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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‘ACT OF VALOR’ TV SPOT & FEATURETTE TAKE YOU IN THE LINE OF FIRE

Today, we have a new TV spot for Act of Valor, as well as a five-minute long featurette that offers a better look at the overall filmmaking style of the project, along with the hazardous locations, up-to-date Navy technology/vehicles, and physically-exhausting combat maneuvers on display in the movie.

Act of Valor was scripted by Kurt Johnstad (300) and is reportedly based on several real-life incidents involving Navy SEALs. Those stories were thereafter reconstructed and tied together to form the film’s central narrative, which follows the Bandito Platoon as it works in collaboration with the C.I.A. and sets out to stop a global terrorist plot that threatens to result in the coordinated killing of thousands of U.S. civilians.

GEORGE LUCAS: OTHER THAN A FIFTH ‘INDIANA JONES’, I’M DONE WITH BLOCKBUSTERS

King George is butthurt and taking his ball home with him:

Lucas seized control of his movies from the studios only to discover that the fanboys could still give him script notes. “Why would I make any more,” Lucas says of the “Star Wars” movies, “when everybody yells at you all the time and says what a terrible person you are?”

In the interview Lucas acts all astonished that after he tinkered with three of the most beloved films ever made, fans got upset. And he apparently holds the opinion that we shouldn’t be upset because he has the “right” to tinker with his films.

Lucas can’t possibly be this stupid.

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To say “Star Wars” fans have a love/hate relationship with the series’ creator, George Lucas, is to state the obvious.

Heck, they made an entire film on the subject – “The People vs. George Lucas.”

Fans critical of Lucas’ incessant tinkering on his six “Star Wars” films should be comforted by the fact that Lucas has heard you. He’s just not taking your comments seriously.

Lucas, on the promotional circuit to draw attention to his latest project, the World War II film “Red Tails,” says “Star Wars” fans can only blame themselves for ending the franchise.

On the Internet, all those same guys that are complaining I made a change are completely changing the movie,” Lucas tells the New York Times in a new profile, referring to YouTube fans who have re-cut his films in retaliation for the small changes he has made. “I’m saying: ‘Fine. But my movie, with my name on it, that says I did it, needs to be the way I want it.’”

Combine that experience with the cool reception the three “Star Wars” prequel films received in the late 90s and early 2000s, and Lucas says he’s done making new films in the canon.

“Why would I make any more,” Lucas says, “when everybody yells at you all the time and says what a terrible person you are?

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NETFLIX USERS STREAM 3000 LIFETIMES’ WORTH OF VIDEOS IN 3 MONTHS

And Hollywood thinks they can put this genie back in the bottle. Never.

DID YOU KNOW KING KONG ALMOST BATTLED FRANKENSTEIN’S MONSTER?

Alternate title: Did you know the greatest movie ever almost got made?

TELEVISION SERIES THAT OUTSTAYED THEIR WELCOME

They forgot the season premiere of “Thirtysomething.”

COMING SOON TO HOME VIDEO

TEXAS KILLING FIELDS, JAN 31:  Anchor Bay Films is proud to announce the release of TEXAS KILLING FIELDS on both Blu-ray™ and DVD  January 31, 2012.  Directed by Ami Canaan Mann, produced by Michael Mann and Michael Jaffe, and based on the real life, headline-making series of unsolved murders, TEXAS KILLING FIELDS is a haunting story of two detectives and one desperate race to catch a killer. The release also contains audio commentary with Director Ami Canaan Mann and Writer Donald F. Ferrarone.

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I am a filmmaker because of “Star Wars.” Plain and simple. After my first viewing of the film in 1977, I turned to my father and announced my future job plans. I was to be a Jedi Knight. Undeterred by the revelation that Jedis weren’t real, I simply moved to my back up gig; X-Wing pilot for the Rebellion.

After a longer explanation from Dad, I switched my focus to making movies. I wasted a ton of money processing Super-8 film and spent my weekends at the the local mall theater and the library. I would pour over books about filmmaking and filmmakers. While most pre-teen boys were asking their parents about the birds and the bees, I would quiz mine on how dual system audio worked.

