There are very few things that can upset us as much as false advertising in just about any form. The flyer said it was $5‚Ķ why are you charging me $7? You told me you liked me‚Ķ now you just want to be friends?!?! That commercial swore chicks would dig me if I wore this body spray‚Ķ and yet I’m still home alone tonight just typing this article.
Yes, we’ve come to almost expect advertising to be a bunch of lies. But now they’ve gone too far! Movie promotion that boasts a big star is “starring” in a movie, when in reality they’re barely in it at all.
The first time I remember really feeling ripped off by a film’s marketing was with Mission Impossible 2. The commercials declared “Starring Tom Cruise and Anthony Hopkins“. This excited me because I wasn’t really thrilled with the first one and thought Hopkins could really bring a great new dynamic to the franchise. Imagine my surprise when Hopkins had about a 4 minute scene near the beginning and another 1 minute scene at the end. I was so ticked off‚Ķ and the movie sucked to boot.
The most recent occurrence of this marketing deception is in Sky Captain. A great film‚Ķ but the commercials and posters CLEARLY state the film stars Jude Law (true), Gwyneth Paltrow (true) and Angelina Jolie (LIES LIES LIES LIES)!!!!. Jolie probably appears for a grand total of 3 ¬Ω minutes of screen time and doesn’t even show up in the film till about ¬æ of the way through.
Some films take the higher ground and will have a big name star and not even tell you about it. This is always a nice surprise. Take The Village for instance. Academy Award winner Adrien Brody had a major role in the film and I didn’t even know it until I saw the flick. That was a great surprise and increased my enjoyment of the film.
So what is my message to the movie marketing people? DON’T LIE TO ME YOU DIRTY BASTARDS! Prop your movie. Give me glimpses of the best parts if you want. Make the film look better than it is if you need to. But DON’T tell me some big star is “STARRING” in the movie when all they really have is a glorified cameo. Is that too much to ask?
Out of curiosity, what other movies can you think of that do this? Or, what other flicks gave you the pleasant surprise of having a great actor in it without showing them in the ads?
I remember in The Mummy Returns when it claimed that the Rock was “starring.” Correct me if I’m wrong, but he himself only has one or two scenes, his only line is in another language, and the end scene is a crappy CG remake of him. That’s false advertising if ever I saw it.
Adrien Brody was a nice surprise in The Village (if you ask me, I think he was the only good thing about it), but I think it had the opposite problem with Joaquin Phoenix. The film was completely marketed as Joaquin being the star, but he was really barely in it.
I had a similar experience. I watched “LA Confidential” because it says in big marquee name: “Kevin Spacey” (don’t really like the rest of the actors). Imagine my disappointment when he’s only in the film for the first half hour of the story. The rest are left to Guy Pearce (okay) and Russell Crowe (hate that yobbo).
get over it. i’m sure the movie execs were uncertain about the sales of a movie of this caliber so they pushed one selling point: jolie. who wouldn’t go see this if jolie wasn’t in it? personally i’m not too fond of her but there are many adolescent males that would do anything for her AND that includes seeing a wonderful fantastic futuristic period film. i agree with ‘louis’ is it really that bad that she’s hardly in the film? her character was important but only so there wouldn’t be any plot holes. plus it leads into either a sequel or a spinoff where frank cook gets more screen time. the movie imho is beautiful but there’s always some dirty little old man sitting in his office trying to make more money off off somebody else’s brilliant ideas.
I got another one for you and this one also contains Angelina “Big Tits’ Jolie, “Gone In Sixty Seconds”…She was billed as starring alongside Cage, but big tits was gone in sixty seconds, because that is how much screen time she had in that movie.
DS
is it really a bad thing to have less Angelina Jolie in a movie? she is the only thing that is off putting about this whole movie.
Seven was another one of those films that totally gave you a pleasant surprise when Kevin Spacey appears near the end as the killer and you have no idea that he is actually even in the movie. Totally caught me off-guard and it was a nice pleasant surprise.
Yes… the openning credits say that… but it’s too late at that point. I’m already in the theaters.
To be fair, in the opening credits it states
“With: Angelina Jolie”
Regardless, I was somewhat disappointed with the lack of Frankie, The three of them had a presence on screen that I enjoyed.