Brad & Angie Book it Outta Bilbao

56 Milli | 06/24/2007 at 6:26 pm

To Not a Fan :

Aniston as Angie’s style inspiration? PLEASE!!!! Angie has her own style which is so chic. I don’t see bleached blond curtain hair anywhere near her face.
********************************
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

The movie tanked!

Hey…Lala…those were the Jen years. You know sitting around having fun…looking cute. Thank god he left. Look where he is now and how much more he has grown…
now STFU…

uke-chan, ITAWU. read somewhere once that in cannes, most asian films and art house european films are favored over the american films. nothing against american films because there are great ones out there that are my favorite (only have the classics and indies to look at), but it does say a lot when sutdios are obsessed with numbers, such as the budget. my cousin who is going to film school once asked me what made hollywood films different from european ones. before i could say something, he said that hollywood films tend to be more about everything big–big budget, big blockbuster, big special effects–and less on plot. with european films, they build up on the plot and the characters. generally speaking, it would seem that way.

Angelina has always dressed this way with her work with the UNHCR. It’s aniston with her flip flop Malibu culture that is copying Angelina. Angelina wears it best because she has that long lean ballerina body that is chic. Whenever she is in the Middle East or Eastern Europe or in the subcontinent, she wears pashmina shawls. She even used a pink pashmina for Shiloh’s blanket.

I’ve never seen Angelina in typical LA type gear. She’s more European in that way.

Brad has his own style too. Not the typical American either wearing that hat. Although he did used to wear baseball caps, but for a midle aged man to wear a baseball cap…..I don’t know.

Her Majesty- like many of the sheep in Hollywood - has decided to flex her brain cells and prove she’s a “deep thinker” by insisting that Paramount ban the entire Fox News network from covering the premiere of her new film. This was obviously inspired by the success that extreme left wing political groups recently had in convincing Democratic presidential candidates not to appear on Fox News in a forthcoming debate - a bizarre, self-defeating decision that will exclude their arguments from the widest possible audience. One would think that any candidate for president would have enough confidence in their own abilities to over-ride any perceived “spin” a network might put on their words. Republican candidates recently appeared on a debate on MSNBC, a network that has been accused of being as biased against the GOP as Fox News is alleged to be for the party. Apparently Her Majesty Angelina can’t quite summon similar “courage” unless it is with journalists from magazines that engage in bidding wars for the rights to photograph her children. (Jolie maintains the proceeds are donated to charity.)

It is not our intention to judge the merits or faults of Fox News. We’ve got plenty of personal criticisms about the network, as we do with any other news network. Suffice it to say that all are guilty of pandering to celebrities like Her Majesty and coming perilously close to being indistinguishable from Access Hollywood. Brave journalists on every network risk their lives daily - as Daniel Pearl did - to bring audiences the truth about the world’s most dangerous places. Imagine how they feel when their reports are bumped to make room for Paris Hilton’s motorcade to prison or Anna Nicole Smith’s funeral procession.

Whether you think Fox News is carrying the water for the Bush administration is irrelevant in this case.
Love or loathe Fox News (and there are plenty of people in both camps), it is absolutely chilling that an entire news network- albeit it the highest rated cable news network in the nation - would not be allowed to cover a friggin’ movie premiere because it affects the sensibilities of an actress who did not even finance the damned thing. This behavior should be equally outrageous to both liberals and conservatives. It’s Hollywood hypocrisy at fever pitch and Her Majesty Angelina obviously isn’t such a deep thinker that she can consider the embarrassing irony of her demand. She has been paid many millions of dollars to star in a film about a man so dedicated to freedom of the press that he died a horrendous death to pursue these beliefs. Yet, Her Majesty spits on his memory by excluding individual reporters, photographers and journalists from an entire news network just because she disagrees with how their mangement covers political stories. Ironically, the premiere of her new film benefited Reporters Without Borders, an international organization designed to fight censorship against journalists! This led to the embarrassing scenario of Reporters Without Borders’ editorial director Jeff Julliard having to condemn Her Majesty’s actions - even though the premiere of her movie benefited his organization. How could he do otherwise without relegating the mission of his group to being a sick joke?

