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Movies are never just movies. For most of us there’s the poster first, then the trailer, finally the movie. Sometimes. if not most of the time, there will be multiple versions of the posters and trailers before we see the movie. The movie is what it is – or is it? The posters and trailers have the ability to change our perception of what the movie is before we’ve seen the movie. How many times have you seen a really good-looking poster and thought “I wanna see that movie!” only to be disappointed by a film that didn’t live up to the poster’s representation? After all isn’t that what the poster and trailer are supposed to do, for better or worse, represent the product they’re pitching?

Of course there are also those times when a poster (this happens all too often, usually involves a head on a CG body) or a trailer convinces you to not see the movie? For me the best example would be the trailer for Frequency starring Jim Caviezel and Dennis Quaid. I saw the trailer and immediately knew I didn’t want to see the movie. Eventually I did see the movie, and enjoyed it! I hope whoever put that trailer together got a lot of grief for making an entertaining movie look so bad.

Why am I talking about this? Because I finally watched In the Loop. This is a movie that hit the trifecta – great art and trailer both left me foaming at the mouth for the film (although I somehow missed my opportunity in theater) and when I saw the film it lived up to the expectations created by the poster and trailer. Take a look at the poster

and trailer

Please tell me we’re on the same page and you’re expecting something completely Kubrick, a Dr. Strangelove for the new millenium. Admittedly the movie is more Dr. Strangelove meets The Office (not the NBC cute fest, but the original Ricky Gervais laughapalooza); the point is everything delivered on everything! What? The cool poster (I want one for my room!) and the frantic, A Clockwork Orange-ish trailer preceded a very good movie! jackpot! Peter Capaldi was perfectly horrible as the fire-breathing, foul-mouthed boss and possibly the best fictional boss since Gervais’ David Brent. I would love to share some of Capaldi’s lines from the movie but my asterisk key just doesn’t have the stamina! James Gandolfini’s Lt. Gen. George Miller is the orange to Capaldi’s apple, and David Rasche seemingly reprising his role from Burn After Reading (but not really). Where can I get more David Rasche? Rasche is J.K. Simmons good. See In the Loop.

Out of curiosity does anyone know who designed the poster for In the Loop? What are some of your favorite movie posters? What are your favorite movie trailers? Do you know of some other movies that hit my aforementioned ”trifecta?” please share!