
Few memes about President Barack Obama are as comical or aggravating as his “gutsy decision” to take out Osama bin Laden. For one thing, military and intelligence insiders are strongly suggesting that he didn’t even make that call. And after
by Mark Tapson19 May 2012, 10:30 AM PST0
A year ago Big Hollywood’s John Nolte expressed his “predictable heartbreak,” and I did likewise, over disappointing interview comments by Captain America: The First Avenger director Joe Johnston. They seemed desperately designed to reassure his patriotism-hating peers in Hollywood that
by Mark Tapson22 Jul 2011, 4:42 AM PST0
Working undercover meant more than a fake driver’s license and a fictitious name. It was living life as a liar for hours, days, even months at a time. It meant becoming one of them without becoming one of them. Distance
by Mark Tapson5 Jun 2011, 10:42 AM PST0
My father Roger E. Tapson, a former United States Army Staff Sergeant and veteran of World War II, died seven years ago and was buried near a small lake in the rolling, pastoral grounds of the Dallas-Ft. Worth National Cemetery
by Mark Tapson30 May 2011, 4:21 AM PST0
Patrick Goldstein, the Minister of Hollywood Disinformation at the L.A. Times, is obsessed with convincing you that leftist dominance of Hollywood is a whiny conservative myth. Big Hollywood‘s indefatigable John Nolte, among others, has taken down Goldstein in numerous columns
by Mark Tapson9 Mar 2011, 4:50 AM PST0
Five Minarets in New York In a coincidental echo of the debate over the Ground Zero Mosque (or as Keith Olbermann might put it, the Nowhere Near Ground Zero Community Center), Turkey has just released New York Ta Bes Minare,
by Mark Tapson22 Dec 2010, 12:19 PM PST0
Can a comedy about jihad make us laugh? Certainly there’s not an iota of humor to be found in the ruins of the World Trade Center, or the massacres in Mumbai or London or Madrid or Ft. Hood or Beslan
by Mark Tapson15 Nov 2010, 4:55 AM PST0
This week marks the anniversary of an epic event that’s no longer commonly known but which nonetheless shaped the future of the Western world, and which may still hold inspiration for the West today. After the death of the Muslim
by Mark Tapson28 Oct 2010, 8:45 AM PST0
Last week the Sundance Channel aired a five-and-a-half hour miniseries about the brutal and charismatic real-life terrorist known to the world as Carlos the Jackal. Starring Edgar Ramirez (from Domino and The Bourne Ultimatum) and directed by French filmmaker Olivier
by Mark Tapson19 Oct 2010, 6:44 AM PST0
(As with all Sucker Punch Squad reviews, what follows is a review of the script, not the final film – which I’ve not yet seen.) Despite their insistence that Americans “get over” 9/11 even though we’re still at war with
by Mark Tapson5 Oct 2010, 6:40 AM PST0
The brilliant Humberto Fontova tells a story in one of his books (I believe it’s Exposing the Real Che Guevara and the Useful Idiots Who Idolize Him), about guitarist Carlos Santana being confronted once about wearing the iconic Che T-shirt.
by Mark Tapson30 Aug 2010, 4:59 AM PST0
Thanks to a heads-up from terrorism expert Steven Emerson and his organization IPT, the Investigative Project on Terrorism, I learned that in late July Nihad Awad, the unctuous executive director and co-founder of CAIR, gave a lecture at Jordan’s Kuta
by Mark Tapson10 Aug 2010, 5:02 AM PST0
Like the unhinged Rosie O’Donnell, the waningly influential Michael Moore is almost too easy a target to bother with anymore – and yet he keeps handing us such tempting ammunition. In an interview published the day after Independence Day, which
by Mark Tapson14 Jul 2010, 5:01 AM PST0
“I’m not presenting the Islamic system as one of the alternatives – or an alternative. This is a defeatist and apologetic approach. The Islamic system is the only alternative for mankind.” – A speaker at the Hizb ut Tahrir Khalifa
by Mark Tapson14 Jul 2010, 3:54 AM PST0
Beginning in June 2007, filmmaker Tim Hetherington and war correspondent Sebastian Junger embedded themselves with a U.S. Army platoon in the truly God-forsaken Korengal Valley of Afghanistan near the Pakistan border. A companion piece to Junger’s new book War, Restrepo
by Mark Tapson25 Jun 2010, 10:54 AM PST0
President Obama called the murder of a soldier in Little Rock by a self-proclaimed jihadist “a senseless tragedy.” The Christmas bomber, “an isolated extremist.” The Ft. Hood shooting, a “horrific outburst of violence.” Daniel Pearl’s beheading, an act which “captured
by Mark Tapson7 Jun 2010, 8:41 AM PST0
Gee, we Hollywood conservatives can’t get a break. Over at IFC’s The Independent Eye, in a short piece titled “The disingenuousness of Jafar Panahi’s right-wing advocates,” contributing writer Vadim Rizov takes Big Hollywood to task for our support of courageous
by Mark Tapson1 Jun 2010, 6:44 AM PST0
The political thriller Fair Game premiered at Cannes today. (Pause for giant, collective yawn from Big Hollywood readers…) The Sean Penn-Naomi Watts “starrer” (hey, it’s fun using unnecessarily awkward Variety-speak!) revisits the Valerie Plame Wilson scandal, an episode I’m not
by Mark Tapson20 May 2010, 12:05 PM PST0
We sent a clear message to the West regarding the red lines that should not be crossed. That was the arrogant declaration of victory from the Organization of the Islamic Conference nearly two years ago, regarding the shrewdly orchestrated Muslim
by Mark Tapson27 Apr 2010, 2:51 PM PST0
“We sent a clear message to the West regarding the red lines that should not be crossed.” That was the arrogant declaration of victory from the Organization of the Islamic Conference nearly two years ago, regarding the shrewdly orchestrated Muslim
by Mark Tapson27 Apr 2010, 5:02 AM PST0
[Editor’s Note: Script reviews of upcoming projects have been around for as long as there’s been an Internet. Therefore it’s no secret that a film can evolve into something quite different from its screenplay. Please keep in mind that this
by Mark Tapson6 Apr 2010, 5:03 AM PST0

Want to relive season five of Paris Hilton’s reality show “The Simple Life?” No problem, it’s on DVD. The complete first season of Jane Curtin’s sitcom “Kate & Allie?” It’s just a click away on Amazon.com. Oliver Stone’s surreal 1993
by Mark Tapson29 Jan 2010, 5:03 AM PST0
While audiences in America flock to the escapist eye candy known as Avatar, it’s sobering to realize that in the real world, far away from James Cameron’s utopian dreamscape and the cozy cocoons of our multiplex theaters, another film’s message
by Mark Tapson14 Jan 2010, 5:08 AM PST0
While audiences in America flock to the escapist eye candy known as Avatar, it’s sobering to realize that in the real world, far away from James Cameron’s utopian dreamscape and the cozy cocoons of our multiplex theaters, another film’s message
by Mark Tapson14 Jan 2010, 5:03 AM PST0
Twelve years ago in his breakout performance as an arrogant young genius in Good Will Hunting, struggling fresh-faced actor Matt Damon sneered at his Boston psychiatrist for “surrounding yourself with all the wrong f__kin’ books. You wanna read a real
by Mark Tapson9 Dec 2009, 12:21 PM PST0