A solid summer lineup helped studios catch up to 2010, but ticket sales flattened again in the fall and have remained sluggish right into what was expected to be a terrific holiday season.

The result: projected domestic revenues for the year of $10.15 billion, down 4 percent from 2010’s, according to box-office tracker Hollywood.com. Taking higher ticket prices into account, movie attendance is off even more, with an estimated 1.275 billion tickets sold, a 4.8 percent decline and the smallest movie audience since 1995, when admissions totaled 1.26 billion.

“There were a lot of high-profile movies that just ended up being a little less than were hoped for,” said Chris Aronson, head of distribution for 20th Century Fox, whose sequel “ Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked” has been part of an under-achieving lineup of family films for the holidays. “The fall was pretty dismal. There just weren’t any real breakaway, wide-appeal films.” …

Hollywood is left right where it was 12 months ago, finishing the year quietly and looking ahead to a promising lineup to turn its fortunes around next year.

Even more so than 2011’s schedule once looked, the 2012 film list looks colossal. Among the highlights: the superhero tales “The Dark Knight Rises,” ”The Amazing Spider-Man” and “The Avengers“; the latest in the animated franchises “Ice Age” and “Madagascar,” along with “Brave,” the new adventure from animation master Pixar; Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones’ “Men in Black 3“; Daniel Craig’s new James Bond thriller “Skyfall”; Johnny Depp’s vampire story “Dark Shadows”; Ridley Scott’s “Prometheus,” a cousin to his sci-fi classic “Alien“; and Peter Jackson’s “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” the first in a two-part prequel to his “Lord of the Rings” films.

That’s just a small sampling of 2012’s big-screen titles, which also include 3-D reissues of “Titanic,” ”Finding Nemo,” ”Beauty and the Beast” and “Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace.”

Looking ahead, there’s good reason for optimism in Hollywood. Looking back, though, the past year spells caution.

“I’m not prepared to be Chicken Little yet, but if the films coming in 2012 can’t reverse this trend, then I think we need to reevaluate our expectations,” said Hollywood.com analyst Paul Dergarabedian.

Full story here.

“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.

Ray Cruz is Hunter’s new John Wayne. He’s retired USMC and just wants to leave the Mall of America with his beautiful fiancée, Molly Chan. Only problem is some jihadists have a very different idea and decide to take the mall and the thousands of innocent shoppers hostage on the busiest shopping day of the year: Black Friday.

Cruz, noble and honorable and flawed as he is, decides to take the mall back when there is little action being taken outside by Colonel Douglas Obobo. Hunter sets up the contrast between the two perfectly. Cruz is the conservative man of action, while Obobo is the liberal believer in mankind, the man who believes in words above all else. Other characters flourish as well in the novel, which, despite being short, fleshes out the action from every perspective imaginable. We follow Cruz, we follow the Imam leading the ordeal, we follow Colonel Obobo, newscaster Nikkie Swagger, FBI sniper McElroy, and many others. The novel fleshes out so many characters and tells the story in such a thorough way that Tarantino would be jealous.

As always, Hunter’s greatest gift is his style, his prose. He’s been called the “populist Faulkner” and for good reason. He’s no Vince Flynn and he’s no Tom Clancy. His characters inhabit a harsh world that is unforgiving and follows no set code of good wins over evil. His characters inhabit a place called reality where Hunter’s simple yet delicate and violent prose comes alive. His heroes are not perfect and his villains are never black and white.

In fact, Hunter is famous for going where no other writer will go. He enters the grey. He tells the densely complicated stories other thriller writers shy away from. He throws his noble yet heroic characters into the world of grey and forces them to deem what is black and white, good and evil, and we sit back and enjoy.

Hunter’s novels also appeal because of their visual style, and this one is no different. He manages to keep the pace fast and the narrative swift without sacrificing clarity, because he knows exactly what we want. He feeds us the exact images and verbs our inner beasts need to gobble up in order to be completely consumed by the story. Hunter has perfected the craft of the thriller by keeping his prose simple a la Hemingway and giving us the details other writers shy away from, all while providing these in the context of a visually striking world only a man who reviewed films for decades could give us.

“Soft Target” will pull you in fast and hard and will not let go until the very last utterance has been spoken. Ray Cruz is our new hero, our new John Wayne, and watching him navigate through a world of liberal spinners, evil jihadists, political guinea pigs and bureaucracy at its finest is more than entertaining. It’s thrilling, and that’s due to the epic prose of Hunter. There’s no other thriller writer like him today. Hell, there’s no other writer like him today. He passes the Clancys, the Flynns, the Thors like they were all standing still. And considering how far ahead his novels seems to be in all most every capacity, they must be.

