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      <title>Film:The Wizard</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/films/The_Wizard/38690/default.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<table width='100%' style='font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><tr><td><img align='left' src='http://www.spout.com/ProductImages/t81633ssfdt.jpg' hspace='10' style='height:80px;' /></td>
<td>
<strong>Title:</strong> The Wizard<br/>
<strong>Year:</strong> 1989<br/>
<strong>Director:</strong> Todd Holland<br/>
<strong>Plot:</strong> In this comedy, Corey Woods (<a href="/players/P____63323/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Fred Savage</a>) sneaks his emotionally disturbed little brother, Jimmy (Luke Edwards) out of the home he has been placed in, and sets off on a trip across the country. Along the way they team up with young Haley (Jenny Lewis), and together they discover that the silent Jimmy has a gift for playing video games. With this newfound information, the trio sets off for a video game competition in California, pursued by a number of concerned relatives. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide<br/>
<strong>Times Tagged:</strong> 4<br/>
<strong>Number of Lists:</strong> 10<br/>
<strong>Number of blog posts:</strong> 7<br/>
<strong>Number of discussion threads:</strong> 1<br/>
<strong>SpoutRating:</strong> 3<br/>
</td></tr></table>]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 12 May 2009 02:44:25 GMT</pubDate><spout:Title>The Wizard</spout:Title><spout:Year>1989</spout:Year><spout:Director>Todd Holland</spout:Director><spout:Plot>In this comedy, Corey Woods (&lt;a href="/players/P____63323/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'&gt;Fred Savage&lt;/a&gt;) sneaks his emotionally disturbed little brother, Jimmy (Luke Edwards) out of the home he has been placed in, and sets off on a trip across the country. Along the way they team up with young Haley (Jenny Lewis), and together they discover that the silent Jimmy has a gift for playing video games. With this newfound information, the trio sets off for a video game competition in California, pursued by a number of concerned relatives. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide</spout:Plot><spout:TimesTagged>4</spout:TimesTagged><spout:taglevel>Slightly Tagged (1-5)</spout:taglevel><spout:Numberoflists>10</spout:Numberoflists><spout:NumberOfBlogPosts>7</spout:NumberOfBlogPosts><spout:NumberOfDiscussionThreads>1</spout:NumberOfDiscussionThreads><spout:SpoutRating>3</spout:SpoutRating><spout:FilmCoverURL>http://www.spout.com/ProductImages/t81633ssfdt.jpg</spout:FilmCoverURL><spout:SpoutFilmDetailURL>http://www.spout.com/films/The_Wizard/38690/default.aspx</spout:SpoutFilmDetailURL><spout:type>Film</spout:type></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Post: Re:Weekly Theme for September 21 : Video Games</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/groups/Weekly_Theme/Re_Weekly_Theme_for_September_21_Video_Games/625/43973/1/ShowPost.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div><img align='left' src='http://www.spout.com/ProductImages/t81633ssfdt.jpg' hspace='10' style='height:80px;' />
<strong>Post By:</strong> <a href='http://www.spout.com/members/5353/default.aspx'>Risselada</a><br/>
<strong>Post To:</strong> <a href='http://www.spout.com/groups/Weekly_Theme/625/discussions.aspx'>Weekly Theme</a><br/>
<strong>Post Date:</strong> 9/22/2009 12:18:23 PM<br/>
<strong>Body:</strong> [quote user="leeroy711"] Well this seems like a fun enough topic. Let's talk about video game films. I'm not really talking about movies that are based on video games like Lara Croft or Resident Evil. I'm talking more about movies that are about video games. I got the idea this weekend while I was watching the really bad but still pretty enjoyable horror flick from good old 1994 called Brainscan with Eddie Furlong and Frank Langella. It was about this kid that gets some sort of virtual reality CD-ROM, goes into a trance when he's playing it and starts killing people.... Sounds great right?? Okay maybe not, but it did make me start thinking about this as a topic. I remember watching Tron countless times when I was younger and loving it. I haven't watched it in many years and I'm pretty sure the experience would be ruined if I tried to sit through it now. I've also been wanting to re-watch eXisntenZ lately. I thought it was pretty brilliant in a very Cronenberg sort of way the first time I saw it and I am actually hoping to get a bit more out of it the next time. I also wonder if that film will be really dated in another 10 or 20 years. And I don't think I could mention video game movies without talking about The King Of Kong. I think this is the greatest doc I've ever seen. It was excatly what a documentary should be, in that it's about something that is very small to most of us but a huge deal to all the people that are being profiled.   Well, that's all I got for now.. Peace, Love and watch more effing movies. [/quote] I actually never saw TRON until just a few years ago!  I didn't find it THAT fascinating, but I can imagine if I saw it as a kid when it came out I might have felt differently.  David Warner is always a fantastic villian though!  What do you think about the new TRON movie coming out?  Have you seen the trailer? The video game movie from my youth is The Wizard for sure.  It was definitely a product of it's time.  Something about the characters and the settings.  Actually it was pretty depressing if you really look at it!  But the video game stuff was of course cool for a kid.  The kid with the Power Glove was so hilarious!  "I love the Power Glove.  It's so bad!"  And then of course there was the AMAZING moment when the unveiled SUPER MARIO BROTHERS 3!  One of the most exciting video game moments ever.  But then it was shattered by the absurdity that even though no one had ever seen the game before, the girl in the audience was yelling up all kinds of tips and clues about how the game works and secret passages and such. I've never seen eXisntenZ but that whole trapped in a video game alternate reality thing is a pretty popular premise for movies.  Acutally a lot more for animation.  The other huge Nintendo love of my youth was the TV show Captain N: The Game Master.  A guy gets sucked into his Nintendo and lives in a big Nintendo world where all of the different popular Nintendo games come together in one big universe.  These characters and storylines that have nothing to do with each other come together while this guy's video game controller and zapper still work.  Really pretty silly, but pretty sweet to see which video game characters they might encounter each week. There are a lot of Animes where people get sucked into video games too I belive.  I haven't seen any, so I can only remember two off the top of my head.  