Second Trailer for Friends with Benefits Axes F-Bombs, Still Funny

Media, News, Projects, Trailers

Last November, Screen Gems dropped the red-band trailer for Friends with Benefits on the Internet, despite the film not arriving in theaters for another nine months. Though it was unclear why Screen Gems would unveil the trailer so early and not after the January release of No Strings Attached, it did its job by creating a buzz, however small it may have been.

The comedy is Will Gluck’s follow up to last year’s Easy A, a PG-13 comedy that was an homage to the high school films of John Hughes and The Scarlet Letter. It became a small hit of the fall and helped to elevate Emma Stone’s exposure as a young actress to watch. Friends with Benefits doesn’t fit the same mold as Easy A. It’s a Rated-R comedy with swearing, body parts and made-up sexual innuendo (a Will Gluck specialty). Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis star.

Now a second, sanitized trailer has arrived and it still brings the funny.

A young female headhunter (Kunis) in New York convinces a potential recruit (Timberlake) to leave his job in San Francisco behind and accept a job in the big apple. Despite an attraction to each other, both realize they’re everything they’ve been running from in a relationship and decide to become friends… with benefits. It’s the perfect arrangement–until they realize there’s no such thing as no strings attached.

Frankly, I think this has the potential to be one of the hits of the summer. Opening opposite Captain America: The First Avenger on July 22nd, it will either have a decent opening and pick up momentum in successive weeks if word of mouth is good, or it will be dead on arrival. But if it goes down hard, it will at least have an impressive ensemble cast. Emma Stone has a small role, as does Andy Samberg, Patricia Clarkson, Richard Jenkins and Woody Harrelson, who could be the biggest scene-stealer in the movie, playing Timberlake’s gay friend. So after watching the trailer do you guys think the comedy has a shot at being a hit this summer?

Travis Leamons is one of the Inside Pulse Originals and currently holds the position of Managing Editor at Inside Pulse Movies. He's told that the position is his until he's dead or if "The Boss" can find somebody better. I expect the best and I give the best. Here's the beer. Here's the entertainment. Now have fun. That's an order!