Entertainment Weekly posts a provocative dissection of the movie rating system from its June 22 edition online. Writer Mark Harris, prompted by the extreme and sexualized violence of Hostel II receiving an R rating, puts his finger firmly on some of the weaknesses of the rating system as it now exists: The hypocrisies of the… Read more »
Posts By: Patrick Corcoran
What do parents know about sex and violence?
June is Ratings Awareness Month, so it might be of interest to find out just how aware parents are of media ratings regarding sex and violence. The Kaiser Family Foundation, demonstrating excellent timing, has released a report detailing the findings of its survey Parents, Children & Media: A Kaiser Family Foundation Survey. They report that… Read more »
'I'm in favor of movie theft, except, you know, when it's bad'
The Hollywood Reporter reports that Michael Moore is backtracking somewhat from his support of bootlegging. You may recall he supported the idea of stealing movies for private use at Cannes and if you don’t, YouTube will remember it for you: He has a slightly different perspective now: “Every filmmaker intends for his film to be… Read more »
Filling seats in off-hours
One of the big hopes for digital cinema is the opportunity it provides for alternative content. If it can be digitized, it can be shown in a digitally-equipped movie theater. The L.A. Times takes a look at one of the early movers – Bigger Picture (a division of digital cinema aggregator AccessIT) – in what may… Read more »
'Sicko' clips on YouTube = entire film
As noted last week, Michael Moore’s documentary Sicko has been pirated and put on various p2p sites. Now it’s on YouTube. The Hollywood Reporter reports today that the entire film is available in bite-sized chunks. This was news to the Weinstein Company, which seemed rather sanguine about the whole affair: When sought for an official comment… Read more »