Red Pill vs. Blue Pill: Defense of Hollywood Fails Reality Test

Over the weekend at Townhall.com, Carl Horowitz took Big Hollywood and everyone else he sees as “reprehensible … dyspeptic … insufferably smug, moralizing antiquarians” to task for lacking the “elementary logic to understand” that “the ‘agenda’ of today’s American filmmakers, aside from making money, is storytelling.”

In the opening of his piece, Horowitz portrays himself as someone with a libertarian streak and because I tend to take people at their word, that’s what makes his column all the more troubling. Leftists carrying Hollywood’s water I can take. But those who should be sympathetic to our side choosing the blue pill — choosing not to see reality – choosing instead to rhetorically assault those of us who do… Well, let’s just say it’s awfully hard to defend yourself in an ideological war if your own troops haven’t figured out how hard they’re working for the other side.   

The lack of logic and depth of denial Horowitz must employ to see Hollywood as he so desperately wants to see it – as a place where the “Hollywood vs. America” charge is a “trope” –  is revealing. We’ll start with Horowitz’s own words and bio: (more…)

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Tags: Andrew Klavan, big hollywood, blue pill, bruce willis, Carl Horowitz
Posted Dec 7th 2009 at 1:32 pm in Film, Politics | 27404245 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jjmnolte/2009/12/07/red-pill-vs-blue-pill-a-defense-of-hollywood-fails-reality-test/Red+Pill+vs.+Blue+Pill%3A+Defense+of+Hollywood+Fails+Reality+Test2009-12-07+21%3A32%3A03John+Nolte

REVIEW: ‘The Last 600 Meters’ Uses Stunning Images to Bring Battle of Fallujah to Life

It’s hard to say this, but say it I must: one of the reasons that so many current conservative films don’t get distribution or gain success is that they stink.  You heard that right.  Many of them simply suck.

Yes, political bias is the main reason conservative films don’t get distribution; there are a ton of crappy liberal films that get distribution.  But that doesn’t change the fact that some of the most highly publicized conservative modern entrees into the field of film have been total artistic and popular bombs.

Filmmaker Michael Pack

When a conservative film gets made that is actually high quality, it’s a surprise.  So when I saw new documentary, The Last 600 Meters, I was shocked.  It’s gripping, engrossing, enthralling.  It’s a movie every American should see.

The Last 600 Meters tells the story of the two deadliest battles of the Iraq war — the Battles of Fallujah and Najaf — from the perspective of the soldiers who fought in them.  We see through their eyes – the footage and stills were taken during the actual battle.  We meet the strong, resilient, sensitive and brave men and women of the armed services who do the fighting and the killing and the dying that we won’t do. (more…)

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Tags: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ayatollah Sistani, Bush administration, Clint Eastwood, conservative films
Posted Dec 7th 2009 at 11:32 am in Military, Reviews | 27273032 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/bshapiro/2009/12/07/review-the-last-600-meters-uses-stunning-images-to-bring-battle-of-fallujah-to-life/REVIEW%3A+%27The+Last+600+Meters%27+Uses+Stunning+Images+to+Bring+Battle+of+Fallujah+to+Life2009-12-07+19%3A32%3A21Ben+Shapiro

NewsBusted 9/25/09 — Comedy News from the Right

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Tags: C.I.A. Directors, College Republicans, Hybrid Cars, Joy Behar, President Obama
Posted Sep 26th 2009 at 6:21 pm in Media Criticism, Video | 2360743 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/newsbusters/2009/09/26/newsbusted-comedy-news-from-right-september2509/NewsBusted+9%2F25%2F09+%E2%80%94+Comedy+News+from+the+Right2009-09-27+01%3A21%3A46NewsBusters

Daily Gut: PC Hollywood Villains

So another Rambo flick is on its grimy, sweaty way and this time the villains are human traffickers and drug lords. To make them even more despicable, they’ve kidnapped a young girl and are probably ignoring her strict vegan needs.

Look, I applaud Sylvester Stallone’s heroic stance against human traffickers and kidnappers – for I know there will be quite an outcry especially from the large and very influential human trafficking and kidnapper lobby.

Of course, this movie comes on the heels of two other edgy ventures: The G.I Joe flick – which turned a gritty American icon into an airbrushed Benneton ad, and “Inglourious Basterds” a fantasy that has average Jews hacking Nazi soldiers to pieces.

