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Monday, October 27, 2008
‘Saw V’ OK, ‘Porno’ not OK
Just ran across a hackle-rasiing item on IMDB’s news feed.
Megaplex Theatres, which operates cinemas in Salt Lake City and Ogden, Utah has refused to book the new Kevin Smith comedy, Zack and Miri Make a Porno, which opens Friday. The theaters are owned by Larry Miller, who, as it happens, declined to screen Brokeback Mountain.
In an interview in Monday’s New York Post, theater manager Cal Gunderson said, “We feel it’s very close to an NC-17 with its graphic nudity and graphic sex.” (In fact, the movie initially did get that rating before it was massaged to an R.)
When the Post’s “Page Six” column asked why the theater chain DID play the ultra violent Saw V, Gunderson replied, “No comment.”
Oh, I’ve got a comment for them. Can you say “two-faced double standard,” boys and girls? I strongly suspect the reason Saw V was okie-dokie was because the theater people knew that was a guaranteed cash cow, and Zack and Miri is not - even though I do predict the latter will be a hit.
I wouldn’t be for the banning of Saw V either, but good grief - the hypocrisy on display here is aggravating. I never thought I’d say this, but kudos to Page Six for calling Megaplex on it.
What do you say?
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Clint Eastwood’s new movie - What the HECK??
I had planned to devote several posts to scary movies this week, but Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino isn’t QUITE what I had I mind.
The trailer for Eastwood’s new movie, in which he directs and stars for the first time since Million Dollar Baby, is out - and I don’t know what in the world to make of it. Take a look see.
On the one hand, it’s kind of fun to see Clint playing a “Don’t f—- with me” type again. But the tone of this trailer seems so over the top, it’s almost … comical. When Clint growls “Get off my lawn,” I couldn’t help but think of the creepy old guy in Monster House. I’m sure that’s not the effect Eastwood was going for.
Reaction to the trailer has been wildly mixed on the net. I’ve heard it described as Clint playing an Archie Bunker who actually beats people up, but is that really a good idea? Some have said, and I think justly so, that if this were anyone BUT Eastwood, Gran Torino would be laughed out of theaters.
Since it IS Eastwood however, it is simply impossible to write it off. I’ve also heard Oscar prognosticators swear up, down, left and right, that this will be the film that gets Clint an acting Oscar. (He’s won four, for directing and producing Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby. He was nominated as an actor in both those films, but did not win that category.)
My take: It will either be really great, or really terrible. No in-between. It comes out here Jan. 16.
In other Eastwood news, his other film from this year, Changeling with Angelina Jolie, opens here this Friday. Reviews have been all over the map. Some say it’s great, others say it’s greatly disappointed. I’ll report on it after I see it this weekend.
What do you think of Gran Torino or Changeling’s prospects?
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