There are so many things to say about the Colorado shooting… and, for me, so little worth saying at this moment.
If I were in WB’s position, I would respectfully ask for all box office reporting on TDKR to be suspended until Sunday. It just doesn’t matter. The movie will be fine. But the opportunity to devalue human life lingers.
Here is some space for you all to discuss openly, as you see fit. Please be respectful of the dead and injured.
amit on: Review: Frozen 2 (spoiler-free)
movieman on: BYOB Fall Back, Film Forward
Christian on: BYOB Fall Back, Film Forward
movieman on: Review: Marriage Story (spoilers only in the broadest sense)
movieman on: BYOB Fall Back, Film Forward
movieman on: Review: Frozen 2 (spoiler-free)
YancySkancy on: Review: Little Women (no spoilers)
Hcat on: Why You Should Be Afraid Of The End Of The Paramount Decree
movieman on: BYOB Fall Back, Film Forward
movieman on: I Should Be Doing Box Office
Review: Little Women (no spoilers)
Why You Should Be Afraid Of The End Of The Paramount Decree
Review: Frozen 2 (spoiler-free)
Review: Marriage Story (spoilers only in the broadest sense)
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[twitter-widget username="DavidPoland" hiderss="true" hidereplies="true" hidefrom="true" items="3" showts="60" title=" " targetBlank="true"][twitter-widget username="MCNTweets" hiderss="true" hidereplies="true" hidefrom="true" items="3" showts="60" title=" " targetBlank="true"]
It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?
So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.
And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.
There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.
I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.
So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.
But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”
My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher
“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.
~ David Simon
Heard about it around an hour after our midnight screening here in San Jose got out, it is truly horrible. The movie theater has always been a safe haven to me, and to think that 14 people were just like me tonight, sitting and watching Dark Knight Rises before they were gunned down is terrible.
Never thought before how a theater full of people could basically be a shooting gallery.
Now I hope this thought never occurs to anyone else who’s troubled and violent.
Denver news sites are all over this story at this early hour.
From reading the Denver accounts the perp must have been in the military and knew what he was doing — tear gas, shotgun, rifle. The chickens have come home to roost!
I predict this will be the end of midnight premieres for all movies.
To be honest, I have dreaded the possibility of an event such as this for, quite literally, decades. But I never thought it would be exactly like this. As I posted on another thread: I confess that when I first heard about this, I initially assumed it was something that took place at a preview screening, where some pass-holder who wasn’t admitted simply went berserk on the spot. Seriously: We all know screenings are routinely overbooked; I figured it was only a matter of time before some crazy who couldn’t get in would get pissed. But this appears to be, if possible, something much worse.
Also: By sheer coincidence, I saw the trailer last night for Gangster Squad (which runs before The Dark Knight Rises). If you have seen it already, you’ll know what I am talking about: Don’t be surprised if the trailer — and maybe the movie itself — is re-edited pretty damn fast.
I had the exact same thought, Joe. There is no way in hell that scene stays in the movie.
Irrational, I know, but it just completely killed my desire to see the film this weekend.
The Gangster Squad similarities immediately came to mind while discussing this tragedy this morning with my dad while on the way to work. Going to the movies is supposed to provide escape. This is unimaginable and deeply troubling.
This is so sad. Hearts to all involved.
This will surely impact the culture of American movie-going, but all that matters now is the consideration of human life.
Dont allow yourself to become a victim of mania. The events that happened last night are tragic beyond reason. But there were 5000 other Dark Knight Rises screenings that werwnt marred by tragedy last night. Mourn. Get angry. Be empathetic. But let’s not do that thing where we take something senseless and act like its commonplace. Lets not pretend that something isolated is a societal ill.
As Joe said, he’d been considering this could happen for decades, and yet until this morning it had never happened.
There are crazy assholes in this world. Reserve your indignation for those responsible. Save your sadness for the victims. In short, don’ make this about you. D
The horror and confusion is unimaginable. I was at the movies yesterday and Wednesday night (and I’m sure many of you have been in a theater in the last day or two as well). It’s beyond comprehension. To go from the sheer excitement of seeing the new Batman movie surrounded by other like-minded people, to this. Unreal and so incredibly heartbreaking. Those poor people. And poor suburban Denver.
anghus gun violence/mass shootings are not really isolated in this country are they? The location may be different, but the act sure isn’t uncommon. Brace yourself for the cable TV screaming matches about movies turning people into violent killers.
Some cynical random thoughts about the Batman/Colorado shooting spree:
(For those seriously offended by gallows humor, take a powder and move on.)
*The gunman was really a performance artist paying homage to Heath Ledger’s nihilistic terrorist from “TDK.” (Really, it’s just the sort of thing the Joker would have done, right?)
*Any parent who brings a three-month-old infant to an almost three-hour movie at ANY time of day, let alone frigging midnight, deserves to be shot, or at least turned in to Child Services. (Fortunately, the wee bairn wasn’t harmed.)
*I wonder how many of those Bat fanatics demanded the movie be resumed after the ambulances carted off the dead/dying/wounded? (C’mon, it’s “The Dark Knight Rises,” people!)
*Will WB complain they could have beaten the “Avengers” opening weekend b.o. if they hadn’t been obligated to refund “all that damn Colorado money”?
*Why do these crazy mass shooting incidents always take place in Florida or Colorado? Is it something in the water?
Had plans to see the movie tomorrow night. Can’t fathom doing so now. Batman can wait. Thinking I’ll just stay at home and watch a comedy or something.
Truly horrific. My prayers go out to the victims.
The phrase just keeps running through my mind: There is no hiding place.
Yes, taking infants to a midnight showing might be extreme. But speaking from experience, my wife and I took our oldest to movies all the time when she was an infant because she would sleep through them. It allowed us to continue to go out to the movies. I have seen this happen also occur with other couples. Thoguh we never took our second child because she wouldn’t sleep through them (in case one thinks we’re the couple with the screaming baby in the theater – it’s someone else).
Tragic. I woke up excited to read box office news this morning, not this.
I am now wondering if this will be one of those watershed moments where theaters begin to implement scanners to prevent this kind of thing from happening again. Will there be more security checks because of this?
Ironically, Colorado allows a person to carry a firearm in a vehicle, loaded or unloaded, if its use is for lawful protection of such person or another’s person or property. [C.R.S. 18-12-105(2)] Colorado law also allows a person to possess a handgun in a dwelling, place of business, or automobile. However, you cannot carry the weapon concealed on or about your person while transporting it into your home, business, hotel room, etc. Local jurisdictions may not enact laws that restrict a person’s ability to travel with a weapon.
I’m sure the debate will resurface regarding gun laws, and one wonders after so many mass shootings how protecting such loose gun laws are kept on the books. The inevitable questions will arise, were they legally owned? How did he obtain them? How did he get them in the theater? What is his frame of mind? and one of the chilling facts is that this takes place a few miles from Columbine. Just purely tragic.
My condolences go out to all those affected by this tragedy.
Until we have information on the shooter’s motivations, the question will linger: Was the people at Denver’s midnight screening targeted because they were watching “The Dark Knight Rises” or because they represented a perfect shooting target being an audience sitting in a cinema?
That’s not the question to ask. Who would use body armor, tear gas, a rifle and a shotgun? Most likely someone who was in the military. The US is carrying out mass murder in Asia and is being goaded to start another war.
Look for a ban on midnight premieres, especially with comic book and superhero movies. America has long had authoritarian leanings and many cities may use the Aurora massacre as a pretext to enact a ban.
A red-carpet premiere of “The Dark Knight Rises” tonight in Paris has been canceled due to this massacre.
ABC is reporting connections to the Tea Party…it might be too early to speculate on this, but the Limbaugh/Washington Times etc ravings against TDKR may have taken on a deeply tragic and disturbing element.
Mike Bloomberg comes out swinging demanding Obama and Romney propose tougher gun control regulations…
The rants from Rush and other conservative outlets occurred this week. This event seems like something that would take more than 2-3 days of planning. Either way, those outlets and Rush certainly didn’t advocate violence as far as I know.
David — while I don’t want to be the guy who is over-sensitive to most things on this blog, could you possibly move movieman’s comments, I’m really disturbed by them.
(Of course, no offense movieman, I don’t think you’re a bad person or anything like that)
I don’t go to movies on weekend as it is, but I couldn’t possibly go this weekend without that being in my head. I am going next week though.
Really horrible news. It may trivial, but it’s pressing that Warners pull the Gangster Squad trailer.
I’m not suggesting that Rush had anything to do with motivating this horrible tragedy. Just that this connection, if true, proves that crazed rhetoric suggesting political conspiracy in everything, even movies, needs to stop immediately.
Crazed rhetoric will only get worse after a tragedy like this.
Midnight screenings won’t be cancelled. Maybe a knee jerk freak out temporarily.
Paul, they are not commonplace. Every couple of years in a country of 300 million with guns available everywhere. It’s more surprising this doesn’t happen more often. Every few years you get a Columbine or a Virginia Tech. But this isn’t a daily, weekly, or monthly occurance.
I think in times of crisis what you can’t do is apply the logic that an occassional instance is a common occurance. Again, how many sold out screenings of the dark knight rises weren’t marred by tragedy; 99.5 percent
What bothers me, is like Joe, I’ve been in a theater situation where something isn’t right. For me, it was Prometheus. Promos are going, and this 18/20ish dude sits down in the row in front of me, shades on, alone. Two minutes later, he stands up, walks right down to the screen, (Imax theater), and straight out the fire exit. My gut said if that door opens, get out. Five minutes later, he comes back through the main hall and sits next to this older woman, whom I guess was his mom. Totally unnerved me until the movie started. I felt horrible for this woman and even this kid. He was just lost.
The need to politicize this is digusting. Etguild, you shouldn’t blindly carry that water.
ABC took a guy, a wrong guy, and threw him out there, couched in every “might be, maybe” possible. And they were wrong. Just like Arizona. I hope this dude sues the hell out of Brian Ross.
The shooter is a schizo. Just like Laughner. You don’t need “military training” to know how to roll a can of gas. You only need the web.
This isn’t a Hollywood problem, or a gun problem. It’s the high level of constant, instant, impersonal communication and a person’s ability to process reality.
anghus just this week a man in Alabama opened fire with an assault rifle in a bar, wounding 17 (somehow, thankfully, no one was killed last I heard). Don’t we lead the world in gun violence/shootings, by a long shot? And I know mass shooting in movie theaters are not common. I’m not suggesting otherwise.
The “Gangster Squad” trailer will be removed — but only because Deadline.com brought it to the attention of Warner Bros.
@etguild2: Limbaugh is a right-wing demagogue, not to mention a whore for Bain Capital and Clear Channel. Advertisers have been fleeing him since his “slut” comment from last spring.
@anghus: Midnight premieres WILL be banned if the police have anything to say about it. They’ll tell Regal, AMC, Cinemark and every other theater company “if another massacre happens, it’s your fault”. (Cinemark operates the theater where the Aurora massacre happened.)
@martin, so Loughner wasn’t motivated by fringe political rabble-rousing, he was just insane, period? Please. The Swedish shooter is insane also, but had a clearly defined political agenda.
In events like these, two-thirds of the time, there is a political or social goal in the perpetrator’s head, batshit though it may be. Jumping to irrefutable conclusions of insanity is irresponsible. I noted that perhaps it is too early to speculate, and if Ross, normally a brilliant investigator, is truly shoddy on this, shame on ABC and shame on him, and me for listening to it.
Chucky – when you’re wrong about everything you’ve insinuated, are you going to apologize?
Shootings are much more common, Paul, you’re right. The one that sticks with me is the guy in Pittsburgh who constantly posted on his blog what he was preparing to do, and then went into a 24/7 gym and shot the life out a bunch of women in a class.
Laughner showed up at Gifford rallies, but was he overtly political? Did he play close attention to politics and “fringe rabble-rousing,” or was he just a very disturbed young man? How can one state with such certainty that his acts were motivated by political crazy talk?
I remember that one martin. When I say gun violence is more common than anghus suggests, I’m not just talking about incidents where 12 people are killed.
etguild – just start at Laughner’s wiki page. Follow the citations if you want. He had no concept of reality and singled out Giffords because she didn’t previously answer a question of his correctly. That was all it took.
Paul – yeah, you’re right. I’m stunned on a weekly basis at the city shootouts that get no serious coverage.
I am not Jared Loughner Paul, so I can’t tell you. As much as psychoanalysis is helpful in cases dealing with an insane person, no one can say definitively, 100%, that his insanity was ENTIRELY what motivated his actions, but fringe rhetoric never helps.
I am surprised that Ross, who normally I would trust more than any other network investigative correspondent, would jump to a baseless conclusion so quickly.
didn’t take long for this thread to devolve into the usual political bullshit
etguild2, you say you’re not Laughner, but above you state that he was at least partly motivated by “political rabble-rousing.” I’m just wondering what you’re basing that on.
Gun violence overall, believe it or not, is down. It’s just that the media is better about reporting it when it happens. And when 12 people are killed, it should be national news. Anghus is right, the other 5000 screenings were peaceful, and it says something positive about our society that this hasn’t happened before.
ABC is wrong. Ross looked at a tea party website, found a guy named James Holmes, and said “Who knows?” to George Stephanopoulos. There are over 30 James Holmes’s in Colorado, and the JH from that website is in his 50’s. The shooter is 24.
Nikki Finke makes Nancy Grace look like Mother Theresa some days.
Even if gun violence is down, it’s still pretty prevalent in America. That it’s down does not mean it doesn’t happen far too often and on a regular basis. And there have been shootings in movie theaters before. This isn’t the first one.