Like many pampered stars, Her Majesty Angelinia feels that freedom of speech only extends to her and those who are in lockstep with her beliefs. To Paramount’s credit, the studio finally stood up to Her Majesty and overrode her demand - and even more encouragingly, most of the journalists present expressed outrage at the terms and conditions, forcing Her Highness to cancel print interviews rather than explain why she gave a press conference and nobody came. It should be noted that whatever criticisms one can make of Fox News’ political coverage, it does not extend to all aspects of their operation. Fox News recently gave enthusiastic reviews not only to Her Majesty’s A Mighty Heart but also to Michael Moore’s new film, Sicko which takes aim at the sorry state of the American health care system. Moore veers so far to the left, it’s doubtful he can even make a right turn in his car. In fact, the network’s controversial star commentator Bill O’Reilly has spoken glowingly of Her Majesty and her admirable fund raising efforts for charity. However, it’s unlikely Her Majesty knows such bothersome facts. If she’s like some of the Hollywood elite, she gets her facts second-hand from idealogues in her sphere of influence who present her with the day’s “news” culled from web sites put up by fringe elements and conspiracy nuts in the tin-foil hat brigades.

This type of outrageous behavior might at least be understandable if the person making such demands was a genuine star. However, Her Majesty Angelina’s name over the title on A Mighty Heart will not put bums in seats. Jolie is one of those celebrities who is an omnipresent fixture on the covers of supermarket tabloids and junkpile weekly magazines. However, the cover price of these rags seems to be the financial high water mark that her fans are willing to spend to pay homage to Her Majesty. With the exception of the spy movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith which was successful, consider her other films of recent years: The Good Shepherd, Alexander, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Taking Lives and Beyond Borders. Never saw most of them? We’d be amazed if you’ve even heard of some of them. Each one was a box-office disappointment at best or an outright flop at worst. Even the Tomb Raider films that were designed to be a studio tentpole series petered out after the second movie. It’s as likely we’ll see a new Howard the Duck movie as Her Majesty’s next Tomb Raider appearance. It isn’t Her Majesty’s fault these films failed: she is an excellent actress and a truly stunning screen presence. However, she has not earned the kind of clout that the likes of Marilyn Monroe had in order to back up her peculiar and bizarre demands. Jolie has accomplished one astounding feat, however: she has managed to unify voices from the political left and right who are outraged over her insulting treatment of a nation’s free press.

The only thing about Brad and Angelina that should be hated is ….
Brad’s hat :)

We are not attempting to pass judgment on A Mighty Heart. We haven’t seen it yet, but are well aware it is probably a very worthwhile film and deserving of the high praise it has been earning. It is also probable that the box-office gross will be in line with Her Majesty’s previous films and Paramount will be lucky to cover the price of her royal press junket. We give the studio full credit for financing an important film even though it won’t play well with the Will Ferrell crowd -but Her Majesty Angelina should show a bit of self-awareness and realize that she works for an industry that is indisputably cruel and unfair to actresses. It won’t be long before she commits the unpardonable sin of reaching middle age. The good roles will dry up and Her Majesty will find herself being treated as unceremoniously as her role model, Marie Antoinette, tossed from power when she fell from favor. In a way, Her Majesty will suffer a fate every bit as undesirable as that of the French queen: she will be ignored and deemed inconsequential. She will strive for the attentions of the same reporters she has willingly insulted today and will bemoan the fact that she finally has the privacy she claims she has desired so much. She might even end up testing for sitcom pilots in hopes of landing a steady gig - probably on Fox. -Lee Pfeiffer

Thanks Alex. I hope to see this two at the Oscars. When Babel opened it made $5.9 million and it has gone on to make $135 million or more worldwide with many award nominations. I hope AMH follow suit.

Saw the movie but I was kind of disappointed, I don’t mind Angelina, that is why I went to watch for the opening weekend but simple advice, wait for the DVDs, it isnot worth the cinema. Accent is to bothrsome and even tires you the person watching.

105 Longtime Fan/Lurker | 06/24/2007 at 6:52 pm
Hey…Lala…those were the Jen years. You know sitting around having fun…looking cute. Thank god he left. Look where he is now and how much more he has grown…
now STFU…
———————————————–I so agree. I really don’t understand why this chick was posting all those old interviews in the first place, methink she is nothing but a hater

I’m coming out from lurking to say this. I’m still a Jen fan, but our fan base is clearly off, too. I have nothing against Angelina because I give her the benefit of the doubt. It’s annoying to read when bad things are said about Jen because I adore her, but I’ve also read our side of the argument, and we also have a big role in turning people on to Angelina. We’re being as judgmental as the Brad and Angelina fans. I started thinking more about this after reading the interview with Sean Smith and realize that we should all just be happy for everyone, particularly for women of success.

