I’m a sucker for movie trailers. Most of the time I like them more than the
actual movies. Mrs. knows that I will
watch trailers for almost any new movie coming out (usually while she sleeps on
the couch) despite the fact that we see very few actual movies. Just yesterday I watched the trailers for
Godzilla (surprising it looks entertaining if you’re into the whole big budget
action flick – I might not be the target audience), Maleficent (I’m not a huge
Angelina Jolie fan, but I liked this trailer and it looks pretty good if
you’re into the whole fantasy adventure thing – I probably will still never see
it), and Interstellar (looks intriguing if Gravity wasn’t enough to satisfy
your need for space movies – although it might be trying a bit too hard on the
emotional front).
In the last year some of my favorite trailers were for Her
(a man in love with his computer/phone – or the story of everyone on earth
right now), Gravity (if only because it gave me a panic attack), and Ain’t Them
Bodies Saints (a movie with Casey Affleck that I had never heard of, but discovering
new movies is why I watch trailers.)
The key to a great movie trailer comes down to three things:
1) No voiceovers
You know, like “In a world . . . “, or
anything that attempts to explain what you’re seeing, “Bob thought he had a
normal life . . . “ It’s just totally
unnecessary. A good trailer shows me a
sneak peak at the movie; it doesn’t explain the movie to me with a disembodied
deep voice.
2) Keeping some mystery alive
Don’t give the whole plot away in the
trailer. This probably seems obvious,
but so many (often bad) movies have all of the jokes and/or action in the
trailer. Ok, so that guys dies and
that’s the killer and wow a cameo by Tom Cruise! I prefer a trailer that ends with me thinking,
“What is that all about?” and causes me to add it to the list of movies I want
to (but never will) see. Pique my interest;
don’t show me a 3-minute version of the movie.
3) The music
Probably the most important
part. I’m only watching for a few minutes
and you’re trying to intrigue me to see the movie – for God’s sake make the
music count! I would love to have a job
where I could just pick music out for trailers.
Anyway, all of this was an excuse to do two things – share
my favorite movie trailers and discuss the new teaser trailer for Wish I Was
Here, the new Zach Braff film coming out later this year.
First, the recently released teaser trailer (about half as
long as the eventual full-length trailer) for Wish I Was Here hits all of my
points above perfectly. No voiceover? Check. Mystery? Yep, not sure what it's really all about. Good music? Absolutely. The teaser trailer (which can be found here: http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3280645401/) is 99 seconds of fun. You had me at Zach Braff and
Kate Hudson. Not to mention a Donald
Faison appearance (Scrubs reunion!) And some Mandy Patinkin in a hospital bed for good
measure. And of course the perfect use
of “Simple Song” by The Shins. Is it
possibly a bit melodramatic? Sure. Could the movie suck? Yes, maybe.
But the trailer has me interested, gives me little to no indication of
what the movie is about, and looks a bit weird.
Yes, please. And plus I love
Garden State, so this will probably be right up my alley (and probably the opposite for Mrs.)
Ok, so now for the main attraction, a short list of my
favorite movie trailers:
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Ok, so right off the bat this brazenly violates rule #1 (the
exception to prove the rule?), but if you can get past this what you have is a wonderful
trailer. It’s about Jessie James and I
guess his assassination (the title gives away more than the trailer there), but
man did I want to know more. The movie
was good (could have been great with an editor or two) but the trailer has Brad
Pitt holding snakes, Casey Affleck pointing a gun, the beautiful use of “What
Must Be Done” by Nick Cave & Warren Ellis from the movie soundtrack (I love
this music and it was well placed in the film as well), people robbing trains, snow, fire, and a
candle being blown out. That’s how you
do a trailer.
The Social Network
First, they made a movie about a website and it was
awesome. How did that happen? As far as keeping mystery alive in a trailer
– it’s a film about a website, so umm . . . yeah . . . what? The first minute of the trailer is literally
images from Facebook (not scenes from the movie) set to a children’s choir
singing Radiohead’s "Creep", which could be the greatest moment in movie trailer
history. And then . . . boom! College parties, JT talking about a billion
dollars (that’s Justin Timberlake kids, try to keep up), people throwing
things, a guy walking around in a robe, more JT (this time in a club), and
people setting fires in garbage cans. I
scoffed at the idea of a Facebook movie when I first heard of it, and knew I
had to see it after viewing this trailer.
The Thin Red Line
The Tree of Life
I’ll lump these two together since they are both Terrence
Malick films and the man knows how to make a movie trailer (well he probably
didn’t do it, but just go with it).
It almost seems like this is another violation of rule #1,
but the voiceovers (specifically in The Tree of Life trailer) are part of the
films. That’s just how Mr. Malick rolls,
gang. He loves a good voiceover.
The Thin Red Line is obviously a war movie, but the trailer
was incredibly intriguing and foreboding, and by the time the music starts up about halfway
through, I was hooked. It gets me every
time, and for some reason I enjoy the rundown of the famous cast.
The Tree of Life trailer takes rule #2 to a new level because
not only did I not know what it was about after seeing the trailer, I didn’t
know what it was about after seeing the movie.
But I also love the music in this one. And the movie just looked like it would be creative. Malick’s trailers are perfect for saps like me.
Magnolia
Ok, I know, I know . . . another one that violates rule
#1. Let’s just move on quickly before I
boot this off the list because of this egregious violation.
I am not reconsidering the rule.
It might lose points for the voiceover, but it gains points
for keeping the mystery alive.
The trailer even specifically points out that it will all make sense in
the end and that’s good, because it certainly doesn’t make any sense during the
trailer. But what you do have is lots of
characters, an Aimee Mann song, Tom Cruise’s finest acting moment, a game show host, a police officer, a frog, and
a movie I really wanted to see.
Inglourious Basterds
Quentin Tarantino films usually come with a great
trailer. Although maybe it’s just my
excitement for a new Tarantino film that leads to my opinion. The trailers for both of the Kill Bill films
were awesome, but this is the one that truly got me hyped to see the film. Brad Pitt’s third appearance on this list, movie theaters, bombs, plenty of Tarantino violence and explosions, fires (another recurring theme on this list), and an intriguing take on a WWII film. It all added up to a movie I needed to
see. It started off slow and slowly built up the pace, and while not a rule this is always a good way to impress me with a trailer.
I'm sure there are several trailers I love that I'm just not recalling right now, and I've tried to show restraint by only including a handful. If this blog is still around in a decade maybe I'll have a few more to add at that time.
I'm sure there are several trailers I love that I'm just not recalling right now, and I've tried to show restraint by only including a handful. If this blog is still around in a decade maybe I'll have a few more to add at that time.
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