Saturday, February 18, 2006
Reach Back Like A Pimp
Here at BP, we love entertainment. Games, TV, Movies, Bands; Anything that makes us forget the rest of the world for over an hour and a half and just enjoy the moment. But, you see, there's this little problem with entertainment lately. A whole lot of it just isn't entertaining. While the Gaming industry has managed to at least be fresh and creative, and the Music industry faces its own issues, the Film industry (along with TV) has pretty much been taking a dump on consumers for quite a while.
Hollywood hasn't put out much along the lines of decent films in recent memory. For at least the entire 21st Century so far, we've gotten nothing but pop-culture rehashes (Charlie's Angels, Dukes of Hazzard, Starsky and Hutch), juvenile parody (the Scary Movie series, Date Movie, Not Another Teen Movie), comic book/video game movies that don't quite cut the mustard (Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, Doom, The Incredible Hulk, Fantastic Four and all Batman films prior to Begins), and an endless stream of sequels who's sole purpose is to milk the living shit out of something that was barely a hit the previous year.
The movie critics aren't helping matters much, either. In fact, the respectable film critic is a rare monster these days. Personally, I rely on the discerning minds of the guys and gals at Hollywood Bitchslap. Found through an optional box on my Slashdot front page, I soon learned that these folks weren't screwing around. Honest reviews of 9/10 of the crap Hollywood dishes out. Coverage from all the major film festivals.
And features that expose Hollywood and their lackeys for what they are: Scheisters.
For the last 3+ years, HBS has run the Criticwatch: monitoring the quotes and sources for films ranging from the excellent to the just-like-all-the-other-crap crap. They've managed to expose a phony, imaginary critic used by Universal to plug movies on websites. They've introduced us to Earl Dittman, a writer for Wireless Magazine (a publication that's hard to find for the average Joe or Jane) who has become king of the Quote Whores in only three short years. They've even taken formerly respected publications like Rolling Stone and caught them red-handed with their fingers in the cookie jar, exchanging good blurbs for what amount to advertisments that were for the magazine as much as they were for the film they plugged.
Believe it or not, HBS has been somewhat passive in their efforts. But now, the gloves are off. Chris Parry, along with the super film sleuth skills of the one and only Erik Childress, are stopping the buck right here. They're going after the Studios, their Marketing monkies, and the Quote Whores head-on: Any movie that carries what they feel are tell-tale signs of shameless quote whoring will be tagged prominently as such in any and all material describing them. The bile and venom are about to boil over.
This is only one front on the war against Big Media. And while it may not seem important yet, I'm sure it will very soon. (Link)
Hollywood hasn't put out much along the lines of decent films in recent memory. For at least the entire 21st Century so far, we've gotten nothing but pop-culture rehashes (Charlie's Angels, Dukes of Hazzard, Starsky and Hutch), juvenile parody (the Scary Movie series, Date Movie, Not Another Teen Movie), comic book/video game movies that don't quite cut the mustard (Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, Doom, The Incredible Hulk, Fantastic Four and all Batman films prior to Begins), and an endless stream of sequels who's sole purpose is to milk the living shit out of something that was barely a hit the previous year.
The movie critics aren't helping matters much, either. In fact, the respectable film critic is a rare monster these days. Personally, I rely on the discerning minds of the guys and gals at Hollywood Bitchslap. Found through an optional box on my Slashdot front page, I soon learned that these folks weren't screwing around. Honest reviews of 9/10 of the crap Hollywood dishes out. Coverage from all the major film festivals.
And features that expose Hollywood and their lackeys for what they are: Scheisters.
For the last 3+ years, HBS has run the Criticwatch: monitoring the quotes and sources for films ranging from the excellent to the just-like-all-the-other-crap crap. They've managed to expose a phony, imaginary critic used by Universal to plug movies on websites. They've introduced us to Earl Dittman, a writer for Wireless Magazine (a publication that's hard to find for the average Joe or Jane) who has become king of the Quote Whores in only three short years. They've even taken formerly respected publications like Rolling Stone and caught them red-handed with their fingers in the cookie jar, exchanging good blurbs for what amount to advertisments that were for the magazine as much as they were for the film they plugged.
Believe it or not, HBS has been somewhat passive in their efforts. But now, the gloves are off. Chris Parry, along with the super film sleuth skills of the one and only Erik Childress, are stopping the buck right here. They're going after the Studios, their Marketing monkies, and the Quote Whores head-on: Any movie that carries what they feel are tell-tale signs of shameless quote whoring will be tagged prominently as such in any and all material describing them. The bile and venom are about to boil over.
This is only one front on the war against Big Media. And while it may not seem important yet, I'm sure it will very soon. (Link)
