by AArdvark » Tue Dec 17, 2024 5:39 pm
An interesting question, I'll break it down into two parts.
First the move itself. Andre is quite a showman. Everything he does is over the top and the old folks eat it up, some younger fans as well. He plays classical and popular tunes, sometimes with a twist. I saw one video where he's got Mary Poppins singing and flying around an outdoor stadium...
You can tell he has a great time with his concerts and the orchestra does too. In the movie the trumpet players were messing with him while he was talking to the audience, they had a bottle of Jägermeister and were passing it around. Andre would turn to see what the audience was laughing at and they'd hide the bottle. I'm betting they do the same schtick every night but it was still funny. He has guest singers come on and do songs. This time it was a fifteen year old girl singing "All I want for Christmas is you" and she nailed it.
On the downside they edited in too many audience reaction shots. Every thirty seconds is a crowd shot of people smiling, clapping, dancing, crying, whatever. It felt a little disingenuous, as if they editor was trying to tell you how you should be feeling right now. "See? the people are wiping tears from their eyes because the song is so emotional, you should too." There was a fifteen minute intermission, which was nice because the reclining theater seats kinda sucked. Which brings us to the theater experience.
Tinseltown used to be a cool place to watch movies, then I got old. I haven't been there in maybe ten, twelve years and the biggest change is they put all reclining seats in. They reminded me a little of the cool seats they used to have in our planetarium. I was wondering why the kids going into the other theaters had blankets and stuff.
Have to do something to fill the seats. the 18-24 year olds aren't going to the movies anymore and that used to be the money demographic. They actually had to take seats out to upgrade to recliners, tells you that they aren't packing 'em in like they used to. We had assigned seats, another thing I thought was weird. We went up to the first terrace level and sat down. We didn't want my mom to climb any more stairs than she had to, she's 80+ and uses a cane. I think maybe twenty to thirty people were in a theater that could hold 80-100 people. A couple came in and the man said I was in his seat , which I was, but the entire row was empty, he could have sat anywhere, but I was in his seat, the seat he paid for.
And I thought I was old and inflexible.
We moved, what the hell. This was a Christmas present for my mom, it was a fun thing. No arguments allowed.
Also, my mom had a habit of talking during the movie, she's in the Andre fan club and knows all the gossip about the orchestra and tours. During the movie she told us that that guy playing the trombone was married to the girl in the pink dress playing the clarinet, stuff like that. It's Ok for watching YouTube but in a theater it's a no-no. Nobody had the heart to tell her to stop.
They sell beer and wine at the concession stands now. Too bad I was still sick and didn't want any. Now that I think about it, I liked it better back when we would sneak in beers and pretend to cough while opening the cans. It was more fun.
Another thing I saw was the practice of showing old movies again. There was a trailer for The Goonies, White Christmas, Casablanca and a bunch of others. I think it's a nostalgia cash-grab because Hollywood can't make great movies anymore. Depressing. I think the days of big theater movie-going are seeing the sunset years. Like Drive-ins. They were fun for a long time but people have changed the way they consume Hollywood.
An interesting question, I'll break it down into two parts.
First the move itself. Andre is quite a showman. Everything he does is over the top and the old folks eat it up, some younger fans as well. He plays classical and popular tunes, sometimes with a twist. I saw one video where he's got Mary Poppins singing and flying around an outdoor stadium...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtNlAOfITqs
You can tell he has a great time with his concerts and the orchestra does too. In the movie the trumpet players were messing with him while he was talking to the audience, they had a bottle of Jägermeister and were passing it around. Andre would turn to see what the audience was laughing at and they'd hide the bottle. I'm betting they do the same schtick every night but it was still funny. He has guest singers come on and do songs. This time it was a fifteen year old girl singing "All I want for Christmas is you" and she nailed it.
On the downside they edited in too many audience reaction shots. Every thirty seconds is a crowd shot of people smiling, clapping, dancing, crying, whatever. It felt a little disingenuous, as if they editor was trying to tell you how you should be feeling right now. "See? the people are wiping tears from their eyes because the song is so emotional, you should too." There was a fifteen minute intermission, which was nice because the reclining theater seats kinda sucked. Which brings us to the theater experience.
Tinseltown used to be a cool place to watch movies, then I got old. I haven't been there in maybe ten, twelve years and the biggest change is they put all reclining seats in. They reminded me a little of the cool seats they used to have in our planetarium. I was wondering why the kids going into the other theaters had blankets and stuff.
Have to do something to fill the seats. the 18-24 year olds aren't going to the movies anymore and that used to be the money demographic. They actually had to take seats out to upgrade to recliners, tells you that they aren't packing 'em in like they used to. We had assigned seats, another thing I thought was weird. We went up to the first terrace level and sat down. We didn't want my mom to climb any more stairs than she had to, she's 80+ and uses a cane. I think maybe twenty to thirty people were in a theater that could hold 80-100 people. A couple came in and the man said I was in his seat , which I was, but the entire row was empty, he could have sat anywhere, but I was in his seat, the seat he paid for.
And I thought I was old and inflexible.
We moved, what the hell. This was a Christmas present for my mom, it was a fun thing. No arguments allowed.
Also, my mom had a habit of talking during the movie, she's in the Andre fan club and knows all the gossip about the orchestra and tours. During the movie she told us that that guy playing the trombone was married to the girl in the pink dress playing the clarinet, stuff like that. It's Ok for watching YouTube but in a theater it's a no-no. Nobody had the heart to tell her to stop.
They sell beer and wine at the concession stands now. Too bad I was still sick and didn't want any. Now that I think about it, I liked it better back when we would sneak in beers and pretend to cough while opening the cans. It was more fun.
Another thing I saw was the practice of showing old movies again. There was a trailer for The Goonies, White Christmas, Casablanca and a bunch of others. I think it's a nostalgia cash-grab because Hollywood can't make great movies anymore. Depressing. I think the days of big theater movie-going are seeing the sunset years. Like Drive-ins. They were fun for a long time but people have changed the way they consume Hollywood.