YIKES!!
Correlated by Pat Darnell  |  Apr 11, 2013  |  Bryan TX

[Picture LINK]

"You slide down in your seat and make yourself comfortable. On the screen in front of you, the movie image appears—enormous and overwhelming. If the movie is a good one, you allow yourself to be absorbed in its fantasy, and its dreams become part of your memories"

Roger Ebert wrote those words in 1980 for The Atlantic magazine, a love letter to the medium that became his employer: the movies. After a 46-year tenure as film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, several decades hosting a hugely influential television show, a landmark Pulitzer Prize, and countless thumbs in both directions, Ebert died Thursday at age 70. ( Kevin Fallon Apr 4, 2013 LINK)

Roger Ebert, Movie Critic of the Mainstream, Dies at 70 - NYTimes.com:

We wake up one day and find that Roger Ebert, the Ted Copol of movie critiques, is passed away. Here is the website to find many Ebert reviews. Sadly, he won't be giving us his cinema wit or wisdom from this time on.

Unless someone gives Ebert life after death, we will miss his thumbs up ... OH WAIT WHAT IS THIS?

'via Blog this'

"Now the famed critic is in a new jurisdiction, where he can see the blessings poured out on God's humble servants in heaven, from his seat of eternal torment and sorrow in Hell! It's too late for the fool Roger Ebert! WBC will continue to bind those who still live in Doomed america to God's eternal laws and Word, so you, like Roger, are without excuse!"

That is what is being said by the Westboro Church Gang, as they talk ill about the dead. Nice going W-boro Dissidents, especially now that Roger Ebert can't offer you his rebuttal. He's dead.

These boneheads call him a "fag enabler." What the hell does that mean? Why does this issue, which isn't an issue, create such misanthropic and seething, egotistical, hatred of humanity?

Ebert might respond to Westboro Baptist wankers this way:

"You misguided cynical, carper, caviler, detractors, disbelievers, doubters, doubting Thomas's, egoist, egotistic, flouters, misanthropic, misogamist, misogynist, mockers, pessimistic, satirist, scoffers, skeptical, sneerers, unbelievers ... would make a wonderful movie project. Two thumbs up."

______________________________Reference
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/05/movies/roger-ebert-film-critic-dies.html?src=me&ref=general

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/westboro-baptist-church-picket-roger-434594
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/04/04/roger-ebert-s-10-best-reviews-and-10-best-zingers.html

MooPig Home Schooling Department :: "Twerp and His Kin"

Critical Mass Thinking
Mashed by Pat Darnell  |  July 9, 2013  |  Bryan TX

Our lead, PD, commentator wrote a book in the 80's that was meant to depict the anti-christ, and his minions. The book was never published. Looking back on its pages, titled "Twerp and His Kin," brings to mind a certain urgency. Or, as a way of measuring progress, conversations in the book tell me we haven't progressed any.

To seek closure on the failed project is hopeless. Any observable condition of the characters that grow out of the book is by now over-done by reality itself; in cinema and TV, real life drama, and in family degradation. It would have led us into the next century leaving a trail of doubt, and hurt feelings. Oh, but that has already happened.

A good friend, Joe Holesworth, "Stratoblogster," pointed out this website: Exposing the Truth -- You Decide, HERE. It points out that many of us are thinking the same thing about Twerpdom, and have been for centuries.

" ... Once, the citizens of one’s nation are already thinking, worst, critically thinking, then that is a dangerous scenario for any erring leaders, stupid administrators, unjust system, unfair policies and abnormal conditions. (Jose Mario Dolor De Vega. July 8, 2013. HERE)... "

Philosophy, Reason & Enlightenment Through Critical Thinking:
The German moral philosopher, Immanuel Kant wrote in an influential and monumental essay, “What is Enlightenment” the following remarkable words:

"Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-incurred immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one’s understanding without the guidance of another.

"This immaturity is self-incurred if its cause is not lack of understanding, but lack of resolution and courage to use it without the guidance of another. The motto of enlightenment is therefore: Sapere aude! Have the courage to use your own understanding!"

'via Blog this'

" ... And what are the root causes of man’s darkness of his mind that breeds immaturity and inability to think for oneself? (Jose Mario Dolor De Vega. July 8, 2013. HERE) ... "

That is the zillion dollar question, isn't it? But as you know, you have to read the article to get a feel for the answer to this.


________________Reference
http://www.exposingthetruth.co/philosophy-reason-and-enlightenment/
http://philosophy.eserver.org/kant/what-is-enlightenment.txt
http://www.stratoblogster.com/

MooPig Movie Reviews :: "ARGO"

Dedicated to Jonathon Winters*
Treatment by Pat Darnell and Belinda Bingemeister  | Apr 12, 2013 | Bryan TX

Are you a Wheel Watcher? You know, when the contestant spins the Wheel of Fortune and has some good luck, and then spins and lands on Bankrupt? That is a good metaphor for the lack of credibility in ARGO, the movie. Since the debut, actual participant former Canadian ambassador, Ken Taylor, has come out with the real story.

