Category Archives: Entertainment
SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL: “SEXUAL COMING OF AGE”
This year’s Sundance Film Festival will showcase a number of movies about the porn, addiction and sex industry. Insiders are dubbing the festival theme this year as the “sexual coming of age”.
Speaking to Reuters, the Sundance Director of Programming Trevor Groth said the films indicate a new audience ‘hungry for the taboo of sexuality and sexual relationships’.
More than a dozen of the movies featured in this years festival will deal with sexual relationships in all their various forms. The number of films of a sexual nature are “part circumstance, part coincidence,” says festival director John Cooper.
”The themes and stories in films we show can be challenging to some, but ultimately, our mission is to show excellent and original work,” says Cooper.
“The times are changing, and relationships are changing,” adds Sundance Institute founder Robert Redford. “It would be a mistake to say this is sex for sex’s sake. The films are looking into sexual relations.”
HOLLYWOOD CELEBRITIES CALLED HYPOCRITES ON GUN CONTROL OUTREACH
Amanda Peet and other celebrities are shown in the “Demand a Plan” PSA and using firearms in films in a new response video – see below. Several big-name Hollywood stars appear in a new anti-gun public service YouTube video calling for Americans to demand that their elected officials come up with a strategy to curb gun violence.
In the video, celebs like Cameron Diaz, Paul Rudd, and Chris Rock read the names of the sites of the most horrific gun massacres, before calling on viewers to “demand a plan” to stop mass shootings. But now a new video called “Demand a Plan – Demand Celebrities Go F Themselves” has been created, that highlights the gun violence many of these same stars have taken part in in their movies and television shows.
The “Demand Celebrities” response video intersperses the original PSA with scenes of gun violence in movies starring the celebrities mentioned above, plus Jeremy Renner, Reese Witherspoon, Jamie Foxx, and others. For example, Jamie Foxx lists “Columbine” during the original PSA, after which the response video runs a montage of extreme gun violence from several of Foxxs movies. The response video closes with the message: “Hollywood is a culture of violence” along with slurs at the actors themselves. Warning, the violence is extremely graphic and may be NSFW and is not suitable for all audiences.
DRAGON NOGARD
Nogard is a world run by Dragons that possess the ability to take the form and live among the humans they protect and care for. Humans carrying Dragons blood contain some magical abilities that vary with the amount of Dragons blood running through their veins.
The humans and the Dragons have always cohabitated together. Fact was the humans looked to the Dragons for everything in their lives from protection to provisions and in return the humans would pay homage to the Dragons.
FRENCH DOCUMENTARY ABOUT GAY SENIORS AIRS AS FRANCE DECIDES ON GAY MARRIAGE
Sébastien Lifshitz’s “Les Invisibles” (“The Invidables”) is a documentary about the lives of elderly homosexual and lesbian couples in France. The documentary is released this week at a time France is gripped by the debate about same-sex marriage and gay adoption.
The documentary looks at the lives of gay men and women and how they explored their sexuality through a time that same-sex marriage was not in the public consciousness.
Lifshitz has made name for himself creating gay-themed documentaries. Although he argues “Les Invisables” is not about the national debate in France surrounding same-sex marriage, he agrees his documentary is his contribution to the conversation.
French lawmakers are set to vote on same-sex marriage in a few months time.
OLIVER STONE’S UNTOLD HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES to Premiere on SHOWTIME & coming to a school near you !
Monday, November 12, 2012 – 8:00pm
The Showtime Channel New York , NY 10012
See map: Google Maps
OLIVER STONE’S UNTOLD HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES
To Premiere On SHOWTIME® Monday, November 12th at 8 PM ET/PT

As Americans, do we really know and understand our shared and complicated history? How do we recall the small details and forgotten players that influenced some of the biggest events from America’s past? Will our children actually get the whole story from reading history books? And how will it affect the future of our country?
OLIVER STONE’S ‘HISTORY’ TRASHES AMERICA, PRAISES LENIN, GORBACHEV
On the evidence of his new Showtime mini-series and companion book, Oliver Stone is both a communist and political moron, a redundancy to be sure.
Having previously celebrated a trio of evil-doers – Fidel Castro, Yasser Arafat and Hugo Chavez – Stone now adds “The Untold History of the United States” to the cinematic garbage heap he has been piling up since “J.F.K.” and “Born on the Fourth of July.” Like them, this latest contribution is an unrelenting (and unrelentingly perverse) attack on America as history’s Great Satan, the root cause of worldly evil.
The heroes of this latest Stone fantasy are — I kid you not — Vladimir Lenin and Henry Wallace. Wallace is cast by Stone as the visionary of a planet without capitalism and war, and consequently as America’s missed opportunity to change the world.
