I don’t care if John Hillcoat personally and gently coaxed it from Terence Malick’s grasp by whispering pleas into his ear — Hillcoat’s lips not-quite brushing the fine hairs of his lobe — all in the middle of a golden-lit and softly windy field of hay… the title Lawless still sucks.

But now we have an actual trailer, so we’ve got other shit to talk about! Here’s our first glimpse of the prohibition flick starring Tom Hardy, Guy Pearce, Gary Oldman, Shia LaBeouf, Jessica Chastain, and Mia Wasikowska, set to hit on August 32st .

Funny headlines aside, as deeply and profoundly inclined though I may be to go head over heels for this movie, I’d be remiss if I didn’t say I thought this trailer kind of blows. The swooshy, slamming action trailer format just make me think Public Enemies, which… [shivers]. It doesn’t help that the movie looks a might uglier than I expected.

Most importantly, these cuts are doing Tom Hardy’s accent no favors. A true southern accent is the easiest to fake poorly and the hardest to get exactly right, so I don’t blame a Brit missing the mark a bit (Oldman doesn’t even seem to be trying). I’m just hoping (a bit like we all are for TDKR) that it all works a little better in linear context. Guy Pearce and his dandy gentleman sound amazing all day, all the time though.

All concerns aside, I still can’t wait to see this flick. I love the era, love the story, love the cast (would love to have seen more Shia in this) and think this is a good pairing of writer and director and subject matter. Again, the action movie posturing of this trailer has surely stripped out any poetry the film might posses, but I seem to be the only one the least bit concerned by any of this, so ‘ll leave it for now.

What do you think?

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