What is up with movie trailers that leave you scratching your head wondering what the hell the movie is about? What is the reasoning behind giving not even a tiny glimpse into what the movie is about? Is it because the plot is too complex to express in a short trailer? Or is it because there is no plot to speak of? My experience with these types of movies has been the second.
For a good example see the trailer for the movie “Bounce.”
All I can tell from the trailers I have seen for this movie tell me that Ben Affleck and Gwyneth Paltrow are in it and that they like each other. That is it.
That does not make a movie. Tell me more! Are they separated for some reason and have to struggle to find each other? Does he try to kill her for having a rotten British accent? Does she try to kill him for being a no talent schmuck? Give me something that makes me want to go see the movie! Sheesh.
Anyone else have this problem, or am I too dense to get the trailers?
Coyote Ugly
The only thing I saw in these trailers was a bunch of good-looking female bartenders dancing on and behind the bar. What the hell was this supposed to be about? The trailers didn’t even hint at any kind of plot. Somebody here once posted something about one of the girls wanting to sing, otherwise I would have no clue about the alleged ‘plot’ of this movie. So basically, they were advertising “Come look at sexy women for 90 minutes for $7.50 a ticket!” Please, I can buy a Playboy for that money and look all I want. :rolleyes:
I got confused about Bounce, too. I see two different trailers. One centers on the love thing with G.P. and B.A. and the other one is about how her husband died in an airplane crash when B.A. switched his airplane seat with him. Neither one sounds particularly enticing.
There was one trailer I saw recently for a film called Pitch Black (I think). It did not explain the plot at all, just looked like an Alien re-make type of thing.
One thing which has always made me laugh is action films (which i really like) showing all the best bits in the trailer. There was a Simpsons episode where they were going to hire a video. There was a trailer for the new McBain movie, Homer stood and watched it and Bart asked if they could get it, to which Homer replied “Nah, I’ve seen all the best bits”. Very true is some cases
I hate seeing trailers that give away just about the entire plot. I’d much rather see a trailer that lets me know who’s in it, who the director is, and just enough of what the plot is to make me think about it. I loved the trailer for Magnolia because it left me going “Huh?”, but I knew that Tom Cruise, Julianne Moore, and a bunch of other cool stars were in it and it looked interesting (I loved the movie, BTW). “Remember The Titans” or “Space Cowboys” - gee, I wonder what happens in those movies?
It was about a really dumb producer who decided to make a movie starring some models who can’t act, and he gives it a horrible name, and it tanks and is out of the theatres so fast hardly anyone noticed it was there.
Bingo. A trailer has to walk a fine line between telling you enough about the movie to entice you in, but not giving away everything for free. Trailers for “What Lies Beneath” were ridiculous–I haven’t seen the movie, but it appears that Harrison Ford had an affair with a woman who looks like his wife, killed herself, and is now haunting his house. (Am I wrong?) That’s a bit too far.
A trailer should tell you who’s in the movie; give you a sample laugh if it’s a comedy, or a sample thrill if it’s a thriller, and that’s it.
I’ve always preferred the teaser trailers. One of the best & worst examples I’ve seen was for the same movie - Men in Black. Early teaser looked way cool and gave very little way other than the fact that Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones had big guns and there was a flying saucer. It was about 15 seconds long and made me really, really want to see it. Later trailers gave you the whole damn movie, including the best dialogue, entire story, and best visuals. Why bother with the movie? Almost completely killed off any interest I had.
What about the Grinch commercials? Come on, they SHOW the very ending! (Yes, I am kidding.)
I concede. They should tease the viewer’s attention. Anyone ever see Psycho trailers- those are good. If you’ve got a good movie, let it speak for yourself. Don’t pour all your money into the trailer.
That said…they’re all the same, nowadays, anyway. There doesn’t seem to be any real difference between one film and another…
jsc1953, Yes you are wrong… well you are not ALL right anyway. Go rent the movie if it’s out already. It was good! I think you will be pleasantly suprised.
Days of Thunder had to be the worst trailer in movie history. It told the entire story. Guy loves race cars, falls for woman, gets into accident. I suppose whether he dies or love wins out in the end is suspense enough.
I remember even Siskel and Ebert complaining about it one time, wondering why anyone would even bother seeing the movie after watching the trailer.
I’ll second Coyote Ugly. When I first saw that trailer I thought 2 things:
What the hell is this about? It is just 90 minutes of girls dancing on bar tables?
It’s crap. There’s no way it can be a good movie for anybody over the age of 13 if this is the only material they can think to put in the trailer.
I remember the Men In Black teaser also. That was great. Except, as I recall, there was some line of dialogue in the teaser (something about Will Smith asking how the guns worked or something…I don’t remember the exact words at all. Can someone help me out here?) that got taken out of that scene in the movie for some reason.
And I don’t like any trailer which shows the punchline to any of the good jokes in the movie. I remember when A Bug’s Life came out, the previews told a lot of the jokes in the movie that would’ve normally been funny (once again, I don’t remember exactly which ones.) When I saw it in theatres and those jokes came up, nobody in the theatre laughed. They all knew what was going to happen ahead of time.
A few years ago I saw a trailer for “Twilight” with Paul Newman. At least I think it was this movie – I had to look up the title on IMDb because the trailer was less than memorable. I could be wrong.
Anyway, I think the trailer featured someone swimming underwater in a pool with a few shots of the characters spliced in from time to time, with a little bit of narration thrown in. To this day I have no idea what that movie was about. All I remember is that as I watched the trailer I kept thinking, “what the hell…?”
What about Double Jeopardy? That trailer gave away EVERYTHING!
One teaser trailer that comes to mind was the one for the Robin William’s movie Toys. They had a teaser with Robin Williams standing in the middle of a field. That was it. From what I understand, it confused a lot of people.
Will says something like “how do THESE work” and K Says something on the order of “I have NO idea”- it was hilarious, and i also missed it in the movie.
