‘Teabaggers’: Roger Ebert Trashes His Own Fans (and Palin) on Twitter
by Pam MeisterIf you follow a movie critic on Twitter, chances are you follow him because you admire his ability to critique the many offerings of Hollywood. Unfortunately, if you follow Roger Ebert, you also get endless tirades on greedy corporate fatcats, ”nutjob Teabaggers,” and how dumb Sarah Palin is.
Ebert is, like many liberals, showing his true colors – and they ain’t pretty. His obsession with Sarah Palin and Tea Partiers provides the perfect example. He spent ample time Tweeting about the recent Tea Party Convention, where Sarah Palin was a featured speaker and – gasp – was paid $100,000 for her appearance (which he must now know that she pledged to donate to other candidates and causes).
When Roger Ebert Didn’t Trash His Fans With Pornographic Slurs
Ebert makes a number of references to how much Palin was being paid by both the Tea Party Convention and Fox News - a curious fixation considering he built his long and storied career by discussing the work of screenwriters, directors, actors and actresses – many of whom get paid millions of dollars a pop, as do the ”corporate fatcats” at the studios who back these films.
But here, Ebert goes above and beyond the pale, managing to crassly insult both Palin and the Tea Party attendees by saying: (more…)
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
| 
Breitbart’s Keynote Address To The First National Tea Party Convention
by Andrew MarcusBelow is the entirety of Andrew Breitbart’s remarks during his Keynote address to the National Tea Party Convention in Nashville last weekend.
During Breitbart’s 33 minute long address, he threatens to upend the entire media establishment, calling them out on their hypocrisy while demanding they change their ways, or else.
The entire speech is available in this post and is broken down into four parts, but if you would like to view some of the highlights, you can click on any of the eight links below:
- It’s You That Sucks!
- You Better Bet Your Ass!
- Just Add al-Qaida
- MSM McCarthyism
- Breitbart Challenges Soros
- There Are More Tapes
- The O’Keefe Arrest
- Breitbart Issues An Ultimatum To The Media
Full Address Parts 1-4:
Part 1
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
|
Colbert the Palace Guard: ‘Sarah Palin Is a F–King Retard’
by Big Hollywood| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Sarah Palin Uses a Hand-O-Prompter | ||||
|
||||
Colbert trashes the Tea Party movement and then moves on to call Sarah Palin a “retard” — one of those moments that makes you wonder just when and how our Comedian Class became the very elites they used to deconstruct.
As Bill O’Reilly said last night, you don’t have to agree with the Tea Party movement’s agenda in order to respect the fact that it’s a real grassroots movement populated by everyday citizens eager to get involved and have their voices heard. (more…)
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
|
Christopher Nolan To Start 3rd ‘Batman’, Oversee ‘Superman’ Reboot
by Big HollywoodOther 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 come up with will surpass the genius of Christopher Nolan, is foolish. So carry on, Mr. Nolan. See ya, opening day.
More of this, please…
Warner Bros is trying to ready its DC Comics stalwart Superman to soar again on the Big Screen, and the studio has turned to Chris Nolan to mentor development of the movie. Our insiders say that the brains behind rebooted Batman has been asked to play a “godfather” role and ensure The Man Of Steel gets off the ground after a 3 1/2-year hiatus. Nolan’s leadership of the project can set it in the right direction with the critics and the fans, not to mention at the box office. Besides, Nolan is considered something of a god at Warner Bros and has a strong relationship with the studio after the success of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Though he wasn’t obligated to do so, he gave the studio first crack at his spec script Inception, and Warner Bros was able to buy it before other studios even got a sniff. While Nolan completes that Leonardo DiCaprio-starrer for a July 16th release, he’s also hatched an idea for Warner Bros’ third Batman installment. Now his brother and frequent collaborator Jonah Nolan, and David Goyer who co-wrote Batman Begins and penned the story for The Dark Knight, are off scripting it.
