I Wish I Could Have Been In The Room

If you don't want to wade through all my ranting over the controversy pop over to Designopolis and just read about the movie posters. I was pretty mellow over there.

I don't really know where to begin with all this...maybe I should start with Monday...
Smodcast 67 came out Sunday/Monday morning. I think it was one of the better ones. They have been pretty "hit-or-miss" lately. If you are at all interested about advertising politics I recommend listening to it (keep in mind this Smodcast would most likely be rated R for language and graphic verbal depictions). But to get to the point this is one conversation I would have loved to have been in the room for. These guys were so passionate about what they were saying, and the point they were trying make. You could hear it in their voices that they were a little up in arms about the whole thing...as they should be.

The majority of the Smodcast belonged to discussing the advertising campaign for Kevin Smith's new movie, "Zack and Miri Make a Porno." Their first poster idea was shot down by the MPAA (which I am pretty sure was still used for Canadian advertising) but they came up with another ad campaign that was absolutely genius...here take a look.
So people are taking issue because the drawings are childlike. Others don't like the idea that the title has the word Porno in it. Some cities have gone as far to refuse to put up the advertising and some theatres have gone as far to refuse to play the movie.

This is where I start to get angry. I live in a 'burb of SLC, and SLC happens to have the ONLY movie theatre chain in the country that is refusing to show this film. Yes, the MPAA originally gave it an NC-17 rating, which Kevin fixed. First edited the film and when it still came back NC-17 he took it to the appeals bored which gave it an R. This movie really isn't any different than say "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" but because of the title (that is my opinion) people are freaking out. My anger is only fueled by the fact that the Megaplex Theatres (the theatre chain that is not showing the film) will show movies like Saw V, Grind House, etc. but refuses to show films Brokeback Mountain and Zack and Miri...

Kevin Smith is fucking fabulous film maker, and it is sad that people are being so scared and narrow minded over this funny film. It is a romantic comedy for crying out loud.

And for the record HSM 3 was first in the box office this weekend(2nd week running) followed by Zack and Miri. It knocked the Saw V out of the #2 spot and Zack and Miri is playing is 300 less theatres than the Saw. Furthermore Clint Eastwood's Changling had a soft open last week (15 theatres) this week it is playing is 1850 theatres and it came in at #4 in the Box Office Rankings. If you look at the Box Office #s the last month or so you'll see the family movie Beverly Hill Chihuahua held the #1 spot for two weeks. Max Payne went #1 for one week and HSM3 has been #1 for two weeks. Between politics, economics and war we want to laugh, feel good, and for the most part see happy fun things...so let us...