We are are going to start 2011 off on a negative note by being totally counterproductive and complaining about something about which barely even matters. For most people, the dawn of a new year represents the promise of the upcoming unknown; we are going to instead lament the passing of something great. Starting a few weeks ago the formerly great Independent Film Channel has changed formats, interrupting their programming with commercials every 15 minutes, just like every other shitty station. IFC will continue its mission of bringing the weird, and we will give them credit for continuing to not edit for content. However, watching a Gus Van Sant movie interspersed with Old Spice and freecreditreport.com commercials just seems to (a) be a contradiction and (b) make those kind of movies lose some of their power. For example, I was watching The Devil's Rejects* and the last scene, a montage set to Free Bird, was cut in half for two and a half minutes of ads. Maybe it's just me, but the scene was ruined; a shame since that is probably they only good use of Free Bird pretty much ever. The constant bombardment of advertisements makes watching a boring or slow-paced movie, but one that you are interested in seeing (what's up, Chapter 27) almost impossible as a boring two hour movie becomes a boring three hour (or more) movie. In an attempt to counter their moves towards becoming a normal basic cable channel, IFC has expanded the alternative television shows--the Ben Stiller Show, Portlandia, the Gary Shandling Show, Mr. Show and the addition of the Onion News Network, which is sure to be killer. While the addition of commercials will probably not hinder watching these excellent shows, since our minds are already acclimated to expect them during half hour/hour programming, trying to watch introspective movies and being constantly interrupted pretty much makes my mind think that I am watching Dumb and Dumber on TBS. Sorry. So, I will still watch IFC, but it will no longer be the first channel I check when I turn on the tube, and I will probably only watch something that I haven't yet seen. It's a shame because I managed to kill countless hours in the past watching flicks that I had seem once or twice previously and managing to wring a little more meaning out of particular scenes or lines. Gone are those days, because I just don't have that kind of patience. Thank god Netflix seems to have stepped up its "watch instantly" program, by expanding the kind of movies that you can view at a moment's notice on the computer.
*Just a side note to point out that the Devil's Rejects is probably one of the greatest sequels of all time. It helps that House of 1000 Corpses is in the top five horror movies made in the last ten years by upping the ante for the torture porn flick, by having perfect art direction (who would expect any less from Rob Zombie) and well developed characters--the killers were totally insane and original, plus the victims were easily despicable and you wanted them to die. The Devil's Rejects worked perfectly as a sequel because it gave new depth and dimension to the Firefly Clan and because Zombie didn't even try to match the terror and horror he created in the original. Instead, he went in a totally different direction by basically making a road movie with the same characters. By removing his mass murderers from their twisted haunted house where they were gods/monsters and putting them in our world, we saw their human weakness, something not explored in the first film.
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