So Forbes.com’s Marc E. Babej and Tim Pollak may have a point about more and more movie studios skipping advance screenings for critics: It may make good business sense to cut reviewers out of the loop. But it’s a lousy deal for moviegoers.
Addressing the much-discussed fact that the studios have withheld 11 movies from film critics already this year (including Benchwarmers, pictured), up from just 2 in the same period a year ago, the authors sneer that critics object because their egos are bruised. Critics, according to these guys, are hooked on the "VIP treatment" of advance screenings. (VIP treatment? Babej and Pollak have clearly not logged too many midweek afternoons in the decrepit Midtown screening rooms where most films are previewed, trying to find something — anything — to say about the latest cynically contrived paint-by-numbers studio product.) No, critics object to this studio strategy simply because it makes it impossible for them to do their job: to give readers an informed opinion as to whether a particular movie is worth ten bucks of their savings and two hours of their lives.
Luckily, more and more moviegoers are getting information not only from newspapers and magazines but also from the Web, where traditional deadlines no longer apply. So the days are numbered when studios can successfully stifle critics and increase the chances a crappy movie will enjoy a strong opening weekend: Now critics can see the first show and post a response on a new movie’s opening afternoon — say, right here on EW.com.
Forbes uses faulty logic off the bat. They praise rotten tomatoes, right? But you can’t get aggregate scores on a movie that has no reviews. Rotten Tomatoes didn’t have a score for Aeon Flux before it came out, either. And ain’t Forbes that chump who ran for President on the flat tax platform, practically paid people to vote for him, and still got wupped in the primary by McCain? No love for Forbes.
As much as we the public love to hate on movie reviewers (EW gave catwoman a b-, but napoleon dynamite a c-, for example), we can all think of a few times their advice made us feel like hooked up insiders (EW got me to check out Swingers, Donnie Darko and hundreds more hidden gems).
And yeah, at all the advance screenings I’ve been too, there was nothing glam about them. Maybe things are different in Forbesland, but us plebians pay for our own cokes and popcorn, even when the movie is free.
Did Silent Hill skip advance screenings as well? That’d be EXTREMELY sad if it’s true, I thought that one was gonna be good.
In a way, it’s a little sneaky of the studios to deny critics the chance to voice their opinions early. It clearly shows they know they have a piece of crap on their hands, but desperately need those opening weekend receipts. The fact that it’s happening so often lately really shows the lack of talent in the industry for the most part.