Disney’s ‘A Christmas Carol’: Charity Vs. Big Government

Generally after a story has been told as a book, play, musical, numerous animated, live, made-for-TV films, and Muppets movie, its content is completely exhausted. But Disney’s latest, “A Christmas Carol,” by writer-director Robert Zemeckis of “Forrest Gump” and animated films “Beowulf” and “The Polar Express,” resurrects the classic tale through vibrant visuals while sticking to the classic story.

Briefly, “A Christmas Carol” is the story of Ebenezer Scrooge (Jim Carrey), a miser who hoards his money and pays his single employee, Bob Cratchit (Gary Oldman), the bare minimum. Scrooge lives alone in a huge, dark mansion, leading a lonely life. When his nephew Fred (Colin Firth) invites him to Christmas dinner, Scrooge berates him for being happy when he has so little money. When local charity representatives ask for support, Scrooge tells them that he supports the poor through paying taxes. “Are there no work houses? Are there no prisons?” Scrooge asks. To him, taxes are all the dues he owes to society. (more…)

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Tags: 'A Christmas Carol', big government, Dickens, disney, gary oldman
Posted Nov 6th 2009 at 10:48 am in Film, Politics, Reviews | 25914671 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/dmiller/2009/11/06/disneys-a-christmas-carol-charity-vs-big-government/Disney%27s+%27A+Christmas+Carol%27%3A+Charity+Vs.+Big+Government2009-11-06+18%3A48%3A39Darin++Miller

Review: Clooney’s ‘Men Who Stare at Goats’ Biased but Amusing

Give the military-industrial complex an unlimited budget, and it’ll find unlimited ways to kill people. From megaton nuclear missiles to Donald Rumsfeld’s allegedly humane, small-scale nuclear “bunker busters,” and from robot soldiers to Barack Obama’s beloved predator drone planes, our nation’s finest scientific minds will find ever-newer ways to obliterate anything that gets in the path of the American Way. 

Of course, our enemies do the best they can on the killing front as well, and at one point it was widely believed that the Soviets were engaged in training soldiers in psychic warfare. British journalist Jon Ronson stumbled across America’s response to those mental-murder programs and wrote about them extensively in his humorous nonfiction book “The Men Who Stare at Goats.” 

Now, with the help of screenwriter Peter Straughan, who has invented a streamlined story in which to connect the book’s hilarious and almost impossibly wild anecdotes, “Goats” has hit the nation’s movie screens. Fast-moving, funny, and supremely subversive entertainment of a kind that Hollywood rarely takes chances with anymore, it also arrives at a rich historical moment, as President Obama’s own decision on whether to surge or pull troops out of Afghanistan hangs in the imminent balance.  (more…)

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Tags: army, Ewan McGregor, george clooney, Men Who Stare at Goats, Peter Straughan
Posted Nov 5th 2009 at 5:58 pm in Film, Reviews | 25743457 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ckozlowski/2009/11/05/review-clooneys-men-who-stare-at-goats-biased-but-amusing/Review%3A+Clooney%27s+%27Men+Who+Stare+at+Goats%27+Biased+but+Amusing2009-11-06+01%3A58%3A14Carl+Kozlowski

HBO Obama Doc: The Bland Leading the Blind

Last night HBO debuted the documentary “By the People: The Election of Barack Obama,” which chronicles the historic election of our 44th president. The film was shot by Alicia Sams and Amy Rice with a key assist from actor Edward Norton. The directors wanted to follow Obama around on his campaign after seeing his speech in the 2004 Democrat Convention. They couldn’t get any calls back until Ed Norton stepped in to help. Norton doesn’t appear in the film. But there are plenty of other starry-eyed voters lined up to praise “the one.”

The film’s first 45 minutes deals with the Iowa Caucus where Obama’s campaign begins. He spends eight months meeting people and working his bland charm, trying to convince everyone he’s just like them. An agreeable, prosaic kind of guy who looks good in a suit and grins a lot. There is no indication of his politics or past associations being radical. He seems a moderate. There are a few people interviewed who question his past, but it’s given little attention. (more…)

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Tags: By the People: The Election of Barack Obama, Ed Norton, hbo, Hillary, Iowa
Posted Nov 4th 2009 at 8:11 am in Film, Politics, Reviews | 25765854 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jhudnall/2009/11/04/hbo-obama-doc-the-bland-leading-the-blind/HBO+Obama+Doc%3A+The+Bland+Leading+the+Blind2009-11-04+16%3A11%3A08James+Hudnall

New PBS Doc Embraces Big Gov’t, Criticizes Individual Freedom

Government broadcaster PBS is running a new, five-part series on a subject naturally interesting in our time: American Experience: The 1930s. Episodes are available for online viewing here.

The program is just what one would expect from PBS: earnest, well-researched, skillfully presented, and eager to lick the boots of government while criticizing individual freedom for everything wrong in the world.

There are two important lessons to be learned from the Great Depression, in my view:

1. The government causes business cycles and downturns through its erratic, manipulative policies intended to benefit powerful voting blocs at the expense of those less able to fight back. The market works when left alone, and government interference should be limited to redressing actual harms done by one party to another. This includes combating fraud, enforcing valid contracts, and setting clear but liberal guidelines for transactions made across political borders. And nothing more.

