A big line-up tonight of new trailers. Casino Jack (#2), From Prada to Nada, The Illusionist, Jolene, Sucker Punch (#2) and The Way Back.

THE WAY BACK

	Plot Summary: A group of prisoners in Siberia escape the isolated facility and travel thousands of miles towards freedom. Release Date: December 29, 2010
	Trailer	Poster
	Rating: B Commentary: The biggest problem with this trailer is the soaring score. It seems almost overbearing for the last portions of the trailer. However, with a cast like this and a harrowing story, this could be quite an entertaining yarn.	Rating: C Commentary: Standard. Unexceptional. Lacks a spark. These aren’t the kind of words that marketers really want to be invoking with a poster.
	Trailer Link: Yahoo Movies Trailers Oscar Chances: With a cast like this, how could it not be an Oscar contender. The story itself should help a great deal, but with Peter Weir behind the camera, it could be his best shot in some time at Oscar.

THE ILLUSIONIST

	Plot Summary: From the director of acclaimed Oscar nominee The Triplets of Belleville comes the story of a stage magician caught in the dwindling popularity of stage shows as music acts emerge. He encounters a young girl who changes his life in ways he had never imagined. Release Date: December 25, 2010
	Trailer	Poster
	Rating: B- Commentary: The images are strong and the premise is quietly, but not excessively laid out. The plaudits plastered throughout the trailer are a bit distracting, and dissatisfying considering how few more notable mainstream critics there are, but I can’t say I’m not interesting.	Rating: C Commentary: While it evokes the style of Jacques Tati quite well, it’s not the kind of eye-grabbing poster that brings in an audience.
	Trailer Link: Apple Trailers Oscar Chances: In a five-slot Animated Feature contest, this one is guaranteed a slot. In a three-slotter, it’s going to be fighting off Disney’s Tangled for a spot.

SUCKER PUNCH, trailer #2

	Plot Summary: Taken to a home for the criminally insane, a young woman fights to escape her prison using the very tools they have taught her. Release Date: March 25, 2011
	Trailer	Poster
	Rating: C+ Commentary: Despite the stellar first trailer, the film is looking less interesting as the previews go on. My eyes kind of glazed over halfway through the trailer with too much visual stimulus. And the plot seems rather limited from what’s explained in this trailer, so it might be best to return to the more mysterious first trailer for advertising.	Previous Preview: SuckerPunch
	Trailer Link: Apple Trailers Oscar Chances: See Previous Preview

CASINO JACK, trailer #2

	Plot Summary: A film about the rise to power and legal collapse of lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Release Date: December 17, 2010
	Trailer	Poster
	Rating: C+ Commentary: Even with the noteworthy names providing praise for the film, the trailer still makes this look like a weak, Oscar-baiting kind of movie.	Previous Preview: Casino Jack
	Trailer Link: Apple Trailers Oscar Chances: See Previous Preview

FROM PRADA TO NADA

	Plot Summary: Two wealthy girls are thrown into poverty when their father dies and they discover he was in bankruptcy and will have to move to East Los Angeles to live. Release Date: January 28, 2011
	Trailer	Poster
	Rating: C Commentary: It’s apparently really hard for this trailer to make jokes as most of them fall flat. The only one that flies is near the end of the trailer commenting on the lengthy introductions of prior and “needing to learn Spanish”. Although the scenes probably aren’t related, it works. But that’s it. The film looks like a boring, predictable, dry film that tries to make itself about more than it really is.	Rating: None Commentary: I don’t review placeholders.
	Trailer Link: Apple Trailers Oscar Chances: None.

JOLENE

	Plot Summary: Based on E.L. Doctorow’s short story about a red-headed young woman shunted from foster home to foster home who breaks out on her own and explores her sexual side with various types of men. Release Date: October 29, 2010
	Trailer	Poster
	Rating: C Commentary: Typical indie fare with no sense of place or presence, only hoping to be evocative enough to draw a modest audience.	Rating: C+ Commentary: While it works thematically, it doesn’t work visually. The open road is a nice metaphor and when used in a film, it works quite well. However, putting such a vast expanse on a poster is just about as boring as driving through the endless soybean and cornfields along the highways in Kansas.
	Trailer Link: Apple Trailers Oscar Chances: None.