The best web site to follow the box office evolution of Valkyrie is Mojo.
We can see here that with $8.12, not only Valkyrie maintains its position well, but it has lost only 2.7% compared to the preceding day. Of the four leaders, it is the one who lost public interest less, which means it is catching up a bit. Compare this with Brad Pitt losing 13.6% (but still remaining 2nd).
PS - With 2,758 theaters showing Valkyrie, it only comes in 7th position. This is 923 theaters less than Adam Sandler, and 722 less than Aniston. Counted by theater, Cruise would be 3rd rather than 4th.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
The Not So SO-SO and the X Factor Combined
User ratings on Mojo are interesting, because the breakdown shows what I was writing about the fact that the film was no so so-so after all, and what I was writing about the "X factor".
Indeed, the breakdown after 157 votes is as follows:
As: 82 52.2%
Bs: 21 13.4%
Cs: 6 3.8%
Ds: 5 3.2%
Fs: 43 27.4%
See? The votes in the so-so (B) category are a minority. Most of the votes go in the A class , but because of important votes in the F category, the overall rating gets pulled down to B.
I have little doubt that part of the reasons for the F vote are due to the X factor.
In reality, the real film value would probably be around 8 rather than 7, where it currently is.
Indeed, the breakdown after 157 votes is as follows:
As: 82 52.2%
Bs: 21 13.4%
Cs: 6 3.8%
Ds: 5 3.2%
Fs: 43 27.4%
See? The votes in the so-so (B) category are a minority. Most of the votes go in the A class , but because of important votes in the F category, the overall rating gets pulled down to B.
I have little doubt that part of the reasons for the F vote are due to the X factor.
In reality, the real film value would probably be around 8 rather than 7, where it currently is.
Users Reviews - a Solid 7
Users reviews continue on the trend predicted..
Though Metacritic went from 7 to 6.5 after 8 more votes (for a lowly total of 20), Rotten Tomatoes has it at 7.5 with 160 reviews, and IMDB at 7.1 after 1,424 votes.
It could be said, thus that user reviews are a solit 7 so far.
Though Metacritic went from 7 to 6.5 after 8 more votes (for a lowly total of 20), Rotten Tomatoes has it at 7.5 with 160 reviews, and IMDB at 7.1 after 1,424 votes.
It could be said, thus that user reviews are a solit 7 so far.
A Dog Beats Hitler
How come nobody told me that Marley was A DOG?They were only talking about Jennifer Aniston. Is that fair? I think not... I didn't even know Owen Wilson was in the cast!
I love dogs (and animals in general). See? My logo is a dog...
I now saw the trailer and I must admit I too would have gone rushing to that film, leaving Cruise and Hitler far behind in a split second with no hesitation.
Anyway, I'll have to wait a while to see either before it gets to this part of the world.
Tom Cruise's Leaked Video 7th on 2008 YouTube Chart
The Huffington Post has compiled what it thinks is "YouTube's Best Of 2008: Top Ten (VIDEO)", arrived at "by combining the number of times viewed, newsworthiness and hilarity".
The leaked Tom Cruise video is 7th.
All the other videos I don't know about, which shows how truly lost in space a Belgian I am...
The leaked video is also part of the Top 10 viral video time wasters of thestar.com, together with... rickrolling!
The leaked Tom Cruise video is 7th.
All the other videos I don't know about, which shows how truly lost in space a Belgian I am...
The leaked video is also part of the Top 10 viral video time wasters of thestar.com, together with... rickrolling!
but the best use – and another sign of the crossing lines between the web and the real world – was the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, which had a real-life "Rick Roll," with a surprise appearance by the English crooner himself, atop a float, breaking into his own song.Other potentially interesting tops:
Beck Youthless
Dailyrecord.co.uk lists what is apparently a new release from Beck today. It is unclear whether this is a new CD entirely or if its the single release of one of the music critics' favorite track of Modern Guilt:
BECK YOUTHLESS Slacker hero Beck - despite reportedly having turned to Scientology - releases a typically funk-filled affair. Offbeat handclaps and simple guitar arrangements make this one of his most sparse sounding offerings in years. All the better for it too.PS - Beck have not "turned to Scientology". He "grew up in and around it".