(more…)

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Tags: American Experience: The 1930s, Depression, Federal Reserve, Great Depression, Irving Berlin
Posted Nov 3rd 2009 at 2:49 pm in Politics, Reviews, Television | 25591444 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/stkarnick/2009/11/03/new-pbs-doc-embraces-big-govt-criticizes-individual-freedom/New+PBS+Doc+Embraces+Big+Gov%27t%2C+Criticizes+Individual+Freedom2009-11-03+22%3A49%3A44S.T.+Karnick

Review: ‘The Good Wife’ Off to Great Start

The new CBS program “The Good Wife” received a lot of press attention when it premiered several weeks ago, partly because of its novel subject matter. The show explores the life of a wronged political spouse who returns to the workforce after her cheating husband is sent to prison.  The show’s plot invited inevitable comparisons to many contemporary political spouses who have felt the glare of standing by their cheating partners in the media spotlight. Since its premiere, the show has quickly established itself as a smart and entertaining program that is not afraid to explore politics within the legal system and outside of it.

Although many politicians from both political parties can be compared to the husband, played by Chris Noth, an obvious comparison springs up in the premiere episode as the lead character, Alicia Florrick who is played by Julianna Marguiles, returns to work as a lawyer. One of her supervisors, played by Christine Baranski, bluntly says to her, “Not only are you coming back to the workplace fairly late but you have some very prominent baggage.” She then adds, pointing to a picture of current Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, “But hey, if she can do it, so can you.” Furthering the perception that the lead couple can be compared to President Bill Clinton and his wife, a recent article about the program from The Hill quoted one of the creators of the show offering a “suggestion” to a director about the character of the cheating husband. That suggestion was “Imagine Bill Clinton in prison.” (more…)

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Tags: cbs, Chris Noth, Julianne Marguiles, Politics, The Good Wife
Posted Nov 1st 2009 at 5:33 pm in Reviews, Television | 25474624 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jhanlon/2009/11/01/review-the-good-wife-off-to-great-start/Review%3A+%27The+Good+Wife%27+Off+to+Great+Start2009-11-02+00%3A33%3A16John+P.+Hanlon

For Liberty Lovers ‘We The Living’ Arrives on DVD

An extraordinary film just came out on DVD which couldn’t be more timely.  It’s about a fiercely outspoken, beautiful woman trapped in a country rapidly descending into socialism, with the government steadily ratcheting up control over all aspects of life.

No, it’s not The Ann Coulter Story.

The movie is We The Living, based on the Ayn Rand novel of the same title.  Rand said that We The Living “is as near to an autobiography as I will ever write.”

Conservatives and libertarians have long lamented the scarcity of movies that depict the evils of communism.  Let’s see, there’s Doctor Zhivago, The Killing Fields, The Lives of Others, and… and, well, now there’s We The Living — a long-lost classic filmed in 1942, and now available on DVD for the first time ever.

WTL takes place soon after the Bolshevik takeover of Russia (which Rand experienced as a young woman).  The stunning Alida Valli plays Kira, a fiery college student who detests the communists ruining her country.  (Valli is perhaps best known to American audiences for her indelible performances in The Third Man and The Paradine Case.) (more…)

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Tags: Alida Valli, Ayn Rand, Bolsheviks, Censorship, classic movies
Posted Oct 30th 2009 at 4:03 pm in Film, Politics, Reviews | 25336234 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/aleigh/2009/10/30/we-the-living-for-liberty-lovers-and-for-our-time/For+Liberty+Lovers+%27We+The+Living%27+Arrives+on+DVD2009-10-30+23%3A03%3A20Andrew+Leigh

‘This Is It’: A Genuine Thriller

Michael Jackson was the epitome of a human Rorschach test. To his fans, he was a Messiah of entertainment, seemingly able to transcend the mere mortal abilities of nearly anyone in the history of show business. To his detractors, he was an eccentric who was also repeatedly accused of molesting children. To yet others, he was both. 

When he died of an apparent drug overdose just shy of his 50th birthday on June 25, while rehearsing for an intense 50-show engagement in London, it seemed that this conundrum would never be solved and that his life and legacy would be forever shadowed. Then word emerged that concert promoter AEG had decided to sell extensive footage it shot of the show’s rehearsals and put it up for bidding war, which Sony Pictures won for $60 million. Debate raged throughout Hollywood and the business world about whether this was an appropriate outcome, or if it reeked of exploitation.  (more…)

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Tags: "This Is It", concert, documentary, drugs, Michael Jackson
Posted Oct 28th 2009 at 10:33 am in Film, Music, Reviews | 25433470 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ckozlowski/2009/10/28/this-is-it-a-genuine-thriller/%27This+Is+It%27%3A+A+Genuine+Thriller2009-10-28+17%3A33%3A14Carl+Kozlowski

‘The Canyon’: Well-Directed Indie Delivers the Chills

The horror smash “Paranormal Activity” is scaring audiences silly without spilling so much as a spoonful of blood. “The Canyon,” in turn, delivers chills not with supernatural shocks but the very real dangers within the Grand Canyon. Who needs ghosts or goblins when Mother Nature starts acting up?

