Summary
Moviesaren’t always the most honest art form in the world when it comes to advertising, sometimes roping in prospective viewers with promises that don’t hold up to the actual product. Marketing is a huge part of any film’s release, with some of themost memorable movie ad campaignsmaking or breaking their box office performance. Unfortunately, trailers and promotional materials also present the opportunity for a movie studio to lie about their upcoming releases in order to fill theater seats.
There are a few different ways movies go about getting away with false advertising. Sometimes, trailers are cut so that scenes are taken out of context or inferred to be more important than they are, which can totally warp the perception of a film compared to its actual content. Other times, studios even attempt to straight-up lie in their advertising, as was the case with Francis Ford Coppola’s upcomingMegalopolis, which controversially pulled a trailerthat used fake review quotes. Either way, movie producers have proven themselves as sneaky when it comes to advertising.
10Bridge To Terabithia
Wasn’t a feel-good family fantasy
At the time of the release ofBridge to Terabithia, family-friendly fantasy movies based on books were all the rage, with peers likeThe Spiderwick Chroniclesand theChronicles ofNarniamovie seriesall contributing to the craze. To capitalize on this, trailers forBridge to Terabitihiafocused heavily on its fantasy elements, with evil flying birds, magical mechanical gauntlets, and dizzying chases with monsters through the forests. However, as those ho had read the book would already know, the actual story was much more grounded in reality.
The titular fantasy land of Terabithia isn’t exactly real in the setting of the movie, being a make-believe land the characters travel to in their minds to escape their real-life difficulties. As if that wasn’t enough of a letdown, the film’s brutally tragic second-to-third-act transition came as a sucker punch to many child viewers, who weren’t expecting the film to be so sad based on the previews alone. It’s safe to say thatBridge to Terabithia’s producers weren’t confident enough to sell the movie based on what it actually was.
9Kangaroo Jack
Couldn’t have been more different from its trailers
The trickKangaroo Jack’s marketing team pulled was so effective that to this day, there are many that assume the film is a wacky family-friendly adventure featuring a talking kangaroo. Indeed, the film’s trailer focused heavily on the titular marsupial rapping at the camera, wearing a jacket and sunglasses, and generally acting like a human. Based on this, it’d be reasonable to assume the movie was a buddy adventure movie featuring a lovable talking animal companion.
In reality, this couldn’t be further from the truth, asKangaroo Jackis actually more of a crime comedy than anything else. The movie centers around two best friends that find themselves in deep trouble in Australia when a normal kangaroo makes off with their ill-gotten money.Kangaroo Jackpushes PG-13 to its breaking point with the amount of sexual jokes it has, and the brief scene where Kangaroo Jack actually talks is just an out-of-context hallucination scene that only lasts for a couple of minutes. Few films have been as blatant with their false advertising asKangaroo Jack.
8The American
Was more philosophical than action-packed
Among George Clooney’s extensive filmography,The Americanis a seldom-remembered picture that came and went quickly in the pop culture zeitgeist. This might be due to the film’s audacious advertising that painted the movie as an action-thriller, a star vehicle for George Clooney that seemed to resembleMatt Damon’sJason Bournefranchise. Clooney plays an assassin in the film, with his firearm proficiency and action capabilities played up in promotional materials.
While there is a decent number of gunfights and exciting battles inThe American, the actual tone of the film is far off the moody atmospheric action thriller the film was presented as. Most of the movie centers on Clooney’s character having an existential crisis, and Clooney’s character spends most of the film pursuing and ruminating on an ill-advised romance. By all means,The Americanis far from a bad movie, but clearly knew it couldn’t sell audiences on a more heady tale of love and philosophical pondering.
7Downsizing
Utterly fumbled its clever premise
One of the most cited films ever in the conversation for most disappointing movies of all time, Matt Damon’sDownsizingcouldn’t escape the shadow of its advertising. The movie takes place in a world in which many people elect to shrink themselves down to tiny sizes with new technology in order to minimalize their impact on the environment, living in tiny communities that take up less resources. With this genius premise, the trailers and advertising forDownsizingpromised a fun, light-hearted comedy carried by Damon’s performance.
