Worst Movie Trailers

[James Harvey]

Well, we got a worst movie ever thread, so why not an accompanying thread? What are the worst trailers you have ever seen.

Me? Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. For anyone who has seen it can agree. The worst thing every made. They use terrible clips and the voice over guy is cheesey as hell and it look very, very cheap!

[I.R Joey]

My brother and I disegree on the Trailor for Virtrua Fighter. I detest that thing.

[JustJack]

My brother recently got "silence of the lambs" on DVD. I watched the classic trailer..and I gotta say...it's really bad. It does not compliment the movie at all. If I was old enough back when it first came out, & I saw that trailer, I probably wouldn't have gone to see it.

Mmm..and..how about "Army of Darkness"...and the "Evil Dead" & "Evil Dead 2" trailers. Good music(I think Army of Darkness had Metallica?), but the overall trailers are just bad...

[Jedi Knight]

"Double Jeopardy" and "Ransom". Both of them just totally give away the movie in less than 2 minutes. I've never seen Ransom, but I assume there's not much more than what was in the trailer.

The "X-Men" trailer didn't do the movie justice either. It wasn't bad, but the movie was so much better than the trailer made it out to be.

[killercroc]

It did an awful job of selling the movie. I never even considered watching it, until someone told me it was a good movie.

[Lonestarr]

The Negotiator.

Let me set it up for you: The trailer explains that Danny Roman (Samuel L. Jackson) is accused of commiting a crime, leading him to take hostages and try to prove his innocence; see, he's a hostage negotiator. IRONY! One demand is that he deal with a fellow negotiator: Chris Sabian (Kevin Spacey). At the end of the trailer is where the ball is dropped.
There's a scene with Sabian saying "Now you're going to have to deal with both of us." WTF?! I can't freakin' believe it! That scene wasn't even in the film! (a very good one, in fact) Just another *smart* marketing move courtesy of our friends at Warner Bros.
(Go ahead and edit this; I dare you)

[Maxie Zeus]

I hate ALL contemporary trailers; one reason I rarely go to the movies anymore is that I loathe the trailers. Nothing like an advertisement that makes you *hate* upcoming films to keep you out of the theater.

Comedy trailers: The essence of comedy is timing (or should be; SNL has done a good job of ruining that idea), and there are few things less funny than watching comic bits ruined through slapdash editing. In contemporary trailers it's nothing but setup/punchline; setup/punchline; setup/punchline sequences strung haphazardly together. I don't remember the last time I cracked a smile at a trailer for a comedy.

Action trailers: Recently, action films have become nothing but 90 minute trailers themselves. After seeing a trailer that merely distills the essence of the film, why bother to see the film itself?

Drama trailers: Pure formula. Some "comedy" sequences that show the characters struggling with normal life. A few pseudo-confrontations. Then BANG: someone says something poignant and the screen briefly goes black. Then the soulful music starts up, the announcer's gravelly voice starts grinding out cliches about life and love. It all climaxes with the lead actress (or actor, if it stars Robin Williams) smiling bravely through tears, and hugs all around.

And don't get me started on that damn voice over guy. OK, he's not so bad himself, but the lines he's give to read are atrocious: The standard "He is. . ./ She is. . ./Now they must. . ." or the "In a world where. . ." line show up EVERYPLACE. I can practically recite them right along with the announcer.

[Eraserhead]

Originally posted by Maxie Zeus

And don't get me started on that damn voice over guy. OK, he's not so bad himself, but the lines he's give to read are atrocious: The standard "He is. . ./ She is. . ./Now they must. . ." or the "In a world where. . ." line show up EVERYPLACE. I can practically recite them right along with the announcer.

LOLOLOLOL!

You couldn't have said it any better, Maxie, especially those breakdowns of the movie genre-trailers.

