NY Knicks Oust Coach Mike D'Antoni; Jerry Sloan Likely Replacement

As exciting as the "Linsanity" craze was only days ago, it still fell far short to save the career of embattled coach Mike D'Antoni who was asked to leave as part of a "mutual" agreement by the NY Knicks management. Assistant coach Mike Woodson takes over until a new head coach is found. D'Antoni actually replaced former Detroit Pistons great Isiah Thomas as coach, but neither have been able to bring the big city team back to the glory days of old, although the "Linsanity" over surprise player Jeremy Lin has been very good for the team's image.

Two retired coaches are being approached for the job, including Phil Jackson and Jerry Sloan, but sources say that Sloan may be the only one of the two really interested in the job. This means that Jerry Sloan appears to be the best bet to accept the job. Sloan led the Utah Jazz as head coach from 1988 until his 2011 retirement. Sloan started his career as a player with Baltimore Bullets in 1965, later becoming a Chicago Bull from 1966-1976. Sloan then moved to coaching, where he coached the Chicago Bulls from 1979-82, then returned to coach the Utah Jazz as legend for his long stint there.

You know that it's a bad sign for any team when D'antoni's coaching instructions sometimes looked more like the "sign of the beast" than anything. That's a sure sign of your team being caught in game losing hell if ever there was one.

Major League WTF?: Poilice And Retailers Ponder How To Deter Detergent Crime

Believe it or not, the shoplifting theft of tide detergent from grocery retailers is the latest wave of crime. Selling at around $15 a bottle at many discount retailers, some shoplifters also involved in the drug trade are either selling black market bottles of Tide for $5 a bottle or even trading the popular orange bottled liquid laundry detergent for drugs in other cases. It's a baffling new wave of crime that has both police as well as grocery retailers wringing out their hands rather than their laundry.

Some retailers are having problems with thieves who load up shopping carts with the detergent, and then make a rush out the door and make a clean getaway. The huge upswing in Tide detergents thefts is only the latest grime wave to sweep the nation, where crooks have found a new way to play dirty and not come clean. But, all jokes aside, some retailers are considering some sorts of locks or security devices to deter the detergent crime wave.

ABC's GCB Swells Viewership Into #1 in 10PM Sunday Slot

While the debut of ABC's GCB(Good Christian Bitches, some say) wasn't spectacular, this past Sunday the viewership swelled upward, making the controversial new program #1 in it's time slot. This new firepower also presents a real danger to CSI:MIAMI over at CBS, which is seen as on the bubble whether it will be renewed for the Fall 2012 season or not. As DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES gets ready to sing it's swan song this May, GCB gives ABC a new show with a similar market appeal. And by running these two shows together, it gives ABC a powerful following of female viewers for these two shows.

ABC has to be pretty happy that viewership actually increased for GCB in it's second week. Often a show starts out strong, but loses rather than builds an audience. So a second week audience growth is certainly welcome news to those execs over at ABC.

It was also heartening to see viewership better for any show this past Sunday, because the switch to daylight saving time cost most of the Sunday programs about 10% or better of their viewers. So even in a smaller viewership market, GCB was able to swim uphill.

TV Ad Wars: Romney Near Broke? Obama With $96 Million To Spend To Carpet Bomb The Airwaves.

TV networks are expected to reap a huge financial harvest from 2012 campaign spending ads. And these ad wars will decide the 2012 election. And a few important advertising spending dominoes are starting to fall into place right now. Mitt Romney is slowly limping to a narrow Republican nomination in the bruising GOP primary grueling road, while the Obama 2012 Campaign dramatically increased their On-line ad spending during January to $4.26 million, which is nearly as much as all of the 2011 $5.07 million total campaign spending. One advertising agency, Bully Pulpit Interactive appears to be the clearinghouse for most of the ads right now. It was founded by some members of the successful 2008 Obama campaign. A lot of the On-line advertising is for the Obama 2012 Campaign to raise up a giant warchest, now rumored to be around $96 million, to carpet bomb Mitt Romney's campaign with Fall TV season ads promoting the president and citing the shortcomings of Romney. And this is especially bad news for Romney right now.

It is now rumored that the Romney campaign is short on cash, having spent massive amounts of money in a failed attempted to ward off his pesky challengers, chiefly Santorum and Gingrich. On Tuesday, Gingrich likely either wins or comes very close in both Alabama and Mississippi, which should only further stall the Romney drive for the Republican nomination. Further, the attacks by Gingrich have now raised Romney's negatives to higher levels than his positives, making him seem less likely to be elected president. The GOP's last candidate with higher negatives than positives was former Republican Senate leader Robert Dole, who fared poorly against the successful 1996 Bill Clinton re-election effort.

