May 5, 2024
The Hot Blog
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)
| Friday | Screens | % Chg | Cume | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Title | Gross | Thtr | % Chgn | Cume |
| Venom | 33 | 4250 | NEW | 33 |
| A Star is Born | 15.7 | 3686 | NEW | 15.7 |
| Smallfoot | 3.5 | 4131 | -46% | 31.3 |
| Night School | 3.5 | 3019 | -63% | 37.9 |
| The House Wirh a Clock in its Walls | 1.8 | 3463 | -43% | 49.5 |
| A Simple Favor | 1 | 2408 | -50% | 46.6 |
| The Nun | 0.75 | 2264 | -52% | 111.5 |
| Hell Fest | 0.6 | 2297 | -70% | 7.4 |
| Crazy Rich Asians | 0.6 | 1466 | -51% | 167.6 |
| The Predator | 0.25 | 1643 | -77% | 49.3 |
| Also Debuting | ||||
| The Hate U Give | 0.17 | 36 | ||
| Shine | 85,600 | 609 | ||
| Exes Baggage | 75,900 | 62 | ||
| NOTA | 71,300 | 138 | ||
| 96 | 61,600 | 62 | ||
| Andhadhun | 55,000 | 54 | ||
| Afsar | 45,400 | 33 | ||
| Project Gutenberg | 36,000 | 17 | ||
| Love Yatri | 22,300 | 41 | ||
| Hello, Mrs. Money | 22,200 | 37 | ||
| Studio 54 | 5,300 | 1 | ||
| Loving Pablo | 4,200 | 15 |
| 3-Day Estimates | Weekend | % Chg | Cume |
|---|---|---|---|
| No Good Dead | 24.4 (11,230) | NEW | 24.4 |
| Dolphin Tale 2 | 16.6 (4,540) | NEW | 16.6 |
| Guardians of the Galaxy | 7.9 (2,550) | -23% | 305.8 |
| Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles | 4.8 (1,630) | -26% | 181.1 |
| The Drop | 4.4 (5,480) | NEW | 4.4 |
| Let's Be Cops | 4.3 (1,570) | -22% | 73 |
| If I Stay | 4.0 (1,320) | -28% | 44.9 |
| The November Man | 2.8 (1,030) | -36% | 22.5 |
| The Giver | 2.5 (1,120) | -26% | 41.2 |
| The Hundred-Foot Journey | 2.5 (1,270) | -21% | 49.4 |
Review: Little Women (no spoilers) - The Hot Blog
Box Office First Look - The Hot Blog
Why You Should Be Afraid Of The End Of The Paramount Decree - The Hot Blog
For years we were told Howard was dumped in favor of Cheadle in Iron Man 2 either because he was difficult to work with or he refused to take a pay cut, but now there’s a new wrinkle:
“[Isaac Perlmutter, Marvel’s chief executive] allegedly added words to the effect that no one would notice because black people “look the same”.”
The guy described in the article is a real piece of work, and his push to take over Disney’s consumer products division resulted in a raft of resignations and lawsuits, some filed by executives who said they had been threatened or verbally abused. “People at Marvel were used to it but people at Disney weren’t.”
The only upside is the mention that he’s 69, so he shouldn’t be a problem for too much longer.
(Oh JSP, where are you when we need you to jump all over news like this?)
“(Oh JSP, where are you when we need you to jump all over news like this?)”
Oh God. Why are you invoking his name? Things have been so pleasant around here.
As for Terrance Howard, i present you with this quote from his Elle magazine interview.
ELLE: What one item could you find in a woman’s house that would prove that you weren’t compatible?
Terrance Howard: Toilet paper—and no baby wipes—in her bathroom.
ELLE: Wait. I don’t think I understand.
Terrance Howard: If they’re using dry paper, they aren’t washing all of themselves. It’s just unclean. So if I go inside a woman’s house and see the toilet paper there, I’ll explain this. And if she doesn’t make the adjustment to baby wipes, I’ll know she’s not completely clean.
For this alone i could justify his firing.
His Roto-Rooter Man must be on speed-dial.
Can someone help me out with a movie mystery I’ve never been able to crack?
So I’m watching Rounders for the umpteenth time. Still a great movie. However…why in the HELL does Damon reject Jahnssen in his apartment? His girlfriend just walked out on him, he’s alone. A woman who looks EXACTLY like Famke Jahnssen is trying to mount him. And he blows her off.
One of the most perfect guy movies ever blows one of the most perfect guy movie details ever. I’ll never understand.
It’s a bs piece about Perlmutter. He wasn’t talking about Howard/Cheadle, but about how the character surpasses the actor. He’s not right in every case, like RDJ, but it’s based on the IP value.
Disney people are crapping themselves about how Marvel is the hammer to Pixar’s anvil and those caught in the middle are having a problem adjusting.
