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Always read the small print.
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00:00In an industry as financially driven as the movie business, the higher-ups have no shame
00:05in selling a lie to the general public in order to get our money. And the real shame is that
00:10we
00:10just keep on falling for it. So with that in mind, I am Gareth, this is WhatCulture and here are
00:1510
00:15movies that sold you a lie. Number 10, Drive. A woman sued because the trailer had promised
00:22Fast and Furious action. Somebody actually sued over this one. A Michigan woman filed a lawsuit
00:27against distributor Film District and the theatre where she saw Drive after feeling that she had
00:32been misled by a trailer that promised Fast and Furious-esque action, not the stripped-down
00:38modern noir that director Nicholas Winding Refn had created. Her demands? A refund for the cost of
00:43the ticket. Only in America. Now to be fair, Drive's trailers definitely made it look a lot more like
00:48a standard Hollywood action thriller, none the graphically violent, stylised and visually driven
00:54blend of arthouse and populist filmmaking that it actually was. And while many people may have felt
00:59that they'd been sold an entirely different movie by the time they'd parted with their cash and sat
01:04down in the theatre, at least they still got to see one of the best films of 2011, eh? Take
01:08what you
01:08can get. Now I've got a question for you, which movie did you feel sold you a lie? You let
01:13me know
01:14in the comment section down below. Now back to the video. Number 9, Crimson Peak. It was more gothic
01:19romance than creepy horror. The horror genre is one of the most profitable in the entire industry.
01:26The low financial risk involved for the studios, coupled with the high financial reward that comes
01:30with the audience's continued love of having the absolute crap scared out of them, has made horror
01:35a consistent slam dunk at the box office. Guillermo del Toro's Crimson Peak turned out to be a commercial
01:41disappointment, however, earning just $74.7 million worldwide against a $55 million budget. Why?
01:49Well, because it most definitely was not a horror movie, despite the marketing campaign insisting
01:55otherwise, and left many casual horror fans rather disappointed as a result. Seemingly,
01:59the only person telling people that Crimson Peak wasn't a straight-up scary movie was del
02:04Toro himself. The trailers were all based around the spooky locations and jump scares in an attempt
02:10to draw in the horror crowd, when in reality the movie was actually a gothic romance with supernatural
02:15elements. They relied much more heavily on character and atmosphere than things going bump in the night.
02:22Number 8. Mission Impossible 2
02:23Anthony Hopkins is only a minor character
02:26Mission Impossible 2 is very much a product of its time. Watching the movie now is like peering
02:31into a turn-of-the-millennium time capsule. Tom Cruise, with the floppiest of floppy hair,
02:36riding a motorcycle wearing sunglasses and a leather jacket, performing martial arts in slow motion
02:42while Limp Bizkit blares in the background. It was a strange time for the action movie.
02:46From watching the trailers, you could be forgiven for assuming that Anthony Hopkins plays a key role
02:50in the story, as he featured prominently in the marketing, dishing out wizened exposition to
02:55super-spy Ethan Hunt. Except that really wasn't the case at all. Even though he had more dialogue in
03:02the movie's promo spots than just about anybody else, the Veteran Academy Award winner barely factors
03:07into the narrative at all. With his role being that of the guy who randomly turns up to advance
03:12the plot, and not much else really. Stranger still, Hopkins isn't even listed in the credits.
03:17If they were attempting to keep his role under wraps until the movie came out,
03:21then the person who cuts the trailers together did not get the memo, did they?
03:25Number 7. World's Greatest Dad
03:27It's Very, Very Dark
03:30Arguably Robin Williams' last great performance,
03:32the premise of World's Greatest Dad didn't exactly make it an easy sell to casual audiences.
03:38I mean, how the hell was the studio supposed to market a satirical black comedy about a failed
03:42writer who stages his son's accidental death from auto-erotic asphyxiation as a suicide,
03:48before penning a fake journal allegedly written by the recently deceased,
03:52that finally gets him the recognition for his writing talents that he had always craved?
03:56Simple, they sold the movie as something else entirely.
