Before Season 6, my wife was a die-hard “Lost” fan.  For five years, during the appointed hour, I wasn’t allowed to so much as breathe.  And heaven help me if I had to walk past the TV screen.  Suddenly, my normally mild-mannered wife could hurl the remote with notable precision and ferocity.

Five years of secret hatches.  Ancient four-toed statues.  Teleporting cabins.  A string of lottery numbers popping up everywhere.  Weird pseudo-science. Steampunk technology.  The Dharma Initiative.  (Remember that?)  And what the heck was a polar bear doing on a tropical island?

“Lost” was a major brain tease, too.  Naming so many of the characters after philosophers (Locke, Rousseau, Hume, etc.) was a stroke of genius – paper-thin genius, I later learned, as few of the characters had much to do with their namesakes.  (My favorite character name was Charlotte Staples Lewis, i.e., C. S. Lewis – incidentally, his middle name really was Staples.)

As the show’s intellectual promise faded, my interest flagged, but it really took a tumble during Season 5, when time travel, the last refuge of a desperate sci-fi writer, reared its inevitable head. (more…)

In 2008, when Woody Allen last spoke of Barack Obama to a group of Spanish journalists, he declared that it would be a “disgrace” if the then-U.S. Senator failed in his quest to become the 44th President of the United States. Now, 16th months into Obama’s first term, Allen has apparently mistaken La Vanguardia, a Spanish newspaper, for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

The famous director proclaimed in a recent interview:

“It would be good…if (Obama) could be dictator for a few years because he could do a lot of good things quickly.”

If Allen had any regard whatsoever for the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, he would never fathom such a scenario. The day that the citizenry of this nation is forced to live under a tyrannical dictatorship, the great American experiment would suffer an unimaginably horrible demise; our cherished land of the free and home of the brave would be relegated to nothing more than dirt and real estate.

For whom exactly would an Obama dictatorship be good for? (more…)

24 is now officially over.  As with so many of the previous seasons, this final one ended with Jack Bauer wounded, bereft of sleep, separated from his family, barely hanging on to see another day, but hanging on with his enemies including his own countrymen continuing in their pursuit of him.

Through all the years, the sheer genius of 24 lay in the fact that viewers returned show after show, even though they already knew its outcome.  No matter what the odds, no matter how dire the circumstances, no matter how evil the enemy, Jack Bauer was going to find a way to survive. 

What is it about this character that so captivated the American public?  It was not Jack Bauer himself but the ideals he represented.

Jack was good, and there is still something embedded deep within the American spirit that makes us long to see this good triumph over evil.  Regardless of the political correctness of the program in recent years, and regardless of the bastardizing of those who strive for truth, justice and morality in popular culture, there are still Americans out there of all political stripes that understand that in this world there is good and evil.  Every human being is nuanced, and man’s imperfection is endemic, but we still intuitively know that there are real heroes, protectors, patriots. (more…)

One:

How do the haters not understand that forgiveness and letting go, particularly after decades of natural healing and the universe having moved on, is an essential tenet of a humane and compassionate philosophy/attitude? Especially when the victim herself has been saying “give it up” for years?

Two:

Polanski was, in 1977 and ‘78, simply a brilliant obsessive with certain wounds and bruises and perverse inclinations who one night acted like a brute and a pig and probably damaged a young girl’s psyche, although apparently not to a great extent, to judge by her own statements about the incident.

Three: (more…)

There’s no confusion about who the villain is in Machete – it’s you.

More specifically, it’s you and the other 69% or so of American citizens who agree that we should have a say in who does and doesn’t come into our country by enforcing our immigration laws.  There’s been a lot written about the race war angle of Machete, including a lot of back-pedaling from writer/director Robert Rodriguez himself.  But it’s hard to see this script as anything but a sick MEChA-approved fantasy in which every Anglo man is a slobbering borderline savage who tortures Mexicans when not slaughtering them outright, and every Anglo woman a nymphomaniac yearning to strip down and have a crack at our hero Machete’s macho Mexican manhood.

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Perhaps Rodriguez isn’t making an explicit plea for racial warfare, but Rodriguez’s crude racial stereotypes make Hitler’s Der Stürmer propaganda look like a subtle, sophisticated and affectionate commentary on Jewish culture.  The script does not bat an eye as Machete butchers nearly every Anglo, innocent or “guilty,” who is unfortunate enough to cross his path.  In the end, there is no doubt that Rodriguez is making the most overtly, outrageously and unrepentantly racist film in modern Hollywood history.

