Captain James T. Kirk can be a little irritating at times, William Shatner acknowledged during a January appearance in the New Orleans Convention Center’s Wizard World event.

But, at the same time, the iconic starship captain has opened the way to high profile Hollywood career opportunities, exotic travel destinations and robust cultural exchanges that would not otherwise have been possible, Shatner told hundreds of listeners during a question and answer session held as part of the city’s two-day “Wizard World Comic-Con.”

The highly versatile pop-culture legend, known across generations, was the center of attention at the annual event. He appeared on Sat. January 28th. Other featured guests included Stan Lee, the creator of Spider-Man, and bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno, who played the “Incredible Hulk” in the 1970s and 1980s opposite the late Bill Bixby.

Instead of delivering a prepared talk filled with anecdotes about his career in entertainment, Shatner told attendees that he would rather take their questions and concentrate on their interests.

“Have you ever hated Captain Kirk?” one audience member asked. In response, “The Shat,” as he is commonly called now, described his romp down Bourbon Street the previous night.

“Last night we were having dinner, and the waiter comes up and says — what would you like? I said `oysters.” And he said — ‘Beam Me Up Scotty!!!’ — I mean come on.”

“On the other hand…,” he added. “I would not have been here ordering those oysters if it hadn’t been for Captain Kirk. It’s a two-edged sword. Imagine getting to do the things I’ve done as a result of playing the part of Captain Kirk.”

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HOW ‘LIFE ON MARS’ LOST MY WIFE IN UNDER THREE EPISODES

Yesterday morning my pretty wife told me about this new television series she had just discovered on Netflix Streaming. “Life On Mars” was cancelled after 17 episodes, but because we’re both big fans of actors Harvey Keitel and Michael Imperioli, she decided to give it a go and was hooked after only two episodes.

That evening she was into episode three and as I walked through the room I heard the protagonist take a not-so veiled shot at Bush and the Iraq War. Some nonsense about how we get into wars on false pretenses.

It was gratuitous, heavy-handed, sanctimonious and a full-blown sucker punch.

Without missing a beat my wife picked up the remote, shut the show off, and streamed an episode of “Wagon Train.”

Dick move, Hollywood. We have choices now.

Grow up or die.

‘TOWER HEIST’ ARRIVES ON DVD FEB 21

Am I the only one surprised this wasn’t a hit? Anyway, I’m looking forward to seeing it on DVD. Here’s some info on the special features:

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Here at Big Hollywood we often take the entertainment industry to task for its outrageous liberalism, and rightfully so. Of course it’s our job to look for the worst cases to alert you all about the nagging left-wing bias. But occasionally there are stories that are good ones and it is incumbent upon us to report those, too. This is one of those stories.

More often than not when we have news out of Hollywood about life issues it is invariably a pro-abortion tale and in the case of scientific studies, it is usually some denizen of Tinseltown coming out forcefully for unethical fetal stem cell research. The destruction of life is de rigueur out there, unfortunately.

But not this time.

You might say that this celebrity has boldly gone where no Hollywooder has gone before. You also might wince at my horrible attempt at humor when you find out that we are here today to celebrate the efforts of Eugene W. Roddenberry Jr., the son of Gene Roddenberry, the creator of “Star Trek.”

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Four high-profile shows have just had their season finales – well, three did while the other (AMC’s “The Walking Dead“) instead invented the concept of a “mid-season finale,” a phenomenon that is even less necessary than the Jon Huntsman campaign. If that’s possible.

The Walking Dead, HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire,” Showtime’s “Homeland” and Fox’s “Terra Nova” could not be more different in concept, tone or execution, but what they have in common illustrates the biggest threat to Hollywood – and the solution to Hollywood’s problems.

The industry faces unprecedented technological challenges and dwindling audiences, but those alone won’t close down the Glitter Factory. Hackneyed plots, unquestioned political premises and disrespect for the audience will.  But great storytelling, fine acting and technical work – those can save it.

