Getting Dissed By Matt Damon!?! Say It Isn’t So Matt! Promised Land Q And A Sadness! Movie Review! AKA The Cold Shoulder!

I’m not sure how I feel about what just happened. I’m trying not to be too melodramatic, it’s really hard because I take disses like this personally, but man… So, I keep hearing that Matt Damon is the nicest guy in Hollywood. Now, I’ve “met” Matt on two different occasions. He was really kind and signed and signed… BUT… I’ve heard really bad things about him lately.

Honestly, I was like… No… Stop… It’s Matt Damon… I mean dude.. He’s so nice. Well… Not anymore. Normally, this could be a great entry into the Jekyll or Hyde column and that would be that… But I think Matt Damon has gone to the dark side. Pinky had a bad experience with him the other night, and I’ve even heard reports of him just ignoring people flat out as they spoke to him. These are all current encounters, so it leads me to believe… Matt Damon might not be the nice guy everyone expects anymore.

Tonight was a Q and A and screening for Matt Damon’s new film Promised Land.

Promised Land movie poster promo matt damon rare frakking film one sheet teaser poster promo rare

To start things off on a bad note the projector broke at the beginning of the film and then we had to wait 45 minutes for the film to start up again.

Promised land photo Frances mcdormand and matt damon in a press still from promised land rare hot promo still

Matt Damon plays Steve Butler who is sort of like a salesman for oil companies. He comes to small towns and convinces farmers to let his company lease their land for Frakking. Which is basically like throwing chemicals into the ground to dig and it releases natural gas. It’s pretty horrific environmentally and there’s a lot of great stuff on the net about it.

Promised land photo Frances mcdormand and matt damon in a press still from promised land rare hot promo still

Steve is working with Francis McDormand and they basically try to lease land as cheap as they can to do this on. The city they are trying to make a deal with isn’t the most cooperative bunch so it’s hard for Steve. Steve is also having a crisis of conscious as he starts to realize frakking isn’t such great! Duh! You think Steve?

Promised land photo rosemarie dewitt and matt damon in a press still from promised land rare hot promo still

I digress. John Krasinski plays a pseudo environmentalist who works the locals up into a lather. Rosemarie DeWitt is saddled with the girlfriend/girl next door role. It’s so sad because Rosemarie DeWitt is pretty damn awesome, check out The United States of Tara and here she’s wasted, it’s almost like all she was directed to do was smile pretty.

Promised land photo rosemarie dewitt and matt damon in a press still from promised land rare hot promo still

Anyway, Steve finds out about a last minute twist and his morals get the better of him. Honestly, the movie was decent. It wasn’t horrible but the writing wasn’t the greatest (Damon wrote the script with John Krasinski) and there were a lot of parts that seemed lifted from a Lifetime TV movie. Francis McDormand and the cast tried very hard to lift up the material but it really couldn’t be done. Gus Van Sant even phoned it in and he’s normally really awesome.

Again, not a bad movie but it’s like a Redbox rental if anything.

hal-holbrook-promised-land-Promised land photo rosemarie dewitt and matt damon in a press still from promised land rare hot promo still

After the movie there was a Q and A with Damon, Rosemarie DeWitt, Hal Holbrook and John Krasinski. I must admit I was a little shocked at Matt Damon’s appearance. I mean he looked bad with his buzz cut, maybe it’s for a role, I dunno, but this wasn’t Jason Bourne.

It was at this point that the security basically paced up and down the isles and yelled at everyone to stop taking photos. I couldn’t even pull my camera out. This happened the entire Q and A. At one point I thought the guy was going to stick his head into my row and strip search us. Why is it that security guards go on power trips.

As an example one woman’s phone went off… Not the ringer mind you.. It vibrated and he ran over to yell at her. Ummm She was turning it off and it wasn’t even ringing… That’s how bad… It was really distracting.

Back to the Q and A. The moderator was not the best, in fact he was just boring… The moderator has a horrible job. If the Q and A sucks it’s his fault, if it’s good the panel was lively and charming. It’s a no win situation. Still… Dude needed to drink a Red Bull.

Hal Holbrook gave an excellent discussion about his character and why it’s important to have a voice saying, “We need to look into this further.” Matt Damon and John talked about how they wrote on the weekends and then edited the pages during the week until they had a finished script.

Honestly, the moderator only asked a few questions and then turned it over to the audience where… it got all kinds of crazy… Talk about the miniature horses in the movie ensued…. Lord…

One lady even jumped up and cut a guy off in the middle of his question. God bless everyone. Some good questions were asked, one about the frakking process which was something I was curious about myself.

Once the Q and A ended people went up to the stage like usual. This time however, after people asked Matt for a photo or to sign, he wouldn’t look at anyone and just walked off. There was no security, no one telling him to leave. He just took off. John Krasinski did one or two photos and Scotty got him to sign a DVD and that was it.

It just makes me so sad. I really like Matt Damon, not just his films but I’ve read several interviews he’s done with magazines and such. He’s articulate and so interesting, plus his film choices are off the beaten path and he takes chances. We Bought A Zoo was one of my favorite films from last year. So, this was really kind of sad to see.

It’s not just getting dissed (and really it wasn’t like Paleyfest where 300 people rush the stage, there might have been 10 people asking) it’s the fact that someone who used to be nice has turned to the dark side.

Now, this is going to provoke people into bagging on autograph dealers… Look, I get it, I really do… But it’s anyone’s choice to sign a stack of photos. Generally, if I get one I’m happy. I know Matt Damon used to sign stacks, I saw it happen once and I was shocked. That was his choice, he could have easily said, “one each guys” and that’s that. So, I don’t think that killed him. I would like to know what did though. The same thing happened with Alexander Skarsgard, he was so nice for years and now he’s kind of testy at least this year.

I saw Matt in April of 2011 (yes, I looked it up, thanks Mike The Fanboy.com) and he was nice… But… Man… He’s sure not nice now. It was a pretty cold diss… Like regular people were talking about it walking out of the theater. I’m hoping that this is a Jekyll or Hyde situation… but from what I saw I don’t think it is…

Sadness…

Matt Damon for your diss tonight, I’m giving you a rare non Jekyll or Hyde Angry Theo Award… You earned it!

theo the cute most adorable French bulldog in the world angry theo award rare promo brown french bulldog

Until next time kids…

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Comments(5)
  1. john December 8, 2012
  2. john December 8, 2012
  3. james December 8, 2012
  4. Marcus December 10, 2012
  5. exmattdamonfan July 31, 2013

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