Very Special Activists having spastic fits?

For the second weekend in a row, Ben Stiller's "Tropic Thunder" was top at the US box office. It took in $16.5 million, for an estimated total gross of $65.7 million. (The second-place earner, "The House Bunny", took in about $15 million, and it was a brand new release.)

It goes to show that movie-goers aren't as easily manipulated as some would like to think. "Tropic Thunder" is a funny movie AND it doesn't mock the Very Special and Differently Abled (also known as Retards in some circles) despite what some media whores who like exploiting the Very Special (aka Retards) for their own personal gain tried to claim.

Here's to a third week on top for "Tropic Thunder"! Maybe certain assholes will learn not to start screaming about boycotts against undeserving targets.

Click here to read my review of "Tropic Thunder". Then go see it if you haven't already. It's worth checking out.

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An example of retarded activismreported by an idiot?

Retards are still calling for "Tropic Thunder" boycotts. And, based on this report from WENN (via IMBD), I can only assume that retards are writing about the calls for boycott.

(Okay. Maybe we're not talking about a retard. Maybe Maureen McCormick is just a run-of-the-mill Hollywood Idiot.)

From the article...

Former Brady Bunch pin-up Maureen McCormick has pledged to boycott Ben Stiller's war comedy Tropic Thunder as part of a protest about the film's use of the word retard.

The actress has joined activists who are protesting the movie's controversial scenes, which poke fun at the disabled.
First of all, to correct the moron who wrote the piece, the film DOES NOT POKE FUN AT THE "DISABLED." THe SCENE IN QUESTION FEATURES TWO ACTORS DISCUSSING HOW TO PLAY RETARDS ON SCREEN. IT IS MOCKING ACTORS, SPECIFICALLY ACTORS WHO PLAY "DISABLED" CHARACTERS TO MAKE THEMSELVES LOOK LIKE THEY'RE TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY!

Fucking retard journalist. Maybe you need to actually see the movie before writing about it?

And now, McCormick sounds off (and sounds like a moron), writing in a blog post:

"I haven't seen the movie and I won't go see the movie because of what I've heard, but I want to add my two cents to the opinions on whether it's offensive to the mentally challenged."

If YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOVIE,then how can you comment on whether it's offensive or not?!

She continues her deep, brilliant commentary....

"I know Ben Stiller has said that he's making fun of actors, not people with disabilities. Still, the movie is geared toward a younger crowd and I fear a lot of those teenagers and college students will leave the theater thinking 'r**ard' is (an) okay word to use. It's not. It's taken years to get people to stop using that word."

I never used to use the word "retard" much. Now I use it alot. And guess what? It's not because of "Tropic Thunder".It's because of clueless idiots like Maureen McCormick who take the film to task without having seen it, or after willfully misinterpreting the scene in which the retard conversation takes place.

Of course, actors and actresses like McCormick might be quick to take offense because the scene hits too close to home. McCormick certainly is showing signs of being a retard in this article; she obviously can't think for herself but must instead rely on the opinions of others... others who in this case are exploiting retards for financial gain.

I'm sure McCormick continued flaunting her ignorance in the blog entry by elaborating upon the evils of a movie she hasn't seen, but I can't read it. You see, McCormick's "exclusive blog" is on www.fancast.com, a website designed by retards so it only works with certain browsers. But at least I read PART of McCormick's piece before I chose to criticize her, which is more than can be said about her and "Tropic Thunder".

(By the way, I'll repeat a truth that the exploiters of retards who are calling for boycotts of this movie will attempt to claim credit for. "Tropic Thunder" will not make a profit. This will not be due to retarded boycott calls, but because it was way too expensive to make. $150 million dollars was spent to make this movie. If short buses had been bringing retards to watch the film instead of protest it, it would still have lost money. Just remember that when the retard activists start trying to claim credit for the film's financial failure.)

Click here to read my review of "Tropic Thunder". If it sounds at all interesting, then I encourage you to go check it out for yourself.