If I had one wish, other than making this not have happened, it would be to quell politicizing the aftermath.
It’s a senseless act of violence. Political motivations are meaningless. We spend so much time on the “why” with nutjobs and the motivations behind their actions, but it always ends up having a mental illness component. These are not the acts of rational people. Most people don’t translate a political ideology into premeditated acts of violence.
You can’t blame a belief system or political ideology. The common denominator is mental illness. You live in a society with readily available firearms. Because of that, you have to accept that a small percentage of innocent people will die in tragic episodes where they fall into the hands of the disenfranchised or mentally ill.
That’s not a political statement, just a universal truth. This is the proce you pay for the right to bear arms. Just like having cellphones means people will use them in cars which will lead to fatalities. There are consequences for everything. This is the livable balance that all societies struggle with. In this country we pay the price for gun ownership with the acceptance that innocent people will die. No one wants it, but obviously we can live with it.
@Keil is right. I feel bad for bringing up ABC’s stupid reporting, which is a good example in of itself of how low the discourse has gotten, and I fell for it.
Good points anghus.
Anghus that is a good point, but again we pass laws that criminalize driving and texting or talking on phones. But we never seem to be able to press for any limitations that might make it more difficult for nuts to get their hands on firearms.
If I recall correctly just about a month before the Virginia Tech shootings, there was a disturbed twenty year old who went out and shot up a Virginia police station, killing three police officers and wounding another three. Even after law enforcement officials were killed there was not ONE mention of tightening Virginia’s gun laws (some of the loosest in the nation). Then a month later VT happens and people still ask ‘How could this happen here?’
If you live in a state where you can practically buy a gun from a vending machine you should not act suprised when shit like this happens.
Spassky… I feel your pain, but as much as I wish he hadn’t shared, I’m not censoring the blog.
Keil – I don’t understand why the conversation is “the same old political bs” other than you disagreeing with the left lean. Arguing for another perspective would be more helpful.
Personally, I don’t know the details yet, so I don’t know whether gun control (which I advocate to some degree) would help. But I hardly think it is beyond the pale to refer to the notion.
I’m still going to see it tonight. It’s a terrible thing but I’m a firm believer that you can’t let the idiots of the world dictate your enjoyment of it.
I have tickets for a 4:00 today and have no idea whether I can actually do it. What a terrible and senseless tragedy.
More GUNS! Why, if everybody HAD A GUN – we could stop these GUN MASSACRES!
FUCK THE NRA.
“No one wants it, but obviously we can live with it.”
Obvious unless you get a bullet in your head while you’re sitting in a theater. Then you’re DEAD. And can’t “live with it” anymore. Anghus – you are clueless. It’s like saying, “9/11 only happened once.” Gun deaths HAPPEN DAILY. Do you KNOW ANYBODY who’s the victim of a gun crime? You wouldn’t be your usual above-it-all cavalier self.
Remember when New Jack City and Boyz N the Hood had shootings opening week? It led to the mindset that “urban” movies uniquely had a violence problem.
And I’m totally not sure on this, but isn’t that part of the reason such movies have tended to open on Wednesdays ever since? (I’m not sure on the logic, but it seems like that’s what happened)
As a society, we tolerate it. That’s not an opinion my friend. That’s a fact. These things have happened before. As a society we have taken no action to prevent it. America has accepted and become tolerant of gun related tragedies. I don’t know how that statement implies that I’m above anything. It’s just a sad reality.
And people will react with predictability. Maybe they’ll cancel midnight screenings or temporarily boost security. People will cry “gun control now” but it will fade into the tapestry of a 24 hour news cycle. This country reacts to tragedy with emotion and passion but both are fleeting. It’s a horrible, tragic event. One of many. But as a society, we have deemed it as tolerable. Maybe one day people will get mad enough to effect real change. But I doubt it. One side blames the gun owners and lax gun buying regulations. One side blames the media, movies, and video games. Eventually it all becomes noise.
We have declared with our inaction that this is tolerable.
We don’t all “tolerate” it – as the legions of gun control groups can testify. But the NRA has a skeletal death grip on Washington that makes the most sane gun control subject to cries of “YOU’RE TURNING US INTO NAZI GERMANY BY TAKING OUR AK-47 AWAY!”
One of the things that most disturbs me about incidents like last night’s (this morning’s?) shooting rampage is how everyone insists upon turning it into a Kumbaya moment.
Bullshit.
If there’s anything to be “learned” from all this–and previous instances of murderous insanity (Columbine, 9/11, et al)–is how perilously short the gap is between fanboy fervor and actual madness.
It almost seems like the next logical step to those Rotten Tomatoes death threats.
And anyone who refuses to acknowledge the parallels between the (most recent) Colorado shooter and Ledger’s Joker personage is just fooling themselves.
As I understand it, the gun question isn’t whether these nutjobs wouldn’t find some other way to kill people, it’s that by giving them access to rifles, semi-auto handguns, etc., we make it very easy for the bodycount to go up very quickly. Hasn’t that been why the Brady people have advocated for taking out the assault rifles and not the hunting rifles?
Frankly, I think most of the arguments gun-supporters throw out there are ridiculous, but we as a country support those rights. And from time to time, we’re going to have situations like this. Shitty, but the country isn’t changing.
This is a major problem with our country: “You know what really gets me, as a Christian, is to see the ongoing attacks on Judeo-Christian beliefs, and then some senseless crazy act of a derelict takes place,”
http://www.mediaite.com/online/rep-louie-gohmert-suggests-aurora-theater-shooting-result-of-ongoing-attacks-on-judeo-christan-beliefs/
Or speaking of “obvious”: “Maybe it’s time that the two people who want to be President of the United States stand up and tell us what they are going to do about it, because this is obviously a problem across the country. And everybody always says, ‘Isn’t it tragic,’ and you know, we look for was the guy, as you said, maybe trying to recreate Batman. I mean, there are so many murders with guns every day, it’s just got to stop.” – Mayor Bloomberg
Oh, and removing Movieman’s post wouldn’t be censorship, as you’re not the government, nor are you taking away his right to speech.
It’d just be in good taste.
National tragedy and the death of innocent people and Nikki Finke uses it to score points on Warner Brothers. Disgusting.
Since when are you the arbiter of good taste, Mike?
Jesus Christ.
Everyone looks the other way when certain visitors on this site wax rhapsodic about sex w/ minors and/or spew racist vitriol and an unfiltered stream of profanity.
But a little reflexive social criticism is deemed censorable?
(Also notice how I added a disclaimer at the head of the original post for sensitive readers.)
It’s too easy for people to get guns in this country. Period.
Warner Brothers shouldn’t be doing anything, frankly the responsibility is on the theater chains. Show the movie, don’t show the movie. Show this trailer, not that trailer. That should be their call.
@Christian, I’m pretty sure @anghus leans in your direction here; his “obviously we can live with it” is ostensibly his ironic declaration after presenting the fact that GUNS ARE READILY AVAILABLE. What’s truly the problem here is that many people don’t understand the economics-esque tradeoff that he’s describing, because of the politicized nature of argumentation and the fact that debate is defined by winners and losers, and not compromise. So I guess, it’s not truly “obvious” to most people.
Sorry you took offense to my suggesting your post calling for people at that movie theater to be shot was out of taste, movieman. I can see why you’d get upset about that.
This scenario has come to mind every time I am in a packed theater. In fact, being a topic of discussion among my friends for some time now, 2 of them started wearing ankle-holstered guns to the theater (both are police officers)”just in case.” These aren’t right-wing, NRA nuts, either but Liberal, blue-collar cops who simply saw this scenario coming to fruition, sooner or later. Movie theaters have never felt like a safe place to me. There’s too much opportunity for conflict over douchebags who insist on making a phone call from their seats 20 minutes into a film. God Bless America, anyone? I can’t be the only one who still checks their seats for AIDS needles.
Yes, Luke. “Urban” movies started opening on Wednesdays. And some theaters stopped playing them altogether.
Gohmert is insane. He’s part of Bachmann’s crusade calling Huma Abedin a secret Muslim terrorist.
Sadly this won’t lead to meaningful discussions of gun laws or guns in America. Dave Weigel makes a good point about that:
If any shooting was going to inspire new regulations, it would have been the January 2011 massacre in Tucson that severely wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and killed a federal judge. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, a New York Democrat, quickly proposed legislation that would have banned the extended magazines allegedly used by Jared Loughner. It went nowhere in the Republican-led House. “I maintain, as Americans have believed since the American founding, that firearms in the hands of law-abiding citizens make communities safer, not less safe,” Rep. Mike Pence, told me then. “I think, particularly in Washington, D.C., the desire is to move immediately off and find something else to blame, and find some public policy that’s wanting.” Crying “politicization,” in that case, helped tamp down talk of a gun bill that was never going to pass anyway.
Did any gun legislation actually pass in the wake of the Giffords shooting? Yes. Arizona made the Colt revolver the official “state gun.”
Mike… I am the de facto government on this blog. Even more than a government, I have the absolute power to allow or disallow discourse. So I do consider it censorship to remove material that is, certainly, offensive to some.
That said, as has happened in the past, if things get too personal and out of control, I will take measures that I don’t want to have to take.
Movieman prefaced his comment by saying, “If easily offended, don’t read.”. I would prefer that he not post such stuff and my comment on this BYOB spoke fairly clearly to that. But it’s not, for me, a post that needs removal.
Everytime I censor anyone, even Lex and his pussy rants, I feel like society is a little less mature. In this small community of commenters, I would like it to be self-policing. That means that I deeply appreciate you and others speaking out and saying that it should not have been written. That is a valid and valuable opinion.
Even if someone there had been armed, it’s a fantasy to think it would have made things any better. Between the gas, body armor and mass panic, another gun would have likely just made things worse.
That’s the whole point of the NRA Big Lie: If you have a gun handy, there won’t be any gun violence!
We see how that plays out daily.
Dave, I can see and respect that position, but unlike if the government took away my freedom of speech, if you took away one of my posts here, I’d still have plenty of other places to speak my mind without having to leave the couch, much less the country. When Lex gets banned from here, he just takes his nonsense to other blogs.
But I am aware of your policy and can respect that you don’t want to change it for this. Protecting the stupidest and worst speech is what the First Amendment is really about.
Also, I think your last part got to the point I was trying to make. If nothing else, maybe it’ll get Movieman to have a second thought the next time he decides to call for parents to be shot the same A.M. they were actually shot at (which I hope doesn’t just offend those who are easily offended).
to defend movieman, it’s being reported the gunman told authorities he was inspired by the joker
DP – i can’t believe you’d defend the “left lean” here which is totally unsubstantiated speculation and pointless (Tea Party? Limbaugh? AZ shooting?) when major news outlets have gone on the record about the joker component which you’d “prefer that he not post about”
EDIT: link http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/aurora-dark-knight-suspect-joker-cops/story?id=16822251
What a horrible, sad situation. And not to make light of it, but this will really hurt THE DARK KNIGHT RISES and that’s a shame because it’s an incredible film that will be tainted by this tragedy. Again, NOT making light of what happened or putting movie ahead of human life. Just saying. I wouldn’t be in the mood to see my most anticipated movie of the summer if I was going today. What a weird, angry and sad week for cinema and bless those poor helpless victims in Colorado. Ugh.
Boo-fucking-hoo, Mike.
Get over yourself and your precious “good taste.”
This is precisely what I meant about people searching for a way to put a Kumbaya moment on a senseless but, all things considered, not terribly surprising tragedy.
We live in a crazy, irrational world.
Period.
And if you think I was advocating the shooting of parents who lacked the common decency, intelligence and foresight to drag along an infant w/ them to a midnight movie, you clearly missed the satirical bent of my shoot-from-the-hip, just-moments-after-hearing-the-news posting. But it obviously wasn’t meant to be taken literally in any way, shape or form.
I think just about anyone who doesn’t have their head up their ass would have realized that.
Sometimes humor/satire/whatever is the only way to keep from having a complete mental breakdown due to all of the horrible, sickening, degrading things that take place on a minute-by-minute basis in today’s increasingly fucked-up society.
Just ask Bill Maher.
Chris Rock had a bit over 20 years ago on gun violence at “urban” movies when he said, IIRC, “I’m going to show my appreciation for this movie by busting a cap into the screen.” So no, theaters haven’t been safe places for a long time, and merely encouraging everyone to carry a gun like the proposal from that idiotic Texas legislator (too redundant?) won’t help at all because it’s so easy to get off a shot in the dark that at least one person will have to die before anyone else has a chance to react.
Instead of going whole hog on gun controls that the NRA will trample into the dust, perhaps we should do what Paul Fussell suggested years ago when he said “It’s time not to amend Article II of the Bill of Rights (and Obligations) but to read it, publicize it, embrace it…”, so if you want to own a gun, you’ll have to join the “well-regulated Militia” and everything that entails.
Goldstein has a great piece on the demise of Variety. He misses the key point, which is the Reporter’s all in move on SEO, which has really driven their traffic #s.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-big-picture-variety-20120719,0,2609760.story
“Yes, Luke. “Urban” movies started opening on Wednesdays. And some theaters stopped playing them altogether.”
David, do you remember WHY exactly it was thought that Wednesday openings would defuse violence? I guess something to do with the notion that by the time families go on the weekend, the gang members will have already gone opening night?
I notice it isn’t done much any more.
…because it’s not like gang members have to wake up early Thursday morning to go to the office.
Holy wow, I just read the rest of Gohmert’s comments and he actually seems to be suggesting that if there had been a prayer before the movie, or the Pledge of Allegiance or any sort of invocation of God then this wouldn’t have happened because His “protective hand” would have saved everyone.
