Tag Archives: movie trailers

The noise, noise, noise

Posted on April 16, 2013 | Leave a comment

They began in movie theatres months ago, and now they’ve hit TV  –

Trailers for Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby.

robert redford gatsbyI’ll admit — I didn’t think this movie needed to be remade.  It’s a classic in my mind, as is the book.

And Leonardo DiCaprio playing Gatsby in place of Robert Redford?

Uh, no.

gatsby newBut now that I’ve seen the trailers — many, many times — the casting isn’t even the issue. 

This Gatsby is unrecognizable.  Luhrmann has — well — Luhrmann-ized it; the glitz and glitter is a visual assault.  The soundtrack, too, is so brash and overwhelming, I have actually checked for blood in my ears in the theatre.   Imagine the damage after two hours.

I’m sure Luhrmann has included that, too — in gold…with a dance number.

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hey Hey HEY

Posted on July 29, 2011 | 2 Comments

Did you hear?

Crazy Stupid Love opens today.

Of course you’ve heard.

We’ve been under a movie trailer attack for months! Surrounded.  Bombarded.

Taken prisoner even.

Don’t get me wrong — I’ve loved the Crazy Stupid Love trailer from the first time I saw it — was totally sold on the movie.

Ryan Gosling? Check.  Steve Carell?  Check.  Emma Stone, Julianne Moore, Marisa Tomei?  Check, check, check. Ryan Gosling nearly naked??

Too many checks to include here.

And I personally love movie trailers.  Love seeing them on television, love sitting through them at the theatre, love them for the art that they are.

But then I saw the Crazy Stupid Love trailer again.  And again.  And over and over and over again. On TV. In the theatre.  Online.  They were everywhere.

There was no escape.

Crazy Stupid Love’s marketing campaign has been crazy, stupid overwhelming.  Their attempts to generate audience excitement have been bloody exhausting.

You know what?  Just to show them how I feel, I may wait until mid-afternoon today before I go see it.

Yeah…that’ll send a message.

Note:  Saw Crazy Stupid Love at the 1:15pm showing (early mid-afternoon).  This is such a wonderful film – worth every crazy, stupid overwhelming trailer…and then some! — Carla

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After midnight

Posted on July 15, 2011 | 2 Comments

12:01am — The premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2.

I was there.

Yes, I could have waited until the crowds thinned…until the feverish mania around the conclusion of this epic movie franchise had died down a bit.

But what’s the fun in that?

Seeing the final film in an atmosphere of unbridled excitement and enthusiasm?  That’s how I want to remember Harry Potter.

People dressed in inspired costumes.  Spontaneous trivia contests breaking out in the aisles.  Chants of “Snape, Snape, Severus Snape” attempting to overpower a fervent rendition of “Neville Longbottom.”  And the particularly hilarious cries of hatred hurled at the trailers proceeding the movie.

But the film was so worth the wait.  Director David Yates’ vision is true to the book and yet so much more.

I’ll see it again, of course, at some deserted weekday matinee.  It will still be an incredible movie, but…

Nothing can touch midnight.

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Shake it up, baby now

Posted on March 16, 2011 | 4 Comments

“Bueller.  Bueller.  Bueller.” — Ben Stein, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”

As if I really needed to credit that quote….

Everyone seemingly knows Ferris Bueller and his idyllic day off with his friends in the city of Chicago.

But imagine you were really young — or had been living under a rock for the past 20 years — and saw this trailer for “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”

What would you think the movie was about?

Isn’t that brilliant??

This new take on “Ferris Bueller” comes courtesy of Joseph Brett on Youtube.  Brett used some of the more artsy photographic shots from the movie and substituted a more angst-ridden soundtrack for his movie trailer.   The two combine to change the entire mood of Ferris’ day-away and give it an indie film air of menace.

In this context, you’re led to wonder:  did Ferris end it all?  Did Cameron really drown?  Was Ferris too late to save him ??

Brett even managed to dig up that wonky shot of Sloane, so even she appears depressed.

Not to repeat myself, but…it’s kinda brilliant.

