Whenever any movie is released, there are
bound to be some people that like it, and others that don't. After all, beauty is in the eye of the beholder,
and art is almost always subjective. A film's popularity is usually just a matter
of taste and timing, but every once in a while, a film's very premise can turn people off
at the outset. In the case of these movies, the stories had
some people so enraged that they wished the movies had never even been made. Caligula Some films are created by great artists who
are inspired by a grand vision for a work of art that can inspire humanity to higher
ideals. And then there's Caligula, the brainchild
of Penthouse's Bob Guccione, who essentially convinced the world that the picture was going
to be high art, only to pull a bait and switch and turn it into an all-out sexcapade. Given his history as an adult magazine magnate,
it's probably not surprising that the film has some risque [risk-AY] action, but what
was surprising is how much skin is shown throughout the film. "It has an irresistible mixture of art and
genitals in it." The fact that it stars great actors like Malcolm
McDowell and Helen Mirren, and was written by Gore Vidal is also something of a shock
when you see it because while the stars and writer thought they were making the next great
historical epic, Guccione secretly shot a bunch of hardcore scenes to splice into the
film during the edit. The result was so shocking that the rest of
the cast and crew revolted, and the film was banned. Vidal had his name removed from the film altogether,
and the actors were allegedly furious. "It's such a mish-mash. There's some wonderful stuff in it, and some
absolute garbage." The Last Temptation of Christ As an adaptation of the 1955 book of the same
name, Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ already had a legacy of controversy
before it was even filmed. The novel, from Greek author Nikos Kazantzakis,
infuriated the Greek Orthodox Church and inspired religious protests upon its publication. So it probably wasn't much of a surprise when
the same groups rose up against the production of Scorsese's film. What was surprising, however, was how broad
the resistance had become, as some Catholic and evangelical Protestant communities joined
with the original Greek Orthodox Church in their condemnation of the film. So, why did Last Temptation draw so much pushback? The film portrays Christ as a human figure
wrestling with his own divinity, wracked with various temptations like lust, fear, doubt,
and anger. The titular "last" temptation involves an
extended sequence during which Jesus renounces his divinity, marries, and has children. Though Jesus later rejects the possibility
and sacrifices himself, the very fact that the religious icon was presented in such human
light was rejected by the church masses. United 93 Coming off the success of The Bourne Supremacy,
director Paul Greengrass chose to turn his attention to a real-world tragedy, the events
of September 11th, 2001. His film, United 93, went into production
in 2005, just a few short years after the largest terrorist attack in U.S. history. With America still involved in two wars wrapped
up in the resulting War on Terror, the film was primed to set off strong reactions — and
it did. When the trailer for the film was first shown
in theaters, it sparked outcries of protest. People accused Hollywood of callously cashing
in on the horror of that day, without any regard or respect for the people directly
affected by it. The backlash was pronounced enough that distributor
Universal had to publicly announce that they would not be pulling the trailer from movie
theaters, although the studio did agree to donate ten percent of the opening weekend
gross to a 9/11-related charity. Fortunately in this case, the finished film
allayed concerns of a crass capitalization of tragedy. Reviews were glowing, and family members of
victims found United 93 to be respectful to the memory of those lost. But it also became an example of a film with
genuine artistic merit that had to weather initial doubts in order to at last be embraced
as a triumph. Watchmen Once upon a time, comic book superheroes were
for kids. They wore brightly colored costumes, fought
bad guys, and always did the right thing. By the mid-'80s, though, a number of comics
presented a darker, bloodier, more adult look at heroes and their worlds, and one such was
Watchmen. The series was written by Alan Moore and arrived
as a brilliant deconstruction of the entire superhero genre that showed the flawed humanity
underneath the spandex. Watchmen was a project he'd created for industry
titan DC Comics, which was itself owned by film studio Warner Bros., which meant that,
at any time, WB could take his creation and turn it into a movie. After the success of the comic adaptation
300, WB gave the rights to Watchmen to director Zack Snyder — and Moore was furious. Calling the very idea of a Watchmen movie
"regurgitated worms," Moore insisted that his work was intended exclusively for the
comic medium and was never intended to be adapted into anything else. "It might entertain people for a few minutes,
but I'm not interested in it because it's not the story that I was trying to tell." But his protests fell on deaf ears, and Watchmen
arrived in theaters in 2009. When it did, Moore's name was nowhere to be
found: he had himself removed from the credits and even rejected any share of the film's
profits. The Interview Seth Rogen and James Franco have made quite
a few successful films together, including Pineapple Express, This Is the End, and The
Disaster Artist. But their 2014 political comedy The Interview
was met with the kind of pre-release backlash apparently no one in Hollywood expected. The screwball comedy featured the two as a
pair of idiotic talk show producers contracted by the CIA to take out Kim Jong-Un. It's not the first time a North Korean dictator
got spoofed on-screen, of course. "Why aren't more people intelligent like me?" But this time, Kim fought back against the
film's release. The isolated nation doesn't receive a lot
of Hollywood exports, so its so-called "supreme leader" might have seemed like a safe target. However, Sony underestimated just how much
offense the dictator would take at the film's release. He reportedly ordered a cyberattack on Sony
Pictures, which led to the leak of a trove of embarrassing emails. While the email leak was bad enough, the hackers
later threatened violent action if the film was ever released. Facing a PR disaster, Sony pulled the film
from theaters, a decision criticized by President Obama. "I wish they had spoken to me first." However, in defiance of the dictator, The
Interview was almost immediately made available on streaming services, so it was still entirely
possible for audiences to watch Franco and Rogen carry out their plot against a fictional
Kim. Slender Man Most of the time, internet memes are meant
to be good-natured distractions from the malaise of modern life, but when the Slender Man trend
came along in 2009, it was anything but fanciful fun. As the viral myth grew from one creepy picture
to the next, the character inspired some disturbed teenagers to commit terrible crimes in real-life. So, when Sony Screen Gems decided to turn
the internet fad into a film, a lot of people were not happy. The father of one of the attackers, for example,
protested the film for being a sensationalist cash grab, and a petition was even started
to halt the film's release. Despite all that, though,the film is currently
still slated for a fall 2018 debut, at which point audiences can judge its merits for themselves. Thanks for watching! Click the Looper icon to subscribe to our
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