the theory of the firm: an eye for an eye leaves the world blind

On Friday, I finally went to the movies. Just one day shy of five weeks in Los Angeles and this movie fanatic finally went to the pictures. I basically had a solo date of dinner and a movie. Yes, I'm not afraid to do such things on my own!

I'm a member of ArcLight Cinemas (in Hollywood) so I get the scoop on what's coming, screening contests, etc. Shit, that reminds me, I should have gone to the Hollywood farmer's market to get free screening tickets this morning. Oh well.

Anyway, I got an email saying that Green Street Hooligans was opening and that the director (Lexi Alexander) would be there after the 7 p.m. screening for a Q&A. So I figured, let's try this out. ArcLight is supposed to be the premiere theater-going experience in this land of film. Assigned stadium seating, ushers (too many ushers really) who show you your seat and introduce the films, no commercials before the trailers, only 4-6 minutes of trailers, and supposedly they don't let anyone in after the film starts (which I found not to be true). All this for the price of $14! It's unreal, but that's what movies cost here. Actually, I got a $1 discount for being a member, but that paid for the parking.

Okay, so the movie was not very good. Not the worst thing I've seen, but I fail to see where all the praise is coming from. There's a cohesive story with good character development, but some of the dialogue and delivery were so bad it was reminiscent of "Blood was spilt this night." [An aside, Elijah Wood will never shake Frodo, I was thinking Frodo the whole fucking time.] The film is also not original in the slightest. We did not need Matt (Elijah Wood)'s sparse voice-over narration that was trying to beat some sappy crap into your head, and of course the movie wrapped itself up too neatly for my taste. And my god it was so violent. I quickly felt I had made a mistake and should have seen a quirky comedy. Extreme violence within two minutes, no exaggeration.

Okay, so the movie's over, and here comes the Q&A. If you've read the blog, you know I've been to plenty of Q&As in D.C., but they're a little different here since they assume the audience is trying to make it into the business. It's not so obnoxious as to put off someone like me who isn't, but it's interesting and a nice change. But I'm getting ahead of myself. A new usher (there were five hanging around before the show) appears to moderate, and I realize I know him! I looked at a room he had available in his apartment a few blocks from there. He introduces the executive producer, but I didn't understand what he said; then I realized it was Jon Favreau. It took me a second because, well, he looks more like his Rudy days than I've seen him recently. That doesn't count as a celebrity citing since he was "supposed" to be there. Then Lexi Alexander came out. Yadda, yadda, I didn't find them to be too egotistical. But I actually asked a question. Jon was going on about how it's great to make your movie the way you want and then break into the majors that way. So I asked why bother with making the big crap when you clearly think so highly of doing your own thing. Of course the answer was money, but they weren't that crass about it (I wish they were) and gave a couple of lame reasons before the money ("big crap has to have heart," "fun to play with the toys at the big studios").