There is an easy way to measure the success of any studio movie and that is by measuring how many bootleg copies there are out there on the street. You know think Jerry Seinfeld and they range in quality from pre-studio release copies to poor copies taken by Kramer wanabes. In comparison, copies of Iron Man have already hit the street. Now, before some reader goes off on a rant, let me set the record straight about bootlegs. I actually go to the movies or rent from Blockbuster on a weekly basis and if it’s a visually stunning movie. buy a legit copy for my own personal use. Why? I am a video and audiophile with a home theater and enjoy the sights and sounds of a good movie. Bootleg copies of movies are often of wildly varying quality and in almost all cases they don’t meet my exacting standards. Yes, I am one of those weirdos that play with different brands of HDMI cables.
With that said, I have to be honest with you there was no way I was going to spend $20 and give that money to the ICR, Institute of Creation Research, to watch Expelled. Plus, I would never subject my wife to an hour and half of this drivel, her time is too precious and she would kill me if I did. Moreover, I don’t go to the movies alone, its has been a couples ritual for me during the entirety of my life and I am certainly not changing my ways for Expelled and Ben Stein.
So I have been looking for a bootleg copy to watch to make my comments on this blog but guess what? There are no bootlegs, the street vendors don’t have any copies nor is it available online as a valid torrent. I even noticed that most of the major movie critics have kept away from reviewing this masterpiece as well (no, your pastor doesn’t count!).
Why? Supply and demand baby, nobody wants to see Ben Stein drone on about the horrors of Darwinism save a handful of religious fundamentalists and conservative gadflies. The rest of the silent majority is too busy trying to figure how we can afford to fill our cars with a tankful of gas, thank you Mr. George Bush. The gross to date, a month after the release of Expelled, is just shy of $7.5 M, not eactly Michael Moore territory for a documentary. So much for a Creationist’s revolution in the United States and things will not fare much better for this crowd with the fall presidential election. You can already hear the yawns!
Erik John Bertel
Authors of Flores Girl: The Children God Forgot
Gah! I’ve been trying to find a bootleg since it came out! I finally gave up. I’ve seen the Ben Stein interview on YouTube and I’m sure I’m not missing out on anything other than a propaganda film.
I am sure I am not but unlike a lot of other pro-evolution bloggers and fundamentalist types I won’t specifically comment on the worthiness of a movie unless I actually see it.
Erik John Bertel
Gotta wonder if Ben Stein has Expelled Fidelity Investments yet. He’s so worried about future genocide, after all, you’d think he might be a little concerned that his own money is helping to fund an ongoing one right now (among other nasty, inhumane things).
Not to worry, I understand that the Sudanese are also creationists!
Erik John Bertel
I haven’t seen Expelled. I merely posted a trailer on my blog, one of several hundred ways to view it. What has amazed and amused me is the number of folks who have already made a judgment based on their own prejudices, biases, expectations, etc. I have a friend who refuses to see the movie because he has already decided that it reaches erroneous conclusions. But this is the first time I have heard about a decision not to see a film, at least in part, because there are no bootleg copies available. I do plan on seeing the film just so that I can make an informed decision about its worth. Wow! What a unique idea! http://www.dwhitsett.wordpress.com
Like I said there is no way I am giving my money to Ben Stein and the Institute of Creation Research so I will continue to wait for that elusive bootleg. It is a matter of principle for me and likewise I will not comment about the movie and instead focus my comments on the ID/Creationist Movement in this country. Fair is fair.
Erik John Bertel
Author of Flores Girl The Children God Forgot and the Millenniumwriting.com blog
I have seen the movie and it was quite fascinating. The reason this movie isn’t popular is because it IS a documentary. Don’t compare it to the Michael Moore pseudo documentaries. This movie uses fact, not made up stuff to dramatize it.
Ben Stein is a genius. That is fact. It doesn’t mean he is always right, but it means he has the brain power to analyze data and make conclusions.
Spoiler Alert:
Ben Stein even gets one of the great atheist minds to admit that ID is very possible, as long as the designer isn’t God.
And that is the point. The movie never talks about God. It only points out that evolution is so flawed as to be literally impossible. So what are the alternatives? Well, don’t talk about that or you will be expelled.
“Like I said there is no way I am giving my money to Ben Stein and the Institute of Creation Research so I will continue to wait for that elusive bootleg.”
What does the ICR have to do with this???
Somebody in the Creationist Camp must have bankrolled this masterpiece!
Erik John Bertel
Well, I don’t know exactly where the money came from but it was produced by Premise Media. Walt Ruloff is the CEO and Logan Craft the Chairman of the board.
