Moviegoers are still knee deep in high-brow Oscar fare, not to mention all the arty indies the festivals have to offer. But as two new TV spots show, lots of fun, mindless genre fluff awaits in the upcoming spring season.
Tom Cruise is humanity’s last hope in the first spot for Oblivion, a post-apocalyptic sci-fi flick from director Joseph Kosinski (TRON: Legacy). It features many of the elements from the full-length trailer we covered last month (including my favorite, steampunk Morgan Freeman), with the shorter promo relying more on action than atmosphere. Based on the footage, the story of a drone repairman who becomes involved in a battle for Earth should become one of the year’s first big post-awards season movies.
Oblivion also stars Olga Kurylenko, Andrea Riseborough, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, and Melissa Leo. The film will enjoy an exclusive IMAX release a week before its official release on April 19th. The spot can be seen below:
A TV spot for the action comedy Pain & Gain was also released, and it should look familiar to those who remember director Michael Bay’s early career. The muscle-bound follow-up to last month’s trailer features Mark Wahlberg, Dwayne Johnson, and Anthony Mackie as three personal trainers who orchestrate a kidnapping that goes horribly wrong. The film — which is based on a true story, now adapted by Captain America screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely — marks a return for Bay, who hasn’t made one of his original testosterone-fueled films since the Bad Boys days.
Pain & Gain also stars Rebel Wilson, Ed Harris, Rob Corddry, Ken Jeong, Tony Shalhoub, and wrestler Kurt Angle, and will open on April 26th. Take a look at the ad below:
Based on what you’ve seen, are you looking forward to the post-awards movie season?