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quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
In It’s Only a Movie, the incomparable Mark Kermode showed us the weird world of a film critic’s life lived in widescreen. Now, in The Good, The Bad And The Multiplex, he takes us into the belly of the beast to ask: ‘What’s wrong with modern movies?’
If blockbusters make money no matter how bad they are, then why not make a good one for a change? How can 3-D be the future of cinema when it’s been giving audiences a headache for over a hundred years? Why pay to watch films in cinemas that don’t have a projectionist but do have a fast-food stand? And, in a world in which Sex And The City 2 was a hit, what the hell are film critics for?
Outspoken, opinionated and hilariously funny, The Good, The Bad And The Multiplex is a must for anyone who has ever sat in an undermanned, overpriced cinema and asked themselves: ‘How the hell did things get to be this terrible?’
Film critic Mark Kermode is angry. For every intelligent, well-made movie released by Hollywood, there are multiple stinking blockbusters, cinemas are more interested in concession stalls than hiring proper projectionists to display their product and the pursuit of profit, the seeming unstoppable trend to make remakes of foreign films and established classics that are vastly inferior to the original and the need to combat piracy has led to a wave of 3-D gimmick movies that are so badly lit as to be unwatchable. In this polemic, he seeks to expose everything that is wrong with the modern film industry from movie production to the end user experience and why film critics have no power whatsoever.
My only experience with Kermode’s work is via THE CULTURE SHOW, so I was interested to see how his style transferred to the page and I have to say that I thought it worked well. It’s written in a conversational tone and his voice comes through very strongly. There are a number of times where he segues off message into side-rants that go on a little long and slow up the pace but the most part his arguments hang together well and they make for depressing reading in terms of trends within the industry.
My favourite bits of the book are actually the most technical, where Kermode talks about the slowly dying art of film projection and the importance of properly screening films. Here his passion for his subject really comes through and I found the information about what projectionists do and how this has changed with the introduction of digital projection fascinating. Similarly his chapter on 3D films is articulate while also being superbly ranty and I have to say that I found myself agreeing with all of it.
There’s a lot of humour and wit in the book, mostly sharp and self-aware and I liked the fact that Kermode isn’t above laughing at his own curmudgeonly persona.
All in all it’s a sharply written, coherent read and you don’t have to be a film student to be able to follow it. In fact, I think that this is one of those books that anyone who claims to love cinema should read and I will be checking out Kermode’s previous book IT’S ONLY A MOVIE.
The Verdict:
Mark Kermode’s polemic on the modern film industry is a sharply written, coherent read with a lot of wit and better still, you don’t have to be a film student in order to follow it. It’s the type of book that would appeal to anyone who claims to love cinema and I’m really keen to read Kermode’s other work on the subject.
In It’s Only a Movie, the incomparable Mark Kermode showed us the weird world of a film critic’s life lived in widescreen. Now, in The Good, The Bad And The Multiplex, he takes us into the belly of the beast to ask: ‘What’s wrong with modern movies?’
If blockbusters make money no matter how bad they are, then why not make a good one for a change? How can 3-D be the future of cinema when it’s been giving audiences a headache for over a hundred years? Why pay to watch films in cinemas that don’t have a projectionist but do have a fast-food stand? And, in a world in which Sex And The City 2 was a hit, what the hell are film critics for?
Outspoken, opinionated and hilariously funny, The Good, The Bad And The Multiplex is a must for anyone who has ever sat in an undermanned, overpriced cinema and asked themselves: ‘How the hell did things get to be this terrible?’
Film critic Mark Kermode is angry. For every intelligent, well-made movie released by Hollywood, there are multiple stinking blockbusters, cinemas are more interested in concession stalls than hiring proper projectionists to display their product and the pursuit of profit, the seeming unstoppable trend to make remakes of foreign films and established classics that are vastly inferior to the original and the need to combat piracy has led to a wave of 3-D gimmick movies that are so badly lit as to be unwatchable. In this polemic, he seeks to expose everything that is wrong with the modern film industry from movie production to the end user experience and why film critics have no power whatsoever.
My only experience with Kermode’s work is via THE CULTURE SHOW, so I was interested to see how his style transferred to the page and I have to say that I thought it worked well. It’s written in a conversational tone and his voice comes through very strongly. There are a number of times where he segues off message into side-rants that go on a little long and slow up the pace but the most part his arguments hang together well and they make for depressing reading in terms of trends within the industry.
My favourite bits of the book are actually the most technical, where Kermode talks about the slowly dying art of film projection and the importance of properly screening films. Here his passion for his subject really comes through and I found the information about what projectionists do and how this has changed with the introduction of digital projection fascinating. Similarly his chapter on 3D films is articulate while also being superbly ranty and I have to say that I found myself agreeing with all of it.
There’s a lot of humour and wit in the book, mostly sharp and self-aware and I liked the fact that Kermode isn’t above laughing at his own curmudgeonly persona.
All in all it’s a sharply written, coherent read and you don’t have to be a film student to be able to follow it. In fact, I think that this is one of those books that anyone who claims to love cinema should read and I will be checking out Kermode’s previous book IT’S ONLY A MOVIE.
The Verdict:
Mark Kermode’s polemic on the modern film industry is a sharply written, coherent read with a lot of wit and better still, you don’t have to be a film student in order to follow it. It’s the type of book that would appeal to anyone who claims to love cinema and I’m really keen to read Kermode’s other work on the subject.
