He's only No. 2? I've always thought of him as 
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 ...
Good for him.
It's disgusting what passes for movies these days. The days of epic films are gone forever.
Wow. What a mensch.
Bad movies are a recent phenomenon?
"Jackass 2" was already on Fox News over the weekend? The Bill Clinton interview....
Not to the extent that pretty much every film is bad.
I think that "Flags of Our Fathers" will be worth watching. Does anyone know when it will be released?
Atta boy!
He's only No. 2? I've always thought of him as
Good for him.
I was in the Mammoth/Bishop area last weekend with my two oldest boys; I had in mind maybe to catch a movie (hoping for "Fearless").
Four screens, NOTHING to choose. Jackass 2, and I forget what else.
Admire this guy's stand.
Not too much objectionable in that one; a good story about WWI with nothing anti-American.
Enjoyed it.
Sounds like excuse mongering to me. He's only got two screens to fill, it's not that hard to put something good on them. Sure maybe Jackass 2 doesn't deserve his sound system but what about Flyboys? Invincible? The Illusionist?
I really admire someone who's willing to take a stand when it's likey to have an adverse effect on him personally. I say good for him!
I saw "Flyboys" the other night and it is a real exception to the current bilge. Not totally authentic, but a rousing good film that contains more than a bit of historical accuracy. It is a throwback to the old epic film although the critics apparently hate it because it "glorfies war." Well, World War I was entered into with themes of glory most prominant followed by complete disillusionment. The movie captures this fact well, but I guess the liberal critics out there either know little of history or else don't like clean films without the gratuitous f bomb and nudity. Go see it. I think you would like it.
You must have forgotten about Carter. I agree with the previous poster, Clinton is #2.
bump
I think of the Dean Scream as "Jackass 1"
Yeah he seems to think the only things available are the most heavily marketed Big Studio releases.
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