However, if wheel watching makes you tense, you will probably experience fibrillation during ARGO, the movie. In real life and in the movie the solution to rescuing six of would be hostages throws out Occam's Razor that says the simplest answer is often correct. As one skeptic derisively observes, "Mendez’s plan comes from the long-standing 'so crazy it just might work' school of problem-solving."

[Picture above LINK] These are the real persons who were rescued, meeting with Jimmy Carter.


[Picture below LINK] "When the movie was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, the former ambassador, Ken Taylor, wasn't invited, even though he was in Toronto at the time."

" ... Ken Taylor, still fit, fashionable and unflappable at 77, understands full well that Argo is Hollywood, not history. (Jim Coyle Feature Writer, Published on Sun Oct 07 2012. LINK) ... "

'Argo': Former ambassador Ken Taylor sets the record straight | Toronto Star: "In Tehran, moreover, Mendez “was totally in our hands,” Taylor said. His involvement over his weekend in Tehran was “not much . . . just some visa stamps. Ottawa had provided everything else.” In fact, the CIA almost scuppered the plan by making passport notations that used the wrong Iranian calendar and would have essentially had the Americans leaving the country before they arrived. Canadian official Roger Lucy, who spoke Farsi, spotted the error. Otherwise, Taylor said, “that would have been game over.”"

'via Blog this'

Confused yet? We are. How does a well documented, November 4, 1979, Iranian revolution reaching its boiling point, militants storming the U.S. embassy in Tehran, taking 52 Americans hostage, become a thriller with Ben Affleck, John Goodman, and Alan Arkin?

That is easy: it's not the story, it's how you tell the story that counts. "ARGO is a rollicking yarn, easily the most cohesive and technically accomplished of Affleck's three films so far, but a part of me wishes the director hadn't cast himself in the lead role ..." says Dana Stevens from Slate.

Which brings us to John Goodman playing comic relief. John Goodman's character teams up with Alan Arkin's character, to shamooz Hollywood movie establishment with a bogus movie project. As if it were business as usual, all the pieces fall into place, and ARGO is born.

Belinda Bingemeister, our Editor of MooPig Movie Reviews and Tubes, told us her purged view of the flick. "You see, guys, we never get to know the real characters -- the hostages. We forget them as soon as the last frame blips out."

That brings to mind several issues in today's movie making by actor/directors. First, as much as we can't name the hostages, we know all about Ben Affleck's character, Tony Mendez. We can still see his face when we close our eyes. John Goodman and Alan Arkin are pretty steadfast in our cerebrals too. There is almost no mention of Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor, the real life headpin of the operation. But sure enough we have plenty of silhouette close ups of Ben Affleck, and repeatable one liners he so cutely delivers.

Second, this is opposed to the character Affleck is supposed to play. Tony Mendez is a CIA shadow person, best known for his anonymity, and ability to blend in. Instead we get the heavy hand of the actor/director throwing himself in every scene, like the egomaniac millionaire celebrity we suspect Affleck to be. Whoops.

And third, think about this: how many movies today are based on the movie industry, show business, or writing? Are they real industries, or just make believe like cinema itself? That brings us to our synopsis ten words or less, of Affleck's ARGO:

A group of veteran actors satirize the movie industry.

... So, it is a Mad Mad Mad Mad world after all.



_______________________Reference
*Jonathan Winters, Unpredictable Comic and Master of Improvisation, Dies at 87.

Jonathan Winters on the set of “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” in 1962.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2012/10/07/argo_former_ambassador_ken_taylor_sets_the_record_straight.html
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2012/10/argo_hostage_story_mark_lijek_s_true_account_of_fleeing_iran.html
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/movies/2012/10/argo_reviewed_director_ben_affleck_s_iran_hostage_crisis_drama_is_his_best.html

Westboro Baptist Church Members can see Dead People

YIKES!!
Correlated by Pat Darnell  |  Apr 11, 2013  |  Bryan TX

[Picture LINK]

"You slide down in your seat and make yourself comfortable. On the screen in front of you, the movie image appears—enormous and overwhelming. If the movie is a good one, you allow yourself to be absorbed in its fantasy, and its dreams become part of your memories"

Roger Ebert wrote those words in 1980 for The Atlantic magazine, a love letter to the medium that became his employer: the movies. After a 46-year tenure as film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, several decades hosting a hugely influential television show, a landmark Pulitzer Prize, and countless thumbs in both directions, Ebert died Thursday at age 70. ( Kevin Fallon Apr 4, 2013 LINK)

Roger Ebert, Movie Critic of the Mainstream, Dies at 70 - NYTimes.com:

We wake up one day and find that Roger Ebert, the Ted Copol of movie critiques, is passed away. Here is the website to find many Ebert reviews. Sadly, he won't be giving us his cinema wit or wisdom from this time on.

