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To watch all the crap that comes out in the movie theaters is just plain crazy - especially during the summer movie season when it seems like every other movie is craptastic. But that's just what a few people have set their sights on with a website called The Movie Binge. The site has six people on its roster right now, including Gothamist's own Karen Wilson, with the possibly of some guest "bingers" as well. Their goal is to watch every movie from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day weekend.
Last night we spoke with Matt Jacobs, one of the "brains" behind The Movie Binge.
Gothamist: Do your loved ones think you are crazy?We'll see how sucssessful they are as their bank accounts are depleted by the insane cost of movies in New York. No word on if buying a bootleg version of Barnyard will count as watching a movie.
Matt Jacobs: They absolutely think I'm crazy. When I watched 7 movies in a day, they shook their heads and laughed, but when I poison my summer with god-awful films, I think they just feel really bad.
Gmst: How do you determine who sees the really bad movies - like garfield?
MJ: Believe it or not, Gothamist's own Cinecultist volunteered to see Garfield's A Tail of Two Kitties. There's no way I would have seen it. For the other films-that-shall-not-be-named, we may need to drug one of the Bingers and leave him or her in the theater. There's probably no other way.
Gmist: Is there a timeframe to watch a movie in?
MJ: Our plan is to watch a film within the first week it is released. Since there are no real rules, we wouldn't "lose" if it took 8 days. But we want to be timely otherwise the review is of little value to our readers. This will probably be tough on the weekends that have 6+ movies.
If you want to see what they're up against, check out the huge list of summer movies they have compiled. Matt tells us that he's working on a version for iCal and Google Calendar.
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They should set up a donation page! And a page for spoilers, because I don't know if I can spend $10.50 to see The Lake House but I want to know what happens.
I will probably see 90% of those movies (and many not listed) on my own this summer. And these binge guys have nothing on New York's finest cinemaniacs.
Jen, I can tell you right now what happens: Keanu and Sandra finally meet in the last 10 minutes of the movie and make sweet, improbable, cross-space-time-continuum love. Duh! Couldn't you tell that from the trailer and that Keane song on the soundtrack?
Just make sure to get a little sunshine so your Vitamin D count does not plunge to a dangerous level. (seriously)
Cinemaniac: I loved Cinemania! Great movie. Were you involved in the production or one of the subjects?
Also, if anyone has any suggestions for new releases we might be missing, you can post a comment here or hit me up personally (email's on the Movie Binge site).
If I had to sit through all the crap that Hollywood plops out for the summer, I'd make a rope out of Twizzlers and hang myself.
Matt: No, I had nothing to do with the movie, and am not one of the subjects but I certainly saw a bit of myself in them. :) I have seen Roberta Hill around the city and even talked to her once. I also see this guy around my age (20's) at movies every now and then who probably sees way more movies than I do (around 225 a year). We joke about how we want to be in the sequel, Cinemania Jr.
I demand to know where these people are finding all the bargain matinees, since I refuse to believe they're actually paying full price for all of them. Or perhaps they're independently wealthy?
Okay...so I post on here every once in a while, and I almost always end up referencing the years I spent living in gai Paris...but seriously folks, in France, the cinemas have this deal which is, potentially, what I miss most about living over there. You pay around 20 bucks a month for unlimited movies!!!
All the major chains have these deals. I went with this megaplex chain called UGC, they had approximately 20 cinemas in Paris, showed all the bad American film you could possibly want, plus lots of international stuff, and, of course, French films, as well as organizing retrospectives, etc. It was AMAZING. I would go to the movies, on average, 3 times per week, but on a rainy Saturday, I might go to 3 in a row.
Why don't they do that here? Aren't cinemas struggling because of the rental industry? Wouldn't this get folks back in the seats, overpriced popcorn in hand?
Please, someone, make this happen here!!!
It's pretty easy to double or even triple feature (where you sneak from one theatre to another to see back-to-back movies) at the bigger theatres in the city, so you can see multiple movies for the price of one. The AMC Empire 25 is probably the easiest place to do this, which I think has been done and written about in Gothamist before. Also, in publications like Time Out New York, New York Times, etc. and often on the street in front of certain multiplexes, you can obtain free passes to advance screenings.