David Pogue has an interesting rant in today’s Circuits column about the movie “National Treasure: Book of Secrets”—or more specifically about its trailer, which is chock-full of scenes, dialogue, locations, and plot references that are nowhere to be found in the actual movie. He asks, “Just how different can a trailer be without becoming false advertising?” We immediately thought about last year’s kids flick “Bridge to Terabithia,” which was advertised like a whimsical Narnia spin-off but in reality was about the death of a major character.
In that case, reviewers got the word out to unwary parents fairly well—pretty much every review hinted that viewers should make sure they understood the content before seeing the movie. But shouldn’t studios be more honest in representing the content of their films?
In this case, those lines from Riley made the movie seem funnier than it was, the president’s line made the dramatic stakes seem higher than they were, and the scenes at the Lincoln Memorial made the historical conspiracy seem more ingenious than it was (historical clues hidden right under our noses!). I can say with confidence that some of those elements played a part in my wanting to see the movie.
Rearranging scenes in the trailer is one thing. But what about this business of putting stuff in the trailer — a *lot* of stuff — that isn’t in the movie at all? If they can get away with “National Treasure”-style misrepresentation, what’s to stop other moviemakers from putting special effects, witty lines, exotic locales and hot-looking actors into *their* trailers, just to get us to go to a movie that doesn’t have any of those things?
“When Movies Don’t Live Up to the Trailer” [New York Times]
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Were my friend and I the only people to think that the trailer for Man of the Year made it sound like the movie was gonna be hilarious but it actually ended up being REALLY serious?
Saddest trailer moment missing from a movie ever:
Spice World‘s trailer, when Baby Spice asks, “Is my skirt too short?” and one of the other Spices says yes. Then she hitches it up shorter and they high-five. NOT IN THE MOVIE.
Ugh, did I just admit to watching Spice World? Well, it was at a Drive-in double feature…
I too thought Man of The Year was going to be a comedy, I was rather disappointed with it since it was not the kind of movie I was expecting.
A lot of people complained Pan’s Labyrinth was sort of misleading since it was not in English but the trailer did nothing to hint that.
Recently in theaters I saw previews for Sweeney Todd, which I eventually saw, and it accurately represented the film as a musical. Now on television the commercials I am seeing for it seem to try to hide the fact it is a musical to mislead people into thinking it is just a regular dark Tim Burton movie.
Just because a trailer features footage not shown in the actual movie does not necessarily mean deception though. Think of the commercials for Kill Bill where Uma Thurman is driving a car talking about how she goes on a rampage etc.
It could be argued that most trailers inaccurately represent the movie in an effort to trick viewers into thinking the movie will be better than it actually is but clearly some movie trailers blatantly deceive people about what the movie actually contains.
One thing I hate is when I see a trailer & what I saw on it isnt in the movie…. i feel somehow cheated afterwards.
I first noticed this when the Wayne’s world movies came out (forgive me … I was young & stupid)…. there was a particular scene in the trailer where wayne (or Garth or both… I cant remember) was in his car with the cop-friend he knew & the cop was driving it recklessly & wayne (or garth) said “I’m gonna hurl!” ….. this scene was nowhere in the film when I saw it…. and I felt cheated.
I think it could be considered false advertising on a extremely minor level.
also… yeah, I hate when they misleadingly rearrange the scenes in trailers as well…. its misleading.
This is going to make me seem like a totally limp-wristed goon, but remember that movie, “Georgia Rule” with Lindsay Lohan and Jane Fonda. It was totally advertised as a feel-good comedy and turned out to be a story about the daughter getting molested by her step-father. Great date movie.
In any case, I think this is the same as if a vitamin supplement is sold without its advertised contents. Sure the movie might be an inconsequential thing to bitch about, but it’s the principle of the thing.
My wife and I got caught by the Bridge to Terabithia movie. Our 8-year-old wanted to watch it, so we rented the DVD. The Disney trailers, DVD box, etc hinted at nothing. The Disney web site STILL states “As their imaginations soar and their friendship deepens, they discover how to rule their own kingdom, fight the forces of darkness and change their lives forever.” No forewarning there. Had we read book reviews and such, they give you a hint, but not Disney.
I noticed the foreshadowing of the creek, but didn’t think it was going something traumatic. We spent 30 minutes consoling our 8-year-old as we all realized what tragedy struck.
