Welcome to the Critical Condition web site. For those of you unfamiliar with Critical Condition, let me give a little background. Critical Condition (CritCon for short) was started as a small  bi-monthly newsletter in 1982 to alert my friends about the new horror films that were released to theaters. The early 80's were a boon to the horror business as many home-grown and foreign-made horror films were being released to theaters every month. Some were good (Lucio Fulci's THE BEYOND; Gary Sherman's DEAD & BURIED) but most were bad (Jim Henley's JUNIOR; Bruno Mattei's NIGHT OF THE ZOMBIES and countless others). Being the horror maven that I am (and will always be), I started CritCon to separate the cream from the crap. The first CritCon newsletter was merely one typewritten xeroxed page that I passed out to my friends. By 1985 CritCon had mushroomed into a 20 page semi-pro magazine that had a circulation of about 1,000. The year 1985 was a turning point in the horror film business. It was the year that home video became wildly popular and forever changed the way we viewed movies. Cheap horror films were no longer being screened in theaters. Video distributors got wise and started releasing every cheap horror film they could get their hands on. I must have viewed over a thousand horror movies on video in 1985 alone! By 1987, I had burned-out writing about all the horror films that I had watched and ceased publishing CritCon with one final 100 page issue. By this time  there were plenty of other semi-pro magazines on the market that were covering the same market that I was. I took a much-needed rest from the writing game and began to read all these other magazines. For the next five years I kept a low profile but I was also becoming somewhat disillusioned. While some of these magazines flourished and were quite well done (Tim & Donna Lucas' VIDEO WATCHDOG, Mike Accomando's DREADFUL PLEASURES [now defunct]; Mike Weldon's PSYCHOTRONIC VIDEO [also now no longer publishing]), most were merely rants disguising themselves as film reviews. You would be lucky to get the name of the actor who starred in the films they were reviewing. Forget about getting the directing, producing or screenwriting credits because they were non-existant. They seemed more interested in raving about their political views or complaining about some insignificant pimple on their ass. By 1992, I'd had enough and decided to begin publishing Critical Condition on a semi-regular basis. I kept my own politics to a minimum (usually confined to the editorial page) and concentrated on the films and filmmakers themselves. Each issue of CritCon was jam-packed with reviews of films that you probably never heard of along with full cast and crew credits as well as original rare ad mats. CritCon accepted no advertising making it a complete read from the first page to the last. NOTE: After a long and hard look at the publishing business (or the "rip-off business" as I call it), I will no longer be publishing Critical Condition. It will now be completely web-based. I hope you enjoy this web site. If you do (or if you don't), drop me an e-mail and let me know what you think. Check back often to read the new reviews, news, scans and informative emails.

Fred Adelman
Editor & Publisher

PS: For all of you that have emailed me asking if I sell the films I review, the answer is NO!!!. I do this for the sheer joy of it and would never think of turning a profit off of something I love so dearly. While most of the films I review are available from reliable distributors, some of the films have been out of circulation for years and will probably never get a legal DVD release in the near or distant future. If you do not see a link to a distributor at the end of my reviews, I could probably make you a copy of the film on DVD-R (which will play on most DVD players sold in the last couple of years) if you have films to trade. Email me with your inquiries (I have over 7,500 films in my library) and I'll see what I can do for you. These films are to be distributed from one collector to another (Legal disclaimer). Don't expect crystal clarity as they are being copied from VHS to DVD-R and you may be able to get your hands on a film that you've been dying to see for many years. (Good news: I've completely turned all my VHS tapes to DVD-R, so you can probably get any film you want reviewed on this web site.) Good luck! To see my VHS and DVD library list (it's not complete and badly needs an updating), click HERE. You must have Microsoft Excel 2000 or later to view the file.

GOODBYE FRINGE AND THANKS FOR FIVE SEASONS OF A THRILLING AND EMOTION-FILLED RIDE! A WHITE ROSE TO EVERYONE INVOLVED.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL MANNER OF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND THE CIVILIANS WHO HELPED KILL AND CATCH THE TWO BROTHERS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE BOSTON MARATHON BOMBINGS. THIS JUST PROVES, IN TIMES OF CRISIS, WE ARE ALL ONE PEOPLE AND THINGS LIKE CROSSING RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL BARRIERS MEANS NOTHING. I'M A BIG NEW YORK YANKEES FAN, BUT MY HEART GOES OUT TO MY RIVALS IN BOSTON. AFTER ALL, IT'S JUST A GAME, BUT WHEN IT COMES TO HUMAN LIVES, WE ARE ALL ONE BIG FAMILY. AND A BIG "BOO!" TO THE PARENTS OF THE SUSPECTS WHO STILL DECRY THAT THEIR SONS WERE "SET UP" BY THE POLICE AND FBI AS THE EVIDENCE GROWS AGAINST THEM. THE SUSPECTS' UNCLE (WHO LIVES IN MARYLAND), ON THE OTHER HAND, SHOULD BE COMMENDED FOR CALLING HIS NEPHEWS EXACTLY WHAT THEY ARE, TERRORISTS, AND FOR SHAMING THEIR CHECHNYAN NATIONALITY.

If you know someone who was a victim of Superstorm Sandy, please make a donation to the Red Cross (www.redcross.org) to help the victims out. Even if you don't know someone who was affected, please still give. The Jersey Shore, of which I was a constant visitor from a young boy until a couple of years ago, is mostly gone and must be rebuilt. To these old eyes, it will never be the same again. Please, I beg of you to give if you have the money to spare. I know money is tight, but think of these poor victims who lost everything. Including hope. Without hope, there is nothing.

