Disney, Church of Scientology, Spike Lee and ‘Miracle at St. Anna’?
What a strange comparison...
I am seeing Spike Lee’s Miracle at St. Anna in just under four hours. Considering it opens this Friday that is cutting it pretty close in terms of screening-to-publication ratio, which typically never bodes well for a film’s quality. To be fair I am not seeing Paramount’s Eagle Eye until tomorrow. However, Par isn’t pubbing Eagle Eye as an Oscar hopeful and ever since seeing the massive amount of TV spots for the film including critic quotes from Ben Lyons of all people I have grown rather wary of the film I have already added to “The Contenders“. Personally I think the trailer is phenomenal, but early word isn’t good and the 160-minute running time has been called into question.
The largest voice pummeling the film is Jeff Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere who admits he hasn’t even seen the film but is continuing his skepticism as Disney seems to have shut him out from a recent all-media screening. He also mentions how he was met with locked doors when it came to the screening of WALL•E and has now posted a new entry on his blog saying:
Honestly? It’s getting harder and harder to ignore the similarities between Disney publicity and the Church of Scientology.
Wells doesn’t explain his Scientology comment any further (which makes it all a little unfair) but just goes on to quote a negative review from Todd McCarthy at Variety, but that isn’t stopping him from drawing a line:
As soon as I saw that made-up-to-look-older black guy shoot that made-up-to-look-older white guy in the trailer, I said to myself, “That’s it… the movie is trouble.” I didn’t know a damn thing about it, but I knew. Trailers and ads do more to kill interest in movies than bad reviews. If there’s something wrong with a movie, the trailers will almost always tell you this.
Nevertheless, I am still anxious to see it. I thought the trailer looked fantastic and I remain optimistic even though it appears Disney/Touchstone is trying to hide it to some extent and keep any negative buzz mum until after the film’s release.
For more on the film including four clips click here.
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