Once the bread and butter of Hollywood, the Western has fallen on tough times for decades. Today movie and TV audiences appear to favor spies, fucking lawyers, aliens and zombies.
Don't get me wrong I love a good end of the world alien flick as much as the next guy. But I also love the classic Western genre that represents all it means to be an American.
I must give credit to American Movie Classics for creating the Western show Hell on Wheels.
The show provides the gritty realism of what the west must have really felt like: crooked politicians, greedy businessmen, racism, bravery, hard working immigrants, murder and more. Great acting and solid scripts combined with history and realism. Bravo AMC.
The ratings were not what AMC wanted so they shipped the show off to Saturday night for a swift and painful death. But a funny thing happened, millions the show's fans followed the series over to Saturday night.
Hell on Wheels laughed at the Saturday night death time slot.
The series’ recently-concluded third season averaged 3.3 million viewers, a surprisingly strong number considering its shift to the TV graveyard known as Saturday night. To reward its solid performance, AMC has expanded Season 4 (coming next summer) to 13 episodes — up from 10 for the first three seasons reports TV Line.
“AMC has served passionate Western fans for three decades, so it is particularly gratifying to see these viewers capping off their Saturdays with an original Western on what has historically been a tough night of the week for television,” noted AMC president Charlie Collier in a statement. ”Our commitment to the genre is unwavering and we look forward to continuing to super-serve this audience with an expanded fourth season of Hell on Wheels.”
Liberals work overtime to crush job creation and then they wonder why there is not enough tax money to pay for government.
The number of permits pulled to make porn films in Democrat controlled Los Angeles County has declined an estimated 95 percent — from about 480 issued in 2012 to only 24 through the first nine months of this year — since a law requiring adult film actors to use condoms took effect, officials said Friday.
Film LA, a private nonprofit that issues permits for filming in Los Angeles County, cautioned that its 2012 figures were just an estimate because it did not specifically track porn films until the condom requirement took effect in March 2012 reports the Associated Press.
Now that it does, the organization said only 24 permits were issued this year as of mid-September. . The adult film industry trade group, the Free Speech Coalition, said those numbers show the law adopted by voters is costing the county hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The Los Angeles Times reported that the porn industry employs about 10,000 people as actors or in technical supporting jobs.
Larry Flint of Hustler said, "We won't be doing anything in Los Angeles." He is already making plans to shift production to Mexico, Arizona or Hawaii.
The group's executive director, Diane Duke, said a typical porn film permit costs about $1,000, meaning the county lost about $456,000.
"And if you think about the associated vendors and jobs that have gone elsewhere, I think that speaks volumes about what this is costing," she said.
Duke said some filmmakers went to neighboring counties, while others headed out of state. . Some smaller producers could also be forgoing permits to keep from drawing attention to themselves.
, States around California are stealing businesses, jobs and tax income from the once Golden State. . Also see our article: Democrats shut down 10,000 more jobs
Porn Star Jessica Drake
Forced government condoms are unconstitutional.
Driving taxpayers out of Los Angeles Jenna Jameson earns a million dollar paycheck in the porn industry. Socialist Democrats have decided that having lots of taxpayers in the state is a bad thing. Much better to drive jobs across the border into Nevada or Mexico.
Big Brother Sex Police Fascist Democrats (helped by many Republicans) are thrusting unconstitutional Police State powers deep, deep into our most personal of freedoms - the right to have sex. . If Big Brother can invade privately owned businesses and force free men and women to use condoms under the watchful eye of agents of the All-Powerful-State then our Liberty is doomed. Once this Fascist intrusion into our freedom becomes the norm the State will expand their surveillance of private sex acts in the name of "health" and "the public good".
'The Obama regime is very good at controlling the media and propaganda'
In a wide ranging interview with RT News, actor Steven Segal speaks about martial arts, Putin, terrorism, his close friendship with Libertarian-Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher of California and supporting Republican politics.
He speaks fondly of Vladimir Putin as one of the great leaders of the world and how the US and Russian should be friends and allies against terrorism.
