A Kinder, Gentler Silent Hill

Like A Bad Nightmare

I know that some readers think I am all too willing to criticize The NY Times, but can anyone defend six stories in the last two days about Page Six in The Paper of Record???
Forget about whether there is any real news here, aside from a billionaire being able to get the FBI to run a sting operation on a hack full-time freelancer. There has been no indictment. There is zero indication that News Corp was in any way aware of these events, much less allowed them to pass under their noses.
Is there any excuse for all this coverage other than the thrill of some scandalous stench coming from another major media player?
Me? I’m just disgusted that all this energy is being thrown at a gossip page… not to mention that the NYT, in its story on gossip pages, fails to point out that their paper has chased the same audience Page Six commands with its Boldfaced Names. (Comedically, the first writer of Boldfaced Names is given credit for “additional reporting” on the story.)
How does one remain a believer in all the New York Times has represented when they are aiming so low?
P.S. Why is it that Ron Burkle is IDed as

The WGA 100

I guess you guys want to discuss it… so here is the list, after the jump…
P.S. If Casablanca is the best screenplay of all time, I am a monkey’s uncle. Do you know that “beautiful friendship” was dubbed in after the film was shown to the execs?
Pulp Fiction and The Shawshank Redemption are ridiculously high… someone wanted to look cool. And Shakespeare In Love, if on this list at all, should be down at the bottom.
I would have lots of arguments with, but the ability to live with, most of the rest. But you get the feeling that they wanted current scripts represented… and current guild leaders represented.

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Klady's Friday Estimates – 4/8/06

Ice Age: Meltdown is pretty much in the expected trajectory. And so is The Benchwarmers.
This is where it gets frustrating for film critics. This film could open to $20 million, despite features smacking it around, followed by no reviews, followed by scathing reviews. The irony is that even a tough critic like Manohla Dargis gave the film a fairly negative review

Angelina's Vagina Secured By Armed Guards

Channel 7 News here in L.A. opened their entertainment coverage with this important news… Angelina and her still unbroken water have rented a 13-room boutique hotel in Africa so she can push out the baby in the motherland. Local police have threatened to jail anyone with a camera in the vacinity.
And with that, my mind spins off its axis..

Is George Clooney Full Of Shit?

So asketh ABC News’ Miquel Marquez in a web entry titled, “Is Clooney Right About Hollywood’s Social Agenda?”
Clooney’s Oscar speech – “We’re the ones who talked about AIDS when it was just being whispered,” the 44-year-old star told the audience. “And we talked about civil rights when it wasn’t really popular. This academy

The Juju Of Junketing Junk

A note from an anonymous junketeer who is not anonymous to me…
“A lot of the junket people I know are getting annoyed at the studios because there’s a lot of similar crap going on that makes their lives difficult, too… junkets/press days cancelled at the last minute (Silent Hill, for instance), ridiculously overcrowded press conferences with all the talent at once (this was the case with American Dreamz), print and online journalists being left out of major junkets/interview opportunities (don’t look for much on MI3 online), offers for phone interviews with talent/directors of genre films without being allowed to see the movie (Stay Alive and now Silent Hill), last minute junkets (Underworld was the day before it opened).
Really, the studios have been turning this year into a collective itinerary of “let’s try to control the media or at least let’s really show them who is in control” and a lot of journalists are getting sick of it, on top of the critics. (I tend to do both interviews and reviews, which puts me in a weird situation.) I’m already hearing murmurs of a congregated attempt to just outright boycott ridiculous junkets if this keeps up (though I guess that won’t keep anyone from doing the RV junket this weekend).
I guess the studios think that this is the way to keep their movies from flopping as badly as some of them did last year, but like everything else, it’s going to start backfiring.

Did You Know…

Mary Poppins doesn’t show up in Mary Poppins until 24 minutes into the film?
Could that happen today without complaints… from critics? (See: Kong)
And where would these kitchen sink dramtists – literally making 90% of their short at the kitchen sink – be without the internet? And do we have Parker & Stone to blame for thinking that they might be the next Parker & Stone?