I haven’t read the Perlmutter piece, but it wouldn’t make sense to replace Howard simply because he was deemed interchangeable with another black actor. There must have been some other issue with him, or why go to the trouble?
if we’re being honest, what was so special about Howard. Yes, he’s totally interchangable. And not because he’s black. Because he had nothing to do in the first Iron Man. RDJ carried the whole thing on his shoulders. Howard thought he was the big dog. According to the stories, everyone on set loathed him. So they reduced his role to nothing.
They could have replaced him with Michael Jai White and i doubt half the audience would have noticed. What did he have to do in Iron Man? He has one memorable line when he looks at the armor and declares “next time”. Other than that he was the male equivalent of Cobie Smulders in the Avengers without the super hotness of skin tight leather.
the role of ‘Rhodey’ in Iron Man was so insignificant. There are few actors that i think could have made a strong enough impression given so little. It’s not really a knock against Howard. That was a very throwaway part thanks to his own dickish behavior.
watched all 6 episodes of Bullet in the Face – IFC ..
dark comedy – i really liked it – its different …
Kate Kelton and Max Williams are great – they need a dp/30 … Eric Roberts – Eddie Izzard were alright ..
ifc has winner here ….cause this could easily be on hbo or fx …
here’s a review with trailer
Kate Kelton has been in commercials – movies – music videos and does art..
she looks pretty different in bullet in the face and thats a good thing … it also works for the last episode too
Kate should more famous – she’s got more talent than K-Stew .heh.
check her site – she up all the social media
Terrence Howard can be one of the most electric– or just eccentric– actors going, but he seems to have Edward Norton’d himself out to the margins. Jamie Foxx is not exactly a low-maintenance, ego-less type himself, but his riffs about Howard staying in a “zoot suit” to keep in character and going to clubs with his own guitar trying to outdo the music is one of the funniest things Foxx ever did.
Rhodes actually has a pretty good character in the actual comic. Don’t get what’s so hard about using the perfectly good Marvel material.
now this is why dp/30’s rock ..
DP pretty much asked the same question for 10 minutes and Spike kept going – I don’t understand the question, sir …
not sure if this was his first dp/30 or not but even i’m not sure why he didn’t leave after 15 minutes….overall he did answer questions about the movie but didn’t answer one question …but for a guy who’s been interviewed so many times he could more detail in his interviews – its funny to see other directors not nearly as famous as him do better interviews in dp/30 format .. DP totally missed out asking about the Katrina documentary which seems kinda important to talk about . i give it 2 years before Spike comes back for another interview with DP
dp/30 with Spike Lee
DP sure confuses a lot of actors / directors with a few questions here and there – some people just go with it
like Jennifer Lawerence and Alison Brie – Christina Hendricks
tiff 2012 is coming – wonder how much pressure DP is under not to screw up those interviews with the big name actorsz – but then it might make them boring
and something that should be on a dvd extra making of..
I’ll add (or detract) from all this by siding with Howard and Jack Kerouac. As a dad of a 4 year old, it’s beyond ridiculous that EVERYONE is not using baby wipes. Kerouac said it best (in DHARMA BUMS, I think) when he said that every country in the WORLD except for the U.S. uses water to “clean themselves” afterwards.
Also, speaking of asses, I heard Terrence Howard is a huge one and I agree with anghus that he was easily interchangeable. Not *just* with another black person, but in general.
Can’t believe there will be no more Tony Scott movies. Why would that guy commit suicide?
Tony Scott: ” He explains that, during shooting, he was being given epidurals for the pain. His children, five-year-old twin boys, wanted to see the bone after it was removed – it’s currently being polished and mounted at the taxidermist. “It’s the perfect shape for the head of a walking stick,” he says, smiling. “My boys love it.”
He pauses. “Is this interesting to you?” This is a question he will repeat several times over the course of the interview; and when I nod, he’ll seem genuinely surprised.
The physical pain he’s been in would sideline most people, but he dismisses his ability to work through it.
“I love what I do and I’ve always pushed myself to the edge. I have a lot of energy. Besides, I fight my way through pain – the work gets me through it.”
From profile by Ariel Leve.
DP/30: Unstoppable, director Tony Scott
Not sure how “He wasn’t talking about Howard/Cheadle, but about how the character surpasses the actor” derives from “black people ‘look the same'”.
Although Perlmutter denies making that exact statement, the writer of the piece interestingly points out that three Disney employees seeking settlements were not just women (all of the tirades mentioned were directed at women), but “African-American” women. The inclusion of that adjective, set off by hyphens for emphasis, seems pointlessly specific until you place it alongside the Howard story and wonder if the writer is trying to whisper “racist” into your ear.
Add to that the two specific mentions that Perlmutter is an Israeli (the sidebar says he was “born in Israel”, but since Israel did not exist 69 years ago this was either a mistake or wishful thinking) and you can’t help but see “Israeli” used once again as a synonym for “racist”. Not that I’m trying to deny that link–you do have to wonder why, out of all the countries in the world, it chose Apartheid-era South Africa as its close, personal, arms-trading, nuke-sharing friend.
