And now, our crappy Feature Presentation

The other night I went out with friends to go see “Thank You For Smoking.” It was a good movie – entertaining, funny, intelligent. It wasn’t the best movie I’ve seen this year or one I’ll be buying on DVD, and when we went to the movies we chose that one by default because it was the only one we were interested in seeing, and even then it was close to being a ‘well, that’s one of those movies that you can wait to see on video’ type decisions. But one of those things happened to me during the previews that does from time to time.

Why is it that when you go to see a movie, usually one you’re only moderately interested in – or especially if you’re being dragged to it – that the previews for other movies often leave you a little bummed out after watching them? Time and again, I’ll be like, “Man, now I really want to see that movie instead!” Of course, the previews are of films that aren’t even out yet and probably won’t be for several months. Before this particular movie, I saw trailers for “The Departed” and “Little Miss Sunshine” and they both definitely looked like films I wanted to go see instead. Right now.

The cruelest kind of preview is the one for a big-budget production of your favorite novel with the Best Cast Ever and it’s not even going to be released until 15 months from now. How dare they show you that now! There ought to be a law against that. Something like:

“Movie Theater Rule 17: There shall be no showing previews of other, cooler movies before this movie unless you’re so amped to see the current film that you really just can’t be bothered. If you leave this film upset and think the previews beforehand were better than the movie you just saw, you will be entitled to two free passes to one of the cool movies in the previews.”

Something like that. Anyways, it makes me happy to have those TV-type commercials foisted upon me instead. I’ll happily sit through another inane Coke or Fanta ad, if it means I don’t have to see a full-on preview for Peter Jackson’s 8-hour, two-movie version of The Hobbit, due out soon in theaters near you, Christmas 2008.