Movie Homework

A friend of mine, Ralph Rosati, has a preference about his previews. He likes at least three but no more than six. Less than three and he feels cheated. More than six and it dilutes the tantalizing morsels of expectation and gets to be – even as much as fun as previews are -- tedious. I agree. So while you’re waiting for your movie to start, watching The Twenty or whatever preshow your theatre uses, before the Coca Cola and AXE and ETrade and cell phone commercials and the National Guard music video are over, try this game to pass the time (if you’re like me, you like to get to the theatre early to get that Tomlinson Holman seat. More about what that is later.) Anyway…here's the game: see if you can guess which previews are going to be shown before your feature. Easy, right? Two rules: you have to announce your stunningly psychic choice proudly, and you have to solidify your choices before the previews begin (no changing your mind after the rabbit is out of the gate). Base your decision on context: the more you know about movies, the easier the game gets, but it never gets easy. Rating is important; impending releases are important; obviously genre and intended audience (not too many horror movies previewed in front of Bolt – makes sense) are important; stars are important, time of year is important, even which studio is distributing the feature is important. But you have to narrow your choice to only three. And then judge your success (or failure) on your “batting average.” Three out of three is sensational (how many major league baseball stars bat 1000 is any one game?) -- one of three is a good start. Zero? Maybe you need to do more homework before you go to the movies next time…