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
|
Runaway Production: Why I’m Filming in Bangkok
by Frank DeMartiniI am sitting in my hotel room in Bangkok on a Sunday afternoon; taking a break from prepping a film that will star Djimon Hounsou and be directed by the Steven Spielberg of Thailand, Prachya Pinkaew. Prachya is famous for Om Bak, Chocolat and Tom Yung Goon, three of the highest grossing films in the history of the country. You may be wondering why I am in Thailand and not somewhere in the United States. Why am I in a country 9,000 miles away from home when I could be shooting this movie anywhere in America including Los Angeles.
In the case of this film, the answer is more complicated than in others. The location of this film is South East Asia and, it is directed by a Thai national. That is not always the case. And, more often than not, the location of the film and its director is not even an issue. Many films that could be shot in America are not. In fact, many films with American locations are shot outside of America.
Why? The answer is simple: cost. Because of the ridiculously high labor costs and other production costs in America, it is just simply not feasible to make a movie in America anymore; especially a lower budget independent film. And, unfortunately, this is a symptom of the entire economic problems facing America today. I would love to work in the United States and be home with my family, friends and my little kitty Sidney. I cannot. (more…)
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
|
BOOK EXCERPT: Andrew Klavan’s ‘The Long Way Home’ (The Homelanders) — Part 2
by Andrew KlavanCharlie West went to bed one night an ordinary high school student. He woke up a hunted man. Terrorists are trying to kill him. The police want to arrest him for the stabbing death of his best friend. He doesn’t know whose side he’s one or who he can trust. With his pursuers closing in on every side, Charlie makes his way back to his hometown to find some answers. There, holed up in an abandoned mansion, he’s joined by his friends in a desperate attempt to discover the truth about a murder he can’t remember-and the love he can never forget.
Chapter One
The Killer In The Mirror – Part 2
You have to understand: a trained man with a knife is as deadly as anything, even more dangerous in some ways than a man with a gun. You might grab a gun. You might wrestle it away. But you can’t get hold of a knife without getting cut. And if the knife-man knows what he’s doing, he can carve you up with a blade just as fast as a bullet.
And this guy knew what he was doing all right. All the karate training in the world wasn’t going to save me if I didn’t act fast and act smart. If I fell and he came down on top of me, I’d be dead in seconds.
I knew it even as I was falling. The panic raced through my belly. The thoughts raced through my head: I have to do something. (more…)
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
|
Today On The Bigs: What You Might Have Missed
by Big Hollywood
Here’s a new feature we’ll be posting nightly that allows you to see what’s been posted throughout all the Bigs over the course of the day.
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
|
Don’t Miss the Point and Don’t Miss Out
by Joseph C. PhillipsAppearing on television and radio is good for my career. Every time I show up in the media it sells books and further legitimizes me as a cultural and political commentator and answers a question that, alas, has been asked far too frequently of late: “Whatever happened to.”
Last week I canceled an appearance at the last minute in order to attend my youngest son’s gymnastics tournament and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. I had originally planned to miss the tournament. I explained to my son that “Daddy had to work.” He was disappointed, but he understood. Early in the morning I changed my mind and I am glad I did.
During the team competition the top three teams battled back and forth through all six events. My son’s team was in second place going into the final round and spirits were high as the high-bar was our team’s best event and my son was the team’s strongest high-bar competitor.
My son went last. He looked good; toes pointed-legs straight, lots of height and then he stumbled. My son missed an element – an element he can do in his sleep. He finished with a decent score, but much lower than normal.
Anyone that has watched a televised Olympic gymnastics competition can tell you that a step on the landing results in a one tenth of a point deduction. That afternoon the difference between the first place team and the third was one tenth of a point; literally one step. There was a tie for first place between our team and a team from Redondo Beach. The other team won the tie breaker and our boys took their place on the second step of the podium.