Brett has inspired me as well.  I want to go back and pull trailers of my favorite comedies and edit them into edgy dramas — my favorite dramas into slapstick!

Whether you meant it as a challenge or not, Brett — I’m in!

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Reelzies

Posted on March 10, 2011 | 1 Comment

Finally — truth in advertising!

That’s the unusual approach Reelz Channel is using to promote The Kennedys miniseries premiering April 3rd.

No promise of great performances or exacting historical detail.  Nothing about the content of the program at all, in fact.

Reelz strategy?

Simple exclamations of surprise that the darn thing is airing at all.

“The mini-series  you thought you’d never see on television…”

“The most controversial mini-series of our time…”

Yep…that sounds about right.  After the miniseries was deemed “unfit for the History Channel brand,”  it looked like it might languish on a shelf somewhere sight unseen.  But Reelz, whose desire for new subscribers outweighs any pesky ideals, snatched it up.

And now their ads reflect what the audience is no doubt thinking…which is kinda brilliant really.

It makes me wonder:  what would some movie trailers sound like if they took the same tact — honestly over hyperbole?

Films like…

  • Red Riding Hood — “The director of Twilight brings you this shot-by-shot rip-off of Twilight…hoping that the fans of Twilight will come see this classic fairy tale be retold Twilight-style.  There is a wolf, after all.  And Gary Oldman.  He’s scary.”
  • Jane Eyre – “Yet another version of the classic you’ve no doubt seen several times already.  Except these actors are even better looking, and we’ve made them look even plainer. Come see the makeup.”
  • The Adjustment Bureau — “Matt Damon.  Emily Blunt.  Men in cool hats.  Lots of running in New York City.  We don’t have to work too hard to sell this film because you’ll come anyway.  Did we mention the cool hats, right?”

I don’t know.  I just spent only a few moments on these tag lines, and I’m kinda liking them.

Can this the start of something honest??

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Conspiracy

Posted on February 20, 2011 | 3 Comments

I saw a movie trailer at the theatre last night that looked so good, I didn’t want to see the feature anymore.

I’m serious.

Have you heard about The Conspirator?  Directed by Robert Redford, the film tells the story of Mary Surratt,  the lone female charged as a co-conspirator in the assassination trial of Abraham Lincoln, and the reluctant lawyer who agrees to defend her.

Based on that description, you may think, “Huh.  Historical drama.  Could be interesting, could be mind-numbing.”   But wait until you hear the lineup of actors Redford has assembled.

Robin Wright as Mary Surratt.  James McAvoy as her lawyer.  (It’s about time he returned to the screen.  I know he was a voice in Gnomeo & Juliet, but that doesn’t count.)  Tom Wilkinson.  Kevin Kline.  Evan Rachel Wood.  Jonathon Groff.  Stephen Root.  Danny Huston.  Justin Long.  Alexis Bledel.

Heck, it usually takes a lame movie like Valentine’s Day to get that much talent in one room.

But this film looks great — epic even.  I could hardly get through the trailer without cheering.  I was disappointed when it ended and I had to watch Unknown, the movie I had gone to see.  (Don’t get me wrong — it was actually pretty fun…lots of car chases and plot twists and turns.)

But McAvoy and Redford together?  Hell, that’s a movie event!

Come on, April 15th — tax day never looked so good!

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Must see

Posted on November 27, 2010 | Leave a comment

I’ve already seen a lot of movie trailers this week (and there are two days of movie watching still to come).

There is the ‘green team’ — The Green Hornet and The Green Lantern — and for some reason, they always seem to run them back-to-back.  Poor planning on someone’s part at the studio.

And, of course, that blasted Little Fockers trailer has been running for months.  I don’t know what’s more annoying — its total lack of originality, or the audience laughing at it every time.  Depressing.

But my favorite discovery so far at the theater?  Cowboys vs. Aliens (and it’s not even a cartoon, folks).

The movie trailer opens on a dusty town you’ve seen in a hundred other Westerns.  Then, out of nowhere… aliens attack!  And Harrison Ford is in it!  And Daniel Craig and Sam Rockwell… with Jon Favreau directing!

I mean — come on!  How could this not be the funniest thing ever?

