TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY
Directed by Thomas Alfredson.
Starring Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman, Mark Strong, Colin Firth, John Hurt, Benedict Cumberbatch, Toby Jones, Stephen Graham and Ciarán Hinds.
“He killed our man in Istanbul”, “Now is the time”: two of the main lines in this trailer that make the film look old fashioned to the point where the dialogue seems to have been borrowed (read: stolen) from a 1950s crime caper or something.
Furthermore, the first 2 seconds of any trailer or promo is meant to intrigue, tease and provoke curiosity. You do not do that by choosing a shot of an ancient tape recorder being turned on: we can guess all too well what type of film this is, which all right for someone who wants a light watch but here it is all too much an indication that it will be nothing but that. From then onwards, the trailer stays at an unbearably steady pace: a dull journey into a plot about something the viewer has already lost interest in.
The excellent cast does not help either: at the end, I do not want to watch this movie because of the trailer – I want to watch it because it is based on a John le Carre novel.
Try harder next time please, and do not make it so boring. 4/10.
THE UNDEFEATED
Directed by Stephen K. Bannon.
I do not have much to say about this. If I start, I will never finish as I would not be able to refrain myself from aggressively criticising everything that is wrong about not only this trailer and this documentary, but Sarah Palin herself. This is not a trailer for the Nick Broomfield documentary, this is the counter-part: the pro-Palin propaganda piece. It is all-American, all-adorning and all in all awful.
Watch it. But try not to hate yourself after you do. 1/10.
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - GHOST PROTOCOL
Directed by Brad Bird.
Starring Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Josh Holloway, Ving Rhames, Tom Wilkinson and Michael Nyqvist.
A very decent trailer for a franchise I never bothered watching myself (just because I felt I had better things to do). All the usual tricks are pulled. It is thoroughly enjoyable, tight, neat, fun. I very much appreciate the montage sequence being longer, faster, more hectic and placed earlier than the average montage you will find in such a trailer.
More often than not, montages are an excuse to reach climax in a trailer and throw the actors' names in your face (as if you had not recognised them already). Whoever approved this trailer had the decency to not do that: we know who Tom Cruise is and to those of us who care, we will recognise everyone else instantly. The audience is not made a fool of and it makes the excitement last longer because we have longer to go to reach the end of the trailer. Hurrah: a trailer for an action film even a cynicist like myself can enjoy.
I must be getting lazy or something. 9/10.
Louise-Afzal Faerkel
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