OH NOES! REDBOX RAISES DAILY RENTAL PRICE BY 20 CENTS
In case you haven’t figured it out already, one of the pleasures of Redbox is that it is both a way to see the latest offerings from Hollywood and a way stick your finger in Hollywood’s eye at the same time. A two-fer, if you will. And who doesn’t love a two-fer?
Redbox is to the film industry what Napster was to the music industry. The only difference is that Redbox is legal and moral whereas Napster was not.
I don’t hate Hollywood (my hate is all burned up by the mainstream media), but I also don’t like it very much; therefore 20 cents seems like a small price to pay to support the enemy of my enemy.
SAG, AFTRA CALL OUT IMDB, OTHERS FOR PRACTICE ORGS SAY FACILITATES AGE DISCRIMINATION
What a joke. No one discriminates more than Hollywood.
In casting session all around the word, on a daily basis they discriminate against individuals based only on their looks. Talent rarely has a thing to do with Hollywood’s hiring decisions. Does someone want to tell me Megan Fox is the best actress all those directors could find?
Hollywood does what every private business would be litigated out of business for doing; they hire pretty people for their movies because pretty people put butts in seats. Let Walmart hire only pretty people as cashiers, prove that doing so boosts profits, and see if they get away with it. But Hollywood gets away with the exact same thing and does so brazenly.
This union crybabying (do they ever do anything different?) is all about vanity. If SAG or AFTRA gave a damn about real discrimination they would be in an uproar what’s known as ‘lookism.’
Crybabies, liars and hypocrites. Oh, how I hate me some unions.
DWINDLING DVD REVENUES RESULT IN 120 LAYOFFS
Unless it’s the mainstream media, I take no pleasure in seeing people lose their jobs. If it is the mainstream media, I do my ritual happy dance before the gods of New Media.
What you have here, however, is the workaday folks taking the hit while the upper 1% like Johnny Depp walk away with $50 million per picture.
There’s a way for these folks not to lose their jobs, a way for the studios to increase their profits enough to save these jobs, but when you have to satisfy the upper 1%, this is what you get.
The smell of hypocrisy is everywhere in the 90210.
SEAN PENN DIRECTING ‘THE COMEDIAN’ WITH KRISTEN WIIG, ROBERT DE NIRO
Sean Penn is an outstanding director and I’m betting he gets the best performance we’ve seen from Robert De Niro in fifteen years. Watching De Niro overact in the tradition of his pal Al Pacino has been more than a little heartbreaking. But Penn was able to direct scenery-chewer Jack Nicholson into one of his best performances in “The Pledge,” a near-masterpiece everyone should see regardless of your personal feelings about Penn.
No doubt, Sean Penn is an asshole, but he’s an asshole capable of telling superb, character-driven stories that stay with you long after the lights come up.
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SCOTTDS’ EPIC LINK-TACULAR
STEVEN CROWDER OCCUPIES … RACISM!
READER REVIEW: ‘THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN‘
CHARLIE SHEEN’S ‘ANGER MANAGEMENT’ SITCOM TO AIR ON FX
STEVE MARTIN TO RELEASE A BOOK OF ‘TWEETS’
TEASER TRAILER FOR NEW STARZ SERIES ‘MAGIC CITY,’ STARRING JEFFREY DEAN MORGAN
‘THE HOBBIT’ TO PREMIERE IN NEW ZEALAND
OLIVER STONE TO DIRECT ‘THE POWER BROKER’ FOR HBO, BASED ON ROBERT CARO’S BOOK
STATE OF STUDIO DEALS: WHO’S DOING WHAT WHERE
FUNNY VIDEO: JOHNNY DEPP GETS HIS REVENGE ON RICKY GERVAIS
‘IRON MAN 3’ TO BE FILMED IN NORTH CAROLINA
VISUAL EFFECTS VETERAN DOUGLAS TRUMBULL DISCUSSES 3D AND HIGHER FRAME RATES
FOX PLANNING BACK-TO-BACK ‘INDEPENDENCE DAY’ SEQUELS, WITH OR WITHOUT PRICEY WILL SMITH
10 BEST PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON CHARACTERS
DO YOU REALLY NEED TO READ THE SYNOPSIS FOR ‘THE EVIL DEAD’ REMAKE?
A LOOK AT’ BAND OF BROTHERS’ WRITER ERIC JENDRESEN’S UNPRODUCED STAR TREK PREQUEL
10 STARS WHO NEVER SHOULD’VE LEFT TV
‘PSYCHO II’ AND 9 OTHER UNDERRATED HORROR SEQUELS
THE DIABOLICAL DIAGRAM OF MOVIE MONSTERS
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LAST NIGHT’S SCREENING
Paranormal Activity (2007) — My second go around was as satisfyingly creepy as the first. It helps that I have the memory of a hundred year-old and forgot most of the story, but for my money this is an absolutely brilliant horror film. The scares are honest. There’s nothing cheap at work here. The plot is about as effective as you can get in creating not only a sense of dread but also slowly escalating your understanding of the danger this young couple is in.
The casting is equally effective. It helps so much that the lovely Katie Featherston isn’t “Hollywood-lovely.” She looks like a real person. Even more impressive is the characterization of her immature boyfriend Micah (Micah Sloat), whose terminal stupidity and misplaced pride constantly provokes the demon.
Part two is on Netflix Streaming and while I have to work late tonight, I am hoping to give that one another go-round.
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CLASSIC PICK FOR SATURDAY, OCTOBER 29
TCM:
11:00 PM Body Snatcher, The (1945) — To continue his medical experiments, a doctor must buy corpses from a grave robber. Dir: Robert Wise Cast: Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Henry Daniell. BW-78 mins, TV-PG, CC.
Karloff, Lugosi, body snatching… Need I say more? Outside of the classic Universal horror films featuring Frankenstein, Dracula, the Mummy, etc., this is my favorite old time spooker.
A young Robert Wise, who would go on to win Academy Awards for directing “The Sound of Music” and “West Side Story,” was really showing his potential and range as a director here. Masterful film in every sense of the word and starring my two of my all-time favorites.
We will never see the likes of Karloff and Lugosi again.
Giants.
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