Everyone knows that late winter/early spring is a terrible time for movies. Late summer/early fall is also pretty bad, as subpar summer blockbusters get dumped at the same time as subpar "prestige" films get chucked out so they don't interfere with the releases of better pictures. In other words, we get both Death Race and more screens of Elegy this week.
But they've been advertising a movie that actually looks good to me: Traitor. Here's the trailer:
I haven't heard a word about this movie, beyond a few TV ads. I haven't even seen the trailer in theaters. There's buzz and/or hype around obvious garbage like Babylon A.D., Henry Poole is Here, and The House Bunny, while Traitor is invisible. That should mean it'll suck. And yet...this movie looks good!
Frankly, the production credits don't excite me: This is the directorial debut of Jeffrey Nachmanoff, who also wrote the script. His only previous credit is co-writing the crapfest Day After Tomorrow. But that trailer makes it looks like the rarest of all film animals*: an intelligent action movie. And Don Cheadle as a conflicted double agent, Jeff Daniels as his paper-pushing CIA Handler, and Guy Pearce as the goateed FBI douche bag hunting Cheadle makes for a damn fine cast. I imagine it won't be The Departed or The Bourne Ultimatum, but I'm excited about Traitor. Weird.
*Not that long ago, I would have thought the intelligent grossout comedy to be the rarest of all animals. See Filmography: Apatow, Judd for why that is no longer so.
3 comments:
Groovy. This is the first I'd seen or heard of Traitor. Love the cast, right down to his friend in the beginning of the trailer (seen most prominently in Three Kings). I'm there.
Fletch, thanks for confirming that I'm not crazy. Is his friend the interrogator from Three Kings? If so, that makes a great cast even better. That guy was terrifying.
Indeed it is. I like him a lot.
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