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Meghan McCain at the Daily Beast:

“I asked my mother if she would come see ["Brothers"] with me, but she said she didn’t want to give any money to a movie in which the preview showed the soldier coming back home and waving a gun at his family in their driveway. I have to admit, the preview disturbed me as well, but decided to see the film anyway because I’m always curious about Hollywood’s take on our soldiers and the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Unfortunately, many of these films typically portray our soldiers as deserters—Stop Loss is another classic example of this stereotyping—or complete whackjobs.

“In Brothers, not only does one of the Marines captured by the Taliban actually say that he “realized we shouldn’t be there,” but Maguire’s character beats a fellow soldier to death with a lead pipe. Sam then returns home to his family and goes AWOL trying to kill both his wife and his brother. I don’t care if every producer, director, and screenwriter in Hollywood is against the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (and presumably most are), what offends me is the portrayal of soldiers as cowards and lunatics—driven to such lengths that they come home and try to kill their families. Obviously, post-traumatic stress disorder has become more prevalent in the military and clearly this is a problem that needs to be seriously addressed. But I believe these films add to the damage when they portray soldiers as disloyal, unwilling to serve, and against the missions themselves. In my experience, this couldn’t be further from the truth. (more…)

So what happens when you produce something so huge that it’s virtually unreadable? Normally it’s left unread. I call it the Harlot’s Ghost maxim.

But what do you get when this strategy of over-delivering backfires? Pure comedy unmatched even by a “Golden Girls” marathon.

More specifically, you get pols who never read the health care bill faced with people who have. Witness the town hall meeting this morning with Senator Arlen Specter. The folks present didn’t just read the bill, they’re now quoting it – something even the Titan of Transparency never really wanted.

Even better, this level of discourse is coming from the non-Twitter crowd, the beyond Facebook folks more concerned with Lipitor side effects than Lady Gaga’s lady parts. They are not motivated by racism, as the left wants everyone to believe, but by real concerns – some raised at the dinner table, some reasoned in books. None from Twitter, I imagine. (more…)

I make silly, fun movies.  Stuff you pick up at your local Blockbuster or watch on the Sci-fi Channel.  I’ve always said that most of my films, because of budget limitations, end up being “two star” movies, but with a six pack and some friends, they become exceedingly enjoyable experiences.

One source of endless enjoyment for me and my co-workers is watching how the various buyers (DVD, television, and international) market the films.  The trailers, posters, and commercials  are wildly different depending on who the intended audience is.  As an example, in the U.S. my latest film is called “Chrome Angels.” It’s a sci-fi/action/comedy about a female biker gang that runs into a town populated by evil cyborgs. At the Cannes Film Market, the distributor is calling it “Cyborg Conquest.”  The trailer and poster don’t even reference female bikers, motorcycles, or comedy.  They, instead, are selling it as a serious action film centered on CGI cyborgs that don’t actually appear in the film. (more…)