Check out the trailer.

I know, I know — it’s no Fockers. So brace yourself.

You might just see something you’ve never seen before.

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Follow Friday

Posted on September 3, 2010 | Leave a comment

On Twitter, it’s ‘Follow Friday,’ the day we suggest our favorites to friends.

The Egg ain’t no Twitter, but today — on the national release date of “Going the Distance,” starring Drew Barrymore — I have the perfect excuse to talk up an actor who has been one of my fav’s for years:

Justin Long

I remember Justin’s very first film –  “Galaxy Quest,” that wonderful send up of the “Star Trek” series.  Although he was 21 at the time, Jason was cast as teenage sci-fi nerd Brandon, who helps save the cast of a space TV show when they have to play their roles for real to save an alien culture.  (It is way funnier than that sounds.)  The cast includes Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver and Alan Rickman, and it is genius.

Next, Jason played another geeky high school kid in the TV series “Ed,” starring Tom Cavanaugh.  That gig lasted four years, so he able to flesh out the role and make it more three-dimensional.  I loved that show — it was an amazing ensemble — but when it ended, Justin went on to play versions of that same lovable, slightly geeky guy in a series of movies.

Then he became the MAC guy.

That person seemed a bit cooler and less nerdy (even for someone talking computers).  And while you might think a role with that kind of visibility would move his career forward, it seemed to stall it a bit.

As he described in an interview, ‘it’s hard for the MAC guy to play a cowboy in a western.’

So, I’m really excited to see “Going the Distance.”  Many of the top critics are saying good things, and the trailers look really funny.  Plus, I think it could mean good things for Justin’s career in the years to come.

Because I want only the best for my friend.

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Social mirror

Posted on August 19, 2010 | 2 Comments

Until recently, I’d never given much thought to how Facebook got its start.

Now the trailers for “The Social Network” are appearing on television and in theaters, and I am beginning to get a hint of what the founders had in mind when they created Facebook.

Sitting in their Harvard dorm rooms, they imagined this hip insiders’ guide to the Ivy League experience.  So I have to wonder — what do they think of what Facebook has become?

People posting pictures of their evening meal.  Their children’s first day of school.  Extremely cute dogs and cats.   And status updates ranging from the mundane to the ridiculous.

And let’s not forget all the business that is now being conducted on Facebook.  (Did you know some people use it to promote their blogs and improv shows?  Whackadoodle. :) )

Facebook today is simply as boring or as exciting as we are, because Facebook has become a very detailed reflection of our day-to-day lives…of everybody’s lives.

Not so insider, huh?

Oh well, they pocketed billions.  I’ll bet that kinda dough has even tempted them to ‘like’ a Sunday church service shout-out from time to time.

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Incognito

Posted on July 24, 2010 | Leave a comment

I hope the people who make movie trailers actually go to the theater and watch the audience reaction.

It can be a real eye opener.

Case in point:  I went to “Inception” last night — what a wild ride that was — and saw two new trailers before the show:  one for “The Town,” one for “Devil.”

“The Town” stars Ben Affleck, Blake Lively, Jon Hamm and Jeremy Renner.  Set in Boston, it tells the story of a group of bank robbers, a bank manager they get involved with and the FBI agent who tries to take them down.  The trailer said it was from “the director of ‘Gone Baby Gone.’”

“Devil” puts a group of apparently random people in a high-rise elevator and stalls it.  Then all hell breaks loose.  There are no real name stars in the film; the trailer just touts it as being “from the mind of M. Night Shyamalan.”

Two interesting choices.

The first trailer did not specifically name Affleck as its director.  Did they suspect there might be negative connotations?  Some holdover from his earlier work in “Gigli” or “Jersey Girls?”

The second — which I think had the audience until this point — elicited groans and laughter when they threw M. Night Shyamalan’s name into the mix.  The movie appeared to lose all credibility with those three little words.

So, if anyone is listening — I think a teeny edit to the “Devil” trailer could make a big difference at the box office.

And M. Night — the slogan for “Devil” is “bad things happen for a reason.”

Try to keep that in mind…okay?

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