Watching “For Colored Girls” is an ordeal. The film is so jam-packed with tragedies that it’s difficult to catch your breath between them. From a man abusing his girlfriend to a young woman having a back alley abortion, “For Colored Girls” features a lot of heartache and pain, but it doesn’t have any sense of purpose. It sacrifices depth for despair and suffers because of it.

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The film tells the stories of a group of struggling black women. Several of the women live in an apartment building which is managed by Gilda (Phylicia Rashad), a motherly figure who looks out for her neighbors. On one side of Gilda’s apartment is an apartment that houses Crystal (Kimberly Elise), who lives with her boyfriend and their two children. Crystal’s boyfriend is a violent veteran who physically abuses her and their kids. On the other side of Gilda’s apartment lives Tangie (Thandie Newton). Tangie’s apartment is visited by male suitors throughout the day and night, to Gilda’s disapproval.

Many of the other characters are connected to these three women. Crystal’s boss Joanna (Janet Jackson) is an angry magazine editor whose marriage is suffering. Juanita (Loretta Devine), whose boyfriend lives in Gilda’s apartment building, runs a clinic for young women and seeks financial support from Joanna. Kelly (Kerry Washington) is a social worker who is investigating the abuse of Crystal’s children. Added to the mix is Alice (Whoopi Goldberg), Tangie’s religious mother who believes that the devil exists in her irresponsible daughter. These are only a few of the many characters featured in this story. (more…)

UPDATE from commenter Harley2002:  I have been riding over 40 years. And know men in real clubs. We riders laugh our asses off at the shear stupidity of that show. And yes after reading this I understand. It is a bunch of pussy Marxists trying to put together a show about bikers.

What a Friggin joke.

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Leftists will never forgive Sarah Palin for walking the walk and choosing life — which is just one of many reasons the Governor’s spirited and independent life-story, and that beautiful family of hers, shames them. What else explains this kind of mean-spirited rage? As far as Tina Fey, we’re almost certain she’s angry because the former Governor’s so much more prettier, influential, and famous than she is.

In related “Sons of Anarchy” news: (more…)

Elite critics and the “I don’t watch TV except for [insert list of shows here]” crowd love-love-love Friday Night Lights, but they always say things like, “It’s not really about football.” I hate conceding that point because it assumes that football isn’t awesome, when in fact, it’s the most awesome thing ever invented. I’ll concede that in the larger scheme of things, the show is about passion, but that passion could only come from football.

I believe football inspires more widespread passion than any of the other major sports in America. Dismissing football when praising Friday Night Lights, therefore, is a bit disingenuous in my opinion. Yes, it’s really about passion, but I don’t think there’s another sport or activity that could replace football and allow the show to remain as honest and relatable. And you don’t have to like football to agree with that, you simply have to recognize football’s place in America in the 21st Century. Especially in small towns, and even more especially in Texas.

To say the fictional town of Dillon, Texas loves them some football is beyond understating. They live it and breathe it. Dillon’s not a big city, not really a small town, either (it’s never really defined, though it doesn’t seem to be a replica of Odessa, the town from the book and movie that inspired the show). Regardless, the show brilliantly captures the highs and lows that come with  living vicariously through the local team, perhaps more brilliantly than did Hoosiers or any other sports related entertainment.

While the show’s qualities – directing, writing, acting, etc. – are many, the best things it has going for it are its characters, brought to life by an achingly good cast. The writers know the archetypes, and so do we, and we know when we meet stud running back Tim Riggins (Taylor Kitsch) that there is a great chance he will blow any and all opportunities to excel and will become one of those guys whose love of the glory days will haunt him forever. Riggins may become a stereotypical small town loser, but FNL takes great pains to show how that comes about. Still, other characters defy our expectations, like Tyra Collette (Adrianne Palicki), who in addition to being hotter than Texas asphalt on the Fourth of July, seems doomed to surviving off of tips from The Landing Strip. But her choices prove there’s more to her than we first realize. Her rivalry with another character, Lyla Garrity (you hear that name and you know she’s cuter than a person should be, and you’re right), transcends the typical bad girl/good girl scenario. (more…)

In a recent interview with Connie Britton and Kyle Chandler from “Friday Night Lights,” Chandler discussed his onscreen marriage to Britton. According to Chandler, executive producer Peter Berg told him and Britton “that the relationship wasn’t going to break up from divorce…It was going to be a regular marriage, with two people who were dedicated to each other and loved one another.” Even though other dramas often feature divorces and marriages collapsing, “FNL” took a stand and attempted to show a strong and realistic marriage with two committed adults in it. In fact, one of the best aspects of “FNL” is how the show is able to create realistic situations where characters are allowed to make both good and bad choices. Because of that and the show’s focus on both sides of the controversial debate, “FNL” has managed to overcome a recent controversial storyline about abortion.

Several weeks ago, I wrote about the “Friday Night Lights” pregnancy storyline that ended with Becky, a pregnant teenager, aborting her child. She did this partly because her mother strongly advocated that decision and because she felt that her mother always regretted giving birth to her. The episode ended with Becky talking to Luke, the baby’s father, and telling him that she had taken care of the situation. Although he was aware that Becky had contemplated having an abortion, he didn’t realize that she was definitely going to do it until procedure was completed.

