It’s been almost two years since I posted at Big Hollywood regarding the Top 10 Most Overrated Directors of All Time. I’ve had a chance to reflect and think about the crimes I committed in that post. And, to paraphrase
On this week’s episode of the HomeVideodrome podcast, we discuss Ozzy and Dio in Black Sabbath, wonder why Julia Roberts ever became America’s sweetheart and dedicate “Hell Awaits” by Slayer to Joe Paterno and Jerry Sandusky. So go listen, and
Had Oliver Stone directed the life and times of J. Edgar Hoover, there’s no telling how many conspiracies would have marched across the screen. Clint Eastwood is a different brand of director. He’s more nuanced, more reasonable, and he won’t
Vera Farmiga has lit up the screen in supporting roles for the past few years, first drawing viewers’ and critics’ attention by playing a police psychologist caught between Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio in 2006’s “The Departed” before landing an
If Hollywood supporters of President Spread-The-Wealth — specifically Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire — allegedly participated in alleged high-stakes poker games and allegedly won alleged money, did any of them report their alleged winnings to the
Radar Online: Spider-Man star Tobey Maguire is among more than a dozen high-profile Hollywood celebrities being sued in connection with a mega-millions illegal gambling ring that ran high-stakes underground poker games, Star magazine is reporting exclusively. Maguire, 35, won more
So an entertaining film comes out about a woman who bucks up against societal norms in the early seventies, puts career over family, and still comes out a winner — sounds like someone’s flirting with Oscar! Strangely, it doesn’t earn
There was a time when Hollywood portrayed marriage as a happy institution that was key to a healthy society. Sure, a lot of those films and TV shows were propaganda along the lines of “Father Knows Best,” going over the
***UPDATE: Ed. Note: After two years my worst nightmare came true and a post accidentally went up under my name (I have to load them in the system) in error for a long period of time. My apologies to the
I am constantly amazed by the double standards that characterize the environmental/liberal movement. Billionaires are bad…unless they are called Oprah, Spielberg, or Soros. Flying is bad too because of the emissions it produces is bad for the environment, or so
I have to admit I never cared for the action films back in the eighties. They seemed silly and mindless. The two biggest stars of the genre, Schwarzenegger and Stallone were barely capable of English; and the plots were as
According to Variety, the amount of political money from the entertainment industry is split about 73-27, with the majority going to the Democrats. That is a startling statistic. 27% of showbiz dollars go to REPUBLICANS? Are there really that many
Pop quiz: what do the following movies have in common? Gone with the Wind (1939), Star Wars (1977), The Sound of Music (1965), E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), The Ten Commandments (1956), Titanic (1997), Jaws (1975), Doctor Zhivago (1965), The Exorcist
For a storyteller to fully satisfy an audience after promising to bring to life a particular concept, they must include every detail about that concept the audience is already familiar with, remind them of a few things they forgot, and
One of the big stories in filmdom today is about all the concerns surrounding the marketing of Christopher Nolan’s new film “Inception,” which cost a reported $160 million to produce and hits theatres next Friday, July 16th. According to Reuters,
So what gives? Are these areas just not glamorous enough? Do celebs not want to further highlight The One’s pathetic response? Celebrities love causes. They love them for a couple of reasons: one, it makes them seem like “serious” people
Happy Earth Day folks, or as we like to call it: Guilt Day. And, of all the people who are going to spend today hoping to shame you into remorse for being a dirty, rotten, polluter who is gradually destroying
Is it better to live as a monster or to die as a good man? It’s a central question revealingly asked only at the end of an emotional ride in Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese‘s latest film, “Shutter Island.” Set in
The payoff for sitting through a dozen craptacular releases is that one movie where you actually say, “Damn, that was worth the $11.50 and the kidney I spent to see it.” As a modern moviegoer, you must be an eternal
Timothy Treadwell loved bears. In the name of loving them, with a stalwart sense of the innate sanctity of his mission, he continuously abused them for thirteen years. Time and again from 1989 until 2003 he invaded their territory —
Other than this has to be too good to be true, there’s nothing to comment on. To make suggestions or to give advice or to create some kind of wish list regarding these upcoming films, as though anything anyone could
I just finished voting for the Screen Actors Guild awards and after wading through the five “screeners” they sent me I started wondering about the leading men of today.In this day of confused metro-sexual male stars one might wonder where
Ever since the advent of the modern motion picture industry, critics have praised directors as the key to great film. The auteur theory of cinema is idiotic, since writing is truly the key – no director could make a masterpiece
Last night, E! Online dropped a blog dishing on the latest Hollywood green trends. Enjoy: -“I take a three-minute shower,” [Jennifer Aniston] told Elizabeth Rogers and Thomas Kostigen, authors of The Green Book. She even brushes her teeth while she’s
Even more than Washington, Hollywood is famously the land of, “if you want a friend, get a dog.” Pals, business associates, even lovers come and go in this, the country’s last freewheeling bastion of untrammeled capitalism, in which “what have
Not sure which is more revolting, Scorsese’s determination to cast Leonardo DiCaprio as Frank Sinatra or his determination to do to The Voice what he and Leo did to Howard Hughes: reduce and distill a great man who accomplished great
He is a man with a gun. He is a killer, a slayer. Patient and gentle as he is, he is a slayer. Self-effacing, self-forgetting, still he is a killer. . . All the other stuff, the love, the democracy,
No matter how frustrated, disappointed, or outright disgusted Hollywood makes me, all is forgiven during that brief moment just after the trailers finish and just before the film begins. When those lights dim the chip dissolves from my shoulder and
Recently, when babysitting my 8-year-old niece, she had trouble with her homework and came to me for help. The assignment was based on Time for Kids, a weekly publication for elementary school children about the news of the day (much
Fox News; Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli, currently dating actor Leonardo DiCaprio, is pictured lying seductively in a revealing white bikini along the length of the Boeing 737 as part of a promotional deal with Sports Illustrated.
While watching the Academy Awards last night, I got to thinking about what an important role the Oscars play in our global community. And of course, there’s no more blatant case in point of Hollywood’s positive impact on society than
So it’s after a gig*, and I’m sitting at the bar with another comic, and a couple of girls who thought we were the funniest guys they had ever met. Things are heating up, but I’m starting to feel a
There are few things more unappealing than the orgy of self-adulation one witnesses during a celebrity awards show. Yes, the Oscar nominations are here, and America simply can’t afford to stand idly by anymore. Not after the Academy of Motion
This is the time of year when the studios send DVDs of their movies to the members of the Screen Actors Guild, the Directors Guild and, in my case, the Writers Guild. It’s not altruism. They’re hoping to garner our
This is a tale of two cultures. Both cultures are faced with the threat of Islamic terrorism. Both have watched their soldiers fight and die. Both have watched their citizens burn alive. But one culture has rejected a far-left film
AP: Madame Tussauds unveils a wax figure of teen actress-singer Miley Cyrus. She joins Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton who are also immortalized in the museum
In a two-hour speech about fears of man-made global warming, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) claims Hollywood, led by Leonardo DiCaprio (“The 11th Hour”) and Laurie David ( The Down-To-Earth Guide to Global Warming), promotes unfounded climate fears to children.