Features At MCN

Digital Nation
by Gary Dretzka

All of the studios are notorious for cutting exclusive deals with one or both of the Times, before letting other publications get a foot in the door of a specific project. The same wheeling and dealing occurs between studios, personal publicists and reps for morning news shows, talk shows, glossy mags and TV newsmagazines. As legend has it, some time during the ‘80s, a certain high-profile public-relations agency established the top-down pecking order of media outlets that has become standard operating procedure today, and, in effect, turned p.r. from an art to a science. With the best access limited to those companies on the top of the list, the agency pitted the top players against each other and demanded quid pro quos from even the most “incorruptible” of outlets.

__________________________________________________________________

The Hot Button
The Passion Of The Christ
by David Poland

The most unexpected thing about The Passion is that rather than being a powerful piece of art demonstrating unrelenting faith, I found it to be evidence of an absolute crisis of faith. It is a document of rage and I do not consider rage to be an outcome of real faith.

The story of Jesus Christ's death is enormously powerful, whether you take it as gospel truth, exaggerated memory or outright fiction. So why didn't Mr. Gibson just tell the story… with all the production details… with Caleb Deschanel's spectacular (and slightly hyperreal) photography… with realistic carnage… with the Jewish priests calling for Jesus' crucifixion… with Judas… with Mary… etc, etc, etc.? Why couldn't he leave "bad enough" alone?

_________________________

The Ultimate DVD Geek
Dirty Dancing
by Douglas Pratt

The music and the dancing are absolutely wonderful, but they’re also just the dessert. There is a deftly plotted drama involving the romances of the other staff members and the heroine’s maturing relationship with her own family. No matter which way the film turns, its tone is always fresh, earnest and involving.

Bergstein delivers a wonderful commentary track, talking all about making the film and how it reflects her own life and being. She speaks extensively about many of the members of the cast and crew, so that by the time you reach the interviews and retrospectives on the second platter, you are already personally familiar with the key players.

_________________________________________

20 Weeks To Oscar
10 Days To Go
by David Poland

It’s funny. At this point in the game, there's a sense that the shortened Oscar season is not only a success, but a triumph. Even more so, that it could be a week or two shorter for most people.

Perhaps it's because the closest thing to a real fight in the final round is Jackson, New Line & Co. fighting not to start gloating before the envelopes are actually open and the words “And The Oscar Goes To Lord of the Rings: Return of the King” four or five or six times. But I think it is more than that. For better of for worse, the real race was the race to be nominated. And by the time the next round of ballots went out, voters had seen the films and made up their minds. And isn’t that the way it should be?
This Week's Charts

_________________________________________

Gross Behavior
by Leonard Klady

The American Film Market will open for business on February 25 and though some of the dynamics of buying, selling and exhibiting movies have changed in the course of a quarter century, it remains a precarious business. Something else that remains unchanged is the American Film Market Association's determination to eliminate its European counterparts. That plan has been altered over the years because the organization could never find sufficient support to do in Cannes, even among its most rapid members.

Pride, Unprejudiced
by Ray Pride

My desk runneth over! Some final Sundance notes, 50 First Dates, The Dreamers, Touching the Void, Catch That Kid, Miracle, and a leftover chat with Topher Grace from the still-likable, halfway-to-video Tad Hamilton. Plus, for those in cities where it's just opened, a bit about City of God. Plus a few choice words with the proprietor of a new website devoted to "modern furniture and naked people."

Screening notice came in the mail today for The Passion of the Christ, imprinted with my name, address, RSVP number, the fact that it's non-transferable and must be forked over at the door… plus a review embargo date. I hope to be in a forgiving mood after. Tacking it to the wall so I don't forget.

