Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Little Miss Porn
The Nav Log ^ | 9/3/06 | ltn72

Posted on 09/03/2006 8:38:11 AM PDT by pabianice

Hollywood is all abuzz about “Little Miss Sunshine,” a deftly presented piece of porn pretending to be a “heart-warming Oscar contender.” The bubbly adjectives simply swirl about this recent release: “brilliant, deftly drawn, heartwarming, raucous, superb, human, engrossing, fun, ingenious, brilliantly hysterical, warm, moving, endearing,” and more. The truth is far less sunny. “Little Miss Sunshine” is a $10 million kiddie porn movie that displays just how rotten Hollywood has become and just how far its powerbrokers have moved from America. That it was the hit of the Sundance Festival was pre-ordained.

It’s hard to know where to begin in talking about this movie and what it tells us about the current business of making movies. The cast is, to be fair, very good, the direction competent, the scene dressing excellent. But the movie itself is tasteless and basically disgraceful, an updated version of “All in the Family,” in which evil, stupid Red America is brought up short by savvy, hip Blue America. Alan Arkin plays grandpa, an aging bum who snorts heroin (yuk, yuk) and was expelled from his nursing home because he is a dangerous, in-your-face loser who counsels others to live irresponsibly. One of his character’s two sons has just tried to kill himself because he was jilted by his gay lover (audience eyes tear up because it’s so, you know, sensitive and, you know, PC). The other son is a financially failed, unsuccessful huckster of a step program for self-improvement who is taken advantage of by Evil Big Business. The teenage grandson is apparently a lunatic who is determined to get into the Air Force Academy and who has taken a vow of silence until he is accepted (that there is a huge poster of an F-18 – a Navy airplane – on his bedroom wall clearly escaped the schmucks who produced this film). We never learn how he plans to do well in high school while refusing to speak. In one violent sequence we learn what potential US military officers are really like when this clueless, friendless loner goes berserk. Nice touch, Hollywood.

And then there is the grand daughter, Olive, a perky seven-year-old who becomes the winner of a local talent contest when the winner is disqualified for what sounds like doping (although we aren’t sure). Olive has a routine of which we remain uninformed until the final sequence. During the 800-mile cross-country drive in a rolling deathtrap of a VW minibus (so, so, 60s! you know), grandpa dies of a heroin overdose while baby-sitting Olive (Manson family values are on display everywhere in this film), so the family steals his body from the hospital, wraps him in a sheet, and stuffs him in the back of the bus. This sequence simply sparkles with the kind of wit for which Hollywood has become so justifiably famous and was getting old when it was done in “National Lampoon’s Vacation” thirty years ago. Of course, the bus is stopped by a cop on the road, but no problem. The cop is, as are all cops, you know, a leering, loathsome policeman who, upon finding a stash of porn magazines, trades some comments with dad that are so uncomfortable for the audience as to make grandpa’s death look like an episode of “Teletubbies.”

Complete Article


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: abysmalalanarkin; hollyweird; hollywoodsewerpipe; loweringthebar; mindlesshyperbole; moralabsolutes; moraldepravity; moralitypolice; werealllosers
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 201-206 next last
To: L.N. Smithee

"don't have any redeeming qualities, yet they all pull together in the end."

Sounds like almost everyone important in the Bible (with notable exceptions).


21 posted on 09/03/2006 9:03:55 AM PDT by MeanWestTexan (Kol Hakavod Lezahal)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: ARA

I'll comment on anything I feel like commenting on anytime I feel like commenting. Thank you for your comment.


22 posted on 09/03/2006 9:04:23 AM PDT by samtheman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: pabianice

'Bout time! I've been waiting for a good kid's show to hit the theatres.


23 posted on 09/03/2006 9:04:47 AM PDT by gotribe (It's not a religion.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: samtheman

Whatever... Just thought you might want open your closed minded noggin and relax a bit... the pressure must be intense...


24 posted on 09/03/2006 9:06:15 AM PDT by ARA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: MHGinTN
Good morning.
"Rent 'Secondhand Lions' ..."

Just buy it. If 'Secondhand Lions' doesn't make you feel good about life, you are hopeless.

Michael Frazier
25 posted on 09/03/2006 9:07:58 AM PDT by brazzaville (no surrender no retreat, well, maybe retreat's ok)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: ARA

You see. You're calling me names and insulting me and know nothing about me.

Did I call you a name?

Did I call this film a name?

Did you notice that my original comment, the one that now has you calling me names, was a general statement about Hollywood?

Do you read comments, or only attack them?

Thank you for attacking me.


26 posted on 09/03/2006 9:08:56 AM PDT by samtheman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: ARA
Go see the movie... it's funny and farcical...

It is not a movie for little kids, the language is rough, but there is not one boobie to be seen.

The movie it self had some funny scenes and was entertaining.

27 posted on 09/03/2006 9:09:06 AM PDT by Mark was here (How can they be called "Homeless" if their home is a field?.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: MHGinTN

Thanks, Ill check those out next time.

Even most of the good movies are littered with curse words
and Im just really fed up with it.


