"Artist," "Descendants" shine at Golden Globes (Reuters)

LOSS ANGELES (Reuters) ? Silent-era film "The Artist" and family drama "The Descendants" were the top film picks at the Golden Globe Awards on Sunday in a loose-lipped awards show that even had host Ricky Gervais walking onto the stage with a drink in his hand.

"The Descendants," starring George Clooney as a man steering his family through a tragic time when his wife is in a coma, won two Golden Globe trophies, including the top honor of best dramatic movie and another for Clooney as best dramatic actor.

Onstage he thanked writer/director Alexander Payne and backstage told reporters, "he knows how to tell stories. He knows how to make something funny and how to turn it around."

Clooney called the movie "a coming-of-age film for a 50-year-old and a lot of us have dealt with people like that."

"The Artist," a romantic tale about a failing actor who finds love at a time when movies were changing from silents to talkies, picked up three awards including best musical or comedy and best actor in a musical or comedy for its star, French actor Jean Dujardin.

Onstage, Dujardin did the most appropriate thing -- gave his speech, thanked his colleagues, then signed off by not saying a word. And true to stealing almost every scene of his in the movie, little dog Uggie detracted from an emotional speech by the film's director, Michel Hazanavicius, when the dog begged for a treat.

Other key winners included Meryl Streep for best actress in a film drama with her portrayal of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in "The Iron Lady." Streep, who is typically reliable with a funny acceptance speech had a difficult time reading hers this year when she forgot her glasses.

Michelle Williams took the trophy for best actress in a comedy or musical with her role as Marilyn Monroe in "My Week with Marilyn.

"I consider myself a mother first and an actress second. The person I most want to thank (is) my daughter, my little girl," Williams said referring to her child with the late actor Heath Ledger. "I want to say thank you for sending me off to this job everyday with a hug and a kiss."

Veteran Christopher Plummer, 82, won supporting actor with his portrayal of an elderly man who comes out as gay to his family in "Beginners," bringing both poignancy and a touch of humor to their lives. Octavia Spencer, playing a beleaguered housemaid in the U.S. South during the civil rights era in "The Help" was best supporting actress.

Woody Allen was given a Golden Globe for his screenplay for "Midnight in Paris" and Steven Spielberg won best animated film with his rollicking "The Adventures of Tintin."

Iranian film "A Separation" was named best foreign language film, and its director, Ashgar Farhadi, used the opportunity to tell world audiences that "my people. I think they are a truly peace-loving people."

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The Golden Globe Awards are given out by the roughly 90 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association at what annually is among the key events during Hollywood's awards season because of the media exposure it brings.

Many of the movies and stars that win here also go on to compete for Oscars later this year, and "The Artist," which was the most-nominated film coming into the Golden Globes with six nods overall, will certainly become a frontrunner for the world's top film honors, as will "Descendants" and "The Help."

Oscar nominations from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will given out on January 24.

Unlike the Oscar voters, HFPA members also vote on their favorite TV shows and performances and in that arena "Homeland," about a modern-day CIA agent tracking returning war soldiers who may be terrorists, took home two Golden Globes for best drama series and best actress in a drama for Claire Danes.

Best actor in a drama TV series went to Kelsey Grammer for his role as a stern corporate manager in "Boss."

"Modern Family," a take on extended families in current-day America, took the prize for best comedy and its stars enjoyed one of the more memorable moments of the night when star Sofia Vergara gave their acceptance speech in Spanish, with English translation from creator Steve Levitan.

Best actress in a TV comedy went to Laura Dern for "Enlightened" and the comedic actor trophy was won by Matt LeBlanc for "Episodes."

Coming into the show, all eyes were on host Gervais, who ruffled the feathers of many a Hollywood celebrities last year at the Golden Globes. While he didn't tone down his jokes for the 2012 audience -- making fun of Johnny Depp, Jodie Foster, Kim Kardashian and the HFPA itself -- it seemed the stars were in the mood for his biting wit this time around.

"I thought he did a great job," Clooney told reporters backstage. "I think he handled tonight like a proper good host again ... people were expecting a lot of trash talk, and he did a little bit of that, and he made me laugh, he was very funny."

In fact, it seemed Gervais' humor was rather tame at some points compared to others who made penis jokes onstage and used foul language. At one point, Gervais came onstage drinking a beer, but somehow that seemed fitting for an awards show that bills itself as one big Hollywood party.

