I’m awesome. I wrote a book. It’s got little to do with movies. Download and read “Thank You, Goodnight” right HERE for free.
I was thinking about the debate about all information wanting to be free, inherently, and how that translates to the modern machines of the motion picture trying to do all it can to prevent piracy.
Studio 360, a bitchin’ ass radio program you can find near the low end of every person’s radio dial on your NPR station, as well as brilliant, recently did a story on Media Defender, a respectable corporation that sought to infiltrate the Internet sharing culture. Through a series of uploading false files and trying to frustrate normal consumers into capitulation to actually go out there and buy films the business model looked like it was doing a brilliant job of trying to plug the leaking dike.
Leave it to a young pubescent hacker with a lot of technical computer skillz and an inquisitive nature to crack open that company’s operations, along with getting the drop on some rather sensitive information with regard to operating costs, salaries, social security numbers, etc… Long story short, and I would push you all to look at the story at Portfolio’s article by Wired’s Daniel Roth on this whole situation to get a better grasp on what this war on piracy is really trying to do to those who would try to plump up their movie collection by downloading some torrents. (As an aside, if anything I want takes longer than 10 minutes to get it’s just worth it for me to go buy/rent/legally get it. But that’s just me…)
That said, though, I am wondering what the Cease and Desist letters going out to Action Figure Insider and MovieWeb for publishing the following pictures is a bit odd to me. These aren’t trade secrets for one. Those at Movie Web credit a scooper who gave them the following picture (and I swear to all that’s holy to the 1st Amendment if a C&D letter makes it my way I’ll post the screen shot from Google’s Image search result for this story) and subsequently took the image down by request of the studio. Does request mean threat or does request mean quid pro quo for doing so? It’s an interesting quandary in the land of whether Bloggers are afforded the same rights as regular journalists who find themselves in possession of newsworthy information.
The second part of this story revolves around Action Figure Insider this month who put up a neat flier, check it, and accompanied it with the following information, “Takara Neduke, makers of necklaces and trinkets, has released a picture of their upcoming 1.5 inch mini PVC figures of props, relics and treasures from Indiana Jones movie series.” So, it was Takara’s mistake for putting it out there for people to look at yet Paramount, again, only requests for the images to be taken down. Whether it’s a tersely worded missive or some sort of legal push to have it taken down I am at a loss as to why any site would allow it to be pushed around for publishing information that is factual, correct and only makes Paramount look like the bully.
The only thing I can square in my own head is that there was an offer of some kind for these webmasters to take their information down. I can’t believe any law office worth its slimy salt would send an injunction against BlowHardDaily.com for publishing pictures that have already become part of the public domain (Again, just try to amend my right to discuss this story, with pictorial goodness), thanks Google Archive!, and, just like the story that led things off what it means to the overall picture of real threats to Hollywood’s content delivery stranglehold.
So, what is stopping from an entertainment journalist from reporting on the requests for Paramount to have these pictures taken down or from writing a story on this bit of news for a mainstream publication, with picture goodness as well? I’m not sure but it just feels like yet another reason why New Media is having a rough time trying to be respected like Old Media.
FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL (2008)
Director: Nicholas Stoller
Cast: Jason Segal, Kristen Bell, Mila Kunis, Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, Jonah Hill, Paul Rudd
Release: April 18, 2008
Synopsis: Struggling musician Peter Bretter (Jason Segel, Knocked Up, How I Met Your Mother) has spent six years idolizing his girlfriend, television star Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell, Veronica Mars). He’s the guy left holding her purse in paparazzi photos and accidentally omitted from acceptance award speeches. But his world is rocked when she dumps him and Peter finds himself alone. After an unsuccessful bout of womanizing and an on-the-job nervous breakdown, he sees that not having Sarah may just ruin his life.
To clear his head, Peter takes an impulsive trip to Oahu, where he is confronted by his worst nightmare: his ex and her tragically hip new British-rocker boyfriend, Aldous (Russell Brand), are sharing his hotel. But as he torments himself with the reality of Sarah’s new life, he finds relief in a flirtation with Rachel (Mila Kunis), a beautiful resort employee whose laid-back approach tempts him to rejoin the world. He also finds relief in several hundred embarrassing, fruity cocktails.
View Trailer:
* Large (QuickTime)
Prognosis: Negative. Swing and a miss.
I never saw Veronica Mars and I still can’t account for the amount of gushing many young pre- and post-pubescents hoist upon the shrine of Kristen Bell. Sure, she was cute as a button and sassy like a firecracker in her role on Heroes but I didn’t immediately want to see her taking on anything and everything she could star in so I could get more of her. It looks like in this case, as was her role in Heroes, she plays the role of the punch line instead of the starring role she was accustomed to playing whilst on the WB/UPN.
That said, I am a little more warm to the thought of Jason Segel who’s best scene to date with me was his conjunctivitis moment in KNOCKED-UP; it was a refreshing, yet hilariously poignant, moment of an Everyman. He has that quality and it was that very sameness, Seth Rogan and Jonah Hill had it as well, that sent dudes and ladies alike to the mass box office it eventually claimed. His appearance here in the opening sequence not only made me scratch my head as did the Heigl/Rogan pair-up (Everyone still talks about whether that hook-up could ever have happened. The consensus being not a chance in hell.) but the nudity, the absence of his clothing as Bell tries to let him go at least gets my attention.
I like the absurdity of the moment and I can appreciate the needs of the producers getting in the cards in-between, telling us that this is being brought to you by the dudes who gave us 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN and KNOCKED-UP, one of those things that people need to be told time and time and time again, but it starts to slowly recede from its funniness as we make our way deeper into the story.
