The reviews for Expelled are starting to come in, and even FOX News' Roger Friedman has panned the film. You'll have to scroll down a little bit to see the review (Mariah Carey's new album beat Stein in terms of importance), but here's a snippet to give you an idea of what Friedman thinks of the creationist film;
The gist of Stein's involvement is: He's outraged! He believes in God! God created the universe! How can we not avail our students of this theory? What do you mean we're just molecules?
What the producers of this film would love, love, love is a controversy. That's because it's being marketed by the same people who brought us "The Passion of the Christ." They're hoping someone will latch onto an anti-Semitism theme here, since there's a visit to a concentration camp and the raised idea -- apparently typical of the intelligent design community -- that somehow the theory of evolution is so evil that it caused the Holocaust. Alas, this is such a warped premise that no one's biting.
The whole idea of Stein, a Jew, jumping on the intelligent design bandwagon of the theory of evolution begetting the Nazis is so distasteful you wonder what in -- sorry -- God's name -- he was thinking when he got into this. Who cares, really, if "Expelled" is anti-Semitic? It will come and go without much fanfare.
The funniest bit of all, though, is that at the very top of the page there's a banner ad for Expelled. Ouch. Adverts for the film are showing up all over Google Ads and even on rottentomatoes.com, and it seems like the film's creators are extremely desperate to get people to go see their movie. As far as I'm aware it's coming out in at least one theater near me when it opens, but I have the feeling that it's going to have a short run. I'm half-tempted to see it and write about it, but I think I'll take my $12 and go to the Cranbury Bookworm instead.
[Hat-tip to Afarensis, Pharyngula and the Austringer]
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Just buy a ticket to a better movie, and then sneak into see that celluloid car crash.
Obviously there's a dark conspiracy afoot. Atheists, evolutionists and the liberal media have joined forces to stop Ben Stein from telling the truth.
It's an outrage I tell you!
Better yet, give your $12 to the National Center for Science Education!
Screw Expelled!
On April 18th I'm going to the opening of ZOMBIE STRIPPERS, It will have a much better basis in reality.
What if it only breaks even before goes to DVD?
At 3.4 million it would rank at only the #3 opening weekend for a documentary film?
Oh! What a failure!
Really, if it does that well, the DVD sales are sure to make it a big profit and Premise will trot out more of these low-budget documentary films.
I see that as a great victory.
See my blog for my take on all of this plus some EXPELLED clips.
I saw a prescreening and one of the producers said it cost around $5 million to make (I've also heard $7 million including distribution) and they were planning to spend "millions" more in marketing.
So I think it's safe to say the entire production was in the single digit millions.
Think about it, DVDs cost about a buck to reproduce and package. That's where the profit is. It means Premise will have to sell about 200,000 units to raise a budget for another film like this one.
Can't wait.
I haven't seen the results yet Jay, so I really don't know. If Premise and Stein are just after money, that might work just fine, but if they're being honest (a shocking proposition) what they really care about is getting people steamed up about "Darwinism." They're preaching to the choir, and the only people who seem to know about the film are those who already know about it because they're creationists or recognize evolution as a reality. I doubt that it's going to have any sort of major cultural influence beyond people who are already pre-programmed to accept the distorted message of the film.
I had a quick look at your blog, too, and I reject your claim that people have only given this film poor ratings because of their "worldview." From what I've seen the film is poorly made and filled with bad arguments, and most of the reviews I've read call the movie out on those points. I have had little doubt that the film is going to make most of its money through DVD sales through creationist websites and Christian bookstores, but if Stein & co. are mostly concerned with saturating the receptive audience, then the film is contributing nothing other than a pat on the back to people who have been duped into believing the straw man version of evolutionary science presented in the film.
Jay, it also opened on more screens than any other documentary ever. The producer of the film was predicting they could beat Farenheit 9/11 which grossed $23 million in its opening weekend. It fell short by a factor of 6. Also, they are literally paying people to attend.
The reality is that Expelled was one of the best bankrolled documentaries ever and despite that fact it is bombing.