Studios are super-keen to get trailers for their big 2010 movies in front of “Avatar,” and we’ve already seen premieres for “Robin Hood,” “Alice in Wonderland” and “Iron Man 2” in the last few days, and a couple more hit last night.
Swords-and-sandals re-make “Clash of the Titans” has a second, longer trailer (although the middle section is pretty much the teaser in its entirety), and gives a little context to the action. It’s still hampered by that terrible hard-rock score, and what appears to be another super-bland leading role by Sam Worthington, but we have to admit that the money-shot with the Kraken at the end is kind of cool, even if the creature design makes it look like a refuge from “Gears of War.” In fact, the whole thing just looks like a videogame — far more so than “Avatar” ever did. “Avatar” didn’t show three or four end of level bosses in the trailer, for one…
More hopeful is the trailer for “Hot Tub Time Machine,” the Steve Pink (“Accepted”) directed comedy starring John Cusack, Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson and Clark Duke (who plays Cusack’s little brother, hence the age difference…) as four friends who go on a ski trip together, and are accidentally transported back into the 1980s via the titular jacuzzi. We like all the talent involved, and quite enjoyed the script, which definitely has the potential to be 2010’s equivalent to “The Hangover,” even if the premise does sound completely ridiculous. The opening to the trailer is deeply irritating, but there’s a few good laughs, and the cast seem to have pretty good chemistry. It opens on March 19th, the week before “Clash of the Titans.”