Afterwards I gave my son a huge hug; he had performed well all day. He fell into my arms in tears. To his young (and competitive) mind the difference between his team taking first and finishing in second place was the missed element in his routine. (more…)
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
|
Super Bowl Halftime Show: Time For Baby Boomers to Release Their Cultural Death Grip
by Daniel KalderAs I am a foreigner, the first I ever heard about the Super Bowl’s tradition of mid-show entertainment was the now notorious Janet Jackson nipple incident whereby Justin Timberlake ‘accidentally’ unleashed Ms. Jackson’s breast upon millions of unsuspecting Americans. I was living in Moscow at the time and even the Russians were quite obsessed by the role of Ms. Jackson’s mammary glands in a sport none of them played or cared about.
Six years later and it is clear that the Super Bowl’s organizers are still terrified of Janet Jackson’s nipple, that it comes to them at night and haunts them in their sleep, threatening to embroil them in scandal and to lose them millions in sponsorship deals. For what else can explain the entertainment decisions made by the Masters of the Bowl ever since that fateful Sunday afternoon in February 2004?
Let’s take a look at who has played in the years since: (more…)
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
|
Daily Gut: Obama’s Coffin/T-Shirt ‘Moment’
by Greg GutfeldOkay.
The video I’m about to show you is like a parking garage of creepiness: wrong on every damn level.
It’s President Obama at a Washington fundraiser last week. He’s soaring high on health care rhetoric, when he brings up a dead campaign worker. Well, actually he brings up himself. Pay attention, not just to him, but how the audience responds. If you’re a cow, it’ll turn all four of your stomachs.
It takes a lot to give me the willies. But you know what? That gave me the willies. And also scurvy, rickets and the bird flu.
Sometimes you come across something a politician says that is so beyond comprehension, you start wondering if he might be losing it. Now, I’ve never said that about Obama. Unlike the jeering libs who regularly devoured George Bush over his stuttering syntax, I always chose to focus on what Obama says, instead of how he says it. (more…)
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
|
Super and Not So Super Ads: Will.i.am? Green Police?
by Jeffrey JenaSuper Bowl ads have become a competition themselves and are often better than the game. At a reported cost of over $3 million for a thirty-second spot it would be hard for me to imagine that any of the ads are cost effective but it’s not my money, so roll the tape! Judging from some ads there are either a lot of advertisers who don’t want conservatives to buy their products or a there are a lot of liberals making television advertisements.
Qualcomm’s combined leftist ideology and male bashing in its two ads featuring a guy who is “spineless” and a heavy political video montage by Obama idolater Will.i.am. I guess his stage name is supposed to be clever but it makes me think he was just raised on a little too much Dr. Seuss. Can you imagine the flack a company would get if it let Ann Coulter or Glenn Beck produce a video montage for its Super Bowl commercial? Watch the above clip for visuals of everything from Castro to Al Gore “winning” Florida.
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
|
Michael Jackson: Death By Dependence on Drugs and Sycophants?
by Jack L. Treese, CWO US Army, RetiredToday the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office is likely to file criminal charges against Dr. Conrad Murray. As of this writing specific charges have not been disclosed. However it is speculated that he will be charged with involuntary manslaughter for administering a combination of drugs that led to Jackson’s death.
On January 8th a search warrant issued in Houston for the office and storage facilities of Dr. Conrad Murray helps to confirm that the Los Angeles coroner’s office believes Michael Jackson died from an overdose of propofol.
Dr. Murray’s attorney, Ed Chernoff, is saying that his client didn’t do anything that would have killed Jackson. Of course that is what attorneys get paid for, but in this case Mr. Chernoff is likely to be proved wrong.
