A couple of days ago I placed a meme on my Facebook page that had originated on Reddit. Sometimes I’m lucky if I get 10 views of anything I put up on my Clyde’s Stuff Facebook page (although the numbers are increasing steadily since I’ve gotten back to my blog). As of today, this meme on my page now has well over 1,000 views.
The meme (seen below) was of Sylvia Browne, the psychic who has made a career for herself by going on TV (mainly the Montel Williams show), flipping a coin and telling family members if their missing loved ones were alive or dead. I say flipping a coin because she probably would be just as accurate using that method as any pertaining to any mind reading ability she has. 
Some people swear by her abilities. To me, anybody who claims to be psychic is blowing smoke up your butt. I just think it’s all hooey, just as I think the whole business of ghosts, goblins, reincarnations, and entities from the other side is as Scrooge said, “more about gravy than of grave.” As it says towards the end of this video, “Psychic wins lottery again says no one ever.”
I read a review of one of her books on Amazon. Seems the reviewer was a bit disappointed that after having paid Browne $700 for an 18 minute reading, none of her predictions came true.
You don’t say! My advice: If you’re going to pay that kind of cash to a psychic, put it in a slot machine or buy lottery tickets with it. You’ll probably get more for your money than stuffing it in Browne’s purse, or donating it to someone like Pat Robertson who boldly told all that God had assured him Mitt Romney would win the election Not only did God inform Robertson that “Romney will win” but that he will be a two-term president who presides over a huge economic boom. Robertson even told Romney to save him a ticket for the inauguration: “I told Mitt a long time ago, I called him and said listen, I’ve been in prayer and number one you’re going to win the nomination and number two you’re going to win the general election, he said ‘well what can I do for you,’ I said give me a seat on the platform during your inauguration, give me a ticket to your inauguration.” “The Lord said he’s going to have a second term, I told him there will be to be trillions of dollars coming into the economy when you’re elected,” Robertson continued, “the stock market ought to boom, everything ought to boom.” This all deeply reassured Hinn who said that Robertson was conveying “God’s voice.”.
Pat Robertson also told his mindless flock to beware of false prophets. Now that may be the best advice he has ever given.
As for Sylvia Browne, she now has the biggest screw up of her long seemingly endless phony career and I’m sure you’ve probably heard about it by now. Browne told Louwanna Miller, the mother of Amanda Berry, one of the three women who escaped from her kidnapper in Cleveland after being held for ten years, that she was dead. A year after that, Amanda’s mother was dead of pancreatitis, still unaware that her daughter was alive. (Here is the original news story)
It’s easy to say that Amanda’s mother shouldn’t have put her faith in some publicity seeking talk show phony, but when you have loved ones disappear off the face of the earth with no clues left behind, I’m sure that you’ll try anything and leave no stone unturned in an effort to find that person, no matter how many flimsy straws you may be grabbing at.
But whenever anybody has invoked the abilities of Sylvia Browne around me over the years, I usually end up laughing about it.
But I shouldn’t have. Phony psychics like Sylvia Browne are no laughing matter. They cause more pain and more grief to people who are already suffering tremendous agony, and there’s nothing funny about that at all. And those gullible masses who promote and make stars out of these charlatans, are every bit as guilty as Miss Browne, and let’s not forget that.
Here’s the video from CNN and ABC:
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Sylvia Browne–Dead Wrong (video)
Sunday, May 5, 2013
Weekend Box Office Report 5 - 5 – 2013: Robert Downey Jr. makes mucho dinero
Yes, I know I missed last Sunday’s report. I was busy with many other things that sometimes get in the way. I think it’s called living. I was going to put it up later in the week but when you’re working eight hours a day, you have to budget your time the best way that you can. I was also working on another project for this blog (still am) that is taking more time than I thought it would so by Wednesday, I decided it would be rather pointless to publish it. So here it is, along with this weekend’s take and my usual snarky b.s. which is the real reason you’re here. You can get the actual numbers anywhere.
