"Star Trek Into Darkness" has
warped its way to a $70.6 million domestic launch from Friday to
Sunday, though it's not setting any light-speed records with a debut
that's lower than the studio's expectations.
The latest voyage of the starship Enterprise fell short of its predecessor, 2009's "Star Trek," which opened with $75.2 million.
Since
premiering Wednesday in huge-screen IMAX theaters and expanding
Thursday to general cinemas, "Into Darkness" has pulled in $84.1
million, well below distributor Paramount's initial forecast of $100
million. The film added $40 million overseas, pushing its total to $80.5
million since it began rolling out internationally a week earlier.
The "Star Trek" sequel bumped "Iron Man 3" down to second place after two weekends on top. (continue at CBS News)
Apparently it isn't enough to reprise a great television and movie icon like Star Trek successfully and to produce a good movie, with good script, with good actors, that is makes a profit for all invovled. Wired feels the need to whine and complain because the movie lack the required LGBT promotion.
Can we not simply go watch a movie without some group whining about not being promoted enough?
Fox executives said Monday that its drama "24" is returning next May
for a limited run that will stretch into the summer. The adventure
series with Kiefer Sutherland starring as Jack Bauer ended its original
run in 2010.
Fox programming chief Kevin Reilly said creators had been thinking
about doing a movie with the original cast. But when Fox announced it
was interested in doing a big event miniseries, they realized it was the
perfect format.
David Miliband, former Secretary of the
United Kingdom, current president and CEO of The International Rescue
Committee, said, “Israel is a strategic
partner and close friend of the UK,” yet we have people in the limelight who
use their positions of influence to destroy that alliance. Case
in point, “two-time Oscar-winning actress and director Emma Thompson” is two-timing the alliance, the State of
Israel and the Jewish people. She sides
with Islamic Palestinians who have been occupying the Biblical Judea and
Samaria since they lost their war of aggression in 1967, but repeats the
Islamic mantra that Israel is the occupier. Thompson’s acceptance of propaganda over historical
documentation is an indication of woeful or willful ignorance.
Thompson
eschews Palestinian terrorism, the murder and mayhem against Israeli children onschool buses
or asleep in their beds,
and prefers a fabricated Palestinian victimhood that captivates UN and world
attention through generations and provides them with enormous financial support
- “one of the highest levels of aid in the
world”
To maintain their free medical care
from Israel and financial aid from the US, UK, UN, Europe and Israel,
Palestinians utterly destroyed, with “no hope of repair,” the extensive
greenhouses
and infrastructure in the Gaza Strip so generously left them by the departing
Israelis in 2005.
Why is Thompson oblivious to
Jewish Jerusalem for more than 3,400 years, more than 2000 years before the
followers of Muhammed began their deadly advance across the Middle East, in
624, raping, enslaving and killing?Why
ignore the seven neighboring Islamic armies that joined together to completely
annihilate the new State of Israel in 1948, and the Six-Day War they began in
1967, which they also lost? Why ignore
that the fleeing Arabs assumed a new identity, “Palestinians,” for the sole
purpose of creating a bond to land that was never theirs? Why does she disregard the Jewish Palestinian
Brigade that fought with the English against the Nazis and side with the Arabs
who fought with the Nazis against England’s forces? Is this not two-timing?
Annette Funicello, one of the best-known members of the original
1950s "Mickey Mouse Club" and a star of numerous 1960s "beach party"
films, died Monday at a California hospital, the Walt Disney Co. said.
Funicello, who was 70,
"died peacefully from complications due to multiple sclerosis, a disease
she battled for over 25 years," the Disney statement said.
"We are so sorry to lose
Mother," her three children said in a statement. "She is no longer
suffering anymore and is now dancing in heaven. We love and will miss
her terribly." (much more at CNN, hat tip Dan Reihl)
Not an April Fool's Day joke, but a terrible idea:
Real smell-o-vision TV unveiled by Japanese team
Smell-o-vision has been a staple of
bad sci-fi for decades, but could finally be edging closer to the
average living room thanks to a super-accurate Japanese system.
A team from Tokyo
University of Agriculture and Technology in Japan have invented a
'smelling screen' that makes smells waft from the spot on a display that
their corresponding objects appear. (image via PC Authority)
The
development promises to make adverts for fried chicken or fresh coffee
even more appealing - or alternatively add an as yet undreamed of
realism to documentary programmes like Life of Grime
Smell-o-vision is nothing new, having been on the entertainment technology radar for over five decades. [snip]
The invention is 'a new olfactory
display that can generate a localised odour distribution on a
two-dimensional display screen,' the researchers say.