Edit: Now my piece looks uncomfortably out of place, but that’s what happens when you spend 90 minutes writing and researching it.
WTF. Tony Scott just jumped off a bridge and died.
Ray fucking Pride, FTW. Man….that linked piece is spot on and epic. We all had no clue.
Jesus, what’s going on here? Scott, William Windom and Madelyn Pugh all in one day. And that’s on top of all the other losses the past few weeks. Is God setting up his own production company or something?
Also glad to see that Wes Anderson is tone-deaf; I wondered why I never really liked Rushmore, thinking it was just one damned thing after another, and I was right!
warning – big spoilers for this movie .
2 minute freakout ..
Kids Reaction to The Odd Life of Timothy Green
i thought madelyn pugh died ages ago….
watched the lucky one 2012 – lucky i even got through this .
i just didn’t care for anybody in this movie… didn’t work
for me as romantic piece at all .there was little drama and no real comedy … its a tv movie at best.
Scooterzz: you’re right. The obit was sent around from someone who saw it as a “related story” on The Wrap’s Scott article and passed it along without realizing it was an old story. However, the loss of Phyllis Diller fills that unhappy hole.
hey DP – get Kevin Pereira and Olivia Munn back for a dp/30 – they got on basic cable – got super famous with the geeks and left .. thats an interesting story ….
come on DP surprise the 1000’s of tech geeks who want this to happen .. plus Munn got with your favorites Soderbergh and Sorkin… thats some magic right there.
So flapping PISSED right now. The Castro is doing a sneak of THE MASTER…I just found out. Only 200 tix left at the door only and I can’t get there till 7:30. Show’s at 8.
I hate being excluded!
not so good for best buy
“Best Buy Co. stock plunged nearly 10 per cent in pre-market trade Tuesday after the retailer reported a 90 per cent drop in net income during the second quarter, dragged down by restructuring charges and weak sales at home and abroad.”
no doubt – the music group is back with a new video after many years …this video looks pretty much like all the other old no doubt music videos. also not a huge fan of the song either but when Gwen went solo – she made better music videos. Gwen needs a dp/30 just for all the music videos but DP doesn’t like music videos plus she’s too famous… also i have no idea who the band members are either…Gwen is pretty much the band.
no doubt – settle down
Sorry you missed it, Don. You need to get on Twitter. This screening wasn’t even secret — the news was all over the place yesterday .
From May: “Should Iger hire a studio chief merely suited for what the job has become (essentially a vehicle to distribute the intellectual property of others), or someone who can make the Disney Studios what it needs to become to remain a vital and relevant brand?”
We have an answer!
“…our spies tells us that, curiously, one of the first properties to be developed for a feature film is a reboot of 1991’s thirties-set adventure film, The Rocketeer.”
And yet the writer (who could use a new editor) thinks this is a move in the right direction: “It could be an early sign that the former Warner Bros. chief doesn’t just view his new job at Disney Studios as that of a mere portfolio manager, content to make sure acquisitions like Marvel, The Muppets, and Pixar, which keep churning out their own properties as Disney’s brand withers.”
watched the dp/30 with Spike Lee again …the first 15 minutes are intense and funny and Spike seemed really annoyed… i don’t know why he didn’t walk out .
hey DP did you screw up or was Spike being himself ?
either way – you need to promote this … this should
have thousands of more views by now.
when Oldboy comes out and Spike skips the dp/30 for that – this interview should be the reason why …
parts of this interview belong on the soup or tosh.0 …funny or die …
Is Premium Rush going to suck? Not a single review at RT yet and not screening here until Thursday night. Also was surprised to see that (according to boxofficemojo) The Apparition is only being released in 800 theaters. Just assumed it was a wide release. Even worse than the typical PG-13 horror?
Michael Shannon is in premium rush – they don’t put good actors in bad films. that never happens in hollywood movies cause there smart people working putting these movies together.
i’m still waiting for DP to get an interview with Francis Lawrence – he’s made a lot of super popular music videos and now he’s making the next hunger games movie .
now would be a good time for a dp/30 before everybody else interviews him …he’s done a lot of music videos with Jennifer Lopez – so i want a 2 part dp/30 with him and Lopez talking about music videos and movies …why isn’t he directing doing more movies – why isn’t she acting in more movies instead of reality tv shows .
Francis Lawrence directed this music video – so many fashion choices. so much Ben Affleck.
Jennifer Lopez – Jenny From The Block
Paul- I had a really good time at “Premium Rush:” it definitely has the feel of an old-fashioned “sleeper.” (Regardless of the b.o. performance, it has “future cult item” written all over it.)
Not sure why Sony has been so adamant about reviews not hitting before the 23rd.
