Post-Summer Movie Blues

It is not my purpose in writing about movies and previews and movie-makers and movie-making companies to be negative all the time. Yet, when you’re a movie fan and you come to the end of August and into September – you find yourself at the end of the summer movie candy land trail, staring into a gray, decaying, cinder-block lot with weeds poking through the pavement. That beeping sound you hear is the sound of the studio dump trucks backing up to the landfill and dumping the movie trash that they didn’t have confidence enough in to release at any of the plum times of year. So it’s hard to be rosy about movies right now.

Hollywood takes out the trash two times a year, from roughly January to March, and again from late August to mid-October. I’ve never understood this release strategy. I mean, I get that you release a lot of movies during the summer ‘cause kids are out of school, and during the holiday season because people are off work and have time to go to the movies. But as several break-out movies have proved over the years, people will still turn out in droves to see decent movies during the non-peak times of the year, if only there was something decent to see, rather than, say, Bangkok Dangerous, or Disaster Movie (not that those two are more egregious than others, they’re just the ones that sprang to mind first).

I don’t know, it just seems to me like this whole year has been chockfull of more stinkers than usual. Ever thought about the fact that what you see on the marquee at the theatre represents the very best in motion pictures Hollywood has to offer – the result of hundreds of millions of dollars poured into development, “talent”, etc.? I mean, there are a ton of money and many genuinely talented movie-making folks out there and this is the best they can come up with? It’s like the big car manufacturers in Detroit releasing mostly Geos and other cheap, lemony cars (I’d name more of them if I knew more about cars).

To me, going to movies should primarily be fun. I mean, I like me some serious movies too, but I don’t like to go to the theatre to feel bad. That’s why it’s truly awful to have your senses pulverized with crap like the trailers for Max Payne and Punisher: War Zone. And I hardly know what to say anymore about the Saw movies other than Lionsgate should be absolutely ashamed of themselves for creating what has aptly been deemed “torture porn”. Fortunately, I’ve only had to see the trailer for their latest atrocity once, and imagine my horror and disgust when what begins with the Christian hymn “Be Thou My Vision” over onscreen words including “His message is righteous” and “His love is everlasting”, ends up being a man trapped in the latest torture/death contraption to be featured in Saw V. The fact that these filmmakers chose to mock God on top of their usual passing off violent torture as entertainment confirms this series as personification of sheer evil. Depravity is apparently alive and well at Lionsgate. Oh yeah, and they’re doing some promotion leading up to the movie, encouraging folks to donate blood to the Red Cross. Classy. I literally wonder how these people sleep at night.

Anyway, for the most part, the trailers over the past month have been very blah. However, in an effort to end this post on a more positive note, I’m happy to report there is a ray of light on the distant movie horizon. Ever so slowly, there are a few trailers trickling out for late-year movies that offer hope to get us through the current doldrums. No, I’m not talking about W. I’m talking about dramas like The Soloist, Changeling, and Frost/Nixon – all based on true stories. All three look very interesting and full of potential. I particularly enjoyed the Frost/Nixon trailer. Four Christmases looks like possible holiday hilarity and there’s also a good new trailer for Quantum of Solace. Of course, if none of these offer enough encouragement, you can always join me in clicking over to…

http://www.australiamovie.com/

…where you can enjoy what is still the best trailer of the year so far. Is it November 26^th yet?