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FOX News Channel’s “Half Hour News Hour”

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FOX News debuted a show a few weeks (months, really) ago called the Half Hour News Hour. It’s a right-wing take on the Daily Show, Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update, and the Colbert Report. The show has absolutely dominated its competition in its time slot on cable news. Yet it gets universally panned by critics.

Seems about right!

Listen folks, the hard truth of our world is that television programming is DOMINATED by programming from the far left and the liberal point of view. It just is. Anyone who watches Jon Stewart on the Daily Show and doesn’t think that the show has a huge liberal bend is just batty. And quite frankly, the humor that Jon Stewart spews is no more “factual” than the humor that the hosts on the Half Hour News Hour spew. Both shows tell fake news as real news, but only Stewart’s news is actually taken as fact by the brainwashed young masses…

And this is a fair blog – the AM dial is completely controlled by the right wing pundits, as is most talk radio. Do those hosts tell the complete truth? Well, sometimes, but they certainly have an agenda that they are pushing – that’s clear.

What I find really saddening about the media universally bashing this FOX News comedy show is that it proves things that the brainwashed masses just don’t want to admit. For example, this show is, in fact, a success and by NOT admitting that in their reporting, the major media sources show their anti-FOX bias. Remember, we’re not talking about the USA Network or network television channels like NBC or CBS where getting 1.4 million viewers is a miserable failure. This is a cable news channel. CABLE NEWS!

Make no mistake about it – to draw in numbers like that for a half hour comedy show is impressive and a huge success. But don’t expect to see that fact put out there in the mainstream media…that would ruin their obvious falsehood that the show is a failure for the right-wing and the FOX News Channel! If you want to watch a funny half hour of television, then check out the Half Hour News Hour. Is it the funniest 30 minutes on television? Absolutely not – check out Scrubs or the Office for that! But is it better than the 50+ “Bush is an idiot” jokes that you’ll get on the Daily Show and the “President Bush is Stupid” jokes you’ll get on Weekend Update?

Absolutely. And don’t believe just me – the numbers speak for themselves!

DVD Review: Dead Silence (Unrated)

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Who doesn’t love a good horror movie? And who doesn’t think that wooden marionettes with their big bulbous eyes aren’t creepy? Same goes for creepy looking clowns (see below)! I had the opportunity to review a pre-released version of Dead Silence this weekend and I have to say that I enjoyed it. Now, I’m not the biggest fan of horror movies mainly because I feel there are too many swerves, but Dead Silence mixed great acting with an interesting story tied together by a family curse. Really good stuff here, folks.

In talking about this movie, first things first: Ryan Kwanten does an AWESOME job as Jamie Ashen, the main character of the film (pictured to the left). The movie starts with Kwanten undergoing a huge family loss (his wife is killed) – his search for answers occupies the remainder of the film. As you soon find out, he has been pegged as the main suspect in his wife’s death and he’s out to prove himself innocent. A lot of the suspense and drama in the film are the sole result of Kwanten’s performances. His facial expressions and deep breathing make one of the early scenes in a hotel room especially creepy. Many of the scenes actually show Kwanten with only a wooden doll to share the scene with. Being able to pull good performances out of a wooden co-star is pretty spectacular! Good job!

Also in this movie is former New Kid on the Block, Donnie Wahlberg. It is interesting that Donnie plays a detective since his brother, Mark Wahlberg, just got done playing a detective in the “Departed.” Regardless of what you thought about Mark’s performance, Donnie is just as good if not better in some respects in his role as Det. Jim Lipton in “Dead Silence.” I was pleasantly surprised by Donnie’s acting acumen.

Now this may sound weird, but one of the best features of this film was the camera work and the set design. I mean it was just magnificent. Good job to the director and production team all around. The camera work really did a great job of enhancing the suspense and drama of the movie and that’s a hard thing to accomplish.

The DVD also comes with some “extras” including an alternate opening and alternate ending as well as some commentary from the filmmakers. Just like everyone else out there, I like seeing a little something extra after a movie is over and these features along with the deleted scenes did not disappoint. And for you uber nerds out there, one of the extras is a timeline of how one scene goes from a CGI graphic to an actual scene in the movie – pretty interesting stuff, really.