It’s easily Koepp’s best film as director; gets great mileage out of its NYC locations; has a charismatic lead performance by JGL (plus a terrific psycho-villain in MS); and is Hitchcockian in the truest sense of the word.
The whole film is kickstarted by a MacGuffin that, like all genuine MacGuffins, the characters in the movie care deeply about, but which is largely irrelevant to the audience.
All that matters while you’re watching is constant motion–of bodies, bicycles, cars.
It gave me newfound respect and admiration for NYC bicycle messengers. Not only do they have to be great athletes, but the job damn near requires race car driver reflexes.
I bet Tony Scott would have liked it.
Chris- I’m ON twitter! (@PetalumaFilms) I just flat out missed the announcement. Which makes it all all the more infuriating. Sigh. Even Poland got to go >:-(
I also like it very much. It has a wind-back-the-clock structure a la THE KILLING that feeds you just enough info to keep you hooked until the next layer of the onion is peeled. And because it’s Koepp, the characters mostly speak like people with functioning brain waves. Plus unlike most directors, who hide the geography, he constantly lets us know where we are and what time it is: a major factor in helping us keep focused on the story. I really hope it does well.
watched vertigo 1958 – had no idea whats its about – went in cold.
overall – the worst M. Night Shyamalan film is better than this film ..
didn’t understand the crazy logic behind any of this film .
the music also sucked.
now DP is going to yell out how amazing this is cause old dude made it and Joe is going to yell at me for no seeing it years before . i’m sure you all love this film.
That’s what I get for assuming. I’m surprised it’s being treated like an unworthy late August dump. I trust you guys and will definitely check it out. I saw Arbitrage tonight. Gere is pretty good but Nate Parker is outstanding. Really fine performance. Movie is OK. It’s entertaining and has a strong cast but doesn’t add up to much.
sanj- aspergers IS treatable nowadays….
http://www.webmd.com/brain/autism/tc/aspergers-syndrome-treatment-overview
vertigo is like the highest rated film … but somehow there’s not like 1000 video reviews on youtube to find all sorts of thoughts ….
1000 reviews of any Sandler film are out there ….
that Alfred Hitchcock guy should have lived longer so he could video blog about how great his movies are…..
Sanj: This shtick is getting old, dude.
“The music also sucked.” What further proof do you need that this is some kind of performance art? Even people who hate VERTIGO agree that the score is transcendent. Hey, just ask Kim Novak.
A spectre is haunting cinephilia, Cadavra: the ironic internet retort that begins from nothing but negation, as the kids said back in Karl and Friedrich’s day. Or was that Don DeLillo and David Cronenberg?
there’s not much i liked about veritgo – the music was annoying throughout – after an hour the music got super annoying to me – sure they didn’t have fancy technology like they had today with the ipod mixes …. Mark Wahlberg
wasn’t so great acting wise in the happening but it was
slighty better than the wooden acting by James Stewart ..
and while Lindsay Lohan is usually a miss acting wise …she is better than Kim Novak …
the crazy possed lady with the necklace reminded me of a
scooby doo episode ..
not much i liked about this film maybe the driving scenes.
like 1 minute after seeing this i see how much more i
liked the sixth sense with a real twist ending…
vertigo gets a 2/10 ….
i did check out the Ebert video review and no big surprise he liked it but it was only like 4 minute review for such a big film he should have given it an extra 2 minutes ..yeah even back then.
when a movie this highly rated its gonna be super hard to convice the big name movie critics – yeah this movie – not so great .
Alfred Hitchcock was around in the 1970’s – how big was he back then ? did every single movie critic worship him K-Stew style ?
i haven’t seen any Federico Fellini Pictures – hmm..La Dolce Vita looks good but who knows if i’ll like it .
If Vertigo made you gag, then I wouldn’t even bother.
‘m beginning to think “Hell on Wheels” may eventually surpass “Deadwood.”
Unlike “D,” it lacks David Milch’s sometimes overweening quality to drown everything in deliberate obfuscation (e.g., his frequently impenetrable dialogue).
That–among other things–is what sunk “Luck.”
Stylistically and performance-wise, “Hell” is nearly “Deadwood”‘s equal. And there’s no “what the f**k is going on here?” or “what the f**k did he/she just say??” either.
Sometimes narrative (and linguistic) clarity can be a beautiful thing, lol.
I myself only saw Vertigo for the first time a few months ago. And while there were certainly aspects that have not aged well…. damn, sanj. Damn.
“And there’s no “what the f**k is going on here?” or “what the f**k did he/she just say??” either.”
