The Third Estate Sunday Review focuses on politics and culture. We're an online magazine. We don't play nice and we don't kiss butt. In the words of Tuesday Weld: "I do not ever want to be a huge star. Do you think I want a success? I refused "Bonnie and Clyde" because I was nursing at the time but also because deep down I knew that it was going to be a huge success. The same was true of "Bob and Carol and Fred and Sue" or whatever it was called. It reeked of success."
Yes, please ignore the countless Black folks on this site pointing out the issues with her record as California AG. This isn't about Bernie cause we will (and do) challenge him too. Y'all are so bad at this. Everyone has to be accountable to their records. No passes!
Anoa J. Changa π€added,
Tom WatsonVerified account@tomwatson
The anti-Kamala Harris campaign by the Sanders-oriented predominantly white "progressive" left has started. We all knew it was coming.
The press that can't stop whoring wants you to believe that THE UPSIDE is a big hit. It's not. In a slow weekend, it came in number one. In a slow weekend, it brought in $20 million in ticket sales.
This isn't 1982 and those aren't hit numbers.
Just to review recent weeks . . .
With 31 million (in its third week), AQUAMAN won the January 4, 2019 weekend.
With 52 million (in its second week), AQUAMAN won the December 28, 2018 weekend.
With 67 million (in its first week), AQUAMAN won the December 21, 2018 weekend.
With 35 million, SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE won the December 14, 2018 weekend.
Let's look at September, a traditionally slow month. What we find there?
September 28, 2018's number one film was NIGHT SCHOOL with $27 million. This film starred Kevin Hart (and Tiffany Haddish) and went on to bring in $77 million domestically.
September 21, 2018, the number one film was THE HOUSE WITH THE CLOCK IN ITS WALLS posting $26 million in ticket sales.
But back up a minute. NIGHT SCHOOL, which was not a box office blockbuster, starred Kevin Hart and brought in $27 million in ticket sales. Four months later, he teams with Academy Award winner Nicole Kidman (who's also in the blockbuster AQUAMAN) and with Bryan Cranston of MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE fame and $20 million?
It's a bomb and last weekend was its best showing. This weekend? GLASS will run to the number one spot and no one will be talking about THE UPSIDE. The 'reporters' hope that as well because they're hoping you won't forget how they pretended THE UPSIDE was a hit film.
Bad reviews, weak opening numbers, it's a disaster. DRIVING MR. DAISY, just go away already.
"Hurry up, I'm bored," chirps Madonna in WHO'S THAT GIRL? and, goodness, could audiences relate.
Reader Serena e-mailed that we have repeatedly hailed Jane Fonda in KLUTE as the finest performance of any actor in a 20th century film (we have) and wondered who we thought gave the worst performance in a 20th century film?
Good question.
And, like Serena, we feel we should focus on major studio films that had actual budgets. No sense picking on some actor in an Ed Wood film, for example.
So who's the worst?
It's a really difficult decision.
For example, we thought of Madonna in BODY OF EVIDENCE . . . but then quickly realized that Willem Dafoe comes pretty close to matching her, so close, in fact, that it's difficult to tell who is worse in the film. A similar thought occurred when we considered the disaster that is FAIR GAME starring William Baldwin's erect nipples (they have so much more range than his acting) and Cindy Crawford in her film debut (also her film departure).
Which leads us to WHO'S THAT GIRL? This 1987 film cost $20 million -- and that's before advertising. But it only grossed $7 million.
It had a real director -- James Foley who directed classics like RECKLESS, AFTER DARK, MY SWEET and GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS. The film even had a great cinematographer -- Jan de Bont. But even he couldn't do anything with the caterpillars Madonna insisted upon calling eyebrows.
As bad as she is, and she's bad, there was one other performance that we all agreed had to be among last century's worst.
"You get the ice, I'll get the ice man," George Clooney . . . ticks off?
The man who killed the Batman franchise was Clooney. He was wooden and stiff throughout.
On ice or off, he's completely unconvincing -- a fact made all the more obvious is he's sharing a scene with Chris O'Donnell who delivers lines in a non-wooden fashion and also shows athletic grace in scene after scene.