Circle (Jerk) Of Rage

The beat keeps beating. Some days, there is a legitimate target. Some days, there is The Benchwarmers.
This very dumb movie, targeting kids, may be a blight on society. I don

Ay Homer Lacka Lacka, Ching Cheeah Cheese Doodle…

“This Sunday Homer goes to India, and the finale is a
Bollywood-style musical number. You’ve been warned.
Matt”
An e-mail from Matt Groening to David Chute

New Study Indicates Film Critics Bad For Business

Interesting piece by Dave Germain of the AP about the rising number of films that studios are not screening for critics. But he missed the real issue by investigating whether studios are actually helping themselves by skipping these screenings. The bigger

Is There Anyone Left In The Waiting Room?

The Weinsteins picked up this movie and sent out a press release…
“Bobby, the ensemble political-culture drama written and directed by Emilio Estevez, starring Anthony Hopkins, Demi Moore, Sharon Stone, Lindsay Lohan, Elijah Wood, William H. Macy, Helen Hunt, Christian Slater, Heather Graham, Laurence Fishburne, Freddy Rodriguez, Nick Cannon, Emilio Estevez, Martin Sheen, Shia LaBeouf, Jacob Vargas, Brian Geraghty, Joshua Jackson, Joy Bryant, Svetlana Metkina, Kip Pardue, David Krumholtz, Harry Belafonte and Mary Elizabeth Winstead.”
That’s a lotsa meatball…

Reporting That Businesses Do Business Continues

Well, the New York Times decided to cool down the hype in the print edition, adjusting the web headline “Universal Will Not Pull ‘United 93’ Trailer, Despite Criticism” to “Despite Criticism, Trailer for 9/11 Film Will Run.”
But the dumbage, uh, damage, is already done. The AP web headline is “Theater Pulls Trailer for ‘United 93’” and contains a grand total of NO original reporting, instead relying on a quote from Newsweek (here in press release form… because publishing news is not enough) and overall tone from the New York Times.
For those of you who wonder why I get upset about NYT screw-ups, this is why. The paper is like the match being struck at the opening of Mission:Impossible and every paper in the country will feel that following the leader requires that they investigate this shockingshocking United 93 trailer story, no matter how thin the story.
And then there is this groundshaking story from the West Coast cypher, the LA Times – “Wal-Mart Sells ‘Brokeback’ Amid Conservative Protest.”
I’m not saying there isn’t a story here, but shouldn’t the story have run as soon as the American Family Association started its campaign against Wal-Mart stocking the Brokeback Mountain DVD? Given that the only example of Wal-Mart folding to conservative pressure groups that LAT can come up with is dumping a pregnant doll in the Barbie line, is there any news in the fact that America’s #1 DVD retailer, Wal-Mart, is selling a hit movie? And if a story is going to be done, shouldn’t it be something more complex, like a look at whether less successful or independently distributed films with gay content have been or can be stocked at Wal-Marts?
Somehow, this story both manages to overstate the issue of whether Wal-Mart might censor Brokeback Mountain and lets Wal-Mart off the hook way to easily.
Take a whiff!
LATE ADD: 11:59a – Just saw a report in CNN that was actually more thoughtful. They were, as so many are, obliged to do the story because of the NYT, but after noting the one theater that pulled the trailer and Universal’s response, the reporter pointed out that the film was made with the complete approval of the families of the passengers, and then A.J. Hammer added a personal note that, “We’ve shown it twice on Showbiz Tonight and I’ve had to look away each time.” I’m not sure that Mr. Hammer’s stomach as a reporter can be vouched for, but at least the piece framed all the issues and non-issues of it. The CNN anchor followed up with the fact that he felt it was “too soon.” And that is a discussion worth having… a discussion, not a headline.

Snakes On United 93

This week’s “Snakes On A Plane” may turn out to be the United 93 trailer.
I think the discussion of whether it is too early for a 9/11 movie (or two of them) is reasonable. I think it is perfectly reasonable to question whether New Yorkers will be extra sensitive to the movie and/or the trailer. I even think it’s news that a theater in NY pulled the trailer after a complaint and that Universal had to address it.
But there is some sort of freaky line crossing when the headline is that Universal is not pulling the trailer… as though there were some real outrage in the country over the ad. (Don’t be surprised if the now 20/20ed Nightline follows the NYT story today like a puppy with its nose up against the window.)
Can you smell the love tonight?

Why The Digital Download Thing Means Nothing Yet

The new day-n-DVD-date offering being made through Movielink is almost laughably unattractive. The part left out in most stories is that not only is the technology designed not to allow transfer to a DVD for viewing in regular DVD players, but the quality of the download, at about 1gb, is sub quality, so even if pirate types did break the code, the image would still be below standard.
So what