radio Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Comic-Con 2009 is over and done with, and the word of mouth is that it's grown too big for its britches. Whether or not that's the case will be debated up until the Con's contract with the city of San Diego ends in 2012, but based on my view from the floor on both Wednesday's Preview Night and Saturday, the seams have definitely swelled to the bursting point.

Yesterday on KCRW's public radio show The Business, about the film industry, host Kim Masters spoke with American Original founder Jeff Katz about this year's Comic-Con. You can listen to the episode right here, and for people who have never been before, Katz paints a fairly lopsided picture from his point of view of the entire experience.

He calls Friday and Saturday the "biggies," ... this after a record crowd waited outside to get into Thursday's Twilight / New Moon panel starting on Wednesday, which also included James Cameron's Avatar and Disney's Hall H presentation. He also talks about studios clamoring for a piece of the fanboy pie, while looking to do the exact same thing himself.

With movies like Shoot 'Em Up ($39 million dollar budget, $12.8 million dollar gross in the US), Snakes on a Plane (massive internet buildup and then a huge flameout), and X-Men Origins: Wolverine (don't get me started) on his resume, he's positioning himself with his recently announced American Original (which he's self-dubbed a "nerd machine") entertainment company to try and pocket the geek dollar. Does he have his finger on the pulse of thirty-something nerdom, or is he just a wannabe blowhard?

Listen to the show and decide for yourself, while Comic-Con evolves and decides what it wants to be.

I remember once watching an interview with R&B superstar Patti LaBelle and when they asked her about the state of celebrity gossip and the paparazzi, this was her sage advice (and I'm paraphrasing): "If you don't want your picture taken sit your a** at home". Now normally I would agree with her, but when it comes to British 'It' girl, Sienna Miller, I don't think that particular rule applies, because if it did, she might never get to leave her house again. During a radio interview with Australia's Matt & Jo, the actress got a little testy when the topic of her alleged-boyfriend Balthazar Getty came up in the conversation (the interview, which you can listen to below, takes place at the beginning of the recording). It all started to go downhill when Miller took offense to some of the DJ's comments and called him a "d-bag" and "misogynist". But when Getty's name came up things went from bad to worse and the interview is cut painfully short.

Miller should know better than anybody the power of an unkind word, because from the moment she arrived on the scene as 'the other woman', the knives have been out. She's become a tabloid staple and has even had her home vandalized thanks to characterizations about her personal life. Unfortunately, her career has taken a back-seat to her love life, and she has yet to have a hit (critically or commercially). G.I. JOE was her first chance at a starring role in a big-budget action flick, and maybe finally to make a name for herself as something other than some married guy's girlfriend. But if this interview is any indication of Miller's future relationship with the press, I don't see them backing off any time soon. Listen to the interview below.



So what do you think? Was Miller out of line, or was it about time she said enough is enough?

NPR talked about the onslaught of children's films at the box office lately on Day to Day last Friday and wondered about the quality control going on behind the scenes. They interviewed film historian Charles Solomon, who comments that the scarcity of animated and children's films used to make them an important part of a childhood experience, but things have changed. These days, the sheer amount of films pile on so quickly that before you blink, three different animated movies have been released at the box office. Suddenly you're buying everything from Flushed Away action figures to Over the Hedge video games, but your kids aren't getting the same messages and experience that you had when you saw The Rescuers for the first time.

It's no secret that kid's movies can rake in a ton of dough; the studios are busy falling all over themselves trying to make them. It seems like as more get churned out, fewer of them that have great stories and characters. They'll just market the hell out of them so that every box of cereal, kid's TV show, and billboard is plastered with images of the upcoming film and your children will refuse to eat anything green or brush their teeth until you take them to see it.

Now, I love animated films probably more than an adult should, but the problem is pretty rampant with the films aimed at children that are being released today, as we posted about previously on Cinematical. The trouble is that for every Spirited Away released, there comes a slew of films like Happy Feet, Barnyard, and The Ant Bully. These films took some critical hard hits, but they've made bags of cash (the seemingly unstoppable juggernaut of Happy Feet has almost cleared $200 million already). Studios are more concerned with cranking out a product in a timely manner, even if it's sub-par and relies on fart jokes and recycled plots. As a result, quality children's entertainment is getting harder and harder to find. Parents may appreciate the fact that they can now take their kids to see a movie aimed at children almost any weekend now, rather than having to wait ... but at what cost?

What do you think, parents? Is the onslaught of animation worth the decrease in quality kiddie fare? Or is it enough just to be able to plunk your tot down for 90 minutes with a kiddie-pack combo, even if what they're seeing isn't quite up to the standards you remember from your own childhood hours at the movies?

The documentary Pirate Radio USA is an enjoyable if somewhat strident look at the world of pirate radio, in which do-it-yourself radio afficianados build their own (illegal) mini-stations and broadcast at ultra-low frequencies (called microcasting). The film strives to use pirate radio's legal difficulties to paint a larger picture about the disintegration of American rights and the influence of mainstream media and large corporations.

Pirate Radio USA is an unabashadly personal and partisan film --the filmmakers aren't afraid to appear on-camera to tell you what they think. Director and longtime radio pirate Jeff Pearson periodically narrates the film with help from Mary Jones on a stylized set that is actually a working pirate radio station, in their on-air personas of DJ Him and DJ Her. (The station set does not get raided by the FCC, which is fortunate but would have made the film even more interesting.) Pearson is engaging and amusing even when he gets a bit ranty about the FCC. He's got that Morgan Spurlock-style narration down pat.

The budget of Pirate Radio USA must not have been much bigger than that of one of the radio communities it profiles -- for example, cities are portrayed by crude yet cute plastic models. The Seattle model involves a big Starbucks coffee mug, of course. The models fit in nicely with the overall retro look and feel of the movie -- the filmmakers often use older stock footage in the public domain to illustrate their points, especially when discussing the history of low-frequency radio. (At Austin Film Festival, the documentary screened in the tiny theater at The Hideout, an independently owned coffeeshop, which provided the perfect setting.)

B-movie legend and all around amicable fella Bruce Campbell, currently on tour for his newest book Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way, would love to have his own radio show. Well, my only response is: put that man in front of a microphone and let him riff. His game show voice, sarcastic humor, and knack for never taking himself or Hollywood too seriously would make for an entertaining program. Actually, a Web-based radio show would be perfect for Bruce. Somebody should make that happen.