We’ve all been suckered before.  You’re sitting in the theater or in front of the TV, and a movie trailer comes on.  It looks awesome.  You’re blown away, and the next week or the next month, you rush out to the theater, give the man behind the counter your fist full of money, fork over cash for popcorn and a drink, and get your favorite spot.  Then the movie comes on and is absolutely terrible.  Now you’ve wasted two or three hours (counting the drive) and $30!  The Life Hackery has some tips on how to tell the difference between a good movie and a bad one without paying for it.

Some of these tips are great.  Thanks to the internet, you can easily see how many scripts a movie has had before production and how many writers are attached (more writers is bad, as are more failed scripts).  Some directors and writers are permanently on my banned list (Uwe Boll, for example).  I’ve never noticed the voice over differences, but some of the other tricks are ones I already use and swear by even now.

I’m a big believer in doing my movie research before going to the cinemas, unless I’m getting paid to review the movie.  If someone else is footing the bill, then I’ll go see anything.  That’s why I ended up seeing every movie that came out between mid May and late August aside from a select few.  After the Clone Wars cartoon, I’m never trusting George Lucas again.  That might get me beaten up by Darth Vader, but I’ll risk it.

Tags: tips, how to, avoid bad movies, find good movies, analyzing trailers, predicting movies, life hackery

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