Sunday, June 20, 2004

Week in Review - June 20, 2004

Wealthy obsessive-compulsive DVD viewers, you're in luck! Sam's Club will be selling 50-packs of The Passion of The Christ DVD, so now you can watch the film as many times as you can tolerate, and always use a fresh copy! This will likely be known as the 'church pack', or possibly 'suckers pack' - it seems to me another wise bit of marketing from Gibson and company, but it could just as well backfire if people realize, "Hey, that thing already made way more money than it deserved to!" Or, it could quickly become the best-selling DVD of all time. We'll see.

In Australia, McDonald's has reacted to the release of Super Size Me with a large ad campaign about how healthy their food is that has brought a bigger audience to the movie than otherwise possible. As The Movie Blog points out, McDonald's, in the ads, actually admits that it isn't healthy for people to eat their food all the time, which may be the first time we've heard a company advise us to buy less of their product. McDonald's has really dug themselves into a pit on this one. Scared Suits do Silly Shit.

Chronicles of Narnia promo images have arrived, and I could find myself eventually getting excited about this one. All I had to go on before were those awful TV movies of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian & the Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and The Silver Chair. Not only do these promo images look like we could have another Lord of the Rings on our hands, they look much darker and more mature than the TV movies and the books, which I'm all for. So, it might be basically like Harry Potter, but starting with the Cuaron one.

Just when I thought Blockbuster was going to concede defeat to Netflix, they did something smart (boy, was I stunned)! Blockbuster now offers a monthly 'Movie Pass' for $25: you can have two movies at a time, no rental fees, and no waiting for the mail (once again, OCD-ers are in luck: you could conceivably take out 100 movies a month for $25)! I'm tempted to try it, except that Blockbuster won't even let me have an account without an addiction to debt (read: credit card, and debit card won't do). And I have a longstanding hate for overpriced video stores that is proving difficult to overcome.

Fahrenheit 9/11 has been slapped with an R rating, and Michael is appealing. I guess Mr. Moore seems to think this is the kind of film all the kiddies will want to see... which just shows how out of touch he really is.

After a long battle with Kryptonite, Superman is finally starting his leap over the tall building. While it hasn't officially been greenlit, it is aiming for a late 2004 start. Potential director McG (Charlie's Angels 1 & 2) has already screened several actors for role of the titular tights-wearer, but not Empire Online's excellent suggestion: Christian Bale. It would certainly make the possible Batman vs. Superman movie interesting...

The aptly titled Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story has indeed beaten its favored competitor (The Terminal) at the box office this weekend, by an easy $10-$15 million. Yes, that's right, Ben Stiller is now more powerful than the combined powers of Tom Hanks and Steven Speilberg. Let the world weep. Paul Walker will no doubt rule the world by year's end.

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