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Not sure what director Marc Webb’s reboot offers that’s much different than the three that came before, but that’s probably the idea. No sense in fixing what isn’t broken.

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Hollywood spends a ton of money for these coveted advertising slots, which are even more expensive than advertising during Hollywood’s big night to shine, the Academy Awards. But that’s because almost a hundred million people watch the Super Bowl and only about a third as many watch the Oscars.

America loves the NFL, Hollywood not so much.

Hollywood does, however, whip out the testosterone for the Super Bowl.

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When people unfamiliar with Sherwood Baptist’s line of movies such as “Facing the Giants” and “Fireproof” see their trailers, they can sometimes get the impression that these independent films are very emotional inspirational dramas. And while that’s true, the films also contain a good chunk of humor, some slice-of-life zaniness from the culture of Albany, Georgia, where the church is located and the films are produced.

Thus, it’s with pleasure that Big Hollywood presents this exclusive clip from “Courageous,” the latest film by director Alex Kendrick, available now on DVD and Blu-ray. Have a look at some of the bloopers, flubs, and just plain fun had on set during the film’s lighter moments:

Some industry folks attempt to put the best spin possible on this bad news, but an overall 2% drop in home video sales from an already catastrophic collapse is terrible news. The economy isn’t getting worse; it’s sputtering but has been getting better for a couple of years now, and the home video sales curve is moving in the opposite direction. Furthermore, Blu-ray is what saved this number from being a four-alarm fire and in order to make that happen, prices of Blu-rays discs and players had to dramatically drop. That means less profit.

My guess is that a large percentage of the Blu-ray bump in sales came from cheap, catalogue titles, not new titles. That’s bad news because there are only so many catalogue titles to release, and technology-wise, home video has hit a wall. People aren’t interested in 3D at home and picture and sound quality can’t improve past Blu-ray. So what’s the next format to entice people to purchase titles yet again?

This fantasy that Ultraviolet is the next step in this evolution is just that. UV might be a nice additional feature, but it’s hard to imagine customers purchasing a title AGAIN for portability reasons alone.

USA Today:

Sales of movies on Blu-ray discs and films delivered digitally and on demand rose in 2011, but not enough to make up the gap in falling DVD sales.

Consumers spent $18 billion buying and renting discs and on digital movies in 2011, a 2% decrease from 2010, the Digital Entertainment Group (DEG) will report Tuesday.

Sales of Blu-ray discs topped $2 billion for the first time, up 19% from 2010. But DVD sales dropped 20% to $6.8 billion.

Still, home video executives were satisfied with the results considering the economic challenges of the past year and an underwhelming box office slate of films hitting retail.

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NSFW:

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Brought to you by the same folks who eviscerated “Avatar,” the “Star Wars” prequels and more.

The second video expertly deconstructs the film’s overbearing politics and moral equivalencies, and hammers Lucas for his political hypocrisies.

“When the filmmakers can’t choose a clear side, it affects the overall film.”

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Vulture:

Scott teases the spaceships and caves filled with ominously gridded egg placement that you might expect from a movie that “shares DNA” with the Alien series, but there’s also waterfalls, dust storms, and a very intriguing plot hint: This team of spacemen (which includes Charlize Theron, Michael Fassbender, Noomi Rapace, and Idris Elba) goes looking for the beginning of life itself, and instead finds something epic that will probably pick them off one by one[.]

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This does look as though it might be a better movie than the first one, not that that’s a very high bar. That closing line from Bruce Willis is hilarious and telegraphs that the new installment might add something else its predecessor lacked, a sharp sense of humor.

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Looks like more of the same, which isn’t altogether a bad thing, but the Josh Brolin moment is inspired.

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Our thanks to the reader who forwarded this video and to all our readers!

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This is a good time to bring up something that’s been bothering me for a couple of years now. As someone who has made his way in the world all on my own and without the help of rich parents or family connections, do I resent the fact that Tim Russert’s son Luke has been shot by the cannon of nepotism into a job men twice his age and with ten times his experience only dream of?

