Ever wonder why things like Christmas With the Kranks manage to be number 1 at the box office?

MSNBC has an excellent article by Eric Lundegaard about the disconnect between movies people like and movies gaining wide release. Mr. Lundegaard goes through some of the movies released this year and compares the type of release given to the movie with the rating of the movie, based on the Tomatometer of Rotten Tomatoes, a site that compiles many critics reviews to give an overall opinion of the film. Each review is either fresh or rotten and the percentage of "fresh" (i.e. positive) reviews is given as the films Tomatometer score. For example, if you were planning to go see Alone in the Dark this weekend, its appallingly bad score of 1% fresh (66 rotten reviews, 1 fresh) should tell you that it might be best to stay away. Obviously there are a few flaws in using this system to evaluate movies, and Mr. Lundegaard addresses many of them in his article. The point, however, remains the same. For every Incredibles that gains a wide release, the movie studios inflict a dozen Catwoman or Kangaroo Jack clones on us. At one point he uses the example of Garden State (88% fresh, and it gets my seal of approval as well), which did not have a wide release and made just under 27 million dollars. Thirty-five movies were given a "very wide release" (over 2000 screens) and made less money (and oh, by the way, most of them sucked). What would have happened if a movie like Garden State had been given a wide release?

As a movie buff in "fly-over country", I hate this system. Because I live in Michigan, but not in Detroit, I have to watch Racing Stripes instead of Hotel Rwanda or Meet the Fockers instead of Sideways? This is absurd. We deserve more choice. Give people the option, and they will choose good movies. I'm not saying it's always going to be that way; plenty of people liked Meet the Parents, after all.

If you happen to be bored, go read some of the reviews of the aforementioned Alone in the Dark. It's not too often reviews will make laugh out loud. Here are just a few of my favorites:

"Saying Uwe Boll’s Alone in the Dark is better than his 2003 American debut
House of the Dead—possibly the worst horror film of the past decade—is akin
to praising syphilis for not being HIV. " Nicholas Schager, Slant Magazine

"Trying to rehash this plot is like trying to describe Jackson Pollock
painting while drunk." Peter Croatto, filmcritic.com

"Alone in the Dark is no better than whatever you might pick up while wearing a blindfold at Blockbuster, even if you happen to reach into a trash can." Jack Mathews, New York Daily News

"Never trust a movie that opens with a written introduction scrolling by that's longer than the collected works of Tom Clancy." David Hiltbrand, Philadelphia Inquirer

And my favorite:
"The three stars have seen better days, but I'd like to think they could still do something classier and more dignified than this. Like gay porn." Rob Vaux Flipside Movie Emporium

After reading these reviews, I think it might be worth the $8.00 to go see this.

Until later...