And what did I miss writing about last weekend? Not much. Michael Bay’s Pain and Gain topped the box office with about $20 million dollars. It’s sort of a good news bad news kind of thing for Bay. The good news is that the Pain and Gain only cost Paramount $26 million dollars to make so in the end, they’ll make money from the thing between foreign and domestic box office and the DVD that you can already pre-order. The bad news is that $20 million dollars is chicken feed compared to what Bay was used to raking in over opening weekends with films like Armageddon, Bad Boys, Bad Boys II, and The Transformers franchise. If anybody can prove that there’s huge profits in Cinema Sewage, Michael Bay can. He is is a teenage fanboy’s wet dream.
The truth is not too many people, especially myself, really cared that Bay made a movie that was a bit different than what we are used to seeing him churn out. P&G has a lofty 46 percent critic approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes. I say lofty when you compare it to Revenge of the Fallen’ s 20 per cent, Dark of the Moon’s 36 per cent, Bad Boys II’s 23 percent, Bad Boy’s 43 per cent, or Armageddon’s 39 per cent. A real critic’s darling this guy is. The only difference between Bay and Uwe Boll is that Bay has big enough budgets to snooker the fan boys into paying to see his mayhem.
But it doesn’t matter at this time. At least until Bay’s next atrocity Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles From Outer Space makes it’s way into theaters next year. Supposedly he’s only a producer on that one. Yeah, and if you believe that then let me tell you how I crap diamonds. By the time this weekend rolled around though, Iron Man was ready to escort Bay and his fans to the exit.
Even before it opened here in the states everybody knew that Iron Man 3 should just go ahead and be given a license to print money by the Treasury Department. While Bay was scraping the bottom of the pickle barrel to come up with $20 million last week, Iron Man was already raking in $198 million overseas, beating The Avengers as far as foreign box office openings go. By the time it opened here, the only question was whether or not it would beat The Avengers opening in the U.S. It didn’t, coming in second, but I don’t think anybody is down in the dumps about that when your movie is almost to the one billion dollar mark after only a week. From Hollywood Reporter:
Overseas, the Disney and Marvel threequel grossed $175.9 million in its second weekend, putting the 3D movie's international total at $504.8 million and early worldwide haul at $680.1 million. Internationally, Iron Man 3 - the first title in the franchise to be released in 3D -- is all but matching Avengers overseas, where 3D remains a big draw. China leads with a whopping $63.5 million, the top opening of all time for a Marvel film. Iron Man 3 -- directed by franchise newcomer Shane Black -- has a strong shot of joining an elite club of films ultimately grossing $1 billion or more and is another sizeable victory for Marvel and parent company Disney, giving them the top two slots on the list of all-time North American openings as Iron Man 3 beat out the final Harry Potter pic ($169.2 million).I also read today that for his part in The Avengers, Downey raked in $50 million dollars. I don't know what his haul on Iron Man 3 will be, but it will undoubtedly match that or easily surpass it. However, he has said he is tiring of the character. I guess he can now afford to be now although we all know that wasn’t always the case. If he decides to retire from the franchise, it'll be a question mark as to whether Iron Man can survive his departure.
Box office observers are convinced that the threequel is playing more like a sequel to Avengers than to Iron Man 2, a testament to Marvel's superhero strategy. They say it bodes well for sequels Thor: The Dark World, which opens Nov. 8, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, opening April 14, 2014 (both characters shared the screen with Downey's Tony Stark in Avengers). "A year ago, we speculated as to the impact of Avengers, and now we're witnessing it first-hand with the success of Iron Man 3," said Disney executive vice president of distribution Dave Hollis, crediting Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige. Case in point: Iron Man 3 has already surpassed the total global box office of Iron Man ($585 million), Iron Man 2 ($624 million), Thor ($449 million) and Captain America ($369 million). And it zoomed past the $128.1 million domestic opening of Iron Man 2.
Consider this: The totally unnecessary Spider-man reboot put out by Cheapskate Sony Incorporated made $262 million. Sounds like a lot until you realize that it didn't top the $300 million dollar mark, a feat achieved by all three of it's three predecessors.
