The Hot Blog Archive for May, 2008
The Love Guru Attacks
In the last two months, I have gotten about 3 e-mails a week from a man who seems to actually be Hindu chaplain Rajan Zed, attacking The Love Guru and either pushing or “reporting” support for various calls to stop or change the film.
I don’t get it.
As far as I know, they haven’t even seen the movie. But there you go. We haven’t run any of these e-mails on MCN or further pursued the issue, since there seems to be very little traction or any reaosnable argument. There was a spike in interest when the British Film Institute released a statement last week that said, “Please rest assured that the BFI will not be screening this title nor will be involved with a possible release of it.
Three From Synecdoche…
(run cursor over running video for the other clips)
1 Comment »The Real Math That Doesn't Work
Gerry Ferraro is out pushing the sexism angle on the campaign again… atter she pushed the race issue. Yet, when she is asked for details, she has to scrape together absurd fragments of things that have occured. She wants to make Obama camp responsible for every word to come out of TV commentators mouths for the last year. Then she runs stuff up the flagpole, like the idea that Obama would never have taken the “Annie Oakley” tack against a male competitor who had suddenly gone from being pro-gun restrictions to a virtual NRAer. Of course he would… but he’d have asked whether he was suddenly Daniel Boone or Rambo.
But this is not why I started this entry.
First, in terms of math that never gets discussed, don’t forget that Obama has won 10 primary elections with 67% of the vote or more. If Clinton wins Kentucky by that number, that makes 3 for Clinton. Bully for her. But it seems like everyone has forgotten that he had already achieved this.
Second… and the one that endlessly confuses me… Obama has raised just over $265 million from about 1,475,000 donors. His campaign has over $37 million in cash on hand.
The Clinton campaign has raised about $190 million… spent every dime… and is carrying an additional $20 million-plus in debt.
So… how can the Clinton camp argue that they are economically responsible?
Moreover… all this finger-wagging about Obama spending multiples of her campaign in certain states never mentions that he has spent about $18 million more than her total… or less than 10% more than her campaign has spent.
Whose fiscal policy would you prefer?
Luhrman's Epic Australia Trailers
Clealry an attempt to return to the epics of the past, though using the full box of digital paints that are available…
Someone channeling Clint Eastwood?
Of all the airplanes in all the…
The trailer…
If It's Tuesday, It Must Be Boring… BYOB
Oy… did the soft fall off the Indy waterfall ever leave us all floating in the water, waiting for a wave.
Even the cover of Movie City News is stuck linking to retreads of stories, from Patrick Goldstein’s lightweight review of woman in the film business that Manohla Dargis did weeks ago and that I am many others responded to in some depth, to the NY Times still giving the brilliant Errol Morris space to sell his not-quite-as brilliant movie Standard Operating Procedure with what seems to be his fourth op-ed piece the subject, to both the coastal Timeses doing “real people” stories meant to reflect the state of the industry (funding/acting), to Gillian Anderson talking X-Files and Joan Collins talking Bond (I thought it more likely she’d be offered a role in the new Mummy movie).
Maybe there is a good reason to go to Cannes… because it’s boooring around these parts.
BYOB Monday
Everyone seems worn out on Indy chat… what else?
33 Comments »The Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Review (ALL Spoilers)
SPOLIERS… SPOILERS… SPOILERS!!!
Are we clear?
Spoliers via this link!
If you don’t want to be spoiled, don’t click on the link… ok?
Here is a spoiler-free sample of the spoiler section…
I kinda love Spielberg doing XXX XXX XXX for, probably, the first and last time of his career. The XXX XXX XXX is funny and creepy (though in the back of my head, I kept expecting Indy to XXX XXX XXX XXX XXX). The only downside, really, is that it was XXX XXX XXX XXx with the XXX XXX the XXX. (The XXX XXX is another mixed bag
The Indy Review (No Spoilers)
The most striking thing to me about Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is that it is, in spite of claims otherwise made, a CG version of an Indiana Jones movie. And this changes a great deal about what was so very pleasurable about the first three films. Even then, post-Star Wars, they were throwbacks. Star Wars had many layered effects, but they had the limitations
19 Comments »I Want To Address This… But I Am Heading To The Movie
Updated 2a, Monday morning
This post was inspired by one of Drew McWeeney’s comments in another entry…
By the way, Dave… even if you don’t want to admit it, “buzz” has certainly existed on this film since they began production. The stories we DIDN’T print would fill a book. Sourced stories. Accurate stories. You can pretend that the only buzz is from non-existent people, but you’re fooling yourself.
I hope that the film is awesome. I hope it blows people’s minds all day long tomorrow at Paramount. But you need to stop with this “there was no buzz” lie. Go talk to your friend Jack M. and ask him what the near-deafening buzz is and has been for months and months. It’s not from exhibitor’s screenings, m’man.
Posted by: Drew at May 18, 2008 01:41 AM
And this is what I have a problem with.
All of the “buzz” that is turning up in the media IS based on those early reviews on AICN… not from reported issues from the scripting process, production, or post-production.
I believe, 100%, that Drew and others in the geek culture have heard a ton of stuff… much of it true, though this kind of “truth” is often just perspective. It actually is NOT reported the way a real reporter reports a story. Every angle is not checked. Details are not fact checked. A source can be beyond reproach… and be wrong.
It happens every single day. It happens in Traditional Media. It happens in New Media. It happens to gossips. Every. Single. Day.
And this is why there are journalistic standards that serious people take seriously and commit to. Sometimes, we even have a great story, but it doesn’t work out so that we know it’s fair and completely right… so we spike it!
