WITH THE HANGOVER, AUDIENCES SNUB CRITICS

The success of The Hangover Part II demonstrates once again how far removed film critics can be from the tastes of the audience. The divergence usually becomes particularly striking in the case of sequels. But today’s (Tuesday) London Independent observed, “While journalists may scoff at a director or producer sticking to a tried and tested formula, studios conservatively trust that audiences are more likely to base their cinema-going choices on what they thought of a previous film, rather than trusting a negative critical response.” Charles Gant, an editor at the U.K. celebrity magazine Heat, told the newspaper that studio marketing campaigns far outweigh reviews in influencing the public. If a critic’s sole job was to predict whether a movie would attract an audience, “then there wouldn’t really be much point in them seeing the movies, because they can just judge that by the marketing campaign.”