Seagal says basically the media are propaganda masters for Obama, we’re not getting the truth.
Seagal says CNN is "bought and paid for" by the Obama regime. . . . and he goes out of his way to use the word regime.
He also defends gun rights, the Second Amendment and the right to bear arms to protect against evil governments.
He also suggests that some of the mass shootings are engineered. “Armed guards are in stores” Seagal said, “Why can we not protect our children[in schools]?”. He went on to say the issue is really one of mental health and parenting. He notes that Japan has some of the most violent movies, yet doesn’t have the issue of violence.
A Must Watch!!! - Listen to the entire interview.
Criticism of Obama starts around6:00 minute mark.
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It is a shame that we have to go to the foreign media and the Internet for so much information that matters. On US TV we are subjected to meaningless 22 second sound bites or short, phony "interviews" where each side simply regurgitates the talking points of their party.
"I believe in the 2nd Amendment and the Constitution more than anything in the world." Steven Seagal
The ten horror movies I will be watching this weekend.
By Gary;
To milk Halloween for ratings, cable TV has been overflowing with assorted horror films. Most of them suck to one degree or another plus they are chopped up by editors and filled with inane commercials. Watch these shows at your own risk.
So rather than watch what TV wants to give me I have lined up ten DVDs of my favorite horror films to watch over this Friday-Saturday-Sunday Halloween weekend.
This is not a list of the ten best horror films ever made. It is simply my list for the weekend. I am not into gory slasher crap or sawing off body parts. Let others "entertain" themselves with those films. I will stick with classic themes.
So the popcorn has been purchased and pizza will be ordered. Time to enjoy my favorite holiday.
#1 - Dracula(1931)
Yes I have seen this thing a million times since childhood. But I just can't help myself. It is the classic that started it all. My recent review and re-reading of the book impressed upon me all the more the power of the story.
The creepy atmosphere and black and white filming of the 1931 version cannot be beat. And we cannot forget the great Dwight Frye as Renfield. He nearly steals the film. If you could combine this and the 1992 Francis Ford Coppola version your would have the perfect Dracula movie.
#2 - Resident Evil(2002)
It is possible that I could watch Milla Jovovich all day.
Everything is there for the modern sci fi horror flick: genetically engineered zombies, artificial intelligence, the evil Red Queen who seals the Hive and kills everyone inside. Zombies and mass killings. What is there not to like?
#3 - Tremors (1990)
I was blown away when I saw this in the theater. My God, it is the perfect horror comedy. Oddly it is funnier than Hell, scary and politically correct at the same time. In an unusual move for the time, we have multiple racial groups available for munching by the graboids.
Also, a double thumbs up to Val and Earl, the two best handymen ever.
Earl Bassett: "Damn it Valentine, you never plan ahead, you never take the long view, I mean here it is Monday and I'm already thinking of Wednesday... It is Monday right?"
#4 - The Hills Have Eyes (2006)
Now were are into hardcore horror with this remake. The movie is frightening on many levels with mutants, people being burned alive, rape and cannibalism.
#5 - Blade(1998)
This film starring Wesley Snipes and Kris Kristofferson took traditional vampires in a totally new direction. We now saw vampire corporate boards of directors, vamp discos with blood spraying from the ceiling sprinklers and corrupt cops on the vamp payroll. Into the middle of this mad world comes Blade both slicing and dicing vamps.
Jenny Williams: "Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon is bright."
In look and feel the movie closely resembles Frankenstein, the Invisible Man, The Mummy and Dracula. It is way too short 70 minutes in length. The wolf man special effects stand up well even today.
#7 - Underworld (2003)
Wow! Forbidden vampire / werewolf love.
Again I was blown away in the theater by Underworld. The movie broke new ground with Kate Beckinsale as a vampire who is a Death Dealer Lycan hunter. Stylish Gothic visuals, leather clad vamps, great special effects and solid action scenes with gun play and silver whips.
