Day: August 23, 2010

By Jason Apuzzo. • It was such a pleasure seeing Mao’s Last Dancer this past weekend.  It’s an emotional, stirring film that is carried by two very strong performances by Chi Cao and Bruce Greenwood.  The story of how this young Chinese dancer rose to prominence during the nightmare-period of Mao’s reign, came to America – and then fought tenaciously for his freedom – is a story that everyone should see, especially when it’s told as elegantly as director Bruce Beresford tells it here.

What I was stunned by, however, were all of the flattering references in the film to (then) Vice President George H.W. Bush, and also to President Reagan.  It’s made quite plain that the elder Bush was instrumental in securing this young dancer’s freedom, and this is probably going to be the most flattering take on the Bush family and/or legacy you’re going to see on film any time in the near future.  We’ve got a brief except from the film below in this context, by the way.

I cannot recommend this film highly enough, as it expands into wider distribution next weekend. Mao’s Last Dancer is not only a compelling indictment of the communist system, but a rousing testimony to the opportunities available to high achievers in free societies like our own. Make sure to see it.

On the box office front, Mao did over a $192,000 in business on 31 screens in 10 markets.  It opens to 15 new markets this upcoming weekend.  Make sure to check out the clip below.

• From the sublime to the ridiculous … the other film I saw this past weekend that involved a ballet sequence (ahem), Piranha 3D, finished #6 at the box office this weekend with over $10 million … which is actually only about $6 million less than the #1 film, The Expendables.  Despite the strikingly positive reviews this film received (Rotten Tomatoes currently has it at an 81 rating), the rather obvious problem this film faced is that its intended audience – namely, teenagers – for the most part couldn’t see it due to its R rating.  [Personally I think the film easily could’ve received an NC-17.]  Still, I think Alex Aja has created a genuine cult masterpiece here that will live long and prosper once it reaches its natural milieu of unrated home video. 🙂  And, indeed, word is now breaking late today that Aja and Dimension films are already planning a sequel to the film, possibly to take place in Thailand.

• Sandra Bullock and Tom Hanks may be teaming on an adaptation of the post-9/11 Jonathan Safran Foer novel, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. This project looks interesting, and we’ll keep an eye on it.  I haven’t read the novel, but Entertainment Weekly has a brief summary of it here.

• Angelina Jolie has announced that her next project will be a low-budget love story set at the height of the Bosnian war, for which she wrote the screenplay … and which she’ll be directing (she will not be acting in the film). “The film is a love story, not a political statement,” Jolie asserts in a recent statement about the project.

Good for her.  How odd that at this point I feel more confident in how she’ll handle this material than, say, how Stallone might.  Salt, by the way, has thus far grossed $216 million worldwide.

• The annual article about ‘Hollywood Reaching Out to Christians’ has come out … this time from The New York Times.  It’s a little tiresome reading these articles each year.  Basically the only reason films get made that appeal to Christians these days is because Christians themselves – usually working outside the confines of the Hollywood system – pony up their own money and get them made.

By the way, in this context there are some new clips out today of the next Narnia film.

• The LA Times’ Tom O’Neil questions whether SAG should be honoring the great Ernest Borgnine simply because O’Neil doesn’t like Borgnine’s personal politics … which O’Neil is apparently able to divine simply because Borgnine didn’t feel like seeing Brokeback Mountain.  Mr. O’Neil, this is what’s called blacklisting.  It’s an ugly, retrograde practice and you should stop this immediately.

• AND IN TODAY’S MOST IMPORTANT NEWS … Mad Men va-va-voom star Christina Hendricks made a striking appearance at this weekend’s Creative Arts Emmy Awards.  Did you really think we were going to miss this?  The striking Ms. Hendricks will be competing for a Best Supporting Actress Emmy when the big-time Emmy Awards roll around this upcoming Sunday.

And that’s what’s happening today in the wonderful world of Hollywood.

Posted on August 23rd, 2010 at 6:02pm.

By Jason Apuzzo. Most of the attention surrounding the re-release of Avatar in ‘special edition’ form has centered around the extended ‘alien sex scene’ – which is sounding pretty tame, frankly.  [Having recently seen Piranha, of course, pretty much everything is seeming tame right now.]  Buried, however, in an article today from The New York Post, is this tidbit from James Cameron about another scene that’s been put back in the film – a scene Cameron refers to as “the drums of war.”

• A scene Cameron calls “the drums of war,” which he hopes will clarify why the humans choose to wipe out the Na’vi. He compared it to America’s decision to invade Iraq. “We had to provoke Saddam to do something stupid, and it’s like that with the humans invading Pandora,” he said. “I felt when I was writing it that the Na’vi had to counter-react and do something that is called an atrocity that gave [humans] the moral right to go in and destroy and displace them. The additional footage is pretty short, but it fulfills that purpose.”

So let me untangle this for you.  Cameron’s ‘thinking’ more or less proceeds as follows:

• America invaded Iraq by ‘provoking’ Saddam into doing “something stupid.”  What was that, exactly?  Refusing to allow in weapons inspectors?  How did we ‘provoke’ him to refuse weapons inspection?

• In Avatar, the Na’vi are thus ‘provoked’ into committing something that is “called an atrocity.”  So is it an “atrocity,” Mr. Cameron … or isn’t it?  Does an atrocity become less of an atrocity if it’s provoked?

• The atrocity which isn’t actually an atrocity because it was provoked then becomes the pretext for the humans moving in and exploiting the Na’vi’s land.  Or something.

Did you get that?

By the way, I’d like all the people out there who still aren’t sure whether Avatar is a political film to please raise your hands – so Mr. Cameron can hand you some free, prune-flavored suckers.

Incidentally, Cameron says today that an Avatar sequel may not arrive in theaters until 2014.  What a relief.

Posted on August 23rd, 2010 at 12:51pm.