There’s a theater near me that offers intermissions with every movie whenever you ask for it. They serve quality cocktails and full meals with the movie, and you can have a dog on your lap the whole time if you choose at no charge. It’s where I plan on watching Killers of the Flower Moon actually.
I have a theater like that, it’s my apartment, and a cat, but otherwise the same. Oh, and we can put on the captions and keep the volume at nonpainful levels.
This reminded me of when I saw Lotr rotk and had to piss sooo bad for like the last 45 minutes. It was finally ending and wrapping up after the last battle and I was so happy to finally be able to go soon and then so sad when I realized there was still the whole part where they go back to the shire and have to fight Saruman. Thankfully they didn’t include that and I made it in time bit that’s always what I think of when long ass movies don’t have an intermission.
I say all the time that watching at home is better because i have the pause button, especially when it is a long movie.
Movie theaters have been getting less attendance and what they do is turn even more hostile to the consumer instead of trying to actually do something to improve the situation.
Someone needs to remind Scorsese that he makes an entertainment product, one of many, he is not redefining the meaning of life itself. Hell, here is a hot take, the old Jim Carrey movie “The Mask” is a better movie than anything Scorsese has ever made. I can say I go back to watch The Mask more anyway. He needs to stop huffing his own farts.
The other thing about watching at home is the comfort level. Regardless of breaks, if I’m in my big comfy chair with no distractions from other movie-goers, it’s easier to be immersed and watch for longer periods.
That being said, his “unbound genius” needs to get reined the F in. I got flamed on Reddit back in the day for suggesting The Irishman was too damned long, but you could pick any random point in the middle of it and cut 45 minutes and nothing would be lost. If you feel the need as a director to make movies this long and bloated, just make it a miniseries for god’s sake.
At the very least, don’t get pissy when theaters want to give people a stretch/bathroom break.
“People say it’s three hours, but come on, you can sit in front of the TV and watch something for five hours,”
Uh, no Marty, not all of us. I watch movies in 20-minute chunks, just long enough for me to wolf down lunch. Your deep, epic artistic expression is my bite-sized chunk of trivial entertainment split across 10 days.
Every time I see a discussion on the topic of intermissions or movies being too long, I have to recommend the RunPee app. Been using it for years and I never worry about missing anything when I have to go.
The app has a timer that you start at the beginning of the movie and there are “peetimes” where you can either be notified or keep an eye out for key words to remind you it’s a good time to go. Then while you’re doing your business, you can can read a short synopsis of what you missed. The devs try to find the best times where you won’t miss much and they even tell you what times are the best out of the few they pick. They are very spoiler conscience so you don’t have to worry about getting spoiled.
The app also tells you if there’s anything during or after the credits so you know whether you should wait or not. I’m not affiliated with them in any way. It’s just one of my most used apps and I want to spread the word.
I remembered there was a website that provided similar information, and meant to check it out before I saw FLOWER MOON this week–but then spaced on it and never got around to it.
I did–only half joking–offer the ticket-taker $20 if she’d sneak up to the projection booth and hit the off button for 5 minutes to give us all a break.
I would have loved an intermission–as it was I got up around the 1 hour mark and went to the back of the theater and stretched a bit, etc. Turns out tho that my pre-screening hydration schedule worked out perfectly: I didn’t need to leave to pee during the screening.
Since using that app, I don’t mind having to go, even multiple times. For whatever reason I kept having to go during Flower Moon but it was nice not worrying about what I missed.
The only reason I wouldn’t want an actual intermission is having to deal with a bunch of people going all at once. I hate dealing with crowds and I like just being by myself most of the time. I usually go to matinees on Fridays when I can while most people are at work but the movie is still new. But a lot of times I end up waiting til the middle of the next week so I have an almost empty theater. I know not everyone can do that, but I’m grateful I can.
It depends on the movie though. I love going to see the opening of MCU movies or something that I know will be fun to watch with a crowd. My favorite theater memory is when I saw Endgame and there was this girl a few seats down from me that was bawling her eyes out when the “on your left” portal scene happened. She had to be around 10 and it was just amazing seeing such emotion and investment from a child. It instantly made me feel like a kid again.
Ugh, always one. Was waiting for this comment to come.
No, I do not have my phone out throughout the movie. Sometimes, I check the dark lock screen for a notification occasionally when I feel a vibration, which not a single person notices except for me. But I usually just pay attention for the key words to a peetime that I preplanned to take before the movie started.
“People say it’s three hours, but come on, you can sit in front of the TV and watch something for five hours,” Scorsese said. “Also, there are many people who watch theatre for three and a half hours. There are real actors on stage — you can’t get up and walk around. You give it that respect; give cinema some respect.”
When we watch something for 5 hours we pause and get up whenever the hell we feel like it, and if everyone wants to stop, we do.
Theatre has intermissions. The reason? So people getting up to use the bathroom aren't consistently ruining the experience for everyone else.
There are no actors on stage in a movie theatre, so they don't give a flying f.
Is Scorsese just old or is he purposefully being an ass?
He emphasized his hope that viewers experience Killers of the Flower Moon on the big screen
I also found that line hilarious. Like yeah plays may run longer, maybe into the 4 hour range, but they have intermissions with well-known signals when it’s time for people to return to their seats.
And, of course, old movies had intermissions, too. Has he never heard the “Let’s all go to the lobby!” jingle?
Hell, I’ve seen two plays that were so long they were broken into two parts. One of them I saw parts 1 & 2 on separate days. The other was a matinee followed by an evening performance.
So a roughly 4 to 5 hour play had 3 breaks. Each part had an intermission, and then there’s the longer break between the two parts.
So we skip watching in theaters and just wait for it on streaming service(s). Maybe a good theater flop will teach Martin to make reasonable length movies or to add an intermission if he can’t.
I didn’t know the second Spiderverse movie was 3 hours long when I started it and by the end I was like “Wrap it up, man! I need to hit the hay.” But instead of wrapping it up they just ended it without wrapping anything up. I was disappointed tbh.
As someone with a bladder over 40 yrs old now (ugh), I think intermissions ought to be mandatory in anything over 2.5 hrs.
If studios want cinema to survive (and at this point I’m not sure they do), they need to stop trying to cater exclusively to the 29-35 yr-old demo.
My parents used to go to movies often. Now they find it a daunting chore because of the online reserved seating. So they just don’t go anymore. I don’t imagine they’re alone in that.
Any movie over 2.5 hours should have an intermission when shown in a theater. It wouldn’t ruin the experience as much walking out and missing a key scene because your eyeballs are floating
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