Daily Loaf

I had every intention of seeing Valkyrie at the Regal Park Place Stadium 16 last night, but the 7:50 show was sold out. Although Valkyrie has received middling reviews, I still want to see it, a desire I can attribute to three reasons:

1. Tom Cruise (so intense, so watchable,)

2. It was directed by Bryan Singer (X-Men, The Usual Suspects)

3. (And most important) The poster for Valkyrie has the balls to make Nazis look like the antihero studs of Reservoir Dogs.

Watchmen ruling: Now what? If you read Wednesday’s Reel Projections, you know that a federal judge ruled that Fox Studios owns the distribution rights to Watchmen, putting its March 6 release by Warner Bros. in serious jeopardy. Over at Slashfilm, Peter Sciretta offers a few scenarios that could play out between the two studios, ranging from a co-distribution deal to the film not being released at all.

Every Friday, Reel Projections welcomes the Cranky (Because He’s Soon to Be Unemployed) Copy Editor into the screening room to review one trailer for an upcoming film. Take it away, CCE:

This week’s trailer is From Paris With Love, starring John Travolta. OK, I know what you’re thinking: “When can I get buy my tickets, because Travolta is the most awesome actor in the history of talking pictures.”

And it’s true — Pulp Fiction, Face/Off, Get Shorty, Broken Arrow — all contain classic, Oscar-worthy performances. I dare you to start watching any Travolta film where he plays a badass and try to turn your head away. You simply can’t.

So I regret to report that while Travolta plays perhaps the most badass character of his career in From Paris With Love, sporting the unbeatable bald-with-a-menacing-goatee look, he’s not in the trailer nearly enough for my tastes. Like in the first few frames before it reveals Travolta reading the contents of a soda can to a gendarme. Or when Jonathan Rhys-Meyers says “Caroline.” And especially when Travolta fires a missile from a hand-held rocket launcher and it cuts to shot of a car being blown sky-high instead of lingering on his satisfied look of a job well done. I’ve seen cars get totaled in movies before; besides, with digital post-production, you can easily show a burst of flames reflecting in Travolta’s eyes.

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