A song like “Imagine” must be incomprehensible to such a paleoconservative.
Movieman: There are some very clever rationalizations for a very immature — or, as you yourself out it, “shoot-from-the-hip” — post. And I must admit that, to a certain degree, I can sympathize with you, because in the heat of very heated online conversations here and elsewhere, I have made posts that I now dearly wish I could erase. But on the other hand, while you every right to innoculate yourself to “keep from having a complete mental breakdown due to all of the horrible, sickening, degrading things that take place on a minute-by-minute basis in today’s increasingly fucked-up society,” I would suggest that your making us witnesses to your self-medication is more than a little presumptuous, if not downright arrogant.
And by the way: If you’re going to belittle everyone who took offense to what you wrote and when you wrote it, I guess you’ll have to include me among the people you’re belittling. My response: I’m not saying you have no heart. I’m saying you have no class. And you’re no Bill Maher.
LYT: David is exactly right. And, yes, the “Wednesday opening” policy began a knee-jerk reaction to the violence during the opening weekend of New Jack City. Though, oddly enough, I don’t recall a similar reaction when some dude stabbed another dude in a theater during the opening weekend of a Chuck Norris movie just a few years earlier (sorry, can’t remember which one, though I do recall talking about it with Norris in an interview).
Variety editors have said some of Goldstein’s assertions are false, Dewey. Check Josh Dickey’s Twitter feed, including this tweet.
“Piece about Variety by @patrickbigpix = uninformed, underreported, mean-spirited & cowardly. Par for his course: http://lat.ms/PmPmP9 ”
“What’s maddening is we were unlisted from ComScore w/ the paywall. Those numbers are remnants/not valid.”
“I couldn’t tell you because we literally do not care about traffic. We don’t sell CPMs.”
i’m guessing security for all movie festivals will be super tight … fans won’t get access to movie stars ..
lucky – this guy got caught – middle of the night – could have fled .. he’ll probably get jail for life – not sure if he can get a fair trial …
this weeks episode of through the wormhole was can we elimnate evil – hosted by Morgan Freeman who is part of
Dark Knight Rises movie .
full episode is here – check out 11 minutes – they explain what happens to a killers mind ..
What “urban” movies released after New Jack City and Boyz N the Hood are we talking about? Juice? Menace II Society? South Central? Fresh? Just trying to remember what similar movies came out after those two.
Paul: That’s the weird part — we’re not just talking about movies dealing with inner-city violence. For a while, almost every movie with a mostly African-American cast, even innocuous comedies, opened on a Wednesday. Racist? Well…
ABC News has apologized for that false story from earlier today. Also, President Obama and Mitt Romney have withdrawn their campaign ads from Colorado for now.
@Paul D/Stella: The movie theater in Universal City refused to show “Poetic Justice” because it was a black movie.
…and a dopey one at that, starring a poet named “Justice”…jeez.
Oh OK. I wondered if it was movies involving violence/shootings or just any movie featuring mostly African-American casts.
Joe, if there’s no place to go, that’s when you have to scream out, “For Queen and Country,” and hope you save others by sacrificing yourself. That’s what freaks me out about this: a lot of people just sat there. I read about a wife grabbing her husband, and dragging him to the floor to crawl out; but so many sat there like they were in some twisted 4D screening. The sitting there, will always send a chill up my spine when thinking of this senseless act.
Now, some will want to throw out the possible political motivations, because this guy clearly is insane. The problem with that is: we let one side of the isle dredge up demagoguery towards the other side, and this has led to the crazies take it seriously. This has got to stop, or more people will get senselessly killed by crazy people; that lack the ability to disseminate the lies told to them by their media.
I remember the day after my uncle died on 9/11, I went to school the next day and proudly (though naively) proclaimed that “they hadn’t won” …
I’m going to the theater tonight. i don’t know if i will be comfortable. But god damnit this is one thing I can never have taken away from me.
AMC has banned all costumes, masks and fake weapons chain-wide. It won’t adjust showtimes (yet) but will refund or exchange advance tickets.
Expect a heavy police presence this weekend at big-city theaters playing “The Dark Knight Returns”. In Washington DC, bags and purses are actually being searched.
While I disliked your comment Movieman, I will defend your right to say it. My philosophy however is akin to Jeff Goldblum’s statement in Jurassic Park, “Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”
There is absolutely nothing wrong with a little sensitivity, especially in light of the fact that among the dead and injured there may be children, who absolutely did not deserve their fate. And you don’t have to go all kumbaya to acknowledge that.
Spassky: I know how you feel. You know, I am really tempted to go see Dark Knight Returns again tonight — but I more likely will wait until tomorrow.
BTW: I don’t know if I made this clear in previous posts — and I apologize for repeating myself if I did — but I was at a TDKR midnight screening last night in Houston. Which means I probably was still watching the movie here precisely when the killer started firing in Aurora. I drove home and, at 3:30 am, started writing a review. But then I noted an email news bulletin on my cell phone. It may take me a while before I go back to the piece and complete it.
Dang, I almost forgot to reply to the comment far uptopic that sure, a lot of people are now texting while they’re driving, but we put up with it because WHAT’S THE ALTERNATIVE? How about self-driving cars? Why else do you think Google et al are pouring so much cash into vehicles that take the human element entirely out of the equation? Because people have proven time and again that they are incapable of behaving in a sane manner.
Same with guns. Yet the tastemakers are already declaring that no new legislation will result from this because, well, twelve people? That’s it? If nothing was done after Virginia Tech, then why would they act now?
So we’re just nervously waiting for that Titanic event when the bodycount grows so high that legislators will have no choice but to change the laws once and for all.
JSP: I like you, and I have no desire to insult you. But unless you can tell me that you’ve actually been in a situation like the one in Aurora last night, and you acted the brave way you described, I am going to have to call bullshit on you, because you have no earthly idea how you would have reacted. No idea at all.
Crazy but intelligent JS. News reports say he graduated with honors from a California university and recently dropped out of a doctoral program.
SamLowry: This is the most bizarre of coincidences: In today’s Houston Chronicle, there is a front-page story about the upsurge in road-rage violence (including 5 murders) in the Houston area over the last 5 years.
“In Washington DC, bags and purses are being searched at a Regal theater playing “The Dark Knight Returns”.”
But why just that movie? Do they seriously think something like this would never happen at a showing of Ice Age or Magic Mike? To quote the NYT: “he may simply have been drawn to a highly publicized event with a big crowd.”
Sam, we have a neighboring country above, who have even more guns per capita, but lack the crazy. There is just something about us as a nation, that breeds this sort of insanity. Seeing as we can’t get rid of that insanity, then we have to control guns.
This will lead to the right wing going nuts, but why are we catering to people who keep the rest of us down? When do we start to ignore them, for the betterment of the country? This is another senseless gun act that has cost too many lives, and the president needs to avoid sitting on his hands again like he did with Gabby Giffords. I sure as hell hope not.
Joe, are your glasses on alright? Go re-read that post before calling bullshit, because it’s referencing something agents in Britain are told to do, when they don’t have a gun. They are supposed to scream, “For Queen and Country,” and hope for the best, and it’s also the first thing I thought about when you wrote about having no place to go.
That’s a reference in response to something you wrote, it’s something I keep in mind myself all the time, and you don’t know what you would do; but the woman who saved her husband by crawling out theatre makes the most sense. Seriously though, you don’t know me, so don’t attack me for making a reference in response to your post.
@JS “That’s what freaks me out about this: a lot of people just sat there.”
Its called shock.
are theatres worldwide prepared for next week ? there must
be thousands of people who are going to wonder if its safe to watch a movie …
lots of people might want to talk to theatre staff – not sure if they will or can talk about this …
hate to go back to my experience with 9/11, but my uncle was one of the pilots and I vividly remember Sullenberger (spelling?) on Diane Rehm, in response to a question from a private pakistani pilot who was outraged that the pilots didn’t take enough action on 9/11, said that “if I was there this wouldn’t have happened.”
It’s untrue. It’s disrespectful to those that were there. And it implies a shortcoming in the victims. It’s offensive.
Chucky,
Phase One: overreaction. “It must be the movie or the late night screening” they’ll say. “certainly this wouldn’t have happened at Madagascar three at an 11am show.”
Phase One includes rampant speculation and the media shoehorning an isolated act of a clearly irrational person into a thought process, political leaning or ideology.
I’m not sure why were so quick to assign value, significance, and cause to a tragedy. Especially considering how they all play out. Everyone wants answers but we already know them. A mentally ill person got a hold of weapons. People want to assign it more significance than it deserves. It’s not a statement or an indoctrination of our society. It’s a severely mentally ill person and the ease of gun ownership. This situation has been likely for many years. Someone finally enacted the scenario. Tragic, but ultimately no more or less significant than the guy who drove his car into a restaurant and started shooting back in the 1980s.
It feels like it has more meaning because it took place at a movie theater, a place where so many of us associate with having fun, where we go to escape the sad realities of our world.
But the truth is that is nothing more than people turning someone else’s tragedy into their own minor tragedy, because people naturally turn stories like this onto their own. “how does it affect me?”. We want to feel bad because were empathetic, but the truth is were more concerned with the impact on pur own reality. When there is none, we manufacture personal relevance.
Oh, and movieman: I hope I didn’t offend at all with asking for your original comment to be moved (notice I didn’t say REmoved)… I respect the things every in here has to say and only want to them to be in the right forum.
JSP: I think you may have misread my intent. When I say “There is no hiding place,” I mean there is nowhere, no place, where you are safe from violence. A moviehouse, a shopping mall, a cafeteria, your neighborhood, wherever — no place. Period. I wasn’t talking about a situation where someone has to decide whether to scream “For Queen and Country” and risk taking a bullet.
BD, the redditor who posted last night stated many believed it to be a part of the movie. Only when he started shooting, did they start to flee. That’s why I referenced 4D because that’s the way her description reads.
Joe, I may have misread your intent, but you did jump down my throat, for sharing with you my reaction to that statement.
Joe, they discussed automated cars a year ago on NPR and one of the first callers replied that she’d be terrified of a self-guided car. When Neal Conan pointed out that they couldn’t possibly be worse than the human drivers who are already killing 100 people per day on American roads, she merely repeated that she’d still be creeped out by the thought of riding in such a car.
Even if robot cars killed only one person per day (a figure I suspect would still be outrageously high) you know there will be ridiculous lawsuits and screaming matches and a demand for the heads of car company CEOs. Just because it’s robots, and robots is evil…so much more evil than drunk drivers and reckless teenagers, I suppose.
OK, I hate to bring up urban legends at a time like this, but I vaguely recall hearing stories back in the 1970s about a incident at a theater showing Texas Chainsaw Masscare. Specifically: Someone showed up at a screening, pulled out a chainsaw, and turned it on. No one was killed — the guy simply brandished the thing, and scared people out of the theater — but, as I recall, no one was arrested, either. Anyone else remember this?
Okay, so Gawker ran a clip of MSNBC bringing in a former FBI profiler who said this may have been caused by a “dark Trekkie-like person”…but that’s not the worst part. The comments section has been taken over by discussion of a real Trekkie who killed a guy then tried to cook his penis:
“Ugh, any good chef knows you must add your fats FIRST to the pan before attempting to sautee. Amateur.”
This is gallows humor at its darkest, folks.
fairenough… I feel that the gun culture, as it currently stands in the US, is one reason why these things happen as they do.
I did not know about the Joker thing until the last 15 minutes.
But while I agree that many criminals could get guns if we had stricter laws – not an absolute ban on all guns – I also feel that the young men who tend to do these rage crimes are not experienced criminals and that restrictions would make us all safer.
Surprised no one has mentioned God Bless America yet, in this context. Not that they should, necessarily – I’m just surprised no one has.
Yeah, he was a PhD candidate who couldn’t find a job, not really all that different from the Virginia Tech shooter who couldn’t find a date.
Ut oh: “”He had his hair painted red, he said he was The Joker, obviously the enemy of Batman,” [New York Police Commissioner] Kelly told reporters, referring to a character known for committing random, chaotic violence.”
As for God Bless America, IIRC weren’t they killing reality TV “stars” and other people who deserved to die?
For the record, it is not accurate to say that AMC is banning costumes. They are banning masked faces and fake weapons, but costumes are still allowed.
From usnews.com: “Colorado is the wild west where are [sic] virtually no limitations on gun sales. You don’t need a permit, registration, or license to buy or carry a handgun, shotgun, or rifle purchase. All you need are cash and a holster or gun rack.”
Preceded by “Anybody that belongs to a militia, which today is the National Guard, should be able to have a gun on duty. But the Second Amendment is not a license to kill.” Hmm, sounds familiar.
And Chris, that wouldn’t have helped in this case; the shooter parked his car by the fire exit, went inside and bought a ticket dressed normally, then went out the fire exit (which he blocked open) to “gear up” and came back inside with all his weapons. Putting alarms on the fire exits might be the only solution.
Thanks, Chris. I double-checked the press release direct from AMC and you are correct. Front page link now fixed to reflect.
Joe’s right. We’ve had mass shootings at schools, museums, retirement homes, fast-food restaurants, even churches. It was ludicrous to think this would never happen at a movie. (In fact, Peter Bogdanovich predicted it 44 years ago in TARGETS.) There are supposedly more guns in this country than there are people. The real miracle is that it doesn’t happen more often than it does.
One more thing: Louis Gohmert is a moron (not news). Even a trained marksman can’t aim properly in a darkened room. The idea of more guns, less crime makes about as much sense as more unprotected sex, fewer pregnancies.
