You know, I’ve been in the Hamptons every summer for the last 30 years, but I’ve never managed to get to a movie at Sag Harbor or the Movie at Montauk. It was always too far to drive and the movie times never seemed to work out with my family’s schedule. Sad.
LIM, perhaps you’ll recall a town battle over the original Sag Harbor Cinema marquee letters that took place back in 2006 (I think). The fight was instigated by the late Roy Scheider’s wife when they were planning to trash the letters in lieu of something new. I think the battle was won, but I don’t remember if the original letters are back on the marquee.
I am only one person, but for myself, I can only say that I avoid multiplexes whenever possible and prefer to give my time, money and energy to smaller neighborhood theaters that remain on Long Island like Manhasset Cinemas, Great Neck Squire, Hampton Arts Theater, etc. (although, sadly, none of them are single screens). Last week I was forced to see Martin Scorcese’s SHINE A LIGHT at the Loews Rosevelt Raceway multiplex because it was one of the few (if not the only) theater on Long Island that was showing the film. I wanted to see the movie and I didn’t want to travel into NYC to do it, so it was that or nothing. Fortunately, it was the middle of the work day, so I was the only one there! That will probably never happen to me again. Damn!
I know nothing about the movie theater business, so I won’t waste anyone’s time with uninformed presumed opinions on the subject. As someone who used to frequent the movie theaters a lot, I can only say from my perspective that the experience simply stopped being fun.
Too many of the movies themselves have become nothing more than recycled projects that insult much of the audience’s intelligence level and the people we have to share the theater experience with have become more and more intolerable. Too many management systems at multiplexes have simply stopped caring about what goes on inside their establishment. How come? Salary too low? Find another job with a better salary then.
I think the first step to implement change in the movie theater experience is to make it more pleasant for the moviegoer. The first step in that is for ALL THEATER CHAINS to begin implementing a zero-tolerance policy against all cell phone usage and any other kind of audience disturbance during the movie.
You know, unlike riding public transportation, which can have just as many incidents of rudeness and inconsiderateness as a movie theater, you do have a choice whether or not to walk into that multiplex. Many choose not to anymore. The option of quick DVD release and illegal computer downloads only ads fuel to the fire.
As to why the multiplex evolved and the movie palace died; I suppose the only logical answer can be the almighty dollar ($$$)! The more cattle you can cram into a building, the more loud video games you can fit into that unused corner, and the more varieties of chicken fingers you can offer the customer, the more money you’ll take in.
LIM, in a way, I had no choice. I wanted to see SHINE A LIGHT on the screen without traveling to NYC. So I went to Loews Roosevelt Raceway (yes, people, I went to a MULTIPLEX!!!). But, since it was the middle of a work day and a subject matter that wouldn’t attract a lot of children or elderly people (if any), I figured I was mildly safe. As it turned out, a private screening just for me!
So that brings my film-in-a-theater count for 2008 up to (3):
– NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
– THE BANK JOB
– SHINE A LIGHT
(I’ll keep you all posted).
Yesterday I took advantage of my day off and went to see the first show of the day of SHINE A LIGHT, the new Martin Scorcese Rolling Stones concert film. Excellent film, if you love the Stones, by the way. Anyway, I was the only one in the theater – a private screening just for me! You gotta love that! On the other hand, though, because it was a loud rock and roll concert film, that probably would have been the ONLY exception to where I could tolerate anyone else talking or making noise during the movie; I wouldn’t have heard them!
Not that my experience was not completely without a movie pest – I saw a very small mouse crawling around the floor before the movie started.
WGTRay, I must be in the minority of those who wait about two weeks after a movie opens (if I go at all!) before I go. I need to let the craziness die down because I simply cannot handle the masses of rude and inconsiderate people.
Sorry, but TEMPLE OF DOOM just outright sucked for me. Bad story, bad acting and bad dialogue. And I think regardless of how good an actress Cate Capshaw is, she is likely to only be remembered for her constant “Oh-mi-God!” throughout the whole movie. And Short Round…don’t even get me started on that character!
If you watch the behind-the-scenes DVD of the Indy trilogy pack, even Steven Spielberg himself says that probably the best thing he got out of making TEMPLE OF DOOM was meeting his wife.
The website for Clearview Cinemas (www.clearviewcinemas.com) confirms that INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL will premiere at the Ziegfeld Theatre on May 22nd.
