Tuesday, January 5, 2010

BOOM! go the wingnuts!

This one's for Fixer and everybody else, including myself, who thinks any movie is terrific if it makes wingnuts' heads explode. A 'must read' if you're in that category, and you know you are.

LATimes

'Avatar' arouses conservatives' ire

For years, pundits and bloggers on the right have ceaselessly attacked liberal Hollywood for being out of touch with rank and file moviegoers, complaining that executives and filmmakers continue to make films that have precious little resonance with Middle America. They have reacted with scorn to such high-profile liberal political advocacy films as "Syriana," "Milk," "W.," "Religulous," "Lions for Lambs," "Brokeback Mountain," "In the Valley of Elah," "Rendition" and "Good Night, and Good Luck," saying that the movies' poor performances at the box office were a clear sign of how thoroughly uninterested real people were in the pet causes of showbiz progressives.

Of course, "Avatar" totally turns this theory on its head. As a host of critics have noted, the film offers a blatantly pro-environmental message; it portrays U.S. military contractors in a decidedly negative light; and it clearly evokes the can't-we-all-get along vibe of the 1960s counterculture. These are all messages guaranteed to alienate everyday moviegoers, so say the right-wing pundits -- and yet the film has been wholeheartedly embraced by audiences everywhere, from Mississippi to Manhattan.

To say that the film has evoked a storm of ire on the right would be an understatement. [...]

Perfect! Go...

I haven't seen the movie yet and I am chagrined that I will probably not get to see it in 3-D. The only 3-D movie I've ever seen was "Fort Ti" long enough ago that it makes me cry to think about it. I mainly remember ducking hundreds of arrows.

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