Posted on 09/29/2006 7:45:48 AM PDT by Mike Bates
HOOPESTON, Ill. -- The "closed" sign went up a few weeks ago on the flashy neon marquee outside the Lorraine Theatre, but the 84-year-old movie palace on Main Street hasn't played its last picture show. Business isn't bad. It's the movies that are wretched.
"Both theaters in Hoopeston are closed ... because of such poor film choices available," explains a recording on the Lorraine's customer hot line. "Go to Danville to see `Jackass 2.'"
Car dealers wouldn't tell buyers to take a hike until better models came out. No chef worth his ladle would shoo paying diners off to the competition because his kitchen is in a slump. Yet that's essentially what Lorraine owner Greg Boardman did this month.
He put his two screens here on hiatus rather than sell tickets to the gross-out and freak-out fare he said Hollywood distributors have made available in recent weeks. Boardman said he'd rather show nothing than such recent offerings as "Beerfest," "The Covenant" or the "Jackass" sequel, which topped the nation's box office last week despite getting savagely panned by critics. A Tribune review labeled it "an insult to sophomoric movies everywhere."
"There's just so much lousy material out there--people vomiting on the screen," explained Boardman, 52, a local boy who now lives in California and uses the Internet to run the Lorraine from there. "I have one of the finest sound systems in the world, and I don't want to waste it on such drivel."
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
We stopped seeing R-rated movies entirely. Even some PG-13 movies are embarrassing to take kids to.
I recommend "The Greatest Game Ever Played." It's great for the family, and we showed it to my 12 yr old nephew, who enjoyed it a lot.
http://disneyvideos.disney.go.com/moviefinder/products/3965103.html
My one word answer: Netflix--cheaper, more comfortable, less noise, no seat kicking, free mailings of DVDs, no inconvenience, better selections (from your own personal queue)
Warner was going to release this fall, but the test showings went through the roof, so they moved it to the big ticket time of Christmas. On Warner pre-screenings, crowd ratings in the 70s indicate a hit. This movie is in the 90s. Matthew McConnehey (spelling?) is the lead, and reportedly took only 1 million, from his usual 12 mil, to get the part, because of the script.
Truth be told, I am a Marshall fan, but this is going to be an inspirational movie, that any good Freeper should love!
I've heard of that story. Very sad. It happened in 1970 and 75 people died. It's amazing this team became one with most wins in a division after 1984. It's really a miracle.
Goodfellas was a great movie.
That's mostly true. Every now and then a good movie comes out but 95% of what Hollyweird puts out is junk.
Guess that's why I haven't been to a movie theater since 2003.
Edward Norton will always be Jack/Tyler Durden in Fight Club. Kevin Spacey will be the monotonous weirdo in movies. Clive Owen will always be Lev Arris from Privateer 2. Johnny Depp will always be Officer Tom Hanson from 21 Jump Street.
There is a funny movie coming out with a Khazak(?) guy running around here like he owns the place. Accent and all. The dude tried to get in the White House when the Khazak President and Bush were sitting around talking. The SS told him to go away. This guy is better than Yakof Smernov. If anybody remembers the name of the film put it here.
No the book I read was about WWI aviators and how they invented the aircraft to carry bombs and weaponry. They were members of the Skull and Bones at Harvard and how instrumental Harvard was at that time in producing some of the best and brightest in the military. Actually, I didn't post the whole title, so that is the cause of the confusion. The book is called The Millionaires Unit, The Aristocratic Unit of Flyboys. It is written by Marc Wortman. Anyway, I hope the movie is as good as the book. :) Thanks for pointing out my mistake.
But if he signed a contract that artificially limits him to movies like Jackass 2 and he doesn't want to show movies like Jackass 2 then it was a stupid contract to sign. There's more than one distributor out there, he could have avoided Jackass' distributor and signed with somebody else.
Buy or lease publicly displayable copies. The arthouse movie theaters in Tucson do it all the time, they alternate between new "artsy" releases and old "classics" (sometimes artsy sometimes not). There are perfectly legal and apparently not difficult ways to get a hold of old movies and show them in your theater.
Yes...because when he signed that contract it gave him an instant out clause and forewarned him that the distributor was preparing to send him crap.
Well, since you know how to run this gentlemen's theater better than he does, why don't you give him a call, he would probably enjoy hearing from you.
Most of the Western dramatic tradition would be rated R because of violence and/or adult themes. Much of Shakespeare, Greek tragedy...
That's stupid. You get to read contracts BEFORE you sign them. If he saw they were preparing to send him crap he shouldn't have signed. And in movies an exclusive contract like that is nearly unheard of, simply didn't happen. The fact is this guy isn't "stuck" showing crap, he's grandstanding and trying to get good press to increase revenue down stream.
At this juncture what my cat puts in the catbox knows better than this grandstanding moron how to run his theater.
He is likely a member of the movie theatre owners and operators which already pays royalties on the films they run. In addition, a majority of the films from the 30s to the 70s have fallen into the public domain.
People will likely line up for blocks to see some of those films, so it is unlikely he will suffer any loss by doing that.
I also enjoyed the movie tremendously. Truly an oasis in a desert of mediocrity.
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