Greg Davis

Agree with this:

Tweet from Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias)
It’s an unfashionable view but I don’t think the rise of prestige cable drama compensates for the decline of movies.
https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/782608548861775872

I’m seeing some pretty good shows like Narcos, Kingdom, Sillicon Valley, and a host of other shows I hear people talking about that I haven’t checked out. The ones I’m familiar with are good tv… but aside from comedies (Sillicon Valley) I’d almost always rather see a quality movie and that’s increasingly rare in my opinion.

Why does everything always need to be either 2 hours long or 1 x 12 hours long? Vote here for 3-6 hour movie format films. Give me all of Kill Bill in one shot.

I find it super strange when someone recommends a fail of a movie. It frustrates me on the one hand, and it’s a reminder of how one’s own experience can be so different from another’s. Here’s a few that I find awkward to talk about when I sense someone actually liked them:

Drive (2011)

.. what the hell was I thinking going to see this? i feel like someone played a joke on me reviewing this..

District 9 (2009)

.. bad

Synecdoche (2008)

.. Love Kaufman but let’s not pretend this is watchable

The Hurt Locker (2008)

.. come on this won what? Much better current war films are out there with a smaller budget like

The War Tapes (2006)The Dark Knight (2008)

… so much ruined potential I wish I could rewrite the thing from about half way through. This isn’t so much a bad movie as much as it was just so much over-heralded (word?) as soo good.

Last Samurai (2003)

.. I love older Tom Cruise movies as much as the next guy but it’s okay to say this movie sucks, not sure what got over people

American Gangster (2007)

This one could show up here soley based on having two of the most overrated actors of all time- Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. But it turns out that it IS bad. Everyone wants to love a gangster-mafia flick but come on this is a cheap (but expensive I’m sure) insult to the classics.

50/50 (2011)

I can almost always get behind Rotten Tomatoes’ “Certified Fresh” picks but this one really let me down. Ok maybe just the first 10 mins scream cheese and the rest is great but unfortunately the writing and acting were so awkward we couldn’t keep watching.

A student in a first year marketing class I am TA’ing asked an interested question which I did some quick research on: what is the average price paid for product placement in the film industry?

While I wasn’t able to pinpoint an answer I did discover some interesting stuff:

product placement as a whole was worth $4.24 billion (US) in 2005- 80% of which takes place on TV

the top 3 TV shows by # of product placements
1. the biggest loser
2. american idol
3. extreme makeover

Companies have been paying $5 million to have their product showcased on The Apprentice

Studios often have larger, package deals with companies to have product placement in more than one movie, and even shared advertising agreements

a 2006 article claimed the average indie movie (that ended up in theatres) was charging in the range of $50k to $250k

a famous film example is E.T.- they charge Reese’s Pieces $1 million which supposedly resulted in an 80% leap in sales (for how long I wonder?)

BMW paid $3 million to have James Bond dump his Aston Martin in a recent movie

The recent hit Slumdog Millionaire (IMO) can be said to be an example of “product displacement”- they had to spend thousands removing any signs of the Mercedes brand from cars shown in the movie because Mercedes objected to their brand being seen in slums

Remember that movie The Wizard from back in the day? Now that was full on product placement.. the power glove.. super mario 3.. kids must be super vulnerable to that kind of stuff.