Best/Worst Movie Promos of the Week: ‘The Hungers Games’ and ‘Red Tails’ Make You Feel Part of the Production

Merry Christmas! Okay, that’s certainly a bit premature, but based on the new promotional material that popped up over the past week, it’s certainly starting to feel like that wonderful time of year again. A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas not only got a series of festival character posters, but some downright hilarious ones, too. While the ones for Harold, Kumar and Neil Patrick Harris work off the excitement for series’ return, if you catch some of the other like perhaps a super happy Santa holding a candy cane colored pipe, there’s no way you can walk by without doing a double take. While the international trailer for Arthur Christmas will also keep the holiday spirit alive, it’ll give you than warm and fuzzy feeling rather that the Harold & Kumar dazed and confused one.

In non-Christmas news, but perhaps still a bit on the warm and fuzzy side, we’ve got three new character posters for The Muppets all of which are oozing with nostalgia. The Adventures of Tintin takes a step in the right direction delivering an international trailer that finally shows off the details behind the Unicorn as well as some impressive action-packed animation. On a far more serious note, we’ve got a new trailer for War Horse, too, this one ditching the artsy and vague approach and divulging a bit more about the story as well as its tear jerking potential.

On an exceptionally non-holiday and non-heartwarming note, we’ve got two new clips for The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence) via NYTimes.com and Shock Till You Drop. While neither will do a thing for anyone who had zero interest in catching the first film or were just incredibly put off by it, if the intrigue for more Centipede is there, these will certainly help hold you over until the 7^th.

So far, so good, but we’ve still got the best of the best to explore and, of course, the worst of the worst, too. Here we go; your promotions and demotions of the past week …

Promotions

1. Hunger Games District Posters: Fine, call me biased, but as an avid Hunger Games fan, these posters really do the trick. Not only do they do the story a service by bringing the nation of Panem to life, but their release is directly connected to another Lionsgate outreach effort, TheCapitol.pn. All of the districts that got posters – District 2, 7, 8, 9 and 12 – are the ones that now offer their residents access to their “District Identification Pass” on TheCapitol.pn, which seems to be shaping up to be some sort of interactive experience. These posters and that website are effective steps towards making Panem feel real, which is something that Hunger Games fans will certainly appreciate and something newcomers can learn from.

2. Red Tails Behind-the-Scenes Video: Big fan of a particular actor, writer or director? I’d like to bet that sways your opinion, even if it’s the slightest bit, when catching one of his or her films. There’s something about feeling a connection to the folks involved in making a movie, and seeing their enthusiasm and hearing about their good times on set, that gives you that rah rah feeling and, therefore, the urge to catch the film. Well, this new behind-the-scene video is pumped full of Red Tails pride and it’s infectious. These guys all look like they had a blast making the movie and became quite close and, in turn, give us something we want to be a part of.

3. I Melt With You Red Band Trailer: Start a trailer with two guys speeding down an opening road while stuffing their faces with coke and you’re going to rouse some interest. The new red band trailer for I Melt with You maintains the intrigue by juxtaposing that wild open with a look at the main characters who are seemingly calm, cool and collected. Wait; did this just get boring? Far from it. What seems like a weekend of fun and games takes a turn for the worse when secrets surface and tempers flare. While watching a group of grown men yell at each other could come across as melodramatic and monotonous, courtesy of proper editing, an appropriate background tune and some visually stimulating camerawork, when Tom Jane, Rob Lowe, Jeremy Piven and Christian McKay go at it, you feel it as well as the need to know more.

Demotions

1. The Three Musketeers Clips: Hope is long gone for this one. After a slew of terribly tacky trailers and TV spots as well as some poorly designed posters, we get a series of clips that makes The Three Musketeers look like even more of a joke. Of the five clips on MySpace, two feature Milla Jovovich showing off her solid fighting and acrobatic abilities. It’s just too bad the camera is too intent on showing off the 3D elements than letting her performance do the work. The problems with the next three are even worse – bad performances and scene spoiling. Most of the cast, particularly Orlando Bloom, seems to merely be playing dress up than believing in his character. Then there’s the blimp scene. Well, there goes all the suspense on that one. Thanks to this clip we’ll see this one coming from a mile away – Logan Lerman’s D’Artagnan is the decoy and the others will save the day.

2. The Big Year Clip: When you’ve got Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson headlining a movie, every single piece of promotional material should offer some laughs. After getting an unfunny and poorly structured trailer, expectations for The Big Year were already low, but now that we’ve actually got a piece of the film, they’ve hit rock bottom. No, you don’t want to go and spoil some of your best moments but this scene called “The Bridge” isn’t funny in the least and is rather unsatisfying, too. Based on this material, it looks as though the only gags The Big Year will deliver are in line with the standard big budget comedy formulas and who really wants to see such a talented leading trio wasted on that?

3. Unauthorized: The Harvey Weinstein Project Trailer: Do I want to see Unauthorized: The Harvey Weinstein Project? Yes. Is it because of this trailer as a whole? Far from it. Many steer clear of documentaries in general to avoid the talking head syndrome; why open your trailer with it? Especially when some of the people shown aren’t particularly recognizable. Taking another step in the wrong direction, from there the trailer movies into a series of footage of Harvey Weinstein backed by a voiceover à la a long format news piece. Boring! It’s the last 15 seconds of this video that hints at something that’s rather intriguing – it’s The Harvey Weinstein Project, but Weinstein himself wanted nothing to do with it. You make me wait through practically the entire trailer to get to the good stuff? That doesn’t bode well for the feature.