Trinity on the Big Screen: What this term has in store
By Alex Lynchehaun
Everyone knows that Trinity is the term of punting, pimms and sunshine. What’s less well known is that Trinity is also a great time to sit and stare at a screen in a dark room for two hours. For those of you unsure which screen to stare at, here’s the OxStu guide to what’s coming up this term.
Summer is traditionally the time for action films, and this year is no different; Lockout, arriving this week, combines explosions, outer space and Guy Pearce as a loose cannon saving the President’s daughter from the world’s deadliest prison. It sounds exciting, but probably awful. Another likely exciting but awful film is Safe. Jason Statham stars as a former cop seeking redemption and fighting organised crime, a concept that promises a film much like every other Jason Statham film. Men in Black 3, the little anticipated sequel with Tommy Lee and Will Smith fighting aliens to save the planet, promises aliens and wisecracks galore. Perhaps the most promising is Avengers Assemble (1st week) which sees Iron Man, Hulk, Thor and co join in one film to save the world from evil. It promises Robert Downey Jr at the very least.
While Hollywood’s best drama tends to come out around awards time, there are still some interesting films heading to Oxford this term. Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom has a stellar cast (Edward Norton, Bruce Willis, Bill Murray) but focuses on two runaway children and looks very odd, much in the mould of Anderson’s previous films. Salmon Fishing in the Yemen follows a Sheikh wishing to introduce salmon fishing to Yemen, although it purports to be about hope rather than folly, which is quite an achievement. Jeff Who Lives at Home, by contrast, follows a small time slacker (Jason Segel) who begins to grow up while pursuing his brother’s unfaithful wife.
While this term doesn’t promise to be a classic one for comedy, it does bring us The Dictator, Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest reinvention as an Arabic dictator (mixing Saddam Hussein and Colonel Gaddafi) who ends up living in New York. The plotline sparks fears of You Don’t Mess With the Zohan, but one hopes for something more reminiscent of Borat, albeit in a more traditional format.
American Reunion is yet another American Pie film, and will probably be terrible. Piranha 3DD looks to be a super tasteless comedy horror based around nubile women and piranhas: probably not for everyone’s taste.
But amidst all these upcoming films, a few seem to really stand out. Prometheus, the Alien prequel, is directed by Ridley Scott, features a great cast and looks epic. From the looks of the trailer, all the signs are there for a fantastic film. Dark Shadows, a Tim Burton/Johnny Depp remake of the 60s soap, also has a top cast and good trailer, although it promises more laughs and fewer aliens than Prometheus. Two more indie films that will hopefully show in Oxford are the Nazi sci-fi comedy Iron Sky and extremely intense action flick The Raid: Redemption. The latter in particular looks like one of the most hard-core action films ever made.