For the record, it is not accurate to say that AMC is banning costumes. They are banning masked faces and fake weapons, but costumes are still allowed.
Why would anyone need to wear a costume, mask or bring along a fake weapon to a movie?
Save it for Halloween, children.
The headline on the front page was corrected after Chris pointed that out, Movieman. Thanks.
“In exactly two weeks this will all be over and it will be like it never happened.”
And then, somewhere, it will happen again.
Sadly, the Onion has the best take on this situation.
anghus says:
July 20, 2012 at 8:38 am
Agreed.
SamLowry – And Chris, that wouldn’t have helped in this case; the shooter parked his car by the fire exit, went inside and bought a ticket dressed normally, then went out the fire exit (which he blocked open) to “gear up” and came back inside with all his weapons. Putting alarms on the fire exits might be the only solution.
I worked at a theater in high school. I know a number of us here have. Did anyone ever had exits that tripped an alarm when opened?
You can’t open side exits at any other facility I can think of, yet, at the Prometheus showing I mentioned earlier, at a brand new Imax-centered complex, some dude wearing shades during the promos and a “youth against Christ” shirt, or something to that effect, walked right out the screen exit and came back through the main hall five minutes later.
The saddest thing about Aurora, is there were cops in the front lot controlling traffic and about a half-dozen rent-a-cops inside. The station was just minutes away. It was a brand new complex. If the damn exits had alarms, this does not happen. Once he walks out, the alarm trips, on-site security goes to check it out or a patrol car rides around back. At worse, an usher has to go secure it. Either way, when he stepped out and came back was at least several minutes. These aren’t two-way doors, so he had to prop it open.
The whole point of these exits is “in case of emergency”, not smoke break or cell phone.
From a policy standpoint, if you start with the attainable things and eliminate them as an excuse, you can eventually effect policy. But doing a Bloomberg will create more resistance, and not succeed.
“Cinemark shares were down 91 cents to $23.36 in Nasdaq trading at midday. Regal and Carmike Cinemas saw similar declines, as investors drew back only slightly on the incident.”
Way to keep it classy, capitalists.
Martin, you just gave a reason why the theatre chain will be sued. I worked at a theatre as well, and have been locked out by emergency doors countless time. How this guy could do that in the theatre, getting geared up, is why the victims families have to get litigious.
Sam, why we defend the market at all, is a fundamental problem in this country.
@movieman: AMC Theatres HAS banned costumes, a fact reported by both Variety.com and Deadline.com. Regal Entertainment has banned costumes and masks as well.
Want to know how serious this is? At this moment, the top of the Variety.com homepage has a photo of uniformed NYPD in front of the AMC Empire in Times Square.
On a related note, the TV networks pulled all ads for “The Dark Knight Returns” this morning when the massacre became major news.
JS – Yep. I just read that the door was propped by him and he was out in his car for several minutes. Some kid sitting up front watched him leave.
Avid on-line gamer. He was apparently on Vicodin at the time. Now the freaky-deaky part.
He set his apartment radio to play one song for 45 minutes straight. The downstairs neighbor knocked, felt it was unlocked, but opted not to go in. If she did, boom.
We all know that set-up, right? The bomb-diversion from TDK.
This is how he looked at the time.
http://imgur.com/a/Kvllm#1
Why the F the MSM is showing the normie picture of him, I have no idea.
So it has happened before…
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/dark-knight-rises-shooting-matrix-violence-theaters-352581
Yeah it’s happened before, and it’s the fucking insanity of this country that needs limits applied to it. How this guy could get a gun, is fucked up. It goes back to the whole point, that letting the right get their way on things hurts the entire country.
We should have had strict gun regulations for decades, and most of these shootings possibly would have never happen. Instead the gun lobby fights tooth and nail because of an amendment that has little to do with gun ownership, and more to do with maintaining a civil militia.
If the gun lobby gets their way again, and nothing changes, this asshole and more like him win. Enough of letting the assholes win. Let’s regulate this shit and if it pisses off rednecks, then too god damn bad. Someone just needs to tell them, that we aren’t coming for their guns. We are going to make sure they can have their guns, but not some asshole who should never have been able to buy one in first place.
But why should they be allowed to have guns 24/7? If it’s hunting season, and you have all the proper licenses and permits, then fine, you can remove your rifle from the centralized holding facility for the duration of the season. Otherwise, why do you need it?
JSP, you pointed out earlier that there’s a certain breed of American that thinks UN tanks will roll into their front yard and deprive them of their “Freedom” if they aren’t allowed to constantly stroke their oiled-up muskets. Why is that? Is this paranoia genetic or a learned response? Perhaps instead we should be studying the English and French or any other civilized peoples to find out how they can get through the day without having a firearm within easy reach.
Maybe gene therapy might eradicate this gun fixation.
Sam, people love guns, but it’s once again the Canada thing. They have more guns per capita than we do. That’s just a fact, but they rarely if ever, have to deal with this sort of insanity. Why is it they don’t have these problems? Why are we so violent?
This is where the paranoia comes from, because some people are simply not educated enough to understand what’s going on. They read and watch stuff that lies, believe the lies, and the lies feeds into their paranoia. This is why you have had documented cases of these folks opening fire on people, because they buy into the lies to the point in drives them to violence.
JS is on my page here. The problem of course is American Excess – it’s not enough you can own enough guns to arm a village, you need assault rifles and armor piercing bullets and can’t wait 10 days otherwise it’s AGAINST THE CONSTITUTION!!! And Zimmerman is treated as a HERO by the Christians at FOX.
The Founding Fathers, flawed as they were, would be repulsed by the trogs loading up bear for the next race/civil war that they pray for. Any perusal of right wing sites will be filled with variations of, “Wait for that KenyanMarxist OBummer and the DEMO-RATS SOCIALIST LIBS to come for my AK. I have a FULL METAL SURPRISE!” I don’t want liberals armed either.
Here’s a new phrase for Mr Eight Years!
6000 ROUNDS!
It’s been years since I saw a certain documentary from a certain director (whose name I will not mention lest I initiate a reverse-Beetlejuice by attracting scores of crazies to this site), but I believe his thesis was that the difference is due to indoctrination by the American right, caused by a barrage of fearful imagery of The Other on the evening news. In such an environment of constant perceived threat, the obvious solution is to arm yourself to save yourself.
Yet in Canada, if it bleeds, it will not lead. Problem solved.
In other news, while Glen Weldon wavers between snarking at Batman and praising him, eventually he comes up with a deep philosophical reasoning explaining why Batman doesn’t kill…which completely misses the point. How can you have iconic villains who return every couple months if The Bat ices them upon their first meeting? There go the Underoo sales.
Sam: “If it’s hunting season, and you have all the proper licenses and permits, then fine, you can remove your rifle from the centralized holding facility for the duration of the season. Otherwise, why do you need it?”
Sorry, but this sounds exactly — exactly — like what the right-wingers have been warning us about for years: The liberals want to take away our guns. Tell me, Sam, who is going to operate this “centralized holding facility” where guns will be held? The state? And who will decide when people can have access to their guns? The state?
Instead of using this as an excuse for debating gun control, depictions of violence in movies, etc., how about meditating on this thought, instead: how awful for those poor victims and their families.
is there a dark knight rises spoiler thread coming? feels like the wrong place to talk about the movie since were all so focused on the more unfortunate aspects of what happened.
1000 messages about mental health and guns – lots of great posts here –
How about instead of after every major shooting we talk about the need to fund mental health instead of talking about gun rights?
http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/wvwu9/how_about_instead_of_after_every_major_shooting/
Joe, that is exactly the goal…and I didn’t even mention the psychological tests that should be performed before anyone is allowed near a hunting weapon.
Really, what function would all these guns perform, anyway, if some outside force decides to take over? Do they actually think they can ace T-98s and Flying Leopards? Is this preparation for the zombie outbreak? Or are they just loading up for the race war they hope will tear the country apart? None of the alternatives is sensible or reasonable and all circle back into the territory of paranoia, which medical science will hopefully conquer real soon now.
And Film Fanatic, you might want to check out that Onion article I linked to. Until guns are tightly controlled, we’ll keep mourning poor victims and their families again and again and again.
Sanj, that’s exactly what we need to do. Why else do you think the term “gun nut” has caught on so well? Because they ARE nuts! Fussell even pointed out in his essay 31 years ago that the NRA HQ prints only half of the 2nd Amendment on the outside of their building. The other half–the “well-regulated Militia” half–is completely ignored because they want to pretend like children closing their eyes while sticking their fingers in their ears that it doesn’t exist.
Sam: What you want to happen will never happen — repeat, never happen — in this country. To even propose it — to even jokingly propose it — would do the cause you supposedly espouse such harm, I have to wonder if you’re really some kind of Manchurian Candidate sort of NRA plant.
“Japan prohibits handgun possession by citizens. Shotguns and rifles for hunting or sports may be possessed upon completion of a licensing procedure that requires a police background check, successful completion of a safety course, passing of shooting, written, and psychological tests, and police verification of secure storage, prior to approval being granted by the police to purchase a firearm.[29] Fully automatic weapons are restricted to military and police. Gun owners must take a class once a year and pass a written test. Police check on the owner once every three months on an unannounced visit.[Source?] They inspect the gun locker, proper ammunition storage, and the firearm.”
So are they naive, or are we barbarians?
(The thought of a regular paycheck from the NRA would be very helpful at this point…my car ain’t getting any younger….)
Has anyone found any article stating there was any evidence anywhere beforehand that this guy was crazy? Other than the mom feeling like they were correct, that her son was the shooter? (I feel really bad for his parents and sister; can’t imagine…)
Grad student studying neuroscience. Only had a parking ticket… I don’t see a background check flagging anything with that profile. But it hasn’t been 24 hours yet; I’m sure there’s more to learn.
You just know he’s going to smirk in his mugshot.
i know its been like 10 + years since the matrix came out but anybody talking about that movie in the media ?
not sure if the gunman had a long black coat on ..
You know what…
I propose it’s not a miracle that this doesn’t happen more often. The homicide rate is at its lowest since 1964, and it’s steadily gone down since 1991. Most people are good.
On the other hand, we also have the highest incarceration rate in the world. We have 5% of the world’s population but 25% of the world’s incarcerated.
Krillian: To paraphrase Max Von Sydow in Hannah and Her Sisters — we shouldn’t be shocked when something like this happens. We should be shocked that it doesn’t happen more often.
““The guy basically had normal guns,” said Eugene Volokh, an expert in constitutional law at the University of California, Los Angeles. Unless some new evidence of documented psychiatric disturbance emerges, Mr. Volokh added, “there’s no indication that, from his record, he is someone whom more restrictive screening procedures would have caught.””
So an AR-15 assault rifle with a high-capacity, drum-style magazine large enough to hold 90 or more rounds is now a “normal” gun. Nor is buying all that gear online over the course of a month considered unusual.
I guess that means Total Information Awareness truly is dead.
EDIT: How silly of me, of course it isn’t. Although, if this kid had any Arabic blood in his veins, you have to wonder if a SWAT team would’ve come charging in the moment he started ordering all this stuff.
And Krillian: “…there are about 10,000 gun murders in the United States every year. According to USA Today, there are on average 20 mass shootings per year.” And Eliot Spitzer went on to add “The one thing this horror is not is shocking. After the litany of mass shootings we have had over the past years, we should by now be braced for this tragedy, not shocked by it.”
And that was my reaction, from the moment I heard about it (the caller even told me, incorrectly, that the shooter had been wearing a Batman costume): It’s sad, but what do you expect? This is America, where crap like this happens all the time.
Well, Sam, you can’t have it both ways. You either have a police state in which all on-line purchases and all Internet communications are monitored, or not.
will the next years oscar mention the incident – where in the broadcast – who will talk about it and how long …
this is about dark knight movie – but the rest of hollywood actors can do something for 5 minutes and have a big impact …
I don’t want to blame Fox News for everything, but it is indicative of the ‘find the news that tells you want to hear and fits into your ideology’ that permeates what is the standard of American journalism today.
Here in Canada, Fox news stylings were not allowed due to a handy little thing called the Canadian Radio Act which states “a licenser may not broadcast … any false or misleading news.”
The news may be boring compared to the US, but at least I don’t have to listen to Rush and Beck.
Its a sad reality that America has arrived at when it seems that programs aimed at education or eating healthy is mocked and viewed as being unamerican, but how many guns you own is a badge you wear with honor.
Exactly what are you trying to protect yourself from with 6000 rounds of ammunition.
Also: The 6 Weirdest Things That Statistically Lower Crime. Thank you, Roe v. Wade!
Bulldog, thank you for confirming what I was saying earlier about Michael M…err, that guy who made a documentary about bowling.
And Joe, I thought the “lock up all the guns” statement showed which side of the police state v. anarchy argument I was on. Although…if all the dangerous items that could be weaponized are tightly controlled, then you don’t have to monitor internet traffic so closely to prevent another Virginia Tech/Oklahoma City/WTC from happening again.
Lockerbie would’ve been tough to stop, though, considering it was carried out by CIA agents who wanted to silence some non-cooperative American intelligence officers who were aboard, en-route to Washington to report on the drug-running carried out on the route.
(P.S. I just saw Safe House recently and wondered why it wasn’t called “the Lockerbie movie”.)
Joe has more MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE in him than he realizes given that gun control is blasphemus to seriously discuss in Texas…
Christian: I realize that Texas and Texans have a well-deserved reputation for conservatism. But not all us in the Lone Star State should be tarred with the same brush. Just as I shouldn’t think California is populated primarily with raging homophobes because Proposition 8 passed.
