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Superheroes and Celebrity Resur ...
By SpoutBlog in SpoutBlog on spout.com
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"We’re giving away a Wii at the main site. Oh, Iron Man. You were beloved. You were remixed. Your best moment came after the credits. Your fans were more realistic about the nature of fantasy than women who are really into Sex and the City. 10 Avengers who should be in the Avengers movie. The Tribeca Film Festival recapped. Michel Gondry might have won a Webby for it, but we still don’t care about Sweding. Heath Ledger will haunt the Cannes market. Maybe while he’s there, he can pick up European distribution rights on Donnie Darko 2. Also, lots of people are buying Joker toys. Anna Nicole Smith comes back from the dead in what has to be the meta-est biopic of a former stripper ever made. Probably. How Brawndo lept through the screen. Lloyd Kaufman fights Tribeca. In a chicken suit. Oliver Stone hasn’t cast DIck Cheney yet, but his Bush movie nonetheless comes out in 5 months. So far, nobody likes Indiana Jones and the Kid From Transformers Props Up A Walking Corpse. Except for those ... " [More]

MILf Counting: BlogNosh 05/09/08
By SpoutBlog in SpoutBlog on spout.com
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"Sometime-Moldy Peach Adam Green talks to Gothamist about promoting the Juno soundtrack by playing The View: “They gave me a year’s supply of Café Bustelo for playing. Anyways I got a check for $900 with Mickey Mouse’s head printed on it. Me and my girlfriend couldn’t figure out why Disney was sending me money. It turns out that they own The View. But I’m glad that they don’t censor what Whoopie says.” FEARnet presents its list of Top 10 MILFS. “But don’t worry, were not talking incestuous mother-f-ing action here: we’re talking FEARnet MILFs!…the Moms I Like to FEAR!” It’s a lot better than it sounds. Via Tisch FIlm Review. Above: a frame from Amy Winehouse’s attempt to remake Jean-Luc Godard’s Weekend. J/K! Originally posted on:SpoutBlog " [More]

The 15 Films That Buyers Want A ...
By SpoutBlog in SpoutBlog on spout.com
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"In a story published online last night, Variety’s Sharon Swart named the 15 films across both the Cannes Film Festival and the Cannes market that are expected to attract the most attention from buyers. At least one of the titles, Steve McQueen’s Hunger, has been bought in the hours since the story hit the website. At least one more, described as a “martial arts fantasy actioner, currently shooting in Romania…[starring] Woody Harrelson, Demi Moore and Japanese popstar Gackt,” sounds unspeakably (but not necessarily unsaleably) ridiculous. Two more of the films on Swart’s list are related in that they were made the focus of unexpected and unwanted attention in January by the death of Heath Ledger. One is Lucas Moodysson’s Mammoth, shooting of which was briefly suspended so that star Michelle Williams could return to Brooklyn to respond to her ex-fiancee’s death; when Williams returned to the set, the New York Post ran a paparazzi photo of the actress walking past a prop skeleton and ... " [More]

Iron Man

Dark Knight and Iron Man Win Go ...
By SpoutBlog in SpoutBlog on spout.com
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"The 9th Annual Golden Trailer Awards were held in Los Angeles last night with what seems like a thousand winners announced in all sorts of categories representing movie marketing. There were awards for trailers, TV spots and posters divided up by genre (comedy, drama, horror, independent, etc.) and technical achievement (sound editing, motion graphics, etc.). While having too many categories can lead to questions of consistency — how does The Dark Knight beat out Iron Man for Best Action trailer but the latter film wins the Summer 2008 Blockbuster award? — it’s interesting to know which film’s ad employs the best music (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) and which has the best voice-over (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford). Regarding Jesse James‘ win, though, I have to wonder how a film’s marketing can be so great if it doesn’t actually bring in an audience. In addition to its trailer being honored, its poster also won in the Best Drama category. Plus (and ... " [More]

Oliver Stone Has 5 Months To Fi ...
By SpoutBlog in SpoutBlog on spout.com
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"That improbable release date quoted in the Entertainment Weekly story about W? Variety has confirmed it. Apparently, Lionsgate is all set to release Oliver Stone’s George W. Bush movie on October 17…even though it’s not even going to begin shooting until May 12. I’m sure it’s technically possible to finish casting, shoot, edit and promote an ensemble cast biopic about the president of the United States in five months (actually, I’m not sure, but I’ll give Stone the benefit of the doubt). I’m just not sure such a total rush job is really the best breeding ground for a great work of political criticism. Hope I’m wrong! Originally posted on:SpoutBlog " [More]

Glenn Kenny’s New Blog
By SpoutBlog in SpoutBlog on spout.com
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"A day after learning and announcing that his job at Premiere.com had been eliminated, Glenn Kenny has already set up a new personal blog, free of association with Premiere/Hachette. Well, sort of: the subtitle on the TypePad blog is, currently, “Film writer Glenn Kenny’s own bought-and-paid-for-blog, thank you very goddamn much.” The title-title is Some Came Running, and in the first entry, Kenny explains what he hopes to do with it: “Consider this space the drunken boat we stand in, trying to pull either and/or both of these figures in. Not to be loopy, or maudlin, or anything. Just a fancy way of saying…let’s hang, my friends.” Related: “Hachette has always been an abortion of a magazine company,” writes Nick Denton at Gawker. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog " [More]

