STUFF & THINGS 2

By Richard Early

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"Well, ah, what’s the point of that card then?”

NOTE: The quote of the week is not necessarily a quote that occurred this week. It is simply this week’s chosen quote. For context, ask me, or wait for the book (that may or may not ever come out).

LAND OF THE LOST

Yes, go ahead, mock me. I can take it. It was Tuesday afternoon, I was bored out of my mind and I’ve seen everything else. I don’t have to justify myself to you!

No review. Movie sucked, plenty of people have critiqued better than I ever will. Leave it at this, Will Farrell had his moments, that was about it. Oh, and this; the movie suffers by never knowing what it wants to be, a kid’s movie or a PG-13 flick. This is clearly one of those movie producer slotting problems where no one decided who the audience was, or they tried to cheat and appeal to different groups. I hate the ratings system so much.

Here’s what I want to say, though. I am sick and tired of remakes. I was trying to come up with some clever line connecting the dinosaurs in this movie to the dinosaur that is the remake, but I got nothing. I just think it’s time to end this crap. Look at this summer’s movies. Star Trek, Terminator, Transformers, Wolverine, GI Joe, Land of the Lost and probably more I can’t remember. They’re either property rip offs, bad sequels, or re-envisioning. Not one of them is a new concept. Look at TV: Battlestar Galactica (which was actually good, but that’s not my point), Knight Rider, V, and so on. No one wants to try anything new, except for reality shows – gag. I understand it, I suppose. New is risk. Old is security. It’s easier to work off a brand name than create one, obviously. I read a list recently of about 20 sci-fi properties that are up for remakes, and that didn’t include the Alien relaunch just announced. So we have nothing to look forward to.

And yet the best sci-fi in recent memory is Firefly and its companion movie Serenity. They were fresh, interesting, and bold. Also, Lost, while not wholly original, has proven to be a unique and challenging TV show, one of my all time favorites, in fact. So it can be done.

Here’s who I blame: us. We have spent upwards of two decades rewarding the movie studios for their unoriginality. I’ve done it, you’ve done it, and so have millions of people all over the world. Why would anyone try to make a good movie when they know the crap they’re regurgitating now is good enough? I certainly wouldn’t. You certainly wouldn’t. And that’s where we are. Transformers is good enough. X-Men 3 is good enough. Wolverine is good enough.

I’m not advocating a ticket rebellion. I know I’m going to keep going to this crap. I’m just suggesting that movie goers at least acknowledge some level of objectivity. Don’t feel that you have to like the movie because you bought a ticket for it or took your girlfriend or kids or whatever. Just ask yourself if you were satisfied and if some little part of you feels funny, you know you probably weren’t. Start there. For me.

I’ve often said that the people who want more out of movies are not hurting those that don’t. It’s those who want the least they can have who hurt those who want more.

SIXTEEN YEARS – AGAIN

I have no idea what’s going to happen tomorrow. I never do anymore. I’ve run events I thought would be great and watched them flop and I’ve watched events I thought were terrible blow up and get caught with my pants down. Whatever happens, I’ll tell you all abut it.

The one consistent thing I heard from customers this week was that they were going to miss out because they were going on vacation or to a wedding or a graduation or some such. This is why in the past I have skipped doing an anniversary event in June. Despite what I’ve heard, I’m of the belief that things have changed. I think the weird weather the last two years and the increased gas prices and the poor economic times have caused a change in behavior. I can see it in my sales history, that’s for sure. Sales have gone up in months that traditionally are down for us. I think this is a trend. When you see trends, don’t ignore them, jump on them. You’re going to be wrong sometimes, but you have to try to evolve with the world, especially in business. I know lots of guys who hold to a business model from the 1970s for comic shops. They still have hundreds of boxes of back issues. Or there’s the game shops that refuse to develop new games, like all the D&D 4^th Ed. haters. Well, those are the guys who are closing their doors or doing the crying.

COMING ATTRACTIONS

See? We made it! 2 in a row! I did two before Xmas so next week will set the Paradox blog record. Tune in next time for – whatever I feel like. Oh, and tell your friends! We need readership to break the 2 barrier also!