Mark Wahlberg has been in some fast paced, fun action films. The first ones that come to mind are The Italian Job, The Departed and Shooter, yes I did enjoy Shooter. His name alone can certainly sell an action film, but can the star turn a convoluted plot into a fascinating story? Not in this case. There’s nothing superb about Contraband, but…
Kenny Chesney received the most nominations for this years ACM Awards. This year Chesney is up for nine awards, including Entertainer of the Year, Male Vocalist and Song of the Year. He is also nominated as a producer for his album Hemingway’s Whiskey, and his hit single (with Grace Potter) “You and Tequila,” as well…
Hunter Hayes Brings It To NYC… Anyone who thinks that 20-year-old Hunter Hayes is “the Justin Bieber of country music” (and you know who you are) should have been in New York City last night where Hunter showed off his stellar musicianship at the Highline Ballroom. (To find out when Hunter will be on tour…
This week on HomeVideodrome, Hunter reviews Haywire, Shame, and Warrior, Jim has cedar fever, and we plow through a cornucopia of new releases. Head on over to The Film Thugs to check it out. Okay, so I was a little hard on Real Steel when it came out. Revisiting it, I still stick by most…
What? Only nine nominees for “Best Picture”? Here’s how the new system works. Every Academy voter ranks the year’s five best movies preferentially. Those ballots are sorted into stacks based on first-place votes. Then, what it comes down to is this: • A movie with more than 10 percent of overall first-place votes is an…
Female comedies seem to be all the rage today. At least that’s the ideal since Bridesmaids came out and proved that a female comedy doesn’t have to be Sex and the City. However, many female comedies revolve around either a wedding or a baby, both standard stories. It’s time that someone reinvented the wheel. Of…
Randy Thompson – Collected ***½ (out of 4 stars) Label: Jackpot As a musical label, “roots” or “Americana” has become a catch-all that applies to so much music that doesn’t quite fit into the more well-known country, folk or even rock categories. Too much so, sometimes. But every once in awhile an album comes along…
Danny Click – Life Is A Good Place *** (out of 4 stars) Label: DogStar Records On his latest album, Life Is A Good Place, Danny Click brings a comfortable rock voice to straightforward songs that have a shadow of the blues to them. It’s like stumbling into a club to discover a blend of…
If you are tired of the lackluster films of recent years, fear not because the Criterion Collection has your back. Luckily, some people still understand that a great film doesn’t need a gratuitous amount of special effects or 3D. For years, the Criterion Collection has been putting together what we can only call “the Rolls…
Haywire *** (out of 4 stars) Starring Gina Carano, Michael Fassbender, Ewan McGregor, Channing Tatum, Bill Paxton, and Michael Douglas Directed by Steven Soderbergh Bravo, Soderbergh. Too often do action directors feel compelled to get in the middle of the action and jiggle the camera around in a half-assed attempt to put the audience “in…
Underworld: Awakening * (out of 4 stars) Starring: Kate Beckinsale, Sadrine Holt, Stephen Rea, and India Eisley Directed by: Måns Mårlind and Björn Stei When I got off of work on Friday, I checked the screening times for “Underworld: Awakening” as I strolled out to my car, in hopes of finding a screening that would…
Steven Rosenblum and Daria DiGiovanni analyze the news, events and politics of the day from a conservative-Republican point of view. This Saturday, January 28th, CRF‘s Grassroots Candidates Series continues with another candidate for the US House of Representatives from North Carolina. Frank Palombo is vying to be the next representative from North Carolina’s 3rd Congressional District….
Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House, is running for President. He’s got a good shot of winning the nomination, and a decent chance of beating Obama if he gets the nomination. His last name isn’t Romney, which means that much of the Republican electorate is comfortable voting for him. He isn’t basing his…
Congress is supposed to represent the interests of everyone. But what happens when powerful special interests contribute heavily to lawmakers’ election campaigns? Last week Americans on the political right and left lined up to oppose SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act, and its Senate counterpart PIPA, the Protect IP Act. Internet giants like Google, Wikipedia,…
…and there was much (UNANIMOUS!) rejoicing: Justices say GPS tracker violated privacy rights: The Supreme Court on Monday unanimously ruled that the police violated the Constitution when they placed a Global Positioning System tracking device on a suspect’s car and monitored its movements for 28 days. But the justices divided 5-to-4 on the rationale for…
For such a big stage, last night’s Republican presidential debate featured two rarely uttered words: “living will.” Ron Paul, sounding like a New York estate planning lawyer, advised the American people why it is so important to have a living will after the moderators asked the candidates about the infamous Terry Schiavo case. Schiavo was…
One of Newt Gingrich’s rivals just before the South Carolina primary criticized him for his claim of having created millions of jobs, saying “Congressmen taking responsibility or taking credit for helping create jobs is like Al Gore taking credit for the Internet.” This charge of self-aggrandizement didn’t stick to Gingrich (many of whose stands have…
Today South Carolina voters go to the polls. Two candidates – Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul – are campaigning on the gold standard. Polling, including for South Carolina, shows the gold standard to be a powerful vote getter as my colleague Andresen Blom and I pointed out recently in Roll Call. Both Gingrich and Paul supported…
To the Occupy movement: I know some of you mean well. I even share some of your concerns. The dismal economy has made it difficult to find a good job with benefits. Meanwhile, the government is bailing out the wealthy banks and mortgage lenders that helped precipitate this depressed economy. I hear your frustrations about…
All eyes at the debate tonight will be on the former speaker of the House, and current president aspirant, who this week dramatically moved the political discourse by calling for a new Gold Commission. Mr. Gingrich is no stranger to gold. He was one of the seven cosponsors of Jack Kemp’s 1984 Gold Standard Act….
America needs private equity, for better or for worse. As an attorney who has worked with executives in the industry, I am under no illusions that the business is all fairy tales. The private equity world is take-no-prisoners with one goal: maximize returns to investors. Former Massachusetts Governor and Bain Capital CEO Mitt Romney’s…
Saul Alinsky, author of Rules for Radicals, was one of the 20th Century’s most iconic provocateurs. “Alinskyite” has become a banal epithet on the Right. Many conservative politicians routinely link Barack Obama with Alinsky. Obama and Alinsky never met. Alinsky died of a heart attack in 1971 when Barack Obama was around 11 years old…
