“Hillary movie puts campaign finance limits at risk - The Guardian” plus 4 more

Hillary movie puts campaign finance limits at risk - The Guardian
'The Final Destination' slashes Sandra Bullock's 'All About Steve' at ... - New York Daily News
Michael Moore makes Venice fest premiere - Mydesert.com
Movie review: 'Gamer' forgettable but fun - San Francisco Gate
Movie preview: Daddy Cool - Tonight South Africa

Hillary movie puts campaign finance limits at risk - The Guardian

Posted: 06 Sep 2009 02:50 PM PDT

MARK SHERMAN

Associated Press Writers= WASHINGTON (AP) â€" The Supreme Court appears poised to wipe away limits on campaign spending by corporations and labor unions in time for next year's congressional elections in a case that began as a dispute over a movie about Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The justices return to the bench Sept. 9 â€" nearly a month early â€" to consider whether to overrule two earlier decisions that restrict how and when corporations and unions can take part in federal campaigns. Laws that impose similar limits in 24 states also are threatened.

The court first heard arguments in March in the case of whether "Hillary: The Movie," a scathingly critical look at Clinton's presidential ambitions, could be regulated as a campaign ad. The emphasis has shifted away from the 90-minute film.

Now the justices could decide whether corporations and unions should be treated differently from individuals when it comes to campaign spending. Restrictions on corporations have been around for more than 100 years; limits on unions date from the 1940s.

Deep corporate and labor pockets and the potential for corruption "amply justify treating corporate and union expenditures differently from those by individuals and ideological nonprofit groups," argued Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Russ Feingold, D-Wis., and other sponsors of a major campaign finance law who don't want any significant change to the restrictions.

But former Solicitor General Theodore Olson, who six years ago defended the campaign finance provision he now is challenging, said the limits are strangling corporate and union freedom to speak out.

"Why is it easier to dance naked, burn a flag or wear a T-shirt profanely opposing the draft," Olson said at a Federalist Society event in July, "than it is to advocate the election or defeat of a president? That cannot be right."

Wednesday's unusual session â€" the court only rarely orders a case to be reargued â€" also will be the first to include the newest justice, Sonia Sotomayor. In August, the 55-year-old New Yorker became the court's first Hispanic and third female justice ever.

It also will be the first argument for Solicitor General Elena Kagan, a finalist for the high court seat that went to Sotomayor. Yet another former solicitor general, Seth Waxman, is representing McCain and Feingold in an effort to preserve the 2003 provision that tightened limits on ads paid for by corporations and unions and broadcast close to an election.

Kagan, defending the law on the government's behalf, and Waxman will face skeptical conservative-leaning justices, who appear to hold the upper hand on this issue. The court's liberals generally have voted to uphold campaign finance laws. Sotomayor's ascension to the court did not change its ideological balance, giving opponents of the current campaign finance laws hope this court will strike them down.

The court could have decided the case narrowly following arguments on March 24. Instead, on the last day they met before their summer break, the justices said they would consider overruling part of their 2003 decision that upheld major portions of the McCain-Feingold law as well as a 1990 decision that upheld limits on corporate spending in elections.

Three justices on the court now â€" Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas â€" already have signed minority opinions that advocated striking down both laws as unconstitutional restrictions on speech. Since the 2003 decision, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito have joined the court. Both have questioned the validity of campaign finance laws, but have not yet gone as far as their three conservative-leaning colleagues.

Roberts and Alito made clear during the original arguments how much they worried about the control the campaign finance laws give government over political speech.

"If Wal-Mart airs an advertisement that says, 'We have candidate action figures for sale, come buy them,' that counts as an electioneering communication?" Roberts asked government lawyer Malcolm Stewart.

"If it's aired in the right place at the right time, that would be covered," Stewart said.

Stewart later added that campaign finance laws could be applied to mediums such as books and e-books. "That's pretty incredible," Alito said. "You think that if a book was published, a campaign biography that was the functional equivalent of express advocacy, that could be banned?"

Olson picked up on Alito's incredulity in his brief to the court. "Enough is enough. When the government of the United States of America claims the authority to ban books because of their political speech, something has gone terribly wrong and it is as sure a sign as any that a return to first principles is in order," he said.

Olson is representing Citizens United, a conservative not-for-profit group that wanted to air ads for the anti-Clinton movie and distribute it through video-on-demand services on local cable systems during the 2008 Democratic primary campaign.

