"We've lost Intelligence! Repeat - we have no Intelligence!"
- Sarah (TEAM AMERICA)
It really is a telling indicator of the times we live in that in the 2 weeks before the Presidential election this silly and gloriously stupid marionette movie would cause any controversy at all. Sean Penn wrote an angry letter to Trey Parker and Matt Stone about his depiction - check it out here :
http://www.drudgereport.com/penn.htm
Also FOX News (yeah - I know, I know) reports that GLAAD ( Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) is protesting the flick but what's most interesting to me is that one of the most respected and well known film critics ever - Roger Ebert * - felt the urge to chastise Parker and Stone by concluding in his review :
I wasn't offended by the movie's content so much as by its nihilism. At a time when the world is in crisis and the country faces an important election, the response of Parker, Stone and company is to sneer at both sides -- indeed, at anyone who takes the current world situation seriously. They may be right that some of us are puppets, but they're wrong that all of us are fools, and dead wrong that it doesn't matter.
Point well taken Roger but as your partner in criticism crime (Richard Roeper) responded to you on your weekly syndicated show this is ultimately a parody of gung ho action movies and not a political statement. Anyone who is truly offended by this overblown puppet festival of cheap shots hasn't been watching South Park and is oblivious that this isn't like underdog artists giving the "man" the finger - it's more like a couple of clever kids sticking their tongues out as the corporate chief's car rolls by. None of this really matters in the end as SHARK TALE and FRIDAY NIGHT TALES beat this out at the box office the last week. Oh well.
* Most of us at film babble like and respect the writings of film critic legend Roger Ebert. Even when we disagree his well thought out and cleverly crafted reviews still make a powerful point. However there a number of times when we feel Mr. Ebert tragically missed the point so here goes :
TOP FIVE CLASSIC MOVIES THAT ROGER EBERT HATED :
1. HAROLD AND MAUDE (1971) Dir. Hal Ashby. Can this be right? Can Ebert truly be among the out-of-it straight laced critics that horribly misjudged this undeniably influential beyond words cult classic? Yep - he only rewards a movie that many friends, collegues, and family have considered one of the best movies ever with one and a half stars. Shame.
2. FIGHT CLUB (1999) Dir. Peter Fincher. 2 stars. Roger loves the first 2 acts but hates the concluding act - this from a guy who wouldn't know the Pixies if they were stuck on the same elevator. Whatever Ebert, watch it again and tell me how what is set up in the first third would work done another way and you and me will be square.
3. BEETLEJUICE (1988) Again 2 stars. Where's the love for Tim Burton's maniacal masterpiece? Just remember this is the guy who gave COP AND A HALF and HOLLYWOOD HOMICIDE rave reviews.
4. HEATHERS (1989) 2 and a half stars. I mean COME ON! This is a bonafide classic and Ebert's baffled review is painful to read. He writes "Is this a black comedy about murder or just a cynical morality play?" Jesus Roger - if you have to ask...
5. DON'T LOOK BACK (1967) - Okay so he gave this rock doc 3 stars but don't let that fool you. He so disses Dylan that it's hard to take - I mean read this sample :
What a jerk Bob Dylan was in 1965. What an immature, self-important, inflated, cruel, shallow little creature, lacking in empathy and contemptuous of anyone who was not himself or his lackey. Did we actually once take this twirp as our folk god?
Can you believe that? Is Ebert who wrote 2 different reviews of this flick - first in '68 on the movie's original run and then again in '98 on it's re-release - that out of touch? I thought it was pretty much accepted that Dylan was putting on those who were asking him square questions and having fun with the media juggernaut. I mean just a couple years previous Newsweek wrongly accused him of plagarising "Blowing In The Wind" and countless bandwagon jumpers had co-opted Bob's simple plaintive messages. I can't imagine anyone at that age and time reacting any other way but to Ebert he's a self serving twirp. Can't quite process this misjudgement. To Ebert's credit he nailed Bob's self indulgent MASKED AND ANONYMOUS monstrosity last year in a scathing review but that doesn't quite make right his insulting remarks about one of the most influential film portraits of an artist at his prime in existence. But I'm just saying.
- DCJ
(Other contributors to this Ebert Ain't Right list include Anderson Moran, Sarah Weber, Trina Herman, Bertie Shafer, and Christina Kessler)
NEW MOVIE LISTOMANIA
People have emailed asking where our lists went - ourTOP 5 & 10 lists that we used to end each babble blog with. Well wait no longer -
10 MOVIES THAT END WITH THE PROTAGONIST WRITTING OR HAVEN WRITTEN OR MADE A BOOK OR MOVIE ABOUT EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED IN THE MOVIE
(whew, long list title!)
1. THROW MOMMA FROM THE TRAIN
2. ROMANCING THE STONE
3. THE PLAYER
4. DUPLEX - Hmmm, Danny Devito's involvement with 3 of these pictures on this list makes us think - "Louie - pick a different ending next time!"
5. COLD CREEK MANOR
6. CHASING AMY - Okay, so it was a comic book.
7. LOVE ON THE RUN - Francois Truffaut actually sums up his 5 film series about his alter ego with Antoine Doinel (Jean Pierre Leaud) writing a thick tome.
8. SECRET WINDOW
9. STAND BY ME
10. THE MUPPET MOVIE
5 MOVIES THAT END WITH THE PROTAGONIST (S) CELEBRATING BY LOUNGING ON A TROPICAL BEACH
1. TRADING PLACES
2. SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION
3. OFFICE SPACE
4. FLETCH
5. THROW MOMMA FROM THE TRAIN - Again Devito! He had his cake and ate it too by having a movie that used both endings! Fine - just don't do it again.
More later...
is the Green Art Nail
