Whitney Houston's music & how it has impacted my life

In the 1980's I stole my parent's cassette tapes of Whitney Houston's self titled debut album "Whitney Houston". "How Will I Know" was my favourite dance song on the album. My sister and her freind Rochel made a video of themselves singing "The Greatest Love Of All" for my parents. In 1989, for my 13th birthday, my dad bought me a stereo system with both a CD player and turntable, and a DJ Mixing board. One of the first vinyl 12" singles I ever got was Whitney's "I'm Your Baby Tonight". The song was produced by John Gass (who also later worked with Deborah Cox) and the legendary team of L.A. Reid (now of TV's The X-Factor, but who also was a president of LAFace Records) and Babyface (who had success as a singer and president of LAFace Records). The remix was by Yvonne Turner, who is also known for working with Whitney's fellow Arista Records labelmate Lisa Stansfield. On New Year's eve 1989, the radio station WPLJ did a medley mix of the year's biggest dance hits and they mixed "I'm Your Baby Tonight" with the song "Poison" by Bell Biv Devoe, which consisted of former members of New Edition, the band from which Bobby Brown launched his career. 2 years later, Whitney Houston filmed the movie "The Bodyguard", and sang 6 songs on the soundtrack. I bought it on cassette, and later got the limited edition version that had bonus tracks and remixes on it. My favourite songs on the album were "I Have Nothing" and "I Will Always Love You", both were songs I loved so much I locked myself in my room and sang the songs along with the tape, day after day for months. The album also had two amazing dance songs, the rock inflected "Queen Of The Night" which later got remixed by CJ Mackintosh, and "I'm Your Baby Tonight" which was both produced and remixed by Robert Clivilles and the late David Cole of C&C Music Factory. I saw The Bodyguard in theaters with my schoolmates, and taped it when it later aired on TV, and then watched it countless times. When I heard David Cole had died, I knew music would never be the same. Robert Clivilles stopped making remixes, and C&C Music Factory disbanded. Whitney, of course, kept making music, though her next album, the soundtrack to "Waiting To Exhale" didn't have any dance tracks on it. "Exhale (Shoop Shoop)" was still a big hit for her. But the album that brought Whitney Houston back to the dancefloors was the soundtrack to "The Preachers Wife", a movie Whitney starred in with Denzel Washington. On the album, Whitney covered the song "Step By Step" which was written by and originally performed by Annie Lennox (who also records for Arista Records). By this point, I had finished school and was working for the three biggest nightclubs in New York, the Limelight, Palladium, and Tunnel. When I first started working there, the most succesful DJ in history by that point was Junior Vasquez, and he was spinning Saturdays at the Tunnel. During this time, one of Whitney Houston's CD singles from "Waiting To Exhale" was "Why Does It Hurt So Bad", a CD single which featured bonus remixes of "I Wanna Dance With Somebody". The remix was called "Junior's Happy Handbag Mix" and it made the song a huge dancefloor hit all over again. After Tunnel and Limelight got shut down by the police over false allegations of drugs, Junior Vasquez moved his Saturday night party to Palladium, and called it ARENA. Arena became what probably was the most succesful nightclub party of the entire decade of the 1990's. One day, I was shown the flier for the latest installment of Arena, and on the flier it said Junior Vasquez would be debuting his remix for the CD single of Whitney Houston's latest single "Step By Step". When he played the song for the first time at Palladium, I went wild on the dance floor, I loved the remix so much. The song became an instant club classic. It now ranks as one of the greatest club records of the 1990's. Out of all the songs that became Arena classics, "Step By Step" was one of the biggest Arena Anthems of all. Junior Vasquez became good friends with Whitney Houston, and though Palladium was bought by NYU, and the building was knocked down so that an NYU dorm could be built on the site, Junior continued to work with Whitney Houston, producing remixes of "How Will I Know" and "The Greatest Love Of All" for her Greatest Hits album. Also, while I was working at Tunnel, Palladium, and Limelight, I became freinds with another DJ/Remixer, Jonathan Peters, who did the remix of "My Love Is Your Love" in 1999. Another DJ who sometimes spun at Tunnel, Hex Hector, was hired to remix Whitney's "I Will Always Love You" for her greatest hits collection. Whitney's work with Jonathan and Junior and Hex showed the world that Whitney was not only great with ballads but that she was a serious and formidable dance music legend. Hearing her remixes played in the nightclubs, especially in what we called "Superclubs" (Multi-story clubs with huge dancefloors and lots of hallways and rooms to explore), was an incredible experience. Whitney was a major part of the soundtrack to some of the most legendary parties in NY. I even had a drag queen friend, Emanna, who used to dress as Whitney Houston in drag and perform Whitney's songs in lip-sync at Arena every Saturday. My colleagues who were DJs at the clubs I worked for during my days as a promoter at the Limelight, Tunnel, and Palladium had the privelage of working with her and they befriended her. My heart goes out to them now, I can only imagine their grief because they knew her personally from working with her. Whitney's music touched my heart and soul in ways I will never forget. I will miss looking forward to her next album, I will miss wondering what remixers she will work with next, and I will miss dancing to her latest singles on the club dancefloors. She was one of my favourite artists early in life and remained a favourite later in life by being cutting edge with her choices of remixers and producers. She is one of a handful of major artists like Madonna or Mariah Carey who, by working with a remixer, can make a DJ into a Super-DJ. Madonna did it with William Orbit and Victor Calderone. Mariah did it with David Morales, and Clivilles and Cole. Whitney did it with Junior Vasquez, Jonathan Peters, Johnny Vicious, and Thunderpuss. Whitney Houston made a lasting impact on my life as a music lover and nightclub promoter, and I will always feel that her music is a blessing.

About the Stop Online Piracy Act and how it could damage the internet as we know it

The Stop Online Piracy Act is the most dangerous piece of legislation contemplated by congress since the vote to declare war against Iraq. It poses a real threat to content providers and social networking sites, and if it passes, the internet as we know it will be completely and utterly destroyed. Here is a link to an article that tells you everything you need to know about this harmful and dangerous legislation:

http://gizmodo.com/5877000/what-is-sopa

Please contact lawmakers to tell them you oppose it:

http://www.whitehouse.gov

http://www.house.gov

http://www.senate.gov

Review: Rider & Shiloh Strong's short film "The Dungeon Master"

This Friday I visited the Williamsburg Independent Film Festival to check out one of Rider & Shiloh Strong's latest short films, "The Dungeon Master". The screening was at the Indiescreen Cineclub in Brooklyn, by the waterfront. It was an interesting film venue, which had an upscale bar/restaurant/lounge downstairs from the theatre. "The Dungeon Master" was definitely the best film in the block of films that screened there.

