30 Days With Aristotle And Me

It was the best of movies, it was the worst of movies.

This is the tale of two movies. Both are in theaters now.

One film reportedly cost somewhere between $200,000,000 and $260,000,000 to produce.

The other film reportedly cost somewhere around $10,000 to produce.

One movie featured just four people and one set.

The other movie featured more people than attend your average Super Bowl game and enough CGI to make The Lord of the Rings look like My Dinner With Andre.

Guess which movie is worth seeing?

Right. The one that cost just $10,000 to make – Paranormal Activity.

In spite of its miserly budget, Paranormal Activity just topped $107,000,000 in box-office sales. The other movie – the CGI-fest that cost over $200M – only brought in $138,000,000. It’ll be lucky if it breaks even.

Rotten Tomatoes, the wonderful movie-rating web site, says 2012 is 37% fresh.

By way of contrast, R-T says Paranormal Activity is 83% fresh.

Paranormal Activity proves that greatness doesn’t depend on mega-million-dollar Hollywood actors, 100-million-dollar computer graphics, and a marketing budget that would feed a Third-World nation

A good story, well told will make money just because it’s a good story, well told.

Given the dreck I’ve seen Hollywood excrete in the last few years, a movie like Paranormal Activity is a true spirit-lifter. I mean, I feel positively giddy. It demonstrates for all who have eyes to see that a really good Hollywood film doesn’t need to cost more than Obama’s health-care overhaul to hold an audience spellbound.

Paranormal Activity is a spooky, creepy, suspenseful film. It’s likely to cause many audience members to experience a few sleepless nights.

But what’s really scary is that 2012 cost over $200 million to make.

If I was the studio exec who green-lighted that dog, I’d be spending a few sleepless nights, too