(Reporting By Bob Tourtellotte; Editing by Sandra Maler)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120116/en_nm/us_goldenglobes

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Many Head and Neck Cancer Survivors Face Eating Problems (HealthDay)

MONDAY, Jan. 16 (HealthDay News) -- Persistent pain, eating problems and depression are the most common problems experienced by long-term survivors of head and neck cancer, a new study finds.

In the study, published in the Jan. 16 online issue of the journal Archives of Otolaryngology -- Head & Neck Surgery, researchers looked at 337 people who were diagnosed with head and neck cancer from 1995 to 2004 and survived at least five years.

More than 50 percent of the survivors had problems eating because of poor throat functioning, 28.5 percent had symptoms of depression and more than 17 percent had substantial pain, the researchers found.

However, when the long-term survivors were compared to age-matched people in the general population, their average general health was similar, Dr. Gerry Funk, of the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City, and colleagues explained in a journal news release.

The investigators also found that pain and diet in the first year after cancer treatment were the strongest independent predictors of five-year, health-related quality-of-life outcomes.

Problems with mouth and throat function in head and neck cancer survivors can be due to factors such as neuromuscular changes, anatomic deficits after surgery, pain and dental problems, the researchers noted.

"Early interventions addressing eating issues, swallowing problems and pain management will be a crucial component in improving this patient population's long-term quality of life, especially in those who are functioning poorly one year after diagnosis," the study authors concluded.

More information

The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more about head and neck cancer.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/diseases/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20120117/hl_hsn/manyheadandneckcancersurvivorsfaceeatingproblems

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95% Elite Squad: The Enemy Within

"They fatten up the pig, now we gonna roast it."After a prison riot, Captain Nascimiento, now a high ranking security officer in Rio de Janeiro, is swept into a bloody political dispute that involves government officials and paramilitary groups. REVIEWElite Squad 2 works because it grows from the first one. The first movie introduced BOPE to the world and had to spend time explaining its methods, philosophy, code of honour and recruitment process. The sequel doesn't suffer from the burden of exposition, and instead of rehashing the plot of the first - the bane of most sequels - it lets the characters' personalities lead the story.Brazilian cinema has been very good since City of God exploded in the world like a hand grenade. Because of it Brazilian cinema has become synonymous with crime movies, even if that's a gross generalization. A subgenre of crime movies defined by graphic violence, social criticism and inventive camera work has prospered in its wake: My Name Ain't Johnny, The Man Who Copied, City of Men, Bus 174, and the Elite Squad movies. At the heart of this Renaissance is the movie's screenwriter, Br?ulio Mantovani. For better or for worse all these movies take inspiration from the style he established in City of God. Directors and actors come and go, but everyone still copies the dark humour, the political irreverence, the non-linear narratives, and the clever voice-over that earned Mantovani an Oscar nomination almost a decade ago.Editor Daniel Rezende, who also worked in City of God, puts the movie together with the force of a tornado. Complementing director of photography Lula Carvalho's documentary-like style, the fast editing and the dizzying camera work go as far as cinema outside of 3D can go in immersing the viewer in the middle of the action.

November 26, 2011

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/elite_squad_the_enemy_within/

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Should Obama Be Impeached for Illegal Recess Appointments? (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | The Daily Caller is reporting the National Right to Work Foundation is suing President Barack Obama over controversial appointments to the National Labor Relations Board that the president says are recess appointments, but are really not strictly speaking.

The lawsuit comes on the heels of the president appointing three members of the NLRB and the chairmanship of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, claiming these are "recess appointments" when the Senate, which advises and consents to such appointments, was not in recess.

There is a consensus Obama acted in violation to the Constitution in making these appointments. Conservative columnist Michael Barone states Obama has defied the Constitution. Former Attorney General Ed Meese and Todd Gaziano warn the appointments are not only unconstitutional but will ultimately weaken the office of president.

In any event, President Obama has decided to mire his own government in legal bickering for at least the remainder of his term. Decisions taken by the NLRB and the CFPB will be in doubt because there is doubt that Obama's appointments to those two bodies were made legally.

President Obama, as has every president since Washington, has taken an oath to "the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." By making these appointments without the advice and consent of the Senate, Obama is in violation of that oath.