The movie was written and directed by Rider and Shiloh. Rider's girlfriend Alex Barreto produced the film and made a cameo in the beginning of the film. The film also features a song by Chris Trapper, whose music also appeared in their short film "Irish Twins".

The movie opens with a bunch of guys discussing the fact that they used to play Dungeons And Dragons when they were kids. The decide that they should get together and play the game over a few beers. When they do get together, one of the guys said he found someone to play the dungeon master. When the doorbell rings, they are all suprised to see that their Dungeon master showed up wearing a cape, and talking in character as if he really believed himself to be a real-life dungeon master. The dungeon master won't drink any of the beer, and instead tries to get the guys to get into character and play the game in character as he narrates the game for them. The guys really weren't very into the game, and begin to complain that the dungeon master is too devoted to the rules and trying too hard to create a fantasy vibe and get everyone to pretend they are the characters they chose to play in the game. Eventually one guy gets up and begins to taunt the dungeon master for being so immersed in the game, and sticks a piece of barbequed chicken in his face and rubs barbecue sauce all over him. The dungeon master then flips out and begins to chant as if he were trying to cast a magical spell. Everyone suddenly wakes up in the middle of a field. Nearby is a straw hut. Suddenly they all realize they have been teleported to a magical realm.

I highly recommend this short film for its humour, quality acting & directing, and high production value. Rider and Shiloh Strong and Alex Barreto are reinventing the art of the short film with their creations in recent years. Rider and Shiloh currently have another short film touring film festivals, "Method", which they directed and produced, and Alex wrote the script and starred in it. Alex also recently produced a short film called "Good News Oklahoma". Last year she starred in a short film I saw, "Career Day". A few years ago, Rider and Shiloh wrote, directed, produced and starred in a short film masterpiece I saw, "Irish Twins". I am eager to see "Method", and I recommend others see it too.

Me at the Williamsburg Independent Film Festival:


Rider and Shiloh's website/blog:
http://strongbrothersmagicshow.com

The Dungeon Master:
http://thedungeonmastermovie.com

Method:
http://www.methodthemovie.com

The Dungeon Master on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Dungeon-Master/107579662654672

Method on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/Methodthemovie

Rider and Shiloh's graphic novel "Blood Merchant":
http://www.facebook.com/BloodMerchant?ref=ts

The Dungeon Master Trailer from The Strong Brothers on Vimeo.

Method Trailer from The Strong Brothers on Vimeo.

Help Lea Michele Stop Horse Carriages

Horses in New York are held captive, against their will, and forced to do grueling, dangerous work all day. They are forced to pull carriages in the rain, in the snow, and amidst perilous city traffic. Some horses have died on the job. An actress named Lea Michele, who is currently on a hit TV show called Glee, has done a video about the subject. I am asking everyone who reads this to sign the petition to end horse carriages at www.stophorseabuse.com


Please also post the link to your Facebook and Twitter. If you post it on Twitter, also include this tag: #stophorsecarriages

Please watch this video of Lea Michele discussing this issue and tell your friends to do the same.

Alexandra Barreto's "Good News Oklahoma"

The multi-talented Alexandra Barreto produced a new short film which is currently playing festivals across the nation. The movie is called "Good News Oklahoma". The movie is a comedy parodizing the way news programs are put together and the way they borrow techniques from Hollywood to put news stories together, to get higher ratings. The main character is a liberal who is fed up with the local media, and starts her own show. Already the film has won an award, it won Best Comedy Short in the Atlanta ShortsFest. The cast of "Good News Oklahoma" includes several actors: Sarayu Rao, David Crane, Valerie Azlynn, Marc Evan Jackson, John Lavelle, Peter Cilella, Kelly Sry, and Mark Irvingsen.

Alexandra Barreto also wrote and acted in another new movie called "Method" which was produced and directed by her boyfriend Rider Strong and his brother Shiloh Strong. That movie is also on tour wit screenings all around the country as well as another movie which Rider and Shiloh produced, directed and wrote called "The Dungeon Master".

"Good News Oklahoma" website:
http://www.goodnewsoklahoma.com

"Method" website:
http://www.methodthemovie.com

"The Dungeon Master" website:
http://thedungeonmastermovie.com

Here is the trailer for "Good News Oklahoma"

"Good News, Oklahoma!" Movie Trailer from Doug Hannah on Vimeo.

Here is the trailer for "Method"

Method Trailer from The Strong Brothers on Vimeo.

Here is the trailer for "The Dungeon Master"

The Dungeon Master Trailer from The Strong Brothers on Vimeo.

Kristanna Lokken's Love Orchard

Kristanna Lokken, who starred in Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines with Nick Stahl and Claire Danes and Arnold Schwarzenegger, has a new project she is doing where she is producing a film about the farm she grew up on. Her love of this wonderful beautiful apple farm rich with cute, adorable animals, has compelled and inspired her to make this personal and moving movie. This is her third foray into producing, as she produced Lime Salted Love in 2006, Darfur in 2009, and co-produced Painkiller Jane in 2007. In Love Orchard, she will be playing the lead role of Karen. Also starring in the movie is Patricia De Leon. Check out the movie websites for more info on this cool indie project Kristanna is self financing, and check Kristanna's twitter too: http://twitter.com/#!/LokenKristanna
Movie websites:
http://www.loveorchard.com
http://kristannaloken.net

Rider & Shiloh Strong's New Short Films

Rider and Shiloh Strong have two new films out, one of which was written by Rider's girlfriend Alexandra Barreto. The first one, "Dungeon Master", which Rider and Shiloh wrote and directed and Alex produced, features roles by Adam Busch of the band Common Rotation (who also co-wrote the movie Drones with Amber Benson), Jason Marsden (Boy Meets World), Chris Wylde and Alexander Polinsky. The movie recently screened at Tribeca Film Festival and won Tribeca (Online) Film Festival Best Short Film. The film also won "Best Comedic Short" at the Sonoma International Film Festival. The movie will screen again May 27, 2011 9:30 PM at the Seattle International Film Festival. You can buy tickets here.

"Method" is a film written by Alex herself, and it is a comedy about the lengths actors will go to in order to get their portrayals of their characters on point. Scheduled screenings have yet to be announced. Rider and Shiloh directed it and photographer extraordinaire Mallory Morrison worked on the crew.

For the latest updates and info on future screenings, there are 3 websites and 2 facebook pages you can go to, Rider and Shiloh have a blog about their filmmaking exploits, plus both movies have websites and FB pages up. Also I have listed the FB page for Rider and Shiloh's new graphic novel "Blood Merchant" as well for those interested. Beneath these links are the trailers for both movies.