OTHER NEWS: 

R.I.P. JACK KLUGMAN  04/27/1922 - 12/24/2012
R.I.P. CHARLES DURNING  02/28/1923 - 12/24/2012
R.I.P. FRED J. LINCOLN  01/08/1938 - 01/17/2013
R.I.P. MICHAEL WINNER  11/30/1935 - 01/21/2013
R.I.P. HARRY REEMS  08/27/1947 - 03/19/2013
R.I.P. RICHARD GRIFFITHS  07/31/1947 - 03/28/2013
R.I.P. JESS FRANCO  05/12/1930 - 04/02/2013
R.I.P. ROGER EBERT  06/18/1942 - 04/04/2013
R.I.P. BIGAS LUNA  03/19/1946 - 04/05/2013
R.I.P. JONATHAN WINTERS  11/11/1925 - 04/11/2013
R.I.P. RAY HARRYHAUSEN  06/29/1920 - 05/07/2013

A judge blocks DVD release of The Asylum's "mockumentary" AGE OF THE HOBBITS, which was to be released to stores and Netflix a couple of days before Peter Jackson's film. Unlike other Asylum titles that have been blocked (Universal Pictures' blockbuster dud BATTLESHIP [2012] made The Asylum change the name of their mockumentary AMERICAN BATTLESHIP to AMERICAN WARSHIPS), the judge has set a Jan. 28, 2013 hearing to determine whether the temporary hold on the film’s release will become permanent. If the judge decides against The Asylum, this will be the first time one of their films will actually be banned permanently from release. The Asylum has actually deleted all content of the film from their web site. Maybe they should just change the title and take this whole "mockumentary" crap as a warning of things to come. Try making some original stuff for a change. UPDATE: The Asylum caved-in and changed the name of the film to CLASH OF THE EMPIRES. They have also released their version of HANSEL & GRETEL (2013) on DVD two weeks before the theatrical release of the big-budget HANSEL & GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS (2013). They have no worries about a lawsuit here since the name is in the public domain.

Justin Bieber was the target of a murder plot involving two men castrating him with a pair of hedge clippers. The Feds stopped the plot before it could happen. The adults of the world cry in unison. We can't stop terrorists from killing our foreign Embassy employees, but we can stop nutcases from castrating and killing Justin Bieber? I bet Bieber's penis tastes like chicken (At least that's what Selena Gomez says. [Kidding. Just kidding!]). Bieber should have KFC as a sponsor for his next tour. UPDATE: News of a possible murder plot formulated by an inmate and two fugitives against pop star Justin Bieber made headlines in December 2012, and now the details behind that conspiracy have unraveled after the audio of phone calls made last November from a prison near Las Cruces, N.M., were released. Police told ABC News' Albuquerque affiliate KOAT that inmate Dana Martin, who is doing time at the Southern New Mexico Correctional Facility for the murder and rape of a 15-year-old girl, was the mastermind behind the plot. According to police, Martin directed a former jailhouse friend in Vermont, Mark Staake, and Staake's nephew, Tanner Ruane, to carry out the kidnapping and murder, and asked Ruane in a taped conversation, "Did he go over the Bieber thing with you?" "Nah. The way I like to work dude, I like to know as little as possible," Ruane replied. "He's gonna use one of the things you gave him, and then he's gonna take care of it." Oh, and it gets worse. "We went and bought the hedge clippers," Ruane said. "You're gonna give me 5 large ($5,000) for each one I get." Police said that Ruane was instructed to castrate Bieber and his bodyguard with the clippers, and then suffocate them with a scarf. "Tie it really tight, and that cuts off all the oxygen, and then tie it in the back again, really tight. That seals the deal," Martin was heard saying. Luckily, before any of this could take place, Staake and Ruane were arrested by border patrol agents after making a wrong turn in to Canada. They, along with Martin, now face two counts each of conspiracy to commit murder and two counts each of conspiracy to commit aggravated battery. Bieber's camp were not immediately available for comment, but told E! News when the plot first came about in December, "We take every precaution to protect and insure the safety of Justin and his fans."

