INHERENT VICE - Most Annoying Trailer Voice-Over Ever

[AndyDursin]

I can't think of a more pretentious narrator in ANY trailer I've recently seen than the female trying to sell INHERENT VICE, Paul Anderson's not-particularly well received new film:



Don't you just love the snarky way she delivers the "coming just in time for Christmas" line?

The bigger sin are the TV commercials with this same female voice-over artist chirping, "RATED R!" like she just took your order at a roadside diner.

Apparently this film is an incoherent, self indulgent mess -- no surprise there -- but it's not going to be helped by this "ironic", hipster ad campaign, which if it was designed solely to irritate and annoy, accomplished it in spades!

[Monterey Jack]

This is why I refuse to watch trailers anymore.

[AndyDursin]

Different problem than most of the ads you don't care for. It doesn't give really anything away -- it's just obnoxious. lol

Here's a TV ad with the "Rated R!" line --

[youtube]53EigFLkjtE#t=27[/youtube]

[Monterey Jack]

I remember the ads for Disney's Tangled making the film out to be like one of those annoyingly "hip" mid-00's DreamWorks animated comedies, replete with slapstick interludes that aren't even in the film, and I almost wrote the film off sight-unseen, until the reviews started rolling in and saying it was a traditional Disney Princess fairy tale, and that the ads were blatantly LYING in order to get little boys to want to see it. This is why I gave up on movie trailers over two years ago and strenuously try to avoid them whenever possible (I need to invest in a pair of noise-cancelling headphones whenever I go to the theater ). I remember people complaining that the didn't get to see "Liam Neeson punch a wolf" in The Grey -- a movie that I had seen without seeing a trailer or even TV spot beforehand -- so I went on YouTube and cued up the trailer and sure enough, it ends with additional footage of Liam Neeson and the head wolf charging at each other across a field, indicating a big fight scene that wasn't in the movie! The Grey I thought was an excellent film, but had I seen that trailer first, my expectations would have been for a totally different experience...this isn't Taken To The Wolves, but more a mediation on mortality and redemption and belief in a higher power.

I'm just sick to death of all the usual trailer clichés...the incessant subwoofer B O O Ms during the epilepsy-inducing strobe cuts to black, the blatant giving away of major plot points (some trailers even feature the last shot of the movies, like Cast Away and Batman Begins), the "cut off the music, tell lame joke, resume music" editing...I don't care how much I'm anticipating an upcoming movie, I want to know as little as possible going in. I'm certainly not buying into the hype for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, because I remember how brilliantly-edited and exciting the trailers for Phantom Menace were, and when it finally arrived, it was as exciting as an intergalactic episode of C-SPAN. All I know is, I'm a huge fan of Paul Thomas Anderson, and will see his latest film no matter what the subject matter is, so I'm keenly anticipating Inherent Vice, which strikes me as the kind of film that would be extremely difficult to accurately "sell" the mainstream audiences anyways.

[jkholm]

The best trailer I've seen lately is for American Sniper. It's mostly one continuous scene that gets tense quickly, is interspersed with very brief snippets from the non-combat parts of the movie, and ends with a cliffhanger.


minor spoilers ahead...





Turns out the tense scene from the trailer is the opening scene of the movie so very little was given away. On the other hand the TV spots I've seen DO give away key moments from late in the movie so try and avoid those.

[AndyDursin]

I guess this woman narrates the entire film. Guess I'll pass!

[TomServo]

I don't know, I kind of find it a refreshing change of pace from all the cookie-cutter trailers over the last 10 years. It gets my attention and apparently ties into the plot since her voice narrates the movie. She sounds cheeky for sure, but I don't find it necessarily pretentious.

[Paul MacLean]

The bigger sin are the TV commercials with this same female voice-over artist chirping, "RATED R!" like she just took your order at a roadside diner.

[Monterey Jack]

Saw the movie today...or TRIED to, considering my matinee was ruined by someone incessantly hacking up a lung for THREE HOURS a few rows back.

7/10

The chronic coughing didn't make untangling the BAFFLING plot any easier, but the film is certainly...unique and sporadically amusing, although Anderson's weakest film to date. I need to see it again to try and decipher just what the hell was happening (this might be the most incoherent, byzantine, intentionally obtuse screenplay I've seen since Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) and to not have someone with PNEUMONIA hacking into my ear for three hours.