The cover art on the box of the DVD says, “You Scream. You Die.” Such is the curse of Mary Shaw (Mary Shaw is the hottie in the photo above) – but why is the curse in existence? Who does it effect? How can it be stopped? How do Kwanten and Wahlberg all fit into this horror movie? Well folks, Dead Silence comes out on DVD this Tuesday, July 26th.

I highly recommend getting your hands on a copy of this film and giving it a whirl one night. But before you do that, go to the top of this post and click on the movie’s official website – it’s pretty creepy and very well done. My favorite part of the site is the Dumm-E Mail you can send people. The people who are promoting this film sent me one and it’s pretty damn freaky (then again, I think that marionettes and clowns are scary as hell anyway). Once again, go out and get a copy of this movie – you won’t be disappointed!

Movie Review: Knocked Up

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One thing you learn from this movie is that Seth Rogen is absolutely hilarious. This movie is brilliant! I found myself laughing nonstop throughout the entire movie and not just because of Seth Rogen, but the entire cast is masterful at comedy.

This is a movie about a go-nowhere guy who literally “knocks up” a correspondent for E! Television after a drunken night at some club. Now sure, getting drunk and having sex that leads to unplanned pregnancies isn’t a funny topic, but th way it plays out on screen is perfect. If you’re trying to think what type of humor you’ll be in for if you check out Knocked Up, think the 40 Year Old Virgin. Lots of innuendo and lots of very creative comments that are spoken underneath the regular dialogue in the scenes.

What I like about Seth Rogen is that he is the everyday funny guy. If you’re a guy, he’s the friend that – when everyone is hanging out together – he makes all of the funny comments that some people hear and some people don’t. And he uses intelligent humor, too. At the movie theater, I was sitting in front of three completely unruly, nasty, poorly behaved teenage girls (more on this in an upcoming post) and Rogen is on screen making some joke about Star Wars and cracking jokes about a lot of 80’s sub-pop culture things and these idiots are sitting behind me saying, “Huh? What? What does that mean?”

He’s a witty guy and this is a witty movie.

I would suggest paying particular attention to the Cirque du Soleil which is absolutely hilarious. In fact, the entire part of the movie that takes place in Las Vegas is pure comedic gold.

While Rogen is good, he has a great cast working with him. Katherine Heigl (the woman that Rogen knocks up), Leslie Mann (her aging sister), and Paul Rudd (the sister’s husband) are all perfect for their roles. Their timing is on point in every scene and the interaction between Rogen and Rudd is very reminiscent of the 40 Year Old Virgin. In fact, I kept thinking of the deleted Virgin scene where these two have their, “You know how I know you’re gay?” dialogue.

Something also needs to be said for Kristen Wiig who has a small part in this movie. Wiig plays one of the folks at E! Television who is always in on Mann’s meetings when she is talking to her boss. If Wiig made you laugh on Saturday Night Live, then she’ll make you laugh so hard that you cry in Knocked Up – she is awesome at this part! Her role is that unbelieving female co-worker who is very upfront about her negative feelings, but in a “matter of fact” kind of a way.

One line that I thought was funny was when Mann’s boss was telling her to lose weight without actually saying it. Wiig is sitting next to Mann and says in a very subdued, under her breath, Valley Girl type of way, “Just imagine if you went home and weighed yourself, and then subtracted like 20 pounds from that – you should come back weighing that.”

The entire theater cracked up at that point!

All in all, this is a movie that I highly suggest seeing in the movie theater. I also want to say that about a year and a half ago I stopped buying DVDs because they’re just too damn expensive. Sure, I’ve purchased one or two since then, but that’s no where near as many as I was purchasing at one point (a few each week). Now this movie – THIS is a movie that I will definitely buy on DVD when it is released! I’ll even spend the extra few dollars and get the super duper version.

If you’re looking for a great, modern comedy – this movie is for you!

Book Review: The Rumsfeld Way

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Before you political extremists go bonkers and immediately write off this book review as either the ramblings of a neo-conservative or a pantywaist liberal, understand that I read this book from neither of these viewpoints! And before you poo-poo this book, you should know when and from what viewpoint it was written.

