Commentary: Starship Troopers is Not a Satire

Starship Troopers / Sony Pictures

The militaristic, quasi-authoritarian society portrayed in the 1997 science fiction film Starship Troopers is obviously superior to our contemporary gay liberal “democracy.” For this reason, the film fails as satire. The film’s supposed attempt to lampoon the audience’s instinctual gravitation towards strength, beauty, and nobility backfires.

Two and a half decades later, Starship Troopers continues to reveal how moralistic, stupid, and tasteless the modern left really is. Liberals cannot make good liberal art. In fact, such a thing does not exist. All liberal art, at its core, is ham-handed propaganda. When leftists do make good art, it is in spite of their ideological commitments, not because of them.

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Tennessee Faith and Freedom Coalition Responds to the Rolling Stone’s Attack Piece on ‘Sound of Freedom’ Movie

The Tennessee Faith & Freedom Coalition (TNFFC) released a statement Saturday responding to a piece published by Rolling Stone magazine reviewing the newly-released movie Sound of Freedom.

The magazine’s piece, titled, “‘Sound Of Freedom’ Is a Superhero Movie for Dads With Brainworms,” describes the film as a “QAnon-tinged thriller about child-trafficking..designed to appeal to the conscience of a conspiracy-addled boomer.”

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‘Dune’ Ditches 2020, While AMC Commits to Staying Open

The 2020 theatrical release calendar is getting even slimmer in the wake of the announcement that Regal cinemas are temporarily closing, although AMC, North America’s largest theater chain, says it will remain open.

Warner Bros. said late Monday that its sci-fi pic “Dune” will now open in October 2021, instead of this December. The studio also pushed back “The Batman” to March 2022 and moved up its “Matrix” sequel to Dec. 2021.

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Pandemic Chases ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ to Christmas

Following the less-than-stellar theatrical debut of Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet,” Warner Bros. is delaying its next big release, “Wonder Woman 1984,” to Christmas.

The postponement Friday of the “Wonder Woman” sequel, which had been scheduled to hit theaters Oct. 2, comes on the heels of Hollywood’s boldest attempt to lure moviegoers back to theaters during the pandemic.

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Oscar Winning Actress Olivia de Havilland Dies at 104

Olivia de Havilland, the doe-eyed actress beloved to millions as the sainted Melanie Wilkes of “Gone With the Wind,” but also a two-time Oscar winner and an off-screen fighter who challenged and unchained Hollywood’s contract system, died Sunday at her home in Paris. She was 104.

Havilland, the sister of fellow Oscar winner Joan Fontaine, died peacefully of natural causes, said New York-based publicist Lisa Goldberg.

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Movie Theater Owners to Studios: Release the Blockbusters!

by Jack Coyle   NEW YORK, New York (AP) — A long time ago in a pre-COVID universe far, far away, blockbusters opened around the globe simultaneously or nearly so. In 1975, “Jaws” set the blueprint. Concentrate marketing. Open wide. Pack them in. Since then, Hollywood has turned opening weekends into an all-out assault. Staggered rollouts still happen, of course, but the biggest films are dropped like carpet bombs. Anything less risks losing the attention of moviegoers. Global debuts north of $300 million became commonplace. Last year, “Avengers: Endgame” made well north of $1 billion in a couple days. Hollywood has now gone more than four months without a major theatrical release. While some films have found new streaming homes, the biggest upcoming ones — “Tenet,” “Mulan,” “A Quiet Place Part II” — remain idled like jumbo jets on the tarmac. The leading chains are still shuttered. Recent coronavirus spikes have forced release dates to shuffle and chains to postpone reopening to August. Now, movie houses say that despite far from ideal circumstances, it’s time for new movies. Four months of near zero revenue has brought the $50 billion annual business to its knees. While the beleaguered restaurant industry still has takeout and airlines continue…

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Christopher Nolan’s ‘Tenet’ Delayed Indefinitely by Virus

Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet,” which had hoped to herald Hollywood’s return to big theatrical releases, has yet again postponed its release due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Warner Bros. said Monday that “Tenet” will not make its August 12 release date. Unlike previous delays, the studio this time didn’t announce a new target for the release of Nolan’s much-anticipated $200 million thriller.