It’s a testament to the hold movies have on the public that the 15-year decline in the quality of filmmaking has only started to undermine the bottom line in recent years. We so desperately want the promise of a movie to come true that, time after time after time, we plunk down our money, hoping against reason that an obvious piece of crap won’t be.

If you look at the box office this year and especially DVD sales, you can see how the overwhelming number of bad films is finally coming home to roost. It’s a shame things had to get to this point, but if Hollywood can stop kidding themselves by blaming it all on piracy and Redbox, this could finally be the incentive needed to turn things around.

The other thing hurting Hollywood is the long, slow death of the movie star. For some reason this industry thought they could get away with what would kill any other industry. If Mr. Whipple called you a racist teabagger, would you buy Charmin? Of course not. And yet you have one Hollywood spokesperson (actors) after another assholing away their goodwill on a daily basis.

The recent poll showing that Hollywood’s approval rating is lower than George W. Bush’s when he left office should’ve been a wake-up call.

A 33% approval rating has nothing to do with piracy or Redbox, does it?

We’re just hating these people back, and now it’s costing them millions.

The Telegraph:

In an astonishingly blunt appraisal of the health of Hollywood, the revered director said there were “not a lot of films” that he believed to be worth watching.

Kurt Loder, a film critic for Reason.com and Creators Syndicate, quotes the legendary Rolling Stones guitarist to explain why most of the reviews in his new book, The Good, The Bad and The God-Awful: 21st-Century Movie Reviews are negative. Loder says he loves movies, but because of the constant demand for new product, the bad movies will inevitably outnumber the good ones.

In this interview with Reason.tv’s Nick Gillespie, Loder offers up a few examples of some recent underrated cinematic gems, some god-awful big-budget fiascos, and why he devoted an entire chapter to the enigma that is Nicolas Cage’s movie career.

The new ‘Musketeers’ opens with a prologue where the famous Three – Athos (Matthew Macfayden), Porthos (Ray Stevenson) and Aramis (Luke Evans) – are working on mission for the King along with Milady de Winter (Milla Jovovich). After a successful plot to steal an ancient Da Vinci plan for a flying battleship – yes, really – Milady drugs the Three and steals the plans for the Duke of Buckingham (Orlando Bloom).

Flash forward a year later, and we meet young D’Artagnan (Logan Lerman), sent off by his parents to join the king’s Musketeers. Initially at odds with the Musketeers, he quickly is accepted by them as they team up against the Cardinal’s Guards, led by Rochefort (Mads Mikkelsen). Meanwhile, Cardinal Richelieu (Christoph Waltz) is conspiring to seize power from King Louie (Freddie Fox) using Milady to provoke a war with England.

The best thing ‘The Three Musketeers’ has going for it is its cast. D’Artagnan is a plum of a part for a young actor – swagger, swordplay and seduction – and Lerman carries it well. Jovovich seamlessly vacillates between the conniving Milady and the endearing Milady well, even though Milady was never meant to be endearing. Waltz plays a wonderfully understated Richelieu, and Fox’s King Louie is a perfect fop, but not annoyingly so.

However, while the ensemble of Musketeers works best as a trio, McFayden’s Athos seems bored when handed the spotlight. Several times Bloom apparently forgets he’s playing the Duke of Buckingham, not Captain Jack Sparrow’s sidekick, complete with flappy arms, not to mention a pretty fantastic faux hawk. I really hope this isn’t the new British period character trend. And Queen Anne (Juno Temple) and Constance (Gabriella Wilde) prove there is no shortage of cookie-cutter blonde skinnies in Hollywood. Neither brings anything memorable to their roles, especially Wilde who has the same expression on her face whether she’s looking at D’Artagnan or the ground … or tied to the bow of a flying battleship.

‘Musketeers” other positive is the cinematography. It was obviously filmed for 3D (I saw the 2D version) so there is a lot of depth and vivid color, even in 2D. What I loved most were the sword fighting scenes. Are you ready for this? There wasn’t one shaky-cam on set. Really. These are the fight scenes we’ve been waiting for: wide-angle steady shots so you could really take in the impressive choreography.