This is a book that looks at management style through the scope of the Gerald Ford Administration, Rumsfeld’s time at Searle, and his immediate reaction after September 11th. In these views (the book was published in 2002, so it’s not anywhere near current), Rumsfeld was a master manager and a brilliant human strategist.

And the truth is that when it comes to being a Chief Executive Officer, Rumsfeld is truly a master. The work he did in the Ford White House alone is the stuff of political maneuvering legend – when you add his amazing job as the CEO of Searle pharmaceuticals, this man and his style really becomes required reading for any MBA course. Much of this book talks about his time at Searle – and he did some amazing things there.

For those of you that don’t know, this is the company that created NutraSweet – the saccharin replacement for sugar. It was a mega hit in the 1980’s when it finally hit the market, but it might have never gotten there if it wasn’t for Rumsfeld’s restructuring of the company internally. This was a company that was moping along under the tri-management of two Searle brothers and a brother-in-law and was at odds with the FDA over approving NutraSweet.

So what did Rumsfeld do? He walked in there and reorganized the company so that there was a central command and so that they took the offensive against the FDA. And they won. Also, he hired experts in their fields and ignited the company’s research and development arm as well as their financial arm.

And when things didn’t work? He cut losses and sold off nonperforming assets. Wow! Where was this guy a few years ago with Iraq? But I digress…

For those of you who are interested in looking at a management style (and getting a book out of the $3 rack at Barnes and Noble), I suggest grabbing a copy of The Rumsfeld Way. It’s an interesting look at a guy who should be remembered in a much better light in American history, but sadly will not be after the mistakes of the last few years.

Good book – good read.

Another Reason Why America’s Media is Ruining Our Nation

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Many of you may have heard the following terms thrown around in the last few years when media pundits discuss America’s newspapers, radios, and cable and network news broadcasts: left-wing media bias, conservative talk radio, liberal slant, right-wing commentators…

America has a serious problem with its media sources and unless the people come together to fight this garbage, we’re in for some bad times. You see, the media has grown to help frame the world-at-large for the public. This is true for all aspects of the world from international wars to local trade to elections and more. Listening to the Democratic and Republican debates on CNN this week and reading the New York Times this morning made something abundantly clear – the upcoming Presidential race is NOT being framed in any meaningful manner by many of America’s media sources.

Example: This morning in the New York Times, a piece ran on the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy currently enforced by the United States military. The piece focused on the two drastically different responses given by the Republican and Democratic candidates. Every Democrat raised his or her hand that they would repeal the current policy and let gays and lesbians serve openly. Every Republican candidate did NOT raise his hand when asked if they would repeal the policy.

From the New York Times:

The issue flared anew because it came up in this week’s debates, not because of any big new campaign initiative on either side. But aside from policy considerations, there is a political rationale for the Democrats’ stance: Gay men and lesbians make up an important part of the Democratic Party’s political and fund-raising base, and voters in general are increasingly tolerant on gay issues related to employment and discrimination, analysts say. While gay marriage remains deeply divisive, allowing openly gay men and lesbians to serve in time of war has a far more centrist appeal, advocates and analysts say.

This newspaper, which is quickly becoming irrelevant on many issues that the majority of Americans care about, managed to pump out a 1,000+ word article on this “issue” which it readily admits is not a major one for this campaign. Well then why did you waste your time and effort on this crap, New York Times? Better yet – why did the idiots at CNN decide to throw this question into their debate when there are MUCH more pressing issues in America today?

What issues are more pressing? How about the fact that FEMA is a bigger disaster than some of the natural disasters it is sent to clean up?! There was not one question in the entire Republican or Democratic debates about how the candidates would have handled the clean-up of a natural disaster the size and scope of Katrina.

But the lunatics at CNN ask about gays in the military? And we’re supposed to believe that they’re not being pressured to ask these ridiculous, completely-out-of-touch with reality questions by far-left extremists? Give me a break.

And the entire issue is one that many homosexuals could care less about. Sure, they’d like to openly serve in the military, but good Lord – they’re serving the country right NOW! You don’t see straight soldiers demanding that they be allowed to define their sexuality. You know why? Because it has absolutely NOTHING to do with the job at hand!

CNN making this an issue – and the New York Times covering it – pushes these two once-mighty media establishments deeper into the abyss.