This is written as a fan, as someone who wants these shows to succeed, who wants the hundreds of people who are employed by them to keep working. Please note that spoilers will run free and without restraint throughout, flowing unhindered like stupid ideas from Ron Paul’s Fed-hole.

“Boardwalk Empire” is a near-great show, adult fare not only on account of the complex themes of loyalty and greed that it explores but also in the sense that it packs more female nudity per episode than a drunken Disney teen star’s hacked cellphone camera.  (more…)

William Shatner had every reason to live down to the worst things people said about him and his career. Instead, Shatner embraced his image and keeps having the last laugh.

The “Star Trek” legend and “T.J. Hooker” star hit a pretty rough patch a while back. He was getting older, and his curious way with a line reading left him open … for … mockery.

Instead, he went to work. And, at 80, he’s not close to slowing down. Shatner’s next gig takes him to Broadway and then, later in 2012, across the country.

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It’s always a bad sign when my Hot Wife switches to Spanish, which she did after watching about 20 minutes of the premiere of Terra Nova.  She dubbed it Terra Mierda.  I won’t translate it for you gringos; just understand that it does not mean “World of Quality Entertainment.”

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Now, understand that it gives me no pleasure to report that Terra Nova is off to a crappy start.  None.  Anyone living in California knows lots of people who work in the Industry, from crew to talent, who rely on production to feed their families.  We want shows to be great, to be hits, to run for years.  And none of them got up and said “I want to take an interesting idea and turn it into a hackneyed, tedious death march.” Well, maybe the writers and producers did – the vicissitudes of chance do not account for how they managed to hit every tiresome cliché and make every bad choice available every time.

The conceit of Terra Nova is that a bunch of people from 2189 are sent back in time from a polluted, fascist Earth 85 million years to restart human civilization.  They face all sorts of ferocious dinosaurs, which is cool, and that have all sorts of bitchin’ guns, which is also cool.  Steven Spielberg is involved with it, and once upon a time he made movies I actually liked.  Fox is spending a fortune on it.  It should be kinda interesting and kinda fun.

But no.

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ABOUT THAT ‘ANGEL HEART” SYMBOLISM

Yesterday, in the “Last Night’s Screening” section, I mentioned that after a dozen screenings I might have finally figured out what director Alan Parker was trying to tell us with the returning symbolism of that slow-turning fan.

WARNING: If you haven’t seen “Angel Heart” I’m about to spoil it completely — which, I promise you, would be a real shame.

In the story’s linear timeline, our first glimpse of the fan is seen in a shot outside a New York hotel room during the sacrifice of a sailor. If you remember, this was the ritual Johnny Favourite performed in the hopes of getting out of his contract for his soul with Satan. He ate the sailor’s heart and then stole his identity before becoming our intrepid P.I. Harry Angel. It’s also important to remember that Lisa Bone’s character informs us that Johnny (and therefore Harry) is/was the most truly evil person her mother had ever come across.

Unless I missed something, we only see the fan turn when Harry Angel is or is about to commit a murder off-screen. In other words, while Harry Angel suffers a blackout, evil Johnny Favourite returns to heinously murder those putting Harry on the trail of discovering who he really is.

Essentially, the fan tells us the evil in our protagonist is at work.

My two cents.

Man, I love talking  movies!

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–WEREN’T WE JUST TALKING ABOUT MICHAEL RAPAPORT?–

Big Hollywood’s own Carl Kozlowski co-hosts a weekly (Thursdays 6-8pm PST) podcast called “GrandTheft Audio.” Tonight their special guest is actor Michael Rapaport.  Tune in here. And Sunday you can see the show live. More info here.

–DISNEY EXEC: “A GOOD SCRIPT IS UTTER BULL***T”–

In today’s Variety, Disney Exec Andy Hendrickson argues that moviegoers are only interested in spectacle and not story, and used the top 12 box office champs of all time to back up his claim.