Actually, no.

This is how the world works. Relationships matter and that’s life. I do, however, resent the fact that he’s not up to the job and that every time he’s on MSNBC talking about his Congressional beat I get “Bugsy Malone” flashbacks.

And just to keep the movie metaphors flowing, there’s also that whole “Vertigo” vibe, where Luke is Kim Novak and MSNBC is the sad and twisted Jimmy Stewart trying to creepily recreate someone they lost by dressing some wannabe up to look just like them. Whatever’s going on between MSNBC and Luke Russert. it’s not healthy.

And what better proof of that than this series of sanctimonious tweets from Russert where he laments how “sick” a video game commercial makes him feel because it doesn’t “reflect the costs of war”:

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Yep, things are changing in Hollywood. Though Hollywood’s far from perfect or fair, this kind of open patriotism and honoring of our military seemed all but extinct 5 years ago.

In fact, 5 years ago Hollywood was shamelessly lying to us about how patriotism didn’t sell.

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As a huge fan of the original “American Pie,” which I consider a raunch classic, and “The Hangover,” which is a near-masterpiece, I don’t think I’m some middle-aged, finger-waving scold easily offended by inappropriate humor. But a warning signal goes off somewhere when young children are involved in any way with this kind of stuff.

Yes, I know that’s not a real masturbatory sock that lands on the toddler’s head and I know that the scene was likely shot in a way to protect the young actor’s innocence. But there’s gross-out humor and shocking humor and then there’s just sleaze. Using a kid like this crosses my personal line of acceptability.

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Screen Rant:

Onetime stuntmen-turned-filmmakers Mike “Mouse” McCoy and Scott Waugh hope to recreate the real-life experience of Navy SEALs with extreme accuracy onscreen in Act of Valor, an upcoming war thriller that boasts a cast composed primarily of (appropriately) actual Navy SEALs.

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An official trailer has been released for Act of Valor – and while it doesn’t offer much insight into the film’s plot or characters, the footage on display certainly suggests this production will feature some of the more convincing battle sequences and practical tactical maneuvers (say that three times fast…) ever put to film.

Act of Valor originated as a military recruitment video before it was developed into a fully-realized fictional motion picture – one directed by McCoy and Waugh, based on a screenplay from Kurt Johnstad (300). Relativity Media acquired the screen rights to the project earlier this year.

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Before Peter Jackson reached Steven Spielberg levels of Hollywood mainstream acceptance, he was a chubby, hairy kid in New Zealand who loved making movies with tons of laughs provided by oceans of blood and gore.  Jackson’s first feature, Bad Taste, lives up to its title. Featuring aliens who want to grind humans into meat for their intergalactic fast food chain, it was packed with blood, guts, and nonstop laughs.  No video store experience beats picking up the cover for Bad Taste for the first time and beholding an ugly alien, wielding an AK-47, giving you the finger. The box proudly proclaims “From the director of Lord of the Rings!”  Jackson followed up that little gem with Meet the Feebles, a puppet-populated look at the drug-addled behind-the-scenes of a troupe that puts on an act not unlike The Muppet Show.  It was with his third film, Dead Alive (also known as Braindead internationally), that ol’ Peter pulled out all the stops and created a masterpiece of gonzo gore and dark humor.

Dead Alive comes to Blu-ray this week, and I can say without a doubt that it’s the most fun I’ve had watching a zombie movie, ever.  Zombies flicks are huge right now, yet most of them owe everything to George A. Romero’s films.  Dead Alive, on the other hand, has more in common with Dan O’Bannon’s hilarious post-modern zom-com Return of the Living Dead in terms of tone and overall content.  For a low-budget horror flick, this film is incredibly ambitious, in terms of special effects, and pulls off its aims beautifully.  I ask indie horror filmmakers everywhere:  Why imitate Romero when you can build on Jackson and O’Bannon?  This movie has vengeful entrails giving off stinky flatulence, mischievous zombie babies, butt-kicking priests, and the best use of a lawnmower ever in a film.  What else do you want?

