Going to the movies was a great experience when I was growing up. Whether it was going with my teenage brother, or going as a family unit, the outcome was always the same: discussing our expectations on the way to the movie, getting the sacred refreshments, actually watching the movie, and the post-movie discussion.
I don’t know what’s happened since then, but I would rather fall into a pit of HIV-infected inmates who haven’t even breathed the scent of a woman in over 25 years than go to the theater today. Ironically, it’s now just a social gathering of immature minds swimming in jackassery, mixed with poor theater monitoring, which negatively affects the enjoyment of others. Why would I want to go to the theater today when I can get the same experience on Myspace?
I remember on a few occasions when I came close to acting like that during my childhood, but my brother or mother put me in check way before the movie even started. The funny thing about it all is I still had a good time. Now you have to deal with teenagers with poor social skills, the grown-up wannabe hip hopper with the pseudo chip on his shoulder who constantly answers his cell phone as if he’s someone important, the staff that does nothing because they don’t want to piss off their friends, and the rednecks fueled up by shitty beer who talk loud and throw shit - that’s just a quick list off the top of my head. To alleviate most of these frustrations the choices we have are: 1. getting up at the crack of dawn and catch an extremely early matinee, 2. wait for the DVD to be released in 6 months, or 3. pirate the movie off of the internet.
The problem with getting up early is the fact that I’m getting the fuck up on a day when I can finally sleep in. Seriously, after a week of putting in 40+ hours, and maybe a celebratory after work function, who wants to get up early to see a 9:30 showing? On the one hand, I totally appreciate a theater opening that early to give people that option, and I’m happy teenagers don’t leave their crypts before noon. I know I like having the feeling that I still have a near complete day before me to do stuff. However, my energy levels are usually down after watching a movie, which makes putting it at the end of a day more sensible to me.
I invested in a nice HDTV and decent sound system to watch movies and play video games on. Some of the video game benefits are not having to wait from 6 months to over a year to get it after it has been released, and movie related game releases coincide with the movie release. But who wants to be a “Johnny Come Lately” and rehash discussions that already took place? It would be great if a DVD release could hit when a movie debuts. Hell, I don’t mind if the price is double the standard price while the movie is in theaters and then drops to normal prices after the theater cycle. I would even wager that movie profits would go up if this happened.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, we’re a societal creature. Because of that fact there are some people who don’t want to endure the crap theater experience or wait forever to see it on DVD. Sprinkle the social emphasis on everything from shopping to online activity to cell phones, and pirating seems to become more palatable - it allows us to remain in the social game. I don’t partake in pirating movies, or condone it, but it would be ludicrous to deny some of the underlying reasons that primarily drive the practice.
Leave a comment