The Trailer Park: The Gods Must Be Crazy

With the January movie slump finally over, it’s time to start looking forward to the rest of the year. Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let’s take a peek at what’s hitting cinemas in February.

‘Gods of Egypt’

It’s been seven years since the last Alex Proyas film, so what are the chances that current moviegoers will care that this visual and auditory assault upon the senses comes from the “visionary director of I, Robot and The Crow” as the preview so boastfully proclaims? Although I rather enjoy Proyas’ unique style, this movie looks absolutely horrendous, starting with the blatant white-washing of characters that audiences are meant to believe are Egyptian. Seeing Gerard Butler in this big-budgeted fantasy schlock is one thing (it’s practically expected of him at this point in his career), but if Nikolaj Coster-Waldau of ‘Game of Thrones’ fame thinks this will transition him into feature films, this predictable box-office bomb will be his sad reality check.

‘Hail, Caesar!’

Thank the gods for the Coen brothers! Yes, they’ve had a couple misfires in the past, but for the most part, their films rank as some of the most satisfying and entertaining of the last four decades. This mystery comedy set in the 1950s film industry looks like another guaranteed crowd-pleaser. It reunites George Clooney with the filmmakers and features a large ensemble cast. The satirical look at the period commonly agreed upon as the start of the end for Hollywood’s Golden Age appears almost as bombastic, extravagant, large-scale and colorful as the very productions it’s commenting upon. Based on the trailer alone, I wouldn’t mind watching this on the silver screen.

‘Triple 9’

The red band trailer for this ensemble crime thriller is far better than those previously released. Those previews made the production look like the typical cops-versus-bad-guys actioner. The fact that John Hillcoat was directing, a filmmaker whose works I’ve quite enjoyed, kept me intrigued though not completely convinced. This trailer, however, has really piqued my interest. It shows that this heist thriller is far more violent and complex than initially believed. That’s not to say I’ve already decided to purchase tickets, but rather, I might consider it now if there’s nothing else to do. For sure, I’ll more than likely watch this on Blu-ray.

‘Deadpool’

Finally, here’s the latest red band trailer for the movie everyone’s expecting to be this month’s box office hit. It adds more of that mouthy sardonic wit we love to hear from Ryan Reynolds.

For more of the latest movie trailers, check out our trailers page.

12 comments

  1. Thulsadoom

    I’m a big fan of Alex Proyas, especially because of Dark City. I also really like Knowing, and enjoy I, Robot (though it’s probably his most main stream, it’s still a pretty intelligent scifi movie in comparison to most). So I’m trusting he’s going to have something really fun with Gods of Egypt, with a bit more to it than the average popcorn effects-fest. Hell, it can’t be worse than The Force Awakens!

    I’m really not interested in anything by the Coen’s. I haven’t thought much of anything they’ve made since The Hudsucker Proxy, and even that doesn’t stand up especially well to the test of time.

    Triple 9 I’d not even heard of till now. I’m not a big fan of crime movies in general though. There are precious few that are actually good, as opposed to “Look how edgy we are! We have questionable villains as our main characters!”

    Deadpool… I’m torn… It could be great fun, but it looks like it’s trying SO HARD, I suspect it might end up falling on its face.

    So basically it’s Gods of Egypt for me!! 😀

  2. Bolo

    ‘Triple 9’ looks like a decent renter. I like crime heist flicks and I like Kate Winslet. I’ve seen two films from John Hillcoat (‘The Road’ and ‘Lawless’) and they were both well shot and featured solid performances from their casts, yet didn’t exactly make me a fan of the guy as a director. The overall pictures just seemed to be missing something that would make them worthwhile. He seems to make his movies in a way that feels like he thinks they have subtext, yet it’s just not there for me. ‘Lawless’ in particular was bafflingly pointless.

    I’m seeing ‘Deadpool’ for sure, so I’m not watching any more trailers that give away stuff from the movie. Reynolds has been knocking himself dead with original joke videos and promotional images to sell the movie. Looking forward to it.

  3. Charles M

    If you can have a black Viking god, you can have a white Egyptian god. Logically, it makes no sense why gods would be one colour if they created the whole world. Now, if the normal Egyptians are all portrayed as white like in Exodus, I’d agree.

  4. C.C.

    This “whitewashing” argument is getting tiresome. Do you not understand the film industry? The color green comes first. And if you truly believe that you can get more asses in the theater with an Egyptian actor like Sherif Ramzy than Gerard Butler you would never succeed in the movie business.
    Truth and reality rule over social justice nonsense and Political Correctness.

    • Gerard Butler, that huge box office draw behind such movies as:

      Playing for Keeps – bomb
      Chasing Mavericks – bomb
      Machine Gun Preacher – bomb
      Coriolanus – bomb
      The Bounty Hunter – bomb
      Law Abiding Citizen – bomb
      Gamer – bomb
      The Ugly Truth – bomb
      RockNRolla – bomb
      Nim’s Island – bomb
      Beowulf & Grendel – bomb
      The Phantom of the Opera – bomb

      Yes, I can certainly see why a studio would want to hire an actor with such a proven track record for “opening” movies over another actor who might actually be appropriate for the part.

      • Chris B

        Law-abiding citizen is one of the dumbest fucking movies ever released by a major studio. It’s laughably bad. Anytime someone tells me they “loved it”, I know in that moment we can never be friends. *sniff*

    • Charles M

      That argument doesn’t work considering they have no problem hiring unknown white guys into the main characters. Harry Potter for example. Pacific Rim didn’t really have any major stars. Titanic, Leo and Kate weren’t that popular till that movie. Avatar and Sam Worthington. Aliens didn’t have any major stars in it either yet this was a problem for Ridley Scott and Exodus. Last Airbender is perfect example of this. I’m sure Lucy Liu, Chow Yun Fat, Jackie Chan and a whole bunch of other Asian actors are more famous than Nicola Peltz, Jackson Rathbone and all the other unknown white actors.

      But when it comes to non-white actors, then it’s all, where are the famous non-white stars who can open a picture?

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