You can argue as to whether or not that’s correct, but at the very least someone is telling the truth about the inexcusable crap studios are delivering these days.  But even if he’s right about moviegoer tastes, why not spectacle AND story? It’s not as though they’re mutually exclusive.

Hollywood can point to the Top 12 all they want, and no doubt that piece of junk “Avatar” is right at the top. But after the spectacle wears off, what does Hollywood have? After the technology is everywhere and no longer “spectacle” and all the “ooh” and “ahh” is removed, who’s going to return to James Cameron’s lame-o, Pocahontas-lite again?

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–J.J. Abrams Moves Towards Directing ‘Star Trek 2′–

Upon first viewing in a theatre, I wasn’t a big fan of Abrams’ reboot;  my review said so, and I caught a lot of hell for it. Watching it again on DVD a few months later, I have to admit I enjoyed the film a little more but not as much as others. For starters, Eric Bana’s villain stunk and the third act was something of a mess — especially the climax, which lacked the emotion necessary to make it something epic.

But for the most part the reboot was an enjoyable romp, perfect for television and now that Abrams and his writers have come up with this alternative universe to drop our beloved characters into (a brilliant idea), it should be interesting to see where they go.

–IMAX BLAMES BAD FILMS FOR DRAMATIC 2Q EARNINGS DECLINE–
 

I consider this to be an important headline because no one working in any part of Hollywood ever ever EVER blames anything on the “quality” of films. They’ll blame bad box office or home video revenue on piracy, new technology, mother nature and the economy — but never on the incontrovertible fact that the quality of motion pictures has declined something awful over the past decade.

The only problem is that the story doesn’t fit the headline.

Oh well.

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There is nothing that says “expert on Middle Eastern conflict resolution” more than playing an alien on television. So, the consummate expert has penned a missive to Americans for Peace Now on how he sees an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Spock has spoken.

Leonard Nimoy has called for a two state solution for which, in deference, several notables (amongst them Israelis), have called.  Nimoy does make a telling statement about the whole idea of two separate states.

“In fact, there is an end in sight. It’s known as the two-state solution – a secure, democratic Israel as the Jewish State alongside an independent Palestinian state.”

He does deserve some credit for seeing Israel as a Jewish state but, if you notice, there is only one democratic state mentioned here. It isn’t expected that another Muslim Arab state will be democratic. As a matter of fact, as always, Israel is expected to remain multicultural andrespect the rights of all its inhabitants, yet the proposed Arab state would, like all the other Arab states, not be open to Jews. Not that many Jews would like to live in an Arab state, considering the centuries of slaughter and pillage that have been the lot of Dhimmi Jews in Arab lands.

This is pretty par for the course, but what is even more egregious is his call for the division of Jerusalem.

“Their plan includes a Palestinian state alongside Israel with agreed-upon land swaps. The Palestinian-populated areas of Jerusalem would become the capital of Palestine; the Jewish-populated areas the capital of Israel.”

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Except for Muhammad Ali’s, the most money I’ve ever spent on an autograph was for William Shatner’s, a signed copy of his 1993 memoir “Star Trek Memories.” The man is not only a living legend and one of the great show-biz survivors of all time, he’s one of the great larger-than-life actors — a dying breed in the realm of Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster, and Anthony Quinn who can convincingly bring to life unforgettable characters in ways true hams like our modern-day Pacinos and DeNiros only dream of. It is the rarest of skill-sets in the acting profession, but when one pulls it off there’s nothing quite like it.

For going on forty years, I’ve watched Shatner star in a half-dozen hit television shows, as many hit films, write numerous best-sellers, and win two Emmys — all while his critics slowly lost the smug smile on their collective faces. Shatner’s latest autobiography,”Up Till Now,” is another terrific read told by a truly self-effacing man who embraces life, loves America (he’s Canadian), refuses to get into divisive politics, and has enjoyed one of the most fascinating and eclectic show business careers in the history of Hollywood.

