The first trailer gives you two pieces of vital info. 1) it’s distributed by The Weinstein Co. which also has Fruitvale Station. 2) it is likely to be a tearjerker. I’m not ready for how critics are going to respond to this movie. I wish we could skip that part.
I’m sorry – but I still haven’t received my cynicism card in the mail yet. I think this looks like it could be quite incredible.
The cast alone is pretty amazing.
I was really looking or ward to this but the trailer looks terrible. What a waste.
The senile membership of the Academy will eat this up.
WTF was that? that looked pretty baddddddd.
The preview doesn’t give too muchaway. Love the casting. But I hope this is not the music that we will hear with it is released,because it does’t fit. It is that overly heroic feel like that sounds like every parody of the score from “The Natural.
I think it may be hard for Oprah to transcend her Oprahness. She’d have to have bucketloads of acting talent to overcome her public persona at this point to make me think I am watching a character and not Oprah. It wasn’t as big an obstacle in her earlier years before she became the global icon.
Actresses like Angela Bassett and Lynn Whitfield would have been more seamless fits.
FW and specially Oprah look amazing… but I don’t know… I got the same vibe from the Hyde Park on Hudson trailer one year ago. Looks too safe… hope the reception for The Butler is different from that film.
This looks like an epic masterpiece the world will never forget..NOT.
Sorry . I said Childs (as in Lee Childs, I guess). Of course, I meant Daniels.
All the crazy that made “The Paperboy” so wonderful failed to translate into box-office success last year. So it looks as if Daniels may be retreating into staider. more sentimental territory. Who knows? It may work commercially. But the trailer certainly suggests a bit of a snoozefest. Hope I’m wrong. Because Childs has a real gift for bringing out exciting things from both seasoned actors (McConaughey, Cusack) and “who knew?” types( like Mariah Carey and Mo’Nique). So maybe a couple of the performances will deliver something startling. Although startling doesn’t seem to be what this picture is going for. Still, Forest Whittaker and Terrence Howard are always good. I loved Oprah’s work in “The Color Purple” but, based on this trailer, her “Butler”performance seems to be the one most committed to supplying the film with Easy-Bake oven sentimentality.
Jane Fonda is still one fierce lady.
I’m curious about Jane Fonda as Nancy Reagon. It could be her “comeback” role. Hainoi Jane portraying “just say no” Nancy. Great casting against type, I’d say.
Also am curious about Melissa Leo as Maimie Eisenhower . . . I hope she camps it up with a few lines like, “Fuck, Ike makes it look so easy!”
Jane Fonda’s has almost as many comebacks as facelifts.
Alan Rickman as Ronald Reagan really impressed me by the first eye contact. Let’s wait for the film to outcome (and yes, a lot of Oprah campaigning this year)… Forest Whitaker, I think, will get a lot of buzz due to his charismatic underrated personality. Keep an eye on.
Is it just me, or does it seem like this movie is going to have a runtime of 24 hours?
^
just 24 hours? whew, that’s a relief.
seemed to me it might run from October all the way till Oscar night.
It’ll run real time for the next 40 years. And they do their own singing – LIVE!
Bobby Part Deux?
How hard do you think Harvey is going to push for Oprah?
He’ll push as hard as $he tell$ him to – are you kidding?
Remember when everyone saw Hyde Park on the Hudson trailer last year and everyone was raving Oscars for Murray and Linney before we saw it…..then by Oscar time it was COMPLETELY forgotten about….I feel like this is gonna go down the same path. Only “contender” I can see is Oprah, and thats only because you could bet money she will be hardcore campaigned!
haha ALBERT NOBBS was a boring nightmare but the make-up folks get a lifetime pass in my book for being the only ones in AMPAS to honor 1986 masterpiece THE FLY
“Norbit” got a make -up nod.
“NORBIT”.
uncanny. it’s as if Ike came back to life.
