Wow, I can’t believe a whole year has gone by. Sure, that’s just about the tackiest thing you can say come New Year’s Eve, but considering the fact that 2011 is Best/Worst Movie Promos of the Week’s inaugural year, it’s entitled to use the phrase. But what’s really quite unbelievable is the amount of trailers that come our way in a single year. I’ve always had a penchant for promotional material, but ever since the launch of this column back in June, it’s become a weekly routine to sort through every single new promotional item that hits the web – and there are certainly a lot of them!
To close out the year for Best/Worst Promos we’re doing a top three and bottom three trailers of the year list. Just like when we’re looking at trailers on a weekly basis, the best and worst can be quite obvious, but there are also a bunch that wind up just missing the cut.
For instance, as a hardcore Paranormal Activity fan, I was itching to include the trailer ofParanormal Activity 3 in the top three, but it was just edged out. Then there was the trailer forWe Need to Talk About Kevin, which will undoubtedly never let you listen to Buddy Holly’s “Everyday” the same way again. Snow White and the Huntsman also managed to get ahead of the pack, not only trumping its Snow White competition, Mirror Mirror, but also looking as though it could be one of the most monumental battle and visual spectacles of 2012.
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One of the greatest things about Movies.com’s Countdown series is that you really get a sense of what it takes to develop a feature. In 2011 alone, we watched as Lionsgate settled on a rating and a release date, followed by a casting director who helped narrow down a stellar list of potential leads to land on Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth. Shortly after, images were altered and a slew of fan-made posters hit the web, as did a number of other Hunger Games-inspired items like jewelry, quilts and more, adding to the already massive amount of Hunger Games devotee art.
I suffer through an annual end of the year meltdown. As we get closer and closer to the close of the year, I get more and more concerned that I won’t have enough films to fill out my top ten. Now how sad would that be? Fortunately, this is merely a bad habit I’ve gotten myself into and not only did I come up with a nice selection after running through everything I’ve seen in 2011, but I had a pretty tough time narrowing the list down to just ten.
Attention all aspiring filmmakers; looking for some inspiration? Check out what writer-director Dee Rees accomplished. After spending some time working in the marketing industry, Rees decided she had a story to tell and aptly used NYU’s graduate film program to do it. To fulfill her thesis film requirement, Rees created a short with a portion of that very story and, thanks to the success of that short, Rees finally got the opportunity to tell the full tale through a feature, Pariah.
Tell us an alien invasion movie is on the way and, regardless of who’s in it or what it’s about, it sparks intrigue. Not only am I particularly guilty of this in general, but upon hearing the concept backing The Darkest Hour, I fell head over heels for what should have been a wildly original dose of ET destruction. However, perhaps test screenings didn’t go as planned, because as the film’s Christmas day release approached, its marketing campaign fizzled out, warning us of what’s to come. Is it all that bad? No, but it’s certainly not worth a promotional push especially with the high quality fare it’s going up against.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Well, maybe not for our worst three movie promos of the week, but at least they still have time to kick things up a notch before their releases.
There’s a reason why Steven Spielberg is so successful; he knows how to make a movie for everyone. Jaws, E.T., Jurassic Park, Catch Me If You Can and more. Sure, not all of them can be considered pristine filmmaking, but still, generally all of his films are incredibly enjoyable and not only does War Horse follow suit in terms of entertainment and emotional value, but quality-wise, it’s certainly on the top tier.
There’s been quite a bit of hype over this remake, hasn’t there? Well, apparently I’m one of few who’s never read Stieg Larsson’s books or seen the Swedish films and that proved to have a bit of an effect on my reception of David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Perhaps if I were familiar with the source material, I’d have had an easier time following all the details, but, then again, this should be a review of David Fincher’s film and Fincher’s film alone, so my novice status makes this a purer evaluation.
We may be approaching the dead of winter, but it’s already starting to heat up thanks to the onslaught of summer movie promotional material that arrived this week.
Thank You for Smoking, Juno and Up in the Air; can director Jason Reitman do no wrong? Thanks to his latest feature, Young Adult, I’m inclined to believe so.