Re Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers' HYPNOTIC EYE.

As of this writing, I've heard just about all of the new, hyped as return-to-form, album HYPNOTIC EYE from Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers.  Yes, it's an improvement over the marinated-in-blues predecessor MOJO--but it's not the artistic and musical rejuvenation Bruce Springsteen had with MAGIC and R.E.M. had with ACCELERATE.

Petty has been on the Warner Bros. family of labels for about twenty years now.  And it's one of those times when one can actually feel empathy for the corporate bean-counters instead of the truculent artist.  I'm guessing that there are many times when WB recording executives have heard Tom Petty say variations of "I have nothing left to prove and my fan base will follow me wherever I go."

Here's my evaluation of the last twenty years of Tom Petty:
Only "essential" Heartbreakers collection; the LIVE RECORDINGS boxset.
"Essential" solo album: WILDFLOWERS (receiving an expanded reissue later this year)
Worthwhile "one for me" project: the MUDCRUTCH album.

Time Warner apparently wants CNN to get stupider.

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/oscars/2012/08/cnn-reality-shows-talk-shows-makeover

Guessing that CNN is preparing for what looks to be economic austerity in the USA circa 2013 (regardless of who wins the White House), by lots of cheap chattering opinion shows plus greater doses of fake-reality series.

Warner Bros. moves GANGSTER SQUAD to a 2013 release date.

Apparently extra time is needed
not only to cut out the machine-guns-in-movie-theater scene, but also to get cast/crew together to shoot additional scenes:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/sns-rt-us-gangstersquad-changesbre86o1jd-20120725,0,2474185.story

James Holmes and Wayne LaPierre: Time for the NRA to take gun control seriously.

At this writing, it looks like the usual sensitivity-driven response to the horrific rampage of James Holmes in Aurora, Coloarado will take place: both major Presidential candidates will express their empathy with the victims; Warner Bros. is pulling THE DARK KNIGHT RISES TV ads--plus the trailer for GANGSTER SQUAD, which includes a machine-gunning-in-movie-theater scene derivative of a portion of the climax of INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (UPDATE 7/23/12: The movie theater scene from GANGSTER SQUAD will be removed, prompting some additional filming before its September 7 release date); theater chains will increase security for safety of opening weekend patrons; calls for gun control will increase; politicians will do absolutely nothing to offend Wayne LaPierre and the National Rifle Association.

But perhaps in a small way, it's time to have a left-and-right-meet-at-center compromise on gun control.  People from both major political parties must sit down with Mr. LaPierre and his lobbying legions and convince him that--at the very least--the Clinton-era ban on assault weapons needs to be reinstated, as well as closing the infamous loophole making it too easy to buy weapons at gun shows without background checks.  If the NRA continues to be unyielding on protecting every kind of gun ownership, then, essentially, it's in passive collusion with James Holmes' crimes of last night--including the brutal shooting of children.

This isn't "taking away the guns" of responsible, everyday nonpsychopathic gun owners--who don't need or want assault rifles.  It's a necessary action to prevent future tragedies of this scale--something that both conservatives and liberals/progressives should find common ground on.

Some random opinions following today's news about Anderson Cooper.

1. Regardless of timing, it's commendable that CNN's Anderson Cooper decided to join his lesser-known colleague Don Lemon (who came out awhile ago) and declare himself proudly gay in both his public and private lives.
2. The irony remains that Cooper works for an organization (Time Warner) which still is a prime mover in keeping certain gay celebrities tightly closeted--and publishing "he/she is straight with his/her supposedly-straight lover/spouse" fantasies for their print/web readership.
3. No comment about the Tom Cruise/Katie Holmes divorce (of which a settlement has now been reached--announced Monday July 9th), except to say that it's interesting that it shares the same news cycle as Anderson Cooper's coming-out e-mail to THE ATLANTIC's Andrew Sullivan.
4. Regarding Number 3, it's safe to say that most closeted thespians will remain that way (as Time Warner's ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY recently mentioned in a cover story, male celebs who are out aren't likely to be cast in straight romantic mainstream movies--or, likely, superhero/fantasy/action franchises, reinforcing a decades-old casting prejudice of the motion picture business)--unless they're outed or choose to out themselves late in their careers when their better days as money-earners in the Industry are behind them.

