In my last job, the entertainment industry accounted for about 50% of my revenue and I spent a lot of time working with the studios and their ad agencies. On one particular campaign, the folks at an agency that will go nameless were ranting and raving about how great their latest movie was. To which I asked, ‘Is it worth $50?’
Of course, they shocked at this notion, but after explaining that it costs me $20 for 2 tickets, $15 – 20 for the popcorn, soda and Whoppers and $20 for a baby sitter, they started to get the point. The point being that if I need to shell out $60 to go see a movie, it better be really damn good.
We saw Munich this afternoon. But it was really long. Not quite King Kong, long, but pretty close. Aside from it being really long, it was a great movie. Spielberg shows why he is the best director in the game. Warning: the movie is very violent. It is a violent story to begin with, but the back end of it is even more so.
As a total aside, Christopher Buckley’s book ‘Thank You For Smoking’, one of the funniest books that I have ever read is being made into a movie. That is going to be a late night one.
Back to subject. Munich is very good, but it seems like Hollywood is just trying to make very long movies in order for people feel as if they are getting their moneys worth. In a quick search of Movies, there are 7 movies that are playing now that are around the 2 1/2 hour mark. Has Hollywood gotten so dried up that this is what they resort to? Extra long versions of the same story?
For the most part, yes, but Munich does not do this. Munich is an original story line, inspired by true events, that is hard hitting politically. Since it was an extra hour longer, we needed to shell out another $10 for the sitter. Was it worth $80 to see? I probably could have lived seeing it on DVD, but it was a great date with my wife and really good movie, so yes, it was worth it.