The new film, enjoying a brief theatrical release before jumping to DVD Nov. 17, doesn’t reinvent the wheel so much as spin said wheel as smoothly as possible for nearly two tense hours. Yuppie newlyweds Lori (Yvonne Strahovski) and Nick (Eion Bailey) want to see the Grand Canyon via mule, but they don’t have the permits necessary to make the trek.

Enter Henry (Will Patton), a grizzled local who promises he can secure two permits and guide them to some of the canyon’s lesser known sites. Nick can’t wait. He’s a city slicker at heart, and a rough and tumble trip through a tourist trap’s hidden side is an intoxicating challenge.

Henry knows the terrain, and has the scars to prove it, but even a savvy outdoors type can’t prepare for everything the canyon has to offer. Disaster soon strikes, leaving the newlyweds at the mercy of their surroundings. (more…)

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Tags: "The Canyon", 'Paranormal Activity', Eion Bailey, Richard Harrah, Steve Allrich
Posted Oct 26th 2009 at 3:10 pm in Reviews | 25307012 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/cftoto/2009/10/26/the-canyon-well-directed-indie-delivers-the-chills/%27The+Canyon%27%3A+Well-Directed+Indie+Delivers+the+Chills2009-10-26+22%3A10%3A13Christian+Toto

‘It Might Get Loud’: The Redemption of Jimmy Page

What happens to an artist whose creative peak has long past? That is the question which looms like a sustained E chord over the new documentary It Might Get Loud, a strange and wonderful cinematic ode to the electric guitar by director Davis Guggenheim. whose previous credits include An Inconvenient Truth (don’t hold that against him).

It Might Get Loud’s central conceit is simple and elegant in principle, but surprisingly messy and complex on screen: Take three eminent guitarists of differing styles and generations, interview them individually, get them to open up about their relationship with their instrument and then, for the film’s climax, throw them together on a sound-stage surrounded by guitars and see what happens.

Guggenheim’s choice of guitarists is a surprising one that somehow makes sense; Jack White of The White Stripes and The Raconteurs (in his 30’s), The Edge of U2 (in his 40’s), and Jimmy Page of The Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin (in his 60’s). (more…)

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Tags: Alison Krauss, An Inconvenient Truth, David Coverdale, Davis Guggenheim, Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground
Posted Oct 26th 2009 at 6:55 am in Music, Reviews | 250126110 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mpatterson/2009/10/26/the-redemption-of-jimmy-page/%27It+Might+Get+Loud%27%3A+The+Redemption+of+Jimmy+Page2009-10-26+13%3A55%3A55Matt+Patterson

ABC’s ‘Forgotten’: Solid Crime Drama with Values

After several years of mostly miserably failed attempts to ride the wave of crime dramas most of the other TV networks were successfully navigating, ABC has turned to the TV and cinematic crime drama maestro Jerry Bruckheimer for help. The resulting series, The Forgotten (Tuesdays, 10 p.m. EDT), is a solid crime drama and stands for some very appealing values.

The visual style of the show is familiar from Bruckheimer’s many other policiers, such as the CSI series. It has the same tendency toward dingy, low-level lighting, moving camera shots, eccentric framing, and the like, though in The Forgotten it’s not as frenetic and flashy as in most of Bruckheimer’s shows. That’s a good thing.

The stories and performances reflect the earnestness of Bruckheimer’s TV productions, while avoiding the sensationalism the other shows tend to indulge in. Christian Slater is Alex, an ex-cop who leads the Forgotten Network, a team of private citizens in Chicago who investigate cases in which the police have run out of leads and can’t afford to devote additional resources.

Avoiding both cynicism and romanticism, the program makes a point of showing how many people around the nation are willing to volunteer their help. It also shows people who refuse to help, thus making each such instance a test of a person’s character. (more…)

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Tags: abc, Christian Slater, CSI, Jerry Bruckheimer, The Forgotten
Posted Oct 25th 2009 at 5:54 am in Featured Story, Reviews, Television | 25043432 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/stkarnick/2009/10/25/abcs-forgotten-solid-crime-drama-with-values/ABC%27s+%27Forgotten%27%3A+Solid+Crime+Drama+with+Values2009-10-25+12%3A54%3A08S.T.+Karnick

Review: ‘Amelia’ Fails to Take Flight

There are certain mysteries that place a stronghold on the world’s imagination. The existence (or lack thereof) of the Bermuda Triangle, Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot and UFOs are primary among these questions, inducing shivers in those who would like to speculate about the possibility of strange life forms on our fair planet.

And then there is a different sort of mystery, one in which we know someone really existed and then suddenly, simply disappeared without a trace. The famed aviatrix Amelia Earhart was one of those people, the first woman to fly across an ocean who went on to attempt being the first woman to fly around the earth when her plane encountered a series of problems and likely – but not definitively – crashed, with her never to be found again. (more…)

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Tags: "Amelia", Hilary Swank, Mira Nair, review, Richard Gere
Posted Oct 23rd 2009 at 5:05 am in Featured Story, Reviews | 2498989 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ckozlowski/2009/10/23/review-amelia-fails-to-take-flight/Review%3A+%27Amelia%27+Fails+to+Take+Flight2009-10-23+12%3A05%3A30Carl+Kozlowski

‘Paranormal Activity’ All too Normal

Humans like to think they know the difference between truth and fiction. But in the modern media age, even as we feel technology has made us more savvy than ever, there’s always a disquieting edge that makes us wonder what’s really the truth and where are we being manipulated. Is Fox News really “fair and balanced” just ‘cause they say so, for instance? Or is Obama really bringing “Hope” back to America just because his colorful posters say so? 

