Keith Watanabe * NET 2.0

interesting article on how the theaters are firing back against our friends the Studios in Hollywood at producing subpar movies for the slump in sales. well, no shit! if you look at the recent releases, there isn't anything even remotely touching a Casablanca, Ben Hur, etc. in terms of being a classic. They're just being released like a person with a bad case of diarrhea. I mean, guys like Rob Schneider ought to be homeless on the street with the crap that he produces. The other major problem is that if the studios detect even a bump in sales for a movie, they'd consider a follow up. I mean, Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo shouldn't have made a first tier for anyone with clear sense (which overtly isn't the case with Hollywood's coked up frame of mind). If you look at 2003, the real grosser was Return of the King. In fact, because of ROTK, movie sales were up. What's the difference? this movie had a soul. the current ones don't. They don't have plots, characters, or any sense of emotion outside of stupifying the American people worse than shooting heroin in one's veins. And just because Terry Gilliam is going to give his hand at a classic tale doesn't mean people are going to flock to the theaters all of a sudden. The real issue is that you have all these producers, marketing, sales people lawyers, and general business people involved in movie making. Real movie making is an art, not a business. Hollywood can say what it wants about movies as a business, but the reason for movie's existence is a result of a desire to perform, not a desire to make money. When you look at crap like all these remakes, you can tell that these hacks in Hollywood are looking for a quick paycheck for their next whiff of crack. I'd prefer Hollywood to burn to the ground and stop producing movies forever just to preserve the memory of what a movie real meant at this rate. Like the music industry, I'm hoping these people just go away.