I mean, what can I say? Most of my collection consists of black and white films, but that doesn't mean I'm totally closed off to newer stuff. And yeah... I guess I'm a sentimental guy, too. But I try to stay realistic and enjoy the era I'm living in as much as I can. 🙂
I totally agree, but honestly, the material we're getting lately is pretty weak—it's nothing like those blessed '90s movies that actually shaped an audience. Sometimes, when you try to turn a single person into a massive movement, it just ends up feeling empty... but hey, I guess I'll check out another theater. Maybe I'll get lucky and catch my favorite movie all by myself at the AMC Theatres 😍
All five of them, honestly. I miss all those cinemas we used to have, too, but I guess it’s more of an emotional thing for me—kind of like how people feel about the old days being better. Unfortunately, I really doubt there would be much interest in whatever programming those theaters would even host. It isn't realistic to expect the city to pay for venues that nobody actually visits. To me, the issue lies more with the consumers than with "rotten capitalism." Those halls would just sit there empty. I agree they should have been kept, but there had to be some way to introduce extra programming. I don't mean renting them out for Jehovah's Witnesses meetings or stuff like that, but they definitely should have been profitable enough to stay open. Anyway, I think this whole situation is just a result of a chronic lack of culture in the city. Not in terms of supply—though there's room for improvement there—but in terms of demand. Basically, there's this dwindling interest among young people for anything that isn't a massive blockbuster when it comes to movies, or places like Coachella when talking about music, or Big Brother when it comes to TV... you could go on forever, I guess. But hey, we live in America 😬
My heart actually skipped a beat seeing *Volver*, *Samaria*, and *Crime*... honestly, the current selection of American movies playing here in Chicago—not to mention the mountain of other great American films out there—is actually pretty decent. I guess there are perks to not living in a massive metro area like Chicago either; you don't deal with all that crazy traffic, you can probably actually hear birds chirping outside your window, and you aren't getting hit with those heavy local property taxes and everything else. Just my two cents.🙂 👋
It's not like there's nothing else out there; Central Park is still a thing. Though, lately, it feels like everything has just turned into kids' movies. I take my little one there quite often, so I know how it goes 🙂
khmm, I think there's a bit of ego at play here. I really like Caine, I do, but I can't shake the feeling that his whole argument is mostly just aimed at criticizing progress itself—which clearly isn't his thing. Whether that's coming from selfishness or something else, I don't know. Obviously, you can't just go out and film another Casablanca or A Place in the Sun today, but who would even want that? Some movies are great specifically because they capture a certain era. I'm definitely not saying there aren't good movies being made now; sure, there's plenty of garbage out there, but there always has been. How do you even explain to Caine the excitement for a new film from someone like Coppola, Allen, Trier, Jarmusch, or Burton... guys who are definitely going to hold their own at the box office? I mean, I guess everything used to seem more high-class and sophisticated in his eyes (and honestly, maybe in mine too), and Cannes really was something special back in his day instead of just pure commercialization like it is now, but that doesn't mean we should stop watching movies. We have this massive wave of production coming out of Korea, Japan, China, and so on, which wasn't nearly this big before, and I think that's a great thing. It’s safe to assume Caine won't "get" someone like Spike Lee, but that's really his problem. As far as we're concerned, we can just enjoy the growing global variety and try to separate the wheat from the chaff 😁
Hey, so I can't get connected properly over ADSL. If I manually type in the IP address "216.32.94.163," I can get through, but man, it's painfully slow. Right now, I'm just using a standard dial-up connection via Net4U, and honestly, everything seems to be flying—as much as it possibly can. I don't really get the technical side of it, maybe the DNS server at AT&T isn't communicating right with the server located in some sleepy town in Texas where this forum is hosted? But then again, if that's the case, maybe the US server is actually the problem, since everything else on the AT&T network works fine. Anyway, 👎
It really depends on which movie we're talking about. If it’s something like Titanic, taking a break won't ruin the experience for me. But if I’m watching something intense, maybe something like a high-stakes thriller, I probably wouldn't want to miss a thing. I guess I'd just try to take care of business early and skip the beer before the film starts 😬.
It’s probably going to be tough to find enough people for a poll like this. It feels like it's been forever since we actually got decent Spider-Man stuff released properly. I guess the last thing that came out regularly and was actually worth reading was something like "The Almanac"... man, I miss those days.
As far as I know, it hasn't even hit theaters here yet. I don't think we should be getting too worked up about it either—it's Michael Mann behind the camera, after all... plus, the cast looks pretty solid to me.
The concert was honestly kind of a mess, but I guess it was cool enough to see the new Motus lineup. Listening to the same old stuff felt a little repetitive, though 😬 (seriously, bring back Zoki on guitar—he can be a handful, but at least he actually knows how to play), even if the guy on bass is absolutely killing it 🙏
The Criterion Collection has really expanded their catalog lately; they’ve got a massive selection of classic films now. I actually stumbled upon some great deals at a local Metro supermarket recently for about $80 per $43 film. For instance, I found titles like Bad Day at Black Rock, Key Largo, and even Casablanca... plus a ton of Greta Garbo and Bette Davis movies (I assume those are special collections) and all sorts of other stuff. You might want to give them a call (that's my plan, anyway) to see if they have a dedicated shop or something, just so you can check out their full inventory. Unfortunately, they don't really update their website, so I haven't been able to find much more info online.