Monday, September 21st, 2009

After watching Neill Blomkamp's District 9, I felt like I was watching something more important than the normal science fiction farce. Of course, the storyline is obviously full or allegorical connection to South Africa's former apartheid state. Blomkamp himself being a native of Johannesburg, South Africa and living in the country under apartheid definitely had his own images in comparing the treatment to the aliens as compared to the treatment of foreigners migrating to the country. So I was shocked a little today when the entire blogsphere was running this BBC News story on how Nigeria's Information Minister, Dora Akunyili has called for a ban of the film in Nigeria as well as an apology from the filmmakers for the portrayal of Nigerians as street thugs, prostitutes, criminals and/or cannibals. I'm kind of shocked, because I found an entire underlying theme of "environment dictates behavior". I think it is to be believed that the aliens were all like Christopher by nature, transformed by the brutal surroundings, using the comparison of the Nigerians, one of the real life sufferers of apartheid, as a comparison point, showing what the government had caused them to become to survive. Such a pity, it probably deserves to be seen by the very demographic it is being held from, as it would probably touch a little deeper than the rest of the western world in which it is being embraced.

I was slightly disappointed at the fact that Jennifer's Body didn't make its rounds to the local theater, despite being a for sure #1 at the box office in my mind. Wow, did I misjudge or what? The Megan Fox vehicle that is getting mixed reviews, and still looks very intriguing to me, landed at a measly fifth spot with just under $7 million. The Informant! landed the number two spot, despite being released limited with a little more than $10 million. However, topping the weekend with $30 million, the children's 3-D flick Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.

IWatchStuff posted a typically bizarre Japanese commercial for Panasonic which features a new clip from James Cameron's Avatar. The article also links to a new website for the upcoming highly anticipated film that I have yet to see, masquerading as a business/promotion site for the Resource Development Administration's AVTR program.

I read an awful article on Cinematical in which The Weinstein Company has given Twitter credit for Quentin Tarantino's latest Inglourious Basterds raking in over $100 million dollars at the box office. Please don't let this become a marketing norm.

Finally, the amazing featurettes from Wes Anderson's The Fantastic Mr. Fox keeps pumping out. The latest containing what author Roald Dahl's widow Felicity has to say about the film and how close it would be to Dahl's imagination.