Rider and Shiloh's blog:
http://strongbrothersmagicshow.blogspot.com

The Dungeon Master:
http://thedungeonmastermovie.com

Method:
http://www.methodthemovie.com

The Dungeon Master on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Dungeon-Master/107579662654672

Method on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/Methodthemovie

Rider and Shiloh's graphic novel "Blood Merchant":
http://www.facebook.com/BloodMerchant?ref=ts

The Dungeon Master Trailer from The Strong Brothers on Vimeo.

Method Trailer from The Strong Brothers on Vimeo.

CW Picks up Thomas Dekker's new show "Secret Circle"

Thomas Dekker (A Nightmare On Elm Street, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) will be starring in "Secret Circle", a new show just picked up by the CW network. Also starring in the show will be Britt Robertson. Kevin Williamson, co-creator of "The Vampire Diaries" and writer of "Scream 4", co-wrote it with Andrew Miller. It is based on the Allow books of the same name penned by L.J. Smith who also wrote "The Vampire Diaries". Alloy is the same publisher that handles the "Gossip Girl" book series. This is the sixth pilot CW has in its 2011 development roster. They have also picked up Sarah Michelle Gellar's (Cruel Intentions, Buffy The Vampire Slayer) pilot "Ringer" and Rachel Bilson's (Jumper) pilot "Hart Of Dixie". "Secret Circle" is about a witch who is part of a secret coven engaged in a battle between good and evil. The show will be a one hour drama series, the same format as Dekker's past TV series "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles".

NYC Opening Kyle Gallner's new movie "Cherry"

Tonight I went to the NYC opening of Kyle Gallner's new movie "Cherry". The event featured a Q&A with the directors as well as with one of Kyle's co-stars, Stephanie Venditto, and others who worked on the film. Also, one of the artists whose songs is part of the film soundtrack performed their song live for the audience.

Cherry is about a boy, played by Kyle (who was in A Nightmare On Elm Street with Thomas Dekker) who is starting out his first semester in college. He feels a little out of place there and he meets a girl, played by Laura Allen (she was in From Within. also with Thomas Dekker) in art class who wants to get to know him since she thinks he's really talented. He starts hanging out with her and goes with her one night to her house for her lasagna which she compares to sex. There Kyle meets her daughter, played by Brittany Robertson (who was also in From Within with Thomas Dekker). He starts to get to know both Laura and Brittany. Together, they all have dinner, then Kyle gets very very drunk while Laura holds and empty wine glass in her hand. The two girls dance together to latin music while Kyle watches, and then he begins to feel sick and vomits in the bathroom. He stays the night, but that night he realizes Laura is dating a cop and while Laura is overheard with the cop in the bedroom, Brittany walks out to where Kyle is sleeping, jumps on him and starts kissing him. He is shocked by this and throws her on the floor. Kyle begins to stay at their house regularly and one night he kisses Laura, but since she's already involved with someone she says it's not a good idea. Kyle begins to also hang out regularly with Brittany, who turns out to be a drug user, and Kyle has to watch her buying drugs from her dealer, and this makes Kyle uncomfortable because he doesn't know how Laura would feel. Brittany explains that Laura has, in the past, had substance abuse problems of her own. One night she and Kyle return to the house to find out the cop has proposed marriage to Laura. Brittany gets very upset and goes upstairs angrily, the cop goes upstairs to try and talk to her and she attacks him with a pen trying to stab him. He fights back and when Kyle and Laura hear the commotion and run upstairs they think he is attacking Brittany rather than vice versa. They try to stop him and he throws them off him while trying to fend off Brittany who is still attacking with the pen, and Laura tells him to get out of the house. That night, Laura and Kyle and Brittany all leave the house in the car and the cop is chasing them and they panic and drive faster and end up crashing. When Kyle's mom, played by Stephanie Venditto (House MD, Without A Trace) finds out she drives up to college along with her ex-husband to pack Kyle's things and try to make him drop out of college., threatening to defund his education. Kyle persuades them to meet Laura, and they agree to go to her house for dinner. This is when Stephanie has a virtual nervous breakdown and Laura starts drinking again. The cop shows up and Kyle makes him leave and Stephanie asks "What just happened?" and Laura tells her "Kyle just told a cop to F--K off!". Laura then begins to freak out and this results in an argument that ends in Stephanie slapping Laura. Kyle refuses to leave with Stephanie and stays with Laura instead. When Kyle ends up losing his virginity to Laura, she being drunk calls out someone else's name and hurts Kyle's feelings. Kyle said he wanted to make love to her and she was instead just having sex thinking of someone else. Kyle goes back to stay in his dorm, finishes his project for school where he wins the contest necessary to get his scholarship, and when he eventually decides to visit Laura again, he finds her and Brittany moving out to go live with the cop. This was a very moving movie with amazing performances by all the actors.

For more info on the movie visit:
http://www.cherrythemovie.com
http://www.facebook.com/CherryTheMovie

Here are photos of me at the screening:

Me with actress Stephanie Venditto:


Me at the NY opening of "Cherry"

Reviews: Jonathan Jackson & Nick Stahl in Kalamity; and Max Thieriot in My Soul To Take

Last night I got complimentary tickets to a screening of Kalamity, a movie featuring lead roles by Jonathan Jackson of the music group Enation (he also was on Boy Meets World twice and played Kyle Reese on Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles), as well as Nick Stahl (Meskada, Terminator 3: Judgement Day). The other main lead was Christopher M. Clark, who played Jonathan's roommate and close friend. The movie begins with discussions about Jonathan's ex-girlfriend, played by Alona Tal. She's been missing, and Jonathan indicates that he hasn't gotten over her, but his discussions about her are also sketchy, it's obviously a sensitive topic that can get him angry and irrational. Nick tries to talk sense into Jonathan when this happens to calm him down and get him to be more rational about it, but his efforts don't seem to work. Nick's role is that of Jonathan's best friend. Nick's character is having issues of his own, as he has flashbacks constantly of the time he spent with his own girlfriend played by Beau Garrett. Nick is obsessing over his breakup with her, and having trouble sleeping. This makes it more difficult for Nick to realize that the things Jonathan is saying to him are increasingly psychotic and indicative that some serious issues are going on with him. Jonathan one night almost shoots a girl he knew from a bar but while she was driving home and only changed his mind because of something he overheard from her cell phone conversation distracting him. Then later he is talking to Christopher, and something angers Jonathan, so Jonathan punches Christopher so hard he knocks him unconscious and when Christopher falls to the ground his head hits the pavement and he is seriously injured and begins hemmoraging blood. Jonathan takes Christopher home and cleans the wound with dish soap and then leaves Christopher bleeding, instead of bringing him to the hospital. The next day, Jonathan claims to Nick that he will go to a trade show out of town, but in reality he is going to stalk Nick's ex girlfriend. Nick finds Christopher and takes him to the hospital to get stitches and then they realize that Jonathan would not be sent to a trade show, his employer would instead, so they know this was a lie and Nick calls Jonathan who lies again and talks a lot of cryptic psychobabble to try and confuse Nick about his whereabouts. When Jonathan finds Nick's ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend, Jonathan lures them into the woods for a hiking trip and kills them both. While this is happening, Nick and Christopher find the dead body of Alona near where Alona and Jonathan used to go on their dates, thier "spot", and they know Jonathan killed her. When Jonathan gets back he finds his belongings out of place and realizes incriminating things have been found and moved, so he shoots Christopher and has a nervous breakdown. Nick arrives too late to save Christopher, and confronts Jonathan who confesses everything, and then Jonathan shoots himself to death.