SamLowry: Yes, in that context, abortion really is the elephant in the room that nobody talks about. Liberals really do feel uncomfortable discussing something that can be interpreted as eugenics. And conservatives really do feel uncomfortable with admitting abortion might have any social value whatsoever. As Oscar Wilde said in regard to anyone wanting the truth, pure and simple: The truth is seldom pure, and never simple.
Did anyone else think when they first saw the headlines yesterday morning that the victims had been trampled to death like at the late ’70s Who concert?
That was my first reaction.
I’m sorry Joe. All Texans are cowboy boot wearing, Mexican hating gun owners who would shoot anyone that steps onto their property and looks at them funny.
All Californians are white wine sipping potheads who secretly hate the gays.
Everyone in Mississippi is a member of the KKK.
Joe, nice try, but Sam lives in a fantasy.
JS at least has an optimal comparison with Canada, but to use Japan is just as insepid as when people on the right point to Switzerland.
Japan has 120Mil people crammed into 30,000 square, livable miles. In other words, jam the populations of:
Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, DC, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky and Louisiana
Into Maine. Or South Carolina. This is before we get into the massive cultural differences, like how you’re guilty before innocent, can be held indefinitely, and watched like a hawk if you’re a foreigner.
And that’s the domino effect Joe is alluding towards. To disarm everyone isn’t a one-way street. I know the left loves to believe they’re the most law-abiding people in da world, but everyone one of your OWS peeps would have been arrested for not having authorization, and most still in jail, if we follow Japan’s model.
You can change gun regulations, but it’s a give-and-take. Want to have more then the Assault Weapons Ban re-instituted, based on Aurora? You have to accept a return to older models of institutionalizing.
The editorial board of the local paper here said one of the main lessons from this is the need to focus more on identifying and accurately diagnosing serious mental health issues. But did Holmes exhibit any signs of mental illness? Everyone who ever knew him seems to be calling him a loner, but that term could be used to describe millions of people.
Except I actually lived in Dallas and Austin sunder Guv Bush so I have a pretty good idea of what I speak.There will never be sane gun control in Texas. Even a god liberal like Joe jumps to fear when discussing it. I have some deluded friends there who already think Obama has taken their guns.
Funny you mention that, Paul, because the media keeps reporting this guy as if he was Sheldon from Big Bang gone nutzoid.
The Adult FriendFinder photo, of him with red hair, has been proven authentic. At first, I was thinking, “well, most people would mistake him for a Hunger Games wannabe”.
Then I read this article, which just infuriates the hell out of me.
http://www.9news.com/news/local/article/278850/222/Man-claims-he-saw-Holmes-getting-scope-installed
WTF.
I think we’re going to see more signs, and more examples, of “not my problem” lazy-ass attitudes from people in his hemisphere.
His parents know something. I think it was Reddit that pointed out a bumper sticker on the mom’s car for this group.
http://www.twloha.com/faq/
The timeline seems to be he graduated UC-Irvine, went into deep psychosis. He couldn’t find a job, ended up working at a McDonald’s for a year. At some point, he started taking drugs. His family intervened, but didn’t have him institutionalized. He then got into the Colorado program, and convinced his parents he was better. Moves, starts deteriorating in class, bails from the programs and then spends two months planning the rampage.
At some point, he watched TDK and it skipped a needle in his head. It’s the hospital scene.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRG1tWQN6e8
And martin’s “To disarm everyone” is the typical logical fallacy pro-gun folks throw in – I don’t want to disarm everybody – just make it saner and safer, which we clearly don’t have. But you can’t even discuss that without the righties and NRA invoking NAZIS AND THE HOLOCAUST like Tea Party Brain Joe The Plumber just said. And remember those “2nd Amendment” solutions the Pro-Life GOP love to invoke.
And what was the GOP response to 9/11 hi-jacking? GIVE THE PILOTS GUNS! (recall that Team Bush REFUSED to even consider a program to track guns that terrorists might easily grab)
Virginia Tech? GIVE THE STUDENTS GUNS!
George Zimmerman? HE WAS ALMOST ATTACKED BY A SCARY BLACK KID!
Drug Cartels? IMPEACH OBAMA OVER FAST AND FURIOUS!
And since I have had a Glock aimed at my face in a robbery, I get to have a strong opine on this.
Victor Lucas is a huge batman fan – check out his audio
review thats 24 minutes – lots of spoilers .
he gave the dkr movie 6/10 – he gave avengers 10/10
http://epdaily.tv/all/podcast/vics-basement-episode-2-batman-spoilers/
“Institutionalizing”? You mean undo the saintly work of our modern-day Moses, Ronald the Great? The Republican Party godhead who freed the mentally feeble and infirm from those cruel, torturous and taxpayer-supported institutions so they could freely wander the streets of America, forever, in search of their next meal, or bottle of Thunderbird, or whatever shiny thing caught their fancy that could be put into an unlawfully-appropriated shopping cart?
How could you even think of tarnishing the legacy of such a great man?
On a less serious note, I didn’t note the unintentional humor of describing Japanese v. barbarians until I was nodding off last night: the racist whites who only hear “ching-chong, ching-chong” when Asians speak looked just as stupid to the Romans, who coined the term “barbarian” to describe the Germanic peoples who seemed to say nothing but “bar-bar-bar”.
Oh lexicography, you slay me.
And while Piers Morgan has the taint of Murdoch’s Euro-sleaze on him, he often has that unique British ability to cut through the bullshit:
“When you have a young man like this able to legally get 6000 rounds of ammunition off the internet, to buy four weapons, including an assault rifle, and for all of this to be perfectly legal in modern America, allowing him to carry out the biggest shooting in the history of the United States, that, I’m afraid, means it’s too late for this debate, for those people who’ve lost their lives. So don’t patronize me about when we should be talking about the gun control debate.”
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/piers-morgan-clashes-with-guest-over-whether-it-is-appropriate-time-to-discuss-gun-control/
I loathe the NRA and believe they are one of the main (if not the main) culprits responsible for making it damn near impossible to have a rational, adult conversation about gun control in this country. But what could have been done to stop this shooting outside of an outright ban on guns? Holmes had no criminal record. As of now I’ve heard nothing about any record of mental health issues. Restrictions on the type of weapons and the amount of ammunition someone like that can purchase are possible, but outside of that, what could realistically be done?
Making ASSAULT RIFLES easily available along 6000 rounds of ammo IS THE PROBLEM. Why does ANYBODY need an MR-15?
Look, this is a staggeringly stupid nation that lately prides itself on amnesia. You know why you can’t hi-jack an Israeli plane? Sealed doors! We’ve known about hi-jacking for decades yet the USA security solution is…curtains. And then 9/11 happens and everybody screams, “CAN’T HAPPEN AGAIN!” And today…people whine about the TSA.
Yes I agree that’s a serious problem. And I have no clue why anyone would need an MR-15. But he would have been able to purchase the weapons and ammunition necessary to do what he did even without the ability to purchase assault rifles and 6000 rounds right?
That’s when I would argue for a tracking system for certain weapons and excess ammo.
Again, this is a case of DOMESTIC TERRORISM but the ones who sent us to invade Iraq or wax fear over the War On Terror have no desire to actually follow through on the war at home. And sadly, Obama won’t touch this third rail until his re-election (I hope). Which would make him a bigger target than he already is.
Do any states currently use tracking systems? How exactly do they work? I really don’t know anything about that.
The problem is indeed the NRA. No legitimate sportsman or hunter needs automatic weapons, armor-piercing bullets or high-capacity magazines (not to mention plastic handguns), but any attempt to regulate even these–or install a tiny modicum of background checking–is met with howls of anger by these cretins (whose claimed membership, BTW, is less than 1% of the population). Had Holmes been restricted to an ordinary handgun and rifle, far more people would be alive today.
And how about arresting the dealers who sold him these weapons as accessories before the fact? Tossing a few of these guys in the slammer might make the rest think twice before selling guns to just any dude off the street without a little due diligence first.
What’s most symptomatic is the sheer denial of a irrevocable fact: that 90 percent of guns used across Mexico to enslave its citizens come straight from America. And that brings us back to Texas, whose gun dealers have total disdain for regulations so wink-wink those guns away to any compadres.
Note the GOP Staged Outcry on Fast And Furious (tragically botched as it was) – they have no vision nor offer a solution to what DO we do about those guns?
The GOP reaction to F&F is purely political: They were all for it when Bush initiated it as “Operation Wide Receiver.”
Christian – I’m going by Lowry’s example. What he’s calling for is total disarmament. I was showing it’s only possible in fantasyland.
As for domestic terrorism, a lot on the right believe that’s the case when it comes to Aurora. But the extenuation has no bounds. Look at what you just wrote.
…have no desire to actually follow through on the war at home. And sadly, Obama won’t touch this third rail until his re-election (I hope). Which would make him a bigger target than he already is.
What are you referring to? Not Nidal Hassan or Nuevo Laredo.
And that’s the problem. I have no problem agreeing to a return of the Assault ban. I didn’t like it when it was let to expire. But where does it always lead; the vilification of a group of people, who have done nothing.
That’s why the left gets it ass handed to it when it comes to the Second Amendment. The majority know an AR-15 is overkill for hunting. But at the same time, Holmes wasn’t a hunter. So instead of drawing a line at the nexus of danger and gun access, it changes to anyone who owns one of these guns, must be dangerous.
Sam can joke about institutionalization, but it wasn’t that simple. Definitions changed because of lobbying pressure. The ACLU will never let that modify now. So we’re going to have people in genuine mental meltdowns among us, and it’s up to…waitforit…personal responsibility of those around them to do something.
Changing some gun laws isn’t hard. How in the hell it’s legal for someone, who has zero background in firearms, to buy four pieces in two months, one every two weeks, for the first time in their life, and not raise a flag, is beyond me. All I can think is the bureaucracy takes that long to gather the information, if it’s looking at all.
You can change that, bring back the Assault ban, modify online bullet purchasing. That could all get through. But you still have a case of a PhD candidate and his ability to make explosives and poisonous gas, looking to hurt people in a theater with unsecured security doors. The car was also rigged to blow up, it only didn’t because he told the cops for some reason. As Paul pointed out, he had zero background to flag.
Off-topic, but F&F and Wide are not synonymous.
The best thing about Fast and Furious is that it was a lie, with the root problem being that the Arizona gun laws are so lax that it’s so easy to have guns go into the wrong hands.
“Changing some gun laws isn’t hard. How in the hell it’s legal for someone, who has zero background in firearms, to buy four pieces in two months, one every two weeks, for the first time in their life, and not raise a flag, is beyond me. All I can think is the bureaucracy takes that long to gather the information, if it’s looking at all.”
Agreed martin. Does the ATF currently track gun sales? Are they allowed to? I know the NRA vehemently opposes the tracking of gun sales, gun registration, and gun owner licensing.
Martin, I didn’t call for total disarmament. I provided the Japanese rules, which allow hunters to have their weapons (but only after jumping many hurdles while also being required to keep them locked up most of the year in a locker that will be inspected periodically) while the police and military have their weapons. No one else has any reason to carry guns.
I also fail to see why population density should be considered the big difference between Japan and the U.S. Unlike what horror movies tell us, most of our mass-murders occur in population centers with a density similar to Japan. Unless you’re arguing that America’s wide-open spaces provided us with plenty of backwoods Bubbas who consider themselves descendants of the original Minutemen…yet they’ll scream like stuck pigs if anyone suggests they use all those weapons to defend the homeland.
If the statistics Ebert notes in a blog posting are correct, Canada, Australia, Germany, and England combined have a population of nearly 200 million people. Combined, they average 468 gun murders a year. We’re at about 311 million people now and average nearly 10,000 gun murders a year. That’s nuts.
Sam: “Martin, I didn’t call for total disarmament. I provided the Japanese rules, which allow hunters to have their weapons (but only after jumping many hurdles while also being required to keep them locked up most of the year in a locker that will be inspected periodically) while the police and military have their weapons. No one else has any reason to carry guns.”
You do realize that this is something both Hitler and Stalin could have agreed upon, right?
Nationwide social phenomena are complex. But our numbers are pretty shameful. Our insane national discourse doesn’t help.
What if we had a big bipartisan agreement that mandates that voter identification requirement always exactly match gun identification requirements. So if you have to go to offices A,B and maybe even C to get set up to vote in a district or state, well you have to do that to own a gun in that district or state, subject to fine or imprisonment. That seems eminently fair to me. How do we know undocumented mexicans and visa overstayers and terror-commies aren’t buying and possessing guns all around us? I kid but isn’t that a little more troubling than the thought that some lone voting criminal is going to commit voter fraud and cause absolutely no immediate death or trauma? But of course we already know why it’s important for the GOP to vigorously screen the vote.
So the Jews and the serfs could’ve easily defended themselves if they had guns? I don’t think so.
Once again, I ask how the English and French can manage to get through the day without handguns but we can’t.
Sam: Your all-or-nothing approach is at best naive, and at worst counter-productive. You embody the very sort of straw-man cliche that NRA fanatics effectively use as an all-purpose bogeyman — “They don’t want to just regulate our guns, they want to take away our guns!” — to campaign against even laws that would limit sales of assault weapons. Dream on, my friend. But remember: Dreams have a nasty habit of turning into nightmares.
kinda weird that LexG hasn’t said anything about the shooting.
i’m guessing the final justice the shooter is going to get is life in jail . unless some lawyer screws up.
Lord of War trailer – Nic Cage is an arms dealer –
In search of Comedy Gold? Go to Twitter, check out #IStandWithBachmann
“Dreams have a nasty habit of turning into nightmares.”
As opposed to the nightmares we face this week?
