Rob at the Movies!
March 2011- Great Movie Trailers and Teasers
Hey everybody! It’s March.... wahey and all that, and that’s all I wrote. Dunno why I’m dead excited, it’s not like it’s December or August or April or June or any other of the most eventful months but it’s still nice to jump into another month, and one as nice as March where the snow (not had any since January, boooooo!) and the cold starts to float wistfully away, blossoming into the flowers and the warmth of spring and summer slowly but surely with a steady hand. Movie-wise March is actually pretty meh... a few notable good ‘uns though to see will include Rango, Adjustment Bureau, Submarine, Battle Los Angeles and Faster... though trying to compare to last year where we had Green Zone, Alice in Wonderland, Shutter Island, and Kick Ass is a hard feat I wouldn’t want to attempt, it still looks a good month ahead.
Not least because on March 18th it will be Comic Relief/ Red Nose Day all over again... as much as all the charities are very important, I like this one most of all because it allows BBC1 to wheel out the funniest and best comedians around to all do some sort of great sketch or event on the night and it always makes for fantastic telly. Not only that, it allows us all to go silly and crazy (a little bit more than usual then) for a good cause, and I always tremendously enjoy it, regardless of what I’m doing on the day... this year though it’s gonna be Sparks Unleashed, and whilst I don’t know the extent as to how much we’re tying into RND with it, it’s going to be off the hook! A bit like The Unit but for Sparks and maybe with a bit more focus on the drama and crazy games, worship and word still very important of course... it’s going to be great! It’s also Emma Eaton’s 18th birthday and party, which deserves a mention just because she’s awesome!
In retrospect then, March is as great as all those other months really... but time will tell whether March becomes my favourite month of this year like August was my favourite of last year (Risk and Monopoly oh yeah!). In recent news, erm, same old same old to be very honest... the usual job search malarkey (still not being paid properly, bah!) and some help from various sources to find the work.
Some decent films been watched; Drive Angry (Shot in 3D as its titled) is a huge blast of outrageous B-movie fun, very unapologetically violent and action packed with some mental action scenes and some delightfully unhinged performances from Nicolas Cage (always like that anyway) and the legendary William Fichtner who steals the whole film and could go down as one of the best movie characters of 2011!; I Am Number Four is clichéd to the max Sci-Fi action with a teen kid with special powers saving the day and fighting the baddies but it’s really great fun with a cracking cast and as always, the support outshines the stony faced lead. Never-ending Story though was a confusing mess to be honest, and not as fun as I would have hoped, the creatures were cool but the plot was nonsense and I didn’t understand anything, even after it had finished... still love that song though, na na na na na na na na na!
Had some cracking good times with my cell group again this week, really blessed to have such great friends to hang out with and talk about the scripture and word and life in general, it’s always a real joy to go to cell and share with these guys, they’re the best!
Plus we’ve also had this month’s The Unit at St Marks, where Chesky (Francesca Consiglio to those not in the know) and Craig shared word about respecting yourself to respect God, because God created us in his image so we must respect ourselves as we are and never doubt ourselves. It’s a really great message that we need to live by every day, never say ‘Man I look like a toilet’ because God created you like that because he knew it was great and it is, never doubt yourself.
Before I waffle on too long, I’ll quickly address the Oscars... which happened last Sunday night, and I stayed up till 5am (yawn!) to watch them. Whilst some bits were good (The video clip Inception spoof that started off was genius, the auto tune thing was amusing, the whole Best Song and Best VFX bits were absolutely fantastic and Anne Hathaway’s dance was amusing) and the winners were all very great films but very predictable (King’s Speech for everything, Fighter for a few acting, Inception for technical but not its rightful everything!)... It mostly felt just ok, and that was definitely represented by the Highlights, which left out everything I just highlighted as being best. It’s all fine but like Christmas in a way, we need to not hype it up so much, because it’ll be gone too quickly otherwise and won’t linger.
Anyway, now for some coming attractions...
The Magic of the Movie Trailer
Trailers Trailers Trailers... they have always been one of my absolute favourite things when it comes to movies... and you know how much I like movies (well I would hope you do, this is a movie blog!). They are one of the most important things, because without a great trailer you really can’t judge a film before seeing it...
I guess with a Spiderman or Transformers or even a Simpsons Movie you can go off their source material and think ‘Probably will be good even if I don’t see the trailer’ but for a lot of movies that come out, your interest in seeing the movie hinges on the trailers... a few examples off the top of my head of films I didn’t know much about or was intrigued in until I saw the trailer at the cinema- The Bourne Identity, Vantage Point, A Perfect Getaway, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Welcome to Collinwood, The Score... it’s hard off to top of my head, but it’s a well used cliché.
