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I read an article yesterday morning about how “Reign Over Me”, the new Adam Sandler/ Don Cheadle flick was originaly titled “Reign O’er Me” but that in feedback screenings of the movie viewers said they didn’t know what “O’er” meant and were miffed because of it. Having seen the movie myself yesterday at a screening in the Lincoln Center AMC theater on 68th and Broadyway, I can say that it’s those same people who probably didn’t appreciate the movie for what it is: a moving, complex, oftentimes comedic bit of heartfelt cinema. If that last sentence comes across as striving for profundity, let me just say that I don’t intend convey profundity my fellow gremmies. What I’d like to convey in this post however is that you should probably go see it this weekend; you won’t regret doing so.

I take issue with feedback screenings. Last night was not one of those sesssions. For the uninitiated, producers of a movie will often screen a film months ahead of their release to test the public’s reaction to the movie and subsequently make edits based upon feedback provided by the test audience. The goal is money of course. The more capable a movie is to the average dolt, the more average dolts will show up to see it. This decidely unscientific method involves feedback forms asking banal questions such as: “What did you like most about the movie?” and the anti-thetical “What did you like least about this movie.” Bruce Campbell, otherwise known as “God” to his hardcore fanbase explained it best in his first book, “If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B-Movie Actor”. He explained that during the shoot for Sam Raimi’s (speaking of Raimi’s, Ted Raimi plays a small lawyer role in Reign O’er Me) “Darkman” there was a short scene where the villain Louis Strack Jr. (played by Colin Friels), who by day is a charming suit & tie snake oil salesman, is at home standing front of his bed - which is covered in gold coins - naked. He stretches out his arms like a bird taking off and leaps backwards onto the bed, then rolls around in his wealth. It was an effective scene clearly showing that this smooth operator by day was really a sicko. Evidently during one of the test screenings a test subject scrawled the following onto a feedback card: “I didn’t liek the naked guy.” The scene was subsequently taken out of the movie based on the discerning words of person who didn’t know how to spell the word “like”. But I digress. The point is, the formerly mentioned should have stuck with “Reign O’er Me”. After all, keeping the bar so low is only bound to make people trip over it.