A few days ago one of the all-time greats in the movie business, Don LaFontaine, passed away. He was only 68 years old. You knew him best as the movie trailer voice-over guy. In his 33 year career he did over 5,000 trailers and more than 30,000 commercials. He even appeared in a Geico commercial last year as himself.

Don's career began in 1965 when he filled-in for an announcer who didn't show up to work. Some of the trailers he voiced included "Batman Returns", "Terminator 2: Judgement Day" and "The Simpsons Movie."

LaFontain's most famous opening line was..."In A World Where..." So, in honor of his passing, I offer this...

"In a world where someone made trailers and commercials more enjoyable, someone will be dearly missed and never forgotten, someone who's voice and personality will never be replaced."

If I ever get to do voice-over work when I'm older I will try my best to follow Don LaFontaine's example.   

I enjoyed seeing "The Longshots" the other night. However, the audience was the worst behaved of any movie I've ever seen. And that's why I'm writing this blog.

The LCJ Rules for Movie Theater Audiences

#1 - Children should not be allowed to see a movie in a theater until they are 5-years old. Children under 5 do not know how to behave at a movie so they spend most of the time talking, crying or running up and down the aisles.

#2 - No talking at any time during a movie. This is already a rule but unfortunately most people don't follow it. Zip the lip. I didn't come to the theater to hear you talk and you're not in your livingroom, you're in a public place.

#3 - Silence the cellphones and pagers. No calls or checking messages or texting. Just having the light of a phone come on during a film is a distraction. I wish they had a policy where people had to hand their phones to a guy at the door of the theater and then get them back when they left. If you can't live without your phone for 2-hours don't come to the movies.

#4 - Do not interact with the film. No talking back with the characters or repeating the lines. Laugh, when necessary, but that's it. And clap at the end if you liked the film.

#5 - Stay until the credits are over. Show some respect to the people who worked hard to make the film you just spent $10 to watch. Plus, if you leave early, there's a good chance you'll miss a bonus scene after the credits.

#6 - Pick-up after yourself. That means taking the food and beverage containers with you when you leave and putting them in the garabge cans on the way out. Yes, the theater has workers to clean-up after each screening, but they'd have a lot less work to do if everybody simply cleaned-up after themselves.

Hopefully, after reading this, you'll consider following some or all of these rules. And pass them along to others.  

This Summer has been filled with very good movies such as "Kung Fu Panda" and "Get Smart", and dreadful ones like "Hancock" and "Meet Dave."

Here's my End of Summer recap, by catagory:

GOOD TO GREAT: "The Dark Knight", "Get Smart", "Indiana Jones 4", "Iron Man", "Journey to the Center of the Earth", "Kit Kittredge: An American Girl", "Kung Fu Panda", "The Longshots", "Space Chimps", "Swing Vote."

SO-SO: "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian", "Fly Me to the Moon 3D", "The Incredible Hulk", Speed Racer", "WALL-E"

HORRIBLE: "Hancock", "Meet Dave", "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor", "Star Wars: The Clone Wars"

"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" was supposed to be released in theaters on November 21st and be one of the 2008 holiday blockbusters. But Warner Bros. has pushed it back to July 17, 2009!

The studio says it's making the change because they'll be less competition at the box office next summer. But there wasn't really any major competition for "Harry" this fall.

The folks at Entertainment Weekly can't be happy. They have "Harry" on the cover of their double-issue Fall Preview edition, which is out this week. They may have him on the cover of their next issue as well because of this controversy.

Die-hard "Harry Potter" fans are very upset that it won't be seeing "Half-Blood Prince" until next summer. I'm not mad, since I've never really gotten into the series. And besides, since they've all read the book they already know what's going to happen.

I saw the trailer for the movie the other night at "Star Wars: The Clone Wars". It said "Coming in November." I don't think we'll be seeing that one anymore.

Well, I have to announce that this is my 75th blog that you are reading right now! I know it's awesome! Anyway, this site was started 11 months ago. My first blog was "Great Summer At The Movies". It is one of the shortest ones I have ever written. Even though I started writing reviews back in 2006, the first one that I posted on this site was "The Game Plan". That film wasn't nearly as good as "Hoodwinked", which was the subject of my first review. The upcoming one  for "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" will also be my 75th review! What a coinsidence!

