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 ...
But BillyBob was in the White House twice as long. Hence the No. 1 designation. IMHO.
I saw Flyboys, and while I thought it was somewhat formulaic, and the romance in it was rather obvious, by the end, I was thoroughly entertained. I'd give it 2.5 stars. Definately worth seeing on the big screen, when was the last time you saw Bi-planes and Tri-planes, shooting it out in the skies over France?
Yeah, I didn't even get to the small release stuff. There's actually some really interesting stuff hitting the "art house" theaters these days, and in Tucson if you've got less than a dozen screens you're aiming for the art house crowd so apparently it's more than enough to fill the 2 screens this guy has.
Jeffrey Harharwood is behind this, no doubt.
Oh please don't be melodramatic. While there is certainly a nice crapfest of movies coming out, hardly is the epic gone.... Lets face it, several multi part epics have only recently completed.... TLOTR, SW I, II, III... as well as such far as Narnia... etc etc.
While I won't deny there is a ton of drivel, there always has been. Great movies are few and far between, ever actually go back and see what kinds of movies were released during a particular 10 year span? Yes you will find some great classics... but you'll also find a lot of crap.
There will always be low end and poor quality movies being made... difference is before, people would not go see them in droves.... It speaks volumes about our culture today that a film about a bunch of homos abusing themselves in front of the camera is the #1 movie out...
If you let MTV into your home as a parent, you frankly just need publicly shamed.
This is great news. An owner deciding that trash is trash. I hope there are more out there.
Well done. That said, it's way past time for more wealthy cultural conservatives to put their money where their mouth is and make some DECENT MOVIES. It's not as if there's not a huge market for them!!
Studios refer to them as 'tax write-offs.'
I'd much rather see him get a print of a film classic and run that. Maybe this isn't possible, but imagine this lobby sign:
Today's Hollywood product is simply dreadful, so we are proud to present "Dr. Zhivago." We hope you will enjoy the film, and join us next week for "Casablanca."
agreed - great idea
>>It's disgusting what passes for movies these days. The days of epic films are gone forever.<<
I agree very much with the first part. But I am optimistic about the second part.
I think that technology is advancing so rapidly that, like the media, Hollywood will no longer have a monopoly in the entertainment business, giving rise to more and more smaller-budget, independent films that will change the movie world forever.
It was about a month ago, and we wanted to take the kids to a drive-in theatre while on vacation. The main facet of the evening was the drive-in experience, rather than the movie. Kids wanted 'Taledega nights', and the only other choice was Cars. What a MISTAKE that was! YECCHH! RETCHHHH!
It would be great if there could be some movie theaters that only ran the classic movies.(Maybe there are some.) I know I would pay to see them shown again on the "big screen".
I agree that many modern movies are disgusting. I refuse to see a movie if I know that it's rated "R" because of profanity. The Marx brothers were in some great comedies that didn't use profanity. Why did the amount of profanity in movies increase within the past 50 years? I e-mailed this question to Michael Medved, but he didn't answer. I hope to read many ideas about it.
As they should be - time (and technology) moves on. Back in the 30s, movies had only radio as competition. Then came TV in the 50s; now there's computer games. Each competitive niche draws away the most creatively brilliant artists, leaving movies no different than any mature industry that's run for cash flow by studio executives.
If you were in your late teens/young 20s, and were very creative, where would you go? All the very best talent is going into computer games since that's where the future lies.
I thought the bevis and butthead movie was quite good.
I also like daria on mtv.
Perhaps he signed agreements that only allow the theater to show movies from certain studios. So he can't just pick and choose what he shows.
I'm only 40, so I have never seen most of my favorite films on the big screen. What a thrill it would be to slide into a theatre seat to see "A Bridge Too Far" on the big screen, or "Bullitt," or "Dr. Strangelove," or even "Annie Hall."
Regards, Ivan
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