Saturday, January 22, 2011

Catherine Hardwicke's Red Riding Hood (with Amanda Seyfried) gets a terrible second trailer, with a stunningly stupid musical choice.


On one level, this second look at Hardwicke's Red Riding Hood is a pretty generic trailer, a plot-centric piece that basically gives away the majority of the film in chronological order. It also achieves the impossible, as it makes Gary Oldman boring, as his endless narration explicitly spells out the plot of the film in bland generalities. Two trailers in, and the film doesn't feel the least bit original or inspired behind the all-star cast and a hope for some of the self-depreciating humor that made Twilight so much more fun than its morose sequels. Sleepy Hollow had the visual brilliance of a re-energized Tim Burton, the kooky lead performance of Johnny Depp (back when that was still a bit fresh), and a cavalcade of British all-stars. The Wolfman at least had the promise of grown-up horror fare for adults with adult actors at the helm. Both prior films also had the allure of R-rated violence and gore. The film comes out in just under two months, so we'll see as always.

But it's inexplicable music choice in the second half turns the preview into some kind of camp classic. I've written a hundred times about how the right music choice can elevate a preview into art, but the wrong choice can kill whatever images are being presented. Say what you will about using modern rock music to score period piece horror movie trailers, but it's not something I'm opposed to on principle. However, whatever song is used frankly sounds like the instrumental opening to Bon Jovi's 80s classic "Living on a Prayer". Frankly, if Summit wanted hard rock behind the second trailer, they should have just bit the bullet and bought the rights to Duran Duran's "Hungry Like a Wolf". Yes, it would have been on the nose and cheesy as all hell, but it would be no worse than this trailer, where we spend the entirety of the second half waiting for Jon to start singing about the struggles of Tommy and Gina.

Scott Mendelson

1 comment:

Torrent Download said...

I think a lot of people hate on fairy tale re-makes way to much or any re-make for that matter. So what if its not the original? Get over it. Gosh, why is every one so mean to each other? I agree that twilight sucked but that's because it had horrible actors in it. Besides some people make remakes because that movie they are remaking really inspired them to become directors and they will like to redo it so it can inspire someone else.

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