We should have known about trusting a Disney movie – a parent or something always dies or is dead/missing. Bambi’s Mother dies, Simba’s Father dies, Toy Story’s Andy had no Father (and Sid’s was worthless), and Nemo’s Mom dies. Goofy’s son Max has no Mom, Ariel had no Mom, just like Jasmine. Even Toy Story, Andy has no Dad. Sid had both mother and father, but look how he turned out.
Not that I’m getting jaded or anything, just saying….
I liked National Treasure 2, though, but the bad guy’s kindof let me down.
@Thorny: seriously? i’m so not going to watch that.
In this day and age, I feel like anyone who is interested in seeing the movies might catch a synopsis online which might explain more about the movie, including details, i.e. Sweeney Todd is a musical, Pan’s Labyrinth is foreign language. Of course, I’m a) assuming most people have the internet and the people who don’t know are in the minority and b) most people take the time to look up more information before spending their hard-earned $10 on a ticket.
@SacraBos: Okay, I screwed up editting the part about Toy Story…
@SacraBos: yay, other people who liked National Treasure 2! It might be simple, but it’s fun, and I can always appreciate a movie involving treasure and adventure.
My friend brought home “Life is Beautiful” thinking it was a comedy. Still don’t let her live that down to this day.
@warf0x0r: COMPLETE AGREEMENT. I expected a lot more action (28 Days later), and more than the “Hey, check out this ending that Bob wrote in 5 minutes!” ending.
@man_in_plaid: Bruce Campbell rocks! He’s usually too over the top to be taken seriously as a actor, but such a riot to watch.
@JD: For me, I really felt that Nic (and his character) had a deep appreciation and love of history. If he had failed that, the movies would have bombed.
Hold on hold on hold on ………what parent doesn’t freaking know what the Bridge to Terabithia is about?!? That would be like expecting the dog to live in Old Yeller or Where the Red Fern Grows. Seriously I read that book in elementary school.
@freshyill: OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!
lol had to do that. Oh and the corn porn in that movie is the best, along with the REALLY random things they have playing on TV sets.
I didn’t mind National Treasure 2, but I am sure they had to cut a lot out to get it under two hours. Wait for the Directors Cut on the DVD and I am sure all those extra scenes will be reinserted into a new, 3 hour epic.
@warf0x0r: dude, do you have no taste in movies? How could you not enjoy Talladega Nights? If you don’t like Will Ferrell just don’t go see a movie with him in it!
@Egakino: Bridge to Terabithia
Seriously, THREE adults who wanted to see it. None of us had read the book.
Then again, in Elemetry school I was always above my level in reading. Still I never remember having to read it.
I went by what I heard, and what I saw. Which made it look like a Narnia story. I never had a chance to look it up before we got it. So I was NOT expecting what happened.
Seriously wondering if we had the right movie when it started.
Though I do like Pixar’s method of making trailöers out of original footage, but then again, is there truly a bad pixar movie?
They should have crews come up with trailers, and write movies based on those
Cloverfield is in fact NOT about a giant monster terrorizing New York.
It’s about a bank robbery in Colorado…
i remember thinking this same thing when the Tim Allen movie Galaxy Quest was coming out. I still explicitly remember a clip from the trailer that was played up as a very funny moment when the alien grabs tim allen’s face and he mumbles something from behind the giant hand. I was expecting to see that part of the movie but it never came. disappointing!
@Mercurypdx: Expecting Hollywood to do any justice to I Am Legend is like trusting Joel Schumacker (sp) to make another Batman movie.
@GenXCub: Ed Asner?
Regarding false advertising in film trailers, Tom Cruise’s Collateral premiered in Australia on my birthday a few years back. I hate Cruise, and the only reason that I took my wife and best friend to the movies to see it on my birthday was because the trailer soundtrack was Man in the Box by Alice in Chains.
Yes, I’m one of those freaks who watches movies based on what the soundtrack is (sometimes).
The song never turned up in the movie and I was incredibly pissed. To this day we all remember the movie that falsely advertised the best soundtrack imaginable.
Wasn’t a bad film though.
to the above: except that particular practice is very very common.
Garden State was promoted with TPS’s Such Great Heights, but you’ll only find the Iron & Wine version on the soundtrack.
