On February 7th, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that the marriage protection amendment, commonly known as Prop 8, violates the U.S. Constitution. Although it passed with the support of 52% of California voters in 2008, the court said it “serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples.”

From where I sit, this ruling was a travesty, not only because it discarded the wishes of 7 million Californians who voted for it, but because much of the money to overturn it came from Hollywood elites who are completely out of touch with the heart and soul of America.

Honestly, watching the decision come down from the 9th Circuit was like watching Brad Pitt and Elton John stomp all ever everything that flyover country holds near and dear to its heart. I cite Pitt and John because Pitt gave at least $100,000 to “fight the proposition,” and in Jan. 2011, John played a benefit concert in Beverly Hills that raised $3,000,000 for the same cause.

Of course, these two were not alone. Steven Bing, long time Democrat Party donor and Hillary Clinton supporter, donated $500,000 to the cause, and according to Advocate magazine, Mary J. Blige and Melissa Etheridge were right there in the mix as well. Oh, and we can’t overlook old “Meathead,” Rob Reiner, who opposed Prop 8 when it was on the ballot in 2008 and who’s been “one of the biggest fundraisers behind the legal effort” to overturn it since. (more…)

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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It has to be said that Steven Spielberg’s “The Adventures of Tintin” represents a new peak in motion-capture artistry. Unlike the 2004 “Polar Express,” in which we could never shake our awareness of a spectral Tom Hanks imprisoned beneath that glazed digital carapace, the 3D Tintin meticulously blends the smooth surfaces of Pixar-style cartoonery with the complex actions of live performers.

Much credit here must surely go to producer-collaborator Peter Jackson, whose digitally fabricated Gollum in the “Lord of the Rings” movies is the template of excellence in this area. Spielberg and Jackson are both big fans of the Tintin books, and their affectionate enthusiasm is apparent in this very lively distillation. Unfortunately, that liveliness is a problem—it never lets up. And since the movie is a bit too long, and its globe-hopping excitements thus become somewhat repetitive, the picture eventually wears us out.

The story is a classic boys’ adventure drawn from the long-running (1929-1983) comics series by the Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé. Tintin (played here by Jamie Bell) is an avid young newspaper reporter with a quiff of reddish hair perched alertly above his brow and a dog-slash-assistant named Snowy pitching in on his master’s professional investigations. We meet these two in Paris, at an outdoor market where Tintin casually purchases a model ship — a three-masted man o’ war. When two other parties display an intense interest in buying this item off its new owner, Tintin realizes that something is up. A little research reveals that the model is of an old pirate craft called the Unicorn, which was said to have carried a secret cargo, and that “only a true Haddock” can discover what it was.

You can read the rest of the review at Reason.com

“We’re out of cranberry sauce,” I might say.

Three hours later: “Whew. Sorry, guys, you wouldn’t believe it. I had to go to twelve stores to find it!”

Would they really miss me? Wife and mother of two… probably. Alas.

I am one of those boring domestic types who typically watches movies on Netflix when they are at least two years old. I see less than ten movies a year in the real cinema and almost never on opening day (don’t tell anyone at Big Hollywood; that might be a serious deal breaker).

But director Steven Spielberg’s “War Horse” has me very intrigued. I’ve viewed the trailer more times than I care to admit. I will tell you that this is because I’m using it as an example of a kick-ass movie trailer for my daughter’s Destination Imagination team, but that would not be entirely honest (and don’t worry, I didn’t use the word kick-ass with the middle schoolers).

The truth is I’ve been nurturing a hope that “War Horse” may be one of those epic films that stirs your soul and lives in your heart long after you leave the theater.

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Fans of Herge’s scrappy comic hero Tintin have had to imagine what the young journalist sounded like while saving the day over and again.

Jamie Bell not only supplies the main character’s voice in “The Adventures of Tintin,” Steven Spielberg’s animated adaptation of the Belgian comics hero, he also provides the movement via motion-capture technology.

Who better than the erstwhile Billy Elliot to make Tintin spring to life?

The young British actor confesses his first virtual acting assignment caught him flat footed.

“I thought that it would be genuinely challenging and difficult, and I’d have to change my approach … even how I would work within that medium,” the classically trained dancer tells Big Hollywood. “It turns out that it’s exactly the same.”

It helped that he had the premier motion capture actor by his side during the shoot.

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Unlike their post 9-11 successors, Hollywood generally dealt with the aftermath of World War II with a more united front, more humor and less political correctness.

Since 9-11, Hollywood filmmakers have had, within free-market parameters, the choice to make any type of picture they wish. No one in government prohibited director Steven Spielberg, in the 2005 drama “Munich,” from implying, in the minds of some critics, that Mossad agents and Palestinian terrorists were morally equivalent and that both sides were equally responsible with their shared intransigence for the Twin Towers coming down (Gabriel Schoenfeld, in the February 2006 issue of Commentary Magazine stated that Munich,” deserves an Oscar in one category only: most hypocritical film of the year.”)