I don’t recall ever having those thoughts while watching Deadwood. I absolutely relished that dialog – and had no trouble following it.
well i was smart for figuring out i wouldn’t like the new bourne film 2 weeks before it came out .. so i didn’t go.
it had nothing to do with the actors or director ..
i just listened to 2 hour audio podcast and i really only enjoyed 15 minutes of it but i really like it so it made it worthwhile .
i like that the only quote the movie – hit and run got was somebody from myspace
sometimes it takes me a long time to end up liking some form of media – Louiis Ck and Sarah Siliverman – hated their shows but i kept watchng and i really like them…they are so twisted i understand why people
still don’t like those shows …
the biggest disappointed is lost tv series – as crazy as the plots were i was expecting something truly epic and the final episode i did not like at all.
also the first 15 minutes of the Spike Lee dp/30 is so funny and weird . it’s a big highlight for me for this month … i want DP to use one of my quotes for promotional purposes. it’ll never happen.
DP is one of the rare people who doesn’t use other people quotes to promote himself.
worth a watch ..
huffpost has 5 minute about the new tv shows …
tv critics pretty much hate the fall lineup –
“These women, and they alone in this mess, know exactly what they are doing.”
Manic Pixie Dream Dissidents: How the World Misunderstands Pussy Riot
The speaker of the above quote may have been trying to wake up the author of this piece, who ironically enough also misunderstands what’s going on. And his cluelessness can be summed up in two words: Rosa Parks.
Even after pointing out “male Russian dissidents have been ignored as Pussy Riot draws world sympathy (‘I wonder if #PussyRiot would get so much attention if they were a male band called #DickMob’, mused one commenter on Twitter)” he and the Twitterer still don’t understand that the world is suddenly paying attention precisely because these twentysomething women, two of whom are mothers, pretended to be “little girls” and “punk rockers”. Yes, they knew exactly what they were doing, which is draw attention to all dissidents who were jailed for speaking their minds, most of whom were too old or too male or too unattractive to gain worldwide attention.
The only way any of them can get out (short of that previously suggested A-Team intervention) is to change the rules so that all of them can get out and no one is ever put back in for jeering at Russia’s most recent despot-for-life.
I also never had those thoughts while watching Deadwood. The dialogue was never hard to follow and it’s spectacular. It’s hard for me to imagine Hell of Wheels being better than Deadwood, especially based on the reviews I’ve read. I planned on giving it a shot but the reviews steered me away.
sanj: I won’t bust your chops too much over your opinion of VERTIGO–there are perfectly intelligent people who find it dull or confusing or too far-fetched. Their loss, but also their right.
But saying James Stewart’s performance is “wooden” is just about as close to being objectively wrong as it’s possible to be about a subjective matter. Dude may be the least wooden actor in film history.
nobody from this movie seems to have a dp/30 . so whats up with that. it’s a classic – even i understood it.
What Sloane From “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” Looks Like Today
well when James Stewart’s falls is love with that womam .. it seems wooden ..lack of any real emotion.
outside It’s a Wonderful Life …. don’t think i’ve seen too many of James movies…
there’s probably awhole lot of people – outside of twilight i haven’t seen any other K-Stew movies ….
when one movie is so popular you forget they are in other movies …
well not with movie critics – just with average movie watchers .
also i haven’t seen any movies with Elvis with them .. i’ve seen clips though …
…only saying that I found Milch’s tendency to amuse himself occasionally exasperating.
And I’m pretty sure I’m not alone in thinking that he took it to extremes in “Luck” which was beautifully acted/shot, but almost completely inscrutable.
(I actually found “Luck” more profoundly alienating than the late, unlamented “John from Cincy.”)
“Hell on Wheels” is flat-out terrific: you really ought to give it a shot, Paul.
I’m not sure whether it’ll ever replace “Deadwood” in my “cable series hall of fame,” but it’s a damn good companion piece.
…only saying that I found Milch’s tendency to amuse himself–at the expensive of narrative/linguistic clarity–occasionally exasperating.
A lot of critics I trust say Hell on Wheels has tons of potential but so-so execution. I have a hard enough time keeping up with the shows I’m already devoted to. Maybe someday.
I know what that’s like.
Haven’t seen any Showtime stuff myself, even the Claire Danes one that I’ve heard so many good things about.
But you can trust me on “Hell,” Paul. I was skeptical at first, too.
Thought it would be nothing more than a pallid, basic cable clone of “Deadwood” (which, despite my reservations, I still revere as one of the great HBO series). Yet it very quickly found its own identity, and has become one of my b/cable favorites (certainly more than another AMC series, the mystifyingly overrated “Walking Dead”).
And Anson Mount is fast becoming as memorable, and western-iconic, as Tim Olyphant’s fantastic “Deadwood” incarnation.
Overall, AMC is becoming more dependable than HBO these days at cranking out quality series. I was even a big fan of “Rubicon” which most viewers seemed to find impenetrable, but which I never had any difficulty with.
Sanj, how does obsessive equate to “wooden”? The whole point of the second half was his attempt to turn a simple shopgirl into the woman he loved.
