The film industry is getting a lesson on morality from … shock jock extraordinaire Howard Stern?

The self-described King of All Media lashed out via his SiriusXM radio show at the pressure put on director Brett Ratner to abandon his perch as the Oscar telecast producer after Ratner used the word “fags” in public.

Stern, who learned of Ratner’s “fag” slur from The Hollywood Reporter, said he stopped using that word a while ago, but that Ratner wasn’t gay-bashing when he used it, therefore he shouldn’t have lost his job as producer of the 84^th Academy Awards telecast …

Then he laid into Hollywood, calling it “a town where people have to run around closeted for many different things.”

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‘THE SUPER COPS’ FINALLY GETS DVD RELEASE

As a kid I used to be sure to stay up — even on a school night — to catch this whenever it played on the Late Show. With that ritual long dead, it’s probably been thirty years since I’ve seen this terrific, underrated, 1974 urban actioner that’s based on a true story and stars David Selby and The Great Ron Liebman.

What I mostly remember is loads of action and the fact that the entire production was shot on location. At the time, the burnt out buildings, vacant lots filled with trash, grit, grime and turtlenecks didn’t feel like a throwback. That was simply what Brooklyn looked like. It was still a cool look, though, and will look even cooler today. The reason for this is obvious when you realize “Super Cops” is directed by Gordon Parks, the man responsible for helming the timeless “Shaft” (1970) and its first sequel “Shaft’s Big Score” (1972).

For the life of me I can’t understand why Liebam wasn’t/isn’t a bigger star. You’ll probably recognize him from his recurring role on “Friends” or his memorable, Oscar-nominated role as the fish-out-of-water union organizer in “Norma Rae.” Besides “The Super Cops,” another showcase for this versatile actor’s talents is 1981’s “Zorro, the Gay Blade,” where he practically steals the show as the ruthless Captain Esteban. You can’t watch his hilarious work and ever hear the word “peoples” the same way again.

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What’s to Like

From director Garry Marshall to stars like Ashton Kutcher, Jessica Biel, and Hector Elizondo, “New Year’s Eve” feels like a carbon copy of last year’s “Valentine’s Day.” It seems clear that the producers of this new film  are trying to replicate the success of that  earlier comedy, which also explored a variety of romantic relationships on one specific holiday. Like its predecessor, it’s hard not to be impressed with this stellar cast that also includes Robert De Niro, Seth Meyers, and Hilary Swank. I actually enjoyed “Valentine’s Day” so this film has potential if it follows a similar formula.

What’s to Dislike

A similar formula is one thing but if this film becomes a bland carbon copy of “Day,” it could easily become a waste of time. If this story is only as good as its predecessor, why shouldn’t people just rent last year’s hit instead of paying ten dollars to see this new picture?

The Verdict

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Sam Rockwell has been hauled back to the cinematic slam, and that’s a good thing. His Green Mile portrayal of Louisiana psycho murderer ‘Wild Bill’ Wharton bouncing around his death row jail cell was a standout performance. Now he shows us another facet in Conviction as Kenneth Waters, a Massachusetts man wrongly convicted of a murder because of police and prosecutorial corruption.

Rockwell’s Conviction performance  is enhanced by double Oscar winner Hilary Swank and Oscar-nominee Minnie Driver.  Together, they perform like a well-matched troika, the Russian three horse team that pulls sleighs, where the middle horse provides steadiness and stability while the two outer ones gallop with abandon. Driver provides that centeredness with a humorous, smoldering femininity,  allowing Rockwell’s  and Swank’s characters to respectively express the gut wrenching emotion of a man unjustly convicted and the journey of a sister trying to free him against all odds.

It’s a predicament that many have shared and still do. Evidence fakery and coerced lying under oath by law enforcement officers happens way more often in America’s justice system than most know or would ever believe because too many people think stories like Waters’ are aberrations or exaggerations. In fact, that’s what Hilary Swank thought at first. “There’s a part of you that has to be like,  This could never happen.  And then you realise that it is happening.” (more…)

Our newest film in this series, 1931’s The Champ, marks the first time we begin our study not with a director but with a writer. Not to say that the director didn’t have a great deal to do with the success of the film — he most certainly did, and (as the title of this post hints) we will review that contribution in good time. But in the case of The Champ, it was the writer who was primarily responsible for the rich familial tone and heart-rending melodrama for which this touching little film (only 86 minutes) is best known and remembered.

The Champ is that rare film that features a pair of strong male leads doing masculine things in a masculine universe, but with nuanced and delicate characterizations that delve far deeper than the usual sports movie, tearing at the raw edges of what it means to be a parent in an imperfect world, to live through the tragedy of a broken family, and to suffer the premature loss of childhood innocence. On the surface, these subjects would seem ill at home in one of the most famous boxing movies of all time. But The Champ is not based on a true story, or cribbed from a famous novel — it was wholly conceived in the mind of the screenwriter. And not just any screenwriter, but the most prolific (and arguably one of the greatest) in Hollywood history. Who was he, you ask?

Well, first of all, he was a she. (more…)

In 2006, while accepting the Academy Award for playing a husky, grizzled version of himself, George Clooney famously gushed, “…this Academy, this group of people gave Hattie McDaniel an Oscar in 1939 when blacks were still sitting in the backs of theaters. I’m proud to be a part of this Academy. I’m proud to be part of this community. I’m proud to be out of touch.”

My apologies for bringing up old crap, but Clooney’s statement, especially the part about how he’s so proud to be out of touch, is one of the most bafflingly odd things I’ve ever heard coming from Clooney, who’s also famous for telling anyone who’ll listen that everybody tells him all the time how brave he was for making a black and white movie about the red scare. It’s very revealing that Clooney would say this, to cheers, a mere three years after a child-rapist was handed an award by that same Academy. (more…)

One day a few years ago, back in Scotland, my brother and his friend Kenny were reminiscing about the knocks and scrapes of growing up. It was all fairly normal stuff until Kenny suddenly blurted out: 

‘Yeah, it’s like the first time you win a square go with your dad!’ 

Now for those among you who did not grow up in West Fife let me explain the meaning of ‘a square go.’ This is a game that requires you to take turns punching your opponent in the face as hard as you can, until one of you passes out or begs the other to stop. 

Naturally my brother looked at Kenny in shock. And for the first time in his life Kenny began to suspect that smacking your dad really hard in the face and vice versa was not necessarily a universal bonding experience.  (more…)

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…)