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December 2 - 8 Newsletter

I’m not too sure why but until late last week I had never heard the term Black Friday and when I did I thought that it was in reference to the stock market having a bad day. But since I heard this term used on Wednesday I figured out that wasn’t it. In case anyone out there is as clueless as myself, Black Friday is the name of the day after the American Thanksgiving, when the Christmas shopping season officially begins. The term Black Friday originated in Philadelphia in reference to bad traffic on that day. It also has been used to describe merchants whose profits are in the black for the holidays. Why am I boring you with this, you ask? In keeping with the holiday spirit a clerk at a Wal-Mart was trampled to death in Valley Stream, NY on Black Friday as a large crowd, many of whom had been camping out since 2am, broke through the glass doors just before the 5am opening. Trampled to death! Guess that the loogans just had to bust in there and get their TV’s or popcorn makers or wedding dresses or whatever it is that Wal-Mart sells. Out of my way, there’s batteries on sale! The crowd also refused to leave the checkout lines when the police made the tragedy a crime scene. A pregnant woman was also hospitalized in the melee. And in California 2 idiots shot each other in a Toys-R-US. Nothing says Christmas like a good shooting or trampling.

New Releases for Tuesday December 2

Book of Revelation - Australian erotic (not two words often heard together) mystery about a guy who’s abducted and sexually abused and tortured by three women.

Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian - Second part of the trilogy of the Lord of the Rings light film series. Also on Blu-Ray.

Crosby Stills Nash and Young: Deja Vu - Concert film helmed by Old Creaky (Young) with all of his curmudgeon buddies.

Fly Me to the Moon - Animated kiddie fare in 3-D has some flies going to the moon or something.

Home Sick - A maniac with a suitcase full of razor-blades unleashes a super human killer upon a group of kids in a small Alabama town. Jeeze, all I have in my suitcase is a banana and an egg salad sandwich. Word has it that this is a totally fun crazy B-Horror slasher extravaganza. Enjoy.

Kiss Attack - No idea what this is except from a description on the Internets - the first ever erotic action vampire film. Sounds naughty for those of us who like the naughty.

Metalocalypse 2 - More animated fun from Adult Swim follows the heavy metal outfit Dethklok as they do what they do. Whatever that may be.

Primeval - British TV series follows some scientists and the like as they try to track down dinosaurs that have made there way into present day England via some sort of time portal. As a dinosaur nerd myself I must say that this one looks interesting. Hope that there is lots of good eating.

Rise of the Footsoldier - British Goodfellas wanna be film set against the backdrop of football culture and the rave scene in the late 80’s. Again, if there were as many gangsters in real life as there are in film/TV we’d all be in gang bangers.

Step Brothers - Another tired Will Farrell comedy. This time around he’s a 40 year old loser who gets another 40 year old loser (Reed Rothchild from Boogie Nights) as a stepbother. I wanted to like this film but there is just too much juvenile bathroom humour. Like come on, how many testicle rubbing on the drum set/eating dog shit jokes can one take? Also on Blu-Ray.

Wanted - A frustrated office worker learns that he is the son of a professional assassin, and that he shares his father’s superhuman killing abilities. I wish I had superhuman killing abilities. Mine are just so pedestrian. Stars Angelina Joie and some tattoos. Directed by the guy who made the cool Russian flicks

Nightwatch, Daywatch and the forthcoming Twilight Watch. Also on Blu-Ray.

X-Files: I Want to Believe - I want to believe this is good but from most accounts that I’ve heard it is just the opposite. With all of the time since the series expired why couldn’t they have made this better than an average episode? Maybe Duchovny and his over-sexed loins wanted to turn it into some sort of sex romp or erotic action vampire film. Also on Blu-Ray.

Coming the following week…

The Dark Knight
Horton Hears a Who
Lost Season 4
Man on a Wire
Mister Foe
River Queen

Old Stuff just in….

Baby Blood
The Black Cauldron
Bukowski Live: There’s Gonna be a God Damn Riot in Here!
The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith
The Devil’s Playground
LA Confidential - Blu-Ray
One of our Aircraft is Missing
Poltergeist - Blu-Ray
Story of O - Blu- Ray

Movie News and Notes…

Bruno Heller, creator of the TV series Rome is hoping to make a big screen adaptation of the acclaimed series. Here’s what he has to say…
“I discovered halfway through writing the second season the show was going to end,” Heller said. “The second was going to end with death of Brutus. Third and fourth season would be set in Egypt. Fifth was going to be the rise of the messiah in Palestine. But because we got the heads-up that the second season would be it, I telescoped the third and fourth season into the second one, which accounts for the blazing speed we go through history near the end. There’s certainly more than enough history to go around.”

The same goes for Arrested Development. When asked about it, here’s what Opie had to say…”
Yeah, we’re closer than ever. Mitch [Hurwitz] is really focused on it, the cast seems really interested, the studio [Fox Searchlight] seems to be on board, and God know they’ve got a narrator who’s just chomping at the bit. [laughs] So we don’t have a script yet, but we all want it and we want it to be good. We’re pushing in that direction and all really pushing together for the first time in ages. So, I think we’ve got a very good chance of it happening.

Those are two quality series that I for one wouldn’t mind seeing more of.

For those of you waiting to see The Hobbit on the big screen, you’ll have to wait a few more years. Seems filming doesn’t commence until 2010 and will take over a year to shoot.

Black Dog’s site/clips of the week…

Looking for a new exercise regiment? What to blow out your lats and quads? Look no further…

Why is the auto industry in the crisis that they are in at the moment? A little look back at its history might shed some light on the matter…

And from the Onion comes a fun article about long lost projects some are hoping to see the light of day…

A dead Bruce Lee shilling for Nokia cameras!

In case anyone was wondering how far W’s popularity has fallen all over the globe watch this video…

Black Dog’s celebrity mug - shot of the week…

The Thunderdome eh? Two tennis players enter, on tennis player leaves!

Tennis legend Jimmy Connors was arrested in November 2008 after he allegedly refused to comply with a police order to leave an area outside a California arena. Connors, 56, was nabbed outside Santa Barbara’s Thunderdome, where the top-ranked University of North Carolina basketball team was facing UC Santa Barbara. Connors was busted by the university police and booked into the Santa Barbara County jail, where the below mug shot was snapped.