Of course, nowadays you can watch all sorts of trailers online so you know what you’re interested in much quicker and you’ll read all sorts in Empire and etc beforehand too, so films like the upcoming Limitless, where I was surprised at how different the trailer looks to what I was expecting (still looking great of course) would have been more a surprise had I not had hints beforehand about it, but that would be one of the more genuine trailer surprises recently, as well as perhaps My Soul to Take, only because for a Wes Craven film, it looks absolutely woeful in every sense! (And it’s gone straight to DVD, natch!).
Basically a trailer is one of the greatest things about movies, it excites you for an upcoming movie in a way a poster can’t... feeding you information without giving too much away... they’re exciting, funny and thrilling and always a joy to watch... one of my favourite things about the cinema is guessing what the trailers will be... sad but I don’t know.... I love me some TRAILERS!
Teaser Trailers
Teaser trailers, teaser trailers... one of the most exciting things about movies and cinema in general are good teaser trailers. They show you just enough to make you do a dance and wet yourself with excitement but keeps from telling you too much, the best trailers are short and sweet, epic in scale but lacking in detail. It teases you (hence teaser) but leaves you wanting more without the trailer cliché of showing the whole film. Some of the best teasers misdirect you as to what you’re about to see (a few below do it terrifically, some fail like Dumb and Dumberer making you think you’re seeing Lord of the Rings, problem is the alternative is not going to be favoured over anything, so fail!) and do so in hysterically clever fashion. Anyway I’m not doing countdowns or best of all time on these teasers (and the trailers later on), just some of my personal favourites of the teaser and trailer categories... you really should check them all out via linkage (preferably with lights off, full screen and sound up!) which is provided. You’ll want to watch these films all over again!
Superman Returns (2006)
Some of the greatest teaser trailers take something about their source and expand their trailer around that idea... this one takes the idea of the Superman mythology and more importantly, Marlon Brando’s role in the original 1979 movie as Father Superman (Jor-El), as Mr Brando does a strong and hearty narration over the mini montage of iconic Superman things (the Kent post box, the daily planet, Supes swooping down to romance Lois) all before a dramatic finish. It’s a fantastic teaser, as it only shows a few things but with the narration and that finish, it feels very dramatic, very poignant, very powerful and very very exciting. It’s hard not to want to watch it over and over, it’s even harder not to want to throw the DVD into the player and watch the film now, even if; as good as it is, it’s not quite half as good as the teaser... contender for best teaser trailer ever? Could well be, whack this on full volume, full screen... it’ll blow your mind and make your heart soar!
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
Scary one this! All about the atmosphere and the tension, and like Godzilla which I’ll get into soon, it’s all about that tagline. Posters, the trailers and all the marketing all teasing you that ‘SOMETHING HAS SURVIVED’... and that’s all the clues they’re giving you. It’s a fantastic tease and this teaser trailer with its rain lashed bursts of dramatic tagline-ness (new word!) and the quick shot of a dinosaur trying to eat you up for dinner, is short, sweet, terrifying and very hype-building... it’s a truly iconic teaser for a film that like most, failed to live up to the epic hype bestowed upon it... most sequels to iconic movies end up with a lumbering weight of expectation, but you definitely can’t fault the marketing here... always sends a shiver down my spine this one... and don’t watch it in the dark if you’re nervy like I am!
A Bug’s Life (1998)
This could go for all Pixar teasers, because they do them so effortlessly.... from Mr Incredible trying to get his super suit on, Dory asking for directions, the incredibly topical and funny Charades teaser for Monsters Inc, or the aliens and claw teaser for Toy Story 2. But this is one of the first and still one of the funniest because it’s such a simple setup with a delightfully funny punch line. Not going to spoil it, you should watch for yourselves. The full trailers for this movie are also great, incorporating the fantastic Baba O’Riley by The Who to the mix way before CSI nicked it, as well as creating a great sense of menace and tension mixed with the humour and levity and adventure that follows.
The Flintstones (1994)
Nothing can describe the excitement of seeing something you had no clue to the existence of. Take this teaser trailer, now back in 1993 we were yet to be spoiled by the internet and my cinema visiting was pretty limited being only 6 or 7, so sitting down to watch whatever film I was seeing; I was pretty oblivious to the fact that Steven Spielberg (oh how I love you!) had decided to create (though not direct, just his usual exec producer role) a live action version of one of my favourite cartoons at the time... so seeing that shot of John Goodman at the end in full Fred Flintstone garb sent me in hyper mode!