Although his record as president is certainly less than stellar, Obama still holds some huge advantages here. A nearly broke Romney Campaign will limp to the nomination and will likely be crushed in the general election by a massive advertising onslaught by the Obama 2012 Campaign, where even narrow wins in some key swing states such as Ohio or Florida will result in a large electoral college majority for the president, far in excess of the 270 electoral votes required to win.

Money will be the key to winning the White House in 2012. And Romney has spent way too much money way too soon. In some small states such as Iowa, Romney might have spent as much as $200 per vote just to lose the state by just 34 votes to a poorly financed Santorum Campaign, , and far worse, Romney is nearly certain to lose this state to Obama in the general election as well. The Romney Campaign hoped for a quick knock out blow to his opponents so that he could concentrate on the general election, instead opponents like Santorum and Gingrich are probably costing Romney the general election by draining his campaign of cash and raising new doubts about Romney, when neither Santorum or Gingrich have any clear path to win either the GOP nomination, let alone the general election.

If you don't like political ads on TV, then this won't be a very pleasant new Fall season coming up. Expect to see more political ads than ever as both the official and unofficial campaigns spend massive amounts of money on TV political ads like never before, just to have the same likely political outcome as we already have, President Obama.

But, Mitt Romney may hold a few aces of his own. If gas prices only continue to rise, and President Obama cannot offer a satisfactory explanation to Americans or relief at the pump by election day, Romney might be able to craft this key issue to his benefit. Further, while foreign policy has likely been President Obama's strongest area of policy, the mission in Afghanistan has been going badly in the last few days due to the accidental burning of a Koran as well as the civilian massacre incident, both of which seriously threaten to undermine the mission in that country to weaken the Taliban or prevent al Qaeda from establishing strength to promote worldwide terrorism.

Pink Floyd Releases 7 Disc Expanded Version of THE WALL

Two of Pink Floyd's greatest releases include THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON and THE WALL. Now Pink Floyd is launching a hugely expanded and remastered edition of THE WALL that reportedly includes 7 discs, 6 audio cds and one DVD, plus a beautiful booklet as well. This special "Immersion" edition of THE WALL is available at Cd Universe for a discount price of $131.95, and includes tons of rare demo material from both Roger Walters, David Gilmour and the entire band. If you're really into this great album, then this appears to be the definitive boxed set.

But, all of this sure doesn't mean that this box set isn't very disappointing to some fans of the album and Pink Floyd. Some fans were miffed that a lossless Bluray disc of the audio wasn't included in this package after it was rumored to be added to the set before the official release was made. The included DVD only includes some excerpts from THE WALL, when a wonderful 5.1 dolby surround sound Bluray audio of the album would have been so much better. And what's up with the cheaply made scarf included as a bonus? What's the deal with that? it looks much like some cheap dollar store item.

EMI was also in a real hurry to rush this box set out to stores as a moneymaker for the company. That simply meant that some wonderful quad mixes of the album were neglected because they would have required a lot of cleanup time to add this album. That's not to say that the remastered stereo sound isn't an improvement over previous versions of THE WALL. It is. But, when better audio quality was available, EMI apparently didn't want to invest the effort or time here.

So essentially you have discs 1 and 2, a newly remastered version of the previously released THE WALL album. Discs 3 & 4 are rare demo tracks, and disc 5 is a remastered version of IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE? and disc six THE WALL LIVE.

So you have to decide if shelling out $130 or more dollars for this latest high priced box set is really what you what to do. It's pretty worthwhile on some levels, but pretty much a letdown in many other ways. Probably, this isn't the final re-release of THE WALL. No, not by a long-shot. The album no doubt has a few more high priced re-releases in it. And maybe those might be a little bit better than this. But, for now this box set isn't particularly bad or anything. Just a little disappointing.

to paraphrase Bob Dylan here, "I shall be re-released".