Ooh. If this starts a trend, I am definitely getting on board and filing suit against Hudson Hawk and The Truman Show.
Hudson Hawk, ‘trailered’ as a Bruce Willis action, was dumb, off-beat comedy.
Truman Show, trailered as a Jim Carrey comedy, was a long, drawn-out drama.
I just hope the Ironman movie is as good as the trailer
Please, please return my money for The Mosquito Coast: trailered as an adventure movie in the jungle, was a crappy film about a loser and his family.
I was totally lied to by Naked Lunch.
How about the trailer for the Steve Martin/Michael Caine movie “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels”?
The entire trailer was footage not shot for/included in the movie. (I seem to recall it being a long shot of them walking along the Riviera, with some voice-over gushing about their characters. At the last moment, one of them pushes an old woman into the water. Or something like that!)
I didn’t want to see the “Bridge to Terabithia” movie because the trailer made it look like a CGI fest… which would totally defeat the point of kids bonding over imagination.
I know several people who were just *livid* that the girl dies in the end. (And anyone who wants a spoiler alert for a thirty year old book… um, no.)
So… they actually adapted the book well, then made a trailer that turned off people who read the book. Everyone else was led to think that it was a special- effects-heavy fantasy movie. A triumph of egalitarianism, it ticked everyone off.
@forgottenpassword: Don’t be ashamed. Waynes World was a great movie.
This isn’t actually “old” news because this topic has been brought up years before. I remember when the movie “Twister” came out. The last part of the trailer before they displayed the movie title and partial credits showed a cow floating in the air towards the front window of the truck. Being that it was the last scene from the trailer, a lot of people were expecting it in the movie, but it was never in there.
Perhaps the trailers are distributed before the final cut is completed, but I don’t know. I do know something similar happened with Star Wars Episode II. The normal theater version had all trailer clips in the movie, but in the IMAX 3D version, certain clips were missing. I didn’t feel gyped, but after seeing the original in the regular theater, it was definitely noticeable.
Funny comment on the “Neverending Story” movie as well. I’ve been thinking about that for years.
@CSR: Really? My whole family loves Gremlins! And I was a tiny tiny kid when it first came out. But I have an awesome mother. The microwave part kinda scarred me though.
I read the book Bridge to Ter. when I was a kid, and as a result would never have seen the movie based on the trailors. I wasn’t going to see a movie that ripped apart a book I loved by inserting silly CG fantasy elements that don’t belong. So I didn’t see it until someone else rented it and lent it to me and told me it wasn’t retarded. Had they marketed it as it actually was, I probably would have paid extra to see it in the theater. Instead I saw it for free. So what’s the point of making these ridiculous trailors when they just drive away part of the audience?
But the worst of it is when they take a regular movie and try to market it as a horror movie, like Pan’s Labyrinth. I’m not a horror movie fan, but I can imagine the disappointment.
@kimsama: Sadder than that is the fact that that trailer was the first thing I thought of when reading this post.
@faust1200: Yes, Lord of War. Great movie.
How about ‘The Family Stone’, or whatever that god-awful movie was last Christmas season? Sarah Jessica Parker in a funny, family-feel-good-holiday-movie? No. Really about Diane Keaton playing a dying mommy. No dying mommy movies, please.
@Deusfaux: Also very common–use of another film’s score in a trailer. I’ve heard Wojciech Kilar’s famous music from Bram Stoker’s Dracula used in more than one goth/horror film trailer since, and of course none of that music is used in the actual film. I would imagine few film scores are finished by the time a trailer (especially a teaser) is slapped together.
Another movie people were up in arms over when it turned out to be not at all what the trailer implied–Shyamalan’s “The Village.”
Personally, I liked it, but a lot of people weren’t satisfied that it wasn’t a monster movie. (I still argue that the parents in that enclave were plenty monstrous enough for me, but that’s not the prevailing opinion I’ve encountered.)
Back in 1984 the trailer for “Razor’s Edge” starring Bill Murray made it seem to be a comedy! People who weren’t familiar with the Somerset Maugham novel went expecting to see another “Stripes”. Boy were they disappointed! The movie was pretty good if you didn’t have your heart set on a comedy.
@Murph1908:
Hudson Hawk – dumb?
Truman Show – drawn out?
That’s it, you aren’t allowed to rent here anymore.