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Warner Bros. Sets Late July Theatrical Release for Sci-Fi Thriller ‘Tenet’

The closely watched arrival of Christopher Nolan’s big-budget sci-fi espionage film “Tenet” will finally happen on July 31, Warner Bros. announced Friday.
The studio said it would delay the release by two weeks and instead re-issue Nolan’s 2010 sci-fi blockbuster “Inception” in mid-July.

The release date for “Tenet” has been closely watched in all corners of the film industry, which has faced shuttered theaters due to the coronavirus since mid-March. Movie theaters plan to reopen in July for a vastly different summer season than the one the industry had planned.

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Review: ‘Richard Jewell’ Is Clint Eastwood’s Latest Portrayal of the Greatness of Ordinary Americans

Something really interesting is happening at Malpaso Productions, Clint Eastwood’s movie production company. Eastwood’s films, especially in recent years, portray the best in the American character through real stories of ordinary Americans called by events to stand up and shine. In his latest, “Richard Jewell,” Eastwood continues exploring a theme I’ve called “American Greatness in the Shadow of 9/11.” The result is a body of work that is awe-inspiring and unlike anything we have seen before in American cinema.

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Netfilx’s New Film Release ‘Secret Obsession’ Exposes California’s Dumb Gun Laws

When Netflix’s bland new psychological thriller “Secret Obsession” was released last week, I never expected keen political insights, let alone a unique cinematic twist. (Warning: Some spoilers ahead.) Under closer scrutiny, however, the film solidifies the need for individual rights, and presents a damning picture of California’s unconstitutional gun laws.

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Commentary: Hollywood’s ‘Fierce Resistance’ Kowtows to China’s Censors in ‘Top Gun 2’

by Thaddeus G. McCotter   Hollywood, the cultural epicenter of the “resistance” to the faux totalitarianism attributed to President Trump, has a vastly different approach to the real totalitarianism of Communist China: capitulation and self-censorship. As noted by Mark MacKinnon, the senior international correspondent for The Globe and Mail, the sequel to 1986’s “Top Gun” – which, after 33 years of intermittent thought, the creative geniuses behind the project have christened with the inspired title “Top Gun: Maverick” – has the rare quality of being a nostalgia trip that performs the deft, duplicitous trick of including a bitter dose of revisionist history. “There’s a new Top Gun movie coming out. And Maverick is wearing the same leather jacket – only this time it’s Communist Party of China-approved, so the Japanese and Taiwanese flag patches are gone . . . ” Why did Hollywood change the patch and stuff the Japanese and Taiwanese flags down the memory hole? “‘Mystery’ solved,” MacKinnon reports. “China’s Tencent Pictures is one of the main producers of Top Gun: Maverick.”   In agreement is Alan Tonelson, the founder of RealityChek, which is “a blog covering economics, national security, tech, and their intersections”: “i.e., Hollywood Values . . . the…

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Pro-Life Movie ‘Unplanned’ Posts Strong Opening Weekend, Knocks ‘Captain Marvel’ Out Of Top Three

