REDBOX VOWS TO ACQUIRE WARNER BROS DVDS ‘THROUGH ALTERNATIVE MEANS’

I love capitalism, and now you get another look into why Hollywood loves Castro and hates liberty:

Looks like Redbox has told Warner Bros to take a hike with its effort to double the waiting period for new rental DVDs to 56 days. When the contract to acquire discs directly from Warner Bros expires today Redbox will “work to provide Warner Brothers’ movies through alternative means[.]” …

(Earlier this morning Walmart agreed to continue housing Redbox kiosks to early 2015.) But Warner Bros also is taking a gamble: There’s nothing to stop Redbox from flooding the market with used Warner Bros DVDs a few weeks after they’re released, when rental demand for the titles lets up. Still, Warner Bros wants to increase the delay before providing discs to low-cost rental companies because it believes that will help to boost sales.

Warners next step is to convince retailers to only sell a limited number of titles to each customer, that way it’s more difficult for Redbox to acquire the number of titles necessary to fill their kiosks. But there are two incredibly stupid points made in this articlee worth pointing out:

Redbox is taking a big risk by choosing to buy Warner Bros discs from outside sources: That could be more costly. What’s more, the company may not be able to buy enough copies of hit films to satisfy its customers[.]

What? A ‘big risk?” As opposed to satisfying NO customers at all by not having any of these titles? But the article’s closer is the real howler:

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John Wayne is not only the only actor to place posthumously on this annual Harris Poll that asks Americans who their favorite actor is, the Duke is also the only actor — living or dead — to find a slot on this poll every year since the survey began in 1994:

In 2011 he was the voice of Rango, he was Captain Jack Sparrow (again) and he was also a journalist. And, again this year, Johnny Depp has the distinction of being America’s Favorite Actor. Next on the list are two actors who haven’t actually acted in a movie this past year. Tied for number two are Denzel Washington, who was in the second spot last year, and Clint Eastwood who was number 9 on the list last year.These are some of the results of The Harris Poll® of 2,237 adults surveyed online between December 5 and 12, 2011 by Harris Interactive®.

Rounding out the top five favorite actors is Larry Crowne or rather Tom Hanks in the number 4 spot, up from a tie for number 6 last year, and at number 5 the only actor to have been on this list since it began in 1994, the Duke himself, John Wayne down from the number 3 spot last year.

After being part of a three-way tie for number 6 last year, George Clooney now holds that position by himself. Up from number 10 to number 7 is Sandra Bullock who is the only woman in the top ten and dropping from number 4 to number 8 is Harrison Ford. There are two new additions to the list this year. At number 9, returning to the top ten after a two year absence is Will Smith and debuting at number 10 is funny man Adam Sandler.

Here’s this year’s breakdown:

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‘SCORPION KING 3′ ON BLU-RAY AND DVD JAN 10

In a dangerous, action-packed battle to regain his glory and reclaim the empire, Mathayus’s journey is steeped in intrigue, sorcery and romance, fueling this new film that spawned from the billion-dollar The Mummy film franchise. The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption tops the series once again, featuring even more of the heart-stopping action, mind-bending stunts and astonishing plot twists that have earned the series millions of fans the world over. The film’s spectacular fight scenes, choreographed by renowned stunt experts Kawee “Seng” Sirikanerut (Ongbok, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Cradle of Civilization) and Supoj “Jimmy” Khaowwong (Batman Begins), are showcased within enchanting ancient palaces, against a backdrop of breathtaking desert vistas.

The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption stars Golden Globe® winner Ron Perlman (“Sons of Anarchy,” Hellboy II: The Golden Army) as Horus, the powerful King of Egypt and Billy Zane (The Roommate, Titanic) as the villainous Talus.  Directed by Roel Reiné, the film also stars Victor Webster (“Castle,” Surrogates) as Mathayus and UFC star Kimbo Slice (Locked Down), Bostin Christopher (Unbreakable); six-time WWE World Champion Dave Bautista (House of the Rising Sun), and Temeura Morrison (Green Lantern, Stars Wars: Episode 3 — Revenge of the Sith), Selina Lo (Shanghai) and Krystal Vee (Streetfighter: The Legend of Chin-Li).

