# Misleading Movie Trailers **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 30, 2001, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-movie-trailers/90560 "2001-10-30T17:50:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![longjohn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/65b543/32.png) [@longjohn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/longjohn)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2001, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-movie-trailers/90560/21 "2001-10-31T13:27:15Z")
Gotta disagree about Fight Club. Trailer made it look like it was going to be some low rent, dumb Bloodsport-esque film about bunches of guys beating each other senseless with lashing and lashings of blood. Turns out the film is a satire about modern society, and a very clever, well directed, well acted one at that. Didn’t see the film for about a year because of it, and the choruses of friends saying “well I told you so” was deafening afterwards. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2001, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-movie-trailers/90560/22 "2001-10-31T13:35:58Z")
I can’t believe I’m confessing that I _saw_ this film, but … **Stepmom** Trailer: Wacky blended family comedy! Movie: The second half of the film is in essence one big prolonged death bed scene. ---
**Author:** ![Daowajan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@Daowajan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daowajan)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2001, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-movie-trailers/90560/23 "2001-10-31T19:28:08Z")
**Traffic**. Half the scenes in this trailer were not in the movie. Trailer: A group of cops and the government try to stop a huge shipment of cocaine from coming into the U.S., with some mean social commentary thrown in. Movie: Two and a half hours of Soderbergh whining about how the war on drugs is a sham. With every single retarded action movie cliche thrown in. “Room service. I got breakfast!” Please. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2001, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-movie-trailers/90560/24 "2001-10-31T19:38:22Z")
**MaxTheVool** , I don’t know what **Cast Away** trailer you saw, but all the trailers that aired in the theater told you he got home. Actually, Roger Ebert wrote a specific article about this movie trailer. He has felt(and I agree) that studios are getting better at making trailers and worse at making movies. His complaint about the Cast Away trailer is that it does tell you he got home. I remember in the trailer where Tom Hanks is talking after he gets back and his friend says, “We had a funeral” And Tom says, “What was in the casket?” I haven’t seen the movie, but I remember that. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2001, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-movie-trailers/90560/25 "2001-10-31T20:43:33Z")
From what I saw from the trailers of _Cast Away_, it looked like around half of the movie was about the island, and around the other half was Tom Hanks back home, trying to readjust to normal life. Oh, and **vandal** , the _Thirteen Ghosts_ trailer you mention is actually quoting from the Motion Picture Association of America (they’re starting to put content warnings under their ratings logo now). I looked up the film in their [filmratings.com](http://filmratings.com) database, and it states that the MPAA rated _Thirteen Ghosts_ R® for, and I quote, “horror violence and gore, nudity, and some language.” ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2001, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-movie-trailers/90560/26 "2001-10-31T21:01:16Z")
My own recollection of **Legends of the Fall** , to which my girlfriend forced me to go, was of a 120-second long action scene, shot on a midnight-blue styrofoam set with not more than twenty extras, with the flash-powder explosions actually reflecting off the backdrops. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think that movie had “girl” pasted all over it from trailer to credits. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2001, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-movie-trailers/90560/27 "2001-10-31T21:19:22Z")
**Amadeus** Trailer: A fantastically stupid looking period piece about a bunch of royal people gossiping over a murder Reality: An excellent historical fiction about Mozart that is both moving and funny. ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2001, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-movie-trailers/90560/28 "2001-10-31T21:45:42Z")
Now that it’s been mentioned, I remember being rather suprised when I saw **Small Time Crooks**. And while I don’t really recall how long each section was, the only part of **Cast Away** that held any promise was the survival alone portion. If they wanted to make a Rip van Winkle film, they should’ve only done that. On the whole, I found the entire movie fairly pointless anyway. Another movie I recall was **Hudson Hawk** I didn’t see the trailer per se, but the ad campaign was : Exciting action-thriller about super-theives starring Mr. Action himself, Bruce Willis! The movie, however, was a completely farcical comic book. I actually liked it a lot (except for the singing), but the majority of people felt disgusted at being betrayed. This disparity led to a funny moment later when my German teacher, newly arrived from Switzerland, had cut out pictures to try to demonstrate how language & visual imagery works. One of them was a poster-style ad for this movie. It was mostly black, with the all-in-black shadowy figure of Bruce Willis at the bottom, and in large type at the top “Catch the Hawk”. My poor teacher was asking the question, “Now based on this picture, what sort of movie do you think _Catch the Hawk_ is?” and I had to tell her what the movie really was like, but she continued anyway, just noting, “Pretend this is some other movie. What do you think _it_ would be like.” ---
