Posted on 02/07/2006 10:10:42 AM PST by djjava
I laughed myself silly last weekend while watching the trailer for the new Albert Brooks movie, "Looking For Comedy In The Muslim World." I saw that it was playing in a theater in my area, and decided it would be worth the $10 per ticket to watch it.
My plan was to go see it this past weekend. However, those plans changed. Why? After searching Fandango and Yahoo! Movies, all I got was:
Sorry, this movie is not currently playing in or near the location you have selected.Please enter a different location.
or
Sorry, showtimes are not currently available for this title in your area.
I then attempted to call theaters that either were running the picture, or should have been, and the few times I got hold of an actual person, they seemed unfamiliar with the movie, or said they never had it in the theater.
So, what happened to "Looking For Comedy In The Muslim World"?
Looking at the earnings at Box Office Mojo, it is clear that this movie was not by any means putting on a stellar performance. Since its January 20th release, it has made $813,996 in a paltry 161 theaters in a limited release. However, according to IMDB's list of theaters now showing the film, the movie is only being shown on 23 theaters in 22 cities.
I am certain that I saw this movie listed as being played at one of my local theaters that now claims they never had it playing, but now, the closest theater to Boston playing this movie is in Williamsville, NY.
Perhaps I am mistaken, and the movie was never being played near Boston. Since I am unable to prove it was indeed playing, I will move forward assuming it never was playing here. With that in mind I ask, "why isn't it playing?"
According to the official movie website, "Looking For Comedy..." was set to play in two cities in Massachusetts, Boston and Springfield, and many major cities across the country. According to the IMDB list, only 22 cities are showing the movie, some cities not even listed on official movie site which lists 81 cities.
While the following is based on speculation and circumstantial evidence, I can only assume that the movie was not shown in the nearly 60 others cities because of fear of reprisals from offended muslims.
Case in point, the Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten publication of 12 different Mohammed cartoons that many muslims deemed offensive. After more European newspapers published the cartoons, a "clash of civilisations" has been spawned. Michelle Malkin posts some photos of a protest in London. The photos depict images of muslims holding signs with the following slogans, with some variations.
In addition to these protests, muslims in Syria have set fire to the Danish and Norwegian Embassies in Damascus over the weekend, and yesterday in set fire to the Danish Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, and today at the Austrian Embassy in Tehren. The 12 Danish cartoonists who created the images have gone into hiding under round-the-clock protection, fearing for their lives. A protest in the West Bank had muslims burning the Danish flag and demanded a boycott of Danish goods, and chanted "We will redeem our prophet, Muhammad, with our blood!" The rage is spreading, and people are losing their lives at this hands of this muslim sponsored rage. All this from the Religion of Peace.
It is long past time for people to wake up to what really motivates "radical" muslims: they want to kill the infidel (all non-muslims) and chances are, that if you are reading this, you too are in infidel--even you liberal al Qaeda sympathizers are not immune to their impending wrath.
These muslims, who have no problem advocating the holocaust of Jews and other infidels, have such thin skin you can see their cold black hearts beating in their chests. These are a people who have no respect for humanity, for other cultures, or for freedom. The freedom they abuse by demanding the destruction of Israel and the mass extermination of the infidel is the same freedom that allows for the publication of Mohammed cartoons, or a writer's opinion that not all muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists are muslims.
With such an uncivilized group as this who have no respect for human life and freedom, it's time for them to experience lack of freedom. If they say "Freedom, Go To Hell," fine, let's take it away. In the spirit of Franklin Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066, let's send anyone deemed to be a radical muslim to Guantanamo Bay for permanent internment, with no pray mats, no tax funded korans (unless of course they are the two-ply double roll kind), and all the pork chops and bacon they can eat. Unfortunately, I suspect the island of Cuba might sink before all the nearly 1 billion new residents are welcomed; certainly there is not nearly enough land to handle the influx of population. Perhaps these radicals should go for a nice, but brief Red Sea cruise on an el-Salam Maritime Transport Company cruise liner. Any more of those Al Salam ferries?
The muslim communities that are ravaging these Danish and Norwegian Embassies and threatening the "real Holocaust" are not civilized people, if you can appropriately call them "people." These are savage acts by savages. Where there mass Christian organized riots in response to Andres Serrano's Piss Christ or Chris Ofili's Holy Virgin. There has to be a mass public outcry after each time there is an anti-Semetic political cartoon. Who remembers the anti-Semitic cartoons published by the Los Angeles Times, or the Chicago Tribune, or the Seattle Times, Philadelphia Inquirer and online editions of the Washington Post and New York Times, or the UK's Independent, or how about the repeated anti-Semitic cartoons published by "palestinian" media? Did those of Christian or Jewish faith burn down embassies or the headquarters of those newspaper publishers? Do they threaten mass murder and genocide? No, they don't, because they are not barbarians and savages. The response by these groups was peaceful, and a model for peaceable assembly; you can't say that of these recent uprisings by abhorrent muslims who have turned a handful of embassies into a pile of burnt rubble.
But I digress. Clearly, there is something fishy about the disappearance, or lack of appearance, of the new Albert Brooks comedy, presumably at the hands of political correctness so as to not offend these bigoted muslims who can dish it out, but can't take it--at least not in a manner that is civilized.
There is no comedy in the "Muslim World". Smiling will get you flogged at the least.
Loooking for Comedy... is playing in my neighborhood. I'm looking forward to seeing it. Brooks' Real Life, Modern Romance and Lost In America were hilarious, IMO.
Pretty funny, the timing of this movie and the most unhumorous response in real-life "in the Muslim world."
LOL.
interesting post. Never heard of the movie.
Didn't the Ayatollah Khomeini say something like, "There's no room for joy in Islam"? Wonderful sales pitch.
i don't know for sure it was actually played in 160+ theaters (it is indicated that IMDB cites only 23 theaters)but consider the fact that a major movie release ends up on upwards of 3,000 theaters, and little to no advertising for this movie was likely, it appears to be a combo of self-censorship and censorship.
Amen--Lost in America was painfully funny.
And Defending Your Life--classic.
You mean to tell me it was banned in Boston? Oh, my!
FWIW I understand that the movie is painfully politically correct in its treatment of Islam. I believe it's been shown in a number of Muslim countries without protest.
as I said a few times, it was SUPPOSED to be playing in Boston, but wasn't, even though it was scheduled for release in Boston on January 20th--but no theater is or was playing it. It was SUPPOSED to play in Boston, but for some reason, is not. Thus, I think there is a credible suspicion that Boston is not the only city it was SUPPOSED to be playing in, but mysteriously never was.
I am suggesting that the 161 number by Box Office Mojo may be incorrect, as it may indicate that 161 theaters were scheduled to be be playing the film, but many never did. Do note, that over the weekend, the number dropped into the 20s, closer to number of theaters I found IMDB to cite as the number of theaters it was playing in.
mass ping
why only in an inital 161 theaters, instead of a broader release that an Albert Brooks film should command? and especially in light of the Mohammed cartoon rampages....
You know you're right. I remember seeing the ad for the movie a few weeks ago in the Globe. After reading your post, I just checked the paper and I can't find it listed at any theatre. This is very interesting, I wonder if some calls were made to a few of the theatre chains?
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