Clips here, here, here, and here.

UNSEEN SCENES: DELETED SEQUENCE FROM JOHN WAYNE’S ‘MCQ’

John Wayne, along with Paul Newman and Frank Sinatra, turned down the role of “Dirty” Harry Callahan that made Clint Eastwood a superstar, and in the hopes of making up for it, Duke starred in two urban actioners, “McQ” (1974) and “Brannigan” (1975), the latter of which I still remember seeing in a theatre with my dad.

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Let’s be honest. Movies, today, aren’t just one step away from being left wing propaganda, they just plain suck.

We’ve gone from Dirty Harry to Jason Bourne (or whatever his name ended up being; the camera was too shaky for me to ever tell what was going on). We’ve gone from Humphrey Bogart to George Clooney.  We’ve gone from John Wayne fighting Indians to Na’vi fighting Americans.

But, don’t fret. For there is an answer to our problems, fellow film buffs. I know you’re six feet from that ledge, but let me give you hope…they are called books. They are these contraptions with bindings and pages with words on the inside. Together this all creates a story one hundred times more fulfilling than today’s dim-witted liberal flavor-of-the-month films.

Hollywood has always been a liberal town. They give us anti-Iraq war movie after anti-Iraq war movie despite the fact that they all flop at the box office. But what of the literary world?  They must surely share Hollywood’s contempt for conservatives and enriching stories, right? Wrong. The publishing world seems to get it, for the most part. They like to publish what sells and what seems to sell today are right-leaning stories.

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CHRISTOPHER NOLAN UNVEILS ‘DARK KNIGHT RISES’ PROLOGUE

Things I miss about living in Los Angeles:

Nolan was on hand himself to introduce the nearly seven-minute clip, which he described as, basically, the opening sequence, with a few out-of-order bonus shots thrown in at the end. The director also emphasized his love for IMAX technology, explaining that even though it was probably developed before he was born, it is “far and away the best imaging format created,” and it’s one that allows fans to experience the grandeur of old Hollywood films, which Nolan said is “slowly being chipped away.” At the special screening, he encouraged fans to seek out official IMAX screens for a fully immersive experience when “Rises” opens next summer, but not to inquire about the plot of the film.

Truth be told, though, I don’t want to see this stuff beforehand. Until the film comes out, I don’t want to know. No doubt, the prologue will be released online before “Dark Knight Rises” hits theaters next summer, and hopefully, work or my own lack of discipline won’t force me to view it.

STREISAND: ‘IT’S TIME FOR GENDER EQUALITY IN TREATMENT OF HEART DISEASE‘

Just once I’d like to see some insufferable leftist celeb write about “gender inequality” in defense of men over something… anything.

Just writing the words “gender inequality” makes me feel dirty and stupid.

BLU-RAY DISC SALES UP 35% IN 2011

A break in the clouds?

Sales of Blu-ray Disc movies in the last four months of the year have skyrocketed, eclipsing what had been a sluggish year for the high-definition packaged media format, an analyst said.

BD disc sales in the United States will reach about 115 million units in 2011, compared with 85 million units in 2010 — spearheaded by the Star Wars: The Complete Saga boxed set release, Jim Bottoms, analyst with Futuresource in London, told Home Media Magazine.

In Europe, BD disc sales will balloon 42% to 63 million units, compared with 44 million units last year — driven by strong adoption in Germany.

Global BD disc sales will increase to 234 million units, up 45% from 161 million units in 2010.

In other news: Analysts Cut Fourth-Quarter Box Office Estimates

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Any novel that opens with crazy jihadists killing jolly old Saint Nick on the first page can’t be too bad.