Well, first I have to say that it’s going to be a real stretch for me if I even SEE Indy 4. I’ve sworn off wasting my time and money on sequels, remakes and franchise films. On the other hand, Steven Spielberg is one of my favorite living directors and carries a lot of credibility with me. So, it looks like I will reluctantly cave in this one time to see INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL. I just hope it’s much better than TEMPLE OF DOOM. That was one of Spielberg’s worst moments on film.
As easy as it would be to say I’d prefer to see it on a very large screen like the one at the Ziegfeld Theatre in NYC, I would prefer to see it at the small intimate screen at the Hampton Arts Theater in Westhampton Beach, Long Island, where I spend every summer. The reason being that it houses less rude, inconsiderate and crazy people in the audience; and THAT is what my moviegoing experience has come to down to.
The so-called “3D comeback” of the ‘80s did not exactly set the world on fire. Movies like FRIDAY THE 13th-PART 3-D, JAWS-3D and AMITYVILLE 3-D all bombed. Why should this comeback be any different?
Speaking of the original PLANET OF THE APES, would you believe that I’d never seen ANY of the sequels until very recently??? You see, my whole life, I’ve been so in love with the classic Statue of Liberty ending of the first one, that I didn’t want anything to ruin that everlasting image by seeing a bunch of sequels. Well, I finally caved in and rented the other four. While I found ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES mildly amusing and entertaining, the other three sucked!
Is it just my interpretation or does ESCAPE, CONQUEST and BATTLE play out a little like the “Terminator” films; in that we are taken back in time to see how a future we already know to be will come to pass throughout time?
Yes, schmadrian, you’re correct. But think of this analogy as a comparison: if you were to go to your local fast food restaurant (i.e., the multiplex) in the middle of a crowded city, you would likely find a more rowdy and inconsiderate class of people. If you were to go to a smaller, fancier restaurant (i.e., the small movie theater, or what’s left of them), you’d likely experice a better, more well-behaved class of people. So yes, for that reason, I avoid multiplexes because of the people they generally attract.
Architecturally, I don’t have an opinion on multiplexes one way or the other. The design of many of them don’t exactly blow my mind.
LIM – that Cinedom looks exactly like the type of movie theater nightmare I have spent a lot of effort avoiding. Do they have a ferris wheel and merry-go-round in there, too?
Whether all of these numerical facts and figures are accurate or not, it still doesn’t erase the fact that for many people, the moviegoing experience today is not worth money that has to be paid out for a night at the movies. Consider the whole picture:
Movie tickets
Concession food
Parking charges (if applicable)
Babysitter (if applicable)
All so you can spend an evening like cattle in a multiplex! I’d rather take that same money and spend it on some expensive takeout food for my family and rent a few DVDs.
You know, there was a time you could expect to go to the movies without getting caught up with hordes of people for the regular ticket admission. You expected it. Now in order to get that, we should be expected to pay three times as much???
LOYALTY??? Loyalty, LIM, like anything else in life has to be earned. When the moviegoing experience becomes the unpleasant experience that it has, how does that warrant my loyalty?
David, I once had an entire family of people scrolling their brightly-lit cell phones at the same time! When I asked one of them to stop, this creep had the nerve to look at me like I was the crazy one!
Unfortunately, alcohol is not the incentive that will get me back into the movie theaters. What WILL do it is when theaters begin to enforce a very strict policy against talking and cell phone usage (this includes scrolling and text messaging) during the movie. It is the average moviegoer’s rudeness and inconsideration that has driven me away from the movie theater experience!
Bill, here’s another funny story for you – My wife got her college degree in anthropology. Now while I knew she would never sit through all of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY with me, I figured she might appreciate the first 20 minutes of “The Dawn of Man” sequence.
Oh, man, was I wrong! She started to go off on how historically and anthropologically incorrect everything was, despite being science FICTION!
Here’s my favorite – apparently Kubrick and Clarke envisioned that a long distance call in the year 2001 from the moon to Earth would only cost $1.70! Today, in 2008, $1.70 might buy you a full minute between you and your neighbor next door.
Bill, I suppose the only thing that would make your obsession unhealthy is if you could actually name ALL of the instructions for the Zero Gravity Toilet!
You know, I’ve been in the Hamptons every summer for the last 30 years, but I’ve never managed to get to a movie at Sag Harbor or the Movie at Montauk. It was always too far to drive and the movie times never seemed to work out with my family’s schedule. Sad.
LIM, perhaps you’ll recall a town battle over the original Sag Harbor Cinema marquee letters that took place back in 2006 (I think). The fight was instigated by the late Roy Scheider’s wife when they were planning to trash the letters in lieu of something new. I think the battle was won, but I don’t remember if the original letters are back on the marquee.
