I hate it when dramas are marketed as comedies

[Mr-Blonde]

I just got through watching The Break-Up, a DVD that's been heavily marketed for weeks now as this supposedly laugh out loud comedy, but there was just one small problem...

IT'S A DRAMA FOLKS!!!

Now this is a film that I wasn't at all initially interested in seeing during it's theatrical run. As such I didn't pay attention to any of reviews or plot synopses on it. I usually try to watch a film before I read a review anyways so that I can make a more honest assessment of it when I do finally get around to watching it. The ads really made it seem like it was going to be a comedy NOT A FRIGGIN' DRAMEDY!

What I'd like to see in the movie industry is a little more truth in movie advertising. The trailers made it seem like this was supposed to be some hysterical analysis of a relationship on the rocks and with a cast like Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Anniston that's what I gather that most folks expected from a movie like this. The review on the cover even says "Funniest comedy in years" or some shit like that. While this film has some humorous moments, it was very light in the comedy department and very heavy (some might say overbearing) with the drama. All of the humor in the film is really more day in the life kind of stuff and not exactly what I'd call hilarious or even laughably funny.

I honestly didn't think it was a terrible film but I only rented it because expected to be seeing a comedy not some long drawn out relationship drama that really ended up being redundant and boring chick flick in the end.

[powersauce]

I noticed a similar problem when seeing a commercial on tv for A Good Year starring Russell Crowe. I saw a dramatic preview for it when I saw Marie Antoinette at a local theater on Monday afternoon and I later saw a tv ad marketing it as a quriky comedy. The 20th Century Fox marketing team obviously has no idea how to market it.:rolleyes:

[Cronos]

i also hate it when i sit down to a film, expecting to have a good laugh but instead it turns out to be a drama, this happened with both The Break-Up and Spanglish, from what ads i'd seen for both films they came across as being comedies but aside from a couple of chuckles neither were funny

[Derek237]

It could be worse. It could be marketed as a comedy, but, while it is supposed to be one, it just isn't funny. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I must bring up the case of Envy (2004), starring Jack Black and Ben Stiller. The previews made it look like a nice, goofy, maybe-not-split-your-side-laughing-but-still-some-chuckles comedy, but no. It was just a stupid peice of crap. Not funny at all. Didn't even try to be. Thank you, Barry Levinson.

Man of the Year looks funny, too. But I don't think I can trust Levinson anymore.

[Monotreme]

It's terrible when they take a movie like Eternal Sunshine and market it as a comedy. Do you know how many walk-outs there were during the screening(s) I attended when it was in theatres, with people whining and complaining about how this is the "most un-funny Jim Carrey movie" they've ever seen? Sometimes I just don't get marketing - wouldn't it be more productive to just market it as a drama to begin with?

[sAtAn666]

Originally posted by Monotreme
It's terrible when they take a movie like Eternal Sunshine and market it as a comedy. Do you know how many walk-outs there were during the screening(s) I attended when it was in theatres, with people whining and complaining about how this is the "most un-funny Jim Carrey movie" they've ever seen? Sometimes I just don't get marketing - wouldn't it be more productive to just market it as a drama to begin with?

I actually never saw Eternal Sunshine at the cinemas and it's all because of those cheesy, bouncy, feel-good trailers. When I was on holiday, they showed it on the plane and I watched it out of boredom...and found that it was a really compelling drama with fascinating characters and it eventually got in my top 10 movies. I wish I saw it in the cinemas now.:(

[zombievictim]

The first thing I thought of when I read the title of this thread of The Last Kiss. The tv spots made it look like some kind of comedy/chick filck. Just a poor marketing job.

[Backstabba]

Originally posted by Derek237
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I must bring up the case of Envy (2004), starring Jack Black and Ben Stiller. The previews made it look like a nice, goofy, maybe-not-split-your-side-laughing-but-still-some-chuckles comedy, but no. It was just a stupid peice of crap. Not funny at all. Didn't even try to be. Thank you, Barry Levinson.

:(

[Derek237]

Explain?

[CletusHorniblow]

Originally posted by Derek237

Man of the Year looks funny, too. But I don't think I can trust Levinson anymore.

Supposedly it's more of a drama than a comedy as well. THough, I have yet to see it.

[echo_bravo]

Click

[ilovemovies]

Wasn't The Family Stone also marketed as a comedy? But, although there are some funny moments, it actually turned out to be more of a drama.

