Movie Plot Holes

Posted on October 21, 2012 at 3:58 pm

As I walk to my car after a movie, I want to be thinking, “Oh…so when such-and-such happened at the beginning” or “When so-and-so made that comment” and figure out how the puzzle pieces all fit together. Too often, instead I am thinking, “Hey, wait a minute.” Most movies have some implausibilities or inconsistencies or way-too-convenient or coincidental, but some of them are really way out of whack. Huffington Post has a list of 19 of the biggest plot holes in movies, from some time-bending in “The Dark Knight Rises” to the question of who was there to hear Kane’s dying words in “Citizen Kane.”

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Understanding Media and Pop Culture

Breitbart Documentary Delayed Over Dispute with MPAA on the F-Word

Posted on October 10, 2012 at 9:28 am

A new documentary, “Hating Breitbart,” has delayed its release as the producers argue with the MPAA Ratings Board over the “f-word.” According to the Hollywood Reporter, the film about the late conservative provocateur and internet mogul Andrew Breitbart was originally given an R for language that includes various epithets and the use of the f-word by and about the controversial new media pioneer. They removed many of the f-words used by other people, leaving in four f-words used by Breitbart, and resubmitted the film, but were unable to persuade the ratings board to give them a PG-13. Director Andrew Marcus told the Hollywood Reporter, “I scrubbed everybody else’s use of the word except for four by Andrew, because it’s essential to who he was. He was passionate, and he wasn’t polished.” They cited other PG-13 films that had strong material as precedent, but the MPAA has always resisted appeals based on ratings given to other movies. Marcus says he will release the film next week with an R-rating if he is unable to get a PG-13.

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Understanding Media and Pop Culture

Won’t Back Down — Quote About Education from John Adams

Posted on September 30, 2012 at 2:12 pm

In the new movie “Won’t Back Down,” a teacher played by Viola Davis shares a quote about learning with her students. It is especially apt for them because it comes from the man for whom their school was named, John Adams, the second President of the United States. It comes from his 1765 “A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law,” well worth reading in full. Here it is, good advice for everyone:

Let us tenderly and kindly cherish, therefore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write.

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Understanding Media and Pop Culture

The Credits — New Website from MPAA

Posted on September 20, 2012 at 8:00 am

The Motion Picture Association has a fabulous new website called The Credits with trailers, features, and background information about movies and the people who make them. You can watch an interview with “Coal Miner’s Daughter” and The Up Series director Michael Apted or take a trivia quiz on 3D, hear about upcoming releases, extraordinary venues for watching movies, or even some insights into the way movies are marketed. Be sure to follow them on Twitter at @thecredits.

Vanity Fair Salutes Half a Century of James Bond

Posted on September 18, 2012 at 1:56 pm

Vanity Fair has a gorgeous tribute to 50 years of James Bond in the movies in the current issue. Despite the fact that his business partner told Bond creator Ian Fleming that “these books are not even good enough for television,” Albert “Cubby” Broccoli persisted and all of the “official” Bond films have been produced by Broccoli or his heirs. When President John F. Kennedy listed one of the books by Fleming as among his current favorites, the series took off. The glamorous and exciting Cold War-era spy sagas captivated readers around the world and inspired many imitations and parodies from “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” to Matt Helm, “Our Man Flint,” and “Get Smart.”

The story of how Sean Connery was discovered in a little-remembered Disney movie (“Darby O’Gill and the Little People”), the impact of the first film, “Dr. No,” with its shoe-stabbing villain and spectacular Bond girl beauty, Ursula Andress, rising from the ocean like a bikini-clad Aphrodite, and the ups and downs of the Bonds who followed makes for a great story that will make you want to watch the films all over again. Fortunately, Bond 50, the new DVD set, is coming out next week.

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Understanding Media and Pop Culture