Welcome to “Trailer Park,” our regular Friday feature where we collect the week’s new trailers all in one place and do a little “judging a book by its cover,” ranking them from worst to best and taking our best guess at what they may be hiding. Perhaps because most of the film world (including our own Jason Bailey) has converged in Park City for Sundance, the pickings feel a bit slim, not to mention random. What unites this week’s most and least promising offerings is a whole lot of camp, from space Nazis and hotties with tails to Kirk Cameron and Nicolas Cage.
Monumental
Monumental: starring a handful of monuments, the American flag, some blurry archival footage of Ronald Reagan, and… Kirk Cameron! Well, of course Cameron is behind this, um, “documentary.” In the trailer, the Growing Pains star-turned-Christian soldier tells us that “something is sick in the soul of our country, and we’re headed for disaster if we don’t change our course now.” Then he talks to a whole bunch of dudes who say basically the same thing. But don’t worry! This film is not going to be a major bummer! No way! This is a righteous road-trip movie that finds Cameron visiting — what is that, Plimouth Plantation? Colonial Williamsburg? — to talk to people dressed in pilgrim costumes about America’s religious heritage.
Seeking Justice
Seeking Justice stars Nicolas Cage and January Jones, two actors who come with enough to baggage that how you feel about either or both of them will probably govern your decision to see or skip the movie. We will say this: Pairing them up may have been a stroke of campy genius — Jones is famously wooden, but Cage is such a ham that he totally compensates. (Check out that marvelous bit of face-acting 25 seconds in.) The film’s story line, meanwhile, seems as obvious as the title: Man seeks the help of vigilante group to avenge the assault of his wife and finds he’s in way over his head. Explosions and car crashes ensue. The line “We may ask a favor of you sometime in the future” is actually uttered.
Darling Companion
According to IMDb, Darling Companion is a drama about a woman who loves her dog more than her husband. And then her husband loses the dog. Based on the trailer, it seems like what happens after the lady (Diane Keaton) loses her beloved pet is, she and her husband (Kevin Kline) rip into each other and then bond over trying to find him. The cast is fantastic — aside from Keaton and Kline, it includes Dianne Wiest, Elisabeth Moss, Sam Shepard, and Mark Duplass. Frankly, the premise worries us and the preview doesn’t do much to assuage our fears. But hey, we could be wrong. In fact, we hope we’re wrong.
Jeff Who Lives at Home
In other Mark Duplass news, he and brother Jay are back with a new comedy. Starring a schlumpy Jason Segel as a slacker who lives with his mom (Susan Sarandon) and aids his brother (Ed Helms) in a quest to catch his adulterous wife (Judy Greer) in the act of cheating. The whole thing has a very Judd Apatow-lite, Indiewood feel — perhaps because it’s yet another movie that derives its humor from adult men’s inability to grow up. Still, the cast is promising, and the trailer was better than we expected.
Iron Sky
Oh boy, does this look like fun! Who could resist a movie whose trailer voiceover includes the lines, “I think you know what I’m talking about, ladies and gentlemen. That’s right: Motherfucking space Nazis in a film called Iron Sky“? Yes, Finnish director Timo Vuorensola (who, fun fact, is also the frontman of black metal band Älymystö) has finally finished his sci-fi comedy, with some funding help from fans, and it promises to be a real treat for B-movie connoisseurs. In the second half of the clip, you can hear him talk about how excited he is to see the movie premiere at next month’s Berlin Film Festival.
Thale
Speaking of Nordic countries and black metal — have you noticed that Norwegians are pretty freaking dark? There’s the freezing weather, the black metal, and, of course, the totally terrifying mythology. Based on the Huldra, a supernatural woodland seductress from Norwegian folklore who kills men who don’t sexually satisfy her, Thale is a sci-fi thriller with a gorgeous, glossy finish. While the story itself doesn’t quite come into focus in the trailer, we do see some lovely, Let the Right One In-style snowy-horror shots, meet a bodacious naked lady with a tail, and feel some serious suspense. We couldn’t really ask for more.