Trailer Park: Heavenly Beings

The devil's gotten his due with the likes of The Exorcist, The Omen, The Devil's Advocate, and countless others. Now it's time to turn the tables and look upward. We're looking at films that evoke a higher power this week on Trailer Park.

God Grew Tired of Us
You read about this one here on Cinematical back in January of this year. Narrated by Nicole Kidman, this is a documentary about a handful of young men from the Sudan coming to live in the U.S. to escape the civil war in their homeland. The title is taken from a statement by one of the "Lost Boys" (as they were dubbed by the media) who, because of his hardships, felt he'd been abandoned by God. One of them explains how he's never used electricity before and expresses concern that it may be difficult for him. The film won the Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize in the documentary category at Sundance this year. Looks like a fascinating true story of survival and culture shock.

Venus
As Peter O'Toole states in this trailer: "Venus is a goddess. She creates love and desire in us mortals leading often to foolishness and despair." O'Toole plays an aging London actor who bonds with the rough-around-the-edges grandniece of his best friend. I first saw this great actor in My Favorite Year, in which he plays an aging actor having trouble adjusting to that new fangled thing called television, and this trailer shows a slight but pleasant echo of that previous role. I look forward to this film with great anticipation, and you can find reviews here on Cinematical by Kim Voynar and Jeffrey M. Anderson.

Ocean's Thirteen
The only thing heavenly about this one was the "Oh God" I muttered when it began to roll. 2001's Ocean's 11 was one of those movies whose success completely baffled me. The film seemed to be choking on its own cast list, the dialogue was lame and the story didn't hold my attention well enough to keep me from looking at my watch repeatedly. Of course, it went on to make barrels of money, so what the hell do I know? Ocean's 12 followed in 2004 and now we have the trailer for Ocean's Thirteen. The stellar actors from the previous films return, trying so hard to look cool that they're going to hurt themselves. Al Pacino is the new villain, presumably on the verge of being scammed by Danny Ocean and his gang of good-hearted thieves. Looks like more of the same, so I'll pass on seeing this one.

Seraphim Falls
For those keeping track, a Seraphim is an angel, though there are no literal heavenly creatures in this one. Set during the last days of the American Civil War, Liam Neeson plays Morsman Carver, a man hell-bent on revenge against Gideon, played by Pierce Brosnan. My feelings on this one are strictly middle of the road, torn between my apathy for the western genre and my respect for these two fine actors. The trailer alone doesn't sell me on the idea, and I'll have to know more before I can decide if this is worth seeing. Seraphim Falls was first mentioned here on Cinematical back in September.

Grindhouse
As with Ocean's 13, this trailer was an "Oh God" situation, but in this case it was a matter of "Oh God, I want to see this one RIGHT NOW!" There was some early footage from the film on Youtube awhile back that had premiered on Spike TV's 2006 Scream Awards, but that was eventually taken down. This trailer does an amazing job of replicating previews from the grindhouse era of the 70s, including film scratches, period-appropriate voice over, and even the logos for the two features within the feature (Robert Rodriquez's Planet Terror, and Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof) look like they would fit right in on a theater marquee from 1976. Pure, unapologetic exploitation. You gotta love it. You can read Scott Weinberg's take on this trailer here.