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I once suggested to Big Hollywood editor John Nolte that to draw a tidal wave of comments we needed to somehow figure out a piece where I simultaneously attack birthers, praise Sarah Palin, and raise issues involving Star Trek.  Now, I guess I’d have to somehow work in drug legalization, too. 

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The tsunami hit in the wake of my recent column on Sting, Soros and their pro-drug partnership, which both cast doubt on the sacred truths of the very vocal drug legalization fans and defied George Soros.  Accordingly, I had to be stopped.  What happened next tells us much about the tactics, techniques and procedures we will come up against fighting for our culture – and how we can fight back.

The counter-attack came first came in the form of over 400 angry comments from drug legalizers (oh, sorry – “decrimminalizers”) and bong-fueled Twitter tweets from hemp-focused lay-abouts.  Next came columns by Huffington Post nonentities and other dope-o-centric fellow travelers.  Topping it off came at least one semi-veiled threat.  (more…)

Why do we at Big Hollywood and elsewhere in the conservative blogosphere even care about James Cameron and his stupid eco-dreck cartoon?  Or about Tom Hanks’ insights into the nature of American-Japanese relations World War II?  Or about the conclusions Matt Damon has drawn about the Iraq war that he’s derived as a result of his years of intense work at being a movie star?

Well, at one level, we don’t care.  James Cameron is another overpaid Hollywood petty tyrant with twin talents for shooting exciting action set pieces and for overtly and covertly serving up sophomoric lefty clichés.  Tom Hanks seems to be a nice enough guy, but I’d as soon head to him to diagnose a mysterious groin lump as I would to get a dissertation on the racial undertones of the War in the Pacific.  And Matt Damon is just a half-wit whose advocacy of gravity would be enough to make me oppose it.

But on another level, we do care because these folks and their antics provide proverbial “teaching moments” that help define the nature of the opposing sides in this cultural insurrection.  And it is an insurrection – in the case of Big Hollywood, a war between wily guerrillas with laptops, a few affiliated websites, a radio show and some busy Twitter accounts, and that unwieldy, lumbering cultural behemoth we call Hollywood. (more…)

Even bad or marginal films can offer stand-alone scenes that stand out. Here are my ten favorites from last year:

1. Up – Married Life Montage: Four of the most memorable and moving minutes you’ll ever see. Most montages and flashbacks of this sort focus on what David Zucker lampooned so well in the “Naked Gun” films: the run-on-the-beach type of stuff. Director Pete Docter not only captured the harsh realities of life with a miscarriage and the tragedy of growing old, but also the small everyday moments that later become the most poignant. Docter’s real accomplishment, though, was in setting the early bar so high with these heartrending few minutes and then living up to them for the next 90. 

2. Inglourious Basterds –  Once Upon a Time… In Nazi-Occupied France:  After “Death Proof” I worried that one our great directors had started to buy into his own fanboy press that he could do no wrong. But the “Basterds” opening scene with “The Jew Hunter,” SS Officer Hans Landa (Christopher Waltz —  who must win the Oscar), psychologically destroying a French farmer, not only unnerved me completely but eased all my fears regarding Mr. Tarantino. (more…)

“My role in life is to be a burr under the saddle. I didn’t pick that for myself, it just happens that’s the way I am. I wish I could be one of the really sweet guys, but for me nobody has a good word. That’s because my allegiance is to art, to the work. I have no allegiance to magazines, producers, studios, networks or anything. The work is what counts.” – Harlan Ellison, on writing in Hollywood.

