After a string of rom-coms, Matthew McConaughey is back in A Time to Kill territory, although this teaser trailer for **The Lincoln Lawyer stems from novels by crime-genre heavyweight Michael Connelly, rather than John Grisham.
McConaughey is Mickey Haller, the legal eagle of the title, who's so professionally unimpressive that he essentially works out of his Lincoln town car. His usual clientele are drug dealers and gangsters, but Haller smells an opportunity when the wealthy LA realtor Louis Roulet (Ryan Phillippe) crosses his path in need of a defence. But Roulet may not be all he seems, and the case casts doubt on the safety of a previous conviction.
It's a legal thriller, and we've seen plenty of those before. The Lincoln Lawyer looks like solid stuff though, with McConaughey perfect to fill the shabby shoes of Haller, and a great cast to back him up, in Phillippe, Marisa Tomei, William H Macy, Michael Pena, John Leguizamo, Michael Pare and Pell James.
John Romano adapted Connelly's novel (the first of three with Haller at the centre) and Brad Furman is directing, after some talk that Tommy Lee Jones might wield the megaphone. The film's out on March 18, and Connelly must have his fingers crossed for the franchise potential, and that it's a lot better than Clint Eastwood's awful Blood Work.