Avalon by the director of The Ghost in the Shell films (actually now I'm reading about it, I'm not sure if this anime...).  An anime series called .hack//SIGN. I KNOW there is a new movie coming out soon where prisoner's bodies can be controlled by gamers in a death match in a kind of real life video game.  WHAT IS THIS MOVIE CALLED!?!?  I swear I saw a trailer for it or heard about it or something.  Does anyone know what I'm talking about? Also, The King of Kong is one my very favorite movies to come out in years.  But I heard a lot of people respond that Chasing Ghosts about the same scene of people is even better.  Anyone seen that one? Oh yeah, and I heard Grandma's Boy is pretty funny too.<br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:18:23 GMT</pubDate><spout:postby>Risselada</spout:postby><spout:postto>Weekly Theme</spout:postto><spout:postdate>9/22/2009 12:18:23 PM</spout:postdate><spout:body>[quote user="leeroy711"] Well this seems like a fun enough topic. Let's talk about video game films. I'm not really talking about movies that are based on video games like Lara Croft or Resident Evil. I'm talking more about movies that are about video games. I got the idea this weekend while I was watching the really bad but still pretty enjoyable horror flick from good old 1994 called Brainscan with Eddie Furlong and Frank Langella. It was about this kid that gets some sort of virtual reality CD-ROM, goes into a trance when he's playing it and starts killing people.... Sounds great right?? Okay maybe not, but it did make me start thinking about this as a topic. I remember watching Tron countless times when I was younger and loving it. I haven't watched it in many years and I'm pretty sure the experience would be ruined if I tried to sit through it now. I've also been wanting to re-watch eXisntenZ lately. I thought it was pretty brilliant in a very Cronenberg sort of way the first time I saw it and I am actually hoping to get a bit more out of it the next time. I also wonder if that film will be really dated in another 10 or 20 years. And I don't think I could mention video game movies without talking about The King Of Kong. I think this is the greatest doc I've ever seen. It was excatly what a documentary should be, in that it's about something that is very small to most of us but a huge deal to all the people that are being profiled.   Well, that's all I got for now.. Peace, Love and watch more effing movies. [/quote] I actually never saw TRON until just a few years ago!  I didn't find it THAT fascinating, but I can imagine if I saw it as a kid when it came out I might have felt differently.  David Warner is always a fantastic villian though!  What do you think about the new TRON movie coming out?  Have you seen the trailer? The video game movie from my youth is The Wizard for sure.  It was definitely a product of it's time.  Something about the characters and the settings.  Actually it was pretty depressing if you really look at it!  But the video game stuff was of course cool for a kid.  The kid with the Power Glove was so hilarious!  "I love the Power Glove.  It's so bad!"  And then of course there was the AMAZING moment when the unveiled SUPER MARIO BROTHERS 3!  One of the most exciting video game moments ever.  But then it was shattered by the absurdity that even though no one had ever seen the game before, the girl in the audience was yelling up all kinds of tips and clues about how the game works and secret passages and such. I've never seen eXisntenZ but that whole trapped in a video game alternate reality thing is a pretty popular premise for movies.  Acutally a lot more for animation.  The other huge Nintendo love of my youth was the TV show Captain N: The Game Master.  A guy gets sucked into his Nintendo and lives in a big Nintendo world where all of the different popular Nintendo games come together in one big universe.  These characters and storylines that have nothing to do with each other come together while this guy's video game controller and zapper still work.  Really pretty silly, but pretty sweet to see which video game characters they might encounter each week. There are a lot of Animes where people get sucked into video games too I belive.  I haven't seen any, so I can only remember two off the top of my head.  Avalon by the director of The Ghost in the Shell films (actually now I'm reading about it, I'm not sure if this anime...).  An anime series called .hack//SIGN. I KNOW there is a new movie coming out soon where prisoner's bodies can be controlled by gamers in a death match in a kind of real life video game.  WHAT IS THIS MOVIE CALLED!?!?  I swear I saw a trailer for it or heard about it or something.  Does anyone know what I'm talking about? Also, The King of Kong is one my very favorite movies to come out in years.  But I heard a lot of people respond that Chasing Ghosts about the same scene of people is even better.  Anyone seen that one? Oh yeah, and I heard Grandma's Boy is pretty funny too.</spout:body></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Post: 10 Best Product Placements in Movies</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/blogs/spoutblog/archive/2008/10/7/35995.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div><img align='left' src='http://www.spout.com/ProductImages/t81633ssfdt.jpg' hspace='10' style='height:80px;' />
<strong>Post By:</strong> <a href='http://www.spout.com/members/9325/default.aspx'>SpoutBlog</a><br/>
<strong>Post To:</strong> <a href='http://www.spout.com/blogs/spoutblog/default.aspx'>SpoutBlog on spout.com</a><br/>
<strong>Post Date:</strong> 10/7/2008 11:01:06 AM<br/>
<strong>Body:</strong> 
Product placement in movies is now so overdone that we may not even notice it unless a particular film or TV show really hits us over the head with a blatant in-your-face product shot. Otherwise, seeing commercial goods everywhere merely seems like everyday life in capitalist America. Just look at any of the websites that tally up products spotlighted in mainstream movies and you’ll probably be surprised (though not shocked) at how many brands appear in each new release. Did you notice that Blades of Glory contains 38 separate products? Probably not. Many of those products couldn’t have gotten their money’s worth, because the movie doesn’t allow the audience to walk away recalling any one particular item.
At a time when TV’s Top Chef and 30 Rock show us how lame blatantly whorish and ironic product placement can get, and while moviegoers are being subjected to more subliminal, suggestive and unintentional advertisements (Speed Racer, Wall-E and Beverly Hills Chihuahua respectively have us thinking about McDonalds, Apple products and Taco Bell, though some of these associations are not necessarily the movie’s fault), it’s good to remember that not all product placement is superfluous or despicable. Some of it is actually funny, smart and beneficial to mankind.