I am only one person, but for myself, I can only say that I avoid multiplexes whenever possible and prefer to give my time, money and energy to smaller neighborhood theaters that remain on Long Island like Manhasset Cinemas, Great Neck Squire, Hampton Arts Theater, etc. (although, sadly, none of them are single screens). Last week I was forced to see Martin Scorcese’s SHINE A LIGHT at the Loews Rosevelt Raceway multiplex because it was one of the few (if not the only) theater on Long Island that was showing the film. I wanted to see the movie and I didn’t want to travel into NYC to do it, so it was that or nothing. Fortunately, it was the middle of the work day, so I was the only one there! That will probably never happen to me again. Damn!
I know nothing about the movie theater business, so I won’t waste anyone’s time with uninformed presumed opinions on the subject. As someone who used to frequent the movie theaters a lot, I can only say from my perspective that the experience simply stopped being fun.
Too many of the movies themselves have become nothing more than recycled projects that insult much of the audience’s intelligence level and the people we have to share the theater experience with have become more and more intolerable. Too many management systems at multiplexes have simply stopped caring about what goes on inside their establishment. How come? Salary too low? Find another job with a better salary then.
I think the first step to implement change in the movie theater experience is to make it more pleasant for the moviegoer. The first step in that is for ALL THEATER CHAINS to begin implementing a zero-tolerance policy against all cell phone usage and any other kind of audience disturbance during the movie.
You know, unlike riding public transportation, which can have just as many incidents of rudeness and inconsiderateness as a movie theater, you do have a choice whether or not to walk into that multiplex. Many choose not to anymore. The option of quick DVD release and illegal computer downloads only ads fuel to the fire.
As to why the multiplex evolved and the movie palace died; I suppose the only logical answer can be the almighty dollar ($$$)! The more cattle you can cram into a building, the more loud video games you can fit into that unused corner, and the more varieties of chicken fingers you can offer the customer, the more money you’ll take in.
LIM, in a way, I had no choice. I wanted to see SHINE A LIGHT on the screen without traveling to NYC. So I went to Loews Roosevelt Raceway (yes, people, I went to a MULTIPLEX!!!). But, since it was the middle of a work day and a subject matter that wouldn’t attract a lot of children or elderly people (if any), I figured I was mildly safe. As it turned out, a private screening just for me!
So that brings my film-in-a-theater count for 2008 up to (3):
– NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
– THE BANK JOB
– SHINE A LIGHT
(I’ll keep you all posted).
Yesterday I took advantage of my day off and went to see the first show of the day of SHINE A LIGHT, the new Martin Scorcese Rolling Stones concert film. Excellent film, if you love the Stones, by the way. Anyway, I was the only one in the theater – a private screening just for me! You gotta love that! On the other hand, though, because it was a loud rock and roll concert film, that probably would have been the ONLY exception to where I could tolerate anyone else talking or making noise during the movie; I wouldn’t have heard them!
Not that my experience was not completely without a movie pest – I saw a very small mouse crawling around the floor before the movie started.
WGTRay, I must be in the minority of those who wait about two weeks after a movie opens (if I go at all!) before I go. I need to let the craziness die down because I simply cannot handle the masses of rude and inconsiderate people.
A people person I AM NOT!
Sorry, but TEMPLE OF DOOM just outright sucked for me. Bad story, bad acting and bad dialogue. And I think regardless of how good an actress Cate Capshaw is, she is likely to only be remembered for her constant “Oh-mi-God!” throughout the whole movie. And Short Round…don’t even get me started on that character!
If you watch the behind-the-scenes DVD of the Indy trilogy pack, even Steven Spielberg himself says that probably the best thing he got out of making TEMPLE OF DOOM was meeting his wife.
It was TEMPLE OF DOOM which inevitably led to the PG-13 movie rating we’ve had since 1984.
The website for Clearview Cinemas (www.clearviewcinemas.com) confirms that INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL will premiere at the Ziegfeld Theatre on May 22nd.
Well, first I have to say that it’s going to be a real stretch for me if I even SEE Indy 4. I’ve sworn off wasting my time and money on sequels, remakes and franchise films. On the other hand, Steven Spielberg is one of my favorite living directors and carries a lot of credibility with me. So, it looks like I will reluctantly cave in this one time to see INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL. I just hope it’s much better than TEMPLE OF DOOM. That was one of Spielberg’s worst moments on film.