If flagrantly violating the Constitution is not an impeachable offense, then nothing is. However, the chances of Obama being impeached are about the same as the lost continent of Atlantis suddenly rising from the oceans.

The House, albeit under the control of the Republicans, has no stomach for instituting impeachment proceedings. After the Bill Clinton fiasco, this is understandable. More important, the Senate will never muster the 67 votes necessary to remove Obama from office and make Vice President Joe Biden the president. One gets the impression Obama could have all of the Republican candidates for president arrested and sent to Guantanamo and the Senate Democrats will wonder what the fuss is about.

That leads to the ultimate judge of presidents -- the voters. At issue therefore is do we care if a president follows the Constitution or not? Illegal "recess" appointments may seem a small thing. But they can lead to bigger ones. At stake is what kind of government we shall have going forward.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120115/pl_ac/10837833_should_obama_be_impeached_for_illegal_recess_appointments

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Martin Luther King, Jr.: Who misquoted King so monumentally?

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says a key quote on the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial must be changed. Poet Maya Angelou had said it makes the civil rights leader sound ?like an arrogant twit.?

As America gets ready to take Monday off in honor of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., the creators of the new MLK Monument in Washington will be thinking about how to fix what some have called a monumental misquote on the granite edifice.

Skip to next paragraph

At issue is a prominent quote on the side of the memorial that now states, ?I was a drum major for justice, peace, and righteousness.? The problem, as MLK's son pointed out in a CNN interview, is, ?That's not what Dad said.?

While the quote comes off as a boast, the actual line uttered by MLK in a speech a month before his April 4, 1968, assassination in Memphis had a different tone.

?If you want to say I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace?,? King said, putting a less self-congratulatory spin on it.

The mistake not only makes King sound like ?an arrogant twit,? as the poet Maya Angelou said last year, but undermines King's point in the so-called ?Drum-Major Instinct? sermon, which was about the ?folly? of wanting ?to be great without doing any great, difficult things.?

?As many have since pointed out, the 'if' and the 'you'?entirely change the meaning,? writes the Washington Post's Rachel Manteuffel, whose editorial on the mistake started the correction process churning. ?To King, being a self-aggrandizing drum major was not a good thing; if you wanted to call him that, he said, at least say it was in the service of good causes.?

On Friday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, whose department oversees the National Mall, gave the King Memorial Foundation 30 days to come up with an alternative excerpt for the north side of the 30-foot-tall statue. ?This is important because Dr. King and his presence on the Mall is a forever presence for the United States of America, and we have to make sure that we get it right,? Salazar told the Post.

Salazar also addressed the issue during a Monitor breakfast before the Oct. 16, 2011 dedication of the sculpture. ?I looked at the quote," he said. "I looked at all the other quotes. It is a wonderful memorial. But there are some issues that we will resolve and we will work on them ..."

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/3nQXLa3WWoQ/Martin-Luther-King-Jr.-Who-misquoted-King-so-monumentally

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MPTF 3 year later: patients down to 29 (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) ? Three years after announcing a controversial plan to close its money-losing longterm and acute care facility, the nursing home at the Motion Picture and Television Fund's Woodland Hills campus has defied the odds to remain open.

Thanks to a sustained grassroots campaign from Saving the Lives of Our Own, a collection of residents and their families, the MPTF board has abandoned plans to the shutter the home, pledging to keep the facility open if it can find a partner.

However, the nursing home is a shadow of what it once was. At a busy facility that once offered the "gold standard" in comprehensive care for the aged and frailest members of the Hollywood community, there are only a handful of residents who remain behind.

The number of patients has dwindled to 29 from the nearly 140 people who called the facility home when the closure was first announced, officials say. Some residents moved in the wake of the closure announcement, others succumbed to old age and disease.

"As the residents of the longterm care unit are dying, the mattresses are rolled up and the lights are turned out, but no one new is coming in," Richard Stellar, a blogger for TheWrap and a member of Saving the Lives of Our Own, said. "It's a war of attrition."

The result is a kind of limbo. Long-term care has not closed, but with the MPTF management loath to admit new long-term patients until it secures a partner to share the burden of keeping the facility operating, the doors to the nursing home remain closed to new residents.

Administrators at the MPTF say that they have learned their lesson and that they are fully committed to keeping longterm care as part of their offerings.

