Speed Racer - What Did You Think?
Note: This post will be tacked to the top of until Sunday.
Okay, so Speed Racer hit theaters nationwide today. Most movie critics are slamming The Wachowski Brother’s latest film (35% on Rotten Tomatoes). I actually had a lot of fun, but was left exhausted. I very much appreciated the cinematography and editing which made the movie look and feel like a live action anime, but felt the story was lacking. But enough about me…
I want to know what you thought of the movie. Leave your mini review in the comments below!
Oliver Stone’s W. to Be Released on October 17th, 2008 By Lionsgate
Yesterday, we posted the first, rather ace photos of Josh Brolin as the worst U.S. president of all time for Oliver Stone’s W., and today brings word that the flick has picked up a distributor, Lionsgate, and is set for release nationwide on October 17th, 2008. Keep in mind that even though the film graces the cover of the latest EW, production kicks into gear next week and the role of Dick Cheney remains unfilled, so Stone is clearly on a mission. And what about a possible SAG strike this summer?
There are rumors going around that the film will be high on comedy, no sarcasm from me. And there is also a lot of “too soon!” going around and “Why, he doesn’t deserve a film?” But to me, W. will serve as a giant nail of closure for Dubbya’s past two terms and the trillion nightmarish Drudge headlines that resulted and will keep coming. It has nothing to do with the current tiring, sensational election process. Even if the film sucks, which I doubt, it’s a huge pie to the face, and that’s a reason to smile.
Nationwide Sneak Preview of 3:10 to Yuma on September 2nd
Lionsgate is so sure people will like 3:10 to Yuma, that they have decided to run a nationwide sneak preview on September 2nd 2007.
We are pleased to announce the SNEAK PEAK of 3:10 to Yuma, the new film from director James Mangold (WALK THE LINE), starring Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, Gretchen Mol and legendary Western star, Peter Fonda. The highly anticipated film will be showing in theaters on Sunday, September 2nd, the weekend prior to its wide release on September 7th.
I’ve heard a lot of good things about this one, although, I’m not really a fan of westerns.
Michael Moore’s Sicko LEAKED Online
leaked on to the internet. It was not a video taped copy, like you normally find on canal street or the torrent sites. It was an unfinished production screener missing some visual and sound effects (and may-be even a scene or two depending on who you read). But all in all, it was supposedly a very watchable copy of the film. But this was enough to cost the film an estimated $5 to $10 million at the box office.
And tonight I returned home from Sacramento, the state capital of California, where Michael Moore premiered Sicko in two separate screenings. One to politicians, the other to nurses. Even Michael told the crowd that this was one of the first public screenings of the film in the United States (the film was shown at Cannes a couple weeks back). And yet I returned home to find more than website claiming to have a complete version of Sicko. How could this be? Already? Yup. As it turns out, somehow a screener of Sicko has also been leaked online, weeks before it’s nationwide release on June 29th. This is the second Lionsgate film in the last month that has found its way onto the internet before being released. I’m not pointing fingers, but this is a huge problem.
But more interesting is Moore’s stance on the issue of downloading movies and copyright laws:
Well, I don’t agree with the copyright laws and I don’t have a problem with people downloading the movie and sharing it with people. As long they’re not doing it to make a profit off it, as long as they’re not, you know, trying to make a profit off my labor. I would oppose that. But um, you know I do quite well and I um…I don’t know, I make these books and movies and TV shows because I want things to change, so the more people that get to see them the better, and um, so I’m, I’m happy when that happens, OK? Should I not be happy I don’t know? It’s like if a friend of yours has the DVD of my movie, gave it to you to watch one night, is that person doing something wrong? I’m not seeing any money from that. But he’s just handing the DVD to you so that you can watch my movie. A DVD that he bought, but you’re not buying it, yet you’re watching it without paying me any money. See I think that’s OK, and it’s always been OK, we share things with people. And I think information and art, ideas should be shared.
I wonder if Moore regrets ever saying that?
The truth is that I hope Sicko does well. It deserves to beat Die Hard 4 and Ratatouille. I’ve seen the movie, and it’s the best movie of the year so far. It’s funny, emotional informative and moving. It’s everything that a great documentary should be. And I think many people will say this is Moore’s best film to date (although, I’d argue for Columbine). But the studio will not be able to contain the leaked film. There is no way this won’t hurt that film’s bottom line. And it’s a shame.