As easy as it would be to say I’d prefer to see it on a very large screen like the one at the Ziegfeld Theatre in NYC, I would prefer to see it at the small intimate screen at the Hampton Arts Theater in Westhampton Beach, Long Island, where I spend every summer. The reason being that it houses less rude, inconsiderate and crazy people in the audience; and THAT is what my moviegoing experience has come to down to.
Jodar, I had no idea that the STAR WARS and LORD OF THE RINGS required new life to be breathed into them. What will Hollywood butcher next???
Gimmicks, gimmicks, and more gimmicks! This doesn’t mean the actual movies are going to get any better!
Hey! How about bringing back 3-D porn to the movie theaters??? Didn’t they mess around with that a little back in the ‘70s?
The so-called “3D comeback” of the ‘80s did not exactly set the world on fire. Movies like FRIDAY THE 13th-PART 3-D, JAWS-3D and AMITYVILLE 3-D all bombed. Why should this comeback be any different?
Speaking of the original PLANET OF THE APES, would you believe that I’d never seen ANY of the sequels until very recently??? You see, my whole life, I’ve been so in love with the classic Statue of Liberty ending of the first one, that I didn’t want anything to ruin that everlasting image by seeing a bunch of sequels. Well, I finally caved in and rented the other four. While I found ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES mildly amusing and entertaining, the other three sucked!
Is it just my interpretation or does ESCAPE, CONQUEST and BATTLE play out a little like the “Terminator” films; in that we are taken back in time to see how a future we already know to be will come to pass throughout time?
I don’t think the Ziegfeld Theatre is running a PLANET OF THE APES marathon; just the first film, in honor of its 40th anniversary.
Yes, schmadrian, you’re correct. But think of this analogy as a comparison: if you were to go to your local fast food restaurant (i.e., the multiplex) in the middle of a crowded city, you would likely find a more rowdy and inconsiderate class of people. If you were to go to a smaller, fancier restaurant (i.e., the small movie theater, or what’s left of them), you’d likely experice a better, more well-behaved class of people. So yes, for that reason, I avoid multiplexes because of the people they generally attract.
Architecturally, I don’t have an opinion on multiplexes one way or the other. The design of many of them don’t exactly blow my mind.
LIM – that Cinedom looks exactly like the type of movie theater nightmare I have spent a lot of effort avoiding. Do they have a ferris wheel and merry-go-round in there, too?
Whether all of these numerical facts and figures are accurate or not, it still doesn’t erase the fact that for many people, the moviegoing experience today is not worth money that has to be paid out for a night at the movies. Consider the whole picture:
All so you can spend an evening like cattle in a multiplex! I’d rather take that same money and spend it on some expensive takeout food for my family and rent a few DVDs.
You know, there was a time you could expect to go to the movies without getting caught up with hordes of people for the regular ticket admission. You expected it. Now in order to get that, we should be expected to pay three times as much???
I don’t think so. I’d rather stay away.
LOYALTY??? Loyalty, LIM, like anything else in life has to be earned. When the moviegoing experience becomes the unpleasant experience that it has, how does that warrant my loyalty?
David, I once had an entire family of people scrolling their brightly-lit cell phones at the same time! When I asked one of them to stop, this creep had the nerve to look at me like I was the crazy one!
LIM – You make a great nagging wife.
Unfortunately, alcohol is not the incentive that will get me back into the movie theaters. What WILL do it is when theaters begin to enforce a very strict policy against talking and cell phone usage (this includes scrolling and text messaging) during the movie. It is the average moviegoer’s rudeness and inconsideration that has driven me away from the movie theater experience!
The charge for Rick Deckard’s phone call to Rachel in BLADE RUNNER cost $1.62 (I think?) in the year 2019. You gotta love deflation!
Bill, here’s another funny story for you – My wife got her college degree in anthropology. Now while I knew she would never sit through all of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY with me, I figured she might appreciate the first 20 minutes of “The Dawn of Man” sequence.
Oh, man, was I wrong! She started to go off on how historically and anthropologically incorrect everything was, despite being science FICTION!
I decided to stay married to her, regardless.
Here’s my favorite – apparently Kubrick and Clarke envisioned that a long distance call in the year 2001 from the moon to Earth would only cost $1.70! Today, in 2008, $1.70 might buy you a full minute between you and your neighbor next door.
Bill, I suppose the only thing that would make your obsession unhealthy is if you could actually name ALL of the instructions for the Zero Gravity Toilet!
(Just kidding. Please don’t strain yourself.)