Miramax may break from Disney

Roger Ebert once said about beating the MPAA rating system - "You can eat sh**, just don't say it."

Seriously, the MPAA is screwed up. The NC-17 rating is avoided like the plague because theaters won't play them and Blockbuster won't rent them out. Thus, scenes are cut to earn the R rating, which makes the film MORE ACCESSIBLE to children.

Not to mention, a film can be exceedingly violent and easily earn the R rating, but linger for more than a few seconds on a naked body and it gets slapped with the NC-17. Message: Sex bad, violence good.

On top of that... a PG rating is a death knell to a movie marketed to teens. That's why every PG-13-rated teen movie has exactly one usage of the F-word - because one F-word automatically earns the PG-13 rating, but doesn't make it an R (you need three F-words, or one used sexually, to do that).

It's ridiculous. I wrote a newspaper column on all this once...

Americans are a bunch of ****ing prudes. :) Personally I find ****ing to be a much more enjoyable act than shooting up a room and blowing **** up.

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Coaster Cruiser said:
My vote, if it does it's job, will cost the Disney Co. an estimated whopping $12m to buyout Mr. Eisner's contact. It doesn't expire until 2006, so ousting Mike before then will cost us, one way or another!

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Ousting Eisner, at virtually any price, will cost WAY less in the long run than keeping him on board....unless he becomes a sweeper at the Magic Kingdom.... :)

Jeff, well said, even if I had to "read between the lines"...;)

Just like TV ... sex bad, violence good.

I just don't get it - hopefully most people in the world never have to experience or see the kind of violence in TV and movies. On the other hand, hopefully, they'll get to experience the sexuality (and hopefully more than that) in said TV and movies ...

But yet, the violence is the one that basically isn't regulated, and the language and sex that a person will come across in the normal course of life anyway, IS. Blows my mind ...

It's probably all due to some lawyer who found a whiny person that made his or her fortune ... it all stems back to the legal profession ...

Den, while that's true that they were rated NC-17 by the MPAA, most were released as either "unrated" to theatres such as L.I.E. or they were sent to video as unrated. I know I saw an article that said Crash in 1997 was the last movie rated NC-17 to be released in theatres as that rating before The Dreamers. Maybe it's their mistake?

My favorite in the New Jersey Chronicles is Chasing Amy (love Joey Lauren Adams, love Affleck's speech in the car, love the drawings and comics, love the sincerity), but Dogma is a close second (followed by Clerks, J&SBSB, and Mallrats). Jersey Girl is out March 19th and I can't wait to see it either. If you're a Kevin Smith fan, don't miss An Evening with Kevin Smith. Here's the trailer for Jersey Girl: http://www.apple.com/trailers/miramax/jersey_girl/

I agree about the sex and violence thing Jeff, Den, and Brett.

-"I do love you and you know there is something very important we need to do as soon as possible."
-"What's that?"
-"f**k"

-Danny, Kubrick rules too :)

Kinda ticked at Joey Lauren Adams...sent her exit passes for R:UE, and she's NEVER redeemed them...

Americans have been prudes since the day they set foot on the Continent, and haven't really relaxed since then....Hester Prynne, anyone?

bill, didn't realize Kevin Smith was such a big fan of "fARk"....;)

Not fARk, Bill. f**k is the *other* spin-off from M*A*S*H that no one watched. ;)

Btw, Miramax (still a branch of Disney) hasn't been perfect lately either. Ed Wood: SE has been delayed indefinitely (should have been in my collection 2 weeks ago along with the 2.5-month delayed Kill Bill: Volume One), City of God DVD was delayed 4 months (ugh, I should have had it in my hands today!), Kill Bill was split into two parts like everyone knows and Volume 2 was delayed until mid-April at theatres.

Sure, maybe they want to market Ed Wood with "From the Director of Big Fish and starring Academy-Award Nominated Actor Johnny Depp" and they want to give City of God another chance at the theatre since it took in four Oscar noms (but who cares? LiT has been on DVD for a couple weeks and is still doing well in theatres).