Sin City

Jessica Alba and the Female Gaze
By SpoutBlog in SpoutBlog on spout.com
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"If there’s one actress working today who best reinforces the theories of Lauren Mulvey, it’s Jessica Alba. And she encourages the male gaze by maintaining a career centered playing eye candy, whether she’s having her skirt ripped off to expose her underwear (Good Luck Chuck), spending the majority of a film wearing a bikini (Into the Blue), playing a stripper (Sin City), being used to invoke jealousy (Meet Bill) or invoking erectile gags out of Mike Myers (The Love Guru). Perhaps someone should write a lengthy article on the myriad ways in which Alba relates to feminist film theory. I think her role as Invisible Woman in the Fantastic Four movies and her blind character from The Eye (who identifies herself with the dead woman whose eyes she acquires) can each inspire a few interesting theses. Obviously Alba is aware of the male gaze and may in fact be controlling it. It’s possible even that her participation in the online staring contest at ibeatyou.com is a matter of ironic reflex ... " [More]

Groundhog Day

Political Groundhog Day
By SpoutBlog in SpoutBlog on spout.com
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"Your Blogger is having some computer issues this morning. While I get sorted, check out this blog post from Roger Ebert , in which he ponders the never ending Democratic primary in cinematic terms. “It must have been a species of torture for the anchors at CNN, who seemed caught in a Groundhog Day loop…The problem with a screenplay based on these events is that there would be a merciless sameness.” That quote brought to mind two things. First, this has probably been done already, but someone should do some kind of linguistic/historical study, charting the evolution of references to that movie as a universally identified synonym for eternal recurrence. Also: YouTube! The above clip, Groundhog Day in 5 Seconds, which reduces the Bill Murray classic to nothing but merciless sameness. Also: Originally posted on:SpoutBlog " [More]

Iron Man

FilmCouch #69 - Summer Movies
By SpoutBlog in SpoutBlog on spout.com
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"Computer generated super machines run by conflicted heroes tethered to ladies who just can’t quit them–summer has arrived. And we’re loving it. Iron Man won the democratic primaries this week by staying away from controversy. The Marvel Universe will change how business gets done in Hollywood and Speed Racer is… different. Like Warhol making out with Walt Disney. (Subscribe to FilmCouch–Spout’s weekly movie podcast–in the iTunes store and an episode will download each Friday) filmcouch-69 Iron Man, Speed Racer Originally posted on:SpoutBlog " [More]

Saving Private Ryan

Battle for Haditha is the Best ...
By SpoutBlog in SpoutBlog on spout.com
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"I’ve always been conflicted by my hatred for war and my love for war films. But I can’t help being excited by cinematic combat. As Miguel Ferrer says in Hot Shots! Part Deux, “War … it’s fantastic!” Certainly his character is referring to the real-life action, but in a reflexive way he’s talking about war on film (he does break the diegetic space when he utters the statement, after all). And I have to say, in that context, no war film in recent years has been as fantastic as Nick Broomfield’s Battle for Haditha, which opened in New York yesterday. The difficult thing about war films is that, despite often being exciting action movies, they’re about real, tragic situations, even if they’re fictional stories set in an actual war (the opening of Saving Private Ryan is of course the epitome of war films’ ability to be at the same time both affecting and awesome). Broomfield’s film has the additional difficulty of being about a real battle from a war that is still going on. And of cours ... " [More]

Speed Racer

Indiana Jones 4 is For Old People
By SpoutBlog in SpoutBlog on spout.com
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"The first official press screenings for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull aren’t for another ten days, but as long as Aint It Cool News exists, you can count on early reactions from the amateur critics. One such person, going by the alias “ShogunMaster,” has a spoiler-filled review that is unfortunately quite negative. Claiming it lacks tension, employs extremely fake-looking props and sets, and features a “horrible” performance from Shia “LaBeef”, the reviewer at least puts some of it into perspective: Anyway, I don’t want to rant on forever, as it doesn’t matter what I say, you will see this movie regardless. And even though it’s not as bad as Allan Quartermane, it’s definitely not a good Indy Movie. But for those of you that feel that the new Star Wars Movies robbed your childhood, expect some molestations from Uncles’ George and Steven… Using the publication of that review as a springboard, Jeff Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere shares some comments from an unname ... " [More]

Funny Games

Warners Closes Picturehouse, WIP
By SpoutBlog in SpoutBlog on spout.com
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"I’ve been in a really ominous mood all day. I thought it was just because the sky is grey and I’ve been been listening to this Belong EP, which basically sounds like a prolonged death rattle, but now that I’m reporting the second major story about people losing their jobs in the past couple of hours, I’m starting to feel like it’s not just me. The whole internet feels like the last scene of Madam Butterfly today––death now fills the air. Anyway: the news. Warner Brothers has shut down its two remaining, dueling indie arms, Warner Independent Pictures and Picturehouse. Warner’s COO Alan Horn released a statement basically saying that the shell of New Line will handle all low budget fare going forward, and claimed to be “confident that the spirit of independent filmmaking and the opportunity to find and give a voice to new talent will continue to have a presence at Warner Bros.” So. What about acquisitions? Will Warners be sending one of the ten New Line employees left standing to Ca ... " [More]

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