For those of you here at Big Hollywood who think you are playing a whole new game in taking on the Tinseltown establishment in force, I have news for you. Scribe Extraordinaire and futurist iconoclast Harlan Ellison beat you all to the punch by about forty-five years. And if you don’t know who Harlan Ellison is, shame on you! He is a living legend with more Hugos and Nebulas than I care to count, as well as four WGA Awards and an Emmy nod. And all that’s just for starters. (more…)

Fifty years ago this month the smartest television show of all time first aired. As a writer, I am a sucker for good writing. “The Twilight Zone,” as  Michael Anton recently wrote in his commemoration at National Review Online, is nothing if not a writer’s show. Modern sci-fi fans, caught up in dazzling special effects and action, lose sight of the fact that sci-fi, in its radio incarnations “X Minus One” and “Dimension X,” and its later television offerings such as “The Outer Limits” and “Doctor Who,” is the plaything of nerd scribes with creative imaginations. The megastars and big-budgets would come later. In the beginning, there were wordsmiths.

It’s telling that “The Twilight Zone’s” recurring character is not an A-list hearthrob but the diminutive, gap-toothed, akimbo-eared Rod Serling, the show’s chief writer. Rocky Balboa’s trainer, otherwise known as that bow-legged villian of Gotham, is the closest thing one gets to an actor associated with “The Twilight Zone.” Even the theme music steals the limelight from the actors.

A few years ago, I purchased the 28-disc “complete, definitive collection” spanning all five of the show’s seasons. I’m on season five, and I generally watch late on weekend nights after imbibing. The benefits to this are twofold: first, my imagination is more malleable then and, second, it enables me to enjoy the episodes a second time around without deja vu. (more…)

We recently found out that a bunch of kids in New Jersey and yesterday on CNN were told to sing songs praising President Barack Hussein Obama. This particular song caused a lot of outcry, probably because it swiped bits from “Jesus Loves Me” and “Battle Hymn of the Republic” while trying to mold them into little Obamaites.

Well, in the spirit of fairness we should provide a counter-song the kids can sing to cleanse their minds of indoctrination and give them a more accurate assessment of our 44th president: (more…)

When Sarah Palin resigned a few weeks ago every blogger with a keyboard chimed in on it.  I didn’t want to be late in the game with a Sarah Palin blog, so I put this blog in the old hard drive of justice, right next to my Buffy the Vampire fan fiction and an un-produced screenplay about the Braves leaving Milwaukee.

Then I saw one of my childhood idols, Bill Shatner goofing on Sarah Palin.  At last, my geeked out political observation had new relevance!  Apple “C.” Apple “V.” Send to Big Hollywood.

We were treated to some really lame comparisons between Obama and Mr. Spock a few months back. Let’s ignore the obvious fact; that Mr. Spock is and always was the #2 guy. The Captain’s chair rightfully belonged to Kirk. Spock lacks the passion and empathy to be a leader. Trying to make a flattering comparison between the leader of the free world and a legendary sidekick seems like a non-starter.

No, let’s focus on the fact that Obama does not follow the Vulcan path. The path of logic. His demeanor may be calm, cool, and unemotional, but his thought process is driven by raw emotion. He represents decades of grievance education, America bashing, and misplaced empathy. There is nothing logical about the man. Exhibit A is the “stimulus plan.” (more…)

I was sitting in my dentist’s office a few weeks ago, and there on the side table was the Star Trek issue of Newsweek with some kid’s hand holding up a model USS Enterprise against the sun. 

Now I haven’t opened an issue of Newsweek in years, although I have to admit that Evan Thomas is a valuable – actually, essential – addition to society. He forgets to speak his true mind only among his friends, you see, and that gives us a little insight into what these media elites actually believe. He recently said that Barack Obama looked to him like a god, a man above petty things like “America.” 

Click to play

It was Evan Thomas who in 2004 admitted that liberal media bias was good for fifteen points at the polls. (That was for John Kerry. If you take away Obama’s 15 points of bias – I suspect is was much more — he would have won Vermont and the District of Columbia and that’s all he would have won – but I digress.) 

Anyway, the Newsweek cover showed the outline of the Enterprise – without the nacelle caps. Whoever made the model for the cover forgot to put them on. It was obvious to me from across the room, but then, that’s the kind of accuracy I have come to expect from Newsweek. And I digress yet again.  (more…)