Uneasy Rhetoric

This post from Boing Boing reveals a startling truth: hordes of teenagers with cell phones are not necessarily a bad thing.

Thanks to pocket-sized instant messaging, thousands of people are turned away from the theaters before they waste hard-earned dollars (the price of a movie is more than many people make per hour) and precious time watching movies that suck.

Theaters can no longer depend on opening-weekend euphoria to rake in the bucks before everyone knows better.

I’m sure studios are crying woefully about this, but I have a simple solution: stop making movies that suck. Well, you say, how can you know until it’s in the can? You know. Studios know. They know when they’re making a dud. They know when they’re making something Oscar-worthy. They know when they’re making something that will make money but still suck. I’m guessing there are few surprises in Hollywood, given the formulaic nature of about 90% of what hits the screen (even so-called “art house” movies are a bit formulaic), as well as the intensive focus-group work that (supposedly – did they do a group for Gigli?) goes on.

Perhaps, thanks to instacrit, we’ll all be better off. Or we’ll just be inundated by movies that, when you’re 16, seem like the best thing since sliced bread and that, when you’re 30, are just embarrassing.