Collateral Damage

The best movie trailers make you say "I need to know how that turns out." I remember a few years ago two film--neither of which looked like they'd be that big--had great trailers that showed you enough to get you interested, and made the stories look like fun rides.  They were Now You See Me and We're The Millers, and both turned into major hits.

Perhaps you've seen the trailers for the new Will Smith film (opening this week) Collateral Beauty.  Here's the latest:



There's this a guy who goes through a personal tragedy, writes letters to abstract concepts, and then meet these concepts in person while his friends worry about him. So what?

The genre seems to be drama with fantasy (and not a lot of humor), and the trailer suggests a life-affirming story about a guy who works through his pain. While there's a vague mystery as to who these people claiming to be abstract things are, I wouldn't say the trailer makes us wonder what will happen next, or how things will turn out.

Smith is one of the biggest stars in the world, so his trailers often say, more than anything, "hey folks, a new Will Smith movie!" But if it weren't a Will Smith movie, and starred a no-name, would this trailer be appealing?

For all I know, the movie is great.  It's got a good cast (and presumably Smith gets offered the best scripts in town), so I'll probably check it out.   But based on the trailer alone, it doesn't look that enticing.