Sup, sharkticons, and welcome back to The 300, a recurring feature on my deep blue attempt to watch 300 movies in theaters in the year 2018. I’ll be seeing new releases, repertory screenings, hidden gems, and festival films to experience the wide world of cinema in all its glory. I hope there’s something here you’ll want to check out.
As always, there are three rules for The 300:
- The movie must be at least 40 minutes long, meeting the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ definition of a feature film.
- I must watch the movie at a movie theater, screening room, or outdoor screening venue.
- While I can watch movies I’ve seen before 2018, I cannot count repeated viewings of the same film in 2018 multiple times.
There were going to be more movies on this week’s installment of The 300, but MoviePass decided to get restrictive again. Maybe they saw me quoted in this Buzzfeed article on MoviePass super-users and sought revenge. (At the time, that was 161 movies with just MoviePass. I think the number is closer to 165 movies this year with MoviePass, but would have to double check.) MoviePass limited its users to just a handful of choices at select theaters again. Ultimately, I could watch Slender Man (which I didn’t and won’t) using MoviePass, but I could not see a 35-year-old French film starring Isabelle Huppert (Entre Nous) or a 53-year-old French film about the French-Indochinese War (The 317th Platoon).
MoviePass a Few Weeks Ago: We will not support blockbusters on opening weekend. Go support more independent films.
Me: Great! I love indies, foreign films, and arthouse movi—
MoviePass Over the Weekend: F**k you, Hubert! Go watch Slender Man or the dumbf**k shark movie!
I watched the dumbf**k shark movie, but used AMC A-List so I could watch it in the afternoon without a surge charge. On top of this, MoviePass posted a $126 million quarterly loss, is getting flak for un-cancelling user cancellations in a sneaky way, and may be sued by investors for being terrible at math. Seems like it is now just a matter of time before they completely capsize.
I believe the three-movie-a-month policy goes in effect starting today. Next week, maybe something different. No matter what happens to MoviePass, I’m resolved to hit the big 300 by year’s end if not sooner.
And so, onward.
Source: Destructoid The 300 Week 32: BlacKkKlansman is Vital, The Meg is Dumb, and MoviePass is a Kafkaesque dumpster fire