Sunday, March 25, 2012

Sunday Nightcap 3/25/12 Enough with the 3D and rude parents. I'm looking forward to Tribeca

Monkey King aside,I’m tired of 3D films.

Yea I enjoy an occasional one, I loved, as I said, The Monkey King andJohn Carter, but mostly I find its just not worth the effort…or the money.

I say this as a long standing 3D fan. I love a good 3D film. I’ve been going and collecting them since I was kid, the trouble is most of the films don’t have a point being 3D. We see depth…and? They aren't even good thrill rides.

I suppose it would be fine if they were filmed 3D but most of them are simply being post-converted.

Since March started I’ve seen The Rabbi’s Cat, John Carter, Monster in Paris, The Monkey King and Pirates. I was supposed to see The Magic Piano last Saturday but was sick and I messed up on the train and missed Tales of the Night. It should have been 7 films in roughly three weeks.

Its too much. I'm groaning at the thought of seeing another one any time soon.

Of all of those films only The Monkey King (and on some level John Carter) had anything added to it. The rest were just sort of there as far as 3D goes.

My real complaint is the damn glasses devour the light and make the films so dim. If you look at something like the brilliantly colored Rabbi’s Cat you have this color scheme that matches the comic source, but its muted because of the glasses. I would also argue that most after the fact conversions look terrible, but that's a given.

I'm sick of pointless 3D, a fact driven home by the wonders of the Monkey King and that's all there is too it. Why can't films be that?

I don't know.

At this point I need to say something. I need to vent about something that happened.

During the screening of A Letter to Momo yesterday a family came in and sat behind me. The problem was that one of the people there was about four years old. This meant that the parents had to read all of the subtitles to the kid. Not only that they had to explain to the kid what was going on. It was a constant conversation between parents and child... a conversation that turned truly annoying as the goblins scared the kid and the parents refused to take him out because they wanted to watch the movie.

The behavior was rude. Parents should NOT be bringing kids too young too read subtitles to films like this. The ages are suggested for a reason. Parents should listen to the suggestion and they should abide by them... or since some younger kids can handle older material they should give it ago, but if it isn't working they should leave.

I was really annoyed. The guy sitting next to me was equally pissed. He kept glaring at them. I know I should have gone out and complained but to do so would have caused an even bigger uproar as I climbed over people, went out, talked to someone and then climbed back in.

I've been to a large number of films at the NYICFF and never have I ever had such a rude parent and child sit anyhere near me. For the first time I've run into parents who refused to take their too young child out, rather they let their rude behavior ruin the film for the people around them. Seriously, I've been to dozens of screenings and the audiences at the NYICFF have been incredible. I love that every one is well behaved and polite. I don't find that in most family audiences in regular screenings. Screenings at the NYICFF are some of the best I attend each year....

Theaters are not your living room and you shouldn't behave as such.

End the vent

A word of warning Tuesday starts press screenings and assorted goodness relating to the Tribeca Film Festival. I’m going to be throwing myself off the cliff and going to as many of the screenings as I can manage. I'll stop when I start drooling. (I’m hoping to have at least 12 films under my belt by next Sunday). The plan is to start posting reviews for the festival around the 14th of April and then continue posting through the week after it ends. Look for a ton of posts to go up once the festival starts. (I’ll tweet anything that looks good so watch Twitter).

Also just so you know I'm not the only one involved in this Tribeca madness, Mondocurry and a soon to be announced special guest are going to be wading into the press screenings with me. We're also looking at how were handling the public screenings and special events. Mr C is working out his own schedule so he can wade in with coverage from the public sector. We are going to try and bring you so much coverage that I've had to ask John to step in and act as a supervisor to make sure we don't run all over each other, review things too early or make too big a fool of ourselves.

Trust me it's already out of control and we haven't even seen a frame yet.

Relating to the Tribeca focus, don’t expect a large number of additional posts between now and then. To be certain we will be giving you a film a day, but the number of extra posts will be limited. Yes, we will still be reviewing the Korean Cultural Service films (Remember: Tuesday is My Girlfriend is an Agent) and anything that we think deserves your immediate attention, but that’s about it. I can’t say for certain that even these Sunday Nightcap features will be posted- though I expect they will (except for a the first Sunday of the festival when I'll probably be either in a coma or stressed out.)

This should be fun….so keep reading

I think that's it. I need an early night, all attempts in the last week have failed and I won't be able to sleep in until Easter. So Good night from me.

As always -here's some random links:

Not film related but somehow amazing Russia under the Czars in Color

Walking Dead in the style of Calvin and Hobbes

John Carter's influence

Coppola's history of the Corleone family

(This weeks films are all from the Warner Archive)

No comments:

Post a Comment