Previews

A fun thing about previews is that they can often serve as a warning sign.

You've been there, I'm sure.  You put in the DVD and you're settling in to the couch.  As you're putting your beer on table next to you and pulling up your ice cream, a preview rolls across the screen.  It oozes estrogen, and from the three minute trailer you already know exactly how it's going to end and which guy the girl will end up with just before the credits roll.  Maybe it's starring Amy Adams or Julia Roberts.  If you're like me a wave of panic rolls down your spin.  Oh shit, you think.  What the hell movie did I get myself into?  What the hell is this that the wife rented?  You know that whoever puts the DVDs together tries to match trailers to the movies you're about to see.  Now you're in for it.

It's not just the case with saccharine-laden romantic comedies.  Sometimes you think you've rented a good action movie, but each of the three trailers pushes a slasher film directed by Rob Zombie.  Crap.  It's not going to be a period action movie about witch hunts, it's going to be an hour and a half of watching creepy old witches abduct, torture and then vivisect pretty village girls.

While it's only the preview, not the movie, sometimes it's good to take in the warning and make the wise decision to shut it off.