Pulp Fiction vs. Siri

Pulp Fiction is one of my all time favorite movies and the first Tarantino film I saw. This mash-up between Jules and Siri is pretty great.

How Snoop & Dre Got Pac on Stage

I hope you love this as much as I did. Also, I love the new ideas this technology opens for films. I just hope George Lucas doesn't steal it so he can re-re-re-release the original Star Wars films.

Are Movie Trailers Going Too Far?

I don’t know about you, but there are different levels of hype for me when it comes to movies. Most of the time I get excited just by seeing a certain star or director is attached to a great idea. However, most of the time I am iffy about an idea and wait for the trailer to sell me that this concept will work. Just like everyone else seeing a movie trailer is a key ingredient into convincing me to spend my money to see a specific film.

Studios have 60 to 120 seconds to either confirm that the film will be good or prove to me that any doubts I had should be casted aside. Unfortunately, it seems like these days studios prefer to take that elated time and spoil most of the film for me. Now I know most people won’t notice that they just saw major plot points and events happen on screen, but when I do it infuriates me.

I remember being excited for Funny People because I felt Adam Sandler was about to get his career back on track. The trailer reassured me that this film was going to be funny and be worth my hard earned $14 dollars. So I went to see it and when I walked out I was mad because the trailers spoiled the film by including all the funny parts and plot points. If I had known that I would have just re-watched every trailer instead of wasting my money.

For some reason Hollywood believe this is good practice. A few years ago there would only be one or two trailers for a film. Now days you have a teaser trailer, two to four trailers and if it calls for it a red band trailer if the film is rated R. It also seems like studios no longer believe they can sell a film with a 60 second trailer since most are longer than two minutes.

Jason Evans of the Wall Street Journal asks, "Why spoil one of the big surprises in the movie? The obvious answer is… money! Hollywood uses trailers to put butts in seats. If the marketing people think they have to spoil the film to sell tickets, they have no problem doing it.” Trailers are supposed to make you want to figure out the major twist in a film not give it away. They are supposed to make you want to know if a character survived and not show them walking away from disaster.

Another major problem Hollywood is facing with trailers is with those for best-selling book adaptions. You already are dealing with fans of a series who want the material done right. They already know the major plot points and the ending. Only thing is you have to show them that you casted their favorite characters correctly and are following the story as best you can.

Emine Saner of The Guardian brings up, “David Nicholls's novel One Day has already sold more than a million copies; perhaps that's why the team who turned it into a movie didn't worry about giving the plot away. How else to explain why the trailer appears to summarize the whole story? In three minutes you learn, for instance, that the two main characters meet at university, flirt, fall out, get married (not to each other) and get together when they're older.”

Hollywood is going down a dangerous path with how they are presenting their films. Even though countless people might not realize a trailer is spoiling a film for them, those of us do tend to avoid said film then. Now can I avoid watching trailers for The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises so that I am as excited as I was when they started filming? Yes.

I’m just saying that trailers these days are over stepping their boundaries and honestly hurting business more than helping it.

[Image via EOnline]