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You guys all know the feeling, because I'm sure it's all happened to you. You're getting ready to watch a movie with some friends and you're stoked cause you've been looking forward to this movie for a while.

So you meet up with your friends, you watch the movie and somewhere in the film you realize that this was not what you wanted to see. You think to yourself, "What happened to the drama that I was promised? Man, this movie sucks." Then, here's the funny part, your friend who was sitting next to you, watching the same movie says, "That was great, 'lotta good laughs, great comedy!" Comedy, WTF? I didn't pay to see a comedy!! But then something weird happens, you rethink the film and slowly realize that yeah, as a comedy that movie was good...but it was supposed to be a drama!!

That, my friends, is called baggage. So how do we get it, and more importantly, how can we avoid bringing it to a movie?

I believe the, "How do we get it?" part is a two fold answer. One part, surprisingly has little to do with us. It has to do with how a movie is presented to us by the movie studios. Sometimes the studio can present us, through teasers, trailers and even posters, an image which the movie has little to do with. This can happen with characters or even an entire genre. A good character example is that mess of a movie called, X-men Origins: Wolverine. In almost every trailer you see them advertising Gambit, The Blob or that cool shot where Ryan Reynolds splits that bullet in half as Wade Wilson. Sadly, all those characters had minuscule parts in the movie, and actually had very little to do with the film as a whole.

With genres it happens in the same manner, but it's the feel of a movie that gets misrepresented. I recently watched an interview of Eli Roth where he talked about this and cites his own, Cabin Fever as an example. He mentioned that when people were presented the film as a straight horror movie, they hated it. But when they were told that it was just a fun movie with some things you've never seen before, people loved it.

A more recent illustration of almost the exact same thing happening is with Jennifer's Body. A trailer of this movie was presented by Fox studios that aired pre-Bruno. It was marketed as a serious horror movie and the overwhelming response was negative. However, several days later director Karyn Kusama, writer Diablo Cody and producer Jason Reitman released a "filmmakers trailer" of the movie which presented the movie as more of a comedic horror. They did this because they didn't think the studio's version really portrayed what the movie was really about. The response to that trailer has been very positive.

The second part in that two fold answer to, "How we pick up baggage?" lies with....you. Yep, in part we are responsible for how much baggage we bring to a movie. Everyday through word of mouth or what we read we are presented with reviews and opinions that may not accurately reflect how we feel about something. How much of that informational baggage, which surrounds your personal universe, you bring to a movie experience is completely up to you. If critic or a friend says a movie is terrible, do you think it's terrible just because they did? Before you even see the movie? If you do, then you might just be bogging yourself down in a movie you might have enjoyed.

Now that we covered how we can pick it up, how can we avoid bringing it? The answer is soo simple you'll probably laugh. Make up your own mind. Yep, that's it. In the same interview Roth says a very good line, "People's opinions of movies are very directly related to how they were sold the film." Ok so if studios have to sell us an idea of a movie, how much of that idea are we buying in to? If you see a movie that you think you might like, do some research on it. Notice I said research, as in actual information, not what people think. Try to find things that give you an accurate idea of what the film is really about, so you can understand a movie before going to watch it, without having passed judgment on it already.

Now can we use those reviews as a tool? Sure, I do. I like to look up reviews to see things like plots or the story synopsis or whatever helps me get a picture about the movie. Notice I said "a picture" not, "the critic's" picture. Don't think a movie is crap just because someone says it is, and don't look up reviews to see how you should feel about a movie. Critics are people giving their opinions, that's all. No movie is going to appeal to everyone, so don't complicate things for yourself. Remember guys, opinions are like assholes and elbows, everyone has one. So make up your own. You may find yourself enjoying more movies that way.