For showtimes and tickets in NY visit
http://bit.ly/aV3b7C

For showtimes and tickets in LA visit
http://bit.ly/aqVbDI

To stay up to date about Kalamity join their Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Kalamity/72198969249?v=info

http://www.kalamitymovie.com

For trailer:




I also recently went to see Max Thieriot's new movie "My Soul To Take" in 3-D. The movie is about the return of The Riverton Ripper, a dead serial killer with seven souls and only one of those souls was the killer. The serial killer was killed by police and on the day he died, the same number of kids was born as the number of souls the serial killer had, 7. Legend had it that those kids all were born with the different souls of the killer. Max Theiriot (Jumper) plays Bug, the lead character of the movie, one of the Riverton Seven, the children who were believed to have been born with the Ripper's souls. Every year the kids gather along the riverfront for a ritual where they talk about the legend that one year, on the day of the Ripper's death, the Ripper will rise from the river and kill the Riverton Seven, as he had vowed to do before he died. So each year the Riverton Seven challenge the Ripper to rise from his grave, as THEY vow to kill the Ripper if the Ripper ever returns.

On the night of thier latest gathering which is also their collective birthday party, Max is chosen to challenge the Ripper and he gets too terrified to finish the ritual. The other six of the Riverton Seven are played by Jeremy Chu, John Magaro, Denzel Whitaker, Nick Lashaway, Zena Gray, and Paulina Olszynski. Max's sister is played by Emily Meade. Max's sister runs around school spreading bad rumors about him, falsely accusing him of being a murderer, and telling her friends about his history in psychiatric institutions, which hurts Max's chances with the girls in school. His best friend is John Magaro's character, who helps him disrupt the class in what I would call the coolest scene in the movie. John dresses up in a Condor costume and Max begins a narrative about the life of the Condor as a class presentation. John runs around the room menacingly in the condor suit as Max loudly and terrifyingly boasts his knowledge of the Condor, warning the classmates about how deadly this bird can be. At the end of the lecture, John activates a contraption in the condor suit that causes fake vomit to spew out the beak onto Nick Lashaway who is also a class bully. Max is asked to leave the class. That day it becomes known that Jeremy was killed the night before while crossing the bridge. This is just the beginning. At one point John takes Max aside and asks Max if Max has ever killed anyone, and Max replies "Not that I can remember". This is the beginning of some serious self questioning for Max, who begins to wonder why his dreams are containing details related to the murders that are beginning to take place. As each of the riverton seven die, Max sees visions of them trying to give him clues, and Max doesn't know what to make of them. Also, Max is noticing that as they die, his mind begins to work faster and differently. Eventually it's clear that as each of the Riverton seven are brutally murdered, Max's body is absorbing thier souls and all their knowledge as well. Max tries to use this to help him figure out who the killer is... is it one of the Riverton Seven? Or did the Ripper never die in the first place and survive only to return to kill again all these years later? When I review movies, I usually like to write about the endings, but since this a whodunit mystery and not just a horror movie, I will not give away the identity of the killer. I will only say that up till the end of the movie Max was viewed by most as the most likely suspect, and what I will tell you is... Max was not the killer, even though he at times doubted his own innocence. Max was ultimately the hero of the movie. You'll have to see this movie to find out who the killer is and how the killer is stopped. This was one of the best horror movies I've ever seen, and I've seen quite a few of them. The entire cast's performances were top notch, though Max Thieriot stood out as the most talented of them, exhibiting his talent through a wide range of emotions not seen in many horror movies. A perfect Halloween movie for 2010.

For more information on this movie visit:
http://www.iamrogue.com/mysoultotake/site/index.html

Join the facebook page at:
http://www.facebook.com/mysoultotake

Thomas Dekker to perform live at special screenings of his movie All About Evil

Thomas Dekker & The Evil Kids will be performing an unreleased song, live in concert, at special screenings of Thomas' movie All About Evil. Also appearing live will be other members of the cast including Nikita Ramsey, Ashley Fink, and Anthony Fitzgerald. These events will take place October 21st, 22nd, 23rd, & 24th, at the Victoria Theatre in San Francisco. Also performing live and hosting the night will be Peaches Christ and her crew. There will be additional surprises as well.

The movie is reviewed on this blog (see July 31st post). The movie features leads by Thomas Dekker (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, From Within), and Natasha Lyonne (Party Monster, But I'm A Cheerleader).

For tickets, visit
http://store.peacheschrist.com/category/9-show-tickets.aspx

For more information visit:
http://www.allaboutevilthemovie.com

Here is the trailer:

The Social Network review + advance review of Katherine Heigl's movie "Life As We Know It"

Yesterday I went to an advance screening of Katherine Heigl's (27 Dresses, Roswell) movie "Life As We Know It" at the AMC on Broadway and 68th St. I had seen 27 Dresses before, because James Marsden (Disturbing Behavior, Superman Returns) was in it. This movie follows the tradition of the classic romantic comedies of the 1990's. Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel (Transformers, The Romantics) play the leads who inherit their best friends' baby Sophie - even though the two of them are not married and didn't usually get along! The task of raising a child hadn't occurred to them before but they both realized this baby needed to be raised by someone who was already like family to her, so they decided to both move into their best friends' house and raise the baby together.

At first there is serious tension between them and they are not getting along. Josh Lucas (Poseidon, Sweet Home Alabama) plays a doctor who Katherine has been wanting to ask out on a date for a long time. She is so busy taking care of Sophie that she barely has time to meet up with Josh. They do get to go on one date to a nice restaurant. Josh Dumhamel also is having trouble with his past tradition of meeting hot girls and taking them home after one date. Eventually Katherine and Josh Duhammel spend more time together and begin doing things together and Katherine destroys Josh's motorcycle by accident and he says not to worry about it, a sign of how close they are getting. One night they decide to make marijuana brownies together and eat them, and they get high and end up in bed together. Trouble ensues when Josh Duhamel gets a job offer in another city, and Katherine gets angry when she finds out and she believes their whole relationship was a lie. Initally Josh moves and takes the new job, but after a fight on Thanksgiving, Katherine goes to the airport to stop Josh from leaving. Josh takes his car from the airport back home and waits for Katherine, and when she does he tells her his feelings and they live happily ever after.