Without baiting you, Drew, I’d like to know what the criteria for AICN spiking stories? Did you run all the Indy news… or at least all the news you feel was sourced and accurate? Why or why not?
I will be happy to read your answer and to continue this discussion calmly and without malice. But please understand… this is the reason why the internet and the people who make their names by spreading gossip are a problem. The NY Times didn’t report what you say you know, sourced and accurate, about what happened on that set or in the decision-making process.
There is buzz of every movie. And as often as not, it’s wrong. And it’s wrong floating out of studios and it’s wrong floating out of junkets and it’s wrong from critics… and so on. And sometimes, it’s right. And there is always a better percentage in being negative than positive because most movies turn out badly. It’s high school, Drew. It’s not journalism.
I’ve seen the movie. I think it’s ok, but not great. And still, I object to the blind domino effect. Being right is no excuse. And no matter what I think… who am I to determine if I am right or wrong anyway? Are you going to write Roger Ebert to tell him he’s a sucker because you know people on this movie who didn’t like the choices that were made?
Slippery slope… as it has always been at AICN and at other similar sites. You guys report out of context. You think you have control of these rumors and ridiculous screening reviews because you “know” what’s really happening, even when you aren’t reporting it. But that too means you are providing skewed information. That’s never seemed to bother you or Harry much. But as a journalist who’s been watching my profession degrade and degrade and degrade, I care a lot.
Weekend Estimates by Klady
So Narnia 2 opens about $10 million behind Narnia 1… why?
Don’t really know. Did skewing older cost them? Maybe. There could be some parents waiting to make sure, around the soccer field, that it’s safe for the little ones. There was more competition here… $25 million more grossed by the rest of the Top 5 this weekend than on Narnia 1’s first weekend. And there was a marketing emphasis on the new star and much less on the four kids at the center of the first film. But… who really knows?
Another nice hold for Iron Man. Great numbers, but it still remains $60m behind Spider-Man 3 and $50 million ahead of X2: X-Men United as it heads into its first weekend with some market-changing competition, a luxury S-M3 didn’t have. This suggests a total around $270 million.
Speed Racer continues to drop like a stone after being the media whipping boy for the last two weeks. Too bad.
Forbidden Kingdom is surely the quietest $50 million hit of the year.
Variety "Review" And The Pathetic Fear Of Irrelevance
What’s almost as sad as live-blogging during the first screening of a movie is disrespectful?
Variety being so insecure about being relevant that it has to run the following before actually reviewing the film…
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Posted: Sun., May 18, 2008, 6:55am PT
By TODD MCCARTHY
One of the most eagerly and long-awaited series follow-ups in screen history delivers the goods — not those of the still first-rate original, 1981’s “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” but those of its uneven two successors.
“Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” begins with an actual big bang, then gradually slides toward a ho-hum midsection before literally taking off for an uplifting finish.
Nineteen years after their last adventure, director Steven Spielberg and star Harrison Ford have no trouble getting back into the groove with a story and style very much in keeping with what has made the series so perennially popular. Few films have ever had such a high mass audience must-see factor, spelling giant May 22 openings worldwide and a rambunctious B.O. life all the way into the eventual “Indiana Jones” DVD four-pack.
Full review to be posted shortly.
Thankfully, there is almost no insight or substance there… since I am seeing the film in a few hours and don’t want to know.
But Todd McCarthy is a serious, serious guy… and to allow criticism to be so reduced, as any critic will tell you that they learn more about how they feel about a film as they write, is sad.
The NY Times is quickly becoming the one place where the critics take themselves and their work seriously enough not to stunt endlessly… if only that extended to their industry coverage.
What Is With The Times Online?
After the embarrassingly misreported story on how dangerous Cannes is to Indiana Jones yesterday, The Times Online today offers an alleged first newspaper review of the film… that is nothing close to being a review!!! All they do is drop a few spoilers and indicate that they liked the movie more than the buzz… the buzz that didn’t much exist and that they propagated!!!
Really… there is nothing much to read here, especially if you don’t want to read spoilers, albeit fairly minor ones. There is nothing approaching a single graph of critical argument about the film… not even hack level criticism.
I just don’t get it. Isn’t The Times Of London supposed to be Traditional Media? Aren’t they supposed to act like adults?
My guess – just a guess – is that they feared printing a full review before the Cannes screening because they had made an agreement with Paramount in order to get early access to the movie. But trying to have it both ways is so… so… so…
Argh.
Friday Estimates by Klady
The first Narnia film opened to $23m on Friday and ended up doing less than triple that for the weekend… and about 12 times the number in the end, dometically. But that was early December, not on the holiday weekend and not in summer. So we don’t really know what the multiple will look like this weekend. I could be anyway between 2,5x to 3.5x really. We’ll have a better sense of that tomorrow, though the final number may be skewed by the Christian question, which is, do families go see the film after church tomorrow?
But let’s also keep perspective on the story. The difference between a Christian push and not is probably 20% – 30%… the difference, say, between a $200 million movie and a $250 million movie. That’s a lot of money in the real world, but in Move World, not as much.
Also keep in mind than the first Narnia did just over 60% of its box office overseas, $290m domestic to $450m foreign.
Iron Man is running about $40 million ahead of X2 and about $60m behind Spider-Man 3. This suggests that $260m doemstic is close to where the number will land.
You Cannes Drive Me NUTS!!!!
This is why I got so angry about the NY Times
31 Comments »
