Pardon the trailer trashing, but a commercial before a commercial?

So where's the outrage? OK, outrage may be a little strong, but come on people. Look what's happening.

I recently went online and called up a theatrical trailer to the new Bruce Willis thriller "Surrogates." What did I get? A TV commercial for a car company.

The commercial came with an explanation that the "video" I requested would start after the car company plug.

My jaw dropped, as it does during moments of utter disbelief.

Have we become such consumer sheep that we're willing to sit through a commercial we didn't want to see in order to sit through a commercial we did?

Reel Life review: 'Free Style'

Back in 1987, William Dear directed an endearing family movie about a lovable abominable snowman called "Harry and the Hendersons.

Now, his newest film, an indie sports drama titled "Free Style," represents a severely regressive work. It closely resembles an elaborate student film, complete with cast members who could have been snatched from a local community theater troupe.

"High School Musical" star Corbin Bleu plays Cale, the product of a mixed-race marriage and a broken home. He comes with the obligatory daddy-abandonment issues and a dream to become a professional motocross champion with his dirt bike.

"It's not a game," he asserts. "It's my life!"

That's just the tip of the cliché iceberg in this agonizingly familiar plot crammed with stock characters uttering well-worn phrases. It's not clear why Dear makes all his untrustworthy characters blonde'

Cale's cheating girlfriend Crystal (Tegan Moss) is blonde.

So is Cale's obnoxiously self-centered moto-rival Derek Black (Matt Bellefleur).

And his duplicitous white mother (Penelope Ann Miller).

Cales' cute little sister (Madison Pettis) is not blonde, so she's OK.

Alex (Sandra Ecchevarria), a Hispanic young woman with a protective father, isn't blond, either, so it's clear sailing for Cales to romance her, even though he's the poor boy with no prospects.

The overwritten script by Joshua Leibner and Jeffrey Nicholson shovels up the exposition in sophomoric chunks while Dear's cameraman Karl Hermann's overused slow-motion scenes turn some potentially exciting sports footage into tiresome visual mud.

"Free Style" opens today at local theaters. Rated PG. 94 minutes.

Film fest continues

Actor Willem "The Green Goblin" Dafoe joins a parade of filmmakers attending the Chicago International Film Festival through Thursday, Oct. 22. He's scheduled to be at a screening of his new controversial drama, Lars von Trier's "Antichrist," at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 12, at the AMC River East 21 in Chicago. Go to chicagofilmfestival.com for schedules and tickets.

Reel Life review: 'Coco Before Chanel'

Superhero origin movies are the rage these days ("Batman Begins," "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," etc.), so why not one for super French fashion designer Coco Chanel?

Audrey Tautou, who charmed international audiences in "Amelie," brings an emotionally weighted whimsy to Chanel as Anne Fontaine's biopic whisks the future artist through her early days in a Catholic orphanage (futilely waiting for her father to return) and her modest beginnings as a seamstress and cabaret singer with her sister (Marie Gillain).

Chanel develops her eye for style after becoming a kept woman at the posh estate of the rich and scandalous Etienne Balsan (Benoit Poelvoorde). There, she experiments not only with the simpler, more practical designs of men's clothing, but with a handsome British businessman (Alessandro Nivola) who comes to visit.

Christophe Beaucarne's picture-postcard cinematography and Olivier Radot's art designs are the true stars of this movie. They have at least as much life and personality as the characters who populate Fontaine's suitably restrained drama.

"Coco Before Chanel" opens today at the Century Centre in Chicago, the Evanston CineArts 6 and the Renaissance Place in Highland Park. Rated PG-13 for sexual situations and smoking. 110 minutes.

Tia! Tia! Tia!

Actress Tia Carrère will attend screenings of her immortal comedy "Wayne's World" at 7 and 10 p.m. today at Hollywood Palms theater, 352 S. Route 59 in Naperville. She'll also attend 7 and 10 p.m. screenings Saturday, Oct. 10, at Hollywood Boulevard theaters, 1001 W. 75th St., in Woodridge, and again at 5 and 8 p.m. screenings Sunday, Oct. 11, back at Hollywood Palms. Go to a atriptothemovies.com for details and tickets.