Michele Bachmann is NOT Jewish

She's Lutheran.

Really?!?

I actively read Deadline but it pisses me off when I read things like this when so many folks have to evacuate from their homes along the coast.

”Landing Saturday night in New York? Couldn’t be much worse,” one studio exec complained to me. Said another, “Business is in the crapper right now. Any way you slice it business is getting creamed this weekend.”

Give me a fucking break. Hollywood brings in so much money yearly. Stop making 3D movies and it won't be in the crapper.

Furthermore, have a sense of decency for those that, um, are going to be without power for several days...

Really Courier-Journal

When a majority of the critics give Our Idiot Brother a positive review, why does The Courier-Journal have to publish one of the very few negative reviews?!?

As of my posting this, the movie has 66% positive reviews, which increases to 67% when you take that down to the top critics. However, the CJ decides to place the review that is less than favorable into the newspaper.

I don't get this. If you are going to publish reviews in your paper, please be consistent. Try having the reviews published from the SAME CRITIC rather than the AP reviewer that is usually the anomaly to begin with.

Aykroyd gives us news...

While appearing on The Dennis Miller Show, Dan Aykroyd has dropped a major bombshell of news dealing with the third installment with the Ghostbusters series.

"Yes, we will be doing the movie and hopefully with Mr. Murray," he says, "That is our hope. We have an excellent script. What we have to remember is that 'Ghostbusters' is bigger than any one component, although Billy was absolutely the lead and contributive to it in a massive way, as was the director and Harold [Ramis], myself and Sigourney [Weaver]. The concept is much larger than any individual role and the promise of 'Ghostbusters 3' is that we get to hand the equipment and the franchise down to new blood."

The plan is to start filming in Spring 2012, whether Bill Murray opts to be involved or not!

Aykroyd confirms the plot rumor of handing it to a new generation.

"My character, Ray, is now blind in one eye and can't drive the cadillac," he says, "He's got a bad knee and can't carry the packs... Egon is too large to get into the harness. We need young blood and that's the promise. We're gonna hand it to a new generation."

You can hear a clip Dan's interview with Dennis Miller here.

Coming soon to Amazon

Coming soon to Amazon and Amazon Kindle this fall is Turn That $#!+ Off! It is a comedic collection of rants about politics, sports, and entertainment. Originally written in 2007 as potential stand-up material for open mike nights or even an album, all the material is being updated for 2011 but still relevant nonetheless.

Look for it soon!

Excuse me, Disney?!?

A Disney executive is out of touch with audiences. I don't go to movies for the special effects alone or just because of the franchise. I expect to see a heart and soul when all is said and done. But to say that there should not be a story is a disgrace to Walt Disney himself.

Variety:

Walt Disney Animation Studios chief technical officer Andy Hendrickson, in a talk at the Siggraph conference Sunday, laid out the thinking behind the studio's feature strategy. The bottom line: The average number of viewers per release is falling, and studios need to fight that trend with tentpoles.

The number of tickets sold domestically, Hendrickson said, is roughly flat since 2005. But with the exception of a drop after the 2008 financial crisis, the number of titles released has grown considerably. Even that dropoff only took the number of 2010 tiles back to 2006 levels. Therefore the average number of viewers per release is falling.

"Profit equals the ability to capture more than the average share of viewers," Hendrickson told attendees at the confab in Vancouver.

Part of the problem with the number of viewers decreasing is the fact that ticket prices are rising. If the prices were not increasing by 20% a year, maybe viewers wouldn't wait until they are out on DVD before watching. It's true for me. There's some movies that I would have seen on the big screen had the reviews been slightly better but when all is said and done, I'm out $10-11 bucks when you see the big picture. If I wait until it's out on DVD, I average around $1 to $1.50 depending on the month it is.

Here's the quote that kills me inside:

"A tentpole film is one where you can seed the desire to see the film to everyone in every distribution channel. It's the only kind of film you can spend $100 million marketing," he said.

Hendrickson's talk was mainly focused on solving problems in digital production on tentpoles, but he began with an "Econ 101" presentation on the movie business.

"People say 'It's all about the story,'" Hendrickson said. "When you're making tentpole films, bullshit." Hendrickson showed a chart of the top 12 all-time domestic grossers, and noted every one is a spectacle film. Of his own studio's "Alice in Wonderland," which is on the list, he said: "The story isn't very good, but visual spectacle brought people in droves. And Johnny Depp didn't hurt."

One, Johnny Depp has a fan base alone. Two, Alice in Wonderland alone has a fan base. Three, the reason why it brought in so much money was that it was released in 3D. Take away the INCREASED TICKET PRICES from 3D alone and you're looking at losing a few million. You have to take that into account when looking at the big picture.

The article said that The Lion King was in theaters a year. There's a reason for that. Studios weren't releasing three to five movies a weekend! Plus, it had a story and catchy songs to boot. You can't ignore these things. People will see it again and again. I won't lie that I pre-ordered the bluray. It's a great movie and one that came out during the Disney Renaissance period.

While I did enjoy the live action adaptation of the Lewis Carroll classic, I'm not about to buy it on BluRay or DVD.

Time Warner looking to purchase Insight Communications

This is huge news for Kentuckiana customers of Insight. Deadline reports, via Bloomberg News, that Time Warner Cable is in advanced negotiations to buy Insight Communications.

Bloomberg:

Time Warner Cable Inc. (TWC), the second- largest U.S. cable-television operator, is in advanced talks to buy Carlyle Group’s Insight Communications Co. for about $3 billion, said people with knowledge of the matter.

Time Warner Cable may announce an agreement to buy Insight as soon as tomorrow, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks are private. The talks could also fail to lead to a deal, the people said.

Why Netflix increased rates

Some people cancelled their service with Netflix when they increased thhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifeir rates but let's be honest, it was a bargain at the price it was with 1 dvd out at a time plus unlimited streaming.

Here's this bit from an NPR story:

The bottom line is money. Studios have been willing to deal with Netflix because it's so popular. But Netflix is getting more competitors in the world of streaming video from services like Hulu, Amazon, iTunes and YouTube.

"All the content owners are going to figure out that they can get a lot more money out of Netflix if they just hold their breath and negotiate a little tougher," Pachter says.

Recently, Netflix upset a lot of its own customers when it raised its rates 60 percent for users who want both its streaming and mail order services. Some customers even canceled their subscriptions.

And no matter how hard Netflix negotiates, there is some programming they aren't likely to ever get.

Take HBO — the company wants to keep people paying for its cable channel. And Pachter thinks HBO sees Netflix as a huge threat.

"What they fear the most is that people who have Netflix will say, 'We have enough and it's good enough,' and they'll cut off HBO."

Tom Corwin and Marlene Saritzky haven't cut off cable and HBO because they do want certain shows that they can't get on Netflix.

The only way I was able to watch shows like Eastbound and Down or Bored to Death are via Netflix DVDs. The same goes for the miniseries movies produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg--which I will watch when I get to them.

Against merger

Allowing a public university to merge with a Catholic-owned hospital is something that should not be allowed to happen. It's not just that but when I hear that Jewish Hospital is also merging with them, it sickens me.

We saw what happened during the Terri Schiavo fiasco. The Republicans intervened in what should have been a family issue.

If I'm placed in a vegetative state, I'd rather die than have some Catholic directive keeping me on life support.

I'm sorry to any Catholics that I know but I'm Jewish. I have my rules to follow. You have yours.

But taking into account that the University of Louisville receives both federal and state money in order to operate, and you realize what kind of fiasco is going on.

This merger cannot happen. It should not happen.

If the Commonwealth of Kentucky allows it to happen, well, I may just have to disown the state and not vote for anyone I would have otherwise supported. Such merger is a blatant violation of the Constitution--you know that separation of religion and state.