On seeing GREEN LANTERN in 2-D in a mostly empty theater.

Random thoughts on GREEN LANTERN 2-D (I try to avoid movies where 3-D is only added in post-production) in no specific order:
1. Blake Lively should be campaigining to be part of Warren Beatty's just-announced Howard Hughes project; believe me, she needs the career boost.
2. Ryan Reynolds tries for a fusion of his old frat-boy persona, his newer twinkly/bemused romantic leading man persona and a bit of the old Tom Cruise-circa-TOP GUN schtick.  Bradley Cooper could have given a better performance with one hand tied behind his back and dragging around an anvil chained to his left foot.
3. No, GREEN LANTERN's not as terrible as some reviews indicate  But for an alleged $200 million superhero franchise-starter apparently shot in Louisiana to Save Money, it's pretty underwhelming--particularly so when you consider that Martin Campbell (who revived James Bond with both Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig) directed it.
4. Some quick shoutouts to Peter Sarsgaard (doing a fusion of John Waters and John Malkovich), Tim Robbins, Mark Strong and Geoffrey Rush (imitating Alec Guinness-as-Obi-Wan) for doing professional, keep-the-ship-sailing work.

Sara Gilbert and the Hollywood Closet.

http://www.popeater.com/2010/07/29/sara-gilbert-gay/

Sort of a fascinating article if one reads it carefully--especially coming from a Time Warner media outlet which, in certain cases, keeps selling likely-gay celebs as straight.

Maybe we'll be less homophobic as a society in the next decade and learn to accept actors' sexuality without making them feel they have to go through the "I don't talk about my private life though the Industry knows I'm gay" lay-down-ground-rules ritual with the press.

Why I haven't rushed out to big-studio summer movies yet.

Perhaps it's age--and perhaps it's also witnessing coming-attractions trailers. But I haven't been persuaded to invest time and admission money in slavish remakes of either THE A-TEAM (from the once-promising Joe NARC Carnahan) or THE KARATE KID (which at least proves that old showbiz legend Jerry Weintraub--who helped birth the original franchise--is someone you should never bet against).

But the cut-cut-cut-costs and play it safe-safe-safe methodology of the studios (one would think that Jeff Robinov would have been 86ed from Time Warner by now) seem to be biting them in the posterior--with Pixar craftsmanship (although with the recent Pixar tendency towards overlength) and Christopher Nolan imagination likely to be the only real offsets to a likely red-ink corporate moviemaking bottom line this summer.

In terms of the big-release summer films I have seen, here's some random opinionating:
The Cronenberg-esque SPLICE (about two-thirds of an engrossing film) would have been better off being distrubuted by IFC or Magnolia on a specialty theater/pay-per-view platform. For WB to throw it out (in the US) on a 2000-screen basis left it to laughed at by mass audience hyenas who wanted copious amounts of blood and dismemberment and less of a thoughtful update of the time-honored morality play about scientists playing God at their peril.
GET HIM TO THE GREEK was a superior Nicholas Stoller-directed Judd Apatow outing to FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL--with the same crack teamwork of Russell Brand and Jonah Hill. Unfortunately, anything emerging from the Apatow banner has to display a pandering, faux-MORK AND MINDY morality (still remembering Robin Williams being stuck with the what-I've-learned "Mork calling Orson" tags to each episode) that is becoming increasingly awkward with every Apatow-based outing. So, if you haven't seen GREEK already, expect a have-it-every-possible-way approach to the subjects of sex and drug use.
Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe's ROBIN HOOD was stupidly dumped on by mainstream critics who apparently expected Errol Flynn heroics and zest. But the 2010 version had enough action and humor--and fortunately didn't espouse the dourness and nihilism of Richard Lester and James Goldstone's 1976 ROBIN AND MARIAN (which ended with the deaths of the two protagonists). But contemporary critics/reviewers (e.g. the usually astute Karina Longworth) shrieked as if the Scott film was an exact clone of Lester's earlier (and semi-forgotten) outing.

