News

Long before he wrote the wild, dramatic score for Batman and the twisted song cycle that runs through the beloved Nightmare Before Christmas, Danny Elfman's original claim to cinematic fame was far quirkier than anything he'd ever dream up for Tim Burton: He portrayed Satan, dressed in a long-tail white tux, conducting an orchestra of goblins in a run-through of every "hidey-hidey-hidey-ho" in Cab Calloway's "Minnie the Moocher." The episode, in the campy 1980 cult hit Forbidden Zone, found the redheaded composer wiggling, shimmying and writhing as he...

As weird as it sounds, Simon Cowell appears to be helping to make a movie featuring the Max Fleischer cartoon character Betty Boop with the visual effects studio that made The Lego Movie.

I’ve worked with some serious divas but I think Betty could be the biggest of them all! @bettyboopnews pic.twitter.com/ZHRvT5ChYz

— Simon Cowell (@SimonCowell) August 14, 2014

Cowell's company Syco Entertainment is producing with the Animal Logic Entertainment and the project seemed to already be in development at Fleischer Studios, the originators of the character.

That Fleischer Studios is involved is really all the assurance I need that this could be at least partially worthwhile. I'm not sure what sort of tone they'll be shooting for. If they can find anything close to her original appearences, that'd please me, but since kids these days haven't seen "Minnie the Moocher," Betty Boop could redifine herself for multiple generations.

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: April 29, 2014

Price: DVD $24.95, Blu-ray $29.95

Studio: Olive Films

Betty Boop, one of the first and most famous sex symbols on the animated screen, returns newly re-mastered in HD from 4K scans of the original negatives and fine grains in Betty Boop: The Essential Collection, Vol. 3, Olive Films’ second high-definition anthology of her shorts.

A symbol of the Depression Era and a reminder of the more carefree days of the Roaring Twenties, Betty Boop’s popularity was drawn largely from adult audiences and the cartoons, while seemingly surreal, contained many sexual and psychological elements. (Or does Betty’s catchphrase “Boop-Oop-a-Doop” not have a deeper meaning than you may have imagined?)

Vol. 2 includes 12 classic animated short films, reportedly available for the first time on DVD and Blu-ray. All were produced by Max Fleischer and directed by his brother Dave Fleischer. They feature the voices of Mae Questel, Bonnie Poe...

Special Mention: Sightseers

Directed by Ben Wheatley

Written by Steve Oram and Alice Lowe

UK, 2012

This bloody, satirical road trip comedy is by no means as great as Terrence Mallick’s Badlands, but it is truly unique, strange, disquieting, and uncomfortably funny. Ben Wheatley is one of the most exciting genre filmmakers working in the industry today and has a talent for coaxing naturalistic, improvisational performances from his actors. Here, Wheatley is working for the first time from someone else’s script. Sightseers was written by TV acting and writing duo Alice Lowe and Steve Oram, with input from Wheatley’s longtime collaborator Amy Jump. In Sightseers, they achieve the relatively rare feat of striking the right balance between sharply observed characterization and jet-black humour. Sightseers was pitched as an unsold TV pilot, which was rejected by every UK broadcaster for being too dark. It isn’t quite horror, but...

Chicago – I suppose it was only a matter of time before Sebastián Silva delved into the brooding waters of psychodrama. There are countless moments in his previous pictures—from Catalina Saavedra’s piercing Bette Davis stare in “The Maid” to Michael Cera’s hallucinogenic agony in “Crystal Fairy”—that threaten to spiral into horrifying derangement.

How sad that Silva’s meticulously executed, visually stunning “Magic Magic” has been dumped on DVD by the unfeeling hands of Sony, while the director’s inferior “Crystal Fairy” scored a limited theatrical release. Not only is “Magic” an exponentially better film than “Fairy,” it’s also one of the most gripping portraits of a psychological meltdown in recent memory (it would’ve made a fine big screen double bill with Woody Allen’s “Blue Jasmine”). Relegating any film co-lensed by Christopher Doyle (“In the Mood for Love”) to a small screen premiere is a...

