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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 we
00:10just keep on falling for it. So with that in mind, I am Gareth, this is WhatCulture and here are 10
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
00:59felt that they'd been sold an entirely different movie by the time they'd parted with their cash
01:03and sat down in the theatre, at least they still got to see one of the best films of 2011, eh?
01:08Take what you can get. Now I've got a question for you, which movie did you feel sold you a lie?
01:13You let me know in the comments section down below. Now back to the video.
01:17Number 9, Crimson Peak. It was more gothic romance than creepy horror.
01:21The horror genre is one of the most profitable in the entire industry. The low financial risk
01:27involved for the studios, coupled with the high financial reward that comes with the audience's
01:31continued love of having the absolute crap scared out of them, has made horror a consistent slam dunk
01:37at the box office. Guillermo del Toro's Crimson Peak turned out to be a commercial disappointment,
01:42however, earning just $74.7 million worldwide against a $55 million budget. Why? Well, because it most
01:50definitely was not a horror movie, despite the marketing campaign insisting otherwise,
01:55and left many casual horror fans rather disappointed as a result. Seemingly, the only person telling
02:00people that Crimson Peak wasn't a straight-up scary movie was del Toro himself. The trailers were all
02:06based around the spooky locations and jump scares in an attempt to draw in the horror crowd, when in
02:12reality the movie was actually a gothic romance with supernatural elements. They relied much more
02:17heavily on character and atmosphere than things going bump in the night.
02:22Number 8, Mission Impossible 2, Anthony 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 into a
02:32turn-of-the-millenium time capsule. Tom Cruise, with the floppiest of floppy hair, riding a motorcycle,
02:37wearing sunglasses and a leather jacket, performing martial arts in slow motion while Limp Bizkit blares in the
02:43background. It was a strange time for the action movie. From watching the trailers, you could be
02:47forgiven for assuming that Anthony Hopkins plays a key role in the story, as he featured prominently
02:53in the marketing, dishing out wizened exposition to super-spy Ethan Hunt. Except that really wasn't the
02:59case at all. Even though he had more dialogue in the movie's promo spots than just about anybody else,
03:05the Veteran Academy Award winner barely factors into the narrative at all, with his role being that
03:10of the guy who randomly turns up to advance the plot, and not much else really. Stranger still,
03:15Hopkins isn't even listed in the credits. If they were attempting to keep his role under wraps until
03:20the movie came out, then the person who cut the trailers together did not get the memo, did they?
03:25Number 7, World's Greatest Dad, It's Very, Very Dark
03:29Arguably Robin Williams' last great performance, the premise of World's Greatest Dad didn't exactly
03:35make it an easy sell to casual audiences. I mean, how the hell was the studio supposed to market a
03:40satirical black comedy about a failed writer who stages his son's accidental death from
03:45autoerotic asphyxiation as a suicide, before penning a fake journal allegedly written by the
03:51recently deceased, that finally gets him the recognition for his writing talents that he
03:55had always craved? Simple, they sold the movie as something else entirely. From the music to the
04:00jokes, all of the advertising for World's Greatest Dad comes across as your standard quirky indie
04:05comedy, with no mention whatsoever of the potentially controversial subject matter.
04:10People drawn in by the presence of Williams and the promise of a whimsical tale of self-discovery
04:14would be in for a huge shock when they discovered just how dark and risky Bobcat Goldthwaites' movie
04:20really was. Number 6, Observe and Report, Is Not a Judd Apatow Style Comedy
04:26In 2009, just three months after Paul Blatt, Mall Cop had inexplicably earned $183.3 million
04:34at the box office, and with Judd Apatow's brand of comedy at the peak of its popularity,
04:39Seth Rogen starred in the vaguely similar Observe and Report. With Rogen in the lead and comedy
04:45stalwart Anna Faris, Aziz Ansari, Patton Oswalt and Danny McBride lending support, it seemed like
04:51another cut and paste entry in the lovable loser gets the girl and betters himself in the process
04:56subgenre. Or at least that's what the trailers would have you believe, with their reliance
05:00on quippy banter and Rogen's improv-heavy style. In reality, Observe and Report was much darker
05:06than the average studio comedy, and Rogen's character was a lot closer to Travis Bickle
05:10than Paul Blatt. Fans of the actor's usually genial output must have been shocked to discover
05:16that he was not playing his usual stoner dude character, but instead a bipolar, drug-addled
05:22psychopath of sorts. Yep, did not see that coming. Thank you very much for checking out this video
05:26today, my friend, and if you are enjoying what you're watching, then hit that subscribe button
05:29down below, and 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, before the former
05:55fresh prince decided to have it set 1,000 years in the future instead, upping the budget to
06:00$150 million in the process. Both the trailers and posters made the project look like a two-hander
06:06when in reality, Smith Sr., one of the most charismatic actors on the planet, spends most of it sitting
06:12on his ass, doing nothing but spout tedious exposition in one of the worst performances of his career.