And as for your link (“Actress Mia Sara posed for Stylelist after they spotted her walking around the streets of SoHo. Her advice for anti-aging? ‘Wear a hat.'”), I’ve been telling people for years that the trick to looking younger is “Stay out of the sun”. It’s easier to swallow than “No cigarettes, no alcohol, and no drugs–especially meth!”
BTW, Elvis movies are exactly like KStew movies–attempts to cash in on a pop sensation, with the studio certain fans will show up for anything they put on the screen.
I hated DAYS OF OUR LIVES at first. Then I was hooked. That’s what a Soap Opera does and it’s the operating principle for TV. Needing to know “what happens next” isn’t a sign of the medium’s art or skill. That’s why I roll my eyes at every, “It took me about 20 episodes to get into “Show X” and now I’m addicted. Fortunately, “Show X” is also THE GREATEST SHOW IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND’S CREATIONS.”
I think Hell on Wheels — which I quite like — has offered WTF moments of an entirely different sort. Like…..
SPOILER ALERT FOR ANYONE WHO MISSED SEASON 1!!!!!!!!!!!!
That scene where Tom Noonan just went and cut that dude’s head off. Holy smoke!
So if a jihadi kills a member of SEAL Team 6, can Fox News be charged as an accessory to murder for outing him?
You know dang well Fox would be celebrating these guys as super-heroes if this happened during Bush’s watch.
so American idol is still trying to find judges ..
right now there are hundreds of articles about this …
i’m guessing 98% of people on here don’t care at all…
my guess is idol is just getting boring for everybody – fox wants as much money from the big corporations as they can get…which means coke and a cell phone company …
millions of dollars are at stake just for singing other people’s songs .
what happens to fox after idol is done in a few years ..
this isn’t about music – its about 1 big corporation selling eyeballs to other big corporations…
Putting on my pedant hat for a moment: HELL ON WHEELS is basic cable, so they can’t say “fuck” at all.
Cad- I always find that so amusing (e.g., bleeping “fuck” on “Louie” and “Breaking Bad”).
…especially since they seem to be able to get away with, well, just about anything else on basic cable these days.
Exhibit #1: “American Horror Story.”
Like decapitations…
Cadavra:
You should never say “fuck” no you shouldn’t say “fuck” fuck no!
…or “casual” nudity, heated discussions about sex/sex acts (blow jobs are a particularly favorite conversation topic on basic cable series) and EXTREME violence/gore (hey there, “Walking Dead”!)
But saying “fuck”? That’s going too far.
Sam, FOX is in full meltdown mode along with the GOP. The Navy Seals trying to “Swiftboat” Obama (because he did his job?) have turned out to be Birthers with a trail of “You’re a MUSLIM” net trolling. Hannity and Greta Van Sustern have already hosted these freaks without mention of their background, but the Obama administration is doing one of the best offense jobs in recent political history despite the Super Pacs. And Akin letting the truth out is a karmic body blow to the GOP.
That the RNC will even feature Birthers like Sheriff Joe Arpaio and of course, Donald Trump, might explain Romney getting ZERO percent of the African-American vote in a new WSJ poll. ZERO PERCENT.
That ABC hack Jake Tapper would go on FOX with Laura Ingraham and claim there’s a media bias is the height of our dead journalism.
When is the US presidential election? The rest of the world is holding its breath waiting to see if the scary nutjobs somehow win and put morons back in the White House (Romney should have a criminal record for animal cruelty for strapping his dog to the roof of his car for a long drive, what a fucking asshole).
speaking of that, Happy Birthday River, champion of the animals and our lovely planet <3
November, and yes, there should be a limit to campaign season, like nearly everywhere else in the world.
And don’t forget that time Romney assembled a mob to hold down a presumably gay student at his boarding school so he could personally cut the boy’s long hair off:
http://gothamist.com/2012/05/10/young_mitt_romney_pinned_down_gay_b.php
No punishment for Romney or the mob, but the victimized student was expelled for smoking a cigarette.
“…We’re guessing he doesn’t recall any of the other incidents relayed by classmates, including how Romney once guided a nearly blind teacher into a closed door on purpose and how his expression appeared to sour when a classmate said he was from East Detroit and his father was a school teacher. You can read the article in full here—it’s an edifying look at formative years of the man who might very well be president. SPOILER ALERT: He’s kind of an asshole.”
…so Leah’s right!
good grief, he’s even more of an asshole than i thought, if that’s possible. can you imagine if Obama had done those things, the (hopefully only metaphorical) lynching he’d get? romney and his creepy little misogynist running-mate are a bad moon rising, here’s hoping the Sith go down in flames.
Hell on Wheels is no Deadwood, but it’s earning its own spot in my viewing rotation. I keep wondering if Colm Meaney’s going to become a complete villain or stay in this murky area, which is admittedly more interesting.
Anyone watch Breaking Bad on DVD? They have an F-word in almost every episode. Not on AMC though.
And I’d say half of the time American Horror Story rivalled True Blood for gore quotient.
