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his Week:Rock N’ Roll 2 Soul, Bigfoot Hunter Tom Biscardi, Fiend Without A Face Remake, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo movie, The Joneses, and more…
The dashing, flirt Tom Biscardi (pictured) and John Stuart, co-producers of “Rock N’ Roll 2 Soul,” now playing at the Palace Station Showroom, hosted a Media Night on Tuesday evening with a hors d’oeuvres and beverage reception at 6 p.m. The show, “Rock N’ Roll 2 Soul” runs from Monday through Saturday at 7 p.m. “Rock N’ Roll 2 Soul” stars The Original Cornell Gunter’s Coasters, Jonathan Von Brana Tribute to the King and Mary Williams Tribute to the Supremes, The Shirelles & The Vandellas. Tickets are $34.95 plus tax/fees; $44.95 plus tax/fees for VIP Booth Seats. The show is well worth the reasonable ticket price!
Who doesn’t love ’50s and ’60s rock and roll? Cornell Gunter was a member of the legendary group The Coasters from 1958 to 1961 along with Carl Gardner, Billy Guy and Will “Dub” Jones.
The Coasters ranked as one of the most popular groups in America and was the first vocal group to be inducted into the Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame with a string of hits such as Charlie Brown, Searchin’, Youngblood, Yakety Yak, and Little Egypt, just to name a few. The band is fantastic and The Original Cornell Gunter’s Coasters—dressed in zoot-suit purple—is an explosive, fan favorite filled evening of high-energy rock and roll. (Photos by VCO Columnist Nikki Artale)
In doing research I discovered this fascinating information on Tom Biscardi—he’s a BigFoot hunter! Biscardi’s first company relating to Bigfoot research was “Amazing Horizons Corporation” in 1971.
Tom talks about how he got into Bigfoot research:
"I was watching John Carson in 1967, and I saw the first 8mm footage that Roger Patterson took of the Bluff Creek incident. I said to myself, ‘How the hell can we send a man to the moon, but we can’t find this creature.’
“I went to the library and researched my predecessors, to see what kind of mistakes they had made, so that I could do better. I then started my own Bigfoot research company to stage expeditions to find the creature.
“The recent Burney Mountain sighting of Bigfoot is the fifth time I’ve seen Bigfoot in 32 years. I’ve always had the love for the myths, the unknowns, and mysteries.” www.searchingforbigfoot.com/Tom_Biscardi
Roy Frumkes’ “FIEND WITHOUT A FACE” remake. I never saw the 1958 cult classic, FIEND WITHOUT A FACE (pictured) but a remake has been in the works for quite some time now with several prominent filmmakers involved at various stages. Fangoria magazine spoke with FilmsInReview.com editor Roy Frumkes, who is now holding the project’s reins.
Roy sent me a copy of his newly-finished script and asked for comments.
Roy told Fangoria: “I optioned the rights from [original producer] Richard Gordon, who has optioned them several times before,” Frumkes tells us; he’d like to have the veteran fear filmmaker play a scientist in the film. “We’ve been friends for 10 years, and he brought it up one day over lunch and we reached an agreement.
“I’ve wanted to do this film for 40 years, so I already had it all in my head, and it wasn’t hard to write. What I didn’t have was the technical information; I’m no science buff. Now I’m interviewing scientists, getting the technology straight.”
FIEND WITHOUT A FACE is set at a scientific installation where experiments in telekinesis result in the creation of living, leaping brain creatures that literally suck out the minds of their victims.
In aiming to make his version of this scenario plausible, Frumkes used a connection via Films in Review magazine, where he serves as editor. “One of my writers is Victoria Alexander,” he says, “and she’s married to Colonel John Alexander, who was head of the non-lethal weapons programs at Los Alamos; he’s the person the George Clooney character in THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS is modeled after. So I figured he might have something to say about lifeform materialization. “He’s a military guy, very serious.” I said, ‘I’m writing this script, and the theme is lifeform materialization,’ and he said, ‘It’s already been done.’ So that call yielded some good information!” Read the entire article here: www.fangoria.com/.
Movie This Week. The Joneses. Surprise! Moore plays a normal human being and Duchovny shows a “sensitive” side. Hated the tacked on “audience test marketed” second ending.
She’s baaaaack! Has Demi Moore rehabilitated her arch-diva, box office poison career? Has her boytoy husband given her a more relatable, youthful image? Moore’s silly photos on Twitter says to me: “I’ve got a sense of humor about myself! I’m like you!—I haven’t had any cosmetic surgery! I just eat right, use a sunblock, and get plenty of sleep.”
We will see if “Gimme Moore” (At the height of her fame, Demi Moore was dubbed “Gimme Moore” for her extravagant demands) will be back now that Demi’s career is revived.
The mansion the Joneses move into is spectacular. A moving team crafts a stunning Architectural Digest décor and everything is move-in perfection. All the family has to do is walk in. Their designer clothes are already hanged. The refrigerator is stocked with gourmet food.
But Kate Jones (Demi Moore) and Steve Jones (David Duchovny) do not sleep in the same bed—they have separate bedrooms, just like royal couples. But when their daughter Jennifer (Amber Heard) gets naked and slips into Steve’s bed, you know something is not kosher.
