Darth Weinstein

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comment #1

Dravot says ...

That would be funnier if either version of that movie was even remotely good. Everything I've seen and heard so far about FANBOYS has been negative. The trailer is terrible. (And I say this as a huge old-school STAR WARS fan who grew up with the OT.)

And did the creator of that video really need to give himself all those individual credits? Especially since he appeared to have made the thing all by himself?

comment #2

Josh Massey says ...

All this fuss for a movie that'll top out at $3 million domestic no matter how it's cut...

comment #3

Edward Havens says ...

It's idiocy like this that makes me happy I moved out of my parents' basement, sold off all my Star Wars shit and became an adult many years ago.

comment #4

Devin Faraci says ...

The script is shit and the movie had a ghost director long before Weinstein stepped in. I think it's had 3 or 4 directors now.

comment #5

Edward says ...

Could it have been any longer? It went on forever and then seemed to be over, but nope, it continued for a second eternity. It stopped being clever after 1 min. Less is more!

comment #6

Edward Havens says ...

It was never clever to begin with. Probably why its maker took the name of a minor SW character who I didn't even know had a name until two minutes ago.

comment #7

Aguirre says ...

what if - as some early reports suggest - the cancer cut is saccharine feces and the weinstein cut, while still bad, is something of an improvement? devin over at chud wrote an interesting article on fanboys (the faction, not the film) earlier today that posited that fanboys are defined by their indiscriminate tastes, and this fiasco is perfect evidence of that idea (the part of devin's post about fanboys being people who simply never outgrew their childhood obsessions was a wee bit too facile for my tastes). legions of people so happy that a project of this ilk even exists that they fight to protect its sanctity sight unseen, frothing at harry knowles' beck and call. the same harry knowles who wrote that LADY IN THE effing WATER renewed his love for cinema.

weinstein has committed his share of unforgivable crimes as a distributer, but methinks the extent to which he forged the american market for foreign films in the mid 90s INFINITELY outweighs his tinkering with a niche project that doesn't necessarily reek of... worthiness.

comment #8

D.Z. says ...

Where the fuck were they when Shaolin Soccer was getting raped up the ass?

Aguirre: Anything Harvey does is usually *not* an "improvement". And I don't think forging an American market for dubbed 90 minute films can be qualified as progressive, since that's been going on for 50 years now.

comment #9

Aguirre says ...

d.z. weinstein is no cinematic saint, but i applaud the work he did in making foreign films a more palatable experience for the wider, more adamantly ignorant audience that janus and their ilk never bothered with. you know there's someone out there who used LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL as a gateway drug to SALO... maybe. the results are most often treacle like UNDER THE SAME MOON, but i think the motivating effect of his efforts on other boutique houses has been largely positive. moreover, while shaolin soccer is only one of the many films he raped, but for every 2 botched releases he seems to gets one right... or not botch it too badly.

comment #10

D.Z. says ...

Aguirre: "but i applaud the work he did in making foreign films a more palatable experience for the wider, more adamantly ignorant audience that janus and their ilk never bothered with."

How is it palatable, if its content is dumbed down? And if audiences are so ignorant, why did Crouching Tiger and The Passion[and even Lust, Caution] do better than his hacked shit-fests?

"but for every 2 botched releases he seems to gets one right... or not botch it too badly."

Whatever he got *right* was usually due to Disney marketing, not because of him.

comment #11

robbiefantastic says ...

this is totally off topic but can anyone tell me CONTROL is coming out on dvd........i still haven't seen it (never came to a theatre near me) and as a joy division fan this is rather upsetting.......

comment #12

robbiefantastic says ...

*anyone tell me when*

comment #13

Aguirre says ...

