Category Archives: Hollywood

‘Tonight Show’ Ratings: Worst Summer EVER

“The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” is pulling a smaller number in the advertiser-coveted adults 18-49 demographic than when Conan O’Brien hosted the show last year.

In fact, this summer is the lowest-rated “Tonight” on record, though such feats have become increasingly common on broadcast across the board.

Read more: Jay Leno Ratings, Jay Leno, Tonight Show Ratings, Tonight Show, Media News

Do 3D Movies Deserve Higher Ratings?

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We’re all well aware of the subtle and subjective art of the cinematic rating system. Remove a word here, take out an innuendo or slip of the nip there, and suddenly that risque adult fare becomes palatable for familial audiences. But here’s a new goodie to consider: With the rise of 3D, will we start seeing the same film receive different ratings between the second and third dimension, and what will that mean for the ever-important box office take?

It seems that overseas in Sweden, the country’s Board of Film Censors doled out two different ratings for Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore. The 2D version was rated G, meaning everyone could see it without adult supervision, while the 3D version was rated PG, requiring adults to accompany tykes under the age of 7.

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Cinematical Seven: Movie Titles That Make Us Hungry

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I’ll admit that on the surface there’s nothing terribly deep to this topic of discussion, which is fairly self explanatory. But there’s something powerful in the well-composed film title that can evoke that visceral hunger in your stomach with just the right words. Words that represent foods you’ve tasted, tastes that trigger food memories that can water your mouth like a Pavlovian dog, trained to take notice subconsciously at the mere suggestion of an idea.

Such was my immediate response to this week’s A Woman, a Gun, and a Noodle Shop (international title: A Simple Noodle Story), Zhang Yimou’s colorful Chinese remake of the Coen brothers’ Blood Simple. The film itself has little to do with food, save being set in a remote noodle shop and its adjoining estate, where a bitter old shop owner (Ni Dahong ) plots to kill his much-younger wife (Yan Ni) and the employee she’s having an affair with (Xiao Shenyang). But the title — simple, evocative, suggesting the elemental nature of all three of its parts — well, it got me.

I love noodles, see. Yimou had me on the hook at “noodle shop,” and thankfully he includes a single scene of noodle-making in his screwball thriller. In said scene we see the shop’s three lowly, buffoonish employees spring to action as a dynamic noodle-making team: they roll the dough, flip and flatten it in the air between them like jugglers, slice the noodles into strips to cook, and cover the delectable thick slabs in steaming broth before serving them in comically giant bowls.

Just reading the title of Yimou’s film brings back my memories of that scene, which in turn makes me hungry. Such is the power of the well-composed film title. With food and film on the brain, I offer seven more movie titles that make me salivate.

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Interview: Michelle Rodriguez on ‘Machete’

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Michelle Rodriguez has literally fought her way to stardom, starting with Karyn Kusama‘s boxing drama Girlfight. Rodriguez came away with an Independent Spirit Award for Best Debut Performance and the start of a unique career as one of Hollywood’s action heroines. In the past ten years, Rodriguez has driven with The Fast and the Furious, fought zombies in Resident Evil, rode the waves in Blue Crush, got Lost, and piloted one of James Cameron’s futuristic ships in Avatar.

Rodriguez’s latest role as Luz in Robert Rodriguez‘s Machete takes the action star to a whole new level of kicking ass. Deep in the heart of Texas, Luz runs a taco truck that feeds the local day laborers home-style food, comfort, and hope for a better future — as well information about jobs, how to get papers, or even cash in a pinch. Luz’s alter ego is Shé, a revolutionary, gun-totin’ mama who runs an underground network that helps immigrants once they’ve crossed the border into the Texas. Luz ends up being a much-needed friend to Machete (Danny Trejo), a former Federales who escaped a Mexican drug lord by the skin of his teeth and keeps finding himself in increasingly messy situations on the Texan side of the border. He’s got a machete, but Luz has got, well, a lot more than a taco truck on her side.

Rodriguez took some time out of her busy day to talk to Cinematical about self-stereotyping, playing with politics in Machete, and the outer space kind of aliens she’ll be fighting in Battle: Los Angeles.

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The Best Jokes About Goldman Sachs

Many of the jokes at Wall Street’s expense this past year have been aimed directly at Goldman Sachs.

They’ve been delightful, but we think the bubble has burst.

The evidence:

Blankfein just dropped from #1 to #100 on the Vanity Fair mogul list. Every single comedian has poked fun at the firm – twice. Even the President has gotten a laugh by playing on the collective hatred of “Goldman Sucks.”

Read more: Lloyd Blankfein, The Tonight Show, Jokes, Goldman Sachs, Steven Colbert, Goldman Sachs Fraud, Jay Leno, President Obama, Jimmy Fallon, John Stewart, Conan O'Brien, Business News