SIGOURNEY WEAVER: ‘ALL FILMS WILL EVENTUALLY BE 3D’
Weaver believes 2D will go the way of black and white, and I don’t completely disagree. Hollywood is absolutely freaked out over piracy, so freaked out they’ve embraced their own Patriot Act with SOPA, and the real benefit of 3D is how it makes piracy that much more difficult. A lot of piracy is done via camcorder, someone sneaking a small camera into a theatre. You can’t do that with 3D.
The problem, and it’s a major one, is that many of us don’t like 3D. If we did, 3D televisions would be flying off the shelves, when just the opposite is happening.
Never in my life have I enjoyed a film more in 3D than 2D. I hate 3D and find it a distraction. Moreover, I think it’s become a crutch for filmmakers. CGI spectacle is much easier to create as opposed to doing the truly hard work of crafting the kind of story that draws you in much more powerfully than heavy glasses.
‘MONEYBALL’ IS ON THE MONEY ON DVD
Finally saw “Moneyball” last week and can’t recommend it enough. Brad Pitt’s performance is only outmatched by a brilliant screenplay written by Aaron Sorkin. Well, it’s co-written, but the feel and rhythm of the story and dialogue tells you it’s really Sorkin’s vision and imprint that guides the thing.
The first half is better than the second, but the ending takes you completely by surprise and works on a number of levels.
An Oscar contender for sure.
SUNDANCE, SUNDANCE, SUNDANCE… WHO CARES? NOT AMERICA.
A film festival where the out-of-touch gather to screen films no one who isn’t out-of-touch will ever see.
MasturbationDance might be a batter name.
Or TopOnePercentDance.
WorstPeopleInTheWorldGatherDance.
HelpRedfordFeelRelevantDance.
BadMoviesShallowPeoplePretendToLikeDance.
‘DJANGO UNCHAINED’ IS ‘OLD SCHOOL’ TARANTINO, SAYS FX ARTIST GREG NICOTERO
When did Tarantino ever go ‘new school?’ He might have bigger budgets to work WITH today, but the B-movie heart always beats within.
We movie-lovers don’t have much to be thankful for these days, but Tarantino is one of them.
WHY THE STUDIOS HATE STREAMING
The major studios own the major cable companies. They don’t own Netflix:
Consider Warner Bros. Its library has more than 60,000 licensable properties, including 6,500 movies and 40,000 TV episodes. Whereas its DVD sales have been on the wane, its TV licensing has skyrocketed. In 2010, according to sources at Time Warner, Warner Bros. harvested over $4 billion from worldwide licensing to TV.
Nearly 80 percent came from just four cable customers — HBO, Turner, ABC Family, and NBC Universal’s cable channels. …
But these golden geese are in danger of being strangled to death by video streaming. New age companies, notably Netflix, Amazon, Apple and Google, now compete with cable TV by streaming movies and other video directly over the Internet. Netflix, for instance, offers unlimited streaming for $1 extra a month with its mail-in service, Amazon offers free streaming to its 10 million Amazon Prime customers, and Google offers YouTube free.
How can they afford it? Whereas the old-line cable and satellite companies have enormous building, servicing and amortizing costs, the internet is essentially free to transmit over. Even if the new age streamers paid the same to license, buy or produce content, they have a comparative advantage.
“I don’t see how cable can compete with free transmissions,” a savvy top executive of Time Warner told me, pointing out that Netflix, after sublicensing Starz’s content, offers it for a fraction of what Starz charges its subscribers.
All about the monopoly. The fascist SOPA is all behind this fear, as well.
This is why Hollywood hates capitalism and loves strongmen like Hugo Chavez and Castro. It’s all about power and money and overlording us little people.
You don’t get any more un-American than that.
LOW-RATED ’30 ROCK’ HITS SERIES LOW IN KEY DEMO
The pop culture phenom that never was:
“30 Rock had a series low 1.6 adults 18-49 rating, down 11% vs. a 1.8 rating last week in its premiere.”