Got this from a Canadian website: A jury trial kicked off Tuesday, December 12, 2012 for a Quebec special-effects artist whose ability to create gory life-like images has prompted criminal charges against him. Remy Couture is charged with corrupting morals through the distribution, possession and production of obscene materials in a case that will explore the boundaries of artistic expression. At issue are nearly 20 photo sets and a pair of short videos that appeared on a website he hosted, dubbed “Inner Depravity.” The violent, sexually explicit, horror-inspired works were based on a serial-killer character he created. After being arrested and charged, the 35-year-old filmmaker has waited three years to go to trial. He plans to argue that what the Crown calls obscene, he calls art. The prosecution, however, will stress the risks associated with exposing such material. “The Crown will show that publishing the material undermines fundamental values of Canadian society as expressed in the Constitution,” said Crown lawyer Michel Pennou. He said the Crown intends to show that the material could push vulnerable members of society to act out what they see. A jury began hearing testimony Tuesday and even saw some of the photos on Couture’s site. The sets viewed in court included titles like “Hook” — which is a series of photos depicting a woman being tortured with hooks by a muscular, tattooed, masked man. Another picture set titled “Burn” involves a woman’s burned body being assaulted and mutilated. Some of the work portrays scenes of necrophilia, simulated rape and extreme violence. Couture uses a combination of fake blood, latex and silicone to weave disturbing tales of a serial killer who tortures, sexually assaults and murders his victims. The court heard today that Interpol was first alerted to the images and videos in 2006 by an Internet user in Austria; the scenes were deemed so realistic that a pathologist in Europe couldn’t rule out that a homicide had actually been committed. But the case only landed on a Montreal police investigator’s desk three years later. Det.-Sgt. Christina Vlachos, an investigator with the police’s morality squad, said she got the case in January 2009. She said she never actually mistook the images for real-life slayings. “I never thought they were real,” Vlachos testified Tuesday. Vlachos said part of the reason the case moved slowly was that police had never dealt with such a case before. Meanwhile, a senior detective told the court that police decided to be prudent when arresting Couture shortly before Halloween in 2009, given the contents of his website. Det.-Sgt. Eric Lavallee testified that police decided to use an elaborate sting operation, with him posing as a client wanting to set up a gory photo shoot with his wife for Halloween. When Couture stepped out of his home, police swept in to arrest him. “I judged it was necessary — for the security of the officers, it was the best way to do it,” Lavallee said. Under attack from Couture’s lawyer, Lavallee defended the decision to go with the elaborate arrest tactic. He admitted, though, that police had determined that “(the material) probably wasn’t real.” The court also heard that, after Interpol became aware of the case, two other police forces in Quebec were alerted: Quebec provincial police and police in Laval, Que., a suburb north of Montreal. Neither force followed through with charges before the case was picked up by Montreal police. Couture faces three charges. He pleaded not guilty to the charges in 2010 and told reporters that the state had no business defining what was art or infringing on his right to free expression. At the time, he said that pleading guilty or settling out of court could set a dangerous precedent and raise questions about other kinds of work done by artists. Two experts, one from the U.S. and one from Ontario, are expected to testify on behalf of the Crown in addition to three police witnesses. The defence has its own experts. A seven-woman, five-man jury is hearing the case with Quebec Superior Court Justice Claude Champagne presiding. The trial could last up to two weeks. - This just proves that sex mixed with graphic violence is still looked upon as deviant porn in tight-assed countries that could end up with the person involved going to jail. Just try to deny this has anything to do with religion. In order to "corrupt morals", you have to look at the images. Apparently, people in Austria couldn't takes their eyes off of them. Couldn't these asswipes just click to another website. The Internet is full of "Jesus Loves You" sites. The same thing would have happened in the U.S. below the Bible Belt. They let their "Lord and Savior" tell them what is right and what is wrong (They think they know the answer to "What Would Jesus Do?" when they really don't have a clue). They are too idiotic to use their own brains to decide for themselves. Even conservative Republicans are distancing themselves from these idiots. Canada has a lot better things to do than to prosecute a man because he's a good special effects technician. If these images were in a full-length film, there would be no problem. As a matter of fact, he would probably be nominated for awards for Best Special Effects. Of course, it would have to be shown on the "Director's Cut" DVD because the ratings boards of both the U.S.A. and Canada (who apparently have different ratings boards in every Province) have their heads up their religious asses. - Editor  UPDATE: Remy Couture was found not guilty of all charges by a jury after two days of deliberation. Finally, there is some justice in this world.

A METROPOLIS (1927) movie poster hailed as the most valuable one sheet in the world was auctioned by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Los Angeles on Thursday, December 13, 2012 for $1.2 million (It was bundled with posters from KING KONG [1933], THE INVISIBLE MAN [1933], ARSENIC AND OLD LACE [1944] and a painting of Elvis Presley that was used for the poster of JAILHOUSE ROCK [1957]). Ralph DeLuca's bid beat out three other collectors to claim the prize he compares to Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa and he says he got a deal too. "I was expecting to pay $1.5 to 1.6 million at least," DeLuca said. - I hope he donates the rare poster to a museum, so fans of this excellent film (which was way ahead of its time) can share the experience. Actor Leonardo DiCaprio also owns an original poster of the film (Only four are known to exist. The other two are at museums in New York and Austria.). Looking at it on a computer is not the same thing. - Editor

John McTiernan, who directed such hit movies as DIE HARD (1988) and its second sequel DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE (1995), PREDATOR (1987), LAST ACTION HERO (1993; OK, this was not a hit movie, but I enjoyed it), THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER (1990) and THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR (1999), as well as the highly underrated NOMADS (1986), the troubled production THE 13TH WARRIOR (1999; McTiernan's 1998 127-minute cut of the film failed test screenings, so late screenwriter Michael Crichton reshot many scenes and re-edited the entire film, cutting it down to 102 minutes), the awful remake ROLLERBALL (2002) and the OK military mystery BASIC (2003; his last directorial effort to date), will likely soon be headed to federal prison in connection with his role in the Anthony Pellicano wiretapping scandal. McTiernan was sentenced in late 2010 to one year in prison and a fine of $100,000 after pleading guilty to making false statements to the FBI in its investigation into the activities of Pellicano, the former Hollywood private detective who already is behind bars. McTiernan’s request to reverse his guilty plea was declined Monday, January 14, 2013 by the U.S. Supreme Court. His appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had been rejected in August 2012. He had sought to suppress a digital recording where he discussed the use of an illegal wiretap by Pellicano, whom he had hired to investigate producer Chuck Roven. That appeal was denied, but he was given a stay from prison until the Supreme Court could consider his case. Now that the high court has denied the appeal, he'll soon head be incarcerated. After serving his time, McTiernan will continue to be under a supervised release for three years.

Jess Cagle, the Managing Editor of ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY wrote in the magazine's editorial page that he has decided to take a "wait and see" attitude when it comes to violence in film, TV and video games, thanks to the massacre at the school in Newtown, Connecticut. In the same issue, they give Fox TV's bloody new series THE FOLLOWING the number one spot on their "Must See" list and then call TV's CRIMINAL MINDS "violent" and "lousy" in their "The Bullseye", which I couldn't disagree more, but this is not about disagreements (I disagreed with a lot of their reviews over the years, especially them calling the ultra-gory THE WALKING DEAD one of the best TV shows on the air). This is about taking a stand. While I do enjoy reading the articles and other information and reviews in the magazine, I may just cancel my subscription because it's apparent Cagle is talking out of his ass or trying to appeal to the Republicans and NRA. I expected more from this magazine (I have been a subscriber for over ten years) and thought they would stand up for the mediums they report on every week. If Cagle doesn't backtrack and issue and apology (especially for being such a hypocrite), they will no longer have my business. Will I miss it? Yes, I will. But some things are more important than enjoyment.