DVD Review: THE SKIN I LIVE IN(2011 Spain)

LA PIEL QUE HABITO(THE SKIN I LIVE IN) is a highly unusual arthouse medical thriller staring Antonio Banderas as a brilliant plastic surgeon who was so frustrated that he could not save his beloved wife from horrific burns caused in an automobile accident that he keeps a new lover under lock and key in his own home as he slowly replaces all of her skin with a new synthetic skin that won't burn or injure based on unethical illegal human/animal genetic research. This is a very macabre and strange tale, that involves some very strange images and characters as well as a very bizarre storyline. It's not for everyone, but it's nonetheless one of the better arthouse films I've seen recently.

The movie takes yet another macabre twist when an accused rapist is tortured and becomes the subject of forced sexual reassignment surgery, only making the story even more bizarre.

If you enjoy deeply bizarre arthpouse films, LA PIEL QUE HABITO is a whole new adventure. Done entirely in Spanish, this film is subtitled for English speakers.

The Bottom Line: A high unusual movie experience worth a look. This film got 80% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes from the critics, and slightly higher positive reviews from audiences. **1/2(Two and a half stars, or better than fair. A worthy foreign film that's nearly a gem. Find it if you can. It's worthwhile).

Robert Schuller Resigns From Crystal Cathedral Board After Sale To Catholic Church

Rev. Robert Schuller, the founder of the Crystal Cathedral and also the iconic minister who was the leader of THE HOUR OF POWER religious program for decades has resigned from the board of the church after it was sold to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange last month due to the bankruptcy of the church. Robert Schuller is unclear about what future he will have with the once powerful mega-church, which often was accused of detractors of preaching a "Prosperity Gospel" of financial success. Many top business leaders such as Herman Cain, the founder of Godfathers Pizza, as well South Korean business tycoons once presented testimony at this church about their faith in God and success in business. Today, it seems as if Joel Osteen from Houston has become the top "Prosperity Gospel" television preacher. Joel Osteen was a former cameraman and producer for his father, John Osteen, who suffered a sudden heart attack and died. The younger Osteen had only preached on camera once before, but he was suddenly thrust into the lead pastor role of his father's church. Joel Osteen quickly became a success far greater than his father. His boyish looks, kindly and friendly, nonconfrontive nature, gave him a broad appeal and widespread positive reception, even among those with no faith at all.

But, the latest news for Robert Schuller's church isn't near as rosy. Robert Schuller was for years one of the greatest religious speakers on television, offering a top notch religious program, with big name entertainers and guests, making it almost like a religious variety show of sorts. For many Christians, attending services at the Crystal Cathedral, which is right near Disneyland, was an important vacation event. And unlike many of the TV preachers who are some form of a fundamentalist, Robert Schuller was a ordained preacher in the Dutch Reformed Church, making him one of only a few mainline Protestant ministers to preach on television that had a large audience. As a whole, mainline Protestants as well as Catholics have largely ignored the importance of using TV to convey their religious message, only allowing the huge growth of Christian fundamentalism in American Christianity. This has also resulted in widespread social and political consequences for the nation as well.

For now, THE HOUR OF POWER program continues to air in syndication across the nation and the world on satellite, led by Robert Schuller's daughter. Sheila Schuller Coleman, but she unfortunately lacks the real charisma of either the elder Robert Schuller, or his son, which became the lead pastor of the church for a few years until he was forced to step aside, really leaving the church without any strong charismatic figurehead.

The decline of THE HOUR OF POWER really came about in 2008, when the younger Robert Schuller was removed from the TV program and later resigned from the church. The elder Robert Schuller's messages were largely based in psychology and much more secular messages, while the younger Schuller's religious views were much more in-line with the popular Evangelism movement popular in Christianity, and far more scripturally based. The son managed to keep THE HOUR OF POWER as the #1 religious program in the world with 25 million viewers, but a lack of a shared vision of the two Schullers really helped to create a serious split in the church despite the widespread success of the ministry. It was a sad case of a family working against each other, only creating a failure for everyone.

All of the sermons and books dealing with the importance of a positive attitude, just didn't seemed to help a family with serious strains and differences of opinion, tearing at itself, only to create this failure. What a great treasure THE HOUR OF POWER was once was as a religious program. It seemed perfect under the leadership of either Robert Schuller, but that wasn't enough to heal differences in this family. Now, the church property has been sold under bankruptcy. All of this only illustrating the very high cost of not getting along with your family.

My own father knew that I was a real fan of this TV show, watching it each and every week for a good 20 years. My father was very impressed what a good speaker Robert Schuller was and even found himself occasionally watching at least the sermon portion of this once very popular TV religious program.

