Yours, Mine & Ours gripes

Everytime I think that movie marketing really can’t reach for a lower common denominator I’m proven wrong. The latest movie to shatter my expectations is Yours, Mine & Ours, the alleged comedy starring Dennis Quaid and Renee Russo. The ads – which are plastered everywhere I go – are ridiculous in the way they present the two stars as harried parents trying to contain their brood of kids. And the TV spots show that there will be no extraordinarily obvious gag left out in the quest to make this appeal (at least in someone’s mind) to the most base of audiences.

Quaid should no better. He’s had a good run the last couple of years with moves like The Rookie and In Good Company. Russo hasn’t done much of note recently, although she came out of the box strong a decade ago with Lethal Weapon 3. At least Steve Martin has the good sense to look embarrassed when he makes these kinds of movies.

Shaggy Dog poster

Tim Allen in an awful looking “family” comedy from Disney? What are the odds! And that it’s a remake of a classic movie from that studio? Stop, please before I start jamming a fork in my leg. If you have any interest in the new version of The Shaggy Dog (and you shouldn’t, you know) you can see the one sheet here. Don’t blame me if you click anyway. I warned you. The only positive that might come out of this is that Disney might finally release the original on DVD.

Da Vinci Code trailer schedule

JoBlo reports that the theatrical trailer for The DaVinci Code will debut in front of King Kong. Possibly, but this may be on a screen by screen basis since DaVinci is from Sony and Kong is from Universal. The folks at JB seem pretty sure, though, and they run a good ship there. Keep it in mind if nothing else.

Ellie Parker trailer

I have to say it’s good to see that Naomi Watts hasn’t gone completely mainstream on us. In addition to her headlining role in the big budget King Kong come December, Watts is also in the very low-budget and independent looking Ellie Parker. The movie tells the story of an actress (Watts) how just never seems to catch a break either personally or professionally. The trailer starts off very wacky but then turns a bit serious, but not too much so. It’s very funny and Watts looks great, especially since she’s using her actual accent. I highly recommend it, if for no other reason than for Chevy Chase, in what looks look to be his first decent role in decades.

Cleaning up some items

There were a few things I wanted to correct, add to or clear up from this week.

First a follow-up on the post yesterday about the Memoirs of a Geisha ad appearing in Netflix envelopes. I actually got one (with my copy of Charlie & the Chocolate Factory). I didn’t notice it on the scan but on the ad it says there will be a sneak preview of of Geisha during Medium on NBC November 14th.

Next, I neglected to mention GhostHousePictures in the introduction to the interview (or the interview itself) with Mirko a couple days ago. ComingSoon.net is one of the partners in this venture, along with filmmaker Sam Raimi and others. Meant to do so but just plum slipped my mind. Sorry, Mirko.

Lastly, Spider-Man 2 opened a year and a half ago, not two years as I stated at the end of my verbal orgasam over the Superman Returns blog. The lesson: Never be too lazy to use the IMDb.

Feature on American Pie microsites

NetImperative has a nice look at the microsites created for American Pie: Band Camp, the direct-to-DVD entry in the American Pie franchise. I talked about these on Cinematical a week or so ago. The main point seems to be their “viral”-ness.

Meanwhile on AdJab….

I’ve started a (hopefully) regular feature on AdJab that will run down the previous week’s new trailer debuts. It’s called Coming Soon: The Week in Movie Previews. The inagural edition features some trailers I’ve already covered here at MMM as well as the new trailer for BloodRayne, which looks absolutely ridiculous. Enjoy.

Will Narnia marketing backfire?

That’s the question Mack Collier is asking. He cites a growing feeling that the direct appeal to churches by marketers of The Chronicles of Narnia is alienating some pastors. Since, as Mack states, the connection between churchgoers and the movie is not as overt as it was for The Passion of the Christ the same kind of hard sell is not appropriate and is not being welcomed in the same way.

I was at a religous school recently and saw a poster for the movie on a classroom door. The poster had a link to NarniaResources, a site where teachers and others could get information on the movie and either order or directly download material for the film such as posters, buddy icons and the like. This is more in line with what Collier suggests – make sure everyone knows where the educational materials are but let them assess the value of those materials on their own.

Moviefone's Coming Attractions: 11/11/05

• The latest episode of Unscripted has 50 Cent and costar Joy Bryant chatting about Get Rich or Die Tryin’.
• The build-up for The Chronicles of Narnia continues on Moviefone with this character guide.
• Check out an exclusive clip from Zathura, the subject of this week’s FT column.

Movie Marketing Madness: Pride & Prejudice

The latest in a never-ending tide of Jane Austin adaptations, this one stars Kiera Knightly as the iconic Elizabeth Bennet. The movie has come under some fire for being too “sexed up” from the original book. It’s a legitimate complaint (if true), especially since it’s still set in the original time period. If you’re going to be true to the times than you need to be true to the times.

The Poster

Looks very much like a literary adaptation, doesn’t it? You can easily imagine it on the movie tie-in version of the novel. Two females are on display prominently here, Knightly and Austin, both of which deserve every inch of space they get. Somebody said when the poster was released the Knightly looked ugly, but I have to disagree. I think she looks great.

The Trailer

I don’t know if “sexed-up” is the term, but it definitely seems more openly passionate than the book was. But then again it has to be, since it’s going up against a contemporary remake in the form of Bridget Jones’ Diary. Other than a few overt emotions I think the trailer works rather well for a period piece. We definitely get the hint that Elizabeth hates Mr. Darcy, the man her mother wants her to marry for his money. That’s repeated quite a few times. The visuals are quite nice but I don’t know… Something about it just seemed off to me. Perhaps Knightly’s Elizabeth does seem a bit modern for the period. Too independent maybe? If I were a better writer I could probably think of how to put this.

The Website

Completely Flash-based, this website has little new or groudbreaking. The one thing I thought was a nice touch was under “Downloads” you can..umm..download P&P themed stationary. That’s a cool idea and might appeal to literary minded folks. Other than that there’s the usual stuff hiding behind “Characters”, “About the Film” and “Gallery”. “Behind the Scenes” has a couple cool features showing production and costume sketches and their finished products as well as a Script-to-Screen feature that’s neat. It takes a clip from the film and shows you scrolling text of the script so you can follow along. Nice idea and pretty good execution.

Overall

It’s designed to appeal to everyday movie goers as well as literary buffs who can’t get enough Austin goodness. The overt emotions and passions in the trailer are designed to attract those looking for a good “war of the sexes” movie while the other bits are meant for the book lovers. It’s a pretty good campaign that walks a fine line fairly well.