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Forcing me to make a hard choice....

There are two movies opening today that I'm interested in seeing, both of which are being panned by the critics.

The one I have the most interest in in "Get Smart." From the first teaser preview, I have wanted to see it. My fond memories of the original show also make me want to check it out, even if later previews have made me worry that it might be too mean-spirited for my tastes.

The second one is "The Love Guru." My interest really isn't all that great, and it was one I might well have waited to show up in the $2 theater or perhaps even on DVD before checking out, but publicity hound Rajan Zed and his posse of outraged Hindus are back in the news. Here are excerpts from a WENN article:

Movie executives at Paramount Pictures have honoured their promise to preview "The Love Guru" for concerned Hindus in Los Angeles before its release this Friday.
Hindus, led by Rajan Zed, campaigned to see the film before its release on Friday - in a bid to make sure their fears about the movie were overblown.

But the screening has only served to bolster the religious opposition to the film, which Zed and his followers insist is disrespectful to Hindus and their beliefs.

Zed has now urged Hindus around the world to boycott the movie, claiming the picture "lampoons Hinduism and Hindu concepts and uses Hindu terms frivolously".

After attending the screening on Thursday, Zed rages, "'The Love Guru' is even more denigrating than we earlier perceived from the information gathered from trailers, websites and other sources.

"Mike Myers' guru instigates a bar fight, repeatedly narrates penis jokes, mocks yoga - one of the six orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy, wears female jewellery, mocks the concept of third eye, makes disciples drink tea passed through his nose, orders alligator soup, induces elephant copulation in front of the crowd, introduces himself as 'His Holiness', lives in a lavish ashram staffed with scantily clad maids, and whose goal in life seems to appear on the Oprah Winfrey show."

And the Hindu leader has suggested other religious groups should give the film, in which Myers plays an oddball guru called Pitka, a miss.

He adds, "Today it is Hinduism, tomorrow Hollywood might attempt to denigrate another religions.

"Hinduism is often misunderstood and wrongly portrayed outside India. Movies like this bring more confusion and create stereotypes in the minds of audience."

I can't help but wonder if Zed is so upset because Guru Pitka hits too close to home, either because of what HE is like, or because Gury Pitka is who he wants to be. There must be some reason why Zed is confusing an obvious cartoon character with an attempt to portray Hinduism in a fashion that anyone will take seriously or mistake for the real thing.

The upshot of Zed's ranting is that I am now obligated to see "The Love Guru" this weekend. Whenever morons like this start calling for boycotts because of their over-sensitivity and/or religious idiocy, I am morally obligated to trek to the theater ASAP and put my money down. A review will follow to let you know whether I think you should do the same, but I need to make a stand against over-sensitive, headline-seeking twerps like Zed in the most effective way: By acting counter to their calls for boycotts.

I now have to choose between seeing "Get Smart" or "The Love Guru" this afternoon.

Thank you, Guru Zed, you polytheist asshole, you.

(By the way... can someone who can say the name Rajan Zed without giggling give him a call and point out to him that Hollywood has been denigrating ther religions for decades? Ask him if he's heard of tiny Christian cults like the Roman Catholics, the Russian Orthodox Church, and Babtists. Ask him if he's ever heard of the obscure Jewish faith.)

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Hide your pre-teen daugthers!Gary Glitter is out of jail!

Reuters wire service reports that Gary "Hey, little girl... wanna do a rock star?" Glitter is out of jail and traveling the world.


THU DUC, Vietnam (Reuters) - Fallen British rock star Gary Glitter has been freed from a Vietnamese prison after completing a three-years sentence for molesting two young girls, his lawyer said on Tuesday.

Glitter, 63, whose real name is Paul Gadd, was arrested in November 2005 at Ho Chi Minh airport as he tried to leave the country and sentenced to three years in jail following a one-day trial where he pleaded not guilty.