But Rodriguez does deserve props for one thing – in purely technical terms, this is one of the best-written scripts I’ve ever seen.  It is vivid, coherent and flows smoothly, unlike the majority of unreadable Final Draft failures out there.  There is not an ounce of flab.  The “jokes” mostly fall flat, but Rodriguez will likely direct it with flair and style.  It’s just too bad this movie combines the racial insights of a 1942 Robert Byrd with the collective moral sense of Enron’s Board of Directors. (more…)

A few weeks back, Big Hollywood editor John Nolte asked me for my address. He wanted to send me an advanced copy of Greg Gutfeld’s new book “The Bible of Unspeakable Truths.” I thought “sweet, free book.”

But if you’ve ever read, as I have, Milton Friedman you would know that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Everything has a cost. This is a simple fact. A fact I wish people who supported Obamacare understood.

Anyway, he wanted me to read the book and review it. A ha…not so free anymore is it?

Book reviews have always bothered me. Reviewing a movie or an album is okay because the written review criticizes a different medium. Whenever I read a book review, I can’t help but wonder how bitter the reviewer must be. After all, who wants to write 1000 word reviews of books for loser papers like the New York Times? Wouldn’t the same person, a person who has dedicated their life to wordsmithing rather have their thoughts printed in a fancy hard covered edition? Instead, their stuff is printed on something you use to pick up the presents that Fido leaves on the neighbor’s lawn. Book critics are bitter losers. I’m glad I’m not one of them.

This review is particularly strange because instead of reading this, you could have already read one of Greg’s amusing and insightful observations and anecdotes. Unlike most books, his is a collection of short little parables that use humor to make a point. Some of them are a page. Some of them are a few sentences. All of them are really funny and smart. (more…)

Left-wing film site Cinematical:

Here’s a film I expect to annoy some religious groups: Sweet Baby Jesus, which will star Bette Midler, Kim Cattrall and British actress/singer Pixie Lott (pictured) in a modernized telling of the Nativity. Well, it’s kind of modernized, at least relative to the original story, but the comedy is set in the 1970s and in this setting Mary (Lott) is a pregnant hippie chick whose condition was mysteriously not caused by her boyfriend, Joe, who Deadline now claims might be played by Sam Rockwell, who is more than 22-years Lott’s senior.

Instead of giving birth in a manger in the little Middle Eastern town of Bethlehem, Mary, along with Joe, is staying in a guesthouse at a woman’s (Midler) house in Bethlehem, Maryland, after being denied room at her mother’s (Cattrall). At Christmas, of course. According to Variety, Sweet Baby Jesus will be directed by Peter Hewitt (Garfield), who is quoted as saying, “The script has such fun subverting the treasured details of the Nativity, posing the question, ‘What would we do if it all happened again?’” ….

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The irony of the most anti-capitalist industry in America begging for tax credits/incentives/welfare in order to keep pumping out their anti-corporate/American product is just too rich. Nevertheless, from this story, it’s obvious “Machete” creator Robert Rodriguez is very much counting on mucho tax dollars to make his film… And may still receive them:

Oddly, Machete may have been shot in a different state if not for Perry, who signed a bill last year giving his office the ability to grant larger tax incentives to lure filmmakers to shoot in Texas.

Perry signed the bill at an April 2009 ceremony at Rodriguez’s Troublemaker Studios. Rodriguez told The Associated Press at the time that, without the bill, he would have had to move the production of projects including Machete to another state.

“Thanks to this bill, I don’t have to go shoot out of the state,” Rodriguez said.

Saturday Night Live scraped the bottom of the barrel in its latest silver screen adaptation “MacGruber,” which garnered a measly $4.1 million opening weekend. Equally depressing was how SNL turned the largely enjoyable spoof into disgusting mire overflowing with F-bombs, barely disguised C-words and as what seemed as many bathroom jokes as swear words. 

MacGruber (Will Forte), an ex-Navy Seal and ex-Army Ranger who has garnered 16 Purple Hearts and three Congressional Medals of Honor, has undergone a self-exile after his arch nemesis, influential businessman Dieter Von Cunth (Val Kilmer), murders his bride-to-be, Casey (Maya Rudolph), at the altar. But a nuclear warhead has gone missing and Cunth is believed to be the culprit. Desperate for answers the military once again calls their most versatile weapon, the mullet-sporting MacGruber. MacGruber, hoping to avenge Casey’s death, assembles a team with Casey’s best friend (Kristen Wiig) and a recent military school graduate (Ryan Phillippe) who is eager to become an equally decorated officer. 