Sure, it helped Sony that they cut the budget down to the point where a profit was inevitable, but in my opinion, they've so damaged the franchise it's doubtful these remakes will ever achieve the rarified air that the originals did. Not that it matters to everybody when you stop to consider that as Sony has proven, along with Michael Bay, a fanboy and his money are easily parted.
So look for Disney/Marvel to do everything in it's power to keep Downey around at least until The Avengers sequel in a couple of years.
Besides Pan & Gain dropping well over 60 per cent of it’s box office from 4/28 to 5/5, wave goodbye to Olympus Has Fallen, Jurassic Park 3D, and GI Joe. Welcome back into the fold Oz, The Great and Powerful who had left the building last week. Enter Mud, who creeps in with 2.2 million from only 576 Screens. The Croods just keep hanging around. Look for Iron Man to top the charts next weekend as well. But there’s a starship named Enterprise making it’s way across the Galaxy to blast him all to shit.
Here are last weeks and this week’s numbers.
Reese Witherspoon’s Mea Culpa
Her and her husband were arrested as anybody would be or should be. More so him then her. He could have killed someone.
But not everybody would have their drunken spree make headlines across the country.
Okay, so it's over and done with. And her name is no longer Mud but I guess her movie with Matthew McConaughey is.
I guess it comes down to this: I'm sorry, I'll never do it again, I made an ass of myself, now go see my damn movie because it's great and I'm great. What is my take?
I really don't care. Unless it becomes a habit. The apology is nothing more than damage control and there's nothing wrong with that. For Joe Nobody, would any person care that he got a DWI and made an ass of himself? Unless he killed somebody, certainly within the realm of possibility for any drunk driver. Even Reese Witherspoon's husband.
So yeah, forgive and forget. Mostly just forget it.
That being said there is one thing I will never forgive Reese Witherspoon for. Nor will I ever forget it. That's an atrocity foisted on the American Public called Sweet Home Alabama. Yech!
Netflix Wishes You a Happy Mother’s Day. (And I do too)
The difference between Netflix and myself is that I don’t have any pretty red envelopes to send to you for Mother’s Day which falls on May 12th this year. Unless I send you the ones I get from Netflix. If you still rent Netflix discs as I currently do, you’ll have your own though. But why should you want a Netflix envelope for Mother’s Day?
Because Netflix, not sparing any expense, is promoting the day as if it was Christmas, Easter, and Halloween rolled into one. I don’t know what their envelope printing costs are or how much overhead they have trotting out a special run of themed envelopes but it can’t be cheap. Yes, I know there is always advertising on the inside when you rip it open, but for Mother’s Day they’ve gone so far as to scribble stuff on the front and the back as well. So I guess besides promoting Mother’s Day in general, Netflix wants you to know they have a heart of gold and are thinking of you, Mom, and apple pie.
I probably shouldn’t have noticed any of this. I usually just rip open the big envelope to get the discs out. Back when I was writing articles like this in regards to my Netflix viewing habits, then I would read what was on the disc holder in order to get the information I needed such as who was in the film and the year it was made. I also scanned each envelope that I wrote about.
My own mother passed away back in 2005. She was just a few days shy of being 76 years old and spent the last few years of her life bedridden in a nursing home. But one thing she still loved to do was to watch movies, especially some of the old classics. The last movie I sat and watched with her was The High and The Mighty starring John Wayne and Robert Stack. And she seemed to enjoy it.
One Christmas way before that, years before a series of strokes did her in physically, the family chipped in and got her a VCR, back when they were still a bit expensive. She loved it and was very appreciative of it. Even if for some reason she hadn’t, we would never have known. So I guess if anybody could have appreciated the sentiments behind the Netflix Mother’s Day advertising campaign, she would.
You’d have to really look at the front of the Netflix envelopes to notice anything different from the usual. Each one has a pithy Mother’s Day phrase telling you what you should do for Mom on Mother’s Day. But really, if you love your mother, do you need Netflix telling you how to treat her? Well, maybe some of you do.
These are the envelopes I received in the mail yesterday. I don’t know if the three I received earlier in the week were of the same variety and I’ve already sent those envelopes to the shredder. I’ve circled the Mother’s Day Sentiments in blue.
The back of the envelopes are a horse of a different color. No, they are still red but they have have quite a bit of artsy fartsy fancy schmansy writing on them featuring motherly types quotes and remembrances courtesy of Hollywood Screen Writers. It was the Forrest Gump one that caught my eye and enticed me to explore the situation further.
Inside? Well, that’s where the advertisement comes in. In each envelope Netflix gives you three Mother’s Day DVD suggestions. If my Mother were alive I’m pretty sure she would have liked the suggestions of The Cosby Show, The Brady Bunch, Leave It To Beaver, and Roseanne. I’m pretty sure she liked all of those shows and would watch them over and over again regardless of how many times she had seen them. On the second envelope, it gets a bit iffy. I really don’t know for sure how much she liked animated features and if she had ever even seen an episode of The Simpsons. She might have watched with some of the grandkids.
If she did, it was never while I was around. But I wasn’t a grandkid. But I don’t think she would have cared for Family Guy. On the other hand, you could probably give Brave or The Incredibles a spin on the DVD player and I doubt if she would have objected. She might even have enjoyed them. Envelope number three is much like envelope number one. All movies I’m sure she saw at some point in her life. The Thrill of it All and Please Don’t Eat The Daisies would have been especially enjoyable to her. I have seen three of the four for sure and may have even seen Mrs. Miniver at some point in my life but if I did, I’ve long forgotten the details. 
Okay, so maybe this is just advertising to get you to rent more Mother’s Day films. Maybe not. There’s been far worse commercialism of the un-holidays like Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, and Father’s Day then what this is. So I actually think it’s a good idea and really do appreciate the effort. On the other hand, isn’t renting Mom a Blu-ray or DVD pretty much implying that you’re kind of a cheapskate? Hell, do what I did with The High and The Mighty. Buy her the dang thing. Better yet, buy her a complete season or series of a TV show she really loves. That’s my suggestion. Or just spring for a whole year of Netflix rentals or streaming. As Cousin Eddie says, “It’s the gift that keeps on giving the whole year round.”
But take the advice on the front of the envelopes, kids. Appreciate and cherish your Mothers while you still can. They won’t be around forever you know. Give them a hug, tell you how much you love them, how much you appreciate the sacrifices they made for you and everything they’ve taught you. Send them my Happy Mother’s Day wishes as well. As for my mom, and all my grandmother’s and their grandmother’s, Happy Mother’s Day where ever you are!
Sunday, April 21, 2013
Weekend Box Office Report 4/21/2013: Tom Cruises to the Top
Was Jack Reacher a gigantic box office bonanza on the level of Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol? Of course not. There are only so many Ghost Protocols, War of the World’s, or Minority Report’s that any actor can conjure up. But if any other film a big name star takes part in doesn’t match their biggest successes, it’s labeled a failure. Consider this.
Jack Reacher was up against some stiff competition in The Hobbit. Another entry in the seemingly never ending Tolkien saga being milked for every cent Hollywood can squeeze out of it. And although Reacher only grossed just over $15 million opening weekend, it did go on to take in $80 million domestically on a $60 million dollar budget. Hardly a total disaster. Stir in an overseas box office take of $136 million, and suddenly the film is well into profitability. And once it reaches DVD and Blu-ray in a couple of weeks, those who haven’t seen it will find out just as I did that it was in fact, a damn good action, espionage, thriller.
I almost made it to see Oblivion this weekend, but my girlfriend Wilma wasn’t particularly keen on the idea. She probably would have gone if I had been an obnoxious prick about it, but instead I decided to be Mr. Nice Guy.
Wilma had me run down the list of movies playing, what they were about, and where they were showing. Any theater except those owned by Regal would do. I’ll never step foot in another Regal cinema, but that’s a story I’ll try to get to later in the week. We decided on The Place Beyond The Pines, a film that we knew little about but from the plot synopsis sounded very interesting. We never made it there.