Why Watch? Betty Boop is mostly remembered these days as America’s first cartoon sex symbol, with her Jazz Baby get-up and high-pitched squeal. That’s the general thrust of her cameo in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, certainly. She’s was the animated incarnation of Pre-Code Hollywood decadence, at least in her early years before Fleischer Studios made her more demure and redirected the cartoons from adults to children. What gets lost in our memory, however, is just how bonkers these cartoons were. They’re relics of the Jazz Age in style as well as reputation. This is the first of Betty’s three collaborations with Cab Calloway, if you can call them that. “Minnie the Moocher” had been recorded the year before, and was already a smash hit. America may not have quite grasped the extent to which its lyrics were thinly veiled drug references, but no matter. Taking it to the movies was a stroke...

DVD Release Date: Oct. 2, 2012

Price: DVD $Tba

Studio: Universal Studios Home Entertainment

Hit medical drama House ran for a whopping eight seasons on Fox.

The television series, starring Hugh Laurie as the titular anti-social but brilliant doctor, was created by David Shore (TV’s Law & Order) and starred Omar Epps (Alfie), Robert Sean Leonard (Dead Poets Society) throughout its run. Jennifer Morrison (TV’s Once Upon a Time), Olivia Wilde (The Change-Up), Kal Penn (A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas), David Morse (Drive Angry) and Amber Tamblyn (127 Hours) were also in the cast over the TV’s show’s years.

House has been available on DVD in individual DVD sets for a while. Season 7 and season 8 were released in August 2011 and August 2012, respectively.

The House: The Complete Series set contains all 176 episodes plus more than 16 hours of bonus features and a 24-page collector’s booklet about the show’s origins, House-isms,...

House is one of the most compelling medical dramas that critics proclaimed as "one of the smartest and intellectually bravest shows on television" (Jennifer Arrow, E! Online). Through eight brilliant seasons, two-time Golden Globe winner Hugh Laurie, as Dr. Gregory House, combats the medical field with unconventional and misanthropic tactics that audiences can't help but love. Every baffling case, every brilliant diagnosis, and every sardonic insult is all here in House: The Complete Series, arriving on DVD on October 2, 2012 from Universal Studios Home Entertainment.

House: The Complete Series gives viewers a chance to re-live every captivating moment as House and his team of doctors solve complex medical mysteries, push professional boundaries, and face personal demons. Gripping, witty, and intelligent, House: The Complete Series will satisfy every House fan in this must-own 41-disc collection, featuring all 176 episodes of this Primetime Emmy and Golden Globe-winning production. The collector's package includes a fully-colored,...

Jennifer Lopez showed her true colors on Wednesday’s “final judgment” episode of American Idol – a shimmeringly hypnotic hue of emerald green, to be exact.

Indeed, the Gigli star’s sequined dress was so shiny, it actually managed to reflect the image of her “deeply concerned” face and cast lustrous jade pools back onto her throat. It also sent me into a daydream that she was some kind of glamorous alien, just moments away from peeling back the rest of her human skin, revealing a V-like visage, and devouring whole the American Idol contestants who failed to crack the Season 11 Top 24. “I’m sorry baby,...

Ralph Carney's Serious Jass Project: Seriously (Smog Veil)

One of the great things about recycling old jazz is that there are so many styles to choose from. On the evidence of this CD, saxman Ralph Carney (known as a member of Tin Huey and Oranj Symphonette as well as for his contributions to records by Tom Waits, the Black Keys, Black Francis, the B-52's, Bill Laswell, Elvis Costello, Galaxie 500, Allen Ginsberg, Marc Ribot, William Burroughs, Pere Ubu, and many more) has a great fondness for small-group swing and jump blues, but taps a few additional subgenres as well. He's even more versatile as an instrumentalist, credited on this album with six types of saxophone, two types of clarinet, and flute, trumpet, English horn, lap steel guitar, and vocals, with a moderate amount of overdubbing at times.

Of course, when Carney includes "serious" in the band and album names,...

Oh, lord. It can’t ever be easy with this show, can it?

This week is Finale Week on Dancing with the Stars. It would make sense, then, if we watched all four (Four!) dances from each couple on Performance Night and then voted and then saw the results on Results Night.

But instead we saw two dances from each couple and then will see two more tonight because the judges need to know how hard to throw the scores to get the winner they want.

