‘Bad Boys For Life’ (1/17/2020)
First up, Sony released the first red band trailer for the long-awaited sequel Bad Boys For Life, which sees the return of Will Smith and Martin Lawrence as Detectives Mike Lowrey and Marcus Burnett. This third installment follows them to take down the head of a drug cartel.
The first Bad Boys wasn’t too bad for Michael Bay’s first movie, but I think Bad Boys II is awful, long and pandering. Since talks of a third movie were around the circuit for a long time, this doesn’t impress me, and its January release date doesn’t help. The action looks decent enough, and the chances of being entertaining are high. I did chuckle at the end, though. I’m still seeing it, but with low expectations because I just don’t care about this right now.
Score: 5.5/10
‘Doctor Sleep’ (11/8)
Next up that was online Sunday afternoon was the final trailer for one of my most anticipated movies of November with Doctor Sleep, which stars Ewan McGregor as an older Danny Torrance. If you were like me and was lucky to see this new trailer before It: Chapter 2, then it was a total surprise.
I was hesitant to not watch this since I’m already excited, but I couldn’t resist, and it still looks great. Mike Flanagan is definitely going for that eery look of what Kubrick did with The Shining, which shows to be a compliment. There’s a lot of new footage and details about the premise, and it also looks like we’re really going back to the Overlook hotel. I seriously can’t wait for Doctor Sleep to the point that it should come out next month.
Score: 8.5/10
‘Just Mercy’ (12/25)
Next up, Waner Bros. Pictures released the trailer to a possible Oscar contender with Destin Daniel Cretton’s Just Mercy, which stars Michael B. Jordon, Jamie Foxx, and Brie Larson. This is based on a true story about attorney Bryan Stevenson taking on the case of Walter McMillian, a man impression for murder.
The trailer didn’t blow me away, and I can tell some will find this cheesy and could’ve been made in the ’90s, but I’m invested in a story that’s powerful. I’m also intrigued to see how Cretton handles this project since I was disappointed with his last film The Glass Castle. Just Mercy may as well be the definition of “Oscar-bait,” but I’m checking out when it expands in January because this cast and who’s behind it.
And the round of buzz that came from TIFF has been pretty positive thus far.
Score: 7/10
‘Jojo Rabbit’ (10/18)
On Monday, Fox Searchlight released the full-length trailer for Taika Waititi’s latest anti-hate satire comedy Jojo Rabbit. The film follows a young German boy (Roman Griffin Davis) and his imaginary friend Adolf Hitler (Waititi) as his mother secretly hides a young Jewish girl in their home.
Now, this is up there pretty high on what’s to see next month. Here is another wondrous trailer we got here. I’m very hopeful that Jojo Rabbit will be hilarious and will have a similar feel to something like Moonrise Kingdom. The music choices of “I’m a Believer” and “Heroes” but in Germany (I believe) were a nice touch. I can already see the hate this will get.
Score: 8/10
‘Black Christmas’ (12/13)
Next up, Universal Pictures and Blumhouse Productions released the first trailer to their latest horror remake of Black Christmas. The story follows a group of girls who are being stalked by a masked killer on their campus and taking out each sorority sister after the next.
I was shocked that this was getting remade again after the one from 2006 didn’t work. 2019’s Black Christmas doesn’t look promising on the basis that we shouldn’t have horror Christmas movies around, and it probably won’t be that scary. Plus, I hope I’m not the only one who thought this trailer showed too much. Blumhouse has proven me wrong in the past, and I like Imogen Poots as an actress (though she’s a bit too old to play a college student), but not interested.
Score: 5/10
‘Waves’ (11/1)
Next up, A24 released the official trailer to Waves, which earned positive word of mouth recently from the Telluride Film Festival and TIFF. This is writer/director Trey Edward Shults’ follow-up to the very divisive It Comes at Night, and it tells the show of a suburban African-American family in South Flordia.
I dug this trailer more than I thought, and I kind of like that it doesn’t hint much of the plot and just explore the beautiful cinematography and the performances (Sterling K. Brown and Kelvin Harrison Jr.) that are going to be talked about a lot by the end of the year. And I’m already invested to learn Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is providing the score.
Score: 8/10
‘Gretel & Hansel’ (1/31/2020)
Next up, Orion Pictures released the first teaser to Gretel & Hansel, a modern on the classic story. The horror film stars It breakout star Sophia Lillis, and it seems to be a twist on the story that we all know so well.
I can’t tell if this looks intriguing or lame. A little of both. My problem when I heard this was coming out as wondering do we really need another re-telling of this story when it was done abysmally back in 2013? Not only that, but it’s somehow getting some vibes of The Witch, which isn’t a good thing for me. It’s only a teaser, but I’m not buying into it, unfortunately.
Score: 4/10
‘Jexi’ (10/11)
And the last trailer to talk about is the new green band trailer for Jexi, the latest comedy starring Adam Devine and Rose Byrne as the voice of the AI assistant. I already touched on the red band trailer recently and thought it looked dumb, and this is about the same.
This managed to make me laugh once, and it was the part the phone went, “Wake up, b—h!”. It handles fewer dick jokes in here, but I’m just hoping this has a funny script for Devine to work off of. If I have nothing to do on a Tuesday evening, maybe I’ll go out of my way to see this.
Score: 4/10
DC's Take 