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24 Sep 2010 09:09

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Culture: “The Social Network” early reviews are in! Here’s a sample

  • one “Despite its insistently unsexy moving parts (software, algorithms), the movie is paced like a thriller, if one in which ideas, words and bank books blow up rather than cars.”
  • two “Thanks to lightning-fast line readings by Eisenberg and other actors, there is probably more dialogue in “The Social Network” than all of [David] Fincher’s other movies put together.”
  • three“[Fincher’s] portrait of campus life among America’s elite is pitch-perfect, every bit as much as the drug-and-party excesses of Silicon Valley and the war rooms of corporate attorneys.”
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

19 Sep 2010 21:21

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Culture: Sacha Baron Cohen as Freddie Mercury: Why the heck not?

  • He needed another direction, so why not Freddie Mercury? Sacha Baron Cohen’s films – specifically “Borat” and “Bruno” are entertaining in a very painful way, but it’s the kind of amazing trick that only works for so long. First, people will figure out it’s you. Second, it’s the kind of joke that can get old very quick – comparing “Borat” to “Bruno” on Metacritic is a major hint that the joke fell flat. We like the idea of Cohen playing the Queen singer – he has no issues with playing flamboyant gay characters, wearing spandex, or with growing over-the-top mustaches. Plus, the director on deck, Peter Morgan, also directed “Frost/Nixon” and “The Last King of Scotland,” two rock-solid flicks from the last few years. Maybe this’ll be a great direction for him. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

14 Sep 2010 10:25

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Culture: Facebook movie trip report: Zuckerberg’s a jerk in the film

  • It’s just as rough on the Facebook CEO as his people feared it would be. Not because of scandalous scenes involving sex and drugs–there aren’t many of those, and they’re quite tame. It’s because the film portrays him as an insecure jerk who screws over people and becomes a much-richer insecure jerk.
  • Wall Street Journal reporter Peter Kafka • Offering an early assessment of the most anticipated film of the season, “The Social Network.” While Kafka notes the rumored coke-and-boobs scene is fairly tame (no boobs anymore, sorry), he notes that the film may not be totally accurate. But it’s still a harsh image. “At the end of the movie,” he writes. “there’s a suggestion that Zuckerberg may not actually be a jerk–he may just be someone who acts like one. That’s about it when it comes to the upside of his character: He’s the bad guy in his own creation myth.” A creation myth directed by David Fincher. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

09 Sep 2010 02:55

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Cats!: Inception Cat is unofficially Catstravaganza’s mascot

  • This slow-moving little guy was brought to our attention by Andrew Ottoson, who called Catstravaganza “the new Festivus.” It’s only fitting, then, that we have activities to match that postmodern holiday’s lineup. We think we need to make cat remakes of popular movies a big part of the whole Catstravaganza experience. We’d like to see a few kitties take on that still-in-progress “Arrested Development” movie. We’d love to imagine what a kitty Michael Cera would be like.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

02 Sep 2010 21:21

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Tech: Copyright owners use YouTube ads as a backdoor into ¢A$H

  • 2 billion views of YouTube videos with ads every single week
  • 14% the percentage of total weekly views on YouTube each week ad-supported videos make up – a small chunk, but definitely still a lot
  • 33% of those videos (or more) are clips which are copyright violations that the owners have chosen to make money from source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

25 Aug 2010 14:30

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Culture: Vanity Fair really thinks you should see “Scott Pilgrim” NOW

  • So, if the movies have been so bad—if, as we complain, there’s nothing good playing—why is a good movie having such a hard time finding an audience?
  • Vanity Fair writer John Lopez • Making an over-the-top plea for people to go see “Scott Pilgrim” in the theater. And he’s absolutely right. It’s a great movie that got the budget it deserved and a and it’s doing miserable at the box office. “Scott Pilgrim was a risk, a gamble, a leap of faith,” Lopez writes. “The sad-but-true fact is that studios and their corporate parents just don’t know how to do that, and when they do, you need to smack them upside the head with box-office success for them to understand the lesson.” source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 2 Comments • Permalink

07 Aug 2010 22:53

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Culture: Will Ferrell: Meet a guy really desperate for another hit

His last movie, the huge-budgeted “Land of the Lost,” got completely upstaged by “The Hangover.” So, he needs “The Other Guys” to kill it at the box office. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

01 Aug 2010 21:30

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Culture: “Inception” coasting its way into August atop box office

  • $27.5M the amount “Inception” made this weekend alone
  • three the number of new movies that tried to topple it this weekend
  • $193M the amount “Inception” has made in three weekends source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Jul 2010 12:58

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Culture: Disney sells Miramax to someone other than the Weinsteins

  • $660 million to the Weinsteins’ least favorite people source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 Jul 2010 02:38

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Biz, Tech: Netflix slowly but surely becoming a movie studio cash cow

  • 20
    million     the number of people who use Netflix, which has only been around about 12 years
  • 24
    million     the number of people who use Comcast, which has been around over 40 years
  • $9M the amount Netflix paid studios for streaming films in the second quarter of last year
  • $66M the amount Netflix spent on acquiring movies for its streaming service this past quarter
  • $116M the amount the company paid to movie studios for in the first six months of 2010 source
  • » A win-win relationship? While the relationship clearly favors the film studios at this point, the success of Netflix’s streaming model has proven fruitful, especially since it hasn’t come at a higher cost to the consumer. While Netflix has pushed more money into streaming distribution, they’ve had to put less into their DVD budgets, meaning that money is shifting from one platform to another. Oh, and it helps that they’ve nailed streaming movies better than anyone else. (Hat tip to Jeff Greco for finding this.)
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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