The whole Kill Bill thing is a little messed up. 6 months between the two Matrix sequels certainly didn't help Revolutions. The Volume One DVD only has three days to go before Volume Two's opening now as opposed to a couple weeks when it was planned in February. What do I know though?

-Danny

KK.. you're wrong about Dogma being the target. Soon as Lion's Gate picked it up they flack it cught died to almost nothing. Trust me I was involved with it at the time. Was at the world premiere and private screenings of it.

Once again, I hate doing this, I have to agree with Jeff that Dogma is Kevin's best film, however it's not the best film to come out of Viewaskew. If you've never seen Vinnie's "A Better Place", you're missing out.

.. and this is coming from someone who has been an extra in 2 of Kevin's movies.

As for the Max's DVD releases, you'd be surprised how far up the food chain come of these decisions have gone. Miramax leaving or Harvey taking eveyone with him would be the best thing for them. Hands down.

Shameless plug - Taken at the Dogma premiere in Red Bank. *** Edited 2/17/2004 9:17:48 PM UTC by Red Garter Rob***

Dogma isn't a bad film in the least and it's not *that bad* to agree with Jeff, LOL. Dogma and Chasing Amy get four out of four stars from me, I just slightly prefer the love story (it's my second most watched DVD after Lilo & Stitch). IMDb shows Chasing Amy as having a 7.6/10 average and Dogma with a 7.3/10, so I wouldn't say one is extremely preferred over the other. If you've never seen Vulgar... stay far, far, far away. :)

It's not Disney's fault if they're more harshly targeted than another company anyways. They were going to release it through Miramax and if I were them, I wouldn't have cared. I know they want to avoid conflict and all that though, so I guess why they just let it go. Maybe people stopped caring when it went to a smaller studio since they thought it wouldn't be as fiercely marketed or widely seen (at that time, people that Lion's Gate may even be going under and they thought the built-up contriversy around Dogma may help them out in getting an audience). Who knows? But explain The Passion of the Christ then? Disney isn't behind that.

Newmarket, Lion's Gate, Fox Searchlight, and Miramax all release risky films, so its not a big deal for most releases and the studios that don't have a huge parent company like Disney have an easier time in doing whatever they want. There was even a rumor that New Line (Boogie Nights, Bastetball Diaries) might pick it up if Lion's Gate couldn't market and get it released, but that was said to be totally false and no other studios really wanted Dogma on their hands. LG still wanted to follow up the also hard to market but successful Gods and Monsters with something like Dogma and they did a good job with it.

It helped them get to the point now where they can release bigger movies like The Cooler (several acting awards nominations this year at various events-1 AA nom), Girl with a Pearl Earring (various awards including 3 Oscar noms), and Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights. They're definitely hit and miss though with recent hits being Cabin Fever (bloody good fun), Confidence (great performances), and House of 1000 Corpses (another risky picture it seemed no one wanted- I wasn't a fan) and misses being House of the Dead (one of the worst movies ever- why did they pick this up again?) and Wonderland (weird, but good and a little overlooked).

Dogma still got released, so it doesn't matter now and movies like. At least Disney didn't put it in a can and lock it in a vault never to be seen. It was all silly anyways. How do you take a movie with a poop monster *that* seriously? ;)

I know the Kill Bill and City of God decisions came directly from Miramax (Harvey/Quentin for KB). Not sure about Ed Wood (forgot about adding Bill Murray as a nominee too-possible winner).

-Danny *** Edited 2/17/2004 10:09:06 PM UTC by Koaster King***

Saw Vulgar... Bryan insists that Brian was "method" acting during a few key scenes.. ;)

Edited and added some stuff about Lion's Gate and other things. Vulgar was just disturbingly awful from what I remember (saw it 3 years ago), although some people claim it has hints of greatness. Uhh, I'm too scarred to watch it again. I think I watched this, George Washington, and Gummo the same night. That can really ruin a 16 year old, LOL! ;)

-Danny

Den-that's the whole reason to lurk on the boards until after 1am; to get the jump on all the other smart***es.;)

And I couldn't agree more with sentiments expressed about Dogma, one of my all-time top favorites.

