Jim Carrey’s I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS Too Gay For America?

I wasn’t at Sundance this year but Jim Carrey‘s new movie I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS premiered there and responded with mixed reviews. Ya see.. it’s a true story based on a book by Houston Chronicle crime reporter Steve McVicker, about Steven Russell, a married father whose exploits landed him in the Texas criminal justice system. He fell madly in love with his cellmate, who eventually was set free, which led Russell to escape from Texas prisons four times.

Jim Carrey plays Russell and Ewan McGregor plays his inmate lover, Phillip Morris. According to Timesonline, the movie has been having difficulties finding distribution in the U.S. because of its strong graphic homosexual content.
Chances are it might go direct-to-DVD instead of theatrical release. Get this,.. apparently the $13 million movie contains some gay sex scene that’s just pushing the envelope and the depictions turn off distributors and Hollywood tend to want to work with projects that can sell to wide range of audiences, and this isn’t the thing that would draw in lots of box office cash.

But Europe isn’t so uptight.. as a matter of fact Britain is one of only a handful of European countries that will release this movie in their cinemas this summer.
After Heath Ledger riding Jake Gyllenhaal inside that tent in Brokeback Mountain and Sean Penn making out with James Franco for like the longest time in Milk, you would think that Hollywood would think of I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS as a walk in the park.
I once wrote an article about how Hollywood might be homopobic and Rama’s SCREEN reader thinks it’s funny that Oscars and Hollywood and homophobic are used in the same sentence.. true.. since that Tinseltown is known to be one of the most outspoken liberal capitals of the world. But I think it’s plain to see now that their fear is strictly based on whether or not the movie has potential to make money

But then again, why the hell that strong graphic sexual straight movies like Basic Instinct (and its crappy sequel), Showgirls, and even disturbing rape movie like Irreversible managed to see the light of day in our theaters but comedy like I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS isn’t given a fighting chance?
I’m as straight as straight can be but I love movies, I’d watch every genre out there, doesn’t mean I’ll like everything I see but a project with names like Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor deserves a better treatment than direct-to-DVD.