This is a great fun teaser, giving you a corny indication of the way the marketing would go with a Universal intro, and then giving you a classic sing along of the theme tune with helpful on screen rock based lyrics (indication of classy effects) before treating us to a very quick glimpse at what it’ll look like. It remains a really fun little trailer and a true bit of nostalgic gold. And yes, I do still love the movie whatever anyone says (Viva Rock Vegas was utter dino poo though!)
Spider-Man (2002) World Trade Center Teaser
Tragic case with this particular trailer, it was shown in theatres and everywhere else in the lead up to the movie’s release in summer 2002, a sign of how far ahead teasers and trailers can be shown now. But due to the truly tragic events of September 11th 2001, the trailer was scrapped and is now hard to track down (well not if you use Youtube, which is a life saver for a lot of things) but it’s a shame in the end, because whilst you can see why they scrapped it, it isn’t really doing anything wrong.
Plus it’s possible the coolest teaser trailer there ever was for a superhero movie, and that’s saying something! Featuring a bank heist and it’s getaway that ends badly for the heisters with them becoming stuck in a web in their ‘copter (between the two towers, hence the controversy) it then goes into funky music and shots of Spidey swinging mode and gets you truly pumped up for the movie like all good teasers do. Rumour has it the scene was intended for the movie too, though it could just have been a trailer only scene, who knows? Controversial but a true lost gem
Back to the Future (1985)
It was pretty much a sure bet I’d be talking about my all time favourite movie at some point, but it sure helps that the teaser trailer for it is so damn cool and so iconic and brilliant in every aspect. Truly tuning into its 80’s heritage with a trailer that sure is dated but still works in so many ways... it’s a pure and simple look at the inner workings of the DeLorean as well as a bunch of the teaser clichés as we see someone wander up to get in the car with that 80’s fashion and 80’s music.
Then it kicks off with a killer line of dialogue that surely has to have become iconic. It’s best to simply watch it and get swept away with a teaser trailer that manages to be both dated and timeless, with a punch line and kick in that really rocks! It’s so iconic that Mr Michael J Fox recently went back for the 25th Anniversary of Back to the Future and remade the trailer, you should also give that a look because it’s brilliant not only for its faithfulness to the cheesy joy of the trailer but also for how cool Fox remains, I truly didn’t believe he would be up to it but he’s still the coolest guy around!
Austin Powers II (1999)
The first of two different trailers, where the trailer (teaser) leads you into a false sense of security by seeming like the teaser for another movie due to be released. In this case, it was the summer of 1999, and hype for the next Star Wars movie, the first prequel The Phantom Menace... was sky high! Capitalising on this, another of the summer’s big movies, the sequel to Austin Powers set up this diabolically funny teaser in which you think you’re about to see a new Star Wars movie when suddenly Dr Evil appears.. I shouldn’t say too much, because even though it’s a well seen and infamous teaser it’s still greatly funny if you don’t know what’s going to happen.
Best of all is the tagline by Mr Voiceover Man (what an absolute stunner of a legend!) that intones ‘If you see only one movie this summer, see Star Wars.... if you see two movies, see Austin Powers’... an absolute gem of a selling point and a great way of capitalising on another movie’s success and selling forward the joy of summer Blockbusters... because you sure ain’t just going to see one of them, are you? If so, you’re a weirdo!
Scooby Doo (2002)
Another of the great tradition of misleading trailers, this came about in 2001, early 2002... most likely from what I remember being attached to the first Harry Potter movie... it’s one of the most cunning misleads in teaser trailer history, mainly because in the scale of epicness, there is a big divide between the dark heroics of Batman and the camp spookiness of Scooby Doo... yet as this teaser so genius ally (new words all the time!) points out, their heads are shaped very similarly! Setting a dark gothic mood as befits a Batman teaser (or would if it was one!) this trailer hypes up that Batman is returning only to reveal a startled Scooby and all the usual taglines and credits.
The film itself I guess was never going to be amazing, but to be fair it’s one of the better efforts, mainly down to the appearance of Rowan Atkinson, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Matthew Lillard and the twist involving Scrappy Doo... but this teaser itself is a word of genius, brilliantly hyping up something we probably weren’t sure about seeing (a new Batman that is, after the hideousness of Batman and Robin left most of us scarred... though to be fair, Scooby was awaited with no much excitement, though more than things like Yogi or Smurfs are this year that’s for sure) and giving us something completely different, one of the greatest joys of a good teaser.
