Thursday, May 14, 2009

For once Stockton's not the only one getting the shaft

So late last year the downtown movie theater remodeled one of their screens into an IMAX screen. If you've plunked down the $15 to actually see an IMAX movie then you know that Stockton, as usual, didn't exactly get the full IMAX experience. Don't get me wrong, the picture quality is fantastic and the sound system is awesome, but when people think IMAX they think of a huge fucking screen. Stockton did not get a huge fucking screen. To be specific, we got hosed. The screen is just the size of the wall the projector happens to be facing. Sacramento gets a 6-story screen put up on the side of a parking garage specifically built to house a huge digital movie screen on the side. We get something retro-fitted after the fact that's passed off as an IMAX experience. Basically it's a mini-Max without the mini-price.

But for once the problem wasn't totally Stockton's fault! Sure, the movie theater manager claims it was because the city wouldn't give them the permits to tear off the roof and make that shit huge, but the real answer is that IMAX is giving everybody the shaft by spouting off the oft-repeated lie that size doesn't matter.

Aziz Ansari is apparently a comedic actor of some sort who went to go see the Star Trek IMAX experience at a movie theater in LA. He wasn't too pleased to find out that instead of a huge fucking screen plastered to the side of a parking garage, the particular IMAX venue that he had chosen was of the Stockton variety. Yes, the Mini-Max. And while others just kind of make a mental note of it and don't get duped by IMAX again. Not Ansari. He wants he $5 back! It's the principle of the matter!

Well, after he made a big enough deal the IMAX CEO responded by basically saying "I still make money off that shit so fuck you". And just for fun he threw in a shot about Ansari's commenters. Because if there's any group of people known for their measured discourse, it's internet commenters.

Ansari responds with a tongue-in-cheek televised debate challenge and then explains to the soulless trolls of the internet that his original post was meant to be tongue-in-cheek. Because the fact that he's a comedian didn't tip any of them off that he might be going over the top with his outrage for the sake of a joke.

What's the lesson learned here? That Stockton isn't the only place getting shafted by IMAX. And that the internet is a horrible horrible place.

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