“You do realize that this is something both Hitler and Stalin could have agreed upon, right?”
And the Nazis made the Jews wear flair.
Joe, this is exactly what the NRA project and Joe The Plumber just said – and was rightly scorned. You have been in Texas toooo long, my friend…
Christian: Stopped clocks are right twice a day. Look, unless you’re over 40, I have been pushing for gun control since before you were born. And I’m entirely in favor of assault-weapons being banned outright. But I also know that ranting about seizing all guns and announcing the state will decide who’s armed and who isn’t won’t help your cause one bit, and actually will hurt it a lot. Again: You’re reinforcing the effectiveness of the bogeyman the NRA uses so effectively. Worse, you’re actually lending freakin’ CREDIBILITY to Joe the Plumber. Sorry, but you’re part of the problem, not part of the solution.
Why does anyone care what the NRA thinks? Are scared congressmen afraid they’ll no longer get their checks?
Look at it from another angle: If the NRA had been started in the ’60s by the Black Panthers it would’ve been shut down immediately. If it had been started ten years ago by Muslims fearful of reprisals from angry rednecks it would’ve been considered a terrorist organization and wiretapped up the wazoo so everyone of interest could be tossed into Gitmo. But because it was created by scared white folk it’s considered not just honorable but sacred.
At least as long as those checks keep coming.
(Oddly enough, the one time the NRA actually showed up to support the Panthers, no one covered it. [Skip ahead to 12:05 if you’re easily bored. And yes, I watched the whole thing while reading up on this.] Why? Because a bunch of armed blacks showing up at the California state assembly is news, but a bunch of armed whites showing up on the same day isn’t.)
Sam: As Lenny Bruce noted: There is only what is. What could be or should be is a lie.
“Cultural Scolds Want Us to Shut Down Discussion of Gun Violence’s Causes”
“We will mourn the casualties the way we mourn the deaths of those in hurricanes and tornadoes. Gun violence is now a “natural” event in America, as unpredictable as the weather, and there’s nothing we can do about it except gather together in the aftermath to help the victims.”
Peter Travers from Rolling Stone is so awesome in this interview.
Off The Cuff: Aubrey Plaza Talks ‘Safety Not Guaranteed’ And Spider Bites – 13 minutes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGq1Xc5fvFU
Sanj: LOOK AT HER!!!!
hey LexG – what do you think of Yvonne Strahovski =
she was on Chuck – for the first season – LOOK AT HER!!!
then by the show ended she ended up being a LOOK AT HER!
– what happens when LOOK AT HER!!! downgrades because the actress isn’t that great ..
LexG – will you give up on K-Stew after twilight is over ?
is it possible for you to be objective for some people ..
same thing for movie critics – when an actress does 3 great movies but does 1 super bad reviewed one …do they mention that..
Brit Marling – Greta Gerwig – Emma Roberts –
they need major makeup / fashion deals now .
Jennifer Lawerence should be selling at least a dozen things …
if you get a tiny bit of famous even for a short while – these actors should make money off the biggest corporations –
i like Eva Mendes but they’ve been running her shampoo tv ad for a year ..the same one .
Jessica Chastain: Yves Saint Laurent ‘Manifesto’ Ad
the best they could do is paint her hands purple ?
these advertising people should be watching more dp/30 to find the right products with the right actors ..
Brit Marling has great hair – give her a shampoo commercial – people will google her and find out
her movies .
DP – you were around in the 1960’s – what was Marilyn Monroe selling at the time ?
when your a LOOK AT HER!!! – the mass media will not let you forget .
a lot of actors seem to be smart enough not to do ads for guns …
I think a lot of actors are afraid to go after all business opportunities because they want to stick to selling themselves as actors who we’d like to see in movies/tv and not sell themselves short by doing commercials that only a few people really want to see or pay attention to.
I don’t know, Brack, tell that to Sofia Vergara, who’d hawk a local used-car dealership if the price was right.
True, but she’s pretty much defined herself and stays in character for everything she’s in. Many actors are not as naturally noticeable. It’s hard not to notice her.
once Modern Family runs its course – Sofia will slowly go away with commercials .. but its hard not to noice her because of her voice.
tv / movie / models and reality tv stars are all in different commercial catagories ..
everybody takes the money when those superbowl commercials come on …
Lena Dunham and Louis C.K are huge stars on tv right now but its hard to figure out what they would sell…
why aren’t more movie bloggers / critics trying to sell more 3d tv’s ..
when Olivia Munn left g4 tv – i figured she’d be in a dozen commercials for technology companies – there’s a good chance she’d actually know the product or service for the geek crowd but nope she went into acting and now is on an hbo show
So now it’s back to the permanent hard-on. Makes me wanna barf!
total recall movie billboard poster
all 3 characters have guns . anybody complaining ?
i’d complain about the bad photoshopping going on ..
“But I also know that ranting about seizing all guns and announcing the state will decide who’s armed and who isn’t won’t help your cause one bit, ”
But I didn’t say that. YOU immediately actually brought up HITLER and STALIN as a rebuttal – exactly the SAME CRAP the NRA pushes. And sorry, Joe The Plumber said EXACTLY what you did.
I know you’re a good lib, Joe. But saying that “YOU’RE the problem” (really? Not a proliferation of AK’s, MR’s and Gun Lobbyists, but the guy who had a Glock shoved in his face!) shows you how the NRA wins these battles by using folks like you as their surrogate.
Actually, I do believe it was Sam who said he wanted to ban guns. So I suppose I should have been more careful in my use of the word “you” up there. On the other hand, I think I can safely say that having a gun shoved in your face, or aimed at any other part of your anatomy, does not give you special insights into anything other than what it feels like to have a gun aimed at you. I will agree: It is not a very pleasant feeling.
Once again, I said guns should only be in the hands of three groups: hunters, police, military. That’s why I kept quoting the Japanese model. And even they won’t just hand a rifle to any Redneck Hiro who wants to shoot squirrels off the pagoda.
And once again, I said that would never work in this country, would never in a million years be accepted by the majority of people in this country, and actually is the sort of policy proposal that the NRA, Joe the Plumber and assorted other fanatics claim is the “secret agenda” of President Obama, the US Congress and every reasonably sentient person who ever proposes any sort of gun regulation. In short, it lends a modicum of truth to their big lies.
Okay, this may be an unpopular sentiment, but it’s time to get back to business. The politicians have told us there will be no change in policy (because the NRA is now so powerful that we can’t even re-ban assault weapons).
Mourning for days and weeks on end, in my opinion, bolsters the work of the terrorist. Box office figures should be released, life should return to normal.
What eguild2 said. (With one dissent: Maybe I’m as naive as I’ve accused others of being, but I wouldn’t be so quick to assume the assault ban won’t be, at the very least, a campaign issue.)
The terrorists already won, live with it. Every time someone mentions 9/11, bingo, they score another point. So we can either whinge and moan and continue to let them win or actually do something to end this.
Boy, if the nutters can’t bear the thought of parting with their military-grade weaponry now, they’ll need to buy stock in Depends twenty years down the line when there will be billions of intelligent camera eyes watching their every move.
@Joe. It won’t. Perhaps the ban on clips beyond 10 pieces will be reinstated. The clips in this shooting and the Giffords shooting had over 50 in the ammunition queue. The effort to reinstate it in the wake of the Giffords shooting died. Frank Lautenberg is making a second attempt apparently, bless him.
This man shot 70 people ins 90 seconds. CLIPS SUCH AS THIS MADE THIS HAPPEN PERIOD.
Heck, if we can have this then why not grenades? For hunting, of course, ’cause those squirrels get feisty if you only wing ’em.
Screw grenades. Why not tactical nuclear weapons? I mean, if you’re really afraid government agents are coming after you…
“This man shot 70 people ins 90 seconds.”
And that’s at the very heart of the debate. The NRA apologizers say there is no data to support that these kind of things wont happen if they ban assault weapons.
So it’s perfectly okay for a guy to buy 6000 rounds and it never raises a red flag. But walk the streets as a Latino or a black kid with some skittles and bam…someone call the authorities. Lets ban hoodies…but not assault weapons.
watched a full hour of Peter Travers interviews with actors up on youtube … weird thing is i don’t much care for his reviews of movies …
overall Peter’s interviews are okay – he’s on camera and most of his interviews is 10 minutes long…he really doesn’t ask too much about movie awards .
his interview with Aubrey Plaza is 3x better than the one DP did with her … DP is better with Juno Temple and its pretty much even with Liz Olsen interview ..
like nobody on here actually compares interviews with the same actors – with a movie fest – the actors do a lot of same type interviews ..depending on the time .
does DP and Peter Travers ever hang out or talk or anything. probably not.
hey Joe – any movie critics you keep getting compared too like all the time ?
Once again, I said guns should only be in the hands of three groups: hunters, police, military. That’s why I kept quoting the Japanese model. And even they won’t just hand a rifle to any Redneck Hiro who wants to shoot squirrels off the pagoda.
This is the problem, Sam. Seriously.
You call for a total ban, are then told that only reinforces the resistance, and then you parse your words to act as if its “not” a ban.
Fine. You keep making the racist references, so what do you do with every black or latino male who has a gun illegally? It’s quite apparent the laws already in place aren’t making a damn difference.
So who’s to blame for that illegal armament? How could a bunch of paranoid hayseeds who are waiting for the collapse of civilization, also be arming the very people they see as the problem?
You list the exception are “hunters, cops, military”. What about retired military or police? And how are you going to designate the Japanese rules of hunting, and not stockpile every firearm?
Truth is, there is a middle ground to get the qusi-machine guns out of the system; but it’s going to take Republicans to do it, and there will be a trade-off for it. When the Democratic Governor of Colorado undercuts the argument, it becomes a Nixon To China scenario.
Sanj: Haven’t been compared to many film critics, but I do get the occasional comparison to Burl Ives. And Col. Sanders.
Some people apparently can’t read English. I keep saying hunters, police, military can have guns, and people keep reading “total ban”. A “total ban” means even the military doesn’t have guns.
Duh.
Sam, this is how powerful the NRA has brainwashed this nation.
Somebody says, “well regulated militia” and they hear “THAT’S UNCONSTITUTIONAL !!!!!”
Of course, when Rupert Murdoch comes out for gun control…”We have to do something about gun controls. Police license okay for hunting rifle or pistol for anyone without crim (crime) or pscho record. No more.”
“I think I can safely say that having a gun shoved in your face, or aimed at any other part of your anatomy, does not give you special insights into anything other than what it feels like to have a gun aimed at you.”
What a logical fallacy. You can say that safely but not sanely. Or you could say, “Just because you were a victim of a gun crime doesn’t mean you know anything about gun crime.” Try that logic on any number of scenarios. Including Colorado.
Christian: So what are you saying? That having a gun aimed at you suddenly makes you a genius? How very odd that such a magical transformation didn’t occur to me. Maybe the person wasn’t holding the right gun.
How about the USA start with an easy one, like not allowing the purchase of 6000 rounds of ammunition to any one individual?
Sam: Now you’re being silly. You are indeed calling for legislation that would keep something like 90-95 percent of the US population from owning any guns whatsoever, and regulate when and how long hunters can have access to their weapons. But wow, golly gosh, that’s not a “total ban,” dudes. Frankly, it’s liberals like you that make me realize how blowhards like Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly manage to attract large audiences.
Sounds perfectly reasonable to me, Bulldog. Trouble is, the NRA may be able to scare folks into viewing this as the first step in a master plan by Sam and Christian to deny us our right to bear arms. LOL.
If we can’t adopt the sensible Japanese model, then let’s go back to what Fussell and the 2nd Amendment said: If you want a gun, you have to join the well-regulated Militia. Training in the woods once a month, shit-on-a-shingle for lunch, required to help during disasters or invasions, the works.
And if you can’t abide by the Constitution, you traitorous American (or illegal alien, whatever the case may be), then you should be considered kill-on-sight by the police for brandishing what is obviously an illegal gun.
Or if you’re a strict constructionist, you can have all the guns you want…as long as they’re muskets.
Yeah, I know, life goes on (for most of us), we can’t let the terrorists win, lock and load, yadda yadda yadda…
…and yet…
“Teen Choice Awards: Crowd Sings Happy Birthday to Selena Gomez….”
WTF?
I’m assuming this was prerecorded some time early last week, because if it wasn’t then this has to be the shallowest, most empty-headed demonstration of “Who cares” that I’ve ever seen.
And no, I didn’t write this article:
A Land Without Guns: How Japan Has Virtually Eliminated Shooting Deaths
after 3 weeks without any new dp/30 – there is a new one called Pincus with 3 guys which i found so boring.
DP has Parker Posey dp/30 in his digital jail . not sure when she’ll be released.
check out 8 minute clip for batman live! … this is coming out in a few months …
“bulldog68 says:
July 23, 2012 at 11:27 am
How about the USA start with an easy one, like not allowing the purchase of 6000 rounds of ammunition to any one individual?”
Unlikely – given that you can purchase from multiple vendors easily online
The only feasible way to enforce this would be to have a central registry that every seller is required to consult prior to confirming delivery… which I’m almost certain is never going to happen.
i haven’t seen Ricky Gervais on tv for like 60 days now –
this is the most powerful guy on british tv – he’s on all 17 bbc channels every day but he needs to come here every week to promote every thing he’s doing … otherwise people will forget about him. strange but kinda true.
and of course – he’s too popular for a dp/30 .
my favorite stuff from Ricky is when he’s on the daily show – he totally goes off topic and makes some funny jokes.
my only question for Ricky is how he feels that the us version of the office didn’t get nominated for emmy … doesn’t he have to fix that up since he did create the series ?
when is the last time you saw Ricky on tv ?