#8 - Dawn of the Dead (2004)
I never really like zombie films until this remake and Resident Evil came along. The dead walking left the supernatural realm and became a modern bio-hazard science based horror. Scary because it sounds like it could happen.
The film depicts a handful of human survivors living in a Milwaukee, Wisconsin shopping mall surrounded by swarms of zombies.
#9 - Halloween (1978)
Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho created the slasher film, but John Carpenter's Halloween set the stage for countless copy cats. The victims were usually sexually promiscuous substance abusers, while the lone heroine is depicted as an innocent and pure kid who was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I hate to date myself, but I was in the theater on opening night. Halloween was wonderful and it still the only "slasher" film I will watch. Many slasher movies since then have gone over to bloody gore while Halloween was tame by comparison.
Carpenter's music helped make the film. Donald Pleasence and Jamie Lee Curtis in her film debut were outstanding.
#10 - The Lost Boys (1987)
I am so old that I can remember when Kiefer Sutherland was young.
The Lost Boys was fantastic on the wide screen. A totally offbeat hippie vampire flick. There is a near perfect balance between humor and suspense. Dianne Wiest is great as an ex-hippie mom and Barnard Hughes shines as grandpa.
Have a happy Halloween. See you all down the road.
David: "Now you know what we are, now you know what you are. You'll never grow old, Michael, and you'll never die. But you must feed!"
Some in Hollywood start to fight back against the 1984 Surveillance Police State while most Democrat and GOP politicians defend Big Brother.
Oliver Stone, John Cusack, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Wil Wheaton are among showbiz figures who are stepping into the debate over the National Security Agency surveillance programs, appearing in a public service announcement that calls for an end to the monitoring.
“Everybody is at risk for getting caught up in the NSA dragnet,” Stone says in the 3 minute, 26 second spot, which also features Daniel Ellsberg, Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Phil Donahue reports Variety.
The spot was directed by Brian Knappenberger and produced by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
The video is an effort to garner support for a rally on Oct. 26 in Washington called Stop Watching Us, organized by more than 100 public interest groups that are demanding that Congress investigate the NSA spying programs.
The video also is one of the first major pushes against the program using celebrity figures since news of Edward Snowden’s leaks of information about the program was first published.
Stop Watching Us: The Video
This video harnesses the voices of celebrities, activists, legal experts, and other
prominent figures in speaking out against mass surveillance by the NSA.
Oliver Stone:
Obama is a Snake and We Have To Turn on Him!
Oliver Stone: Obama a wolf in sheep's clothing
John Cusack - Defender of Liberty The Bill of Rights is neither Democrat nor Republican. It is American. It is good to see someone like John Cusack publicly stand up for Liberty and serve as a board member of the Freedom of the Press Foundation. . See John Cusack's article 'Eric Holder criminalizes whistleblowers'
Interesting We had to learn about unconstitutional spying on Americans from a British newspaper. The American media machine wouldn't be bought and paid for by the D.C. Establishment would it?
Left wing group given $500,000 grant to help work Obamacare into TV and movie scripts
If you’re sick and tired of TV news broadcasts spewing pro-Obamacare propaganda, get ready to be inundated with even more progressive health care proselytizing in the dramas and comedies that follow those news shows.
For this you have the left-wing California Endowment to thank. The radical philanthropy is in the news because it is funding Obamacare public outreach efforts.
As Newsmax reports, the Obama administration is “turning its focus on prime time television series, using the influential platform and the power of celebrity to spread the word about its healthcare initiative.”
With the White House’s blessing, the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Norman Lear Center, which has something called a “Hollywood, Health & Society program,” has accepted a $500,000 grant from the left-wing California Endowment to help TV producers condition the masses into supporting Obama’s Soviet-style health care program.
USC will aim to keep producers, writers, and directors up to speed so they can incorporate the latest information into their storylines. It will also generate public service announcements to match the TV shows’ storylines.
“Our experience has shown that the public gets just as much, if not more, information about current events and important issues from their favorite television shows and characters as they do from the news media and online resources,” said Martin Kaplan, who heads the USC program, in a statement. “This grant will allow us to ensure that industry practitioners have up-to-date, relevant facts on health care reform to integrate into their storylines and projects.”