GM Suspends Chevrolet Volt Production For Five Weeks

The reality of $4 or $5 a gallon gas doesn't seem to be helping the sales of GM's $39, 145 plug-in hybrid electric cars very much. GM only sold a meager 1,626 of the high mileage, high tech automobiles so far during the first months of 2012 compared to the 45,000 hoped for 2012 sales target. So GM is shutting down Volt production for five weeks, putting 1300 Detroit-area workers on a layoff schedule.

There has been a lot of speculation that GM was pushed toward dropping some car brands and concentrating on building new high mileage vehicles such as the Volt by the federal government when GM sought their auto bailout loan. However, the huge sales disaster of the Volt also shows what can happen when Washington bureaucrats who don't normally work in the automobile business attempt to manage an industry that they don't know or understand. To some Washington bureaucrat, these plug-in hybrids look to them to be the solution to high gas prices, fuel conservation as well producing greener vehicles. But, the cold reality is that the Chevy Volt just doesn't sell very good at all. And GM has invested a huge amount of money into this product, only to be shocked by the extremely poor sales figure. Other automobiles such as the Edsel were dropped by Ford when they only sold less than 30,00 units. The dismal Volt sales are much worse than almost any car brand that has been dropped by any major company. Other dismal market failures such as the AMC Pacer actually sold a lot better than the Volt.

Some companies such as Fred Meyer and now even Walgreens have installed electric charging areas. However, it could be years before many electric cars such as the plug-in hybrids really exist in decent numbers. Today, these cars are a real rarity.

During the early 1900's one highly successful all electric automobile was the Baker. The electric portion of the Baker automobiles worked just fine, but the suspension systems tended to break parts on the rough, often cobblestone streets, compared to much stronger Ford model T cars, which could withstand the rough roads of the early 1900's. So the technology for viable electric automobiles has existed for nearly 100 years, however modern buyers tend to fear the new technology, even fearful of fire danger and other, often irrational concerns.

Death Of A Guitar Superman: Ronnie Montrose Dies Of Cancer

Ronnie Montrose was a bona fide guitar superman. The 64 year old rock guitar legend had been battling cancer in recent times, and after a valiant battle finally died on March 3, 2012. But, he leaves behind a wealth of recordings for his fans to treasure for a lifetime. Not only did Ronnie Montrose release nine solo albums, but, he released another six albums with his hard rock act, Montrose, as well. With Gamma he added another five albums. And he did volumes of amazing session work including with Van Morrison on the classic album TUPELO HONEY, as well as with Boz Scaggs, Gary Wright, The Beau Brummels, Dan Hartman, Edgar Winter, Nicolette Larson, Lauren Wood and a scad of other top name acts.

When you're a top name act, and you wanted guitar done right, Ronnie Montrose was your man.

Ronnie Montrose is the third of three big name music entertainers to die in recent days, joining Whitney Houston and Davy Jones. I tell you, Heaven's got one hell of a great band up there.

CD Review: Katy Perry TEENAGE DREAM

Katy Perry's third studio album firmly cemented her as a true pop music superstar act. It's a very listenable collection of 12 listed tracks, plus two more hidden tracks, including an alternate version of TEENAGE DREAM. Snoop Dogg guest stars on CALIFORNIA GURLS. And although the album has been on the charts for some time, the album continues to provide hit singles for the top artist. This album is truly the gift that keeps on giving. Although released in 2010, the album has so far provided six top selling singles with only her latest single coming from her next upcoming album.

Katy Perry's career originally got something of a false start with the quick failure of her first album, KATY HUDSON, released back in 2001 that didn't get much traction all. The album of all Gospel music failed to even chart. But, by 2008 a new attempt under her new showbiz name, doing popular music, made Katy Perry a big success with ONE OF THE BOYS.

Getting away from any stogy conservative Gospel music look, the wild and unconventional dress of Katy Perry has also become one of her most recognizable showbiz traits. Her songs have also become decidedly more sexual in tone as well, compared to her far more spiritual music of old. It's a fascinating worldly transformation of Gospel performer into a bona fide pop superstar.

TEENAGE DREAM is such a fine listenable album, that even just a casual fan of Katy Perry can't help but be impressed. It's a a very fine album if you just want to buy something fresh to listen to in the car or at home.

The Bottom Line: At times Katy Perry seems like she's channeling Alanis Morrisette and a few other top acts, but don't worry about that. This is a really good cd here. ***(Three Stars, Good. More than worthwhile to buy and love to death).