Movie: E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial
Product: Reese’s Pieces
In case you don’t believe the part about product placement being beneficial to mankind, just imagine what could have happened if E.T. had featured either of Steven Spielberg’s first choices in candy placement, M&Ms or Hershey’s Kisses, rather than Reese’s Pieces. Would the delicious peanut butter candies still exist today? Okay, they might, but they certainly wouldn’t have become so popular so fast. Don’t forget that advertising is not simply about a greedy corporation marketing a product for profitable gain; it’s also about alerting us to wonderful new products that we otherwise might not have noticed. And isn’t your choice of sundae mix-ins better thanks to millions of moviegoers noticing the existence of Reese’s Pieces?

Movie: Back to the Future
Product: DeLorean DMC-12
On the opposite side of the spectrum from Reese’s Pieces, the DeLorean DMC-12 (popularly referred to as simply the DeLorean), is possibly the least necessary product ever to be placed prominently in a film. Maybe if it were actually a time machine it would be a must-have and the DeLorean Motor Company could have been back in business despite having gone bust a few years prior to the release of Back to the Future. Instead, the DeLorean is just a cool car, yet one that highly appeals to huge BTTF fans. And of the 6,500 DMC-12s still in existence, it’s likely that a large percentage are possessed by people who’ve installed a mock Flux Capacitor and own a vanity license plate that says something like “MCFLY” or “88 MPH” or “OUTATIME”. Get ready to see more tributes to the movie, too, since a car manufacturer in Houston has begun making new DMC-12s in limited production.

Movie: The Wizard
Product: Nintendo
A year after Mac and Me seemed to indicate that really, really prominent and shameless product placement was possibly a bad idea, The Wizard came out and provided the opposing argument. Then and now people have looked at the film’s promotion of Nintendo’s latest and much-anticipated blockbuster video game (and the the system’s “so bad” Power Glove controller) as one of the low moments in product placement, but for anyone who cared about video games in 1989, the chance to even get a glimpse of Super Mario Bros. 3 was worth the price of admission for an otherwise lame kiddie version of Rain Man.