Unless someone gives Ebert life after death, we will miss his thumbs up ... OH WAIT WHAT IS THIS?

'via Blog this'

"Now the famed critic is in a new jurisdiction, where he can see the blessings poured out on God's humble servants in heaven, from his seat of eternal torment and sorrow in Hell! It's too late for the fool Roger Ebert! WBC will continue to bind those who still live in Doomed america to God's eternal laws and Word, so you, like Roger, are without excuse!"

That is what is being said by the Westboro Church Gang, as they talk ill about the dead. Nice going W-boro Dissidents, especially now that Roger Ebert can't offer you his rebuttal. He's dead.

These boneheads call him a "fag enabler." What the hell does that mean? Why does this issue, which isn't an issue, create such misanthropic and seething, egotistical, hatred of humanity?

Ebert might respond to Westboro Baptist wankers this way:

"You misguided cynical, carper, caviler, detractors, disbelievers, doubters, doubting Thomas's, egoist, egotistic, flouters, misanthropic, misogamist, misogynist, mockers, pessimistic, satirist, scoffers, skeptical, sneerers, unbelievers ... would make a wonderful movie project. Two thumbs up."

______________________________Reference
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/05/movies/roger-ebert-film-critic-dies.html?src=me&ref=general

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/westboro-baptist-church-picket-roger-434594
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/04/04/roger-ebert-s-10-best-reviews-and-10-best-zingers.html

MooPig Movie Reviews :: "Lincoln"

"Slavery, sir, is done..."
Perpetrated by Pat Darnell  |  Apr 5, 2013  |  Bryan TX

[PHOTO gif submitted by Pat2] ... The movie got mixed reviews, but mostly praised for its cinematic elegance. ... This photo is a "gif" of a device that keeps your camera motionless while you run with it. Annoying, eh?

In Spielberg’s ‘Lincoln,’ Passive Black Characters - NYTimes.com: "That, too, is the history of abolition; “Lincoln” is an opportunity squandered."

'via Blog this'

How much do you know about Daniel Day-Lewis? Eh? I don't know squat about Daniel. I do know something about ears though. As a man gets older his ears get larger, because they never cease to grow throughout his life.

Next chance you get, look at how huge Tommy Lee Jones's ears are. They're GIANT! I know, I know, he can't help that!

Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, was debated at several occasions to have Marfan's syndrome and also acromegaly. He grew to 6 ft. 4 inches in height and generally weighed less than 180 lb. Lincoln's body growth and energic constitution show gross evidence of pituitary hyperactivity and gonadal hypoactivity. He was a long, thin baby at birth, with unusually long, thin arms and legs.You will have to Google all these difficult words.

That is about as historically factual as we can get in this movie review. You, dear reader, will not gain any exacting Lincoln scuttlebutt today. We don't have any historians on deck here at MooPig Enterprises. We farm that out.

So we go to the Bonus Features on the DVD we rented at Red Box for 99 cents, plus tax. In the usual mention of Steven Spielberg, the making of Lincoln is prefaced with anecdote given by Mr. Spielberg. He remembers as a young lad going to the Lincoln Memorial; and walking up to the seated man at the top of the stairs.

Spielberg's imagery of the greatness of the memorial in his memorable youthful experience gives us a clue to what the movie is about: the giant white man who ended the Civil War, and signed into law the Thirteenth Amendment.

In Theaters: Nov 16, 2012
On DVD: Mar 26, 2013
Box Office:$182.0M
Dreamworks Pictures
PG-13, 2 hr. 29 min.
Drama
Directed By: Steven Spielberg

MooPig Movie Reviews Department is proud that they are not insiders in the cinema industry. We are so far afield... well, a good analogy is this quote from the movie, Daniel Day-Lewis says:

" ... Abraham Lincoln: A compass, I learnt when I was surveying, it'll... it'll point you True North from where you're standing, but it's got no advice about the swamps and dessert and chasm that you'll encounter along the way. If in pursuit of your destination, you plunge ahead, heedless of obstacles, and achieve nothing more than to sink in a swamp... What's the use of knowing True North? ... "

In answer to what Thaddeus Stevens, played by Tommy Lee Jones, asks:

Thaddeus Stevens: You claim you can trust them. But you know what the people are. You know the inner compass that should direct the soul toward justice has ossified in white men and women, north and south, unto utter uselessness though tolerating the evil of slavery. White people cannot bear the thought of sharing this country's infinite abundance with Negroes.

