1. Needful Things

"You can't win. I've got God on my side." And one hell of an editor. This trailer is so good I have never seen the movie, as it will only ruin it. The music, don't know the name of the piece, builds as does the insanity, occasionally cutting to Max Von Sydow being the calm, cool devil orchestrating the whole thing. If it winds up on the DVD, rent it. Copy the trailer, and take it back.

2. Mortal Kombat

The movie was pretty cool, but really all it needed to be was a longer version of the trailer. Actually that IS all it was. Sweet fights, techno pumping, quick cuts, beautiful shots. This trailer makes me want to kick the ass of the guy next to me. Especially if he was at all involved with the sequel.


3. Back to the Future

A DeLorean stops next to a pretty hitchhiker. "How far you going?" "About 30 years." Huey Lewis and the News kick in with "Back in Time." How awesome is that? So awesome it beat out a lot of other crap. Quit looking at me like that. Jerk.

4. Godzilla

One of the reasons this movie sucked is that the trailers fooled us into thinking it had potential. A class trip sees a T-Rex skeleton get stepped on like a bug skeleton. "That's not a dinosaur, this is a dinosaur!" It's a shame the movie was as intimidating as Paul Hogan in the East Village. They should have never shut off the power in New York. Gojira ALWAYS gets caught in the power lines. Plus, all of those flashing lights of Tokyo scare and bewilder large reptiles. This is why Vegas has no Sleestak.

5. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

What a great idea for a trailer. Everyone wanted to see it, they knew we did. So why just show clips? How about a quick minidocumentary about the making of the movie? I remember seeing it and just about exploding. This was also due to pop rocks and soda, but the feeling was the same. One of the images that makes Indy so cool is watching him staple his hat to his head because of the wind. Still had no idea what it was about, but I was THERE!

1. Star Wars
Episode I: The Phantom Menace

Love it or hate it (and if you hate it, you can leave now), Episode I's teaser set the tone for the most anticipated movie of all time. It acknowledged the Star Wars saga for what it is: Legend. It was unashamed to grasp it's place in film history and showed us just enough to make the fifteen plus year wait between "Return of the Jedi" and "Phantom Menace" that much longer.

2. The Stupids

It told us absolutley nothing about the movie and who cares? Two minutes of Tom Arnold singing "I'm My Own Grandpa"? I saw the film in theaters three times.

3. Contact

One generalization about film that I feel no shame in using is that trailers give away too much. For the most part, this is true. The typical trailer feels the need to sumarize the entire plot for you. In the case of "Contact", they do what trailers should do. They give you just enough to get you to want to not only see more, but know more. They built the tension perfectly, they leave you with more questions then answers. I left the trailer NEEDING to see the movie. I left the trailor proclaiming to all who would listen that the movie would make $300 million and make any future sci-fi/suspense film obsolete. I left the movie wishing it was as good as the trailer.

4. Anastasia

Was the marketing of "Anastasia" industrial theivery or just a stroke of brilliance? That depends on who you ask. Fox Animation is no match for powerhouse Walt Disney. Everyone knows it. In the promotion of "Anastasia" the people at Fox decided, "Hey, if you can't beat 'em, trick the people into thinking you are 'em." They "borrowed" a trailor style that audiences associated with Disney, (the storyboard to production set-up) and kept the dubious Fox Animation label far from it. They gambled on the audience just assuming it was a Disney film (which most of them did). Everything from the trailer to the poster art to the licensing mirrored the Disney marketing machine. Disney was so steamed they filed a copyright infringment suit against Fox and even rereleased the animated classic "The Little Mermaid" at the same time Fox broke out "Anastasia" to try and fight back. Did Fox's scheme work? The movie did well and the other day I did find a copy of "Anastasia" in the Disney sectionat my local Suncoast. Then again, they do file "Boxing Helena" with the foreign films.

5. Showgirls

It had an R-Rated trailer. I love that. It had breasts. I love that, too. It let you know exactly what you were in for. A crappy, over-produced, under-written movie with breasts. Can't help it, I love that!

1. Lethal Weapon 2

Basically just a re-edit of the bomb-under-the-toilet scene, but a perfect way to remind audiences of how much they enjoyed Murtaugh & Riggs's first go-'round. A great, amped-up way to kick off what ended up being the great, amped-up 1989 summer movie season.



2. Star Wars: The Special Edition

"For over a generation, the only way you've been able to watch the Star Wars Trilogy was this ..." And then, the fucking X-Wing FLIES OUT OF THE T.V. SCREEN AND GETS HUGE!!!! Soooooo incredibly exciting. Me and a couple million other geeks went out of their minds. The first time I'd heard cheers for a trailer. The second time being ...

3. Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace

A trailer so exciting it actually made me cry. Forget you read that. But it's the truth.

4. Reservoir Dogs

Before anybody saw the movie, we were already familiar with lines like "Why am I Mr. Pink?" and "If they hadn't done what I told 'em not to do, they'd still be alive," and "You under arrest, sugar!", underscored by "Stuck in the Middle with You". Genuinely exciting, which is, after all, what trailers are all about. And speaking of exciting ...

5. The Matrix

One of the greatest things a trailer can accomplish is to whet your appetite for seeing the movie, without completely spilling the beans. The most successful trailers offer brief glimpses of images, and let your imagination do the rest. And what a collection of images The Matrix had to offer, many of which are now the stuff of pop culture mythos - Carrie Ann Moss's great crane kick, Keanu throwing himself out of the bullets' path, the great leaps from rooftop to rooftop. Out of context, they presaged what ended up being one of the more exciting, inventive movies of the last decade, while still keeping the cards close enough to the vest to keep you wondering.