First half was pretty interesting (although I got way too much Ross Melnick and too little Lennie Maltin). I am old enough to remember when the best part of going to see "Ben Hur" was gazing at the outside and inside of the Egyptian Theater on Hollywood Blvd where it was shown. For a ten year old whose architectural experience was limited to suburban housing and shopping centers (malls weren't happening yet) it was, to put it mildly, a real trip.
Second half majorly drags with the final third pretty much a litany of various restorations of various movie palaces. Certainly a worthwhile endeavor but a bit repetitive and enervating to watch. And too much time throughout was spent on the movie biz rather than the movie theater. I didn't need to be told once again about D. W. Griffith's making the movies a mass medium or the rise of United Artists or Mary Pickford's business acumen.
As I watched this doc from the comfort of my pandemic couch I kept wondering if movie theaters will survive COVID. They survived TV, so there's some hope, but I worry that this particular "shared human experience", even though it can involve obnoxious humans who won't shut up or silence their phones or sandwich wrappers, may be a thing of the past. Give it a C plus.
Second half majorly drags with the final third pretty much a litany of various restorations of various movie palaces. Certainly a worthwhile endeavor but a bit repetitive and enervating to watch. And too much time throughout was spent on the movie biz rather than the movie theater. I didn't need to be told once again about D. W. Griffith's making the movies a mass medium or the rise of United Artists or Mary Pickford's business acumen.
As I watched this doc from the comfort of my pandemic couch I kept wondering if movie theaters will survive COVID. They survived TV, so there's some hope, but I worry that this particular "shared human experience", even though it can involve obnoxious humans who won't shut up or silence their phones or sandwich wrappers, may be a thing of the past. Give it a C plus.