What’s this? Sly Stallone getting behind the trigger of a massive machine gun and mowing down assorted evil-doers, pontoons, and foliage? And what do we have here? Copious amounts of blood, gore and destruction?

I thought I was a mature, 21-year-old senior until I saw the Red Band trailer for “Rambo.”

Let me backtrack for a moment for those of you who think that a “Red Band trailer” means a bloody bandage placed on a U-Haul. Trailer is just fancy-speak for a two-minute movie preview. Red Band, on the other hand, is a fairly new idea in the world of film.

A Red Band preview is one that is usually shown online after the user navigates a series of impenetrable obstacles, such as giving the Web site your birthday. This guards against young ‘ns burning their virgin eyes at the sight of something mature, because as we all know, it’s impossible to lie about your age.

Anyway, this comes together in the way all things tend to, with John Rambo tearing it up in the middle of the jungle.

When I first heard about the new “Rambo” movie, I had no desire to see another middle-aged Stallone rehash. However, this all changed the moment I saw the unedited Red Band trailer.

What’s this? Sly Stallone getting behind the trigger of a massive machine gun and mowing down assorted evil-doers, pontoons and foliage? And what do we have here? Copious amounts of blood, gore and destruction?

Somehow, within the span of a few minutes, I went from complete apathy towards the film, to being very anxious to check it out. I attribute this to the fact that I got to see some nameless baddy get his entire upper torso annihilated by a high caliber machine gun.

Action movies aren’t the only genre that have benefited from the notoriety gained from some pretty hardcore trailers.

Comedies like “Superbad” and “Semi-Pro” have gained some massive early buzz by releasing Red Band trailers that feature a handful of moments in the films in all of their unedited glory.

This works very well with R-rated comedies, because it gives viewers a taste of what the movie really has to offer. In traditional theatrical trailers, movies are forced to pull back their punches.

Other trailers for movies like “30 Days of Night” and “Shoot’Em Up” were able to exhibit the brutal violence and over-the-top situations found in both films. This trend of using Red Band trailers to give fans a taste of what a movie really has to offer is growing, and looks to be an important part of advertising in the future.

In the end, I’ve grown comfortable with the fact that I am pretty much an immature man-child, just as long as I get to see blood and hear naughty words.

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