Logan Craft is in fact Rev. A. Logan Craft and is the executive pastor of Christ Church Santa Fe even though he claims the following : “I’ve always kept my business and any kind of professional ministry stuff pretty clearly delineated”. (http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Local%20News/Anti-Darwinism-film-evolves-into-blockbuster-hit)
Walt Ruloff has been financing Christian organizations for at least almost a decade, being, back in 1999, a trustee of City in Focus, which goal is “to communicate the love and call of Jesus Christ in a sensitive and challenging manner to the business and professional people of Vancouver, by means of a ministry based where they work”. (http://www.canadianchristianity.com/cgi-bin/bc.cgi?bc/bccn/0499/city)
Maybe provide some evidence it was the ICR that pulled this off?
I’ll provide the evidence the day ID proponents provide some tenable evidence for their so-called theories. As of now I’ll reclassify my statement as a strong personal hunch.
Erik John Bertel
Author Flores Girl The Children God Forgot
But Expelled did get into Micheal Moore territory… its done as well (or better) than Moores debut documentary ‘Roger and Me’.. and that was the goal and ‘comparison film’ they were looking at here.
The thinking being.. if Moore did that well with his first one and grew from there then Expelled might be able to do the same.
Expelled did match Roger and Me in terms of box-office (granted, nowadays its the DVD deal that seems to be the big number in this).
But yeah, Expelled is listed at boxofficemojo as the 12 highest grossing documentary of all time and its 5th ranked in political documentaries.
The other thing you mentioned was the ‘torrent-o-meter’ but I have to tell you that I also noticed there were a number of ‘looped previews’ but of course you don’t know that till you get the massive file downloaded,
but,
maybe you didn’t notice this but if you watched the stats - there was massive grabs being made for (what people thought) was Expelled.
At the time (the week after it debuted) it was one of the most active torrents going and even AFTER about 20 warning were posted saying ‘This is NOT the full movie’ lol.
Justin,
You gotta stop being so literal…oops I guess that’s the whole argument. The comment was made tongue in cheek and moreover, I do know there were no bootlegs on the street. Plus $7 million gross is a bit weak. As to the torrent meter I did notice that the overall number of leeches and seeds was somewhat minimal, even weaker than Vista. To be honest with you the hype far exceeded the turnout no doubt stoked by both sides of the argument and in these turbulent economic times this whole debate is going to get lost with the American public.
Erik John Bertel
Author of Flores Girl: The Children God Forgot.
Funny that the argument for not watching this movie is that you can’t find it. And the argument that it’s not watchable is that people don’t care about it. And the argument that people don’t care about it is that people haven’t watched it. Hmm. Funny.
I try to stay out of these childish single-minded exchanges as a practice. But sometimes it’s just too abhorrent. As mindless as Christians who refused to watch the Da Vinci Code “on principle” is this nonsense.
Peace and hair grease.
You missed the point and I will distill it down for you so you can understand. I refuse to pay money to watch the movie because I don’t want to aid the cause of ID and other creationist nonsense and in the process of looking for bootlegs found there were none to be found. Why? Because nobody cares about this ID argument other than a few rabid creationists and Darwinists who insist on continuing to blog on this nonsense, myself included! Frankly, Americans are far more concerned about $5 a gallon gas and the dismal state of the US economy.
Erik John Bertel
Wow!!
It certainly looks like Ben Stein got expelled from the Internet. Yoko Ono is playing the bad Bitch because
Stein used a small clipping from “Imagine”. This is absurd.
http://expelledthemovie.com/blog/2008/04/23/executive-producers-of-expelled-no-intelligence-allowed-statement-on-lawsuit-by-yoko-ono/
Ben Stein should simply openup shop and start selling boxed DVD versions of “Expelled”. These days People don’t visit city movie theathers in large crowds to watch docu’s like Expelled. They might get beaten up by a couple of Darwin followers, telling you “only the strong will survive”.
Robert M. Stockmann
Well Rob, you showed the main problem with the anti-evolution belief. You paraphrase ideas incorrectly and refuse to learn the correct phrases when corrected. Darwin at no time believed that “only the strong will survive”. You hear survival of the fittest and think that since you know of one definition of the word fit, that it is the one you believe HAS to be used. How fit an animal is has nothing to do with it’s strength it has to do with it’s ability to produce viable offspring better than it’s competitors.
And how DARE a woman demand to be paid for a movie company using her husband’s music. I mean really, copyrights are just so unjust to non-artists….