Lance Acord

Check Out 2012 Super Bowl Ads Directed by Peter Berg, Todd Phillips, David Gordon Green, and More

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: February 6th, 2012 at 1:43 pm

The ratings are in, and Super Bowl XLVI just barely edged out last year’s game to rank as the most watched program in television history. Nearly 111.3 million people tuned in to watch the Giants vs. Patriots match-up and, subsequently, a whole lotta advertising. Last night we brought you a compilation of all the movie-related spots that ran during the game (including an extended version of The Avengers ad, which is fantastic), and today we’d like to bring your attention to the actual commercials. While most of us are looking for the cleverest or most laugh-inducing spot when judging these super-sized budgeted ads, quite a few notable filmmakers were actually behind many of last night’s spots.

After the jump you’ll find a compilation of ads directed by Peter Berg, Todd Phillips, David Gordon Green, Craig Gillespie, Bobby Farrelly, Matthijs van Heijningen Jr., Lance Acord, Joe Pytka, Jake Scott, Fredrik Bond, Chris Smith, Miguel Arteta, Wayne McClammy, and Noam Murro.

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE Review

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: October 15th, 2009 at 9:11 pm

“What do you do with the mad that you feel?
When you feel so mad you could bite.
When the whole wide world seems oh so wrong, and nothing you do seems very right.”

- Fred Rogers

It’s okay for kids to have emotions.  They don’t know how to control them and there will be times when they get out of hand.  And while it’s a parent’s instinct to protect their child from harm, to protect them from their own emotions is a tragedy.  Contrary to its unofficial tagline of “It’s not a kids movie; it’s a movie about being a kid”, “Where the Wild Things Are” is a kids’ movie and it’s a movie about being a kid.  Those who say it’s too much for kids to handle can’t say, “It’s a movie about being a kid” since the film is about the emotions that kids feel every day.  Kids can get scared, they can get confused, but they can also identify with those emotions when they see them.  You can identify with these emotions too if you allow this film to tap into that sense memory of childhood; not through nostalgia or regression but remembering an innocence untarnished by irony, ego, cynicism, and all the baggage we take on as we mature.  But healthy maturity, bittersweet as it is, can not be forced nor restrained.  It must have the freedom to run wild and that means feeling a range of emotions including fear and sadness.

Rather than just take the plot of the children’s book and stuff it with filler, director Spike Jonze and co-writer Dave Eggers understood the feelings and emotions author Maurice Sendak conveyed in his writing and illustrations.  Their understanding is what makes “Where the Wild Things Are” honest, courageous, heartfelt, and the best film of 2009.

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE – Matt’s Recap of the Comic-Con Presentation

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: July 24th, 2009 at 6:27 pm

Here’s a funny thing: the line yesterday for Hall H was absolutely insane.  If it wasn’t filled with die-hard “Twilight” fans, it was filled with hardcore “Avatar” fans (who had nothing tangible to be excited for at the time), and folks eager to see Disney’s 3D Panel.  But last night, at about 11pm, I was walking back to my hotel and I only noticed five or six people camped out in front of Hall H.  I went over and asked what they were standing in line to see this early.  And it was so refreshing to hear their answer: “Nothing in particular.  We want to see it all.”  These are the kinds of people that deserve the best seats.

And yet, with such major panels primed for Friday including a slate of Warner Bros. films and film from Disney-Pixar, it was odd that you could show up at around 1am or 2am in the morning (and maybe even a bit later, although as I walked by at around 7:30 this morning, it was pretty full, but not stretching down the block like yesterday (that would come a little later as the WB panel was beginning around 10am).  So why weren’t folks psyched like they were yesterday?  With such a line up of films, you not only get a lot of bang for your buck (they showcased SEVEN films, more than any other studio here), but all of them look pretty great.

So let’s kick off with the first film they showed and the one that brought tears to my eyes: Spike Jonze’s adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s “Where The Wild Things Are”. My report is after the jump:

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