by Grace Carr   The pro-life movie “Unplanned,” which tells the story of a former abortion worker whose pro-choice stance changed after working at a clinic, brought in nearly triple the expected box office numbers at the weekend’s close. The movie hit theaters Friday and brought in over $6.1 million at the weekend’s conclusion over an expected $2-3 million, according to The Washington Times. The film came in third for screen earnings, putting up an average of $5,770 per screening, following “Dumbo” and “Us” with averages of $10,566 and $8,978 respectively. “Unplanned” beat out “Captain Marvel” which averaged $5,144 per screening. “Unplanned” played on only 1,060 screens. It ranks fifth in total earnings at Sunday’s close, according to Box Office Mojo. “Dumbo” grossed $45,000,000 and “Us” grossed $33,605,000. “Captain Marvel” made $20,500,000 by the weekend’s close. The movie tells the story of former Planned Parenthood clinic director Abby Johnson, who worked at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Bryan, Texas, until 2009. She left the organization after assisting in an ultrasound-guided abortion of a 13-week-old unborn baby. Johnson was Planned Parenthood’s youngest director of a clinic in the nation. “I could not be more thrilled with the debut of Unplanned and reports of healing and conversion nationwide,” Johnson said,…

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Review: Captain Marvel’s War on Women

by Helen Lamm   Art imitates life, but to an even greater extent, life imitates art. Like culture and politics, the two are intertwined in an infinite feedback loop. Sometimes it’s hard to tell where one begins and the other ends. The latest addition to the wildly popular Marvel cinematic universe, “Captain Marvel,” came out last week. Written and directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck and starring Brie Larson, it is the story of Carol Danvers, a maverick Air Force pilot turned superhero whose powers exceed those of all other superheroes in the Marvel world. The writing is as hamfistedly political as the promotional materials (and Brie Larson’s unrestrained activism during the promotional period) would suggest. Despite all its claims at bravery and badassery, Captain Marvel communicates the very most banal and tiresome claim possible. It’s one we hear every day, a mantra that serves as prerequisite for those who seek employment in your average firm, matriculation at your average school, or participation in your average social club. Yes, in case we’d all forgotten, women are equal to men, except better. Abiding perfectly by Hollywood’s latest contra natura narrative about sex and life, of course, male characters occupy either one of two roles: bumbling sidekick or evil jerk. Female characters, on the other hand,…

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‘Unplanned’ Abortion Movie Has Zero Nudity or Sex, Gets ‘R’ Rating for Violent and ‘Disturbing’ Images Of Aborted Babies

by Grace Carr   The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) officially gave the upcoming abortion film Unplanned an “R” rating Friday for “some disturbing/bloody images” of aborted babies. Movies are rated R for profanity, nudity, sex or violence. Unplanned contains no profanity, nudity or sex. “Ironically, the MPAA seems to be indirectly endorsing the pro-life position: namely that abortion is an act of violence,” writers and directors Cary Solomon and Chuck Konzelman told Movieguide. The film tells the true story of former Planned Parenthood clinic director Abby Johnson who worked at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Bryan, Texas, until 2009 when she left the organization after assisting in an ultrasound-guided abortion of a 13-week-old unborn baby. Johnson was Planned Parenthood’s youngest director of a clinic in the nation. She helped over 22,000 women have abortions during her time at the clinic. Planned Parenthood named Johnson as the employee of the year in 2008. She worked at the abortion provider for eight years before leaving the group. Johnson also had a medication abortion before she became pro-life. The R rating will mean that “many teenage women in this country who can legally obtain an actual abortion without parental permission will be prohibited from going to see our film…

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Movie ‘Gosnell’ Cracks Top 10 at Box Office

by Rachel del Guidice   A movie about Kermit Gosnell, the late-term abortionist in Philadelphia who went to prison after being convicted in connection with the deaths of three babies, hit the Top 10 films at the box office over the weekend. “We were [No. 10] on Friday and Saturday, but slipped back to 12 on Sunday,” Phelim McAleer, who co-produced the film with his wife, Ann McElhinney, said in a statement to The Daily Signal. “We are the No. 1 independent movie of the weekend and [No. 5] per screen average across the U.S.” “This has been achieved despite the mainstream media virtually refusing to review the film, despite it opening nationally,” McAleer said. The movie, “Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer,” which opened in theaters Friday, tells the true story of Gosnell and how his 30-plus-year abortion career ended in a case alleging multiple murders. Directed by Nick Searcy, it stars Dean Cain, Earl Billings, and Michael Beach. The film’s reception so far is not at all due to mainstream media coverage, Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List, said in a statement provided to The Daily Signal. The box office success of “Gosnell” is…

