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David Poland

By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com

Good Morning From Bermuda

Hello all –
See what happens when I leave town for a minute? Hirings at Universal, DreamWorks’ dramatically overpriced library announces that it has moved closer to a sale, George Clooney gives up his Oscar goodie bag… dear GOD!!!!
The battle of V has begun. The most fascinating thing continues to be how angry the film seems to make some critics. It’s not “I don’t get the mask.” It’s “THIS IS SHIT!!!” I count that as a win for the film, by the way. And I think about how much so many hated The Matrix when it first arrived… and for that matter, almost every Kubrick film. Thing is, V is not built to have the kind of resonance of either Matrix or Kubrick. There is the limitation of that mask. But I still think that kids who don’t go to movies to think will end up thinking about some big issues when they walk out of the film… and ironically, considering that blowing shit up is at the heart of the film, the biggest issue is that violence has a place, but that it must be considered and be purposeful.
V is not a comic book hero. He is all of us. And I love that this makes so many people so uncomfortable. Like sticking your fingers in Palmolive, if you feel it when you stick your fingers in it, it’s working!
Meanwhile, on a lighter note, I keep wonder what the hell they are talking about when they keep saying that distributing the DreamWorks library is a money win for Paramount. You mean the $3 million they might get in rentals to revival houses? I mean, really… I don’t get it. There isn’t a title in the library that isn’t played out. I guess I just don’t understand t he genius of the deal (except that they are getting a lot for the library… though that deal will demand scrutiny to see whether the $900 million is real money or “Weinstein money.”)
And as for George’s goodie bag… good for him… so why do we know about it and why should we care? Maybe I can get him to write a blog entry for The Hot Blog, written just for us and not just a misattributed amalgamation of quotes pieced together and sold as proprietary by a the world’s finesrt media slut since Paris Hilton jumped the shark (or is that “fucked the shark” in her case?).
More on Universal later today…

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7 Responses to “Good Morning From Bermuda”

  1. jeffmcm says:

    Hey Dave, can you be a little more specific about which reviewers are the ones getting their hate on about this movie? It has a 72% positive on Rotten Tomatoes, and the consensus among those who don’t like it seems to relate to it being allegedly dull/flat/muddled. Where are the Shit-sayers you refer to?
    I’m also curious to know who you are thinking of as hating the original Matrix, which has an 88% positive on Rotten Tomatoes.

  2. Filmbaker says:

    While it isn’t a concensus, Drudge has – earlier this week – a collection of two or three reviews condemning “V” for moral ambiguity and essentially lionizing a terrorist.
    Drudge seems to have a real agenda in terms of Hollywood; I’m pretty sure he was the first to announce “Kong” was a bomb (the headline was, very simply, “‘Kong’ Bomb?”, despite the fact it wasn’t a monumental failure), frequently linked to articles deriding “Munich,” and, in particular, fanned the “Brokeback” flames by helping to position it as sort of the quintessential liberal Hollywood agenda film.
    I don’t really have a question, I just wish someone would plant a pick ax in that guy’s head.

  3. jeffmcm says:

    If you’re going to attack a film for ‘moral ambiguity’ you’re pretty much writing movie reviews for grade-school kids. Next we’ll be hearing that movies don’t have enough bright, shiny objects.

  4. prideray says:

    Movies don’t have enough bright, shiny objects.

  5. prideray says:

    Maybe the next TOY STORY can be about garden tools: this should be a satisfactory viewing experience!

  6. Tofu says:

    Just got back from V.
    A very fun ride, very surprised. Not as much action, but much better dialogue than I had expected. The crowd was digging it. The extreme negative reviews peppered here and there are just too over the top and filled with hyperboyle. Worst movie of the year my arse.
    Heck, this is actually the first I say should be seen in the theater.

  7. martin says:

    v seems to be getting ok reviews but not the sort that would suggest a franchise. then again, all that determines a franchise is $$. As far as fucking the shark, are you suggesting Paris Hilton has herpes?

The Hot Blog

Quote Unquotesee all »

It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon