Prepare to be horribly disappointed.

One comment I read put it best: Too bad Frank Sinatra isn’t alive to kick his ass.

ABC News:

[On his radio show, Howard] Stern then asked Bennett about how America should deal with terrorists, specifically those responsible for the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center.

“But who are the terrorists? Are we the terrorists or are they the terrorists? Two wrongs don’t make a right,” Bennett said.

In a soft-spoken voice, the singer disagreed with Stern’s premise that 9/11 terrorists’ actions led to U.S. military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“They flew the plane in, but we caused it,” Bennett responded. “Because we were bombing them and they told us to stop.”

Following seconds of silence, Stern said that his guest was “making some good points.”

Before leaving, Bennett recalled an evening in 2005 when he was honored at the Kennedy Center. Meeting President George W. Bush at the event, the singer said that the commander-in-chief shared his opinion about the Iraq War.

“He told me personally that night that, he said, ‘I think I made a mistake,’” Bennett said.

Bennett believed that the president made this revelation because “he had a special liking to me.”

Bush told a lib crooner he made a mistake in Iraq?

Looks like Bennett also left his credibility in San Francisco.

Yeah, this will sell albums.

It’s hard to come out of Lt. Dan Band: For the Common Good without a healthy feeling of irony. You’ve just witnessed a prime example of man’s inhumanity and cruelty inspiring a display of man’s greatest virtues–honor, sacrifice, compassion, and unity.  It’s not just a concert film; it’s another illustration of the central thesis of Andrew Breitbart’s Righteous Indignation: that pop culture trumps politics without fail. In the midst of a hopelessly contentious and divisive foreign war, our politicians and pundits have nowhere near the profound effect on troop morale as a simple cover band led by a TV actor. The study of the relationship between civilian and soldier in wartime provides a compelling subject for this expansive documentary.

Director Jonathan Flora frames the film around Gary Sinise, an actor and director with a long, intimate history with soldiers and veterans, though he himself has never served. From his brother-in-law, who was killed in Vietnam, to current bandmate Kimo Williams,  a ‘Nam veteran who started jamming with Sinise after they met on a production of A Streetcar Named Desire in the mid-90s, his career has always seemed to providentially intertwine with the military. Following the jihadist attacks of 9/11, Sinise felt compelled to help those directly affected by the Twin Towers’ destruction, volunteering in campaigns to benefit the FDNY. This spirit of volunteerism, in concert with his ever more frequent band practices with Williams,  materialized into a USO tour in 2003. Despite his diverse résumé, Sinise was universally associated with his Oscar-nominated performance as “Lieutenant Dan” from Forrest Gump, so as the group expanded, Sinise named it the “Lieutenant Dan Band,” and the rest is history. (more…)

Two of the best military documentaries since Jake Rademacher’s Brothers at War premiered at the G. I. Film festival last weekend to incredible audience enthusiasm.  David Scantling’s Patrol Base Jaker and Mitty Giffis Mirrer’s Gold Star Children captured viewers with two completely divergent looks at the War on Terror.  Patrol Base Jaker won the G. I. Film Festival’s coveted Best Documentary Feature Award telling the behind the scenes story of a successful counter insurgency mission that many in the liberal press don’t want to acknowledge.

This is NOT a propaganda piece – Jaker shows just how difficult the job of counterinsurgency is, and how successful and rewarding it can be. The 1st Battalion 5th Marine Regiment’s Regimental Combat Team 3, the 1st Combat Engineer Battalion, Combat Logistics Battalion 8 and the unit’s highly motivated civil affairs teams took over Patrol Base Jaker in the almost deserted Taliban controlled town of Nawa-l-Brakzayi in Helmand Province. The British unit that was relieved had been so under manned that they had to over depend on air support that sometimes killed and wounded local civilians.

Enter Jaker’s commanding officer Colonel William McCollough, a scholar-warrior of the best type who commands through example, intelligence and understanding. McCollough’s officers, NCO’s and enlisted personnel not only push back the Taliban from Nawa but implement a large number of successful civil affairs missions, ranging from rebuilding and resupplying local schools, clearing irrigation ditches and providing wheat seed to replace the poppies that help fund the Taliban. They also reinvigorate the abandoned market place, gradually getting the locals to bringing back almost 80 merchants and do their best to help reform the corrupt local governmental hierarchy and police. This is a film about gaining trust, one uneasy step at a time. (more…)

Essentially, what Michael Moore and Roseanne Barr are saying here (though she argues with him before she appears to agree on principle) is that America shouldn’t have gone into Libya because George W. Bush destroyed the trust the world had in us. And so, as a consequence, the number one priority for our Pentagon and military is that they should take a “time out” and stop doing anything until the world trusts and loves us again.

Translation? Sitting on our hands as untold thousands of civilians are butchered in the Middle East will help rebuild the trust the people in the Middle East have in us.

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I’m always impressed by how compassionate the likes of a Michael Moore can sound as he speaks evil. To him the Pentagon taking a ”time out” takes precedent over saving thousands of innocent lives. Moore can lie all he wants, he can say the French should have taken the lead in Libya, but he knows full well that the French are incapable of summoning the kind of military might necessary to do what needed to be done last week. There’s plenty to criticize regarding Obama’s stunning lack of leadership, clarity and commitment, but the idea of America standing helplessly by as a potentially historic Middle East uprising is gunned down and butchered, is unthinkable.

It was the same with these people and the war in Iraq. I had no problem with those who opposed the war before we went in. But once we were there, once the Iraqi people stood up and voted for our side, we had and have a moral obligation to stand with them until they can take over the security of their country. And yet, knowing the consequence of an American withdrawal on the Iraqi civilian population, knowing what the death squads and terrorists would do to  millions of innocents who trusted us, wicked people like Michael Moore and, yes, Barack Obama still did everything in their power to make that happen.

(more…)

HBO just can’t help themselves.  Less than two weeks after the pay television giant announced Julianne Moore, 50, will play a 43 year old Sarah Palin during the 2008 Presidential election, the network announced its intentions to make another anti-GOP movie based on the 2008 Barton Gellman book, Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency as well as The Dark Side, a 2006 documentary which aired on Frontline, a PBS public affairs series.

There is no argument that Gellman’s book casts a very dark and negative shadow over Republican Vice President, Dick Cheney.  His own website describes the book as taking on “the full scope of Cheney’s work and its consequences, including his hidden role in the Bush administration’s most fateful choices in war: shifting focus from al Qaeda to Iraq, unleashing the National Security Agency to spy at home, and promoting ‘cruel and inhuman’ methods of interrogation.”  If you didn’t know any better, you might think that description fits a member of the KGB, or even the Gestapo.

The Dark Side, not to be confused with the UK horror film publication or as the general concept of evil in the Star Wars universe or the anthology horror TV series produced by George A. Romero or the DC comics super-villain, no The Dark Side is a documentary produced by David Fanning and Michael Kirk of Frontline.  The title of the documentary perverts a quote from Cheney a few days after the 9/11 attacks in which he stated that in order to defend America against future Osama bin Laden and al Queda attacks, we would have to work “sort of the dark side, if you will,” because, “That’s the world these folks operate in…” and depicts the struggle between the CIA and the vice president and how Cheney was the chief architect of the war on terror and invasion of Iraq.

(more…)

A fight to the death in an urban hell between US Marines and an implacable, evil foe who murders civilians without a second thought – if only Hollywood had the moral courage to tell that story straight, the story of America’s finest who battled to victory over jihadi degenerates in Fallujah and throughout Iraq and Afghanistan.  But Hollywood can’t tell that story, not without exchanging the real menace our men and women are fighting everyday for a horde of CGI space aliens.  Sadly, the industry lacks the moral courage of the men and women it portrays.

Let’s be clear – Battle: Los Angeles is a terrific action film that makes no bones about its pro-American, pro-military agenda.  And that fact has invited carping from the usual suspects, lefty movie critics who work themselves up into a lather over the portrayal of better men than they will ever be.   

And note that when I use the term “men” here, I include the fighting women of the US armed forces – don’t worry, critics:  Heroines like Sergeant Leigh Ann Hester will protect you . . . just move to the rear with the children and try not to get in the way. 

The fact is that science fiction has long been a tool to comment on the present, including the relationship between our warriors and our society.  Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers was a fascinating depiction of military life as well as what the author saw as a degrading, decaying culture.  The Paul Verhoeven film of the same name, though different in tone, had its own insights into military vulture, including coed showers and a machine gun-packing Doogie Howser.

(more…)

The takeaway from this interview is that Jon Stewart is really upset that while the administration obviously deliberated at great length behind the scenes, they did not hem and haw over whether or not to go to war with Iraq in public. And at the very end of the interview, “The “Daily Show” host sure doesn’t want to hear or acknowledge how close Saddam was to reconsituting his WMD program — this monster of a man determined to have and willing to use chemical and biological weapons.

Stewart does what he can to press his point of view, but for the most part he’s stuck on stupid and arguing with the facts. To suggest that it would’ve been a good idea for an adminstration to publicly express doubts about the reasons behind a war or over the outcome is beyond absurd, and to paper over the fact, as though it doesn’t matter, that Saddam was never far away from being a chemical or biological menace is equally absurd.

(more…)

While Bush was busy taking care of his base and professing his love for our troops, he proposed cutting combat soldiers’ pay by 33% and assistance to their families by 60%.

Why it’s a left-wing film

Writer/director Michael Moore’s paranoid pack of audaciously demagogic lies dropped on the world in the heat of an American presidential election and an ongoing war in Iraq. Just for starters, the film says outright or insinuates that Iraq under Saddam was some sort of paradise, George W. Bush won the presidency in 2000 after thousands of black people weren’t allowed to vote, Bush covered up for the bin Laden family after the 9/11 attacks, and the Bush family’s friendship and business ties in the Middle East were a large part of the motivation behind waging war in Iraq and Afghanistan. After that, fill in your own blanks using the left’s greatest crazy hits: Diebold, Halliburton, WMD, Mission Accomplished, “My Pet Goat,” and then wrap it all in the hard candy shell of a whole lot of troop-bashing through the insidious use of anecdotal evidence.

No wonder Moore received a 20 minute standing ovation at Cannes.

It was the summer of 2004 and for argument’s sake let’s say that Moore attacking a sitting president with provable lies is the price of an open democracy. However… Let us never forget that in 2004 Iraq was a country where the civilian population had already turned out to vote (under a very real threat of violence and at a percentage higher than our own presidential election) for the American plan of self-governance. Therefore, and I don’t say this lightly, Moore’s calculated use of the awesome power of cinematic sound and fury to undermine the war was an act of outright evil. In fact, I have no doubt that Moore is so morally twisted that when Osama bin Laden seemed to quote “Fahrenheit 9/11″ in a video dropped just days before the 2004 presidential election, the Oscar-winner took some pride in the recognition.

For those of you who haven’t seen today’s pick, imagine a film widely released next year into 868 theatres that receives overwhelming critical praise, grosses an astonishing $222 million, receives all kinds of awards love (Moore’s unquenchable ego screwed his own Oscar chances),and all kinds of mainstream political support, but… Puts forth the theory that President Obama is a Manchurian candidate — a foreign-born Muslim terrorist-sympathizer in league with the likes of Bill Ayers and Louis Farrakhan to bring down the United States from within.

That’s what a “Fahrenheit 9/11″ equivalent would look like today.

(more…)

Rock and roll and Islam seem about as compatible as oysters and cheesecake, yet probably to the surprise of many Americans, there is a solid (although perhaps not yet omnipresent) rock presence in the Middle East. Canada’s Vice Films sent a crew under Suroosh Alvi to Iraq in 2006 to document a concert by a heavy metal band, “Acrassicauda,” whom they had been following since 2003. And, yes, Virginia, they did play heavy metal.

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Alvi has a running under-commentary about the on-going ubiquitous Iraq war, which was strangely (and refreshingly) undefined and unfocused. Certainly a critical view of America’s actions underscored the shots of bombed out hotels, of guard checks, and most of all, of the stories told by the band members. “Firas” (who knows if these were real names, given security issues) the bass player, spoke the best English and thus became the central character; “Tony,” the lead guitarist, though hyped as a spectacular talent, was barely average by western standards. “Marwan,” the drummer, and “Faisal,” the second vocalist that Alvi talked to (the first having fled to Syria) offered occasional pity comments. According to Marwan, “if you can teach every prisoner to play drums . . . you’re gonna have good citizens. . . .” (Here in the United States, I think we have tried that by having them do laundry or make license plates. Not sure if that’s worked yet.) (more…)

We may have just found the outer edge of the Hollywood taste envelope, all thanks to Andy and Larry Wachowski, the creators of The Matrix.  Formerly known as the Wachowski Brothers – that is, until Larry decided after making zillions of dollars and gaining millions of slobbering fans that the only thing standing between him and true happiness was his penis – this pair’s latest project, Cobalt Neural 9, appears to be repelling even the jaded mandarins of Hollywood. 

Oh, it’s not because the content of CN9 will be vacuous, foul and outright evil, though it is.  It’s because no one in Tinseltown thinks the movie will make any money.

So what is CN9 about?  Well, it appears to mix condemnation of the Iraq War, a healthy dose of gay sex, naturally, a plot to assassinate George W. Bush.  Sounds less like a hit movie than the agenda for a Daily Kos staff meeting.

According to New York Magazine, which apparently got a copy of the script, a future archeologist finds video that tells the story of – get this – “Butch,” a studly, kill-crazy Army soldier in Iraq who falls in love with an Iraqi dude and then consummates said love in graphic fashion.  Butch and his special friend then decide to kill President Bush for some reason. 

I think smell an Oscar.  (more…)

[Editor's Note: Script reviews of upcoming projects have been around for as long as there's been an Internet. Therefore it's no secret that a film can evolve into something quite different from its screenplay. Please keep in mind that this article represents a look at a particular script and not the final product.]

Brace yourself, because Buried is the feel-good movie of Fall 2010!  It’s full of action, laughs, romance and important lessons in why America was awful for freeing 37 million or so Iraqis from a genocidal dictator who liked to feed them into meat grinders.  Hey, if your idea of fun is watching a guy in a little box for 91 minutes, brother, your ship has come in!

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If you’re anyone else, I’m guessing the only way you would ever pick this movie to wreck your Friday night is if the alternative was Pauly Shore’s big-budget romantic comedy comeback with Katherine Heigl or some pinko documentary on global warming where Michael Moore has a full-frontal nude scene.  And even then it would be a close call.

I guess Ryan Reynolds, who stars as the world’s hunkiest truck driver, did this low budget, American-Spanish-Australian indie because he wanted a role where he could somehow stretch himself in new directions. The dude is a movie star, he looks like a Greek god and he’s married to Scarlet Johansson. What’s the “new direction” that leads to his life being better?  If I were Ryan Reynolds, I’d be all about keeping a death-grip on the status quo – “Yeah, that’s a nice Oscar, dude, but look what I’ve got waiting for me at home dressed as a naughty cheerleader. . . have fun polishing your statue,  loser!” (more…)

What’s not to love about Hollywood? They know exactly what the American people are looking for in a thriller: negative commentary about a war we’re  presently engaged in. And it’s not just that we American moviegoers are absolutely panting for yet another artistically bankrupt anti-Iraq commentary that will make no money, it’s that patriotic Americans everywhere also love to see an ongoing war and those fighting it criticized at every opportunity — especially through the all-powerful medium of the motion picture.

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These Hollywoodists sure have their finger on the pulse of  We The People and those of you still willing to argue about how this industry is driven as much by profit as ideology, may do so in the comments….

AICN: [emphasis mine]:

This is the pure fiction story of Paul Conroy, a truck driver in Iraq whose convoy is ambushed, and who wakes up in a coffin, buried alive. I went to the public screening of this one, and director Rodrigo Cortes gave a lively introduction where he questioned the psychological state of any audience wanting to see an hour and a half film of a man in a box. Then he brought out what he described as “The entire cast of BURIED: Ryan Reynolds!” …  (more…)

About 6 hours into the original film, remember asking yourself, “Could this be any more anti-American?”

Ask a stupid question.

From an interview with director James Cameron discussing the new scenes added to tomorrow’s Avatar special edition re-release:

A scene Cameron calls “the drums of war,” which he hopes will clarify why the humans choose to wipe out the Na’vi. He compared it to America’s decision to invade Iraq. “We had to provoke Saddam to do something stupid, and it’s like that with the humans invading Pandora,” he said. “I felt when I was writing it that the Na’vi had to counter-react and do something that is called an atrocity that gave [humans] the moral right to go in and destroy and displace them. The additional footage is pretty short, but it fulfills that purpose.”

(more…)

What a shocker. Captain America: The First Avenger will be Captain America in name only. According to this morning’s L.A. Times, director Joe Johnston is currently running around Comic-Con to reassure those wringing their hands with worry over the horrible idea that his $200 million tent-pole scheduled for a summer 2011 release might be too American-y, that it won’t be.

Read it and weep you suckers who thought Hollywood might give us this one. But at the same time, don’t forget to thank Johnston for disappointing us before we spent the ten bucks:

“We’re sort of putting a slightly different spin on Steve Rogers,” said Joe Johnston, whose past directing credits include “Jurassic Park III” and “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. “He’s a guy that wants to serve his country but he’s not a flag-waver. We’re reinterpretating sort of what the comic book version of Steve Rogers was.” …

“He wants to serve his country, but he’s not this sort of jingoistic American flag-waver,” Johnston said. “He’s just a good person. We make a point of that in the script: Don’t change who you are once you go from Steve Rogers to this super-soldier, you have to stay who you are inside, that’s really what’s important more than your strength and everything. It’ll be interesting and fun to put a different spin on the character and one that the fans are really going to appreciate.” …

Much, much more predictable heartbreak below the fold: (more…)

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Watch the whole video, especially the warm and fuzzy last shot, but here’s Stone’s killer quote:

The Cold War became the war against terrorism and continues to this day. We have two wars in Iraq. One in Afghanistan and possible sanctions in Iran.

Two wars in Iraq? He must be counting the war against STDs. He also criticizies sanctions against Iran. But President Obama favors sanctions against Iran. So Stone is criticizing Obama. Which, according to the Left, makes Stone a racist.

Here’s what Congressman Alan Grayson’s most famous for: (more…)

In 2006 Turkish movie “Valley of the Wolves: Iraq” was a great hit in Europe and almost made it to the US theatres.  Since the flotilla incident in May 2010, the movie has been constantly playing on Turkish television becoming the most viewed movie in the Turkish television history. 

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In 2006, The Washington Time reported:

“Valley of the Wolves” is not the work of independents or amateurs. With a budget of $10 million, it’s the biggest-spending Turkish film in history. The international cast includes Hollywood actor Billy Zane of “Titanic.” Within three days of its release, the movie had been seen by 1.2 million people, a 40 percent increase on the previous viewing record. At a gala performance, the actors rubbed shoulders with Turkey’s elite.

“I feel so proud of them all,” said Emine Erdogan, wife of the prime minister, comfortably ensconced in a seat next to the actor playing Alemdar.

The movie opens with a real-life incident: the arrest in July 2003 of Turkish special forces in Sulaymaniyah, northern Iraq. The soldiers were led out of their headquarters at gunpoint, with hoods over their heads. America later apologized, but it appears the offense ran deep. At the time Turkey took the incident as national humiliation. In this film the fictional hero sets out for revenge. (more…)

Maybe you first saw it at a museum retrospective or a revival theater, with the marquee emblazoned with tag-lines like, “The most action-packed film of all time!” and “More exciting than a dozen Die Hards!” Or perhaps your first taste came in a dorm room or a friend’s basement, with a piece of pizza in one hand and a brewski in the other, both forgotten as your mouth gaped and your eyes bulged. Some of you, no doubt, spied it in the Criterion Collection bin at the DVD store and, curious, made an impulse buy, thinking you were in for a particularly well-made Kurosawa-like police procedural.

Whatever the circumstances, if you’ve ever watched Hard Boiled, a 1992 movie from Hong Kong directed by a distinctive auteur named John Woo, within minutes you were privy to this:

YouTube -- click here to watch in full-screen

And your action-movie lovin’ life was never the same.