To read my first 74 blogs and 74 reviews, just check them out in a few different sections of www.lights-camera-jackson.com   

As you may have noticed from this site, "The Perfect Game" was supposed to be released in theatres last Friday (Aug.8). But, at the last minute, the film's studio, LIONSGATE, decided because of a lot of other films coming out over the next two months that they're producing, they would either save it for some other time or "keep it in the can".

Rumors online have been saying that it may be coming out in October in time for the World Series. Well if you've seen the trailer and know the story, you'd know that this is a "perfect" time for it to be released because the Little League World Series is going on now. And another reason why I wanted this film to come out last weekend is that I've seen the preview so many times, for the last month and a half, that I'm getting sick and tired of it! 

In the meantime, there are two family football films coming out soon that you might actually enjoy watching.

"The Longshots" starring Ice Cube and Keke Palmer - August 22nd

"The Express" starring Dennis Quaid - October 3rd

This year's Teen Choice Awards show was the 10th annual. And the worst so far. Miley Cyrus hosted and you know how much I don't like her. And many of the winners didn't deserve the honor.

Here's some of the winners in the movie catagories...and my reaction.

Summer Movie Action/Adventure: "Hancock" (Bad)

Summer Comedy: "Get Smart" (Good)

Breakout Male Actor: Drake Bell (Terrible)

Breakout Female Actor: Ellen Page (O.K.)

Romantic Comedy: "What Happens in Vegas" (Trash. No teens should have seen it)

Horror/Thriller: "I Am Legend" (Not bad)  

Drama: "StepUp2" (This selection gives all teen movie goers a bad name)

Action/Adventure: "The Chronicles of Narnia 2" (Over "Iron Man"? You've got to be kidding!)

A few weeks ago I announced the nominees for the "LCJ Best in Movies" awards for the first half of 2008. Now, here are the winners:

Best Animated Film: "Kung Fu Panda"

Best Actor: Danny Glover - "Honeydripper"

Best Actress: Anne Hathaway - "Get Smart"

Best Supporting Actor: Jeff Bridges - "Iron Man"

Best Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett - "Indiana Jones 4"

Best Family Film: "The Chronicles of Narnia 2"

Best Male Voice: Jack Black - "Kung Fu Panda"

Best Female Voice: Carol Burnett - "Horton Hears a Who!"

Best Cameo: Samuel L. Jackson - "Iron Man"

We'll find out in five months which of these winners can hold on and capture "Best in Movies" awards for all of 2008.

With two weeks of "The Dark Knight" in the books, Warner Brothers has moved into 2nd place in the studio box office battle for 2008. However, #1 is going to be hard to catch.

Here's the top 10 as of 7/29:

10) Screen Gems ("First Sunday") - $110.3M 9) Lionsgate ("Rambo") - $202.1M 8) Dreamworks ("Kung Fu Panda") - $226.3M 7) New Line ("Sex and the City", "Journey to the Center of the Earth") - $316.2M 6) Disney/BV ("WALL-E", "The Chronicles of Narnia") -  $503.6M 5) Sony ("Hancock", "Step Brothers") - $577.0M 4) 20th Century Fox ("X-Files", "Space Chimps") - $608.0M 3) Universal ("The Incredible Hulk", "Hellboy II") - $641.8M 2) Warner Bros. ("The Dark Knight") -  $673.9M 1) Paramount ("Iron Man", "Indiana Jones") -  $1.064B

Still five months to go. May the best studio win!

By now you've probably heard that both Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper are leaving "At the Movies with Ebert and Roeper." Roger hasn't been on the show in two years due to bad health but now he's officially gone for good. And Richard is leaving because he couldn't agree with Disney (which owns the show) on a new contract and the direction of the show.

Ben Lyons, from the "E!" network and Ben Mankiewicz, from "Turner Classic Movies" will be the new hosts of the show. Michael Phillips, who was hosting with Richard since Roger left, is also gone.

I'm really going to miss those guys. I'll check-out the two Ben's but it won't be the same. The good news is that, in an article on Reuters.com, Richard says he'll soon be hosting a new film review show that "honors the standards established by Siskel and Ebert more than 30 years ago." And Roger says on his website that he'll also be part of this new show. I can't wait!

Ebert and Gene Siskel's widow own the rights to the "two thumbs-up" catchphrase so they can't use that on the new "At the Movies" show, which will be called simply "At the Movies", and not "Ben and Ben" or "Lyons and Mankiewicz." And they better not say "the balcony is closed." That wouldn't be right.