Movie making is an expensive business, no-one could dispute that. Especially when your leads demand around $20-million just to get out of bed. But if the story itself is dependent on effects, or so weak they’re added as ‘life support,’ the studios usually resort to 24/7 hype to avoid drowning in red ink. Half the potential audience then become so sick of this incessant PR, they stay at home. Evan was a good example; The script was weak and utterly dependent on FX, and had already been done as the 2003 Jim Carrey vehicle, ‘Bruce Almighty.’ People naturally thought ‘Evan’ was a sequel, and as most sequels are abysmal re-treads whose only purpose is to milk the original’s cash cow, they didn’t go.

Now Universal has to earn $500-million just to break even…with a movie no-one wants to see.

What’s the solution? Forget the special effects. Yes, they’re flashy and impressive and can certainly be useful in the right places. But stop making movies where the Actors and the story are merely co-stars. In Hollywood’s aptly-named ‘Golden Era’ the studios turned quality scripts into engaging movies that will be pleasing audiences [and making money,] long after woefully derivative, FX-infested, celluloidal chewing gum like ‘Evan’ are a mercifully forgotten testament to conglomerate stupidity.

Casablanca, for example, was a strong script, filled with real characters the audience could recognize, with an ending they actually cared about and believed. And there’s not a single FX shot in the entire production. Even the plane that spirits Ingrid Bergman away into the fog-laden gloom at the end was real. The result has delighted and mesmerized a larger collective audience than ‘Evan’ or other movies of its ilk could ever dream of attracting. Or deserving.

The message to the moguls is simple: If you want more green at the box office, get it out of your studios.