Sound of Freedom (2023)

This film is being marketed as a sort of apocalyptic "must save the kids" deal, complete with references to adrenochrome [Sic?] which alludes to wider conspiracies in the real world.






Jim Caviezel gets broken up talking about this, like he witnessed this stuff first hand. Off his nut or breaking the untold story of worldwide human trafficking? You be the judge.

https://www.angel.com/tickets/sound-...ate=2023-07-04

The movie has 99% FRESH at RT and has gained quite a bit of traction over the last week, which is how long it's out for I believe before it heads to streaming services.. Still, it is based on a True Story and stuff like this is occurring.. Some movie websites I've seen are scoffing at it calling it "QANON Conspiracy Theory" garbage, but it's not.. Also, this doesn't exactly scream the type of movie I'd pick for the 4th of July Weekend at the movie and would prefer something a little more feel good than walking out 2 hours and 15 minutes later feeling like shit..

https://www.foxnews.com/media/sound-...-indiana-jones

Apparently The Sound of Freedom beat Indiana Jones and the Dial of AARP which is sort of a big deal for a movie like this that came in under the radar, not to mention the subject matter being based on true events, accounts so to speak..

This may be more evidence of an emerging schism in American patterns of consumption. A significant portion of the country has had enough of Budweiser and Disney and Target and Netflix. These are the people who flock to films like Top Gun: Maverick and stream Chris Pratt's The Terminal list rather than Netflix's Cuties.



It may be telling that this film is beating Indiana Jones. Indie is supposed to be a safe play. It's nostalgia fare, memberberries for millenials, bait for boomers. It's red meat and potatoes. But the masses did not come. Too big to fail franchises are failing. Billions of dollars are being lost. For years they've had a captive audience. Fill the trough and they will come. Now, the herd restless.



We're separating into two different Americas with two radically different visions of itself. We have two national anthems being sung at marquee NFL games. We have graduating college classes segregated by race at major universities. We have 1619 and 1776. We have June Teenth and July 4th. And we just saw Ben and Jerry's parent company Unilever take $2.5 billion stock hit over a tweet shaming the latter holiday. We not only have two different visions, but we don't like each other--thus the proposition is increasingly not "both/and," but rather "either/or." Consequently, it should not be surprising that media may also split with oddball films like this taking the top spot. In the old days, the right-wing counter-culture was relegated to Limbaugh ranting on AM radio. Now we have Jim Caveziel warning about adrenochroming kids in publicity interviews for a film marketed at churches which is beating out Harrison Ford in one of his most beloved roles.



Is this an odd blip in the culture wars or are we witnessing a shift this year?

I imagine a hyper targeted film like this will turn out to be pretty front loaded, but hard to say,

I guess the real question is whether it will make money. Small budget and guerilla marketing = profit?



If massive "movie events" are failing, might we see a return to small cinema (small movies made for a small budget that aren't homogenized cultural experiences)?

Caviezel knows adrenochrome is a drug that Hunter S Thompson made up, right?


As for Indy not living up to expectations, good. Indiana Jones was more my thing than anything else back in the day, and I am happy to watch it burn. Anything that makes these lazy ass movie producers lose their shirts thinking they've got a sure thing with their stupid hundred million dollar investments.

Looking forward to Sound of Freedom (2022). Not crazy about the subject matter, but both the reviews and the trailers look real good. I'll letcha know...

No, I watched him weep, like breaking down, through an interview where he was talking about kids being pumped like Slurpee machines to extract all their youthful goodness.



Wikipedia says it's a real thing that has been used in research.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrenochrome


Thompson didn't make it up from what I can see, but Fear and Loathing seems to have set the stage for the idea that it has to be extracted from a living body.


The record really needs to be set straight on what people fighting human trafficking are actually finding, as a Q-Anon Satanic Panic won't do anyone any good. It's bad enough that Epstein's Island was real and that so many high level people were going there. The last thing we need is concern about real-world exploitation being undercut by being "debunked" by being associated with fringe conspiracy theories.

I know how you feel.

That's an astute analyzes of today's America. I wish you weren't right, but I really think you nailed it there. It would be interesting to see ticket sales demographics for Sound of Freedom vs the new Indiana Jones movie, it might be telling.

Not surprised considering The Sound of Freedom deals with something real.

There should have long ago been a holiday celebrating the freeing of the slaves. Donald Trump in 2020 pledged to make Juneteenth a Federal Holiday, so I don't see it being that polarizing when it is something both trump and biden agreed on.

Back to movies, don't think many people really wanted an Indiana Jones played by a geriatric Harrison Ford. Sorry, action movies with really old actors are just a bad idea since even in movies that have strong fantasy elements, you do need a level of believability. When Jason Mamoa goes into a room and beats people up, you believe it. At least you do more than an 80 year old. On top of that, Indiana Jones isn't really something young people are dying to see. There has only been one release in the last 34 years and it was a movie most people didn't like. Next you have the colossal budget with tons of CGI which doesn't bode well compared to the original 3 which were done on smaller budgets with practical effects. Throw in PWB's character being unlikeable to many and a colead and this movie had its problems.

Also Harrison Ford isn't a movie star anymore. Think of his big releases in the last 15 years: The Call of the Wild, Blade Runner 2049, The Expendables 3, Ender's Game, Paranoia and Cowboys and Aliens were all flops at the box office. Only The Force Awakens was really a success. Young people just don't view him as a big draw.

Yeah I was a huge Indy fan back in the day. I still own not just all 4 Indy movies on blu ray, but I own every Young Indy movie on dvd too. I told people on the reddit box office sub this was going to bomb before it was released and got huge pushback. What was my argument? I had no interest in seeing this. I felt if me, a guy who regularly has watched the Indy movies and has Indy memorabilia and considers himself a big Indy fan had no interest in seeing this than many others wouldn't either. It looks like I was proven correct.

Some franchises just need to be laid to rest. Indy 4 and 5 should have been made in the 90's if they were going to do them. Or they should have made them with another actor like Chris Pratt or Charlie Hunnan. People push back on that and I love Harrison Ford as Indy, but I'd rather see a middle age in his prime actor take over than Ford do it as an 80 year old.

Hi everybody! (Just testing).

All the legacy media is warning me about Qanon and it flaming right wing conspiracies so I am assuming they are lying and it's just a good flick. To beat an Indiana Jones movie at the box office should be all you need to know about the state of Hollywood right now.

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101 Favorite Movies (2019)

I've deleted several posts. This is not a thread to argue about the validity of various federal holidays.

Forgive me, but I was literally out of town and am catching up, and I literally didn't even notice that post until now. I agree it should also be removed. It's hard to keep up with these arguments, particularly when they take place in the middle of the night and/or across multiple pages.

It's a messy process, anyway, because people like to mix the overt political arguments in with perfectly on-topic observations, so it can be difficult to know where to draw the line. Inevitably somebody feels like I let the other guy get the last word in, even though I try to avoid that.

I think you'll find if you just approach me (or Sedai, the other mod) with good faith requests or questions you'll get good faith responses and explanations. No need to assume malice or side-taking right off the bat, there's usually a lot more going on.

Sure, it is all good. And I get it is a messy process not wanting to talk politics(which is a good rule) but also is hard when many films enter that realm in one way or the other and make it hard to avoid.