This list for the 50 greatest Trailers of all time came out two weeks ago but I just stumbled upon it and I couldn’t help but pass it along to you dickholes.
I’m a big fan of trailers, especially for good ones of movies I’ve seen a million times. I remember when the Fight Club DVD came out, I enjoyed watching the trailer because it felt like I was watching the movie again for the first time. I also like going back and watching trailers for movies that are awful to see how they market the film.
If you remember the movie Confessions of Dangerous Mind, there were four or five different trailers that marketed the film differently. One had it as an action movie, one as a comedy, one as a romantic comedy, and one as almost like dramatic biopic. The truth was that it was somewhere in the middle of all of those but the fact that they chose to try to lure in people who would certainly be turned off by both the movie and the way they were mislead was interesting to me.
Anyway, here’s the list the full list:
50. Night of the Iguana (1964)
49. Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
48. The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001)
47. Magnolia (1999)
46. Watchmen (2009)
45. The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
44. The Big Sleep (1946)
43. Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
42. Little Children (2006)
41. Maximum Overdrive (1986)
40. South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut (1999)
39. Zabriskie Point (1970)
38. Face/Off (1997)
37. The Strangers (2008)
36. Spider-Man (2001)
35. The Lord of the Rings (2001-2003)
34. The Minus Man (1999)
33. Where the Wild Things Are (2009)
32. The Matrix (1999)
31. Corruption (1968)
30. Femme Fatale (2002)
29. Point Blank (1967)
28. The Bishop’s Wife (1947)
27. A Night at the Opera (1935)
26. Speed (1994)
25. Real Life (1979)
24. Schindler’s List (1993)
23. Red Eye (2005)
22. Sin City (2005)
21. Strange Days (1995)
20. She’s Gotta Have It (1986)
19. Unbreakable (2000)
18. Sleeper (1973)
17. Charade (1963)
16. GoldenEye (1995)
15. Pulp Fiction (1994)
14. Garden State (2005)
13. Mr. Sardonicus (1961)
12. Independence Day (1996)
11. The Blair Witch Project (1999)
10. The Shining (1980)
9. Mission: Impossible (1996)
8. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
7. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
6. Citizen Kane (1941)
5. Comedian (2002)
4. Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
3. Cloverfield (2008)
2. Psycho (1960)
1. Alien (1979)
A few notes:
1. Psycho’s trailer, while interesting as an historical footnote, wasn’t that great.
2. Cloverfield is the perfected form of what The Blair Witch Project trailer tried to be. Both are good, but Cloverfield deserves to be higher for its viral video appeal. Notice also that there’s no movie title listed. That’s interesting.
3. Femme Fatale (#30) was almost exactly how I watched the movie the first time except I slowed down a little longer at the naked parts.
4. Garden State (#14) is a great trailer. It makes me want to watch the movie again so that I can try to like it.
5. How on Earth do you rank Red Eye (#23) ahead of Schindler’s List (#24). When I finished watching Schindler, I was shaken by how good it was. Red Eye was retarded. I’m insulted on every level.
6. Dr. Strangelove’s trailer is awful. I love that movie and that trailer sucks.
7. Miracle on 34th Street? Really?
8. The Spider-Man trailer is too retarded for words.




Where’s The Dark Knight trailer? Usual Suspects?
invalid parameters preview wasnt even on the list but yet it got its video on here? shamfruad!
my favorite trailer is the one i buy meth in.
/not really
What are you talking about?
Jurassic Park should on here too.
It occurs to me that I should throw the link up so you guys can see them for yourselves. Here:
http://www.ifc.com/news/2009/06/50-greatest-trailers.php
Is this list ranking the trailers or the movies?
The trailers. Schindler’s List’s trailer and movie is far better.
I preferred Sack Lunch
That’s racist
Prognosis Negative for my money.
firestorm FTW!!!
This is the Spider-Man trailer…it sucks.
I just clicked on an ad because it said a Babe Ruth autographed picture sold for $6.692. Is that extra $0.002 what you get paid for me clicking?
no logan’s run?
Weekend at Bernie’s II. It was a Gene pick.
I don’t appreciate your tone.
/.002 sounds about right.
Sports Illustrated should borrow that idea and market regional College Football Preview editions that have other schools on it than tOSU.
Great trailers often make terrible movies. There are a ton of them I that have let me down, most recently was T4. T4’s them music gives me wood.
Ill, there are occasionally trailers that match the hype of the movie.
/can’t believe they had the budget to hire trailer voice-over guy for this
Agree, Rex. Though eddie griffin is the perfect black actor for that role
agreed.