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‘Gosnell’ Movie Producers Never Trusted Pro-Lifers, but ‘Brutal’ Murder Evidence Changed That

by Grace Carr   Film producers of “Gosnell,” a movie detailing the crimes of abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, never trusted pro-lifers until they pulled together “brutal” murder evidence for the movie that changed their perspectives on abortion. “I never trusted or liked pro-life activists,” film producer Ann McElhinney told Lifesite. “I thought the shocking images they showed were manipulative. I was sure they had been photoshopped,” McElhinney said, recounting how she’d thought prior to producing, “Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer.” “The universities of the world are teeming with young people just like that young person I once was,” McElhinney continued. “This story was not orchestrated by the pro-life movement. This was a trial: a murder trial.” The film tells the story of abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, who was sentenced to life in prison after authorities discovered he’d been killing live babies after birth. Gosnell aborted babies after the legal limit of 24 weeks gestation in what became known as the “House of Horrors.” He was also responsible for the death of 41-year-old Karnamaya Mongar who died of a drug overdose during her abortion. Gosnell operated the Women’s Medical Society in West Philadelphia starting in 1979, but wasn’t investigated until February 2010 when the FBI and the…

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Incredibles 2: Making Superheroes Great Again

Incredibles-2

by Jordan J. Ballor   I saw Incredibles 2 over the Father’s Day weekend, and just like its predecessor, there’s a lot to ponder beneath the surface of this animated film. In the real world we’ve had to wait 14 years, but the sequel picks up basically where the original left off. As the Rev. Jerry Zandstra wrote of the original, “litigiousness and mediocrity are some of the biggest obstacles in our culture. The propensity to settle every dispute by legal action undermines values, such as trust and forgiveness, that are essential to the maintenance of genuine community. Fear of rewarding or achieving excellence discourages human persons from fulfilling God-given potential.” In the sequel, superheroes are still illegal, for reasons of both litigiousness and social anxiety over “supers,” that is, those who have super abilities. Incredibles 2 has a lot to do with the virtues of a system that allows individuals to find out what they can do well and how those abilities can serve others for their good. In this, it is true to the stewardship mandate at the heart of all superhero tales: with great power comes great responsibility. Or as Jesus puts it, to those whom much is given, much is expected. But the issues…

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Chappaquiddick Film Goes Deeper Than Politics

Chappaquiddick movie

by Ray Nothstine   It was nearly 50 years ago that an infamous incident finished off the hopes of returning another Kennedy brother to the White House. A film about “Chappaquiddick,” released this month, offers more than a historical retrospective. It reminds us of important truths that lay beneath the tumultuous world of political intrigue. The movie revisits the details: The late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy drove his car off the Dike Bridge on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts, resulting in the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, a 28-year-old political consultant who had worked on Robert Kennedy’s 1968 presidential campaign. Kopechne drowned – or, in the opinion of the diver who recovered her body, probably was trapped in an air pocket in the shallow water and later suffocated. In fact, there is a line in the film where the diver suggests he might have saved her if he had been notified in time. Kennedy, of course, escaped the car but did not report his involvement to authorities until after the scene was discovered by police 10 hours later. Over the decades since, plenty has been said particularly on the political right, about Kennedy’s direct involvement in the abandonment and death of Kopechne. Much of it…

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In ‘Ready Player One,’ Reality is Virtual, but Characters, Story Are Real

Filmmaker Steven Spielberg is going into the future with his virtual reality adventure Ready Player One. Based on Ernest Cline’s bestseller of the same name, the film takes place in the dystopian world of 2045, while referencing 1980s popular culture. Set more than 25 years in the future, the characters are driven by overpopulation and poverty to escape into a digital universe. One of them is young Wade Watts, a poor orphan living in the stacks, a poverty-ridden area in Columbus, Ohio, who escapes to the Oasis through his virtual avatar, Parzival.