The final duel between D’Artagnan and Rochefort was my favorite part – no gags, shaky-cam or cheesy banter. Even the final exchange between the two, which easily could have been played for laughs, respects the gravity of the moment.

Get past all that, however, and you’re left with some very cringe-worthy sequences aimed at the lowest common denominator. Athos’ shtick is that he can move silently underwater, black face mask in place and guns or swords crossed on his back to launch a surprise attack on his enemies. And, unlike the novel, Constance and Milady both live to have happy endings, or semi-happy in Milady’s case. Or semi-endings, since the epilogue leaves us well prepared for a sequel, as Buckingham’s fleet of ships – both maritime and airborne – are headed to do battle with France.

The dialogue begs for MST3K commentary. When Athos is unable to bring himself to kill Milady, she throws herself off of the Musketeers’ flying battleship into the English Channel. As she disappears, Porthos puts his arm around Athos and says, “At least she died the way she lived: on her terms.” And Athos says, “She did it for me. She knew I couldn’t live with myself if I killed her.” Gag and wretch. Sadly, this is par for the course here, and a painful distraction from the action-packed story.

Also – have I mentioned the flying airships? And that those flying airships are armed with flame throwing cannons and rudimentary machine guns? And that Athos is a quasi-ninja? Oh, and Milady channels Jennifer Garner in ‘Alias,’ slinking through hallways blocked by cross-crossing metal wires (not actual lasers, thank goodness) in her corset and garters. It’s all punctuated by ‘Matrix’-style slow-mo action shots. That’s what we call “trying too hard.” I was ready to leave before the last half-hour.

‘The Three Musketeers’ might be worth a rental if you’re already paying for Netflix. Otherwise, it’s not worth the price of a theater ticket.

–DVD SALES DOWN 18.3% IN 2011; ITUNES DOMINATES DIGITAL MOVIE SALES–

Interesting Variety article, that for some reason isn’t behind their suicidal paywall.  Bottom line is that even though digital sales are picking up, they only make up a fraction of a market still dominated by physical DVDs — and that market is crashing. People are now renting and doing so through cheap retailers like Netflix and Redbox (as Blockbuster lowers their prices almost daily in order to stay alive).

If Hollywood wants to boost their sales biz, I have three suggestions:

1. Make better movies. The crap coming out now is not the kind of experience anyone wants to relive. Furthermore, the move towards 3D probably isn’t helping. That’s a THEATRE experience, not a living room experience. A huge theatre screen, super-duper theatre sound, and 3D might salvage a lousy movie for some people, but at home it’s just a lousy movie for all people.

2. For the love of all that’s holy, lower your prices — especially on the download side. Why in the world should we pay $15 for the digital download of a movie that we have to store on our own hard drive? Why should we pay that kind of money for an item no one had to manufacture, package, or ship? We might as well rent or buy the disc or wait six weeks and buy it as good as new from the Blockbuster previously-viewed bin.

3. If #2 interests you at all, the next step is to get us used to downloading and away from owning physical DVDs. But — and this is important — we need more hard drive space or a place  on the Web where we can store our collections.

–ANOTHER REASON DVDS AREN’T SELLING: LAZY, INDULGENT, CONFUSING HYPER-EDITING–

Over at IndieWire, Matthias Stork criticizes, “[contemporary blockbusters, particularly action movies, [that] trade visual intelligibility for sensory overload, and the result is a film style marked by excess, exaggeration and overindulgence: chaos cinema.”

As someone who’s been complaining about the shaky-cam set on puree since the damned thing was spawned by Satan, I couldn’t agree more and can’t add much more. However, I will say that this new anti-style of cutting action scenes is another reason why DVD sales are down. In the theatre, the “sensory overload” Stork talks about might make up for the confusion for those young moviegoers who dig the video game experience, but you can’t recreate that overload at home. So why buy the DVD.

Compare Daniel Craig’s “Casino Royale” — which is shot in a more conventional way — to “Quantum of Solace,” which is a complete mess filled with utterly confusing actions scenes that have you reaching for the Dramamine. I own every James Bond, even the bad ones, but purchasing “Quantum” is out of the question. The story is lousy, but certainly no worse than “Never Say Never Again.” But the reason I don’t own it is due to the HORRIBLE editing.

Who wants to relive that?

When it comes to the collapse of DVD sales, the elephant in the room that neither the industry nor the media that covers it wants to point to is the quality of the product.