I owe my life-long obsession with film to George Lucas. It was only fitting that he presided over my graduation from USC Film School. That’s right, Lucas and some guy named Steven Spielberg actually handed me my diploma. So, I hope that you can appreciate the inner turmoil, the momentous struggle that I have endured in deciding to write this.  However, duty compels me, and this must be said.

Lucas must be stopped.

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Is George Lucas having the last laugh?

Lucas, the visionary behind the ‘Star Wars’ franchise, insists on tweaking the original trilogy every time it hits a new media platform. And with each change, longtime ‘Star Wars’ fans rise up in near unanimous fury.

Alexandre O. Philippe, the director of the new DVD ‘The People vs. George Lucas,’ is starting to believe Lucas relishes the negative attention.

“Some of the things Lucas does to this day make me wonder … I feel like he’s enjoying triggering reactions from his fans. I see no other good reason for him to do what he does,” Philippe says. “The changes [to the franchise] are ridiculous. I don’t know of a single fan who says, ‘Yeah, that makes sense.’”

‘The People vs. George Lucas’ investigates the love/hate relationship between Lucas and a galaxy of ‘Star Wars’ faithful. They adore Lucas’ space opera and the colorful characters inhabiting it, but they despise how he won’t let the films exist in their original form. And don’t get fans started on Jar Jar Binks, the comic relief introduced in 1999’s ‘Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.’

‘George Lucas’ showcases the nuttier side of the modern fanboy, but it also tackles meatier themes like a director’s responsibility to the public and if a beloved movie belongs to the filmmaker or the culture at large.

Philippe says the ‘Star Wars’ films had a “profound” impact on him as a child, and while he floated away from the franchise as a young adult it always remained in the back of his mind. So when Lucas re-released the original ‘Star Wars’ movies in Special Editions – complete with enhanced special effects and small but significant story edits – fans like Philippe blew a galactic gasket.

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Before we get into it, please take a moment to go check out the brand spankin’ new HomeVideodrome podcast, an audio companion I’ve done for this column with Jim Dirkes of The Film Thugs Movie Show.  Be warned that there is some rough language contained within, so it would be wise not to blare it at work.  We had a lot of fun making it, and we hope it’ll become a weekly thing for you to enjoy.  Be sure to leave some feedback after you listen, and thanks for taking the time to do so.

This is a big week for Blu-ray releases, probably the biggest this year, as on Friday, the Star Wars films finally hits the platform.  Being a lifelong fan of Star Wars, this should be an exciting occasion.  Unfortunately it isn’t.  I won’t be buying these, and if you hate what George Lucas has been doing to Star Wars over the past decade and a half, neither should you.

Bitching about Star Wars is an old hat, so I apologize, but it wouldn’t be a something worth addressing if fans didn’t keep encouraging the destruction of these movies with their wallets.  There’s nothing wrong with George Lucas tinkering with his movies over and over again.  Sure, it’s creatively bankrupt, but it’s his choice, because they’re his movies, and for some reason, people keep buying it.  What’s annoying is his decision to suppress the versions of these movies that his paying audience fell in love with in the first place.

Lucas has gotten fat off of Star Wars because so many people love those movies and paid to see them over and over again, yet he insists on endlessly updating it to wring a few more bucks out of it, all while denying his fans what they want: remastered releases of the original trilogy.  Lucas apologists like to point out that we got the original cuts as bonus features on the re-release of the trilogy on DVD, however the version given were cheap Laser Disc rips, not even up to the standards of the DVD format.  It’s as though Lucas was tired of complaints, and decided to wad it up in throw it in the faces of his fans, something to be taken as an insult, rather than giving loyal, paying customers what they’re asking for.  But then again, when said loyal paying customers keep purchasing his revisions again and again, who can blame him?

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BUMMER: STARZ ENDING STREAMING DEAL WITH NETFLIX

As of Feb. 2012, Netflix will no longer stream Starz, which means a lot of newer movies won’t be available.

Bad timing with the new Netflix price increase starting today. Starz content was a big attraction.

Related: Netflix stock took a hit.

More: If you want to understand the power of streaming, Starz turned down a $300 million  a year deal up from $30 million last year, and…

Starz was looking for tiered pricing, which would have seen subscribers of Netflix, led by CEO Reed Hastings, pay more than the standard $8 per month for content from the premium TV provider.

