Critics take on the trouble with trailers

Critic's tirade No. 1

Have you seen the trailers and commercials for the new Arnold Schwarzenegger action film “Terminator Genisys”? Then you've had the purity of your moviegoing experience sabotaged by the Paramount Pictures marketing department.

The trailers/commercials reveal a huge plot twist near the end of the movie, one I never saw coming because I had skillfully dodged the plot-spoiler advertisements.

Critics Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel observed this mandate during movie press screenings in Chicago: NO TRAILERS. If a movie arrived with trailers attached, the projectionist removed them before the show. That way, nothing was ruined for Chicago's film critics.

With the influence of Ebert and Siskel gone, studio marketing departments are free to be the No. 1 buzz-killers of cinema enjoyment.

Critic's tirade No. 2

During the 1970s, '80s and '90s, Hollywood executives bent over backward to be sure Chicago's film critics watched their wares under the best possible viewing conditions. If a special movie came along, especially an epic, studios would bypass the usual critics' venue — the Plitt Screening Room on the seventh floor of the Chicago Theatre — and rent the posh McClurg Court Theater, then considered the finest theatrical facility in the Midwest.

I mention this because this week I saw two “screener” DVDs sent to film critics to watch for review purposes. The first was for the documentary “Eden,” opening at Chicago's Music Box Theatre. It had the sentence “Property of Broad Green Publicity 12” emblazoned across the picture's lower third.

The other DVD really surprised me: Carol Reed's 1949 film noir classic, “The Third Man,” starring Orson Welles and Joseph Cotten. It had the sentence “Property of Studio Canal“ etched across the top third of the screen in white letters.

Why in the world would a distributor deliberately corrupt the visuals on a DVD, then send it to critics for review purposes? Instead of critics watching a work of cinematic art under the best possible conditions, distributors now force them to watch films under the worst.

I don't get it. More to the point, the distributors don't get it. Not only do they display a disrespect for the art form, critics aren't actually watching the same movie the public will see.

By the way, Reed's “The Third Man” will be showcased at the MBT Talk Series at 7:20 p.m. (yes, 7:20 p.m.) Wednesday, July 8, at Chicago's Music Box Theatre where Chicago Film Critics Association members Keith Phipps and Scott Tobias from thedissolve.com will lead a discussion of the classic.

“The Third Man” opens at the Music Box on Friday, July 3. Go to musicboxtheatre.com.

Swearing sabotages 'Spy'

Dear Mr. Gire: I felt the need to contact you after seeing the rating you gave this movie (“Spy”) which my wife and I went to last weekend. I could not believe how many times the “F” word was being used when it was never necessary or helpful to the plot or the entertainment value.

While other movies with a caution for language do usually use a limited extent of swear words, this movie moved the yardstick way beyond. I would recommend and encourage that using the L designation for language be expanded to maybe a bold L or maybe SL.

I feel sorry for parents with young children/teenagers who thought this was going to be a funny movie, only to find what in years past would have been designated as smut. I suspect they rely on you and the Herald's descriptions for movies to make choices and not find a movie to be as offensive as “Spy.” — Ronald Entzminger, Arlington Heights

Dear Ronald: You aren't the only person who has been put off by a plethora of vulgar language in movies. As a general rule, an F-bomb will earn the R rating, with some exceptions for nonsexual context. So, if you see a movie rated R for language, it would be safe to assume it contains curse words used to the extent that you wouldn't enjoy the movie.

Believe it or not, curse words are a legitimate form of humor (classified as “lowbrow”) and no comedian wielded them with greater comic power than the late Richard Pryor. So, avoid his concert movies.

Meanwhile, I was quite surprised that you didn't take offense to the comic “graphic nudity” as indicated in the Classification and Ratings Administration's warnings for “Spy.”

Humor is not an emotion, but an intellectual function formed by our education, culture, religion and personality. Our brains determine what's funny, which is why something hilarious in one region of the world isn't funny at all someplace else.

Our brains tell us what's funny. Your brain says swearing isn't. And that's OK. — Dann

• Dann Gire's Reel Life column appears Fridays in Time out!