Pat Robertson Calls For Decriminalization Of Marijuana

Pat Robertson, that lovable religious huckster, has made news once again for a few of his controversial comments. On one hand, the 81 year old religious broadcaster, has called for the decriminalization of the possession of marijuana, opposing using the nation's prisons to lock up young people who simply use the illegal drug, on the other hand he made controversy by blaming tornadoes on a lack of prayer in the U.S.

Controversy is nothing new for the elderly religious tycoon. Experts who are skeptics and mediums have debated Pat Robertson using an old parlor game trick known as "cold readings" on LARRY KING TONIGHT before, which Robertson reportedly uses to make it seem as though he is healing sick persons via the TV screen. This TV screen healing is especially amazing because some of the apostles that were the most close to Jesus himself were unable to heal themselves of various conditions such as bad eyesight or were unable to defend themselves from imprisonment, beatings or even executions. Yet, some millionaire TV preacher claims to harness powers far greater than these apostles. One part sideshow antics, one part show biz, Pat Robertson has been a top notch religious entertainment act whose 700 CLUB program manages to reach millions each day.

Although highly profitable for Robertson, the 700 CLUB and the Christian Broadcast Network does help to provides funding for a wide variety of worldwide missions to relieve hunger and lack of medicine, so the antics of Robertson have also resulted in a wealth of good works as well.

Some television preachers such as Pat Robertson have carried TV religion to whole new level of innovation by redefining religious TV. His 700 CLUB is one part entertainment, one part news, one part conservative politics, one part religion. It's like a religious variety show. And Pat Robertson himself is always great entertainment to watch. He might be easy to lampoon for his absurd pronouncements or ratlike personality qualities, but he remains infinitely more likable than some leading conservative personalities such as Rush Limbaugh. On one hand, you know Pat Robertson is a huckster, but still you like the guy. He remains always entertaining, and sometimes seems almost reasonable and moderate, especially when he calls for a more common sense approach to the nation's problems with illegal drugs.

Although Pat Robertson's organizations will no doubt offer up to millions of dollars of help to the tornado victims, these victims probably don't appreciate his unhelpful statements about their lack of prayer somehow causing their dire situation. But, that's the mixed bag of Pat Robertson. One part real good, another part simply awful.

Davy Jones Death Jokes

I don't honestly know why some people sometimes post jokes about tragic events Online soon after the event. It might actually be part of the healing or coping with tragedy process. But, regardless there are a few Davy Jones death jokes starting to float around the Internet, but with most people too embarrassed to sign their real names to these ghoulish laughs. Here's a few for you to ponder. Tell us what you think about these death jokes in our comments if you wish.

My best friend told me that Davy Jones had died. At first I didn't believe her. Then I saw her face.... Now, I'm a bereaver.

Paramedics that responded to the Davy Jones emergency were pretty depressed. They came this close to getting his autograph.

Davy Jones arrives at the Pearly Gates, St. Peter answers, and Davy Jones exclaims, "Hey, hey. I'm a Monkee!".

I heard that David Cassidy and Davy Jones were rehearsing for a former teen idols tour. Now, David Cassidy will have to be crappy all by himself.

It seems that King Kong and Davy Jones have much in common. Both dead monkeys.

People are now sending their Mickeydolences.

Davy Jones dead. I thought I saw him walking down the street.

But, it seems that the news of the Davy Jones death appears to be a generational thing, with Davy Jones being much like the Justin Bieber for older people. Younger people hear the name Davy Jones, and some think of something on SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS, while older folks considered Davy Jones an important part of their lives while growing up.

THE MONKEES were not only a talented fake Beatles-type act on one hand, who were very good performers, but they were great comic actors as well, where their NBC TV show was one part music, one part Marx Brothers.

Rest in peace, Davy Jones.

Major League WTF?: Texas Girl Scouts Give Thief A Proper Beat Down

Hey, don't mess with those tough Texas Girl Scouts unless you want a major league ass-kicking! Well, some thief in Texas learned this the hard way when he ran off with the cash box from some Girl Scouts selling cookies, so the girls chased the crook down and punched him in the face.