The website for the movie is
http://lifeasweknowitmovie.warnerbros.com

The trailer is here:


After seeing Life As We Know It, I went downstairs and got a ticket for the Social Network, which I had been meaning to see. Jesse Eisenberg (Adventueland, Some Boys Don't Leave) plays Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder of Facebook. The other co-founder, Eduardo Saverin, who started as the company's CFO, was played by Andrew Garfield (Lions For Lambs, Spider Man Reboot). Justin Timberlake plays Sean Parker, the founder of Napster who also played a major role in Facebook's transformation from a college dorm room project into a major corporation. A fact of interest is that Natalie Portman made significant contributions to the script of this movie, being that she too attended Harvard, the school where Facebook was founded.

The movie begins with scenes from mediation meetings between the lawyers of Cameron & Tyler Winklevoss, two Harvard Students who had asked Zuckerberg to build an elite dating website for Harvard Students. Instead Zuckerberg created Facebook, a social networking site intended to compel students to spend time checking out their friend's pages and sending emails to their friends asking them to join. Zuckerberg got the startup money from Saverin, who laid out $1,000 of his own money initially, and later contributed $19,000 while the company was supposed to be looking for advertisers and find funding. When Zuckerberg met Parker, Parker helps him expand Facebook to all 50 States, and gets him an additional investment worth $500,000, enough to expand Facebook to other continents. When they do this, they call Saverin, who has been in New York courting advertisers, to California. Zuckerberg and Parker fool him into signing contracts which take away his power at Facebook, and then later call him back to California asking him to sign more documents, which he then decides to read - and the contracts would've totally eliminated his shares in Facebook. This is when he decides to sue Zuckerberg. Soon after, there is an incident with Parker, who was throwing a party with interns from Facebook, where the police barge into the party to break it up and finds girls under 21 drinking with Parker who is also caught with cocaine. It is questioned in the movie whether Zuckerberg called the police to set the incident up, and it's also questioned whether Zuckerberg was involved with a media piece on Saverin accusing him of torturing chickens because he fed chicken meat to a chicken he was taking care of as a college fraternity ritual. There is no definitive answer in the movie as to whether Zuckerberg staged the bad press incidents with Saverin and Parker to push them out of the company. Andrew Garfield was at his usual best in the movie playing a compelling character who the audience sympathizes with. Eisenberg and Timberlake were excellent too. This is definitely one of the best movies I've seen in a while.

For more on The Social Network visit:
http://www.thesocialnetwork-movie.com

For the trailer:

New Meskada movie poster unveiled

My friend Jen Gatien who is also the daughter of my first nightclub industry employer Peter Gatien, produced this new upcoming movie Meskada, which features leads by Nick Stahl and Kellan Lutz. Today they unveiled the new movie poster on their Facebook and Twitter:



And here is the trailer:


http://www.meskada.com
http://twitter.com/Meskada
http://www.facebook.com/MeskadaTheMovie

Blood Manor media preview party & anniversary gala

Last night I went to a special VIP media preview party for Blood Manor, which also was celebrating its 6th Anniversary as NYC's premiere Haunted House. I had a great time. First there was the 7pm pre-party at Suzy Wong's, where they had a open bar provided by Stoli, with blood-themed mixed drink varieties which were created just for this event. I had about3 or 4 of them, they were so good, though they made it differently for me because I wanted it to be more cranberry juice and less vodka. Upon first entering Suzy Wong's a whole plethora of zombies and scary characters greeted me, they even had someone dressed as Freddy Krueger. The females were all dressed up to look like vampire zombies. All the zombies were covered in blood and eager to tell stories about "murders" they've committed or were planning. There was also a magician doing card tricks to entertain the guests. I had been to lots of Haunted Houses on Long Island, which were timid by comparison. Everyone knew to follow the zombies across the street at 8pm, and luckily it wasn't raining out when I walked over. Once inside Blood Manor, the zombies told us that normally photos aren't allowed but they will allow them just for this one night. What makes Blood Manor scarier than most haunted house attraction is the live actors they hired to jump out of unexpected corners and doorways, and they had them set up in torture chambers where they had some of the female zombies tied up and screaming for their lives, I was so scared during some parts of the tour that I huddled behind the Channel 11 news crew, trying to avoid anyone jumping out of the nowhere to scare me. I did get some pictures to give my readers an exclusive look at Blood Manor.

For more information on Blood Manor visit
http://www.bloodmanor.com
Blood Manor is located at 542 West 27th Street (between 10th & 11th Aves)
Very close to where Tunnel and Twilo used to be!

Photos of the Blood Manor Sixth Anniversary gala & media preview party:







Photos of Blood Manor:

Review: Drew Barrymore & Justin Long in Going The Distance

This movie is one which I have to give a mixed review. Which isn't easy because Justin Long and Drew Barrymore were phenomenal in this movie, as was Christina Applegate. The movie also features a guest appearance by Gossip Girl's Leighton Meester in the opening scene. I promoted for the premiere of one of Justin Long's movies, Live Free Or Die Hard at Radio City Music Hall. He always does excellent movies. This one had a great and compelling plot. Justin and Drew meet in New York the night after Justin breaks up with Lieghton. The two share an immediate chemistry and start a relationship casually, calling their time together "hanging out" instead of dating. Initially Drew said she thought it would be a nice fling before going back to college on the West Coast. But the relationship gets serious enough by the time she's ready to leave that they decide to do a long distance relationship until college lets out. They have some trouble managing the long distance nature of the relationship but make due with text messages and internet video conferencing, which helped ease the pain of separation. Eventually Drew gets a job offer in California and tells Justin and he's upset and decides to end the relationship rather than have Drew miss out on the opportunity of her dreams to become a working writer. But then later Justin realizes he'd rather leave his job and go be with Drew so he romantically travels to see her in San Francisco and surprises her by showing up at a concert he sent her tickets for. The part of the movie I need to criticize is two problems with the casting of other leads in the film. Christina Applegate had to play the wife of a guy who was ugly, and this was totally inappropriate, an insult to Christina who has higher standards than that. The other part was a scene that would have been fine, a sex scene on the kitchen table with Drew and Justin naked together, this would've been very funny with just Christina walking in on them, because she is beautiful enough to be worthy of seeing what Justin and Drew look like naked. But the ugly "husband" of Christina's was sitting at the kitchen table and nobody noticed him until Christina turned the lights on, and this was upsetting because I don't see Justin or Drew as the type to take the idea of being seen naked together by somone so ugly- this is not something they would be okay with in real life. I don't know why that scene wasn't removed. Also, the roommate with the mustache was also ugly and I didn't like him hearing the details of Justin and Drew's sex life, that was offensive too. That said the rest of the movie centered around Justin and Drew and their beautiful time together and the romance of two lovers willing to wait months to see each other before waiting months again before they can see each other again, it's very romantic and showed the two characters as devoted to one another and the things they did to try and keep it interesting were really sweet and meaningful and romantic so the movie keeps the story of the couple alive and makes you care about the outcome, and the ending doesn't disappoint.