The Grinch (2000)
A bit like The Flintstones teaser or even the Scooby Doo one, one of the main selling points of this first teaser for Ron Howard’s festive adaptation of Dr Seuss’s classic tale was the first glimpse at Jim Carrey in that costume! Head to toe in green fur, it still stands as one of the best make up jobs in cinema history, no surprises that it was Rick Baker responsible. It’s a great teaser which does what all great teasers do, it hints at a lot of the various antics that will occur during the film without ever giving anything major away... and hints a lot at what Jim will look like with brief glimpses until giving a creepy reveal right at the end.
Matching all of the Christmas stealing chaos with the infamous Hall of the Mountain King (aka the Alton Towers music) is a stroke of genius (to a degree, as a lot of adverts and trailers are fond of using it to create a mood... though this does it best) and what you have is a very fun and enjoyable little teaser that is no doubt part of the reason the film did so well... it makes you want to see more, more of The Grinch, more of what’s going to happen and just more.... and that’s a teasers job done!
Godzilla (1998)
Another great tool of the teaser is suggestion and the set of fantastic teasers to Roland Emmerich’s monster epic had it in spades... from the very first early teaser that had an unseen force ruining New Year’s Eve (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTs-d5d-1Zc&feature=related) through to a second even better one of Godzilla trampling on a T-Rex skeleton in a museum whilst some kiddywinks have a field trip (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXUOdgxiP18&feature=related) and then onto this cracker of a teaser trailer wherein a lovely old dude gets more than he bargained for as he goes fishing... it’s a cracking exercise in tension and perfectly paced.
Yet again it only shows the eye and the foot of the creature... Godzy himself in all his CGI/ model glory was saved for opening day and he didn’t disappoint in my opinion... whatever people say about Godzilla’s failings... I think it’s a perfectly enjoyable slice of nonsense, why should the plot make sense, why should anyone act? It’s a monster movie! Anyway another thing I absolutely adore about these teasers is there use of a slogan, like Something has Survived for The Lost World... this has Size Does Matter and Guess Who’s Coming to Town?... it’s the first one that became the staple slogan for the movie and it works wonders in these teasers in setting the tone... if I had to pick favourite teasers then these would be right up there... they’re exciting, mysterious and very memorable... the perfect way to set up excitement for a movie... teasing does matter!
Full Length Trailers
Never quite as exciting in some senses as the teaser trailer... the trailer has the harder job of selling you the film big style without giving too much away (trailers to fail this completely are Superman Returns, which reveals a key Lex Luthor twist; What Lies Beneath, gives away the huge twist; and a few others) Trailers are still ace though, Matrix Reloaded for an example which will be expanded on shortly is a great example of showing loads but still not giving too much away and getting you very very excited for the film in question.
Teasers have the upper hand in excitement factor for all their smoke and mirrors and mystery, but a great trailer may not be as iconic but still has great power in getting the audiences into the cinema to hand over their myriad amounts of cash! Same rules apply, get comfy, dim the lights, crank up the sound, click full screen on the links provided, and get ready to get excited for these movies yet again!
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (2005)
Possibly my favourite movie trailer ever... this ingeniously genius and cleverly fantastic trailer for the long-awaited movie version of the infamous British TV/ Book/ Radio series takes the simple premise of a guide to what makes a good movie trailer, and since the movie is about a book that tells you everything about everything... it makes perfect sense to have Stephen Fry (the voice of the Guide in the movie) to narrate the trailer as the guide telling you the basic facts.
From the way it introduces the characters, to the montage, to the explosions and love interest and all the clichés, it’s a cracking little trailer which completely dissects the movie trailer in a greatly funny way straight down to a genius line about the trailer voiceover man... it’s another of those that it’s better to watch it than to have me explain it in excessive detail but needless to say it’s an absolute joy and though it’s an unpopular decision, I absolutely adore the movie!
The Dark Knight (2008)
Great trailers for well anticipated movies don’t need to follow any tropes of the trailer trade, they’re simply there to gain much excitement by cramming as many great moments into a coherent trailer narrative and this carries that off with aplomb... just when you think it’s winding down it’s settles into a further montage of golden moments.