Spielberg, who previously produced “An American Tail” (1986), which depicted Jewish immigrants as mice, seemed to be conflicted with the whole notion of Israelis fighting back against those who wished them not to exist. “”I’m always in favor of Israel responding strongly when it’s threatened. At the same time, a response to a response doesn’t really solve anything. It just creates a perpetual-motion machine,” Spielberg told Time Magazine. “There’s been a quagmire of blood for blood for many decades in that region. Where does it end? How can it end?”

Another post-9/11 cinema trait was that Muslim villains became mostly taboo on the screen. The 2002 thriller “The Sum of All Fears,” adapted from the Tom Clancy novel of same name, featured Aryan villains trying to bomb Baltimore rather than the Arab destroyers depicted in the book. Director Phil Alden Robinson claimed the ethnic change was because Middle East terrorists would not be able to accomplish the mayhem that took place in the story, not mentioning that he had been lobbied hard by CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) not to show Muslims in a bad light.Writer Clancy later jokingly referred to himself as “the author of the book Phil Robinson ignored.”

The political correctness which was already present in the film industry, and that just seemed to grow after the World Trade Center was struck down, was a stark contrast to events following America’s entry into World War II. Shortly after December 7, 1941, Washington’s Bureau of Motion Pictures (BMI) made their objectives clear: every director, producer and writer needed to ask whether their current picture would help win the war. The implication by the Roosevelt administration was clear; if the major studios failed to cooperate, their industry would be nationalized.

For the most part, such threats were not needed.

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On this week’s edition of the HomeVideodrome podcast, we talk about this week’s releases, the sad state of American independent cinema and film festivals, Troy Duffy’s bad attitude, and we give “Rushmore” a lot of love. We packed this one with more discussion than usual, so head on over to The Film Thugs to listen, and enjoy!

We’re all aware that we live in an era where blockbusters that are either remakes, sequels or based on comic books reign supreme. When a film based on any well-known property, you know studio castrati are taking no risks, going out of their way to make sure their multi-million dollar waste will appeal to everyone. This mainstream mentality makes me more inclined to champion a big film with an original story that isn’t banking to cash-in on a built-in audience.

“Super 8″ was a rare blockbuster this summer that wasn’t based on anything. There was no overt brand to sell it apart from the names of director J.J. Abrams and producer Steven Spielberg. I would have been most pleased if it were this year’s “Inception,” the original title that comes out of nowhere that knocks audiences out and shows that people want good stories and not cynical branding.

It’s too bad that “Super 8″ simply sucked rotten eggs down in the mud with the rest of fanboy crap.

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Being a conservative in Hollywood is much like getting your face tattooed in college; it’s a lot of fun if you never want a career.

Throughout the three-year history of this space, we’ve posted countless stories about the Hollywood blacklist. In the American capital of free speech and tolerance, conservative leanings are tantamount to career suicide.

We know most Hollywood conservatives keep it in the closet, but it turns out there is one secret far more dangerous — a secret so closely guarded among the trade unions, a lawsuit was filed to prevent a website from leaking the data. That big secret is actors’ real birth dates.

As movie audiences have become younger, movie roles for the elderly have become quite sparse. Being a Hollywood star is a really sweet gig, kinda like being a rock star in normal clothes. Who would ever want to give it up just because Father Time is sounding the gong? It’s a lot like the new film ‘In Time,’ where you’re dead at twenty six unless you have enough money to fix yourself.

Through the use of computer graphics, actors can still be action heroes long after receiving their AARP cards, and thanks to high-tech plastic surgery, actresses who should be eating brunch with a host of ladies in red hats can still work nude. So when IMDB started publishing birth dates on the Internet, well, you can just imagine the chaos that ensued.

In a town where a woman like Cher (born May 20, 1946) still wants to play a single mom, revealing birth dates can be tragic.

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The 1993 smash ‘Jurassic Park’ represented a quantum leap in how dinosaurs are depicted on the big screen.

Instead of shooting actual lizards or resorting to stop-motion magic, director Steven Spielberg’s team used CGI to render the most dynamic dinosaurs ever captured on film.

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Those stunning creations are the main pleasure to be mined from ‘The Lost World: Jurassic Park,’ the 1997 sequel to Spielberg’s monster mash. The film just hit Blu-ray as part of a ‘Jurassic’ trilogy, a hefty collection including all three films (so far) as well as a copious array of extras and 7.1 surround sound.

What’s even more obvious seeing the film anew in High-Def is how little Spielberg brought to the project. It ranks as one of the weaker films in his otherwise exemplary canon, a pedestrian affair not worth the master’s attention.

