Goatmoose » Movies

Art Film :Lindsay Lohan For Richard Phillips

Jeff Saporito — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 21:50:15 +0000

You know when little kids go Trick or Treating, and old ladies open the door, look down at them and say “Well, what are YOU supposed to be?”

This is the film equivalent of that.

YouTube – Art Film :Lindsay Lohan For Richard Phillips.

Slumdog Millionaire DVD fails. FOX gets reamed.

Jeff Saporito — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 00:43:16 +0000

Hey, remember that movie that won Best Picture this year, as well as all those other awards? Remember how it was a really big deal, involving mass amounts of people from England, USA and India? Wouldn’t it possibly be cool to own it on DVD and see all the extra stuff that went into its creation?

Tough, Johnson.

In an effort to dissuade people from going to video stores and renting DVDs just to watch the special features, FOX has been sending movie-only discs to rental outlets and putting the bonus jollies only on the discs sold in stores, forcing people to buy. However, the Slumdog DVDs that shipped on its release are missing all the special features it claims to contain, such as a making-of featurette, deleted scenes and a commentary from director Danny Boyle. This pertains only to the standard DVD issues, not the Blu-Ray discs – but for real, most people are still doing the regular DVD dance. Clearly the intended rental discs went out to buyers, which is a super big mistake.

It caused quite a hullabaloo. Lots of pissed off people. Lots of cranky folks wanted to see if there is a deleted scene where the oldest version of Salim that looks like MJ throws on his shades and does the Thriller dance. Fortunately, a remedy came quick. This is from the product’s listing on Amazon.com:

DVD Alert: We are aware that special features were missing from a number of Slumdog Millionaire DVDs ordered before April 2, 2009. This issue does not occur on the Blu-ray version. Fox has set up a hotline telephone number (1-888-223-4369) for those consumers who may have purchased a DVD version that does not contain special features. Upon calling the hotline, these consumers will be able to have their disc replaced for one containing special features. Fox regrets any inconvenience this has caused.

Which brings me to my next thought… we’re still using the word “hotline?”

This Movie Choked

Jeff Saporito — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 21:38:32 +0000

Many people consider themselves pretty hardcore Chuck Palahniuk fans. I know I do. Survivor is one of my favorite books of all time, and I recommend everyone on the planet read it. Fight Club is a classic that has been brought to film by David Fincher to great praise. Even Palahniuk’s lesser-known semi-nonfiction titles like Stranger Than Fiction make for a great read and are worth being on everyone’s library shelf. And of course, the strange journey towards self-realization by sexual deviant and colonial theme park guide Victor Mancini, Choke, always makes for a good read. But how about the movie?

Ehhh, not so much – but you knew that from the title of the post. Weighing in at just under an hour and a half, I already knew from the runtime it wasn’t going to live up to par with the book. There’d be too many little details that would need ignored to fit into that time period, and it’s the little details differentiate Chuck’s stories between poetry and trash.

The story was beat and the things that make the book interesting and definitive (the anal beads, Denny’s rock collecting, the Jesus element, Paige’s big secret) were all sort of ho-hummed over in the movie, effectively eliminating the things that make the story compelling. The acting was alright, I guess, but if they’re acting about boring bs, who really cares?

The thing about Palahniuk’s writing is this – it’s written with such a poetic flow, a unique rhythm, a style that is so honestly his own. It’s what defines him as a writer and coupled with his abstract, somewhat wicked views of the world and characters, it makes for a great story time and time again. This film was unable to capture any of that verbiage and flair. Fight Club, which was largely told through Edward Norton’s narration, which was largely taken straight from the novel’s pages, was able to do a better job of grasping the original material. Plus it’s just a better story. This movie didn’t grab any of that, and it’s a shame.

That said, it’s pretty much what I expected from it.