In the three episodes that have aired since that episode, the pregnancy storyline has focused on Tami (Britton), a local school principal, dealing with the political ramifications of the situation. After becoming pregnant, Becky had approached Tami and asked for information about getting an abortion. That conversation proved controversial as some individuals, including Luke’s mother, called for Tami’s resignation after the abortion. In the show’s season finale, Tami planned to publicly apologize for her role in the situation but opted against it at the last minute. Instead she said that she “had always put the welfare of the students ahead of everything else” and that “every action that [she] made was with that intent.”  Tami was then put on administrative leave. Instead of suing the school to get her old job back, Tami said that she would accept a lower-profile position serving as the head counselor of a local school where her husband coaches the football team. The season ended after she offered to make such a deal. (more…)

A recent episode of the fourth season of “Friday Night Lights” has caused some controversy for its depiction of a teenage girl, named Becky (Madison Burge), struggling with a pregnancy. The baby’s father, Luke (played by the understated Matt Lauria), is a football player that she barely knows and she doesn’t know how to handle the situation. At the end of the episode, Becky informs Luke that she has had the abortion. The topics of teen pregnancy and abortion are inevitably controversial subjects and because of Becky’s decision, some people have criticized the show and Becky’s choice. Although I disagree with Becky’s decision, I still believe that the show depicted the situation in a serious and a mature way and it deserves praise for that. “Friday Night Lights,” even with this controversial storyline, continues to be an amazingly written and well-acted show. 

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The first piece I wrote for Big Hollywood was about the third season of “FNL,” where I wrote that FNL is “a phenomenal show which showcases the daily tests that the characters in the community of Dillon, Texas face on and off the football field.” That description still rings true in the fourth season of this often-overlooked television drama about a football community.

This season began with a lot of changes for the main characters. Coach Eric Taylor, the lead character, started coaching at another school on the other side of town after being forced out of his old position at the end of last season. His wife Tami remained principal at the old school which forced her to deal with some of the people who had helped get her husband removed from his position. Their daughter Julie had to deal with tension in her relationship with her boyfriend. (more…)

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NewsBusters documents the predictable response from the Usual Media Suspects who will always gush with praise when a television character rationalizes to millions of young, impressionable viewers that selfishly eliminating your unborn child is some kind of brave and moral choice. 

Of course had this same character made the ”choice” to join the Tea Party and support Sarah Palin for president in 2012, no doubt these very same media types would’ve fallen all over themselves to call the episode “television’s finest hour.” (more…)

Over the weekend, Scott Wampler of the Comedy Examiner reported that he contacted someone on the production crew involved in the June 25th “light-fry” episode, which involved a confrontation with a pro-life group protesting outside of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard.

There’s much of interest here, starting with the fact that this crewmember won’t reveal his of her identity. But also, from the way Wampler describes it, the film crew in question is directly employed by Jimmy Kimmel Live:

Well, it just so happens that we’re pals with someone on that very crew of Jimmy Kimmel Live employees (who wishes to remain nameless, by the way, but I can assure you– they work for the show), so I contacted the worker and asked for a statement.

“[O]n that very crew of Jimmy Kimmel Live employees” appears to contradict what NewsBusters was told July 2nd. (more…)

According to our friends at NewsBusters, on June 25th, a pro-life group called Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust were peacefully protesting outside of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood when a crew from the Jimmy Kimmel Show arrived to do some filming. The pro-life youth activists weren’t in the film crew’s way — whatever they were shooting was across the street — but then for no reason other than to be ideologically sadistic, the crew turned a hot spotlight on Ryan Bueler, one of the young protesters. Bueler refused to be intimidated and for 15 minutes stood under a light hot enough to partially melt a bracelet he was wearing. This video is unbelievable:

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Well, welcome to Hollywood, where celebrity and those who surround them trump justice, because it wasn’t the goons who tortured the kid the police arrested, it was Survivors’ founder Jeff White. He was eventually released but as of now no charges have been pressed against the real thugs in this case.

Looking for an apology, the pro-life group’s now trained their protests on Jimmy Kimmel. Fair enough. He’s the boss. But my guess is that this crew is part of a union and as we’ve seen since our President urged his followers to “get in their face,” there’s a thuggish union mentality out there that seems more emboldened by the day.

Word to the wise: If the Survivors plan to demand an apology from the union, they might want to hire an army to protect them.   (more…)

I must say, writing for Big Hollywood has made me face the most belligerently intelligent among my readers, many of whom refuse to believe that murder is murder.

Even those who are willing to admit that abortion does end a human life, defend Roe V. Wade by saying that abortion, like alcoholism, cannot be stopped by Prohibition.

Hmmm …

Alcoholism is only terminal for the alcoholic, therefore, having experienced it myself, it is suicidal.

A law against suicide is utterly unenforceable for the obvious reasons, mainly that, in the case of suicide, “too late is too late.”

Alcoholism, though a disturbing disease, is not as unrelentingly homicidal as abortion.