'The
generated odour distribution is as if an odour source had been placed
on the screen, and leads the user to perceive the odour as emanating
from a specific region of the screen.' (continue at the Daily Mail UK)
Hubby and I saw the movie GI Joe: Retaliation yesterday, then went out for a nice meal. You might ask why we went to see a GI Joe movie and the answer would be simple. Bruce Willis and Dwayne Johnson (the Rock), plus the previews looked good. The movie is non-stop
action from beginning to end. The good guys win, the back guys get crushed. That should be the end of the story, all you need to know to go see the movie, but no. Some people have to get all whiny and picky about things.
First the Leftist version of the movie, then the real version below:
G.I. Joe: Retaliation—sequel to American Classic G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra—is escapist filmmaking for the paranoid wingnut. [snip]
The crème de la crème of the G.I. Joe: Retaliation trollfest is
that—as my colleague Tim Murphy points out—much of it doubles as a
conservative anti-Obama fantasy. One of the bad guys (played by Jonathan
Pryce) is the Democratic President of the United States, a foreign-born
imposter who uses killer drones on American citizens overseas, and
desires a world rid of nuclear weapons. As the movie trundles to its
climax, the only thing that can stop him is a team of gun-toting
insurgents, led by a politically incorrect Army veteran played by Bruce
Willis who does nothing but hoard a large arsenal of assault weapons in
his house.
DOES THIS REMIND YOU OF ANYONE???
There are many other instances of political trolling, featuring an
array of targets. For instance, the villains orchestrate from behind the
scenes a global summit to eliminate all the nukes.
“[H]ere’s the rare film to make an evil scheme out of global nuclear
disarmament,” as Scott Tobias writes at The A.V. Club. The film gives
the finger to Global Zero in a number of ways, particularly during the
climactic meeting of nuclear-armed states that is rife with trolling.
The North Korean envoy is a goofy, chubby, Looney Tunes caricature who
doesn’t or can’t talk.
Israel is at the summit, shown ready to launch its entire nuclear
arsenal; and in case the flag on the Israeli official’s lapel wasn’t
enough, there’s a government Jumbotron that displays the word “ISRAEL”
in gigantic letters on the wall. (The reason this constitutes epic
trolling is because the Israeli government in real life won’t publicly
admit to having a nuclear weapons program and has gone to great
lengths—including drugging, kidnapping, and jailing a dissident—to
continue to not acknowledge its existence.)
GI Joe: Retaliation’s strongest quality may be its brevity. At a lean 99 minutes, the fat has been trimmed away, leaving the barest bones of plot, character development, and linear coherence.
Of the Joes, Duke (Channing Tatum) and Snake Eyes (Ray Park) are the
only holdovers from the first film. And Duke is killed shortly after the
film starts. Our heroes this time around are Roadblock (Dwayne “The
Rock” Johnson), Lady Jaye (Adrianne Palicki), and Flint (D.J. Cotrona).
Their job: Figure out why the president has turned on the Joes, what
evil plan Cobra has concocted, and how to save the world from
annihilation.
This is less a sequel than a reboot. The absurd “accelerator suits”
from the first film that made soldiers stronger and faster have
disappeared, along with most of the original cast.
It’s also worth noting that these GI Joes are GI Joes: Real American Heroes and not GI Joes: Blue Helmets with Attitude.
Whereas the director of the original film hoped to steer clear
of all-American hoo-rah attitude by internationalizing the team and
stripping it of American nationalism—“This is not a George Bush
movie—it’s an Obama world,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 2009—the sequel embraces the patriotic fervor of its source material.
The ninja Snake Eyes aside, this is an American team. All that’s
missing are varsity letter jackets. When introducing General Joe Colton
(Bruce Willis), we are told he is the reason the soldiers are called
“Joes”—a direct slap at the first film, in which we are told GI Joe
stands for “Global Integrated Joint Operations Entity.”
References to American history litter the scene in which we are
introduced to Colton. General Joe gives Roadblock General George S.
Patton’s famed ivory-handled pistol. His passcode to unlock his personal
arsenal, from which Roadblock and the rest load up for war, is 1776.
Hubby and I love movies, movies that entertain, and we have seen several good movies lately. Olympus Has Fallen was another great movie with good vs evil, and a good guy with guns saving the day. As I noted here, the director seems to be a patriot, proud to wave the American Flag.
As Tapper noted, the #2 highest-grossing film in America this past weekend was big-budget Olympus Has Fallen,
which features Korean terrorists wreaking havoc and holding the
fictional president hostage. As any movie prominently featuring Gerard Butler is wont to do, Olympus features a healthy dose of explosions, particularly of buildings in our nation’s capital:
Other White House-endangering summer films include the appropriately named White House Down, Iron Man 3, and G.I. Joe: Retaliation.
During his segment, Tapper suggested multiple reasons as to why now Hollywood is getting “bolder” about putting fictional presidents in peril. Of course, the most likely explanation: money.
But it’s fun to note that the last time there was a giant surge in
president-in-peril films, we were in an incredibly similar situation: a
Democratic president had just been re-elected.
Observe:
Independence Day (1996)
Mars Attacks! (1996)
Air Force One (1997)
Of course, this is purely coincidental. Just fun to observe. It also
serves as a good excuse to show pictures of Hollywood explosions. But
don’t let that stop some of the nuttier folks out there from believing
Hollywood hates Democrats or whatever one might glean from such a coincidence. (Video at Mediate)
Go see GI Joe, go see Olympus Has Fallen, they are good movies that will do what Hollywood is supposed to do - entertain you. Don't worry if the science is accurate, if this or that in the movie is even possible, just go and be entertained. Enjoy a day out with your loved-one and be thankful for all our blessings and freedoms.
If Mother Jones magazine thinks the movie is to right-wing, then that should be enough of a reason for you to go see it! Right?
The Washington Times
reports that the director of the new movie “Olympus Has Fallen”,
Antoine Fuqua, is something of a rarity in Hollywood – a US patriot;
“That flag is supposed to represent freedom,” said
director Antoine Fuqua last week in an interview with The Washington
Times. “So why not wave it?”
“I hear people sometimes say some negative things. ‘Eh, America’ —”
Mr. Fuqua said, making a dismissive sound. “I just call bull on it. I’m
patriotic. This country gave opportunity to everybody. It’s supposed to
be the melting pot of the world. The flag is a representation of that.
“There’s nothing wrong with being patriotic. People sometimes get so
cynical — they’re like, ‘Ah I don’t want to be patriotic because it’s
not cool.’ I think it’s bull. My kids have grown up here. We have
freedom here.” (continue at This Ain't Hell)
Olympus Has Fallen, trailer here, is called a 'must see' by the Washington Times.
When the White House (Secret Service Code: "Olympus") is captured by a
terrorist mastermind and the President is kidnapped, disgraced former
Presidential guard Mike Banning finds himself trapped within the
building. As our national security team scrambles to respond, they are
forced to rely on Banning's inside knowledge to help retake the White
House, save the President and avert an even bigger disaster.
According to Wikipdeia CBS Films has hired Antoine Fuqua to direct a new movie based on a Vince Flynn novel, Consent to Kill.
Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) will direct spy thriller Consent to Kill for CBS Films with Lorenzo DiBonaventura and Nick Wechsler producing, reports Variety.
The film is an adaptation of the Vince Flynn novel that centers on
counterterrorism agent Mitch Rapp. Rapp battled a vengeful Saudi
billionaire, an ex - East German Stasi spy and a husband-and-wife team
of assassins -- all while dealing with a knee injury.
As the Japanese surrender at the end of WWII, Gen. Bonnor Fellers is tasked
with deciding if Emperor Hirohito will be hanged as a war criminal. This is the premise of the movie Emperor (video below). Tommy Lee Jones stars as General Douglas
McArthur; Matthew Fox is Gen. Bonnor Fellers; directed by Peter Webber. Hubby and I saw this movie yesterday and I highy recommend it. Based on real events, using some actual WWII film footage, images, documents, the cast does a great job.
... to bring to life the American occupation of Japan in the perilous and
unpredictable days just after Emperor Hirohito's World War II surrender.
As General Douglas MacArthur (Jones) suddenly finds
himself the de facto
ruler of a foreign nation, he assigns an expert in Japanese culture -
and psychological warfare - General Bonner Fellers (Fox), to covertly
investigate the looming question hanging over the country: should the
Japanese Emperor, worshiped by his people but accused of war crimes, be
punished or saved? Caught between the high-wire political intrigue of
his urgent mission and his own impassioned search for the mysterious
school teacher (Hatsune) who first drew him to Japan, Fellers can be
certain only that the tricky subterfuge about to play out will forever
change the history of two nations and his heart. (c) Roadside
Attractions (Rotten Tomatoes)
The idea that nobody would care about momentous world events without
some sappy romantic angle to add “heart” speaks to everything that’s
woefully mediocre about mainstream American filmmaking these days. Even
as an investigative procedural, though, Emperor is pretty dry
stuff—the kind of movie in which one character delivers a lengthy
monologue on European colonialism (vis-à-vis Japan’s invasion of
Manchuria) and another testily replies “I don’t need a history lesson,
your excellency.” Maybe not, but somebody evidently thought the audience
did. Unlike The Sun, however, Emperor does at least have a
credible MacArthur, even though Jones’ job description doesn’t include
transforming himself into a well-known historical figure. (It might as
well be Agent K in charge of the occupation.) Showing up about once per
reel to deliver some homespun sarcasm, he provides a much-needed jolt of
energy in what’s otherwise too often a beautifully lit, impressively
mounted textbook chapter
Emperor is showing in select theaters, it may not be in your local area, but it's worth a drive to see.
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