Craig's MovieBlog

Separated at Birth: The Sarah Palin Edition

And no.  I’m not talking about Tina Fey.

First watch this:

Then watch this:

These kids are giving beauty queens a bad name.

Doubt Trailer

… and three more nominees for Academy Awards this year:  Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Amy Adams.

It looks like Meryl is going for a Angela Lansbury in The Manchurian Candidate sort of vibe.  Oh, wait.  She actually did play the Angela Lansbury in The Manchurian Candidate remake.

Nevermind.

The Soloist Trailer

Maybe they can split the Best Actor award?  Enjoy the trailer for The Soloist.

Has anyone, ever… ever, had a better professional year than Robert Downey Jr. in 2008?

It’s Like a Really Bad Disney Movie

“I need to know if she really thinks dinosaurs were here 4,000 years ago.  That’s an important… I want to know that.  I really do.  Because she’s gonna have the nuclear codes.” (link)

Dan Glickman Speaks!

Plenty of PR speak in his interview with the Freakonomics guys in the New York Times, but he does highlight some honesty about the MPAA, issues with rising movie costs, and natural tensions between the studios, filmmakers, and distributors.

For example, regarding NC-17 films, he says:

As we’ve seen in recent years with films like Lust, Caution (which received an NC-17), these are wonderful and innovative films that adults want to see. Our partners at the National Association of Theater Owners polled their members, and they overwhelmingly said that they were willing to run NC-17 films in their theaters; so it’s ultimately up to distributors to decide how to release them. I hope we can get past the stigma associated with this rating because it will help bring to this art form an even greater diversity of creative visions.

I love that he deeply understands what the rating was designed to do, but I’m confused by this poll regarding the National Association of Theater Owners.  They are willing to run them?  So what’s the stigma?  I always thought the problem was that certain major theater chains wouldn’t run these films, and certain newspaper wouldn’t run ads for them.  I’m concerned that he’s being a little coy here.

He also addresses some previous silliness that had been in the rating system before he arrived:

Q: According to the documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated, in the process of appealing ratings decisions made by the M.P.A.A., there is a rule saying that people appealing the rating of their film cannot cite other films’ content. What do you think are the merits of this precedent? And, conversely, what are the drawbacks?

A: Last year, the Classifications and Rating Administration, which oversees the rating process, changed the rules to allow filmmakers to make these arguments in the appeals process. My view is that this was a constructive change — for filmmakers and for the rating system.

Don’t paint me as a fan of the MPAA yet, but interviews like this, and the semi-transparency that they offer, are at least a step in the right direction.

Get a Grip, People

Yes, the new Harry Potter film was delayed.  It's a movie.  It wasn't canceled or shelved... it will still be released shortly.

Can everyone please restrain themselves?  What is wrong with you people?

Jean Fink, a 51-year-old Los Angeles artist who also works as an administrative assistant, was so distraught after a night of fitful sleep that she dashed off a scathing message to the man who'd betrayed her. "I can't breath amymore [sic] because you just ripped out my heart," she wrote in an Aug. 15 email. ...

Kerry McGee, a 24-year-old office administrator from Townsville, Australia, says Mr. Horn's attempt to create a positive spin on the delay "put fuel on the fire." In response to Mr. Horn's apology she sent 30 angry letters to Warner Bros. in bright red envelopes — an allusion to "howlers," a magical kind of hate mail in the Potter world that screams loudly at the recipient and explodes violently if left unopened.

Quantum of Solace – New Trailer

“James, move your ass.”

When I see these previews, I'm just constantly reminded how good Casino Royale was.

The Dark Knight: The Abridged Script

I don’t know how he does it.  He’s consistently funny.  Enjoy The Dark Knight in a whole new way:

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CHRISTIAN BALE IN A RUBBER SUIT flips HEATH’S TRUCK using his BAT-PHYSICS-VIOLATOR, then rides up a wall in order to turn around like a BADASS. FANBOYS in the AUDIENCE cheer wildly for this, even though it looks RETARDED.

HEATH LEDGER

So it’s finally here. Me at one end of a Chicago street, you at the other. The epic battle between good and evil, teased in every advertisement for the movie! This is going to be awesome.

CHRISTIAN BALE crashes his bike like a PUTZ. HEATH laughs, then gets arrested by GARY OLDMAN, who is alive after all. Then the scene ends.

More Evidence That We Don’t Even Need a W. Movie

Peter Travers Has Lost His Mind

He actually wrote this to describe Pineapple Express and it was used as a pull quote in a New York Times ad:

This is like if Superbad met Midnight Run and they had a baby and then meanwhile that freaky Quentin Tarantino talk from Pulp Fiction and True Romance met that freaky Judd Apatow TV stuff from Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared and they had a baby, and by some miracle those babies met — and fucked — this would be the funny shit that they birthed.

Admittedly, he was channeling one of the film’s characters, but… come on.

This Ought To Go Over Well

Enjoy the new poster for Bill Maher’s Religulous.  Please, don’t send me the hate mail; I’m just the messenger.  (It is from the makers of Borat, so…)

 

This Ad Kills Me

I hate everything about this commercial.  It stomps all over my youth like George Lucas on a bender.  [via]

Hate the Trailer, Love the Poster

While I still probably won’t have the stomach to sit through the movie based on that trailer, but… good poster:

Craigslist

Hold tight – this is quite a list… I’ve been saving up (for some reason I don’t quite understand):

• Here’s the trailer for Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist.  Yep, want to see it.
• Patrick Goldstein over at the Los Angeles Times reports that with the release of the latest X-Files film, 20th Century Fox has now released 18 consecutive horrible movies, determined by a rating less than 50 over at Rotten Tomatoes.  Their next release is called Mirrors, a thriller with Kiefer Sutherland.  I smell 19!
• Watchmen, Watchmen, Watchmen!!!  The trailer is live (and beautiful), the character posters are out, and my (ahem) graphic novel should be arriving from Amazon today.  Good times.
• Who really is going to go see an Oliver Stone created W. in November?  Won’t we be completely sick of the Obama-McCain election and want to move on from all of it?  Anyway, here’s the trailer.
• I cannot believe how awful The Spirit looks.  I hated the first trailer mostly due to the music, but that was just a teaser.  Now the real thing is here, and it almost looks idiotic… almost like a bad SNL Digital Short.
• Body of Lies looks somewhat interesting… I’m just not sure why Russell Crowe thought it was a good idea to do a Beau Bridges impersonation for this role.
• New Harry Potter trailer… Yep, want to see it.

David Poland, Batman, and Titanic at the Box Office

I know this is old in internet time, but it’s still goodness.

The Dark Knight is currently at $342 million after just 13 days.

Titanic is the all time biggest grossing film at $600.8 million.

David Poland isn’t sure whether The Dark Knight will pass Titanic in total domestic box office (probably not), but he once again changes the discussion and says that we’re all looking at the wrong race.  The worldwide box office is the real game, and there’s no way Titanic is beaten by Batman this year.  Why?  Well, just start with the fact that while “no Batman film has ever even matched the level internationally that it reached at home,” Titanic made twice as much around the world as it did here in the states. 

Wa-wa-wait, what? 

That’s right – not only did Titanic break all records domestically by making $600 million here, it made $1.2 billion more overseas for a $1.84 billion total.

Put another way, Titanic made more money just overseas alone than any other movie has ever grossed in total worldwide.

That’s a big iceberg.