This is so getting a Make Up nod. And nothing else a la Hitchcock. The Make Up Branch love to nominate one fiasco movie that get bashed by critics and audiences (Albert Nobbs, etc).
Wouldn’t it be too tempting for them not to nominate her if she’s half good? I thought everyone loved her. And why the comparisons to FRUITVALE?
I don’t think Sasha meant to compare it to Fruitvale, but instead, she wanted to point out that the Weinstein Co. already has at least two movies this year that could be very strong Oscar contenders.
But that’s pretty much every year with these guys!
didn’t especially mean Sasha, I realize her comment isn’t even so much a comparison
YOU GET AN OSCAR! YOU GET AN OSCAR! YOU GET AN OSCAR!
Not you, Melissa. Not you, Jane. Alas, neither of you are Oprah.
Engrave her name, bitches!
Vanessa Redgrave is EVERYTHING.
P.S. Oprah’s gonna win the Oscar.
Love Redgrave to death, too, but she really only had to show up on set – still in character – between shows of Driving Miss Daisy that she was doing on Broadway.
If it was up to me, she’d already have a mantle-full of Oscars.
Isadora, The Trojan Women, The Bostonians, Howards End, Coriolanus… that she has only one is beyond me. I blame the Zionist hoodlums.
Paddy, very funny! Hoodlums, indeed.
I also loved Redgrave in a little seen, lovely film called “A Month by the Lake” with Uma Thurman, and another favorite Redgrave performance is her portrayal of Elizabeth I in the film “Anonymous”. She was quite amazing in that role.
I really don’t understand how the Academy could have ignored her as BSA for “Coriolanus”. San Francisco Film Critics gave it to her (at least that organization has taste.)
You’re right, keifer. The San Francisco Film Critics Circle does have good taste. They’ve given Best Actor prizes to Heath Ledger for Brokeback and Gary Oldman for Tinker Tailor, and Best Film to Little Children in ’06.
I love Vanessa Redgrave in A Month by the Lake! I love Vanessa Redgrave in just about anything, actually. I remember Roger Ebert described her as being ‘at the absolute peak of physical and mental perfection’ in that film, and she was 58! Hooray for the both of them! And she was certainly the best thing in Anonymous. Had she been Oscar-nominated for that over Coriolanus, I wouldn’t have been disappointed. But, alas, they nominated her for neither.
I am much more excited about Fruitvale than this one…This movie seems quite cheesy with lots of same old tearjerker tricks. Unfortunately, it seems that Oprah may get another nomination, after her “special” win a couple of years ago..She has a few “baity” scenes even in this trailer…I dont know why but I think Angela Bassett could have been a better choice for that role.
Aside from race factoring into the drama and circumstance of the characters, how are Frutivale Station and The Butler anyway comparable? Let’s imagine what Lee Daniels’ Fruitvale Station would look like for a moment.
And why do people get on Oprah as an actress? She was very award-worthy in The Color Purple and Beloved is an underrated, well-crafted adaptation that for some reason did not hit with industry people (I didn’t expect an audience to love it and it flopped) despite pretty good reviews critically. But that may be my Demme worshiping taking.
I refuse to get too excited about this movie. I’m guessing this is going to be the hammiest ham-fest of the year, despite having a few oh-my-God-I-can’t-believe-how-emotionally-powerful-this-is moments. I also fully expect something lurid or disgusting to happen completely out of nowhere at some point during the film to break the staid biopic spell. And somebody will have a patented “I didn’t know they could actually act” moment like Mariah Carey in Precious. Hell, it could be Mariah herself since she’s gonna be in this. This movie is going to be a mess, that’s a given. Will it be a highly watchable, endlessly intriguing mess, or will it just fuck with our emotions for 2 hours and ultimately leave a bad taste in our mouths? That remains to be seen for now. The trailer changes nothing.