Half of the funding will be devoted to Spanish-language programming.
The USC program's advisory board contains several influential television executives, Deadline Hollywood found. Among them Jennifer Cecil, co-executive producer of "Hostages," Vince Gilligan, creator of "Breaking Bad" and Chris Nee, the executive producer of Disney Jr.'s "Doc McStuffins."
They join several high profile actors and actresses who have stepped up to lend their names and time to promoting the Obamacare message to a mass audience. Most recently, Academy Award-winning actress Jennifer Hudson completed a viral parody video of the popular "Scandal" series, which is set in a fictional White House, for Will Ferrell's "Funny or Die" online spots.
In July, a group of celebrities, including Hudson, visited Washington to meet with the president and his staff and to learn what they could do to assist in advance of the program's rollout, The Hollywood Reporter, said at the time.
"The president stopped by the meeting to engage artists who expressed an interest in helping to educate the public about the benefits of the health law," a White House official told the Hollywood Reporter. "The reach of these national stars spreads beyond the Beltway to fans of their television shows, movies and music—and the power of these artists to speak through social media is especially critical."
The American Movie Classics channel has moved from endless reruns of classic movies
to original programming that is crushing the so-called "major" networks.
AMC’s The Walking Dead returned Sunday for its fourth season, delivering the highest ratings of any episode in series history. The season four premiere was watched by 16.1 million total viewers and 10.4 million adults aged 18-49.
Sunday’s ratings confirm The Walking Dead continues to be the #1 show on all of television among the coveted 18-49 demographic. 2013/14 season to date, last night’s premiere ranks as the #1 telecast in adults 18-49, outperforming all programs including primetime NFL football. With time-shifted playback, last night’s premiere should exceed 20 million viewers reports TV by the Numbers.
“Sincere thanks to the fans, who have welcomed The Walking Dead back for its fourth season with the highest-rated episode in the show's history,” said AMC President Charlie Collier. “We could not be more proud of this show and everyone on both sides of the camera who work so hard to give life to this story of character, leadership and survival.
It starts with series creator, writer and executive producer Robert Kirkman, show runner and executive producer Scott Gimple and the director of last night’s episode (and the man behind the make-up) executive producer Greg Nicotero, their fellow executive producers and an extraordinary cast and crew who are giving their all every day. So clearly, thanks to them, the dead have never been more alive.”
The previous record for an episode of The Walking Dead was 12.4 million total viewers and 8.1 million viewers 18-49 for the season three finale.
Following the 9 pm premiere of The Walking Dead, AMC premiered the third season of Talking Dead at 10 pm, it became the most viewed premiere in series history with 5.1 million viewers, including 3.3 million adults aged 18-49.
Hosted by Chris Hardwick, Talking Dead features Hardwick and fans, actors, producers and other TV enthusiasts, discussing and dissecting that night’s Dead premiere. The premiere episode featured guests including executive producer and showrunner Scott Gimple and Nathan Fillion of Castle.
"Breaking Bad" creator Vince Gilligan credited Netflix for helping establish an audience for the show when ratings were low.
Fox premiered a new drama called "Sleepy Hollow," which averaged 10 million viewers. Over the next three days, the show added an additional 3 million viewers from recorded viewing. By the end of the month, Fox projects that the audience could grow to as much as 16 million.
TheBreaking Badfinalewas Sunday's top cable program. But of equal interest was the combination of Breaking Bad and The Big Bang Theory totally dominating the top ten shows.
The Internet has revolutionized the news industry. I can read unfiltered news directly from Japan or Nigeria without the Elite Media twisting it for me. But the Net also allows me to publish my own Internet Magazine of news and opinion.
The revolution has been equally powerful in entertainment. Direct streaming of programs and recording for later viewing has changed the media landscape.
(The Los Angeles Times) - An interesting story on how technology and the Internet has rapidly changed the way consumers watch TV.
