Fortune has posted a video of Dreamworks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg chatting with Fortune‘s Andy Serwer to discuss 3D technology and why 2011 movies have so far, in Katzenberg’s opinion, blown chunks. JKatz actually asks for a show of hands to confirm or deny “if the last seven or eight months of movies is the worst lineup of movies you’ve experienced in the last five years of your life.”

“For sure the 3D bloom came,” Katznberg says early on, “and for sure the bloom is off the rose for a moment in time, driven by a singular and unique characteristic that only exists in Hollywood — greed. And, you know, so I think there were, unfortunately, a number of people who thought that they could capitalize on what was a great, genuine excitement by moviegoers for a new premium experience, and thought they could just deliver a kind of low-end crappy version of it, and people wouldn’t care, or wouldn’t know the difference. And anything ?? you know, nothing could have been further from the truth.

“The film business, on the other hand, is extremely challenged right now in ways that I don’t think, certainly not in my career in the industry, have we faced. And it’s a sort of perfect storm, if you will, of a number of factors.

“The first is that driven by the most stressed economy of our lifetime, you know, this recession made every single person look at and reassess price/value in every aspect of their life. Proctor & Gamble deals with it the same way, Wal-Mart deals with it, the way movie companies and studios are having to deal with it, which is, is something worth today to me what I’m paying for it. And people are consciously thinking and making that assessment on a daily basis.

“And what happened is, at the moment in time in which they were making those assessments, in particular about owning DVDs, is also the moment in time in which all sorts of new delivery opportunities presented themselves, which, by the way, are still enormously in flux, and you can’t ?? anybody that would sit here today and say, okay, well, I kind of understand where this all ends up a year, or 18 months, or two years from now, I think is kind of foolish, to be honest. There are so many changing aspects about it. And so we have what is for sure a systemic change in consumer habits with regard to how they consume movies. And what we haven’t yet found is what is that new model.

“Now, having said that, more people are actually watching movies today than ever before around the globe. The question is, how are they going to do that, how are they going to access it, how much of it is going to be through streaming, how much of it is going to be bundled, how much of it is going to be on a per-play basis, how much of it is going to be digital, how much of it is going to exist in the cloud, and we can go on, and on, and on with all of these things, all of which are incredibly real. And so, right now in the center of that is a change in habits, a change in platform, a change in delivery, and therefore uncertainty and challenges financially.

“A movie experience is a passive experience. The storytelling narrative is something that I think is still a unique and interesting, and valued experience by people around the world. And whether it’s done in a movie theater or in your home, or on your laptop, or iPad, or whatever the device is, people love that passive experience. And we see it, again, there’s more and more consumption of it.

“What all of these devices and social networking things do is they’re going to actually force Hollywood to make better products, because today the thing that is probably most askew in Hollywood is the issue of marketability versus playability. And what that really means is that there is this sort of unholy alliance that has existed forever between art and commerce, show and biz. And today it’s out of balance and it’s too much on the biz, and it’s too much on the commerce and it’s too much on the marketability and the fact is that I’m pretty confident, and let’s do it, because this is supposed to be an interactive experience here, which is could we agree?

“Let me have a show of hands of people that would say the last seven or eight months of movies is the worst lineup of movies you’ve experienced in the last five years of your life.”

What has Katzenberg been watching? The last six and a half months have seen The Guard, Captain America, Drive, A Better Life, The Tree of Life, Beginners, X-Men: First Class, Bridesmaids, Win Win, Hanna, Midnight in Paris, Source Code, Cedar Rapids, Meek’s Cutoff, Super, The Lincoln Lawyer and Jane Eyre. That’s almost 20 films that have been very good, good or better than half-decent.

For whatever reason it’s only just hit me that Martin Scorsese‘s Letter to Elia, a profoundly personal exploration of not only Elia Kazan‘s life and career but the influence his films have had upon Scorsese almost his entire life, is playing for free on pbs.org. If you haven’t seen it and you regard yourself as any kind of Movie Catholic, you must watch it as soon as you can. Who knows? Maybe they’ll take it down tomorrow or next week.

I’d like to catch the ComicCon Cowboys & Aliens screening (which my Universal p.r. pally wasn’t able to get me into), but otherwise it feels just fine not being in San Diego as we speak. Possible compensation: A livestream feed from the Entertainment Weekly guys and NowLive. A little Dave Karger and Anthony Breznican is part of the deal, apparently.

Very impressive sit-up and leg-lift regimen. Seriously. You have to figure some Ford rep said to the milk guys, “Okay, but a torso shot. The moustache is white. People will see it. No closeup required.”