This theme is the crux of the biscuit in real life ... the abject failure to "share" the abundance. But, that theme is never much dealt with in this movie. Blacks are more stoically portrayed as props, one liners, and altogether waiting in the wings for "white man" to "gift" them abolition of slavery in this movie. Too bad, too. With that wellspring of knowledge Spielberg's Lincoln could have remarkably transcended its boundaries.

Suggestion for when you watch the flick, you might want to turn on the subtitles so you can appreciate the American-English jargon spoken. It also helps the flow for you the patron, when actors and actresses muff and mumble their lines.



_________________________Reference
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/13/opinion/in-spielbergs-lincoln-passive-black-characters.html?pagewanted=2
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/lincoln_2011/
http://www.patient.co.uk/doctor/Marfan%27s-Syndrome.htm

http://www.lincolnportrait.com/emotional_neurosis_hypokinetic.asp

MooPig Movie Reviews :: "Movie Trailers"

Plundered and Distributed by Pat Darnell  |  Feb 19, 2013  |  Bryan TX

[Picture LINK]
Theaters raise revenue and tensions by charging to show trailers - latimes.com: " ... "What makes this business run are trailers," said Chuck Viane, a former president of distribution for Walt Disney Studios. "When the right trailers aren't seen by the public with the right movie, that can hurt the box office." ... "

'via Blog this'

That's a heavy concept, movie trailer distribution in our modern era of Internet and Web. One movie company pays the theater to run its trailer, and it becomes a precedent. SONY Pictures paid to " ... advertise its comedy "The Animal" in front of the hit Universal movie "The Mummy Returns." That aberration soon became the norm, with pay-for-play accelerating in the last two years. ... "

If trailers become a profit maker for theaters, you know there will be a lot more trailers at the beginning of your favorite blockbuster movie. A trip to the cinema costs around $6 per person for just the ticket, that does not mean we want to see seven or eight trailers that are money makers for the theaters. Besides, a trailer runs about 3 minutes; that adds about 21 minutes to your theater stay.

Your 2 hour movie now becomes 2-1/2 hours long, or more. And, each trailer is preceded by its pandering and brutal bright green screen ratings, and anti-piracy stuff, to make sure your 13 year old or younger children are not watching the preview.

" ... As they [trailers] rose in value, the total number of trailers shown before a movie started going up. Three or four was the norm a decade ago. Regal and AMC theaters now run six or seven before every feature. ... "

This is like punching in the numbers in the jukebox, and seven musical previews play short excerpts before your selection comes on. Eh?

Pretty soon the whole world will be like cable TV, with sixteen minutes of commercials for every hour of show.

" ... Theater owners charge more for the final trailer before a movie starts because, Neuman, chief executive of Verites said, "There's a big difference between how many people see the first trailer and the last." Verites is a Burbank company paid by studios to check theaters to see that trailers are being shown and that marketing materials such as lobby cards and standees are in place. (Ben Fritz and Richard Verrier, Los Angeles Times. February 19, 2013. LINK) ... "

NEXT WEEK :: Movie Downloads and Piracy, no Charge ... just Kidding!



___________________________Reference
http://www.moviefone.com/movie-trailers
http://www.motherjones.com/riff/2008/01/mpaa-accidentally-purpose-exaggerated-impact-piracy

My Favorite Movie Review Ever...

1. Maxtype Says:
   June 3rd, 2008 at 11:13 am

   The sweat that John Wayne left in his f****ng BOOTS is better and more useful than these leftie-critics will be on their BEST day!

   People say to me-”Dave, how come you haven’t seen -name any recent movie with Cloonie, et al-?”

   “Because the DUKE was on TV! I needed to watch ‘She Wore A Yellow Ribbon’ again!”

From HERE :
[the ending of “Fort Apache” there is a great line that the Duke delivers]
Newspaper reporter: [speaking of Col. Thursday] But what of the men who died with him? What of Collingworth and…
Captain Yorke: Collingwood.
Newspaper reporter: Oh, of course, Collingwood.
Reporter: That’s the ironic part of it. We always remember the Thursdays, but the others are forgotten.
Captain Yorke: You’re wrong there. They aren’t forgotten because they haven’t died. They’re living - right out there.
[points out the window]
Captain Yorke: Collingwood and the rest. And they’ll keep on living as long as the regiment lives. The pay is thirteen dollars a month; their diet: beans and hay. Maybe horsemeat before this campaign is over. Fight over cards or rotgut whiskey, but share the last drop in their canteens. The faces may change… the names… but they’re there: they’re the regiment… the regular army… now and fifty years from now. They’re better men than they used to be. Thursday did that. He made it a command to be proud of. (Retrieved HERE )