Dr. Murray has admitted to administering propofol to Jackson over a six-week period to treat insomnia. When that seemed to fail and Dr. Murray thought Jackson was becoming addicted he added other sedatives to the mix. Propofol alone is enough to cause respiratory arrest and adding other sedatives to it only exacerbates its danger. (more…)
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
|
Presenting: The Best of ‘The Stage Right Show’
by John NolteThose of you who have been with Big Hollywood from the beginning know that Stage — Larry O’Connor — Right has been with us from the beginning, as well. He started out as our “theatre guy” and has since branched out as an invaluable go-to guy at all three of the BIGS, writing on everything from The Madness of Howard Zinn to exposing how nepotism can help you to become The Most Dishonest Character Assassin IN THE WORLD!
Larry also does a nightly talk show on Blog Talk Radio, and while it’s on past my bedtime (9pm PST), after listening to the podcasts over the past few weeks I realized that “The Stage Right Show” is very much a part of the BIGS — so much so that we’re leaning on him to change the title to “The Big Stage Big Right Big Show.” Over the weekend I also leaned on him to do even more work and put together a weekly “Best of” show to post here at Big Hollywood for the benefit of our readers.
He’s agreed to take that on, and I thank him for that. (more…)
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
|
Best of ‘The Stage Right Show’: Feb 1 – Feb 5
by Larry O'ConnorOn this week’s highlight show, we start with the hilarious”feud” between Andrew Breitbart and “TV’s Andy Levy” from Fox News’ “Red Eye” that began on Twitter and ended up on “The Stage Right Show.” They were arguing about Ben Shapiro’s Top Ten Most Over Rated Directors list which drove Andy Levy over the edge.
Next, we had Ben Shapiro on the show to respond. Also, Billy Hallowell came on to discuss the habit the left has of screaming “Racist” at any conservative they don’t like and to tell us about his last post at Big Hollywood about ‘Rock the Vote’.
Andrew Breitbart called in with a very unique anecdote about his travails in renting a car in Palm Springs. And Adam Baldwin was our featured interview in a wide-ranging discussion about Hollywood, politics, education and Twitter. (more…)
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
|
Top 20: Unearthing My Own Uncool
by John NolteFilm blogger and sometimes Turner Classic Movies’ programmer,The Self-Styled Siren, came up with a terrific idea for a movie list: That which we love in filmdom that puts our cool credentials into question (And yes, I do have Cool Credentials. My mother keeps them with my badminton trophies). Siren describes the criteria for the list this way:
“As always, it’s best to define terms. By uncool, the Siren doesn’t mean “slightly offbeat” or “quirky” or “underrated.” She means “courting hoots of derision from critical colleagues.” Picking a lesser work of a widely admired auteur doesn’t cut it, because after all, even late Hawks is still Hawks. And picking a film that was once lambasted, but is no longer, is also not exactly what the Siren had in mind.”
I would also add that there are certain uncool films that are now cool to like. The work of Ed Wood, for instance. Those choices shouldn’t count, either. We have to go for what’s embarrassing to admit to, and lucky for you there’s plenty to clean out of my uncool closet.
1. Fox Musicals: Everyone loves those big lavish MGM musicals of the forties and fifties, and those triumphs do represent for me the highest level of artistic achievement we will ever see on film. But that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy the hell out of the musicals Darryl Zanuck’s 20th Century-Fox produced to help Americans through a Great Depression. The name of the game was “simple”; simple stories, simple tunes… And not one true classic film emerged from the bunch. These films weren’t about that. They were about innocent, joyful escapism and to help you along were such stars as Sonja Henie, Carmen Miranda, Betty Grable, John Payne, Edward Everett Horton, Billy Gilbert, Charlotte Greenwood, Alice Faye, Don Ameche, and Cesar Romero. (more…)
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
|
BOOK EXCERPT: Andrew Klavan’s ‘The Long Way Home’ (The Homelanders) — Part 1
by Andrew KlavanCharlie West went to bed one night an ordinary high school student. He woke up a hunted man. Terrorists are trying to kill him. The police want to arrest him for the stabbing death of his best friend. He doesn’t know whose side he’s one or who he can trust. With his pursuers closing in on every side, Charlie makes his way back to his hometown to find some answers. There, holed up in an abandoned mansion, he’s joined by his friends in a desperate attempt to discover the truth about a murder he can’t remember-and the love he can never forget.