Since I am no longer a member of Facebook or the forum whose name shall never be mentioned, my friend Mario Dominick has informed me that filmmaker Andy Copp has passed away and he took his own life on January 19, 2013. Andy and I never met in person, but we traded many films and talked for hours on the Internet. I know he didn't have the very best upbringing and continuing heart problems and the loss of his mother a couple of years ago really took a toll on him. He always had suicidal thoughts ever since I have known him (we always talked about my second wife's father's suicide and another at my place of work and the feelings I had for both of them), but when he was behind a camera, it was cathartic for him. His trouble getting funding for his last film could have been a trigger for his suicide (I can only speculate), but when you take your own life, it hurts everyone who has known and loved him, including myself. I only wish Andy could have been recognised as the major talent he really was and my thoughts go out to everyone who knew and loved him. R.I.P. Andy. I can only hope you are happy where you are. You deserved happiness.

"SIN CITY" director Robert Rodriguez has been slapped with an $11 million lawsuit claiming that he bullied Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, in order to scuttle a film and associated app game featuring actor Danny Trejo, because the film and game would have taken attention away from his upcoming film, "MACHETE KILLS." In the complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Southern Utah, ITN Flix claims that it entered into an agreement with Trejo -- who frequently appears in Rodriguez's films, including "MACHETE KILLS" -- for the actor to star in a series of vigilante films. In order to generate additional publicity and revenue for the films, ITN says it entered into an agreement with gaming company react games to create a game app. The suit claims that, thanks to an associate producer on the film project who was also a business associate of Wozniak's, the former Apple honcho agreed participate in the app, leading to the game "Danny Trejo's Vengeance: Woz With a Coz." The suit clams that the game, which was due for a November 2012 release, would have generated about $5 million in sales monthly. However, according to ITN's complaint, Rodriguez -- fearful that another film starring Trejo would detract from "MACHETE KILLS" -- "set in motion a plan to diminish ITN's reputation and stifle the success of the Film and the App Game." That plan, the suit claims, included Rodriguez using "his means, connections and influence to threaten, intimidate and bully Wozniak into pulling support of the game." According to the suit, Trejo's agent, Gloria Hinojosa -- also named as a defendant in the suit -- worked with Rodriguez to torpedo the film and game, contacting Wozniak and his wife Janet and telling them that the owner of ITN "was a fraud and a con man." Wozniak subsequently pulled his support for the game, the suit says, destroying the profit potential for the game. The suit, which alleges intentional interference with economic relations, defamation and false light, and civil conspiracy, claims that ITN is out "at least  $11 million dollars" in revenue that the game could have provided. ITN is seeking an injunction and restraining order preventing Rodriguez and Hinojosa from making defamatory comments about the company, plus consequential damages "of at least $11 million" and other damages, along with interest, attorneys' fees and court costs. (Is it even possible to threaten, intimidate and bully Steve Wozniak, the second most powerful businessman in the world? I absolutely love Danny Trejo and he has been making films for more years than I care to remember, but his career really took off when he hooked-up with Robert Rodriguez. He has used Trejo in nearly all his films, so there should be some loyalty there, but this is the life of a person in showbiz. In any case, I'm rooting for Rodriguez. - Editor.)

Twitter said Friday, February 1, 2013, that 250,000 of its accounts were hacked earlier this week. An investigation showed that hackers infiltrated Twitter's internal data and stole usernames, email addresses and encrypted passwords from the users, the company said in a blog post. "This week, we detected unusual access patterns that led to us identifying unauthorized access attempts to Twitter user data," Bob Lord, Twitter's director of information security, wrote in the post. "We discovered one live attack and were able to shut it down in process moments later." He said the social network, which has 175 million users, reset the passwords for all of the affected worldwide accounts and alerted users via email. Lord also urged all users to create new passwords as a precautionary measure. "This attack was not the work of amateurs, and we do not believe it was an isolated incident," he wrote. "The attackers were extremely sophisticated, and we believe other companies and organizations have also been recently similarly attacked." Twitter did not immediately respond to questions from TheWrap about how the hackers infiltrated its systems. Earlier this week, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal said their computer systems were repeatedly hacked by China-based cyber attackers, apparently seeking to monitor the papers' coverage of the ruling Communist Party. (Imagine that. A Social Networking site being hacked and email addresses and encrypted passwords being stolen. I wonder why people [or as I call them, "worthless trolls"] refuse to recognize why these things happen and blame the individual rather than the Social Networking site's less-than-spectacular defense algorithims? - Editor.)

Porn star/actor Ron "the Hedgehog" Jeremy is in the hospital after driving himself to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Beverly Hills on Wednesday, January 30, 2013, with chest pains. He is in intensive care and on a respirator after doctors performed two heart surgeries. Doctors also said the next couple of days will determine if Jeremy will be taken off the respirator and be able to breathe on his own. I'm not a religious man, but my thoughts are with him. Those of you that are religious, put your porn bias aside (if you have one) and pray that he fully recovers. Jeremy appeared in over 1,700 porn films/featurettes and was slowly becoming a legitimate actor (ANDRE THE BUTCHER [2005] being one of his legit films). I hope he makes it, because I always liked the guy whenever I ran into him at conventions. Some women porn stars, both past and present don't share my sentimentality, but put your disgust aside and hope he has better days ahead of him. UPDATE: Jeremy is doing fine and is off the respirator, but he will be spending some significant time at the hospital to recuperate from two aneurism surgeries, according to his 94 year-old father.

A former "MELROSE PLACE" actress, who was driving drunk when her SUV plowed into a car and killed a New Jersey woman, has been sentenced to three years in prison on February 14, 2013. The victim's husband yelled, "What a travesty!" at the judge after Thursday's sentencing, and he and his son stormed out of the courtroom. Amy Locane-Bovenizer faced up to 10 years in prison after a jury in November convicted her of vehicular homicide in the 2010 death of 60-year-old Helene Seeman in Montgomery Township. The judge lowered the maximum sentence citing the hardship on Locane-Bovenizer's two children. One has a medical and mental disability. The actress apologized to Seeman's family. Locane-Bovenizer's blood-alcohol level was nearly three times the legal limit when the crash occurred as Seeman's husband turned into their driveway. Besides TV's MELROSE PLACE, some of Locane's films include director John Waters' CRY-BABY (1990), THE GIRL GETS MOE (1997), LEGEND OF THE MUMMY (1998), ROUTE 9 (1998), IMPLICATED (1999), THE HEIST (2000), HELL'S GATE (2002) and ALIEN EXPRESS (2005). UPDATE: Prosecutors on the case have said they will challenge the sentence because the judge overstepped his powers by reducing Locane's time in prison. They want her to serve the full 5 to 10 years.

