Where Will James Cameron Stand When His Terrorist Chic Eco-Revolution Begins?

It’s hard to know what to make of a rich Hollywood mogul who announces that he “believe[s] in eco-terrorism” yet has a carbon footprint of his own that does to the environment what Godzilla did to Bambi.  As Pam Meister has pointed out here at Big Hollywood, it looks as though Cameron lives like a modern day rajah at his multi-mansion compound in Malibu and presides over an array of sprawling production facilities.  The greenest thing about this guy is the cash in his vault.

Now, it’s possible that his comment to Entertainment Weekly was just some off-the-cuff nonsense that just sort of slipped out.  That’s understandable.  Everyone says something mind-numbingly stupid once in a while.  Just ask Senator Coakley (D-MA).

You want to give the benefit of the doubt to the guy who, despite the freakin’ stupid  Avatar, made great movies like The Terminator, Aliens, True Lies, Titanic and, of course, the moving Piranha 2: The Spawning.  The guy has what the hep kids today call “mad skillz.”  We really want his unbelievably dumb statement to be just an unbelievably dumb statement. (more…)

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Tags: "True Lies", Aliens, army, avatar, Bambi
Posted Jan 27th 2010 at 5:04 pm in Celebrity News, Film, Politics | 29730241 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/kschlichter/2010/01/27/cameron-first-against-the-wall-when-his-terrorist-chic-eco-revolution-begins/Where+Will+James+Cameron+Stand+When+His+Terrorist+Chic+Eco-Revolution+Begins%3F2010-01-28+01%3A04%3A42Kurt+Schlichter

‘Avatar’ and the Myth of the Noble ‘Blueskins’: Part One

With the success of James Cameron’s Avatar, audiences are once again being assaulted by Hollywood’s assumption of self-hate and false politically correct “truths” about who America is today and what we were in our past.  Of course we shouldn’t be surprised, a look at James Cameron’s past films with military characters like Aliens and The Abyss show a similar disdain for the military.  His scientists are always good and noble, but his military types, whether official or the contractor type as in Avatar remain uneducated, redneck killers.  After all this is a film that lying propagandist, so-called “filmmaker” Michael Moore has declared, “a brilliant film for our times.”

I much prefer the balance of say the great 1951 black and white classic The Thing, where James Arness’s murderous, but very smart alien runs amok in an isolated Arctic research station.  That is until captain Ken Toby and his wisecracking Army Air Corps crew and few common sense scientists manage to fry said killer alien’s ass with a makeshift electric chair.

The Thing’s military guys get all the really good lines, too.  In level headed response to the naive head scientist’s crazy insistence that “…our lives do not matter.  Knowledge, that’s the only reason to live, it knows far more then we do.  We can learn from it.  Just think we’ve split the atom.”  Toby’s co-pilot responds wryly, “Yeah, and that sure made the world happy didn’t it.”   But what do I know?   I love westerns and military films; only the rare common sense science fiction film like The Thing or a grand adventure like Star Wars captures my fancy. (more…)

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Tags: Aliens, avatar, Cameron, michael moore, The Abyss
Posted Jan 21st 2010 at 5:07 am in Culture, Featured Story, Film, Politics | 292198115 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/dgagliasso/2010/01/21/avatar-and-the-myth-of-the-noble-blueskins-part-one/%27Avatar%27+and+the+Myth+of+the+Noble+%27Blueskins%E2%80%99%3A+Part+One2010-01-21+13%3A07%3A23Dan+Gagliasso

Semper Films: The Top Ten Marine Corps Movies

The men and women who earn the right to wear eagle, globe and anchor of the United States Marine Corps are a special breed.   To those outside the Corps, they talk funny.  They look funny.  They are extremely impressed with themselves – and they have every right to be. 

