First trailer for The Big Year doesn’t want you to know this movie’s about birdwatching

This trailer for THE BIG YEAR is weird for a couple of reasons. One, what’s with the random intro from the film’s three main leads? Two, for a film about those three entering what’s widely known to bird enthusiasts as an informal birdwatching competition, the trailer sure goes out of its way to never explicitly tell you it’s about birdwatching. I mean, I get that birdwatching isn’t exactly the most scintillating of topics to turn into a film, but selling it as another BUCKET LIST, or worse, a “profound life lessons” movie is somehow infinitely more boring and insulting.

THE BIG YEAR, starring Steve Martin, Jack Black, and Owen Wilson, opens October 14th.

Synopsis: Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson are at a crossroads — one is experiencing a mid-life crisis, another a late-life crisis, and the third, a far from ordinary no-life crisis. From David Frankel, the director of The Devil Wears Prada and Marley & Me, comes a sophisticated comedy about three friendly rivals who, tired of being ruled by obligations and responsibilities, dedicate a year of their lives to following their dreams. Their big year takes them on a cross-country journey of wild and life-changing adventures.