06:17While rampant nepotism allows the charisma-free and 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. Night Shyamalan,
06:29whose name had lost so much pulling power after a string of duds, that it was only mentioned during
06:34the movie's end credits. Shyamalan has since gone on to rehabilitate his career, of course,
06:39and 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
06:50Liam Neeson does not fight wolves
06:52The Grey might just be Joe Carnahan's best ever movie. A tense and gripping, character-driven
06:58tale of man versus nature, with a surprising philosophical slant. Supported by incredibly
07:04atmospheric cinematography and a solid ensemble cast, led by one of Liam Neeson's best performances
07:10in years. However, by leaning way too heavily into Neeson's reinvention as a bankable action
07:16hero, the marketing missold the movie to many people as a much simpler action-heavy survival
07:21thriller. Especially as every trailer ended with the money shot of Neeson taping broken
07:26glass to his fists, and charging headlong into battle with a damn wolf.
07:31Now it is still a great movie without a doubt, but many people were left disappointed when they
07:36discovered that the main hook of the marketing actually 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
07:52On paper, it seemed like a match made in heaven this. Dwayne Johnson, a man so much larger than
08:00life in both personality and stature, playing the demigod son of Zeus in an action-packed
08:05fantasy epic that would see him tackle the 12 labors, and kick a hell of a lot of mythical
08:10ass in the process. Naturally, this led to a great deal of disappointment when the movie
08:15came out, and all of the best shots in the trailer of Hercules scrapping with the Nemean lion,
08:20Linnaean hydra, and Ehrimanthian boar were all just part of a first-act montage.
08:26Not only that, but it turned out that in the context of the movie, the 12 labors were total
08:30BS myths, perpetuated 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
08:42plot, populated 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
08:51charisma, despite sporting a lion's head as a hat and wearing armour that looks hilariously
08:56small on his gigantic frame.
08:58I mean, any clothes would, to be fair.
09:002. 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, the Untold
09:11Story.
09:11In an attempt to differentiate itself from the Sam Raimi trilogy that had ended just five
09:16years previously, Mark 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
09:28by a radioactive spider, getting a lecture about power and responsibility from his uncle
09:33Ben, who is then tragically killed, before striking up a romantic relationship with a
09:37fellow 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, cobbled 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
10:00of studio interference.
10:02Peter just abandons the hunt for Uncle Ben's killer, a pivotal scene featuring Irfan Khan's
10:07character that was seen in some trailers was nowhere to be found, the lizard SWAT team
10:11just kind of disappears, and the entire subplot surrounding Peter's genetic history and how
10:16it ties his parents and Kurt Connors together is just quietly swept under the rug despite being
10:21mentioned by several different characters in trailers that people can very easily
10:25view 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, watching the big-screen adaptation of
10:37Bridge to Terabithia must have come as quite a shock to those drawn in by the marketing
10:41campaign.
10:42The trailer's dramatic music myriad of CGI creatures, and from Walt Disney Pictures and
10:47Walden Media proclamation, deliberately played up the Narnia connection.
10:51But the movie is something else entirely.
10:53The marketing misrepresented the movie so badly that the director, whose name I'm not even
10:58going to attempt to pronounce, so there it is on the screen, distanced himself from it
11:02altogether, saying 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, was even more succinct after
11:18seeing the first trailer.
11:19His reaction?
11:20Well, my mom is going to hate it.
11:22Uh-oh.
11:22Despite being the main selling point of the movie, the fantasy land of Terabithia only takes
11:27up a small amount of screen time, and it's completely imaginary, serving only as a way
11:32for the two young leads to hide from the tribulations of daily life.
11:36It takes a bold and probably very cynical person to market a tear-jerking coming-of-age
11:41story about heartbreak, escapism, and loss as a family-friendly adventure.
11:46But that is exactly what they did in the end, and people fell for it.
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