trailer talk

So did you check out those trailers yet? Borat looks like it's going to be one of the funniest films of the year, which will be no surprise to us British types. Sacha Baron Cohen's most famous creation maybe Ali G (who ironically became popular with exactly the type of people he was satirising) but Borat is his finest. Some people always miss the point and say he's racist, but as well as being very funny, he exposes a lot of small-town bigotry and disturbing attitudes. In this film the targets happen to be American but such people are disturbingly common the world over. So check out the trailer if you haven't.

The Departed is the English language remake of ace Hong-Kong film Infernal Affairs. It follows an undercover cop in the Mafia (the Triads in the original) and his opposite number- a Mob Moll in the police. This would normally be a bad thing (I love Asian Cinema, and despise remakes) but this looks set to be an exception. Why? It's directed by Martin Scorsese for a start. It's also got an impressive cast. I'm no fan of Di Caprio or Damon, but Jack Nichoslon, Ray Winstone and other quality actors are involved. Can't wait.

Last but not least, how exciting is the Transformers teaser? Like everybody of a certain generation the news learning that Hollywood was making a Transformers movie, I was considerably skeptical. Especially when I heard Michael 'Pearl Harbour' Bay was directing. When then I heard the special effects were being handled by the team-behind the ace Citroen Transformer-style adverts, I got back a little bit of hope. To be honest I've never watched Pearl harbour due to it's reputation and(his last flick) the Island wasn't that bad. When I saw that teaser my cynicism melted away. It looks ace. The trouble is we've got a year to wait and apparently the teaser has nothing to do with the finished plot. So it still may well be awful. Only time will tell.