–MORE PROOF STREAMING IS THE FUTURE–

Let me say it again: People want to watch what they want to watch when they want to watch it. Network and cable television as we know it will be dead in less than five years. The Fox network’s attempt to force people back into the habit of appointment television was obviously going to fail. What we want is to sit down when we want to sit down, scroll a menu, find the latest episode of our favorite show, and press PLAY.

When HBO On Demand started, I abruptly stopped watching regular HBO. Sitting down for the Saturday night premiere was a decades-long ritual but the ability to stream killed that ritual off instantly.

Nope, in five years, other than sporting events, cable and broadcast networks will have to make most of their money off of a monthly subscription service. We don’t want schedules and we don’t want commercials.

It’s a whole new world.

–‘TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON’ TO BE RE-RELEASED IN IMAX THEATERS–

The sickest I’ve ever been was some 20 years ago back when I was living in Milwaukee. Something got into the city water that actually killed some elderly people and while my life was never in danger, I did want to die. In the middle of all this anguish, Errol Flynn’s “Robin Hood” was playing on television — one of my favorite films. Laying there — nauseous, fevered, chilled, and aching to a point where even the wonder of Nyquil had no effect — and watching Errol Flynn woo Olivia De Havilland in glorious Technicolor had a strange psychological effect on me. For fifteen years afterwards, I couldn’t watch “Robin Hood.” The memory of being so ill was so strongly attached to the movie that I just couldn’t do it. My point, and I do have one…

The misery of watching “Transformers 2″ had the exact same effect. Just the thought of seeing it again or any other “Transformers” film is psychologically impossible.

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LAST NIGHT’S SCREENING

Last of the Mohicans (1992) — The wife and I first moved to the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina in 1993, when Michael Mann’s superb adaptation of the classic James Fenimore Cooper novel was rotating endlessly on cable television. And because the film is shot where we live and captures the wilderness — the terrain, trees, plants, fog, etc. — perfectly, we’ve always associated it with home. In fact, a portion of the film was shot just a few miles from where I’m sitting now.

During our eight-year stay in Los Angeles, homesickness made it impossible to watch even a minute of the film, so last night it was a real treat just to sit back and enjoy the adventures of Hawkeye and Cora once again — this time on glorious Blu-ray.

Man alive, what a soundtrack.

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QUICK HITS

WILL DISNEY’S ‘LONE RANGER’ RIDE ON WITHOUT GORE VERBINSKI?

ROBOT BOXING MOVIES ARE COOL

EXCELLENT ANALYSIS: “10 LESSONS HOLLYWOOD CAN LEARN FROM THIS SUMMER’S MOVIES”

YIKES!

POSTER-A-PALOOZA

THE FAILURES OF NETFLIX: 12,000 TITLES AND NOTHING TO WATCH

“CHRISTMAS STORY”  STAR FINDS DEAD MAN IN HOTEL ROOM

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CLASSIC PICK FOR WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24

FMC:

4:00 pm ET: 100 RIFLES (1969) –Circa 1912, a sheriff (Brown) tracks down an outlaw gun runner (Reynolds) in Mexico and becomes involved with a feud between the local military regime and revolutionaries. Cast: Jim Brown, Raquel Welch, Burt Reynolds, Fernando Lamas, Eric Braeden, Michael Forest, Jerry Goldsmith, Claire Huffaker.

One of those underrated, late 60’s, widescreen Westerns that must have been a blast to watch at the drive-in. Raquel Welch is breathtakingly gorgeous and football great Jim Brown breathtakingly stoic, but it’s Burt Reynolds who steals the show as the  charismatic Mexican revolutionary Brown’s sheriff starts out hunting but ends up joining forces with.

The director is Tom Gries, who also directed the classic “Will Penny” and near-classic (in my humble opinion) “Breakhart Pass.”

The famous sex scene between Brown and Welch was controversial at the time (the whole black/white thing), and the story itself strives for a social conscience, but the decades have worn those elements down to shrug-worthy. Today, you just have the pleasure of a simple story, a ton of star power, and a lot of well-directed action.

Including today’s pick, Welch starred in three outstanding Westerns between 1968 and 1971. “Bandolero” (1968) and “Hannie Caulder (1971) would make for a terrific Sunday afternoon triple-feature along with “100 Rifles.”

–Please send tips/suggestions/requests to jnolte@breitbart.com

Story

Our lives — indeed, our very species — has storytelling wound into our DNA. From the earliest cave drawings, man has expressed himself in terms of story.  Ancient civilizations understood that stories are vital to understanding our place in the world, so much so that they codified storytelling and found base rules that form it.  Oral histories are a part of every culture across the globe.

Stories instill moral and ethical values.  They place joy and tragedy in context.  They preserve cultures.  At their best, they deliver the secrets and meanings of life.

As Dr. Neal Baer, the longtime showrunner of Law & Order: SVU tells in my book Inside the TV Writer’s Room, humans live story on a daily basis.  What happens when your run into a friend?  He asks what you’ve been up to.  You tell a story.

What did you do today?  You relate it in the form of a story.  Doctors tell each other the story of a patient in order to diagnose her. Lawyers attempt to tell jurors a story through direct and cross-examinations, and opening and closing statements.  Businessmen tell the story of their product.  Stock investors try to suss out a company’s story to see if it is a good investment.

Most importantly, it isn’t only the text that is important. It is also a story’s context and it’s subtext that deliver messages.  It’s those messages that are significant in this article.

Popular Culture

Popular culture is delivered to us in the form of story via books, TV, film, music, video games, and new media. Obviously, most of us are there to simply be entertained.  However, along with that entertainment comes messaging.  It may not be intentional.  Oftentimes, it isn’t (and the job of critics to tease out unexpected thematics or commentary).

So whenever we view a piece of popular culture, we should ask what messages it delivers.  What values are espoused or rejected?  What is the moral of the story?  How did the characters change?  What did they learn?   What means did they use to their ends?  Finally, how do you feel about the answers to these questions?

Because whether you like it or not, or believe it or not, the messaging of popular culture is resonating inside everyone’s conscious and subconscious mind.  And if those messages are not consonant with the things you hold dear, then it is incumbent upon you to challenge yourself.  First ask why it threatens you, and then, if appropriate, accept or reject the message.  Never reject it out of hand.  Do yourself the favor of letting yourself be challenged, in the event you make a discovery about something that never occurred to you.

Politics

Thus we come to politics.  Given the influence that story has on our everyday lives, and that popular culture is barraging us with story on a regular basis, we must remain ever vigilant as to the messaging in those stories.

Regardless of one’s ideological, moral, ethical, or religious leanings, every person should be aware of the messaging of every piece of popular culture.  The thesis here at BH is that the vast majority of those with the power of content creation are Liberals.  If you accept that thesis, then realize that Liberals control story.  Given the breadth and depth of popular culture in our daily lives, it follows that Liberal messaging is what is primarily being imparted on the masses.

What is some of that messaging? Think about movies and TV.  Corporations are evil — using unwitting poor Africans for pharmaceutical testing (Constant Gardener) or dumping toxic chemicals into nature (Erin Brockovich, A Civil Action) or responsible for the end of mankind (Rise of the Planet of the Apes). American soldiers are bloodthirsty lawbreaking maniacs (Any military film).  The CIA conducts illegal, secret operations that have nothing to do with protecting America.  Radical Muslim terrorists are never villains.  Trial lawyers are crusading do-gooders.  David Letterman and Saturday Night Live ridicule the Right 95% of the time.    Jon Stewart pretends to be centrist, but in fact jumps all over the Right far more often than the Left.

This messaging reinforces Liberal narratives — that is, Liberal stories.   These are the same narratives you see in Liberal politics.  The popular culture backs up Liberal policies, morals, ethics, values, and standards.   Liberal political candidates are the embodiments of those Liberal tenets.  The goal is to associate them in voter minds via the vehicle of popular culture.

Finally, what are voters meant to take away from a candidate’s speech, platform, or appearance?  The candidate’s story, of course.  That’s why it is imperative to understand messaging.   Not only will a politician tell his own story, he will also attempt to define the opposing party or candidate’s narrative for him.  He who controls that narrative wins.

Conclusion

Culture influences politics, and in ways the Left has understood for a long time.  The Right has sat idly by, as they did with higher education, and let an ideological movement take over one of the most important aspects of American society.  If the Right has any interest in reclaiming that ground, they must vote with their pocketbooks as well as their voices, and their votes.   Given the decline in box office admission volume and network television ratings, they are getting the message.

But I still love movies, and I still have hope that Hollywood is going to accidentally let slip though its paws at least a couple films this year that don’t insult my intelligence, that don’t hector me with pinko propaganda, and that don’t derive from some obscure comic book beloved by a cult of social misfit fanboys whose idea of a romantic evening is a hi-speed Internet connection, a two-liter bottle of Pepsi, and an old tube sock.  

