What’s your poison — comedy or action? Two very different trailers were released today. First, Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston topline a hilarious cast in the brand new trailer for director David Wain’s “Wanderlust.” On the other end of the dramatic spectrum, Denzel Washington plays a rogue spy who tries to turn Ryan Reynolds, an agent stuck on guard duty in the safe house where Washington is being kept.
After losing his high-paying NYC job, Paul Rudd drags girlfriend Jennifer Aniston across the country looking to start over. Their fist stop is staying with his smarmy brother in Atlanta (king of discomfort Ken Marino of “Party Down”), before ending up at a neo-hippie commune complete with nature freaks, nudists and pretentious guitar players. It’s not exactly “Martha Marcy May Marlene” territory, but unsettling enough for the former Gothamites.
The stellar cast includes several of Wain’s “The State” cast mates, including Marino and Jo La Truglio. Malin Akerman (“Watchmen”) and the chameleon-like Justin Theroux (recently seen in “Your Highness”) also star. Many of the film’s performers appear in Wain’s other films, including “Wet Hot American Summer,” “The Ten” and “Role Models.” Some of Rudd’s funniest on-screen moments have been in Wain’s films, and hopefully “Wanderlust” will carry on that winning streak.
It’s also nice to see that Alan Alda is continuing his late-career revival with both “Tower Heist” and this.
Meanwhile, the brand new trailer for “Safe House,” which also stars Brendan Gleeson, Vera Farmiga and Sam Shepard, starts out in overly-familiar territory, but takes an unexpected (well, maybe not that unexpected) left turn about halfway through. Washington’s been in similar roles before (“Man on Fire,” “Deja Vu”), but he excels at playing a confident and charming underdog. It’ll be interesting to see Reynolds shift from the lead role in “Green Lantern” to a second fiddle role in this, along the lines of Chris Pine in Washington’s last adventure film, “Unstoppable.”
Besides Farmiga’s unstoppable sexiness, the best part may be watching Washington go through several hair changes, or seeing Robert Patrick (the T-1000 in “Terminator 2”) back in a big-budget thriller.
“Safe House” marks the U.S. directing debut of Swedish helmer Daniel Espinosa (whose “Easy Money” is being remade in Hollywood). Watch the trailer here.
What do you think of the trailers?