Posted on 11/27/2005 1:01:15 PM PST by Daralundy
To judge from the way the weekend's box office is breathlessly reported in the news bulletins on Monday morning, more people seem to be interested in movie grosses than in the movies. Evidently, Hollywood's now recovered from this summer's all-time record "box office slump." Or at any rate news stories about the box office slump have themselves slumped. In a breathless dispatch on the opening weekend of ''Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,'' the Associated Press reported that ''the latest Potter movie led a lineup that helped reverse the Hollywood box-office slump."
I wouldn't say the boy wizard and his Hogwarts chums exactly "led a lineup" of slump-reversers. When you look at the weekend numbers, ''Harry Potter's'' $101.4 million is more than the gross of the rest of the top five movies combined and doubled. Indeed, the rest of the top 10 between them managed $66 million. ''Harry Potter'' is an industry apart, and tells us nothing about Hollywood's general malaise, or alleged recovery therefrom.
I chipped in my own 20 bucks or so of that hundred mil. Went to see it opening weekend. Had a miserable time. Nothing to do with the movie. Everything to do with the theater I saw it in. It was a multiplex operated by a New England chain called Entertainment Cinemas of South Easton, Mass., and they really should make critics see the films in these kinds of joints. It was a small screen at the end of a dingy room with unraked seating and, instead of letting you lose yourself in the dark to the magic of the silver screen, they keep half the lights up for the movie. I e-mailed "customer service" at Entertainment Cinemas to inquire why, but received no response.
(Excerpt) Read more at suntimes.com ...
"Hollywood's PC perversion stifles storytelling"
More like Hollywood's PC perversion seeks to rewrite history.
Gladly forked over my $ for the HP matinee. I think it's been exactly one year since I last saw a movie, and that one was the previous HP.
Yep, pervert lawyers have taken over the business, and now even Holywood is scared of bothering muslims' perverted cultural privacies....makes money for lawyers.
Good Steyn, as always.
For the past couple of years, I have been enjoying Terry Teachout's movie reviews in Crisis Magazine. But around a month ago, Teachout wrote his last movie review column and said goodbye. What he said, basically, is that it's become too painful for a reviewer to go to the movies, in hopes of seeing something worth writing about.
We took the kids to see Wallace and Grommet, but even that was a disappointment, severely Hollywoodized. Don't bother to see the movie. Get your kids the Wallace and Grommet DVD with the earlier stories on it. It's priceless. "Chicken Run," by the same writer-directors, is also worth seeing again.
The last really good movie I watched, other than old films on DVD, was "The Incredibles." Oh, and Freepers should get the DVDs of "The Cat Returns" and "Porco Rosso," two Japanese classics released by Disney.
I saw "Stealth" on DVD. Dreadfully stupid movie. Just atrocious.
20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.
21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."
31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over. 32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc. 41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
Really - Computer as the enemy. I'm shocked! Who knew? Must be something new in Science Fiction.
Well, maybe I should say that it wasn't a bad movie, but it wasn't as good as his earlier ones, at least so most of us thought.
later read.
And the MOST important of all:
Make leftism/liberalisim appear to be the concerns of the upper classes. In order to be of the elite, you have to repeat;
I am a leftist, I am better than you.
All opposition is composed of early humanoids trying to learn to eat with a fork.
Coming out of H'weird nothing is sacred.
It also stifles good sense, good morals, good acting, critical thinking...
I had never seen "Mrs. Doubtfire" with Robin Willams until this weekend. Great movie, but terrible ending.
It should have been a sweet love story how the lovable Robin Williams wins his wife back. But instead it ended all PC, with the wife not being able to live with Williams, only just allow him to see the kids without a monitor. How wonderful. /sarc
31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage.... ....Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.
Boy, that last one sure backfired, didn't it?
Come on Bruce, MAKE THAT MOVIE, and make it NOW.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.