One of the great Golden Ages of cinema blossomed in Hong Kong between the early 1980s and 1997. Director Tsui Hark once described that city as the Chinese version of New York: “Very business, very crowded, very stink, and people very nervous.” But with one big difference: while New York perennially writhes in the death-grip of the Democrats’ tax-and-regulate machine, Hong Kong is a capitalist’s paradise, harboring freedoms and opportunities unimaginable in modern America. This mindset isn’t just a part of their business or political community, it’s also reflected in their films. John Woo once described the special appeal of Hong Kong pictures: (more…)

It’s pretty clear from the loud and explodey and awesome trailer of the upcoming A-Team remake that the script version the Sucker Punch Squad’s source obtained was a draft or two back from the final shooting script.  That’s a good thing, because the old script was a little slower, left out some treasured icons (Where’s the van!) and its B.A. Baracus had nowhere near the original show’s essential Mr. T-errificness.

So, all hail the new A-Team.  I just hope they’ve fixed the one hackey sucker punch aspect – the lame use of U.S. contractors as, once again, the villain du jour.

Now, anyone who at any point in the 1980s was unable to legally drive knows The A-Team and its mythology.  Basically, a bunch of Vietnam War commandos are falsely accused of a crime, escape from a stockade and dodge the military police while acting as soldiers of fortune.  George Peppard was their leader Hannibal Smith, Dirk Benedict was Face, the good-looking con man, Dwight Schultz was “Howlin’ Mad” Murdock, the resident wacko, and Mr. T portrayed, well, pretty much himself.

Every week they crashed a lot of cars, shot millions of bullets without ever hitting anything, made smartass remarks and issued memorable catchphrases.  This was all highly entertaining – particularly if you were a college student like me who enjoyed accepting creative drinking game challenges.  Here’s a hint – designate not just a driver but a stretcher-bearer if you dare join in a round of “Let’s Watch The A-Team and Down a Brew Whenever Something Explodes.”  (more…)

I don’t have much to say, and won’t until Episode Four.

This episode certainly speaks for itself, but there’s one thing I should note. If you found the first episode a little intense, you might want to steer clear of this one, as it makes the first one look like “The Brady Bunch.” Sample comment from someone who called me about a week after watching it: “I’ve been disturbed all week.” You will be taking one giant leap further into the heart of darkness. Shortly into the next episode, you will be firmly at its center.

And then I’ll have something to say.

**STRONG CONTENT WARNING**

If you’re new to all this, just click here for all the background, including the series prologue and Episode One, “Return To Ramadi.”

You can also see episodes from my time in the Triangle of Death, prior to Ramadi, as referenced in the series prologue, here.

The script of the upcoming remake of the infamous America-conquered-by-Commies movie Red Dawn (1984) raises an intriguing question – can Hollywood actually still produce a movie where it takes America’s side?  The answer is “Sort of.” 

“Wolverines!”

There are some welcome ideological surprises lurking within the script’s 104 pages.  Shockingly, Hollywood actually seems to accept the premise that if the Chinese and Russkies invade the United States we are justified in fighting back with hot lead instead of teach-ins and choruses of Kumbayah.  But the script also displays a bit of the moral illiteracy we’ve come to expect from the Hollywoodoids – naturally, the script has to imply that we kinda brought the invasion on ourselves and that resisting tyranny somehow means becoming just as bad as the tyrants.

The re-imagining of Red Dawn will be released later this year and does very little actual re-imagining of the original’s simple plot.  We first meet some all-American teenagers.  They play high school football, party, and talk and look like CW series cast members – not real bright, but pretty (the pretty part in the script).  For some reason, the Soviets (replaced here by the Chinese with a Russian assist) invade America and seize their hometown.  Their town’s tactical significance appears to be that invading it advances the plot.  Anyway, the teenagers go up into the mountains, score some of the firearms our prescient Founders ensured we’d always have the right to keep and bear despite the best efforts of those gun control-loving wusses, and launch a bloody guerrilla war against the invaders.  (more…)