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I’m a lifelong ‘Tintin’ fan and have read every one of the Georges Prosper Remi (pen name Hergé) books multiple times, including his crude earlier works like ‘Tintin in the Congo’ and his unfinished ‘Tintin and Alph-Art.’ Like any author who worked for decades, Hergé’s ‘Tintin’ series reflects the values and perspective of its time, for better or worse, including his portrayal of minorities and people of different ethnicity or religious backgrounds.

There’s no question, for example, that ‘Tintin in the Congo’ is rather embarrassingly racist by modern standards, but recently critics have begun to attack the new, as yet unreleased ‘Tintin’ movie, complaining that Hergé was a horrible person and that watching the new Steven Spielberg motion capture film ‘The Adventures of Tintin’ is like “being raped” (in the words of the Guardian’s literary critic Nicholas Lezard). That’s a bit much.

In fact, as Contact Music reports in that piece, there are people complaining about the racist and antisemitic overtones of some of Hergé’s works and bringing up the issue of whether he was a Nazi collaborator during World War II, as if it makes any difference to how we’ll react and appreciate (or dislike) the newest film to star the young boy reporter.

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Director Steven Spielberg is back on his two-films-a-year schedule.

The Oscar-winning auteur pulled off that impressive stunt in 2005 (‘Munich,’ ‘War of the Worlds’), 2002 (‘Minority Report,’ ‘Catch Me if You Can’) 1997 (‘The Lost World: Jurassic Park,’ ‘Amistad’) and 1993 (‘Schindler’s List,’ ‘Jurassic Park’).

For 2011, Spielberg has ‘The Adventures of Tintin,’ based on the popular Belgian comic books by Georges Remi, waiting in the wings. But Oscar prognosticators have their eyes on ‘War Horse,’ Spielberg’s tale of a bond between a horse named Joey and its owner (Jeremy Irvine) through the darkest days of the first World War. The animated ‘Tintin’ seems more like standard kiddie fare gussied up by Spielberg’s fondness for the genre. The real excitement belongs to ‘Horse,’ a film that feels epic in all the right ways based solely on the trailer.

Let’s hope ‘War Horse’ makes us forget about “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.’

The other hot new trailer is ‘My Week with Marilyn,’ a peek at the ‘Some Like it Hot’ star’s first foray across the pond. Michelle Williams draws the unenviable task of bringing Marilyn Monroe back to life, but if the trailer is any indication she pulls the feat off with alacrity. Add Judi Dench, a veritable Oscar buzz magnet, and you’ve got the best reason yet to recall the beauty and pain behind the country’s most iconic bombshell.

Every film critic has a Top 10 movie list, even if the only place it’s scribbled down is in the back of his or her mind.

We’re a list-crazy culture, and movie buffs of all stripes can’t help but place certain films in their personal hall of fame.

This film scribe is no different. And, in response to a Big Hollywood reader who suggested I post my own Top Ten Movie List to better introduce myself to this site’s audience, here goes nothing.

A quick note: To me, a Top Ten Movie List is deeply personal. It’s not a list of films that are more poignant, or better directed, or more richly artistic, than most movies. These films spoke to me in some profound way, reflecting both my formative years and the person I eventually became.

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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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SPIELBERG PROMISES NO MORE TINKERING WITH HIS FILMS

During an audience Q & A, director Steven Spielberg got to the heart of the matter (and also kinda dinged his pal George Lucas) when he said that altering a film after the fact is “robbing the people of their memories of the movie.” That’s exactly right. As I’ve mentioned before, if a filmmaker wants to tinker, fine. Spielberg rejiggered “E.T.” for the 2002 DVD release but did the right thing and also included the original theatrical cut. No one can argue with that. But I will say that it’s a good sign he regrets touching the film at all.

Forget the prequels, forget Jar-Jar, forget “NOOOOooo” — forget all that. What George Lucas is doing by selfishly refusing to allow one of the most feverish fan bases in film history to own an original cut of the first “Star Wars” trilogy, is mean-spirited and selfish.

Just because you have the right to do something doesn’t make it right.

Moreover, why mess with the original trilogy, which was almost perfect? If Lucas wants to make something better, “Howard the Duck” might be a good place to start. Fix what needs fixing, not what isn’t broken.

P.S. You’ll like this.

TRIBUTE TO CLIFF ROBERTSON

The A.V. Club offers up an excellent run-through of the Oscar-winner’s career. Whenever I think of Robertson, though, it’s always as the sinister CIA chief in “Three Days of the Condor.” His final monologue/explanation as to why the Redford character (and therefore the movie itself) might be a little too morally self-righteous for anyone’s own good, is unforgettable. First off, you don’t expect THE Cliff Robertson to be a bad guy. It really was a piece of genius casting by director Sydney Pollack. And the actor sells that final moment so well it adds an unsettling but very satisfying and intelligent layer to what was already a satisfying and intelligent film. For my money, that’s the scene that locks down “Condor” as a classic.