TV networks see both opportunity and revenue pitfalls as Netflix, Amazon.com, Hulu and other video-on-demand options give viewers more ways to consume programming.
As the landscape has become increasingly crowded with services that compete with the traditional TV networks for viewers. The networks' challenge is to figure out how to exploit these digital platforms without steering viewers away from their own channels and jeopardizing the billions of dollars they collect each year in ad revenue and fees from cable distributors.
After winning best drama for "Breaking Bad," the show's creator, Vince Gilligan, credited Netflix for helping establish an audience for the show after early seasons did not perform strongly in the Nielsen ratings reports the Los Angeles Times.
"Netflix kept us on the air," Gilligan said.
That's in part because Netflix, Amazon.com, Hulu and other video-on-demand options have given viewers the chance to catch up on shows, particularly serialized dramas, that they may have missed the first time around.
The number of homes equipped with digital video recorders also has greatly expanded. Now nearly half of all TV homes in the U.S. have the technology, up from 19% in 2008, according to Nielsen.
Catch-up viewing also can drive people back to the TV network that originally televised the show.
"Breaking Bad" has enjoyed record ratings this season after thousands of viewers streamed episodes through Netflix.
The most-watched program on Netflix during the Emmys was the 2008 pilot episode of "Breaking Bad."
"That means that new people who have never seen a single episode of 'Breaking Bad' are checking it out," the executive said.
But at the same time, Netflix and Amazon are increasingly becoming competitors to ABC, AMC, CBS, HBO and Showtime, attracting viewers as well as some of Hollywood's A-list producers, directors and writers.
The percentage of homes that have Netflix subscriptions increased to 38% of the country this year, up from 31% of homes in 2012, according to a recent Nielsen report. Amazon's video service Amazon Prime Instant Video increased to 13% of the market, up from 7% a year ago. At the same time, 88% of the Netflix viewers surveyed said they watched three or more episodes of the same show on the same day.
"There is no doubt that Netflix is becoming an important player, and they should be commended for the quality of their shows," Rosenblum said. "But we should not lose sight of the fact that the great majority of television viewing is on broadcast and cable channels."
Broadcasters must still be able to translate the new viewership opportunities into revenue. Last week, Fox premiered a new drama called "Sleepy Hollow," which averaged 10 million viewers. Over the next three days, the show added an additional 3 million viewers from recorded viewing. By the end of the month, Fox projects that the audience could grow to as much as 16 million.
"There are more ways to watch television than ever before," said David Nevins, president of entertainment for the Showtime Networks, which collected seven Emmys. He noted that only about 30% of the viewing of his network's popular "Dexter" occurs during the first run of an original episode.
It’s a safe bet there’s no love lost between Hollywood actor James Woods and President Obama — the former has taken to Twitter several times over the last few months to trash the policies and politics of the latter.
The latest came this week, in response to a report from British press that revealed the National Security Agency commonly provides Israel with intelligence data — without first stripping out private and personal information on American citizens. The Guardian in London reported the item, the latest in its coverage of document leaks from Edward Snowden.
Woods unleashed his views of the matter — and of Obama’s role in allowing the practice to occur — on Twitter.
He wrote: “Report: Data on Americans shared with Israel … Obama: the gift from hell that keeps on giving.”
This is hardly the first unfavorable rating Woods has posted on his Twitter account about Obama. In July, the actor ranted over Obama’s insertion of his personal opinion into the George Zimmerman-Trayvon Martin trial, characterizing it as fueling racial tensions and wondering why the president would speak his mind about the death of the 17-year-old Trayvon but not worry so much about American’s soldiers and wounded warriors.
The news came in: Ben Affleck is the new Batman. Suddenly people came out of the woodwork to piss all over the idea.
The gut level hate against Affleck threw me. But what really ticked me off were the endless cheap shots at Affleck in the 2003 Daredevil movie.
These nimrod critics trashed Daredevil for no real reason. Ben Affleck was excellent in the roll, the supporting cast was strong and the script and special effects were great. The movie even did well at the box office bringing in nearly $200 million on a $78 million production budget.
Based on his good job as Daredevil, I plan to give Affleck a chance as Bruce Wayne/Batman.
Daredevil: Trailer (2003)
Better than "Man of Steel" I stand almost alone in thinking "Daredevil" was head and shoulders better than the disjointed and disorganized, semi-crappy "Man of Steel" movie. I would recommend the director's cut of Daredevil to any who are interested. It adds a great deal to the theater version making it an even better film. . For some strange reason fans did not like watching a smoking hot Jennifer Garner in the Daredevil movie. Mental illness is wider spread than I thought.
Elektra (2005) Audiences for films are interesting. Based on pre-conceived prejudices they decide if they "like" or "dislike" a movie before ever seeing it. So Elektra suffered at the box office. Personally I thought it was one of the better films of the year and an outstanding superhero film . . . and yes, I could watch Jennifer Garner all day.
At least Lois Lane was not a slut in the new movie.
By Gary;
At my screening of "Man of Steel" the audience enthusiastically broke out into applause at the end. I applauded too. I was so happy that this overly long movie had finally ended.
For a while I thought I was watching one of those self-indulgent, ultra long, often boring Kevin Costner movies. It took far too long, but thank God Kevin Costner finally died in the film.
A better title might have been Superman Meets Independence Day. I don't mind the science fiction aspect. Far from it. After all, a SUPER man needs true super villains with great powers.
Movie Length - My biggest beef is the length of the film and the script. Way, way too much time is spent on Krypton and on Superman's earth family. Been there. Seen that. Move on please.
It would made a much better film to cut out almost all the Costner-Kent family stuff and have concentrated on General Zod's character development and political infighting on Krypton as the end nears. That would have truly been new ground for the fans.
Superman - Every generation wants to tell the Superman story in their own way. George Reeves portrayed a World War II generation tough male. Then we are given the somewhat effeminate and soft Christopher Reeve and Brandon Routh as a chick flick, girl friendly Superman.
That brings us to Henry Cavill. Do to the strong manly drama in the Batman series and Marvel movies, the pendulum is moving back to a strong and manly Superman. Cavill does well with the script he is given. It was a good move that he was not made all-powerful. Instead he is super with limitations.
The Best of all Superman Villains. With the number of Superman films coming closer to the James Bond saga we can start to compare the best and worst characters. To me Kevin Spacey's nasty Lex Luthor takes the award for best supervillain.
Lois Lane - The 1950s gave us a very "proper" Lois Lane. . . . smart but always getting into trouble. Then from the 1970s on Lane become a slut. A "modern" woman banging Superman and a single mother giving birth out of wedlock. Not what I want at all.
Now we have been given a proper, professional Amy Adams as Lane. But Adams has little meaningful to say in the script and even less acting talent. Adams speaks her lines and does not drool on herself, but she has never had any screen presence. Any of a hundred actresses at a casting call could read the part.
The Villains - The previous villains in the Superman series were often treated as comedy. Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor was almost stand up comedy with endless jokes and comedy side kicks. The tide began to turn when the X-Men's Bryan Singer made Kevin Spacey's Lex Luthor into a vicious killer. In my mind, Spacey became the best of Superman's villains in Superman Returns (2006).
Michael Shannon does a respectable job as General Zod. He does not have the voice or screen presence of Terence Stamp, the first Zod in Superman II, but few actors do. The current Zod's fellow soldiers do not have much to say and even less to do in Man of Steel. Again, script weakness.
Special Effects - Yes, lots of was money spent. They are mostly well done. But script and acting trump effects every time. Man of Steel is a bit weak in those areas.
Movie is Rated a Six on a scale of Ten.
Superman and the Mole Men is a 1951 superhero film starring George Reeves as Superman and Phyllis Coates as Lois Lane. The motion picture is the first theatrical feature film based on the DC Comics character Superman; although two live-action Superman films starring Kirk Alyn and Noel Neill had already been shown in cinemas, they had appeared in a serial format.
