2005 July : Movie Marketing Madness

Mini MMM: Must Love Dogs

John Cusack needs to get out of whatever artistic funk he’s been in since about High Fidelity. There was a brief moment of hope after I watched Max but other than that it’s been a steady stream of studio flicks that have done nothing to stretch him creatively or live up to the promise of [...]

Movie Journal Quick Takes

I don’t really have a lot of time and none of these movies really deserves a full write-up so here are my consise thoughts on some movies I watched recently.
Birth: Not very good and almost completely lacking a third act. I don’t mean it simply could have been stronger, I mean it wasn’t there. [...]

Movie Marketing Madness: The Island

The latest full column has gone up at FilmThreat. This time a review of the campaign (if you can call it that) for The Island.
–Chris

Mini MMM: The Edukators

Three friends, two guys and a girl, run rampant through Germany terrorizing (in a playful, anarchistic type of way) the rich and society.
The Poster
Pretty cool. Yeah, it’s just the three leads, including Daniel Bruhl from Goodbye, Lenin, but it works. Kind of reminds me of an album cover more than a movie poster. There’s not [...]

Movie Journal: Million Dollar Baby

Now this is more like it. Clint Eastwood has once again shown all current and future actors how to get to the emotional core of a character but done it in a way that all but openly mocks trends current fashions in the film industry. Instead of quick cuts that amount to little but glancing [...]

Movie Journal: Sky Captain & The World Of Tomorrow

Not as bad as Elektra but still far from a satisfying cinematic meal.
Again, there will be more on this later. I’m in the process of writing up my notes from taking a Movies on the Brain tour through these two.
–Chris

Movie Journal: Elektra

I have to admit that I liked Daredevil, the movie of which this is a spin-off but this was just dreck. Jennifer Garner does what she can but really just shows how limited her ability is.
There’ll be more on this later.
–Chris

Mini MMM - 9 Songs

While on a flight across Antartica, a young man, played by Kieran O’Brien, thinks back on a relationship consisiting of primarily sex and music with a girl played by Margo Stilley.
The Poster

In the foreground of the first poster we see the underwear-clad rear end of a woman standing to left, from our point of [...]

Friggin’ clueless

I generally try to avoid politics here but this is just to much to pass up. It’s an example of how some people just don’t get it.
Today’s Papers flags an NYTimes story on the recent allocation of Homeland Security dollars which favors aviation security over mass-transit security. Here’s the TP pull-quote:
The Journal mentions [...]

Movie Marketing Madness: Wedding Crashers

Looks very funny and, quite frankly, I can’t wait to see this one.
–Chris

Mini MMM: Happy Endings

This quirky comedy reunites director Don Roos with star Lisa Kudrow (previously together for Opposite of Sex) for another look at sex and love and everything inbetween. Keep in mind, though, that Roos was also the director behind Bounce. There are possiblities here but that last point should keep your expectations in check.
The Poster
What’s [...]

Can anybody hear me?

Or, more accurately, does anyone want to hear me? I’m considering creating a low-tech podcast for MMM and want to gauge interest. I’m not promising ground-breaking stuff here but I thought I would give it a try and see what I could do.
Sound like a good idea?
–Chris

Mini MMM: Saraband

A woman reunites with the husband she left 30 years ago along with as well as his grown son and granddaughter in Ingmar Bergman’s latest directorial effort, which was actually a Swedish made-for-TV movie. Like so many before this is rumored to be Bergman’s last movie but I seem to think I’ve heard that before.
The [...]

Movie Journal: Vera Drake

After the triple feature of Kinsey, The Woodsman and now Vera Drake I’m just about dramaed out. There’s only so much meditation on the nature of, the morality of or the criminal-nature of sex and sex-related activities I can take in a 36-hour period.
There’s no way I’m going to discuss this entire movie. [...]

Mini MMM: Dark Water

This looks like a crappy psuedo-horror flick designed to capitalize on the success of movies like The Ring by putting a young child in danger. Her single mother then has to figure out what the fuck is going on while… oh who cares.
The Poster
Whatever my feelings are about the movie itself, you’ll never get an [...]

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