For this list I looked at movies that were simply unable to live up to their incredible trailers. Trailers that were able to build an epic anticipation for the movie they were previewing. On this list are some of the best trailers ever made, which just goes to show, you don’t need a quality movie for a quality trailer…
10.) Watchmen
To start off the list I picked a movie that I actually liked. The problem is the trailer is so brilliantly crafted that is should’ve been a movie that I loved. This is a trailer I watched probably 100 times before the movie came out, and I was convinced that Watchmen, released in 2009, would indeed be was worthy DC Comic follow-up for 2008’s masterpiece The Dark Knight. These expectation proved lofty and unattainable. While not a bad movie, it’s simply not the same quality of movie advertised below…
In a rare departure from his usual role, Jason Statham will play a hard-ass cop who beats the crap out of people. But the big change is that it’s supposed to be good. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy seeing the Stath lay the beat-down as much as the next guy, but most of his movies aren’t what you call…plot heavy. Well this one might not be either, but currently on IMDb it has a 9/10, and Rotten Tomatoes has yet to give it a negative review.
The story is about a guy – Blitz – who is going around and murdering cops. That’s not nice. Statham is a cop who doesn’t want to be murdered by some hipster in neon colored glasses, so he gets proactive. Here is the trailer…
Aside from the Stath, we also get Blitz himself, played by Aidan Gillen who was on the master work HBO show The Wire, and is currently on the master work HBO show A Game of Thrones.
Also showing up in the trailer was Paddy Considine, who was in Cinderella Man, and more importantly, the Edgar Wright masterpiece Hot Fuzz. Guy is great.
Wrecked
Staring DJ QuallsAdrien Brody as an amnesic car crash victim who might also be a bank robber and murderer. I thought it looked interesting, but people who saw didn’t seem impressed. It has only a 4.9/10 on IMDb and a 57% on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s currently available On Demand for Comcast customers…
Terri This one is actually still new, it comes out July 1st and stars John C. Reilly (Step Brothers, Chicago), Creed Bratton (The Office), and new comer Jacob Wysocki. This is getting pretty high marks all around, and compiles to Reilly’s already long list of indie-movie comedies.
In 1971 Director Sam Peckinpah released a movie called Straw Dogs. It was based off of the novel The Siege of Trencher’s Farm, written in 1969 by Gordon Williams. The film sparked controversy with concerns over the rise of violence in film. It didn’t help that it came out the same year as movies like A Clockwork Orange, The French Connection, and Dirty Harry, which all received similar criticism. In today’s film world, filled with stylized violence and gratuitous bloodshed, it’s surprising how well this actually holds up.
The movie was a story about David Sumner, an American intellectual (Dustin Hoffman) who moves with his wife Amy (Susan George), back to her hometown in England. Once there he becomes enamored with his work and she gets bored. She starts to flirt with some of the locals they’ve hired to fix up there house, one of which is an old boyfriend of hers. The men see Dave as a coward and start to push him bit by bit until things escalate out of control…
This movie was my first introduction to Sam Peckinpah back when I watched in High School and still my favorite of his films. It gets down to base of what a man is capable of when forced into a bad situation.
Well the movie is now being remade by someone with decidedly less pedigree, but not a terrible track record – Film Critic turned Director Rod Lurie who is most famous for The Contender. Cast in the leads are titans of mediocrity, repaired for some reason after Superman Returns, James Marsden and Kate Bosworth. And quite frankly, I just don’t think they have the acting chops of Hoffman and Susan George.
What is interesting though is the cast that surrounds them, namely our villain – Alexander Skarsgård, who is best know to True Blood fans as the Vampire Sheriff Eric Northman. For me, he is the most likeable part of True Blood (Well, aside from Deborah Ann Woll anyway —> ).
Here is the new trailer…
Ok, so OBVIOUSLY it doesn’t look as epic as the original. It’s no longer set in rural countryside England, but now instead in “Small Town USA”, where there is never a shortage of rednecks and idiots. However, 2 of the best cast pieces aren’t even shown in the trailer, and that’s James Woods (Casino, The Hard Way, Cat’s Eye) and Boyd Crowder Walton Goggins(The Shield, Predators, Justified).
