A Look Back at The Beastie Boys Part 4: ‘Ill Communication’
by Cam Cannon[Ed. Note: Previous chapters of this outstanding series can be found here.]
Never before had a Beastie Boys album been so greatly anticipated. The release of “Ill Communication” was preceded by the single and video for “Sabotage,” an all-out screaming rock song. The video is legen- (waitforit) -dary, an instant classic that featured the Beasties and their DJ, Hurricane starring in spoof/homage of/to 70’s cop shows. Directed with style and wit by Spike Jonze, the video was the source of a little bit of controversy when it lost in every category to Aerosmith and R.E.M at the VMA’s. When Spike Jonze lost best director to whoever won for R.E.M.’s “Everybody Hurts,” as his alter ego, Nathaniel Hornblower, Yauch bum rushed the stage in full leiderhosen and interrupted Michael Stipe’s acceptance speech. Hornblower claimed that the awards were a farce and that in addition to his great work on “Sabotage,” Spike Jonze had conceived “all the best ideas for “Star Wars.”
With “Sabotage” and the VMA interruption, we were introduced to the Andy Kaufman side of the Beasties. The album was fine, their first number-one hit since “Licensed to Ill.” It was the first Beastie Boys album to sound anything like the last one, and as such, was a bit anti-climatic. It features a few great songs, plus a cameo from Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest. They managed some funny lines (“Got fat bass lines like Russell Simmons steals money.”), but fewer and further between. Yauch had become a Buddhist, and so they included a song about it. I didn’t love it, or the Funky Instrumentals.
Another emerging theme was their newfound respect for women. On both “Licensed to Ill” and “Paul’s Boutique,” women were treated like objects, for the most part (Sample lines: “Girls! To clean up my room!,” “I love girlies, waxin’ and milkin’!”). But themes were far too playful for me to label the Beasties as misogynists. (more…)
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REVIEW: Deft Execution Overcomes Familiar Premise of ‘Our Family Wedding’
by Carl KozlowskiWay back in 1967, Hollywood released a “message picture” about the rapidly changing state of America’s race relations, with Sidney Poitier playing a black doctor who causes a stir by attending dinner at his white girlfriend’s parents’ house, in “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?” In 2005, the somewhat-less-legendary Ashton Kutcher starred with Bernie Mac in a race-reversal comedic version of that premise, when he went to visit his black girlfriend’s family in “Guess Who?”
But times have always kept a-changing, and America’s a bigger melting pot than ever now. Yet tensions remain – often among minority populations struggling to carve out their fair share of the ever-dwindling American Dream. As a result, co-writer/director Rick Famuyiwa’s new dramedy film “Our Family Wedding” should have its finger on the pulse of the tensions between Los Angeles’ black and Latino populations. But despite some lively and touching performances from the immense cast headed by America Ferrera, Forest Whitaker and Carlos Mencia, and several boisterously funny moments, much of “Wedding” often feels muted and by-the-numbers.
The film follows the events that transpire when Lucia Ramirez (Ferrera) reveals to her traditional Roman Catholic parents, tow-truck-business owner Miguel (Mencia) and Sonia (Diana Maria Riva), that she’s marrying her black boyfriend, Marcus Boyd (the immensely likable Lance Gross, from the TBS sitcom “House of Payne”). Marcus, meanwhile, hasn’t told his playboy radio-DJ father Brad Boyd (Whitaker) the same news either. (more…)
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BOX OFFICE FLOP: Matt Damon’s ‘Green Zone’ Could Open to Less Than $15 Million
by Big Hollywood
UPDATE: AP confirms: “Green Zone” opens to a dismal $14.5 million.
The moral of the story? If you’re going to trash America and the troops, use Smurfs.
Universal’s “Green Zone” became the latest Iraq War-themed movie to fall down the box office rabbit hole, debuting to just $5 million in the U.S. and Canada Friday, according to studio estimates. …
“Green Zone” could find little traction, getting out to a pace that will give it less than $15 million for its premiere weekend.
That would be even less than the modest pre-release expectations for the $100 million film, which reteams star Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass, who worked on the Universal’s last two “Jason Bourne” franchise installments. The film was put into production during the co-chair term of Marc Shmuger and David Linde. (more…)
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For Conservative Movie Lovers: Ian Fleming, Sean Connery, and ‘Goldfinger’ Part 1
by Leo GrinIt’s the kind of movie “best” lists were made for, and over the years it’s been on plenty of them: Best Movie Quote, Best Song, Best Villain, Most Thrills. It boasts both the most famous car in movie history and what novelist Anthony Horowitz once called “perhaps the most bizarre murder in literature.” It spawned both 1964’s best-selling toy among tots and that year’s “sexiest man alive” among adults. It remains the most beloved entry in the single most profitable cinematic series of all time — adjusted for inflation, the movie cost only twenty-four-million dollars to make, yet brought in an epochal 853 million at the box office.
