It must be really hard to cut a good movie trailer, especially for a bad movie. But it always amazes me when great films sometimes have such horrible movie trailers. I’ve now seen Jonathan Levine ’s The Wackness three times. And since January the film has held strong on the list of my favorite films of 2008. When Sony Pictures Classics purchased the film at Sundance, a lot of the people that loved this film were bummed out. Bloggers were outraged. You see, Sony Pictures Classics is where good movies go to die. The only way they can market a movie is if it wins an award (ie they let the award do the heavy lifting). And the guys at SPC promised that they knew how to handle this film, and two trailers later, I really really really don’t want to say I told you so, but…

The second teaser trailer is a mishmash of good moments from the film, which play well to someone who has seen the movie, but to the unknowing onlooker, it comes off as an urban “Step Up” or Finding Forester. Sure you have some good interaction between Ben Kingsley and Josh Peck, and the moment with Peck playing classic Nintendo, but I challenge anyone who hasn’t heard of this movie to explain to me what this movie is about. Because after seeing this trailer, you really have no idea.

You can watch the trailer below and see for yourself, but I highly recommend you stay away from any of the marketing from this film. I say this because if I had seen either of these teaser trailers, I probably wouldn’t be interested in the slightest. And it’s too bad, because this film is great. It won the audience award at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. People love this film. I love this film. Even critics love this film. But none of that is enough to sell this film to you the audience. I understand that. You want to be sold by the trailer. You probably won’t be sold by this one. Maybe the next one will be better. We can only hope.