Head on over to The Film Thugs blog to listen to the second episode of the HomeVideodrome podcast!

Folks, last week was overstuffed with new releases, this week is a bit of a dry spell.  One of the bigger releases this week is the Joel Surnow-produced miniseries The Kennedys has been the subject of a great deal of controversy, and the trouble it had getting onto TV sets has been covered extensively by conservative blogs.

Crackerjack documentarian Robert Greenwald (who also directed such cinematic masterpieces as Xanadu) spearheaded the effort to keep The History Channel from airing the miniseries by starting a petition at a web site called Stop Kennedy Smears.  This, along with the efforts of the Kennedy family, got the miniseries dropped from The History Channel, eventually landing it on the ReelzChannel.  Barry Pepper’s portrayal of Bobby Kennedy won the actor an Emmy at the awards ceremony over the weekend.

One must wonder, what is more damaging to the Kennedy legacy: a mini-series drama, or the recently released tapes in which Jackie-O calls Martin Luther King  a “phony” and talks about affairs and sex parties?  Seems like a no-brainer to me.

Available on Blu-ray and DVD. (more…)

NY Post’s Lou Lumenick:

A petition is circulating to stop an outdoor screening of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” next month at a Brooklyn Park. The beloved romantic dramedy starring Audrey Hepburn, which will celebrate its 50th anniversary in October, has long been considered problematic by many because of the bucktoothed, splenetic and bumbling Japanese character played by Mickey Rooney — an ethnic stereotype that was outdated even in 1961, and seems much more offensive than funny today.

A planned outdoor screening in Sacramento in 2008 was replaced by “Ratatouille” after a public outcry.

You do know this is just the beginning with these neo-fascists, right? After “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” they’ll go after “Gone With the Wind” and all the rest. And they and their ilk won’t stop until every film that offends everyone except white, Christian male conservatives disappears entirely — just like “Song of the South” has.

It may take years, decades or even generations, but the Left never stops. Never ever stops.

Orwell called this memory-holing.

Mickey Rooney’s Japanese character in “Breakfast” is way too over-the-top to ever be considered funny (I also think the movie is overrated in general), but if we’re going to start banning and making lists of “offensive” characterizations, I’d like to start with every portrayal of a Caucasian Eddie Murphy has ever done. And what about Archie Bunker? Talk about ethnic stereotyping.

See how that works?

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Over the weekend, I was pondering why the low budget, standard genre pic The Haunting in Connecticut (Lionsgate) has become a nifty little box office hit. The film added almost $9.5M over the weekend for a new 10-day cume of $37M, and the only conclusion I have been able to reach is that it’s all about the poster.

Creepy, right? I have not seen Haunting and will probably wait for DVD or pay cable, but that is a weird, startling, attention-grabbing image. As a movie junkie, I love good movie art. The best movie posters are evocative. They capture what a movie is all about without giving away the mystery. There are certain movie posters that instantly put me back in that theatre experiencing the film for the very first time. The best movie posters are not just promotional tools. They stand as a work of art on their own. These are my favorites, buit it is by no means a definitive list. Feel free to add your favorites (and subtract any of mine).

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Some time ago, in my eternal quest to set the record straight, I suggested that the true hero of the motion picture industry wasn’t Thomas Edison or D.W. Griffith, not Chaplin or Keaton, not Jack Warner or Louis B. Mayer, but the anonymous fellow who first came up with the notion of putting salt on popcorn, thus turning packing material into a concession stand bonanza that costs more per-pound than lox and caviar put together. 

But there are others who, more often than not, get overlooked while far too much praise is lavished on actors and directors.  I refer to the men who compose musical scores for dramatic films.  Although there have been great scores composed for mediocre movies, there has very rarely ever been a great movie that didn’t have a great score. An example of the difference a fine score can make was “Brian’s Song,” a TV movie that would have drowned in its own bathos and banalities if Michel Legrand’s music hadn’t saved it from itself.  (more…)