Oliver Stone and Martin Scorsese embrace the Dalai Lama and his message as the way forward for the USA and the world. Kind of a new world order or one world government or view point as it were.
Dalai Lama focused on film makers and school professors for over 30 years. Now Toronto Film Festival. And it is working ! Dave Lieberson is an HNN intern.
Since The Birth of a Nation, Hollywood has been trying to make history its own. While some movies are loathed by historians (Troy) and others loved (Platoon) it is hard to find a movie or television show that sheds light on an entertaining subject and yet remains historically accurate. Peter Kuznick and Oliver Stone are collaborating on a ten part Showtime series in an attempt to do just that. The series focuses on the new, undiscovered aspects of many topics in American history, such as the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Vietnam War.
Box office report: ‘Argo’ hits No. 1 with $12.4 million
Ben Affleck’s C.I.A. thriller Argo is having quite the box office run.
After debuting at number two with $19.5 million, Warner Bros.’ Oscar contender dropped by just 16 percent last weekend to $16.4 million. This weekend, the film notched yet another impressive achievement: it climbed to number one with an estimated $12.4 million (a 25 percent drop) in its third frame, becoming the first film since True Grit to hop to first place in its third weekend.
Argo, which cost $45 million to make, has now earned $60.8 million total, and thanks to terrific word-of-mouth (the film earned an “A+” CinemaScore grade) and early awards buzz, Argo is eyeing a $100 million finish. Though it is running a tad behind Affleck’s last directorial effort, The Town, which had earned $64.1 million at the same point in its run en route to a $92.2 million finish, Argo is enjoying much better week-to-week holds. (The Town, which opened higher Argo with $23.8 million, fell 38 percent to $9.7 million in its third weekend.)
Sony Pictures Animation’s $85 million Adam Sandler-voiced effort Hotel Transylvania jumped two spots into second place with $9.5 million in its fifth weekend. The film, which has scored slim drops since its robust $42.5 million debut in September, only fell 27 percent this weekend — the final frame before Halloween. It will be interesting to see whether Hotel holds up in the holiday’s wake, but it’s already a monster hit. With $130.4 million total, Hotel is already Sony Pictures Animation’s highest grossing film ever, above Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, which grossed $124.9 million in 2009. It’s also given Adam Sandler a much-needed career boost following his back-to-back misfires, Jack and Jill and That’s My Boy.
EW DAILY POLL: ‘Cloud Atlas’ seems….
The pricey novel adaptation Cloud Atlas finished in third place with a weak $9.4 million. Remarkably, that was the best start of any of this weekend’s newcomers, which is a testament to the weakness of the frame. The heady drama, which follows six separate storylines and stars Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, and Hugh Grant in various roles, genders, and races, proved too difficult for mainstream audiences to latch onto. Audiences, which were 77 percent above the age of 25, issued the film a “C+” CinemaScore.
For Warner Bros., Cloud Atlas‘ failure is not the worst news — the studio acquired domestic distribution rights for a reported $15 million and marketed the film — but the real losers here are the Wachowski siblings and the foreign investors who financed the project. Cloud Atlas cost a whopping $100 million, and it has no chance of making that money back — at least not in the States. Another loser? Tom Hanks, whose box office clout has all but disappeared in recent years. Cloud Atlas arrives on the heels of two other box office underperformers: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close ($31.9 million) and Larry Crowne ($35.6 million).
In fourth, Paranormal Activity 4 dropped by a massive 70 percent — a high point for the Paranormal franchise (PA2 dropped by 60 percent in its second weekend. PA3 fell 65 percent) — to $8.7 million. After ten days, Paramount’s $5 million found footage sequel has earned $42.6 million, which is still $10 million less than PA3 grossed in its first weekend.
Taken 2 took fifth place, sliding 40 percent to $8.0 million, which gives Fox’s $45 million action thriller a $117.4 million total. Though the Liam Neeson vehicle is a huge hit, it’s becoming clear that it will not surpass the final $145 million domestic gross of the original Taken. In its fourth weekend, Taken, which opened with half of what Taken 2 made, earned $11.3 million. Taken 2 is falling much faster.
1. Argo – $12.4 million
2. Hotel Transylvania – $9.5 million
3. Cloud Atlas – $9.4 million
4. Paranormal Activity 4 – $8.7 million
5. Taken 2 – $8.0 million
for more visit Box office report: ‘Argo’ claims No. 1 with $12.4 million; ‘Skyfall’ scores $77.7 million overseas | Inside Movies | EW.com.
The Dragon Prophecy: The Dragonology Chronicles, Volume 4 by Dugald A. Steer – Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists
Brother and sister dragonology students Daniel and Beatrice Cook are looking forward to returning to their studies with Dr. Ernest Drake and Erasmus, their half-dragon tutor. But what they learn is that the evil dragonologist Alexandra Gorynitchka, who is bent on controlling (or destroying!) all the world’s dragons, is searching for the fearsome Hammer of the Dragons, an ancient weapon that can kill hundreds of dragons in a single stroke. So it is up to Dr. Drake and the children to pursue her to the Lost Isle, where Alexandra is amassing a large army of enslaved dragons. There the siblings learn of the Dragon Prophecy, which says that the return of the Hammer of the Dragons can only be stopped by two children “wise beyond their years in the ways of dragons.” Could Daniel and Beatrice be the children in the prophecy?(less)
Obamacronium, the Densest Element discovered by Scientists 2012
Man Falls Down- OMG !
JK Rowling’s New Book For Adults Published
JK Rowling the author of the Harry Potter series as written her first book for adults. The Casual Vacancy was published today, but has failed to live up to the high expectations. Parents who love the Harry Potter books may be shocked by the dark content of the adult novel, critics have slated the book for being dull and banal; although saying it was funnier than they would have imagined. Readers may be shocked by the graphic depictions of pornography and the use of the f-word, and c-word. The book shows the darker, grittier side of life in a small English village. The characters include a prositiute, a drug dealer, and teenage girl raped by her mum’s heroin dealer. The is the deaths of children and a teen suicide. The Telegraph’s literary critic remarks, “As for the ending, dear God, it is so howlingly bleak that it makes Thomas Hardy look like PG Wodehouse.”
When challenged in an interview about the novel, and any responsibility she may have as the world’s most famous children’s author Rowling said, “There is no part of me that feels like I represented myself as your children’s babysitter or their teacher. I’m a writer and I will write what I want to write.”
Innocence of Muslims is the Muhammad Movie by Sam Bacile
Innocence of Muslims is the Muhammad Movie by Sam Bacile that caused Muslims to kill United States ambassador, J Christopher Stevens. The anti Islam video claims Islam is a lie and Mohammed was a pedophile. Reviews of the Muhammad Film have ranged from “Disgusting” to “the riot laugh of the summer.” All rights to Sam Becile or whoever made this film.
Luc Besson unveils Cinema City production studio in Paris – FRANCE – CINEMA – FRANCE 24
Luc Besson unveils Cinema City production studio in Paris – FRANCE – CINEMA – FRANCE 24.
French film maker Luc Bessson has realised his dream of building a Hollywood style studio complex on the outskirts of Paris.
Cinema City will provide costume and model building; as well as production and post production facilities.
“France has Europe’s biggest film industry and yet until now it was the only European country without the infrastructure to produce a film,” said Christophe Lambert, general director of Besson’s production firm EuropaCorp.
Cinema City is being called “Hollywood on Seine”.
The project as cost 170 million euros and will need to major productions a year to cover operational costs. EuropaCorp believes the facility will be fully booked within the year, with European and America producers eager to use the studios.
The Master Loses Control of Its Flock: Underserved Cast Overacts in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Pretentious Sermon | Observer
Cringing at cinema’s latest in a line of ‘lobotomized catatonia,’ our critic laments the golden years
I never cease to be amused by the pile of unmitigated crap that gets shoveled off onto the moviegoing public by pretentious critics. They’re at it again with The Master, a load of film-festival tripe that was BOOED IN VENICE and greeted with MASSIVE WALKOUTS IN TORONTO but is now being defended in an organized rescue mission that hopes to develop a minor cult following in New York before the whole thing mercifully vanishes in a puff of twaddle. With an embarrassing, overwrought performance by the dependably creeped-out Joaquin Phoenix…
With so many amateurs who run what’s left of the once-great movie industry making bad movies that pander to an easy-to-satisfy youth market that doesn’t care what it’s watching as long as the projectors keep running, and with so many bogus producers who used to be parking lot attendants at the Brown Derby always miraculously raising the money to make more, one thing is certain: no matter how rotten the movie is that you just suffered through, there’s always another one on its way that is 10 times worse. Paul Thomas Anderson, the egomaniacal writer-director of The Master, is a member of the new group of anarchists that includes Wes Anderson, Spike Jonze, David O. Russell, freaky Todd Solondz and the dismally overrated, no-talent Charlie Kaufman, who wins critical praise for writing incoherent movies about why he can’t write coherent movies. Abominations like the neo-Kafka burlesqueSynedoche, New York are algebraic extensions of all of them put together—eccentric but brainless. And now The Master, which follows in a perfect line—all style and no content—and therefore offers no fresh equation of its own.
Call The Master whatever you want, but lobotomized catatonia from what I call the New Hacks can never take the place of well-made narrative films about real people that tell profound stories for a broader and more sophisticated audience. Fads come and go, but as Walter Kerr used to say, “I’ll yell tripe whenever tripe is served.”