That is in line with comments from Starz executives who said repeatedly this year that they were looking to charge Netflix more in line with cable and satellite TV distributors, which have seen the streaming video service as a reason for consumers to cut the pay TV cord.

Count me among those eager to cut the pay TV cord.

FANS CALL FOR BOYCOTT OF GEORGE LUCAS’ ALTERED ‘STAR WARS SAGA’ ON BLU-RAY

Couldn’t agree with this more:

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PACINO’S ‘SCARFACE’ CELEBRATES BLU-RAY RELEASE

You’ll never hear me make any apologies for my unqualified love of this film. It’s just a fact (admit it) that when you’re in the right mood and have three-hours to kill, Brian DePalma’s completely over-the-top gangster pic feels like the greatest movie ever made. Among my perversely large DVD collection (yes, I have a problem), “Scarface” ranks in the Top 10 Most Re-watchable.

For me, the movie takes off during the chainsaw scene; when a handcuffed Tony Montana (Al Pacino) is splattered with gore as his partner is cut to pieces. He refuses to talk, even when faced with the most gruesome death imaginable. The look of defiance and fear on the actor’s face is unforgettable. Furthermore, DePalma’s crafting of the scene is masterful. The director is famous for exploitation and yet he chooses not to show the chainsaw doing its dirty work. You only hear it, which allows your mind’s eye to vividly picture what’s far worse than anything any special effect could cheat.

Best of all, everything that happens is Jimmy Carter’s fault. He’s the idiot who got duped by Castro and let Tony Montana into Miami.

And you can’t ask much more from a film that offers up a double-shot of Michelle Pfeiffer and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio — two of the most beautiful, talented and intelligent actresses of the last thirty years. Two of my all-time favorites.

Did I mention that my birthday is only seven months away?

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I almost didn’t write this film up, not wanting to waste another minute of my life on it.  Moonraker is, regrettably, a misfire in almost every respect.  The film feels like a cynical attempt to cash in on Star Wars, a clumsy and clunky plot, delivered without any regard for reality.   It’s a mish-mash of scenes thrown together in an attempt to substitute substance for spectacle.

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James Bomb

We begin as we always do, with Roger Moore’s portrayal of 007.  There’s not much forward progress in his interpretation of the role, as it’s pretty much a reply of what he accomplished in The Spy Who Loved Me.  And yet, we must give Mr. Moore tremendous credit, for he is able to ground an absurd film.  His sophistication and British charm really does count for a lot, and is really the saving grace of the movie.  There is a throwaway line early on, after bedding one of Drax’s workers, where he says to her, “Take care of yourself.”  It’s a stupid line, and it’s played entirely on her, but what makes Roger Moore so wonderful is that he delivers it totally convincingly – as if he actually cares.  Other than that, I have little to add. (more…)

Click here for Part 1 and here for Part 2.

In many popular narratives of the period, it was the Baby Boomers (born 1943-1960) who “ruined” the movies. Here’s the pretentious film snob summary of the death of Hollywood’s alleged second Golden Age, as popularized by Peter Biskind. The seventies were filled with bold, dark art and transgressive intellectualism. Then the greedy Baby Boomers – like Steven Spielberg and George Lucas – made “Jaws,” “Star Wars,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” and “E.T.” All of a sudden Hollywood did not want to make serious, grown-up pictures. Now it was the age of blockbusters so simple that 3-year-olds can summarize them.

It was the 1980s when Boomer Blockbuster filmmaking would arrive in the event pictures of Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson. We see this tendency further in the films of arch-Boomers Ron Howard and Brian Grazer. For a definition of Boomer cinema just look at the output of their company Imagine Entertainment. These aren’t the New Wave-influenced pictures of Roger L. Simon’s generation.

It was the Boomers who also gave us our most strident and simpleminded cinematic leftists: Spike Lee, Oliver Stone, and Michael Moore. Think about these three careers. Over the past 30 years have any of them shifted an inch in their political thinking? Of course not and neither have most Boomers who are still arguing over sex, race, and the Vietnam War as though it were still 1975. (more…)

The critical moments of a movie are the first moments, the first few minutes where it either grabs you or loses you for good.  That’s what we mean when we talk about the movie experience, the wonder and delight of the shapes flickering across the screen that overcome you, and you think, “Oh yeah, this is going to work.” 

