I love movies. I love Hollywood, and Hollywood cinema. Fresh-popped popcorn gets me a little high, and I think the little changeover cues in the corners of the frame are cute. And God help me, I’m just as hooked on television as everybody. But there are quite a few things about Hollywood I hate.
Most [...]

Everybody has been asking, what good is this writer’s strike doing? Unless you’re lucky enough to have David Letterman for a boss, you’ve been out of work for two months, forced instead to picket production companies in the dead of winter. Meanwhile the big media companies are seeing profits roughly equal to what they were [...]

I was channel-surfing a few evenings ago and I landed on “Hannah Montana” on the Disney Channel. Moments later saw something really weird.
I don’t follow this particular show, but much like High School Musical I’m kind of in awe of it. It’s got that hyperactive Disney synergy going. “Hannah Montana” hinges on a cute [...]

George Lucas is starting development of a live-action Star Wars TV series. It’s going to be about “minor characters” in that galaxy of his own creation far, far away (Alright, let’s hear from Biggs! Wedge Antillies, your time is now! Mon Mothma, it’s all about you, sweetie! Jar Jar… We’ll call you). As Mr. Lucas [...]

I was at a cousin’s wedding this last weekend in Idaho. It was in Priest Lake, Idaho, the most fashionable part of Idaho, apparently. I had been tapped to videotape the wedding– As anyone who runs a video company will tell you, being asked to cover weddings is a regular occupational hazard.
I was getting some [...]

You know how you go to Starbucks to hang out, and they’re always playing this cool retro music which happens to be on sale right there, so you stop by the barista again on the way out and say, “You know, I think I like that Pink Martini CD. Ring it up,” and you walk [...]

Matt Damon is doing a lot of interviews lately. Perahaps too many, not to put too fine a point on it. Look what he said recently in London, at the UK premiere of THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM:
“Bond is an imperialist and a misogynist who kills people and laughs about it, and drinks Martinis and cracks jokes… [...]

This has been a hell of a summer film season. Business observers in the press and especially those who are involved in online media have called theatrical movies dead for several years now. But July closed 15% over last year, and unusually shows no sign of slowing down through August. Now the continuing rush of [...]

There is a good article in yesterday’s New York Times which not only exposed my relative ignorance of the current state of affairs between the production and exhibition ends of the movie biz, but also helped explain the unrelenting weekly hammer-to-the-head which is the summer film release pattern.
During the period of time I worked in [...]

Remember a couple of days ago we linked to an underwhelming Xbox product intro, in which Peter Moore introduced the HALO-themed Xbox 360 to yawns and snickering? You don’t? Well, Microsoft remembers. And now Peter Moore is working elsewhere.
Fresh off the startling announcement that it would take a charge of more than $1 billion to cover [...]