I Want Your Money

It’s a new film coming out that takes a look at recent US government spending.

H/T RWB

cross-posted

She’s pregnant

No, not Lady Bing. But we have discussed names before. Just not these one’s.

For those who can’t be bothered participating in my shameless link-whoring, couples have started naming their kids after characters in Avatar.

Glad my parents didn’t participate in such moon-battery. Follow the logic. You’d be talking to Chewbacca about now.

Valvoline

It was just so blatant. It was like Cameron finally actually did run out of money – and scriptwriters – and just took a big Lefty dump on everyone.

You know what I mean?

Cross-posted@bing’s shack.

Remaking an Epic: Clash of the Titans

I’m an old-school retrosexual kind of guy, so I like epic movies like Gladiator, 10,000 BC, The Patriot, Apocalypto, Master and Commander – you get the idea; the more high-test testosterone, the better. Well, the original Clash of the Titans came out in 1981, and it was a pretty good action epic for the time – I actually have a Swedish friend named Anders who had a bit part in it – but after movies like 300, which have redefined the entire look and feel of action epics, I’ve begun to wonder what those kind of production values and CGI effects could bring to a remake of Clash.

You could have knocked me over with a feather when I heard that, not only is a remake on the horizon, but it’s finished filming and is already in post production! This flew completely under my radar. Here’s the trailer in formats up to and including 1080p HD (Which looks awesome on my Apple 23″ Cinema HD Display). HA! It sounds as if Bingbing did the film score: very heavy, which I like for this sort of thing (300 had a brilliant score).

It looks like they’ve done it right, with a big budget, no-holds-barred CGI effects, and a killer cast that includes Sam Worthington as Persius, Ralph Fiennes as Hades, Liam Neeson as Zeus (!), Alexa Davalos as Andromeda, and my favorite babe-actress of the moment, Gemma Arterton, as Io.

I could so love her. LOL!

I don’t go to theaters to see films in first release much anymore, but this one I will. Of course, I’ll have to have the DVD too. In fact, this movie might finally spur me on to finally buy a Blu-Ray player if I like it enough.

I’m more psyched about Clash of the Titans than I am about Avatar.

Happy Anniversary, Casablanca! Stephane Grappelli: As time goes by [via Elsie]

Bolt Ruffugees (thx, Rabz!) will be accustomed to clicking on contributor Elsie’s musical links in the daily Forum post there for their daily sanity break and relief from all things political.

As it is the anniversary of the premiere in 1942 of the movie Casablanca, today Elsie gives us jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli playing the theme, As Time Goes By.  Thank you, Elsie 🙂

 

P.S. deer aNdrW b0Lt, al yor elsies R belong 2 us nOw!!111!!!eleventy-one!!! bwahahahaaa. kthxbai.

Not Evil Just Wrong

Only five days to go. Pay up. Type QUADRANT into the coupon box to get a 10% discount.

Bob Carter:

In contrast to this small (and still hypothetical) risk of damage from human-caused climate change, there exists a certainty that gross socio-economic damage is already resulting from global warming activism, and is set to get worse.

Merv Bendle:

The accelerating moral panic about alleged global warming and its projected catastrophic effects is a fundamentally religious phenomenon. Despite its pretensions, it is not primarily about science. Rather, it represents the emergence of a new religious movement (an NRM, or what used to be called a ‘cult’). This new form of eco-fundamentalism is characterized by a widely excessive faith in science, a hatred and despair at Humanity, an intolerance of opposition or even skepticism, and a near hysterical form of secular Apocalypticism.

The director, Phelim McAleer:

Spain believed the hype about environmental regulation creating “green jobs” and boosting the economy. Now 18 percent of Spaniards have no jobs. Our own country – Ireland – has the Green Party in government who are pushing for a “carbon tax”. This will increase the price of every good and service on an island that is enduring 13 per cent unemployment. The increased costs will drive out jobs during one of the worst recessions in living memory.