It’s Goldfinger (1964), and a half-century on the thrills, chills, eroticism, adventure, and luster invoked by that name all remain undimmed. According to one estimate, over a quarter of the world’s population has seen a James Bond film. That marks Goldfinger as not only a blockbuster, but as the harbinger of a profound cultural phenomenon.
Secret agent James Bond was introduced to the British public in 1953 via the novel Casino Royale, published in an initial print run of less than five-thousand copies. Author Ian Fleming quietly cranked out a novel a year for nearly a decade, with each languishing on the mystery-novel midlist alongside dozens of other now-forgotten titles from other writers. Sales were reasonable, but hardly spectacular.
Then on March 17, 1961, an article appeared in Life magazine called “The President’s Voracious Reading Habits.” Included on a list of “Ten Kennedy Favorites” was the 1957 Bond novel From Russia, With Love (over thirty years later, some choice praise from President Bill Clinton would deliver a similar jump-start to the career of African-American mystery writer Walter Mosley). The Kennedy Bond-boost, combined with the appearance of the first film (1962’s Dr. No), served to increase Fleming’s sales exponentially. By 1964 he had some forty million books in print. But the movie version of Goldfinger changed everything. In just the first year after it rocketed into theaters, an astonishing twenty-seven million more Bond books flew off the shelves. (more…)
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REVIEW: Matt Damon & Paul Greengrass Get Their HateAmerica On In ‘Green Zone’
by John NolteThe poetic irony of the delayed release of the shaky-cammed Hollywood temper tantrum known as “Green Zone” couldn’t be sweeter. Yes, the very same week our Iraqi allies held a historic election that ended up much more successful than we could have ever hoped, our own Hollywood swoops in with a piece of cinematic sour grapes in the frantic, desperate hope of rewriting the history of a war they were so eager for us to lose.
After making the last two “Bourne” films together, director Paul Greengrass and star Matt Damon have teamed up again in an un-thrilling attempt to transfer that same success to the streets of Baghdad. But this time within a very real and recent historical event, the immediate aftermath of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In a vacuum where history doesn’t exist, the film’s absurd premise would still undermine itself. But Greengrass isn’t working in a vacuum. Unfortunately for him, we all know the truth and this truth reduces his story to a strained, poorly contrived, episodic, Hollywood Hills fever dream that no amount of suspended disbelief can overcome.
Damon plays Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller, a good soldier in charge of an army team on the search for WMD four weeks after shock and awe. Baghdad is in chaos as the newly liberated Iraqis loot the city and scattered snipers take potshots at anyone wearing the American flag. Miller risks his own life and those of his men based on intelligence that’s supposed to reveal the location of Saddam’s WMD facilities. And this is the third time they’ve come up empty. Frustrated and angry, Miller starts to ask questions and demand answers about the source of the intel. Naturally, his commanding officers aren’t interested in answering those questions or even facing the possibility the weapons might not be found. That would upset the Bush administration’s narrative of the New Iraq. (more…)
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Daily Gut: The Pathetic Howl of Howell Raines
by Greg GutfeldIf you ever need to a definition for “loser,” in just two simple words, I’ve got it.
Howell Raines.
If the name doesn’t strike you as familiar, congratulations – you’re one of the many billions of people who never read the New York Times as Raines’s arrogant incompetence steadily drove it into a ditch.
In this Sunday’s Washington Post, Friday, Raines writes a sweaty editorial, lamenting the evil that is Fox News. Probably scribbling from the Unabomber’s abandoned cabin, Raines sputters like the engine of a troubled Prius, spewing…
“For the first time since the yellow journalism of a century ago, the United States has a major news organization devoted to the promotion of one political party.”
He then blames part of this on the “collapse of print newspapers,” something he was responsible for, as he turned the Times into a punchline of plagiarism. Raines resigned, inevitably, because he was more interested in advocacy, than accuracy. (more…)
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REVIEW: Stars, Ending Make ‘Remember Me’ Palatable
by Darin MillerI wanted to see “Remember Me” because of rumors surrounding lead actor Robert Pattinson. I get daily updates on all things James Bond (yes, I’m that much of a geek), and a couple months ago I started hearing that Pattinson wanted to play the infamous assassin. I was not pleased. Who was this young upstart vampire that thought he was good enough to play the ultimate leading man? Having avoided the Twilight films like the plague, this rumor drove me to see “Remember Me,” to judge for myself whether Pattinson could one day play the great James Bond.
