When it was just the Adoption Community protesting the marketing of Orphan, a hackneyed horror flick about yet another evil adoptee, it was merely another minor controversy incited by a select interest group. But now members of the U.S. House and Senate have gotten involved with a letter campaign to Warner Bros. condemning the studio’s seemingly anti-adoption advertisements for and message in the film.
Is this really necessary after so many years and so many stories containing fucked-up orphans? Sure, Hollywood has given us too few Annie types in cinema over the past few decades, but certainly ‘80s television made up for this history with the likes of Diff’rent Strokes, Webster, Small Wonder, My Two Dads, Punky Brewster, et al. And adoptions were on the rise for most of that time, only dropping slightly in recent years, possibly due to the dwindling economy.
That isn’t to say we agree with cinema’s consistent misrepresentation of orphans or adoptees, so to expose the unfair reputation of parentless kids, we take a look at ten types of screwed-up orphans, which potentially keep more people from adopting them. Check out our list of characters and films after the jump: …Read more
All comparisons between Dick Cheney and Darth Vader were rendered moot recently when George Lucastold Maureen Dowd, of The New York Times, “George Bush is Darth Vader. Cheney is the emperor.” In response to that clarification, David Edelstein wrote a piece in this week’s New York magazine in which he attempts to find another movie villain who Cheney resembles even more than any character in Star Wars. Ultimately, though, he settles on the former vice president being something of a villainous mutt: “Cheney is Palpatine with a soupçon of Sauron, a pinch of Voldemort, a dash of Mabuse, a jigger of Fu, with some Elmer Fudd and Richard Nixon folded in.”
That’s an interesting conclusion, but do we really need to soil our memories of these cinematic evildoers by likening Cheney to them, and worse, vice versa? It’s bad enough the guy has shown up in a lot of contemporary movies, both officially (W.) and unofficially. In Jim Jarmusch’s new film, The Limits of Control, which opens this week, a certain character is an obvious, albeit somewhat veiled, stand-in for Cheney. And at least seven other recent films similarly feature a character who is a dead-ringer for the old VP. We count them down, in order of most intentionally Cheney-like, below. …Read more
Ratings were up 10% from last year, and polls indicate that viewers of the Oscars last night mostly enjoyed the telecast and would like Hugh Jackman back to host next year. So why am I still harping on the negatives? Well, no matter how many entertaining elements of the ceremony people remind me of, I have to argue that while the awards themselves were great, the television show was not. And unfortunately, I was not inside the Kodak auditorium where I might have better appreciated the things we all at home should have been able to appreciate. And anything I found entertaining from where I sat in my apartment was pretty much thanks to talented presenters and winners, such as Philippe Petit, Tina Fey, Janusz Kaminski, Dustin Lance Black, Kunio Kato and Danny Boyle.
And I’m not the only one who has complaints. Below you’ll find some criticisms from bloggers who either thought the show was completely terrible or thought it was mostly good with only a few minor gripes.
“The best part about the 81st annual Academy Awards on Sunday night—y’know, besides Zac Efron, OMG!—is that once it’s over, we’ll never have to think about Slumdog Millionaire again.” — Christopher Rosen, at The New York Observer.
As the last weekday before the big event, today seems to be filled with more Oscar bloggery than all previous awards-season days combined. There are last minute predictions, last minute commentary and, most enjoyable, last minute Oscar nonsense. Are you ready? Are you bored? Are you so behind that you really need to attend tomorrow’s Best Picture nominee marathon at your local AMC theatre?
Whether or not you care about who or what wins on Sunday night, you may enjoy some of the following stories, quotes and video:
Need help cutting down your Christmas tree? Jason Vorhees can help. Want someone to cook holiday dinner? Hannibal Lecter’s got you. Even the Mummy is here to bandage your kid’s leg after a see-saw accident involving Chucky. It’s a horror villain family Christmas, featuring Darth Vader looking beautiful walking through the snow, Freddie Krueger snipping a bouquet of flowers with his glove, and Samara popping out of the television to deliver presents.
Yes, that present is a DirecTV dish, and this is a commercial. But it’s old, it’s foreign and it’s one of the more enjoyable DirecTV ads ever made. My only criticism: shouldn’t Leatherface have been in charge of the tree cutting? Jason could have just wandered around with no significant duty, like Dracula. Also, I would have loved an appearance from Tony Todd, preferably holding some candy canes. Otherwise, this clip is perfect. I’d love to see it become an actual video e-card for the holidays, along with the old SNL Season’s Greetings skits (for those wondering where Frankenstein’s monster is, he’s over with Tonto and Tarzan singing “Away in a Manger”).
It’s the old man versus the young, less-experienced black man. No, I’m not talking about McCain and Obama. This is the election battle between Emperor Palpatine and Lando Calrissian for the leader of the Star Warsgalaxy. But if the good folks at Funny or Die intended for real life analogy then that means Sarah Palin = Darth Vader and Joe Biden = Chewbacca — speaking of which, isn’t it time we have a candidate with some awesome facial hair, preferably the sideburn-mustache combo (aka “Friendly Mutton Chops”) sported by Chester Arthur?
Despite the issues with his age and appearance, Billy Dee Williams is pretty awesome to have appeared in this video. It would have been even cooler, though, if he’d cracked open a can of Colt 45 at the end, for the clincher. Otherwise, the clip peaks with Admiral Ackbar’s “It’s a trap!” (a nice touch considering I found the video via the Ackbar-obsessed Fark.com). As for the answer to the question of what Calrissian is smuggling this time? I’d say he’s got a couple doughnuts hidden in those cheeks (and yes, they have doughnuts in the Star Wars galaxy).
On Friday, singer Levi Stubbspassed away at the age of 72 following a long battle with cancer. Best known as the lead singer of The Four Tops, Stubbs also provided the voice for “Audrey II” in both the stage musical and the film musical versions of Little Shop of Horrors. Though his only film role as a voice actor (he could also be heard in the Saturday morning cartoon Captain N: The Game Master), it was plenty. His performance as the carnivorous plant put him in the ranks with Douglas Rain (”HAL-9000″), Anthony Daniels (”C-3PO”) and James Earl Jones (”Darth Vader”) as far as iconic vocal parts in live action movies go. Unfortunately, due to a lack of lasting enthusiasm for Horrors, Stubbs is not quite as celebrated as the others. But could you possibly imagine or accept any other voice begging for Seymour to “feeeeeeed” him? Just thinking of the idea reminds me of the clip of Darth Vader actor David Prowse speaking the lines before Jones’ voice was overdubbed.
As a kid, much of my delight with Little Shop of Horrorswas with Stubbs’ voice, which I loved to try and imitate. In particular, it was this Oscar-nominated song, “Mean Green Mother from Outer Space,” written for the film and not originally in the stage musical, which was the most fun to sing along to, because of the racy (to a nine year old) lyric, “I’m gonna bust your balls!” And, of course, I always enjoyed the lead-in line, which I would often attempt in my best prepubescent baritone, “noooooo shit, Sherlock!” Stubbs performed the song live at the 59th Academy Awards, but I don’t recall how censored the lyrics were, and unfortunately only the performance of the winning song (”Take My Breath Away” from Top Gun) appears to be available online.
When I found this manga-style Playboy bunny figure on the convention floor at Comic-Con, I had to ask myself, who would actually buy it? Then I realized the answer is someone not all that different than the type of person who would take a picture of it, i.e., me.
I’m not a toy collector, or at least I haven’t been for the past 15 years. So while I have no interest in spending inordinate amounts of money on toys you’re not supposed to play with, there is still something very intriguing about them. I think it might have something to do with the glass case. It’s like those plastic sleeves old comics come in, but times ten. And they’re always really well lit. And, I’ll admit, they’re just sexy.
We’ve had a bit of trouble getting this episode to go through the iTunes feed, so we hope this re-post will fix the problem. The original post, with episode description and embedded player, is here.
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“The best part about the 81st annual Academy Awards on Sunday night—y’know, besides Zac Efron, OMG!—is that once it’s over, we’ll never have to think about Slumdog Millionaire again.” — Christopher Rosen, 
Need help cutting down your Christmas tree? Jason Vorhees can help. Want someone to cook holiday dinner? Hannibal Lecter’s got you. Even the Mummy is here to bandage your kid’s leg after a see-saw accident involving Chucky. It’s a horror villain family Christmas, featuring Darth Vader looking beautiful walking through the snow, Freddie Krueger snipping a bouquet of flowers with his glove, and Samara popping out of the television to deliver presents.