Though I heard about the death of Tom Davis on the day it happened, I just remembered the best part of One More Saturday Night, a story about artificial selection that may be the best thing he and Al Franken ever wrote.
Their drunken explanation as to why Scandinavia has the most attractive women in the world is that the Vikings grabbed all the valuables and all the hot young women from every village they raided, but by the third or fourth raid their longboat would be getting full so they tossed the less attractive ones overboard. By the time they finally made their way home they had only the most beautiful of the most beautiful, and with them they rewrote the genetic heritage of Scandinavia.
i have no idea why the cannes dp/30 aren’t up yet. who is stopping DP from putting them up ?
my guess on dp/30 tiff 2012 interviews –
Argo – Ben Affleck – sure – Ben needs more movie awards
Hyde Park on Hudson – maybe – this title sounds important.
Jayne Mansfield’s Car – Billy Bob Thornton – he hasn’t done a dp/30 yet.
Silver Linings Playbook – maybe – Jennifer Lawerence is too popular right now.
Anna Karenina – maybe – only to finally get Keira Knightley for a dp/30
The Place Beyond the Pines, Derek Cianfrance – i want Eva Mendes for a dp/30 ….
Thanks for Sharing – maybe . topic is serious but couldbe a lifetime movie.
Looper – Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis – no way – they are too famous for a dp/30…
i wanna see movie critics battle it out for movie interviews.
hah – the cast have turned into LexG –
gimme me millions of dollars to act ..
Modern Family’ Cast Sues 20th TV as Contract Renegotiation Turns Ugly
” Sources tell The Hollywood Reporter that cast members Ty Burrell, Julie Bowen, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Eric Stonestreet and Sofia Vergara have filed suit today in Los Angeles Superior Court to void their contracts. ”
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/modern-family-sues-20th-contract-negotiations-353575
“Well we’re movin on up,
To the east side.
To a deluxe apartment in the sky.”
RIP Sherman Hemsley aka George Jefferson.
so nobody has any opinions on Ricky Gervais ?
you geeks are geeking out on comic book movies and forgetting everybody else.
i guess being #1 in the uk means nothing.
Ricky Gervais for next batman. he’ll scare all the bad guys in gotham with his huge laugh.
here take a listen to him laughing ..
this story is kinda interesting in that the tabloids break the story and then real news scamble to figure out if its real or not . so there is an actual difference between us weekly and people magazine.
also what does LexG think of all this ?
i’m pretty sure DP doesn’t care.
Kristen Stewart allegedly cheated on longtime boyfriend Robert Pattinson.
According to Us Weekly’s new issue, the cover of which leaked online Tuesday afternoon, Pattinson made a “heartbreaking discovery” when he found out Stewart allegedly had a “steamy affair” with her Snow White and the Huntsman director Rupert Sanders.
The only way an affair with K-Stew could be steamy is if they were doing it while taking a schvitz.
Cadavra she is the SEXIEST WOMAN OF ALL TIME, and this news has had me rattled all night, half excited, half angry, all turned on… It RULES, SANDERS is my new GOD.
THE GUY IS 41 YEARS OLD and got K-Stew. She cheated on a good-looking 25-YEAR-OLD STAR with a MIDDLE-AGED DIRECTOR. This is a success story that should have every man here completely worked up.
The DEMURE notion of K-Stew I had in the early years is more and more so gone, but somehow this new BAD GIRL STEW is EXCITING… MAD PROPS to Rupert Sanders, a HERO, but it’s making me MAD that I’ll never (etc etc etc Poland Watch.)
Honestly, this is the BIGGEST STORY IN ENTERTAINMENT TODAY, and I bet NO REAL MOVIE BLOGGERS cover it.
Has anyone thought of this EVERY SECOND since the story broke?
it might be awkward for K-Stew when promoting the twilight films … there are millions of fans.
somehow she let them down.
if the tabloid story is wrong – shouldn’t K-Stew be sending lawyer letters – she could be suing everybody .
if your a reality star – this is good – keeps you in the tabloids but if your a real actor – this might hurt you.
DP talks to Kirby about being in the tabloids –
skip to 22 minutes. she’s not a fan …
DP/30: Project X, actor Kirby Bliss Blanton
Lex, i think it’s a non story.
With her lack of talent, i had already assumed she was blowing everyone on her way to the top.
Yeah, she’s no JA RULE.
If only she lived in NORTH CAROLINA, that’d be better than fucking hosannahs from De Niro, Figgis, Fincher, Foster, Penn, etc etc etc.
Nice SLANDER there, too. Class act, Howie.
GET TO STEPPIN’.
see lex, youre right. she is far more famous than anyone i ever worked with.
the key phrase is ‘worked with’, not ‘masturbated to and posted endlessly online about’.
the difference between you and me: i’ve actually done something other than cried on a message board like a suicidal, jail bait pining middle aged nobody. That’s why your opinions about me will never have an impact. As smart and amusing as you can be, you haven’t done anything. I on the other hand have people occassionally paying me for my opinions and ideas and have made a living doing creative things. Whereas you, have not. It’s always easy to heckle from the bleachers, but let’s be honest son: you’re too much of a pussy to ever take the field.
Hey dude, I;m real glad somebody’s fronting you some cash to make movies via whatever SHADY magic allows a NORTH CAROLINIAN entree into the DTV world, but YOU DON’T LIVE IN LA, you CLEARLY HAVE SOME DEEP POCKETS backing you, so MAD FUCKING PROPS. Where did I make fun of that? Plus YOU KNOW you have me at a disadvantage, because under KAISER POLAND you could threaten my fucking life and SHOWTUNE BARRIS would shrug it off while banning my response.
But I’ve been in LOS ANGELES for two decades. I have no familial connections to the biz, I don’t know any rich old assholes who’d front me, don’t have any shady drug world contacts, don’t have DEEP POCKETS. I need a roof over my head and have to work a fucking dayjob, For six years I did standup, I’ve done some game shows and extra work and some student films, but nothing has ever clicked, and at the end of the day, I just had to work a slapdick office job.
I know that’s NOT TRYING, NOT ANYTHING TO A HIIIIIGH ROLLER like you, but honestly, what the fuck am I supposed to do? When I got to LA in 1996 I had four (shitty) scripts in my drawer, I wrote QUERY LETTERS and tried to find managers…. Nobody bit. It’s lottery odds. Somehow you’re a MASSIVE WRITING TALENT ON PAR WITH SHAKESPEARE whose transcended your stranded North Carolina locale to make ends meet in the FILM INDUSTRY, so again, WHOOPTEE-FUCKING-DOO. It ain’t exactly an OPEN BUSINESS, it’s not like anyone’s champing (CHAMPING, ANG, I bet you didn’t know that, O SCREENWRITER) to read unsolicited material.
You found a way in. I didn’t. You need to SPIKE THE FUCKING BALL? Like, are you actually a GREAT WRITER? Do you WRITE better than me? Just as a totally objective observation, you never seem to have much levity or self-deprecation to anything you post, so you can’t be THAT fucking great. What’s the secret? Who do you know? Maybe you have what my grandparents called THE GIFT OF GAB. I don’t know how to promote myself, because I consider self-promotion the lowest form of human behavior. But maybe you know how to shine people on for money.
Congrats, you MAJOR TALENT.
“….you’re too much of a pussy to ever take the field.”
And really, why does POLAND ban me for saying FEET but allow some hateful, condescending shit like this?
It’s so frustrating, I’m shackled like the fucking Count of Monte Cristo but I gotta sit still for this kind of taunt.
Again, CLASS ACT.
“You need to SPIKE THE FUCKING BALL”
Nope, i don’t. But you have a big mouth and you devolve into the sad little heckler at the back of the room, a lot. i make a joke about K-Stew, and you turn it into a crack about me. I responded.
“Just as a totally objective observation, you never seem to have much levity or self-deprecation to anything you post,”
Actually, i think everything i post has some levity to it. The K-Stew joke was just that, a joke. Someone says “Kristen Stewart slept with her director on her last film” and my first thought was “is that shocking? didn’t she sleep with everyone to get where she is today?” I thought that was a great little zinger.
“And really, why does POLAND ban me for saying FEET but allow some hateful, condescending shit like this?”
You have literally talked shit about almost everyone on this board. Made cracks, comments, digs at people’s careers or lack thereof. Is the internet famous LexG incapable of criticism?
How’s that for some irony.
“I thought that was a great little zinger.”
” i make a joke about K-Stew, and you turn it into a crack about me. I responded. ”
BECAUSE YOU DON’T GET TO MAKE FUN OF HER, DO YOU UNDERSTAND?
I won’t have it on my watch.
I’m sure it’s been put up here before, but who’s anghus really?
Eh, he’s done some stuff, from what I can tell, like I said, I wasn’t really bagging on his career, which is head and fucking shoulders above me sitting in a TRANSCRIPTION HOUSE for two decades… I always give props where due and I’m jealous as FUCK of literally anybody who can make a quarter in showbiz, since it just seems like a hopelessly closed industry to me.
But this PUTTING ON AIRS and calling me some CHUMP WHO NEVER TRIED is kind of offensive. Shit, I “tried” to write for MCN but Poland kinda blew me off after I shied away from doing “wacky” videos that weren’t really in my comfort wheelhouse.
why isn’t Oprah trying to fix this K-Stew mess she got her self into ..
lets hope Jennifer Lawerence and Emma Stone don’t do anything like this ..then the fans will turn on them .
same thing with tv stars like Alison Brie.
Sanj: Emma and K-Stew have the ultimate LOOK AT HER factor I would never not be a fan of either. Lawrence and Brie aren’t too far behind.
Krillian, I’m nobody. A professional writer in the most threadbare of terms. Low rent, DTV and basic cable stuff. These days Its a combination of doctoring, freelancing, and some contract work for a couple of small cable networks and a steady creative corporate gig.
And Lex, I wouldnt bag on anyone for trying. I’m in a small pond and content with it. I spent time in l.a. and never really found a rhythm. But if you’re going to talk shit, you should expect at some point someone might throw it back.
Hey man, you can blow this off as is your wont, but out of total curiosity, and because like I said, in 2 decades I’ve NEVER been able to crack the scene…
How did you FIRST sell something, or get an agent, or “get in with people,” or whatever it you do?
I just have such deep self-loathing, it’s like WHY SHOULD I EVER BE SPEAKING to this producer, actor, rapper, comic?
How does one overcome that sense of doubt and just go BALLS OUT thinking you have worth? I don’t have worth and I sure as SHIT don’t think I do. It’s a question that’s plagued me all my life: Why do men have CONFIDENCE? Like Brad Pitt should have confidence. All other men should be SHEEPISH, SELF-HATING, and APOLOGETIC. I don’t relate to “networking” or “self-promotion”…. so how does one make it happen?
I see DVD extras where they make it like a DEE WALLACE (or, to bring it on home, a K-STEW) is afraid of their own shadow, has no confidence, no aggression… How do they build careers? How is a nice person like MARY STEENBURGEN or MARGO MATINDALE a Hollywood player, and I wouldn’t have the balls to make a follow-up email to an agent out of fear of being overbearing?
How do you DO IT?
the downside of acting – the bigger star movie franchise your in – harder to keep anything private
hey DP – get Liz Garbus for Fragments: Marilyn Monroe
– i liked her last dp/30 a lot.
hey LexG – you want to be a writer – check out the writers audio podcast – lots of big time writers
Lex, I don’t think I’m well suited to dispense advice. The only thing that ever worked for me was persistence. No one cared about anything I wrote until I produced my own feature with borrowed money. Once I finished it, I showed it to anyone who cared to watch. And it wasn’t even a great film. But it showed people I could do something from start to finish. It took me a year of showing it to people before I got a meeting. Finally someone asked what kind of film I could make for 100k. I repeated that process up to about the million dollar budget level and was told early on I was a better writer than a director and I went from doing everything to writing and producing.
I never cracked into the upper echelon of filmmaking. At one point I had a script optioned by some smaller mini majors but nothing ever made it to production. I had an agent for about ten minutes. Most, if not all of the work I get comes from people I’ve worked with in the past who continue to produce and need an idea or a quick turnaround on a script getting ready to shoot. The only reason I pick up as much work as I do comes from a quick turnaround.
You say I’m not self effacing, but I tell everyone flat out that I’m living proof that anyone can get their foot in the door. I’m not the smartest or the most talented, but I work very hard, write all the time, and work very hard for the very meager successes I’ve had.
I’m telling you lex, its very attainable. I worked a crappy office job for the first five years. I shot my second feature using vacation time from work and edited it on nights and weekends because the pay for a 100k feature ain’t a whole lot. I was willing to work the shitty job and devote my time off to making something materialize.
It’s not rocket science. It’s just hard work, which it turns out is more important than being the most talented.
watched DP/30: The Watch, director Akiva Schaffer
for a funny guy – all he ends up talking about is mostly tech stuff in the last 10 minutes .. which would make sense if DP actually went into apoilers for the ending of the film or maybe some hint of it ..
based on the trailer – didn’t think Vince Vaughn fits in..
wondering what DP review of this movie is …. gotta wait 2 weeks and maybe DP will post it . maybe not. who knows.
check the red band trailer – 2 minutes .
I’m looking forward to the watch. I’ve been a Lonely Island fan from way back. And Richard Ayoade is a talented cat. If you haven’t watched Submarine, you’re missing a great little indie.
The marketing for the Watch has been weird. With all the stigma of the Treyvon Martin case, it seems like they never found a hook. The ads are baffling at best.
I would be really crushed if Emma Stone had an affair.
