May Contain Nuts

I was granted the opportunity to screen The Island, Michael Bay’s new “intelligent” summer blockbuster (in all fairness, it does rank as more intelligent than Pearl Harbor, Bad Boyz, and Armageddon combined, though that’s still saying very little…). While it is a bit on the long side (2:20 plus trailers), it doesn’t really drag at any point, and it’s a lot better than I expected it to be (which seems to be the catch-phrase of this summer’s line-up). There were a couple of niggling “unintelligent” concepts presented in the film towards the end that weren’t entirely necessary, nor even satisfactorily explained, but ultimately, it wasn’t bad at all. And damnit, for once I’d like to see Sean Bean show up on screen and NOT know he’s going to be the bad guy within 10 seconds.

The thing that really annoyed me, though, was the horrifically gratuitous product placement. I mean, drinking Pepsi or going to McDonald’s I could completely go along with. This movie, however, was almost a moving billboard for every product it included (and I would not be far from the mark to call it blatant advertising). MSN Search, Maxim, Cosmo, American Express, Aquafina, Calvin Cline, Johnny Rocket’s, and Michelob all come to mind within 30 seconds. The Michelob one was particularly crass… it was a 3-second shot of the bottle (and ONLY the bottle) prior to the character opening it up and taking a drink. It would only have been more of a commercial if there had been an announcer guy (or if Ewan had said “mmm, this Michelob really hits the spot.”). MSN Search’s logo being plastered across the side of a glass “information directory” (aka “futuristic phone booth) was pretty tacky too, I thought. But then, Microsoft did do the whole butterfly sticker advertising campaign in NYC’s subway system, so that may not actually be too far off the mark.

I propose we make a drinking game (or at the very least, a challenge for the keen of eye) based around this extreme amount of advertising in-movie… for those playing at home with the shot glass, shoot one every time you see a placed product. For those either not of legal drinking age or those intending to go out later this week, I suggest staying off the booze and just keep a running total. Substitute with soda or eggnog or something if you prefer.

And is it just me, or does Apple have computer deals with every production studio except the set where they film Stargate? It seems like every movie character these days is using an Apple… except for the team on Atlantis… dude, they got a Dell.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 22nd, 2005 at 6:34 am and is filed under Movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.