 |
 |
Other Crap:
URL says it all:
DickCheneyGunClub.com
Magic does the trick in upcoming thrillers - Hollywood is focused on
hocus-pocus.
Letterman:
Top Ten Dick Cheney excuses.
- "Until Democrats approve medicare reform, we have to make some
tough choices for the elderly"
- "Made a bet with Gretzky's wife"
Late Valentine??? Consider
Bloody Tampon Heart Earrings
Oh, no ...
Jason Vorhees Lives! ... Not only will he live, but his creator
will be Michael Bay.
Video: Conan in Finland
Frozen Dead Guy Days
- "Mark your calendars and don�t miss the fun! The fifth annual
Frozen Dead Guy Days winter festival will be held March 10-12,
2006."
Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes Deny Breakup Report (She's seven months
pregnant.)
From the mailbox ...
"Hey, Scoop. How was this done?" ... (Answer: I don't know. It's a
video of Sarah Michelle Geller flashing her boob in a supposed outtake
from SNL. I guess it's a fake, but it's fun to see!)
Three clips from The Second Chance
- Ethan Jenkins (Michael W. Smith) and Jake Sanders (introducing
Jeff Obafemi Carr) are both passionate pastors who worship the same
God from the same book--but that's where the similarity ends. White
and well-to-do Ethan is comfortable in his music ministry at the
media-savvy suburban mega-church, The Rock; Jake is a street smart
African-American who ministers to the gang members, teen mothers,
and drug addicts of the urban Second Chance. When they are suddenly
thrown together in a tough neighborhood and forced to work side by
side, Ethan discovers there is no boundary between the streets and
the sanctuary. But can the faith these two men share overcome the
prejudices that divide them to give themselves and a struggling
urban church a second chance?
Six clips from Eight Below, Disney's latest doggie movie.
Two trailers for The Break-Up, an unromantic comedy starring Vince
Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston.
The Daily Show rags on the Olympic opening ceremony
Jon Stewart talks to astronaut Mike Mullane
The Daily Show's Cheney-bashing report, Part 1
- Whittington is the first person to be shot by a sitting Veep
since Alexander Hamilton
The Daily Show's Cheney-bashing report, Part 2
The Daily Show's Cheney-bashing report, Part 3
Conan O'Brien Meets Finnish President
Saddam tells court he's on hunger strike
- Fiendishly brilliant. He starves himself to death to beat the
hangman.
Headline of the day:
"Lobster in pants hard to disguise" ... unless you are George
Clooney, in which case you can put Groucho glasses on the lobster,
thus disguising it as your penis.
"Police: Bus driver tosses complaining rider into traffic"
Bode out after straddling slalom gate
- "American Bode Miller was disqualified from the Alpine combined
Tuesday for straddling a gate in the first slalom run, just when he
seemed to have built a commanding lead for his first Olympic gold
medal."
Just in time for Valentine's Day
Viagra Cupcakes
Various offbeat Jessica Alba pictures, as she recreates famous
Hollywood moments.
VIDEO:
Katie Couric pooped on by birds while Roker watches and laughs
KonoPizza? Is it a great Hawaiian snack? Nah, it's pizza in a cone.
The Bust Doctor?
Actor Mel Gibson adds bowling alley to his Fiji hideaway island.
- Of course, they are talking about an "Australian-born" Mel
Gibson. As I recall, the famous movie star version of Mel Gibson was
born somewhere in upstate New York. "Upstate" is defined, of course,
as "north of the Bronx."
Scores' Strippers Rate Celebrity Tippers
VP accidentally shoots Republican
- Vice President Dick Cheney on Saturday accidentally shot one of
his Republican hunting companions, 78-year-old Harry Whittington,
during their annual "Dirty Hippy Hunt" at a ranch just southwest of
Corpus Christi.
Letterman:
Top Ten Signs You're Watching A Lame Olympics Opening Ceremony
Six clips and the French trailer from Don't Come Knocking
Watch the first eight minutes of National Lampoon's Pucked,
starring Jon Bon Jovi
- "Frank Hopper (Bon Jovi) is a former lawyer, long-term loser and
constant dreamer - and frankly, probably just not all that bright.
When he receives a credit card in the mail, he believes he's hit the
jackpot. It's not long before he's working his way toward financing
his dream - an all-woman hockey team. He's also put himself in debt
to the tune of more than $300,000. Naturally, he winds up in court
when his plan backfires."
"HOMELAND SECURITY DEPARTMENT UNVEILS CHENEY ALERT SYSTEM ...
Color-coded System Would Warn Nation of Future Attacks by Veep"
An R-rated clip from The Hills Have Eyes
The Smoking Gun has the first official report from the Cheney hunting
accident
Movie Reviews:
Yellow asterisk: funny (maybe). White asterisk: expanded format.
Blue asterisk: not mine. No asterisk: it probably sucks.
|
|
 |
|
Bad Timing (1980)
This was covered by Scoopy when it was released by Criterion in what he
says was a wonderful edition. I screened another version, and mine was less
than that, mainly too dark, and a little soft focus. The film was buried by
Rank, the production studio, as being "sick, sick, sick." Scoopy gives the
entire plot, including spoilers in his
in-depth review. A young
women in Austria is rushed to a hospital. She is nearly dead from an overdose
of booze and pills. The police suspect that her boyfriend, Art Garfunkel,
isn't telling them everything because too much time elapsed between when she
called him and when he called for an ambulance. The rest of the film intercuts
scenes of the doctors trying to save her life, the police questioning
Garfunkel, and flashbacks to what really happened.