Warner Bros, will be showing Steven Soderbergh‘s Contagion (9.9) in IMAX, according to the new one-sheet. That’s cool. That’s the version I want to see.

“Is Captain America, as some have suggested, a symbol of American proto-fascism or a Tea Party hero before the fact?,” asks New York‘s Andrew O’Hehir. “One answer to that question is to say that it’s a stupid question to ask about a comic-book hero and another, given the overall left-libertarian leanings of the Marvel universe, is to say no.

“I’m not sure either answer is adequate in the long run, but this origin story effectively ducks the question, by pointing out that Captain America was a weapon created in a moment of global emergency. He’s unquestionably an argument for American exceptionalism, in that he seems cooler, more humble, more self-sacrificing and just flat-out nicer than those who sought to enslave the world. That’s an important aspect of our national mythology, and Captain America is a nostalgic tribute to the time when it still felt true.”

Could a perception that Captain America is a veiled rightwing movie on some level be an unacknowledged, underlying reason why some critics are pissing on it? If this is a factor then I can only emphasize my agreement with O’Hehir and repeat what I said yesterday, which is that it “dream[s] a little dream about what it was to be a true believer during World War II, and to be a kind of goody two-shoes type of guy who wants to serve and salute and defeat the bullies. It’s not in the least bit ‘realistic,’ of course, but it’s a highly sincere and convincing visitation of an imaginary yesteryear.”

Shame on the enemies of this film. It’s simply too well made and too finely honed and harmonized to dismiss as “just another superhero movie.”

Suddenly departed MSNBC guy Cenk Uygur explained tonight on his Young Turks show why he believes MSNBC honchos didn’t invite him to stick around. One reported reason is that Al Sharpton (who may take over Uygur’s former 6 pm slot) recently drew somewhat higher ratings. Uygur doesn’t touch the Sharpton factor but to me his interpretation of MSNBC’s management mentality sounds perceptive.

“[MSNBC] didn’t want to challenge power,” he explains. “The problem with the mainstream media is they’re desperate for access, they don’t challenge the government, they don’t challenge power. And it’s one thing when they give you [that] speech and you’re not sure that it’s true, but when they act upon the speech you’re SURE that it’s true. The point of this show was truth-telling, and you’re supposed to challenge the government…that’s the role of the media.”

I learned this morning that Bradley Cooper isn’t the only youngish Hollywood hotshot who’s fluent in French.

I’ve been popping in and out of West L.A.’s Laser Blazer since the early ’90s, first to buy laser discs and then DVDs and Blurays. And these days the store (located at 10587 West Pico Blvd, two blocks east of Overland) is a remnant of what it once was. Business is down, the mood is down, excess inventory is being sent back to distributors and the air conditioning is on the fritz, and in fact hasn’t been repaired for several weeks. And it’s hot outside.

I’m sorry to see an old friend wither and die. I wish I could do something to help, but what could that be exactly? Video retail revenue is dropping all over. Other L.A. video stores like Vidiots, Cinefile and Amoeba are hanging on (or so it seems), but it seems as if Laser Blazer is hurting a bit more than most, obviously due to Netflix-by-mail and streaming downloads but also the location, which has little pedestrian traffic. (Parking has never been a problem.)

I like to roam around a video store and shoot the shit with the counter guys about this or that film, but I guess that kind of behavior or social appetite is dying also.

Last January owner Ron Dassa, looking to save money, partitioned the original store space into a much smaller space in order to rent out two other partitioned areas. One is being used by an aerobics business; the other is unoccupied. Laser Blazer’s store space feels cramped, bunker-like. The last time I was there it felt like a closet without the a.c. (The staffers had the front door open, at least.)

I dropped by a week or so ago to by a DVD of The Best Years of Our Lives. Ivan Infante, a screenwriter and filmmaker who’s been the store’s buyer for I-forget-how-many-years, said they’re out of it, and that it’s not re-orderable. This would have been an unheard-of scenario two or three years ago. Today I asked if they had the Twilight Zone Bluray boxes, and the guy said only Season #4. So the hell with it. What’s the point any more? No air-conditioning and a diminishing inventory. I’ll just go order online or go to Ameoba or Best Buy. Or buy Hulu or Netflix or Amazon downloads, although I really hate the quality of the online streaming I’ve seen so far.

I’m sorry it’s come to this, but a place I used to think of as a kind of home is giving up the ghost, and there doesn’t seem to be anything to do or say except…you tell me. If I could clap my hands three times and convert Laser Blazer into the place it was three or four years ago, I would.