The actual content matter ofDownsizingturned out to be far less fun, resulting in a mess of a film that couldn’t decide what it wanted to be. While there are some jokes to appreciate, the film often puts comedy in the backseat to instead focus on an incredibly awkward romance and a message on environmental preservation that isn’t nearly as clever as it thinks it is. Unable to contain all of its ideas into a cohesive whole,Downsizingcompletely failed to deliver its promise of good-natured laughs.
6The Many Saints Of Newark
Hardly featured Tony Soprano
In reality,The Many Saints of Newarkfocused far more on a young Silvio Dante than Tony himself, utterly betraying the story it purported itself to be in the trailers. Rather than being an intense drama chronicling Tony’s rise to power, the prequel film was more of a coming-of-age story for Silvio, with far more comedy than might’ve been expected. It’s a shame that the most famous character inThe Sopranosgot somewhat sidelined by what was supposed to be his own prequel story.
5The Grey
Was more depressing than action-packed
Liam Neeson’sThe Greyis a fascinating exercise in failed expectations, owing entirely to the film’s misleading advertising. The survival wilderness adventure sees Liam Nesson face off against a pack of hungry wolves while stranded in the desolate forests of northern Alaska while trying to keep his crew of oil field workers alive. From the cut of the sneak peeks of the 2011 film,The Greywas to be a hectic man vs. nature action movie with plenty of bloodthirsty battles against canine creatures.
In practice,The Greywas much more depressing than audiences might’ve expected, with Neeson’s character considering suicide early in the film and another member of his band of survivors giving up entirely to die in the woods. The wolves don’t even appear all that often, with the brief scuffles against them not being expanded much beyond what was shown in the trailers. Worst of all, the heavily-advertised scene in which Neeson tapes broken bottles and knives to his hands to battle the fearsome animals only happens right at the end, the film cutting to credits before the fight even begins.
4Alien 3
Blatantly misdirected audiences as to where it was headed
TheAlienfranchise has had an uneven quality throughout its lengthy cinematic history, though reviews forthe recently-releasedAlien: Romulusseem to be putting the genre back on the up-and-up. However, what many consider to be the lowest point of the series' history,Alien 3,was disappointing right off the bat, flat-out lying to audiences in its trailers. The teaser trailer for the film heavily implied that the threequel would finally bring the Xenomorphs to Earth, an exciting prospect fans were eager to see.
3It Comes At Night
With a title likeIt Comes At Night,one could be forgiven for thinking that the horror movie in question would feature a unique monster or entity of some kind in the vein ofIt FollowsorA Quiet Place.The trailers didn’t exactly deny this assumption, painting a vague picture of a group of desperate survivors in a post-apocalyptic setting who fend off some invader on their meager homestead. The poster of a dog barking at something just out of reach in the dark wilderness caused audiences' imaginations to run wild with possibilities.
In actuality,It Comes At Nightis more of a psychological thinkpiece than a traditional horror film. The actual threat of the movie is a devastating plague that wipes out most of humanity, and the brutal lengths otherwise pleasant people are willing to go to to avoid getting themselves and their families infected. For not having a clear answer to what the titular “It” really is,It Comes at Nightis false advertising right down to its title.
2Godzilla (2014)
Baited the presence of one of the decades biggest stars
The film that beganthe Monsterverse movies, 2014’sGodzillais an American take on a Japanese classic that is perhaps remembered more fondly than its initial criticism might’ve implied. The movie served as a simple first point-of-contact with the new Legendary version of Godzilla, introducing the King of the Monsters in a brand-new universe. A huge portion of the advertising revolved around the appearance of Bryan Cranston in the film, who was a valuable star hot off of the success ofBreaking Bad’s finale.
Infamously,Godzillaelected to kill off Bryan Cranston’s character early on in the film, giving him only a pitiful three minutes of total screentime. The rest of the movie is carried by Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who turns in a stock-standard performance as a simple soldier character. Cranston’s all-too-brief appearance in 2014’sGodzillais up there among some of the biggest wasted casting opportunities in film ever.
1Click
Far from a typical Adam Sandler comedy
As far as Adam Sandler comedies go,Clicksits in a league of its own in terms of the amount of raw tonal whiplash viewers can hope to experience by watching it for the first time. Prior to its release,Clickwas advertised in a similar manner to many other Sandler movies at the time – A juvenile comedy with low-brow humor suitable for mindless entertainment. The supernatural twist of a universal remote that works on reality itself was clever enough to separate it from the pack.
