More on Movies

I forgot to mention yesterday that I've broken my boycott of the neighborhood movie theater. I don't know if the massive amount of business they lost from me (ha!) did the trick, or if someone else complained, but they had the real box office open yesterday. It definitely fits into the "does that seem right to you?" category: during the summer when kids were out of school, all the summer blockbusters were playing, and they had entire busloads of kids from daycare centers and day camps coming to the theater in the afternoons, they were selling tickets at the concession stand, with one guy having to sell tickets and fill concession orders. Now that school's back in session and in the afternoon the audience tends to be retirees and me, they have the box office open. Though I guess that could have been a marketing ploy, as when you have to wait in line at the concession stand with kids even to get a ticket, just try getting away without buying any snacks. Meanwhile, the retirees and I usually just buy a movie ticket and aren't tempted by snacks.

I found the previews yesterday to be very disturbing. This fall there seem to be a lot of extremely violent movies exploring the dark side of human nature, with people being victims to horrible crimes and then going on to do horrible things, themselves, when the system fails them and doesn't properly punish the criminals. I find a lot about this trend ironic. For one thing, the people making these movies would likely be the first ones to lead protests and candlelight vigils if the system in real life did what they seem to be complaining about the system not doing in the films. For another, they seem to be saying, "Violence is bad, and to show you how bad it is, we'll depict it in loving detail, with plenty of close-ups of the gore, and slow motion photography so you can relish every last bit of it." And, apparently, these are supposed to be "good for you" movies instead of outright violence porn because they star Oscar-bait actors.

So, today I'm planning to see Becoming Jane, and I hope to have an entirely different class of previews with it. I may be seeing a lot of children's movies this fall because I can be a total wimp and because I prefer optimism about human nature and life in general. I prefer to see people at their best than people at their worst. Yeah, the Bourne Ultimatum did have some violence, but it was more suggested than graphic. The handheld camera work meant that it was all chaotic and you only caught enough bits and pieces of what was going on to get a sense of kind of what was happening. In the previews of these other movies, the camera focused intently on the violence and slowed it down so you could really see it -- and that's just the "suitable for all audiences" previews. What will be in the actual films?

And in other news, it's been a while, but we've got another Out of the Blogosphere blog tour entry, Wicked Magic, by Cheyenne McCray:
Rhiannon Castle is a D'Anu witch whose Coven sisters know nothing of the Shadows that lurk within her. Rhiannon can't reveal the truth to anyone-least of all Keir, a rugged soldier who walks into Rhiannon's life and awakens her to a reckless desire. Keir's Tuatha D'Danann brethren are the only real family he has ever known. He trusts no one-until he is sent to San Francisco and meets Rhiannon, the one woman with enough fire to tame him. Then a new threat rises from the depths of Underworld. When a demon goddess unleashes her evil upon our world, Rhiannon's secret could prove the ultimate weapon in this epic battle-or forge a pathway to destruction for the only man she's ever loved.

For more info, an excerpt, etc., visit Cheyenne's web site.