When you have an extra 15 minutes:
If ‘Dark Knight Rises’ Was 10 Times Shorter and More Honest (BTW, spoilers aplenty):
ANNE HATHAWAY
Oh? Let me guess, the whole hobbling around on a cane thing is just part of your act and you’re about to show everyone you’re still a badass?
ANNE knocks the cane out of BALE’S hand and he falls over, wheezing and groaning pathetically.
ANNE HATHAWAY
Oh. Wow, this is going to be a long three hours.
Historians may note the staggering amount of lies told by 1 candidate to remain unchecked for the most part by the lame stream media.
But as I’ve been saying, the GOP has 1 of the worst presidential tickets in recent memory. And the proud ignorance of Republicans today must be troublesome to moderate and Independents. Mitt Romney does not like to answer questions. For good reasons.
Krillian: Did you note that, in last week’s episode, they finally went ahead and revealed what the sleeping arrangements are for Durant and Lily Bell?
woah…drugs are bad –
USADA to strip Lance Armstrong of 7 Tour de France titles, ban him for life
also
fake celebrity pranks nyc – 5 minutes …
And when Romney does answer questions, like when he denied the charge that he hadn’t paid any taxes by saying “I never paid less than 13 percent”, he just makes jaws drop farther.
(Folks have such a short memory I’m sure they plum forgot that the top tax rate dropped from 70% to 28% during Reagan’s presidency. Tell them we had a 91% rate years after WW2 was over–when a Republican was in charge!–and I’m sure they’ll call you a liar.)
My brother, though, still hopes the Republicans take the presidency and the Senate because he wants to get the civil war over with. Think of all the jobs it’ll create when anti-immigrant fences have to be built from North Dakota to the Gulf of Mexico, Idaho to Mexico, and all the way around Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina.
Poor New Mexico will end up like Lesotho. Ah well; omelets, breaking eggs, and all that.
I think the South is planning their civil war when Obama gets re elected – like this Judge in Texas who wants to raise taxes for the militia to battle govt forces. A FUCKING JUDGE.
That’s what always amazed me about the militia types–they aren’t arming to fight an invasion by Russia, China, or, um, North Korea (Go Wolverines?), they’re getting ready to fight the U.S. government, and they don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. They’re looking forward to it. And none are getting charged with treason!
We even had some local yokels stockpiling weapons, training in the woods, even bragging to an informant who was all wired up that they wanted to “draw in federal law enforcement by killing local authorities”…and they were let go. “Circumstantial evidence”, a judge said. Her decision was successfully appealed, but most of these nutjobs are still running around loose, stocking their bunkers, preparing for the day when they get to put on warpaint and mow down the “jackbooted thugs” they may have once bunked with in boot camp.
Anybody in denial about these insane militia types should just read the comments in any right wing site like Townhall.com. Lotsa fantasies about mowing down libs. RED DAWN dreams but killing Americans instead of foreign invaders.
I did! And I’m intrigued with where the Swede’s subplot might go.
Meanwhile in politics
http://reason.com/archives/2012/08/20/the-wrong-side-absolutely-must-not-win
Ah, another Libertarian argument from the Randheads at Reason that deals with nothing. But False Equivalencies are powerful bromides these days. Especially for Dudes who don’t have to worry about Republicans passing laws against their reproductive organs.
I found it amusing that the word “atheism” isn’t used once in the article What Liberals Don’t Understand About Ayn Rand but there is an attempt to redefine “selfish”.
Didn’t the right attack Clinton for this?
This article from the WSJ was far better, going deeper into the topic and pointing out that you can’t be a Christian and an Objectivist (“altruism is immoral and selfishness is good”–an actual Rand quote).
By trying to hide Rand’s atheism, Objectivists fail to understand the selfish core of their philosophy–the writer of the pro-Rand article even admitted “in her fiction, private charity as a vocation is despised; so, mostly, is family”. So much for all that “brotherhood” and “deserving poor” claptrap you hear from the Christians; in the Rand universe, if you’re too sick, weak, handicapped, or old to take care of yourself then you should just climb aboard that iceberg and drift off into the mists to die.
In other words, Ryan is either lying to us or to himself. Considering how much he loves Rage Against the Machine yet obviously fails to understand what they’re talking about, probably the latter.
(So what lies at the core of this misbegotten “Christian Objectivism”, this “egocentric narcissistic individualism”, this refusal by the right to do anything to make the world a better place? How about: “Deep in America’s new conservative consciousness is a growing darkness, a haunting fear that it’s “too late” to survive in this world in decline. The message: Give up. Instead of focusing on and working together on our common destiny to survive as a world of interdependent cultures, focus instead narrowly on your own personal survival.”)
I was an libertarian when I was 18 – but I was an asshole too.
I still adore Rand for her esthetic romanticism but creating a political system out of self-absorbed selfishness is the opposite of a just and civilized society. Ryan is a creepy hypocrite who would disgust even Rand.
