You’re looking at now,” intones Col. Sanders in one of the many classic scenes from Mel Brooks’ Spaceballs. Dark Helmet is looking for Lone Star and his friends and so is reviewing a videotape of the movie they’re in the middle of making to find a clue. It’s a funny bit of fourth-wall breaking that … Continue reading Right Now Versus Nostalgia: What the Soundtracks for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Suicide Squad Tell Us About Each Film’s Target Audience
Picking Up the Spare: Moana, Lion, Suicide Squad
Moana Disney worked with Code.org to create a special Moana-themed coding tutorial meant to encourage kids, particularly girls, to get into learning about programming and software development using the Skitch language. That's available online and there are going to be special events at Apple stores between December 5th and 11th. The studio was the first … Continue reading Picking Up the Spare: Moana, Lion, Suicide Squad
Picking Up the Spare: Birth of the Nation, Suicide Squad, Ghostbusters
The Birth of the Nation My friend Scott Smith sent me the picture above of the "Nat Turner Lives" outdoor billboard on the south side of Chicago. The movie didn't fare well at the box-office, and "Why?" has spurred a thousand hot takes about it movie from the standing ovation it received at Sundance earlier … Continue reading Picking Up the Spare: Birth of the Nation, Suicide Squad, Ghostbusters
Picking Up the Spare: Hell or High Water, Suicide Squad, Ghostbusters
Ghostbusters A really interesting op-ed at The Ringer about how the really weird expectations for Ghostbusters are informing the (reported, not confirmed) reality that it won't get a sequel because the movie didn't shatter records. I firmly believe the same narrative plays out much differently for movies with a male cast all the time since … Continue reading Picking Up the Spare: Hell or High Water, Suicide Squad, Ghostbusters
After the Campaign: Suicide Squad
As I've noted here and there in Picking up the Spare posts, the narrative that has built up around Suicide Squad that it's just a mess, the result of a rushed script and production schedule and all sorts of studio tinkering. To what extent all that is or isn't true, the finished product isn't as bad … Continue reading After the Campaign: Suicide Squad
Picking Up the Spare: The Angry Birds Movie, Suicide Squad, Pete’s Dragon, Sausage Party
The Angry Birds Movie Sony Pictures used Snapchat's new Snap Ads to promote the movie's home video release during the Olympics. Suicide Squad More post-mortem on the movie's mixed response, with this Variety op-ed basically saying movie marketing needs to quit fooling people into seeing bad movies just because they're part of a franchise or … Continue reading Picking Up the Spare: The Angry Birds Movie, Suicide Squad, Pete’s Dragon, Sausage Party
Picking up the Spare: Suicide Squad, X-Men: Apocalypse
Suicide Squad Kim Masters has a great piece in The Hollywood Reporter that chronicles the travels of the movie through studio bureaucracy and the issues that came up at all levels. It's a cautionary tale for how studios announce release dates years in advance with no solid plan in place to actually hit that date. … Continue reading Picking up the Spare: Suicide Squad, X-Men: Apocalypse
Movie Marketing Madness: Suicide Squad
Want to get Movie Marketing Madness via email? Sign up here. Then connect with MMM on Twitter and Facebook. Comic books are filled with high-premise, ridiculously unreal stories. The format is basically built on them. You have to believe that a billionaire playboy would decide that wearing a bat suit was the best way to … Continue reading Movie Marketing Madness: Suicide Squad