Two men planned what they thought was the perfect low budget heist. They drove up in a dark color Toyota Camry, and the passenger crook jumped out and asked the Girl Scouts selling cookies outside a Walmart near Houston how much the cookies were, but instead grabbed the cash box with about $200 in it and ran. Two Girl Scouts, suddenly turned into Chuck Norris, and chased after the crooks repeatedly punching the thief in the face while he climbed in the passenger seat, while another Girl Scout somehow held onto the car's bumper, thinking that she could stop the car, but got drug a few feet by the car, getting a few cuts and bruises in the process. But, for a couple of tough battle hardened girl scouts, a few bumps and bruises don't hurt much. A little pain is sissy stuff. If the Marines or Navy Seals aren't available, then you better call in these girls to do the heavy lifting for you.

So a word to the wise here, don't mess with those tough Texas Girl Scouts unless you want a major league beat-down. These girls play for real, bro.

What Happens When A School Kid Breaks A Body Worlds Exhibit

The incredible Body Worlds exhibit has just closed at OMSI(Oregon Museum Of Science And Industry) in Portland, Oregon. But, last week OMSI went into full panic mode when a school field trip tour turned into a small disaster when one of the priceless preserved human figures was damaged by a 12 year old. It seems that one boy decided to check out the figures a little too close and and began pulling on a hand of an Olympic type figure who was working out with rings, and managed to break a finger off. This seemed an incredible achievement given how well secured this was with some metal bits as well as the underlying bone of the finger. Even worse than breaking the exhibit, the digit from the plasticized corpse turned up missing as well. Some school kid was well headed toward leaving with a souvenir human finger. That's one hell of a show and tell piece, huh?

With OMSI staff alerted in full disaster mode a virtual lock-down took place until the missing digit was eventually recovered. The boy involved did indeed give the OMSI staff the finger.

Now, you know what happens when parts of plasticized dead people go missing in a museum.

BTW, Apparently the missing digit was temporarily attached to it's rightful deceased owner. However, this figure is headed back for a repair job by the owners of Body Worlds, a German company run by a German physician.

Naughty Parody Of CHEAP THRILLS Cover Earns Censorship In Germany

The cover of the classic album, CHEAP THRILLS, by cartoonist R. Crumb for Janis Joplin and Big Brother And The Holding Company became a real folk art classic of the 60's generation. But, a new parody of the cover, DEEP CHILLS, by the Belgian techno-dance band, The Lords Of Acid, is drawing government censorship over in Germany, where the album may not be displayed on stores shelves and may only be sold to persons over the age of 18 with proper ID.

The album is scheduled for a later release in April in the U.S., but likely won't draw quite as many government censorship problems, although the cover art might keep the album out of many more mainstream record stores.

The Lords Of Acid are a funny sort of act. Their music is hot dance club music, but their lyrics and stage shows are decidedly adult in nature. Their act involves strange costumes normally involved in fetish porn such as bondage. The band seems to have a cult following of fans, and has been a relatively decent selling act despite their fringe market appeal.

Shinefish Films, a California company that normally produces adult films will shoot a music video for the band. Songs on the album will be produced by different producers including, Chris Vrenna, former drummer for Nine Inch Nails, who has also worked for Marilyn Manson as well.

The album will be released on one of Sony's labels in Germany, but will be released on the Metropolis label in the U.S.

DVD Review: RESTLESS(2011)

Famed director Gus Van Sant mostly dropped the ball in this often amateurish seeming offbeat story of a depressed, disillusioned and troubled young man, Enoch Brae, who largely gives up on life due to his grief after his parents are killed in an automobile accident. He develops a strange fascination with death and crashing funerals and meets a terminally ill cancer patient, Annabelle Cotton, forming a love relationship. And that's mostly what works with this movie. What doesn't work is the idiotic relationship with the ghost of dead Japanese Kamikaze pilot by the Enoch Brae character or the sometimes thin acting and often high school film class amateurish film directing of Gus Van Sant in this movie. As usual, top flight actress Mia Wasikowska, turns in a very good performance, which seems almost remarkable considering the often very silly premise of the movie that she was forced to work with. What could have been a half decent tragic love story is badly damaged by the absurd plot subline of the dead Kamikaze pilot as well as directing and filmmaking by Gus Van Sant that strangely proves little skill at all. The kamikaze character isn't even interesting, and you gasp each time he appears, only to further ruin this badly flawed film.

Gus Van Sant helped to manage to lose millions of dollars of production money for Brian Glazer, Ron Howard and his daughter, Bryce Dallas Howard, when he encouraged these other movie production greats to join him in producing this film that's often a stinker, although there are a but a few good moments. The good moments are often very good, but the poor moments are very poor.

