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Went and saw "Why Did I Get Married?" last night. It had some preachy dialogue, but the acting was all okay. Jill Scott, however, was excellent in her role. I know this isn't the kind of movie normally considered for awards, but her performance really was a revelation.

It was my first Tyler Perry movie. I can definitely see the appeal to his base and give him a lot of credit for making a solid and appealing movie.

Good to hear that about Jill Scott, because she has the lead role in Anthony Minghella's next film, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. I was a a little concerned, but no longer.

Is "Chapter 27" going to be released this year or not?

"The Other Boleyn Girl" has already been bumped into 2008.

What other 2007 releases are now 2008 ones?

Interesting discussion going on where analysts are blaming the decline of box office receipts on the success of Halo 3.

Hey Hollywood bigshots and development execs that check out this blog.. Read the talkbacks at the link provided. They are your precious 18-34 yr old demographic. And they aren't saying that Halo is keeping them out of the theatre, it's the shitty homogenized product being offered that is keeping them out of the theatre.

You can read it straight from the kids themselves.

http://kotaku.com/gaming/pwnd/halo-3-killed-the-video-stars-311381.php

Copy and paste it, I don't know how to make a link.

Again, I love how blunt the talkbackers are in the link about how they would love to go to movies if there was what they felt was good product.

I bet a lot of them think that 300 is good product though, right? I hope I'm wrong on this one.

Nah. They don't. It's becoming an interesting talkback since I posted the link. Because now there are some there to defend the product that's been in theatres.

3:10 to Yuma was the example used, I believe.

I really do think movie theaters share some of the blame. They screw the consumer with 15 minutes of commercials BEFORE the trailers, so the start time is actually 30 minuts later than advertised. They refuse to enforce quiet policies. It makes for an uncomfortable experience for some, and totally not worth it.

I wish more theaters would start the trailers at the advertised start time, and just have one of those commercial/behind-the-scenes pre-show screenings.

Where's Don Murphy been?

Jeff?

I play a lot of Halo 3, and i still go out and see movies every week.

the theory is, at best, specious.

Speaking of, i saw Michael Clayton last night. What a great film.

Uh... what decline of box office receipts?

Hysteria... how I love hysteria.

There has been five $100 milion movies launched in October in the last five years. It's not a huge box office month.

This October isn't great, but it's not much unlike a lot of other Octobers.

Anghus:

How great was the editing during the chase sequence towards the end? Created so much tension even though we already knew the outcome.

Anybody know how much Michael Clayton actually cost?

I was very disappointed with Yuma, which had a totally ridiculous ending that robbed the film off all the goodwill it had built up in the first hour with solid performances. Mangold just can't seem to close the deal. And Yuma, IMO, while it started out very well, is just a bad film. There is not saving a film with an ending as unmotivated and ridiculous as that.

The motivations of Crowe's character seemed murky throughout the movie, which was tolerable except the end, when it became the issue the film was turning on.

No gurus?

Very interesting thread discussion there. I had no idea there were ZERO good movies made in the last, what, five years. I guess I've been in an alternate universe.

Something tells me the HALO crowd isn't going to necessarily line up for MICHAEL CLAYTON or DARJEELING or even NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, but that's hardly a case for not making movies like that. (One commenter said the only thing they were looking forward to was SAW IV. Oh, joy.) I'd love it if the good-to-crap ratio was higher, but many of the movies I've loved over the last couple of years wouldn't exactly give HALO serious competition. I don't say that to be snobby. I love video games. I can't wait to get my hands on GTA IV. But I don't skip movies. But I also pay attention to what's coming out and try to make good choices. That way I don't make statements like there haven't been any good movies made in the last year.

Dave, whether or not it's accurate did you even bother to check the link?

Or do you just have your numbers out ready to smack down any publications who figures differ from yours?

Jeez, whether or not box office is down is the least important thing of the article, but rather the response of the talkbackers.

I think the interesting theme of the thread was that this is the demographic that Hollywood thinks "Throw them whatever shit you want, they like everything."