"We heard the industry's reaction and I think we responded to it," MPTF Chief Executive Officer Bob Beitcher told TheWrap. "The unit is stable and we believe we are continuing to provide excellent care."

Resident's families still praise the nursing staff at the home, but say that residents have grown depressed as their friends die with no fresh faces joining their ranks. Where once the halls of the longterm care facility bustled with activity, resident's family members say that the nursing home has become a bleak environment.

"It's an empty place," Maria-Flora Smoller, whose mother is a resident at the facility, told TheWrap. "The people that work there do the best they can, but the atmosphere has changed. My mom made great friends there, but sadly many have passed away and there are no new friends to be made because no one new is coming in to talk about the old times and what they have in common. She's depressed because of it."

Though Saving the Lives of Our Own members are quick to praise Beitcher for being more open to their concerns than his predecessor, the ousted Dr. David Tillman, there is a mounting frustration that the fate of the facility remains up in the air.

"It's time for the MPTF to do more than pay lip service," Melody Sherwood, a Saving the Lives of Our Own member whose mother is a longterm care resident, told TheWrap. "I think we're hopefully frustrated. Even though the MPTF has said it is not going to close, which is wonderful and was our goal when we first formed Saving the Lives, not closing is not the same as being open."

Last fall, a plan to keep the money-losing longterm care facility and acute care hospital open by transferring operations to Providence Health & Services was abandoned over financial concerns.

An alternative plan was supposed to be in place and announced by the end of last year, but that too has hit a speed-bump. A rumored scenario that would involve bringing on Kindred Healthcare to take over the Woodland Hills complex has reportedly stalled until Congress makes a decision about whether it will keep a moratorium on constructing new longterm care facilities in place.

Administrators are hesitant to provide a concrete timeframe for when a new partner will be announced, but they remain optimistic. With costs mounting, however, there is a real sense of urgency about finding a financially viable solution.

"Keeping open has been costly to us and it has sucked up financial resources," Beitcher told TheWrap.

Beitcher estimated that keeping the facility up and running has cost between $25 million to $30 million over the past three years. When the plan's administrators announced that the facility would have to close, they said that longterm care was losing $10 million annually.

For now members of the grassroots opposition to the closure plan are not ready to get out the signs and form picket lines, believing that for the time being at least, a sustainable solution can be reached by working in concert with the MPTF administration.

The two even partnered to protest cuts to Medi-Cal reimbursement rates that would mean as much as a 22 percent reduction in revenue for the campus' long term care and Alzheimer's patients. In a far cry from the often contentious relationship in the past, Saving the Lives of Our Own said it would join the MPTF's court challenge as amicus plaintiffs.

"The intensity of the cause has dissipated a bit, because I think they see that we're trying to do the right thing," Beitcher said. "We're working together on this to keep longterm care open and admit new residents, but if, God forbid, we get off track, I think they'll let us know."

Though the frustration has grown more pitched since the Providence deal collapsed, just getting the MPTF to back away from its closure plans involved a true David vs. Goliath effort that pitted the 350 members of Saving the Lives of Our Own against some of the entertainment industry's most powerful figures.

By hosting rallies and fundraisers, taking out ads in the trade papers and enlisting the powerful law firm of Girardi + Keese, the group publicly pressured an MPTF board that included DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, Fox Filmed Entertainment Co-chairman and CEO Jim Gianopulos and former MGM CEO Frank Mancuso and forced them to keep the nursing home open.

"No one thought that the longterm care center would survive, and it did," Nancy Biederman, co-founder of Saving the Lives of Our Own, told TheWrap. "People thought that the MPTF had lost its way forever, and now it is on its way back to the right path. Though much has been lost, much abides. We regret the loss of life, the transfers of patients and the damage done to the MPTF, but we have also seen a renewed awareness of the essential role of the longterm care center in preserving the ideals of the MPTF, and the battle to save the longterm care center has gotten more people involved than we could ever have imagined when we started."

(Editing by Chris Michaud)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/enindustry/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120113/media_nm/us_motionpicturehome

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How a 1991 Disney Memo Predicted the Current State of the Movie Industry

On January 11, 1991, the then-head of Disney studios, Jeffrey Katzenberg, circulated an incredibly important memo about the state of the movie industry and the products they were making. It was called, ?The World is Changing: Some Thoughts on Our Business,? and it had a simple purpose: to locate the root of a growing problem and to take steps to avoid falling victim to it.

