"Waiter, the Bill please."

Rating: 1/10 (4 October 2005)

My wife and I go to the Cinema as often as possible and we love it (we don't have a Sky dish or Cable), "Watch it on DVD" our friends say, "Your loss" we reply. The Big Screen, there is no substitute.
But hey, what are the big Hollywood Producers all raving about? "Not enough bums on seats this summer? What's going on? Aren't these seasons movies good enough for these people?" That's funny, obviously complacency is the ordered dish of the day, in their little planet they call Hollywood.
I mean, come on, didn't they go and watch the interpretation of H.G. Wells classic novel War of the World's? Then again we wished we hadn't either. What an absolute let down. We thought we were going to see a Monster Movie about two fighting planets. No, we ended up seeing a glorified domestic. The bad guys where just a side dish on this sour meal of bland and predictable spice less tripe. This meal came served cold.
Being a 12a in England, you seem to be getting the idea of the target audience and its mentality, not that Mr Spielberg wants more grown-ups to take their ankle biters to the Cinema, more bums on seats, in theory, but in practise? You figure it out.
We, like most people that saw it felt that the concept of the H.G. Wells novel and this movie was as far removed from each other as chalk and cheese. Why call it War of the Worlds and claim that it was based on the novel by Mr Wells? ("Don't need to read the book as I've seen the film" says little Johnny to his Teacher, if it wasn't so painful I'd be crying). If Mr Wells was still alive he just might be suing for misrepresentation. No doubt, the Producers would be saying he would be counting his money? Someone must be?
Mr Spielberg has had some original concepts, but this is another Americanisation/Spielberg/Hollywood smoke screen. After getting indigestion too often people are not going to enter the restaurant, its not sour grapes but a fact of life!
Is America really the Narcissus of the World? Do they really care? Well, the lack of profits should hit the right note Echoing off empty cinema seats this summer (2005).
Maybe I'll rent the DVD next time? Whose loss? Both I think.
Live and Learn, we have.