“Soft Target,” in bookstores Dec 6th, manages to be more than just not bad; it’s a modern Western on amphetamines; it’s Tom Clancy if Clancy were a better weaver of the old fashioned good vs. evil yarn; it’s… well, it’s Stephen Hunter all the way. Semper fi and all that.

Those who are familiar with the author will understand, and those who are not–well, what are you doing reading a book review by me when there is writing out there carved by a master?

“Soft Target” is the new Hunter thriller that takes place in a thriller writer’s fantasy land: America, the Mall. Appropriately, it combines the two things America loves the most: shopping and violence. Those two ingredients are enough to carry the novel through a harsh and very quick 254 pages. You will not want to put this one down.

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Sony Mulling Internet-Based Alternative to Cable TV

Faster, please:

“According to Wall Street Journal sources, Sony is mulling the launch of an Internet-based alternative to cable TV service in the US. Per the report, Sony has approached several big media groups seeking to negotiate rights to beam their TV channels via the Web.

“Sony’s proposal would see the channels go out to Sony-made devices like PlayStation consoles, TVs and Blu-ray players.”

Update on ’Star Trek’ Sequel Production

What will Hollywood do if this franchise peters out? Clone the original cast? “Star Trek Babies”?

What the ‘Community’ Hiatus Says About the Current State of TV

You buy this?

Community creator Dan Harmon attempted to explain why his NBC show continues to get low ratings despite outstanding marks from critics. “Well, the average person comes home from work really tired, and just wants to flip through channels until they land on the thing that’s the least objectionable to them,” Harmon said. “So they don’t regard the television as an appliance that’s supposed to spiritually satisfy them, they regard it as a thing that’s supposed to comfort them and be a little stupid. It’s not because they’re stupid, it’s because that’s what TV has given them all their lives and it’s hard to go out and do the work of finding a show.”

I can’t judge the show because I’ve never seen it, but this actually seems to be the decade for intelligent television — from “The Sopranos” straight through to “The Shield,” “Mad Men,” and “Breaking Bad.”

An NBC show obviously has to pull in more viewers than those cable shows, so maybe that’s the answer. Move to cable.

Celebrating 40 years of ‘The Omega Man‘

This is one of those films I keep watching again and again hoping I’ll like it better. But as much as I want to like it, to say I prefer Will Smith’s remake would be quite the understatement. Maybe it’s watching Heston enjoy the dirty, filthy hippie movie “Woodstock” or those silly sunglasses Anthony Zerbe wears.  There’s something about “Omega Man”’s tone that doesn’t work for me, and it gets worse as the film rolls on.

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MGM’S ‘RED DAWN’ REMAKE LIKELY TO HIT THEATRES BY FALL OF 2012

Another year?

My heart goes out to the remake producers and filmmakers in a big way. I’ve spoken to them, they’ve written for us and while they’ve handled this tortured situation with class and without complaining, what started out as a well-intentioned project to update a beloved film for an under-served audience became a mess when the butt of some of the worst human rights violators on the planet was kissed by those who want to do business with them.

The Left ruins everything.            

NETFLIX STOCKS PLUMMET — RIPE FOR TAKEOVER? 

Securing the rights to Dreamworks films should help some, but unless Netflix makes a serious move quickly, the hemorrhaging from these self-inflicted wounds is likely to continue. And what I mean by a serious move is a new CEO, reversing the decision to split by-mail and streaming, or both.

In a way, the Dreamworks deal adds to Netflix’s problems. It’s a STREAMING deal; a deal that says STREAMING is the future. Translation: Yet another reason to drop the by-mail service.

STEPHEN KING WORKING ON ‘SHINING’ SEQUEL

King promised us he would retire. And now he’s so not-retired the Stephen King who lost his mojo a decade ago is now going to bastardize the classics his better self wrote.

