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Greatest Trailers of All Time

post #1 of 16
7/3/09 at 1:54pm
Thread Starter 
Putting aside the movie, can you think of some trailers that you just say:  That was one of the best trailers.. ever?

A few that spring to my mind:


Grapes of Wrath


Vertigo


 

Rocky

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post #2 of 16
7/3/09 at 2:32pm
Nothing has ever topped Pearl Harbor for me. I saw it before Traffic in a sold out theater, and I had no previous knowledge of the movie. I had a little dust in my eye afterwards. This version of the trailer has music from The Crow, while the theatrical version had music from "Journey to the Line" of The Thin Red Line, but the music rights for JTTL were only given for theatrical release. The JTTL version is much better, but The Crow version isn't bad.


Edited by ThomasC - 7/3/2009 at 10:05 pm GMT
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post #3 of 16
7/3/09 at 2:40pm
Exactly what Thomas just said.  The Journey to the Line version of Pearl Harbor is the best trailer I've ever seen.

Another great one was The Lion King.  It was just the first few minutes of the film, but it just killed.

Another favorite is the first theatrical trailer for Titanic.  The one with Waterworld music (ironic).
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post #4 of 16
7/3/09 at 5:44pm
My favorite trailers of all time-

 

unfortunately, to my everlasting disappointment, only an earlier version of that teaser -which only contains the flying credits to a generic music cue and no voice over- was ever put on disc.
This trailer/teaser should go a long way in giving some context as to how big a deal this first Superman movie was to fans of my generation who never experienced any kind of epic big screen comic book adaptation before. And the voice over here does a wonderful job of packaging old time ballyhoo, with a more sophisticated soft sell style. There are no money shots in here at all and yet at the end of it, I was completely sold.
And I still am.


So then after seeing and then becoming obsessed with that film, and being fully pumped for further adventures, this came -


This trailer promised so much ; Superman battling his peers in the city, amongst skyscrapers dazzlingly lit up at night; the world on the brink of destruction and Metropolis in ruins; and the return of Luthor ( I will always love Hackman's take on the character).
That trailer, and the class and quality of the first film, set me up for one of the biggest disappointments of my moviegoing life.

Finally, probably the best trailer I think I've ever seen.
Unfortunately I can't find the one that I actually saw in the theater that summer before I saw the film- It is on disc, but I can't find it on youtube. It doesn't contain any film scenes at all- just the egg as here, but it climaxes with the crack and then a fades out. And frankly, you really didn't need anymore. I feel so fortunate to have come of age with  stuff like this.



There was one other one that really made an impact, for an entirely different reason, but I can't find it online.

Some others that I fondly remember are the "Ralph McQuarrie Art" teaser for Empire Strikes back released in late summer of '79, with so many curious and tantalizing images flashing by too quick to get a proper bead on (all I remembered afterwards was thinking "damn, that movie sure is gonna look sterile and bland with all those white sets").
And (even though i ended up hating the movie) the Revenge Of The Jedi teaser released in '82 had me jumping thru the roof in anticipation of a satisfying conclusion, and furiously trying to decipher each characters fate from all the random clues contained in the fleeting images.
 

Edited by Paul_Scott - 7/7/2009 at 11:51 am GMT
Edited by Paul_Scott - 7/7/2009 at 11:56 am GMT
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post #5 of 16
7/3/09 at 7:44pm
 One of the all time greats...

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post #6 of 16
7/6/09 at 10:20pm
my picks:

Watchmen:


John Carpenter's Vampires:


Sleepy Hollow:


Strange Days:



Romeo Must Die:



Snatch:



Three Kings:


Garden State:


Ultraviolet:


Titus:




also the trailer to American Movie (http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0181288/) is great but not on youtube.

also:
The Matrix movies
300
Kill Bill
Dark Knight
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post #7 of 16
7/19/09 at 7:49pm
I would like to second (or third) the trailer for Pearl Harbor with the music from the Thin Red Line.  That wasn't a just a trailer, that was art.
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post #8 of 16
7/19/09 at 9:35pm
 Here are both the teaser and the trailer with the original music in question. Incredible trailers for such a shitty movie.





Some other classic teasers and trailer...






















Edited by DavidPla - 7/20/2009 at 04:59 am GMT
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post #9 of 16
7/20/09 at 3:19am
I don't know if it's my account or something, but I can't see any of the trailers. They're just not there?.
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post #10 of 16
7/20/09 at 5:48am
Brian,

Probably your PC.

I had the same situation a few weeks ago. Suddenly, embedded movies were no longer displayed. I searched the 'net and it appeared to be an incorrect installation of (I'm citing from memory now) I think Adobe Quicktime, or at least the plug-in.

One of their "automatic" upgrades going wrong (perhaps in combination with the new IE* or so, or when it was incorporated from the old MacroVision version). I don't remember exactly if it's an old file still existing, or an old entry in the registry (or both  ).

Apparently, what one has to do (and I did) is: remove the previous version (in 'Add/Remove Software') and reïnstall the latest version from their website.

Worked for me and I can see and play those movies again.
Good luck!


Cees
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post #11 of 16
7/20/09 at 1:41pm
I love this thread!  One that has always stuck with me was the original teaser to Benjamin Button, with the piano music.  However, I thought the actual movie was not as good as this teaser :)



And then I'm going to throw in there (but no link, because it's so embarrassing) that as a teen, I was OBSESSED with the Cruel Intentions trailer.  hee, hee!!
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post #12 of 16
7/20/09 at 3:08pm
The teaser for Carlito's Way was awesome.  It showed his sunglasses with a fire reflected in them.  The sound was Pacino's greatest performances: The Godfather, Dog Day Afternoon (Attica! Attica!), Scarface (Say hello to my little friend!) Scent of a Woman (If I was half the man I used to be I'd take a flamethrower to this place!).  There may have been more, too.  It ends  with him taking the sunglasses off to show his tired eyes. 

I saw it one time and it has never been available again. 
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post #13 of 16
7/20/09 at 6:22pm
 Thanks for finding that Pearl Harbor trailer, David.  Haven't seen it in ages.  Still a fantastic trailer.  Bay shot some good images, and man is Zimmer's JttL piece awesome.
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post #14 of 16
7/22/09 at 12:33am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cees Alons View Post

Brian,

Probably your PC.

I had the same situation a few weeks ago. Suddenly, embedded movies were no longer displayed. I searched the 'net and it appeared to be an incorrect installation of (I'm citing from memory now) I think Adobe Quicktime, or at least the plug-in.

One of their "automatic" upgrades going wrong (perhaps in combination with the new IE* or so, or when it was incorporated from the old MacroVision version). I don't remember exactly if it's an old file still existing, or an old entry in the registry (or both  ).

Apparently, what one has to do (and I did) is: remove the previous version (in 'Add/Remove Software') and reïnstall the latest version from their website.

Worked for me and I can see and play those movies again.
Good luck!


Cees

Thanks, Cees, for the advice. I reinstalled Quicktime, but it's still not working. And the funny thing is, it only doesn't work here. On other sites I can see the embedded videos without a problem.
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post #15 of 16
7/22/09 at 1:02am
If I remember well, there also was a registry entry to be deleted. And something about the plug-ins.

This is the sort of thing you don't remember exactly by heart (and I didn't make notes), but you may find the exact procedure googling it. (If there's a 'forum' on Adobe's site, that may have been where I found it.)

Of course it could be something different. I had the same experience you have: some sites worked with no problem. This one didn't (before the transition).
Something with "embedded"  code.


Cees
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post #16 of 16
7/24/09 at 1:42am
The Minus Man

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