**Author:** ![Slacker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@Slacker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slacker)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2001, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-movie-trailers/90560/29 "2001-11-01T00:26:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by vandal \* > \*\ ***13 Ghosts** > > It’s billed as having _nudity_, _profanity_, _gore_, _violence_, etc. (It actually says these things in the trailer). However, the only nudity comes from one of the ghosts, who is all cut up and bloody! That shouldn’t even count as nudity. There’s profanity, but barely any. Misleading? Most definitely. \*\* If I was a producer, I’d make sure that every Shannon Elizabeth movie for the rest of time is advertised with some slant towards nudity. It’s be interesting to see how many times people feel for it. (Twice so far! Tomcats and 13 Ghosts) ---
**Author:** ![Daniel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Daniel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daniel)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2001, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-movie-trailers/90560/30 "2001-11-01T01:03:18Z")
**Coyote Ugly** Trailer: Attractive women who dance on a bar and get pissed off if you order anything without alcohol in it. Total guy movie. (Maxim magazine even featured the women on its cover) Movie: basically the trailer, followed by the cookie-cutter “chick flick”. ---
**Author:** ![butter\_pie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aca169/32.png) [@butter\_pie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butter_pie)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2001, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-movie-trailers/90560/31 "2001-11-01T01:26:22Z")
…Although I haven’t actually seen the movie. The original trailer I saw (the teaser about a year before the movie came out) emphasized the ship tossing and turning in the sea and made it look like an action/epic type thing with lots of Big Important Characters and Exciting Stuff. Then when it came closer to the time the movie was actually released, they started showing DeCrapio’s chubby face in the trailers and it became obvious it was some kind of love story (and oh yeah, the ship sinks too.) Blah, nothanks! 😉 I accidentally watched about five minutes of the movie while flipping channels once, but I turned it off when I realized what it was, and I have vowed to be the last person on earth who has not viewed this movie. Someone mentioned Falling Down; I don’t remember the trailer for that one, but I do remember really enjoying the movie itself. I don’t get to see many trailers anyway, because I seldom watch television and usually go to movies based on Ebert’s reviews and the recommendation of my SO. (Who is the best person in the world at knowing which movies are good and which one stink. 😃 ) ---
**Author:** ![Spoonbender](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a8b319/32.png) [@Spoonbender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoonbender)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2001, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-movie-trailers/90560/32 "2001-11-01T03:30:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by longjohn \* > **Gotta disagree about Fight Club. Trailer made it look like it was going to be some low rent, dumb Bloodsport-esque film about bunches of guys beating each other senseless with lashing and lashings of blood.** Yeah, I got the exact same impression from the _Fight Club_ trailer. And you’re right, that impression is dead wrong. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2001, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-movie-trailers/90560/33 "2001-11-01T13:04:12Z")
I really hate it when the studio execs figure that they have to market to a particular niche, even when they have to grossly distort the movie through the trailer. And they’ll often run several downright contradictory trailers simultaneously. The only example I can think of right now is **Arachnophobia**. By the time it was being released John Goodman had become a much bigger star than when they made it, so they made up one ad that seemed to feature _all_ of his scenes run together. Goodman was actually a very minor (if quirky) character in the film, so if you saw the trailer you saw all of his stuff. I know it’s off-topic, but I had to mention it: The trailer for the 1970s flick **Cops and Robbers** gave the _entire_ story away, right down to the ending. It was like watching the Cliff’s notes version of the film. If you saw the trailer, there wasn’t any point in seeing the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Agrippina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Agrippina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agrippina)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2001, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-movie-trailers/90560/34 "2001-11-01T14:53:16Z")