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Via Wikipedia:

Marion Mitchell Morrison (born Marion Robert Morrison; May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979), better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer.[1] He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive voice, walk and height. He was also known for his conservative political views and his support, beginning in the 1950s, for anti-communist positions.

A Harris Poll, released January 2011, placed Wayne third among America’s favorite film stars,[2] the only deceased star on the list and the only one who has appeared on the poll every year since it first began in 1994.

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One of the touchstone traits of manliness is that the true man is what he seems.  There is no deceit about him: no hidden agendas, no artificial props, no “image” or “cover” designed to suit the public’s imagined wants and hide the actual man’s real character.  It is undeniable that such an uncalculated manliness often offends: in its lack of political correctness and its plainspoken confidence.  “Why does he always think he is so right?  Hasn’t he read the latest opinion poll?”  We used to call this manly virtue integrity: literally, of being whole and undivided, of being the same throughout.  What you see is what you get.  Integrity enables another virtue: frankness or candor, that is, saying what you believe and is on your mind without dissimulation or contrivance.  For this reason one of the Founding Fathers’ most lauded virtues was candor.  After all, these great men proclaimed their Independence by submitting facts to a “candid world.”  This virtue of integrity, which now goes by the opaque moniker “transparency,” was better understood in the age of the Western hero.  The characters played by John Wayne, Gary Cooper, and, for that matter, Ronald Reagan, did not say much.  But what they said they meant, and they would back up what they said with their very lives.

But we do not live in the age of the Western.  Those of us in our thirties and forties grew up in the age of the action hero.  The action hero is the figure who does not do the merely human things well but performs superhuman deeds that defy the imagination.  He does not simply draw a gun faster than another man.  Instead, he races through explosions on a motorcycle and dives out of planes without a parachute and yet invariably emerges from the ruins unscathed.  Of course, the action hero has half a dozen stunt doubles and computer graphics and millions invested in the movie to pull it all off.  But it’s all worth it: for the illusion, for the moment of suspended disbelief.  When you meet the actual man who plays the part, though, you find him pretty underwhelming.  (more…)

When Ethan Wayne misses his father, he need only insert “Wake of the Red Witch” or “Reap the Wild Wind” into his DVD player to see his pappy back in his prime. Growing up the son of John Wayne has its advantages. Watching “The Comancheros,” his father’s 1962 Western hit, holds another blast from the family past.

“I get to see my dad around the time that I came about,” the 49-year-old Ethan Wayne says.

John Wayne at home with kids Ethan, Marissa, and Aissa and wife Pilar.

“The Comancheros,” out this week on Blu-ray, stars John Wayne as a Texas Ranger assigned to bring in a man (Stuart Whitman) charged with killing a judge’s son. The infraction actually occurred during a duel, lending the character’s sin some shading. The two men end up reluctant allies when they square off against a band of outlaws who smuggle guns to a local Comanche tribe.

Ethan Wayne, an actor and stunt man in his own right, says his father regaled him with on-set stories from “The Comancheros.” The western icon bonded with some of his “Comancheros” co-stars, like Lee Marvin and Bruce Cabot.

“It was a group of contemporaries who came up through the ranks [together],” he says.

Wayne recalls a more somber side of his father’s “Comancheros” stories, one involving the film’s celebrated director, Michael Curtiz  of “Casablanca” fame.

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As they have annually since 1994, in January of this year, Harris Interactive conducted a poll that surveys a sample of 2300 adults across the country with a very simple question: “Who is your favorite movie star?” Ranking as number three this year (up from seven last year) was the only actor to make the list every year since its inception and the only actor to make it posthumously: John Wayne. Nearly thirty-two years after his death, the Duke still captures the American imagination in a way no other actor or movie star ever has or ever will.

