Posted 12:56 PM by Gene

Looking at the latest B.O. (down again yesterday -- so far, so good) we wonder what the moviegoing S&M PHREAKS like. The answer seems to be sappy romantic comedies. We don't know why; perhaps because women like them, and women don't seem to realize most movies stink. We would guess most modern romantic comedies are similar -- make that prefabricated -- and their familiarity may comfort certain kinds of female viewers who want nothing more than cinematic bubble gum. (The men they drag to these flicks can't be pleased.) Other than those, and the one-weekend-wonder gorefests and the CGI DOLBY specials that draw stupid teens, we can't think of anything, and that's because THE CONSPIRACY can't think of anything, and that's because THE CONSPIRACY can't think.

We see too ESPNCORP FAMILY ENTERTAINMENT's latest is playing dead. We can pinpoint exactly when that outfit was mortally wounded: the day Bill Bennett walked into a Congressional hearing to play an excerpt from one of the Scream masterworks, and blasted ESPNCORP for making R movies. None of MICKEYMOUSE NIXON's clever polishing could wipe the stain away; and with rare exceptions the company's "family" movies have not done that well since (the exceptions including CGI LEWIS, which wasn't made by ESPNCORP, and the DRECKHEIMER's movie based on its theme-park attraction, which wasn't a family movie). The resulting bad PR may also have been at the root of MICKEYMOUSE's desire to boot the WHINER BROTHERS, who made the flicks; ESPNCORP's forfeiture of its audience was certainly behind Uncle Walt Jr.'s proxy fight. If Ub Iger thinks he can buy an audience with Steve's Animation Factory, he has another think coming.