Bill Goodykoontz | Iowa life

[Patrick Ryan, USA Today, 2/28] Ryan does a dutiful article devoid of cynicism on the Mark Burnett/Roma Downey release of Son of God. Bill Goodykoontz, also of USA Today, points out that Burnett and Downey are making a bit of a “cash grab”. They are releasing unused footage from the History Channel The Bible series, reediting it, and making a movie on the cheap.

Maybe I’m being a little too suspicious. Though I didn’t see The Bible series, I assume it had to say the name of Jesus and relate the gospel message. Maybe this movie does mark a turnaround. I’m just a little leery of Downey who for 9 seasons rode a money train with a series called Touched by an Angel, that was purportedly about the Christian faith, but not once mentioned the name of Jesus.

Their idea of redemption was a hair light being shown on the Monica character, and she saying God! in a dramatic tone while the miscreant of the day changed his ways, and by his now being a better person, would warrant a trip to heaven.

Shows like that and Highway to Heaven almost seem to do a disservice to Christianity in my book, but that’s Hollywood. Maybe if the proceeds were being donated to hungry children. Until then, I’ll remain just a little bit skeptical. Hollywood doesn’t mind making a buck off of the Creator of the universe, Jesus, just don’t expect a revival to start from the 90210 zip code.

Oh my gosh that was a bad movie! I want my $7 back. I was so excited to see it, I had read the review in the Friday paper by Bill Goodykoontz, 4 1/2 Stars, the delicious Jennifer Lawrence was in it, an 11:00 showing Saturday morning at the Fleur, how does it get any better than that? The reviews conned me into seeing it. Who paid them off? I would really like to know what is behind a deception like this. Oscar talk? For what??? It was a bomb. Luckily no one died, it was that bad. They spent $40 million on this?

Identifying a quality movie isn’t that tough. It will either have great performances, a great script, or wonderful cinematography. This movie had about 5 minutes of each, and that don’t cut it. I remember when Jennifer Lawrence won the Oscar for Silver Linings Playbook, I was a little suspicious then. I’m thinking, what movie did they watch? For God’s sake, Winter’s Bone was three times the movie that piece of trash was, and it didn’t get squat. I’m thinking, is director David O. Russell wired in? Is that what this is all about? Yep, that’s it. Bloodlines. There ain’t no other way to explain it.

With all the 4 1/2 Star reviews and Oscar buzz, I was all psyched up to see this. The closest thing to a good performance was Jeremy Renner as Mayor Carmine Polito. His part also included the only attempt at cinematography, before the speech. Lawrence’s character was so clichéd and two dimensional it was a crime. DeNiro as a mobster, oooh, how original is that …. Russell ran with the same cast and the same tendencies. They say some authors keep writing the same book, well some directors keep making the same movie.

Christian Bale and Bradley Cooper probably have some real talent, it was just very well hidden by the director. Amy Adams is just irritating. Now that she is big time, Lawrence will probably never make another decent picture. Oh well, we’ll always have Burning Plain, Poker House and Winter’s Bone. Time to move on, next good actress please!

Hollywood needs to institute a few rules. 1.) No recognizable stars for one year. 2.) Only new scripts, no remakes or sequels for one year. 3.) No directors who have had a previous feature film, only directors of shorts and documentaries. 4.) No budgets over 4 million dollars. 5.) Perhaps the only real answer, Hollywood must close for one year. The only thing that could be shown are foreign films and student films.

That might be best, flush the system, scrap it all and start over. Seriously folks, I just read it in today’s paper, Paul Rudd has been cast to play, wait for it, Ant-Man! Are we serious? Ant-Man? Are we a nation of 12-year-olds? Over the last 20 years, we’ve had how many comic book superheroes? I wonder who owns the rights to all that crap? Follow the money. What’s scary, is that Hollywood influences (infects) the entire world. Maybe if there were more independent theaters, there would be more independent films, less control, more art. A 16-year-old with a Canon and 14 days can do better than this. I saw a film at a festival that they shot on a Nokia phone, they didn’t spend no $40 million making that one. Hollywood has everything but talent. Tyler Perry at his worst is better than this, at least then you see new faces.

The only good thing out of it was a trip to Zanzibar’s!

[As an example, last year Ben Affleck as director of Argo, set the mood , the time period, and the context for the exact same period as Hustle. THAT’S how you do it! ]