And I love trailers too.  I hate commercials in front of movies, but there can never be too many trailers.  Each new trailer is like a bright new dawn or a just-poured pint of draft Dos Equis lager – full of hope and promise.  Sure, most of the time that hope and promise fades when Kevin James waddles on-screen to make a fart joke, but still….there are moments where something awesome blows your mind.  

Those rare, fleeting moments where a trailer teases you with the promise of a great story, an exciting adventure, a hilarious romp…where you think “Wow, that looks cool!”…where you just know that as funny as the jokes the trailer reveals are, the ones that await in the movie itself will be even funnier…they make sitting through the crap worth it.  That’s what makes me love trailers – trailers have the power to remind us that movies don’t have to suck.  

With that in mind, in descending order of how awful they look to me, let’s check out just some of the movies that are coming down the pike in the next few months….  

Final Destination 5  (Due August 12, 2011):  

This latest entry in this apparently never-ending series of gore-soaked exercises in armchair sadism raises an important question:  Why do we allow people who pay to see these movies to vote?  

I am not saying that the kind of brain-dead quarter-wits who would plop down $15 of dough that probably came from some government handout are responsible for this administration and the Democratic majority in the Senate, but I’m not not saying it.  For the sake of our nation, I propose an amendment to our Constitution that forever bars anyone buying a ticket to a Final Destination film from ever again exercising the right to vote.   

On the up side, the special effects look okay.  Pass.  

The Adventures of TinTin (Due December 23, 2011):  

Finally, Steven Spielberg has given in to the public clamor for a motion capture movie based on some Belgian comic strip that no one in any country that matters has ever heard of about a creepy-looking kid and his stupid dog.  

At the threshold, motion capture technology can’t yet bridge the uncanny valley and always tends to create there weird characters that cause you to spend the whole movie thinking “If that thing comes near me I’ll kill it with a rake.”   

So, instead of using the technology in a limited way to spice up live action with some strange being – like Gollum in Lord of the Rings – they make it the whole movie and it’s almost always a disaster.  You’ll notice how this post does not refer to the upcoming Polar Express 2: The Revenge.  

Second, comic book movies are awful enough, but a Belgian comic book?  Belgium is like France without the good parts.  Pass.  

30 Minutes or Less (August 12, 2011):  

I’m a traditionalist and I like my comedies funny, which is why I’m not looking forward to this one.  Apparently inspired by the incident where some poor pizza guy was blown apart by a psycho who clipped a bomb to him to force him to rob a bank, this features the same general scenario with the addition of lots of people shouting, making funny faces, swearing and driving cars badly.  There’s your comedy gold; I’m eagerly awaiting to their hilarious spoof of the Rwanda genocide.   

A little of stars Jesse Eisenberg and Danny McBride goes a long way, light years in fact.  Aziz Ansari is there too and he’s kind of funny.  But this just looks agonizing.  Pass.  

Killer Elite (Due September 23, 2011):  

No.  No, it’s not a remake of the awesome, quirky 1975 Sam Peckinpah masterpiece The Killer Elite.  In that, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Burt Young and a bunch of other studs fought World War III all over the San Francisco Bay Area.  It kicked more ass than John Boehner could ever get in line.  

But this…what a waste.  I like Jason Stratham, I really do, but he’s becoming to playing invincible killing machines what Michael Cera is to playing quirky millennial smartasses.  This is the same karate-kicking, gun-wielding, unstoppable guy he’s been in every movie he’s ever made – it needs to end.  In fact, the whole invulnerable, unstoppable hero trope needs to end.  Move on!  There’s no suspense – super death dealer guy gets wronged, he seeks vengeance, he wins.  We’ve seen it a zillion times before, but I’m not seeing it again.  

And De Niro’s in it.  De Niro!  What, did he invest with Madoff or something?  You can practically see him mentally endorsing his paycheck as he goes through the motions in the explodey/shooty trailer.  And I usually like movies that are explodely and shooty.  Pass.  

Just for a taste of what could have been, here’s the kick-ass Suisun Bay mothball fleet climax of the original.  Savor:  

Real Steel (Due October 7, 2011):  

I can hear just the pitch that got this made: “Think Rocky meets Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots, and best of all, we don’t have to pay Stallone or Mattel a dime!”  

