Coming up in the next few months are a pair of interesting looking projects from two directors who couldn’t be more different if they tried. There’s Steven Soderbergh’s “Side Effects” which is set for a February 8th release, and there’s also Michael Bay’s “Pain and Gain” scheduled for release on April 26th. And what do they have in common, you ask? Well, not a lot, except they’ve both just received new TV spots.
“How far would you go to prove your innocence?” asks the "Side Effects" spot, which also points out that they’ve got an Academy Award nominee (Jude Law), another Academy Award nominee (Rooney Mara), an Academy Award winner (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and some other bloke (Channing Tatum). In fairness, Tatum’s easily going to be the one driving in the audiences here with his new-found star power, and hopefully by now people have been won around to the talents previously masked by his chiseled features. Anyway, the TV spot for this one looks fun, but we can’t help but feel like they’re missing a trick by not pointing out that this could be one of Soderbergh’s last few movies. At least for a while. And check out the new UK trailer in case you missed it earlier today.
The “Pain and Gain” spot also immediately has us interested by virtue of being a Michael Bay film that’s replaced giant robots with Marky Mark and The Rock. On show here are enormous muscles, bikinis, enormous muscles, fast cars, enormous muscles, shootouts, enormous muscles, explosions, and enormous muscles. Anyone who can still remember the dumb fun that some of Bay’s early movies were has to be looking forward to this, and Johnson and Wahlberg sure look like a winning duo. It’s also still hilarious that this is Bay’s idea of a smaller movie! Get pumped up on April 26th.