Sarah Palin documentary The Undefeated opens to poor reviews

Sarah Palin documentary The Undefeated took an estimated $65,000-$75,000 in its opening weekend at the US box office, a figure described as "soft" in some reports . Distributor ARC Entertainment demurred, suggesting a "strong" debut for conservative film-maker Stephen Bannon's Palin-backed feature, which is now expected to roll out from its limited release of 10 cinemas to a wider audience across the country. There was less dispute about the critical reaction to the film. The Undefeated currently holds a 0% rating on the review aggregator site rottentomatoes.com , which means all of the 10 journalists who have given their verdict reviewed it negatively. Most described the film as a hagiography or an advert. The Village Voice's Anna Merlan called it "a glowing two-hour infomercial for Sarah Palin, Presidential Candidate To-Be" while the LA Times's Robert Abele described "a troop-rallying campaign infomercial as imagined by Michael Bay: hero-worshipping, crescendo-edited at a dizzying pace, thunderously repetitive and its own worst enemy as a two-hour, talking-points briefing". The Undefeated charts Palin's rise from Alaskan "hockey mom" to vice-presidential candidate. The politician does not appear on camera, but her voice is used in the narration via clips from the audiobook version of her book Going Rogue , and her staff reportedly helped Bannon set up interviews with supporters in Alaska and conservative bloggers such as Andrew Breitbart . Bannon himself told the LA Times that the film's release was a "high-risk strategy – one I don't remember ever being attempted – to open a documentary nationwide in such disparate markets with only four weeks prep with no media spend". He added: "It paid off. I thought $5k per screen would have been amazing ... and $10k a home run. We will be above $10k in key markets ... and all markets performed well." Palin hinted last week that she was again seriously considering a run for the 2012 US presidency against Barack Obama. She told Fox News she might offer herself up "in the name of service," as someone with "common sense, fiscally conservative , pro-private sector policy experience and ideas that can be put to good work for this country". Meanwhile, another documentary with a rather different take on Palin has been shot by Nick Broomfield, the British documentarian behind films such as Kurt & Courtney and Biggie and Tupac . Currently seeking distribution, it reportedly features disparaging interviews with Palin's parents, friends and former Alaska colleagues.