Katzenberg began the memo by stating:

?As we begin the new year, I strongly believe we are entering a period of great danger and even greater uncertainty. Events are unfolding within and without the movie industry that are extremely threatening to our studio.?

As we begin a new year two decades after this memo was written, it?s critical to look back at the points Katzenberg made to see that his period of great danger is now our period of great danger, to note that the same events unfolding within and without the industry still threaten the entire studio system in 2012, and to predict our future based on the past.

There are definite similarities between 1991 and 2012. The country was in a recession then and finds itself crawling out of one now. We were dealing with an Iraq invasion then, and we?re dealing with the aftermath of another now. The country was losing economic power while maintaining cultural dominance then, and it?s the same story now. Disney was the #1 studio then, and although they weren?t last year, they still busted $1b while coming in at #4.

Studios are still judging box office success against Batman.

Now, with all this talk about money, it might seem like fans have no stake in this game, but we all do. Imagine the top six studios from last year (Paramount, Warners, Sony, Disney, Universal and Fox) as players at a poker table. When the chip stacks are high, they can all afford to test the pot with some wild hands. They can get creative with what they play. Unfortunately, the stacks aren?t high, which means they can?t get as loose, and while some attractive cards may come their way, they?re all trying to get dealt a full house.

That means the same hand being played for fans, and for those that like variety in their life, these are the salad days. But we?ll get to that later when we optimistically predict the future.

The Katzenberg Memo

For now, let?s live in the past with Mr. Katzenberg. At its core, his 1991 memo has three major statements to make about how movies are made:

  1. The Blockbuster Mentality ? There is no middle ground anymore because massive resources are put into 1-3 movies per year that hold the fate of the studio hostage. Instead of making ten $30m movies, they make one $300m flick that has to succeed in record-breaking ways. To do that, all efforts must be focused on a giant opening weekend that will earn notoriety alongside a big chunk of the overall gross. Further, even if the film does well, it will be called a failure if it doesn?t make as much as Batman (1989). The result? Overspending on a dangerously difficult bar to clear while over projects go unfunded.
  2. The Movie Industry Isn?t Recession-Proof ? As Katzenberg points out, the reason movies appear to be recession-proof is because people have historically run to escapist entertainment during hard times. The facts might partially support the theory, but Katzenberg shows the theory itself to be misguided ? stating that, ?When there is fear and uncertainty, the people have craved bargain entertainment. During previous downturns, the best escapist entertainment value was at the movie theaters. But no longer.?
  3. The Rise and Fall of the Movie Star ? With the inflation of budgets and grosses, two things happened almost simultaneously. One, actors (and writers and directors and everyone) started (rightfully) demanding their fair share of the profits. Two, the concept of movie stars buckled. It?s unclear when ?movie stars? stopped being as bankable as they once were, but actors demanded more money while they had less to do with financial success.

All of these points could be made today.

Coupled with other fads, studios are scrambling hard to make sure that their tentpoles are safe. That?s why Sony is rebooting with The Amazing Spider-Man. It?s why Warners needed The Green Lantern to be a mad success (and why they?re automatically planning on continuing with Batman movies post-Nolan). It?s why the seven highest grossing movies of 2011 were sequels (and why 17 of the highest 20 were either already part of a franchise or the planned beginning of one). Studios can no longer afford to create name recognition ? it has to come built-in.

At the beginning of our most recent recession, analysts like The New Yorker?s James Surowiecki prematurely hailed movies for being recession-proof. Even as late as August of last year, Hollywood.com?s Paul Dergarabedian claimed erroneously that people only focus on price when they have a negative experience while citing it as part of the reason why summer ticket sales were up (further confusing the myth of movies in tough economic times). Of course, at the end of the year, the final numbers showed that ticket sales were about half-a-billion behind 2010 and attendance was at its lowest since 1995. There?s no point in believing a single year is proof of a trend, but it certainly injures the blind belief that movies always do well in times of trouble. They sure didn?t last year.

As for movie stars, the big names still exist, but there are fewer of them and they?ve lost the luster of being sure things. We?re too familiar with them for them to remain glamorous, studios have struggled to foist new unproven ?stars? like Channing Tatum and Sam Worthington on the public, and as Landon Palmer wrote back in 2009, our definition of what makes a movie star has shifted irrevocably and in a way that isn?t nearly as obviously beneficial to the people banking their shots off names and faces.

All of this to show that reading Katzenberg?s memo is a bit jarring because of how accurately it predicts the environment of filmmaking in 2012. Beyond the aforementioned echoes, he comments on theaters being choked by sequels; he shuns the idea that children?s movies are just for kids (something Pixar picked up and ran with); and he alludes to a partnership with Jerry Bruckheimer that won?t necessarily have to be about blockbuster building (which, fair enough, turned out to be a bit wrong). Still, it?s creepy.

True Then, True Now

Considering the current resurgence, it?s fascinating to note that Katzenberg?s negativity toward the Blockbuster Mentality in 1991 is sparked by two comic book movies. The first is Batman and its unforeseeable effect on the way other big movies were judged. The second is Dick Tracy ? Disney?s big budget blockbusting contender that year. In his own words, it was:

??a film that did very well, a film we were rightly proud of, a film that was critically acclaimed? and a film that is still being savagely disparaged as ?having failed to achieve Batman-like success at the box office.?

This is not a healthy situation. If every major studio release must aspire to repeat the 1989 success of Batman, then we will undoubtedly soon see the 1990?s equivalent of Cleopatra, a film that was made in the hope of repeating the 1959 success of Ben Hur.?

And so it goes.

Dick Tracy has a modern equivalent in The Green Lantern. Both are comic book-based and feature cocky heroes who fight crime while hanging out with bizarre-looking characters. Both are technically and visually interesting. Both should have been bigger hits based on the formula that existed. Both pulled in millions of dollars in ticket sales. However, they were both failures in their own ways. Katzenberg prophetically, of course, has an explanation for it. Here, he?s talking about Dick Tracy and The Rescuers Down Under?s inability to grow the ?legs? the studio wanted, but for our purposes, let?s pretend he?s talking about Dick Tracy and Green Lantern:

?In both movies, everything remained static for the main characters. At the end, nothing elemental had changed. To compensate for the lack of an emotionally driving core story, the two films showered the audience with dazzling and inventive ?business.? But much of this failed another test of storytelling ? i.e., the movies would still have made sense had many of these scenes been cut. Just like songs in a musical, no matter how beautiful the melody, if they don?t move the plot along, they don?t belong.?

Spectacle is nice, but it can never compensate for a lack of engaging characters and a compelling story. This is precisely the reason why both of these movies failed to be bigger successes, and it?s the reason (coupled with high pricing) why 3D is fizzling after a year where studios could have sworn it would save them.

What will save them (and save fans)? Writers who can write story. Filmmakers and actors who can deliver great character. Oh, and spectacle-makers who can make magic. They have a place too.

Katzenberg knew this in 1991, but it seems to be a lesson studios haven?t quite learned yet here in 2012. However, with the budget for a tentpole like The Amazing Spider-Man getting trimmed down, maybe they?re on the verge. Maybe they can still change.

The Money Quote

It?s difficult to pin down a singular point from this invaluable piece of writing because it?s so broad in its scope. It covets a principle, a philosophy about film production that can?t be broken up piecemeal. Katzenberg highlights storytelling as their most important job, but the businessman in him shines through as well. So, then, this might be the core message:

?Any film can fail at the box office. And that?s o.k. It?s part of our business. No one can know for certain what the public will want to see. So the basic problem with the above movies [a list of flopped sequels] wasn?t that they were ill conceived or misguided or even bad entertainments. The problem was that they were just too expensive.?

It may seem simple. It may seem to let producers off the hook. It may seem craven, but it gets to the heart of the problem. The Blockbuster Mentality that Katzenberg so fervently fought against has taken over the studio system, including Disney, and threatens fans in a major way. The behemoth idea is anathema to risk-taking, it steals money from the coffers for other movies, and it drives a world of creativity toward toy sales and stagnancy. It?s odd that in a time of panic, people will grab for anything to save them from sinking except solid ground. Maybe the studios have been adrift for so long that they?ve forgotten how to find the shore, but the building blocks of story haven?t changed; the reason the past few years of studio offerings have been so underwhelming is that they?ve been wrapped up in plastic, unable to see what audiences still want.

