Four brief pieces of news on The Nativity Story all of which are distinctly lukewarm-off-the-press, but worth mentioning for completeness if nothing else.
Firstly, the premiere is to be staged at The Vatican, which I guess is a far greater seal of approval than the film-makers could possibly have hoped for. Certainly it's a far greater show of enthusiasm than the undignified hushing up of the last pope's alleged statement on The Passion of the Christ "it is as it was".
Secondly, some Christian reviewers have ignored the usual standard of waiting until a day or two before a film's release before publishing reviews of it. Jeffrey Overstreet is particularly amusing regarding one of those reviews, (primarily because of one or two bizarre comments). It's better if you read it for yourself than have me hack it down to size. The other has been posted at the In the Open Space blog. I'm not sure what to make of this. Personally I plan to hold my review until the film opens, but at the same time I can't see why church leaders are being invited to watch the film unless they are meant to share their opinions with their congregations and whip up a bit of interest before it is released.
Then there's another preview piece in Newsweek.
Finally, Queen Spoo points out that the Moviefone site has 7 clips of the film to view.
(By the way, if you're wondering why there aren't any pictures, it's because I'm on holiday for a few days and I'm emailing it in)
heh, i guess that elevates me from blogger to a bona fide reviewer :)
ReplyDeleteseriously, i think this is an interesting observation, the release of reviews before the standard day-or-two-before. among people in blogdom and the Internet who follow film and pop culture news, however, this has been rather common. ain't it cool comes to mind as a prime example. as a pop culture fan for decades, i've often gotten reviews and ruminations about films, television shows and books long before they debut--some in the form of "spoilers" and some in the form of "reviews." like you said, the pastor's screening seems to be geared towards this. perhaps the line between the professional press and us more amateur folk is blurring? well, maybe it's not that far along, but at least there seems to be an influence, if not on professional reviewers (those who make their living at it) then on the film industry itself (as it's observing and taking advantage of us blogger folk).
matt, if you have time, i'd be really interested to hear it spelled out why professional reviewers wait.
blessings.
Hey Matt...I finally was able to download the 7 clips posted on MovieFone and consolidated them into one movie clip. You can watch them back to back here:
ReplyDeleteNativity Movie Clips