Month: March 2011

The obnoxiously photographed “Battle: Los Angeles” shows how utterly bankrupt a movie technique has become

How to describe the aggressive dreadfulness of “Battle: Los Angeles,” maybe the worst-directed Hollywood movie I’ve ever seen? Incompetent doesn’t do the trick, because it implies an inability to master basic craft. That’s not the case here. “Battle: Los Angeles” takes one of the more controversial cinematography fads of recent years — the “shaky camera and shallow focus equals ‘reality'” fad — to noxious new levels of excess. The movie is the work of professionals who decided to make their film look bad on purpose…

https://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/battle_los_angeles/index.html

The media-publishing World is comprised of four massive tectonic plates called audio, video, print and software. These plates rest on a fluid called technology that keeps them in continuous motion. Technology moves these plates at glacier speed, but every so often a bubble in the technological fluid causes a seismic shift that causes plates to collide, retract, rise, fall, emerge, or disappear.

The printing press, radio, film, television, VCR, personal computer and Internet are all examples of tectonic bubbles that created seismic shifts of the media-publishing plates. The collisions of these plates create both shock and awe to all who bear witness. The shock comes from those who can’t see past the destruction of their old world; the awe comes from those who see opportunity in the new world…

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-steele/power-to-the-people-the-d_1_b_829303.html

This year US ticket sales are running 20% behind where they were in the first quarter of 2010, amid a series of 3D flops

The runaway success of 3D films such as Avatar sparked a flurry of similar films, many of which failed to capture audiences.

Mars Needs Moms, according to the title of Disney’s latest foray into 3D animation, but this weekend the “House of Mouse” would settle for a few moms closer to home. Sadly for Disney, last weekend was one of the most embarrassing in recent years for the company: its new $150m movie took just $6.9m in ticket sales…

https://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/mar/20/hollywood-hope-for-3d-revolution-falling-flat

It’s no secret that a lot of us thought Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was a big pile of crap. Well, guess what? Michael Bay thinks so, too…

https://blastr.com/2011/03/michael-bay-admits-transf.php

Warner Bros. plans to begin streaming its movies through Facebook. Facebook users will be able to rent and stream movies by spending Facebook credits and the studio plans to expand the program in the future to include purchasing as well as renting…

https://collider.com/warner-bros-facebook/79467/

The James Bond franchise has put Daniel Craig in drag to endorse the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day. Produced by Barbara Broccoli, directed by Sam Taylor-Wood (Nowhere Boy), and written by Jane Goldman (Kick-Ass), this is the very definition of ill-advised:

https://www.deadline.com/2011/03/james-bond-in-drag-is-a-terrible-idea/

Television and laptop makers are trying to make 3D displays which can be watched without wearing 3D glasses – the thought being that the glasses may put a lot of people off 3D TV in the home.

But there are rumblings which suggest that 3D may have bigger problems – with holographic TV planned to be its successor.

On a holo-TV, images will be projected into the middle of a room as a “cloud” that can be viewed from every angle without 3D glasses, and manufacturers hope they could go on sale in 2012…

https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/9393762.stm