Movie: Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle
Product: White Castle
Like The Wizard’s promotion of Nintendo products, the employment of the White Castle fast food brand in Harold and Kumar is about reminding an audience about something it already likes and desires. But unlike The Wizard, Harold and Kumar doesn’t make the sponsorship seem like such a cheap grab for cash. Sure, the stoner comedy could have used any fast food place, real or made up, but for anyone who has devoured a whole Crave Case with one other friend at four in the morning, the specifically branded joke is all the more appreciated.

Movie: Wayne’s World
Products: Pizza Hut; Doritos; Reebok; Nuprin; Pepsi
Tina Fey may seem like the smartest SNL vet ever, but each time 30 Rock does the ironic product placement shtick, a number of Mike Myers and Dana Carvey loyalists likely shout at their screen, “Sheah, right! As if that’s not a 15-year-old gag.” And Fey isn’t the only one guilty of recycling the joke, although occasionally movies like Talladega Nights and Josie and the Pussycats can get away with it, because it’s kind of a necessary gag when satirizing things like NASCAR and pop music. Even the reflexive use of product placement in Fight Club somewhat descends from the Wayne’s World scene.

Movie: Best in Show
Products: Starbucks; Apple; J. Crew; L.L. Bean
Product placement doesn’t always have to be about favorably advertising a brand. It can also be about making fun of a brand, or making fun of a certain kind of person that brand is geared toward. In the mockumentary Best in Show, Starbucks is made fun of for having so many locations, while Apple is merely employed in the joke. Catalog clothing companies J. Crew and L.L. Bean are also simultaneously the butt of a joke and the means with which Christopher Guest makes fun of two of his film’s characters.

Movie: Good Bye Lenin!
Product: Coca-Cola
Product placement can also be about employing a product that serves as an idea. Coca-Cola is a brand that has been featured in tons of films as more a symbol of capitalism and the West than of soda pop (see my old post on Coca-Cola in cinema here), and in this German comedy, a giant Coca-Cola billboard serves to represent the westernization going on outside the window of the room of an oblivious woman being duped to believe the Berlin Wall never fell.

Movie: One, Two, Three
Product: Pepsi
The Coca-Cola placement in Good Bye Lenin! recalls Billy Wilder’s film One, Two, Three, which also deals with the division of East and West Berlin and also employs the iconic brand for the same kind of symbolic representation of capitalism. In Wilder’s film, though, the product is much more prominent, as the plot revolves around a Coca-Cola executive (played by James Cagney). Yet after so much mention of Coke, especially with the association of overbearing consumerism and cultural imperialism, you’re more likely to come away from the film wanting a bottle of Pepsi, instead. Of course, it also helps that the final shot in the film is of Cagney holding a bottle of Coca-Cola’s main competitor.

Movie: Breathless (À bout de souffle)

If you’re surprised that there was product placement as long ago as 1961, when One, Two, Three was released, let’s go back even further to 1960, and to another country, France. Jean-Luc Godard’s breakthrough and groundbreaking film probably wasn’t meant to increase sales of the New York Herald Tribune, but what male viewer could resist purchasing a subscription after watching and hearing Jean Seberg peddle the newspaper at the beginning of the film? Perhaps now the film even still inspires young men to subscribe to New York magazine, as a substitute for its now unavailable ancestor.
Oh, and just so you know, product placement can be found many, many decades earlier than the 1960s.

Movie: Minority Report
Products: Lexus; Guiness; American Express; and others
The product placement in Minority Report is considered an example of overkill, but that’s also the point. The film is set in a not-so-far-off future in which ads are everywhere, and most of them are personalized to address the consumer directly by name. It’s one of many futurist ideas in the film meant to exaggerate the present while predicting the direction technology is going. Already people receive personalized spam and internet ads, and advances in personalized marketing are growing closer and closer to what exists as a joke/prophesy in Spielberg’s film. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog<br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 07 Oct 2008 15:01:06 GMT</pubDate><spout:postby>SpoutBlog</spout:postby><spout:postto>SpoutBlog on spout.com</spout:postto><spout:postdate>10/7/2008 11:01:06 AM</spout:postdate><spout:body>
Product placement in movies is now so overdone that we may not even notice it unless a particular film or TV show really hits us over the head with a blatant in-your-face product shot. Otherwise, seeing commercial goods everywhere merely seems like everyday life in capitalist America. Just look at any of the websites that tally up products spotlighted in mainstream movies and you’ll probably be surprised (though not shocked) at how many brands appear in each new release. Did you notice that Blades of Glory contains 38 separate products? Probably not. Many of those products couldn’t have gotten their money’s worth, because the movie doesn’t allow the audience to walk away recalling any one particular item.
At a time when TV’s Top Chef and 30 Rock show us how lame blatantly whorish and ironic product placement can get, and while moviegoers are being subjected to more subliminal, suggestive and unintentional advertisements (Speed Racer, Wall-E and Beverly Hills Chihuahua respectively have us thinking about McDonalds, Apple products and Taco Bell, though some of these associations are not necessarily the movie’s fault), it’s good to remember that not all product placement is superfluous or despicable. Some of it is actually funny, smart and beneficial to mankind.