Chapter One
The Killer In The Mirror – Part 1
The man with the knife was a stranger. I never saw him before he tried to kill me.
I was in the Whitney Library when it happened, about seven miles from my hometown of Spring Hill. I’d been there for about forty-five minutes. I had come with a plan—a plan to clear my name, to get free, to get home to my family and out of danger. Now I had to leave. It wasn’t safe for me to stay in any one place for very long.
I was in the main research room on the library’s second floor. I went down the hall and pushed into the men’s room. I took off my black fleece and hung it on the door of one of the stalls. Then, wearing just my jeans and black t-shirt, I stood at the sink and splashed cold water on my face. (more…)
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
|
Tío Chano Vs. Cinesotupotus
by Joe Lima
People have been saying to me for months, “Joe, where’s Tío Chano?” Referring, of course, to my Uncle Luciano.
Well, the short answer is, I didn’t know. For as long as I have known Tío Chano, that is to say, for my entire life, Tío Chano has disappeared for months at a time. Nobody in the family knows where he goes, and we have learned not to ask.
At the end of August 2009 Tío Chano asked me for a ride to LAX. I dropped him off at the Tom Bradley International Terminal at 2:30 AM on August 30th. We heard nothing from him until less than a week ago. (more…)
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
|
Obama Nation: SCOTUS vs POTUS
by James Hudnall and Batton Lash
Continued after the jump. (more…)
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
|
Avengers Movie: Captain America Ashamed to Wear the American Flag? Not Exactly…
by John Nolte
A lesson in why it’s important to read the whole story; because after reading the first two paragraphs my blood was at full boil:
But director Joe Johnston and the team at Marvel Studios have a plan for “The First Avenger: Captain America,” which is due in Summer 2011: They’ve added a new wrinkle to the classic mythology to explain why a scientifically enhanced super-soldier would venture out in the WWII battlefields in a costume that leans a bit heavy on the old Betsy Ross imagery.
“The costume is a flag, but the way we’re getting around that is we have Steve Rogers forced into the USO circuit. After he’s made into this super-soldier, they decide they can’t send him into combat and risk him getting killed. He’s the only one and they can’t make more. So they say, ‘You’re going to be in this USO show’ and they give him a flag suit. He can’t wait to get out of it.”
Captain America “can’t wait to get out of” wearing the American flag? Captain America’s too cool for the American flag?
Because we all know how stripping Superman of his Americanism (and masculinity) worked out for that franchise, right? Before you explode like I did, read on… (more…)
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
|
Foreign Films Are Cool…
by Jimmy Arone…And sometimes they’re down right exceptional.
Paging Mr. Schlichter…paging Mr. Kurt Schlichter. You see, while reading the recent article, “Top 10: Lead Performances of the Last 25 Years” I stumbled across these words: ”And you film snobs out there are out of luck. This list completely ignores foreign language films…”
Film snobs? WTF!? Movie lovers who enjoy foreign language films are artistic snoots in the eyes of Mr. KS? Nah, I don’t think so. Not me.
While I could appreciate the article and some of the choices of lead performances by actors over the past 25 years, I do believe KS missed out when he decided to exclude performances by actors in foreign films.
As reader J.B. stated in the comment section: (more…)
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
|
MUSIC REVIEW: Stalin Goes Pop!
by Daniel KalderMarc Almond is best known as the singer for Soft Cell, a duo that had a huge hit many moons ago with ‘Tainted Love’* although metal-oriented readers may be more familiar with the version recorded by the mediocre Alice Cooper impersonator Marilyn Manson. But whereas Manson’s interpretation was characteristically both overblown and juvenile in its attempt to conjure up an atmosphere of depravity, Soft Cell’s clinical electronic backing and smooth vocals were effortlessly decadent.
