From cinemablend, The Vatican may be planning to help out the upcoming Da Vinci Code sequel Angels & Demons with a boycott. Reuters reports that the Vatican newspaper ran a story on Friday in which they say the Church “cannot approve” of such a problematic film. Other sources say the Vatican may be gearing up for a complete Catholic boycott of the film when it’s released this summer.
That’s great news for Hollywood, mired like the rest of us in tough economic times. A Catholic Church boycott could mean big box office. The Catholic Church’s opposition to the first film, The Da Vinci Code had almost no effect on preventing people from seeing it. In fact their disproval may have helped. Boycotts like this are not only completely ineffectual, they often help raise audience awareness of the film. It’s free advertising for Angels & Demons, the second the Pope or one of this clergy opens their mouth. Now might be a good time to buy stock in Sony Pictures.
It’s strange that this only works with entertainment. If the Catholic Church bans a movie or a piece of music, it’s an instant hit. On the other hand when the Pope blames condoms for the spread of AIDS in Africa people stop using them and the problem gets worse. I get the need to only listen to the Pope selectively, after all he makes a lot of wacky, irrelevant, Dark Ages proclamations. But if you’re going to pick your spots, you’re probably better off following his advice on movies and ignoring him when it comes to the spread of disease. Anybody can be a movie critic but I’m pretty sure you need more than a fancy hat before you qualify as a doctor.
6 comments:
I didn't read Da Vinci Code but I did read Angels and Demons, which was a weird combination of 1. tearing through it to see what happened and 2. absolutely HATING it.
I know Dan Brown's got some fans on the blog and I don't need to ruin their fun, but one problem I had with A&D is that it seems to be skewering Catholicism big time and then in the end backs off with a "But who's to say? It's such a big, complicated issue" whimp-out. So I wonder if the Pope's actually read it.
Hating it? Geez, I gave you that book with enthusiasm and I thought you kind of liked it. Sigh.
At this point in my life I don't know what I'm supposed to like anymore. When I like something everyone else tells me it's terrible and when I don't like something I'm told that I should. I think I'll just stop reading.
Funk dat! Read what you want. If this blog proves anything it's that people with respectable smarts can have completely different opinions about fiction.
Did I give you the impression I liked that book? Hmm. Maybe I didn't want to ruin your fun then, either. The man does have some skill with writing a tight, fast story. And having been to Rome it was fun watching the characters tooling around the city.
But the flaws were gaping. Gaping!
Example: They make all this noise about his antique Mickey Mouse watch that his parents bought him and later he uses the its beeping alarm function to save his life. Antique Mickey Mouse watches don't have beeping alarms! How did that make it into print???
I could go on...
JPX - like whatever you like and hate whatever you hate! No one here is going to judge you or get hurt feelings.
I enjoyed all of the Dan Brown novels the same way I enjoy a Segal movie. I preferred Angels & Demons because of the creatively gruesome deaths.
Speaking of the f'in pope, he's been doing his part to ensure that the church is dangerously out of whack with the rest of the world with his stance against condoms in an AIDS ravaged Africa.
Motherfucker douche bag shithead asshole. (Excuse me, I needed to get that out of my system.)
Asspope.
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