Jason Segel talks The Muppets and his inspiration

[Drtooth]

Let me re-edit that thought...

Audiences vote with their dollars

...and they went to see Lawn Gnome Shakespeare.

I thought most of the money just went to studio heads or the owners of the theater chains, or something like that. Some stars deserve the money, others don't. I don't understand the way they're paid... I always felt they were paid for the role and whatever the studio was generous enough to give them with merchandising. Merchandising is why Robin Williams fled Disney after Aladdin, until they made nicey-nice with a Picasso or something. Either way, with all the product placement, the advertisements, the advertisements for advertisements, the trailers for advertisements of advertisements disguised as trailers and all that, the tickets shouldn't be NO WHERE near where they are. That's why I only do matinees.

 

[frogboy4]

Let me re-edit that thought...



...and they went to see Lawn Gnome Shakespeare.

don't remind me! eeeek!

 

[beaker]

That's the problem in a nutshell. It's both sides faults. The movie industry is trying very hard to price itself out of the business, and every time they have a good year, they get so much hubris, they raise the ticket prices, then they have a REALLY bad year after. The insane amount of greed they got after Avatar was a surprise hit, and jumped prices up another 2-3 bucks was BULL!

The studios and chains have a very specific detailed thing worked out between them, keeping movies short enough so they can cram as many showings as possible. I swear they do. Would it kill either of them to bend and put short subjects BEFORE the dang thing instead of just Pepsi and car adverts? Give away free movie posters... do SOMETHING to make me want to go in.

Movies are hurting because the ticket prices are too high, causing the films to do worse than they should, leading up to DVD releases and streaming. Not even DVD sales, which often make up the movie's budget, even if the movie flopped in theaters. And that's going to mean smaller movie budgets, less risk, and more films exactly the same as each other.

Both sides NEED to move on the issue. People need to go see films in theaters, theaters need people to WANT to go see films in theaters. A price cut is one thing, a discounted family package is another... I don't see the business model of continuously raising prices to make up for money lost raising prices the first time.

Just to counteract two points:

1. Many movies are longer than ever, and the trend began with LOTR. Pirates 4 was about 2 hours 20. Watchmen and plenty other recent movies were quite long, as well as Dark Knight(what was that, 3 hours? And every single minute was visionarily magical)

2. Every single theater I go to now offers $5 specials. All UA/Regal near me is $5 all day on Tuesday, including at night.
And all Century and other theaters are $5 first showing(including the indie art house theaters...I know, Im one of the few Americans who goes to see weird foreign/indie movies)

So there ya go...catch an 11am or nooner movie instead of later, pay $5. Some theaters have the muzak/classical with movie trivia before the trailers, and I prefer that. I just hate being inundated by a bunch of army recruitment propaganda videos is all, otherwise I don't care. Trailers are usually half the fun for me, and often are better than the actual film Im seeing.

I hope the theater experience never goes away, even though I dont go as often as I used to

 

[beaker]

Who gets the bulk of that ticket money? The overpaid stars. Certainly not the writers or even most of the directors. If you find ticket prices are too high and you have a choice between Jim Carrey in some big budget monstrosity and a smaller, more thoughtfully crafted film without and A-list celebrity headliner; pic the second film. Audiences vote with their dollars. That's why Zemekis' ImageMovers went belly-up.

I just saw Will Ferrel in "Everything Must Go" at the movies, and I find actors who mostly do mainstream comedic turns(Jim Carrey, Adam Sandler, Robin Williams) are a thousand times better doing dramatic roles.

There's been a slightly better attempt at trying to bring thinking and elements of slow burn/art house/indie dramas to big major motion picture events. Though for me, I found each and every Oscar contender dreadfully boring(Black Swan, The Fighter, True Grit, and especially The King's Speech)

 

[Drtooth]

Just to counteract two points:

1. Many movies are longer than ever, and the trend began with LOTR. Pirates 4 was about 2 hours 20. Watchmen and plenty other recent movies were quite long, as well as Dark Knight(what was that, 3 hours? And every single minute was visionarily magical)

2. Every single theater I go to now offers $5 specials. All UA/Regal near me is $5 all day on Tuesday, including at night.
And all Century and other theaters are $5 first showing(including the indie art house theaters...I know, Im one of the few Americans who goes to see weird foreign/indie movies)

1) The exception to the rule is the big epic film. They'll tolerate up to 3 hours or so, but the DVD's of all those movies will ALWAYS be extended. But for the most part, 90 minutes is a forced standard. So many good scenes that actually work in movies, even short ones get cut for no apparent reason. Some of it is flow of the movie, a lot of it is to cram as many showings as possible in a cineplex.

2) I always find, surprise surprise, the smaller, indie theaters have the BEST prices, the best theaters, and now, they have first run movies. I usually had to wait for movies to hit second run theaters, but now, the second runs have the stuff the same time as the cineplexes. I even know one cheap first run theater that doesn't even get certain moves because the 2 indie theaters I frequent get them first. Heck, one even has 3-D. The only downside is, now if I miss a movie, I can't see it second run.

I just saw Will Ferrel in "Everything Must Go" at the movies, and I find actors who mostly do mainstream comedic turns(Jim Carrey, Adam Sandler, Robin Williams) are a thousand times better doing dramatic roles.

There's been a slightly better attempt at trying to bring thinking and elements of slow burn/art house/indie dramas to big major motion picture events. Though for me, I found each and every Oscar contender dreadfully boring(Black Swan, The Fighter, True Grit, and especially The King's Speech)

I never pay attention to Oscar bait, with the exceptions of Persepolis (SP?) and Triplets of Bellville, and that's the animation fan in me that wanted to check them out... and both times, I stupidly missed them in theaters. I have mixed feelings about artsy film. Some are quite good, some are just tedious sobfests. They always get the most respect for being depressing. it's like people HATE to have fun at the movies. I don't know what has a worse track record? Indies or mainstreams. I LOVED Juno, though... and I ashamedly admit to liking Napoleon Dynamite when I saw it that one time. If they had more upbeat indies like that, I'd always check them out.

And would you believe? I missed the goldurn Kevin Clash documentary because it was apparently buried in a film festival around here. Now THAT's an indie that NEEDS to be screened at least in arthouse theaters.

 

[beaker]

1) The exception to the rule is the big epic film. They'll tolerate up to 3 hours or so, but the DVD's of all those movies will ALWAYS be extended. But for the most part, 90 minutes is a forced standard. So many good scenes that actually work in movies, even short ones get cut for no apparent reason. Some of it is flow of the movie, a lot of it is to cram as many showings as possible in a cineplex.

2) I always find, surprise surprise, the smaller, indie theaters have the BEST prices, the best theaters, and now, they have first run movies. I usually had to wait for movies to hit second run theaters, but now, the second runs have the stuff the same time as the cineplexes. I even know one cheap first run theater that doesn't even get certain moves because the 2 indie theaters I frequent get them first. Heck, one even has 3-D. The only downside is, now if I miss a movie, I can't see it second run.



I never pay attention to Oscar bait, with the exceptions of Persepolis (SP?) and Triplets of Bellville, and that's the animation fan in me that wanted to check them out... and both times, I stupidly missed them in theaters. I have mixed feelings about artsy film. Some are quite good, some are just tedious sobfests. They always get the most respect for being depressing. it's like people HATE to have fun at the movies. I don't know what has a worse track record? Indies or mainstreams. I LOVED Juno, though... and I ashamedly admit to liking Napoleon Dynamite when I saw it that one time. If they had more upbeat indies like that, I'd always check them out.

And would you believe? I missed the goldurn Kevin Clash documentary because it was apparently buried in a film festival around here. Now THAT's an indie that NEEDS to be screened at least in arthouse theaters.

Yes, comedies are 90 minutes...that's been the staple for others. Though Bridesmaids, one of the more "smarter" post apatow films is over 2 hours. Many family and kid's movies are 90 minutes, and it sucks many of those are forced into a tight 90 minute pattern. However, many films are 2 hours or more. The truncated thing though, yeah I hear you. I saw the rough cut workprint of the indie film from 2002 called One Hour Photo with Robin Williams, a brilliant taut thriller rendered mute with the crappy theatrical recut. But you see this with so many films: "too much juxtaposition"...the once great director Ridley Scott actually says on the commentary to the Hannibal deleted scenes that he cut some really great material because he didnt think the audience wanted background information. This is the attitude with a lot of studios forcing director hands

Now, are you talking indie owned theaters? as I was more talking theaters that mostly play art house/indie/foreign/documentary cinema. But! as far as indie owned cineplexes, we have those too.

I really think you should be a bit more open minded with indie/foreign cinema. I know even bigger budgeted films like The Road are pure nihilism and depression, and while I do love those too...there's a lot of fun quirky imaginative comedies and dramedies youd absolutely love.

Oh dude, you musta loved that Simpsons episode that made fun of pixar, persepolis and triplettes of bellview(and wallace/grommit I think) man that was classic. The Simpsons, just as edgy as ever. Btw, did you see Cleveland Show recently that took place at comic con?

 

[Drtooth]

Now, are you talking indie owned theaters? as I was more talking theaters that mostly play art house/indie/foreign/documentary cinema. But! as far as indie owned cineplexes, we have those too.

The funny thing is, the indie owned theaters, the 2 I frequent, anyway used to be second run theaters (they're old, so I dunno what came of it before I was born), then they turned into arthouse theaters, now they're a mix of first run and indie movie places. They just tend to run most of the mainstream stuff during the summer. One of them used to run Indian movies before a ghettoish theater that I also frequent picked them up. So, yeah... sometimes you'll see first run films, sometimes you'll see film festivals... I even once went to an early as heck Looney Tunes marathon screening. Sometimes they even show some old films at night (but I can't get to them all that late no thanks to the bus service ending at midnight in this state). One even serves BEER at the concession stand. Heh... I remember when the Simpsons movie came out, and they had all these computer printout ads hanging around the theater that said "See the Simpsons movie the only place Homer would see it" or something like that.

I really think you should be a bit more open minded with indie/foreign cinema. I know even bigger budgeted films like The Road are pure nihilism and depression, and while I do love those too...there's a lot of fun quirky imaginative comedies and dramedies youd absolutely love.

We need more indie animated movies and shorts released at places like this. This theater was the one that had those 2 films (missed them until DVD... my fault). There's 2 other arthouse film places I know of (strictly arthouse) and I never get the chance to go there... I'm kicking myself because years ago, Jerry Stiller had this oddball indie comedy about being this angry film director having to work with budgets... and he ACTUALLY was there to talk about it. I wish I could have gone. The other one I went to for a "seminar" with my favorite wacko indie movie director Lloyd Kaufman, and even got his autograph on a Toxic Crusaders poster.

 

[beaker]

The funny thing is, the indie owned theaters, the 2 I frequent, anyway used to be second run theaters (they're old, so I dunno what came of it before I was born), then they turned into arthouse theaters, now they're a mix of first run and indie movie places. They just tend to run most of the mainstream stuff during the summer. One of them used to run Indian movies before a ghettoish theater that I also frequent picked them up. So, yeah... sometimes you'll see first run films, sometimes you'll see film festivals... I even once went to an early as heck Looney Tunes marathon screening. Sometimes they even show some old films at night (but I can't get to them all that late no thanks to the bus service ending at midnight in this state). One even serves BEER at the concession stand. Heh... I remember when the Simpsons movie came out, and they had all these computer printout ads hanging around the theater that said "See the Simpsons movie the only place Homer would see it" or something like that.




We need more indie animated movies and shorts released at places like this. This theater was the one that had those 2 films (missed them until DVD... my fault). There's 2 other arthouse film places I know of (strictly arthouse) and I never get the chance to go there... I'm kicking myself because years ago, Jerry Stiller had this oddball indie comedy about being this angry film director having to work with budgets... and he ACTUALLY was there to talk about it. I wish I could have gone. The other one I went to for a "seminar" with my favorite wacko indie movie director Lloyd Kaufman, and even got his autograph on a Toxic Crusaders poster.

Oh I remember that Jerry Stiller film. I oddly enough ran into and met Lloyd Kauffman, totally reminded me of Mel Brooks. This was at Wondercon this year.

Indie animated films...well, theres a TON of foreign stop motion and animated films that come out. stop motion: a town called panic, $9.99, Jan Svankmajer's Alice, The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb. Animation wise, you have Secret of Kels, Renaissance, Fear of the Dark, Persepolis, Waltz with Bashir, etc.
I love non Japanese animation quite a bit.

Yeah I wish more theaters were like the Alamo Draft House in Austin, with fun themed nights. You really need to see the documentary "Best Worst Movie" about the trolls 2 cult following at art house theaters