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As if the capitulation of the Republicans in Washington was not depressing enough, it too often seems like we can’t even find a decent movie to look forward to seeing.  Of course, most of us are not in Hollywood’s target demographic – we’re older, have jobs, and aren’t dead-eyed, drooling morons who yearn to clap our flippers like trained seals at the hackneyed antics of third rate “stars” splashed across out-of-focus screens while seated in moist, sticky chairs that we paid close to $15 each to occupy.  

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.  

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Think back to your summer vacations growing up. You probably took a few trips with your family, then moved on to a lame summer job working in a mall or flipping burgers. Some of those memories are probably preserved in home movies that no one – not even you – would want to watch again.

On the other hand, Lincoln Heights resident Chris Strompolos spent his teen summers being shot at, dragged under a truck, and chased by a giant boulder. He had his first kiss, fought off Arabs and Indians, and eventually saved the planet from Nazi domination. The best part is, he captured it all on video and for the past five years, people all over the planet have been clamoring to see the footage.

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If his adventures sound familiar, that’s because Strompolos was starring in a remake of “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” reenacting the adventures of Indiana Jones. The difference is “Raiders” was directed by the biggest director on the planet, Steven Spielberg, while Strompolos was taking orders from his best friend, Eric Zala, who is only a year older than he is. They were also hindered by the difference in their budgets ($18 million for Spielberg’s, $5000 for the boys’), and having to shoot their entire movie on the fly over seven summers in the backwoods of Mississippi.

On May 14, 2008,  nearly 20 years after they finished production in 1989, Strompolos and Zala reunited with their friend Jayson Lamb, who served as editor/cinematographer and effects whiz on the film, to present the Los Angeles debut of “Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation” on Hollywood’s ultimate big screen at Mann’s Chinese Theatre. The event was a benefit for the Festival of Children Foundation, but it followed five years of whirlwind screenings at film festivals all over the planet and a personal letter raving about the film from Spielberg himself. (more…)

–AND THE WINNER OF THE $100K POWER LINE PRIZE IS…–

Putting their money where their mouth is, our friends at Power Line came up with the terrific idea of tapping into the creative world to explain the dangers of President Obama’s mounting debt. Starting next week, Big Hollywood will post a number of the entries — favorites, runner ups, and finalists, on a daily basis, but for now you can check out the grand-prize winner here.  

The idea, of course, is to get a crucial message out. So you are encouraged to “steal” these videos and help them to go viral.

–MOVIES SPIELBERG (ALLEGEDLY) DEMANDS YOU SEE BEFORE YOU WORK WITH HIM–

While this may or may not be true about Spielberg, what is true is that this is a great list of great films. Whoever came up with it should be programming film schools or Turner Classic Movies.

There are only a few on here I haven’t seen. The most surprising title, though, is Steve McQueen’s “The Hunter,” which is widely regarded as a truly awful film. The inclusion of Rod Steiger’s “No Way to Treat a Lady,” “Ramblin’ Rose,” “Runaway Train,” “Scarecrow,” “The Chase,” “French Connection 2,” “Lonelyhearts,” and One-Eyed Jacks” are all unexpected but excellent choices.

Those of you looking to educate yourself on the magic of motion pictures could do a lot worse (like any AFI Top 100 list) than this.

–NBC REIMAGINING “PRIME SUSPECT”–

Great, just great.

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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…)

You’ve certainly heard of the new film Super 8.  Not the self-serving Anthony Weiner autobiography– the new summer flick about a small town in 1979 invaded by a strange alien creature that was written and directed by J.J. Abrams and produced by Steven Spielberg.  With that pedigree in mind, I took off work early to take the little monsters to see it in the hopes that it would do what the trailers seemed to promise – capture the feeling of those uniquely American summer movies of the 70’s and 80’s like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T. and The Goonies that mixed action, laughs, and special effects together in a way we see all too rarely in the Michael Bay world of today.

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Yeah, it kind of did that, I suppose.  Except I was too busy wondering why the central premise somehow had to be that American military personnel are sadistic, bloodthirsty, cold-blooded murderers.  Then I remembered that this is Hollywood.

Now, to talk about Super 8, I will have to reveal what some might call “spoilers.”  Except, they aren’t really “spoilers” because to be that the plot points I reveal would have to be unexpected and surprising.  Sadly, Super 8 adopts the same tiresome clichés that have been wrecking Hollywood films for the last 40 years.  The only surprise was the total lack of any surprise.

What do we have? Crazy, evil military officer as the baddie?  Check!  Kid with daddy issues?  Check!  Climax where the hero rescues the girl from monster’s lair?  Check!  Monster that is the real victim even though he’s freaking killing US military people and eating civilians left and right?  Check?

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