Access Atlanta > Movies > Blog > Archives > 2006 > May > 26 > Entry
Cinema offers a ray of hope in the darkness
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Dear Mr. Smithee,
This past Saturday, at AMC Parkway Pointe 15, just before the previews and the 3 p.m. showing of “The Da Vinci Code,” a management-type person came into the theater and announced that ringing cellphones, text messaging or any type of communication devices were strictly prohibited during the showing of the movie.
Theater personnel would be monitoring the audience, and if any of the above took place, the patron would be told to leave. There was moderate applause from the almost full audience after the announcement.
It is about time that something of this nature takes place.
Don Runnion, Atlanta
Dear Grateful Moviegoer,
You, my friend, were a witness to the power of the printed word. To wit: One small (but forceful) mouthful from the recent Mr. Smithee’s Mega Megaplex Adventure, one giant leap for moviegoingkind.
The kind folks at AMC do indeed confirm that after my massive diatribe first published May 12 against cellphone and BlackBerry disruptions at screenings, the management at Parkway Pointe 15 decided it was high time to greet moviegoers with additional verbal reminders about the theater’s long-standing policy about electronic devices in screening rooms.
Last weekend, theater management began entering screening rooms before previews and the feature attraction and instructing audiences against disturbances with cellphones and such.
“We’ve gotten a lot of feedback from guests who are supportive” of the action at Parkway Pointe, says AMC spokesman Zach Baze at the chain’s corporate headquarters in Kansas City, Mo.
He says violators (my word, not his) will be given the benefit of the doubt and another “advisory message.”
But what if the offender persists and the blue light from his/her cellphone blazes in the dark again and again?
“They would be asked to leave,” Baze says. “They would be issued a refund and be asked to come back another time.”
So there you have it, my friend Don. Action, at last.
Grateful moviegoers should take the time to thank management at the Parkway Pointe for trying to curb screening room disruptions. And moviegoers who go to other theaters should ask managers there when they will start doing what Parkway Pointe is doing.
Do not, dear readers, believe that we are merely voices crying out in dark silence.
Mr. Smithee’s Mega Megaplex Adventure was read in the hallowed offices of AMC corporate headquarters.
“We value the input of all our guests,” AMC’s Baze says. “Mr. Smithee included.”
Alan
P.S. You get a “Poseidon” swim team shirt and an “Ask Alan Smithee” T-shirt.
Dear Mr. Smithee,
For my money, zombies are definitely the scariest creatures in the movies. I’d like to “pick your brain” about the origin of movie zombies (OK, I know that was a terrible joke).
I know that George Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead” is generally considered the first zombie movie, although he didn’t refer to them as such. Did zombies exist in the movies before Romero used them?
Kathie Lanman, Peachtree City
Dear Innocent One,
Oh, you youngsters are so precious. Yes, George Romero’s first flesh-eating mob of dead tissue arrived way back in the dark ages - 1968.
It was a time when mankind somehow made do without the barest of necessities - such as cellphones, DVDs, home computers and a grande nonfat vanilla latte from Starbucks.
“Night of the Living Dead” even predated the indispensable, must-have Pet Rock.
But, sweet child, Romero was not the initiator of zombies into filmdom.
The reliable UndeadFilms .com, a Web site devoted to zombies and other dead things or beings under mind control, lists dozens of zombie movies that predate “Living Dead.”
Of note is 1932’s “White Zombie” with Bela Lugosi. There’s also “Revolt of the Zombies” (1936), “Revenge of the Zombies” (1943) and, because Hollywood never knows when to stop, “Zombies on Broadway” (1945).
Another Web site, Zombie Juice.com, lists 135 zombie movies, with 25 of them predating “Living Dead.”
Might I suggest you locate the latest “Mystery Science Theater 3000” DVD collection. It includes 1963’s “The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies.”
Alan
P.S. You get a “Nacho Libre” candle and an “Ask Alan Smithee” T-shirt.
Have a question for Mr. Smithee?
* E-mail him at alansmithee@ajc.com* or go to accessAtlanta.com and click on Movies. Please include your name, city and daytime phone number. Mr. Smithee can’t reply to every request, but inquiries chosen for publication will receive movie-related prizes.
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By antonio villanueva
May 31, 2006 8:49 PM | Link to this
Dear Mr Smithee: I just sow “Metropolis”,no the original 1927 movie (which I have never seen)but the japanese anime film, and at the end of the film -out of millions of songs of this world, I hear ” I can’t stop loving you” which may be Ray Charles’s best song and it was not played in “Ray“‘s film. Does that means that the world knows better? One last question -for now- Do you like anime films, like Princess Mononoke & others