Beck on Best-of Charts for 2008
Beck, second generation Scientologist and 2009 Grammy Award nominee for "Best Alternative Music Album", had his album "Modern Guilt" listed on several best-of 2008 charts this month, including the Rolling Stone's Top 50 Albums Of 2008, where he holds the number 8 spot:MTV News Staff Favorites Of 2008: Sabrina Rojas Weiss’ Top 10
4. Beck, Modern Guilt: I love the retro, melodic sound of this album. Booty-shaking Beck is so much better than experimental or mopey Beck.Capecodonline: The year's best pop music
8. "Modern Guilt," Beck (Interscope): Lyrically dark, but juiced by the lighthearted touch of producer Danger Mouse, Beck's latest gets off to a great start (the five opening tracks add up to the best first half of any of the year's releases), but fizzles after that. iPod pick: "Chemtrails"Joan Anderman's top CD picks of 2008
BECK, "Modern Guilt" (Interscope) Maybe we've become a little too accustomed to great Beck records, because the artist's latest - a shimmering and uncharacteristically emotional collection - came out to little fanfare this summer. It's worth a spin or 10, if only for the heady collision of technology and humanity.USA Today: Our critics' picks of 2008
4. Modern Guilt, Beck. Dizzying Beck-fest of retro pop, folk, electronica and surf rock.thenewstribune.com: Critic’s picks: Top 10 albums of 2008
1. “Modern Guilt,” Beck: Beck and producer Brian “Dangermouse” Burton team up for a lean 33 minutes that celebrates their love of both ’60s pop and hip-hop. Now middle-age and obviously reflecting on his own mortality, the normally quirky Beckster delivers some of his darkest lyrics to date – darker even than 2002’s melancholy masterpiece “Sea Change.”The Glide 20: Our Top Albums of 2008
He channels new millennial dread on the title track, a bluesy nod to the Doors’ “People Are Strange.” He makes global climatic catastrophe sound like a rowdy go-go party on the infectious “Gamma Ray” and even briefly ponders suicide on weepy album closer “Volcano.”
But the haunting high point is psych-rock epic “Chemtrails,” with Beck donning an eerie falsetto as he sings about seas of humanity “swallowed by evil.” Long-time collaborator Joey Waronker puts on one hell of a drum clinic.
This was a killer walk-off number when Beck headlined at Bumbershoot this year.
Its been awhile since Beck’s name made it onto any ‘best of’ lists, but his latest, Modern Guilt (co-produced with Danger Mouse) puts him back in the limelight with more solid production, novel beats and interesting lyrics. Traveling down some diverse sound avenues, his latest effort gains low-end strength in the bass heavy rhythms of "Orphans," "Gamma Ray" and "Youthless,” but shifts all the way to ethereal madness in “Chemtrails.” If this was Beck’s debut record, he’d be the wet spot of the blogosphere, but seeing as it’s his eighth, this veteran gem could easily be overlooked.stuff.co.nz: The Top 25 Albums of 2008
17. Modern Guilt - BeckWill Amacher: The Ten Best Albums of 2008
At just 10 tracks, Modern Guilt - Beck's tenth album - certainly left listeners wanting more. But with Dangermouse behind him, he came up with some of his most eloquent tunes in years.
6. Beck: Modern Guilt – This alternative renaissance man cannot be caged by any particular genre, and Beck continues to impress with each new venture. That mellow voice, along with the golden touch of producer Danger Mouse, makes for an album that those involved should be proud of.ADAM KISPERT: Best Albums of the Year
8.) "Modern Guilt" by Beck — Combining with Danger Mouse, Beck finds the perfect hybrid of his previous guises to create something new.caller.com: 2008's top albums
7) Beck: 'Modern Guilt' (DGC Records)Sound Check: Rewinding the musical year
Long one of rock's most creative songwriters, Beck turns out one of the most tuneful CDs of his career with "Modern Guilt."