Kristen Stewart’s Apology
“I’m deeply sorry for the hurt and embarrassment I’ve caused to those close to me and everyone this has affected. This momentary indiscretion has jeopardized the most important thing in my life, the person I love and respect the most, Rob. I love him, I love him, I’m so sorry,” Stewart said in a statement Wednesday.
@anghus, still no reviews and the ads today still are misleading.
Seems like THE WATCH is a turd.
Just for the sake of clarity, I did not blow you off over videos, Lex.
I did want to put you on a red carpet or in an interview situation as your character, LexG. But you didn’t wanna. Then I bought a LexG puppet, so you could be off camera. But you didn’t wanna. You were the ones who put the character in short pieces… with you animation. I offered to buy some of those… you didn’t wanna.
But your choice to stop writing think pieces in your natural style was not my call. I liked those pieces and support them.
I could send you to a junket next week, you could not tell anyone who you are – though I don’t know if some know you in sight or not – and you could deliver junket context to MCN without incident. If you wanted to be “LexG,” I could arrange that too, though the talent would have to be on board with that.
If you want money, “LexG” is a sideshow star waiting to happen. If you want to make a decent, not 6-figure living covering movies, you could do that too. But you have to earn it. And you have to NOT go all “I want XXXXX pussy!” on my blog or any other. Fred Willard got more heat than I think he deserved, but even on the internet, there is such a thing as relationships and perceptions and you can’t be “good guy, bright junket dude” by day and “foul-mouthed lunatic” on 3a benders on blogs. And you can’t expect someone to just hire you outright on an annual salary – hard enough for the hardest workers out there – without putting in a year or so of doing things the right way and proving your legitimate value.
And that’s what I think of that.
“Then I bought a LexG puppet, so you could be off camera. ”
Wow.
hey DP – have you figured out what your doing for tiff 2012 – you need to crank out the interviews but also watch all these movies … you could do a sneek peek for all interviews- you could get people to go off topic for 5 minutes – you could do special 2 part dp/30’s if they
have time – you could put ads in front of the dp/30’s –
you could do a giant tiff 2012 party interview –
if you think your interviews are great then hype it up.
I Just Want My Pants Back on mtv is still cancelled but Kim Shaw was the best thing about tee show – i still want a dp/30 with her … takes less than 3 hours to watch entire series. its not boring teen crap.
also i gave up watching the Pincus dp/30 after 20 minutes. very boring.
plus i want another dp/30 with Leslye Headland –
my personal pics for dp/30 still want – Rachael Leigh Cook and Amber Heard and Jessica Biel – only because she seems nicer..Biel’s older interviews seems like she’s icy cold.
i dunno maybe my expections for dp/30 are just way to high . nobody else has the access to the movie stars you have and yet July 2012 sucks for dp/30’s …i mean you can always quit and do box office stuff that gets more
attention. …there’s only like 2-3 people that work just has hard as you at getting fresh interviews.
“Then I bought a LexG puppet, so you could be off camera.”
Want video.
Oh, had that happened… Imagine the marketing possibilities. Who wouldn’t order their own MCN LexG puppet?
this whole thing should have been fixed by Oprah ..1 hour tv special with millions of viewers . sure DP probably doesn’t care but was Sanders ever going to get a dp/30 ?
in K-Stew news –
“I am utterly distraught about the pain I have caused my family,” Sanders, 41, said in a statement to People magazine, which also had 22-year-old Stewart’s apology exclusively. “My beautiful wife and heavenly children are all I have in this world. I love them with all my heart.
“I am praying that we can get through this together.”
check 4 minute fan reaction to this story
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=V_Qrt1k8qHo
Bet he wasn’t distraught when he had K-STEW’s legs in the air. EMBRACE that shit, Sanders.
wonder what Charlize thinks right now …
Charlize Theron: Kristen Stewart Is The Real Deal
3 minutes clip
oh man, she apologized. why on earth would you issue an apology?
Sanders’s wife tweeted this image of Disney’s Snow White boozing it up with the caption “Not so pretty or so pure afterall …..” Ouch.
K-Stew probably apologized because of the torrent of death threats she’s inevitably getting. Disney starlet Selena Gomez was inundated with hundreds when she dared to start dating The Bieber. Can’t imagine what K-Stew has unleashed.
“Then I bought a LexG puppet, so you could be off camera. ”
Am I the only who laughs out loud every time I read this?
Can I go to a junket next week?
“Can’t imagine what K-Stew has unleashed.”
Wild guess: A torrent of apathy?
watched The Day of the Beast – Alex de la Iglesia –
well the movie is 17 years old and seems dated but the acting is alright …a lot of wacky stuff goes on and its not a typical devil movie that hollywood makes to scare people …overall i was expecting a way better ending
Alex de la Iglesia – at least one of his films should be remade in english …
the last circus has some strong images that last in my mind.
this guy needs a dp/30 – so DP grab him on skype or something. he’s probably not in the US where you can
do a real live interview … come on dude you can get a world exclusive.
Cadavra, I’m getting sick and tired of you bashing K-Stew. She is BEAUTIFUL, she is the best actress of her generation; If it weren’t for fucking Twilight, she’d be a geek goddess on par with Portman or Deschanel, or at least would have the cool edgy career of Evan Rachel Wood.
So stick to your JEAN HARLOW movies or whatever old shit you think is arousing. Kristen is perfection
How did they even get caught?
Lex, take Poland’s offer. And un-protect your twitter already.
Alex de la Iglesia – at least one of his films should be remade in english
Wouldn’t work. He’s too distinct. Studios couldn’t deal with his material and not eviscerate it.
Sam – And no, I didn’t write this article:
A Land Without Guns: How Japan Has Virtually Eliminated Shooting Deaths
I don’t think you got the point of the article. It’s stating we’re polar opposites on individual freedom issues. And the author doesn’t get the 1958 law he states. There are two Japans; pre and post WW2.
Cadavra, Twitter might as well have been renamed Kritter the last two days.
K-Stew – when millions of people are commenting on your personal life it must hurt a bit more than the acting part.
a quick check on twitter is interesting that most actors haven’t commented on this ..
again – nobody care if s reality star cheats or even Jennifer Lopez cheats.
also interesting that Brad / Angelina / Jennifer are generally off the tabloids . nobody cares anymore.
>Wouldn’t work. He’s too distinct. Studios couldn’t deal >with his material and not eviscerate it.
look at dragon tattoo and let the right one in … they worked.
the day of the beast needs to be updated ..remake this in english … Tim Burton maybe ?
Martin, did you note the part where it said even the Yakuza have pretty much given up on firearms? So much for the “only criminals will have guns” argument.
We have much to learn from them. And I suspect that when they have their Eat, Love, Pray moments they won’t learn anything from us, even if they make the arduous trek all the way to Fargo.
P.S. Now that I’ve seen the movie, I’m guessing all those rich white folks wouldn’t have been dragged out of their ritzy apartments if they had guns? Yes, I kid, because this ties into the ridiculous belief that Jews never would’ve been sent to concentration camps if they had guns. Really, they could’ve fought off the entire frickin’ government? Keep that in mind the next time you see live coverage of some heavily-armed dude trying to hold off the police during, say, a domestic violence incident. Maybe he just didn’t have enough guns. Or RPGs. Or anti-aircraft missiles.
…or should we be rooting for him, because all those folks he’s killing represent us? Kinda like how the Nazis represented the German people who voted them into office?
There is some good news. Romney is turning out to the Epic Fail that even Rick Santorum predicted. Now I can’t wait for Mitt Romney’s actual apology tour in England. This is the buffoon the GOP wants to “restore respect” to America.
“PM Cameron also fired back at Romney’s concerns over security, and suggested British officials were dealing with more complex issues than Romney faced when he ran the show. “We are holding an Olympic Games in one of the busiest, most active, bustling cities anywhere in the world,” Cameron said. “Of course it’s easier if you hold an Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere.”
Damn that Cloud Atlas trailer is something else.
Ditto on Cloud Atlas. It looks epic. My only trepidation… Halle Berry.
I turned the CA trailer off halfway through because I didn’t want to spoil anymore of it. It looks so, so ambitious. I now, however, have to figure out if I should read the novel, which I bought about a year ago, now or after the movie…
I think Halle Berry is one of those actors who can be very good as long as a filmmaker knows how to use them. THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE, X-MEN, MONSTER’S BALL, and BULLOWORTH are all good examples of her talent.
What’s wrong with Halle Berry? She’s a true movie star. If anything, the entire cast of that movie is kind of bland– doesn’t seem to have any firebrand kinetic maniac in it, just “proper” non-controversial “big stars.” Fucking Clooney might as well waltz through. I want a Brolin or Ribisi or McConaughey in something like this to weird it up. Not a bunch of squares.
Anyone else notice how the tracking on The Watch is getting worse and worse? Might not even hit $20 million this weekend.
12% RotTom score right now.
It’s surely because the Trayvon Martin case is gonna have people bawling in the aisles as they watch Vince Vaughn mugging like a jackass dancing with a green slime alien to a 12-year-old Dr Dre joint.
If it’s tracking poorly, it’s not for lack of trailer ubiquity, since that thing slid in the last 2 months to give 21 JUMP STREET “I GOT STABBED THAT’S AWESOME” a run for its money (“I LOVE YOU MEEMAW I WAS JUST TRYING TO IMPRESS MY FRIENDS… HAD YOU JUST WON A NICKELODEON KIDS CHOICE AWARD?”)
Ben Whishaw is bland Lex? The guy has played Bob Dylan, Keith Richards, John Keats, Ariel in Julie Taymor’s wackadoodle version of THE TEMPEST, and played a serial killer who bottles women’s physical scents in order to ENSLAVE THE WORLD in PERFUME. Oh yeah and LAYER CAKE.
Whishaw is one of the least bland actors of the last 10 years, and he’s working with Tykwer again here.
Lex, if K-Stew makes you happy, then I’m happy. 🙂
Ben Whishaw is a fantastic actor. And what about Hugo Weaving? He can play wackadoo pretty well.
I thought it was Jim Sturgess, not Whishaw.
I like Stugess, Whishaw makes me vaguely angry, but wouldn’t you rather it be somebody like Tom Hardy? Whishaw only does stuffed-ass shit and ROCK BIOS which I HATE. Sam Riley is cooler.
It’s Sturgess and Whishaw. They’re both in it.
Dude, Whishaw is motherfucking Q in SKYFALL
Count me IN for CLOUD ATLAS but agree that trailer was tipping it’s visual hand too much. Save something for the big screen, guys!
cloud atlas = The Fountain by Darren Aronofsky – “The Fountain is a story of love, death, spirituality, and the fragility of our existence in this world. ”
– this should be 13 hour mini series on hbo.
– Doona Bae could be break out star – get dp/30 now .
Cloud Atlas feels like a disaster waiting. Not from a artistic perspective, (it’s seems quite ambitious), but I can’t think of one timeless/eternity project that’s worked, yet. I don’t know how you push the level of information needed within 3 hours.
———————————————————-
Sam – did you note the part where it said even the Yakuza have pretty much given up on firearms? So much for the “only criminals will have guns” argument.
Horseshit. Yakuza were never big on firearms. They’re not the Triad or some US street gang. They’re centuries old-school mafia except publicly recognized, so the closest approximation would be CAA.
People know where Yakuza are based out of in each city. They will actually meet-n-greet their new neighbors. They operate in a nexus between legal/ilegal, not straight-up street gangsters. In a film tense, Rising Sun is much closer than Black Rain, even though I love Black Rain.
speaking of Skyfall, that IMAX preview in front of Dark Knight Rises was awesome. In all the fallout from last weekend, i totally forgot how excellent that was and deserving of mention.
@martin, I assume you’re not including 2001 because the central part of the movie occupies the majority of the running time?
Personally, I think 2046 is a masterpiece and I think many critics agree, whether you take the movie as a standalone or a sequel.
I also really love The Fountain but know it’s extremely polarizing.
i just hope i beat out like 3 other super important film critics by comparing cloud atlas and the fountain movies.
this is a real movie –
FDR American Badass! OFFICIAL REDBAND TRAILER
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R898wegx6Y
etguild – Yeah, I’m not including 2001. That’s my litmus for film perfection. Always will be. As wide as scope as it had, you could thread the narrative with little dialogue.
I have a feeling CAtlas is going to be the exact opposite. I hope I’m wrong. There’s nothing I’d love more than a massive visual epic that is only connected by the talent. But when I hear dialogue from old men talking about “music from my dreams”, my first instinct is “oh shit, here come the soliloquies”.
And this is the Wacho’s we’re talking about. They ain’t bashful with words. Still, hoping to be wrong.
——————————————————–
Sidenote: Is Weinstein nuts?
Does he really think Tarantino will ever admit he has a role in cultural violence? The guy has been adamant since ’93 that he’s got nothing to do with it.
All QT will say is “Excuse me Harvey, The Burning. Can I go now”?
I agree the narrative threads are wider in scope–even than The Fountain.
As far as overly talky I thought Wong Kar Wai pulled it off expertly in 2046, which was basically nothing but talking and sex with robots, and if you view it as the conclusion of a trilogy, rather than a separate film, I think that it’s very close to Cloud Atlasin tone…minus of course big budget special effects. Fewer stories but many many time periods. The problem, as you pointed out for a 3 hour movie, is Wong’s trilogy is 350 minutes in length.
movie that didn’t get any real promotion – goats 2012 –
its got dp/30 favorite Vera Farmiga and David Duchovny as goatman
overall this comedy/drama family thing doesn’t seem to work based on trailer –
it’ll be out on dvd in september
Goats trailer – 3 minutes