Whedonesque Mobile : Comments on 16031 : Joss Whedon is one of the judges for the 9th Annual Golden Trailer Awards.

Outstanding, whom best to judge! Congrats, Joss!

And, thank you, Simon.

I <3 trailers more than emoticonning itself. Seriously, I think The Bourne Ultimatum trailer was more gripping than the movie, and the Iron Man trailer . . . well, who can watch it just once? Appreciate purple pearls of perspicacity per proper preview polishing.

Pointy | April 09, 23:03 CET

Eli Roth..? Wasn't he the guy behind the "torture porn" movie Hostel? I'd be surprised to see much consensus between the judges on who wins.

On a completely different note, I think if you forget all the trailers that either give away the whole plot, have the classic voiceover, or are just generally misleading, I don't think there'd be many left over to judge.

MattK | April 09, 23:37 CET

The most recent WALL*E trailer is pretty great.

jam2 | April 09, 23:51 CET

Eli Roth and Joss on the same panel seems Un!Comfortable! after reading Joss' empassioned essay on Du'a Khalil, torture porn, and how it all fits together.

KingofCretins | April 09, 23:52 CET

Eli Roth and Joss on the same panel seems Un!Comfortable! after reading Joss' empassioned essay on Du'a Khalil, torture porn, and how it all fits together.

That's what I was thinking, but I wasn't quite sure how to say it tactfully.

MattK | April 10, 00:06 CET

The "torture porn" movie that Joss (and a lot of us) were upset about, because of the ad campaign, wasn't Hostel. That was I can't recall its name and it lost money. I haven't seen Hostel, but I enjoyed, if that's the exact word, Eli Roth's "trailer" in the Grindhouse set of exhibits. I laughed, anyway.

dreamlogic | April 10, 00:24 CET

Believe the movie was Captivity, dreamlogic.

(First post with my amended nick.)

m'cookies actual | April 10, 00:47 CET

Yeah, I did actually know that, over.

dreamlogic | April 10, 00:54 CET

Also Joss really hates skateboarding so I don't know how he and Tony will get on.

Simon | April 10, 00:56 CET

Setting aside the issue of the film's content, Hostel had some pretty terrible posters of its own.

[NSFW] http://livingreadgirl.blogspot.com/2007/03/when-movie-poster-art-goes-bad.html

"Recently,two movies are freaking people out with teaser posters like this one for Hostel II,showing a nude body holding her own severed head under her arm(the actress is Bijou Phillips,who's in the movie)."

Blog post mentions Captivity too.

Edited to add:

On October 8 2007, the film [Hostel II] was cited in the UK House of Commons as an example where stills from the film could be illegal to possess under the proposed law to criminalise possession of "extreme pornography". MP Charles Walker described it as "From beginning to end, it depicts obscene, misogynistic acts of brutality against women � an hour and a half of brutality".

Courtesy of Wikipedia.

In other words dreamlogic, if you were upset about Captivity you'd probably be upset about this too.

[ edited by MattK on 2008-04-09 22:15 ]

MattK | April 10, 01:10 CET

All of that refers to 'Hostel II' MattK, not 'Hostel' (not seen either and not keen to, just pointing it out ;).

Also Joss really hates skateboarding so I don't know how he and Tony will get on.

I also heard Joss was a heeuuuuge fan of the Big Mac Meal (with Sprite) and regularly goes large so I reckon Spurlock could be in for some verbal too.

Hopefully Big Purp'll take a stand against the current propensity for revealing major plot points in a bid to make you go to see a film you now already know the major plot points of. Bloody annoying.

(of the current crop 'The Dark Knight' trailer was pretty good and 'Iron Man' was, indeed, the nuts - watched that about 7 or 8 times so far. Which admittedly is only about a third as many times as I watched 'The Phantom Menace' trailer and we all know how that turned out. You just can't tell by looking [at the trailer] ;)

Saje | April 10, 01:29 CET

I must have watched the Phantom Menace trailer about a zillion times. I did enjoy the Serenity trailers as well despite the flak they got in certain quarters.

Simon | April 10, 01:31 CET

Saje: I appreciate it refers to Hostel II, but that was also directed by Eli Roth. (He even cameos as a head on a stick, I believe). I mentioned it because we were more discussing Eli Roth, and not Hostel specifically.