Beck, “Modern Guilt” (DGC): A continuation of the stirring-but-laid-back vibe Beck created with his finest album, “Sea Change.”NZ Herald Best Of The Year List
30. Beck - Modern guilt "While he's dealt with everything from the big guy in the sky to war, it was never heavy going because of the off-kilter beats, laid-back grooves, and cunning instrumentation"Update Jan 1, 2009: "Beck: 'Modern Guilt' After nearly a decade of creative sloth, in which Beck seemed to be desperately chasing the ghost of his previous work, he unexpectedly turned out this fantastic set of psychedelic electrofolk. With luminary producer Danger Mouse on board, Beck puts the Scientology self-help lingo and instantly-dated pop culture references aside in favor of an affecting album that still swings. "
Pageant Not Doing Well
A "Very Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant" does not seem to do well in theaters, at least not on the one reported by ibj.com:
I don’t envy the folks at TOTS who had to try to sell tickets to this straight-faced, kid-cast, multi-level satire of L. Ron Hubbard and company. But anyone who did find their way to the show experienced something strange and wonderful. Credit Ron Spencer in guiding his tiny company to just the right balance of innocence and knowledge, hilarity and creepiness. A shame it didn’t find the audience it deserved.
John Holdren and Scientology
At first I thought, reading this article, that Obama appointed a Scientologist as the White House Science adviser, but then I found out that the author uses "Scientology" with the meaning of pseudo-science, or approximate science, not as a reference to the actual movement.
You can see this in these two other articles of his:
You can see this in these two other articles of his:
- Electric Cars, Their Grid, and Climate Scientology
- Horse Hockey Climate Scientology: “Getting Rid” of the Medieval Warming Period
"The political right, however, calls Kwanzaa a pseudo-Marxist phoney holiday which has been adopted by public institutions as part of a politically correct assault on the standing of Christmas. "It's the Scientology of holidays," says Erick Erickson, who writes the influential conservative blog Redstate.com."
LA Times Interviews Makers of Valkyrie
The LA Times features a long and detailed interview with Cruise, Singer, and McQuarrie, makers of Valkyrie.
In it, among many other things, they talk about Cruise being misunderstood:
In it, among many other things, they talk about Cruise being misunderstood:
When Cruise is asked if he feels misunderstood, Singer and McQuarrie jump in with the passion. [...]
"He's totally misunderstood. [...]
"You spend the first two weeks waiting for the . . . that you think Tom is to manifest itself. And after a year and half, you realize that is not who he is. . . . He gets a bad rap."
"He is a really great guy," chimes in McQuarrie. "He's a generous person. He works very hard. He is exceedingly professional. There is no hierarchy of any kind on the set. We would have . . . somebody's mother came to visit the set and Tom would spend the afternoon having lunch with that person's mother."
Cruise is more subdued about the vagaries of being Cruise. "I can't spend my time worrying about it," he says. As a kid, he moved constantly. "I was always the new kid. I went to different schools and I would hear back rumors about where I came from."
Now it's the same phenomenon, but "on a world stage, and sometimes it gets even very extreme and you've got to laugh about it. And some of it you kind of go, OK. OK, as in breathe, be Zen, ignore what you cannot control."
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Another Christmas
I posted yesterday about a Scientology Christmas message that was quite typical of Scientology 2, with L. Ron Hubbard setting off on a tangent about Scientology being "the only hope" for Humanity...
The following message is much better, and I would tend to agree with it.
It's about the meaning of Christmas for Scientologists, and the fact that Scientology is a sort of non-denominational religion, a bit like Buddhism, something hitherto unknown to the West.
The poster is obviously more moderate in his approach than the Founder himself.
Quite ironically... but maybe not that surprisingly. I have seen, for example, some Muslims who managed the remarkable feat of interpreting the Koran in a moderate way and live a more gentle life than many people who call themselves Christians.
The following message is much better, and I would tend to agree with it.
It's about the meaning of Christmas for Scientologists, and the fact that Scientology is a sort of non-denominational religion, a bit like Buddhism, something hitherto unknown to the West.
The poster is obviously more moderate in his approach than the Founder himself.
Quite ironically... but maybe not that surprisingly. I have seen, for example, some Muslims who managed the remarkable feat of interpreting the Koran in a moderate way and live a more gentle life than many people who call themselves Christians.