03:59From the music to the jokes, all of the advertising for World's Greatest Dad comes across as your
04:04standard quirky indie comedy, with no mention whatsoever of the potentially controversial
04:09subject matter. People drawn in by the presence of Williams and the promise of a whimsical tale
04:13of self-discovery would be in for a huge shock when they discovered just how dark and risky Bobcat
04:19Goldthwaites' movie really was.
04:22Number 6. Observe and Report
04:26In 2009, just three months after Paul Blatt,
04:30Mall Cop had inexplicably earned $183.3 million at the box office,
04:35and with Judd Apatow's brand of comedy at the peak of its popularity,
04:39Seth Rogen starred in the vaguely similar Observe and Report.
04:43With Rogen in the lead and comedy stalwart,
04:46Anna Faris, Aziz Ansari, Patton Oswalt,
04:48and Danny McBride lending support, it seemed like another cut and paste entry in the lovable
04:53loser gets the girl and betters himself in the process subgenre. Or at least that's what the
04:58trailers would have you believe, with their reliance on quippy banter and Rogen's improv-heavy style.
05:03In reality, Observe and Report was much darker than the average studio comedy,
05:08and Rogen's character was a lot closer to Travis Bickle than Paul Blatt.
05:11Fans of the actor's usually genial output must have been shocked to discover that he was not playing
05:17as usual stoner dude character, but instead a bipolar, drug-addled psychopath of sorts.
05:23Yep, did not see that coming.
05:24Thank you very much for checking out this video today, my friend,
05:26and if you are enjoying what you're watching, then hit that subscribe button down below,
05:30and you'll get more of this WhatCulture stuff in your life.
05:33Number 5, After Earth is not a Will Smith blockbuster from an unknown director.
05:39After Earth is a prime example of what happens when a movie star lets their ego run wild.
05:44Based on a story by Will Smith produced by his Overbrook Entertainment Company and co-starring
05:49his son, Jaden, the original pitch was a contemporary father-son survival tale,
05:54before the former fresh prince decided to have it set 1,000 years in the future instead,
05:59upping the budget to $150 million in the process.
06:03Both the trailers and posters made the project look like a two-hander,
06:07when in reality, Smith Sr., one of the most charismatic actors on the planet,
06:10spends most of it sitting on his ass, doing nothing but spout tedious exposition in one
06:16of the worst performances of his career, while rampant nepotism allows the charisma-free
06:20and rather wooden Jaden to anchor the whole damn movie.
06:23To cap off the campaign of misdirection, the man behind the camera was none other than M.
06:28Night Shyamalan, whose name had lost so much pulling power after a string of duds,
06:33that it was only mentioned during the movie's end credits.
06:35Shyamalan has since gone on to rehabilitate his career, of course,
06:38and Smith Sr. also appears to be making a bit of a big-screen comeback after his Oscars controversy,
06:44but Jaden has only made a few other appearances on the movie screen ever since.
06:49Number 4, The Grey, Liam Neeson does not fight wolves.
06:52The Grey might just be Joe Carnahan's best ever movie,
06:56a tense and gripping, character-driven tale of man versus nature,
07:00with a surprising philosophical slant.
07:02Supported by incredibly atmospheric cinematography and a solid ensemble cast,
07:07led by one of Liam Neeson's best performances in years.
07:11However, by leaning way too heavily into Neeson's reinvention as a bankable action hero,
07:16the marketing missold the movie to many people as a much simpler action-heavy survival thriller,
07:22especially as every trailer ended with the money shot of Neeson taping broken glass to his fists,
07:28and charging headlong into battle with a damn wolf.
07:31Now, it is still a great movie without a doubt,
07:33but many people were left disappointed when they discovered that the main hook of the marketing
07:38actually turned out to be the ending.
07:40When the screen cut to black just as the final battle was about to begin,
07:44there were more than a few audible cries of what the F in theatres all around the world.
07:49And you can't really blame them.
07:51Number 3, Hercules, The Twelve Labors Are Just a Myth.
07:54On paper, it seemed like a match made in heaven, this.