These three movies have two things in common:
1) They avoid present, real danger in the world and instead choose villains that are not just safe, but politically correct to hate. You’d think it would be easy for Quentin Tarantino to find a present day enemy for the Jews (like, say, a terrorist group that denies the Holocaust and wants to wipe Israel off the map), but maybe none exist! And what of those guys who flew planes into the World Trade Center? I suppose in the era of the “unclenched fist,” we must be more sensitive to “backlash” than barbarism. (more…)

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Tags: 9/11, Benneton, box office, Drug trafficking, GI Joe
Posted Aug 31st 2009 at 1:04 pm in Daily Gut, Entertainment, Film, Media Criticism, News, Politics | 21512296 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ggutfeld/2009/08/31/daily-gut-pc-hollywood-villains/Daily+Gut%3A+PC+Hollywood+Villains2009-08-31+20%3A04%3A16Greg+Gutfeld

EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT: ‘Hollywood on the Potomac’: Actors to Activists

So many big name stars, singers and sports legends have visited Washington over the years, the city is often referred to as “Hollywood on the Potomac.”  So, that’s the title of my new book (available now at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Borders) featuring over 200 photographs and stories that detail the fascination between Hollywood stars and Washington power-players — from Presidents Truman through Obama. 

Here’s an excerpt: (more…)

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Tags: "Hollywood on the Potomac", Bing Crosby, Bob Dylan, Bono, Brigitte Nielsen
Posted Aug 27th 2009 at 1:14 pm in Entertainment, Featured Story, Politics | 21247813 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jmeath/2009/08/27/hollywood-on-the-potomac/EXCLUSIVE+EXCERPT%3A+%27Hollywood+on+the+Potomac%27%3A+Actors+to+Activists2009-08-27+20%3A14%3A57Jason+Killian+Meath

Top 5: American Moments

More like my top five available American moments on YouTube but still entertaining and not from the Golden Era. A reminder that the Hollywood we’re stuck with today can still throw a bone our way.

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1. The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) – A beautifully crafted uniquely American movie where, for once, the antagonist isn’t “the system” or “the racist system.” Chris Gardner (a superb Will Smith) wants something from life. He believes in this country and understands the key to achieving the dream is simple: never, ever give up. A superb script, based on a true story (the real Gardner has a touching cameo in the closing scene) never once takes the grinding pressure off, but aided by genuinely decent people (white Wall Streeters, no less) and driven by a love for his son, rather than play victim, Gardner keeps moving forward long after most of us would’ve surrendered to self pity. Movies don’t get much more conservative than this. (more…)

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Tags: dragon: the bruce lee story, Rocky Balboa, Rudy, Superman II, Sylvester stallone
Posted Jul 4th 2009 at 10:03 am in Top 5, Video | 17664247 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jjmnolte/2009/07/04/top-5-american-moments/Top+5%3A+American+Moments2009-07-04+17%3A03%3A15John+Nolte

‘Taken’: The World’s Oldest Profession is Father

He is a man with a gun. He is a killer, a slayer. Patient and gentle as he is, he is a slayer. Self-effacing, self-forgetting, still he is a killer. . . All the other stuff, the love, the democracy, the floundering into lust, is a sort of by-play. The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted. — D. H. Lawrence, Studies in Classic American Literature (1923)

Every once in awhile an action film comes along that revives. That proves that — no matter how strong the political correctness of an age, no matter how pale and pathetic its notions of masculinity, no matter how much Ritalin is force-fed to little boys, no matter how many toy guns, xylophone mallets, and Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots get banned from stores and playgrounds — there are certain aspects of the male soul that are inviolate, and certain primal yearnings that are evergreen. Taken (2008) is one of those films, and its release last week on DVD and Blu-ray should be heralded by lovers of all things red-blooded, hairy-chested, and morally sound.

When this movie appeared in the doldrums of Hollywood’s off-season, it was expected to die a quick death in a marketplace filled with audiences either too sophisticated or too sophomoric to respond. Modern theatergoers, the theory goes, increasingly want their “heroes” to be either brooding Abercrombie & Fitch nymphets like Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon, feckless stumblebums like Ben Stiller and Paul Blart: Mall Cop’s Kevin James, quirky class cut-ups like Robert Downey Jr. and Johnny Depp, or silly video-game tough guys like Jason Statham, Vin Diesel, and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. When an actor does put some honest testosterone in his performance — Daniel Craig in Munich (2005), Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino (2008) — it’s inevitably to make a much larger point about violence breeding only more violence, all of it equally reprehensible, a product of way too many pesky males wreaking havoc in primitive bursts of knuckle-dragging temper. (more…)

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Tags: ben stiller, Claudia Barlow, Clint Eastwood, D. H. Lawrence, daniel craig
Posted May 20th 2009 at 8:04 am in Entertainment, Featured Story | 138886166 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/lgrin/2009/05/20/the-worlds-oldest-profession/%27Taken%27%3A+The+World%27s+Oldest+Profession+is+Father2009-05-20+15%3A04%3A02Leo+Grin

On Set With Stallone and ‘The Expendables’

New behind the scenes footage from Sylvester Stallone’s star-studded “The Expendables” has been posted on the film’s official blog. Pretty cool stuff.

