“Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” from Aaron Paul

Aaron Paul IS “Weird Al” Yankovic in Appel’s perfect trailer for a musical biopic based on the life story of the world’s greatest accordian-based musical satirist. Sure, the casting is fantastic, and the rise-and-fall plot points are all in place, but all it takes is a look at the trailers for any music biopic (hello, GET ON UP) to know how well Appel nailed not only the concept, but how to sell it. Talented actors in small bit parts? Far too perfect music montages? Love and loss? WEIRD has it all.

35. GENA’S STORY (1983)

From WHEN NATURE CALLS

Dir. Charles Kaufman

Troma’s WHEN NATURE CALLS has a number of entertaining bogus movie trailers before the “feature presentation,” including one for an infant mobster pic called BABY BULLETS and another for a boxing flick called RAGIN BULLSHIT. but the winner of the batch is GENA’S STORY, a melodrama marketed to the blind. It would be offensive if it made any damn sense at all, but it’s a “serious woman’s picture” in which a smoking “narrator” just sits in the top right corner and gets increasingly confused. It works because the trailer itself is so straight-faced, and the narrator’s presence just makes the whole thing an absurdist spectacle. (Trailer starts at 3:39)

34. SCORCHER VI: GLOBAL MELTDOWN (2008)

From TROPIC THUNDER

Dir. Ben Stiller

Ben Stiller was no stranger to movie trailer parodies when he directed TROPIC THUNDER thanks to his work on “The Ben Stiller Show,” (more evidence to that effect later) but THUNDER gave him the chance to create fake publicity for three films (and a beverage) in which his lead characters starred. As good as SATAN’S ALLEY and THE FATTIES are, SCORCHER VI: GLOBAL MELTDOWN, a take on long-running action franchise teasers, is the winner, thanks in no small part to perfectly-tuned narration. “Here we go again… again.”

33. POST MODEM (2008)

Dir. Mark Colegrove

Made to accompany Colegrove-er-make that “Antonello Giallo”‘s ISLE OF THE DAMNED, a feature that pays homage to the Italian cannibal film, POST MODEM is a crazed combination of giallo and early ’80s technothriller, and while the movie itself doesn’t exist, it sure looks like a hell of a lot of fun. The trailer is only available on the DVD for ISLE, but it’s almost worth picking up the DVD for that extra alone. (Good thing the bloody ISLE is fun as well.)

32. THANKSGIVING (2007)

From GRINDHOUSE

Dir. Eli Roth

GRINDHOUSE afforded several filmmakers to make great fake trailers to play before and between Tarantino and Rodriguez’s features, and Roth’s take on ’80s slasher films is so good that even his most ardent critics would have problems attacking it. The perfect mixture of love for the genre and embracing of its inevitable cliches, THANKSGIVING is the slasher movie so many holiday-themed slice-em-ups promise, and so few actually deliver. The bird. The trampoline. It’s all fantastic, and as much as I love it, I love the fact that it wasn’t turned into a movie even more.

31. DON’ YOU GO ROUNIN’ ROUN TO RE RO (2011)

From SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE

don you go rounin roun to re ro from Chitharanjan Das on Vimeo.

Have a tough time watching the likes of LOCK, STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS without subtitles? This is the faux trailer for you, a perfectly crafted replication of “the most British crime drama of the year” in which you can’t understand a damn thing. Sure, it’s a one-joke premise, but the editing nails the genre and the critics’ quotes just drive the point home.

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@Paul Freitag-Fey