Changing Title
I renamed my blog from "Another Look at Scientology 2" to "Another Look at Scientology" because I now made a post about "Scientology 1 and Scientology 2" and thus the title would lean to confusion.
The historical reason for the title was that I already had a blog named "Another Look at Scientology" but which I wanted to keep for important news only, whereas on the "Scientology 2" one I would just post my day-to-day ramblings.
In practice, though, that does not work so well so I will transfer the posts from my old blog to this one and get rid of it.
The URL will stay as it is, though, because I can't change that. Though I own the one without the "2" too, it would be too much of a burden to transfer everything to the old blog, just to align the URL address with the title. It's not because it's an "Uniform Resource Locator" that it really needs to be uniform. It only is an address after all, i.e. a series of meaningless series of electrical impulses with the sole purpose of locating where in the World Wide Web is that particular blather.
The historical reason for the title was that I already had a blog named "Another Look at Scientology" but which I wanted to keep for important news only, whereas on the "Scientology 2" one I would just post my day-to-day ramblings.
In practice, though, that does not work so well so I will transfer the posts from my old blog to this one and get rid of it.
The URL will stay as it is, though, because I can't change that. Though I own the one without the "2" too, it would be too much of a burden to transfer everything to the old blog, just to align the URL address with the title. It's not because it's an "Uniform Resource Locator" that it really needs to be uniform. It only is an address after all, i.e. a series of meaningless series of electrical impulses with the sole purpose of locating where in the World Wide Web is that particular blather.
Jerry Seinfeld on Scientology
"It's extremely intellectual and clinical in its approach to problem-solving, which really appealed to me."That's the initial post that prompted me to write about Scientology 1 and Scientology 2.
This is pure Scientology 1, and is one of the things that people find attractive in Scientology i.e. a new, quasi-technological, way to approach old concepts, with some new and original ones injected in the process. It's not faith-based...
More here:
“You would just understand that there’s this kind of voice, and then there’s this kind of voice, and then there’s this kind of voice. I wasn’t a natural performer at all, so I learned. I was always a pretty good writer in the beginning, but I really had to learn how to perform. Just a little thing like that, understanding that really helped me on stage to understand how you have to invade the space of the audience a little bit. I learned that early on. It was a very helpful thing to learn. You have to invade them just a little bit. Not too much, because then it’s obnoxious. But you can’t be short of them either, or you won’t control them."
"They have a lot of very good technology. That’s what really appealed to me about it. It’s not faith-based."
Scientology 1 and Scientology 2
The key to understand the Scientology controversy is to realize that there are TWO Scientology.Scientology 1 is a rather cogent, original, and far-reaching system.
Scientology 2 is a cultish trap, a network of us-vs-them concepts that actually prevents Scientology 1 of ever becoming potent.
The two Scientology are separate but closely inter-linked. One reason for this is because both come from the same source, namely, L. Ron Hubbard.
In effect, what Hubbard did was to "squirrel" his own tech. First he came up with something remarkable, then "added" things like "the only hope for humanity", and "SPs", that made it in effect impracticable in society.
Of course Scientologists do not usually see the other Scientology (Scientology 2), just Scientology 1, and if they do they dismiss its meaning.
Critics do the reverse, they focus on the Scientology 2 and don't really see Scientology 1. If they do, they will likewise dismiss its meaning.
Both are wrong and right at the same time. They just get a partial view of what is in fact a complex reality.
It's a little bit (though not quite) like the optical trick in the picture above.
People will either see a beautiful young girl or an old ugly woman. Usually, if they see the young girl, they will have a very hard time to see the old woman, and reversely. If they finally succeed to see the other face, they may not get to see the first face again...
Then take into account that mental illusions are considerably more difficult to see and get rid of than optical ones...
What Motivates Tom
wistv.com has an interesting article that provides us with more insights on Cruise's motivation to push through with such a film:
On top of the story itself, and Cruise's own background as a child, I think that what also motivated him was the parallel of someone standing against the prevailing mob propaganda of the time, and his own standing regarding Scientology:
Not that I agree with him on Scientology. I think it would take more insight even to quit the movement, but I place myself on his perspective, and from his perspective his stand is quite admirable, because he holds it against the world as, for him this is what he believes in.