Movie: E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial
Product: Reese’s Pieces
In case you don’t believe the part about product placement being beneficial to mankind, just imagine what could have happened if E.T. had featured either of Steven Spielberg’s first choices in candy placement, M&amp;Ms or Hershey’s Kisses, rather than Reese’s Pieces. Would the delicious peanut butter candies still exist today? Okay, they might, but they certainly wouldn’t have become so popular so fast. Don’t forget that advertising is not simply about a greedy corporation marketing a product for profitable gain; it’s also about alerting us to wonderful new products that we otherwise might not have noticed. And isn’t your choice of sundae mix-ins better thanks to millions of moviegoers noticing the existence of Reese’s Pieces?

Movie: Back to the Future
Product: DeLorean DMC-12
On the opposite side of the spectrum from Reese’s Pieces, the DeLorean DMC-12 (popularly referred to as simply the DeLorean), is possibly the least necessary product ever to be placed prominently in a film. Maybe if it were actually a time machine it would be a must-have and the DeLorean Motor Company could have been back in business despite having gone bust a few years prior to the release of Back to the Future. Instead, the DeLorean is just a cool car, yet one that highly appeals to huge BTTF fans. And of the 6,500 DMC-12s still in existence, it’s likely that a large percentage are possessed by people who’ve installed a mock Flux Capacitor and own a vanity license plate that says something like “MCFLY” or “88 MPH” or “OUTATIME”. Get ready to see more tributes to the movie, too, since a car manufacturer in Houston has begun making new DMC-12s in limited production.

Movie: The Wizard
Product: Nintendo
A year after Mac and Me seemed to indicate that really, really prominent and shameless product placement was possibly a bad idea, The Wizard came out and provided the opposing argument. Then and now people have looked at the film’s promotion of Nintendo’s latest and much-anticipated blockbuster video game (and the the system’s “so bad” Power Glove controller) as one of the low moments in product placement, but for anyone who cared about video games in 1989, the chance to even get a glimpse of Super Mario Bros. 3 was worth the price of admission for an otherwise lame kiddie version of Rain Man.

Movie: Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle
Product: White Castle
Like The Wizard’s promotion of Nintendo products, the employment of the White Castle fast food brand in Harold and Kumar is about reminding an audience about something it already likes and desires. But unlike The Wizard, Harold and Kumar doesn’t make the sponsorship seem like such a cheap grab for cash. Sure, the stoner comedy could have used any fast food place, real or made up, but for anyone who has devoured a whole Crave Case with one other friend at four in the morning, the specifically branded joke is all the more appreciated.

Movie: Wayne’s World
Products: Pizza Hut; Doritos; Reebok; Nuprin; Pepsi
Tina Fey may seem like the smartest SNL vet ever, but each time 30 Rock does the ironic product placement shtick, a number of Mike Myers and Dana Carvey loyalists likely shout at their screen, “Sheah, right! As if that’s not a 15-year-old gag.” And Fey isn’t the only one guilty of recycling the joke, although occasionally movies like Talladega Nights and Josie and the Pussycats can get away with it, because it’s kind of a necessary gag when satirizing things like NASCAR and pop music. Even the reflexive use of product placement in Fight Club somewhat descends from the Wayne’s World scene.

Movie: Best in Show
Products: Starbucks; Apple; J. Crew; L.L. Bean
Product placement doesn’t always have to be about favorably advertising a brand. It can also be about making fun of a brand, or making fun of a certain kind of person that brand is geared toward. In the mockumentary Best in Show, Starbucks is made fun of for having so many locations, while Apple is merely employed in the joke. Catalog clothing companies J. Crew and L.L. Bean are also simultaneously the butt of a joke and the means with which Christopher Guest makes fun of two of his film’s characters.

Movie: Good Bye Lenin!
Product: Coca-Cola
Product placement can also be about employing a product that serves as an idea. Coca-Cola is a brand that has been featured in tons of films as more a symbol of capitalism and the West than of soda pop (see my old post on Coca-Cola in cinema here), and in this German comedy, a giant Coca-Cola billboard serves to represent the westernization going on outside the window of the room of an oblivious woman being duped to believe the Berlin Wall never fell.

