentucky. In case you didn't know, the first Hunger Games movie was a huge hit with audiences and scored pretty well with the critics as well, helping Louisville's own Jennifer Lawrence cement her status as one of Hollywood's brightest young female stars. Despite the fact that she's a fan of those Dirty Birds, JLaw has continued the trend of Kentucky producing by far the coolest celebrities, and Catching Fire -- which will surely clean up at the box office -- is only going to further entrench her as America's sweetheart. Even better, though, co-lead and love-triangle participant Josh Hutcherson is not only from Union, Kentucky, but is also a well-documented UK fan. Could the Hunger Games movies be any more Kentucky? Oh, wait, did I mention that it's partially set in a future, dystopian Appalachia? The world that the Hunger Games is set in is a somewhat recognizable America where, in the far future, a shiny, hyper-industrialized capitol region has established a repressive metropole-colony relationship with the rest of the country. And the region where the characters played by two Kentucky-bred actors come from is basically Eastern Kentucky. So, if every person in Kentucky doesn't go watch this movie, just out of our famous loyalty to our brethren, I'll not only be surprised, but very disappointed in all of you (and I'm specifically talking to you).
WINNERS, Best I Liked the Foreign Version Better, Said Every Hipster Ever (tie)
Delivery Man & Old Boy
Released Dates: November 22, November 27
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tfsiz79yJg
(NSFW Warning):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrQiFKRdcxY
Seriously, guys, are there any movies coming out this month that aren't adaptations of either a book or another movie? Each of these movies is based on a successful foreign film -- Delivery Man is a reworking of the Canadian movie Starbuck and Oldboy is an adaption of the South Korean movie . . . well, Oldboy (or Oldeuboi -- I promise that's the original Korean title and not a Korean-people-talk-funny joke). I'm generally averse to anything related to Vince Vaughn, so I was prepared to savage the trailer for Delivery Man pretty thoroughly, but I have to say that after watching it, I'm swayed by the premise. Against everything I believe in, I'm finding myself thinking that maybe Vaughn's irritatingly self-assured schlubbyness will work in this My Name Is Earl/Amélie of the Sperm Bank setup well enough that this will be a nice holiday season movie. So, good on you, Delivery Man trailer. As for the second of these, if you haven't seen the original Oldboy that Spike Lee's American adaption is based on, then you have no way of knowing how uncomfortable watching this trailer made me. Suffice to say that while being locked away for twenty years is a pretty crappy thing to have happen to you, it sort of pales in comparison to what happens at the end of the original movie. I'm not sure I want to know how closely the Mars Blackmon version hews to the original.
What did you think of the ending of Oldboy, Demarcus?
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