(By the way, I went on a couple of DWTS message boards after last week. I don’t know why; I just had to see. The general consensus was that Hope Solo was terribly ungracious about her fake, lowball scores. Not because anyone thought the show or the judging was real, but because they felt Solo should have known the show was fixed before...

ABC

Two multimirror monsters face off against a moving marvel aiming for a first grasp of a glittery trophy on the finals of “Dancing with the Stars.”

This season has been a testament of fan bases (Chaz Bono) or lack thereof (Kristin Cavallari), but the finals are just as much about the strengths of the pros as they are about star power and skill. J.R. Martinez seemed a lock from the moment he finished his Week 1 Viennese waltz, but Ricki Lake...

Rob Kardashian has been arguably the most improved dancer over the course of "Dancing With the Stars" and Monday night's (Nov. 21) finale enforced that feeling. His freestyle with partner Cheryl Burke to "Minnie the Moocher" was fabulous and earned his first perfect score of the show.

Carrie Ann said afterwards to "consider [her] blown away," while Bruno lauded the dance as "brilliant" and said Rob peaked at the right time. Len said Rob had given his all. What did you think?

The judges obviously loved it and gave it three 10s. Do you think it was enough to earn Cheryl Burke her third mirror ball trophy?...

Kardashian Conspiracy Theorists, unite! The Dancing With the Stars Season 13 performance finale gave us a glimpse of Cheryl Burke in a Len Goodman mask, holding up an “11″ paddle for her partner, who just so happens to be the younger brother of Kourtney, Kim, and Khloe (Aka The One With the Baby, The One With the Sex Tape Who Is Now Inexplicably on the Cover of Everything, and The One Who Is Occasionally Pretty Funny).

And sure enough, there was a brief moment at the end of the telecast where I wondered if Carrie Ann, Len, and Bruno had been kidnapped and hogtied backstage,...

Zap2it has been looking back at the best performances from each stage of the "American Idol" finals and now we're taking a gander at the Top 6. This week on "Idol," the contestants are taking on Carole King, but what about the past performances at the Top 6 stage?

Who are you favorites? Vote below. As of this writing, you've voted Carrie Underwood's "Alone" as the best Top 11 performance, David Cook's "Billie Jean" as the best Top 10 performance and David Archuleta's "Smoky Mountain Memories" as the best Top 9 performance, Adam Lambert's "Mad World" as the best Top 8 performance and Archie's "When You Believe" is the best Top 7 performance.

We had forgotten how rough Gloria Estefan week was for Season 3 - so much so that we left it out. And who doesn't love Daughtry showing his sensitive side on Love Songs week? Also, Andrew Lloyd Webber week was...

The 12 best celebrity skaters took to the ice last night to perform for the judges and viewers at home. Keep reading to find out the panel's verdict on their skating skills:

Vanilla Ice 'Minnie The Moocher' Jason: (5) "Yes, there were moments where you executed it really good. But because of your hip-hop, you are used to constrained tiny movements. I want you to feel, more breath in the elongation of the lifts. And just watch your timing, your clicks were out man. You are a musician, so I want you on that."

Robin: (6) "It was fantastic, you were able to bring a little bit of flavour from the first routine to this. I agree with Emma, be careful that you don't do too much slouching and that the style goes more hockey player than figure skater. With the lift, I want the viewers at home to know, yes...

View the original post Dancing On Ice 2011: Vanilla Ice masters his difficult lift! on Unreality TV

Vanilla Ice made his highly anticipated return to the Dancing On Ice rink tonight.

The American rapper impressed viewers and the judges with his daring routine in week one of the series and expectations were high for tonight’s performance.

However during his Vt we saw Rob Van Winkle (yes that’s his real name!) struggling with the complicated content choreographed by Torvill and Dean and messing up lifts time after time.

This evening, looking quite nervous, Ice and Katie Stainsby emerged onto the rink and skated to ‘Minnie The Moocher.’ He looked the part in his top and tails and played the part wonderfully – he certainly has oodles of stage presence. Katie went into the difficult lift effortlessly but there was a moment during her dismount when we worried she was about to hit the ice.