Movie: One, Two, Three
Product: Pepsi
The Coca-Cola placement in Good Bye Lenin! recalls Billy Wilder’s film One, Two, Three, which also deals with the division of East and West Berlin and also employs the iconic brand for the same kind of symbolic representation of capitalism. In Wilder’s film, though, the product is much more prominent, as the plot revolves around a Coca-Cola executive (played by James Cagney). Yet after so much mention of Coke, especially with the association of overbearing consumerism and cultural imperialism, you’re more likely to come away from the film wanting a bottle of Pepsi, instead. Of course, it also helps that the final shot in the film is of Cagney holding a bottle of Coca-Cola’s main competitor.

Movie: Breathless (À bout de souffle)

If you’re surprised that there was product placement as long ago as 1961, when One, Two, Three was released, let’s go back even further to 1960, and to another country, France. Jean-Luc Godard’s breakthrough and groundbreaking film probably wasn’t meant to increase sales of the New York Herald Tribune, but what male viewer could resist purchasing a subscription after watching and hearing Jean Seberg peddle the newspaper at the beginning of the film? Perhaps now the film even still inspires young men to subscribe to New York magazine, as a substitute for its now unavailable ancestor.
Oh, and just so you know, product placement can be found many, many decades earlier than the 1960s.

Movie: Minority Report
Products: Lexus; Guiness; American Express; and others
The product placement in Minority Report is considered an example of overkill, but that’s also the point. The film is set in a not-so-far-off future in which ads are everywhere, and most of them are personalized to address the consumer directly by name. It’s one of many futurist ideas in the film meant to exaggerate the present while predicting the direction technology is going. Already people receive personalized spam and internet ads, and advances in personalized marketing are growing closer and closer to what exists as a joke/prophesy in Spielberg’s film. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog</spout:body></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Post: Re:Weekly Theme for July 21: Road Trip!</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/groups/Weekly_Theme/Re_Weekly_Theme_for_July_21_Road_Trip/625/33147/1/ShowPost.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div><img align='left' src='http://www.spout.com/ProductImages/t81633ssfdt.jpg' hspace='10' style='height:80px;' />
<strong>Post By:</strong> <a href='http://www.spout.com/members/5353/default.aspx'>Risselada</a><br/>
<strong>Post To:</strong> <a href='http://www.spout.com/groups/Weekly_Theme/625/discussions.aspx'>Weekly Theme</a><br/>
<strong>Post Date:</strong> 7/27/2008 7:45:03 PM<br/>
<strong>Body:</strong> Sorry I've been really under the weather and preoccupied so I've gotten behind on a lot of these threads.  I just opened this one up however and was suprised at how few of the movies that immediately came to mind for me (other than my favorite, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) had not been mentioned yet at all! Although not one of my favorite movies, the quintessential road movie for me is Two-Lane Blacktop.  I can really appreciate the purity of it I think, and the kind of people you'd really find living on the road. Jim Jarmuch's first film Stranger than Paradise is a favorite of mine that I think would qualify.  And I think his most recent film Broken Flowers does as well. Many people mentioned Natural Born Killers which is really a more specific genre of a crime spree on the road type movie.  There area couple movies that I think far surpass this film in this genre.  Specifically at the top are Badlands and Bonnie and Clyde. For my favorite comedies that feature road trip elements, I'd mention Dumb &amp; Dumber, and Borat.  And also The Wizard when I'm feeling nostalgic.<br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 27 Jul 2008 23:45:03 GMT</pubDate><spout:postby>Risselada</spout:postby><spout:postto>Weekly Theme</spout:postto><spout:postdate>7/27/2008 7:45:03 PM</spout:postdate><spout:body>Sorry I've been really under the weather and preoccupied so I've gotten behind on a lot of these threads.  I just opened this one up however and was suprised at how few of the movies that immediately came to mind for me (other than my favorite, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) had not been mentioned yet at all! Although not one of my favorite movies, the quintessential road movie for me is Two-Lane Blacktop.  I can really appreciate the purity of it I think, and the kind of people you'd really find living on the road. Jim Jarmuch's first film Stranger than Paradise is a favorite of mine that I think would qualify.  And I think his most recent film Broken Flowers does as well. Many people mentioned Natural Born Killers which is really a more specific genre of a crime spree on the road type movie.  There area couple movies that I think far surpass this film in this genre.  Specifically at the top are Badlands and Bonnie and Clyde. For my favorite comedies that feature road trip elements, I'd mention Dumb &amp;amp; Dumber, and Borat.  And also The Wizard when I'm feeling nostalgic.</spout:body></item>
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      <title>Spout Post: BlogNosh 11/20/07</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/blogs/spoutblog/archive/2007/11/20/21866.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div><img align='left' src='http://www.spout.com/ProductImages/t81633ssfdt.jpg' hspace='10' style='height:80px;' />
<strong>Post By:</strong> <a href='http://www.spout.com/members/9325/default.aspx'>SpoutBlog</a><br/>
<strong>Post To:</strong> <a href='http://www.spout.com/blogs/spoutblog/default.aspx'>SpoutBlog on spout.com</a><br/>
<strong>Post Date:</strong> 11/20/2007 5:01:39 PM<br/>
<strong>Body:</strong> 
Mick LaSalle asked us last week what movie we would like to be inside (instead of Beowulf, which we can sort of feel like we’re in). Personally, I think being inside The Wizard of Oz would be awful. I might even prefer The Wiz, and I’d hate to be in The Wiz. I’d even prefer to hang out with Fred Savage in The Wizard, and I don’t play video games. My answers: anything Capra (well, almost anything — no Why We Fight docs); anything Marx Brothers; anything Muppets; anything Miyazaki; Amelie; Close Encounters of the Third Kind; The Goonies (why not?); and What Dreams May Come (the movie was bad; the setting was beautiful).
In honor of me writing more about Enchanted than Karina ever would dream of, I present Rob’s review from his I don’t like Renee Zellweger blog, to show I’m not the only blogger addressing such mainstream fare. Like me, Rob found the movie to be “uninspired,” though he was apparently “disappointed” (I had a low expectation to begin with) and even notes that Amy Adams might have another chance at an Oscar (she’s cute, but ultimately annoying — though differently than she was in Junebug). Anyway, shockingly, the movie currently has a 100% approval on Rotten Tomatoes. We’ll see if that lasts. If only more of us bloggers were writing about it …
Apparently if you have a video clip of yourself negatively reviewing a 20th Century Fox release, the studio will have it removed, despite it being neither illegal nor their place to do so.
Are long movie titles bad for box office? Only when they’re abbreviated as diseases. “Cholera” = bad. “Pirates”; “Narnia”; “Harry Potter” = good.
I love t-shirts, and I love this design, but weren’t there movie adaptations before 1920?