Abortion, on the other hand, takes the life of an innocent human being and is therefore, both per se and ipso facto, murder.

Let us not, despite the verbal circumlocutions of the Supreme Court, deny that. (more…)

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St. Petersburg Times:

A St. Petersburg Times investigation found their experiences were not unique. More than a dozen women said the culture in the Sea Org pushed them or women they knew to have abortions, in many cases, abortions they did not want.

Some said colleagues and supervisors pressured them to abort their pregnancies and remain productive workers without the distraction of raising children. Terminating a pregnancy and staying on the job affirmed one’s commitment to the all-important work of saving the planet. (more…)

Saturday Night Live scraped the bottom of the barrel in its latest silver screen adaptation “MacGruber,” which garnered a measly $4.1 million opening weekend. Equally depressing was how SNL turned the largely enjoyable spoof into disgusting mire overflowing with F-bombs, barely disguised C-words and as what seemed as many bathroom jokes as swear words. 

MacGruber (Will Forte), an ex-Navy Seal and ex-Army Ranger who has garnered 16 Purple Hearts and three Congressional Medals of Honor, has undergone a self-exile after his arch nemesis, influential businessman Dieter Von Cunth (Val Kilmer), murders his bride-to-be, Casey (Maya Rudolph), at the altar. But a nuclear warhead has gone missing and Cunth is believed to be the culprit. Desperate for answers the military once again calls their most versatile weapon, the mullet-sporting MacGruber. MacGruber, hoping to avenge Casey’s death, assembles a team with Casey’s best friend (Kristen Wiig) and a recent military school graduate (Ryan Phillippe) who is eager to become an equally decorated officer. 

If you watched the preview you’ve already seen some of the most intelligent humor in the film, and the least offensive. After a few minutes of light humor surrounding MacGruber’s impressive military accomplishments, the film dives into a manure heap of male nudity, jokes on homosexuality and sex noises and even a light reference to abortion on demand.  (more…)

I think Whoopi Goldberg has as much hair inside her head as she has outside it. What else explains the harebrained thinking she exhibited (again) on her coffee klatcher’s show The View on May 4?

Goldberg attempted to explain why she supports abortion. It’s because, you see, if parents can’t kill their kids in utero she thinks parents will just kill their kids later on in their lives.

The discussion centered around a new law in Oklahoma that required abortion patients to view their in vitro babies via a new 3-D ultrasound before they make the final decision to undergo the abortion procedure.

Goldberg was against the new law and in her muddled thinking this was her reason to oppose it: (more…)

[Rosie] O’Donnell said she wanted to “build on what Oprah began and excelled at for 25 years, in my own style and with new adaptations and ideas.”

(more…)

Our documentary Not Evil Just Wrong is on tour in Alaska. The film asks if Global Warming science is really settled but perhaps more importantly focuses on the damage that proposed “solutions” will have on the poorest people on the planet.

Not Evil Just Wrong examines the true cost of expensive energy for those who already live in poverty or fixed incomes.

One of the highlights of the Alaska tour was a visit to Colony High School in Wasilla where we screened an excerpt of the documentary and took questions from students.

Sarah Palin, Wasilla’s most famous resident, did not attend but a large number of children were there and seemed interested and asked interesting questions.

Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth has been shown many times, in many classes at the school and the students seemed to appreciate an alternative. (more…)

Abortion is a sensitive topic no matter which side of the argument you support. And when I was asked to review the first episode of a web show called “Bump+,” I wasn’t quite sure I wanted to do it.

When it comes to abortion, I am in the pro-life camp. I wasn’t always – but having two children of my own changed my mind. And I’m thankful I was never in a position to have to even think about it. For me, exceptions to this rule are cases like the one in Brazil last year, where a 9-year-old girl who was carrying twins because her stepfather raped her. At that age and that size (she was only 80 pounds), doctors said her life would be endangered.

My personal feelings aside, I realize that — at least for most people — abortion is a serious topic and if you are faced with that choice, it shouldn’t be made lightheartedly. I know several women who have had abortions, and I know that for two of them, the decisions were definitely not easy.

This is why I decided to check out “Bump+,” which is a faux “reality show” about three women out of about 300 who were chosen to participate in a show that will follow them for four weeks, chronicling their struggle to decide whether to have their unplanned babies or abort them. In addition to following their stories, viewers will “decide how our characters’ stories will end,” says executive producer Dominic Iocco. “We’ve opened the official website to comments and our team will craft the final episodes based on audience feedback. The choice is really up to you.” Viewers are encouraged to submit their own stories and comments. (more…)

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There`s nothing I love more than female celebrities helping out troubled beasts or endangered species. You`ve got Pam Anderson worrying about the polar bears, Doris Day fretting over abandoned cats and dogs – and of course, Sheryl Crow passionately fighting for wild horses currently roaming our country. Apparently, Crow`s mad at the government for trying to remove 25,000 mustangs from the range, in an effort to send them to greener pastures.

I feel her mane.

But as much as I admire all their work protecting those who can`t protect themselves, it makes me wonder: would they do the same thing if they were the ones who became endangered?

I`m talking about women. (more…)