Steven Friedman: March 2007

Grindhouse in the European grinder

0 Comments Published by Steven Friedman on Saturday, March 31, 2007 at 3:52 PM.

Yeah, it sucks to be a movie geek in Europe sometimes. Well, most of the time actually. The latest installment of cinematic stupidity over here concerns the European release of Quentin Tarantino's & Robert Rodriguez' exploitation-fest Grindhouse.

Now, like most film enthusiasts, I've been looking forward to this experience for quite a while. Two raunchy, gory, deliciously campy exploitation flicks back-to-back, accompanied by faux trailers for even weirder and raunchier flicks... I mean; what could go wrong, right? Well, of course, everything can go wrong over here. In all their wisdom, Harvey and Bob Weinstein have decided that Europeans just won't 'get' that particular Grindhouse-vibe, calling for a downright slaughter of the film and a seperate release for Tarantino's Death Proof and Rodriguez' Planet Terror.

Ridiculous doesn't even begin to describe the level of idiocy that's gone into this decision. Releasing Death Proof and Planet Terror seperately undermines the entire concept of the film. And yes, I said 'the film', because that's exactly what it is: one single film, consisting of three elements; Planet Terror, the faux trailers and Death Proof.

I mean, I don't even understand this split from a marketing point of view. The lion's share of ticket buyers will consist of the fans, who have known about this project since its conception. I know, I'm one of 'em. Now taking away the entire 'raison d'etre' of this film and releasing the two films seperately will - and I have no doubt about this - lead to angry fans who are going to wait for the R1-DVD or worse, simply download the real thing off the internet and organize a Grindhouse-night of their own.

I know I'm not writing anything new here (I even started a Dutch petition against this split a couple of weeks ago), but with the first reviews coming out, and reading about this film being more of an 'experience' than an actual film-film... well, it angers the living shit out of me. Luckily enough though, today the entire faux trailer for Thanksgiving (by Eli Roth) came online. You can watch it here and wonder why it'll never grace Dutch cinema screens.

Just a quick Idol-update

0 Comments Published by Steven Friedman on Monday, March 26, 2007 at 12:48 AM.

Not that I want to turn this personal blog into one of those AI-fanpages, but here's my patented (not really) American-Idol-Ladder- to-Fame for this week. Can't really believe they gave Stephanie the boot. Is Votefortheworst to blame? Who knows. I'm just curious what Sanjaya will be singing this week.

Throw me the idol, I'll throw the whip

0 Comments Published by Steven Friedman on Sunday, March 11, 2007 at 8:50 PM.

So yeah, I'm a sucker for American Idol. Sue me. Come to think of it; they might, as I have to download that quirky show off the internets every week in order to watch it here in Holland. I know that hundreds (maybe thousands) of other Dutch AI-fans flock to their favorite Bittorrent- tracker every week to get the latest episode, but of course no Dutch broadcaster would ever consider to bring that ratings-behemoth to our television screens.

There actually is a Dutch version of the show, mind you, but considering the 'talent' that's been on there, I wouldn't recommend that to anyone with even half a functioning ear. No, I'll take American Idol over the Dutch version any day of the week. And I couldn't even call this show my guilty pleasure, as I don't feel guilty at all about watching - and enjoying it.

At the moment, season 6 is in full swing and the finals (where twelve contestants battle it out for the title of American Idol) are fast approaching. It's been quite a strange season up until now, with contestants who I thought were definitely going to make it to the finals (Bailey anyone?) being dismissed at an early stage and girls 'outsinging' the boys each and every week.

My personal favorites (in descending order): Melinda, LaKisha, Stephanie, Blake, Chris Sligh and Jordin. The first one to leave the finals? Mehopes that irritating Indian Fraggle Sanjaya Malaker, but methinks the totally uninspiring Haley Scarnato.

Anyway: a call to the guys over at ITunes: there's a lot of interest for the show over here (and you know people will get it anyway), so please make it available for ITunes-download.