My beloved United States Army is a blunt instrument, a magnificent club that has pummels our nation’s enemies into submission.  But the Marines are America’s rapier, a razor sharp weapon of war that has never been bested and never will be.  For over two centuries, the United States Marine Corps has been fighting our country’s battles in the air, on land and sea.  They don’t give up.  They don’t quit.  There’s no word for retreat in a Marine’s vocabulary.  And they are making history even today in the mountains of Afghanistan and elsewhere.

November 10th is the Corps’ 234th birthday.  With the indulgence of my Devil Dog brethren, here is this Army veteran’s countdown of the Top Ten Marine Corp movies: (more…)

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Tags: 55 Days at Peking, a few good men, aaron sorkin, Adam Baldwin, Al Mathews
Posted Nov 10th 2009 at 9:41 am in Classic Hollywood, Film, Military | 260006170 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/kschlichter/2009/11/10/semper-films-the-top-ten-marine-corps-movies/Semper+Films%3A+The+Top+Ten+Marine+Corps+Movies2009-11-10+17%3A41%3A33Kurt+Schlichter

‘V’ Teaches Us to Combat False Saviors

The first episode of the new science fiction television series “V” is a wake up call to those looking for salvation in the wrong places. We cannot predict where the series will go, but the opening episode features a young pastor, who plays a lead role in opposing the rush to consider some benevolent looking aliens to be the saviors of mankind.

The aliens are called “visitors,” shortened to “Vs,” thus the title of the program. They appear over major cities in large hovering spaceships that project messages in the local language. More than just the classic we-come-in-peace message, the messages say, “We’re here to help you.”

The opening episode makes it very clear, however, that they are not here to help. It turns out the Vs have planted many of their kind, who look human, prior to their dramatic arrival in spaceships. The alien plants have done their best to foul up life on earth in order to encourage a hunger for “change” (salvation). The Chicago Tribune draws a parallel to the Obama administration but, while many believe President Obama was not born in the United States, it’s unlikely he was born on another planet. Even so, it’s interesting that the evil aliens offer “universal health care” to all people. Thus, the first episode clearly seems to be saying that President Obama’s health care proposals, now making their way through the U.S. Congress, are a false hope that will lead to tyranny and slavery. (more…)

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Tags: abc, Aliens, False Saviors, God, Priest
Posted Nov 6th 2009 at 6:36 pm in Religion, Television | 25881078 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/drbaehr/2009/11/06/v-teaches-us-to-combat-false-saviors/%27V%27+Teaches+Us+to+Combat+False+Saviors2009-11-07+02%3A36%3A53Ted+Baehr

Balloon Boy: The Right of Every American To Be a TV Star

People have it all wrong about Richard Heene.  He’s not the perpetrator of a poorly-executed hoax, but a victim, a victim of America’s callous disregard for those who suffer from the silent plague that is Media Absence Disorder (MAD).

Sadly, the dead white males who imposed the Constitution on America enumerated only negative rights that limit the power of the government over its citizens.  But if you squint your eyes and look beyond obstacles like the plain text, lurking in there somewhere behind the penumbras and emanations is the positive right of every American to be a TV star.  Those with MAD are not cretins to be shunned but civil rights visionaries at the edge of a new frontier of governmental largess and probably a lot of profitable litigation.

It’s obvious that American society has failed the Heene family.  After he and his brood’s triumphant appearances on Wife Swap, Heene was left media-deficient and was forced to feed his addiction with crude YouTube videos.  In one, he speculated that Hilary Clinton is a shape-shifting space reptile, which would be totally cool if true.  In another, he claimed that he spoke to aliens at a local fast food restaurant, which is actually pretty typical, at least at Southern California fast food joints.