It contains some action sequences, including one where Steve Austin and Eric Roberts outrace an explosion, shots of Sly directing gunplay and a very low flyover from what looks like a disabled seaplane.

While the blog says Stallone has “lost 32 pounds since Rambo and currently weighs in at 180,” I don ‘t believe it.

The guy’s arms are still as big as my legs. And if you look at them closely you can see some of the faux tattoo work his character sports in the film poking out from underneath his sleeves. (more…)

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Tags: Brazil, Sylvester stallone, tattoos, The Expendables
Posted May 1st 2009 at 4:02 pm in Celebrity News, Entertainment, Video | 12422241 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ttapp/2009/05/01/on-set-with-stallone-and-the-expendables/On+Set+With+Stallone+and+%27The+Expendables%27+2009-05-01+23%3A02%3A52Tom+Tapp

Bruce Willis: Our Die Hard Action Hero Returns

After flirting with smaller, more squishy roles in recent pictures like “The Assassination of a High School President” and “What Just Happened,” Bruce Willis is returning to action. The 54-year-old actor is interested in a slew of projects that will have him playing a former CIA agent, an FBI informant out to bust up the mob, a detective and both funny and serious cops.

Based on the Wildstorm/DC comics series, “Red” could see Willis playing a retired CIA black-ops badass who is forced to take action when an assassin threatens both he and his girlfriend. The film is being produced by Summit Entertainment, the studio responsible for the “Twilight” series. Willis’s deal has not been finalized, but it could be a sweet one since, as Summit production chief Eric Feig told me a few weeks ago, he sees “Red” as another potential franchise.

Not many fifty-something actors get those kinds of offers. (more…)

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Tags: bruce willis, CIA, cops, FBI, Inventory
Posted Apr 30th 2009 at 4:52 pm in Entertainment, News | 122354107 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ttapp/2009/04/30/bruce-willis-die-hard-action-hero/Bruce+Willis%3A+Our+Die+Hard+Action+Hero+Returns2009-04-30+23%3A52%3A14Tom+Tapp

The Streisand Effect – or People Who Don’t Need People

I have a confession to make: when I’m alone in my car – or in iPod isolation – I sometimes listen to Barbra Streisand.  And I’m neither a big fan of pop music nor of the current state of liberalism – the cushy, comfy, groupthink kind with which Streisand has become closely linked in recent years.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Whenever I’m feeling a little down, Streisand’s rousing, patriotic rendition of “Before the Parade Passes By” (from the Hello, Dolly! soundtrack) is the next best thing to shooting up a Diet Rockstar.  The movie may be deadly, but that track is classic Barbra: starts out quiet, plaintive, then slowly builds to an almost militaristic crescendo of chorus, trumpets, beating drums – and Babs, screaming her head off above it all with a heroic, never-ending high note that sounds like a war cry.

I know - that’s so gay.  But for me, the song is musical comfort food – and proof of the power of the human spirit: a rusty Main Street USA antique, shined up and brought back to life by a disadvantaged ugly duckling from Brooklyn, with a voice straight from God, who beat the odds.  That’s when Streisand was still one of a kind.

But that was 1969.  This is now.  Today, “Before the Parade Passes By” would probably be called something like “Whenever the Trans-Cultural Community Gathering Happens to Reconvene.”  And it would probably be sung by Sheryl Crow. (more…)

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Tags: a star is born, Arnold Scaasi, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Barack Obama, Barbra Streisand
Posted Apr 17th 2009 at 5:03 am in Celebrity News, Featured Story, Politics | 9997879 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/cwinecoff/2009/04/17/the-streisand-effect-or-people-who-dont-need-people/The+Streisand+Effect+-+or+People+Who+Don%27t+Need+People2009-04-17+12%3A03%3A37Charles+Winecoff

Patriot Sweepstakes: Stallone or Tarantino?

Who will wreak greater havok on the enemies of America, Sylvester Stallone or Quentin Tarantino?

Each has written and is directing an action-laden ensemble piece about a group of misfits battling a foreign dictator.

Stallone flexes, fires and wreaks havok on a South American despot

In Stallone’s case, he has an all-star lineup of B-movie badasses – including Mickey Rourke, Jason Statham, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dolph Lungren, Steve Austin and Eric Roberts – playing mercenaries on a mission to overthrow a South American dictator. 