Working in movie theatres for almost 20 yrs now, I'm constantly surprised and outraged at our societal standards. At any given R-rated bloodbath, there are numerous parents who want to drop their kids off with permission to see the film, without accompanying their kids. they say "Oh they've seen all the Nightmares and Friday the 13ths..." and go on about how they shouldn't be required to go in with their kids. And I'm not talking about teenagers; these kids are like 9, 10 & 11 year-olds. But should the movie have even a flash of nudity, or portray any tenderness of sexuality, they won't let their kids see it at all, period. Makes you wonder...

Oh, and don't feel to horrible for the Weinsteins this Oscar season; Miramax may not be in the running, but Bob and Harvey are still in the best picture race as executive producers of "LOTR:ROTK".

Miramax also co-produced Master and Commander with Fox, Universal, and Samuel Goldwyn Films, so I don't know what all the crying is about from Miramax. Cold Mountain is something that the Academy would usually fall for whether its a great film or not (I've heard mixed things, but I'm surprised it didn't get a screenplay nom since I hear its faithful to the book).

CM still got 7 nominations, 2 in acting categories (three of the BP nominees didn't even get an acting nom!!?), so its not that bad for Miramax even if 3 are music-related. I think Renee has a good chance of winning Best Supporting Actress even though Hunter and Gay Harden are excellent in Thirteen and Mystic River and CM won the Best Score BAFTA, so they have a chance at that as well. The Sting song could take a surprise win of Into the West, but I doubt it. Jude has no chance at Best Actor as Penn and Murray are neck-and-neck and if a surprise is pulled, it will be from Depp. Miramax also got 5 noms they didn't really expect for City of God and Barbarian Invasions (the Best Foreign Film nom was though).

They'll probably be pushing for Scorsese's The Aviator for the 2005 Oscars.

-Danny (go Mystic River ;)) *** Edited 2/18/2004 12:05:20 AM UTC by Koaster King***

Searchlight put out Kissing Jessica Stein. I love that movie, and the fact that two chicks are getting it on was only a secondary reason.

.. on a side Miramax/Smith news...

Miramax announched this morning that Kevin Smith will write and direct the "Green Hornet" movie. Miramax bought the rights form Universal for the property a little while ago for about 3 mil. When it was at Universal, George Clooney was attached to it for the role of The Green Hornet and Jet Li for Kato. Kevin has expressed his interest in using both.

Too bad I am not a big fan of George Clooney. He is ok. I did like a couple of his movies though. Though I dont picture him as the Green Hornet. But Jet Li would more than makeup my wishy washy feelings about George Clooney. Either way I would go see it. Heck I saw Ben Affleck in Daredevil even though I dont care for him either. LOL!

I do think Kevin Smith will do wonders for the Green Hornet film though. The only movie of his that I have seen that I did not care for was Clerks. It was just that I did not get it and it was not that funny to me. Oh well. Cant please everyone all the time.

How about a Green Hornet - the ride? hmmm.....

The last time GC donned the tights and cape, things did not work out so well. But everyone deserves a second chance. In that spirit, lets see Chris O'Donell as the Silver Surfer and Alicia Silverstone as Wonder Woman!:)

I just assume never see Chris O'Donnel in anything ever again, thanks!

Clooney was the bomb in O Brother.

I agree Jeff.. That movie actually holds a special place in my heart and is actually linked to this site in a wierd way..

Weird.. we need to stop agreeing on things.. The world will end.. ;)

"O Brother" is second only to "Fargo" in the Coen Bros. collection. And I have to admit it, George Clooney is quite a good actor. See Ocean's 11, Three Kings, Out of Sight, etc.