Posted on 07/31/2005 6:34:21 AM PDT by raccoonradio
It's been the summer of our discontent at the movies, and if the box office has been in a slump for much of the summer season, the American film industry has no one to blame but itself.
Once, movie theaters were magic kingdoms often designed to evoke literal and mythical palaces, and spending an afternoon or an evening inside one was a quasi-religious experience.
Now, they are little more than automated slums, mall-like spaces with concession stands selling ludicrously overpriced junk food and soft drinks and a wilderness of corridors leading to individual ``screens,'' some almost as big as the movie theaters of baby boomers' childhoods, but most much smaller.
Often, the spaces are badly cleaned and ventilated (although oddly enough, multiplexes reportedly are doubling as houses of worship in some communities). Sound ``leaks'' from one ``screen'' to the next (God help you if ``War of the Worlds'' is playing in a theater next door). And the sound systems, if they are in proper working order, might be less state-of-the-art than what you have at home.
In more civil times, movie patrons considered it rude to talk above a whisper or otherwise distract others. Now, people often illicitly ``sample'' a variety of movies. In almost every theater, cellphones can be heard going off, and patrons who think it's their God-given right to be rude won't shut up.
And forget about one projectionist per screen. Loews Boston Common currently employs two union projectionists to keep watch over 19 screens. At AMC Fenway, a single nonunion projectionist maintains 13 screens.
If you experience a problem at either multiplex, you might have to walk some distance before you encounter an employee for help. If a motivated patron doesn't go for help, the problem can remain unaddressed. While the workers I have encountered in both 'plexes have been helpful and courteous, there aren't enough of them to go around.
Once, the only ``ads'' moviegoers had to watch were trailers for upcoming films, which most people enjoyed. Now, theater chains show several minutes' worth of TV-like commercials before the start of a film program. (Loews Boston Common has signs posted telling patrons movies start 10 to 15 minutes after the start times listed in newspapers and online.)
The moviegoing experience has been deteriorating for decades. When you combine that with the advent of DVDs and home theaters, a bruising job market and a mediocre slate of summer films, you have the makings of a moviegoers' revolt.
What's to see anyway? ``Batman'' and ``Star Wars'' movies, ``The Dukes of Hazzard,'' ``Bewitched,'' the aforementioned ``War of the Worlds,'' ``Bad News Bears,'' ``Herbie'' or ``The Longest Yard''? It sounds like your grandpa's summer movie season.
The film industry is so obsessed with the bottom line and big opening weekends, it only wants to make the same films over and over again, and so we get remakes, updates and sequels and big-screen versions of antediluvian TV shows.
George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, the two filmmakers most responsible for this state of affairs because of the unprecedented popularity of the original ``Jaws,'' ``Raiders of the Lost Ark'' and ``Star Wars,'' both have new films out this season. But arguably ``War of the Worlds'' and ``Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith'' aren't ``new'' at all.
Seemingly, viewers have awakened to the fact they are being fed the same reheated, PG-13-rated slop over and over again.
Hey, wouldn't it be smarter, cheaper and more pleasant to watch these films in the comfort of our own homes? This summer the answer to that question increasingly has been yes.
I don't see too many movies these days but I used to:
--"Cadillac Man" with Robin Williams. Film broke during it but I think they got it fixed or used a backup copy
--"Born on the Fourth of July", first showing (bargain matinee) turned into a film about giant worms, "Tremors". A distribution error gave us the wrong film starting with the second or third reels. Gave us refunds.
...oh and almost forgot--Born on 4th was 70mm and Tremors was 35 so since projector was on 70mm setting it was distorted as well.
After Babs and her mouth about George Bush and Geek Baldwin (still waiting for him to move out of the U.S.) I refuse to go to a movie...I'm not paying that much money to those idiots for the trash they throw around...
And why pay good money to see charlie and the Choclate Factory; War of the Worlds; Dukes of Hazzards....didn't we see these when we were kids????
To my credit I actually went to see "Celsius 41.11", a rebuttal to F 9/11, at a local theatre. Not many people went
(liberal Mass.; limited advertising, etc.) But yes the originals are just as good if not better. I haven't seen
"Charlie.." though word has it Johnny Depp reminds people a bit TOO much of Wacko Jacko!
All I needed to see was that clip of him in the TV ad saying "Don't touch that squirrel's nuts!" No thanks!
I think that is a HUGE reason why the Red State crowd has not gone to see movies this summer. People got flat-out got tired of the ultra-Left mutterings from the Hollywood crowd and decided on a de facto boycott of the movies this year on an unprecedented scale.
This article pretty much nails it for me.
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