The box office performance of a "high concept" film such as Snakes on a Plane is typically based not on the cleverness of the concept but on whether there is actually a good movie in it. Die Hard and Speed, for example, had characters we could care about, and the films put them in situations where they had interesting choices to make. Those that don’t have these things usually fall off at the box office even if they get a good opening weekend. Interestingly,…
The only reviews I’ve seen of the new Fox TV series Vanished have been negative, although in the promo at the end of last night’s premiere episode there were quotes from positive critiques of the show. I just haven’t seen any. The critiques I’ve read all complained that the show was too complicated and that the characters weren’t likeable enough or interesting enough to capture the critics’ attention Too complicated? Boohoo. Characters not likeable or interesting? Rather a matter of opinion, that, eh what?…
In response to a complaint by a single viewer, British media regulator Ofcom said Turner Broadcasting has offered to delete scenes that "glamorize smoking" in cartoons from earlier decades, when such scenes were commonplace. According to Reuters, the change was instigated when a single viewer complained to Ofcom about two scenes in two Tom and Jerry cartoons (one scene in each) shown on Turner’s Boomerang channel in England, 56 percent of whose viewers are aged four to fourteen. As a result, a Europe-based…
Shakespeare in a bouncy castle, or moon walk, is the Reuters writer’s pick for zaniest Shakespeare adapatation at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival (see full article here). Every year brings several new adaptations of Shakespeare plays at the Fringe, another of those "outsider" phenomena, like the Lollapalooza festival, that become part of the mainstream culture and redifine it, as is the way of things in the Omniculture. Even midsize, stalwartly middle-American towns such as Indianapolis have fringe festivals now. This year’s Edinburgh Fringe includes a…
The greatly anticipated comedy-thriller Snakes on a Plane drew in the most money in movie ticket sales nationally over the weekend, though actually not. Snakes would have come in second (to the Will Farrell comedy Talladega Nightsi) if not for the distributor’s decision to include Thursday night figures in the total. New Line’s head of distribution said it is common policy for studios to do that, and the head of distribution at Sony, which released Talladega Nights, declined to comment to AP. (See AP…
In the Omniculture, everything happens. Hence, given the popularity of poker on television, it was inevitable that there should soon enough be a World Strip Poker Championship. The contest took place in the prestigious Cafe Royal in central London last Saturday. Players competed in games of "No Limit Texas Hold ‘em." The winner defeated 200 other players. His parents must be so proud.
The Fox Network TV show The Simpsons beat Comedy Central’s South Park in the race for the Emmy award for Best Animated Series. This was the ninth such win for The Simpsons. A South Park episode, "Trapped in the Closet," was nominated for the award and received a good deal of attention because of protests by the Church of Scientology, which had objected to the showing last November of the episode mocking actor Tom Cruise. Instead of airing a rerun of the episode in March,…
The first installment of Philip Pullman’s anti-Christian, pro-"Lucifer" children’s saga His Dark Materials is coming to the silver screen. New Line will produce The Golden Compass, based on the first of the trilogy of young-adult novels, with shooting scheduled to commence on September 4 in the UK. New James Bond Daniel Craig will star as Lord Asriel, in a cast that also includes Nicole Kidman. New Line is the company that produced the Lord of the Rings film trilogy.
Fox Entertainment has announced that its 22 owned-and-operated TV stations will air popular primetime programs as ad-supported, on-demand streams on the web on the day they air on television, Variety reports. Nine stations began doing so yesterday, with the rest of them to follow as the technology is adopted there, according to Variety: The new initiative, dubbed "Fox on Demand," puts the network’s own spin on the video streaming trend by allowing local stations to stream network shows the day after they air on television.…
Reuters reported on Monday that a Chinese film producer has announced plans for a $25 million film about the 1937 Rape of Nanking, a truly horrific atrocity in which Japanese troops brutally murdered tens of thousands of Chinese civilians. The soldiers went on an appallingly vicious rampage through the captive Chinese city, and the things they did show the very worst of what human beings are capable of doing, including countless rapes, tossing live infants into the air and catching them on the ends of…
The Hollywood Reporter observes that audiences and critics differed greatly on the merits of the two big superhero movies of this summer: As summer nears its end, "X-Men: The Last Stand," which nabbed middling reviews, seems to have exceeded expectations with a $441 million worldwide gross, while "Superman Returns" — though it earned a strong, positive ranking of 76 percent on RottenTomatoes.com — has yet to break the $200 million mark domestically. I agree with the audiences on this one. X-Men: The Last Stand was…
It’s all too common for writers and analysts to characterize the internet as reponsible for pretty much everything that happens today, but it is true that new information technology is making significant changes in how we gain access to culture. Video-sharing services such as YouTube, for example, definitely constitute an important new channel for information and entertainment programming, and one that younger persons find particularly appealing. Lots of people are visiting YouTube, as AP notes: Officially launched last December, this video-sharing service already plays more…
Way back in the olden days before wall-to-wall coverage on television, highlights programs, and home video recording devices, sports writers wrote about sporting events. That is to say, they described the events for those who had not seen them and as a way of reliving the events for those who had seen them. Writers used a good deal of imagination in describing what happened on the field, indulging their desire to be real writers, not just newspaper schlubs. The best writing in the…
Actor Johnny Depp and writer-director Tim Burton will combine their eccentric talents on a film version of the Steven Sondheim musical Sweeney Todd scheduled to reach theaters next year. According to the Reuters report: In "Sweeney Todd," to be released in late 2007, Depp will play the murderous barber of the same name who seeks his own brand of razor-slashing revenge against a judge who wrongfully imprisoned him. . . . The legend of serial-killer Sweeney Todd is rooted in British lore, and has given…
CBS TV will begin offering free, streaming, next-day video of primetime shows online this fall, the LA Times reports. According to the Times story, CBS will have the most online primetime programming of any broadcast network, offering seven programs, nearly a third of the net’s primetime schedule. CBS is making several of the network’s most popular shows available, plus one new one, the Times reports: The company will make available "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," "CSI: Miami," "CSI: New York," "NCIS," "Numb3rs," "Survivor" and its new…
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