Bloodline, the forthcoming documentary from Bruce Burgess that examines one of the theories promulgated by The Da Vinci Code, that Jesus Christ had a decidedly Earthly relationship with Mary Magdalene, and bore human offspring, is still a few weeks off from release, but having seen it I thought I’d touch on a few quick thoughts. As an academic inquisition it starts out fairly interesting, and then becomes progressively less so. Part of this is because Burgess casts his lot with one curious amateur explorer — Ben Hammott, whose web site is currently shut down — and seems to stop asking (or at least including here) questions both tough and obvious. But there’s also just bad scientific method and intellectual judgment. I’ll get into this a bit more in a proper, full-length review, but I was astonished when, at one point late in the movie, Burgess uses a piece of evidence obtained from Hammott to theoretically validate/confirm… another piece of evidence from Hammott. It’s that sort of thing that makes even agnostics and open-minded people of faith not take this matter seriously.
Daily Archives: May 5, 2008
A Silence Explained…
The absence of further explication regarding the long-lead screening of a certain late-summer film could be interpreted negatively, as a (non-)statement of trouble or dissatisfaction, but that’s not the case. It’s a courtesy thing, to be resolved at a mutually agreed upon point in the short to middle distance, I imagine.
Lindsay Lohan Gets Ugly (Betty)
Since these racy photos, and the one below, for New York Magazine didn’t much work in the career jump-start department, Lindsay Lohan will take a page from Britney Spears’ playbook (no, not the baldness or Federline pages), and guest-star on a hit television series. Word is Lohan will appear on ABC’s Ugly Betty for its May 22 season finale as an old classmate of America Ferrera’s Betty Suarez, and perhaps return for as much as an eight-episode stint next season. Presumably not playing a wildly self-destructive type, as with Georgia Rule, last summer’s I Know Who Killed Me and Matthew Bright’s forthcoming The Manson Girls. But who knows, really.
This is an easy call and advisable move, certainly — the Hollywood equivalent of a fullback plunge left — and I have little doubt the structure is benefiting Lohan a great deal. At the same time, is it much more than a temporary tonic? It’s an armchair diagnosis from afar, admittedly, but one of the things that most seemed to get Lohan in trouble, and feed her mania and/or appetite for self-destruction, was stress and a sort of gaping-maw need for extra-sensory stimulation that came from being a front-and-center celebrity. Sadly, with an out-of-rehab photo spread like above, and other news stories and relapse rumors trickling out, there’s little to suggest lasting lifestyle changes, so won’t momentarily removing the pressure of “playing lead” do little except, potentially, help foster a nervousness and/or resentment to get “back on top,” asap? There’s clearly a dangerous addictive gene at work here, and it doesn’t get worked out for 21-year-olds on the basis of “nice” or overseen work environments.
Iron Man Tops Box Office, Confusing Ozzy Osbourne
Marvel comic book adaptation Iron Man, starring Robert Downey Jr., grossed just over an estimated $100 million for the weekend, inclusive of its Thursday night sneak screenings, meaning it placed second to Made of Honor, starring Patrick Dempsey and Michelle Monaghan, which grossed $115.5 million on the strength of Dempsey’s stubble. No, just kidding… the latter film placed second for the weekend, with $15.5 million. Its makers were then promptly euthanized Saturday night.
Baby Mama,
starring Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, fell to third, but delivered another
$10.3 million for distributor Universal, good for $32 million overall.
Fellow laffers Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay,
meanwhile, placed fourth and fifth for the weekend, each grossing just
over $6 million. The former film has now made $44.8 million in
three-plus weeks of release, while the Harold & Kumar sequel has made $25.2 million heading into its second full week of release.
Placing sixth for the weekend was time-spanning martial arts flick The Forbidden Kingdom, starring Jet Li, Jackie Chan
and that noodle-armed kid whose last name sounds like a disease,
with $4.2 million and now $45.1 million overall. Rounding out the top 10 were Swiss Family Robinson-esque family flick Nim’s Island, starring Jodie Foster, Gerard Butler and Abigail Breslin ($2.8 million, $42.5 million total); the critically maligned Prom Night,
featuring Brittany Snow
($2.5 million, $41.4 million total); the ensemble blackjack flick 21 ($2.1 million, $79 million cumulatively); and Al Pacino’s 88 Minutes ($1.6 million, $15.4 million total). In other, limited releases, Son of Rambow released in five theaters to $52,500; kick-’em-up Redbelt, written and directed by David Mamet, grossed $68,600 in a half dozen theaters; and Jeremy Podeswa’s Fugitive Pieces, starring Stephen Dillane, Rade Serbedzija and Rosamund Pike, rang up $108,000 in 30 venues.