This sad state of affairs was a direct result of the deep, black emptiness in Heene’s life that could never be filled by superficial things like work, religion or family.  Like all MAD-men, he craves, needs, must have the validation that only comes from having his mug flashing across America’s television screens.  He not only wants his MTV, he has to have it.  And we owe it to him. (more…)

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Tags: Aliens, balloon boy, Colorado, constitution, Media Absence Disorder
Posted Oct 22nd 2009 at 6:55 am in Culture, Politics, Television | 24957837 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/kschlichter/2009/10/22/balloon-boy-the-right-of-every-american-to-be-a-tv-star/Balloon+Boy%3A+The+Right+of+Every+American+To+Be+a+TV+Star2009-10-22+13%3A55%3A09Kurt+Schlichter

James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ Slams America

From The Hollywood Reporter’s interview with “Avatar” Director James Cameron at San Diego Comic-Con 2009:

THR: You’ve mentioned this ["Avatar"] is a parable.

Cameron: Really what this film ultimately does is hold a mirror to our own blighted history, where we have a culturally advanced civilization supplanting more “primitive” civilizations. Some of these civilizations and cultures have a lot more wisdom than we’ve shown. We just have bigger guns. We have ships that can cross oceans, we have horses and armor. And this country we’re in now was taken from its indigenous owners. And it’s kind of owning up to our own human history.

(more…)

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Tags: Aliens, avatar, Comic Con, guns, indigenous peoples
Posted Jul 24th 2009 at 3:53 pm in Celebrity News, Media Criticism, Politics | 191470222 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/bighollywood/2009/07/24/james-camerons-avatar-takes-critical-view-of-america/James+Cameron%27s+%27Avatar%27+Slams+America2009-07-24+22%3A53%3A28Big+Hollywood

Sergeants Rock

I just cannot get behind this Star Trek rebirth.  The whole thing is just so unrealistic.  Not the warp speed or phasers or beaming about the universe – those are at least remotely plausible.  I am talking about the fact that the starship Enterprise is composed entirely of officers and yet it still seems to function.  Where are the non-commissioned officers (NCO), the petty officers and sergeants who actually make any military organization run?  No, I can suspend disbelief over Klingons and tribbles, and I actively support the notion of green alien hotties.  But the idea of a functioning military unit without sergeants is just a wormhole too far.

–

Hollywood movies often focus on the commanders, the captains and colonels, but they have also managed to highlight some great sergeants as well.  When you are picking out DVDs for next weekend, remember that May 16th is Armed Forces Day and consider a few selections that show the sergeant in all his gruff and grumbling glory. 

If you have never experienced the joy of going through basic training and do not plan to, your first stop should be Full Metal Jacket, with R. Lee Ermey’s legendary portrayal of a Marine drill instructor who must have missed out on the block of instruction on sensitivity.  I saw this in the theater about a week before I reported to Basic.  That was a poor idea. (more…)

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Tags: A Bridge Too Far, Afghanistan, Al Matthews, Aliens, An Officer and a Gentleman
Posted May 11th 2009 at 4:47 pm in Entertainment, Military | 131010110 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/kschlichter/2009/05/11/sergeants-rock/Sergeants+Rock2009-05-11+23%3A47%3A39Kurt+Schlichter

What Sequels Teach Us About Developing Character

I hated the ending of Raiders of the Lost Ark. No, not the Citizen Kane homage rosebud scene at the end – I loved that – but the ending of the movie. I didn’t want it to end. I hadn’t enjoyed a film that much since, well, Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, or Jaws. I wanted it to continue. I wanted more. 

I got more and I didn’t want it. 

Why don’t sequels do well? Obviously, I’m not alone in feeling the way I do about Raiders or Star Wars or Jaws or any other great character-rich, dynamically set film that pulls you in and doesn’t fully let go even after the end titles trail up and we see that film certification symbol fade out. So, why is it that more of what we love, we hate? Well, maybe not hate, but not love quite so much. What’s going on here?  (more…)

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Tags: Alien, Alien 3, Alien Resurrection, Aliens, bob hope
Posted Apr 5th 2009 at 2:07 pm in Entertainment, Reviews | 97242130 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smann/2009/04/05/developing-character/What+Sequels+Teach+Us+About+Developing+Character2009-04-05+21%3A07%3A59Schizoid+Mann