NYT on sucky movies: [link]

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 23 - With the last of the summer blockbusters fading from the multiplex, Hollywood's box office slump has hardened into a reality that is setting the movie industry on edge. The drop in ticket sales from last summer to this summer, the most important moviegoing season, is projected to be 9 percent by Labor Day, and the drop in attendance is expected to be even deeper, 11.5 percent, according to Exhibitor Relations, which tracks the box office.

Multiples theories for the decline abound: a failure of studio marketing, the rising price of gas, the lure of alternate entertainment, even the prevalence of commercials and pesky cellphones inside once-sacrosanct theaters. But many movie executives and industry experts are beginning to conclude that something more fundamental is at work: Too many Hollywood movies these days, they say, just are not good enough.

What is that? Research from the Institute of "No...Duh."?

Cellphone use doesn't keep me from going into the theatres. It keeps some of the other theater customers from coming back out afterwards.

Cellphone use doesn't keep me from going into the theatres. It keeps some of the other theater customers from coming back out afterwards.

Sort of like a roach motel, then?

I picked up the new rerelease of Witness on DVD last night--it doesn't have a commentary (I don't think any of Weir's films do), but it does have a good making of documentary done specifically for this DVD. It includes interviews with Weir, Harrison Ford, Kelly McGillis (who looks nothing like she used to), Lukas Haas, and Viggo Mortensen, but no Danny Glover. I'd forgotten how much this film made Harrison Ford a Dramatic Actor, versus just the Action Star he was at the time.

Man, I envy you your Murrican TCM. But I'm happy to see so much Powell & Pressburger love on this thread.

Obscure factlet of the day: Andrew Macdonald (producer of Trainspotting, Shallow Grave, etc.) and his brother Kevin (documentarist and Oscar winner for One Day in September) are the grandsons of Emeric Pressburger. My dad taught them at school. One day, they showed up at our door asking to watch "The Battle of the River Plate" on TV because their grandad had made it and they hadn't seen it yet.

That's a great factlet and I shall steal it and show it off.

I was thinking about hilarious movie scenes last night on my drive home, and thought I'd bring the idea up in thread today: what movie (or mass entertainment) scenes made you laugh the hardest?

For me, it's probably that moment in Ready to Rumble when goonish professional wrestlers are sneaking through Martin Landau's apartment to rough him up and mistakenly attack a decoy dummy in his kitchen. Then Landau pops out of a trap door, yells "Sal Bandini—wanna wrestle?" and proceeds to beat the bloody crap out of both of them. It took me about 10 minutes to stop laughing.

(Nothing compares to that Gone With the Wind spoof on The Carol Burnett Show though. When Carol came down that staircase in the green dress with the curtain rod still attached and said "I saw it in the window and I just couldn't resist," I was in serious danger of suffocation.)

The fantasy scene in High Fidelity where Rob is imagining what he'd like to do to Ian always has me in stitches.

Recent laughing-so-hard-oxygen-deprivation-becomes-a-problem moments - Gollum's acceptance speech at the MTV movie awards, Bender becoming human in Futurama, and the episode of Family Guy where Peter tries to breast-feed Stewie.

Nothing compares to that Gone With the Wind spoof on The Carol Burnett Show though. When Carol came down that staircase in the green dress with the curtain rod still attached and said "I saw it in the window and I just couldn't resist," I was in serious danger of suffocation.

The Carol Burnett Show would have its own wing in my comedy museum. With subwings for Harvey Korman in drag and the movie parodies generally.

The first time I saw Airplane!, practically the whole movie. If I had to single out one moment, it's probably Barbara Billingsley's "I speak jive" scene.

The Ref (which I finished for the first time last night) -- several moments, topped by, "Grandma's chewing through her gag," "I've hijacked my parents," "I just beat up Santa Claus," and the opening scene at the marriage counselor.

I feel horrendously guilty about this one, but the first episode of Absolutely Fabulous that I saw ended with hopelessly drunk Edina and Patsy falling into an open grave.

Hellzapoppin' -- "The dame with the ice."

The first time I saw Monkey Business -- Cary Grant and Ginger Rogers acting like 10YOs.

Frasier Valentine's Day episode where Niles is preparing for a dinner date at home. May be the most recent great silent comedy.