Another Open Letter To The American People
Dear You Guys,
Whoa, seriously? You know, I'm fully prepared to admit that I might have been hasty with last week's letter. As one commenter pointed out last week, "there's a lot of kids in the US who like Disney and Pixar movies," and it's true. There's [sic] a lot of kids in the US. I purposefully ignored the fact that parents taking their children to movies could be a huge driving force behind strong ticket sales in order to make fun of everyone for going to this movie. But in reality, last week's box office win was understandable and maybe even acceptable. As Tom Scharpling pointed out on The Best Show on WFMU, at least with Beverly Hills Chihuahua you know what you're getting into. No one is confused about what this movie is offering.
BUT THE NUMBER ONE MOVIE IN THE COUNTRY FOR TWO WEEKS IN A ROW?
Fool me once, shame on me, but fool me twice, WHAT THE FUCK? There's [sic] not that many kids in America. Now it's just our fault. The worst part is the attempt at explaining this national failure, as if it makes some kind of sense in light of our current situation and isn't just a sign that we are the worst and we should all go to jail. From the LA Times:
"There's an element in the film of these dogs and their owners being rich and spoiled. Audiences kind of enjoy watching their perceived nemesis being made fun of," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media by Numbers. "Especially when times are tough."
Totally. A tough movie for tough times! Beverly Hills Chihuahua is all about class warfare. When the ads first started appearing this summer everyone thought it looked ridiculous, but now that the economy is falling apart everyone thinks that it looks like a Marxist treatise on the natural redistribution of wealth. TOTALLY. No, yeah, my bad, this movie about a CGI talking dog is such a great balm against the hardships of our times.
NOT!
Go to jail everybody. You're going to wish you'd saved that 17.5 million to pay all the lawyers.
Goodbye,
Gabe.
Posted by Gabe at 9:46 AM in An Open Letter, Backlashes, Everyone's A Critic, What America Wants
Tags: Beverly Hills Chihuahua
I saw it, it's awesome. It's not like the trailer at all, the dogs aren't CGI. They're real dogs. The movie is awesome for three different reasons that somehow don't cancel each other out:
1) It's dogs looking uncomfortable while peanut butter and bad CGI moves their mouths to say things that don't match their body language at all, which is as hilarious as watching a cat with tape on it's paw.
2) It's almost like a parody of a terrible movie, most of the dialog is such cheesy over-the-top "movie lines" except they're being said by dogs, it makes it impossible not to laugh at the dramatic lines. And it's done so well and so consistently that there has to be someone somewhere in the production process that was aware of this; you go in thinking "haha this movie is going to be terrible" then when you leave you realized the movie was on your side all along.
3) If you suspend 1 and 2 and judge it as "just a kids movie" it's actually not a bad kids movie.
So far I've seen BHC, Nick and Norah, and How To Lose Friends And Alienate People, and BHC was by far the most fun (whereas Nick and Norah was awful). Srsly, go watch it, try not to laugh, it's great.
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Do you have a video of a cat with tape on its paw? Seriously, that sound like something I'd like to see.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VRklgMjr3E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_Y7-MOQe-8
See, Japan knows the score.
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Ohh, that was not what I was expecting...I don't think cats, duct tape and Japanese game shows (or whatever that was) are a good combination. I have to go and cry now.
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I saw Eagle Eye this weekend. It was good.
I really don't want to admit this but I secretly want to see BHC, but only on HBO when I am taking a sick day.
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