28 posted on 09/03/2006 9:10:43 AM PDT by No Blue States
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: ARA
Michael Medved recommended it, so it's hard to believe it's as bad as this other reviewer says.
29 posted on 09/03/2006 9:11:14 AM PDT by BigBobber
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: MHGinTN; ARA
Little Miss Sunshine

Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

Little Miss Sunshine Directed by
Jonathan Dayton
Valerie Faris

Writing credits (WGA)
Michael Arndt (written by)

> watch the trailer
Add this title to MyMovies Add to MyMovies Photo Gallery Photo Gallery IMDbPro Details

Photo Gallery (23 photos)

more

Showtimes & Tickets for 06513 (change location)

Cine 1-2-3-4 (add to my theaters)
Showtimes:12:00pm | 1:50 | 3:40 | 5:30 | 7:20 | 9:00 (more)

Genre: Adventure / Comedy / Drama (more)

Tagline: Where's Olive? (more)

Plot Outline: A family determined to get their young daughter into the finals of a beauty pageant take a cross-country trip in their VW bus. (more) (view trailer)

User Comments: Simply perfect (more)

User Rating: ********__ 8.2/10 (7,397 votes) Vote Here
30 posted on 09/03/2006 9:14:07 AM PDT by raybbr (You think it's bad now - wait till the anchor babies start to vote.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: pabianice

I have a rule of thumb for abysmally bad movies. It is the late-middle-aged Jewish comedian-who-was-never-funny rule.

Alan Arkin and Albert Brooks are at the head of the list. Men who continually look like they are in pain with intestinal problems and whine, nag, or complain with every line of dialogue.

For the most part, Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon were that way, too. And while you might laugh at their torments in the movies, you are left with the feeling of "what a miserable person, living a miserable life."


31 posted on 09/03/2006 9:15:50 AM PDT by Popocatapetl
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ARA

Yup, just a funny film ... human degeneracy is such a funny topic.


32 posted on 09/03/2006 9:16:46 AM PDT by MHGinTN (If you can read this, you've had life support from someone. Promote life support for others.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: samtheman

Sam:

Your comment was a broadbased hit derived from a discussion about a film that you haven't seen but still, like a sheep, follow a few people and condemn those who are part of hollywood. It's always the same with a few people here... Open your noggin and don't lop everyone into one stereotype.

I never called you a name. And I do know something about you... you are closed minded. Which is what I am responding to.

You can make an comment and I sir can respond.

No name calling and not attacking. Just pointing out facts.

ARA
Hollywood, CA


33 posted on 09/03/2006 9:17:48 AM PDT by ARA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: pabianice

It's funny,I was just checking out James Bowman's site (his movie reviews). He's famously difficult, and to get a 'worth seeing' two stars is about impossible (5-10 films a year.)
www.jamesbowman.net .
All his old annual lists did not dissapoint, but recently I've found he's totally swayed by sexual content: Intolerable Cruelty (CZJones) etc. and also this 'little miss' one.
I'm so happy you posted this, I actually was going to make this one of my (bi-annual?) film treats.
Did you see: 'Va, Vie, Devinir'? If it's translated into English it's a MUST.


34 posted on 09/03/2006 9:20:35 AM PDT by Sarah
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MHGinTN

Have you seen it? or are you just basing your comments on the words of others?


35 posted on 09/03/2006 9:21:39 AM PDT by ARA
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: Rabid Dog
the characters don't have any redeeming qualities, yet they all pull together in the end.

This movie could have been excellent, but goes way downhill when the grandfather dies.

The charaters do not have redeemable qualities, and are not redeemed at the end of the film. They are, losers in the end as they were in the beginning, and you have to think they will kill each other on the slow trip back home.

Also when the grandfather dies, what happens till they get to the hotel is not very believable, and really less than funny, original, or believable.

The pageant and the little girl's recital are an interesting and hilarious commentary on such events (why are the attendees and judges outraged at her dance when it is really all the same thing), but it really does little in the end to redeem anyone in the film...except to show the highly probably fate of innocent, lovable Olive in such an environment.

My mother said the AARP had a review calling it "fun for the whole familiy" which I finf very difficult to digest. Alot of marketing dollors were spent on this film. Alan Arkin is superb, Greg Kenear is absolutely horrible as always. There is even a scen with Kenear on the phone talking to someone, only he puts the phone down before he says a line - I was surprised the director missed that.

36 posted on 09/03/2006 9:25:25 AM PDT by Jalapeno
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: MHGinTN
But my nation is dying from the infection.

It is...and we conservatives are to blame. We achieved power, and then never dismanteled the Department of Education and the liberal educational power structure that would sow the seeds of our own demise.
37 posted on 09/03/2006 9:25:55 AM PDT by Old_Mil
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Tijeras_Slim

The reviewer completely misses the point of the movie. She also misses the satire. What's ironic is that many of the jokes the reviewer missed had points that the reviewer clearly agrees with.


38 posted on 09/03/2006 9:30:27 AM PDT by NYIslander
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: liberallarry

Check out Bride and Prejudice. Loads of fun.


39 posted on 09/03/2006 9:31:12 AM PDT by xp38
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: pabianice

I'll bet Madonna takes little Lourdes to this flick! Such wit and au courant culture!

Oh wait....Madonna doesn't allow her children to view flicks or television...too much trash..

Of course, the rest of the entertainers wouldn't allow their children to view trash. ~They just want yours to view trash...and pay for it.


40 posted on 09/03/2006 9:31:31 AM PDT by OpusatFR ( ALEA IACTA EST. We have just crossed the Rubicon.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 201-206 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson