Yes, the Woody Allen screen persona is well-known and established, but the actor does play different characters within that persona. Sometimes it’s just a few degrees off and hardly perceptible to the naked eye, but his Isaac Davis in “Manhattan” is noticeably unique. Isaac is something of an innocent, an unassuming man whose unwavering integrity comes naturally.

In a city like Manhattan, this, of course, might lead to his downfall, and the genius of Allen’s absolutely brilliant screenplay (Marshall Brickman co-wrote) is how this story is all about driving towards the film’s final line, a beauty of a closer that perfectly hits every cinematic sweet spot right before the fade:

“You have to have a little faith in people.”

Another of Isaac’s weak spots (and much of the film’s humor) comes from his inability to suffer pretentious, elite, liberal intellectuals. This is what likely cost him his first two wives, both of whom were pretentious, elite, liberal intellectuals. Overall, though, when we first meet him, Isaac is doing just fine. He’s making good money as a television comedy writer, is a loving father to his son, and his close friends — the married Yale and Mary (Michael Murphy and Anne Byrne Hoffman) — have taken him under their wing like a kid brother.

Isaac isn’t perfect; he is involved in a love affair with Tracy, a 17 year-old high school student. In his defense, she is more mature than he is and he refuses to lie to her. He’s very open about the fact that eventually she will have to move on with her life, that she has to experience life without him, and that what they have together isn’t permanent.

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STEVEN SPIELBERG MIGHT PART RED SEA FOR WARNER BROS.

Which Spielberg will show up to direct this one? If it’s the “Munich” Spielberg, the moral illiterate who sees an equivalency between Islamists who target the innocent and Israelis who target those who target the innocent — no thanks.  If it’s the “Saving Private Ryan” Spielberg, the moral illiterate who told us saving a single man was  ”the one decent thing we were able to pull out of this whole godawful, shitty mess” also known as World War II — no thanks.

RUSSELL BRAND WILL STAR IN ANOTHER MOVIE — A FAMILY COMEDY

After the remake of “Arthur” flopped rather spectacularly, Hollywood is proving once again they are just about tapped out of stars. Brand is THE most unlikable, charmless, and creepiest guy Hollywood has ever tried to turn into a leading man. And not creepy in a Karloff, Lugosi, Lorre kind of way — not creepy in a way that delights. You wouldn’t let him near your daughter. He should be doing extra stand-ins as Prisoner Number Five in insane asylums.  But here we go again.

EVANGELINE LILY CHATS ABOUT ‘THE HOBBIT’

If she manages her career well, Evangeline Lily has, in my humble opinion, what it takes to be a genuine star, a real box office attraction like Sandra Bullock. She’s undeniably talented, looks great on the big screen (see “Real Steel”), and her presence has the exact right qualities: strong, intelligent, sexy, womanly, approachable, and she carries herself with dignity.

She reminds me of Elizabeth Banks before she did the sleazy “Zack and Miri Make a Porno.”

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This week on HomeVideodrome, Hunter reviews Haywire, Shame, and Warrior, Jim has cedar fever, and we plow through a cornucopia of new releases.  Head on over to The Film Thugs to check it out.

Okay, so I was a little hard on Real Steel when it came out.  Revisiting it, I still stick by most of my criticisms, as I still find it irritating that the intelligence level of the Hugh Jackman and Dakota Goyo characters varies to insanely disparate levels whenever the script finds it convenient.  Goyo’s screechy kid-who-talks-and-thinks-like-an-adult is also excruciating (the fault of the writing and directing, not the child actor), and their robot Atom’s suggested sentience is nothing less than a ploy to attempt to make the audience care whenever he gets pounded on.  And no matter how nifty the CGI robot boxing is, nothing can compare to the dramatic potential of two actual humans fighting in the ring for family, country, or dignity.  But when it comes to the stock fanboy line of the greatness of “robots hitting each other,” “Real Steel” trumps Michael Bay’s cynical “Transformers” films on every level.

“Real Steel” has a heart that has hints of saccharine, but the film has a touch of middle Americana that is lacking from mainstream movies today, and despite its shortcomings, the father/son story does have a potent emotional core that pays off when it should.  “Transformers” has none of these things, as Bay is only interested in boys and their toys, said toys including cars and women.  “Real Steel” has higher aspirations that don’t have the stink of pseudo-family-friendly misogyny and vapid materialism.

