Posted by
Emmett of the Unblinking Eye on Tuesday, July 01, 2008 1:44:30 AM
So I'm sitting in the theater waiting for
Wanted
to start -- did I mention that you get to see Angelina Jolie tattooed and naked from behind? -- when the trailer for
Step Brothers comes on. Now, I've probably seen
that trailer about 200 times, and it doesn't get any better with age. Although John C. Reilly and Will Farrell are a pretty good combo, the concept seems both odd and flat. Why, exactly, would two 30+ men be living at home with their Mommy or Daddy, and why would they have to live in the same room once their respective partentl units get married?
Anyway. So I'm sitting there, half paying attention to the trailer, when I half-hear Farrell say "He better not get in my face. Because I'll drop the mother!#$%^". Actually, he didn't say the punctuation, but you get the idea of what he
did say. This piqued my interest, and it was followed by, well, a littany of other profanities and off-color comments. Don't believe me? You can
view it here.
Now there have been so-called "green band" and "red band" trailers for some time. Green band trailers (you can tell them because they start out with a green band across the screen with the words "This trailer has been approved for all audiences" across the screen) is intended for, well, all audiences. Just like it says. Probably 75% of the trailers fall into this category, because the studios (and the theaters) don't want to offend the viewing public. Red band trailers, on the other hand, are for "mature" audiences, and are generally shown only before R rated films (although sometimes a PG-13 will sneak in). They have more violence, more sex -- but until the trailer for Step Brothers, no profanity. I've seen a ton of trailers, and reported on many of them, but this is the first time I've ever heard profanity in a trailer. Ever.
I know, I know,
Wanted is an R rated movie, and I knew going in that there was going to be lots of violence and lots of bad language -- and did I mention that you get to see Angelina Jolie tattooed and naked from behind? So I shouldn't be offended by profanity in a trailer that accompanied it. And yet, somehow, I was. I can't tell you how many times I've been sitting in a multiplex waiting for an R rated movie to start when a family of 5 with 3 kids under 4 comes in because they've turned in to the wrong theater. Can you imagine bringing your family to what you think is going to be
WALL-E and what you get is Farrell dropping the f-bomb. It just doesn't seem right. So my vote is to keep the profane red band trailers where they belong -- on the Internet. That way if you find it, you deserve it.