Back in 1999, a movie called “The Blair Witch Project” burst into the American pop culture consciousness from seemingly nowhere.  It appeared to be (and was marketed to viewers as) a raw documentary film about three student filmmakers and their tragic last days experiencing supernatural forces while lost in the wilderness, but in reality it was a fictional film made for under $30,000 by a team of indie filmmakers and actors and had caused a sensation at the Sundance Film Festival months before.  (more…)

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Tags: 'Paranormal Activity', Internet campaign, paramount, Spielberg, “The Blair Witch Project”
Posted Oct 19th 2009 at 10:22 am in Film, Reviews | 24581066 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ckozlowski/2009/10/19/paranormal-activity-all-too-normal/%27Paranormal+Activity%27+All+too+Normal2009-10-19+17%3A22%3A53Carl+Kozlowski

‘Not Evil Just Wrong’ Will Open Eyes to Inconvenient Facts

“Not Evil Just Wrong,” the new documentary debunking much of the global warming movement, is reaching the public at an opportune time. Not only did the film’s director, Phelim McAleer, just publicly embarrass former Vice President Al Gore at a global warming Q&A, but major news outlets are now revealing the earth’s temperature hasn’t gone up for at least a decade.

Yet, “Not Evil Just Wrong” still won’t get the attention of your average Michael Moore polemic. That’s a shame, since it’s far more balanced than Moore’s body of work and offers a message few mainstream documentaries are willing to touch.

What if global warming is just another wide-scale scare tactic, like Y2K, the killer bees or mad cow disease, but with far more devastating results? These questions are rarely asked in the press, so kudos to “Not Evil” for doing so in such a methodical fashion. The film isn’t as entertaining as a Moore screen rant, but it still looks snazzy while imparting a raft of enlightening material.

Naturally, the film presses its thumb on the scale to favor the skeptics, but the global warming believers here add both texture and perspective. “We live in an age of fear, but humans have never lived longer or been healthier,“ the narrator says. (more…)

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Tags: Al Gore, Environmentalist, Global warming, Not Evil Just Wrong, Phelim McAleer
Posted Oct 18th 2009 at 7:03 am in Film, Politics, Reviews | 24774295 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/cftoto/2009/10/18/not-evil-just-wrong-will-open-eyes-to-inconvenient-facts/%27Not+Evil+Just+Wrong%27+Will+Open+Eyes+to+Inconvenient+Facts+2009-10-18+14%3A03%3A38Christian+Toto

Review: U2 360° — Great Music, Bi-Partisan Politics

OK, first things first: U2 put on a great show in FedEx Field in Washington D.C. on Tuesday, September 29, 2009.

This was a relief, because the previous Saturday they had turned in a dismal, oddly disjointed performance on “Saturday Night Live.” But three days later the boys were back in fighting shape; it was, in fact, one of the hardest rocking shows I’ve ever seen them give — and I have seen my share of U2 shows (my lifetime total is now somewhere in the double digits).

The show opened with several numbers from the woefully under-appreciated new album No Line On The Horizon; the thrilling and unique “Breathe,” segued into “Magnificent,” a tune which doesn’t quite soar as as high as it wants to, but comes closer live than on record. The lackluster “Get On Your Boots” was followed by Zoo-era favorite “Mysterious Ways,” bringing the stadium down and prompting Bono to remark, “Well, it’s a warm night after all!” He then gave a preview of the rest of the set: “We have old songs; we have new songs; we have songs we can barely play!” (more…)

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Tags: Bono, FedEx Field, Larry Mullen Jr., The Edge, U2
Posted Oct 16th 2009 at 4:37 pm in Entertainment, Music, Reviews | 24403840 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mpatterson/2009/10/16/review-u2-360-great-music-bi-partisan-politics/Review%3A+U2+360%C2%B0+--+Great+Music%2C+Bi-Partisan+Politics2009-10-16+23%3A37%3A14Matt+Patterson

‘Where the Wild Things Are’: Beautifully Realized By a Visionary Director

There are some books that are so beloved and iconic, they’ll probably never be made into films. “Catcher in the Rye,” for one. Or “A Confederacy of Dunces,” for another. And for decades, the children’s book “Where the Wild Things Are” seemed to be among those topping that list as well. 

Of course, there were a couple of factors that added to the burden of anyone willing to take a swing at “Things.” The book is only 10 sentences long and takes about eight minutes to fully absorb even when one drinks in the stunningly detailed and otherworldly drawings of its creator, Maurice Sendak. So to stretch it into the 90 minutes or more needed for a feature film, filmmakers would have to invent massive amounts of material, creating the risk that their newly added sequences would upset rather than delight the fans who made the book a mega-seller in the first place.  (more…)

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Tags: "Where the Wild Things Are", Karen O, Max Records, Spike Jonze, Yeah Yeah Yeah
Posted Oct 16th 2009 at 3:33 pm in Film, Reviews | 24833048 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ckozlowski/2009/10/16/where-the-wild-things-are-beautifully-realized-by-a-visionary-director/%27Where+the+Wild+Things+Are%27%3A+Beautifully+Realized+By+a+Visionary+Director2009-10-16+22%3A33%3A27Carl+Kozlowski

Grammer’s ‘Hank’ Tries Different Comedic Approach

The new ABC sitcom Hank is rather short on big laughs, but it’s well-stocked with good ideas and sound values. The big question is, will ABC give it a chance?