This is that great trailer that shows loads of stuff (maybe too much) from the movie yet never quite spoils too much because there’s so much to discover in the finished movie.... and it’s a damn exciting trailer to boot, that score, Heath Ledger’s Joker in full flow, some classic dialogue all segued together into a trailer that just furthered excitement for a film people were already clamming at the bit to get a ticket for. Bring on The Dark Knight Rises!
The Matrix Reloaded (2003)
Possibly ranking as one of the most anticipated movies ever released (also should be on this list is Phantom Menace for the same reason), it seemed only fair that the trailer was the most exciting thing to ever be witnessed by human eyes... throwing all the action, all the stunts, all the story and characters and things that were going to blow our mind into one big boiling pot and setting it to slow cook... this is a thrill ride of epic proportions, in trailer form.
Starting, as the best trailers do, with a lingering shot of something and some action before the logo for Warner Brothers has even entered the screen, it doesn’t let go right till the end... you can see why people were so disappointed when the film itself (and its sequel) turned out to just be decent rather than the greatest movie ever made (I remember thinking that when the trailer first came out, that it would be the best movie ever!) but I don’t think the Matrix sequels are that bad, I just think this trailer is so good, so epic that it’s hard to live up to.
Casper (1995)
This one kinda tows the line between teaser and trailer... it shows enough of the film to be a trailer but it also hints at things very briefly enough to be teasing. The opening of the trailer as clips of Casper as a cartoon are interrupted by the CGI uncle ghosts is a really neat way to start off, as we cut to the basis of the plot and the fun, all spooky and funny and set fantastically to the brilliant What’s This? from The Nightmare before Christmas, another great example of a tune that sets the magical tone going (see Grinch’s Hall of the Mountain King earlier) and it basically provides a great dose of fun...
One of the joys of this trailer and it’s posters when I was young as visiting cinemas such as Showcase in Liverpool was seeing glimpses of what a cool looking ghost like Casper would look like in a live action movie for the first time, a bit like seeing live action Fred in the Flintstones teaser, it was really intriguing to see how it would turn out... and Casper remains a firm favourite from my childhood and a hugely fun movie, and this trailer stays true to that, ahem, spirit.
Inception (2010)
As with The Dark Knight, great link there, it’s all about taking a movie that everyone is dying to see and getting them really hyped for it by putting together a trailer that puts together all the great things about that film into a kick ass trailer... without giving away anything major, and with Inception you can’t give anything away anyway because it’s that floppy hard to explain most of the time. Setting out the plot and the manic weird setting of the dream world in style, the trailer then takes us through the jist of what will be happening in typical Nolan style with an absolutely immense score, well deserving of the Oscar nomination and some amazing special effects... it’s a jaw dropping piece of trailer work and for a change, doesn’t get to outshine the film it’s advertising because Inception is way too good to be outshone by its trailer, but it can come close at times
Sin City (2005)
Sometimes you just know a film is going to be ace, but you still like to have the trailer there to confirm it... this already looked like the coolest movie on the planet due to the stills and posters and that cast but this trailer just confirmed that it was bound to be the coolest movie of the summer of 2005 (Batman Begins edging closely) with it’s fantastic piece of funky scoring, it’s comic book styling flowing throughout the trailer with the captions and fonts all really cool, and with a heavy dose of dialogue and action selling this as a really cool and exciting piece of cinema that shouldn’t be missed... again it’s another great example of a film that was every bit as good as it’s advertising, but this is still one very cool trailer! Even if Clive Owen’s emphasised line of dialogue now sounds a bit daft... but he’s Clive Owen, he still sounds awesome!
And that’s your lot trailer wise... there are tons and tons of trailers that I could have wrote about but there’s just so many (Phantom Menace, Minority Report, The Fly, Alien, Gremlins 2, Batman Begins, Snakes on a Plane, Hot Fuzz, Twilight Zone the Movie, Terminator 2, Grindhouse, the list goes on) but I think I’ve done a great job of dissecting some of my favourites for the time being. Anyway, the blog will be taking a mini break for a week or two but we’ll be back soon don’t worry.
There’s plenty of great TV and great movies to be watched, and some great things ahead and I’ll always keep you informed of them as they happen via the next blog which will be about that great cinematic staple... the guilty pleasure, from Super Mario Bros through to Godzilla through to Charlie’s Angels, there’s plenty to pick from... so watch out later in March when I’ll be revealing three of my personal favourites! Hope you all have a really blessed week and a really nice time in whatever you do...
Until next time
You stay classy.... Planet Earth! X