Dead Alive is a movie I love showing to people who have never seen it.  Just this past weekend, I watched it with a living room full of friends who had never had the pleasure. It was a gory good time for all.  The movie may be a bit much for the squeamish, but the film’s spirit is so lighthearted it’s hard to imagine anyone getting offended by the content.  It’s October, so if you’re loading up on horror movies and have never seen this one, get on the stick.

Available on Blu-ray

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Herman Cain is simply fabulous here as he and “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno cover topics ranging from Sarah Palin calling him “Herm” to his thoughts on the other GOP contenders to his initial misstep when it came to appointing Muslims.

Pay special attention when he discusses his 9-9-9 plan.

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Leno is a good interviewer. He asks all the questions on everyone’s mind but isn’t sitting back waiting to strike with a “gotcha.”

Cain, however, couldn’t be better. He’s confident, polite, brimming with charm, and is obviously prepared for any question that comes his way. As Cain himself said earlier this week, America is over the whole “black president” thing, but how about the “non-politician who actually wants to reform the immoral tax code and is obviously making that reform part of any mandate should he win” thing?

Bring it on.

We have the most vulnerable incumbent in office since Jimmy Carter and are we really going to allow a few to once again frighten us into nominating yet another ”electable” Big Government Republican who only pays lip service to reform? Are we really going to allow that to happen again?

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Screen Rant:

The wait is almost over for season 2 of AMC’s breakout hit The Walking Dead, and the promotion machine has gone into overdrive. The new trailer “Hope Survives” lets the characters shine and puts the undead on the back burner.

One of the things that makes The Walking Dead such a unique show is that it isn’t about a zombie apocalypse, it’s about people dealing with a zombie apocalypse. During the six episodes of the first season, most of the time was spent on conversations or transitional scenes – in other words, character development. The zombie attacks, while certainly awesome, are not the central focus of the series.

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IMBD description:

A nine-year-old amateur inventor, jewelry designer, astrophysicist, tambourine player and pacifist, searches New York for the lock that matches a mysterious key left by his father when he was killed in the September 11 attacks.

But of course he’s a nine-year-old pacifist. And according to Wikipedia, he’s also a nine-year-old vegan. Why would he be anything else? So precious.

Hard to get behind a protagonist in desperate need of a good slap.

But maybe by the end of the flick, the kid sees the light…

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I just watched this prequel trailer on my computer in broad daylight in my sunlit office with the windows open, the birds singing and the comforting sound of a lawnmower mowing somewhere off in the distance … and it still scared the hell out of me.

Can’t wait for October 21 … or for it to hit Redbox.

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Be sure to go listen to the latest episode of the HomeVideodrome podcast, where Jim Dirkes and I go off on tangents about Don Dokken, the horror that is the new sit-com Whitney, and how iTunes & NetFlix think we have crappy taste.  Of course, we also talk about movies, good, bad, and stupid.  So, go forth, listen, and enjoy!

Carlos was one of my favorite films of 2010, Olivier Assayas’s cracking chronicle of the career of notorious terrorist Carlos the Jackal is as entertaining as thrillers get, all 339 minutes of it.  Split into three episodes that serve as a whole, Carlos moves along at a brilliant clip, especially given its length.  The only bit where it slows down is towards the very end, which feels like a function of the actual true-story, more so than stretchy writing.

Assayas takes the time needed to flesh out Carlos as a character, doing a brilliant job of depicting the on-the-run lifestyle held by wanted terrorist.  The way Assayas approaches Carlos as a character makes his film the antithesis of Steven Soderbergh’s intellectually dishonest Che, a similarly ambitious film that covers a similar figure (and is also available on Criterion).  Assayas depicts Carlos as a terrible man who does terrible things, but is fully realized on the screen as a human being, as opposed to the filmmaker’s idea of what Carlos should be.  This is a stark contrast to Soderbergh’s Che, in which he depicts the murderer-turned-left-wing folk hero as a wise holy man who can do no wrong, especially in the film’s second part The Guerrilla.

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