If ever there was movie to be pirated, it's Fahrenheit 9/11 - why should an audience be forced to pay to watch a film that the director has already said is pure propaganda to influence an election? Oh well, in some form I will give this movie a try, but I am amazed that it never dawned on Michael Moore to give Ray Bradbury a call about stealing his title. Really, Mike? Not even a call until June? I mean, you had already premiered the thing at Cannes in mid-May so it's a little late. As an artist, shouldn't you give another artist a little consideration, especially with a "politcally-charged piece of art", before you tie the person's name with your views - kind of like what you should have done before you blind-sided all the other documentary directors at the Oscars when you dragged them on stage without telling them about the little speech you were going to make.
Plus why do you care so much about the R rating? I'm doubting this film will stand the test of time and all eligible voters (aka 18 and above) for this election will have no problem seeing it beforehand. It sounds like Mike and the studio are just money-grubbing to get a few more people in the seats - which is all good and fine capitalism - but let's not go and paint all monetarily successful businesses / individuals as the devil then.
A few months ago I was lamenting that the only movies I was looking forward to were "big budget" films (Spiderman 2) or well-known indies (Garden State). How does one find those diamonds in the rough nowadays? Oh well.
Over the years, however, I've acquired more of an appreciation for the Horror genre and three worthwhile candidates are in the pipeline.
The "How Messed Up is That?" trailer for Saw is now available. I have to admit that for some reason this trailer played with my mind much more when I first saw it in low quality than the later high. Love the look of the film, the plot strikes at the meaning of humanity, and a not recently heard from but respectable group of actors.
The sequel of the "best (and most surprising) movie of 2002" will be out this November - why not for Halloween? I believe it's still currently being filmed, but a looping flash trailer of "the movie" is available. As mentioned previously, I have not discovered which of the 3 sequels this movie is a remake of, but if it's of Ringu 2, hopefully it will be better.
Soon there will be a wave of Japanese horror remakes upon us due to the success of "The Ring" (and probably because they are cheaper to get the rights to and make). One of the first in this line will be The Grudge (trailer), with Sarah Michelle (doesn't she look adorable in the stills?) going back to her roots (I Know..., Buffy) after her Scooby fiascos to get her career back on the Naomi Watts path. Plus Sam Raimi is connected to it as a producer so that's a plus.
These Japanese horror (really, supernatural thrillers) work so well since they combine Hitchcock directing and plot style with the supernatural (something Alfred never did, though one may argue that birds attacking San Francisco may be out of the realm of normal instinct). The shower scene in the trailer is reminiscent of the one in Psycho (interestingly enough, the "false ending" in The Ring ends/begins in a shower I believe). Plus Hitchcock loved his blondes, and doesn't Sarah seem a little Tippi Hedren-esque in these scenes?
Btw, one of the goals of this site was to maintain an "up-to-the-minute" account of buzz for films in the minds of the authors - kind of a pre-release Movie Lens. We're obviously still working on the system.
Later tonight (7 pm) will be the Bobcat's Expansion Draft. It's kind of sad that not one team seems to care about the 9th player on their bench or below. Really? Is the NBA so devoid of talent that teams should only be 8 deep (with of course that sham of an injury list since every player in the NBA must be perpetual hurt or they wouldn't be able to be placed on the list at any time when the mood hits a team). The Charlotte Hornets may have had the best expansion draft ever by acquiring two players who lasted on the team for a better part of a decade (Curry and Mugsy). This year's event seems to be solely an opportunity for the Bobcats to be bribed to take other people's headaches in exchange for draft picks and cash (though, of course, not nearly enough).