07:57Dwayne Johnson, a man so much larger than life in both personality and stature,
08:02playing the demigod son of Zeus in an action-packed fantasy epic that would see him tackle the Twelve Labors,
08:09and kick a hell of a lot of mythical ass in the process.
08:12Naturally, this led to a great deal of disappointment when the movie came out,
08:16and all of the best shots in the trailer of Hercules scrapping with the Nemean lion,
08:20Linnaean hydra and Arimanthian boar were all just part of a first-act montage.
08:25Not only that, but it turned out that in the context of the movie,
08:29the Twelve Labors were total BS myths,
08:31perpetuated by Hercules' nephew to exaggerate his legend.
08:35Talk about a damn cop-out.
08:37Instead, Brett Ratner's fantasy-tinged historical actioner follows a tedious politically motivated plot,
08:43populated with one-dimensional cliches that pretend to be actual characters.
08:47All while Johnson does his best to elevate the material with his almost bulletproof natural charisma,
08:52despite sporting a lion's head as a hat and wearing armour that looks hilariously small on his gigantic frame.
08:58I mean, any clothes would, to be fair.
09:01Number 2. The Amazing Spider-Man It Forgets To Tell The Untold Story
09:05It was right there in giant letters on the movie's very first teaser poster.
09:10The Untold Story
09:11In an attempt to differentiate itself from the Sam Raimi trilogy that had ended just five years previously,
09:17Mark Webb's reboot promised to put a fresh spin on Spider-Man.
09:21Only it didn't, did it?
09:23Instead, we saw the very much told story of high school student Peter Parker getting bitten by a radioactive spider,
09:29getting a lecture about power and responsibility from his Uncle Ben, who is then tragically killed,
09:35before striking up a romantic relationship with a fellow student and battling a CGI villain.
09:40Where have I seen this one before?
09:42So what the hell happened to the Untold Story then?
09:44In short, well, Sony happened.
09:46The infamous 25-minute cut of the movie,
09:49cobbled together from the avalanche of marketing materials,
09:52features a huge amount of footage that was never used,
09:55with the version of the amazing Spider-Man that hit theatres bearing all the hallmarks of studio interference.
10:02Peter just abandons the hunt for Uncle Ben's killer,
10:05a pivotal scene featuring Irfan Khan's character that was seen in some trailers was nowhere to be found,
10:10the lizard SWAT scene just kind of disappears,
10:13and the entire subplot surrounding Peter's genetic history and how it ties his parents and Kurt Connors together
10:18is just quietly swept under the rug despite being mentioned by several different characters
10:23in trailers that people can very easily view online.
10:27Number 1, Bridge to Terabithia.
10:29It is not the whimsical fantasy that you thought it was.
10:32For those unfamiliar with Katherine Patterson's novel,
10:35watching the big-screen adaptation of Bridge to Terabithia
10:38must have come as quite a shock to those drawn in by the marketing campaign.
10:42The trailer's dramatic music myriad of CGI creatures,
10:45and from Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media proclamation,
10:49deliberately played up the Narnia connection.
10:51But the movie is something else entirely.
10:53The marketing misrepresented the movie so badly that the director,
10:57whose name I'm not even going to attempt to pronounce,
10:59so there it is on the screen,
11:00distanced himself from it altogether,
11:03saying we the filmmakers had nothing to do with that promotion.
11:06We don't really think that it's an appropriate way of selling the movie.
11:09If they are anticipating a Harry Potter movie, then we are in trouble.
11:12Co-writer and producer David Patterson, son of author Catherine,
11:16was even more succinct after seeing the first trailer.
11:19His reaction? Well, my mom is going to hate it.
11:22Uh-oh.
11:22Despite being the main selling point of the movie,
11:25the fantasy land of Terabithia only takes up a small amount of screen time,
11:29and is completely imaginary,
11:31serving only as a way for the two young leads
11:33to hide from the tribulations of daily life.
11:36It takes a bold and probably very cynical person
11:39to market a tear-jerking coming-of-age story
11:41about heartbreak, escapism, and loss
11:43as a family-friendly adventure.
11:46But that is exactly what they did in the end,
11:48and people fell for it.
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