HORIZON Star Michael Rooker Defends the Western Saying "Get Over That [TikTok] Crap" and ‘Learn How to Watch Real Cinema"
Kevin Costner’s Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1 is off to a slow and disappointing start at the box office with its $11 million debut. It’s sad because the movie is so damn good!
Michael Rooker is one of the many stars in the film and he takes on the role of Sgt. Major Thomas Riordan. TMZ recently approached him and asked about the film’s lackluster opening weekend and he urged people to quit TikTok and give “real cinema” a chance.
Rooker said: “It’s real cinema, folks. Be prepared. We ain’t used to that shit. We’re used to 90 minute movies. Everything is 90 minutes. Give me a break.
“Get over that shit. Let’s watch a movie that actually tells a story where you learn about the people and grow to like them or hate them. It’s not all fast and cut, cut cut.”
When asked if part of the low number for Horizon was because moviegoers have become “TikTok-ified,” Rooker said: “Totally they are. Of course they are. They got to get over that crap. They got to learn how to watch real cinema, please.”
He added: “Stop hanging and go see the movie. You’ll enjoy it. Go to the bathroom before you go in.”
I 100% agree with Rooker. People need to learn how to watch real cinema again because Hollywood keeps pumping out mediocre crap that a lot of moviegoers keep watching. It’s like people are being conditioned to accept mediocrity and that’s not good.
Costner, who put $38 million of his own money into financing Horizon, talked about the box office number saying: “I’ve lived with movies and what happens to them on their opening weekend.
“If we put so much pressure on that, we’re bound to be disappointed. I’m really happy that ‘Horizon’ looks like what it’s supposed to look like, and that’s the way it’ll look the rest of its life. And that’s really important to me in this process.”
He added: “Would I love that it would be highly, highly successful? Of course, I’d like that. My ego would like that; everyone would like that. But I am happiest that the movie that you and I are talking about looks the way I want it to look.”
Warner Bros. is set to release the second Horizon film in the planned four-movie saga on August 16. Costner, meanwhile, is moving into production on the third movie.
Horizon: An American Saga chronicles “a multi-faceted, 15-year span of pre-and post-Civil War expansion and settlement of the American West.
Experienced through the eyes of many, the epic journey is fraught with peril and intrigue from the constant onslaught of natural elements to the interactions with the Indigenous peoples who lived on the land and the determination and at many times ruthlessness of those who sought to settle it.”