As for the Phantom Menace, I too am guilty of watching that trailer all too much. I saw it first, completely unexpectedly, when I was going to see another film, and it was all I could think about afterwards (that being said, I was 9 so I had an excuse for my over-enthusiasm).

MattK | April 10, 01:41 CET

I agree, if you were upset over Captivity�s poster, you should be upset over Hostel Part Deux's poster. But in saying that without getting into the argument about the films content/context, the difference between the two is that Captivity�s poster was in full front view of the public, which in turn, the public had no choice but to look at these ads. Hostel�s poster was designed to be viewed by a niche market (through horror conventions/forums) who have interest in the franchise and other over-the-top genre films. Does that justify the poster itself? That is a different argument all together but a person should have a choice in seeing such material to make such judgment. Captivity�s Ads took that freedom of choice away.

taliily | April 10, 01:45 CET

Ah right MattK. It's just that you specifically mention 'Hostel' just before the quotes and links is all ("Setting aside the issue of the film's content, Hostel had some pretty terrible posters of its own." [quotes/links follow]). I don't see the world ending over it though ;-).

Think I only ever saw the international trailer for 'Serenity' Simon but yeah, watched that a few times too.

I also don't hate the new 'Incredible Hulk' trailer, feels like the right tone at least.

(anyone else think the 'Indy IV' one feels a bit forced BTW ? I like that they're playing on his age but I dunno ... just felt a bit joyless)

Saje | April 10, 01:48 CET

That's a real good point, MattK. I guess they just didn't choose to place the posters and billboards in the extremely offensive ways the Captivity team (of syphilitic monkeys) did, so I didn't notice them.

dreamlogic | April 10, 01:50 CET

That seems a bit harsh dl - what have syphilitic monkeys ever done to you ?

Saje | April 10, 01:54 CET

Yeah, I did actually know that, over.

Oops, sorry, dreamlogic,. Perhaps I should have revamped my nick to Annoying-Stater-of-the-Obvious Actual ;)

m'cookies actual | April 10, 01:58 CET

Ah, maybe I'm a Viking today, after all. I don't remember being angry before that horrible ad campaign was brought up again. But I bet Joss can forgive and forget better than I can. He seems more capable in that arena.

dreamlogic | April 10, 02:32 CET

*laughs* I wonder if Joss will say to Eli, "Hey! I know your cousin OzLady..." and watch Eli draw a blank since my family has very little idea about my online life. Actually, considering that Eli and I are on the outs, it might be even more funny if Joss can remember my real name! LOL!

I actually think the panel will have a good balance of talent from various genres which assures a well-rounded review. :-)

OzLady | April 10, 02:36 CET

The Golden Trailer Awards site says, "moviegoers consistently rate movie trailers as the most entertaining part of the theater experience." You'd think there'd be a lesson in there somewhere for the folks who make movies. There are certainly a lot of comedies that are best viewed in trailer form.
Of course, maybe it's just that nothing beats anticipation.

jcs | April 10, 05:46 CET

Joss Whedon and Morgan Spurlock are two of my favorite videophiles.

Nebula1400 | April 10, 05:56 CET

Maybe Joss plans to beat Eli Roth over the head with Tony Hawk's skateboard ;-)

Pointy, you win the "alliteration of the decade" award. It does exist, I just made it up.

m'cookies actual you are now twice way too clever. Which is another way of saying, "frack, why didn't I think of that?". :)

Shey | April 10, 11:12 CET

jcs: You'd think there'd be a lesson in there somewhere for the folks who make movies.

Make them all 2 minutes long ?

Saje | April 10, 12:13 CET

Seeing as how Joss is a professional, I doubt the fact that he's in the same panel as a fellow artist who made a movie he didn't like will result in any kind of crazy showdown. Especially since they'll probably never even be in the same room as each other.

There was also probably more tension behind the scenes on the set of The O.C. every day.

dingoes8 | April 10, 19:35 CET

Make them all 2 minutes long ?

Well, they'd be quicker to download.

Actually, I just meant make them, you know, better. So they wouldn't be overshadowed by the previews. Like the Superbowl is overshadowed by the ads. (Or so I've heard.)

jcs | April 10, 20:46 CET

Do you guys think they'll consider the (fake) Machete trailer, from the Grindhouse movies? I thought it was brilliant!

Krusher | April 10, 20:59 CET

I vote for Wall E! That was awesome! :)

korkster | April 10, 22:24 CET

April 09 2008