For trailer check it out:


For more information visit
http://going-the-distance.warnerbros.com

NY Model Mgmt Benefit for Redlight Children Foundation & Votre Vu Fashion Night Out

They say a picture is worth a million words, so here are some photos from Votre Vu's Fashion Night Out and New York Model Management's Cover Girls For Change benefit for the Redlight Children Foundation. Both events were Friday, September 10th, 2010. I got to talk to the cast of the upcoming reality show The Perfect Housewives, and took a second to take a pic with Joan Rivers.

Me and Joan Rivers at Votre Vu's Fashion Night Out:


The cast of the upcoming reality show The Perfect Housewives at New York Model Management's Cover Girls For Change Benefit for Redlight Children Foundation:


Carol Ann, Michele Ann, and Barbra Lynn of "The Perfect Housewives"


Carol Ann of "The Perfect Housewives"

More photos from New York Model Management's Cover Girls For Change Benefit for Redlight Children Foundation:

Hayden Christensen's new movie "Takers"

This weekend I went to see "Takers", which is the new Hayden Christensen movie. Christensen plays A.J., one of the Takers, and Matt Dillon plays Jack Wells, the main police officer in the film. The Takers are a team of sophisticated bank robbers, and a lot of the movie is very much like "The Italian Job" (2003 w/ Charlize Theron, Mark Wahlberg). The other takers are played by Paul Walker (plays John Rahway), Idris Elba (Gordon Jennings), Michael Ealy (Jake Attica), and Chris Brown (Jesse Attica). Tip Harris plays the role of Ghost, a former partner of the Takers who just got out of jail and claims to have a great job for them to pull off. The only problem is, Ghost is in leagues with Russian Mobsters who later are revealed to want all of the money for themselves. The job they have to pull is very much like the ending of The Italian Job, as they set out to rob 2 armored cars by bombing the street from underneath them. This is a film where there are multiple protagonists. The film compells the audience to care about Matt Dillon, as well as care about the Takers, despite the Takers being robbers and Matt Dillon being a cop. About half the storyline is devoted to Matt Dillon trying to find out who the Takers are and connect them to their most recent bank robbery where the cameras only caught them with their masks on. The other half the movie revolves around the Takers planning their next job, the job Ghost planned. They have the route the armored cars are taking, and they have the street map and the technology to access the traffic light system. The difference in this movie is that the armored car drivers are armed and they fight back with guns. This movie also sees many of its leads killed or injured, since it is later apparent that Ghost was playing the russians against the Takers to try and get them to kill each other off once the job is done. Ghost tells the russians where the Takers are hiding, and then locks the bathroom door and jumps out the window. The russians and the Takers get into a gun fight where Hayden's character dies, a scene that made me feel like crying. Then the Takers start to kill off many of the Russians, which is followed by all but two of the Takers dying, and the last two Takers do escape. They realize Ghost was behind this ambush, and find him at the airport ready to board an airplane with all the money. Another gunfight ensues and by this point Matt Dillon tracks them down, which is when Matt Dillon gets shot. Ghost finally gets killed at this point, and the two remaining Takers are able to make off with all the money. Although half the actors in the movie are african-american, this movie is not a hip hop movie. It is accessible to all audiences.

For more information & games visit the official website:
http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/takers/site/

Here is the trailer:


Before the feature film "Takers", one of the previews caught my eye. "My Soul To Take" is the new Wes Craven film, out October 8th, and it features an actor who has worked with Hayden in the past. In Hayden's 2008 movie Jumper, Max Thieriot played the younger David Rice (the later David was Hayden's character). He did an outstanding job and struck me as a great new talent who would has promising career potential. Now he is cast in the lead role of the latest Wes Craven (Scream, A Nightmare On Elm Street) movie. A movie I intend to see.

Here is the official website:
http://www.iamrogue.com/mysoultotake

Here is the trailer:


Also, September 13th is the season premiere of Season 4 of Gossip Girl. Here's a sneak peak:

Rider Strong in the new short film "Your Lucky Day"

I was waiting for months to see this film which debuted at The Seattle International Film Festival earlier this year. Rider Strong plays the lead role in this film in which an old man who is a regular customer of a convenience store finds out his lotto ticket is a multi-million dollar winner. Rider is at first just there to shop, but he overhears this conversation, pulls out a gun, and demands the ticket. The old man resists and then a police officer who was also shopping in the store tries to intervene. He tries to shoot Rider but ends up killing the old man. Rider then shoots the police officer who then appears dead. In an effort to not have to kill everyone who remained in the store, Rider invites them all to share in the millions in exchange for the destruction of security tapes and invention of an alibi which everyone agrees to use. I will not give away the ending. The film in its entirety was posted onto the filmmaker's Vimeo page, so the video below is actually not a preview, but rather the film in its entirety. Enjoy!

Your Lucky Day from Dan on Vimeo.

Reviews: Zac Efron in "Charlie St Cloud"; plus Private Screening of Oksana Lada in "Crumble"

Before I begin my reviews of "Charlie St Cloud" and "Crumble", I wanted to share some good news, Alex Barreto's short film "Career Day" won best short film at the New York International Latino Film Festival awards. Congratulations to Alex and Foe Killer Films on their award!