February 20, 2013: Just days before Seth MacFarlane takes the stage on Sunday, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has quietly dropped "the 85th annual Academy Awards" from the show's famous moniker, citing a "rebrand" as their reasoning. "We're not calling it 'the 85th annual Academy Awards,' which keeps it mired somewhat in a musty way," Oscar show coproducer Neil Meron told TheWrap. "It's called 'The Oscars.'" The phrase '85 annual Academy Awards' is now completely absent from any poster or press release, and the famous title was reportedly nixed in early February. But that doesn't necessarily mean the Academy Awards are gone for good. Academy spokeswoman Teni Melidonian says the ad campaign adjustment is "right for this show, but we could easily go back to using ‘Academy Awards' next year." (A "rebrand"?!? It will always be known as the "Academy Awards" to me. Does everything have to do with advertising revenues and hipness? Why don't you just walk up to someone who is 85 years-old and call them "musty"? I consider this an insult to all those people who won an Academy Award in the past. - Editor)

Is it just me or does everyone understand the conundrum of Visual Effects house Rhythm & Hues winning the Academy Award for best visual effects for the film LIFE OF PI (2012), yet they had to file for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection? Hey, I'm not a big proponent of CGI, but when it is done well, so well that you don't even notice it is CGI, a place like Rythm & Hues should be commended, not go out of business. It just proves that movie making is a tricky gamble, with studios conveniently blaming effects houses for holding up production, yet the studios fail to mention that they have changed the release date to sometime earlier or some other financial mumbo-jumbo shit developed by studio financial lawyers in $1,000 suits that makes effect houses employees work overtime to the point of exhaustion. I believe all VFX companies should go on strike, just to see how many summer blockbusters would be released. My bet would be zero. Hell, even regular films use visual effects to a certain degree. These people should be applauded, not be out of a job. UPDATE: Since the Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection of Rhythm & Hues (It looks like it will be purchased by a company in Mumbai, India), several other effect houses have closed-up shop or cut staff. Phil Tippett Studios has cut their staff by 40%. Tippett Studios will remain in California, but many of the VFX companies are being purchased by companies in China and India (So what else is new? China owns half of the United States anyway.) so they can apply the newest technology to their films (and maybe steal some tech in the process). The only good point I can see in this whole mess is that maybe practical effects will make a major comback in films (although it is nearly impossible to use practical effects if you are showing landscapes of a different time period, like the 1800's). The bad points I see in this is that CGI could look like the stuff in Asylum Films or SyFy Original Movies. Now that would really suck!

Prison seems to be becoming Edward Furlong's home away from home. The TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY (1991) star, who was jailed in Van Nuys, Calif., last month for alleged battery, has now been sentenced to six months behind bars for violating his probation from a 2010 case. "Despite the best efforts of my office, and with the cooperation of the City Attorney and the Court in this case, Mr. Furlong had the opportunity to avoid Jail in a deal my office worked out which would of resolved not just this case but two other criminal cases in Beverly Hills, by checking himself into a drug rehabilitation program, a very unusual disposition in a case that alleged violence," Furlong's attorney Brian Michaels told E! News. He added, "Sadly, Mr. Furlong rejected all proposals to get into drug rehabilitation, and the Court, ultimately decided that it was forced to sentence to him a hefty amount of jail time. We are hopeful that Mr. Furlong uses this experience, unpleasant as it may be, to revisit the issue of Rehab when he is released." Jail records revealed today that Furlong may be released in late May, even though Superior Court Judge Dennis Mulcahy directed officials not to release the actor early or give him credit for time served. Furlong was placed on three years' probation in November 2010 for violating a restraining order put in place by his then-wife, Rachael Kneeland. (Furlong should have his jail sentence extended for making us sit through INTERMEDIO [2005] and the NIGHT OF THE DEMONS [2009] remake. - Editor) UPDATE: Well, at least Edward Furlong's personal effects will fit in most overhead compartments. The TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY star was released from jail today (05/17/13) on a $50,000 bond after being arrested last night for allegedly violating his girlfriend's restraining order against him, E! News confirms. Furlong, still sporting ink on his thumb from being fingerprinted, left the West Hollywood lockup toting a rolling carry-on bag. Last night, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, deputies responded to a call about a possible protective-order violation and Furlong was found "hiding on an adjacent property." The actor was also arrested and jailed back in February for violating the restraining order, about a month after authorities responded to a "boyfriend/girlfriend disturbance" involving the couple at an L.A.-area home. He is also still on probation for violating his then-wife's restraining order against him in November 2010. He has been booked on a felony charge, according to public records. (Well, at least Furlong is consistent. It looks like jail may be his second home. He's beginning to make Lindsey Lohan look like Mother Theresa. Get a new girlfriend, you idiot! - Editor)

Valerie Harper is facing a devastating diagnosis: terminal brain cancer. The television icon – beloved for her role as brash New Yorker Rhoda Morgenstern on THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW and its spin-off, RHODA – received the news on Jan. 15, 2013 she reveals to PEOPLE in this week's exclusive cover interview. A battery of tests revealed she has leptomeningeal carcinomatosis, a rare condition that occurs when cancer cells spread into the fluid-filled membrane surrounding the brain. Her doctors say she has as little as three months left to live. Resolved to face her last days with courage and humor, "I don't think of dying," says the actress, 73, who previously battled lung cancer in 2009. "I think of being here now." (I was never a big fan of Moore's or Harper's TV shows, but she was also an excellent actress, appearing in such films as FREEBIE AND THE BEAN - 1974; NIGHT TERROR - 1977; DON'T GO TO SLEEP - 1982; THE EXECUTION - 1985; THE PEOPLE ACROSS THE LAKE - 1988; MY FUTURE BOYFRIEND - 2011; SHIVER - 2012; as well as dozens of TV show appearances. It breaks my heart every time I hear news like this. - Editor)