Garfunkel was a visiting psych professor, and the girl, Theresa Russell,
was a free spirit. Garfunkel wanted to own her. Her attitude was clearly
summed up in a note she left him, "I wish you would love me more, and
understand me less." Russell does full frontal and rear nudity. Ellan Fartt, a
one film wonder, shows breasts and buns as an exotic performer. IMDb readers
say 6.9, and the film now has a strong following. While I usually like Nicolas
Roeg's work, especially Walkabout, this one was far too predictable for me,
the constant intercutting absolutely killed any chance of any momentum, and
supposed shockingly sick scene I found rather ho-hum and underplayed.
This is a C and only for a select audience.
Passion (1999)
Passion (1999) is a semi-biographical film about the Australian pianist,
composer and musicologist Percy Grainger. It focuses exclusively on the event
of 1914, when he was the toast of London. This was, of course, an ominous
year, with war imminent, and Grainger was not a typical Londoner. To
begin with, although he was a grown man, he was totally devoted to his
syphilitic mother/manager. On top of that, he was wont to wear homemade
clothing which consisted entirely of toweling. Strangest of all, he used
self-flagellation to help him concentrate, and as a sexual outlet. After he
tried unsuccessfully to seduce his best friend's fiancee (Claudia Karvan), she
lined him up with a piano student (Emily Woof) who would become his lover,
assistant, confidante, and S&M partner.
The aim of the film is summed up in the title. Take away any of Grainger's
passions, and he would not have been Grainger. Constraining the film to one
year was a good move, in that it presented his character clearly and
believably, without going on for hours. I suspect, most, like me, will want to
know more about him when it is over.
Performances are excellent. Karvan and Woof were more than equal to the
roles, and Richard Roxburgh nailed Percy Grainger. Barbara Hershey, as his
mother, was too close to his age, but pulled off the characterization anyway
with a strong performance.
IMDb readers say 5.5. This is a C.
Directly after the events pictured in the film, the Guns of August were
fired and England entered into World War 1. By September, Grainger had moved
permanently to the US, where he soon became a citizen, was a pioneer in electronic music, and became
most famous for collecting, rearranging and popularizing folk music. His mother committed
suicide in 1922, by leaping melodramatically from the Aeolian Building in NYC.
Emily Woof shows breasts and buns, and maybe just a
hint of bush in whipping scenes.
|
|
Scoop's notes:
An interview with director Peter Duncan. One of the most interesting
things revealed in the interview is that Roxburgh and Woof prepared for their
roles by undergoing real whippings from a professional dominatrix.
Rose Aldridge Grainger, Percy's mother, was 52 when 1914 began.
Barbara Hershey was 51 when Passion was released. She was, therefore, almost
exactly the right age to play the role. The problem with the age gap resulted
from hiring an actor slightly too old to play Percy. Roxburgh was 37 when the
film was made, making him too old to be Hershey's son, but the real Percy had
been
31 when 1914 began, the right age to be either Barbara Hershey's son or Rose
Grainger's.
One of Grainger's most notable achievements was his role in turning an
obscure folk ballad named Air from County Derry into one of the most
widely-recognized songs in the world. (It's now universally known as Danny Boy.)
His
successes were by no means restricted to the field of music. Among his diverse and
eclectic accomplishments, one of the most unusual was his invention of the
sports bra, but his most unusual had to be the invention of a new form of
purely Anglo-Saxon English stripped of all French, Latin, and Greek
influences. (He would refer to himself not as a vegetarian, for example, but
as a "meat-shunner."
Percy Grainger's "official site."
I don't know how official it really is, but it is filled with interesting
material, including rare family photographs from Ella Grainger and Percy's
estate.
A very informative essay:
Percy Grainger plays
Grainger
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Dann reports on Afraid of the Dark If you're not willing to pay
very close attention, and keep an open mind about what you're seeing on
the screen, this 1991 French/English psychological thriller will drive you
nuts, and at the end you'll have no idea what you've just seen.
A young boy wanders a London neighborhood, keeping an eye on his blind
mother's support group friends, all of them also blind. When someone
starts slashing blind women's faces with a razor, he becomes even more
vigilant, hoping to help his police inspector father solve the horrible
crimes.
A young boy wanders a London neighborhood, feeling desperately alone as
he faces surgery on his eyes to stave off blindness. Since no one in his
family is blind, he feels very alone. His father is a florist, but soon,
he fears, he won't be able to see any of his father's beautiful creations.
As his mother and father try to console and reassure him, he lapses deeper
into despair.
That's about all I can tell you without revealing the ending, and
that's assuming I really understand the movie myself. One more hint,
though. In the two paragraphs above, I am NOT talking about two different
boys.

Claire Holman |
|
|
|
 |
Pat's comments in yellow Hollywood's Davie-Brown Entertainment has launched a
new celebrity-evaluation index for advertisers called the Davie-Brown Index.
Other researchers rank celebrities for popularity, but they are the first to
rank influence, or how likely someone is to buy a product because a celebrity
endorses it. Under the DBI, Tom Hanks and Oprah Winfrey scored highest as the
stars who can most influence consumer purchases.
* Why do you think the cover of "O" magazine is ALWAYS
Oprah?
* Oprah can get people to buy books that aren't even true!
* If Tom Hanks can sell us anything, why couldn't he sell us Tom Hanks in
"The Ladykillers"?
* It depends on the product. If you're a marriage counselor, don't hire
Robert Blake. But if you sell guns and ammo...
* And Now, Bill Clinton For Cialis...
|
 |
|
|
 |
|