I've seen that stupid movie trailer FIVE THOUSAND TIMES!!!

Cafe Society
1

I really enjoy going to the movies. I like to go two or three times a week, when I can. Sometimes I’ll see three in one day, sometimes when I’m blessed that my schedule allows it, there will be a week that has two of those three-movies-a-day days!

One sometimes drawback to this lifestyle is trailer-fatigue.

I don’t mean general trailer-fatigue. I like watchig the trailers and always arrive in plenty of time to see all of them. I’m talking fatigue for a trailer for a particular film. A film for which the trailer is released several months before the film, they only make one version of the trailer, and they play it before every goddamned movie!!!

It seems to happen with films that otherwise don’t have much of an advertising budget, trailers must be the least expensive form of advertising. Well, for guys like me, they ain’t gettin’ the desired result. Seeing the same trailer over and over can sometimes make me not want to see the movie!

I know they’re not thinking of the very small portion of the population that goes to the movies as often as I do. I know they just want to make sure the trailer is seen by folks who only go to the movies once a month. Still, it drives me nuts!!!

I’d suggest releasing a few versions of the trailer, but as it is, I already think trailers tend to give away too much of the plot. How about employing the underused art of the Teaser trailer? If you want to release a trailer several months before the release of the film, maybe start with a nice Teaser trailer, then about a month before the film’s release go with the real trailer.

It is most frustrating when it happens with a film that I would otherwise want to see! I wouldn’t refuse to see a film I might like simply out of spite, but the fact of the matter is if I see the same damn trailer three score times I just get sick of it and don’t want to see the film anymore!

My current list of overplayed trailers: [ul]
[li]Children of Men: I was really frustrated to see that another Doper posted about how wonderful this film is, and that all contributors to that Thread seemed to agree. This makes me feel that I should check it out, though it will pain me to do so. Thing is I wanted to check it out when I first saw the trailer. It looks like a great film, especially considering the involvement of Alfonso Cuarón and Clive Owen (although hurt by the fact that I saw a crappy made-for-TV movie with the same plot about ten years ago). But I have been watching this trailer for months now! The same trailer! I cringe at the first bit of recognizable audio! That’s right: I’ve seen this trailer enough times to know it before images are even projected onto the screen![/li][li]The Painted Veil: a filmed version of a Maugham novel starring Edward Norton and Naomi Watts? Sure I’d want to see that! Sign me up! Wait, don’t sign me up. I’ve seen the same trailer almost every time I’ve gone to the movies in the last month! Blech! I’m sick of it now.[/li][li]Perfume: The Story of a Murderer: This one has the added drawback that it even looks like a stupid movie. However, I really liked Run, Lola, Run and The Princess and the Warrior, so I am inclined to give a chance to anything Tom Tykwer does. Also, the trailers show a cute redhead. But, Christ!, I can’t count how many times I’ve seen this stupid trailer! As soon as I see that stupid finger reaching for that stupid baby, I just want to vomit!!![/li][/ul]

Aaaaargh! Again, let me emphasize, these are films that I would otherwise want to see but the overkill with the trailers has beaten me down.

Not a current film, but deserving honorable mention in this Thread: [ul][li]The Motorcycle Diaries: a director I like, a lead actor I like, subject matter that interests me. But, no exaggeration, they played this trailer (only one version) for about six months before the release of the film. I’ve still never seen the film. I’ve heard it was quite good, and I don’t doubt it, but six full months of the same damn trailer- I was too beaten down, couldn’t bring myself to see it.[/ul][/li]
All time worst offender:[ul][*]John Malkovich’s film The Dancer Upstairs: I saw this trailer, again only one version, for a year. That’s right, the trailer ran for a year! Then, to top it off, I don’t think it ended up having a theatrical release. After running the trailer for a year I think it ended up going straight to video! Now, I’ve no doubt there were distribution problems. I’m sure that when they first released the trailer they expected a theatrical release within a few months. I know they can’t have been so stupid to actually plan a year-run of the trailer leading up to the straight to video release. Still, that’s what happened. I had to watch this stupid trailer for a year then the damn film never even came out. All time worst offender.[/ul]

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Y’know, as someone who can afford to see about three movies a *year *in the theater, I find this rant akin to those complaining about the gas mileage on their limousine, or how hard it is to find lead crystal spitoons nowadays. :smiley:

But my sympathy nonetheless.

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I hate trailers too, though I seem to be in the minority. If you already know the plot of the movie–which most trailers give away, except for the very end–why go see it? I go to the lobby and wait for them to end.

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In a world filled with movie trailers, bienville is forced to watch them all … until, one day, it’s payback time!

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I’d tentatively agree with this (especially on the idea of trailer overkill), although trailers can make one interested in a film without giving away the plot. I saw Stranger than Fiction last night and the trailer actually made the film out to be different to what it was (in a good way). What I saw was different and better to what I expected, yet I wouldn’t have gone to see it had I not saw the trailer. For me that’s an exception that’s worth watching all the crappy trailers for.

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Ha!
It’s a careful routine of sqeezing in as many matinees as possible and sneaking in my own snacks and bottle of water. 3 movies: $21.

Not wealthy, but I have no kids, no more student loans, no car payments. It allows me $21 a week for movies when times are good. Times aren’t always that good, but it’s rare that I can’t at least scrape together $7 for one matinee.

I do seem to have been slightly misunderstood in one respect. I do like trailers, although I wish they didn’t give away som much of the story as most of them do. I enjoy watching trailers. I just hate when they play the same version of one trailer for one movie starting months before the release, and play it continuously.

