plus 4, Movie musical based on serial killer who inspired 'Psycho' debuts - Chicago Tribune

Movie musical based on serial killer who inspired 'Psycho' debuts - Chicago Tribune
Flixster Buys Movie Ratings Site Rotten Tomatoes - NASDAQ
Billboard model Angelyne suing movie companies for copyright ... - 89.3 KPCC
Movie Review: 'Sherlock Holmes' - Hutchinson Daily Leader
'Avatar': Why do conservatives hate the most popular movie in years? - Democratic Underground.com

Movie musical based on serial killer who inspired 'Psycho' debuts - Chicago Tribune

Posted: 05 Jan 2010 10:53 PM PST

MENASHA, Wis. - An Appleton company is finished making the movie, "Ed Gein: The Musical" and it will soon be in Wisconsin theaters.

Gein is the murderer and 1950s Plainfield grave robber whose story inspired the movie "Psycho." The feature-length movie is directed by Steve Russell and stars Dan Davies as the title character.

The musical/comedy made its big-screen debut Saturday at the

University of Wisconsin-Fox Valley Communication Arts Center in Menasha. It plays off several popular songs, as Elvis Presley's "All Shook Up" became "All Cooked Up" and "The Sound of Music's" "My Favorite Things" turned into "My Demented Things."

Assistant director Jason Buss hopes the word-of-mouth from the debut will propel the film forward.

The filmmakers expect it to be in theaters across the state soon, followed by a DVD release.

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Information from: Oshkosh Northwestern, http://www.thenorthwestern.com

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Flixster Buys Movie Ratings Site Rotten Tomatoes - NASDAQ

Posted: 05 Jan 2010 06:18 AM PST

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

Movie social-network site producer Flixster Inc. has bought popular movie- ratings site Rotten Tomatoes from IGN Entertainment, a division of News Corp. ( NWSA).

Financial terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

News Corp. owns Dow Jones & Co., publisher of this newswire and The Wall Street Journal.

Flixster said the two sites will continue to be available to Web-goers as individual properties. Combined, Flixster and Rotten Tomatoes reach an estimated 30 million monthly visitors worldwide across several Web platforms --their sites, other social-networking sites and applications for mobile devices.

Together, they will have a database of more than 250,000 movies, 2.3 billion user reviews, half a million critic reviews and more than 20,000 trailers and videos.

"Rotten Tomatoes has built a fantastically well-known brand that moviegoers trust when making their decisions. Combined with Flixster's social networking and word-of-mouth, we're creating the leading movie destination on the Internet, " said Flixster President and Chief Operating Officer Steve Polsky.

The deal comes as IGN works to refocus its efforts to build out its portfolio of video game-related and men's-lifestyle offerings.

Before the acquisition, Flixster and Rotten Tomatoes had partnered in several areas, including a recent agreement that syndicated Rotten Tomatoes' reviews to Flixster's online community.

Shares of News Corp., the publisher of this newswire, were up 2.3% in recent trading to $16.29 amid a broad market rally to start 2010.

-By Nathan Becker, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2855; nathan.becker@ dowjones.com;

 (END) Dow Jones Newswires 01-04-101328ET Copyright (c) 2010 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

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Billboard model Angelyne suing movie companies for copyright ... - 89.3 KPCC

Posted: 04 Jan 2010 08:46 PM PST

"At no time has Angelyne authorized any of the defendants to reproduce, adapt or distribute any image containing her copyrighted billboard for use in the `Notorious' motion picture," according to the complaint.

As a result of the billboard's use in the film, Angelyne claims she has suffered "loss of reputation and standing in the community," the lawsuit contends.

The suit seeks not less than $100,000 in damages.

Her image is iconic. The use of the billboard shot was just to show LA glitz and glamor and Angelyne typifies that....she gets paid.

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Movie Review: 'Sherlock Holmes' - Hutchinson Daily Leader

Posted: 05 Jan 2010 08:06 AM PST

It's not often that I leave a movie with mixed feelings, but that's how I felt when I left "Sherlock Holmes." I love Robert Downey Jr. That said, I'm not sure that I love his Sherlock Holmes. Jude Law was more acceptable as Dr. Watson.

My uncertainty comes from my own enthusiasm for Sherlock Holmes. I've read all the stories and books written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Based on that, Holmes is already in my head. I realized later that I was comparing Downey's performance to what I knew. Was it fair? Probably not. My sister, who has never read any of the Sherlock Holmes stories, loved the movie. I can see why. Downey's a great actor. Any character he plays is worth watching — provided you have no preconceived notions.

If you're unfamiliar with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's version of Sherlock Holmes, this movie is pure fun. The writing is clever with great banter between Holmes and Watson and Holmes and Irene Adler. The villian is scary enough -- Lord Blackwood. There's plenty of fight scenes and lots of explosions. Everything is set for a sequel, too, so look for Sherlock Holmes 2 in the future.

Bottomline, go to this movie with an open mind.

(Kay Johnson is a staff writer for the Leader. She can be reached at johnson@hutchinsonleader.com.)

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'Avatar': Why do conservatives hate the most popular movie in years? - Democratic Underground.com

Posted: 05 Jan 2010 11:19 AM PST

It's no secret that "Avatar" has been stunningly successful on nearly every front. The James Cameron-directed sci-fi epic is already the fourth-highest-grossing film of all time, having earned more than $1 billion around the globe in less than three weeks of theatrical release. The film also has garnered effusive praise from critics, who've been planting its flag on a variety of critics Top 10 lists (it has earned an impressive 83 score on Rotten Tomatoes). The 3-D trip to Pandora is also viewed as a veritable shoo-in for a best picture Oscar nomination when the academy announces its nominees on Feb. 2.

But amid this avalanche of praise and popularity, guess who hates the movie? America's prickly cadre of political conservatives.

For years, pundits and bloggers on the right have ceaselessly attacked liberal Hollywood for being out of touch with rank and file moviegoers, complaining that executives and filmmakers continue to make films that have precious little resonance with Middle America. They have reacted with scorn to such high-profile liberal political advocacy films as "Syriana," "Milk," "W.," "Religulous," "Lions for Lambs," "Brokeback Mountain," "In the Valley of Elah," "Rendition" and "Good Night, and Good Luck," saying that the movies' poor performance at the box office was a clear sign of how thoroughly uninterested real people were in the pet causes of showbiz progressives.

Of course, "Avatar" totally turns this theory on its head. As a host of critics have noted, the film offers a blatantly pro-environmental message; it portrays U.S. military contractors in a decidedly negative light; and it clearly evokes the can't-we-all-get along vibe of the 1960s counterculture. These are all messages guaranteed to alienate everyday moviegoers, so say the right-wing pundits -- and yet the film has been wholeheartedly embraced by audiences everywhere, from Mississippi to Manhattan.

To say that the film has evoked a storm of ire on the right would be an understatement. Big Hollywood's John Nolte, one of my favorite outspoken right-wing film essayists, blasted the film, calling it "a sanctimonious thud of a movie so infested with one-dimensional characters and PC cliches that not a single plot turn, large or small, surprises.... Think of 'Avatar' as 'Death Wish' for leftists, a simplistic, revisionist revenge fantasy where if you freakin' hate the bad guys (America) you're able to forgive the by-the-numbers predictability of it all."

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/the_big_picture/2010/01...

LOVE IT!

:rofl:

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