I’ve been watching the same five trailers before every showing of Rocketman

And the question remains why our local cinema chain doesn’t program better films. So many interesting things to watch that don’t come here, but we get the same crap over and over, recycled, in huge bundles. I’m not sure I’ve seen any wide release movie in 2019 that is really Oscar-worthy and the year is already more than half over. I’ll be sad to see Rocketman go after this week, but hopefully there will be some new trailers.

The Art of Racing in the Rain

All I can really guess from this trailer is that Milo Ventimiglia is a race car driver with a dog who gets a family that later undergoes some unspecified tragedy.

Negatives: I got so sick of Ventimiglia in This is Us. Kevin Costner (who plays the dog) is a mild negative. Not that interested in pets.

Sum: I can’t think of any reason to see this.

Angel has Fallen

At least this trailer can communicate the fundamentals of the plot: A Secret Service agent (Gerard Butler) is framed for an assassination attempt on the US president (Morgan Freeman) and must clear his name.

Positives: Freeman, Jada Pinkett Smith

Mild negative: Nick Nolte

Strong negatives: This is apparently yet another sequel. I haven’t seen the earlier ones. Also, it’s hard to see any film about an assault on the US presidency unironically at the moment.

Sum: I’ll likely be skipping this one, too.

21 Bridges

Chadwick Boseman plays a NYC policeman — whose own father was a murdered cop — charged with solving the murders of eight policemen.

Strong positive: Chadwick Boseman

Positive: Alexander Siddig maybe is a villain?

Negatives: Horrible soundtrack. Also, the film advertises itself as being made by all these Avengers people. I’m not interested in those films and that suggests this film would be more of that.

Sum: Movie for a cheap day when nothing else is on, primarily b/c Chadwick Boseman is really talented.

Downton Abbey

King George V and Queen Mary visit Downton Abbey, sending everyone into a tizzy and forcing them to waltz.

Positives: lots of actors I like, including but not limited to Brendan Coyle, Maggie Smith, Elizabeth McGovern and Imelda Stanton.

Mild negatives: Joanne Froggatt. Also, while I didn’t despise the episodes of the series I’ve seen, the film is likely to be just so much more nostalgic pap.

Strong negative: Yet ANOTHER sequel, and I’ve only seen the first season of the TV series.

Sum: Another potential cheap day movie. I don’t hate the idea, anyway.

Terminator: Dark Fate

Hard to figure out from the trailer what this is about, but Mackenzie Davis seems to be a robot saving a beautiful young woman from a different robot, with periodic gunfire from Margaret Hamilton, who may not be a robot.

Strong negatives: Halt and Catch Fire really turned me off of Mackenzie Davis, someone who seems to have gotten as far as she has mainly by rolling her eyes hyperbolically. Arnold Schwarzeneggar appears in the last frame of the trailer. And YET ANOTHER SEQUEL. I haven’t seen the earlier ones.

Sum: Hard NO.

~ by Servetus on July 18, 2019.