4.084 million viewers. Third place for the night. But it gets all the press because the press has nothing in common with the rest of us.
PAM GRIER IS STILL FOLLOWING ME ON TWITTER
Like you wouldn’t tell the world.
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LAST NIGHT’S SCREENING
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1961) — Good, old-fashioned, rip-roaring adventure with one very special scene. With the planet surrounded by a belt of radioactivity that has caught fire, the global temperature has increased to 135 degrees and, within just a few weeks, will increase to a planet-killing 175 degrees.
The captain of the Seaview, a new-fangled atomic sub, has done the math and realizes that the only way to save the day is to fire an atomic bomb at the belt from a very specific place and at a very specific time. He takes his theory to the corrupt United Nations where arrogant Europeans demand that nothing be done because, you know, just like the Nazis, the problem will go away.
Well, the captain will have none of it. “I report to the President of the United States,” he says, and storms out – leaving the feckless United Nations to stew in their “Well, I never!” indignation.
Hollywood didn’t always hate America.
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SCOTTDS’ EPIC LINKTACULAR
I LIKED STEVEN SODERBERGH’S ARTY ACTION MOVIE AT FIRST, BUT AS IT WENT ON IT FIZZLED.
MEET ANTHONY HEMINGWAY, THE DIRECTOR OF ‘RED TAILS‘
CAPONE’S FULL REVIEW OF THE WORST FILM OF 2011: EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE!!!
CAPONE’S REVIEW OF AN EARLY CONTENDER FOR WORST FILM OF 2012: RED TAILS!!!
HULU’S 2011 REVENUE GREW TO $420 MILLION; WILL INVEST $500 MILLION IN NEW CONTENT IN 2012
PAUL W.S. ANDERSON TALKS ‘RESIDENT EVIL 6’, FILM’S PRODUCERS DISCUSS A PREQUEL!
WILL SYFY’S ‘DEFIANCE’ BE THE NEXT ‘FIREFLY’?
THE FIRST PHOTO OF VIN DIESEL ON THE RIDDICK SET
THE 15 QUESTIONS KEEPING HOLLYWOOD AWAKE IN 2012
WILLIAM SHATNER’S PRICELINE NEGOTIATOR KILLED OFF AFTER 14 YEARS
GREAT MOVIE MAKE-UP ARTISTS AND THEIR CREATIONS
‘JACK THE GIANT KILLER’ PUSHED BACK TO 2013
OP-ED: WHAT SCIENTISTS CAN LEARN FROM MR. SPOCK
6 ABSURD MOVIE SCENES THAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED
‘BABYLON 5′: A BEGINNER’S GUIDE (SPOILERS)
THE 10 MOST REGRETTABLE ’80S SCI-FI AND FANTASY VILLAINS ON FILM
A LOOK AT ROBERT DE NIRO’S REAL-LIFE TAXI LICENSE AND 5 OTHER FACTS ABOUT ‘TAXI DRIVER‘
THE TOP 10 HOLLYWOOD DYNASTIES
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CLASSIC PICK FOR SATURDAY, JANUARY 21
TCM:
4:00 PM 3:10 To Yuma (1957) — A sheriff must run the gauntlet to get his prisoner out of town. Dir: Delmer Daves Cast: Glenn Ford, Van Heflin, Felicia Farr. BW-92 mins, TV-PG, CC, Letterbox Format
Minus the unnecessary PC elements that have killed the Western as a modern-day genre, James Mangold’s 2007 remake was surprisingly good, and not just because the underused Gretchen Mol was given a juicy role or The Mighty Peter Fonda’s stealing of the show.
The original, however, is much better, with a stronger focus on the psychological drama, which is much more straight-forward and less melodramatic than what we saw in the remake. The ending is also smarter. The underrated Glenn Ford and just as under-appreciated Van Heflin knock this one out of the park. The subtext of the personal situation both men face tells the story, not the exposition Mangold found so necessary.
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Please send comments, suggestions and tips to jnolte@breitbart.com or Twitter @NolteNC.
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