Welcome to the Weekly Trailer Roundup, where we count down the top five trailers released in the past week, “top” being defined any way we want to at the moment…exciting, ridiculous, best, worst…

These are the trailers that, for one reason or another, you should be paying attention to.

This week’s roundup is a lesson in film marketing – or to use of 2014’s buzziest of buzz words, “branding.” With the proliferation of entertainment choices out there, audiences are being pulled in a million different directions. It’s not easy to convince people to go see your movie, and often the trailer is their first or most memorable encounter they will have with it, so it better stand out. Below are examples of all different types of tricks distributors use in those precious two and a half minutes to make a lasting impression on the viewer.

#5 – Anarchy

Not an easy film to sell since it’s a modern day take on a Shakespeare play (Cymbeline) not many people are familiar with and stars a lot of actors with familiar faces but no big-time names. So here they’ve resorted to the tried and true method of pulling a quote from a critic in which the movie is compared to two other very popular pieces of pulp culture. In this case it’s “mash-up of Sons of Anarchy with Game of Thrones,” which sort of just feels like two popular TV shows were picked at random.

#4 – Girlhood

There’s not a whole lot else you can do when you’re peddling a foreign drama, other than flash as much critical praise as you can find up on the screen. In this case it feels like a bit of a shame since it’s such a wonderfully cut together trailer on its own. But just in case there was any doubt, we’re told that Girlhood is “Bold and beautiful,” “intoxicating,” and a “cinematic work of art.”

#3 – Enter the Dangerous Mind

And if you can’t find praise that’s glowing, just use any word or phrase that sounds cool, like “off the rails,” which in every case I’ve ever heard it applied to a movie previously, has not been good.

#2 – Unfriended

Or you can use title cards to literally spell out the plot of your movie in the first 30 seconds and use the rest of the time showcasing all the cheap tricks the film uses to elicit scares. And if that doesn’t seem like enough, there’s always Jacob Wysocki’s hand in a blender.

#1 – Avengers: Age of Ultron

How nice it must be then to have one of the biggest entertainment brands in the universe and not have to resort to any gimmicks. Just some ominous voice-over against some well-cut-together images from the movie, and one simple title card: “May 1.”

The rest:

Spy – Official Trailer #1

Lovesick – Official Trailer #1

Get Hard – Official Trailer #2

Fear Clinic – Official Trailer #1