 Originally posted on:SpoutBlog<br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 20 Nov 2007 22:01:39 GMT</pubDate><spout:postby>SpoutBlog</spout:postby><spout:postto>SpoutBlog on spout.com</spout:postto><spout:postdate>11/20/2007 5:01:39 PM</spout:postdate><spout:body>
Mick LaSalle asked us last week what movie we would like to be inside (instead of Beowulf, which we can sort of feel like we’re in). Personally, I think being inside The Wizard of Oz would be awful. I might even prefer The Wiz, and I’d hate to be in The Wiz. I’d even prefer to hang out with Fred Savage in The Wizard, and I don’t play video games. My answers: anything Capra (well, almost anything — no Why We Fight docs); anything Marx Brothers; anything Muppets; anything Miyazaki; Amelie; Close Encounters of the Third Kind; The Goonies (why not?); and What Dreams May Come (the movie was bad; the setting was beautiful).
In honor of me writing more about Enchanted than Karina ever would dream of, I present Rob’s review from his I don’t like Renee Zellweger blog, to show I’m not the only blogger addressing such mainstream fare. Like me, Rob found the movie to be “uninspired,” though he was apparently “disappointed” (I had a low expectation to begin with) and even notes that Amy Adams might have another chance at an Oscar (she’s cute, but ultimately annoying — though differently than she was in Junebug). Anyway, shockingly, the movie currently has a 100% approval on Rotten Tomatoes. We’ll see if that lasts. If only more of us bloggers were writing about it …
Apparently if you have a video clip of yourself negatively reviewing a 20th Century Fox release, the studio will have it removed, despite it being neither illegal nor their place to do so.
Are long movie titles bad for box office? Only when they’re abbreviated as diseases. “Cholera” = bad. “Pirates”; “Narnia”; “Harry Potter” = good.
I love t-shirts, and I love this design, but weren’t there movie adaptations before 1920?