Teasers are the only type of trailers that should always be made. But of course, the Studios would never be able to live with that. They will always have to give us longer, more revealing stuff (Including "that damn voice over guy"). But just look at how effective that first teaser was for CASTAWAY, I'm referring to the one that had Hanks kissing Helen Hunt and saying "I'll be right back"..Cut to plane crash...Cut to Tom awashed on shore (to the sounds of crashing waves) and hearing him yell "ANYBODYY?" End of trailer. Since there was nothing else to show of the film, it was all up to your imagination of how that movie should go. Does he find some other shipwrecked folks on this island? Does he encounter some crazy natives? Or is he just completely alone?

Another terrific teaser (Which may be the best of all time) was the unforgettable "Making of T-800" for T2:JUDGMENT DAY. A scene that was intentionally not to appear in the movie!!! No nonsense and to the point of the creation of a Terminator, ending the teaser by saying "I'll be back". Again, it was up to our imagination for this one, and one of those ideas might have been, "Is he a good Terminator in this one?"

But full-detailed trailers are ruining the experience, no doubt. For instance, we knew that Darth Maul was going to face the Jedi twice in THE PHANTOM MENACE. We knew that Clooney and Wahlberg were going to have ride up that big ***** wave in THE PERFECT STORM. And we knew that the White House (and a few other structures) get blown up in INDEPENDENCE DAY. And I'm pretty sure that when I watch LORD OF THE RINGS, at some point in the middle of the film, I'll say to myself "The group still has'nt fought those demons in the mountain yet, I guess that's going to be the last battle of the movie"..Get the picture?

Its just a shame that teasers are'nt the standard format for movie advertising, if they were, we could be treated to "the imagination theory" that I pointed out. We could be watching the movie that was supposed to start at 4:40, instead of 4:57 (thanks to all those never-ending and "I'm-sure-I-wont-be-wasting-money-on-those-upcoming-crap-movies" trailers). And we would not have to endure any more repeated lines from "that damn voice over guy".

[Joe Tully]

I am surprised that no one has mentioned Iron Giant so far. That was possibly the worst advertising for an animated movie ever (tied with Phantasm)

Yeah, Maxie, I'm very picky about movies and the trailers and ads usually don't really make me feel like running to the theater either. I think the last one I saw was Shrek, and before that it was Chicken Run.

[joker]

iron monkey. the first time i saw it i thought it was a joke. the music seemed cheesy and the anouncer guy sounded kinda hokey. i thouht was one of the many of the comercials mocking crouching tiger hidden dragon. the name in its self sounds kinda goofy to. but from what ive heard the movie is supposed to be good.

[Rae]

I thought Toy Story was going to be stupid when I saw the trailer. The animation was amazing (of course), but the dialogue in the preview just really struck me as corny. Anyway, I didn't have very high expectations when I went to see it.

[JustJack]

Originally posted by joker
iron monkey. the first time i saw it i thought it was a joke. the music seemed cheesy and the anouncer guy sounded kinda hokey. i thouht was one of the many of the comercials mocking crouching tiger hidden dragon. the name in its self sounds kinda goofy to. but from what ive heard the movie is supposed to be good.

True Story: I first saw the Iron Monkey trailer when I went to go see "Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back". I honestly thought it was just a really-well-done Kevin Smith joke.

[James Harvey]

I could hear people laughing in the theatre when the name popped up. The trailer made the movie seem really hokey. I've been told it's better than it looks. Another trailer I thought was sorta crappy wasthe one for Spawn. Granted the movie did suck, but the trailer was so cheesey and bad. The voice over guy was just overoding it the whole time! "He's now back to get revenge!" UGH!

[Shriek]

I bought the Superman DVD and I must say the original trailer sucks. I can't stand the man's voice who is announcing the movie. "Now, he has a new.... "

Oh god man shut up before I turn you off!!

[James Harvey]

The teaser wasn't my favorite on that, either. You know, now that I think of it - alot of movies are mis marketed. THE OTHERS is advertised as a quick paced horror movie when in facts it's a well done sombre peice.

[Kal-el]

What about the Hollywood Godzilla? The previews nearly promised a good movie. I know I was excited the first time I saw a trailer in the theater. It really wasn't that good.