The LC's Box-Office Report / Plus, the Boys Consider KU Theatre!

As Richard predicted, He's Just Not That Into You is doing big business this weekend before Valentine's Day ($27.5 million). Although the critics have mostly been unkind, a few are willing to come to the film's defense, such as Mick Lasalle from the SF-Chronicle, who says:

"...face it: If a movie this well made had Spanish or French subtitles, we'd all be talking about it as a searing examination of sexual politics."

Chip: "Finally, we have a critic who realizes that films such as this and Sex and the City: The Movie are the modern-day equivalent of, oh, let's say, Ingmar Bergman films in terms of their profound and incisive commentary on relationships. In fact, the only problem I have with this film is that it's 2 hours and 12 minutes long, which is longer than some of my most fulfilling relationships have been."

Richard: "I have to admit that I sort of miss the old chick-flicks that told women true love was possible, instead of this new generation of films that tells women their vibrators are almost always preferable to real men. I blame Hollywood solely for the fact that I'm single."

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KU rarely if ever performs a play in its original version, apparently believing that Shakespeare is completely irrelevant to modern viewers unless its set in space or on a pirate ship, and it's always fun to guess the ways in which they will "modernize" their plays each season. What has KU Opera done to the current Gilbert and Sullivan 19th-century opera Patience, you wonder? Let's find out from this LJ-World review:

"The opera department chose to set this particular piece at KU in the 1920s, where a chorus of greek maidens, ala Chi Omega or Kappa Kappa Gamma, pose and pursue the fleshly poet, Reginald. Their former beaus, members of the KU football team, are confused and upset...".

Chip: "A chorus of sorostitutes?! Opera, you just got interesting for the first time ever!"

Not content with one level of modernization, the production also includes contemporary references to Obama, Biden, and Palin.

Richard: "I don't very often like to speak in my real voice on the blog, but let me just say this: what the fuck?"