Kerasotes Bends Over Again for Local Politics!

[RealityCheck]

Driving by the mall theatre sign last Friday, I thought I was having an acid flashback. One word jumped out at me on the sign: CAPITALISM. Upon arriving home, I popped up my Yahoo movie listing and sure enough, it was Micheal Moore's new film Capitalism: A Love Story. Yes, believe it or not, a Micheal Moore film was showing in Quincy, Illinois! At the same time as a movie featuring a black person (well sort of) was playing at the Showplace! Did I miss a meeting? Did Q-town become progressive overnight? Unfortunately, we'd already made plans to see the new Saw film that weekend, it's a Halloween tradition for us, so we decided to catch the Moore film during the week, knowing full well that we were lucky to have it at all and that it certainly wouldn't survive to see a second week.

Thursday's the last night to see the film you know won't make the Friday cut, so I sat my happy ass down to check the showtime tonight. Yahoo reported however that there were only two films playing at the three auditorium mall cinema. Hey, Yahoo's made mistakes before, so I checked Kerasotes' halfassed site, same story. Fandango as well claimed that there were only two out of three auditoriums showing movies at the mall. Maybe I did have a flashback after all... Further investigation was called for.

Calling the mall cinema to inquire about the film's status, I was informed that the film DID show Friday to Sunday, but then the auditorium was apparently closed to um... install a new projector. For the rest of the week. Not sure who they have "installing projectors" at Kerasotes, but it's not a process that takes most of a week. After the last showing Sunday they could have replaced a projector by the time the first showing Monday was scheduled with plenty of time left over for pizza, beer, and a nap. I asked if there had been some unforeseen complications that required turning a project that takes a few hours tops into a week long project and was told that no, it's a really really complex process that takes a loooong time. Pretty much in that tone. The person I was speaking to, of course, had no way of knowing that I've spent my share of time behind the scenes at the mall cinema, including some time in the projection areas, and that I've even done a bit of work on their setup, among other things. In short, I know what they've got up there and I know how it works.

Let's say you've got a movie theatre with three auditoriums. Do you let 33.3% of your theatre sit idle for most of a week to let a quick maintenance project turn in to a long one? Knowing too intimately how Kerasotes does business, I'd have to say no. A much more likely scenario is that Monday morning certain phone calls were made and the film was pulled. If they'd replaced it with something else, that would have been a tad too obvious, plus they'd have had to make arrangements to secure another film which would have meant pulling a film from another theatre and the associated hassle. Nope, a horseshit story about "projector replacement" was put in place. Of course, no one apparently realized that anyone bright enough to be concerned (in a positive sense) about the fate of a Moore film might just be bright enough to see through such a flimsy story, but that's one of the hallmarks of Corporate Amerika, isn't it? The underlying theory that all consumers are mouth breathing idiots. Hey, at least they were smart enough to make the story about projector replacement, not screen or sound system replacement. Those are two things they could have lied about that it would have been bloody well obvious that they hadn't done...

So once again a story of life in Quincy in which the irony is almost palpable. A film about corporate and governmental fascism done in by the fascism itself. As I said, it was amazing enough that the film saw the light of day in this zip code anyway. Sadly, all it did here was last long enough to provide yet another object lesson that no one will learn a damned thing from.

Then again, if the American public en masse was capable of learning from past mistakes, Mr. Moore's films wouldn't be necessary in the first place, now would they?

[mondayC]

Projector installation? Oh please.
I'm willing to bet money some elderly couple saw it, thinking it would be a great pick-me-up film about how wonderful it is to live in America and how much cleaner, wealthier, and healthier we are than all those "socialist" countries in Europe.
I think this new socialism scare could be the next Red Scare at the rate it's growing.