It's a shame it wasn't well recieved. I loved it. Great movie. But I guess because of the stupid marketing, people expected it to be a comedy. :mad:

[therealjohng]

I hate it when really bad pathetic horror movies are marketed as being scary.

[cletus66]

I think a movie should be marketed for what it rellly is. If it's a comedy market it as a comedy if it is a drama market it as a drama. I think the deceptive marketing does more harm than good because all people will dwell on is that the movie wasnt what they thought it would be. The most recent example of this phenomenon was Man of the Year. It was promoted as a comedic picture when in reality it was more of a dramatic thriller. When I saw it as I was walking out of the theatre I overheard many people saying they dissapointed that it was not that funny. I'm sure this was the same at theatres nationwide.

Studios just need to deliver what they promise because people really don't like to be screwed with. Just promote a movie for what it is and if it is good people will go to see it and if it is crap they will stay away.

[Duke Nukem]

Originally posted by therealjohng
I hate it when really bad pathetic horror movies are marketed as being scary.

"Thirteen Ghosts" comes to mind. The previews looked really scary and movie looked potential, but it turned out to be one big joke. Even the poster for it was terrific. What a waste.

[LoomisFan]

The most ridiculous example of this that I can think of is "Wicker Park."
This flick was marketed like some kinda thriller. The trailers made it seem like the chick was some kinda insane murderer, or something, and the flick was a drama!
Great flick, though...

[therealjohng]

Originally posted by LoomisFan
Great flick, though...


Yes, I loved it.

[A.J. Hakari]

The worst example of this has to be THE DEATH OF MR. LAZARESCU, which has "The Most Acclaimed Comedy of the Year" emblazoned right on the box -- and the movie follows a Romanian man who's slowly dying and ends up getting shuffled from hospital to hospital. Sure, it's kind of funny in the ironic sense (how a dying man never really gets the care he deserves), but putting a quote like that on the box is just asking for trouble. People will check it out thinking it's the laugh-out-loud riot of the season, when in reality it's a very dark, very somber story of a man's life drifting away while others barely even notice. Yeesh.

[<3mekthx]

Originally posted by Derek237
It could be worse. It could be marketed as a comedy, but, while it is supposed to be one, it just isn't funny. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I must bring up the case of Envy (2004), starring Jack Black and Ben Stiller. The previews made it look like a nice, goofy, maybe-not-split-your-side-laughing-but-still-some-chuckles comedy, but no. It was just a stupid peice of crap. Not funny at all. Didn't even try to be. Thank you, Barry Levinson.

Man of the Year looks funny, too. But I don't think I can trust Levinson anymore.

Walked out of Envy after about 15 minutes.

Horrid.

[bigd23]

Originally posted by Derek237
It could be worse. It could be marketed as a comedy, but, while it is supposed to be one, it just isn't funny. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I must bring up the case of Envy (2004), starring Jack Black and Ben Stiller. The previews made it look like a nice, goofy, maybe-not-split-your-side-laughing-but-still-some-chuckles comedy, but no. It was just a stupid peice of crap. Not funny at all. Didn't even try to be. Thank you, Barry Levinson.

Man of the Year looks funny, too. But I don't think I can trust Levinson anymore.

I completely agree with you. I thought Envy was a piece of crap too! It was just plain stupid. I hated it and will never watch it again.

[LordSimen]

Originally posted by echo_bravo
Click

But that was a comedy. My friends and I couldn't stop laughing during it.

It just so happend the movie also featured a lot of drama, especially towards the end and had a moral. That got us too, and we were all shocked and silent during those scenes. It's partly why I love the movie so much.

[Duke Nukem]

Originally posted by LordSimen
But that was a comedy. My friends and I couldn't stop laughing during it.

It just so happend the movie also featured a lot of drama, especially towards the end and had a moral. That got us too, and we were all shocked and silent during those scenes. It's partly why I love the movie so much.

Exactly. A lot of people don't give Adam Sandler enough for credit for trying new things in his "non-stop slapstick" comedies. Ironically enough, his dramatic/partly comedic performance in "Spanglish" was the best the thing about that movie (uneven story, ends terribly). In this movie, he was half comedic and half dramatic and was great. I can understand those that felt a little cheated by the purely comedic previews, but their inability to open up to a potentially dramatic piece at the same time is a little jarring too.

[Badbird]

Sideways.

It was marketed as some gut-busting "Hilarious" comedy. It was not a comedy. It was a drama with funny stuff in it - that doesn't make it a comedy.

[Derek237]

You are wrong, sir! Sideways was hilarious.