Set in the early 2000s, “Remember Me” chronicles the life of Tyler Hawkins (Pattinson), a foundering college student who smokes excessively and journals to his dead older brother. When he isn’t brooding, he’s spending time with his younger sister Caroline (Ruby Jerins) or chasing meaningless relationships with his roommate Aidan (Tate Ellington). Following a drunken fight, he mouths off to Police Sergeant Neil Craig (Chris Cooper) and winds up in jail. After his dad, Charles (Pierce Brosnan) bails him out, Aidan convinces Tyler to get back at Sergeant Craig through his daughter, a fellow student named Ally (Emilie de Ravin). But while the relationship starts as a dare, it quickly blossoms into something more. And as characters reveal their pasts it threatens to tear their young love apart.
Director Allen Coulter and cinematographer Jonathan Freeman have worked together in the past, and their visions click. Fade-outs are used a little too often, but other than that the film is well-shot and edited. (more…)
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The Millenials: From The Greatest Generation to The MTV Generation
by Kimberly CoxAll right! We blew it! My Generation, The Millennial Generation, totally fell for the oldest trick in the book and now we look like hopeless idiots in front of the whole world. What was our mistake? Youth. The veracity of naivete that only comes with inexperience, adolescence and a total lack of responsibility.
Characterized by our Pop Culture and Mass Media, we may participate in an election, try to be advocates for hope and change, but as long as “The Bachelor” and “Jersey Shore” succeed in the ratings, The Millennial Generation will be seen as having the same morals, values and ethics as the people who are on these reality shows.
We should know better. At least, with all the education we have had, you would think we might have picked up a thing or two in history class. But no, we are making the same mistake just as naturally and easily as the generation before us, the generation before them, and generations to come.
Despite all our potential and the efforts of our subculture, we allow propaganda to move us when it is there to seduce us; zeitgeist, to inspire us when it is there to distract us. (more…)
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VDH: ‘Is Tom Hanks Unhinged?’
by Big HollywoodMuch has been written of the recent Tom Hanks remarks to Douglas Brinkley in a Time Magazine interview about his upcoming HBO series on World War II in the Pacific. Here is the explosive excerpt that is making the rounds today.
“Back in World War II, we viewed the Japanese as ‘yellow, slant-eyed dogs’ that believed in different gods. They were out to kill us because our way of living was different. We, in turn, wanted to annihilate them because they were different. Does that sound familiar, by any chance, to what’s going on today?”
Hanks may not have been quoted correctly; and his remarks may have been impromptu and poorly expressed; and we should give due consideration to the tremendous support Hanks has given in the past both to veterans and to commemoration of World War II; and his new HBO series could well be a fine bookend to Band of Brothers. All that said, Hanks’ comments were sadly infantile pop philosophizing offered by, well, an ignoramus.
Hanks thinks he is trying to explain the multifaceted Pacific theater in terms of a war brought on by and fought through racial animosity. That is ludicrous. Consider: (more…)
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No ‘Rectal Cancer’ Questions, Please: Reporter Booted From Sean Penn Event
by John Nolte
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Could Sean Penn look anymore smug and sanctimonius as he allows some offscreen water carrier to fight his battle for him? At about the 20 second mark you can see the the rage build in Penn’s eyes. They scream: “How dare you hold me accountable for my words. Don’t you know I’m an actuh!”
You have to wonder what kind of cancer he was wishing on this polite young woman. Or how he managed to restrain himself from this choice opportunity to delight once again in his infamous fetish with the human bum.
A Yeas & Nays reporter was publicly berated and threatened to be escorted out by police on Thursday night when the reporter asked actor Sean Penn a controversial question about his humanitarian work in Haiti.
Penn, who recently has been criticized for his motivations in helping to rebuilding Haiti, recently told CBS News he hopes his critics “die screaming of rectal cancer.” (more…)
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REVIEW: ‘The Crazies’ Disappoints With Cheap Scares
by John P. HanlonThere is a scene in the movie “The Crazies” where a couple of men investigate to see if there was a plane crash in the area. Instead of going for easy thrills (i.e. people popping out of dark places to frighten the characters), the scene builds up drama and then ends with a creepy camera shot. Unfortunately, unlike this particular scene, the movie often relies on quick and easy scares rather than building up tension and intelligent thrills.
