Every Friday here at Flavorwire, we like to gather up the week new movie trailers, give them a look-see, and rank them from worst to best — while taking a guess or two about what they might tell us (or hide from us) about the movies they’re promoting. We’ve got seven new trailers for you this week, including new looks at the Men in Black and Ice Age sequels, as well as the latest from the creators of Coraline. Check ’em all out after the jump, and share your thoughts in the comments.
What to Expect When You’re Expecting
In case the first trailer for this film adaptation of the pregnancy manual (and with every new bit of footage, it seems more and more certain that Hollywood actually did that) had you worried that it would only be about stereotypical ladies, fear not: there’s plenty of “dudes” to hate too! The trailer is clearly calculated to go after the male demo that couldn’t be less interested in a giant ensemble comedy about pregnancy, by assuring them that, um, there will be guys in it too. So there ya go, then.
Ice Age: Continental Drift
Hey, look, we thought these Ice Age movies were cute and clever — y’know, not Pixar quality or anything, but diverting enough — when they stated making them a decade or so ago. But the third film in the series, 2009’s Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, was just plain wheezy, the franchise already out of gas. We can’t say there’s much happening in this trailer for the upcoming fourth film to indicate a sudden breath of fresh air, creativity-wise, though we’ll welcome Wanda Sykes landing a presumably lucrative voice gig.
Meth Head
The second half of this trailer makes it look like a fast-paced, harrowing, brutally visceral drug movie along the lines of Requiem for a Dream and Spun. The first half, though, makes it look like every bad anti-drug Afterschool Special from the “Just Say No” era (yes, someone actually says “I don’t even know who the fuck you are!”). So which one accurately represents the movie itself? Honestly, we probably won’t bother to find out.
Now is Good
Dakota Fanning cops a British accent and short hair for this hybrid of 50/50 and The Bucket List, co-starring with War Horse’s Jeremy Irvine as a 17-year-old with terminal cancer who decides to live each days as if — well, you know the rest. We’ve seen this all before, but we’re interested to see what Fanning’s up to these days (aside from Twilight movies that your author has thankfully steered clear of), and we’ll check out just about anything with Paddy Considine and Olivia Williams in it.
We Have a Pope
A first glance at the title had us wondering if this was some sort of weird, out of left field sequel to We Bought a Zoo. But no, this Italian-French co-production from director Nanni Moretti appears to be a light-hearted comedy about a potential pontiff with a crisis of confidence — a Vatican King’s Speech if you will. We’re not sure if it’s going to work, but it’s rather a daring idea with a bit of promise.
Men in Black III
Most people seem pretty underwhelmed by the trailers thus far for the third MiB movie, and let it be said: there are some truly worrisome stories out there about the production of this film (specifically, the relative importance of a finished screenplay within that production process). Maybe it’s leftover affection for the first one, maybe it’s continued goodwill (get it) towards Will Smith, or maybe (most likely) its our continued delight at the casting of Josh Brolin as a young Tommy Lee Jones. This new, longer trailer has more of the latter — with Bill Heder as Andy Warhol to boot. Maybe it’ll be a big, bloated, stinky piece of Hollywood product. Who knows. We’re going anyway.
ParaNorman
With a charming stop-animation look and a voice cast that includes Casey Affleck, Anna Kendrick, Leslie Mann, Jeff Garlin, and John Goodman, this is a kid’s film that we’re genuinely excited about — though it looks to have more gothic scares and toilet humor than a standard “kid’s film.” The production company is Laika Entertainment, who created Coraline; this looks to be a worthy follow-up to that little gem.