The born-again Stallone has certainly earned his patriot’s stripes with the Rambo and Rocky films.

In a leaked character still from the film, he’s also looking more badass at 62 than most of us look at 22. (On set pics have also been released, one of which is above and the rest of which can be found at Empire.com.) (more…)

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Tags: brad pitt, Inglorious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino, Sylvester stallone, The Expendables
Posted Apr 16th 2009 at 1:47 pm in Celebrity News, Entertainment, Military, Video | 10790664 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ttapp/2009/04/16/patriot-sweepstakes-stallone-or-tarantino/Patriot+Sweepstakes%3A+Stallone+or+Tarantino%3F2009-04-16+20%3A47%3A46Tom+Tapp

FAST & FURIOUS Opens With a Scalding $30M Friday & Could Speed to $70M by Monday, Surpassing CARS as the All-time Biggest Opening for an Auto Racing Movie!

With 400,000 Americans showing up every year at the Indy 500 and 200,000 more buying tickets to see NASCAR’s premiere event The Daytona 500, you would think that the most creative minds in Hollywood would be looking for a way to cash in with more movies about car racing and car culture. NASCAR has an estimated 75 million fans, and it is second only to the National Football League in terms of television ratings, so where are all the good racing movies?

Jordana Brewster is reunited with Vin, Paul and Michelle in FAST & FURIOUS

Universal seems to have answered that question by getting its successful street racing franchise back into the fast lane this weekend with Fast & Furious. The movie, which reunites Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster and Michelle Rodriguez for the first time since 2001’s original surprise blockbuster, has exploded to a high octane $30.11M or so on Friday and that could mean a $70M opening weekend. That would make it the all-time #1 opening for a car racing movie.

(more…)

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Tags: 12 rounds, 2 fast 2 furious, 2-d, 3-d, 3-day take
Posted Apr 3rd 2009 at 10:32 pm in Entertainment, Steve Mason's Box Office | 9716611 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smason/2009/04/03/estimates43/FAST+%26amp%3B+FURIOUS+Opens+With+a+Scalding+%2430M+Friday+%26amp%3B+Could+Speed+to+%2470M+by+Monday%2C+Surpassing+CARS+as+the+All-time+Biggest+Opening+for+an+Auto+Racing+Movie%212009-04-04+05%3A32%3A48Steve+Mason

FAST & FURIOUS may “race” to $48M opening weekend with MONSTERS VS. ALIENS holding strong at $35M!

Universal’s Fast & Furious will be “burning rubber” this weekend at America’s multiplexes as the original street-racing cast reunites after some sub-par chapters of the franchise.

The original The Fast & The Furious hit theatres in 2001 under the direction of Rob Cohen who had shown a knack for action with Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story ($35M US cume) and Sly Stallone’s Daylight ($33M US cume) and a savvy feel for bigger-than-life characters in his Golden Globe winning biopic The Rat Pack (which, if you’ve never seen you should put in your Netflix cue and prepare to be amazed by Don Cheadle’s turn as Sammy Davis, Jr.). In tow, he had a 34-year-old Vin Diesel in only his second starring role following the surprise low budget hit Pitch Black ($39M cume) and 28-year-old Paul Walker, who had just starred in Cohen’s forgettable The Skulls. Also in the cast was Jordana Brewster (As the World Turns) and a pre-Lost Michelle Rodriguez, whose most notable credit was a gritty little indie called Girlfight.

Vin Diesel returns for FAST & FURIOUS

The result was box office jet fuel. Seemingly out of nowhere, The Fast & The Furious scored a scalding $40M opening weekend and reached $144.5M domestic and over $200M worldwide. But Diesel, whose signature line in the original movie is “I live my life one quarter of a mile at a time,” didn’t like the script for the sequel (or they wouldn’t pay his asking price depending on who you ask). That led to the 2003 sequel 2 Fast 2 Furious directed by Academy Award nominee John Singleton (Boyz n the Hood) starring Walker along with rapper Tyrese Gibson and Eva Mendes. Despite Diesel’s conspicuous absence, 2 Fast still delivered $127M in the US. (more…)

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Tags: 12 rounds, 2 fast 2 furious, 2-d, 3-d, 3-day take
Posted Apr 2nd 2009 at 7:24 pm in Entertainment, Featured Story, Steve Mason's Box Office | 9613012 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smason/2009/04/02/tracking43/FAST+%26amp%3B+FURIOUS+may+%22race%22+to+%2448M+opening+weekend+with+MONSTERS+VS.+ALIENS+holding+strong+at+%2435M%212009-04-03+02%3A24%3A21Steve+Mason