Poland By David Polandpoland@moviecitynews.com
The 2013 Crystal Ball: Sidebar – How Cable/Satellite Companies Ended Up Paying For Every Channel
Cable/Satellite is probably the best place to describe this massive change. 30 years ago, cable companies were fighting and spending to lay cables into the ground to deliver content to households on level never before experienced. They were fighting, region by region – often regions within regions – for these rights because they were, effectively,…
Read the full article »20 Weeks Of Summer: This Year’s $200 Million Movies So Far
As you can see, I have included a few titles that are not at $200m worldwide yet, but are guaranteed to get there. (numbers from BO Mojo) Seven of the nine studio wide releases to date this summer have achieved this mark. Six have or are highly likely to pass $300m worldwide. (If you are…
Read the full article »20W2O: 51 Days To Go
Guilding The Lily
Is it a good thing or a bad thing that we are locked into 60% or so of the nominations for all groups by Thanksgiving and that the rest of the slots will be filled by a pool of films and talent that pretty much represents fewer than 15 films legitimately vying for Best Picture slots and 8 or fewer actors/directors/writers and other top talent competing for each of the other nomination slots?
Read the full article »1 Week To 20 Weeks To Oscar: Counting Best Picture Ballots
So I’m a week from writing the weekly column… but the one issue that seems to keep cropping up is how the change in the Best Picture vote accounting rules really works. Steve Pond did a nice job trying to lay it all out when it happened. But people still seem to be unsure what is really up. So I had a chat with AMPAS’ Ric Robertson and Leslie Unger in the name of clarity. This is where I landed…
Read the full article »10 Reasons Why The Academy Moving To January Makes Perfect Sense
Some people think Oscar will be ruined by moving into January. All I can say is, “What have they been waiting for?”
Read the full article »26 Weeks To Oscar: The Year Of… Patience
The awards season has gotten off to a rousing “uh, okay.”
Yeah, the festival season is upon us and there is a lot of drool dripping over some of these films – including my own happy salivations – but festival excitement is not, in and of itself, an answer.
Read the full article »Preview Week 2008: Planning for The Worst… Hoping For The Best
The summer of 2008 is 17 weeks long. There are 44 films scheduled to be released “wide” this summer, only 3 of which are not from the major studios or their Dependent specialty arms. I count 16 of these releases as “The Big Ones,” meaning that a lot of money has been spent – and…
Read the full article »FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS Movie Review
Why Eastwood Was A Bad Choice For This Material It’s really mind boggling how far off the mark Flags of our Fathers is. The failure comes on three levels. If you are looking for a war movie, you will be sadly disappointed. There is plenty of sepia-toned beach landing/gun fire/machine gun/grenade/flame throwing/body splitting stuff here….
Read the full article »Clint Eastwood’s Flags of Our Fathers
Week Of October 9, 2006 October 9, 2006 The first true shock of the Oscar season has landed. And much to the amazement of many, it is Clint Eastwood’s Flags of Our Fathers. Simply put, the film is a Midnight In the Garden of Good & Evil level swing and miss by a very fine…
Read the full article »Stephen Frears’ ‘The Queen’ and Pedro Almodovar’s ‘Volver’
Stephen Frears and Pedro Almodovar. Two great filmmakers whose work goes great together at film festivals. But more importantly, these two non-US filmmakers have once again achieved what seems to endlessly elude Americans working in either the indie or studio systems. They deliver unique, beautifully made, clean, crisp, compelling films year after year. You can…
Read the full article »Little Children Movie Review
It is hard to figure out where to start discussing Little Children. It is easy enough to say that it is the best American film of 2006 to date, since it is. To say that this film is one of the great sophomore efforts of all time (by director/co-writer Todd Field) is no overstatement. And…
Read the full article »Summer Movie Review Miami Vice
This is not your father’s Miami Vice. Or it’s not my Miami Vice, which premiered 22 years ago in my 19th year. And it’s certainly not Michael Mann’s old Miami Vice, which Michael Mann never directed. (The pilot was directed by hour-long pilot directing king, Thomas Carter.) Mann & Yerkovich’s Miami Vice TV show was…
Read the full article »World Trade Center Movie Review
Years ago, when I ever so briefly worked in Market Research for a TV network, we measured people’s feelings about a show by having them push one of two buttons, depending if they felt good or bad as each moment of the show passed. Watching World Trade Center, I had a similarly distinct way of…
Read the full article »The Buzz: August 14, 2003
Rank – News Item Comment 1 Affleck Slams Gigli, Himelf By Next Week… “You know, Jay, people say I have a large penis. Well, it’s not that big. Really, it’s kind of small.” (Big Laugh, As Jay Throws To Commercial) “Have they forgiven me yet? Any ideas? It really isn’t small. I just said that…”…
Read the full article »What Exactly Do They Think People Are Going To Pay For?: August 7, 2003
This Week’s News Buzz Match the Buzz to the News The Buzz A. Next Up – James Brown vs. Chuck Berry B. “I Vill Pay Off Da Deficit Myself… Then I Vill Own You ALL, You Puny, Whinny Americans!!!!” C. Never Have So Many Critics Had So Much To Lose From A Movie Proving Them…
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