A sinking feeling settles in while watching the trailer for the upcoming comedy “The Dilemma.”
The film, heading our way Jan. 2011, stars Vince Vaughn and Kevin James as best buds whose friendship suffers when one of their wives has an affair. Pretty standard gruel for comedy, but even by “Couples Retreat” standards the latest Vaughn vehicle feels desperate.
And then the director’s name flashes on the screen. Hint: He’s an Oscar winner and rose to fame as a beloved child star.
Trailers can be tricky. Some movies simply don’t lend themselves well to sound bites. Consider “The Promotion,” a sly comedy with a trailer that didn’t do the film justice. So bad trailers don’t always equal bad movies. But it’s hard to believe a film starring Vaughn and James couldn’t muster a single laugh to tempt us.
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I felt bizarre about this trailer too. I told my wife about it, said Vince vaughn and Kevin James are in it and she responded excitedly. Then I told her the trailer was decidedly unfunny and it dampened her spirits. I was watching the trailer expecting to find at least a few funny moments and then two and a half minutes later, wondered where the funny was. I didn’t laugh at the Couples Retreat very much, but I enjoyed the movie, though not so much as a comedy. Maybe this will produce the same results, a sweet, semi-poignant movie with a couple of chuckles but a lot of heart.
Wow, I must be the only one who dug this trailer (though not the January release). Then again, I also thought Vaughn was the only good thing about Couples Retreat, and even that was stretching it.
The ’shock’ I referred to reminded me of seeing the trailer for “Match Point” in a theater a few years back. The audience was intrigued … then people gasped when they saw it was directed by Woody Allen (this was before he started making movies overseas).
Had a similar reaction to the director behind this film.
“Couples Retreat” wasn’t awful, but given the talent involved it should have been better.
My rule of thumb is this; if a movie trailer looks great, then the film really stinks. If a trailer looks boring/awful the film is a masterpiece.
This is not always accurate, but seems to be correct a surprising amount of the time.
While I have no idea who this mystery director is, I feel that he should do an adaptation of the video game series Grand Theft Auto just for career symmetry.