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Under discussion:

The Lord of the Rings [Film Series]  Production Year

TV and film critic Andrew Johnston (long with Time Out New York, more recently a contributor at The House Next Door) died over the weekend at age 40, after a battle with cancer. I didn’t know Andrew personally, but I knew his writing through his Mad Men recaps at The House, which this season I began religiously checking every Sunday night after watching each new episode twice in a row. Now House Next Door creator Matt Zoller Seitz has published a tribute to Johnston, which is a must-read whether you’re familiar with his criticism or not.

Two things pop out: first, Johnston leaves behind a legacy of supporting other film and media writers, most notably by helping them get jobs. As Seitz writes,

He believed in talent and originality and singularity of artistic expression, and he dedicated his professional and personal life to seeking out those qualities, nurturing them and doing all he could to help anyone who exemplified them find an audience…Many, many more working critics have their own versions of these anecdotes. The all end the same way: Andrew gave me my start.

And second, if as a member of the critics community Johnston was active in nurturing underdogs, as a critic he did the same. Seitz details Johnston’s fight, as a member of the exclusive New York Film Critics Circle, to push to have The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King recognized by the older-skewing, arguably elitist group as the Best Picture of its year. He succeeded, and it was a victory for more than that specific film:

Andrew considered it the award not just a deserved accolade for a mammoth and unexpectedly well-executed project, but a bouquet tossed to fantasy and science fiction buffs whose enthusiasms were more often mocked by the critical establishment. The NYFCC award paved the way for Return of the King to sweep the Oscars that year, and for other critics to proclaim their love of the trilogy openly, without the usual qualifiers.

You can read Seitz’s full piece here.

Under discussion:

The Body Snatcher  (1945)

Cat People  (1942)

Die, Monster, Die!  (1965)

I Walked with a Zombie  (1943)

White Zombie  (1932)

Mr. Sardonicus  (1961)

The Tingler  (1959)

If you want to stay home and watch movies on Halloween but actually getting your hands on the full slate of films on our Six Degrees of Frankenstein marathon seems like too much trouble, consider Turner Classic Movies your back-up. The channel began its 48 Hours of Horror this morning at 6:15 with a showing of Mad Love, the Peter Lorre-starring tale of fatal attraction for which I am a total nerd. Highlights coming up over the next two days include:

• William Castle’s Mr. Sardonicus (about a Baron who digs up the decomposing corpse of his dead dad to retrieve a lottery ticket, goes into shock and emerges with his face fixed in a grotesque grin), and his more famous but more gimmicky The Tingler.
• I Walked With a Zombie already played this morning, but there are two more to come from producer Val Lewton: Cat People (7:30 AM Friday) and The Body Snatcher (3:30 pm Friday). The latter features both Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, and was directed by Robert Wise.
• A clear precurson to Lewton’s work is White Zombie, starring Lugosi, which plays at 2:15 tomorrow. Kevin Buist wrote about the film in his piece on the science behind zombie fiction.
• Halloween night is devoted to four films based on the work of H.P. Lovecraft. The only one I’ve seen is Die, Monster, Die, an AIP pic from 1965 starring my classic horror boyfriend, Boris Karloff. The TCM page for this drive-in classic sums up the bizarro plot better than I ever could: “Karloff assumes the role of Nahum Witley, a paraplegic scientist whose remote estate (with an enormous crater nearby) is visited by milquetoast American Stephen Rinehart (TV’s former “Johnny Yuma” and Japanese monster stalwart Nick Adams), an old college paramour of Witley’s daughter, Susan (Suzan Farmer). The locals don’t take kindly to the Witley family, and weird vegetation seems to be growing everywhere. As it turns out, Stephen was summed by the scientist’s ailing wife (Freda Jackson), who wants her daughter to escape. A mysterious glowing greenhouse, eerie howling within the house, and malevolent vines all figure in the horrific goings-on, linked to a radioactive meteorite which threatens to consume them all.” Also, it features some of the creepiest shitty hologram effects I’ve ever seen. Check out the trailer above.

Check out the full line-up at TCM.com.

