{"id":33,"date":"2005-01-24T16:56:32","date_gmt":"2005-01-25T13:56:32","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=33"},"modified":"2005-01-26T17:32:39","modified_gmt":"2005-01-27T14:32:39","slug":"hollywood-bereft-of-ideas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.benzilla.com\/?p=33","title":{"rendered":"Hollywood: Bereft of ideas"},"content":{"rendered":"

I went to the movies this weekend an saw the much-lauded Sideways<\/em>. The film itself was mildly amusing in a trite NPR-esque way, but what really struck me were the previews. Thankfully there were only three, but as a group they exhibited a stunning lack of originality.<\/p>\n

Two of the three were of the “wacky ethnic mismatch comedy” variety. I don’t remember the names of either of them but one featured that guy from “That 70s Show” as the son-in-law of Bernie Mac. The other had Sandra Bullock (sp?) and some black actress I didn’t know as FBI agent partners.<\/p>\n

See, the joke is that one person is black and the other is white. Get it?<\/p>\n

This leads to all sort of amusing but innocuous ethnic misunderstandings. My theory is that white people go to see these things to assure ourselves that we’re “open-minded,” and black people go to make fun of white people. I guess I should look on the bright side and be thankful that at least we as a culture have moved beyond the 80s version of this plot: the “wacky species mismatch comedy”…you know, like “Turner and Hooch,” and that other movie that’s exactly the same movie but with the loathesome Jim Belushi instead of Tom Hanks.<\/p>\n

Oh, yeah… The other preview was just a remake of “The Longest Yard.” Great idea.<\/p>\n

I should have gone with my gut instinct and seen the Spongebob movie.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I went to the movies this weekend an saw the much-lauded Sideways. The film itself was mildly amusing in a trite NPR-esque way, but what really struck me were the previews. Thankfully there were only three, but as a group they exhibited a stunning lack of originality. Two of the three were of the “wacky … <\/p>\n

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