Lame Trailer Clichés: The Freeze Frame

Yes, another weekly feature. It was something I came up with while selling someone a Lotto ticket at work and gazing at the TV playing the trailer disc. I've seem craploads of trailers in my time thanks to working a DVD shop, and more often than not they're pretty silly. So every Monday, I'll look at a certain lame trailer cliché that seems to pop up in quite a few of them.

Ah, the freeze frame. They're activities we do in our first years of Drama, just so we can create complicated situations with a single movement. Alas, trailers use them in a different way. Many different ways, in fact. Some can be effective, others are just...well, what's the point? Freeze frames are supposed to be the production stills, not subjected to the trailer, which can move and speak. Let's take a look at the four different freeze frames:

1) The 'Introduction' Freeze Frame.

Most of the time, this one is quite effective. Especially in the case of The Change-Up - an otherwise awful film - which shows the life of Dave perfectly. And hey, the second freeze frame sums up the movie perfectly. It is a giant shit in the face. (full trailer here)