Someone else has already made it clear how clichéd this trailer happened to come across ass. Butt seriously, I can feel it coming in the air tonight: the trailer has taken the word cliché to another level. *here’s your sign. . . .*
I guess in the end it worked in a PR sense. Because at least they seemingly managed to get people to talk about it. . . . : )
I think it is serious contender. Picture, Oprah, Whitaker, Techs
The trailer really looks terrible to me, almost parodic… One cliché after another. The only thing that impressed me was the view of Alan Rickman as Reagan, looks spot on.
Wow, looks great, can’t wait! GREAT Cast, Lots of Oscar Winner and nominees, and a very cool true story! There isn’t an actor in the cast that isn’t very talented, successful and great! Could easily be a Best Ensemble Winner if it’s good.
This looks absolutely terrible. You can smell a complete Razzie award sweep.
Expecting cliched impersonations, comic-panel storytelling and sentiment so thick you’ll need to scrape it off your shoes.
May be a true story, but This may have more depth.
But, hey – Lee Daniels is known for his light touch, right? Oh, right, that’s Jack Daniels.
I’ll wait and get my annual history panorama from Steve McQueen, I think.
But, hey – Lee Daniels is known for his light touch, right? Oh, right, that’s Jack Daniels.
steve50. Setting the bar sky high for Comment of the Month.
Pretty cool makeup effects, how they make Oprah look like she’s only worth maybe 1 billion dollars instead of 3.
Actually THE PAPERBOY had some of the coolest make-up shit I saw last year, serious. I wasn’t around these parts by then but I thought people here would have liked PRECIOUS I guess not lol
This looks like one of those parody trailers. In other words, hilarious, but I’m pretty sure that’s not the intended effect… I just can’t with that music and that dialogue. Should have serious camp value though.
That cliched inspirational music just kills it for me.
Looks very Oscar-thirsty. At least this trailer does. Hopefully the movie won’t be as much!
I don’t normally like Lee Daniels’ directed movies….but this looks really good….it’s going to be a good year for black actor starring movies….betcha.
With exception to Marsden’s okayish Kennedy accent, would anybody be able to tell who these actors are playing as Presidents and First Ladies? Ike and Mamie Eisenhower are not names too familiar in 2013 America. You really just see famous people in costume. Could anybody jump to Nancy Reagan seeing Jane Fonda. Don’t get me started on Cusack as Nixon.
Also, Kennedy and civil rights are not so cut and dry. That scene between JFK and the titular character leave such a blah after-taste in making Kennedy a crusader when Johnson did the heavy-lifting and paid a price for it.
I can accept another Shadowboxer and The Paperboy, but not another Precious.
Ike and Mamie Eisenhower are not names too familiar in 2013 America. You really just see famous people in costume.
Bill Murray IS Franklin D Roosevelt
Robin Williams IS Dwight Eisenhower
Mike Meyers IS John F Kennedy
Billy Crystal IS Richard Nixon
Martin Short IS Jimmy Carter
Will Ferrell IS George Bush
Chris Rock IS Barack Obama
“Martin Short IS Jimmy Carter
Will Ferrell IS George Bush
Chris Rock IS Barack Obama”
I’d reboot The Three Amigos just to make a movie of those three all in those roles.
Don’t forget…Melissa Leo IS Mamie Eisenhower. (That’s who she looks like, at least.)
Gotta love LBJ!! #caro
Ike! Truman! dang, this country’s had its share of great presidents! #America <3
Movie doesn't look any better than HYDE PARK ON HUDSON. Oprah sounds/looks great though and I've never cared about her.
I really have no idea what to think about this movie based on that trailer. It’s kind of dumbfounding.
If nothing else, the movie looks to have a much larger scope than I anticipated. I guess I expected it to be a sort of chamber piece… the lives of these various Presidents and America’s social evolution as seen through the Butler’s eyes. But it looks like something more than that, touching on bigger events and themes outside of the White House.
That’s a good thing, generally, but what seems to be missing is a specific focus. Hopefully that’s just because of the need to try and compress the whole movie into a 2-minute trailer