Pearl film is a ‘Mighty’ disappointment
By Michael Sragow
Sun Movie Critic
Originally published June 22, 2007
C+

A Mighty Heart has the surface tension of a first-rate docudrama but neither the passion nor the vision to encompass its powerhouse subject, the kidnapping and execution of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

This Karachi, Pakistan-set drama begins to unfold after Sept. 11 and ends in early 2002. You can guess why the producers asked Michael Winterbottom to direct it. This versatile, dizzyingly erratic British filmmaker brought a riptide realism to In This World (2003), his potent, topical tragedy about the plight of Afghan refugees.

But Winterbottom’s fly-on-the-wall, naturalistic style doesn’t serve the more complex tale of Danny Pearl, an open, adventurous and responsible man trying to illuminate a world shut in every way - that of Islamic-extremist terrorism.

In flashback, Winterbottom celebrates the marriage of Pearl (Dan Futterman) to warm, stalwart Mariane (Angelina Jolie), the French-raised daughter of an Afro-Cuban mother and Dutch father. In the present-tense action, he touches on the dangers of well-meaning Westerners negotiating alien environments.

But, if you’re familiar with the story, the movie whizzes by without leaving you with fresh revelation or insight. If you don’t know it, all Winterbottom presents is a series of facts leavened with small, tight emotions.

Winterbottom wrings momentary suspense from the divided loyalties among Pakistani law enforcement agents. And you can’t help but gasp at the oscillations in the terrorists’ camp after they learn Danny is Jewish or be appalled by the suspicions roused by Danny and Mariane’s host, Asra Q. Nomani, in the Pakistani press and street, simply because she is Indian. (A reporter herself, she was a colleague of Danny’s at the Journal.) But these fleeting tensions generate no cumulative impact. They don’t emerge from some larger view of geopolitics, journalism or the fragility of life in the current millennium. The movie fails even as an ensemble piece about a failed search-and-rescue mission because Winterbottom never catalyzes any deep or dynamic group chemistry. When Danny’s caring, committed Wall Street Journal colleagues break the tension with small talk, they come off as superficial characters - not because they are, but because Winterbottom doesn’t reveal the soulfulness behind their hard work and humane gestures.

Written after the Afghan war began and before the start of the Iraq war, Mariane’s book, A Mighty Heart, casts her supporters in a valiant light. In the movie, though, Winterbottom’s tone is so neutral that when a heroic Pakistani cop known as Captain (Irrfan Khan) watches the physical abuse of a suspect, you wonder whether the director means to imply that torture fosters atrocities like Danny’s kidnapping. And Winterbottom depicts American security expert Randall Bennett (Will Patton) as a man who may enjoy hunting evil-doers way too much.

Futterman, the actor best known as the screenwriter for Capote, is spot-on physical casting for the bright, twinkling-eyed Danny. But the movie gives him little chance to convey the exuberance, imagination and sensitivity that inform Pearl’s best prose and radiate through photographs and film clips of the real man. Indeed, the most glaring flaw is that in the movie, “a mighty heart” seems to refer to Mariane, not Danny. The movie is about her bravery, perseverance and Buddhism-fueled inner calm. Jolie is good at embodying all that, and she makes the most out of her one soul-crushing shriek of anguish. But she can’t keep the film from falling into a bad case of heroine worship.

About a year ago, an 80-minute documentary called The Journalist and the Jihadi: The Murder of Daniel Pearl drew a telling parallel between the plot’s victim and its mastermind. Both Pearl, an American Jew of Israeli-Iraqi origins, and Omar Sheikh, a British Muslim of Pakistani descent, boasted vast opportunities to bridge gaps between subcultures in their respective democracies.

Sheikh rejected those opportunities, but Pearl realized them fully, becoming known as “Danny of Arabia” because of his desire to disseminate the hidden stories and cultural riches of the Islamic world. In The Journalist and the Jihadi, unlike in A Mighty Heart, the political and the personal become one. Tears blur your vision when you witness Mariane saying that, as a Cuban-Dutch Buddhist raised in France, she appealed to Danny because he wanted to be “a universal man.” The documentary gives us moments of poignant poetry. Even at its best, the feature film is merely journeyman prose.

>>>A Mighty Heart (Paramount Vantage) Starring Angelina Jolie, Dan Futterman, Irrfan Khan, Will Patton. Directed by Michael Winterbottom. Rated R. Time 103 minutes.

michael.sragow@baltsun.com