But federal courts said the movie looked and sounded like a long campaign ad, and therefore should be regulated like one.

The justices could have decided the case on narrow grounds this year, saying for example that movies aired on-demand are exempt from campaign finance laws.

The call for new arguments to address the broader limits on corporate and union spending makes supporters of those laws nervous.

"This has the potential to unleash massive corporate spending," said Democracy 21 president Fred Wertheimer, a longtime proponent of limiting money in politics. "It would be a disaster for democracy."

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The case is Citizens United v. FEC, 08-205.

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On the Net:

"Hillary: The Movie": http://www.hillarythemovie.com

Federal Election Commission: http://www.fec.gov

Background on the case: http://tinyurl.com/cfltxp

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'The Final Destination' slashes Sandra Bullock's 'All About Steve' at ... - New York Daily News

Posted: 07 Sep 2009 01:34 AM PDT

By Jane H. Furse
Daily News Writer

Monday, September 7th 2009, 4:00 AM

Movie fans arrived at "The Final Destination" for a second straight week, putting the horror flick above Sandra Bullock's latest romantic comedy at the top of the Labor Day weekend box office.

The tale of terror earned $12.4 million during the three days beginning Friday, while "All About Steve," starring Bullock as a lovelorn crossword puzzle expert, followed with a disappointing $11.2 million.

"Inglourious Basterds" slipped to No. 3 with $10.8 million, making the three-week tally for Quentin Tarantino's World War II picture just $17 million short of the director's biggest film, "Pulp Fiction," which earned $108 million in 1994.

"Gamer" opened at No. 4 with $9 million, and "Extract," the other new release, checked in at No. 10 with just under $4.2 million.

"Gamer" is a thriller about real humans controlled by players in lethal games.

"Extract," starring Jason Bateman and Mila Kunis, is another workplace satire from "Office Space" director and "Beavis and Butt-Head" creator Mike Judge.

Labor Day box-office receipts were up 7% from last year as recession-hit Americans continued to flock to the movies for cheap fun.

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Michael Moore makes Venice fest premiere - Mydesert.com

Posted: 07 Sep 2009 12:58 AM PDT

VENICE, Italy — Michael Moore says his film "Capitalism: A Love Story" is dedicated to "good people ... who've had their lives ruined" by the quest for profit.

After much success at Cannes, Moore premieres the movie Sunday in his first appearance at the Venice Film Festival. It was warmly received at a press showing Saturday evening and won positive reviews. Variety called it one of Moore's "best pics."

"I am personally affected by good people who struggle, who work hard and who've had their lives ruined by decisions that are made by people who do not have their best interest at heart, but who have the best interest of the bottom line, of the company, at heart," Moore told reporters Sunday.

The film features plenty of examples of lives shattered by corporate greed — but also some inspiring tales of workers who have rebelled.

According to Moore, "the revolt you think I am calling for has actually begun. It began Nov. 4," when President Barack Obama was elected.

There is the Chicago glass and window company whose employees barricaded themselves to demand their pay after management laid off all 250 employees when the bank line of credit dried up.

On the side of greed, Moore tells the story of a privately-run juvenile detention center in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, that paid off judges to lock up juvenile offenders. One boy said he had done little more than throw a piece of meat at his mother's boyfriend during a fight at the dinner table, and a teenage girl's offense was making fun of her school's vice principal on a Myspace page.

The film is filled with classic Moore gimmicks, like wrapping crime scene tape around landmark banks and Wall Street institutions. And there is the expected Moore grandstanding as he tries to make citizen arrests of bank CEOs, not getting past the sometimes amused security guards at the main entrance. By now, everyone sees him coming and knows who he is.

Moore said he considered himself a proxy for the "millions of Americans who would like to be placing crime scene tape around Wall Street."

"Capitalism: A Love Story" is competing for the Golden Lion, which will be awarded Sept. 12.

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Movie review: 'Gamer' forgettable but fun - San Francisco Gate

Posted: 07 Sep 2009 02:03 AM PDT

The problem with the realistic visions of the future coming out of Hollywood is that they're all such a downer. Even when the plot involves giant insect-like aliens and a spaceship hovering over South Africa, the gritty details tend to hit close to home.