Tainted Love was the beginning and the end of Soft Cell in the USA as far as I’m aware, although in the UK the group had a string of hits while Marc Almond acquired a reputation for mind-bending excess. After that, he went on to pursue an eccentric/eclectic solo career that saw him duet with Gene Pitney, record the songs of Jacques Brel and join the Church of Satan, founded by tedious baldy Anton LaVey, AKA the most boring man in the world.
And yet in spite of that last affiliation (shared with Marilyn Manson) Almond is a genuinely bold artist, willing to take great risks, even if they don’t always pay off. A few years ago he released the hardly commercial Heart on Snow, an album of English versions of popular Russian songs. Almond knew the subject matter well- he had been performing regularly in Moscow since the early 90s, perhaps attracted to the city’s atmosphere of 1920s Weimar style madness. Even so, Heart on Snow is an uneasy mix of rock, folk, pop and soviet ballads, of electronic arrangements and military choirs. As Russian music emphasizes lyrics over melody the songs also seemed a bit amorphous, even though the translations were not terrible. Heart on Snow is certainly an interesting curio, but hardly necessary. (more…)
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
|
New ‘24′ Season Exemplifies Show’s Strengths
by S.T. KarnickThe Fox Network’s venerable action-drama series 24, now in its eighth year, has always had to perform a very difficult balancing act: trying to surprise viewers who expect to be surprised, while somehow staying sufficiently connected with reality to sustain viewer interest. In addition, the showmakers have to try to remain somewhat near the extremely high standard established by seasons 2 and 3, in which they expertly blended political relevance, suspenseful drama, theater-quality action sequences, and vivid characters who continually surprise us with their choices without ever bogging down in unnecessary pretensions to psychological depth.
This latter characteristic is a key element of the show’s success. Like real human beings, the characters in 24 are motivated largely by present concerns while filtering them through their individual experiences and personalities. In conventional suspense literature and filmed dramas of our time, the central characters typically are given some traumatic events in the recent or distant past which they are trying to work through and over which they agonize as the present narrative events remind them of it.
Of course such things do happen in real life, and they are present in 24, but the use of it as a convention becomes more than a little ridiculous in today’s dramas as nearly all crime and suspense writers employ it, making it appear that no one but disturbed individuals gets involved in the good work of preventing violence toward innocents. That’s clearly not the message the creators of these narratives intend to send, and it conflicts with their desire to create plausible central characters. (more…)
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
|
For Conservative Movie Lovers: King Vidor, Wallace Beery and ‘The Champ’ Part 5
by Leo GrinWhen King Vidor first stepped onto the set of The Champ, he was filled with a rare sense of freedom. Frances Marion’s script was unusually simple, focused squarely on a pair of immensely sympathetic protagonists and their relationship. All the key moments, plot twists and emotional climaxes were spelled out on the page, with no false conflicts or manufactured drama to complicate the works. Vidor realized that having such a tight screenplay “would relieve me as a director — now I didn’t have to worry about the story, worry about how I will wrap this up and keep it all together. I could concentrate on little details, touches and things.”
Touches and things. As we learned last week, Vidor equated silent films to ballet: operatic makeup, overwrought facial expressions, stylized movements, and the action punctuated by an enormous symphonic orchestra that — because the players and their instruments were live in the theater — sounded as amazing as today’s very best surround-sound systems. With the advent of synchronous dialogue, all of this vanished — people now wanted to hear actors talk, of all things! Now, rather than mounting a sort of grand operatic ballet, Vidor found himself helming something more akin to a stage play, and the change was jarring and disheartening. How could a director recapture the emotional magic of old, using mere dialogue?
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
|
Daily Gut Video: Shuster Responds to Red Eye, Robot Responds to Shuster!
by Greg Gutfeld
Tonight, a delightful show for our third anniversary! (more…)
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
|
Follow Us on Twitter
Subscribe via RSS
Tips & Feedback