| Lokimok |
08-31-05 06:31 PM |
It went well at my theater. I bought tickets a little after 8 & didn't go to the theater til 9:17. Place was pretty packed. Very few empty seats by the time the show started.
The live hook-up started with Aykroyd giving the "full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes" line, but there were audio problems so we had to stare at him in silence for a few long seconds til he said it again. Everything worked fine after that. The Q&A was not bad, but not very in-depth either. It was 45 minutes long. John Landis, James Brown, Steve Cropper, Henry Gibson, & a producer all got intros & applause as they took their seats on the stage. Everyone looked pretty good including Aykroyd in shades, who was a head & shoulders shot from somewhere in Canada. The Cab Calloway & finding Belushi on a couch stories from the DVD docu were retold. People were excited by James Brown. There was also plenty of laughter because you could only understand 2/3 to 3/4 of what he said. There was some talk of how the Blues Brothers started, how they put the band together. Landis said that Aykroyd's original script was 300 pages & he had a 45 minute movie for each of the band members. He said his big contribution was "we're on a mission from God" & of course, editing. Fear of God kept James Brown from doing any of his signature moves as the reverend. It took several takes before they were able to get him to do a slide. No one really seemed to have anything prepared, though Cropper had a couple of nice little anecdotes. Gibson told a story of Belushi wondering if they could get the Pope to do a cameo since he was visiting Chicago at the time. Not as much talk about filmmaking as I would've liked. they talked about the high cost a bit & how there was no real set budget. A couple of people were introduced & stood up from the audience including Charles Napier & the editor. Lots of people in the Hollywood audience had black hats on. I don't know if they were given away there or if a bunch of psycho fans had made the trek. The host only asked 2 or 3 questions sent via e-mail, but he wasted time telling us the writers' names & where they were from. At the end, everyone told what they were working on now, as if anyone cared. When it was over, the screen was black & you could hear Aykroyd answering someone's question about why Belushi's name was first in the credits til it cut out.
Then there was a 17 or 18 minute intermission. Originally there was just an orange screen, but after a couple of minutes awful muzak was added - it should've been from the elevator scene, but it was just as bad. We'd get a minute or 2 of orange screen & muzak, then it would fade to black until...more orange screen & muzak. Over & over again until it became ridiculous. You could feel the anticipation. What started as collective groans, became laughter, into a rhythmic clap-along, eventually into anger.
It was a good crowd though - & all ages. There were a couple of seniors near the front, some families with fairly young kids, plenty of people in their 20s & 30s. 2 of the biggest laughers in the crowd were women, which surprised me a little for some reason.
It was after 10:30 on the east coast when the actual movie started. I don't know how it was done, but it definitely wasn't film. It was like 4 or 5 large, high quality video files on a computer. Everything went black for a second 3 or 4 times during the movie when something was changed. The one that stands out was after the big concert, when the chase goes from night to day. There was a noticeable pause. I noticed only one minor split second glitch early in the movie. Sound was ok. I think it was stereo. Sound was only coming from the front of the room. Most people had probably already seen the movie & they all had a great time. I could tell the guy next to me had to be a fan because he was laughing at some of the same strange things I was. Though, I was the only one enjoying the acting ability of Matt "Guitar" Murphy.
Pretty funny: I stayed through the credits & at the very end, a Windows Buffer Overrun error message appeared in the middle of the screen. You could also see the Start button on the taskbar at the bottom of the screen. I wanted to stay & see if the guy's screensaver would kick in or if we'd see a giant cursor pop up & click Ok, but it was very late by this point & I had an hour or so of driving home in the rain.
It was a lot fun to finally see it on a big screen with a large group of people. I'd do it again if given the chance.
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