The problem for Clooney, and why he never became a movie star (a star delivers at the box office, Clooney never has) is because he's a TV actor. It's all close up. He can't inhabit a character on the big screen because he can't act below the neck.
It was a huge mistake to cast him in an action role -- any action role. It was a disaster to cast him as Batman.
Madonna will always have music and George will always have TV -- which is good because neither made a mark in film.
militias not to harm any protester. We hope that we will not return to our homes until the trial of all corrupt, and the recovery of Iraq's looted funds.
We will be peaceful.
Corrupt government is illegal, corruption is a crime, and there is no legitimacy for criminals.
#Iraq
In the midst of a so-so episode Sunday, FAMILY GUY announced (via the
character Peter) that it was "scaling back" from gay jokes. This led to
repetition, not reporting. Here's THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER:
Executive producers Alec Sulkin and Rich Appel confirmed the move, telling TV Line that it was an effort for the series — which launched in 1999 — to better reflect the current landscape. "If you look at a show from 2005 or 2006 and put it side by side with
a show from 2018 or 2019, they’re going to have a few differences,"
Sulkin said. "Some of the things we felt comfortable saying and joking about back then, we now understand is not acceptable."
Added Appel: "If a show has literally been on the air for 20 years, the
culture changes. And it’s not us reacting and thinking, 'They won’t let
us [say certain things].' No, we’ve changed too. The climate is
different, the culture is different and our views are different. They’ve
been shaped by the reality around us, so I think the show has to shift
and evolve in a lot of different ways." Here's VULTURE:
According
to fellow executive producer Rich Appel, stepping back from a genre of
jokes that may have once felt “acceptable” is particularly (and glaring)
obvious for a long-running series. (See also: the ongoing argumentover The Simpsons’s Apu Nahasapeemapetilon.) “It’s almost unique to Family Guy,
though I can think of one other show that’s been on the air longer,”
says Appel. “But if a show has literally been on the air for 20 years,
the culture changes.” For reference, Family Guy initially debuted on Fox on January 31, 1999.
And
in case you’re wondering if the network simply passed down an
(extremely late-to-the-party) edict for Seth McFarlane’s brain child to
follow, the show’s EPs insist the retreat from gay jokes stems from the
writers room itself. “[I]t’s not us reacting and thinking, ‘They won’t
let us [say certain things],’” says Appel. “No, we’ve changed too. The
climate is different, the culture is different and our views are
different. They’ve been shaped by the reality around us, so I think the
show has to shift and evolve in a lot of different ways.”
What a load of s**t.
"You've got AIDS!"
I'm sorry, am I the only one who remembers that?
In what time period in the last 20 years was that okay?
"You've got AIDS! Not HIV but full blown AIDS!"
In what world was it funny or appropriate to have a barber shop quartet mocking a gay man? Making fun of him for having AIDS?
The climate is different? That was always offensive.
It's amazing how eager the so-called press is to give FAMILY GUY a
pass. And that's long before we get into all the 'swish' jokes about
Bruce over the years.
I'm not objecting to gay as humor. I thought the "Family Gay" episode
was often funny (though, again, with conversion therapy, they felt the
need for total 'swish' which is usually the only way FAMILY GUY portrays
gays).
I am objecting to what was offensive even 20 years ago.
So they're finally moving a little forward? I might take that seriously
if they were taking any accountability. But they won't and the media
won't provide the context or reality of what has gone down.
Jim, Dona, Jess, Ty, "Ava" started out this site as five students enrolled in journalism in NY. Now? We're still students. We're in CA. Journalism? The majority scoffs at the notion.
From the start, at the very start, C.I. of The Common Ills has helped with the writing here. C.I.'s part of our core six/gang. (C.I. and Ava write the TV commentaries by themselves.) So that's the six of us. We also credit Dallas as our link locator, soundboard and much more. We try to remember to thank him each week (don't always remember to note it here) but we'll note him in this. So this is a site by the gang/core six: Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I. (of The Common Ills).