It would take more than the stupid bashing fanatical critics call "criticism" to get Cruise out of Scientology, and in the meantime this kind of "criticism" is no better than mob hysteria indeed.
Updates Jan 1, 2009:
"I've had lots of luck and earned much money during my career. Now I don't do movies for the money. I pick the projects that I feel like doing, and lots of people earn a lot of money with me."
"... and the certainty of being branded a traitor to his country - because he knew it was the right thing to do [...] As he elaborates, it's apparent that he identifies with von Stauffenberg on some personal level that he can't quite verbalise. And it strikes me that what he's saying about the man's character is very similar to what he wrote in his eulogy for his friend Paul Newman [...] When I point this out and the conversation shifts to Newman[...] "Paul lived with such dignity and left such a legacy - as an actor and a philanthropist - that words can't do justice to his accomplishment." [...] "Now that I think about it," he says with a smile, "this idea is probably one of the reasons that made me want to make Valkyrie. Like Paul, von Stauffenberg is a good role model. So I guess you could say that both men have been a gift to me."
Cruise said he was struck by Von Stauffenberg's elaborate plot, even to the point that he believed the script doctored history for the sake of suspense. "When I put it down, I thought, this can't be true," he said at the film's press day in New York.Another sign showing how Cruise was personally motivated to do the film was Singer comments:
Cruise felt compelled to share the story. "It's important to know that it wasn't everybody — not everybody felt the way [Hitler did] or fell into the Nazi ideology," he said. "I grew up wanting to kill Nazis and wanting to kill Hitler, and remember thinking as a child, 'Why didn't someone just shoot him?' So it's an important story to tell.
"As a director you always feel that nobody cares about the movie as much as you do," Singer said. "With Tom, you get the rare honor of having a partnership with someone who cares about this movie as much as I do. We experimented, and it was phenomenal because anything I'd ask he'd be like, 'Let's do it.' There was never a lack of wanting to try and never a lack of trust."There is, however, another aspect I found of interest through this interview.
On top of the story itself, and Cruise's own background as a child, I think that what also motivated him was the parallel of someone standing against the prevailing mob propaganda of the time, and his own standing regarding Scientology:
"The thing that stood out to me was Stauffenburg himself and the amount of desperation and pain for him," Cruise said. "He wanted a moral country that participated in the world, not one of annihilation and Holocausts and world domination. He was a man who was able to see through all the propaganda and see how utterly insane Hitler was, and ultimately he was the one to say, 'Somebody's got to shoot that bastard.'"The two situations are of course not comparable, because at the time it would have cost you your life to stand against the wave (not speaking of attempting to kill Hitler!), but it does take some courage and insight to be able to stand up to any form of ignorance and prejudice when they are being echoed and perpetrated by the masses, and I believe his own experience being a Scientologist in today's world may have been one of the reasons Cruise found the scrip to be admirable.
Not that I agree with him on Scientology. I think it would take more insight even to quit the movement, but I place myself on his perspective, and from his perspective his stand is quite admirable, because he holds it against the world as, for him this is what he believes in.
It would take more than the stupid bashing fanatical critics call "criticism" to get Cruise out of Scientology, and in the meantime this kind of "criticism" is no better than mob hysteria indeed.
Updates Jan 1, 2009:
"I've had lots of luck and earned much money during my career. Now I don't do movies for the money. I pick the projects that I feel like doing, and lots of people earn a lot of money with me."
"... and the certainty of being branded a traitor to his country - because he knew it was the right thing to do [...] As he elaborates, it's apparent that he identifies with von Stauffenberg on some personal level that he can't quite verbalise. And it strikes me that what he's saying about the man's character is very similar to what he wrote in his eulogy for his friend Paul Newman [...] When I point this out and the conversation shifts to Newman[...] "Paul lived with such dignity and left such a legacy - as an actor and a philanthropist - that words can't do justice to his accomplishment." [...] "Now that I think about it," he says with a smile, "this idea is probably one of the reasons that made me want to make Valkyrie. Like Paul, von Stauffenberg is a good role model. So I guess you could say that both men have been a gift to me."
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