[Shizelbs]

The theater experience sucks. At home I can eat what I want, piss when I want, play it as loud as I want, watch the nudie scenes as many times as I want, get far better sound quality, sit in a comfortable stain-free couch, wear my dumpy sweats, make smart assed comments that the whole audience laughs at (just me), and have access to a full bar that never stops serving you.

Or I can drive to the theater and watch teenagers text message on their cell phones and peel my shoes off the floor when its time to leave.

Time to adapt to the future and quit pressing the past Hollywood.

 

[GTroy]

it's a different experience going to the movies, you 'know' your at the theatres-for good or bad.

I've heard the gaining acceptence of movie prices coming down during the week, and going up on the weekend (npr). if true I might go to more movies.

 

[wakeride74]

It's not the cost so much that keeps me away but just the garbage that is put out. It seems like all we get lately is remakes, movies based on books, and movies based on comics or video games.

I will say that some of the above have been very good but where is the originality and quality we used to have?? I know it's not gone but it sure does seem scarce these days and has clearly taken a back seat to CGI.

 

[fewtch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wakeride74 It's not the cost so much that keeps me away but just the garbage that is put out. It seems like all we get lately is remakes, movies based on books, and movies based on comics or video games. I will say that some of the above have been very good but where is the originality and quality we used to have?? I know it's not gone but it sure does seem scarce these days and has clearly taken a back seat to CGI.

Agreed... high prices along with low quality content have really taken most of the fun out of it for me. I have no problem with lightly entertaining CGI mush sometimes, but not at $10.00/head.

 

[Homeless]

I don't think the message is working. Tonight I went to the movies with two friends...went to see 16 blocks if anyone is wondering...and other than the three of us, there were 3 other people in the theatre. Granted it was a Sunday night at 9:30, but still...that was the least amount of people I've ever seen in a movie.

 

[Gigabomber]

it's not that the theater sucks (they are now all serving overpriced alcohol like they started a few years ago in Michigan) as much as it is the movies have become everything that I dislike.
I observe deeper and more conflicted character actors attempting to pick between red vines and milk duds as I pass by the snackbar.

Fortunately i've recently learned that i'm not alone in this observation: it's apparently been literary problem for relative snobs for a few hundred years at least.

I'm in good company with Alexander Pope and Samuel Johnson.
One of their somewhat mutual observation is that many of the writers are not ambitious and they just regurgitate stale, archetypal characters, doomed to be temporal.
My biggest beef with most movies nowadays is in their lack of interesting camera work and direction, there are plenty of decent actors out there.

all at once now, "Bah Humbug."

I think my record of watching horribly unexciting and/or stereotypical movie promos peaked over ten in a row recently. How bad is it when you can't even see the best parts of a movie in a promo and be excited?

I have yet to see The Weatherman, but i'm betting it's at least decent because I haven't heard word one about it.

Be back later, I'm going to go reserve my copy of Ultraviolet

 

[TenaciousO]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jpelg I'm just ecstatic over the fact that "Crash" won for Best Picture!

I was livid. I don't understand how that 2 hour long afterschool special even got nominated for best picture.

On a different note, did anyone catch Tom Hanks when he was walking out to present one of the last awards? He looked pissed, and I swear I saw him cursing.

 

[chadbang]

The advent of the multiplex killed the theater experience for me as screens got smaller. The last truly moving experience I had was in the 80s watching "Altered States" at the Loews Astor Plaza in NYC. Massive screen and sound system - blew my mind. Today so many mulitplexes are decent (some awful), but far from sense-overwhelming giants of the past. And, yes, the quality of the projection and print really makes a difference. I walked out of a screening of "2001: A Space Odyssey" at the Cinerama Dome in LA because the print was scratched and the focus sucked - I demanded my money back, too. I went to movies for a great visual experience, not the audience thing which I always hated: talkers, heads, crowding. If they can't deliver a bigger than life experience, then they've failed. Whereas as home theater gets better....

But, in the end, it all depends on the film. I've had moving experiences watching a video tape on a B&W television where I was mesmerized. A great story and great filmmaking and your oblivious to its delivery.... I watched "Minority Report" on a VCD and a 20" panasonic and I was fascinated for an hour and a half (though it petered out in the end).

 

[LFF]

Yeah - Hollywood is getting bad IMHO. Where I live it costs 10 bucks to see a damn movie. If I add in 5 more then I can buy the damn thing when it comes out on DVD. I have a very nice home theater at my house and to me, it sounds better than any THX certified theater and I get the added advantage of non-sticky floors, no people kicking me in the back of the seat, no couples making out and no laser pointers.

If tickets cost ~ 4 - 5 bucks, then I would be willing to go more often, even if I risk the chance of seeing that female dog...what's her name....ah yes - Jennifer Lopez.

 

[gshan]

OT - Jessica Alba and Jennifer Garner looked pretty good.

 

[ken36]

Stay home. Get a HD big screen. Join Netflix. Wait for the DVD.

 

[virometal]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fewtch .so why do they push DVDs so hard, and why have the prices on DVDs dropped so low?

This is an interesting query. I remember listening to an analyst who said that giant reailers like Best Buy pushed DVD prices down too fast which put the Studios in a number crunch. Then there is the whole piracy issue. A theater is the ultimate pay for a play mechanism with no user control over content.

I may be off base though.

 

[gloco]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fewtch Maybe if movie theaters reduced their costs to something reasonable, they would actually have a case. They're going to have to anyway if they want to compete with 5.1 surround and big screen TVs in the home. Particularly once HDTV catches on.

I stopped attending the chains and now I go to a local theater up in da Bronx where my gf lives. $6 matinee tickets, $4 for a large popcorn and $3 for a large soda. Sets me back only $20 for two people compared to $30-$35 at a national chain (like AMC). I still like the theater experience, the smell of the popcorn, the large screen and the sound (even though neither one are up to par with a HDTV+HT setup). When HDTV becomes affordable, Hollywood wil shudder in fright.

Plus, the movies that get released nowadays are a pale imitation of what used to be that Hollywood magic even 20 years ago.

 

[JahJahBinks]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TenaciousO He looked pissed

I thought it's a prep for some kind of a joke, but he went right to the nominees.

 

[EyeAmEye]

RE: Hollywood's message to the world - go back to the movies


No.