Movie Trailers

[saintmort]

As we all know sometimes a movie trailer is more memorable than a movie itself. Othertimes a Movie Trailer is the only reason to to me as Star Wars and Lord of the Rings have proved. This brings up a question...what would you say are you're top 5 favorite/most memorable Movie Trailers.

5) Clerks - I saw this trailer when I was ten only one time. I didn't see the movie until five years later and I was excited to finally watch it because the trailer was just that memorable. The Quotes and everything, not to mention how well it was cut together.

4) Cannibal The Musical! - I love this trailer just because they went out and filmed footage for the trailer that makes no sense (ie random mexican guy)

3) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - The Trailer that's just an infomercial of the brain erase company for a few minutes and then suddenly Jim Carrey and ELO. What more could you ask for?

2)  Psycho - The Original Psycho Trailer with Alfred Hitchcock walking us through the Bate's Motel and home is such a bizarre and creepy trailer. I recall again when I was 10 I rented this movie that was all horror movie trailers and there was a trailer for this one. I was so scared to walk into the bathroom for like a week.

1) Garden State - This is a bit bias because it's one of my favorite movies ever but I just think BOTH trailers edited quotes, visuals and the songs "Such Great Heights" and "Let Go" beautifully. One of the few times I actually remember getting a tear in my eye from  a trailer before I'd ever seen the movie.

[Ozzymandias]

Head  had a strange trailer which may have contributed to it's failure.  It is a weird looking bald dude, filmed in close up and in black and white. No mention of the Monkees, Annette or Victor Mature.

[peter johnson]

The trailer for The Shining consisted of the single scene wherein a tide of blood rolls down the hallway of the hotel.  That was it.  Never seen anything like it.
It's still my fave in this category.
The trailer for Cannibal was shot 3 years before the movie itself was even considered as a full-length.  The trailer was originally shot as a funny short film for a film class at the University of Colorado.  
Because so many people watched that "trailer" for a nonexistant movie over and over again & laughed at it, Cannibal was made.
peter johnson/denny crane

[Ozzymandias]

I just remembered the trailer for the Addams Family .  It was based on actual Charles Addams cartoon that ran in the the New Yorker in the 50s.

You think it is a trailer for another film (kind of a Cassablanca ). A woman in the trailer is saying goodbye, in the rain, to the hansome lead. She's crying. She turns her head and suddenly screams in terror.

At that point we see the audience and notice the only ones there are the Addams Family. We then hear the TV theme song and the words Coming soon on screen.

There was a funny story about how the producer was convinced that 1) the TV show was not like the New Yorker cartoons and 2) nobody still remembered the TV show (even though the reruns were on cable every day).  He didn't want to use the theme song in the movie or the trailer. Someone talked him into putting it in the trailer. He was going to try to prove his point so he went to where there was a test screening of the trailer and sat in the audience. The trailer played and got a huge response from the audience who began cheering once they saw the characters and heard the music. When it was finishing, with the music and announcement, he started loudly asking people, "What's coming soon?" "What is it?" "What's the movie about?"  An African-American guy, sitting near by, jumped to his feet and said, "It's a movie about the Addams Family, you dumbs**t!"

But then again, the same producer is who cast Wil Smith as James T. West in Wild Wild West .

[AndyC]

Say what you will about Independence Day, it's original teaser trailer was pretty effective. The general is informed that an object of incredible size and mass has been picked up on a course for earth. He asks if it's an asteroid, and is told definitely not, because it's slowing down. Shadows roll across major cities, we get a quick taste of some mass destruction, and that's it.

Actually, Centropolis teasers of that time were really good, even for their worst movies. Think of the one for Godzilla, with the T-Rex in the museum.