If Mike Myers makes a few more movies like “The Love Guru” he could become one of the 99 percenters.

For now, the “Austin Powers” star is all about Occupy Wall Street regardless of the zeroes in his savings account. He is a newly christened American, and what’s more American than supporting a movement that vows to tear down the economic structure and rebuild it in a more distributive fashion?

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“I’m a new American,” the Canadian-born funnyman explained to a fellow marcher at Occupy Wall Street, “and I’m interested in a level playing field. I’m not an ideologue. I grew up working class…I think [OWS] is remarkably civil, remarkably articulate, it’s democracy in action and it’s fascinating to watch.”

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Hollywood loves war, it is their glory. War lines the pockets of Hollywood liberals while giving them a forum to moralize their position at the cost of box office totals. And war is what most Hollywood lefties turn to when they dream of marching the streets with blood made of sugar-water and red-dye number three on their phony hands.

In 2002 a group of Hollywood stars met to discuss ways to protest the war in Iraq. The meeting took place in a private swanky home, only an hour or so after President Bush took to the airwaves to announce the commencement of the military conflict.

The group — called themselves Artists United to Win Without War — with merry huckster members Susan Sarandon, Ethan Hawke and Jessica Lange speaking out from the east coast. The Grand Poobah of this rank and file of brilliant geopolitical-analysts was none other than Rob Reiner. The rest of the troops were made up by Sally Field, Blythe Danner, Christine Lahti and husband Thomas Schlamme (director of The West Wing), MASH star Mike Farrell, Dharma & Greg’s Mimi Kennedy, Bradley Whitford and then wife Jane Kaczmarek, writer/director Audrey Wells, producer Robert Greenwald, actress Fionnula Flanagan, TV stars Lindsay Wagner, Daniel Benzali, Sharon Lawrence, David Clennon and rising star Troy Garity, the son of Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden. (This group has grown to over 140 members.) It was announced at the event that the Barbra Streisand Foundation was donating $5,000 to keep the group going. I assume the donation was for the Russian beluga and Crystal served to these wealthy Democrats by the Venezuelan help on loan from Hugo Chavez.

It is in the very heart of Hollywood, as misguided and self-serving as it is, to march in the streets, to make movies about their positions, and to yell like banshees: “War is not the answer!” The problem with Hollywood celebrities shouting anti-war babble is their inability to ask the question, “Without war, where would Hollywood be?”

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The new billboards for the fourth and ostensibly final “Shrek” movie, “Shrek Forever After,” feature Shrek helplessly tied down by the nefarious Rumpelstiltskin, the green ogre’s worried eyes accentuated by the slogan “What the Shrek Just Happened?” Unfortunately, fans of the series may wonder the same thing while watching the new adventures of our hero, which –alas- are not that adventurous at all.

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When “Shrek” hit the world’s movie screens in 2001, it created a daring new standard for animated films seeking to balance entertaining children as well as adults, and drew outstanding reviews and more than $400 million in box office worldwide. “Shrek 2” scored even bigger with audiences, exploding to more than $900 million in ticket sales and placing it in the rarefied stratosphere of the highest-grossing films of all time.

But the magic started to wear off with 2007’s “Shrek the Third,” as the returns tumbled back down a couple hundred million or so. But that clearly didn’t worry the folks at Dreamworks, who now have trotted out Shrek and his band of eccentric friends and family and placed them in a richly 3D world without bothering to give the actual script much dimension as well. (more…)

Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds” has all the trappings of a Tarantino film – from the rich cinematography and soundtrack to the unpredictable action and character development. Tarantino has directed and written another effort that, as usual, is in a class of its own. 

“Basterds,” misspelled the way Brad Pitt’s moonshining Lt. Aldo Raine character carved it into his rifle, takes place in German-occupied France from 1941 to 1944.  Tarantino makes a point of specifying “Nazi-occupied France,” justifying to the film watcher the extreme measures needed to deal with this particular type of human evil.  That National Socialist German Workers’ Party membership never numbered more than about 20 percent of the adult German population is beside the point; the Nazi Party in the guise of Hitler (played by Martin Wuttke) controlled the Wehrmacht from the top.  

“Basterds” follows three characters.  ”Chapter 1″ introduces Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent) a young Frenchwoman whose dairy farmer family is wiped out in 1941 by the Germans and Col. Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz), who directs the killing.  Landa is a member of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD), the intelligence service of the SS and the Nazi Party, who considers himself a detective asked by his government to find every last Jewish person in France.  In “Chapter 2″ we meet U.S. Army Lt. Aldo Raine. Raine’s crossed arrows insignia on his collar identifies him as a member of the First Special Service Force, a U.S.-Canadian commando force called the Devil’s Brigade.  Lt. Raine leads a small band of soldiers, all of whom happen to be Jewish, on a mission of retribution, mayhem and terror behind enemy lines, the goal: take 100 “Nazi scalps” each.  (more…)