Hugh Jackman is such a likable lead that he’s laughable when he’s attempting to be unlikable like he is during the first act of “Real Steel”, however Jackman’s potent presence alone keeps this from ever actually hurting the movie.  He’s entertaining to watch, even in the worst movies he’s been in, as he was one of the few things that made Gavin Hood’s dreadful “Wolverine” something one could feasibly sit through from start to finish. The humanity Jackman brings as an actor pumps blood into the heart of “Real Steel”, more so than the undercooked boy-and-his-robot sub-plot could hope to.  The father/son relationship a the movie’s center is marred by an obnoxious child performance, but it hits the necessary emotional beats that help one overlook the painful dialogue fed to the child actor, as well as the delivery seen as acceptable by the director.  Because it it hits those beats, it manages to mask most of its flaws, giving the movie an emotional core that is lacking in most blockbusters.

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When we find ourselves in difficult times, it is easy for us to lose hope…to wonder “why?”…to want to give up the fight.  But every now and then, when we least expect it, God shows up in a big way to let us know He is with us and is in control…always…and I am reminded of these lyrics from the song “Praise You In This Storm” by Casting Crowns:  “…as the thunder rolls, I barely hear You whisper through the rain, ‘I’m with you’…”

On the morning of 1 July 2011…that “whisper became a shout.”

What started out as a regular weekly spotlight on one of our great culture warriors at BigDawg Music Mafia – this time on the amazing music of our good friend Chip Murray, a truly gifted singer/songwriter who also happens to be a delightful, down-to-earth blogger – has turned out to be so much more.   We are reminded not only of God’s incredible Grace, but we are also reminded of the sacrifices of our fallen brothers and sisters that enable us to celebrate our freedom.   May this story–Chip’s story–lift your spirits and give you hope.

It is a pleasure and an honor to introduce our friend, Chip Murray.

Chip’s Biography:

Chip got his first guitar (a Stella) at the tender age of 13.  It may have been a cheap guitar, but he quickly found it to be a great tool of expression and a very cool way to connect with people.  Growing up in the turbulent 60’s, the guitar became his life raft and steady friend through the whitewaters of adolescence…. And while the rest of the world seemed to be finding themselves, making their marks and staking their claims, he was tasting the silent sweetness of nowhere.  And yet, by 35 he had lived everywhere from Boulder to Reseda, to Morgan City and the Houston suburb of Bacliff.  He lived, worked, loved, fought, and danced with “the people” on every coast of this great land.  He became one of them, assimilating their culture by inhaling their music and stories into his heart and soul… “Gone Wishin‘,” the debut CD from his band Cavern was his first public “exhale” and but a glimpse of what’s inside.  From “Devil in Me” to “Deja Vu Blues,” Gone Wishin’ is a metaphor for our journey from the darkness to the light….and after “we rest on the wind, we’ll come right back to our mothers again.”- Gibran. (more…)

It’s always heartwarming to see celebrities who Care About the Planet™ cut back on the destructive waste and excess that defines America. Capitalism yields consumerism yields planetary destruction, don’cha know, but fortunately, these defenders of Mother Earth are doing their part to pay for our sins. Once the crew packs up the dozens of thousand-watt (non-CFL!) lights and return the stars’ gas-guzzling trailers, actors hit the press circuit to get their (and their upcoming projects’) names in the headlines, and what better way to cultivate a nice guy/gal image than playing defense for fragile ecosystems?

The Green Police gave her grief about this.

Enter Jennifer Aniston, the former Friends star who has successfully transitioned from TV to motion picture fame and cares deeply about conservation. In her contribution to a 2007 book about “saving the planet one simple step at a time,” Aniston reveals she takes three-minute showers and brushes her teeth in the shower. “Every two minutes in the shower uses as much water as a person in Africa uses for everything in their life for a whole day!” she explains.

Well, it’s good to know that Aniston has been consuming less water than the rest of us climate change deniers… in a $42 million Beverly Hills mansion. No cognitive dissonance there! Except, apparently, Aniston has recently decided that the lavish crib is “too much” for her, and she will be downgrading to a “wooden box” a la Mad Men’s Vincent Katheiser trailer a la director Tom Shadyac $4.95 million Manhattan luxury apartment. Now, I’m no expert on New York’s housing market, but that doesn’t quite sound like the kind of humble life that, say, we middle-cass flyover troglodytes already live, right? (more…)

It was a small bar and restaurant in the West Village of Manhattan … and, while you read this, do me a favor and pump up this performance of The Nearness of You by the infinitely soulful and dangerously loving voice of Nicole Henry and her equally flawless pianist, Mike Orta.

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This performance was actually enthralling the audience at the Nango Jazz Festival in Japan … however, this was the level of artistry at Bradley’s … almost every night!

The applause you hear so spontaneously after her first chorus … well … damn, if that wasn’t Bradley’s.

I’ve emboldened the name so you never forget it … because tragically and on a profoundly cultural, political and, yes, soulful level, its absence, the ending of its all too brief existence in Manhattan is one of the small but profound tragedies arising from the … uh … yes the now, profoundly well-known Progressive Movement. (more…)

A little more than eight years ago, a group of Muslim terrorists attacked Americans on American soil.  In the end, more than 3,000 innocent civilians were dead.  The attack on that day was just that: an attack.  A well planned and executed military attack that murdered thousands of people. 

Friday morning, another travesty relating to 9/11 occurred.  President Obama and his loyal minion, Attorney General Eric Holder decided that the war criminals who were responsible for 9/11 would be tried as civilians in a Federal courtroom in lower Manhattan, a few blocks from their main and most deadly attack that day.  A few blocks from Hallowed Ground. 

I am angry.  As all of you know from this column, I try to be fair and balanced in my arguments.  I do not allow anger to rule the day.  But today, I am angry.  The Obama Administration has now decided that these war criminals should have the same rights and privileges as ordinary citizens. 

The ramifications of this are obvious.  It is just another example of the appeasement and weakness of the Obama Administration’s policies.  I want you all to remember the last time appeasement was used in the late 1930’s.  After that travesty fifty million people were dead including six million innocent Jews.  The last time we were weak was during the Carter Administration.  The result, Americans held hostage for more than a year.  (more…)

After more than thirty years Oscar® winning director Roman Polanski, the infamous child rapist and decades-long fugitive from justice, has been captured. He should be extradited back to California as soon as possible for sentencing. 

Some of Polanski’s early apologists and defenders are likely now entertaining discomforting second-thoughts about their hasty signing of the petition demanding his immediate release from captivity, as indeed some are also now furiously backpedaling in regret over their indiscretion of speaking out publicly on his behalf. 

It seems an appropriate time to review some origins and history underlying the modern psychological rationales currently attempting to dilute and evade Polanski’s morally deviant nihilism, and the cognitive dissonance (i.e., “it wasn’t ‘rape’ rape”) introjected by countercultural pseudo-intellectual sycophants. 

Its members’ values inculcation was, with purposeful destructiveness, initiated early last century by an all-too-often overlooked intellectual vanguard. So, in deconstructing the value of his sexual crimes, Polanski’s sophistic defenders were/are perhaps unwittingly acting out a reflexive cultural pre-conditioning, rather than logic and reason. This is hardly surprising, considering the players, yet the whys and wherefores are important, if only for historical perspective.  (more…)

Michael Moore is a big fat idiot — or, is he?  Actually, he is a big fat Academy-Award winning capitalist who is making a movie sarcastically called “Capitalism: A Love Story.”  In it, he’ll use his magical megaphone to expose, in his words, “an economic system that is unfair, it’s unjust and it’s not democratic. And now we’ve learned it doesn’t work.”   So… will he also park his little white ice cream truck in front of movie theaters and chastise patrons who wish to pay for a ticket?  Will he offer the film for free — perhaps even share part of the proceeds with all of us? Of course not, he’s a millionaire.

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We’ve seen this film many times before from Mr. Moore. The Bush years were kind to him as he tapped into the fears of Americans as they questioned the post 9-11 world, or worried whether there were bogey men hiding in the front offices of America. Now, he’s able to exploit the recession and all the hardships we endure in one great big Mike Moore spectacular! In Moore’s world, free enterprise is unfair, health care is unfair, the 2nd amendment is unfair, life is unfair, paychecks, layoffs, mortgages and democracy itself is unfair — and America is the bad guy.  (more…)