Okay, so big robots box.  There’s that.  Oh, and there is a kid too, of course.  He’s wise beyond his years.  Didn’t see that coming.  And Hugh Jackman is a down on his luck boxer who needs to teach a robot to fight to save his relationship with his kid.  But the real question is, can he teach the robot to love?  

Kill me.  Pass.  

Immortals (Due November 11, 2011):  

I think I liked this CGI swords, sandals and screaming movie better when it was titled 300.  

Sure, it looks impressive, if you like watching CGI renderings in slow motion and digitally enhanced bloodletting.  But then the actors open their mouths and it’s all downhill from there.  If the best dialogue they could find is in the trailer, what aural torment awaits us in the theater?  I hope they think to include subtitles translating Cliché into English.    

And I’m exhausted by movies about unbeatable sword guys who literally mow down hundreds of faceless, nameless opponents without a receiving scratch, though they do break a sweat – all these guys seem to literally glisten.  It’s boring.  And it’s creepy.  Pass.  

Moneyball (Due September 23, 2011):  

Now, you need to understand that I detest spectator sports – particularly baseball – with a venom I usually reserve for liberal social programs, Red Lobster, and Rage Against the Machine.  Which is why the trailer for this film, the true story of an Oakland A’s manager who apparently radically changed the game, is so good.  I can’t wait to see it.  

Let’s look at why, because it illustrates what Hollywood can do to get people like me back into those stained, stinky seats.  The trailer introduces the conflict – an impoverished ball club on the rocks – and then hints at how it will be solved – by interesting characters coloring outside the lines.  Add the incomparable charisma of Brad Pitt, plus some solid dialogue and some fine technical work (the cinematography and direction look fantastic) and you have a movie that adults want to see.  The fact that the trailer is expertly cut to hint at the story and pique our interest without giving away the entire plot only helps.  

Now, I know from the sports fans who pester me with their yammering all the time that there is a lot more to this real-life story than what is on this trailer.  But the point is that I want to find out.  I want to know the story; I want the movie to take me into world that I know (and, frankly, care) nothing about and show me how it works.  That’s what makes a great movie – and a movie I will plop down my $30 to take my hot wife to see.  I’m there.  Go!  

So there it is – an enormous amount of crap, but maybe a few little nuggets of gold as well.  Remember that we get crap in large part because people pay to see crap.  Don’t see crap.  Instead, criticize, mock and disrespect crappy movies with a vengeance.  This is important – stupidity needs to be mocked or bad things happen, like Obamacare and Lady Gaga.  But good stuff – well, you need to support it.  

Happy movie-going!

Just as the anti-war artists of the 60’s expressed their political views through music, so too are an increasing number of artists of the TEA Party movement who refuse to keep silent about the destruction of this great nation by many who ironically subscribed to those radical, anti-government views of the 60’s counterculture movement.

James Kole - American Folk Blues Artist

One such patriot artist, whose musical style is reminiscent of the folk music of the 60’s, but with a contemporary blues/rock twist, is American Folk Blues artist James Kole.

We have been fans of James Kole’s for over two years since first stumbling upon his YouTube channel, impressed not only by his positive, pro-America lyrics, but also by his professionally produced videos, unique musical and vocal style, and his captivating delivery.

James is no newcomer to patriotic-infused songwriting promoting individual liberty and love of country.  His 1998 full-length release, Liberty, offered listeners a glimpse of what was to come over the years and culminate into his 7th full-length album (released July 4th, 2010):  Songs For Freedom in which he sings about the American Revolution, Frederick Douglass, the Constitution, U.S. Sovereignty, current uncertain times, and much more.

“Rockin’ the stage with a force like thunder”, James Kole’s musical talent is mesmerizing and his energetic aura commanding.  A singer/songwriter from Scottsdale, Arizona, Kole has impressed audiences with his unique blend of blues, rock, and American folk, earning him the title “Local Legend” in the 2008 edition of Perfectify Magazine.

Outside the local scene, his music has a long list of film and television credits, including projects for Miramax, HBO, Washington Square Films, MTV, PBS, and even Red Bull energy drinks.

In 2003, Kole was awarded the Best Original Song at the Saguaro Film Festival for his hit, Big Orange Sun.  James has shared stages with The Doobie Brothers, Nashville country artist Pat Green, SNL star Victoria Jackson, and many more.