And the majority of them were saying

"No, we like movies fine, but your product is shite"

Movies are so conditioned in their composition now to be conducive to marketing paradigms that creativity not only suffers; these concessions made in the product for marketing gives every piece of content, no matter the genre, the same slick veneer that makes everyone sick to their stomach like a diet of nothing but twinkies.

They can feel it, they don't like it but they don't know what to say other than "Movies suck" and go find another activity.

But I believe there is some veracity that cinema is losing this demographic (one I'm a part of) to TV, Gaming and the internet.

And on that note, I just saw the Iron Man trailer. Impressive. Hopefully the film is as good as the trailer.

You can believe what you like, THX... the numbers for the movies that are aimed quite specifically at that demographic continue to open bigger and bigger and bigger... or do you think it was women and old men who couldn't wait to see Transformers... or crappy Resident Evil: Extinction... or 1408... or Halloween... or 300?

This demographic whines and bitches more than any... and is more vulnerable to the marketing of utter shit than any other... and they are buying tickets in record numbers at record speed...

1408 was not aimed at a primarily young audience.

Bill Maher had a great New Rules rant a season or two back about contemporary perpetual delayed adolescence, and reserved a special scorn for grown men still playing videogams (I believe he also added guys who still wear sports jerseys.)

It's hard to compare it to previous generations, since the things have only been around 30 years, but I always figured videogames were "kid's stuff." I guess I'm in the distinct minority, since all manner of twenty-, thirty-, and forty-somethings are GAMERS.

While I'm sure there were plenty of well-educated, upwardly mobile doctors and lawyers blasting away at "Duck Hunt" circa 1987, I tend to think the prevelance of this as an accepted adult activity is a fairly recent thing. And in that, it goes hand-in-hand with the massive current popularity of comic books, superheroes, "geek" culture.

I'm sure many could tie it to some sort of "post-9/11" anxiety, but those kinds of chicken-and-egg explanations always strike me as too easy. Whatever the case is, I'd cop to being a cranky old man on the subject, but that'd be inaccurate, since apparently even cranky old men line up around the block waiting for "Halo 3" to *drop*.

I took my daughter to see Ratatouille (again) at an afternoon matinée. Ticket price as $11.95. The emergency exit for the screen (18) must have linked directly to the outside because I could SEE SUNLIGHT AROUND THE DOOR FRAME. This theater also has a burn mark on one screen (8) that they haven't fixed since Lord Of The Rings. They used to have DLP on one screen (5) and were THX certified on screens 1 and 12, but all that is no longer. Plus there's the preshow commercials (ironically projected digitally, but obviously not 2K), the commercials after the showtime, THEN the trailers. Plus, most of the trailers give away enough of the picture they are advertising that I don't want to see them anyway.
My wife and I could have gone to a movie this past weekend, but we decided on Costco and a restaurant instead.

People keep on talking about not being happy with the experience...

But the numbers tell us they... keep... on... going!

Listening to marketplace on the drive this evening there was a story on teenagers now driving the high end designer market (1200$ handbags, Marc clothing lines etc) which made me think of Troop Beverly Hills and how ridiculous it seemed at the time. It's odd that what seem absurd and silly in the eighties would now be a superb satire today. Sort of like how the girls in Clueless had cellphones in highschool in the early nineties, something unheard of and unimaginable to 99.99% of the population at the time.

Oh yeah... the Abrams Trek cast is total and utter bollocks. It's ridiculous. Chris Pine is Kirk? Really? Karl Urban as Bones? This casting is even more pitiful than the story of this film. So... yeah... good on you for screwing up Star Trek more then INSURRECTION!

I'm with you, IO.

Chris Pine, like Tyler Perry, has a pretty bad case of gay face.

Gay face? Oy... it has nothing to do with his possible "GAY FACE" or anything of the sort. It has to do with this cast having several genre stars in it. It's very much a haphazard freakin cast. Karl Urban -- THE PATHFINDER -- is freakin Bones? BONES? Seriously this is just hokey shit JJ is shovelling.

No, IO, I'm totally with you. But it was just too easy. Actually, I don't know who I'd cast that could fill Shatner's shoes. Pine might be great.

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