During a decade of devastation for the home-entertainment industry, Shout! Factory has not only survived by selling DVDs and Blu-rays, it has thrived. The 60-person Los Angeles-based company has increased its annual revenue and profits by trading on pop culture nostalgia for everything from “LEAVE IT TO BEAVER” to the “MY LITTLE PONY” cartoon series. Instead of the latest releases, it mines the deepest recesses of television and film history to unearth largely forgotten treasures that retain a cult mystique. Now in its 10th year, Shout! Factory is projected to make $50 million in revenue in 2013 and puts out an average of between 15 to 20 new projects a month. Shout! Factory’s hottest acts are entertainers like Mel Brooks and Ernie Kovacs, performers of great talent who are nonetheless a few generations removed from getting a guaranteed greenlight from major studios or who have passed on to their extra-earthly rewards. Likewise, its big sellers include episodes of “MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000” not “THE HUNGER GAMES.” Instead of hurting Shout! Factory, this retro-focus has allowed the company to take on and make money from projects that fly under the radar of major studios. For the last five years, its profits have jumped 25 to 30 percent each year on average, while revenue has grown between 5 to 10 percent annually, Shout! Factory executives say. The executive team has enjoyed such robust growth in part by drawing on its experience in the music business. Shout! Factory emerged after Foos sold his stake in Rhino Records to Time Warner in 2001. Like Shout, Rhino spruced up and repackaged the works of older acts, although it was primarily in the music game. When the new company formed, Shout's management intended to evenly divide its time between music and DVDs, but the precipitous fall in record sales necessitated a change of plans. Today, more than 85 percent of Shout’s business comes from television, animated content and movies, but those music relationships came in handy. Take “FREAKS & GEEKS,” which Shout released in 2004 and which remains its biggest seller. The Judd Apatow-produced series set in the Reagan-era featured an array of songs from the 1980s. That presented a licensing nightmare. “Our expertise in our previous life at Rhino, our relationships with music publishers, have given us a huge advantage over other independents,” Bob Emmer, Shout! Factory founder and COO,  said. “From the studios standpoint, they say, ‘the show was good, but it only lasted one season, so why put up six figures to license music for something that didn’t have another season?'”But Shout! Factory executives were able to tap into their personal contacts to clear the rights to some 100 songs in 19 episodes, which allowed the show to get a home-entertainment release. It’s not just its music past. The company has also benefited from being one of the few remaining games in town when it comes to making DVD box sets. “As DVD sales are declining, the studios are less interested it putting out physical media, so they’ve become more willing to license out physical rights and to see what we can still milk out of them,” Garson Foos, Shout! Factory founder and president, said. “We’ve become about the top choice in terms of independent companies out there to work with.” Producer Roger Corman is one of the players impressed by the attention that Shout! Factory took with his catalogue of B-movies. He said the reissues of roughly 60 of his movies like “PIRANHA” and “BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS” have sold the best they have since they were first released on DVD. “The DVD market was slipping when we made the deal, but, on the other hand, the slippage of DVD sales isn’t a cliff, it’s sort of a slope,” Corman said. “The hill is sloping downward, but it’s not dead. There’s still money to be made and Shout has done just that.” The company is popular with talent, because its small size allows it to lavish attention on the box sets it makes. In an age where many studios are cutting back on bonus features, Shout! Factory has gone to other way -- loading its discs with special interviews and outtakes and outfitting packages with exhaustively researched liner notes. With Corman, that meant enlisting big-name directors like Jonathan Demme and Ron Howard to sit down for interviews about their early years working under the cult movie giant. In the case of Brooks, it meant culling through his decades of show business to assemble a compendium of everything from his appearances with talk show legends like Johnny Carson and Dick Cavett to a PBS Special about the origins of his 2,000 Year Old Man routine with Carl Reiner. “They were like Sherlock Holmes when it came to hunting for and finding obscure and rare interviews,” Brooks said. “They found me singing ‘HIGH ANXIETY’ in French for some French marketing of the film. Every time I meet with them I know they've done their homework.” Although Shout! Factory has its eye on the pop culture past, it would not be able to turn a profit were it not for the Internet, analysts and executives argue.The Foos brothers and Emmer said their team routinely uses the Internet to look for properties that have active fan sites and followings. Then they use the web to market directly to people with the fondest memories of these movies and shows without having to spend big bucks on expensive print and television advertising. At least that’s how it worked for Joel Hodgson, who entrusted the team at Shout with first untangling a complicated web of licensing issues and then finding an audience for “Mystery Science Theater,” the satiric television series about a man and his robot sidekicks who are forced to watch some of the worst B-movies ever made. “It’s more famous now than it ever was on TV,” Hodgson said. “Part of it has to do with being a comedy nerd. That happens for most people at 11 or 12 years old and because of the Internet, these episodes are all over YouTube. And Shout! Factory has catered to that and it has just given the show a nice long life.” Before the digital revolution, getting stores to stock up on cult films and shows would have been a losing proposition for Shout. Now, with e-commerce giants like Amazon and Vudu, retailers' capacity has become infinite and so has their tolerance for niche products. “For Internet retailers, there are unlimited opportunities when it comes to shelf space,” Tom Adams, an analyst with IHS Screen Digest, told TheWrap. “Ten years ago a place like Best Buy would only have had room for 5,000 or 6,000 titles. There’s no way they would have been stocking up on ‘THE MANY LOVES OF DOBIE GILLIS.'” However, the Shout team recognizes that the Internet generation is a fickle one and that even the most profitable business can find itself undone by digital upstarts. It’s moving beyond the Golden Age of television into cartoon shows dating from the 1980s to the present, hoping that it can exploit the childhood memories of a rising generation of consumers. To combat this demographic’s shifting consumption habits, the company has been making a concerted effort to lock up digital rights with more than 80 percent of its new signings including deals for control of those platforms. Last summer, Shout! Factory acquired three entertainment apps, called the Video Time Machine, the Political Time Machine and the Holiday Time Machine, which allow users to access videos from more than a century ago -- ranging from movies to music to political speeches. Given Shout's emphasis on entertainment of the past, the appeal of this kind of product is self-evident. Thanks to this technological push, Shout predicts that digital sales and licensing will rise to 15 percent of its overall business from 10 percent this year. “We don't have our heads in the sand,” Garson Foos said. “We know that we have to focus on revenue streams other than physical.” “How do we get relevant in the digital age?” Richard Foos said. “At a time when all this content is available on YouTube and elsewhere, you still need somebody to be a curator and to help you narrow it all down for you to the stuff you’ve just got to see. We’re those guys.” (From TheWrap) [A story on Shout! Factory and no mention of Cliff MacMillan? Sacreligious! - Editor]

March 12, 2013: He claimed his plans to kidnap and roast women was merely fantasy. The jury was convinced he meant it, reports Michael Daly. Nothing could be less of a fantasy than the verdict announced in the Cannibal Cop case in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday morning. “Guilty,” the jury foreman said. On all counts. What had at least started as cyber fantasies of abducting, raping, torturing, killing, cooking and cannibalizing women had ended with 28-year-old New York City police officer Gilberto Valle facing a possible life in prison for conspiracy to kidnap. He certainly could not argue that he had inadequate counsel. No defendant could have asked for more than defense attorney Julia Gatto’s impassioned summation. She had argued persuasively to the jury that the cyber chats the prosecution termed conspiracies were nothing more than disturbing fantasies, in numerous instances all but identical to other chats the FBI itself dismissed as make-believe. Yes, Gatto said, Valle had looked up recipes for chloroform and named actual women as he spoke with fellow sickos on the Dark Fetish Network. Yes, Gatto said, he had described acting out his dark imaginings in his basement or a house upstate. Yes, Gatto said, Valle spoke of trussing his victims with rope and roasting them in an oven or on an outsized spit. But, she noted, Valle had never actually made chloroform and he had neither a basement nor a house upstate.  He also had neither an oven nor a spit with which he could cook even a petite woman. He had never bought so much as a yard of rope. “It was all fantasy, sick, twisted, ugly fantasy,” Gatto told the jury. And she reminded the jurors of something Valle had told a cyberpal, “I like to press the envelope, but no matter what I say, it is all fantasy.” Yet, as convincing and compelling as she was, Gatto’s argument faltered for just the briefest of moments when she sought to explain why Valle had used the computer in his radio car to access a law-enforcement data base and run the names of several actual women. Valle, she told the jury, had only been checking the system. “To make sure it’s working,” she said. The explanation was so unconvincing that Gatto suddenly looked like exactly what she in fact was, a defense attorney seeking an acquittal. But the rest of her argument remained so convincing that prosecutor Randall Jackson seemed to be only flailing in his rebuttal. Then he reminded the jury of Kristen Ponticelli. The 18-year old high school student had been the briefest of witnesses but also the most disturbing because she was so young, had no direct connection with Valle, and was so obviously unnerved by the thought that some stranger had marked her to be raped, cooked alive, and eaten. Another transformative moment came when the prosecutor projected on the monitors arrayed before the jurors the subject of a Google search that Valle had made. “KRISTEN PONTICELLI ADDRESS.” The two moments, one during the defense’s summation, the other during the prosecution’s rebuttal, left the jury with the question of why Valle would run a computer check or seek a teen’s address if he was engaged in nothing more than fantasy. Even so, there had been no actual attempt to kidnap somebody. And none of Valle’s alleged co-conspirators had asked what happened to the plot when nothing came of it, a seemingly implicit acknowledgment that it was indeed fantasy. “It’s a tough case,” a law-enforcement official said the day of the summations, when asked about the chances of a conviction. (Yet convicted he was and he faces a sentence of life in prison. This is a case of a person being convicted of doing nothing but having an ugly fantasy life on the computer [and we are not talking pedophilia here]. The prosecution's repeated showing of unflattering photos taken off the Internet swayed the jury to convict him, yet the guy did nothing to act on his fantasies. Here's the lesson: This guy should in no way be a cop, but he shouldn't be put in prison, either. What he did was no different than someone watching porn on the Internet and talking about it with other like-minded people, but it was taken to the extreme. I sincerely hope his conviction is overturned, otherwise everyone will have to be careful what they Google on their computers. Who knows? Someday it may be used against you, even though all you may have done was look up the material for research for a book or term paper. Watch your ass because the Thought Police is no longer a fantasy. - Editor)

