Review of 'The Good, the Bad, and the Multiplex'

The Good, the Bad, and the Multiplex by Mark Kermode

The British film critic Mark Kermode lets loose on his feelings regarding the state of the film industry today from the perspective of the film goer. His various points include:

• Regardless of whether the film is good or bad, movies with large budgets from the main Hollywood studios always recoup their costs
• Modern cinemas care little about providing a quality movie watching experience with heavy automation, concentrating more on selling overpriced food and drink
• Independent cinemas need to continue showing independent films
• The British film industry does not need more money but better distribution
• 3-D is a ploy by the big studios to make piracy more difficult and, as it has in the past, the public will lose interest

I found this a fairly long and difficult read in part because of the many, many digressions that Kermode makes as he discusses his main points. He is certainly very opinionated and does raise some good points that appear to be well reasoned but often these points are made with such a lot of verbiage. Often he is quite funny (particularly amusing is his 5 page ripping into “Sex in the City 2”).

I am somewhat interested in film critique so this was of interest to me and others interested in the state of the industry today would find this interesting. Others, perhaps not.

Rating: “Average, but who wants to be average?”

Review Date: 2016-02-02

Genre: Non-Fiction

Publisher: Arrow Books

Publication Date: 2012

ISBN: 9780099543497