"My client is a free man now but he will be escorted straight to the airport to go back to London, he should arrive there by tomorrow," Glitter's lawyer Le Thanh Kinh told Reuters by telephone from Ho Chi Minh City.

Kinh said Vietnamese police would only give Glitter his passport at the immigration in Tan Son Nhat Airport in Ho Chi Minh City.

"He doesn't have much luggage," Kinh said.

Glitter's conviction was upheld on appeal, but the sentence was reduced by three months. Jail time served counted from the date of his arrest in November 2005.

State media reported last week Glitter had been doing chores at a prison clinic in Binh Thuan province, 190 km (118 miles) north of Ho Chi Minh City and adjacent to the coastal province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau where he molested two 11-year-old girls while living in a villa.

He rose to fame in the 1970s with a bouffant hairstyle, make-up, high heels and "glam rock" stage performances. His hits included "Rock and Roll (Parts 1 & 2)" and "I Love You Love Me Love", "Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah)" and "I'm the Leader of Gang (I am)".

(Writing by Hanoi Newsroom)

Glitter was quoted in an AP article as saying that he doesn't want to life in Great Britain but instead plans to move to Hong Kong. He also wants to resume his singing career.

I wish him the best. But I hope he keeps his hands off little girls from here on in. (I doubt it though. There's a pattern of behavior here.)

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Important Political Announcement (?)

While the American news-media is sitting around hyperventilating with excitement over who Barack Obama will pick for his prom date--sorry, running mate--Mary Clare Jalonick of the AP has filed what's got to be one of the biggest non-stories of the 2008 presidential campaign:

WASHINGTON (AP) - Former South Dakota Sen. Tom Daschle said Monday there is no chance Barack Obama will pick him as a running mate.

The former Senate majority leader and close adviser to the Democratic presidential candidate has turned over personal information the campaign is using to review potential vice presidential nominees. But Daschle said he is confident he is not Obama's choice.


"I did give (them) documents a long time ago, but these matters have been resolved for a long time now as far as I'm concerned," Daschle told The Associated Press in an interview.

In other important political news, there is no chance that Barack Obama will pick me as his running mate.

(The McCaine campaign has been whining about how the news media is giving Obama's campaign more coverage than they're getting. With pointless puff-pieces like the one quoted above being generated just so they can write SOMETHING about him makes me think they may have a point.)

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The boycott call that (deservedly) backfired

Early this week, a bunch of publicity hungry media hacks trotted out some Very Special Protesters, handed them signs, dressed them in bizarrily inappropriate shirts (like ones with a "No Retards Allowed" symbol on it) and started screeching at the cameras about how "Tropic Thunder" should be boycotted because we should all be offended that the word "retard" is used in the movie. (You can see a picture of the Very Special Protesters in their "No Retards Allowed" shirts by clicking here.)

Never mind that it is used in a conversation between two characters talking about actors who play mentally challenged characters hoping to boost their careers, and at similar moments. Never mind that the use of "retard" in the film is in a context that reflects badly on the character using it, as well as the movie industry for their approach to using Very Special People as characters in films. No, the publicity whores thought they had ahold of something here.

Thankfully, they were wrong. Thankfully, the American people are not the retards these publicity whores took them for. (Well, at least those of them who aren't in favor of government control of what can and can't be said on the radio, television, and internet.)

The Los Angeles Times reported today (Friday) that when online ticket seller Fandango asked its customers whether the boycott call made them less interested or more interested in seeing the movie, 77 percent responded "more interested."

I still think "Tropic Thunder" is going to go down in history as a bomb--it cost way too much to make--but the media whores and their Very Special Prop Protesters aren't the ones responsible.

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Don't listen to the retards: Go see 'Tropic Thunder'

Tropic Thunder (2008)
Starring: Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr, Jack Black, Jay Baruchel, Brandon T. Jackson, Danny McBride, Nick Nolte, Brandon Soo Hoo, Tom Cruise, and Matthew McConaughey
Director: Ben Stiller
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

Five actors (Baruchel, Black, Downey, Jackson and Stiller) starring in a movie about an extraction mission in the Viet Nam war find themselves in a very real fight for their lives against Laotian heroin producers after the director decides to drop them in the middle of the jungle to bring more realism to the film.


