Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken! - Trailer Preview

SUPER SIZE ME 2: HOLY CHICKEN available on Demand in UK 

from 9th December

When Morgan Spurlock went on a life changing odyssey involving eating nothing but McDonalds for one calendar month, many could not believe what would happen and the gradual sea change he helped document in the renowned Super Size Me.

What started as a joke, became a global phenomenon turning Spurlock from a guy with a punchline of an idea into a respected film-maker culminating in garnering an Academy Award nomination (losing to Born into Brothels) for Best Documentary Feature.

Much like his forefather, Michael Moore, Spurlock injects himself into the narrative as a subject and focal point investigating the harms eating junk food for one month has on his body. In the original, Spurlock is a healthy person and his fiancée a devout vegan and health fanatic, so the pain she goes through when his body morphs into this bag of saturated trans fat is horrifying for her.

Spurlock is back and this time he is attempting to open up a fast food restaurant serving fried chicken which is now grilled chicken (the same thing), and going into how branding warps consumers minds with key words and colour spelling. All at a perfectly reasonable price.

  Super Size Me 2 - Official Trailer from Samuel Goldwyn Films on Vimeo.

Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken (graphics by the team behind Despicable Me) is available on demand in the UK from this Monday 9th December from Samuel Goldwyn Films.

My thanks to AR:PR Publicity for the preview opportunity.

Stan and Ollie

Very pleased to share with you the new clip from forthcoming movie, Stan and Ollie, out from Entertainment One.

The film chronicles the illustrious partnership of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, one of cinema's greatest partnerships, directed by Jon S. Baird.

The film stars Steve Coogan (Laurel) and John C. Reilly (Hardy) as we follow the pair through some of their landmark moments as they look back when on a variety tour of Great Britain. Gone are the golden days of Hollywood, and this is their farewell tour.  Despite a hectic schedule for an ageing pair, the pair's love of performing and for each other endures.

Co-written by Steve Coogan, the film promises to be a faithful tale for a pair who deserve a great depiction on the form they helped path the way for.

Stan and Ollie will be in cinemas from 11th January 2019.

Trailer Trash: Thank You For Your Service

The screenwriter of American Sniper, Jason Hall, returns to familiar territory with another adaptation of the war in the Middle East and the repercussions on the young men who fight for American freedom, based upon the book by David Finkel.

The trailer below shows us a lot of action and drama based upon the soldiers returning to civilian life with great difficulty, following the four men who sit in an armoured vehicle and the one incident that bond them together, for the majority we follow Miles Teller's character as he returns to a young wife and two young daughters in a new home, yet the nightmares and post-traumatic stress start to surface putting a burden on relationships and behaviour.

Teller has been a polarising actor of recent years, yet his work in Whiplash and Bleed For This has garnered substantial attention. His resemblance to a young Dustin Hoffman and the calibre of work marks him out as a talent; however, for this reviewer I worry about his ability to connect to audiences due to his blank expression in performance as if he does not want the mask to slip.  However, judging by the trailer alone, his style of acting is suitable to a troubled man struggling to engage with normality after performing so heroically for his country.

Haley Bennett (The Girl on the Train) plays his wife in a role not dissimilar to Sienna Miller's role in American Sniper; and that is the worry perhaps that the film is too close and too soon to that film's release to garner the same attention, nor does it have the heavyweight punch of Clint Eastwood directing and Bradley Cooper leading.

The trailer though is a good trailer that shows significant moments without giving away everything because this film is based around performance and characterisation; whereas American Sniper as a film had to contend with the inevitability of Pine's death, here the trailer leaves the door open for any eventuality.

Enthused with emotion by Rag n Bone Man's 'Human' the trailer ticks several boxes to garner your attention. Thank you for your reading.

Thank You For Your Service is released later in the year by Entertainment One UK

Trailer Trash: My Cousin Rachel

In a segment I have not done for some time, I am looking at a newly released trailer and wondering what can we expect.

My Cousin Rachel is based on the classic novel by Daphne Du Maurier, whose work - The Birds, Rebecca - has been subjected to cinematic adaptations by the master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock previously. This second cinematic adaptation (previously made in 1952 starring Richard Burton and Olivia de Havilland) is directed by Roger Michell and stars Rachel Weisz and Sam Claflin (Me Before You).

The trailer begins with word that 'she is here' meaning Rachel has landed in Plymouth to visit her cousin Philip. The novel is about an estate that Philip is heir to, but Rachel feels she has a right to as being married to the owner of the estate Ambrose, whilst being eloped in Italy.

Ambrose has passed away and Rachel has come to gain what is hers, Philip is the heir and she bends to his whim, but a connection grows between the two; a kinship that is not as illicit as the title nor trailer makes out as they are not blood relatives and merely related by law.

The film is shot from Philip's point of view and sees Claflin struggling with his emotions towards a woman who only has her own interests at heart.

Whilst Weisz has been able to play this sort of spinster evil woman before her role is one painted by the eyes of Claflin who seemingly goes through the ringer from independent man to fool in love.  Weisz is reunited with the director of Enduring Love and Michell has always been able to generate good chemistry between leads (Notting Hill), ensemble (the under-rated Morning Glory) and odd partnerships (Venus/The Mother). Whilst it has his familiar tropes of love unrequited with a certain streak of National Trust promotional material the trailer shows a tip of the hat to the Gothic tradition of British film-making from the 1950s/60s.

My Cousin Rachel is out on 9th June this summer from Fox Searchlight

Trailer Talk: Kumiko The Treasure Hunter

Soda Pictures are pleased to release the trailer for the forthcoming Kumiko The Treasure Hunter starring Academy Award nominee Rinko Kikuchi as the eponymous heroine of the film.

Kumiko is a disillusioned soul in a city of 35 million people.  She works in a dead end job that makes her unhappy and unappreciated, has a nagging mother and successful peers.

Yet while living alone she watches a copy of an American independent film.  Night after night she watches the film for clues as to where the stash of money in the film has been buried, with the belief that the film is a real document. So begins Kumiko's journey to America to find her treasure in this beguiling and equally bizarre tale.

Written and directed by the Zellner Brothers and produced by Alexander Payne (a director not adverse to films about journeys); the film looks like one of those rare breakout independent films due to the original content, eccentric lead performances and brilliant screenplay.

Kumiko the Treasure Hunter is released in UK cinemas on Friday 20th February from Soda Pictures