Warner Bros. bundling its DVD-on-demand archive selections.

It's an attempt to increase sales of DVDs-on-demand, but Warner Brothers' home video campaign devoted to "bundling" a set of DVDs (Cary Grant films, for example) for half the price of buying them at regular rates is worth looking into:
http://www.wbshop.com/Bundles/WACBUNDLE,default,sc.html?adid=WACBndlEml

I've bought a handful of DVDs from the Warner Archive (including a couple of hard-to-find Garbo silents). It's a good consumer service that deserves to escape death-by-economic recession.

The tabloidization of AOL continues: re Alec Baldwin.

Here's a headline on AOL's Welcome Page:
ALEC BALDWIN PICKS A FIGHT
Here's the subheading:
Testy Actor Slams TV Anchor, Calls Her Too 'Cutesy'

Reality Check: Baldwin referred to MSNBC's Rachel Maddow. And here's the quote from the article: On Rachel Maddow: "She is smart and charming but her writers are dreadful and the less cutesy she is, the better. She did an excellent interview with Colin Powell recently. The next night, I missed that tougher, less avuncular Rachel."

[The full article can be found at: http://www.popeater.com/movies/article/baldwin-peppers-msnbc-with-friendly-fire/423073?icid=mainhtmlws-maindl5link3http%3A%2F%2Fwww.popeater.com%2Fmovies%2Farticle%2Fbaldwin-peppers-msnbc-with-friendly-fire%2F423073]

Alec Baldwin does have a valid, nonarguable point: MSNBC does seem to want Ms. Maddow to fulfill the smile-every-few-words requirement now determined as appropriate for acceptable television hosting/anchoring (another example: Ben Lyons' near-constant grin--witnessed the last time I made myself sit through AT THE MOVIES).

To be fair, I haven't watched an entire episode of THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW in recent weeks. But I hope the smirky pop-culture-explanation final segment has been put in cement shoes and thrown into the East River.

Verdict: The folks at Time Warner, in order to get AOL visitors to Click The Link, are guilty--yet again--of inflating a not-that-momentous story into a Man Bites Dog extravaganza.

Warner Brothers likely to get even more safe post-WATCHMEN.

[NOTE: The post below is to be read strictly for entertainment value. Irresponsible behavior is not encouraged.]

It's a reasonably safe guess that you, the reader of this blog entry, could conceivably make a prank call to Warner Brothers in the guise of a talent agent or producer. And you could even talk yourself into a chance at securing a meeting to pitch either a superhero project (preferably DC) or an adaptation of a self-help book or even a remake of an in-house property. Maybe you could say something like: "I know exactly how to make WONDER WOMAN a durable four-quadrant franchise."

With the box office underperformance of WATCHMEN (an uneven--sometimes effective, sometimes ubersilly--film which was probably the best attempt at ultra-adult comic book fare since the original, and definitely superior, ROBOCOP in 1987), it's safe to say that Alan Horn and the good folks of WB will be even more tippy-toe careful in what they greenlight in the future (another bellwether of whether "edginess", even the manageable budget variety, gets more chances to be bankable at Warners: the box office performance of the reportedly-megaraunchy OBSERVE AND REPORT with Seth Rogen and Anna Faris--opening next month).

At this point, potential pranksters could consider pitching WB on a PG-13 comedy adaptation of the 70s self-help book I'M OK, YOU'RE OK--and suggest Rainn Wilson as a hippieish 70s Marin County shrink who gets cryogenically frozen and thawed out in the late 2000s.

The cynic in me thinks that Alan Horn and Jeff Robinov would pay top dollar for such a pitch.

And, don't forget, the 70s sex manual JOY OF SEX came very close to getting made at Paramount in the early 80s as a vehicle for John Belushi. (It did get produced a few years later as a low-budgeter directed by Martha Coolidge and starring quirky cult-actress Michelle Meyrink. And it flopped.)

Safe to guess that lightning could strike twice.