"Gamer" is a throwback to "The Running Man" school of filmmaking, when dystopian views of tomorrow were not created as a cautionary tale about global warming, but as a means to blow stuff up. This action movie, which didn't screen for critics, doesn't even belong in the same discussion with "District 9" or "Children of Men." It's a vehicle for sex, violence and over-the-top acting. This generation finally has its "Freejack."

Gerard Butler plays Kable, and let's hope he wasn't paid by the word. He starts the movie in some kind of real-life video game, where skinny teens control real-life death row prisoners in a reality show death match. No one in the world seems to have jobs - they spend every waking hour playing games that combine the Sims and prostitution. Meanwhile, an entrepreneur named Tom Castle (Michael C. Hall, who seems to be channeling Joe Francis from "Girls Gone Wild" fame) has entertained humanity to the point of near-enslavement.

If you're looking for subtlety, try somewhere else. (This week's animated apocalypse film "9" seems a lot more grounded in reality, and its protagonists are made out of burlap bags and watch parts.) You could write the rest of "Gamer" yourself, with its bold escapes, underground freedom fighters, double crosses, triple crosses and bizarre showdowns. It's everything you would expect - good and bad - from the directors who made "Crank: High Voltage."

This is a movie best enjoyed the less you think about it. In one sequence (a small spoiler ahead), Butler's character breaks out of prison in part by downing a fifth of Vodka, and then vomiting and urinating in a car with an empty tank. Granted, this is the near future. But even with the bailout, it's doubtful that anyone in Detroit is near completion of a puke-powered car.

That being said, the scene is cool. So are a lot of other parts of "Gamer," which uses too many quick-cut edits during the fight sequences but piles on enough action that you kind of get used to it. By the time the big finish arrives, directors Mark Neveldine and Mark Taylor don't even seem to be attempting to make sense. "Gamer" is almost instantly forgettable, but still kind of fun.

-- Advisory: This film contains sex, nudity, strong language, brutal violence and alternative fuel theories that definitely won't work at home.

ALERT VIEWER Gamer: Futuristic adventure. Starring Gerard Butler, Amber Valletta, Michael C. Hall and Chris "Ludacris" Bridges. Directed by Brian Taylor and Mark Neveldine. (R. 95 minutes. At Bay Area theaters.)

E-mail Peter Hartlaub at phartlaub@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page E - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

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Movie preview: Daddy Cool - Tonight South Africa

Posted: 07 Sep 2009 01:55 AM PDT

September 7, 2009

By Taran Adarsh

Daddy Cool

DIRECTOR: K Murali Mohan Rao

CAST: Suniel Shetty, Aarti Chhabria, Ashish Chowdhry, Tulip Joshi, Aftab Shivdasani, Kim Sharma, Javed Jaffrey, Sophie Choudry

DURATION: 120 minutes

CLASSIFICATION: PG13

RATING: *

Not every Hollywood flick can be adapted for a Bollywood audience. Also, the remake may not necessarily be as interesting as the original.

And that fact is made glaringly apparent when watching Daddy Cool, which is a Hindi clone of Death at a Funeral.

Barring a scene or two, this comedy is far from the riot promised in the promos. The concept appears more appropriate for a play; setting an entire film in one location is dull.

To be blunt, in trying so hard to get the audience to laugh, Daddy Cool falls flat on its face.

Also, the humour is crass and crude. Another pitfall is that comedy in Hindi movies these days is relegated to actors making faces on camera.

In Daddy Cool, the male cast are either showing off their underpants (Chunky Pandey), standing on a roof half-naked (Shivdasani) or removing their clothes to go to the toilet (Prem Chopra).

To fill one in on the plot; chaos erupts at the funeral of Douglas (Sharat Saxena) when the mourners finds themselves dealing with, among other things, drugs, romance, jealousy and a scandalous secret.

Rao, having displayed his competence in other projects, leaves one baffled this time. The hilarity is few and far between and the sub-plots flounder in mediocrity.

The climax is another conundrum, with missing links in several of the twists.

On the item scenes, you will only come across one at the start of the movie and one at the end.

Dialogue is feeble as is the screenplay. Despite the star casting of Shetty, Jaffery, Chowdhry, Pandey and Chopra, they are unable to salvage this comedy from failure.

Daddy Cool is devoid of the entertainment quotient it promised.

If you liked... Heyy Babyy, Phir Hera Pheri and One Two Three... you might enjoy this film.

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