Despite many flaws common to the superhero genre, First Class is quite possibly the best film in the series, not because it’s chock full of impressive special effects and action, but because broiling beneath its main characters’ performances are ideas–not just any ideas, but the central political and philosophical questions of the film’s time period whose minutiae our modern pundits still grapple over. This is not so much a review as a jumping-off point for discussion, so beware of spoilers ahead.

First Class focuses on young Magneto (Michael Fassbender) and Professor X (James McAvoy), at this point known as Erik Lehnshnerr and Charles Xavier, framing their worldviews through their respective experiences of World War II. Magneto is a Holocaust survivor forced to watch his own mother gunned down by Sebastian Shaw (a scenery-chewing Kevin Bacon), while X, though British, lives untouched by the war in New York, comfortable and affluent. As such, Magneto manifests the deep cynicism of Europeans, who decades before the first world war prophesied that civilization would make war a thing of the past, and X embodies the optimism of his young, victorious, prosperous nation.

If the film has one fatal flaw, it’s that McAvoy’s Professor X is a monstrously one-dimensional good guy–perfectly empathetic, perfectly charismatic, perfectly humble. He’s given a few humanizing moments of triviality in the first act, but once the central conflict kicks in, he merely serves as the angelic foil to the deeply tormented, deeply human, and deeply moving Magneto. Michael Fassbender, best known for his brief turn in Inglourious Basterds, deserves an Oscar nomination for his work here. He takes charge of the role with intimidating physicality, harnessing intense emotions into subtle shifts in Magneto’s inevitable path to top-hat-and-cape-wearing, mustache-tweaking evil. Yes, though we know exactly where he’s going, Fassbender injects suspense into the actual mechanics of the transformation; we care about him, sitting mortified but silently cheering when he gets his moment of revenge.

And that is the central drama of First Class: it’s not the Cuban Missile Crisis, stopping the madman Sebastian Shaw, or the shoehorned attempts at modern political salience (one a lame Patriot Act dig, the other a tired “Baby, you were born this way!” after-school special monologue)–it’s that the protagonist, for a reason we completely sympathize with, is making a horrendous, morally bankrupt choice. And this is where the politics kick in: Despite the film’s attempt to morally equate the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., Magneto’s arc shows the fundamental difference between the political philosophies behind the Soviet Union and America.

Young Erik Lehnshnerr suffers at the hands of Nazis, those who used superficial traits as justification for declaring certain human beings ontologically inferior to themselves, while Charles Xavier flourishes in the wealth of Americans, whose nation was founded on the idea that God creates common men no differently than kings. I hesitate to continue referring to it as American vs. Soviet ideology; it really is served best by the terms of Mark Levin’s bestselling book: Liberty and Tyranny. This contrast screams at the audience in a central dialogue scene wherein X and Magneto discuss their betrayal by the mutant-phobic CIA. Trying his best to dissuade revenge, X remarks, “We have it in us to be the better men.” Magneto coldly retorts, “We already are the better men.”

The heart of tyranny is the belief that one knows better than another how he should live his life (or whether he should live at all) because somehow the one is superior over the other. Of course, Magneto is a lot more powerful than the average human–able to control metal with his mind, pull a submarine into the air and all that–but power does not equal righteousness, which X was telling him in the first place. In the film’s climactic action scene, Magneto decides that it would be best to start a nuclear war between America and the Soviets, wholly embracing the eugenicist ideology that killed his mother. That kernel of tyranny, the belief in his own ascendancy, becomes the justification for genocide.

But the heart of liberty is the belief that each person, though they may sometimes get it wrong, ultimately has their best interests at heart, and that self-interest should be respected. Charles Xavier realizes that his self-interest–meeting, grooming, and uniting mutants around the world–is not inherently at odds with the interests of humans, so his progress does not have to come at others’ expense, as Magneto has decided. The parallels between our metal-tossing protagonist and the real world are sadly spot-on. The authors of the Frankfurt School, thankful as they were for the shelter and freedom America provided as they fled Nazi Germany, soon propagated the same insidious ideology that brought about Nazism: that some humans are more equal than others, and those more equal should revolt and take away the way of life enjoyed by those who are less equal.

These philosophical undercurrents give X-Men: First Class the heft that its predecessors strained for but never reached. Whether director Matthew Vaughn intended them as subtext or not, the clashing ideas of Magneto and Professor X constitute the primary political conflict of the 20th century stripped to its basic arguments.  Coupled with Fassbender’s can’t-miss performance, this is one summer blockbuster that’s gonna stick with me for a little while.