Contrast that to the soul-crushing dismay when you realize that what you hoped would be a great couple of hours is instead going to be a dreary death-march of clichés, lazy writing and bad music broken only occasionally when you glance longingly at your watch and wish you could have your $11.50 and two hours back. 

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You know a great opening when you see it; if fact, you feel it.  My definition of “opening” is rather loose.  An opening can go up to, or past the credits, or it may just be the credit sequence itself.  Some openings are rather long, 10-15 minutes.  Some are just a couple of minutes.  There is no one formula for a great opening – the ten listed here as my personal favorites are as different from each other as Democratic Party governance is from competent leadership.  But there are some common threads.  A great opening tells you something about the story you will see.  It might be in words of formal narration, or a sequence that takes you into the story, or in some cases it’s just a few images.  There may be prominent music, or little or none.  But when the opening is over, you are ready – you understand enough to begin the journey.  And, more importantly, you are eager to go. 

It’s easy – and serves an important purpose – to point out where Hollywood fails.  But it’s a special pleasure to point out where it got it just perfect.  Here are my Top 10 favorite movie openings: 

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HBO just can’t help themselves.  Less than two weeks after the pay television giant announced Julianne Moore, 50, will play a 43 year old Sarah Palin during the 2008 Presidential election, the network announced its intentions to make another anti-GOP movie based on the 2008 Barton Gellman book, Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency as well as The Dark Side, a 2006 documentary which aired on Frontline, a PBS public affairs series.

There is no argument that Gellman’s book casts a very dark and negative shadow over Republican Vice President, Dick Cheney.  His own website describes the book as taking on “the full scope of Cheney’s work and its consequences, including his hidden role in the Bush administration’s most fateful choices in war: shifting focus from al Qaeda to Iraq, unleashing the National Security Agency to spy at home, and promoting ‘cruel and inhuman’ methods of interrogation.”  If you didn’t know any better, you might think that description fits a member of the KGB, or even the Gestapo.

The Dark Side, not to be confused with the UK horror film publication or as the general concept of evil in the Star Wars universe or the anthology horror TV series produced by George A. Romero or the DC comics super-villain, no The Dark Side is a documentary produced by David Fanning and Michael Kirk of Frontline.  The title of the documentary perverts a quote from Cheney a few days after the 9/11 attacks in which he stated that in order to defend America against future Osama bin Laden and al Queda attacks, we would have to work “sort of the dark side, if you will,” because, “That’s the world these folks operate in…” and depicts the struggle between the CIA and the vice president and how Cheney was the chief architect of the war on terror and invasion of Iraq.

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Over the course of almost a full year, Red Letter Media has done a marvelous job of offering up in-depth and entertaining explanations as to why the Star Wars prequels sucked as hard as they did. In December of 2009 there was “Phantom Menace,” In April “Clones,” and now the epic trilogy concludes with “Sith.”

These are hugely popular productions because they’re so true. If only Lucas could take these video criticisms back in time and start all over. Here’s hoping Red Letter takes on “Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull” next, which was infinitely worse than any of the “Star Wars” prequels.

Enjoy and NSFW…

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Power up your TARDIS, turn on your lightsaber, and set your phasers to stun because we are about to geek out kids.

Not content with making over $2 billion worldwide, James Cameron is re-releasing “Avatar” in theaters. Supposedly, a lot of people couldn’t see it in 3D because there were other films in theaters at that time hogging up half the screens. How dare they? Who do those people think they are?

In the same L.A. Times interview where Mr. Cameron explains his re-release rationale, he opines that he is making a franchise with “Avatar” that will compete with the works of Tolkien. He thinks the story of the Cat Smurfs will have the same staying power as “Star Wars.”

This die-hard film geek and sci-fi fan begs to differ.

Great franchises need amazing worlds, rich characters, and far reaching themes. They also need to have a first episode that strikes a deep chord in the fan community. You know, the complete opposite of “Avatar.”

