] Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe said he may have been a
] target of an al Qaeda kidnap plot in early 2001, part of
] a bid by the militant network to "culturally destabilize"
] the United States.
]
] The Australia-based Crowe told GQ magazine in an
] interview that he received FBI protection throughout the
] filming of "A Beautiful Mind" and for part of "Master and
] Commander: The Far Side of the World." He also was
] flanked by undercover agents at the Golden Globe awards
] ceremony in 2001.

/me scratches head.

What the FUCK? I'm not even sure where to begin with this one. For starters, he is a New Zealand born Australian, not an American. Second, .. Screw it, its pointless.

This has got to be a PR gimmick.

Reuters.com | Al Qaeda targeted *cough* Russell Crowe

] Despite moral watchdogs lamenting Hollywood's vile
] tendencies, the studios have actually been cleaning up
] their act. R-rated films, once the studios' mainstay, are
] on the decline, both in numbers and in lure. In the last
] five years, R-rated pics have dwindled from 212 in 1999
] to just 147 last year.

Coming soon.. an even less edgy Hollywood.

Variety.com - Don't give me an 'R'

] The Golden Gate Bridge Suicide Documentary is going to be
] an interesting project. Filmmaker Eric Steel applied for
] a permit to film the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco
] for a year, saying he was trying to "capture the
] grandeur" of the bridge. But what he actually ended up
] doing was capture 19 suicides and many attempts. He is
] now working on a feature-length documentary about these
] suicides, and has 100 hours of interviews with family
] members, psychiatrists, and some of the people who
] attempted suicide but didn't follow through. Now that
] he's revealed what his documentary is and what it will be
] about, a lot of people are pretty ticked off.

Golden Gate Bridge Suicide Documentary | Metafilter

] What follows, surprisingly given our times and political
] climate, is refreshingly vulgar, completely un-PC and,
] much like the original, an expected excuse for extremely
] sadistic humor and gore. Where the first film now seems
] boring and slow, the new version is upbeat and
] well-paced. Happily and sadly, the first and only fully
] clothed female victim to get tied up and quartered by
] horses is the film's only waste of T in a movie
] overflowing with T&A. Many viewers may be offended by the
] black humor and straight-up racist jokes that pepper the
] film's dialogue, but those of you can rest assured that
] everyone gets their due by the end. It'll be
] interesting to see how the red states will react to such
] a searing and scabrous document of the South. Englund
] seems to imbue Mayor Buckman with a well-judged imitation
] of President Bush, and even the lives of his two sons in
] the film appear to closely ape those of the Bush
] daughters.

Fangoria reviews my cousin Tim's directorial debut.. They approve.

Fangoria - Review - 2001 Maniacs

Go see this movie. If you don't like it, your sense of humor has died. It will not rest in peace, much like the undead.

It may qualify as "best zombie movie ever". Its possible. I might need to watch the original Dawn of the Dead, take a walk around the mall, and reflect on this..

Shaun of the Dead (2004)

My cousin has a new online column/blog type thing.. Those of you who are into horror should enjoy.

] The papers and late night TV ads stressed "No one under
] 18 will be admitted." Well, mom didn't have to know
] that. All she had to know was that if she didn't take
] her son to the movies that night, he was gonna slit his
] wrist. Not for real, of course. But mom didn't have to
] know that either"
]
] As her Bonneville pulled up and she hopped out smiling, I
] made my way over. Her smile soon faded as I raised my
] left arm, put metal to flesh. "There's this new
] horror movie, mom. The new Living Dead movie. You
] remember that one? That black and white zombie movie you
] didn't like so much. They say this one is even gorier.
] We gotta go..."

Sounds like the style of someone else I know as well...

UHM - Tim Sullivan's Shock and Roll

] The cinema, with restaurant and bar annexe, was open for
] a seven-week season this summer, showing a suitably
] subversive programme which included works by Chinese and
] Korean directors but also Alex Proyas' Dark City,
] Coppola's Rumble Fish, David Lynch's Eraserhead, and
] Terry Gilliam's Brazil.

This is novel because it was built by a clandestine group of urban explorers in a pre-existing cavity within the mass of intertwined tunnels under Paris.

The community profiled in Dark Days did not have their own cinema. Could New York be lagging behind or am I just not in the know?

Guardian Unlimited | Paris's new slant on underground movies

Decius wrote:
] Red Dawn?

Red Dawn must be singled out and meme'd.

] At the outbreak of World War III, midwestern high school
] students turned refugees slowly organized themself into
] an effective guerilla force to turn back the tide of
] Soviet invaders.

Red Dawn (1984) | Coolest Movie Ever

k wrote:
] [ I think this movie is gonna totally kick ass. -k]

I've seen it via bootleg DVD. It first came out in China about 2 or 3 years ago. It is very good, in a Chinese Spaghetti Western kind of way. Great use of color.

Its also one hell of a propaganda film in disguise. You will walk out of the movie theatre repeating "One China" to yourself over and over, and not knowing why.. Hero is extremely political, pro-dictatorship, pro-unification by force, pro-imperialism, etc. I remember reading somewhere that the PRC specifically cracked down on pirated copies of (just) this movie as a reward to the director in return for making a "historical" plot so favorable to the state. Its sort of like Mel Gibson's "The Patriot", only for a one-party dictatorship. I bet that pro-democracy intellectuals in China _hate_ this movie. There is a reason this one took so long to make it to the USA. It will be interesting to see if the version we get here contains all of the same dialog with the King that drives these points home..

RE: Miramax | Hero - US Release

. . . everybody now!

Put an end to piracy