______________________

The Ultimate DVD Geek
S.W.A.T.
by Douglas Pratt

Embracing the format of the television series wholeheartedly, the 2003 cop film, S.W.A.T., has a totally loony narrative, but it is supported by some first class production values and performances, so its silliness never seems tiresome. Reminiscent in some ways of a western, Samuel L. Jackson stars as the veteran assigned to organize a fresh team of military-style policemen to be called upon for the roughest law enforcement assignments. Directed by Clark Johnson, the film has enough action and enjoyable character by-play to be a fully entertaining experience. There are plenty of more serious police movies around, and a few solidly dramatic comedies, but S.W.A.T. is unique in its ability to be absolutely ridiculous and totally straight at the same time. .

_______________

20 Weeks To Oscar
17 Days To Go
by David Poland

Why does it feel like this whole thing is already over?

The Nominees Luncheon was… boring… is that the word I’m looking for?

Charlize is against the death penalty, Jude is for Sean, Naomi is doing a lot of TV, Jim Sheridan had a birthday last week and didn’t tell anyone, Sony Classics is going to TV with Triplets of Belleville advertising a week or two too late, Holly Hunter is having a lunch at her home for all the supporting actresses, the Lost In Translation crew is back in hiding… zzzzzzzzz….

_______________________________

Gross Behavior
by Leonard Klady

He paused as if to change gears and concluded: “despite all that, being nominated is nice because the film becomes part of the discussion. And given all the options, I prefer to be talked about.”

It was an unusually mature pose and one wonders whether the Hungarian director would maintain his sang froid in an environment with an emotional intensity that has doubled or tripled in a mere decade and a half. It’s hard enough for even the most admired filmmakers to cobble together financing for a film with an adult theme and audience. However, the achievement of just making a good, thoughtful film isn’t enough in the current climate. The completed film is then put under a microscope and dissected by critics on both an artistic and commercial basis.

____________________

Digital Nation
by Gary Dretzka

Although Janet Jackson has done a great service to America’s comedians, talk-show hosts and editorial writers, Boob-gate has evolved from being merely a horribly ill-conceived publicity stunt, to a political time bomb waiting to explode. As such, it qualifies as a dead horse worthy of being beaten.

For sheer goofiness, alone, Jackson’s now-famous flash ranked right up there with her brother and Lisa Marie Presley’s kiss at the MTV Video Awards. Less of her breast was revealed at half-time than what’s shown on the average episode of NYPD Blue and Vegas. As fodder for legislators devoid of real issues to explore, however, it might just as well have been a “dirty bomb” sent by overnight delivery to the Super Bowl by Osama Bin Laden his own nasty self.

______________________

The Ultimate DVD Geek
Seabiscuit
by Douglas Pratt

The film's emotional strategy is the strategy of a horserace, and it has driven some critics bananas. In a horse race, of course, and in most any race, really, if you run all out, you lose. You have to hold back and know when to make your move. That is what the director, Gary Ross, does with great effectiveness in the race scenes and elsewhere. He doesn't show you stuff. The race sequences are super, and the camera is everywhere, as if the horses are going to stumble over it at any moment, or as if it were a bird testing its own speed against theirs. But the editing obscures as much as it shows, making the viewer wonder or anticipate what is happening, or undergo a wholehearted transference of the feelings of the characters. The effect does just what it is supposed to do, it carries you through a narrative that is episodic by the nature of its veracity, and sells the story's dramatic component-all three men need healing of some sort-without compromising its momentum.

_________________

20 Weeks To Oscar
24 Days To Go
by David Poland

There aren’t many races worth handicapping at this point in the game. I count four…

Murray vs Penn vs Depp – As with all of these alleged races, this may turn out to seem obvious and boring in the end. But the truth is, Sean Penn’s late decision to stop campaigning, combined with added trips to Iraq (Has anyone called him “Baghdad Sean” yet?), combined with Bill Murray’s wonderful Golden Globes speech has left what seemed obvious a question mark. Mixing things up further, Penn and Murray could split the biggest group of voters, leaving the shockingly popular Johnny Depp to sneak into the winner’s circle.