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Since I go to the movies a lot too, I agree with your basic rant. Sometimes I can’t WAIT for movies to open just so I don’t have to see their damn trailers anymore. However,

If you refuse to see this excellent film because you’ve seen the trailer too often, you’re making a big BIG mistake. I thought I had a handle on the movie too, since I’d seen the trailer maybe more often than you had, but a LOT of things happened in the movie that were completely unexpected and surprised the hell out of me. Don’t deprive yourself. Besides, it’s a helluva good trailer and I always got goosebumps after seeing it.

I can’t wait to see the other films on your list (The Painted Veil especially), no matter how many times I’ve also seen the trailers. I would never ever, not see a movie I was interested in because of such a reason. I can’t even fathom such a reaction.

Few people see as many movies as we see. They play the trailer a lot to try and get people to go see the movie and that one time they see it might be the ONLY time they see the trailer. How could you penalize a film, especially an indie film, and deprive yourself, for such a silly reason?

[QUOTE=bienville]
All time worst offender:[list][li]John Malkovich’s film The Dancer Upstairs: I saw this trailer, again only one version, for a year. That’s right, the trailer ran for a year! Then, to top it off, I don’t think it ended up having a theatrical release. After running the trailer for a year I think it ended up going straight to video! Now, I’ve no doubt there were distribution problems. I’m sure that when they first released the trailer they expected a theatrical release within a few months. I know they can’t have been so stupid to actually plan a year-run of the trailer leading up to the straight to video release. Still, that’s what happened. I had to watch this stupid trailer for a year then the damn film never even came out. All time worst offender.[/li][/QUOTE]

I never saw the trailer once before I saw the movie, IN THE THEATER. Great film! Javier Bardem should have been nominated for an Oscar.

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Am I in the very, very small minority that actually likes watching trailers?

Also: I watched the trailer for The Prestige after watching the movie, but if I’d watched it before I would’ve expected a much different movie. The trailers don’t always give too much away (though as much as I can’t wait to see Children of Men, I think that one pretty much summarized the entire movie for you. Bleh).

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No Kytheria - I like trailers too. I haven’t seen Children of Men as my mum saw it and thought it was rubbish and we have similar outlooks on things, but I may give it a try in case we weren’t in synch on this occasion.

I’ve seen quite a lot of films recently having seen no trailers and (even) hardly knowing anything about them - the Prestige was one such film, Shortbus was another (although I’d read quite a bit about the latter so I knew what I was going to see, I had no idea what was going to happen in the Prestige apart from a certainty of lots of hunky Christian Bale on screen).

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Really, it’s not out of spite. It’s an emotional reaction, the same trailer far too many times, and I just get sick of it. I just get to the point where I never want to hear of movie-X again, let alone actually watch it.

I’m not penalizing the film. I just get turned off.

The other Thread about Children of Men and your endorsement, will probably get me out to see it. Painted Veil is still on the list of things to see but it’s low on the priority list- this is what happened for me with The Motorcycle Diaries, though I was sick of the trailer I still kept it on the list of films to see, but it fell low on the priority list then it was gone from theatres before I got out to see it.

Still don’t know about Perfume. I might have to wait for a SDMB Thread.

I’m glad to hear evidence that The Dancer Upstairs did have a theatrical release. With as often as I go to the movies it must have had a very short run for me to have missed it. Surprised to hear you hadn’t seen a trailer. I really wasn’t exaggerating when I said I had seen that trailer for a year.

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Most of the time I don’t mind trailers, but there are a few for which I’ll actually leave the auditorium and stand out in the hall till they’re done. Specifically, those for “moron comedies,” flicks which depend for their humor on groin shots, fart jokes, improbable behavior by animals, and include that thing where the music comes to an abrupt stop – PUNCH LINE! Music resumes, music stops – PUNCH LINE!

Especially egregious offenders, both of which physically nauseated me, were Damon Wayans’ “Little Man” and Eddie Murphy’s latest abortion, which has him playing several characters including a grossly obese woman. That’s the joke. That she’s really loathesomely fat.

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I agree with the OP, and I genuinely enjoy trailers as well. I like to watch out on the web for new trailers of anticipated movies (300!) and like to catch them on the big screen as well.

My worst offender has to be for John Tucker Must Die. Not only was it marketed in their “behind the scenes” before-the-previews ads, but they showed the trailer itself again. I saw that trailer about 5 times in one month (I think there was a run of movies I wanted to see) and I wanted to kill someone if I heard that stupid narrator one more time. I want to burn all copies of that movie now.

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Anyone remember a movie called Here On Earth? Leelee Sobieski is torn between two himbos, then she gets cancer of the knee or something? I saw the trailer in 2000, and I swore to Og that I had seen the same trailer before in the early '90s, but for a different movie. I guess there are only so many ways to trailerize a teen romance melodrama.

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Also, has everyone seen this by now?

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Maybe you just need better trailers.

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Ahh crap. I just realized I linked to the wrong one.

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Just saw Perfume about 10 days ago, and it’s definitely worth seeing, even if you are sick of its preview. The ending is a bit screwy (I hated it), but otherwise, a beautifully intense movie with a subtle dash of tongue-in-cheek, and the cinematography brings the sense of smell to life in ways I never thought possible (well, barring smell-o-vision).

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I read the book as this is one of my friends alltime favourite book and enjoyed it very much.
I am looking forward to seeing this movie as I am also a fan of Lola Rennt.

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Ice Age 2 played for what seems like 2 years.

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bienville, I would like to personally apologize for your trailer fatigue. That’s because I only watch (about) one movie every three or four months. In order for them to make sure I see any given trailer, they show it before every freaking movie there is during that period so that the one time I go in I’ll be sure to see all their trailers.

So it’s all my fault. Sorry about that. :wink: