Everybody’s Talkin’ 6 – 21 (Chatter from Other Bloggers)

Last night, while killing time before WORLD WAR Z, I flipped through a copy of Entertainment Weekly at a news stand. The lead piece in this week’s issue is a story that combines the recent panel by Lucas and Spielberg along with the stunt pulled by Paramount to see if $50 tickets to a movie will fly.

In the article, George Lucas is quoted as saying that he can see a day when film will be treated like live theatre, and tickets for event movies will run in the $50 range. In the same breath, he says that a tiered pricing system would make seeing “a smaller film like LINCOLN” a $7 ticket.

My instant reaction when I read that? If it ever came to pass, you’d see a much different calibre of film being discussed on this space.

I don’t know about y’all, but I have no interest in forking out more money for a bigger production, because as we’ve seen time and again, a bigger production is no assurance of quality. Sure, one is getting a lot of spectacle for their entertainment dollar, but man cannot live on spectacle alone…nor should man have to pay extra for the privilege.

So once again Mr. Lucas – you’re out of your mind.

I would ask you fine folks what your take on such actions would be, but I have a hunch I know what the response would be.

 

For your listening and reading fulfilment, I give you

 

Did you think the end of Game of Thrones would reduce the length of the Row Three Cinecast? Silly Rabbit.

A great event just passed here in town (which for the second year in a row happened on a brutal weekend for me). The Toronto Youth Shorts Film Fest took place last weekend, and Courtney Small was part of The Online Critics Panel. He wraps up this year’s submissions thusly.

Like so many of you, I was shocked and saddened by the news of James Gandolfini’s passing this week. Alex Withrow has paid fitting tribute to the talented actor by looking at some of the best character work in his filmography.

James Blake Ewing deeply disagreed with my take on MAN OF STEEL, but then, so did a lot of people. Shifting attention to something a bit more in his wheelhouse, James has a great piece up on Movie Mezzanine about the Robert Bresson classic A MAN ESCAPED. Guess which Criterion I’m looking forward to buying in next month’s 50% off sale?

Sebastian Gutierrez has wrapped up his list of the best films of the quarter-decade, and he sure does have some interesting selections in the series. One wonders how many of them will remain when he revisits the experiment in 2015, 2017 and 2019.

You know how certain film titles stick with you over the years? The one I’ll never forget from the late 80’s is CASUAL SEX? For starters, it seems like such a brazen title (subtlety? who needs it.) Second of all, I always wondered if it was a a guffawed response or a polite offer. Anyway, Alex Kittle has caught up with the Lea Thompson joint and was rather smitten with it.

Finally, while a lot of people have already written a lot of words about THE GREAT GATSBY, I’m happy to see Elena posting at Films and Coke again so I thought I’d give her some encouragement.

 

Then there’s the Tweet of The Week, and this week it finds Matthew Brown getting out of his comfort zone:

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/tederick/status/347786668457218048″]

 

Enjoy!