Someone is getting the hang of marketing action-adventure movies these days. It's mysterious to me that they haven't figured this out before the last couple of years. I suppose it really started with Brokeback Mountain - those fresh-faced, lonely-eyed boys with Southern accents & snug jeans. Thank you, Focus Features. The fact that they were gay lovers was far, far beside the point. I would have watched that movie if they just sat on a porch for two hours.
Then Martin Scorsese's people got smart and gave me sweet-faced tough guys - three of them! All serious and flawed and damaged, loyal in their own ways. I love Scorsese and would see his stuff anyway, but usually not in the theater on opening weekend. But The Departed? You betcha. An offer I couldn't refuse for sure.
And speaking (dreaming) of young Mr. Wahlberg, the Shooter trailer wisely showed him in backwoods, long-haired recluse mode for only 30 seconds before going big guns with the grown-up Marky Mark, all chiseled & brooding yet vulnerable. Yes, please, I'd LOVE to go watch a movie about government corruption with lots of guns and explosions and car chases. Absolutely. (I'm actually kind of amazed I remember what it was really about).
Now we've got 3:10 to Yuma on the screens this weekend and suddenly I am all wiggly about a Western. A WESTERN. Though Lionsgate strangely omitted any barechested scenes of Russell or Christian (surely there will be some, right?) in the trailers, they teased with plenty of sweat and grit and low cowboy voices around the campfire. Oh, and the story sounds interesting also. I think. Something about a train?
Allll aboard.