The reasons for this are legion. First and foremost, Wayne was a second-to-none screen presence. There aren’t many actors who could blow the likes of Lee Marvin, Kirk Douglas, Montgomery Clift, Jimmy Stewart, Henry Fonda or John Ford’s wonderful collection of character actors off the screen — but Wayne could without moving a muscle. He also personified the flawed but sympathetic hero, the loner who lived by a simple code and was rarely welcomed into the civilization that wouldn’t have been possible without his violence. And finally, John Wayne was one of the greatest actors to ever grace the silver screen; the rare movie star who not only possessed range, but also a bottomless emotional depth in his well-known screen persona.  There will never be another John Wayne and that I have lived long enough to see our critical community finally (and in some cases, grudgingly) come to terms with that means more to me than I can express.

Something else the Duke did very, very right – again, better than any other movie star – was to make one damn fine film after another. After toiling away in quickie Westerns for over a decade, Wayne finally became a star portraying the Ringo Kid (greatest character introduction ever) in John Ford’s unqualified 1939 masterpiece “Stagecoach.” From there he never looked back or stopped working straight through to his fitting final role as a dying gunfighter in “The Shootist” (1976). In-between, though, he starred in nearly 80 films, a canon of work that – at least to us Wayne fans – contains surprisingly few clunkers.

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“Maybe I should be in a position where I don’t have to work; but I’m not.”  — 69 year-old-old John Wayne, three years before his death.

John Wayne, a.k.a Duke Morrison (he was nicknamed Duke after an Airedale dog that he owned during his youth) was arguably the most popular movie star that ever lived.  Yet when it came to personal wealth he trailed far behind some of his contemporaries such as Cary Grant and Fred MacMurray.  In addition to bad business management and three broken marriages, some of Wayne’s financial woes were brought on by his incredibly generous nature.  His goodness shone during the making of the1953 western Hondo when Wayne arranged for some private detectives, who were trailing him, to be freed from a prison in Camargo, Mexico.  Never mind that Wayne’s second wife Chata had enraged him by hiring the investigators to find incriminating information to use in their upcoming divorce proceedings. The local officials in Camargo were thrilled to have the revenue generated from a John Wayne picture being made in their town and were willing to use extreme measures to keep their top tourist attraction happy, but the Duke refused to let men rot in jail for simply doing their jobs.

Unlike most celebrities John Wayne didn’t immediately dispose of fan letters asking him for money.  He read each request carefully, sometimes agonizing over them, to discern their legitimacy.  Duke would send complete strangers cash so they could visit sick friends, or help finance a kid getting braces.  Once, while hospitalized, Wayne got to know a less-well-off fellow patient; after Duke was discharged his new friend was visited by one of Wayne’s representatives who told him his medical bills would be covered. 

In 1960 a burglar found Duke’s Encino, California address with a movie star map and broke into the home while its owner was watching TV. Reacting quickly, Wayne ran down to the basement and grabbed a shotgun.  He chased the crook into the backyard and said, “Hold it. I got you covered.”

He yelled to his wife Pilar to call the police, which she had already done. The robber was cuffed and about to be taken off to jail when he asked to speak to his intended victim. “Mr. Wayne?”

“What do you want, punk?”

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John Wayne may be dead but the Western still lives on. We all have an idea in our head that pops up whenever we think of the Western. Certain characteristics come to mind such as horses, six-guns, cowboy hats, dusty streets or savage wilderness, all of which is usually set in the mid to late 1800s. Of course, this is what generally makes up the genre’s Golden Age but since then the tropes and ideologies have been altered and often inverted. Films by legendary Western directors like John Ford and Anthony Mann were transformed by filmmakers like Clint Eastwood and Don Siegel. Classic films like Stagecoach (1939) and The Man from Laramie (1955) led to revisionist films such as Unforgiven (1992) and The Shootist (1976). The Western has the largest classic period (arguably from late 1930s through the late 1960s) and has been subject to revisionist and nostalgic interpretations ever since. The Western is a perfect avenue to observe genre evolution because of the numerous ways it explores race, gender and identity.

