Movie Trailers, Chris Style

KW's post reminded me of many trailers I have enjoyed over the years, and I went on a long search through the internet looking for those trailers for my viewing pleasure. I didn't find them all, and my computer has gone through some crap in its day and it has issues, and because the new Quicktime can only be downloaded with a 2000 or XP operating system, I missed some high-quality transfers. But, I did my best, and I will give you links to them all.

First off, I would like to show all of the resources for trailer download, so that if you're interested in trying to find either a better site to look at selections from my list, or want to see a favorite that isn't here, then here's a bunch of sites. Some of these will give you ads after clicking on links now and then, so press "Back" on your browser and try again until you get the damn trailer. Oh, by the way, if you ever wonder what song is playing in these trailers, there's a freakin' great website called Soundtrack.net that has an archived trailer page that lists all the songs and music in particular trailers. It doesn't have every single thing, but it's highly useful.

Movie-List They have a list of classic trailers, with rankings (The Usual Suspects is #1, and I admit that's a great trailer, but I didn't ever get to see it working at a theatre). They have the best video quality too if you've got the goods.

Just Movie Trailers

The One Network

Music definitely sets the tone for my favorite trailers, and editing that properly accompanies it. KW mentioned many trailers I like, and Titanic (the 4 minute version, which is the best--I found 2 sites with it and they both have the same glitchy trailer. The best download is one I can't get and that's on Movie-List. That link will take you there if you want to see it or relive it again and you have better circumstances than mine) is one as well as the LOTR: Return of the King and the unbelievably great Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake trailer. Anyway, some of these trailers are for movies we now know are terrible or were disappointing. Some are quite good.

The first trailer that came to mind was Dark City. I ended up not liking the movie that much, but the trailer still ranks high on my all-time list.

Which brought me to The Fifth Element. Funny, the original teaser, a terrible marketing example which was just a big metal "5" in space, used to be latched onto a teaser for Starship Troopers, and then the regular trailer came out...man, what a wickedly fun preview that was.

I scoured the internet for Moulin Rouge. The trailers I kept finding were the one for the DVD and Video release, which despite being very close to the original trailer, was not (and it makes a big difference, too, because the "selling point," for me, is the kickass build-up to the end that the DVD trailer screws up). Finally found it.

My favorite LOTR trailer is The Two Towers. Why? That excellent remix of The Requiem For A Dream music.

Back in 1995, when I was first becoming a projectionist, I fell in love with this trailer for Strange Days. The movie sucked balls.

You wanna hear Elton John spice up two dramatic trailers? Here's Almost Famous, which has tons of good music, and then Moonlight Mile, in which the John song just makes it.

This is one I couldn't get, but once again if you've got better equipment, look at The Prophecy trailer. One image that will always be with me in trailer history is Christopher Walken exiting a room and pointing back to a dead body which erupts into flames. Too bad the movie sucked.

The original The Matrix...remember when bullet-time was new? Anyway, this trailer rocked tha house y'all. This was a bit glitchy for me so you might want to try Movie-List.

Techno beats lift the Blade and Mortal Kombat trailers above their subsequent movies.

The best Rolling Stones song ever is in the Stir of Echoes trailer, featuring brief glimpses of a young Jennifer Morrison ("House") and I love the echoing last line.

This year's top 2 trailers, in addition to the ones KW mentioned, are Sin City's teaser (and you need to click on the teaser because the regular trailer isn't nearly as good; it was an omen) and the hopefully-coming-soon Night Watch.

A great trailer for a classic movie: L.A. Confidential.

Oh, and just for a moment forget that 1998's Godzilla blew donkey sack. There was so much promise in this teaser, released a full year before the movie came out.

Damn, I spent hours doing all this. Nothing better to do. Please enjoy. If I think of any others, I'll make a sequel.