D.Z. "made more palatable." as in... improved the IDEA of a foreign film, not the quality of the films themselves. a steady diet or invitation consisting of schlock like UNDER THE SAME MOON will convince the casual, uninitiated viewer that spanish-language cinema is more appetizing a notion than an introduction of THE SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE might be.

and crouching tiger did mega business cause it's a perfect movie, the passion did uber business because of curiosity and a mass of rabid evangelicals, and... um... lust, caution (which i loved) and its 4.5 million dollar haul doesn't quite match up to HERO's 54 MILLION DOLLAR TAKE. sure, it took weinstein forever to release it but when he did, he did it right. your point remains that his botch jobs have almost never resulted in massive box office receipts and i am no weinstein defender, my point is simply that his influence on the american market for foreign films has been a positive one, and that it's patently ridiculous for the FANBOY fanboys to assume that his slice of shit is worse than the already tampered with slice of shit they hold so dear, despite not having ever seen it.

comment #14

Aguirre says ...

my apologies for the incoherence of that last post - i've just returned to new york from istanbul and am a wee bit knackered. that i got caught up in the weinstein bit is proof pudding. yes, his botch jobs are almost always disastrous, but the point remains that the fanboys fiasco and the video above simply prove the brunt of what devin "advocated" earlier. night, all.

comment #15

lipranzer says ...

Robbie, CONTROL was supposed to come out on DVD tomorrow, but now they're saying it's been pushed back to June 3rd. Ugh.

I was a Weinstein apologist until he released a dubbed version of LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL theatrically. Whatever you think of the movie, the idea that he felt a dubbed version would be the only one that would play across America after it had won all those Oscars is ridiculous.

comment #16

D.Z. says ...

Aguirre: "D.Z. "made more palatable." as in... improved the IDEA of a foreign film, not the quality of the films themselves. a steady diet or invitation consisting of schlock like UNDER THE SAME MOON will convince the casual, uninitiated viewer that spanish-language cinema is more appetizing a notion than an introduction of THE SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE might be."

And yet Pan's Labyrinth was a hit-in spite of being closer in aesthetics to the former film than the latter film-while Under the Same Moon did only average box office numbers.

"and... um... lust, caution (which i loved) and its 4.5 million dollar haul doesn't quite match up to HERO's 54 MILLION DOLLAR TAKE."

Well, yeah, but Lust, Caution was NC-17, while Hero would've made double that amount of money here, if Harvey had released it on time.

"sure, it took weinstein forever to release it but when he did, he did it right."

Making people think QT directed it and dumbing down the subs isn't doing it right.

"my point is simply that his influence on the american market for foreign films has been a positive one, "

You're acting like people never saw foreign films before him, even though people knew who Godard and Fellini were long before they knew about Harvey's company.

"and that it's patently ridiculous for the FANBOY fanboys to assume that his slice of shit is worse than the already tampered with slice of shit they hold so dear,"

At least if their piece of shit has some heart.

comment #17

D.Z. says ...

sorry, i meant "to the latter film rather than the former film".

comment #18

Richardson says ...

Dude, you managed to have a reasonably coherent conversation with DZ for a few posts before he fell apart and brought up Tarantino.

That's like riding the bull -- even eight seconds is impressive.

comment #19

MovieBob says ...

Aguirre:
"devin over at chud wrote an interesting article on fanboys"

Yegh. Faraci is just about the best staff writer Chud has, which makes him probably one of the best film writers on that strata of the web, period... But when he gets going about geek culture it just turns into this giant floor show of public renunciation.

This is about the fourth or fifth time he's written this same basic article, and just like the previous installments it's pretty much a lengthy prose translation of: "Hey! Studios and/or mainstream entertainment press? PAY ATTENTION TO ME! See? SEE!? Just because I'm a web-based movie writer doesn't mean I'm one of those "fanboy" guys! I HATE those guys! I disregard them even more than YOU do! Please love me! PLEASE!"

comment #20

The Hoyk says ...

As of about 90 minutes ago at Yahoo, it would appear Harvey is listening:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080325/film_nm/fanboys_dc

As an old friend and longtime champion of Ernie Cline, I'm rooting hard for his vision to remain intact, and more importantly, that he get another gig. He's a good and funny man and deserves it.

comment #21

Josh Massey says ...

The latest announcement did nothing to satisfy the filmmakers, who accuse the company of only putting out the announcement in order to sidestep a meltdown at this weekend's box office.

"This is more about avoiding picket lines at 'Superhero' than it was about making a decision about the release of our movie," said Kevin Mann, one of the producers.

Ok, that's absurd - now I'm actively rooting against these Fanboy jackasses. They really think "protests" over their shitty little film (read: a total of 10 people nationwide) would disrupt dollar one of Superhero Movie?

A "meltdown." Wow.

comment #22

robbiefantastic says ...

thanks lip!

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