Under discussion:

For Your Eyes Only  (1981)

Ali G Indahouse  (2004)

Shoot 'Em Up  (2007)

Captivity  (2007)

Wristcutters: A Love Story  (2007)

Teeth  (2007)

Wanted  (2008)

Zack & Miri Make a Porno  (2008)

Choke  (2008)

Movie posters have become increasingly more controversial in the past decade, or else people have become a lot more sensitive. Either way, it seems like there’s a new and controversial movie poster or billboard being banned somewhere. Usually it’s for one of two reasons: sex or violence, with violence being far more popular. One of the first sexually banned posters I could find was 1981’s For Your Eyes Only, which featured an A-frame design that was banned. It wasn’t so much the vaginal roof as it was the exposed buttocks, so they had to release a retouched version that covered more derriere.

It’s been more than 25 years since that poster was sent back to the drawing board, so why do posters keep getting banned? Marketing people know that controversy can turn into a marketing campaign of its own, so maybe they’re pushing the boundaries in the vein of “there’s no such thing as bad publicity.” With that in mind, here’s a look at controversial movie posters from the past several years. Prepare your innocent eyes and take a look after the break.

Click on thumbnails to see the full posters

Zack And Miri Make A Porno

Most people never would have even heard of this controversy if the MPAA hadn’t banned it right in the middle of the Toronto Film Festival. Which is even weirder because Canada didn’t have a problem with it. The image is more funny than offensive… and is it even offensive? As a result Kevin Smith came up with the stick figure drawings that you see everywhere now, which is a clever way to get around the censors and “stick” it to the MPAA. Now I’ve reached my bad pun quote for this post.

Choke

The poster for this Chuck Palahniuk adaptation not only cleverly combines the activity that XXX uses to solicit money from strangers, but it also comments on his obsession with sex and women. Plus, it recalls the cover of the famous June 1978 cover of Hustler magazine that featured a nude woman going into a meat grinder. Well, at least she has high heels on in the Choke poster.

Wristcutters

This poster caused controversy even before it was released, and had groups of parents protesting because they thought it glorified suicide. While I’m not sure how the image of a wrist with a red line through it on a yellow warning sign makes suicide look glamorous… but where were these poeple when M.A.S.H. decided to use “Suicide is Painless” for the theme song? For shame, protesters.

Ali G Indahouse

This poster was withdrawn in the United Kingdom after more than 100 people complained about it being viewable in public where kids could see it. Even though his hand covers more than most modern-day bikinis. It didn’t hurt the film though, it was ranked #1 in the UK when it was released. Despite that, the distribution company was told they’d have to have all of their posters pre-screened for the next two years. Ouch.

Shoot ‘Em Up

The UK also didn’t like two of the movie posters for Shoot ‘Em Up, saying that they glorified violence and the use of guns. Did they even see the movie, or anything involving a gun in the past umpteen years? Specifically, groups objected to the lines in Giamatti’s poster that read “Just another family man making a living.” Even though the distribution company argued that the guns weren’t pointed at the viewer, they still got yanked.

Teeth

Even X-ray images aren’t safe from censorship, as proven by the movie poster for Teeth. If you know what the film is about, then this poster makes a lot of sense (and is funny, to boot) but if you had no idea then this poster probably would make you more curious than concerned. Unless you’re an x-ray technician, in which case you normally see stuff like this.

Captivity

These billboards were yanked down in Los Angeles and removed from taxi tops in New York after the “wrong files were sent to the printer.” That sure is hard to swallow. You mean there’s no way to check or proof work between sending a file to a printer and then spotting it on an enormous billboard? Lionsgate blamed Distribution partner After Dark for the gaffe, went with the ant farm version, and they both went on to see the movie tank. I guess there is such a thing as bad publicity.

Wanted

Anti-violence struck again in the United Kingdom when it decided that posters for this Angelina Jolie / James McAvoy movie glorified violence. Again, it’s not just the depiction of guns, but also the slogan “Six weeks ago I was just like you… and then I met her… and my world was changed forever.” Apparently the British Advertising Standard Authority thought that meant life is better as a high-paid assassin, and not just getting to hang around with Angelina Jolie.

Dying Breed

Not to be outdone by the UK, Australia recently banned posters for this film from bus stands around the country. People that they were just a bit too graphic, and it probably isn’t the first thing you’d want to see on your way to lunch. Still, it’ll be visible in cinema foyers, online, and just about everywhere else.