I'm not sure if I'm too excited about this deal for the number 2 pick. Though everyone loves to claim this draft sucks, there are 4 cut above the rest guys (Ok', Howard, Deng, and Livingston), perhaps 5 if this AZ kid is really any good, but I doubt it. There really was no reason to trade up. In fact, I have the feeling that 3 to 4 years down the road Livingston will be the most special player from this draft and he was going to fall into the Bobcat's lap. Now we have to pray that Howard is the 2nd coming of Garnett or Duncan or Ok' becomes Ewing or Mourning. Plus for a team that needs players, the Bobcats surrendered the 33rd pick for a guy who is sounding an awful lot like a tomato can. The Clippers obviously couldn't give this guy away fast enough. I also wonder if the two teams have a handshake deal for the Bobcats to take a contract off the Clippers' hands in the expansion draft. Oh well.
Btw, thank you, Martin Iti! You made a wise move not staying in the draft. After claiming it was an exercise to learn from some NBA coaching, the rumors were you planned to enter to help your family. As I am sure you are well aware, you would not have been drafted and probably would have ended up playing in some foreign league being paid very little. With some hard work, this guy will be drafted. Probably not next year unless a lightning bolt strikes, but perhaps after his junior year. He's currently the best NBA center prospect in the state of North Carolina.
After reading this entry on /. about a ruling for Northwest (note: when I say read, I mean looked at a few comments), I announce the following policy for kissaboo.
All readers of kissaboo will receive a million dollars.
Remember, this is a policy, not a contract.
Right now is the one year anniversary of KissaBoo as a blog. It would be great to list the things this site wished to accomplished, what has been accomplished, and what will yet be accomplished, but I for one am busy, so we'll save that for the future. If anyone has a particularly favorite post, please share. I for one remember A Piece of Duke - I wonder what she is up to (can't direct link)?
Wow, only a couple of days until the first anniversary of this site and it's one of the longest starts of a month without a post.
During this last week of celebration, my lovely and I went to see Super Size Me after being barred from a Red Sox's game (Note: the last time this happened Mussina was one strike away from a perfect game for the Yankees, this time ManRam whiffed on a pop-up in the ninth, but the Sox still did manage to win the first ever game the Dodgers have officially played in baseball's oldest venue.)
3.5 (MovieLens Scale). I highly recommend this movie - if you occasionally dine on any fast food, have kids in school, drink cola, or generally eat, you should see this movie. Sadly, it took me only one day to once again get a combo at Wendy's, but I am changing my eating habits. As a person who both believes in capitalism/free enterprise and has always thought that smokers have the right to take their lives into their own hands, I have to say that this movie makes a compelling case for why this is not just a matter of personal choice, but a problem I fear will take government intervention and not just social engineering and business strategy to correct.
Let me first say that the auteur's quixotic quest to eat only McDonald's and everything McDonald's over 30 days is not really that compelling an argument for why fast food is a problem in America and the world. Everyone should believe that an extremely healthy guy (who happens to be my height) who goes from exercising and mostly vegan meals to barely walking and extremely gluttonous, fatty meals is going to be in trouble. His initial good health is both a blessing and curse in this instance since while his body is better able to cope with this abuse, a more seasoned pro like yours truly could have taken it more in stride with my previous conditioning. His argument for not exercising is that the majority of American's don't, so that is all fine and dandy. He also seemed to eat very large meals even for McD's. Two breakfast sandwiches for breakfast, shakes with combo meals, etc. are all more than I almost ever eat there and unfortunately the audience never learns the actual breakdown of what he was purchased / consumed.
The part of the movie I was most frightened by is McDonald's huge advertising budget and how they significantly target children. There is no way a parent can really compete. Combined with their lack of concern with educating consumers about the nutritional contents of their food, it is quite disheartening.
I would love to see a healthy, tasty, and successful fast food chain emerge to challenge the current state of affairs, but the forces against them to obtain any market penetration are incredible without a huge public outcry. I'd hate to back legislation to limit the amount of advertising dollars a company can spend since I believe in free enterprise and I recognize this isn't the strongest time for media supported by those dollars, but it may be the only way to combat this trend in the near future. I definitely will have to investigate how my congress people voted (or will vote) on the "Cheeseburger bill", which prevents consumers from suing fast food companies. Not only is it unnecessary additional legislation, if a legitimate case can be made that these companies are knowingly endangering people's lives, how can this bill be allowed?