Today's Trailer Happy Hour has Steve Carell's toy story, a killer house, and Tiffany Haddish
We haven’t had a Trailer Happy Hour in a while here at The A.V. Club, but we could all use a chance to relax, turn off the regular news, and pour ourselves a big glass of movie trailers. Today we’ve got some real refreshing stuff, including a movie where Steve Carell builds a toy town to recover from a traumatic brain injury, a woman getting sci-fi kidnapped, Kristen Bell’s difficult relationship with her father Kelsey Grammer, and Tiffany Haddish’s struggle with returning to a normal life after prison. Hold on, that’s all too dramatic. Let’s try it again: Today we’ve got Steve Carell fighting Nazis with a team of ass-kicking dolls, Gary Oldman providing the voice of a sci-fi house, Kristen Bell taking a wacky cruise with her father, and Tiffany Haddish embracing her position as a wild and destructive force of comedy nature. There, that all sounds much more fun.
First up is Welcome To Marwen, a dramatic adaptation of the documentary Marwencol. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, Welcome To Marwen throws in the very movie-friendly twist of having the toys that populate the little town come to life and interact with Steve Carell’s character in various ways. That lets Marwen be a magical-realism drama, a cartoony war movie with a squad of female assassins (including Janelle Monáe!), and an emotional story about a man overcoming trauma, and it would all be so much more interesting without the annoying Foo Fighters song dragging it down.
Next is Tau, a movie that seems very different from its YouTube description. Based on this trailer, it seems like it’s about a bad man kidnapping people as some kind of test for his evil version of Alexa, making it an extended take on Black Mirror or whatever. At the risk of spoiling the whole thing, though, YouTube says it’s about a woman “befriending” the AI system that controls the house. This teaser just as the Gary Oldman-voiced smart house trying to murder people, so we don’t know where this friend stuff comes in, but we’ll have a better idea when the movie hits Netflix on June 29.
Here’s Like Father, which gets by—in this trailer—mostly on the strengths of Kristen Bell and Kelsey Grammer. She’s relatable! He’s grouchy! Together they will make each other better people, using only the healing power of a cruise vacation, some kind of Double Dare show, and sex with Seth Rogen. (Kristen Bell’s character has sex with a character played by Seth Rogen, Kelsey Grammer’s character isn’t involved with that.) It will premiere on Netflix on August 3.
Finally, Nobody’s Fool has Tiffany Haddish getting out of prison and reconnecting with her family. At first, everybody’s annoyed by how Tiffany Haddish she is, but everyone gradually realizes that Tiffany Haddish is pretty awesome and that they could all stand to be more like her. The movie was written and directed by Tyler Perry, but the most important thing in this trailer is a good gag where Whoopi Goldberg tries to get out of a face-to-face conversation with Haddish by pretending her phone connection is breaking up. It’s an easy joke that has been done before, but we think it’s funny and we’re willing to fight anyone who disagrees.
Sorry, this Trailer Happy Hour may have gotten a little too loose.