Another busy night on the trailer scene. There are six new trailers (Burlesque, Going the Distance, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, Barry Monday, Fruit Fly, The Afterlight) and two new posters (You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, Vampires Suck)

BURLESQUE

	Plot Summary: With dreams of making it in Los Angeles, a young woman finds her passion on the stage of a high class burlesque show. Release Date: November 24, 2010
	Trailer	Poster
	Rating: B Commentary: This trailer should be sufficient to draw in a large swath of the male audience, but also several women. It’s colorful, well choreographed and features plenty of buxom dancers all while presenting itself honestly as a populist modern song-and-dance film.	Rating: None Commentary: No poster available.
	Trailer Link: Yahoo Movies Trailers Oscar Chances: It all depends on how good the film actually is. Releasing in late November’s a good step and if critics take a shine to it, it could do quite well, though I doubt acting nominations are in the cards, but Art Direction and Costume Design could be, possibly even Song.

GOING THE DISTANCE

	Plot Summary: Meeting six weeks before her departure for San Francisco, two New Yorkers become incomparably close but must resolve all the issues of a long-distance relationship. Release Date: August 27, 2010
	Trailer	Poster
	Rating: B- Commentary: It’s an amusing preview with more than enough laughs to make it a smallish hit. The chemistry between Drew Barrymore and Justin Long is hard to connect with so little time in the trailer, so I don’t know if the film itself will really work based on this.	Rating: C+ Commentary: Nice colors, but the same color scheme was used last year for (500) Days of Summer. The attempts to blend the skyline of New York with the Golden Gate Bridge is cheesy, but the positions of the actors help mitigate some of that.
	Trailer Link: Apple Trailers Oscar Chances: None.

DON’T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK

	Plot Summary: Moving into a sprawling old estate with her father and his new girlfriend, a young girl discovers strange creatures in the basement that want to carry her away and must convince her parents they are real. Release Date: January 1, 2011
	Trailer	Poster
	Rating: B- Commentary: What keeps this from being a C-grade trailer is that it tries to do something different. The minute-long opening blackness with a not-terribly-scary voice speaking to the audience is a bit unnerving and when the first images finally appear it does give the intended jolt. Other than that, it’s not a terribly great or interesting trailer.	Rating: None Commentary: I don’t review placeholders.
	Trailer Link: Apple Trailers Oscar Chances: None.

BARRY MUNDAY

	Plot Summary: After losing his nuts to an angry father, a womanizer decides to settle down with the woman whom he impregnated before losing his ability to do so. Release Date: October 1, 2010
	Trailer	Poster
	Rating: C+ Commentary: More amusing than I first expected when I started this trailer. Patrick Wilson will undoubtedly make this movie work even if it doesn’t look like it can. The trailer’s fairly straight forward, focuses too much on the broad comic elements of the script (but what else are you going to do?) and never really accomplishes more than by-standing bemusement.	Rating: C Commentary: The poster doesn’t match the trailer exceedingly well, but it works minimally. The broadness of the material fits perfectly on the poster, but it’s not the kind of picture-perfect design that’s going to get people to give it a second look.
	Trailer Link: Apple Trailers Oscar Chances: None.

FRUIT FLY

	Plot Summary: A performance artist searches for her biological mother while navigating life in the city. Release Date: August 11, 2010
	Trailer	Poster
	Rating: C- Commentary: A grating central performance epitomizes the lack of acting talent in this film. It may be an engaging and entertaining movie, but it’s hard to sell such a thing without any real substance. The first musical number isn’t bad, but the second doesn’t sound good, which leaves the wrong impression when it’s over.	Rating: C Commentary: Too many shades of pink. It’s like Sally Fields’ quote in Steel Magnolias “it looks like a bottle of Pepto Bismol blew up” on it. I understand the purpose, to draw women and gay men, key segments of the film’s character set, but I don’t know how many people will respond that well to this particular poster.
	Trailer Link: Apple Trailers Oscar Chances: None

THE AFTERLIGHT

	Plot Summary: A couple moves into the country hoping to escape their past and move on with their lives, but various events and memories threaten to unhinge their marriage amidst the desolation of their environs. Release Date: September 10, 2010
	Trailer	Poster
	Rating: C- Commentary: One quote in the trailer says “guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat”. If you replaced it with “guaranteed to put you into a coma”, you’d have a pretty apt description of this lengthy, lethargic trailer. In their attempts to convey the solitude and environment of the film, they have created a difficult and tiresome preview.	Rating: D+ Commentary: Seldom does using a split screen on a poster do more than haphazardly convey the principle characters and scenes of a film. This poster epitomizes the worst aspects of such compositions.
	Trailer Link: Apple Trailers Oscar Chances: None.

YOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER, poster #1

	Plot Summary: The latest relationship comedy from Woody Allen featuring a washed-up writer, his conflicted wife, an divorcee looking to find love again, a talented musician and a host of others. Release Date: September 22, 2010
	Trailer	Poster
	Previous Preview: You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger	Rating: C+ Commentary: It has an almost classic feel, but doesn’t connect emotionally. Although it mentions Woody Allen, the subject of the poster is a bit misleading for audiences who will expect a romantic comedy and get a Woody Allen Romantic Comedy, which is an entirely different animal than the standard.
	Trailer Link: See Previous Preview Oscar Chances: See Previous Preview

VAMPIRES SUCK, poster #2

	Plot Summary: A spoof of the recent vampire film crazy, focusing on the story of the Twilight films and also skewering other recent popular films. Release Date: August 18, 2010
	Trailer	Poster
	Previous Preview: Vampires Suck	Rating: D+ Commentary: The first poster grows on you when you look at this second one. The first poster at least poked fun at the Twilight film pulling in the background of its recognizable posters, but this new poster just kind of sits there on an unimpressive backdrop.
	Trailer Link: See Previous Preview Oscar Chances: See Previous Preview