Sorry about the unusually late column today…. I got caught up in Star Wars fever. 

I decided to walk over to the new Pacific Theatre, The Grove, which is just a few blocks away from where I live, to see how the 12:01 a.m. show was going to feel.  Mann’s Grauman’s Chinese isn’t far, but I know that scene and there was plenty of coverage on TV.  But The Grove, while still in L.A., is more like a neighborhood theater. 

I got there at about 11:15 p.m.  There were three screens playing Attack of the Clones, as opposed to the five Spider-Screens that had been running for the last couple of weeks.  While Spider-Man had banners in the outdoor mall’s corridors and a marquee banner that took up a third of the marquee, Clones had nothing to mark its arrival… other than the three screens, totaling just under 900 seats, and 34 seats left to sell, 45 minutes before showtime.  The one digital screen had long since been sold out. 

There was something beautiful about a concession area with six registers working and lines 10 deep at 11:30 at night on a Wednesday.  With all the huffing and puffing of the industry of entertainment writing – of which I am a part – it suddenly came down to the thing that really mattered.  The exact amount paid by the crowd at The Grove was… ARGH!!!… NO!!!  The MOVIE!!!!

I had no intention of watching Episode II again last night.  I had a column to write, I had a poor night of sleep the night before and I have a feeling that I’ll be sitting through the movie again with my nephew and/or niece pretty soon.  But as I stood there and watched the ticket count get lower and lower, people wandering in late at night on a school night… I started to think about that noise that an audience makes when the studio logo appears in front of a movie that they are really excited about… the applause breaks that come when the actors they love arrive on screen… the breathlessness of a full theater as anticipation unfolds into reality… all just $9.75 away.

I’m sure I could have snuck into the digital house and stood in the corridor, but I wanted to see the celluloid print, to see what all the complaining was about.  (Answer: On the print I saw, it was a non-issue.  Yes, many things were sharper in digital.  But if you didn’t know or were not looking for it, the difference would be negligible.)  There were almost no kids in the audience.  And there were a few surprisingly well-aged folks in suits there.  The only celebrity was near/former indie face Steve Martini (or was it Derek?), from Smiling Fish and Goat On Fire (aka Crouching Talent, Hidden Meaning), who was walking around with a blue light saber and a big thing of popcorn. 

The first applause came when the NCN five-minute countdown began.  That died down quickly when everyone realized that it was just going to be a bunch of ads.  You have to wonder why the ads for the new Matrix cars don’t steal more effectively from the film.  Given the ad, the car should have been called Waking Life.  But then we got some trailers… and the audience exploded when the green glowing digits started falling across the screen.  Yes, the ads for the real Matrixi.  The funny thing was that the trailers for the double sequels delivered almost nothing memorable.  Morpheus says something philosophical, but I can’t tell you what he was trying to say, much less tell you exactly what he said.  We see the surviving team, but nothing really fresh… this trailer could have been cut from the last movie.  But the audience was rabid, hanging on every beat of the ad.   And then I thought – for no rational reason – that since they were clearly selling both movies, they might actually announce an all-summer release pattern right there, under our noses, changing cinema history forever.  And though I still have reservations about the idea of it, I got excited.  Really excited.  But no… just a “2003” tag at the end.  Not even a “Pull Your Plug - May 2, 2003.”  They still loved it.

In a bizarre twist on the Sony story about attaching four summer trailers to Spider-Man, Fox only had the traditional one… and it was for a movie that seemed to be completely inappropriate.  I know that my 12-year-old nephew will love Like Mike and that this trailer will help get him in the theater, but using Star Wars to launch Fox’s version of a Disney family programmer seems like the proverbial elephant gun to kill a fly.  Perhaps the studio felt that Minority Report was inherently bigger than the opportunity and therefore, didn’t need the hype.  I disagree.  They could have done a 90/60 split (in seconds) and promoted both.  But Clones is exactly where you would want to get a good 60 second buzz for Minority Report.  I’d even go against the effects thing and show a slow cut, intense acting scene.  I mean, we all know that we’ll be able to get it up for Spielberg and Cruise, but the early April promotional kick-off has already lost its steam.  Time to rev it back up.  On the other hand, it’s possible that Lucas’ deal with the studio precluded attaching a trailer for an R rated movie, which I assume Minority Report will have.  (As of this moment, there is no rating and if you look at the movie’s site, you will see that they are about ready to move on to showing Cruise’s entire face.)  Anyway, Like Mike was well received, but not a thriller, and Fox doesn’t really have anything the rest of the summer.  It makes one wonder whether a Star Wars trailer platform for Unfaithful and a July release date wouldn’t have been more successful for the movie, flawed though it is, that will not get the theatrical audience it deserves.  (P.S. The trailer for Signs also slayed `em.)

And then, the Fox logo and the roar… how I love that roar.  Once again for the LucasFilm logo.  And yet again for the trumpet blare and the Star Wars writ center screen.  There were applause breaks throughout the first big action sequence and laughter in all the right places. 

I don’t know whether Men In Black II will deliver that kind of opening night rush… I doubt it will.  But I was glad to belly up to the bar and to pay my money to connect with real people with real passion.  The countdown to The Matrix Reloaded has begun…

PAGE TWO:  “Gangs of New York Reloaded”