**Scream** starring Drew Barrymore. Drew Barrymore dies within five minutes. ---
**Author:** ![absimia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bbe5ce/32.png) [@absimia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/absimia)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2001, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-movie-trailers/90560/35 "2001-11-01T15:06:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jinwicked \* > \*\*I have vowed to be the last person on earth who has not viewed this movie [Titanic]. > \*\* You’re going to have to fight my wife for that honor. Her rationale was that she knows how it ends. _Spoiler_ The boat sinks. Alright, so it wasn’t a spoiler. ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2001, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-movie-trailers/90560/36 "2001-11-01T15:06:52Z")
**rjung** , that quote is from Roger Ebert, my favorite film critic. (If Roger likes it, I usually do too.) He has a nice sense of humor; check out his Movie Answer Man column on the Chicago SunTimes web page. [http://www.suntimes.com/index/ebert.html](http://www.suntimes.com/index/ebert.html) ---
**Author:** ![Darqangelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecccb3/32.png) [@Darqangelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darqangelle)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2001, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-movie-trailers/90560/37 "2001-11-01T20:07:09Z")
Agreeing with rjung and Rocketeer: There have been times when I’m sitting in the movie theater, waiting for the main show and realizing that I have to sit through about 10 minutes’ worth of previews (What are we up to, 5 now??) and commercials(!) first. Two things usually occur (and let me know if I’m the only one who experiences these phenomenon): 1. The trailers will not only let you know about the character, the plot, the supporting characters, the twists, the better jokes, the dramatic moment, the comedic relief, then finish it off with the main musical piece they’re using to sell the soundtrack (or “music from the motion picture” CD, or-even worse-the “music _inspired_ by the motion picture” CD :rolleyes:), they also let you know pretty much how it all ends. So I turn to whoever I’m sitting with and rather quietly (as the silence and big then small credits appear on the screen) say “Well, now we don’t have to spend money to go see THAT movie.” It’s like reading the Reader’s Digest version of the book before actually going out, buying the book and getting involved in the story. But there’s NO POINT gettoing involved in the story, because you know eveything that’s going to happen and you end up sitting in a dark room with a bunch of other people waiting for the lines you already know are coming, the jokes you’ve already laughed at in scenes that you have already seen! -probably why they’re not called “teasers” anymore. 1. By the end of this barrage of images, noise, rock and roll, tender moments, blues riffs, explosions, laugh-fest, car chase, CGI effects, slow motion falls, gunplay, family hugs, and putting the audience through its rollercoaster-ride’s worth of emotions (in about the same time frame, too!), The room goes dark… there’s amoment of silence, the distributor’s logo comes up, and… I forgot what I came to this theatre to see. I have to wait it out for a few seconds until the soundtrack kicks in with the refrain of whatever musical overture starts the story off and I hunt through the opening credits until I see a name I recognize and _only then_ do I remember the original purpose of my being in this seat. The trailer’s have gained something and lost something in their evolution, IMHO. They gained the attention of the audience, but they lost their raison d’etre: To intice you to come back to this theatre in 2 weeks/2 months/christmas/a-year-and-a-half from now (!!!) and pay money to see this movie! Am I the only one? ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2001, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-movie-trailers/90560/38 "2001-11-01T20:43:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CalMeacham \* > \*\* > I know it’s off-topic, but I had to mention it: The trailer for the 1970s flick **Cops and Robbers** gave the _entire_ story away, right down to the ending. It was like watching the Cliff’s notes version of the film. If you saw the trailer, there wasn’t any point in seeing the movie. \*\* One of my friends got **The Graduate** on DVD, and one of the special features was the theatrical trailer for the film. It gave _everything_ away, from “Plastics” to “Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me” to “ELAINE! ELAINE! ELAINE!” I can hardly believe anyone went to see the movie back in the day, as the trailer contains every major plot point. ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2001, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-movie-trailers/90560/39 "2001-11-01T22:44:46Z")
**Darqangelle** , same here. When the trailer gives away the whole darned movie, I don’t need to see it. Sometimes a “completist” trailer does you a service, though: for instance, it was obvious that “This Boy’s Life” consisted of two people standing in the kitchen yelling at each other. I figure I don’t need that aggravation. The best trailers are the enigmatic ones; just enough of the movie to set up the situation… ---
**Author:** ![ElwoodCuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/edb3f5/32.png) [@ElwoodCuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElwoodCuse)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2001, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-movie-trailers/90560/40 "2001-11-02T00:05:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by longjohn \* > \*\*Gotta disagree about Fight Club. Trailer made it look like it was going to be some low rent, dumb Bloodsport-esque film about bunches of guys beating each other senseless with lashing and lashings of blood. Turns out the film is a satire about modern society, and a very clever, well directed, well acted one at that. > > Didn’t see the film for about a year because of it, and the choruses of friends saying “well I told you so” was deafening afterwards. \*\* Second you on that one. I even had a friend spoil it for me because I said “It’s not my kind of movie, I’ll never see it anyway.” Maybe a year later I rented it at the behest of another friend and it blew my mind. Definitely one of my favorite movies. I also really like Chuck Palahniuk’s books (check out Survivor sometime). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-movie-trailers/90560.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misleading-movie-trailers/90560.md?page=3)