Finally saw Night Watch last night. Whew! After Hostel part II I don't think anything is going to seem terrbly violent anymore. And yes parts of it were rather cliche and there was just a teensy bit of ham-fistedness but wow! Visually stunning. Also it's wonderful for me to be able to watch a film where I am familiar with none of the actors. Even the wild fantasy elements seemed realistic to me when I was lost in the characterizations. Beautifully realized, beautifully acted. And it was fun to see someone watching Buffy in Russki.

I can't stop.

"Live Free or Die Hard" plays off of two fears that pervade our present culture: 1) terrorism; and 2) the possible existence of elite bands of computer geniuses, who might seem like poorly nourished and poorly groomed young people, but who, in fact, know all about stuff like "mutating algorithmic security codes" and are currently reading your e-mail.

I mean, wow.

Personally, I like to think I was the big summer blockbuster of 1976.

People talk about Star Wars all the time.

That's not what I meant. I meant all the summer movies that AREN'T Star Wars. The Deep Impacts and Volcanos of yore, which won't be talked about in thirty years.

I mean, wow.

I will admit, that even confused me.

People talk about Star Wars all the time.

I think he means that might be why he doesn't know of the blockbuster of say 1976.

Or I can just let P-C say what P-C meant and keep my not-P-C mouth shut.

That Olyphant guy creeps me out. His intensity lies on a frequency with which I do not resonate.

I totally get bon digging him, though.

I totally get bon digging him, though.

Guilty as charged.

I think in order to be considered a blockbuster you need to actually make money so that leaves Volacano out. Deep Impact's returns were less than 2:1.

Yeah, those weren't the best examples. But do you see my point? We think of all these big Bruckheimer blow-shit-up extravaganzas as summer blockbusters now, but I have no sense of what "summer blockbusters" were when Jaws and Star Wars created them. They could have been movies notable only for making money. I'm starting to think, however, that any movie that made a lot of money, I would know about, regardless of whether it was popular or quality. Am I making any sense here?

There's another (I think newer) term, "tent pole release" that the studios use which I'm pretty sure is code for, "dear god please let it be a blockbuster." Perhaps all blockbusters are tent poles but only lucky tent poles become blockbusters. Not only does every studio have at least one summer tent pole scheduled each year- they move them around on each other, trying to get the best weekend. For instance, nobody goes up against Jerry Bruckheimer on July 4th. Studios that had tentative schedules up for smaller movies will move those movies around when they see where a Spider-Man or a Harry Potter has been put. All this maneuvering is relatively new to the last 25 years of movie making.