One of the latest explorations of the genre is in The Philosophy of the Western (2010), edited by Jennifer L. McMahon and B. Steve Csaki. The book is an anthology of essays that deal with the Western in terms of the myths created in both history and cinema. This compilation deals primarily with the philosophy surrounding identity, ethics and gender that dominate the American Western. In addition, the authors incorporate the intersection of philosophy and Western myth, each at different lengths and depths. Co-editors McMahon and Csaki say that “while rooted in history, the myth of the American West quickly took on a life of its own” (2). The blurred line between fact and fiction of the Wild West has continually been carried by the American film industry since the early 1900s. This book shows that the famous line, “when legend becomes fact, print the legend,” from The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence (1962) still rings true. Hollywood continues to print (or revise) the legend to this day.

The academic field studying the Western is almost as large as the genre itself. Many of the original studies are still useful from Robert Warshow’s influential essay “Movie Chronicle: The Westerner” (1954) to Jim Kitses Horizon’s West (1969) and John G. Cawelti’s The Six-Gun Mystique (1970), (the last two have updated versions). The Western may get more notice recently due to the Coen brother’s 2010 Oscar nominated film True Grit. The Coen’s film is a true exploration of nostalgia (which they have done for numerous genres such as noir and gangster), but to understand their sentimental approach to the Western one must have a grasp of the films that founded the genre as we know it today. Thought of the Western will generally draw quick images of Ford’s Monument Valley or Mann’s rigid mountain tops or gunfighting protagonists like Shane (Alan Ladd in Shane, 1953) and John T. Chance (John Wayne in Rio Bravo, 1959). It is this legend/myth created by these films and characters that keep audiences and scholars interested.

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This is the most recent installment of exclusive interviews with Dr. Paul Kengor, professor of political science at Grove City College, on his book revealing how communists, from Moscow to New York to Chicago, have long manipulated America’s liberals/progressives. Dupes: How America’s Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century is based on an unprecedented volume of declassified materials from Soviet archives, FBI files, and more.

Big Peace: Professor Kengor, Hollywood is celebrating its Academy Awards, a look back at great actors and actresses and films.

Kengor: For me, it’s a moment to look back at Hollywood’s worst communists, communist sympathizers, Stalinists, and duped liberals and progressives—as well as the good guys (and gals) that fit none of those categories.

Big Peace: Fair enough. This should be fun. Let’s start with communists.

Charlie Chaplin comment, “Thank God for
communism!” will make you see (him) red.

Kengor: How about the Hollywood screenwriters who liberals still insist were innocent lambs? Dalton Trumbo, Communist Party code “Dalt T;” Albert Maltz, party no. 47196; Alvah Bessie, no. 46836; John Howard Lawson, no. 47275. Or, if you turn to page 191 of my book—if you don’t have a copy yet, shame on you—you can view Arthur Miller’s party application. Miller wrote The Crucible, about how Joe McCarthy pursued “liberals” unfairly suspected of being communists—“liberals” like Miller, Trumbo, Maltz, Bessie, Lawson.

Big Peace: As you say in Dupes, Hollywood produced “quite a cast.” Let’s narrow the focus to the Academy Awards. (more…)

Recently New York Times blogger and humanities professor Stanley Fish referenced my Big Hollywood review of the Coen Brothers’ remake of John Wayne and Henry Hathaway’s True Grit. Though I have reviewed a film or two for various publications I’ve never thought of myself as a film critic. So Professor Fish referring to me as such was certainly interesting, if not flattering.  Agree with my review or not, I am glad a western is making money, but Professor Fish had more heady matters on his mind.