A similar fate awaits Australia if it follows Europe’s lead. Eighty percent of Australia’s energy comes from coal, and the country exported $45 billion worth of it last year. Tens of thousands of jobs in the energy sector are at stake if Parliament adopts ETS to cap carbon dioxide.

Oh, and just in case.

UPDATE

David Flint:

In any event …i t is becoming increasingly evident that support for the fundamentalist global warming agenda is soft. Indeed the BBC now concedes there has not been any evidence of global warming since 1998, notwithstanding the increasing amount of carbon emissions. That’s why the fundamentalists are trying to change the name of their secular religion to climate change.

Once the electorate understands the massive impact on their lives of an ETS, and the fact that it won’t affect global carbon emissions [nor global warming, nor climate change – bing], they will obviously reject it. In 1998, the promise of the GST almost brought down the government. This was a far more benign, almost harmless substitute for other taxes including those ones curiously found invalid by the High Court.

2012 Trailer: OTT Much?

It seems that many people are saying this film is a disaster in and of itself because of the “OTT” effects revealed in the trailer.

“In a new two-minute trailer of 2012, directed by Roland Emmerich – the man behind Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow, mankind is seen to fight for survival after a prophecy about about an apocalypse.

But as with all apocalyptic movies, there are a lucky few who survive the terror… after Americans appear to be save the day (yet again) [Fuck Yeah! – Beef].

It looks, however, as if the CGI experts have been given a completely free hand designing this apocalypse – with the net result that the trailer borders on laughable.

Critics in the U.S. are already beginning to describe the movie as a disaster in itself.”

Well, judge for yourself.

As for me, I only know one thing: I can’t fucking wait to see it.

Bill killed

Like no one doesn’t know already. Kung Fu was a bit before my time but he’s simply awesome in Kill Bill 2.

Still, what is it with this rope-neck-sack thing? First Hutchence, then CNN’s Richard Quest, and now Carradine. What ever happened to regular coitus?

A message to the movie industry

I think region codes are causing more piracy, not less.

Rant here.

Actor, Democrat turned Conservative Ron Silver has Died

Ron Silver in The Shadow Zone

Actor and post-9/11 conservative activist Ron Silver has died of cancer. He was only 62 years old.

“Actor and longtime political activist Ron Silver died this morning, succumbing to a long battle with cancer, friends of the liberal Democrat-turned-GOP stalwart told The Post.

“Ron Silver died peacefully in his sleep with his family around him this morning,” said Robin Bronk, executive director of the Creative Coalition, which Silver helped create.”

Godspeed Ron, I enjoyed your work immensely.

The Cowboy Way

In a polite rejoinder to a not-very-polite critic of another post here earlier this morning, our Angus Dei finished his comment with “Though I’m a knuckle-dragging cowboy, I still help out when and where I can. It’s called, ‘The Cowboy Way,’ and it rivals any Oriental philosophy …” That comment inspired me to dig up some of the various “Cowboy Creeds” we collected and printed up for a little wannabe-cowboy relative of mine.

Be patient; takes a while to load.  Enjoy.

Worst.Fight.Scene.EVER.

Words fail to describe the over the top suckiness of this. They stuck a singularity of acting ability inside a black hole of a script and subjected it to a directing event horizon.

The sheer 80’s-ness of the clothing adds to the overall badness of the whole thing.

Highlights?

The slow mo punches

The puns at the end

Place your contenders for worst scenes in a movie below….

UPDATE (Beef): My pick for the worst fight scene in cinematic history?…

The Crossroads Guitar Duel.

No way Ralph fucking Macchio would have won against Steve fucking Vai!

Sorry, Satan would have taken this round easy.

Speaking of movies…

The Slumdog Millionaire post has been updated. Nothing too fancy. Basically just the seven BAFTA’s it received including best film. But yeah, there’s still that typical Leftist bullshit running through it. Thus, it was a pleasant surprise to pop over to The Corner and see a post up about the top 25 Conservative movies of the last half century or so.