"Tropic Thunder" is a satire-filled spoof on the Hollywood movie industry and the excesses and escessively large personalities involved with making movies. It's a film that leaves no pretension unpoked and no movie-industry stereotype unmolested.



The stars of 'Tropic Thunder'--Kevin Sandusky, left, Alpa Chino, Tugg Speedman, Kirk Lazarus and Jeff Portnoy--with director Damien Cockburn. (Actually, it's Jay Baruchel, left, Brandon T. Jackson, Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr. and Jack Black, as actors playing actors, and actor Steve Coogan playing a director who are making a movie named 'Tropic Thunder' in 'Tropic Thunder'.)



Although it's as self-absorbed as the pampered movie stars it pokes fun at, this is a very enjoyable film if you have any interest in the personalities behind the characters and the business people behind the movies. It's even funnier if you've had a chance to see some of these people in action. While none are as cartoonish as what we have here in this comedy, the character types are all very recognizable, as is the pseudo-intellectual idiocy that's popular in many acting and movie circles.

The running theme in the film that no-one in Hollywood is genuine and that the biggest fakes, liars and cheats are the most successful is expressed with more accuracy and humor in this film than I've seen in a long time. Every character is part-and-parcel with this message--the smartest and most capable character in the bunch is a young actor who is obviously going to have a future never rising above the status of supporting character actor, and the most successful among them is such a mess of insecurities and self-deception that he doesn't even really know who he is anymore--and the story emphasizes it over and over in ways that are both funny and subtle enough that we never feel like it's being rammed down our throats.

There's nothing that we haven't seen done before, but it's all done exceptionally well here.

Every actor in the film is spectacular, from child actor Brandon Soo Hoo who plays an underage drug kingpin whose a crack shot with a bazooka (the kid does a great job, especially considering this is his first movie--to Tom Cruise who has a great turn under heavy make-up as a truly repulsive Hollywood studio executive. It can also truly be said that 2008 is the year of Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr., as between "Iron Man", "Kung Fu Panda", and this film, they've appeared in some high quality movies.

And just so there's no doubt, anyone who is upset about the use of the word "retard" in this film is an idiot who is just looking to be offended. If they hadn't been so busy taking offense, they would have seen that the point of the exchange was that exploiting the handicapped in movies is sleazy and cheap... and that one of the characters in the conversation was being at least partially sarcastic.

Now that I've seen "Tropic Thunder", I believe doubly what I said in this post, but I need to add that I think those assholes who are exploiting retards to grab headlines with their faux and misplaced outrage are even slimier than the fictional characters involved with the fictional "Simple Jack" movie.

Oh, and if anyone out there knows an asshole or a retard calling for a boycott of "Tropc Thunder", please tell them that I went to see it on opening day because of them, and I further supported the theater by purchasing a small popcorn and small soda. I probably would have waited until the movie was on DVD and I hardly ever buy snacks when attending a film. I also have used the word "retard" as a pejorative more in the past three days than I have in the three years previously. It's not a word I typically use, but those assholes have made it an imperative to do so with your idiocy.

I encourage everyone to go see "Tropic Thunder". Bring a friend. Let's show how retarded this call for a boycott was. And make sure you get there early, not only so you can get some popcorn, but you also don't want to miss the exclusive preview for the upcoming Kirk Lazarus/Tobey Maguire movie "Satan's Alley"!

(BTW, with a rumored $150 million dollar price-tag, I think this movie is ultimately will be declared a failure because I doubt it'll make THAT kind of money... but let's see if we can't show those publicity hungry assholes who are making up reasons to be offended that a funny, well-made film will have an audience despite their antics (and even the antics of the Very Special Differently Abled People they're using as props).

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