“There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.”
And I was just drilling into the bedrock when the editing timer dinged–Christians love Rand’s scorched-earth selfishness because it fits their end-days philosophy: Jesus will soon be here to take us to a better place, so why not destroy the planet? “Future generations”? There won’t be any!
If I thought Romney had lost before, I don’t even know what to say about today’s adMittal.
So apparently OBAMA’S AMERICA is tracking over $5 million this weekend….
Wow, it looks like Webster’s can now put Jennifer Rubin’s face next to the definition for “clueless”:
“Mitt Romney told a crowd in his home state of Michigan, ‘No one has ever asked to see my birth certificate. They know this is the place where we were born and raised.'”
The media, both left and right, jumped into their foxholes upon hearing this “joke”, but during Rubin’s repeated attacks on the left (where she even invoked the term “political correctness”) for daring to react harshly she never once pauses to take a breath and wonder why no one ever asked Romney to show his birth certificate. And just who are the “we” he is referring to?
I don’t really need to add any more to this, do I?
Unforced errors like this that drive the media narrative have kept Romney’s huge money advantage at bay. Hopefully they’ll continue to do so, along with the debates. Romney has outspent Obama 2 to 1 in the last month, and after his official nomination (when his campaign is allowed to unleash general election funds) that advantage could rise to 3 to 1 so the more gaffes the merrier.
And Shit Romney is so clueless that he forgets exactly WHO was asking for a birth certificate – his surrogate Trump and most of the GOP/Tea Party.
Romney also made TWO FATAL admissions. The second is just as deadly:
“”Big business is doing fine in many places,” Romney said during a campaign fundraiser Thursday. “They get the loans they need, they can deal with all the regulation. They know how to find ways to get through the tax code, save money by putting various things in the places where there are low tax havens around the world for their businesses.”
Gee, in the past I thought the Republicans also supported small businesses. Remember small business–the folks who need loans from banks that still won’t open their vaults? The folks who must deal with the local labor market because they can’t outsource to virtual slave markets? The folks who must obey local tax laws because they can’t play shell games in the Caribbean?
Guess not so much anymore.
(I’m still reading through Rubin’s “Why Jews Hate Palin”, which should really be titled “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Sarah Palin”. It’s pretty obvious to see why this article, written by a Jew, could be called anti-Semitic.)
Funny that there’s all this talk today of Ayn Rand. I finally saw Atlas Shrugged Part 1 and it wasn’t as awful as I was led to believe. Then again, I’d pretty much watch Taylor Schilling in anything.
Leah just out of curiosity what is your opinion of this:
http://jme.bmj.com/content/early/2012/03/01/medethics-2011-100411.full
Where Ayn Rand’s allure and reality don’t meet is that she was a proponent of rationality…the idea that people can make purely rational decisions in an exercise of logic and self-interest. And to some degree I agreed with her when I was a fan. I mean, I still think everyone in high school should know the fundamentals of logic. It’s pretty much what everything we know is based on.
But that’s why she hated religion. So any religious conservative out there proclaiming to agree with Ayn Rand doesn’t understand her at all.
And now we’re getting studies from behavioral economics where we know that not only are people irrational, but that they are predictably irrational (the title of a book I recommend). So it’s no wonder to me why the philosophy of having everyone follow their own rational self-interest would amount to a broken economy.
The basic problem with Rand is that people ARE NOT rational beings full time. And we probably shouldn’t be. Yet her rationality was tested by her total denial that cigarettes cause cancer (since she thought that cigarettes were mankind’s ultimate dominion over fire) and her famous statement about pollution, “We will builld smoke stacks to the moon.” She died of cancer.
Howard Roark Wept.
When I picked up the alt weekly during my break today I flipped posthaste to Tom Tomorrow’s “This Modern World” cartoon…which featured Ryan getting badgered by the ghost of Ayn Rand. She attacks him for being pro-religious and anti-abortion and even sneaks in a mention that she told her minions not to vote for Reagan for pretty much the same reasons.
You’d think that alone would get her excommunicated as a right-wing patron saint.
Oh, and Romney’s “offshore tax haven” comment apparently had a much deeper meaning:
“Take, for example, the case of Bain Capital Fund VIII LP, a fund the Romneys admit to receiving money from in 2010 and 2012.
“According to Gawker, (read the paragraph carefully for the bombshell), this fund states:
“The Partnership is a qualified intermediary and intends to conduct it operations so that it will not be engaged in a United States trade or business and, therefore, will not be subject to United States federal income or withholding tax on its income from United States sources…. Under the current laws of the Cayman Islands, there are no income, estate, transfer, sales, or other Cayman Islands taxes payable by the Partnership.”
So the Romneys have been investing their money into an offshore fund that lets them make money without all that pesky taxation and whatnot.
Reid may have been right all along, sayeth this article.