MIT Vegas team movie - 21:Bringing down the house

[Arex]

^ My wife would slap you for saying that.

Interesting note: there was a short blurb in Maxim about the film and they acknowledge the fact that the real kids were Asian. Said a white kid with a $1,000,000 would look suspicious whereas an Asian kid would not. I think it was a brief Q&A with the author of the book, but I could be mistaken.

[Napoleon Chynamite]

Frankly the whole argument behind profits is all they need and even I'm inclined to believe it. Who knows whether it was racially motivated or not. Ultimately people are just going to put out what they think will make the most money. It's Hollywood after all. I'm interestingly cynical enough to assume that had they thought an all Asian male cast would sell better, they'd have actually gone through with it.

[Sunflare]

So may I ask then, hypothetically assuming that there is no racial motivation behind this, and that could be a distant possiblity. . .

How could they make more profits off the film using these particular actors over using actual APA actors for the part?

And is it right?

[Napoleon Chynamite]

^ Um...how could they make more money by using white actors instead of Asian actors you ask?..................

And nobody said anything about being wrong or right, you could argue that forever. It's just business I'm talking about here. Hollywood puts out what sells.

[Sunflare]

Okay, thats one way of looking at it.

Anybody else with different or similar viewpoints to the question I asked?

[sageb1]

Originally Posted by Zombie Dave

dropping from a ski lift to the snow. i used to going skiing in France twice a year, racing downhill near vertical gradients at pretty good speed (you just can't do it slowly). the only downside was I often went too far ahead of whoever I was skiing with, and we'd end up in completely different villages at the end of the run. pissed them off no end. this was when I was young, 2-3 years ago. so long ago.

on topic, i see that jeffrey ma cameos in the movie of his story. why isn't he boycotting the movie he didn't make of the book he didn't write? this is so confusing!



is this is the same 'asian consciousness' that's cracking jokes about pla tanks running tibetans over on the china/tibet thread? give him/her/it a break!

grr where is this thread?

[eos]

when my bf and i saw this trailer, we said "great. you know the REAL people were asians" really really loud in the theater. yeah, it's a movie, and watching it can give people a high and want to count cards, but the reality is lawsuits, being blacklisted from every hotel/casino, and jail time. i know i won't be watching it cuz i know someone who does/did this.

[Zombie Dave]

Originally Posted by sageb1

grr where is this thread?

never mind that the violence started after security forces cracked down on a peaceful sit-in, with between 19 to 100 deaths (depending on which source you believe), the Tibet Protests Against China Turn Deadly thread contains gems like:

Originally Posted by deez nuts

Bring out the Type 96 PLA tanks and crush some hippie monks!

Originally Posted by yoMAMA

but worry not comrades! looks like PLA has restored law and order in Lhasa

I'm no the biggest fan of the ccp, but i hope the pla crush those street thugs

Originally Posted by kimpossible

Hand Tibet over to those hippie Hollywood celebs.

Originally Posted by deez nuts

Negative. The Chinese drafted them in the Chapelle Race draft. They will be driving the PLA tanks and running over Tibetans.

and so on. these posts run concurrent to the actual increasing death toll and the spread of unrest to other cities. this doesn't read like 'asian consciousness', its more like a scriptwriters meeting for south park.

[deez nuts]

Originally Posted by Crystal Clear

APA site falloutcentral.com just posted an new entry encouraging APAs to boycott the movie 21. It was just posted today.

The point is that the producers are casting white people (Jim Sturgess and Kate Bosworth) in lead roles to portray people who were Asians in real life.

The producers are claiming that they are only using white actors in the lead roles for reasons strictly concerning profits and that their careful selection of the actors was not racially motivated. Whatever.

I think that's fucked up. Why couldn't they simply use AM actors?

Oh this movie is based on the book "Bringing Down the House." Good book. I highly recommend it.

Originally Posted by Zombie Dave

and so on. these posts run concurrent to the actual increasing death toll and the spread of unrest to other cities. this doesn't read like 'asian consciousness', its more like a scriptwriters meeting for south park.

In all fairness, I'm pretty much an unconscious Asian.

[Arex]

Originally Posted by Crystal Clear

So may I ask then, hypothetically assuming that there is no racial motivation behind this, and that could be a distant possiblity. . .

How could they make more profits off the film using these particular actors over using actual APA actors for the part?

And is it right?

I'm not sure if anyone's done a study on it, but I imagine movies which involve white protagonists generally sell better to white audiences than movies featuring minority leads. That's not to say a movie featuring predominantly minority leads won't find commercial success among non-minorities, but I would think as a general rule of thumb, when dealing with non-A-list actors (the non Denzels and non Will Smiths), that's probably the case.

Of course, without demographic studies/surveys, it could all be an incorrect assumption on the studios' parts. A good test case would be to see how well Better Luck Tomorrow fared among the non-Asian crowd, seeing as race didn't overtly factor into the storyline too much. But seeing as they're in it for the money, first and foremost, I would hope they have some kind of market research behind their casting decisions.

Given that they mention the film is inspired by a true story, it's a little shitty they couldn't use at least one Asian lead, and I probably won't see the film because of it, but I have no reason to doubt their motivations were purely commercial.

[yoMAMA]

never even heard of the film.

[TB4000]

Originally Posted by yoMAMA

never even heard of the film.

You're always behind the times, Vinnie Barbarino. =P

[suishiexpress]

The only film that casts asians as the lead actors is Harold and Kumar. Cause you know everyone loves seeing asians make an ass of themselves. Though I'm still going to see the sequel.

[yoMAMA]

Originally Posted by TB4000

You're always behind the times, Vinnie Barbarino. =P

Vinnie who?


hey dude, better be ready for H&K2!

[deez nuts]

Originally Posted by yoMAMA

never even heard of the film.

It's ok, comrade. I too have not even heard of the movie till this thread. I actually thought this was a documentary film type thing about people turning 21 and partying it up kinda like that movie about two slutty thirteen year old white chicks I saw on lifetime awhile back called "13." God bless slutty white chicks.