film critics! damned if we do, and damned if we don’t
Great. Now we critics are being chastised for not spoiling movies…
Film.com
question of the day: Who would be convinced to see a movie by a quote on an ad from a random guy on Twitter?
Is there a perception of authority for anyone who’s quoted on a movie ad, merely because he or she is quoted there? Or is this just sheer desperation on the part of Open Road Films?
AOL/HuffPo to movie journos: You’re fired, unless you want to write for free
AOL/HuffPo values the voices and input of its writers… just not enough to pay them. So please do continue to do the excellent work you’ve been doing, Cinematical and Moviefone writers, just don’t expect to get paid for it. *grrr*
Film.com just gave me the boot
Budget cuts. But hey, eating is so overrated.
question of the day: What if we abolished the MPAA?
The latest fracas involving the MPAA — the board that rates films for release in the United States — concerns the indie Blue Valentine, which has received an NC-17 rating for its sexual content, which is actually fairly minimal and mostly not terribly, you know, sexy. The film does, however, feature an instance of a man pleasuring a woman orally…
calling bullshit on: ‘Toy Story 3’s miraculous seven-day U.K. “opening weekend”
Jesus could make a couple of loaves of bread and a few fish feed a crowd. But only Hollywood can make a weekend last seven days. Recently I wrote a piece for Film.com about Wednesday openings for films, what the purpose of them is, and if they make sense. The context was: Why move Knight … more…
question of the day: If it’s okay to worry that ‘Inception’ is too smart, where is the worry about movies that are too stupid?
Inception has finally arrived, and now we’ll see if audiences feel the same way about it as critics do: reviews range from pretty good to rapturous, with only a few detractors (and not just Armond White, either!) But I’ve been noticing a particular tenor in the predictions of how audiences may react that I find … more…
all I want for Christmas is whuffie
If you’ve read Cory Doctorow’s awesome near-future science fiction novel Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom [Amazon U.S.] [Amazon U.K.], then you know what whuffie is. If you haven’t, here’s the gist: The novel takes place in a “post-scarcity” world, where the basic needs of life and lots of its luxuries are freely available … more…
question of the day: How will McG bump ‘Terminator Salvation’ up to an R rating?
Oh, the way they gouge fans. Turns out that when Terminator Salvation is released on DVD this autumn, it’ll be rated R for “some violence and brief nudity.” As I wrote recently about this very topic over at Film.com: Yup, because brief nudity is what was needed to make this movie suck less. As you … more…