Hank is the first of two family-oriented comedies ABC is running back-to-back on Wednesday nights beginning at 8 p.m., with each show featuring a big former sitcom star.

Most TV sitcoms, and that goes double for ABC, are largely about what the great filmmaker and satirist Preston Sturges referred to as Topic A. That is because Americans presumably have nothing else on their minds–other than being murdered or having to go to the hospital, the subject matter of most TV dramas.

Hank bucks that restriction, attempting to mine humor from family relationships, romantic love, and social conditions–which used to be the central subjects of Anglo-American comedy before the relaxing and eventual discarding of social and cultural restrictions on discussions of sex freed Hollywood to parade its inner sex maniac with impunity and in fact great financial success. (more…)

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Tags: "Cheers", "Hank", "The Honeymooners", abc, kelsey grammer
Posted Oct 16th 2009 at 10:46 am in Reviews, Television | 24629432 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/stkarnick/2009/10/16/grammers-hank-tries-different-comedic-approach/Grammer%27s+%27Hank%27+Tries+Different+Comedic+Approach2009-10-16+17%3A46%3A24S.T.+Karnick

Patricia Heaton and Co. Offer Smart Sitcom in ‘The Middle’

The smart new sitcom The Middle presents a positive but realistic view of Middle America’s pursuit of the American Dream. 

Set in the fictional small town of Orson, Indiana, The Middle (8:30 EDT) follows Hank in ABC’s new Wednesday night lineup and like the Kelsey Grammer program, it features a big sitcom star, Patricia Heaton, in a lead role. Also like Hank, The Middle takes a comic but sympathetic look at Middle America, described by central character Frankie Heck (Heaton) as “One of those places you fly over on your way from Somewhere to Somewhere Else but you wouldn’t live here.”

The writing of the pilot episode is particularly strong, and it even uses a couple of symbols to very good effect: a jet flying overhead, and Frankie’s new drivers license with its grossly unattractive photo documenting how badly life has been beating her down. Heaton’s willingness to make herself look silly and physically unattractive is used to great effect in the pilot episode and shows great sense on her part and that of the show’s producers.  (more…)

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Tags: "The Middle", kelsey grammer, Malcolm in the Middle, patricia heaton
Posted Oct 12th 2009 at 6:44 am in Reviews, Television | 24412242 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/stkarnick/2009/10/12/patricia-heaton-and-co-offer-smart-sitcom-in-the-middle/Patricia+Heaton+and+Co.+Offer+Smart+Sitcom+in+%E2%80%98The+Middle%E2%80%992009-10-12+13%3A44%3A30S.T.+Karnick

Gervais Undercuts His Atheist Argument in ‘Lying’

So what we have here are two worlds. One, without God and controlled by thoughts of evolution, is a spectacularly dreary, unhappy place without love or meaning. On the other hand, even a fictional God brings the world meaning, joy, liberty, and wonder.

The Invention of Lying tells a fantasy story about a world in which people do not know how to lie. The conceit is that lying is the product of a gene no human had before it suddenly popped up in Gervais’s character, forty-something failure Mark Bellison. But instead of simply being a cute comedy based on a silly concept, The Invention of Lying is an ambitious, largely unfunny comedy based on a silly concept. It’s not nearly as cute, innocent, or funny as Gervais’s fans might expect.

In fact, it’s really rather dreary. Yet it does have some good points. Although the early scenes in the film, in which we see Mark’s sad, unsuccessful life, are pretty depressing, there as some funny moments after he invents lying. In addition, the philosophy behind the film is sufficiently confused and inconsistent to be more interesting than one might expect.

Before Mark invents lying, no one in the society is truly happy. They speak with brutal honesty toward one another, in particular calling attention to one another’s faults and their own very base desires, and no one seems to mind the situation too much. (more…)

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Tags: Atheism, atheist, christian, jennifer garner, ricky gervais
Posted Oct 11th 2009 at 7:05 am in Featured Story, Film, Religion, Reviews | 244142167 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/stkarnick/2009/10/11/gervais-undercuts-his-atheist-argument-in-lying/Gervais+Undercuts+His+Atheist+Argument+in+%27Lying%272009-10-11+14%3A05%3A46S.T.+Karnick

‘Couples Retreat’ Satisfying if Unspectacular

You’ve met couples like this before: longtime marrieds approaching 40 and facing stress from fertility problems, work-aholism, lack of communication or just flat-out losing the spark and giving up hope. In fact, you might have lived through these problems yourself. 

