There are two sets of clips online for the George Clooney starring Michael Clayton and the Brad Pitt starring The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, and what's interesting for me is that I got bored and disinterested with the Assassination clips but was drawn to the Clayton clips.

According to reports and comments from critics I should be feeling the other way around, but the Michael Clayton clips are a lot more powerful than the slow paced clips of The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

I suspect it doesn't help that these clips are all out of context and it's much easier to build tension in a thriller than it is a film such as Assassination, and clips are never a great reflection of the overall film, yet I do find the Clayton clips are much more engaging.

You can see the Michael Clayton clips over at Rope of Silicon [Flash:Embed]. The film stars such names as George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson, Tilda Swinton and Sydney Pollack and tells the story of a Law firm's fixer who discovers that the current project he's fixing is perhaps all lies and begins to wonder if this time the truth is the answer. It looks like a strong thriller going back to the strength of political thrillers from the seventies.

Meanwhile The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford tells the story of just that, and stars Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Sam Shepard, Sam Rockwell and so on. The clips are over at Rope of Silicon [Flash:Embed] again, and they tell a different story for a film. I still don't think these clips work well on their own, but I guess the marketing has to be done somehow.