Once Upon A Time, Movie Theaters Showed Movies
A long time ago and a land far, far away, there were these things called movies which people would gather together in large building with big screens to watch as actors told interesting stories captivating the minds of the audience. It was a quaint life. The movie-going experience was enjoyable and something the whole family looked forward to enjoying. Then, something happened. Something very, very bad.
Aside from apparently dramatic increase in the level of human stupidity which yielded screaming babies, ringing cell phones, freely wandering children, mouths that won't shut the fuck up and idiotic parents who think the theater is just as good as getting a babysitter ruining the movie-going experience, marketers also contributed to the demise of the once wondrous movie-going experience with their increased presence.
First, the cheesy slide show ads. Then, the long form pre-cinema ad. Then the really stupid "twenty." Then the showing of so many previews you forget what fucking movie you were there to see in the first place. Now, we have onscreen games, audience participation and live stage shows. Canon is the latest to contribute to this nonsense with live dancers appearing under a promotional film for its EOS400D digital camera. Apparently, some people like this sort of thing. Us? When we go to a movie theater, we like to watch a movie. Yes, we know. It's rather odd for us to expect such a strange thing but, well, we're just simple like that.
Comments
I'm with you on this one!
You mean a three-year old shouldn’t see Snakes on a Plane? (Come to think of it, neither should 40-year olds.)
I always thought consumers were supposed to have a choice:
a) free entertainment supported by ads
b) paid entertainment free of ads
These cocksuckers are fucking with an age-old system. $10 for the privilege of force-fed marketing attempts? The slides never bothered me. If you got there early you could easily ignore them. A few previews are OK.
When the ads started it crossed a line. Now there's live action advertising? I'd smuggle in some M&Ms to have as ammo if I knew that was waiting for me.
But you know what, this has very little effect on me. I don't go see movies until they're old news, so I can afford to show up late and miss all this shit.
Yesterday there was a f-in used diaper underneath the cushy seat four down the row from me. A f-in "all we need is another luvs" under the seat. Kid was probably conceived in the back row and now they are using the middle rows as diaper bins?
It was an animated feature so there were kids there. But the amount of food they were eating made me sick. And just after I told George I don't see much obesity. Plus, the place was refrigerated I swear. When did we get to be such wimps that we need public places so freazing cold. Really I needed a wool sweater in places in the middle of July. I couldn't wait to get out in the 90 degree weather to get warmed up again.
For me: back to the swimming pool between 11-3 where the government and health agencies have told me to stay out of the sun for fear of me getting sick.
signed,
wrinkled prune