What kinds of things do you see in movie trailers that automatically make you know you don’t want to see the movie?
Some of those things for me include:
[ul][li]A group of characters lip synching to a song on the radio (usually a Motown song). Epidemic to, but not exclusive to chick flicks. No movie with this scene can ever not suck.[/li]
[li]One character telling another character, “you’re crazy/insane/out of your mind, you know that.” This can either be said to an ostensibly “wild and crazy” comedic character or to an endearingly edgy and dangerous action character. In either case, the movie will suck.[/li]
[li]A scene of a couple having a cute fight that turns into a kiss. Makes me retch every time. [/ul][/li]
That’s just off the top of my head. What are your movie trailer “kill switches” (aside from just bad stars)?
Excessive gore. I saw the trailer for last year’s “Rambo” and they showed Stallone pull a guys heart out AND a decapitation, without any creative edits right before the act. Now, I like a good gory movie as much as the next guy, but I remember thinking, “Wow, did they just show a head get lopped off…in a preview?” Pretty much sealed the deal for me.
Any trailer that changes tone in the middle (e.g.: starts off like a trailer for a wacky comedy, turns into a movie that features an IMPORTANT LESSON) is a Very. Bad. Sign.
Also, it should be obvious but when the trailer is for a comedy but the scene they show aren’t the slightest bit funny, you can bet that the stuff NOT in the trailer is even worse.
–“You’re off the Force. Give me your Badge!”
–Fart Jokes (in the trailer!)
– “This isn’t human.”
– “This time it’s Personal.”
– Impossibly Twisted Bodies/People anchored to odd-looking torture devices/ black fluids/ things running backwards/“distressed” frames/ sudden changes in the speed of motion all indicate a horror or thriller movie I can live without.
If the trailer includes more than three highly dramatic scenes of the same basic type (explosions, car wrecks, knife fights, poker games, confrontations with parents or kids, etc.) odds are at least 75% that you’ve seen all of them and the movie won’t have any more of them.
Any trailer in which the voiceover says “…and having the time of their lives!” Besides being a suck-ass movie, you know it’s going to be patronized by annoying kids.
Any trailer that starts with an upbeat rock song from the late 50s or early 60s. You can be sure that the movie will be filled with “antics.”