 Originally posted on:SpoutBlog</spout:body></item>
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      <title>Spout Post: I Rated This "I'm Neutral" Because...</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/blogs/jakestevens/archive/2007/11/19/21793.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div><img align='left' src='http://www.spout.com/ProductImages/t81633ssfdt.jpg' hspace='10' style='height:80px;' />
<strong>Post By:</strong> <a href='http://www.spout.com/members/98071/default.aspx'>JakeStevens</a><br/>
<strong>Post To:</strong> <a href='http://www.spout.com/blogs/jakestevens/default.aspx'>JakeStevens Blog</a><br/>
<strong>Post Date:</strong> 11/19/2007 7:27:45 PM<br/>
<strong>Body:</strong> ...I liked it back in 1989. I was a HUGE video game player then, and to go see this film with the not-yet-released Super Mario 3 was more than I could stand. I&#39;m sure if I watch it NOW, I&#39;d turn it off before it ever got to that point. Apparently, the acting and story line are atrocious. But...whatever...it was a movie I loved as a kid.<br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 20 Nov 2007 00:27:45 GMT</pubDate><spout:postby>JakeStevens</spout:postby><spout:postto>JakeStevens Blog</spout:postto><spout:postdate>11/19/2007 7:27:45 PM</spout:postdate><spout:body>...I liked it back in 1989. I was a HUGE video game player then, and to go see this film with the not-yet-released Super Mario 3 was more than I could stand. I&amp;#39;m sure if I watch it NOW, I&amp;#39;d turn it off before it ever got to that point. Apparently, the acting and story line are atrocious. But...whatever...it was a movie I loved as a kid.</spout:body></item>
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      <title>Spout Post: Brought Me Back...</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/blogs/scoobygal/archive/2007/3/26/6507.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div><img align='left' src='http://www.spout.com/ProductImages/t81633ssfdt.jpg' hspace='10' style='height:80px;' />
<strong>Post By:</strong> <a href='http://www.spout.com/members/9304/default.aspx'>scoobygal</a><br/>
<strong>Post To:</strong> <a href='http://www.spout.com/blogs/scoobygal/default.aspx'>scoobygal Blog</a><br/>
<strong>Post Date:</strong> 3/26/2007 7:28:49 PM<br/>
<strong>Body:</strong> This movie is great for those nights when your reminiscing about the 80&#39;s.  I fell in love with the Nintendo back in the day and with all the new technology and game systems I rarely think back.  Ahh.... I remember how cool the Glove was too!  My brother had one and wouldn&#39;t share.  Also, what little girl didn&#39;t think Fred Savage was adorable!?I also love how the story line still affected me.  For me, this movie is just one of those moves that I MUST have in my childhood movie collection and probably share with my nieces and nephew.  <br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 26 Mar 2007 23:28:49 GMT</pubDate><spout:postby>scoobygal</spout:postby><spout:postto>scoobygal Blog</spout:postto><spout:postdate>3/26/2007 7:28:49 PM</spout:postdate><spout:body>This movie is great for those nights when your reminiscing about the 80&amp;#39;s.  I fell in love with the Nintendo back in the day and with all the new technology and game systems I rarely think back.  Ahh.... I remember how cool the Glove was too!  My brother had one and wouldn&amp;#39;t share.  Also, what little girl didn&amp;#39;t think Fred Savage was adorable!?I also love how the story line still affected me.  For me, this movie is just one of those moves that I MUST have in my childhood movie collection and probably share with my nieces and nephew.  </spout:body></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Tag:comingofage</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/comingofage/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/comingofage/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>comingofage</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 1186</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 72</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 219</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 28 Jun 2009 22:51:56 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>1186</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>72</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>219</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Tag:roadtrip</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/roadtrip/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/roadtrip/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>roadtrip</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 315</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 59</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 88</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 12 Aug 2009 13:02:59 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>315</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>59</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>88</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
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      <title>Spout Tag:brother</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/brother/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/brother/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>brother</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 2301</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 30</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 82</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:51:56 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>2301</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>30</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>82</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Tag:autism</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/autism/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/autism/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>autism</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 66</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 11</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 13</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:02:48 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>66</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>11</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>13</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
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      <title>Spout Tag:crosscountry</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/crosscountry/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/crosscountry/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>crosscountry</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 187</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 6</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 8</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 16 Apr 2009 13:02:03 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>187</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>6</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>8</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
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      <title>Spout Tag:emotionalproblems</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/emotionalproblems/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/emotionalproblems/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>emotionalproblems</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 75</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 6</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 8</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:01:53 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>75</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>6</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>8</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Tag:videogames</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/videogames/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/videogames/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>videogames</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 80</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 5</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 6</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 31 Mar 2009 13:07:06 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>80</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>5</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>6</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Tag:runaway-from-home</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/runaway-from-home/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/runaway-from-home/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>runaway-from-home</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 390</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 2</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 3</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 21 May 2009 13:01:42 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>390</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>2</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>3</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
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      <title>Spout Tag:arcade-game</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/arcade-game/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/arcade-game/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>arcade-game</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 6</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 1</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 1</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 13 Feb 2009 18:44:22 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>6</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>1</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>1</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
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      <title>Spout Tag:supermario3</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/supermario3/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/supermario3/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>supermario3</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 1</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 1</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 1</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 17 Mar 2006 07:48:25 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>1</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>1</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>1</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
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      <title>Spout Tag:theglove</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/theglove/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/theglove/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>theglove</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 1</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 1</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 1</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 17 Mar 2006 07:48:38 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>1</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>1</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>1</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
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