Are you crazy about movies? No, I don’t mean crazy about Harold Lloyd comedy. crazy movie from 1932 about a young man with little or no acting ability, who desperately tries to be in the movies. I mean, are you crazy about movies, period? I must admit I’m a movie cracker. So raise your hands all those who consider themselves crazy about cinema. Yes, that’s almost everyone. Why are we crazy about movies? Why do we live in a movie-crazed society? Hey, what are movies anyway?
Films are ideas and/or stories presented to an audience through the thrill of sound and a sequence of continuous images. Thanks to Google Search.
How popular are the movies? Well, the keyword “movies” boasts 1.1 billion and a growing number of mind-boggling searches on the Google search engine alone. And the keyword “movie trailers” has collected more than 127 million searches. Watching movie trailers on the Internet has become a popular pastime for many. I know my husband is one of them. He loves watching his movie trailers.
Last year alone it generated a staggering $29.2 billion worldwide at the box office in 2009 alone. The movies are seen and made all over the world. The language gap has been dissolved due to the addition of subtitles. Now we can all share the universal cinema experience. In addition to being universal, the films are made for everyone, young and old. Why you can even see generations at most Disney or children’s movie screenings. There is something for everyone regardless of age.
We celebrate movies and we celebrate the stars in our movies. We bring them into our homes through star-dedicated TV shows like ET, ET Canada, Access Hollywood, and TMZ, to name a few. We grab supermarket tabloids like The National Enquirer and Star scanning the latest celebrity gossip and stuff them into our shopping carts when no one is looking.
We have Oscar parties like we do Superbowl parties and even bet or at least announce our opinions on who are the winners of the Academy Awards, Golden Globes, MTV Awards, etc. they will be Then there are the classic TV shows like ‘Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous’ that we faithfully lit ooh and aah over the contents like fine wine. The program lasted more than 10 years (March 1984 – September 1995). What career! What a concept! In fact, we were able to tag along and drool over the stars’ quirky homes, lifestyles, and dream vacation spots. Today, you can watch similar shows like those on MTV.cribs and those of VH1fabulous life of….’
If you’re more of a homebody, you don’t have to leave the comfort of your own home to watch a movie. You can literally stream movies through your TV’s regular cable or on special movie channels like Thrill, The Movie Network, HBO, Movie Central, Showtime, Turner Classic Movies, etc. And that’s after you’ve clicked through the week’s TV movies, recorded movies on your PVR, or sent your kids to the video store to rent one of this week’s new releases. Oh, and not to mention you can buy movies at your brick-and-mortar video store down the street or even online on eBay or Amazon.
How do we get our golden tickets to these grand palaces? We buy boxes of cereal and clip cardboard coupons, use our airline miles points, or trade rewards points to convert cash into movie tickets. We fill out contest forms in hopes of being chosen as the lucky few to attend pre-screenings of our favorite films before they even hit theaters. We also line red carpets around the world and tune in for celebrity interviews on our favorite daytime and late-night shows like The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with David Letterman, Oprah and Regis & Kelly.
What beats the cinematic experience? Any. We queue for our tickets, buy our favorite treats, grab the latest Famous or Tribute magazine for a casual light read before our movie (while devouring our real buttered popcorn or a bag of licorice). The lights go out, the screen widens, and the image and sound arrive simultaneously. We anticipate movie trailers while watching annoying commercials and there they are. Those big, beautiful attractions that come in all their glory. We whisper yes or no or thumbs up to our friends sitting next to us for the next movie adventure we’ll be planning. Then, if we’re lucky, that is, the guys will be able to hear the bellow of the THX sound effect roaring around the theater. (Hey guys, you can listen to it on YouTube or download it as a free mp3 or ringtone.) Then the wait is over. Spree! And the adventure begins…
Again, why are we crazy about movies? Could it be because movies are cheap? a cheap date; or an economic family outing. It is that the encounter can be further enhanced through the Imax or 3-D experience. Or go deeper. A chance to escape the real world if only for a few hours. Movies evoke emotions, be it excitement, laughter, terror, sadness, inspiration, faith, love, etc. Perhaps you are on an unpredictable adventure, solving a mystery, or watching a family deal with loss. Movies take us far; anywhere we want to go. Even the theater itself is an experience as we have discovered. The lights, the sound, the feel, the big screen, the comfortable oversized cloth chairs, the convenient cup holders, the popcorn and snacks from the snack stand, etc. The cinematic experience really touches all our senses. What movies have moved you lately?
Movies are a place where you can choose what you want to see and feel. If I want to be happy, I’ll go see a happy comedy. If I want to get excited, I’ll go see a thriller or horror movie. And if I want to entertain my niece and little nephew I will watch the latest animated movie etc. Then there are the rest of the genres that complete the cinematographic experience: action and adventure, crime and gangsters, drama, epics/historical, musicals/dance, science fiction, war, documentaries, westerns, biopics, chick-flicks, detectives and mysteries, disaster, fantasy, film noir, boys’ movies, melodramas/crybaby, road films, romance, sports, supernatural, etc.
Movies bring people together. They’re something to talk about at the watering hole at your 9-5 job, chat with your Facebook friends, or discuss in forums. We can talk about the worst movies we’ve ever seen or our favorites of all time. We can quiz each other on movie trivia, quotes, and songs. We can read or write movie reviews, look up movie ratings, and buy movie books. We can even get the latest Hollywood gossip delivered to our inboxes or browse online to peruse blogs like Leonard Maltin’s Movie Crazy blog.
Are there any other benefits of movies besides the full entertainment experience? Actually, there is. Many professional therapists use movies to help people in crisis. There is a therapeutic move that uses, you guessed it, movies. It’s called motion therapy. Movie therapy is used because it is readily available (there is a movie theater in almost every city) and the subject matter of most movies is familiar to everyone. It also improves the relationship between client and therapist. Who doesn’t want to talk about movies?
Other benefits include the release of emotions, such as when we laugh during a comedy, our laughter releases stress, tension, and/or pain. A tear that makes us cry releases accumulated/blocked emotions. What about movies that touch on relationships or parenting? These observations and/or lessons can bring us closer to people, make us analyze our current situations/relationships, or make us realize that we have work to do.
And if there’s one last thing that solidifies our movie-mad mentality, it’s our desire or longing to be in a movie and/or meet a movie star. Well this just came in — you can do both. Have you heard the term television or cinema? extra? If you want a better than bird’s eye view of the making of a movie and run into a movie star or two, sign up to be an extra. You’ll get paid, you’ll be fed, you’ll be on set, and maybe you’ll rub elbows with your favorite movie star.