The Joneses, which also includes a teenage son Mick (Ben Hollingsworth) are a fake “central casting” family. This is Steve’s first gig as a faux-husband. But what a life it is! The family has everything that is new, fashionable and very, very expensive. They do not pay a bill. And they are handsomely paid to live this lifestyle. All Steve and Kate have to do is flaunt their expensive choices to envious neighbors. For the kids, it is easy to impress and influence their fellow high school students. Their job is selling a lifestyle.
The Joneses would have a hard time with my husband. He was inoculated years ago with the “acquiring stuff” vaccine. He buys nothing. He wants nothing. For Christmas and his birthday, I buy him “ceremonial gifts” that would be refused by him as useless and then returned.
Steve has no visible means of support. His neighbors just accept that he is wealthy. Is this possible? One only has to consider the bizarre story of the fake Rockefeller, Clark Rockefeller.
Sandra Boss earned $2 million a year as a high-powered financial executive. She said it took years to leave the man who told her he was a member of the moneyed Rockefeller clan because she didn’t know the online passwords to their bank accounts! (She said this under oath!) She was the breadwinner and she never questioned why he never made any money in all the years they were married, did not possess a driver’s license, or bring any family around. No one questioned him—everyone loved the fact that he was a Rockefeller—without one stitch of proof!
Believing brilliant Sandra did not know about the fraud is hard to accept—but she claimed she never asked him anything! Rockefeller, 47, whose real name is Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter (pictured), was found guilty of kidnapping the couple’s 7-year-old daughter.
So, at least the premise of THE JONESES is not far-fetched.
Apparently, rich people must have top-of-the-line everything to feel accepted and envied. Conspicuous consumption is their mantra.
The Joneses are a “unit” placed by their chauffeur-driven handler (Lauren Hutton). She watches them carefully since this is former golf pro Steve’s first assignment as a “husband.” He is Kate’s sixth “play” husband. Kate is a smart businesswoman and she is moving up the corporate ladder. Next—if she does well with this family unit—must be to play the wife of a Saudi prince.
Most vulnerable to the status requirements of their community is the Joneses’ next door neighbors, Larry (Gary Cole) and Summer (Glenne Headly). Larry, himself a successful businessman, has a dreary, unfulfilled sex life and wants everything Steve has. Steve’s advice? Buy jewelry for Summer and penis-substitute stuff for himself. Soon, Larry is driving around in a new sports car and not paying the mortgage.
Can you feel sorry for these rich people who are so silly? Larry and Summer are loathsome. You start to feel sorry for the Joneses. There is a daily graph indicating how well they are doing. This is highly competitive, hard work. And Steve, the virgin manipulator, wants the fake family to be his real family—especially since he does not have to do a thing to earn it. So, he’s deluded also.
It is only Kate who is keeping an eye on her growing bank account. She loves what she does, and why not? All she has to do is pamper herself and feel entitled.
Thankfully, Moore underplays her self-regarded sex goddess reputation—after all, Kate is all business when not pretending to be the trophy wife. Duchovny plays against the character he loves to showcase—the sexy sex addict who is always bragging about his “girth” (see his vanity series “Californation”).
I hated the tacked-on second ending. People do not change when a huge bank account is at stake. And why Steve wants the real Kate is never really believable.
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, by Stieg Larsson 
will be released in the U.S. on May 25, 2010. Thanks to Janelle Barlow I am reading a trade paperback from Sweden. As you all know, this is the last book in Stieg Larsson’s phenomenal Millennium trilogy. Larsson died in 2004. The first book, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was made into a movie in Sweden. It is a sensation.
Instead of reading the Millennium trilogy in order, I accepted Janelle’s offer to read Hornet’s Nest—there is a line of Janelle’s friends waiting for it. Well, reading the books out of order is a mistake. I’m half way through the mammoth tome and Lisbeth Salander hasn’t left her sick bed!
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is an international phenomenon—a best-selling book published in 37 languages. It landed Steig Larsson the No. 1 slot on the New York Times best-seller list, making him the first translated author in two decades to claim that spot.
The hit Swedish film version opened on March 19 in the U.S. and the first day it screened at the Village Square Regal Theaters, it was packed. Hollywood does not think audiences will buy tickets to a movie in Swedish—they are wrong!—so there is a backup plan: Sony Pictures is currently in final negotiations for the rights to option the “Millennium” trilogy, starting with a film of “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo,” and following up its sequels “The Girl Who Played With Fire” and “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest.”
The film “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” stars Michael Nyqvist (pictured) as investigative magazine reporter Mikael Blomkvist and Noomi Rapace as hacker/lesbian/ alleged psychopath Lisbeth Salander. It is an enthralling and brilliant movie. I have forgotten what actors and actresses look like in foreign films. In Hollywood films no one looks like real people. Who will Hollywood get to play the enigmatic, sullen, and non-talkative Lisbeth Salander? Will they change her name to Lizzy and cast Reese Witherspoon?
The Millennium Trilogy: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
