So, there’s the movie called ‘Crossing Over’ that, according to the imdb is being released this Friday. It’s directed by Wayne Kramer, the came-out-of-nowhere director of the wonderful smart, sexy and funny Vegas drama ‘The Cooler’; it stars Sean Penn and Harrison Ford and Ashley Judd and Ray Liotta. Its pedigree would lead you to believe that there’s at least something to celebrate about this movie.
So why, then, have I heard nothing about it, seen no trailer, and do I have the creeping suspicion that it won’t make it to a theatre anywhere near me? If a film with this cast (popular and good in most of what they do), director (known for a film that was widely loved), and theme (serious enough to evoke the possibility of being thoughtful, accessible enough to be seen by a decent-sized audience, timely enough to spark a public debate), has to be sneaked into cinemas, while the 3-D Jonas Brothers film competes for multiplex space with ‘He’s Just not that Into the Pink Panther Shopaholic Lycan Mall Cop’, are we really seeing, as Jett often prophesies, the end of cinema as we know it?
There are about three hundred screens within 30 minutes of where I live – and I have no confidence that there will be anything on this weekend that I want to see. Do I have to look forward to only being able to see a film I want on the big screen when it has the advertising budget of ‘Watchmen’ or a 3-D trick to ‘justify’ charging an extra five bucks for the ticket? Is this the end, or are we just going through a phase?
posted in forum Miscellaneous by zad1138
posted in forum Miscellaneous by seanpdudley
posted in forum General Movie Stuff by seanpdudley
posted in forum General Movie Stuff by Jett Loe
posted in forum General Movie Stuff by prawnman
“Leave the brain at the door -you'll love it!”
The problems started when film studios began buying up all the cinemas worldwide in the …90s (?)
I know they used to have theaters (sic) in the early days, but throughout the so-called golden-age of cinema at least I'm pretty sure cinemas were more independent.
Now, not only can studios shovel any ole crap they like into the stratosphere, they give big stars little vanity projects of their own to work on, which invariably are awful, but passed off as “independent” and so excusable.
Thankfully a gem here & there slip through this net of cynical ineptitude, but they do seem to be getting fewer and further between.
I think simultaneous online delivery is the way to go here = why not make it available, when released to theatres, also on other multiple platforms = same day releasing?
of course I appreciate that this is a different experience than the 'big screen' – but still it might enable the marketing spend to go further –
We don't know the story behind 'Crossing Over', (according to Wikipedia it was lensed in 2007 and Netflix has it released in the same year), perhaps the quality of the film is not high – unlike Dr. Higgins I was not a fan of 'The Cooler' – I felt the script was poor and it's the only William Macy pic I've seen in which he gives a bad, (almost embarrassed performance): check out the “I hate this town…I can't tell if it's day or night” scene as an example.
anyhew, it's hard to make a film and I wish director Kramer the best – films deserve to get seen – even if they're a noble failure.
Movie theaters, at least where I live, are probably 90 % controlled by AMC or Regal Entertainment Group. Cinemark is the third big corp that own theaters.
It's very hard for independently owned theaters to make it – we have a few good ones, but they admittedly struggle to keep their doors open.
I don't know how the dollar flow works, but I'm sure there's some formula that makes it more beneficial to force folks to pay $10/pop for PinkPanther 12 than distributing to all forms of media (ondemand, itunes, etc) right away.
I think simultaneous online delivery is the way to go here = why not make it available, when released to theatres, also on other multiple platforms = same day releasing?
of course I appreciate that this is a different experience than the 'big screen' – but still it might enable the marketing spend to go further –
We don't know the story behind 'Crossing Over', (according to Wikipedia it was lensed in 2007 and Netflix has it released in the same year), perhaps the quality of the film is not high – unlike Dr. Higgins I was not a fan of 'The Cooler' – I felt the script was poor and it's the only William Macy pic I've seen in which he gives a bad, (almost embarrassed performance): check out the “I hate this town…I can't tell if it's day or night” scene as an example.
anyhew, it's hard to make a film and I wish director Kramer the best – films deserve to get seen – even if they're a noble failure.
Movie theaters, at least where I live, are probably 90 % controlled by AMC or Regal Entertainment Group. Cinemark is the third big corp that own theaters.
It's very hard for independently owned theaters to make it – we have a few good ones, but they admittedly struggle to keep their doors open.
I don't know how the dollar flow works, but I'm sure there's some formula that makes it more beneficial to force folks to pay $10/pop for PinkPanther 12 than distributing to all forms of media (ondemand, itunes, etc) right away.