Fish’s main point is that in the new True Grit, purposely there is no relationship between physical heroism and virtue. To the professor physical heroism is displayed by almost everyone in the new film, “‘good’ and ‘bad,’ and the universe seems at best indifferent, if not hostile.” He sees young Mattie Ross as far more heroic for her acceptance of the world as random and brutal, Jeff Bridges Cogburn’s heroism is merely an after thought. The professor didn’t in the least misunderstand my desire to instead see the kind of heroics John Wayne displayed in the original film when he takes on the outlaw gang single-handedly with his “Fill your hands, you son-of-a-bitch!” charge to glory.

Justifiable violent responses to real life threats are often not random. America has always had common men heroes and well trained professionals who can reach down deep into themselves and find the kind of inner courage needed to risk life and limb to save the life of another or stand up to the evil and power hungry. The elitist left who for the time being control most of the public debate on popular culture would have us believe that all is relative. Despite the current “no tolerance” foolishness in American schools, sometimes you have to hit back, and hard, or else the bully will take far more then just your lunch. You’re own personal dignity is indeed something worth fighting for. (more…)

When the Coen brothers, Joel and Ethan, announced that they were going to remake True Grit, it sparked all of the usual arguments about the merits and demerits of such undertakings.

The first film, released in 1969, sits in the mid-upper tier of movies made by its star, John Wayne (as well as winning him his only Oscar), and as such has achieved a kind of classic status among both Wayne fans and lovers of good westerns. There is a brand of theatergoer who maintains that there is no need to craft fresh takes on successful pictures, any more than we need new painters to dutifully re-imagine a masterwork like Da Vinci’s Last Supper.

On the other side of the debate are those who see good reasons for taking another swing at this piñata. Ever since the appearance of Wayne’s Grit, many fans of the novel — which first appeared forty-two years ago as a Saturday Evening Post serial written by Charles Portis (1933–) — have been keen to see a cinematic version that hews far closer to the plot of the book. Others see remakes as akin to a contemporary orchestra re-recording — and in the process re-interpreting — a famous piece of classical music, imbuing it with their own particular sonic signature. Seen in this light, the announcement of a new True Grit was a welcome one.

So now that the movie is out, who is right? Is the remake ill-advised, or a welcome addition to the western canon? Does the 2010 version have what it takes to make it a classic in its own right, or is it destined to be forever overshadowed by the 1969 original? (more…)

There are some films considered so sacred they should never be remade. “Gone with the Wind” would be one of them, “Citizen Kane” and “Vertigo” still others. But the new Coen Brothers’ take on “True Grit” presents an interesting challenge to the idea that you can’t possibly top greatness.

The original “True Grit” came out in 1969 and earned the legendary John Wayne his only Oscar, for the colorful, oversized role of a cantankerous U.S. Marshal named Rooster Cogburn. But even as he did a great job playing a feisty, one-eyed lawman traveling with a young girl and a sidekick on the trail of some ruthless killers, the Oscar that Wayne received for the role is largely considered a career honor that paid tribute to his dozens of other classic Westerns in the waning years of his career. It’s still one heck of a tribute, as plenty of other iconic actors never even earned that kind of respect from the Academy.

But the new “True Grit,” while sharing the same basic plot and characters, is defiantly its own film – a darker, funnier, more intense take on the hunt by Cogburn and the 12-year-old girl Mattie (Hailee Steinfeld in a stunning debut performance) as they and a bounty hunter named LaBeouf (Matt Damon) search for the gang led by Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin). It’s also a more spiritually layered film, with the trio’s mission a quest for divine justice and retribution against the wicked who once traveled across the Wild West.

The reason why writer-directors Joel and Ethan Coen are able to make such a different film – one that is rightfully stirring Oscar buzz as a likely Best Picture contender – is that they claim they have never seen the Wayne film, and instead have been solely inspired by the novel that came before even that original cinematic take. Written by Charles Portis, a wickedly funny writer from Little Rock who wrote a few minor classic novels in the 1960s and ’70s before opting for obscurity in the tradition of Harper Lee and J.D. Salinger, “True Grit” was largely brightened up for its original trip to the theaters. (more…)

Hollywood, hear our plea:  Could you make some mainstream movies that don’t suck?  There’s nothing worse than a Christmas season where going to the movies seems about as appealing as sharing a straw with Lindsay Lohan.