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Filmmaker Vincent Gallo: ‘I Like Donald Trump a Lot and Am Extremely Proud He Is the American President’

“I like Donald Trump a lot and am extremely proud he is the American president. And I’m sorry if that offends you.” That quote — surprise! — comes from one of the entertainment industry’s most unique and successful artists. Vincent Gallo, the filmmaker behind such flicks as “Buffalo ’66” and “The Brown Bunny,” has never shied away from his right-of-center beliefs and his feelings about the aggressive liberalism of most of Hollywood.

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The Public Tells Hollywood Once More: We Want Faith-Based Films

Whenever a faith-based film performs well at the box office, many in the industry may be surprised — while the rest of the country is not. This trend continued over the weekend with the release of “I Can Only Imagine.” The movie focuses on singer Bart Millard’s relationship with his father before the elder man passed away when Millard was just 18 years old. The movie embraces the theme of forgiveness, specifically when it comes to family members.

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Bruce Willis’ Reimagining of Classic 1970’s Bronson Thriller ‘Death Wish’ Arrives in Theaters Amid Heated Gun Control Debate

“The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun.” – Wayne LaPierre, CEO of the National Rifle Association Enter Dr. Paul Kersey, devoted family man-turned-ruthless vigilante in “Death Wish.” Director Eli Roth (“Hostel”) reboots the classic 1974 revenge drama with Bruce Willis taking on the lead role embodied by the late Charles Bronson in the original “Death Wish” and its four – yes, four – sequels. With a shift in setting from the mean streets of 1974 New York City to the meaner streets of 2017 Chicago, Dr. Kersey dons a hoodie and vows to take down the thugs who murdered his wife (Elisabeth Shue) and raped his daughter (Camila Morrone).

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‘Game of Thrones’ Creators to Make New ‘Star Wars’ Films

Lucasfilm announced plans Tuesday for a new series of “Star Wars” films made by the team behind “Game of Thrones,” as it seeks to build on the lucrative sci-fi franchise. David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the creators of the smash-hit, Emmy Award-winning television series, will write and produce new films that are separate from the main Skywalker saga and the trilogy being developed by Rian Johnson, writer-director of “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.”

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MOVIE REVIEW: ’12 Strong’ Explodes with U.S.-Afghan War Effort

“12 STRONG” – 3 stars – Chris Hemsworth, Michael Shannon, Michael Pena, Trevante Rhodes, William Fichtner; R (war violence and language throughout); in general release Once it gets past a few early stumbles, Nicolai Fuglsig’s “12 Strong” shapes up to be a dramatic and exciting war film. Based on the book “Horse Soldiers” by Doug Stanton, “12 Strong” tells the story of the first American troops to fight in Afghanistan after 9/11.

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Why ‘Forever My Girl’ Is Different from Its Hollywood Competition

“I didn’t want a movie that felt like homework,” producer Mickey Liddell told LifeZette in an exclusive interview about his upcoming film “Forever My Girl,” which hits theaters on Friday. The movie is in the vein of Liddell’s earlier work, through his company LD Entertainment, in that it harkens back to old-school Hollywood work that aims to entertain and inspire. Liddell’s filmography includes everything from the biblical epic “Risen” to true-story dramas like “The Zookeeper’s Wife.”

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Review: All-Star Cast Struggles to Keep ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ on Track

“MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS” – 2½ stars – Kenneth Branagh, Penelope Cruz, Johnny Depp, Judi Dench, Willem Dafoe, Leslie Odom Jr., Michelle Pfeiffer, Daisy Ridley, Josh Gad; PG-13 (violence and thematic elements); in general release “There is right. There is wrong. There is nothing in between.” Hercule Poirot’s clear-cut moral declaration sets the tone for…

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