# What's the worst movie TRAILER you've ever seen? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 22, 2002, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-movie-trailer-youve-ever-seen/120263 "2002-07-22T19:57:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-movie-trailer-youve-ever-seen/120263/41 "2002-07-24T02:08:38Z")
> [@](#): > > **(widdershins)** A recent one, that _Pluto Nash_ thing with Eddie Murphy. FYI, for anyone who cares, _Pluto Nash_ was supposed to come out a year and a half ago but has been repeatedly delayed while they try to salvage something from the disastrous material they have to work with ([more info](http://www.corona.bc.ca/films/details/plutonash.html)). Sometimes the trailer really does reflect the movie… ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-movie-trailer-youve-ever-seen/120263/42 "2002-07-24T02:56:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cat Fight \* > \*\*There’s a great sketch in MadTV (or maybe SNL) about horrible movie trailers. A bunch of people are trapped in a theatre and forced to watch trailer after trailer, with every second one being for a wacky comedy starting with a bit of voice over and then that James Brown “Whoa! I feel good! buh-uh buh-uh buh-uh-uh” \*\* One guy smiles cheerfully and laughs at the banal trailers. " What’s he so happy for? Oh my God, he ate his own leg!" It was SNL. I love that skit ---
**Author:** ![Wolfian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ea924/32.png) [@Wolfian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolfian)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-movie-trailer-youve-ever-seen/120263/43 "2002-07-24T03:32:08Z")
A couple of people beat me to **Austin Powers III**. When I saw it I thought to myself, “Okay, this is just an elaborate joke poking fun at themselves. The real movie will start now. Now. Now?” Unfortunately I was wrong. I just hope they push the mini-Austin to the back. Waaaay in the back. ---
**Author:** ![Kang\_and\_Kodos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8baadc/32.png) [@Kang\_and\_Kodos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kang_and_Kodos)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-movie-trailer-youve-ever-seen/120263/44 "2002-07-24T08:04:23Z")
Wrong wrong wrong. All of you, wrong! I remember seeing the trailer for _The Last Days of Chez Nous_ several times in the arty-farty theaters. I remember saying back then, “This is the most hideous trailer I’ve ever seen.” The reviews were generally favorable, but I still won’t watch. I’d sooner have a milk-fed dog fart in my face. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Elvis\_Rojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@El\_Elvis\_Rojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Elvis_Rojo)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-movie-trailer-youve-ever-seen/120263/45 "2002-07-24T13:14:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Green Fool \* > \*\*I have to defend the Strange Days “Pitch” trailer. I thought that was the neatest thing when I saw it. It established the premise and themes of the movie perfectly, so I don’t know what Elvis Rojo meant. It was that characters sales pitch from the movie to a guy who wanted to try the ‘squid’. Since he was addressing the audeince it basicly said “This is the world of this movie.” > It was great because it was a unique trailer. > \*\* I understand the scene where the line comes from, but as a trailer, it tells the audience NOTHING about the film. All you know is “Hey Ralph Fines is in it, and he’s apparently some sort of drug dealer” (the trailer never gives away anything about the technology or what it does, just that this guy can bring out dreams to light). It may have been unique, but being the only trailer I was exposed to while the movie was in theaters, it in no way whatsoever made me want to see the film. And if you look up the movies rank and profits, I’m sure you’ll find out it didn’t make many other people want to see it as well. The film was great, and the other trailer they ran for it is one of the best I’ve ever seen…but the “Pitch” trailer was absolutely useless. ---
**Author:** ![grendel72](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/91b2a8/32.png) [@grendel72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grendel72)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-movie-trailer-youve-ever-seen/120263/46 "2002-07-24T14:48:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Max Torque \* > \*\*I’m trying desperately to remember a movie that made a big impression on me recently, because it was promoted as though it was a comedy but it SO was not…and the title’s not coming to me. damn. I’ll have to come back. \*\* It’s not that recent, but the trailer for Nurse Betty was insanely misrepresentative. I waited until it came out on video to see it, and I really enjoyed it- but the audience that the trailer was trying to reach probably would have run for the hills during the scene where Chris Rock _scalps_ a guy. Trailer: dumb comedy about soap opera fan. Movie: incredibly black comedy from Neil LaBute featuring a lot of very graphic violence. ---
**Author:** ![Kaitlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/73ab20/32.png) [@Kaitlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaitlyn)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-movie-trailer-youve-ever-seen/120263/47 "2002-07-24T15:27:09Z")
Nearly every trailer for a thriller gives away crucial plot elements that should be kept secret. _swimfan@_ seems to tell the whole plot. _Abandon_ gives away what should be a late plot twist. Then again, while looking for an online trailer, I found the one-line description of the movie gives away the same plot twist. _The Glass House_ tells the whole plot. _Domestic Disturbance_ is a thriller about whether a boy’s new stepfather is a killer. _What Lies Beneath_ gives away two big plot twists that are revealed late in the movie. The one that disturbs me the most, though, is from way back when T2 first came out. Watch the movie carefully, and you can see that it is careful not to reveal that the 101 (Arnold) is the good Terminator this time until the shootout in the mall hallway. It should be a neat twist when the 101 grabs John to protect him, but every trailer, commercial, and interview with the actors revealed this plot twist. I try to avoid finding out anything about a movie before seeing it if I already know I want to see it, and if I’m not sure, I read as few reviews as possible to make my decision (usually Roger Ebert and Chuck Shwartz aka Cranky Critic). The wife and I have even developed a system where I wait outside the theater while she watches trailers and comes to get me when the feature starts. It should be illegal to use any scene from the last third of the movie in the trailer, and a felony to show the actual climax (_Double Jeopardy_). ---