The answer isn?t more explosions; it?s characters we care about running away from more explosions.

Although he fought hard against a raging sea of change, Katzenberg left Disney a few years after writing this memo to found DreamWorks with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen ? a studio not without Blockbuster Mentality blame here in the future.

A Simple Prediction

What happened in the 1990s after Katzenberg expressed his fear at the laziness of studios? The independent industry grew to fill the void. Filmmakers like Kevin Smith, Ed Burns, Jim Sheridan, Spike Lee, Steven Soderbergh, and Quentin Tarantino led the Indie Movement to critical and commercial heights.

The same thing will happen in this decade. Now that the means to make a movie and the equally important tools to promote the thing are within arm?s reach, the Second Indie Movement that?s been talked about for half a decade is finally ripe for revolution. If quality is missing from studio pictures, audiences will seek it elsewhere (especially if they can find it on iTunes or on their own television screen for a smaller ticket price).

Of course, the studios bought out and co-opted the independent houses of the 90s, too. That will probably happen again as well, but for now, we?re on the cusp of a great change in power unless, and only unless, the studios can remove the rotten core of their production philosophy and replace it with an emphasis on fundamentals over flash. They must realize they?ve fallen victim to the very danger and uncertainty about which Katzenberg warned.

Fortunately, this is all reason to be optimistic for we fans who stand patiently in line at the box office hoping to be transported and transformed. The slump, either by indie takeover or big budget wake-up call, will be over soon.

Until the next one.

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1924315/news/1924315/

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4th homeless man in month killed in S. Calif. (AP)

ANAHEIM, Calif. ? Police detained a man in connection with the latest stabbing death of a homeless man in Orange County as a task forced investigated if there were any links to the slayings of three other homeless men, believed to be the work of a serial killer.

The dead man was found between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. Friday near a fast-food restaurant at the intersection of La Palma Avenue and Imperial Highway in Anaheim, police said.

Witnesses followed a man who ran from the restaurant parking lot and led police to him, Anaheim police Deputy Chief Craig Hunter told the Orange County Register. He was taken to the Anaheim Police Department for questioning.

Police set up a massive containment area at the crime scene in a search for the killer and scoured nearby neighborhoods, including a mobile home park, the Los Angeles Times reported.

A task force of law enforcement officers from Anaheim, Placentia, Brea, Orange County Sheriff's Department and the FBI was formed to investigate the killings of three other homeless men found stabbed to death in north Orange County since mid-December.

James Patrick McGillivray, 53, was killed near a shopping center in Placentia on Dec. 20; Lloyd Middaugh, 42, was found near a riverbed trail in Anaheim on Dec. 28; and Paulus Smit, 57, was killed outside a Yorba Linda library on Dec. 30.

Police suspect all three were victims of a serial killer. It was not known if the latest death was connected to the other killings, but the Times said the task force is investigating any possible links.

Authorities did not release any information on the man they took into custody. The Register said they declined to speculate if he was behind the earlier homeless slayings, but Hunter acknowledged that "in a very general sense" he matched the physical description of person suspected in the killings.

Police have released grainy photographs captured from surveillance video that show a male suspect dressed in dark clothing. A white, late-model Toyota Corolla is also a vehicle of interest.

Police and advocates have been urging those living on the streets to head inside or buddy up in the wake of the killings.

Earlier Friday, the Orange County sheriff's deputies union announced a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120114/ap_on_re_us/us_homeless_homicides

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TI's wireless charger for tablets does amazing things with electrons, sticky tape

Either TI has the hots for Arduino in a big way, or its latest wireless charging kit isn't quite ready for mass production. When it does arrive, however, it promises to do away with those cumbersome specialized sleeves and back covers that are currently needed for inductive charging. Instead, it'll deliver efficient in a package that's small enough to be installed as part of a device's internal circuitry. In addition to the Qi-standard 5W version we glimpsed a while back, the company is also working on a 10W variant for the iPad 2 and other tablets, which could wipe the smile off LaunchPort's face and perhaps make MicroUSB 3.0 superfluous before it even gets here.

TI's wireless charger for tablets does amazing things with electrons, sticky tape originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 14 Jan 2012 09:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/14/tis-wireless-charger-for-tablets-does-amazing-things-with-elect/

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