Movie trailers have been used since the silent era to entice viewers to flock to their local cinema to watch the latest releases. (Ironically, some of these trailers, like the ones for American Venus starring Louise Brooks or The Patriot, which won an Oscar for Best Screenwriting Achievement, are all that remain of the movies they advertised.)
Of course, these previews sometimes have the opposite effect, warning viewers away from movies that will likely cause more pain than the trailers subject them to.
Here are a few that I've seen recently that have screamed "STAY AWAY!":
Doomsday. At first glance, this looked like a bad, uncredited remake of The Road Warrior. Then I found out it was written and directed by Neil Marshall, whose Dog Soldiers kicks serious amounts of ass and The Descent makes me want to never, ever go spelunking. So I almost disregarded my initial reaction to the trailer ("The fuck?") and went to see it. Then the reviews came out, most of them pegging it as (surprise!) a a bad, uncredited remake of The Road Warrior. It left theaters quickly, which means it'll be on DVD shortly. Maybe it'll be worth a rental. maybe.
Prom Night. Damn, we're scrapping the bottom of the barrel now. After remakes of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, The Amityville Horror, The Hills Have Eyes and Halloween, lazy, stupid filmmakers without a creative cell in the grayish lumps of meat they call brains have clearly run out of ideas if they're now recycling movies that were themselves ripoffs of better, scarier movies. I was slated to review this Prom Night redux before my gig at FilmMonthly.com imploded. Now I'm glad I didn't have to waste the nine bucks.
Shine a Light. Really, Martin Scorsese--a Rolling Stones documentary? Much as I love the music from Mick and Keith, at least from their glory years--you could choose any Stones album between Beggars Banquet and Exile on Main Street as the greatest rock album ever and not be far from wrong--but there have already been several movies covering their career, including Gimme Shelter, which is not only one of the best documentaries ever made, but one of the best movies of any kind, period. (Then again, you already know that, don't you, Marty? After all, you hired Albert Maysles, who co-directed Gimme Shelter, as one of your cameramen on Shine a Light.) Even if there weren't already such a perfect cinematic document in existence, though, would I really want to see Mick and Keith in high-def at my local IMAX? Dried lake beds have fewer cracks and crevaces than those well-worn faces.
Sex and the City. Okay, I wasn't the biggest fan of the TV series, but the few episodes I've seen beginning to end at least got a laugh or two out of me. The trailer? Not one. And it's not just me. I first saw the SatC preview before The Other Boleyn Girl with three friends, and we all hadpretty much the same reaction: Isn't a trailer for a comedy--especially a comedy based on a long-running, highly successful sitcom--supposed to be, y'know, funny? Don't they usually put some of the best gags in the trailer? What, then, does this say about the movie to come? And why is Jennifer Hudson, who's won an Oscar, playing a personal assistant in this thing? And why is she only in the trailer for, like, five seconds? Seeing the trailer a second time (before Smart People (a decent movie helped by good performances from the likes of Thomas Hayden Church, Ellen Page and, yes, Sarah Jessica Parker) didn't help--it looks like a bad idea delivered several years too late.
I want trailers to be good. I want to be enticed. The preview for Iron Man has me seriously jazzed (guess what we're doing my birthday weekend, kids?), and even though The Dark Knight doesn't come out until this summer, the trailer looks awesome. But when a coming attraction ad, which is supposed to feature the choice cuts from a feature looks rancid, I'm not too likely to peer past the surface and give the full film a chance.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
I wish those boneheads in Hollywood would just abandon the tired sound, look, length, snap-shot editing, voiceover, etc., that have become standard in movie trailers. I'm sick of them. Other than the "Iron Man" trailer, which rocks harder than a wooden cradle, the last trailer I saw (I admit, I don't get out to the movies very often anymore) that excited me and seemed innovative was for "Grindhouse". It would be most cool if the style and tone of a trailer fit the individual film. Anyone who watches Turner Classic Movies has seen the trailers from the 30s, 40s, and 50s. Cool stuff -- interesting, stylized, CHANGING. We've been seeing the same kind of trailers since the early 80s. Incidentally, does anyone recall the trailer for the original "Halloween"? Brilliant. Now that's what I'm talking about.
Too few trailers get me genuinely interested in the movie they're advertising, many times because they tell me too much about the movie--if you've given away most of the plot, why do I need to see the whole movie? I'm most impressed by previews that give me intriguing glimpses, like Cloverfield or The Game, both of which gave me just enough to wonder, "What the in the Wide, Wide World of Sports is a-goin' on here?" TCM does indeed show lots of old trailers, many as interesting as the movies they ballyhoo. The ones from the '50s are especially arresting, like corned beef hash: Chopped up almost to the point of being unrecognizable, yet colorful and appealing. And don't get me started on Welles and Hitchcock, who didn't bother showing the audience anything meaningful from Citizen Kane or Psycho--those trailers succeed on sheer force of personality alone.
Heh.
I had no idea there was a Sex and the City movie until the trailer appeared before us on the big screen.
Apparently, I don't keep up with TV and now Film. Oh well.
The only two of those I'm even slightly interested in are Shine a Light and SatC. And I've seen a trailer for neither. It's only based on press.
Post a Comment