4. Rush
Rush is the story of racing driver James Hunt, a man who seemed to think the 'F' in F1 stood for fornication. The film received rave reviews, most notably for Daniel Bruhl's performance as Hunt's nemesis Niki Lauda, and should be a shoe-in for the Best Sound Editing Oscar at the Academy Awards in March. The movie's strength lay in the way it managed to accurately capture the intense rivalry between two of the sports legends while punctuating their relationship with exhilarating race sequences. It will come as no surprise to you, dear reader, that the trailer replicates this feat. Why It Works: The preview ticks over nicely, giving the actors and cars enough screen time to shine equally. Chris Hemsworth is as handsome as Bruhl is intense, and the difference between their character's worlds is highlighted perfectly. Hunt's is a heady cocktail of sex, cigarettes and champagne. Bruhl's is stripped-down precision personified. The trailer careers forward, constructed like a race. The cars rev, the girls cheer and plot points and characters are glimpsed fleetingly as we whizz past. The music is loud, the cars are louder, what is happening around the races is largely irrelevant, the only thing that matters is what happens on the track; what drives these men is not their lifestyle, but racing and winning. In perfectly capturing this ethos, the Rush trailer makes it onto the podium.