Today I finally went to see Charlie St. Cloud, which features Zac Efron (High School Musical) in the lead role alongside Charlie Tahan (who is also in Meskada, an upcoming movie produced by my friend Jen Gatien) and Amanda Crew (The Haunting In Connecticut). Zac Efron plays Charlie St. Cloud, and Charlie Tahan plays his brother, Sam St. Cloud. Charlie is a sailor who lives with his mother and brother. Sam is getting baseball lessons from Charlie because their mother can’t afford to pay for summer camp and the brothers make a pact to meet up at a certain time every day to practice throwing and catching a baseball. One night Charlie is ambushed by his brother as he is pulling out of the driveway. Sam convinces Charlie to give him a ride to a friend’s house to watch the baseball game on TV. As they drive down the road they joke around, and Charlie begins to have some trouble keeping an eye on the road. They stop in the middle of the street, an error that leads to tragedy. Two cars hit their car in succession, and once they are pulled out of the totaled car, they are put in an ambulance, and this is when Sam dies. At this point in the film, I couldn’t help but cry. Not many films get that kind of reaction from me. During Sam’s funeral, Charlie runs off into the woods to the secret spot where he had promised to meet Sam every day… and when he gets there, Sam’s ghost is waiting for him. The brothers talk, bond, and practice with the baseball, and at this point Sam realizes if he shows up at the correct time each day, he can spend time with his deceased brother, as if his brother were alive. Charlie takes a job at the cemetery so that he can work close to his brother’s grave and gives up sailing. Sam isn’t the only ghost Charlie sees, he also ends up seeing a friend of his who died in military service, and when he talks to this friend, he is seen by his coworker from the grave yard, and his coworker thinks Sam is crazy, since he appeared to be talking to himself. Then Charlie one day meets Tess (Amanda Crew). Tess is complaining about the flowers being dead at her relative’s gravestone, and Charlie agrees to plant some new ones for her. Charlie continues to play baseball with his brother’s ghost, but as Charlie gets to know Tess, the more time he is spending with her. Ray Liotta (Heatbreakers) meets Charlie for lunch one day and tries to convince Charlie to begin living his life again. One day, spending time with Tess results in Charlie losing track of time and going late to the spot where he usually meets Sam. Sam is hurt by this, and points out to Charlie that Tess followed him to the spot. Charlie turns around, sees Tess, and Tess tries to comfort Charlie. Tess is planning on sailing around the world, a feat she says should take her up to 6 months, so she tries to explain to Charlie that she doesn’t know if their getting so close before she leaves is a good idea. Then one day she takes her boat out and there is a terrible storm. She decides to test her boat by sailing directly into the storm. She goes missing, and everyone assumes she is dead because the search parties could not find her. After a lot of grieving Charlie suddenly realizes she probably isn’t dead, because he figures out the coordinates of where she probably is on the basis of what he would do if he sailed through such a storm. As he is out searching for Tess, Charlie realizes that rescuing Tess will require him to miss his daily meeting with his brother, and that this means he may not ever get to see his brother’s ghost again. He decides to keep looking for Tess and he does find her, after spotting her capsized boats near a jagged rock embankment. The movie ends with Charlie going back to the spot where he usually meets his brother, only to find that now he can HEAR Sam, but not SEE Sam. Sam says goodbye at this point, and then Charlie goes to find Tess and the two live happily ever after. This movie is a high quality drama, one that stirs up lots of emotions, especially sadness, though there are also a lot of happy moments which keeps the movie balanced.

This past Sunday night I went to a private screening of the new short film "Crumble" which featured lead roles by Okasana Lada (The Sopranos), Alexandra Grossi (The Sheol Express), and Raymond Hamlin (Nightmare). I had been invited to the red carpet premiere but my RSVP wasn't found until the day after the event. So my friend Renata Lorenc invited me to a private screening party on Sunday, an event open only to Renata's friends, which was held at the home of a friend of hers here in NY. Renata wrote, directed, and produced for the film. The film is set to premiere in Los Angeles but there is also discussion about doing a tour of film festivals. The film was shot in just 4 days, but the script was thirtysomething pages long. The movie begins with Oksana trying to convince her new husband Michael (Hamlin) to stop using drugs, and her husband responds only to offer her cocaine, and then to hire a female prostitute Bianca (Grossi) to seduce Oksana. Bianca and Oksana meet out in the hallway and get a chance to talk. Oksana is already upset at her husband for being a junkie and derelict, so she is somewhat open to Bianca, who makes it clear she is attracted to Oksana and she reassured Oksana that Oksana is not a prostitution client to her, but rather someone who Biance genuinely likes. Oksana still says no to Bianca, though. Then she thinks more about the dysfunctionality of her relationship with Michael, and decides to go to the address listed on the business card Bianca gave her. It turns out to be the address of a nightclub where a drag queen is monitoring the front door. Oksana talks her way inside and finds Bianca. The two begin to dance together but someone interrupts and pulls Bianca away for a prostitution client. Oksana goes looking for Bianca and finds her drugged by the prostitution client, and gets upset, so she lifts Bianca up and tells Bianca she is going to take her out of the club to someplace safe. Suddenly the pimp who also doubles as Michael’s drug dealer shows up and tells Oksana he owns her now that Michael “sold” Oksana to the prostitution club and the pimp claims he now has the right to keep Oksana there forever and that she no longer has individual rights as a human being. At this point, Bianca is recovering from the drugs she was on, and she pulls out a gun and tells everyone to stay away or else the pimp will be killed. This results in a clean getaway for Oksana and Bianca who decide they will drive and keep driving until they find a suitable town or city to live in where the pimp won’t find them. This movie is to be commended for taking a strong stance against the enslavement of human beings by pimps. It makes an important statement against the trafficking of prostitution slaves. I have had the pleasure of working on two movie premieres for the Redlight Children foundation, an organization that uses films to raise money to fight child prostitution slavery. Also, Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore have a similar organization that they set up to battle against the enslavement of children as prostitutes.

For information on these foundations visit:
http://www.redlightchildren.org
http://demiandashton.org

For information about Crumble:
http://www.crumblethemovie.com

For information about Charlie St. Cloud:
http://www.charliestcloud.com

Me with Director/Writer/Producer Renata Lorenc at the private screening of Crumble:

Sony To "Reboot" Spider Man Franchise

Today I read an article about Sony's decision to do a "reboot" Spider Man movie in lieu of creating the much anticipated "Spider Man 4" that they had been expected to do until recently. The article I read was unusually harsh, and focused mostly on anger over Sony's decision not to shoot the movie in New York. Reading this article compelled me to write one of my own, with my own perspective on the matter, because I have some positive things to say about the new film, despite being upset that they decided against making a fourth installment of the existing series.

Learning that Sony had inexplicably decided not to produce a fourth installation of the Spider Man saga that had seen so much success over the past decade, in effect also dropping Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst from the lead roles in the new movie, my first instinct about what to expect was negative. There are some bad precedents for other film studios' attempts to start successful major movie franchises over again from scratch or change the storylines of such sagas, and also when they replace popular lead actors from such franchises with new actors.