“The Crazies” revolves around a small community where a virus takes over the population. One of the first scenes in the movie shows a tranquil baseball game with the sheriff (Timothy Olyphant) in attendance. Out in the distance, a man walks onto the baseball field carrying a gun. A confrontation ensues between the sheriff and this seemingly drunk man and soon thereafter other people in town start acting strange. As more people begin acting out of character, the sheriff investigates what caused this change in behavior and why people are acting like zombies.
For its scares, the movie often relies on “the crazies” popping out of places and scaring people. Wherever the characters go, there always seems to be someone hiding in a bedroom, in a kitchen and even (in a creative sequence) in a car wash. Unfortunately, this is part of the film’s problem. Instead of relying on interesting and original sequences, the plot just moves the characters from one setting to another where zombies appear from nowhere. (One wonders how long crazies stand in one place silently waiting for the lead characters to show up so that they can jump out and surprise them. Do crazies pay board games while they wait for potential victims?) (more…)
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Tom Hanks: War on Terror, War in Pacific Driven By ‘Racism and Terror’
by John NolteYou can watch these very troubling 25 seconds below and understand why Tom Hanks would never have the backbone to leave the comfortable echo chamber of MSNBC and enter an environment where he might be challenged. After the actor is done defaming the war against Imperial Japan as a war of “racism and terror,” he doubles with his anti-American slander and says the same of today’s War on Terror. And no one at Morning Joe challenges him. Not Tom — Greatest Generation — Brokaw, not Scarborough, and Mika Brezezinski can’t wait to agree with him.
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Hanks made similarly outrageous statements in another interview, which I touched on earlier this week – comments that caught me completely off guard. As you might have read in Michael Broderick’s article from yesterday morning, “The Pacific” was a project Big Hollywood was eager to champion and cover. Obviously, we’ll have to see what Mr. Racism and Terror has in store for us on HBO over the coming weeks. But at this point you have to wonder if the Oscar-winner’s obvious issues regarding the War on Terror might not have colored what we’re about to see in his miniseries. Given the opportunity, Hanks has certainly been eager to tie together both wars into a damning but thoroughly indefensible political statement that portrays our country and military in the worst possible light.
We all assumed ”The Pacific” would be another “Band of Brothers,” and maybe it will be. But much has changed since “Brothers,” a miniseries produced prior to 9/11 (the HBO premiere was Sept. 9th, 2001). The very real Bush Derangement Syndrome (BDS) that has taken over so much of Hollywood and turned otherwise impressive filmmakers into ham-handed propagandists hadn’t quite taken hold yet. However, today Hanks is showing all the symptoms. Will this affect “The Pacific?” (more…)
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Daily Gut: Slime Is Almost Always Green
by Greg GutfeldMany moons ago I wrote about how phony environmentalists use their so-called ethical beliefs to justify arrogant and asinine behavior. Examples abound: a socialite rails against plastic bags, as she boards her private jet to eat bat testicles with a shaman. An angry, goateed celebrity rails against neocon chickenhawks, days before being arrested for domestic abuse. A scabby rock star condemns us for not giving enough to the poor, as he passes chlamydia around like a snack tray.
Well, now research has backed up what we already knew: environmentalism is just a shield for jackasses to act more jackassy.
In a University of Toronto study, students were asked either to buy eco-friendly products or their conventional counterparts. For the green buyers, their good behavior (gauged by a number of tests) dramatically dropped. They cheated on games, lied to the researchers in order to win cash, and in an honor system designed to pay everyone – the greenies stole six times more than the eco-less consumers.
Also, they skinned and ate thirteen cats. (more…)
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REVIEW: Not Much Dreamy In ‘Wonderland’
by Darin Miller“Alice in Wonderland” director is Tim Burton a recognized genius of signature atmospheric animation and cinematic story and style. The story’s screenwriter, Linda Woolverton, who has penned Disney classics like “The Lion King,” is also a masterful story-teller. But their styles hardly mix, and the surreal atmosphere of “Alice in Wonderland” can’t hide this fact.
“Alice in Wonderland” borrows elements of both of author Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, telling the story of a grown Alice who is set to marry the oafish son of her deceased father’s business partner. But as her trophy wife future pans out before her, she gets cold feet and flees her engagement party, inadvertently chasing a rabbit in a waistcoat and falling down a hole into a strange world. Once there, she learns that it is her destiny to rescue “Wonderland” from a swollen-headed Red Queen, obsessed with beheading others. As a rebellion brews in preparation for the foretold day of victory, Alice must reconcile that to save Wonderland she must battle the terrifying dragon-like Jabberwocky. Despite the dreamy atmosphere of Wonderland, Alice slowly realizes that if she accepts the task of slaying the Jabberwocky, it might kill her. (more…)
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