‘Avatar’ Contrarian Round Up: ‘The King of the World is Naked’

With an 82% fresh rating, most all the Usual Suspects are gushing over ‘Avatar,’ but everyone knows that when you trash America you can bank the glowing reviews. So here are some contrarian voices not on Big Hollywood — others who had many of the same problems we did with the dull, cliched story and, in some cases, with the over-hyped visuals [Nolte review here; Kozlowski review here]: 

Nerve.com:

“If Cameron wasn’t going to make a great movie with his rumored half-billion dollar budget, he could have at least given us an entertaining train wreck. But Avatar, which plods on for a punishing two hours and forty-two minutes, is more boring than bad. There’s no denying that the motion-capture 3D visuals are some kind of technical achievement, but after spending a while in the aquarium-like world of Pandora, I started to feel like I was staring at the world’s most expensive screensaver. The New Age-y rituals of the Na’vi put me in mind of dancing Ewoks, and the big battle scenes looked like outtakes from Attack of the Clones. Maybe that’s a little too harsh, but certainly Cameron does nothing with digital warfare that Peter Jackson didn’t do better in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Your mileage may vary, but to these eyes, Avatar looks like the emperor’s new clothes — and the King of the World is naked.” (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Armond White, avatar, james cameron, Rotten Tomatoes, Sonny Bunch
Posted Dec 18th 2009 at 10:33 am in Film, Politics | 28202687 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/bighollywood/2009/12/18/avatar-contrarian-round-up-the-king-of-the-world-is-naked/%27Avatar%27+Contrarian+Round+Up%3A+%27The+King+of+the+World+is+Naked%272009-12-18+18%3A33%3A40Big+Hollywood

‘Slumdog Millionaire’: A Leftist View of a Globalized World

Well after its phenomenal success of eight Oscars, four Golden Globes, seven BAFTA’s, and $350 million at the boxoffice, “Slumdog Millionaire” has managed to stay alive. As much an amazing longshot victor as its hero, an urchin from the Mumbai slums cum tea server at a phone call center who wins a fortune in an Indian version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?,” “Slumdog” has kept making news in ways deeply rooted in its own depiction of the world.

Recently the film’s British director Danny Boyle, serving as jury president of the 12th Shanghai Film Festival, confided during a panel discussion that on “Slumdog” he had shed the patronizing, “imperialist” mentality, relying heavily on a local Indian crew. Boyle also observed that while it was “regrettable” that Beijing imposed censorship restrictions on its filmmakers, he’d nonetheless love to work in China, as it would be a “challenge learning Mandarin.” Boyle neglected to mention that on “Slumdog” he’d skipped the challenge of learning Hindi, necessitating an Indian co-director, and also skipped the patronizing practice of paying Western wages, and the low pay for local child actors would fuel most of the subsequent controversies. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?", Amitabh Bachchan, BAFTAs, Bandra, Bollywood
Posted Jul 27th 2009 at 6:52 am in Culture, Politics, Religion, Reviews | 19112630 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/eazlant/2009/07/27/slumdog-millionaire-and-topdog-fantasies/%E2%80%98Slumdog+Millionaire%E2%80%99%3A+A+Leftist+View+of+a+Globalized+World+2009-07-27+13%3A52%3A03Edward+Azlant

Wolverine: Are Critics on Crack?

Just before seeing ”X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” I checked the Tomatometer, hoping against hope that there had been a sudden surge since I had last checked it a half hour previously. No such luck: The ”Wolverine” TM still stood at a dismal 38%. I glumly trucked over to the theater, fairly certain it would suck, just hoping it wouldn’t ”Fantastic Four” suck.

Having now seen it, I have just one question: What are these critics smoking, and where can I get some (ok, that’s two questions)?

To be sure, the first installment of the proposed “X-Men” prequels has its share of flaws, and some of the criticism is more than fair. So let’s get the bad out of way first: (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: critics, Fantastic Four, hugh jackman, Rotten Tomatoes, x-men
Posted May 4th 2009 at 11:03 am in Reviews | 12570242 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mpatterson/2009/05/04/wolverine-are-critics-on-crack/Wolverine%3A+Are+Critics+on+Crack%3F2009-05-04+18%3A03%3A28Matt+Patterson

Review: Gomorrah — Five Minutes of Action Crammed Into Two Hours

Watching Gomorrah is like learning Latin: You’d rather say you’ve done it than actually do it.

Gomorrah is a slightly fictionalized portrayal of life under the influence of the criminal organization Camorra (unknown to most of the U.S., but apparently running things with bloody fists in Italy). It’s a situation that deserves attention. A picture could have presented events as riveting entertainment or art, and perhaps helped to bring about change. Yet Gomorrah fails as art, entertainment and promotional tool. Any publicity about the horror of the Camorra has come from the existence of the film, not the watching.

Gomorrah is dull and flat and emotionally uncompelling: It is a sprawling tour of future-less lives and hollow days punctuated occasionally—very occasionally—by brief set pieces in which something violent and terrible happens. That may be true-to-life, but so is sitting at a desk all day, and neither is particularly interesting to watch. If filmmakers have any foundational obligation, it is to make a picture that makes you want–need–to keep watching. These filmmakers feel no such burden. It is as if they have taken the seriousness of their subject as license to relieve themselves of the obligation to sustain the interest of the audience. They’re counting on guilt or something to keep us interested, and they could not have been more mistaken. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Arthouse, Camorra, Gomorrah, italy, Rotten Tomatoes
Posted Mar 23rd 2009 at 11:47 am in Media Criticism, Reviews | 8669835 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mlong/2009/03/23/review-gomorrah-is-five-minutes-of-action-crammed-into-two-hours/Review%3A+Gomorrah+--+Five+Minutes+of+Action+Crammed+Into+Two+Hours2009-03-23+18%3A47%3A43Mike+Long

Who’s Watching the “Watchmen” Reviewers?

This is somewhat anecdotal, but when you look at the Metacritic scores below it boosts my theory that truly awful leftist films frequently get better reviews than deserved while solid, entertaining conservative films (now that the left’s ceded “liberty” to the right) get worse reviews than deserved and films critics didn’t understand were pro-Bush receive fantastic reviews, but once found out, no Oscar nominations. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Metacritic, New Yorker, Rotten Tomatoes, watchmen, Zack Snyder
Posted Mar 2nd 2009 at 2:23 pm in Entertainment, Politics | 71026175 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jjmnolte/2009/03/02/whos-watching-the-watchmen-reviewers/Who%27s+Watching+the+%22Watchmen%22+Reviewers%3F2009-03-02+22%3A23%3A46John+Nolte