Well, unless you wanna cough up some cash, they won’t show the list yet. So why not start a little list here? And it’s free, too!

Perhaps it’s not the best one out there per se, but bing’s pick is Cannonball Run (’twas the first one that came to mind).

PS Oops. It might be Fox Searchlight’s logo you see before it begins, but Slumdog Millionaire is essentially a British film.

UPDATE

via comments (Spot), vote here.

But OI! Don’t forget to mention your fav here, too!

Slumdog Millionaire

Watch it.

It’s beautifully scripted, with brilliant acting, awesome scene shots plus it offers great insight into the past 30 years or so of changes that India has gone through.

It’s Bollywood meets Hollywood… on Hollywood’s terms, at least this time round.

The plot centres  on a Muslim Indian man, who grew up in the slums, who appears on India’s version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Through a series of flashbacks, we learn how the contestant knows the answers to all of the questions.

Of course, there’s the typical Leftist Hollywood bullshit factor but surely we’ve all learned to deal with that… and thus, it is a really really good movie.

PS Apparently the thing is up for an Academy Award. And so it should be.

UPDATE

Slumdog Millionaire has won seven BAFTA awards, including Best Film.

Holy Fucking Shit, Batman!

Via Big Hollywood – a conservative Hollywood blog (Whoda thunk?) – comes this spectacularly brilliant techno dance remix of Christian Bale’s Terminator set meltdown by some super-hyper-mega-genius who calls himself/herself/itself RevoLucian.

I was in convulsions of laughter, and since I was in a series of rock bands, I really don’t think this is a big deal. Happens all the time.

Doctor Spock

Doctor Who meets Capt James T. Kirk et al in this naff little mash-up by some bloke with too much time on his hands. Good for a little chuckle.

And since I’m sure you’re all dying to know, I give you…da-dum-daaa: the Eleventh Doctor!

I just know this thread’s going to be huge.

Movie Review: The Day The Earth Stood Still

Today I went on an adventure and went to watch the new Keanu Reeves movie The Day The Earth Stood Still.

The original was way, way better, but this version wasn’t without merit (spoiler link).

To begin with, the special effects were amazing, and Keanu Reeves is detached enough to be able to pull off his character (an alien) perfectly. The plot was quite simple to follow, and the message was clear.

The plot is completely different to the original, the original having focused on humans and war, where the aliens were hoping for humans to live peacefully, and the new version focuses on humans’ damage on the environment.

It’s worth watching, but wait until it’s on DVD. Particularly if you’re sick of preachy movies.

UPDATE: Jason Soon agrees with me on The Day The Earth Stood Still. Unfortunately Jason’s made sure I’m going to have nightmares tonight, by suggesting an intergalactic civilisation of Al Gores.

McCain’s Perfect Choice for a Running Mate: Governor Sarah Palin

While most of the pedantic, two-dimensional, inside-the-box-thinking, conservative political hacks are touting Tom Ridge for the slot (Not a bad guy, but…), David Freddoso notes a far superior choice has been proposed: The Republican Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin.

I believe this is a truly inspired idea. Gov. Palin ran as an anti-corruption outsider, and handily defeated a corrupt and entrenched Republican political machine. Plus, at 44, she would almost totally wipe the “age issue” McCain has off the slate, and since Obama is only two years her senior, there is no way they could attack her for her youth and inexperience: She has much more executive experience than Senator Obama has.

Not to mention the fact that, she’s a gorgeous woman who exudes mass quantities of charisma…

and has a super-solid family life.

Dibs on the eldest daughter! LOL!

This inspired choice would allow McCain to actually capitalize on his “maverick” persona, as Gov. Palin shook Alaska politics to the core: She’s a charming, charismatic woman, but she can also play with the big boys and kick ass.

What say ye?

UPDATE: Things are looking optimistic!

UPDATE II: Welcome to all 4500 8000 40,000 in the past few hours (so far!) people visiting us from Google. We’re a fairly opinionated right-wing blog, and you might like to take a look at our “About” page. You might also be interested in our other coverage of Sarah Palin and whether she becomes a prospective Vice President of the United States. You can find this coverage here and here. Personally, I hope she does, but you can feel free to debate the idea in comments below. All first comments are moderated, but unless you either insult or use severe profanity (and I mean severe by my standards, which generally only means the C U Next Tuesday word or the implication that someone has had a rather enjoyable erotic experience with someone who has borne a child), however if you come up with a new one, I may simply delete your comment. I, and all other contributors to this blog are more than fair in what we permit.

UPDATE III: Nayr Drahcir, don’t bother even trying. You will not be published.

UPDATE IV: A lot of people must like Palin.

UPDATE V: More coverage of Governor Sarah Palin and a theme song here.

UPDATE VI: Funniest observation on the announcement yet: “Put Obama and Palin on a basketball court one on one. Winner takes all!”

UPDATE VII: [spot_the_dog] No, we do not have any pictures of “Sarah Palin + Naked,” nor do we have any of “Sarah Palin + Swimsuit.” In the past 24 hours, there have been 157 separate searches on this site for “Sarah Palin Swimsuit,” and 161 separate searches for “Sarah Palin Naked.” I repeat, we have no bathing suit, swim suit, bikini, or naked pictures of Sarah Palin. What kind of people do you think we are, anyway? 😉

UPDATE VIIa: [spot_the_dog] Ace has noticed a similar search phenomenon on his blog and has a theory…

UPDATE VIII: A well-rounded view of the selection of Sarah Palin for the Vice President Nomination can be found here.

UPDATE IX:  We got it!  YES!  Nude photo of Sarah Palin right here!  (C’mon.  You know you want to click.)

UPDATE X: Feel free to visit our main page and read the latest posts we’ve written.

Messiah Worshipped

As I was purchasing the new Metallica album today, something caught my eye, and I had to pick it up and examine it further.

It was this DVD:

Barack Obama: His Story

For $18, I figured I may as well. $14.20 later (apparently it was discounted further. Bargain basement Messiah! Messiah for all!) and I now have a new DVD to watch. It was the blurb that made me did it.

Paul Newman has Died

I know both Nilk and I have been dreading this day, a day we both knew was sadly coming for some time.

Paul Newman: Epitome of Cool

Being fifty, I grew up watching this guy act. To me, he was always cooler than Brando or James Dean. Only Charlton Heston and John Wayne were bigger favorites of mine, but hey, Heston did all those big Biblical epics I love and Wayne… well WTF can you say about Wayne that hasn’t been said a million, jillion times before? Bogart’s in there too, somewhere, along with McQueen.

Oh, I almost forgot: FUCK CANCER!

Sounds Like a Fantastic Movie: Tell No One

I happen to love French movies that are subtitled in English. This goes back to when I nearly died laughing and pissed my pants watching La Cage aux Folles back in my college years (The later Robin Williams English version was sacrilege!), and was continued watching Gerard Depardieu in Les Fugitifs some years later (And others, to be sure). Well now, a fantastically twisted novel has been made into what, by all accounts, is one of the best mystery/suspense/crime movies in years:

Tell No One

Tell No One

I’ll need the DVD of this, for sure, as reviewers say the second time through it is even better!

You may recognize the babe. She’s Marie-Josee Croze, the female assassin from Munich, who was killed in one of the most disturbing scenes I’ve seen in years. She gets offed – or, does she? – in this one as well.

Top 10 Recommended Films

Not in order of how I’d rate them, but here they are:

December Boys

Gritty film set in Australia in the 1960’s focusing on a summer in the lives of four young orphan boys. Well worth a look, because it deals with some rather deep issues in a very well-developed way.

Batman Begins

Seriously, if you haven’t seen this, you must. Great film about superhero Batman, and the special effects are just awesome. And I want to drive the Batmobile!

The Count of Monte Cristo

The latest version, with Jim Caviezel, Guy Pearce and Richard Harris, is just amazing. The special effects are amazing, the plot of the book is followed for the most part, and there’s some tremendous acting.

The Dish

The basic story of what happened at the Parkes, NSW, satellite dish during the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. It’s beautifully told, although a bit of dramatic licence was taken, but it shows the true courage of people so determined to meet their goals.

The Crow

Ohmygodthisisjustbrilliant! The special effects really are something special, and although the plot is highly unrealistic the acting keeps it together. And who doesn’t like a killer only killing other killers?

Top Gun

I need one of those planes. Desperately. I mean, how great is this movie? Sure, Tom Cruise is annoying, but for the first half of it he’s outshone by Goose, and in the second half, Kelly McGillis does what she can to stop me from wanting to smack him in the face. And the planes, how I want one…!

The Godfather

Truly a classic of our time… although the stereotypes are a bit off. But it’s still a ripping good movie, although it cuts out many of the elements of the book that make it a brilliant story.

Alvin and the Chipmonks

All I can say is “Bow-chicka-wow-wow!”

Scarface

I {heart} this movie. It’s just so damn good. Good acting, great action scenes, good plot, and a great soundtrack.

Mystic River

For a dark, gritty story complete with three of the biggest moonbat actors playing main roles, this came out incredibly well. It’s somewhat thought-provoking.

What movies would you ladies and gentlemen suggest?

Let’s Have a List of Underrated Actors and/or Actresses

I thought this might be a fun thread.

Numero Uno on my list would have to be Powers Boothe.

I first noticed him in 1980 when he played Jim Jones in The Guyana Tragedy. A magnificent performance he was obviously born to do.

Later, he was in the hokey but cool B-movie classic, Red Dawn, and yet later he played a great, classic Philip Marlowe, Private Eye.

My favorite role of his, however, was as Curly Bill Brocius in the modern classic western, Tombstone in 1993.

These days, he’s senator Roark in the amazing Sin City franchise, which has it’s second installment coming out soon.

Seriously, I’d like to see the guy given a chance at Shakespeare. Even at his current age, he has a magnificent presence, and he can ooze malevolent intent with the best of the all time bad guys.

And, of course, Mr. Boothe was mag-fucking-nificent in Deadwood as Cy Tolliver.

So, who do you think ought to get more credit as an actor or actress?

Oh, Hell Yes! Christian Bale as John Connor in New Terminator!

Amazing. Bale has reinvented Batman, and now he’s going to reinvent John Connor in Terminator: Salvation.

To watch the teaser trailer video at the link, you’ll have to download the newest version of Adobe Flash Player 9, as I did, but it only takes a couple of minutes, and it’s well worth it (Flash 9 ties up less processor power anyway, so everybody ought to have it. God, I’m a geek!).

Of course, I have ALL of the existing Terminator DVD’s, I saw the original when it came out, and I… er… “have” all of the Sarah Connor Chronicles episodes courtesy of a notorious P2P site (My sat company would have made me wait thirty days to get the channel!!!). Screw ’em.

This, I’m really looking forward to. The last one with Kristanna Loken just about gave me fart hailure.

A Movie for Guys: Live Free or Die Hard

Yeah, Bruce is getting a little long in the tooth for an action hero. That’s what I thought. Then, I watched the movie. Kick-ass, bang-up, high testosterone action, baby! Seriously, I was prepared to be disappointed. I wasn’t.

You may recognize the unintentional and involuntary sidekick: He’s the guy who plays “Mac” in the Mac versus PC ads. He was only an angstrom short of brilliant.

Good beer drinking and cussing flick (I used up the entire Brooklyn Alphabet: Fucking-A, Fucking-B, Fucking-C…). I loved it.