But in the new movie “Couples Retreat,” which not only co-stars but is co-written by real-life best friends Vince Vaughn (“Wedding Crashers”) and Jon Favreau (a popular character actor who has also directed “Iron Man”), these average middle-class American problems are given hilarious voice through vivid performances and rapid-fire dialogue. Or, more accurately, the movie shines when it focuses on those aspects of life in the first half of the film, while disappointingly falling off a cliff for much of the unfocused second half. Yet, just like a real-life marriage that lasts, the ups outnumber the downs enough to make this a satisfying if not spectacular night at the movies. 

“Couples Retreat” kicks off with uptight couple Jason (Jason Bateman) and Cynthia (Kristin Bell of “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”) begging their other friends – workaholic Dave (Vaughn) and his neglected wife Ronnie (Malin Akerman of the underrated remake of “The Heartbreak Kid”), and high school sweethearts-turned-bored middle-agers Joey (Favreau) and Lucy (Kristin Davis of “Sex and the City”), and just-separated Shane (Faizon Love) and his ridiculously young new girlfriend Trudy (scene-stealing Kali Hawk) – to join them on a retreat to the Club Med-style resort of Eden. If they can get a group of four couples together, they can all go half-price – which sounds great to the three seemingly healthy couples, as long as they’re assured they won’t have to go through couples counseling.  (more…)

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Tags: "Couples Retreat", Jason Bateman, jon favreau, Kristin Bell, malin akerman
Posted Oct 9th 2009 at 8:23 am in Reviews | 24354215 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ckozlowski/2009/10/09/couples-retreat-satisfying-if-unspectacular/%27Couples+Retreat%27+Satisfying+if+Unspectacular2009-10-09+15%3A23%3A21Carl+Kozlowski

‘Grateful Nation’ Debuts Tomorrow on ESPN2

On Saturday, October 3rd, a fantastic new show premieres on ESPN2.

“Grateful Nation is a unique and compelling outdoor adventure series that goes behind the scenes and into the field with American Veterans. Hosted by Airborne Ranger Tim Abell, this original unscripted program takes viewers inside the minds of wounded combat veterans and returns them to their traditional American hunting heritage.

Tim’s innovative interviewing strategy together with stunning HD videography launches Grateful Nation into a unique category that captures a whole new audience of sportsmen and patriots.”

The first episode of “Grateful Nation” follows actor and Army Veteran Tim Abell and Army Sergeant First Class Greg Stube on the hunt of a lifetime.

I’ve had the pleasure of speaking with SFC Greg Stube via telephone and was immediately struck by his eloquence.  Greg has the unusual ability to talk about enormous concepts on a very small and personal level.  I sometimes find it difficult to speak clearly about the ideas of duty and sacrifice.  SFC Stube speaks of such things with deep understanding and with perfect clarity.  He learned first hand and up close what these concepts are all about. (more…)

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Tags: "Grateful Nation", ESPN2, SFC Greg Stube, Tim Abell
Posted Oct 2nd 2009 at 10:35 am in Military, Reviews | 23748215 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jrhead/2009/10/02/grateful-nation-debuts-tomorrow-on-espn2/%27Grateful+Nation%27+Debuts+Tomorrow+on+ESPN22009-10-02+17%3A35%3A24J.R.+Head

Michael Moore Kills Capitalism with Kool-Aid

A friend recently invited me to a private screening of Michael Moore’s new film, Capitalism: A Love Story. The September 16 invite, not surprisingly, leaned in a certain direction: 

“Moore takes us into the homes of ordinary people whose lives have been turned upside down; and he goes looking for explanations in Washington, DC and elsewhere. What he finds are the all-too-familiar symptoms of a love affair gone astray: lies, abuse, betrayal and 14,000 jobs being lost every day. Capitalism: A Love Story is Michael Moore’s ultimate quest to answer the question he’s posed throughout his illustrious filmmaking career: Who are we and why do we behave the way that we do?” 

Considering Moore was going to be there for a Q&A after (moderated by Arianna Huffington), I quickly signed on. Now before painting a picture of Moore’s new film, let me be honest: my belief set is essentially libertarian (”Government out of my bedroom and my pocketbook”). Not only do government solutions not excite me, they scare the living blank out of me. Remember when George Bush declared, “I’ve abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system to make sure the economy doesn’t collapse”? He might as well of said, “Hide your money, kids — ’cause I’m coming to take it!” 

Oh sure, in theory I would like to see everyone with their own homestead, money in their pocket for regular shopping frenzies, and no health worries despite eating at Burger King 24/7, but arriving at those goals is not exactly doable unless government robs Peter to pay Paul and/or starts up the printing press.  (more…)

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Tags: capitalism, Capitalism: A Love Story., Donohue, friedman, michael moore
Posted Oct 2nd 2009 at 5:03 am in Featured Story, Film, Politics, Reviews | 23883067 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mcovel/2009/10/02/michael-moore-kills-capitalism-with-kool-aid/Michael+Moore+Kills+Capitalism+with+Kool-Aid2009-10-02+12%3A03%3A41Michael+Covel

‘Capitalism: A Love Story’ Targets Both Right and Left

Firing a red-hot cannon blast at both parties and the excesses of America’s capitalist system, filmmaker Michael Moore’s latest documentary “Capitalism: A Love Story” is also his most stylistically and emotionally mature work to date. Launching with a string of film clips that parallel the fall of the Roman Empire to our present societal hot mess, the film serves up big laughs with its harrowing vision of just how far off the rails our present economic crisis has taken the nation. 