Throw us a bone – how about more than just one or two flicks a year not targeted to the demographic that thinks Lady Gaga is a boundary-pushing icon of limitless creative vision?  Maybe a couple that are not focused on shiny supernatural creatures who chat about their feelings and stare longingly into the eyes of dead-eyed starlets acting as the surrogate for the millions of lonely shut-ins who adore them?  Just a few films not aimed squarely at creepy man-children dwelling in their moms’ Kleenex-strewn basements wishing they too could winch their bloated tushes into tights and fight crime just like their cinematic heroes.

How about more than just a handful of movies for men and women who need more than five hands to count out their age, who breathe through their noses, who have lives?  I have some dough – well, at least until the President and his fellow travelers declare me rich too – and I’d like to take my hot wife out once in a while to see a movie.  I used to go a lot, a few times a month.  But it seemed that five years ago there were always at least a few movies that piqued my interest.  Perhaps it’s me – perhaps I’m too demanding, what with my stubborn insistence on interesting stories told in a coherent manner by competent actors.  Or perhaps it’s just that the recent crop of movies is exceptionally crappy.

Let’s address the curmudgeon question here and now – yes, I have occasionally turned my hose on those damn kids when they messed up my lawn, but hobbies aside, the fact is that Hollywood is both leaving money on the table and sacrificing what little artistic credibility it has left by ignoring the normal adult demographic.  It appears that Hollywood has simply thrown in the towel and decided to focus on feeding formulaic moron fodder to a waiting cohort of slack-jawed ninnies eager for the next story about a magical robot or a superhero with issues. (more…)

You just have to glance at my Big Hollywood contributor’s photo to realize that I love a good western – the cowboy hat with the tux kind of give it away. So it was with much anticipation that I awaited the release of the Coen Brothers remake of the classic western True Grit which helped John Wayne win his well deserved Best Actor Academy Award in 1969. I’ll admit to a certain amount of prejudice here. When John Wayne puts the reins to his horse in his teeth, levers that big looped Winchester carbine, pulls his Colt’s revolver and hollars “Fill your hand you son-of-a-bitch!” Well, it’s one of my favorite scenes in any film ever made, beautifully summing up Wayne’s legendary status as the most American of icons. Unfortunately, despite the considerable talents of Jeff Bridges, the Coen Brothers and others the new film literally throws that great cinematic moment away.

For those too young to have seen the original, True Grit, based on the excellent Charles Portis novel tells the story of precocious young Mattie Ross who hires a boozy, tough-minded U.S. marshal to bring in her father‘s killer from 1880s Indian territory, a large chunk of what is now Oklahoma. Her stubborn caveat is that she gets to come along. Indian territory (that’s what they called it – not Native American Territory) was a no man’s land where the Choctaw, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Creek and Seminole settlements sometimes gave uneasy safe haven to American outlaws on the run from Hanging Judge Parker’s U.S. Marshals in neighboring Arkansas.

John Wayne was and is this country’s most popular screen legend, still in the top ten in the Harris Poll every year. Yet he was often an unsung actor, though one who could fill the screen and entertain like few of his profession before or after him. It’s not that the 2010 True Grit is a bad film, it’s not, but it’s not a great film either. The Coen Brothers version just make you realize how much more entertaining the Wayne and Henry Hathaway directed True Grit really still is.  In their effort to give us a more down and dirty version of the Old West, though the Wayne film is hardly sanitized, they’ve made this new version dull and uninspiring. Co-writer and co-director Ethan Coen said that they wanted to do the film from fourteen year old Mattie’s perspective and make it tougher and more violent. In the process they merely aped the original and duplicated most of the best scenes and dialogue, virtually verbatim. (more…)