**Author:** ![Kaitlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/73ab20/32.png) [@Kaitlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaitlyn)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-movie-trailer-youve-ever-seen/120263/48 "2002-07-24T15:32:02Z")
The above should read: _Domestic Disturbance_ is a thriller about whether a boy’s new stepfather is a killer. The trailer answers this question, then goes on to show what happens afterwards. ---
**Author:** ![bifar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@bifar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bifar)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-movie-trailer-youve-ever-seen/120263/49 "2002-07-24T15:38:17Z")
The trailer for Ghost World was also rather misrepresentative. It turned what was basically a fairly nihilistic, dark, grown up comedy-drama into a fun, perky, if off-beat, teen comedy. Another bugbear – using that dark growly American voice for UK films. For something like Snatch, okay, but for Remains of the Day? ‘For Stevens, the butlerrr, it was just another day…’? Truly bizarre. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-movie-trailer-youve-ever-seen/120263/50 "2002-07-24T15:59:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by RickJay \* > \*\*Suddenly Hilary has a sword or a knife, and she tells some guy “Now I have the power between us,” the first dialogue in the trailer I can remember. \*\* Sounds like a prime example of one of my least favorite kinds of trailers, a kind I refer to as “fortune cookie trailers”. These consist of showing apparently random scenes from the movie, generally accompanied by some moody music, and close with a shot of the main character delivering a single line clearly meant to intrigue the audience. It may be ominous, mysterious, or dramatic, but like fortune cookie messages it is usually so vague as to be meaningless. Something like “It has begun”, “They must never know”, or “The time has come.” I think this kind of trailer is ripe for parody by trailers for comedy films, but I’ve never seen that done. Trailers that give the whole movie away: My friend’s DVD of _The Graduate_ includes a trailer that resembles nothing more than a Cliff’s Notes version of the film. It includes every plot point and memorable line, from “Plastics” to “Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me” to “ELAINE! ELAINE! ELAINE!” If this was the original theatrical trailer, I can’t imagine why anyone ever bothered to go see the movie. Trailers that are misleading: I remember the trailer for _My Cousin Vinnie_ was just awful. It looked like a lowbrow slapstick comedy, with much of the “humor” coming from people falling in the mud. I avoided the movie because of this, but when I happened to come across it on TV one day discovered that it was a fairly decent courtroom comedy. The trailer for _Velvet Goldmine_ portrays the movie as a typical murder mystery with a glam-rock setting. It shows a wildy costumed singer being shot onstage. Then a voice-over says something like “Who did it? One man was determined to find out!” and flashes shots of various “suspects” like the wife, the lover, and the ex-manager. Anyone who went into this movie expecting what had been advertised must have been sorely disappointed, as it is not a typical murder mystery at all. In fact, there isn’t even a murder! The “shooting” was part of the singer’s plan to fake his own death. This plan, its failure, and the exposure of the singer to public scorn all happen at the beginning of the movie, so the trailer can’t even be justified as an attempt to conceal an important plot twist. I imagine the studio just looked at the final film, thought, “Oh hell, we’ll never be able to market this thing…let’s just pretend it’s a rock and roll murder movie!” and made the trailer based on that idea. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Carnage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/max_carnage/32/12775_2.png) [@Max\_Carnage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Carnage)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-movie-trailer-youve-ever-seen/120263/51 "2002-07-24T16:17:11Z")
The two that come to mind are **Joyride** and **swimfan@**. “You’ve seen the trailer, now see the…no wait, you’ve just seen the movie too.” ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Fool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Green\_Fool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Fool)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-movie-trailer-youve-ever-seen/120263/52 "2002-07-24T22:19:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by El Elvis Rojo \* > \*\* > > I understand the scene where the line comes from, but as a trailer, it tells the audience NOTHING about the film. All you know is “Hey Ralph Fines is in it, and he’s apparently some sort of drug dealer” (the trailer never gives away anything about the technology or what it does, just that this guy can bring out dreams to light). It may have been unique, but being the only trailer I was exposed to while the movie was in theaters, it in no way whatsoever made me want to see the film. And if you look up the movies rank and profits, I’m sure you’ll find out it didn’t make many other people want to see it as well. The film was great, and the other trailer they ran for it is one of the best I’ve ever seen…but the “Pitch” trailer was absolutely useless. \*\* Well opinions are like…Well never mind. Apaprently because you didn’t like it, it is worthless… but see, I did like it and it made me want to see the movie and I did. Now bringing up BO returns hurts your argument just as much… They played both didn’t they? They played the tradional one alot more than the “Pitch”. I don’t recall ever seeing the “Pitch” trailer on TV but I do remember seeing the regular one on quite a bit. And still not alot of people saw it. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2002, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-movie-trailer-youve-ever-seen/120263/53 "2002-07-24T22:58:18Z")
I finally found a place where I could view the _Supernova_ theatrical trailer and…wow. That was one of the crappiest pieces of marketing I’ve ever seen. Almost totally inexcusable. I say “almost” because, knowing what a massive stinkburger of a movie they had on their hands, I reckon the studio was justified in turning someone’s retarded nephew loose in the editing room and coming up with that trailer, rather than spending actual money making one. ---
**Author:** ![capacitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@capacitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capacitor)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-movie-trailer-youve-ever-seen/120263/54 "2002-07-25T00:44:32Z")
Austin Powers 3–not funny at all. Hope they didn’t pick the best scenes. ---
**Author:** ![jmizzou](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/edb3f5/32.png) [@jmizzou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jmizzou)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-movie-trailer-youve-ever-seen/120263/55 "2002-07-25T05:18:33Z")
I would have to offer up _The Sixth Sense_ to the TMI Trailer category. How much better the movie would have been if they didn’t plaster the line, “I see dead people” everywhere! ---
**Author:** ![Kilt-wearin\_man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/82dd89/32.png) [@Kilt-wearin\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilt-wearin_man)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-movie-trailer-youve-ever-seen/120263/56 "2002-07-25T16:38:06Z")
**The Fifth Element**. Nothing but an ominous “big-engines-in-space-would-sound-like-this-if-you-could-hear-sound-in-a-vacuum” sound effect while a big number “5” that’s supposed to look like a spaceship, complete with lights, panels and antennae, slowly moves away from the camera for the better part of a minute. Then the title appears. WTF? No clue about what the movie is about, or even what genre it fits into, or even if it’s live-action or animated. Did NOT make me want to see the movie, and as a result, I didn’t see it until it played on cable. Their loss. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Fool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Green\_Fool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Fool)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2002, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-movie-trailer-youve-ever-seen/120263/57 "2002-07-25T19:40:21Z")
Oh crappers! I just remembered the one that is bugging me the most! The Matrix sequels! Horrible tripe. Standard action movie trailer. Except that Morpheus is giving that speech about “If you could end the war tomorrow would you do it?” Well yeah. What’s your point? He says it as if there is some grave consequence or sacrifice but it’s so vague I don’t even care. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2002, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-movie-trailer-youve-ever-seen/120263/58 "2002-08-06T02:12:52Z")
I recently saw the trailer for a film called **Simone**. (Or **S1M0NE** ; I don’t know if that’s an intentional spelling, like **Se7en**.) Al Pacino is a producer who can’t find the right actress for his film, so he creates a virtual actress, who becomes a huge star without anyone knowing that there is no such person. Immediate reaction: “That looks like an AWESOME premise!” Delayed reaction: “Wait…that’s just going to be the first 30 minutes. The other 90 is going to be Pacino digging himself deeper and deeper, as in every other film, including some he’s already been in, about someone trying to fool all of the people all of the time.” I hope I’m wrong. But I doubt it. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2002, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-movie-trailer-youve-ever-seen/120263/59 "2002-08-06T05:20:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sublight \* > \*\*Is nothing like the movie: **Falling Down**. Trailer: Everyday average guy is finally pushed too far and starts getting even with all those people who make all our lives just a little more miserable each and every day. > The movie: A wife-beating, child-abusing control freak who’s been living with (and terrorizing) his mother while pretending to go work every day goes on a rampage across L.A., which he plans to finish by killing his ex-wife, his daughter and himself. \*\* **Sublight** , IIRC, D-Fens did not want to kill his wife and daughter. He was bringing his daughter a birthday present, and in the final scene, told Duvall’s character that he didn’t want to “watch her grow up from behind bars”. He was on a rampage, true, but it was not a killing spree. He threatened people and caused property damage, but he only killed one person, in self-defense, and another person died (presumably; we don’t see what ultimately happens) through circumstances. Also, late in the film, he starts to have a change of heart. Unless I’m wrong; please correct me if I am. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-movie-trailer-youve-ever-seen/120263.md?page=2)