Moore has made plenty of claims that “Capitalism” is the summation of two full decades of work, harking back to the 1989 release of his seminal “Roger & Me,” and that this film is lobbing bombs at the figures involved.  Yet much of the time, the film has a mournful, yearning approach in showing Moore’s desire that America return to the capitalism of the pre-Jimmy Carter years: he shows that the system’s promises worked out splendidly throughout most of the nation’s history, and in particular from the boom years after WWII all the way through Ford before the nation hit Carter’s infamous assessment of “malaise” in the late ‘70s.  (more…)

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Tags: "Roger and Me", Barack Obama, bush, Capitalism: A Love Story., michael moore
Posted Oct 1st 2009 at 6:39 am in Reviews | 23412263 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ckozlowski/2009/10/01/capitalism-a-love-story-targets-both-right-and-left/%27Capitalism%3A+A+Love+Story%27+Targets+Both+Right+and+Left2009-10-01+13%3A39%3A03Carl+Kozlowski

Fox’s ‘Glee’ Mocks Political Correctness

As overly serious police procedurals have begun to saturate the primetime network TV schedules, the FOX network has quietly but wisely been exploring alternatives. Introduced a few years ago, the highly popular House varied the formula by moving it to a medical setting, and last year Fringe interestingly revived the delight in adventure characteristic of mid-1960s network TV dramas. 

The new drama Glee (Wednesdays, 9 p.m EDT) represents another approach and a bolder break with current trends–and it may point the way toward a welcome increase in variety among network TV dramas. 

Produced by Ryan Murphy (Nip/Tuck), Glee tells the story of high school teacher Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison) a married high school teacher in his thirties, who wants to restore McKinley High School’s glee club to its former glory, achieved when he was a member during his high school years and the club won the nationals.  (more…)

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Tags: "Glee", fox, political correctness, review
Posted Sep 29th 2009 at 8:47 am in Reviews | 23213049 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/stkarnick/2009/09/29/foxs-glee-mocks-political-correctness/Fox%27s+%27Glee%27+Mocks+Political+Correctness2009-09-29+15%3A47%3A27S.T.+Karnick

‘Don’t Stop Believing’ in ‘Glee’

When the new Fox show “Glee” (Fox Wednesdays at 9/8 c)  had a special sneak preview premiere in the spring, many television critics loved it. It had a unique and exciting premise, quirky characters and a spirit of fun and outlandishness that is often missing in contemporary comedy shows. With its musical interludes, it also seemed like a great addition to the Fox schedule that will soon, once again, include the hit reality show “American Idol.” Unfortunately, the first three new episodes of “Glee” that have aired this fall have not lived up to the high expectations that the outstanding sneak preview premiere created for the show, causing some disappointment. However, “Glee,” even with its faults, is still a fun and unique comedy with a great cast and an engaging premise. 

As can be expected from the title, the show is about a high school glee club. The show began with a high school teacher Will Schuester (the immensely likable Matthew Morrison) realizing how much he loved performing in his own glee club and wanting to inspire a new glee club of students. The show revolves around that ragtag group of singers as they work together under the leadership of Schuester.  

The show itself is bursting with quirky and fun characters including the deliciously conniving cheer-leading coach Sue Sylvester (played by Jane Lynch) who plots to destroy the glee club and Schuester’s well-meaning but manipulative wife Terri (Jessalyn Gilsig) . In addition to Sylvester and Terri Schuester, the supporting cast is full of such unique secondary characters that it rivals shows like “The Office” for its strong ensemble cast.  (more…)

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Tags: "Glee", fox, Glee Club, Jessalyn Gilsig, Will Schuester
Posted Sep 25th 2009 at 4:43 pm in Reviews | 23041837 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jhanlon/2009/09/25/dont-stop-believing-in-glee/%27Don%27t+Stop+Believing%27+in+%27Glee%272009-09-25+23%3A43%3A37John+P.+Hanlon

‘Informant!’ Refreshingly Apolitical, Highly Entertaining

Mark Whitacre had a boring job as a scientist and executive at Archer Daniels Midland, one of the world’s largest food-processing companies. Trapped in small-town Illinois hell with his wife and kids after previously living with them in the capitals of Europe, he still loved to drive fast cars and pursue as much luxury as his rural life could afford, all the while reading Michael Crichton and John Grisham novels that he believed were all too realistic in their depictions of corporate and governmental intrigue and malfeasance. 

Stir all those factors together with his insider knowledge that ADM was colluding with overseas food companies in one of the planet’s biggest price-fixing schemes ever, and the fact that Whitacre became both one of the FBI’s best informants ever may not have seemed all that surprising. But the fact that he also hid a highly unstable tendency to lie or leak information as well also made him one of the Feds’ most nerve-wracking and unreliable head cases ever – and it’s this dichotomy that forms the center of director Steven Soderbergh’s head-spinning and comically offbeat take on the ADM scandal, “The Informant!”  (more…)

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Tags: Archer Daniels Midland, FBI, Joel McHale, John Grisham, Mark Whitacre
Posted Sep 18th 2009 at 8:59 am in Featured Story, Reviews | 22757454 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ckozlowski/2009/09/18/informant-refreshingly-apolitical-highly-entertaining/%27Informant%21%27+Refreshingly+Apolitical%2C+Highly+Entertaining2009-09-18+15%3A59%3A15Carl+Kozlowski

PBS Drama Episode Centers on Evils of Communism

The latest episode of PBS’s Masterpiece Mystery includes a surprise: criticism of communism.

