'Polar Distress' Derails Bush-Hating Millionaire Bing

NewsMax ^ | 11/15/04 | Carl Limbacher

[wagglebee]

Anyone with any sense knows the makers of the unpleasant children's movie "Polar Express" were foolish to unload it just days after the release of the excellent, can't-miss animated hit "The Incredibles." But some in Tinseltown seem eager to lose money.

The good news about the failure of "Polar Express," already being nicknamed "Polar Distress," is that it's hurting Bush-bashing fat cat Steve Bing, one of those left-wing tycoons who tried to buy the presidential election for John Kerry. Bing put up half the money for "Polar Distress" (the rest came from the Democrat media leviathan Time Warner) and squandered $14 million to try to defeat the president.

The movie cost $170 million to make and $125 million to distribute and market, the Wall Street Journal reported today. It has brought in only $31 million so far, compared with $144 million for the deserving "Incredibles."

More fun facts about ding-a-ling Bing: Fellow Bush-hating leftist Sean Penn is suing him. Penn claims producer Bing blacklisted him after that little photo op in Baghdad to support genocidal maniac Saddam Hussein.

Note to "Polar Distress" star Tom Hanks, reeling from flop No. 3 this year and scheduled to appear in the Catholic-bashing "Da Vinci Code": Audiences prefer you when you speak your lines and do not like you when you shout your lines.

[wagglebee]

I love it when these hollyweird leftists start self-destructing.

[Tensgrrl]

Couldn't happen to a nicer person!

[Shortwave]

This is just plain stupid. I saw the movie and thought it was awesome. Politics aside, it's a masterpiece of animation and the story is good enough to keep you interested. Sometimes I have to wonder about NewsMax.

[nana4bush]

This certainly was a beautiful movie. Surely, everything does not have to be about politics. Thank goodness they decided to invest their money in something uplifting.

[Kirkwood]

Didn't see the film, but the trailers make me wonder why any kid would want to see this movie. I know it is based on a popular book, but that doesn't mean the movie will be a hit. It looks dark, drab, and boring. There have been many movies like that for kids - made by adults with no idea of what kids want.

[punster]

I hope his finances hope to hemorrhage, at an ever increasing rate.

[CzarNicky]

Even if it is a good movie, I've not seen it and probably won't unless I see it for free, the viewing public is panning it. And yes Bing deserves the economic thrashing he is getting.

[wagglebee]

I am actually fascinated by the technology that went into the movie, but I'm sick of the way these leftists take their success for granted and get the idea that the ability to entertain makes one able to pontificate about political affairs. I am somewhat shocked taht "Polar Express," while not a flop, certainly doesn't appear to be a blockbuster. For what it's worth, I will always admire Hanks and Spielberg for making "Saving Private Ryan" and Spielberg for "Schindler's List," I think they were possibly the two best movies made in the last 25 years.

[bradactor]

I saw this movie myself this weekend. I have not read the book or did a long time ago. IT is a great film no matter who did it with an upbeat theme and positive message. I watched two kids in front of me in the theatre. They were doing the usual kid squirming etc before or when the movie began but you could not hear a pin drop through the middle and other parts of the movie.

IT is worth seeing

[AlGone2001]

I just returned from watching "The Incredibles" with one of my children.... wow!

[MisterRepublican]

Screw Hollywood and their garbage.

[Melinda]

I asked some children today if they were going to see it. After ambivalent shrugs, I was told that they weren't that crazy about the book in the first place. Maybe the story caught the eyes of more Hollywood adults than children.

[vikingchick]

Can anybody give me a Reader's Digest version of the plot of this movie? Thanks.

[Shortwave]

Wow! I observed the same thing! I was in a theater full of children of all ages and I had never experienced anything like it. It was NOT boring, like one previous posted estimated. It was fantastic! I don't know or care about the politics of the person who financed the film. I sometimes wonder if, out here in the blogisphere focus so much on our ideology that we fail to see things in our peripheral consciousness. Anyway, like I said. The movie is a masterpiece and history will prove it so. "A Christmas Story" was nearly a blip on the radar but is now considered one of the best Christmas movies of all time. Personally, up until I saw "Polar Express" it was my favorite but now it's a tossup between them.

[RightWingAtheist]

Actually, I'm kind of disappointed the movie isn't doing so well. This was supposed to be Eddie Deezen's comeback film.

[Dr. Scarpetta]

I saw the movie and thought it was awesome.

What's it about?

[reg45]

For what it's worth, I will always admire Hanks and Spielberg for making "Saving Private Ryan" and Spielberg for "Schindler's List,

I thought both of those were great. Another of my favorites was Hanks' HBO series, "From the Earth to the Moon" and of course "Apollo 13".

[Shortwave]

Boy is beginning to question the existence of Santa.
Train picks up boy and others.
Train head to the North Pole.
Each kids has a lesson to learn and each does on the train.
Kids got to North Pole.
Meet Santa.
Go home.

There. I'm tell you, the movie is a masterpiece. I have never seen a theater of children in such awe and I see just about every animated movie at the theater since Lion King.

There are not politics and there is nothing less PC that Christmas. So I don't get the point of the article in NewsMax. Frankly, I find it a little scary.

[Strategerist]

There are not politics and there is nothing less PC that Christmas. So I don't get the point of the article in NewsMax. Frankly, I find it a little scary.

Eh, not scary, just moronic. These weird "conservative" campaigns against movies that have nothing to do with the actual content of the movie are ridiculous. I guess NewsMax is trying a WingNutDaily Joseph Farah "I did not see "Alamo" but I'll give it a terrible review" move.

[P H Lewis]

My personal "BS alarm" goes off anytime the TV ad for a movie contains the phrase "an instant classic", or something similar.

Why don't we let time and the viewer decide that. Keep in mind that when "It's a Wonderful Life" was released (and it was in the summer, I believe, not marketed at all for the "holiday season" in the year in which it was first offered to the public), it was greeted with yawns by critics and audiences alike, more or less, as I recall. Nowadays, it's hard to think of that movie as being anything less than "classic".