“Top Gun” Ruined Movies, Justin Bieber is Changing Them Again and Other Discussion Fodder

- Here are some puzzles for your lonely little child (with “The Shining”) staying at the Overlook Hotel in the off season. For a PDF copy, head to designer Shane Parker’s blog. [via Popped Culture]
Today’s discussion fodder links roundup includes stuff concerning “Justin Bieber: Never Say Never,” “Iron Man 2,” “Harry Potter,” “Paranormal Activity,” “Black Swan,” “Top Gun,” “Jaws,” “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” “RoboCop,” “Equilibrium” and “Superman: Man of Steel.”
- Devin Faraci at Badass Digest explains what getting a ‘Director’s Fan Cut’ of “Justin Bieber: Never Say Never” means for movies:

I mean, we’ve all talked about it, but suddenly Paramount’s desire to milk every penny from Bieber’s mindless tween fanbase puts it into action – the digital distribution model allows for dynamic changes, updates or tweaks to movies as they play in theaters. On the one hand there’s a dark side to this – imagine George Lucas fucking with movies in between showings! – but on the other it’s showing the way of the future. Imagine if good movies could have director’s cuts in theaters two weeks after opening. Imagine if that old Clue system of different endings could be cheaply put into effect, a gimmick less headachey than 3D.

That “Clue” thing better be implemented for he remake, I guess? Regarding the Bieber: what I think would have been more interesting, particularly given the context of Bieber’s origin story, is for fans themselves to get to participate in the recut(s) that end up back on the big screen. Bring the YouTube model—and more respectably, the collaborative documentary model—to the capabilities of satellite digital projection.
- Germain Lussier at /Film jumps off from Faraci’s post with more reason to care about the immediate re-cut re-release of the Bieber movie:

The other reasons you should care about Justin Bieber: Never Say Never being re-released, like I said above, all center on the fact that the film is actually pretty good. I understand the teen pop singer has the stigma of being just for young girls. Get past that. Grow up. If you can’t, that’s fine, but you have to forget about it to understand my points. Bieber’s rise to stardom – grassroots and almost strictly through the Internet – is a fascinating, significant and timely story. The film is almost more about our current culture than The Social Network. It’s nowhere near that level of excellence, obviously, but in a conversation about movies that speak to life in 2011, Never Say Never, merits a mention.

Source:http://blogs.indiewire.com/spout/archives/links022211/