So I just read that the remake’d movie The Fog is #1 at the box office this weekend.
WTF?$#@*#&!!
For those of you too lazy to click, let me quote from a few:
– “The Fog is a bore, laden with unspectacular special effects and dreadful acting…”
– “Wainwright’s Fog proves successful only at blowing.”
– “…this flick absolutely stinks of half-hearted effort and assembly-line cynicism.”
From Rotten Tomatoes, it has an average review score of 2.5 out of 10. This isn’t ambiguous. The film doesn’t just blow… it sucks!
Why do I care?
Well, because when crap like this (or Gigli, or Catwoman, etc.) brings in money, then the studios are incented to create MORE crap like this. Worse yet, then movie theatres feel compelled to dedicate screens to such drivel instead of showcasing worthwhile (and, dare I say it, oft independent or foreign) films.
I’m not saying that all films should be serious works of art. Hell, I just watched Bubba Ho-tep last night :D.
And it’s not that I think less of people going to see a film where there’s not really a huge critical consensus (e.g., 40% of critics loved it). But I’d like to slap silly the folks that go see films that have scores like 3% on the Tomatometer. At risk of being a bit overdramatic, in a way they’re ruining the theatre for the rest of us.
What do you think?