We try not to make a habit of cheering failure (really, honestly, promise, we don’t), but we couldn’t help getting a little warm and runny inside when Battleship laid a big egg at the beginning of the summer, since the movie beat is filled with tales of great movies that no one sees, and terrible turkeys that make a fortune. But occasionally, people just don’t go see a barking dog of a picture, and that can be good for all of us — not just because time isn’t wasted and incompetence isn’t rewarded, but because Hollywood is a town that takes its cues from what does well, so when a bad idea fails, more are less likely to follow. So today, in honor of Battleship’s DVD/Blu-ray release tomorrow, we’ll take a look at a dozen big-time bombs, and what the movie industry did or didn’t learn from them. … Read More
The Green Lantern
Open Thread: Does Comic-Con Matter?
If you read the movie blogs over the weekend, you read a whole lot about this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, the annual convergence of comic book fans, movie geeks, and the filmmakers who would like their money. This year’s slate boasted several big-name directors — including Steven Spielberg, Ridley Scott, Francis Ford Coppola, and Steven Soderbergh — as well as panels for such potential blockbusters as The Amazing Spider-Man and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn- Part 1. But there were also some conspicuous absences over the weekend, perhaps attributable to increasingly abundant evidence that a big splash at Comic-Con does not necessarily translate to big box office. Is Hollywood’s love affair with the convention waning? And should it? … Read More
Open Thread: Have Superhero Movies Gone Cold?
The Green Lantern, the third of this summer’s four huge potential-tentpole superhero comic book adaptations, opened over the weekend with a total box office take of $52.6 million — a sum that pretty much every movie site that comments on such things has deemed “disappointing.” Of course, only in 2011 Hollywood can generating over $50 million in three days be deemed a downer, but there ya go. However, hard on the heels of X-Men: First Class’s similarly “disappointing” $55 million opening two weeks back, it begs the question: are moviegoers, at long last, growing tired of superhero movies? … Read More
The Fug Report: Highs and Lows from the Week in Fashion
[Editor's note: Welcome to The Fug Report! Every Friday our fashion blogger friends Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan, the sartorial geniuses behind Go Fug Yourself, will feature some of their favorite looks of the week in this space. We hope you enjoy it!]
This week on Go Fug Yourself, we watched… Read More
Your Favorite Superheroes on Bikes
What if Spider Man rode around Queens on a bicycle made out of webs? Or Superman took to the streets of Metropolis on a heat vision bike? Maryland-based mountain biking enthusiast and illustrator Mike Joos has created a hilarious series of affordable posters that re-imagines some of our favorite superheroes on two-wheelers. (Note: If you’re not a comic book geek, he also has bike-themed prints featuring Cookie Monster, Hans Solo, and George Washington in his Etsy shop.) Click through for our favorites. … Read More
The 10 Links That Made Our Day
Today at Flavorpill, we were sad to hear that famed fantasy artist Frank Frazetta had died at 82. We felt uncomfortable listening to Andy Rooney rant about music world upstarts like Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, and Usher. We couldn’t believe that Poster Boy was sentenced to 11 months in jail. We were… Read More
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