Although it doesn’t immediately lose its steam, I like the crying on the part of Segel after he fires a load into a one-night stand and his insistence that he might have an STD because of it, him making the admission in a pediatrician’s office. I thought that there is no way this could be anything less than a good time at the movies but something happens here. He goes to Hawaii to get away from it all only to have his ex staying in the same hotel.
It’s almost like I can hear “Let the wackiness ensue!†and I’m not sure I want to listen.
Then we get…Kenny Loggins? The CADDYSHACK song? Huh? Whose idea was this to insert this golden oldie in a trailer that it has no business in?
Besides that we’ve got Segel playing the part of the dumpee in all those awkward moments, the running into the new guy, the avoiding each other and the ever popular Hollywood-ization of relationships: What happens when you find someone new and your ex finds out only to want you back like a buttered piece of sizzling Kobe beef?
Let the wackiness continue!
We’ve got Hill involved in some kind of weird subplot that completely derails the main thrust of this film which, I believe, is all about Segel trying to move past the relationship he had with Bell and into the new one with an even hotter chick than what he had before. Bell, true to Hollywood form, shows an irrational interest in the new relationship Segel is having with his new, saucy looking interest (Shit, if only I had as good of luck like this whenever some shrew dumped me…) and Hill’s subplot is shoehorned further into the film’s trailer.
It’s almost as awkward as the moment when two ex’s meet for the first time after a break-up.
Toss in the real wretched ending to this trailer, a little blow job joke tossed in with some reference to a pearl necklace, with it all feeling rather contrived and false and you’ve got yourself one crap looking movie that will probably do as well as THE HEARTBREAK KID.
I really wish I could be more positive about this film but as it ends with Loggins’ shrill cackle I can’t be anything but turned off by the prospect of this awfully constructed trailer and sub-par looking film.
Director: Kent Alterman
Cast: Will Ferrell, Woody Harrelson, Andre Benjamin, Will Arnett, Rob Corddry, Jackie Earle Haley
Release: February 28, 2008
Synopsis: Will Ferrell stars in Semi-Pro, an outrageous comedy set in 1976 against the backdrop of the maverick ABA – a fast-paced, wild and crazy basketball league that rivaled the NBA and made a name for itself with innovations like the three-point shot and slam dunk contest. Ferrell plays Jackie Moon, a one-hit wonder who used the profits from the success of his chart-topping song “Love Me Sexy” to achieve his dream of owning a basketball team. But Moon’s franchise, the Flint Michigan Tropics, is the worst team in the league and in danger of folding when the ABA announces its plans to merge with the NBA. If they want to survive, Jackie and the Tropics must now do the seemingly impossible – win. Semi-Pro co-stars Woody Harrelson (Anger Management, White Men Can’t Jump), Andre Benjamin (Four Brothers, music group Outkast), Maura Tierney, Will Arnett (Blades of Glory, “Arrested Development”), Andy Richter, Rob Corddry, DeRay Davis, Josh Braaten, Jay Phillips, and Jackie Earle Haley. The film is written by Scot Armstrong (Old School), directed by Kent Alterman, produced by Jimmy Miller, and will be released on February 29, 2008.
View Trailer:
* Large (Flash)
Prognosis: Positive. I had a boss once who was a major league pitcher.
The stories he had shared with us regarding the mind blowingly funny shit that happened on the road was worth every miserable day I spent at that place. He would tell us of times when he would be in the locker room before a big game and one of the players would have shots lined up for every player to take on their way out onto the field. That, if you’re interested in knowing, there is a ballpark out there which has two entrances: one for the players’ wives and another one for the same players’ girlfriends.
That’s why you’ve got to love this red band trailer.
Where else but in Europe and the rest of the civilized world can you hear a little bad language, a little salacious innuendo and pretty much everything that the Bush administration would love for you not to be able to view. I’m kind of torn on the idea of using the red band trailer as a way to seem like you’re really “on the edge†but this is a film that kind of could go either way, an element of all of Will Ferrell’s movies. However, it’s inclusion here is really a testament to other elements that I think play well when taken as a whole.
As we open on a poker game where Will talks about there not being a rule against playing drunk and the ensuing back and forth between the straight man of the joke was really good. What’s more is that as the always good CADDYSHACK classical ditty, “Waltz of the Flowersâ€, plays in the background we’re thrusted into a talk about a little oral satisfaction which gets a rousing swell of support from fellow players.
It’s enough that this trailer genuinely pushes the boundaries of what’s acceptable in our marketing here in the US of A but I am beyond giddy at the exchange Will has with one woman about whether he’s ever been to an orgy and the subsequent exchange he has with a referee where he tells him to wrap his referee lips around his member and that he’ll kill his family. A priest, no less.
Ferrell’s drop kick of the game ball and an announcer’s calm comment about a member of the audience going home with said ball just adds a little extra funny to the moment which I appreciate. So many times we’re forced to just see quick clips with no context but this trailer takes the risk of staying with the movie for a little bit, letting us feel what this movie is going to be and it pays off well.
Like I mentioned, the red band usage can sometimes be a little pernicious for a film that genuinely isn’t that good, thinking that a little swearing will sell the film to scads of fans. However, here, it pays off because the swearing isn’t the hook, it’s the funny that sells itself.
Comments: 2 Comments
2 Responses to “Trailer Park: Needing Some Of That Indiana Jones – Visual Spoilers Ahead”Leave a Reply |
February 16th, 2008 at 3:43 am
Well, if you never saw Veronica Mars, then you haven’t seen her best work, so of course you’re not going to know how good an actress she is. That’s your fault, not hers. Why attack her based on your own ignorance???
February 16th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Uh…I’m not ignorant. I saw her on HEROES. That’s all I’ve seen her in and that’s all I have to base what I know about her acting style on. If what she did on that show was not representative of her capabilities then I am in the wrong.