Trailers Gone Wild

I love watching movies. My husband and I go to the movie theater almost every week. We have an unlimited Netflix membership and our DVR is often full to capacity because we tape more movies than we can watch. One of the best parts about going to the movies is seeing all the trailers for upcoming releases. In the past few years the trailers have become spoilers for the movies they are promoting.

The last comedy I saw was "The Hangover". While it was a pretty good movie all of the funny parts were shown during the trailer and during the nonstop commercials for the movie leading up to its release. It was hard to really get into the movie because I knew what was going to happen. Whatever happened to the cryptic trailers that didn't tell you anything about the movie? I can understand wanting to drum up a little interest but you don't have to show the entire movie. It would have been amazing if Mike Tyson suddenly showed up on screen and no one knew he was going to be in the movie. But everyone knew and there was only polite laughter and not the huge response the film makers would have gotten otherwise. It's not a cameo if you promote the crap out of it in the trailer and during every commercial break.

Luckily, I watch a lot of independent and foreign films that don't get a lot of press in the mainstream media. I usually hear about these movies while listening to NPR or reading Time Magazine. When I see these movies I get the full movie experience. Sometimes I know little more than the basic plot of these movies. I am happy that Amelie, Little Miss Sunshine and Slumdog Millionaire (and several others) were all movies that I saw based on NPR interviews and that I never saw a trailer or interview on Good Morning America about it until after I had seen the movies. I didn't really know what I was getting myself into in any of these cases but I was very happy with all three choices.

In addition to the movie trailers, I'm annoyed with television programs showing you a summary of the entire show immediately before the show comes on and at every commercial break. Seriously, stop it. I want to watch the show. I rarely watch live TV any more because I have to sing songs and put my fingers in my ears at every commercial break to avoid getting the entire plot of the 30 minute show. The DVR and the ability to skip all the commercials has saved my sanity but it still bugs me.

I don't understand the logic of all of these over previewing. Was there a demand for this? Who made the decision to give the milk away for free even though everyone was still buying cows? Grrr...