Fran Walsh & The Inspiration For Into The West
A Look At Shohreh Aghdashloo
A Look At Jim Sheridan
Pride Chats With Sir Ben Kingsley
A Look At Peter Weir, Samantha Morton
Capturing The Freidmans' Andrew Jarecki
Fernando Meirelles In L..A.

_______________________________

Gross Behavior
by Leonard Klady

When the Motion Picture Association of America decreed back in September 2003 that in its war to combat film piracy, videotape screeners would no longer be a component of the movie award season, it basically got blindsided by an industry backlash that asserted all manor of heinous political intent.

The organization was partaking in D.C. rather than in Hollywood politics as any good lobby group ought to be doing. Its intent was to grab headlines and catch the attention of policy makers on the Hill. The fact is that it did just that in an even more spectacular manner than had been mapped out.

_______________________________

The Weekend Report
by Leonard Klady

It wasn't The Perfect Score, only some movies got The Big Bounce and Sony definitely Got Served. Distributors and exhibitors girded themselves for the Patriots vs. Carolina and weighed the Super Bowl's likely impact upon new movies and Oscar contenders. There was a lot to digest and assess.

Sony's opening of the youth musical You Got Served led the pack with an estimated $16.2 million, a record gross for a film debuting on Super Bowl weekend. As with the Christmas release of Honey, the film was more potent than anticipated, reaching out beyond the African American niche audience with popular music and contemporary dance.
Weekend Finals - Full List

________________________________

Review
The Big Bounce
by Leonard Klady

Splat!

My memory of the previous screen adaptation of Elmore Leonard's The Big Bounce has blurred considerably since its release in 1970. It was Ryan O'Neill's follow up to Love Story and featured the stunning Leigh Taylor-Young in a grim, sober murder plot. Three decades later, it's been reconceived as a lively, inane character crime comedy and re-located to Oahu from the American mid-west. While the result is considerably more watchable, the film ambles aimlessly, unrelieved by smart aleck dialogue, spectacular scenery and colorful miscreants.

________________________________

The Ultimate DVD Geek
To Live And Die In LA
by Douglas Pratt

Not as bad as William Friedkin's worst movies, To Live and Die in L.A. is a reasonably entertaining 1985 crime thriller about a secret service agent - William Peterson's first big movie role - who will break any rule necessary to catch the counterfeiter that murdered his partner. Peterson stars with Willem Dafoe, and both look shockingly young, like those cartoon programs that show what the characters were like as kids. The film has garnered a cult reputation, almost from its inception, basically because it has a reasonably lively pace and the hero operates under realistically murky ethics, but further critical admiration is mostly undeserved. Friedkin made several really great movies in the Sixties and Seventies, and then started making really bad ones. Even on a cursory viewing, let alone repeat viewings, there are flaws in the character logic, inane stereotypes, badly planned action scenes and other stupidities lurking throughout the film.

________________________________

20 Weeks To Oscar
5 Weeks To Go
by David Poland

To every season, spin, spin, spin…

Spin #1 – Harvey is thrilled to have 15 nominations, even though Cold Mountain did not get a Best Picture nod. This was a brilliant play, actually. Harvey opened the door wide it seems, there was not a call that he refused to take.

Spin #2 – The End Of The Screener Ban Changed Something

Spin #3 – The “Independent” Nominations Were Backlash… Or Even Surprising.

________________________________

Digital Nation
by Gary Dretzka

In the face of this critical mass of adult entertainment, it seems more than a little bit quixotic for the MPAA to insist on defending Americans from their collective libido by endorsing economic sanctions on genitalia … even it is French. If the organization can't convince exhibitors and their landlords that it's in their best interests to at least consider opening their screens to all serious cinematic products, then it ought to eliminate its NC-17 rating entirely and adopt a system that doesn't penalize filmmakers who use sex, instead of cutlery and pyrotechnics, to advance their stories.

Better that than the studio-imposed censorship of Eyes Wide Shut, and what could have happened to The Dreamers.