[AaronisMe]

Well, the marketers are terrible at promoting genre-crossing movies. It's their worst fear. If it's an action, throw a gun on the poster. If it's a horror, show blurry images and people screaming. If it's romantic comedy, put the whole cast except for Jennifer Lopez on there smiling.

They have immense trouble marketing the difficult movies. Like Donnie Darko. The original trailer was NOTHING like how the movie turned out.

Then, there was the Matador DVD cover. What the hell was that about? It had Brosnan holding a gun and an unknown woman.

Or any Lynch movie.

And then, there are just awful posters with no imagination whatsoever.

http://www.carnali.com/images/reviews/prime.jpg

http://z.about.com/d/movies/1/0/9/L/4/envypubn.jpg

[therealjohng]

I actually think I enjoyed The Break Up less because of the way it was marketed. Yes, there were some funny moments in it. Vaughn was Vaughn. But from the trailers and tv spots I gathered it was a comedy, when it was much more of a drama with some comedic spots. And honestly, I felt like that third person in the room when two other people are going at it (fighting). You know, the one who sits in the corner and watches the train crash in slow mo. It was a better movie than I had anticipated, but it still wasn't good imo. But my original point is that I think the marketing of the movie really had me fooled thinking the movie was a comedy.

[ilovemovies]

I liked The Break Up a lot. And that was because of the fact that it was more dramatic than expected. It felt more honest and real than the typical romantic comedy.

[TheDeadWalk]

I thought The Break Up was a really funny movie. I didn't see any mismarketing with it, I thought it was pretty evident that it was going to be a romantic comedy.

If you want to see mismarketing, check out the trailers for Eli Roth's films.

[Asa_Phelps]

This whole argument of films getting linked to deceptive genres and being marketed in such a fashion is so old that I’ve just learned to accept it. I recently watched Man Bites Dog and the first genre label on it’s imdb page is comedy. I don’t want to turn this into an argument about that site but I mean even the tagline provided is ‘a killer comedy’. If I had gone into this film only knowing the title and the tagline, I would have been in for a big surprise.

It’s all about how much research you do on a film. I was recently chatting with someone who said that he hated The Number 23 and when he listed the 3 reasons why, the 3rd reason was he didn’t know Jim Carrey was in it. If this guy didn’t even realize Carrey was in the film when Carrey’s face is on the damn poster then it’s no surprise that some films fall through the cracks due to bad marketing.

Another good example is Bridge to Terabithia. All those ads make it look like a bad Narnia rip-off when in fact all those fantasy elements you see in the trailers are just those two kids playing make-belief. They don’t go into some magical kingdom and it’s a pretty good movie.

[smok3h]

I noticed somebody said something about man of the year. Wow, i rented this movie the other night. I was left speechless. Hahah, first of all, it's either just Robin Williams doing stand-up(bad stand-up by his standards), or else some terrible sideplot involving some conspiracy involving an electronic voting system.... like, it tried to be a thriller?! I still don't even know what to think, besides that the movie is awful beyond anything my eyes have seen recently.

[Badbird]

Originally posted by Derek237
You are wrong, sir! Sideways was hilarious.

Yeah. It had some great scenes. The wallet rescue in particular. But it wasn't a wall to wall comedy. It was a drama with some very funny scenes in it.

Oh yeah. I totally responded four months after the fact.

[Le_Big_Mac]

Hmm, this all reminds me of something... (http://youtube.com/watch?v=sfout_rgPSA)

[The Heart Collector]

Schindler's List.

[screamer581]

Originally posted by The Heart Collector
Schindler's List.


Oh you.


Stranger Than Fiction is another flick that comes to mind. A few funny moments, but IMO much more of a drama then it was made out to be. I actually did like it a lot though.

[smok3h]

Originally posted by screamer581
Oh you.


Stranger Than Fiction is another flick that comes to mind. A few funny moments, but IMO much more of a drama then it was made out to be. I actually did like it a lot though.
yeah, i was definitley disappointed with Stranger than Fiction.

[APzombie]

yea 2004 was a pretty bad year for this mistake, Sideways and Eternal Sunshine are both dramas with some funny scenes. I wouldn't mind the lfact that people call them comedies but people i know expected alot more laughs out of both of them, which ultimately made them dissapointed. Thats sucks cause a misconception could lead to people hating a film out of context of the picture itself.

[Boner X-Ray]

Marketing is all about money and getting people into the theaters. It's not rocket science. More people are going to go to a comedy with Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston rather than a drama with Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston.