Clarity Of Flippancy

People forget this, but the purpose of "irreverent" humor is to get to the fundamental truth of something by cutting through the solemnity or import that surrounds it - to refer to disreputable pharmacuetical companies as "Drug Dealers," for example.

So it was when I read this Washington Post opinion piece from Lisa Miller; which aims to take an "if-it-walks-like-a-duck" look at the image of American "conservative" politics of the moment as typified by the movement's two dominant public-images: Pols and pundits crusading for the moral-right to keep women away from birth-control on one hand; Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum's campaign-images as patrician papas flanked by their beaming, obedient wives and armies of offspring on the other. What she comes up with is nicely summarized by the headline the Post's online-version used to tease the piece: "The Republican Fertility Cult."

Short, accurate, incendiary and to-the-point. Well done.

Read more »

Men In Bluh

"Men In Black 3," possibly the least-demanded threequel since "Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles," has a newer, longer, plot-explainier trailer. Will Smith (who should really have better things to do with his time) time-travels back to the 60s to partner with Josh Brolin as the younger version of Tommy Lee Jones (who does have better things to do with his time, hence the time-travel storyline.)

Ah hah hah hah hah hah! A notably-unusual famous person is actually part of the MIB/Alien-Coverup scene! That bit NEVER gets old, amirite?

Read more »

This Is The First I've Heard Of "Neighborhood Watch" And I Am Already Sick Of It

OMG, you guys... seriously... this is like SOOOOOO FUNNY! ThIS car is driving all slow-mo and people are looking all like "day-um!" but it's the suburbs instead of like New York or something and it's totally not that kind of car; and there's TOTALLY a rap song playing but they're all dweeby white dudes! LOL!



In the time it took to watch that trailer, you have already seen, shrugged and immediately forgot about this movie about five times.

Read more »

Escape to the Movies: "Tim & Eric's Billion Dollar Movie"

There's my Chippy.

"Intermission" follows-up on "Act of Valor"

The Escapist : Escape to the Movies : Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie

Read more »

AMERICAN BOB: "Lost & Founders"

Read more »

"Frankenweenie" Trailer

The original "Frankenweenie" short-film - about a monster-movie obsessed kid who ressurects his dead dog with mad science told in as a black-and-white Frankenstein parody - is like a time-capsule of what used to make Tim Burton such and exciting voice in filmmaking.

The first trailer for the feature-length remake (still b&w, but now executed in stop-motion a'la That One Movie That Makes Us Keep Giving Burton Another Chance) hopes to recapture some of that magic; and other than insistently reminding us of "Alice in Wonderland" it seems to succeed:

Read more »

Andrew Breitbart Is Dead

UPDATE: As can probably be expected, Breitbart's acolytes appear quite convinced that he was assassinated - surely another victim of the Terrifying Black Man who haunts their nightmares.

No doubt, kind of a shocker.

Obviously, it's no kind of "happy" occasion when someone clocks-out at 43 leaving a wife and 4 kids behind; it's easy to forget that someone whose "public face" and/or actions lead most to consider them fairly vile human beings can be someone's father, husband, son, etc. "offstage." I won't pretend to be especially "sad" for Breitbart himself, particularly considering I remember him asking "Why do you grant a bully special status upon his death?" when Ted Kennedy passed away. But for all the negativity that surrounded the man in life, I never heard anyone call him a bad father, so I have to assume his family is crushed by their loss and I feel bad for them.

Breitbart was an early Matt Drudge ally who assisted Ariana Huffington in the creation of Huffington Post; before striking out on his own with a series of websites (most notably "Big Hollywood") supposedly aimed at combating the boogeyman of "liberal media bias." The sites became a rallying point for writers and psuedo-celebrities of the extreme political-right, and really took off a few years ago with an infusion of support for the "Tea Party" movement.

"The Bigs" and their proprietor had their most infamous moments a few years ago, when they published video clips which seemed to show Agriculture Department employee Shirley Sherrod ( making racist remarks, leading to her persecution and resignation. The video clips were later revealed to have been edited from a longer piece in order to radically change the point of Sherrod's words. A defemation lawsuit against Breitbart and his associates remains ongoing. He was also a major player in the bizzare career of James O'Keefe, the video-prankster responsible for the "undercover expose" of ACORN workers - which also wound up being based on edited/cherry-picked video evidence.

Read more »