bad news: 7/12
- Miscellaneous Bad News

-Just when AMC Theatres was beginning to impress with its endorsement guarantee of Cinderella Man two weeks ago, they turn their likeability upside down. The chain, America's second largest, has declined a booking agreement with THINKFilm for the The Aristocrats, an unrated documentary about "the dirtiest joke in the world" that the distributor picked up at this year's Sundance Film Festival. The decision is film-specific and in no way is based on the lack of MPAA rating (AMC is currently running unrated Indian films like Paheli and Parineeta), so the refusal is plain old censorship. [In unrelated news, I was denied employment by AMC Theatres today for, "not fitting their criteria at this time." They were not allowed to disclose the specific factors in their decision, but based on today's news I am better off not working for them. I have no desire to support them in any way.]

-It is a good bet that based on last weekend's business at the box office that Fantastic Four would get a sequel in the near future. The comic book adaptation, despite horrible reviews, earned more than anticipated and ended the media's obsessive inflation of the inconsequential 'box office slump'. If I were optimistic I'd point out that a sequel could be an improvement similar to X-Men 2 (the first X-Men looked as cheesy as Fantastic Four), but I'm not and I don't anticipate progress. Besides, I'd have to see the current release to compare.

The only good news (there's such a thing?) is that the MPAA no longer can use the 'slump'; as anti-piracy propaganda. Oh wait; Europe is now having similar box office woes. Is it time for another international summit on piracy, MPAA (I knew there was no good news)?

-The following bad ideas were announced this week:

sequels: Hollow Man 2; Road House 2 - Last Call; I Will Always Know What You Did Last Summer; Gladiator 2 (focusing on Dijmon Hounsou's character);

remakes: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (formerly announced but now on track with Owen Wilson); Summer School;

adaptations: The Time Traveller's Wife

Edited: Tan The Man