Michael Bay is not necessarily known as Hollywood’s most self-deprecating director. Hell, he might be the least. But in a recent profile in the Miami Herald, he actually admitted failure, stating, “I will apologize for ARMAGEDDON (1998)."  He explained: "We had to do the whole movie in 16 weeks. It was a massive undertaking. That was not fair to the movie. I would redo the entire third act if I could. But the studio literally took the movie away from us. It was terrible. My visual effects supervisor had a nervous breakdown, so I had to be in charge of that. I called James Cameron and asked ‘What do you do when you’re doing all the effects yourself?’ But the movie did fine.” Sure, blaming the studio isn’t the most humble move, but it’s a start. (Spoiler alert for this next sentence, just in case you somehow haven’t seen ARMAGEDDON by now.) Bay did not confirm if redoing the third act meant having Optimus Prime swoop in to save a tearful Bruce Willis, but what else could he have meant? (ARMAGEDDON is my favorite Michael Bay film ever. It has an emotional core usually not found in Michael Bay's films. I have no problem with the third act and never noticed a problem with it. As a matter of fact, it always brings a tear to my eyes. He should be apologizing for the TRANSFORMERS movies instead! - Editor) ADDENDUM: “One press writer has gone too far in reporting false information. He has printed the bare minimum of my statement which in effect have twisted my words and meaning. I’m not in the slightest going to apologize for the third movie in my movie career, a film called ARMAGEDDON. On the red carpet for PAIN & GAIN some reporters asked me what are you apologizing for, and I said what on earth are you talking about? What I clearly said to the reporter, is I wish I had more time to edit the film, specifically the third act. He asked me in effect what would you change if you could in your movies if you could go back. I said, I wish we had a few more weeks in the edit room on ARMAGEDDON. And still today ARMAGEDDON, is still one of the most shown movies on cable TV. And yes, I’m proud of the movie. Enough said. (That's better, Michael. You may direct junk food for the brain, but I never considered ARMAGEDDON one of those films. Apparently PAIN & GAIN is not one of those films, either. It was made for 25 million dollars and is based on a true story. Stars Dwayne Johnson and Mark Wahlberg worked for minimal money, deciding to take a percentage of the profits on the back end. - Editor)

HANNIBAL just got harder to find in Utah. KSL TV, the Salt Lake City NBC affiliate which has previously vetoed THE PLAYBOY CLUB (2011; NBC only aired 7 episodes before canceling it) and THE NEW NORMAL (2012 - 2013; NBC just announced that there wouldn't be a second season) over content issues, announced on its Facebook page that it will no longer be airing the spin on SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. "After viewing the past few episodes, as well as receiving numerous complaints from viewers, KSL TV will cancel the airing of the NBC show HANNIBAL on Thursday evenings," reads the post. "This decision was made due to the extensive graphic nature of this show. The time slot will be replaced with a special edition of KSL 5 News at 9 p.m. NBC remains a valued partner to KSL TV. KSL is confident that with the proliferation of digital media, those who wish to view the program can easily do so." KSL is owned by Bonneville International Corporation, a Church of Latter-day Saints company. The Mormon ownership and largely Mormon audience in the market make the move a not entirely unsurprising one. Ahead of the 2012-13 season, KSL preemptively pulled Ryan Murphy's gay couple comedy NEW NORMAL for what it called "rude and crude dialogue." As it has in the past, KUCW (an Ogden-licensed station with ties to The CW, ABC and NBC) has picked up KSL's discards. The affiliate will air HANNIBAL on Saturday nights after fellow NBC series SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE. This is not the first preemption news for HANNIBAL. At the insistence of showrunner Bryan Fuller, NBC decided opted not to air an April 25 episode about violent children out of respect for bombing at the Boston Marathon. Parts of the episode were later repurposed for a series of web shorts. (This is exactly what happens when you let a major network affiliate use their religion as an excuse for not showing network programs. I don't care whether they are Mormons, Christians, Jews, Muslim or Hindi, they have no business dictating what the audience should or shouldn't see, even if a small minority of the viewers voice their complaints. If they want to own a TV station, let them show nothing but religious programs. Lord knows there are plenty of them! As for HANNIBAL showrunner Bryan Fuller refusing to show Episode 4 out of "respect" for the bombing at the Boston Marathon, my feelings can be read HERE. - Editor)

Talk about a sign of things to come. According to the IMDB regarding Marvel's IRON MAN 3 (2013): "The film was heavily edited for Chinese audiences. The Chinese edit has additional scenes featuring the character Dr. Wu and his assistant (played by Chinese stars Xueqi Wang and Bingbing Fan respectively)." This was a money-making decision by Paramount/Walt Disney Productions to cave-in to China for finally letting more of their theaters show American-made films. The gamble paid off. The film was the highest grossing film overseas, especially in China (as of this writing, it was close to grossing one billion dollars). I don't know about you, but this seems a little dangerous to me. More and more American films are opening overseas before making their United States debut (corporate greed once again raises its ugly head) and cow-towing to China to give them their own version of the film, especially since it was successful, opens the floodgates for other films to do the same thing. I don't know about you, but I want to see a film as it was originally made, not an altered version made for a communist country. Imagine the possibilities in the future. We already owe China billions of dollars that our government borrowed from them (not to mention that they own a huge amount of American real estate) and now we are giving them films in versions that we think they will appreciate. I'll only be satisfied when the Chinese people are as free as we are (Cutting ties with North Korea would be a nice start). Giving them altered films to appease their palate is the last thing we should be doing. This is not the same thing as movies making both clothed and naked versions of scenes in their films (especially European films during the 60's & 70's); this is about changing the actual plot of a film which, again, is a dangerous proposition. At least in my opinion. DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU DEPT.: Chinese actress Li Bingbing has been cast in TRANSFORMERS 4. The news was first reported by China’s m1905.com, a state-owned film site. The casting comes during recent high-profile efforts to court and increase Chinese interest in Hollywood tent-poles: IRON MAN 3 was shot with footage specifically for the country, which is now the world’s second-largest film market. Meanwhile, TRANSFORMERS 4 CHINESE ACTORS TALENT SEARCH REALITY SHOW will air this summer, a reality TV competition to cast four speaking roles in the upcoming film, which jettisons franchise star Shia LaBeouf in favor of Mark Wahlberg. Bay also intends to shoot in China, which will help it qualify as a Sino-U.S. co-production and thus avoid the country’s import quota on foreign films, which is designed in part to promote its own domestic (and relatively much less lucrative) film industry. Bingbing’s role wasn’t specified by the story Paramount, though the news is surely more evidence that the film’s plot is headed East. One request: No more racist robots. UPDATE: EW has confirmed the casting. “I am excited to have Li Bingbing join our cast and to be shooting portions of the movie in her native China,” Bay said in a statement. Said Bingbing: “I am very happy to be able to join this international production. Thank you Paramount for the invitation!” (And it starts. - Editor)

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