Part of what makes a franchise successful is that the audience doesn’t merely want to watch the world of the film, they want to live in the world of the film. Who wouldn’t want to go to Hogwarts and learn to cast spells? Who hasn’t picked up a flashlight and spun it around, humming, like it was a lightsaber? Who wouldn’t want to serve aboard a starship commanded by James T. Kirk, traveling to the far corners of the galaxy? Well, as long as you’re not wearing a red shirt that is… (more…)

Clichés have to come from somewhere.  Believe it or not, there was a time when the by-the-book cop’s partner was not on the edge, where hordes of interchangeable henchmen packing high tech automatic weapons did not roam our cities, when the hero was neither on the verge of retirement or too old for this . . .  stuff.  Then, long ago, everything changed.

For the movie anthropologist, Lethal Weapon (1987) is the missing link.  It is the Big Bang of movies with big bangs.  It is the well-spring of a hundred lame imitations, a few good ones, and a lot of parodies.  It is where the most hackneyed of buddy-cop movie clichés were born.  At the time, they were awesome.

It is a movie about many things beyond the slam-bam action and witty banter, including about getting older and looking back, which is particularly apt here.  Looking back at the 1980’s, which I spent in high school, at UC San Diego (go whatever the hell your mascot is – I was too busy partying to care) and the Army, what is striking is how many definitive movies came along and how they led to Hollywood’s present – for better or for worse.  Lethal Weapon remains an archetypal specimen of the kind of movie only Hollywood can make well (despite how often it does it badly) – slick popcorn adventure/comedies with memorable action set-pieces paired with laugh-out-loud hilarity and featuring big stars and top shelf production values. (more…)

With all the excitement surrounding the 30th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back – a true masterpiece by any definition of the word — it got me thinking about the iconic films of my childhood that left such a permanent impression that I can still vividly recall the experience of seeing them for very first time in a theatre. Not the look of the multiplex or the color of the seats, but how these movies made me feel. How they transported me into their world to the point that when the lights came up it felt like an unwelcome alarm clock on a school day.

I’m probably forgetting some but between my twelfth and sixteenth birthdays these were the epic cinematic moments of my life: Superman: The Movie, Star Wars, Empire, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Spy Who Loved Me, and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Each not only blew my young mind with their simple but effective stories, unforgettable scores, and beloved (and hated) characters, but to this day each holds up marvelously. This can’t be said for every film that came out during this time of my life, so you have to credit the films and filmmakers. They just are that good. Each transcends the blockbuster spectacle and deserves a place among the greatest films ever made. 

And the moments! That’s what really keeps each of these triumphs forever in our hearts. Superman saving Lois Lane that first time still gives me chills; the opening of Star Wars with the music and ships overhead; Indy escaping that first tomb; James Bond skiing off a cliff; Kirk dropping Khan’s shields and Spock dying; Vader emerging victorious at the end of Empire. Good grief, processing that ate up the rest of the summer. 

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“You made a movie about pimps and there ain’t no black people in it? I don’t know whether to slap you or kiss your face.”

Eddie Murphy said something like that to Ron Howard on SNL back when Howard was making the transition from Opie Cunningham to big-time Hollywood auteur. And now I know how Mr. Murphy feels: Fox has green-lit a sitcom called “Rednecks.”

When I saw the title, I winced, then thought, “I wish I could write for that show.” This illustrates the relationship I have with stereotypes and character-based clichés; I keep them at an arms length embrace. It thrilled me to see white trash characters north of the Mason-Dixon line in “Gone Baby Gone.” But you change the accents, swap Boston, MA for Austell, GA, and I’ll act offended while secretly admitting the portrayal is dead-on. “Rednecks” it turns out, is set in Buffalo, NY. Let the head-scratching ensue. (more…)

I just got home from Comic-Con. In a couple hours I have to take a shower and head back downtown for a big party my Hollywood management company invited me to. Every year they team with a bunch of other companies and throw a huge industry mixer. They’re usually really crowded and noisy, but there’s free food and drinks and I usually met interesting people.

This year they also teamed up with Wired magazine and set up a private green room called the “Wired Cafe,” where select people from the press and the industry are invited during the day. They have a bunch of laptops set up for people to blog and tweet and a cafe with an open bar and great food. I decided to go there for lunch instead of my usual haunts. I had a Smoked Turkey Panini and considered a Dim Sum sampler, which the person at my table ordered with his Burger. Maybe tomorrow. (more…)