I first spotted the Spanish trailer for this a few weeks ago but the fact that I knew it was dubbed made it extremely difficult for me to give the film any merit. Now, the good folks at Twitch have posted the trailer for Álex de la Iglesia’s English feature debut, a star studded thriller called The Oxford Murders.
Though I’m not familiar with the director’s other work, I have to say I was pretty curious about this film starring John Hurt and Elijah Wood playing a professor and a grad student working together to stop a series of murders. Unfortunately, I must admit that I’m having a hard time buying Wood as being older than 16 even though I know he’s in his mid 20’s. I may be willing to overlook that for the great visuals that pop up throughout the trailer (I’m particularly fond of the various shots of the arm with some sort of pin mechanism attached – looks freaking creepy) but I’m not completely sold.
The Oxford Murders is currently only scheduled to open in Spain on January 18th and I’m assuming it will only open this side of the water if it manages to get some favorable reviews.
I’ve been a fan of Elijah Wood since I was a kid watching him in Radio Flyer, The Good Son, Forever Young and Huck Finn. I’m still rooting for him and I’m hoping he can avoid being pigeonholed only as Frodo to younger audiences as the years go on.
Thanks for giving me the chance to talk about John Hurt though. Anybody else think he’s just an unbelievably great actor? One of the greatest ever even? I just saw his recent Beyond the Gates the other week, which despite being a little overly melodramatic and predictable, is well worth the watch for him alone. I could go and on about what Hurt movies to watch, but the list would probably be too long.
Hate him. He was bad ass in Sin City though.
He was decent in Sin City for what he was. But I also liked him in Paris Je’Taime. Otherwise I’m not a big fan. John Hurt on the other hand…
Contact… mmmm.
John Hurt is a favorite. His psychotic Caligula in “I, Claudius” is one for the ages, and there was never a more perfectly gaunt actor to play Winston Smith in NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR (although maybe, just maybe MACHINIST-weight Christian Bale might pull it off). Again, I’ll play the Canadian Card and point out that he is particularly-lizard-like in the fabulous Canadian film OWNING MAHONEY as he sinks his fangs into Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s gambling addict.
But there are literally dozens of roles that he just totally owns, right alongside his paycheck roles (he likes crap too.) I’ll be curious to see his Abner Ravenwood character in Indy4.