Also appearing will be Prison Break’sDominic Purcell and recently unemployed star of The Chicago Code, as well as another ‘Gone too Soon’ type of show The Black Donnelys, Billy Lush. Overall, cast looks good even if Cyclopsthe kid from Disturbing Behavior Marsden isn’t my favorite actor, he’s not terrible.
I have no doubt this will pale in comparison with the original, but I’m pretty sure I’ll see it anyhow. It is set for a US release September 16th of this year.
Finally! Finally there is a trailer for the reboot of 1985’s vampire tale, Fright Night! With an August 2011 release it certainly took them long enough. The original Fright Night had some pretty cheesy moments to be sure, but Chris Sarandon looked great in his vampire form, and put on a great performance as Jerry Dandridge; the smooth talking vampire next door. Roddy McDowell was more than superb in his role of Peter Vincent the Great Vampire Killer, and his role is now filled by ‘Doctor Who’ star: David Tennant.
The premise of the movie is simple yet fun, which is all you really need from a vampire movie in my opinion:
Charley Brewster is a regular kid with the normal problems of a teenage life, but his problems only get bigger as his new neighbor Jerry moves in. Due to the urging of his friend Ed and some snooping of his own Charley deduces that Jerry is in fact a vampire. And what’s worse is that Jerry knows that Charley knows… and even more worse no one believes Charley.
Also, you might recognize our hero Charley, played by Anton Yelchin who has made a name for himself the last couple years with roles like Chekov in Star Trek and as a young Kyle Reese in Terminator: Salvation. Kid is up and coming!
I’m thinking that looks pretty damned good. It can’t surpass the original no matter how cheesy it was, but this new one I am looking at as a completely different film, rather than a step by step remake. It looks like a hybrid of Disturbia and The Lost Boys to tell you the truth – and there’s nothing wrong with that.
Colin Farrell looks like he was born to play a vampire and I initially has misgivings with him being cast in the role, but it seems like he is back in demand with Fright Night, Horrible Bossesand the new Total Recall all set to come out in the near future. I was disappointed we weren’t given a glimpse of Tennant as Peter Vincent, but I suppose it’s good to not spoil everything with a trailer. I can even live with Christopher Mintz-Plasse (McLovin’ Fogel) being cast as Evil Ed, because lord knows the original played by Stephen Geoffreys was a bit annoying at times. And Geoffreys has had an interesting filmography since Fright Night (Ahem! Porn!)…
I’m interested to know what all of my fellow Fright Night fans think of the new trailer. Worth seeing or not? I’m pumped for it in a big way, a big reason being that Hollywood has been dropping the ball on Vampires in general since the Twilight craze. True Blood is even hard for me to watch, but it’s a hell of a lot better than Twilight.
To my knowledge there hasn’t been much in the way of a good medieval movie lately. One where guys kick tons of ass with swords, arrows, axes and blood. I don’t count Robin Hood starring Russell Crowe because honestly, I couldn’t bring myself to like it. I wanted desperately to, but to this day I’d still rather watch Prince of Thieves instead. I was terribly partial to Centurion, but I’m not so sure many others were. Iron Clad however looks like it may restore some glory to the realm of blood and steel.
As you can see the movie stars such spectacular actors as James Purefoy, Brian Cox, and Paul Giamatti. Purefoy is just coming off a short stint on the Starz series Camelot, in which he played a glorious villain named King Lot. I would say that this is an odd role for Giamatti, but he can definitely hold his own in a period piece as is proof of his role of John Adams in the HBO mini series. And Brian Cox can’t really be bad in anything, let alone something set in the olden days. Rob Roy or Troy anyone? Behold the trailer:
Uhhhhh…. whoa. I’m liking the looks of that! Giamatti looks good as a bitchy King John, unleashing his wrath on Rochester Castle against Purefoy and the Knights Templar he leads against the tyrannical king. I’m sure it’s 100 percent historically accurate too. Just look at the size of James Purefoy’s blade to make the decision on whether or not to see this movie in July.
Grizzly Bomb 