What was also amazing was how long it took Gus Van Sant and the film editors to edit this film. It went on for months without a seeming end, and much of the footage they shot was never used. My own Clinton market, a historic nearly 100 year old grocery business was used in the filming of this movie, where a huge crew of cameramen and lighting specialists and grips, etc. were used for two scenes not used in the film. Gus Van Sant sure knows how to waste not only his own money, but other people's money as well.

All of this is not to say that this film doesn't have a few good things about it. But, those seem to be very few compared to the major problems it has. When RESTLESS finally opened in theaters, few bothered to offer it, and at last glance this film burned up $8 million in production money, but returned just $157,022 from the very few theaters in which this film quickly opened and then closed. Some theaters must had all of 8 or 11 people buy tickets at this rate.

The Bottom Line: Famed director Gus Van Sant takes a giant step backward as a filmmaker with this awful little film. Gus Van Sant goes from a major independent film directing icon back to the minors with this thoroughly disappointing and bizarre mess of a film. **(Two stars or only just fair. Miles below good. A friend of mine was only able to watch 20 minutes of this film before turning it off. I unfortunately watched the whole thing. Sadly, that's 91 minutes of my life that I'll never get back. But, let's hope that Gus Van Sant isn't influenced to make a film about that tragedy. Next time that Gus Van Sant asks someone for millions to produce a film, they need to seriously look at the script. Apparently no one did for this turkey).

Meeting the cast of RESTLESS was a very good experience. They were so nice. But, those kids can't help what Gus Van Sant wrought here. Meeting these nice young actors was far better than the splitting headache I got from watching the actual finished Gus Van Sant product.

I had a strong personal interest in wanting so much for this to be a very good film, because of the contribution of my grocery store to the film. It was sad to see those scenes on the cutting room floor. But, regardless of that, this film was way beyond disappointing upon it's completion. In terms of your average film, this movie was way below average. Watch it if you dare.

Nick Cannon Now Diagnosed With Autoimmune Illness

Actor Nick Cannon always looked like the luckiest man in the world, married to the very beautiful singing bombshell Mariah Carey. But, suddenly his fortunes changed when he began having serious health problems. Back in January he was sent to the hospital with some kidney failure related issues. Now he has been diagnosed with some sort of autoimmune illness similar to lupus.

Cannon has also suffered some issues with blood clots in Mid-February as well, which forced him to have to quit his radio program. For now, Cannon is still scheduled to host AMERICA'S GOT TALENT, which is NBC's flagship Summer season program. But, continued health issues certainly can threaten that gig as well.

Nick Cannon is a very nice and personable. Here at Wizbang Pop we feel deeply sorry about his health battles and can only wish him our prayers and best wishes for a full and complete health recovery. We certainly wish Mr. Mariah Carey well.

DVD Review: THE THING(2011)

This latest version of THE THING actually serves as a prequel to the 1982 John Carpenter Sci Fi classic starring Kurt Russell. It traces the horrible and tragic events that hit a team of Norwegian and American scientist explorers in Antarctic after they discover an alien spaceship and an alien life form in the snow and ice. The special effects are fantastic in this film, and the lead female character played by actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead, seems to slightly channel Ripley from the movie, ALIEN. Ans although this is a very good Sci Fi film, it just doesn't quite match up to John Carpenter's version of THE THING. But, John Carpenter's version of THE THING was so good that it even compares as far better than the original 1951 film with James Arness, THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD.

Even the soundtrack of this 2011 version of THE THING is a little below the masterful music score provided by Ennio Morricone. Morricone is a great composer and orchestra leader. But, still the score provided by Marco Beltrami manages to successfully underscore moments of danger as well as drama as well as could be expected here. But, I remain partial to Ennio Morricone who has brought so much good great music to life for me.

The fact is that none of three THING movies are bad ones, each has been very good in their own way. With three different screenwriters, directors and actors, each different incarnation of this arctic Sci Fi horror tale has provided plenty of shock value and thrills for millions of viewers. Each is based off the 1938 short story by John W. Campbell, WHO GOES THERE?.

The Bottom Line: A very good Sci Fi outing by any standard, and the second best THING movie ever in the series, and far better than the Rotten Tomatoes lowly 35% rotten rating would suggest. This is a good movie, but just not the same sort of good as 1982 John Carpenter classic. ***Three Stars, Good. Buy or rent this one. This is a must see for fans of this classic Sci Fi story.