2007 Movie Trailers

This will be brief and quick, and not full.

When I think of the movie trailers that advertised 2007 movies, three trailers/films come to mind.

‘American Gangster.’ This is obvious. Two huge movie stars and Jay-Z blaring in the background. Don’t forget the dramatic gun drop, though.

‘The Darjeeling Limited.’ One of the year’s quirkiest and best, Wes Anderson’s trip to India proved a success. And the trailer was great too. The three brothers concept. The Indian landscape. That scene were the train is “lost.” Jason Schwartzman asking his brothers if they could be friends in real life… (that is some great writing right there) And of course, all this was backed up by the Kinks. The lovely, and essentially undiscovered (‘underappreciated’), Kinks. ‘Strangers’ was the song that instigated liftoff.

‘Juno.’ The film has been much raved about in these pages and for good reason. The trailer. I’m willing to say that the trailer is nearly iconic. Rainn Wilson being immortalized for a role that really takes up less than five minutes of reel in the film. The return (the rise, really) of the Moldy Peaches. The highlighting of Mott the Hoople, a band that will continue to confuse anyone and everyone who tries to investigate them. And the colors. And the fun graphic design. The glorious raves from critics nationwide. And that friendly, but edgy, PG-13 smacked on, right at the end.

These last two movies are indie movies. That’s what they are essentially. No ‘Spider-man 3’-like box office returns (although ‘Darjeeling’ did fairly well, not great, but well; and ‘Juno’ is doing terrific, and it has become the hottest movie of the day (“Those @#&*%^! high school kids think they can run our lives?!?”)), but lovability and colors. These trailers should have made you interested. Or maybe given you a smile and a good tune (the music was really key in all three of these trailers). ‘American Gangster’ is a big budget, big cast, Hollywood movie. The trailer for ‘American Gangster’ didn’t make you feel. It made you say, “Hey. That looks pretty good. Looks exciting.” And if you were lucky, you got a fuzzy, funny, joyous feeling in your stomach because of Jay-Z.

And even though you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover (…), the trailers almost predicted which films would be better than the others. Anyway. That’s a look at the (three) cinema trailers of 2007.

– R.H.