The Trailer Park: Great Gatsby, Pain & Gain, Star Trek Into Darkness and more

The Great Gatsby
If like us you felt a little underwhelmed by the original teaser for Baz Luhrmann’s over-the-top take on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby then prepare to have your mind-blown. The new trailer is a two and a half minute feast for the senses. An orgie of bright colours, exotic sets and hard parties all set in the Aussie director’s own vision of how the roaring 20s could have looked.

There’s a definite sense of Moulin Rouge to the proceedings here right the way down to the soundtrack - Kanye West and Jay-Z's ‘No Church in the Wild’ – which might seem silly had it been employed by any other auteur. We’re also treated to an extended take on Leonardo DiCaprio’s titular party-thrower and his relationship with both Tobey Maguire and Carey Mulligan’s supporting characters.  It’s a great trailer; it’s just a shame we have to wait until May 10^th to see the finished film.

 

Pain & Gain
After five years spent playing with robots in disguise, creating slow-mo explosions and trying to coax a believable performance out of Shia LaBeouf; Michael Bay is heading back to his roots with a movie about muscly men and crime in Miami.

Based on a true story Pain & Gain revolves around a fitness fanatic who gets caught up in a kidnapping plot with a duo of fellow bodybuilders. Starring Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and Mark ‘Marky Mark’ Wahlberg you’d be forgiven for not soiling your tighty whiteys in anticipation of its release. But if you ignore for a moment the bulging biceps (how ripped is Wahlberg?), the car chases and the scantily clad women; the best thing about Pain & Gain looks like it’s going to be the comic relief - with Wahlberg in particular picking up where Ted left off by bringing the funny. We’re sold, how about you?

 

Star Trek Into Darkness
Picking up where the short teaser trailer left off earlier this month, the latest sneak peek at J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek sequel is every inch as spectacular as you might have hoped. There are jaw-dropping scenes including a chase through a red forest, Spock taking a flying leap off a future earth skyscraper and what looks suspiciously like the Enterprise plummeting into the ocean. We also get to see some self doubt creep into Chris Pike’s charismatic Captain when he says: “You think you can’t make mistakes but there comes a moment when you realize you’re wrong about that and you’re going to get yourself and everyone under your command killed.”

The real star of the show though is Brit actor Benedict Cumberbatch, the as of yet unidentified villain of the film who is at his dramatic best in this trailer. Everyone involved in the movie has strenuously denied that the Sherlock star would be playing fan-favourite Khan; but does the trailer’s climactic scene, which looks suspiciously similar to a defining moment from 1982’s Wrath of Khan, reveal them all to be liars?

 

Smurfs 2
Katy Perry goes from nice to naughty in the first trailer for The Smurfs 2, 2013’s follow up to the hit family comedy based on the famous Belgian comic characters. Her on-screen alter ego, Smurfette, is tempted to the dark side by Gargamel’s sinister creations The Naughties and it’s up to Papa, Clumsy, Grouchy and co to save her and stop the evil sorcerer from tapping into the all-powerful Smurf essence. It’s all nonsense of course. But that won’t deter the little and not so little’uns who lapped up the opening outing and who’ll no doubt be equally excited to see the likes of Neil Patrick Harris, Sofia Vergara, Brendan Gleeson, Alan Cumming and Anton Yelchin return for another adventure.

 

Identity Thief  

2013 is shaping up to be a big year for Bridesmaids star Melissa McCarthy who as well as starring alongside Sandra Bullock in buddy cop comedy The Heat is teaming up with Jason Bateman for another odd couple effort in the form of Identity Thief. The film sees the mild-mannered Arrested Development star hit the road in an effort to bring a woman who’s stolen his identity and maxed out his credit cards to justice.

It’s a new take on a familiar story, with both Bateman and McCarthy horribly typecast in their respective roles. Still, there’s enough funny in the trailer to whet our appetites, particularly from Modern Family’s Eric Stonestreet who looks like he may steal the whole show with a brief turn as a horny cowboy who’s got the hots for McCarthy’s amoral identify thief.

 

Best of the rest…

Turbo  

Here’s our first look at DreamWorks’ latest animated effort, which features Ryan Reynolds as the voice of a snail intent on winning Indy 500. It’s every inch as cute and comic as you might expect.

 

Pacific Rim
Guillermo del Toro’s latest flick is a love letter to monster movies; a sci-fi spectacular that promises an epic battle between mysterious giant critters that have risen from the ocean and a group of metallic giants the human race created to defeat them. It’s hard to tell what to make from this short teaser but one thing’s for sure is that Pacific Rim is going to offer plenty of death, destruction and knock ‘em sock ‘em robot vs monster action.

 

Man of Steel
The first full length trailer for Zack Snyder’s rebooted Superman landed online last week. Check out the latest instalment of our Geekwatch blog for a nerd’s eye view on what it tells us about what promises to be one of the movies of 2013.

 

G.I Joe Retaliation
The gang are back in action for the latest look at G.I Joe Retaliation, a trailer that comes complete with guns, ninjas and the now ever-present Inception-style boom.

 

Broken City  

A second trailer for Allen Hughe’s crime caper Broken City is up, featuring more edgy action from its top-notch triumvirate of Russell Crowe, Mark Wahlberg and Cathereine Zeta Jones.

 

What movies are you most looking forward to from this week’s line-up? Let us know in the comments below.

- Daniel Bettridge