Terminator: Salvation is the most glaring example of how a studio destroyed one of the most profitable franchises in history. The first mistake they made was by choosing Christian Bale to replace Nick Stahl who had played John Connor in Terminator 3. This decision made no sense because Christian Bale does not look like a John Connor. So the claim that this decision was made because John Connor needed to look older makes no sense. What did make sense was the previous choice that if Edward Furlong who played John Connor in T2 were to be replaced, Nick Stahl was an excellent choice, becuase if you look at what Edward Furlong looked like in T2, and compared him to Nick Stahl- they look enough alike to make the transition between T2 and T3 to be believable. Terminator 3 was, in my opinion, the best Terminator movie ever. Another sensible choice was Thomas Dekker to play John Connor in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles TV series. He really does look somewhere in between the younger Edward Furlong, and the twenty-something Nick Stahl. He was credible as a John Connor and the TV series was excellent. Then out of nowhere Cristian Bale, who looks nothing like Stahl, Dekker, or Furlong... gets casted as John Connor. None of the actors who pulled off credible performances as Connor look anything like Bale, and you can tell that if even 10 years were to pass, all three of those actors would look pretty much the same as they do today. In 20 years, maybe they will have a few gray hairs, at most. So the notion that John Connor in the space between Terminator 3, and Terminator Salvation, would suddenly look like a 45 year old, was totally ridiculous and cost the newer movie a lot of credibility. Then, to make matters worse, they scrapped the role of Catherine Brewster which had originated with Claire Danes' appearance in Terminator 3. In T3, Arnold Schwarzenegger's good guy Terminator character claims that in the future, John Connor dies but his wife then leads the resistance. But in T-Salvation, there is no Catherine Brewster character at all. How can John Connor have a wife in T3 and then suddenly she disappears and his character has no memory of her having ever even existed? T-Salvation didn't pick up where Terminator 3 left off - John Connor and Catherine Brewster were supposed to be hiding out in an underground Presidential fallout shelter and coordinating resistance-organizing efforts via radio transmissions with a microphone. Another confusing casting blunder... in T-Salvation they tried to create a "lookalike" Terminator model designed to appear SIMILAR to Arnold's model... this was a disaster because all this did was make the movie look cheap. They could've casted Kristanna Lokken or Summer Glau to play Terminators in the movie and made the film have SOMETHING in common with the earlier films or show. T-Salvation made no sense to me, I watched it on a friend's DVD twice to try and make sense of the plot, and the movie could only be explained as having nothing to do at all with any of the three prior movies or the television series. It is no wonder the movie flopped. It was a disgrace to the Terminator name. Also, why they decided to cancel the extremely well-written and well-produced Sarah Connor Chronicles TV series remains a mystery.

Then there is the Batman Series, which, interestingly, also has Christian Bale in the lead, as Batman. This is the series which got restarted with disappointing results. In the 1990's series the lead role of Batman was played by different actors in almost every installation. Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, and George Clooney all played Batman. Chris O'Donnell gave the final two installations some consistency by playing Robin. Since Keaton, Kilmer, and Clooney are all middle aged adults anyway, the transition of leads didn't make much of a difference, and in this case, the casting of Christian Bale later in Batman Begins was not offensive or ridiculous. That said, I watched Batman Begins and The Dark Knight and was bored to death by them. Dark Knight was better than Batman Begins, but these movies didn't have the comic-book feeling to them that the 1990's films had. They felt like surreal dramas instead of action-adventure films. These two films did very well at the box office, but they still serve as another example of a studio re-starting a franchise of popular and exciting films, and ruining them. My favorite Batman movies remain Batman Forever and Batman & Robin.

All that said, if there is anyone who would be biased against a new Spider Man movie that doesn't have Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst in the leads, it would be me. It's really unfortunate that they decided to cut the series off at Spider Man 3 without finishing the storyline of Peter Parker's love affair with Mary Jane Watson. They would've been expected to finally get married in Spider Man 4, if the movie had been made. Knowing that audiences will not get to see the two get married is extremely disappointing. The scene in Spider Man 3 where Tobey is falling through the air and more concerned with saving the ring with which he plans to propose than he is with saving his own life was one of the most touching moments I've ever seen in an action movie. There was a strange comment posted underneath the article I read today where someone claimed Sony replaced Tobey because he was getting too old to play Parker, and this makes no sense. Tobey looks identical today to the way he looked in the first Spider Man movie. So this argument didn't make any sense. Yet once they did decide to re-start the series rather than to continue it, one would assume this means they would be replacing the lead actors as well.

If they had made a bad choice for a replacement for Tobey, I would be boycotting the new Spider Man movie and telling everyone else to do the same, but it happens the actor they chose for the role truly is deserving of the role, and this is why I felt the need to write my own article about this matter. An actor named Andrew Garfield was chosen to be the next Peter Parker. I am already familiar with his work, since he played one of the leads in Tom Cruise and Meryl Streep's 2007 film "Lions For Lambs". This movie was a political movie with a strong antiwar message, a movie that dramatized the way politicians and media pundits were mutually responsible for the lies and effects of the misinformation campaign waged by the Bush administration in the leadup to the Iraq war. Garfield plays a student called into his college professor's office to receive a lecture about his academic and personal potential, in which he's also told a tragic story about two students who volunteered to serve in the military only to die in the Iraq war. Garfield's performance alongside Streep and Cruise showcased a talent worthy of being casted in a lead role alongside them. It is for this reason that I am actually excited about the new Spider Man movie, and this is why I felt compelled to write this article. Garfield not only looks the part of Peter Parker, he is capable of pulling off a performance of equal caliber to Maguire. I recommend that anyone interested in getting to know Garfield's work, rent Lions For Lambs on Itunes by clicking here. Also, coming to theaters later this year is another of Garfield's projects, a movie called "The Social Network", where he plays a lead alongside Jesse Eisenberg, Rashida Jones, and Justin Timberlake. I've seen the trailer for it, and the movie looks great. Something a little along the lines of a modern day spin off Ryan Phillipe, Rachael Leigh Cook, and Claire Forlani's now-classic techno-thriller "Antitrust".

So with all that in mind, I have to give a thumbs up to Sony (not for rebooting the Spider Man series because 1-3 deserved to be followed with a 4, and there is no justification for them to think Maguire and Dunst warranted replacement) but instead my accolades are to the fact that since they did decide to remake the series, they at least decided to recruit an actor of equal caliber to Maguire, a sign that they intend to create a film that audiences will enjoy just as much as the prior Spider Man films. It doesn't matter where they decide to shoot the film, since the New York skyscrapers are usually done with blue-screens anyway. What matters is the talent involved in making the movie, because it is the talent that makes a movie worth seeing, not the budget.

For more information of Andrew Garfield's upcoming movie "The Social Network", you can visit http://www.thesocialnetwork-movie.com

Here is the trailer for "The Social Network":