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What exactly makes you think you'd be welcomed back on Earth?

Omg, now I know what Joe Leydon looks like. Totally unexpected.

Weren't you just in Bermuda?

People from Miami go there all the time.

The big story, courtesy Variety, is about the Globes' shortlist of 56 foreign-language films, "It's far rarer for an American to work in a foreign tongue, but this year features two high-profile offerings. The Globes list the Mel Gibson-helmed "Apocalypto" and Clint Eastwood's "Letters From Iwo Jima" as being from, respectively, the U.S. and Japan." If Letters is from Japan, isnt' Apoc from Mexico or a Latin American country?

I want your life, Poland!!

Who was reading Scott Smith's THE RUINS a few weeks ago? What an awesome book that would/will make a LOUSY movie someday.

Can you take Roger Friedman with you :)

"Emilio Estevez’s “Bobby” had a great first weekend, hitting the top 10 at No. 9 with $4.9 million at 1,667 theaters. “Bobby” seems to be the great divider, as far as reviewers go: Some love it, some don’t."
He's kidding right? I saw the movie and it's a snooze. The acting is substandard even by the old war horses like Hopkins and Stone.

My guess is that it will be a “fifth slot” Oscar movie, fighting with the compelling-yet-incoherent “Babel” to join "Dreamgirls," "The Departed" and "Volver" for Best Picture."

Please Roger, stop guessing, it's all wrong.

What happened? How come I'm signed in and can't post a comment? DP: Like I told you, this typekey sign in thingy is broken.

Ok, I'll admit it: I'm completely pumped about "Rocky Balboa." They're selling this thing very well.

Anybody else with me?

Josh - not me! No way will I see Stallone do another Rocky. The first one was da bomb, but let it go already. He's another washed up star, can't find screen work, next we'll see him on a reality TV show. Yeck!

BTW folks, Bond is #1 worldwide - YES! Love me some DC.

Da bomb? And uh, he CAN find screen work if he has a "Rocky" coming out this year and another "Rambo" in 2007. Perhaps it's not up to your standards, but two starring roles in major productions is screen work that 99.99% of working actors would kill for.

Oh, and incidentally, we've already seen Stallone on a reality show: "The Contender."

Waterbucket: Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?

I think it's fair to say that in the last few years or so not many people have been beating on Stallone's door begging to work with him. What has he done in the last five, ten years? Driven. Eye See You. That mob movie with Madeleine Stowe. As for Rocky Balboa, I saw the trailer over the weekend and it looks extremely dull and silly.

Josh,

I am with you on Rocky. Stallone at his best was very underrated and First Blood is still an action film that is leaps and bounds ahead of what we get today.

Rocky is a welcome return for one of mine (and many others) cinematic heroes.

So, Stallone bombs out of reality TV and has to nurse his failing career back to health by falling back to a couple of big movie blockbusters?

Is it just me, or is that completely backwards?

Twas I who was raving about THE RUINS...glad someone else liked it! I agree it will likely make a shitty flick, but Smith is adapting it himself (rumor has it) and he got an Oscar nom when he adapted A SIMPLE PLAN. We shall see.

Speaking of awards...WAY TO GO HALF NELSON and FOUR EYED MONSTERS!! They get well recognized with well deserved indie spirit awards. A GUIDE TO RECOGNIZING YOUR SAINTS was also a great film that got some props.

Can someone tell me how/why ROAD TO GUANTANAMO was nominated for best doc? I saw it, and it was great, but it seemed half doc and half real. Hell, there's actors playing the men who are imprisoned all through it. Maybe it confused the nominators? Weird.

Can't wait for ROCKY BALBOA. I hope I get a packed thater where everyone shouts "Rocky! Rocky!" at the end.

In the original AIRPLANE!, there was a poster for ROCKY XXXVIII, depicting an aged and wrinkled Stallone. The throwaway jokes of yesterday become the Christmas sequels of today.

As for me seeing it, I refer you to my Pat Hingle quote on another thread.

Joe, the first time I saw you is similar to the first time I heard D-Po's voice, just very different from expectation. But you seem like a nice, genial, harmless man who supported BBM.

Babel incoherent? It was really quite a straightforward movie and only a moron like Friedman would say something like that.

Looking at the Spirit Award nominations, I was VERY happy to see props given to "The Motel" (which I've been raving about since Sundance '05), "Four-Eyed Monsters" (which, even now, I can't believe didn't get wider exposure) and "Chalk" (the funniest Christopher Guest movie that Christopher Guest never made). But "American Gun" for Best Feature? No way. All you people who had nasty things to say about "Crash" should take a look at this one. (I will agree, however, that the acting noms are well deserved.)

And Waterbucket: Genial? Moi? What did you see, that report on "America's Most Wanted"?

Funny, I'm surprised at how much exposure Four-Eyed Monesters HAS gotten. Everybody passed on it. Never got picked up for distribution. The only reason anybody's ever heard of it is due to the online marketing of its creators, trying to get it distributed after everybody already decided not to distribute it.

Pan's Labyrinth was less expensive to make than Little Miss Sunshine?

I mean, than A Prairie Home Companion. Sorry.

Mutiny: Well, the on-line marketing may have helped. But it helped more that it was a terrific movie. I can't help feeling that, as late as five years ago, it would have gotten at least some theatrical play.

I'm seeing ROCKY 6. I'm curious as hell to see where he's taking it. And anything will beat ROCKY 5. I'm glad hes making another one. It'll cure the stink of that one.

Did people really pass on FOUR EYED MONSTERS or did they just not give the team what they wanted or needed? I'm speculating, not implying. It's like the old punk bands that flirted with signing to a major label only to later realize it really wouldn't help them financially or exposure wise, so they self distributed.

Also-
I honestly don't think ANY studio on an indie level could have promoted the film better than the way the filmmakers did. It was exhausting, I'm sure, but effective. The grass roots by way of the internet marketing of the film was really cool.

My whole family is excited for ROCKY BALBOA. Most people I know are. I think people are still rooting for Stallone to get out of the almost 2 decade doldrums. He seems to garner a lot of goodwill because he seems like a genuinely decent guy. And the good movies he has to his name are very important to a lot of people. Whether that will translate to box office, who knows. It'll help if the movie is good.

And I liked the first season of THE CONTENDER. I generally hate reality TV so it was refeshing to see actual physical competition mixed in rather than just double-crossing, back-stabbing and emotional manipulation that makes up most of the crap. It was nice to see people win beause they were better at something rather than they got voted out for being lame or something.

I haven't seen any of the Rocky movies, and I won't be starting with Rocky XI. I'll have to see a trailer for the new Rambo movie before I decide though. First Blood corrupted my mind as a youngster.

I agree with CleanSteve, and I've been saying the same for a few months now. People like Stallone. He seems like a well-meaning guy. A little dumb, but that makes him all the more endearing. He's the butt of a lot of jokes, but that all goes away when he's in a decent movie.

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