The U.S. TV network PBS and the British Broadcasting Corporation, both government-owned, tend to soft-pedal the evils of communism while placing every imperfection of life in the United States under a microscope. Hence it’s rather noteworthy when those organizations air a program in which the central problems are traceable to communism. That’s what happened in last week’s episode of Masterpiece Mystery. (more…)

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Tags: BBC, communism, Inspector Lewis, Masterpiece Mystery, pbs
Posted Sep 17th 2009 at 6:22 pm in Reviews, Television | 22483048 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/stkarnick/2009/09/17/pbs-drama-episode-centers-on-evils-of-communism/PBS+Drama+Episode+Centers+on+Evils+of+Communism2009-09-18+01%3A22%3A32S.T.+Karnick

Movies We Like: ‘Anatomy of a Murder’ (1959)

There was a time when an “adult film” meant a movie by, for and about adults, not a tawdry tale of some tatted-up, dead-eyed 19-year old with daddy issues numbly coupling in front of a video camera for the gratification of leering, backward-hatted frat boys and twitchy loners with DSL.  They don’t make many truly adult films anymore – to see what you are missing, a good place to start is 50 years ago with 1959’s Anatomy of a Murder. 

Let’s start with the cast:  James Stewart.  George C. Scott.  Lee Remick.  Eve Arden.  Ben Gazzara.  Even Big Hollywood’s own Orson Bean in a supporting part as a doctor who plays a key role in the story.  If you love movies, you only needed to get to the word “George” before you were adding it to your NetFlix queue. (more…)

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Tags: Anatomy of a Murder, Arthur O’Connor, Ben Gazzara, Duke Ellington, Eve Arden
Posted Sep 16th 2009 at 11:51 am in Classic Hollywood, Law, Reviews | 22518661 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/kschlichter/2009/09/16/movies-we-like-anatomy-of-a-murder-1959/Movies+We+Like%3A+%27Anatomy+of+a+Murder%27+%281959%292009-09-16+18%3A51%3A19Kurt+Schlichter

Aren’t You A Little Old To Watch Cartoons?

…Why, yes. Yes I am!

But considering the plethora of culturally and politically “controversial”  (read: “contrived to be offensive for promotional notoriety”) ‘toons currently offered up for consumption like a plate of live centipedes in Interzone, the silly stuff is more than refreshing.  It’s soul food.

YouTube Complete Opening Theme by Bowling For Soup with Fan Credits

–

Enjoyable as it is to see conservative and libertarian viewpoints deemed worthy of existence in “South Park,” and as side-splitting as the adult humor and pop cultural references, sans a blatant political agenda, may be in “The Venture Brothers,” there has long been a need in the human psyche for pure, unadulterated lunacy.  (more…)

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Tags: cartoons, disney, Entertainment, Phineas and Ferb
Posted Sep 16th 2009 at 6:48 am in Art, Entertainment, Reviews | 22404259 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/sgraves/2009/09/16/arent-you-a-little-old-to-watch-cartoons/Aren%27t+You+A+Little+Old+To+Watch+Cartoons%3F2009-09-16+13%3A48%3A42Scott+Graves

Review: ‘World’s Greatest Dad’ Summer’s Greatest Movie?

Some guys never seem to catch a break in life. Lance Clayton is one of them. 

In “World’s Greatest Dad,” the recently-released, extremely dark and sometimes perverse new comedy from writer-director Bobcat Goldthwait (we know, we’re just as surprised as you), Clayton (Robin Williams) is the epitome of the put-upon, browbeaten modern middle-class American man. He’s a high-school poetry teacher with hardly any students, a girlfriend who’s afraid to be seen in public with him, and a son named Kyle (played with an amazing level of scorn by Daryl Sabara) who surely must rank as the foulest, most awful teenager in the history of movies. 

Lance does have dreams of greatness, however. In fact, he’s in the middle of sending off his fifth novel for agent consideration, even though he’s never been published before. But ** SPOILER ALERT ** one night, after finding his son dead from a bout of autoerotic asphyxiation that occurred while watching porn on this computer, Lance suddenly feels a unique burst of inspiration: in order to cover up the shame of his son’s actual cause of death, he moves Kyle’s body, re-hangs him in his closet and writes the perfect suicide note so that the policeman who finds him will think that it was just another, normal teenage suicide.  (more…)

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Tags: Bobcat Goldthwait, Daryl Sabara, oscar, Robin Williams, “World’s Greatest Dad”
Posted Sep 12th 2009 at 10:44 am in Reviews | 21902217 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ckozlowski/2009/09/12/review-world%e2%80%99s-greatest-dad-summer%e2%80%99s-greatest-movie/Review%3A+%27World%E2%80%99s+Greatest+Dad%27+Summer%E2%80%99s+Greatest+Movie%3F2009-09-12+17%3A44%3A36Carl+Kozlowski