I’m gonna go ahead and precede this week’s article with an all general possibility for being Not Safe For Work (NSFW). I have no idea what your employer’s views are on employee bandwidth usage. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
In a world, ravaged by the shards of time, thought long ago, with the future hanging in the balance, one man set out to enjoy a movie trailer without seeing cliche after cliche and cliche.
He was unsuccessful. Click the jump to find out why.
Recently, I purchased the four volumes of 42nd Street Forever, a series of dvds put out by Synapse Films. They contain no movies on them whatsoever-simply movie trailers. They’re absolutely wonderful. Collecting movie trailers for lots of sleazy films from the 70’s and 80’s usually described in a modern fashion as being in the genre of exploitation (though there’s a lot of debate on some of those films), these discs are packed to the gills with cinema history. When a lot of these films were made, craft was expertly put into the hook of the film-selling it to the masses. Oh sure, everyone loves Taxi Driver and knows it’s a great movie, but how does one attract people to see 2000 Maniacs? With a totally awesome trailer.
Unfortunately, watching these dvds made me realize that the same cannot be said for the majority of films coming out of Hollywood these days.
Compare that with the trailer for GI Joe – The Rise of Cobra.
Do you see what’s missing in the latter? If you guessed any attempt at explaining some of the plot, you’re right! But that’s okay, because we’ve got a hook, right? I mean, there are two computer generated guys fighting around in a street! That’s all you need, kid!
No. Hype can be the worst thing for a film. Allow too much sizzle without any steak and you end up with Doom.
However, have too much steak and you end up with the trailer for Requiem For a Dream. It’s a great movie, but the trailer is just too pretentious for its own good.
Of course, hype isn’t the only thing wrong with some trailers. The trailer for What Lies Beneath is infamous for essentially giving away the twist of the movie. Way to go, film-editor.
That’s not too say that hype or revealing a plot twist is the only way to ruin a movie via trailer. Everyone loves the Super Bowl and its ad time commercials, and Hollywood is no stranger to this; however, there is a flaw in this logic. Show off a movie too early and you’re in trouble, as people will simply forget about the movie as a whole. The worst culprit of this syndrome is Red Planet. The Super Bowl for the year 2000 took place on January 30, 2000. Red Planet wasn’t released in theaters until November 6 of that year. Being a bad movie also didn’t help it either.
So is there a perfect modern day movie trailer? Why yes there is! It’s for a little movie called The Rundown.
It’s quick enough (for a theatrical trailer), it displays humor, it shows action, and it even has Christopher Walken in it. What more could you ask for?