If you watched the preview you’ve already seen some of the most intelligent humor in the film, and the least offensive. After a few minutes of light humor surrounding MacGruber’s impressive military accomplishments, the film dives into a manure heap of male nudity, jokes on homosexuality and sex noises and even a light reference to abortion on demand.  (more…)

When I heard they were making a film of Robert E. Howard’s Solomon Kane, I wasn’t sure I’d be happy about it. Howard was the creator of Conan the Barbarian; he is one of the handful of writers like JRR Tolkien and Edgar Rice Burroughs who helped make fantasy fiction popular and defined it for generations. As a teenager, Howard was one of my favorite writers. His stories had a dark, powerful energy that’s largely unmatched. Solomon Kane was my favorite of his characters, a puritan avenger in early America fighting all kinds of supernatural monsters and demons with a vengeance. He’s a very original character and a serious bad ass. Howard’s heroes are hardcore, macho to the Nth degree. They are the alpha male incarnate. No one has handled Robert E Howard well, in my opinion. Most comics failed to do him justice (except maybe some artists). I hated the Conan and Red Sonia movies. So I was wary of any new film effort.

But then I saw this trailer and my mood changed.

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This is not the lame rip off that Van Helsing was, this is a faithful adaption of Howard with no tongue-in-cheek, campy scenes. Here’s a hero who’s fighting evil in the name of God, something you don’t see much anymore. And he’s not afraid of taking on whatever comes his way, no matter how terrifying it may be. He’s fierce and unwavering and even demons from hell better think twice about pissing him off. My kind of character.

I saw the film and I can tell you that it’s way better than you’d expect. Excellent music, effects, acting. A top notch supporting cast which includes Max Von Sydow and Pete Postlethwaite, but even better, a great leading man in the title role, James Purefoy. Purefoy rocked Rome as Marc Antony and is perfect here. Purefoy does Howard’s character right. (more…)

It might not be my place to do the first “Chuck” post at Big Hollywood, what with Adam Baldwin being a contributor here and all, but one needed to be done (especially since the season finale airs tonight) and I am all about stepping up.  It is probably better for a fan of the show to write about it anyway because it would be a bit embarrassing for Baldwin to have to go on and on about how incredible his John Casey character is. 

For those who have not yet watched “Chuck,” let me explain what you are missing while you still have time to rent and watch the first seasons on DVD before reruns of the current season begin.  “Chuck” is an hour-long comedy/action/drama airing Monday nights on NBC.  The show is now completing its third season and has just been renewed for a fourth. 

The series follows the adventures of Buy More electronics store employee, Chuck Bartowski, who is sucked into the world of spies when his former college roommate downloads the “Intersect” into Chuck’s brain via encrypted email. The “Intersect” turns Chuck’s brain into a super computer full of the country’s most vital security secrets.  Later in the series, Chuck downloads the Intersect 2.0 which not only fills him with information about foreign agents and secret missions, but gives him special skills that enable him to function as a kickass trained spy. (more…)

September 29th, 2009:

Amid all the noise, no one has yet to really mention the most unthinkable consequence overshadowing all of this: that Polanski, 76, could die in jail, either fighting his extradition in Switzerland or withering in a cell in Los Angeles. Surely that couldn’t be justice, could it? For a Holocaust survivor and Manson Family widower (whose wife and unborn son’s killer, coincidentally, died in prison last week) to perish while battling a prosecutor’s politically motivated whim, however legally sound?

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Have any of you been dumped on Facebook for being racist, homophobic, gun toting morons lately? Have some of your tolerant, diversity-seeking “progressive“ friends tossed you under the bus for having the temerity to express a conservative opinion based on facts?

I got “unfriended” on Facebook a few months ago by comedienne Elayne Boosler. Out here in the real world I wasn’t really “friends” with Ms. Boosler. We had met a few times and I think we may have shared a stage or two somewhere along the way but that was it. Our Facebook friendship was almost as brief. When I disagreed with one of her political postings I was soon scratched from her “friend” roster. It seems that Ms. Boosler does not like to have her opinions challenged. She is one of many “progressives” who believe in diversity of appearance but not of thought. Fair enough.  You want to be narrow minded and intellectually lazy so you don’t have to defend your opinions, that is your right as an American. Second in my mind only to the right to be as stupid as you want to be is the right to put your fingers in your ear when someone who disagrees with you is so rude as to start throwing facts at you. (more…)

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Buy…Buy…Buh Bye!