We had lunch at a place called Logan’s Roadhouse Grill (great meatloaf), then afterwards we decided to go to Burlington Coat Factory which was in this small strip mall that also housed one of those second run, admission only $1.00 theaters called the Starplex Cinema. It was a perfect candidate to do one of my Road Trip reviews, that is if I could squeeze it in. In other words, don’t look for that to happen.
Back when it was originally released, and because Wilma is a romantic kind of gal, she had wanted to see the Julianne Hough movie Safe Haven which was another straight from the heart romantic dopuses from writer, now producer, Nicholas Sparks. As for myself, I can only get into these types of films if they are the Romantic Comedy classification (they better be damn funny), Romantic Suspense classification (better keep me on the edge of my seat), or perhaps even just Romance Drama’s (better be damn meaningful) if the drama part is laid on thick and heavy. Straight romance movies bore the heck out of me and are fodder for Hallmark and Lifetime.
So since we were already there, because the next showing was just 30 minutes away, and most of all because it was only a buck, I decided to be Good Guy Clyde, and escort her to see it. Two other things worked in her favor:
1. The fact that it was an adult oriented romance film that meant the chances of there being a bunch of noisy rug rats running around the theater were pretty slim, even on a Saturday afternoon.
2. It was only a dollar so what did I have to loose? And we had just eaten lunch so there was no need to buy the popcorn or soft drinks which were just as overpriced as any other theater showing a first run film. On the other hand, they are the Marge Schott of movie theaters and you can get a hot dog for $1.00 anytime. I have to admit that I did fill a twinge of guilt for not purchasing anything from the concession stand since I know the theater makes nothing from the $1.00 admission. But that only lasted a millisecond. Next time I’ll be sure to get a wienie or two.
As for the film itself, since every thing I watch is always a candidate for future page filler, all I’ll say is that the first fifteen minutes were intriguing, and the last fifteen minutes were fairly decent despite the fact that I couldn’t stop laughing at the ludicrous plot twist tacked on. But everything in between was an exercise in never ending tedium. Never has there been a romance that was as uninteresting and developed as slowly and as boringly as what happens between Julianne Hough and Josh Duhamel. I wanted to take a nap in the worst way but managed to somehow stay awake. Then again, what do I know? Except that Wilma concurred with my opinion and this is a woman who likes practically everything she’s ever paid admission to. Maybe the book was better, especially since it have a lofty rating of 4.6 stars from those on Amazon who have read it. Count me out though. I’ve been working on the same romantic/mystery/suspense trilogy for about three or four months now.
I had thought Safe Haven, like Jack Reacher, was a total bomb at the box office. But that perception of mine must have come from the way the critics had savaged it (13 percent at Rotten Tomatoes). The film managed to rake in $70 million domestically and over 16 million overseas on a shoe string $28 million dollar budget, so if profitability is the name of the game, Safe Haven achieved that goal. I’m sure that my two bucks helped tremendously in that regards. All I know is I still haven’t seen Jurassic Park 3D, and time is running out. But the weekend is almost over, and unlike Reese Witherspoon, most of us had a pleasant enough time.
Here are your Box Office totals:
Saturday, April 20, 2013
It’s Amazon Pilot Season
I’m most interested in Zombie Land, but I’m kind of disappointed in the trailer I saw for it. I’ll try to find the time to watch this weekend and get back to you but that’s not a promise. I’ll be gone Saturday most of the day, still working on that same completely new movie review, plus there’s something that I want to write to go with it. Kind of tough cramming it all in especially when you come home from work exhausted after already having spent eight hours in front of a computer screen.
You can watch any of these videos for free without belong to Amazon Prime and leave feedback. Again, Netflix already has spent millions on the three exclusive series. We’ll see if Amazon can play catch up. Use the above link or just click on the graphic.
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Something I hate reading in any review.
This is a pet peeve of mine, so I’m just going to go ahead and unload right now. I just read this in a review of the classic TV series Eight is Enough, and it’s something that irritates me every time I read it in any review of anything.
”Everyone can watch the show, and you don't have to worry about foul language or adult situations.”
Let me explain something to you. I don’t give a damn. That’s not why I bought the show. I don’t think that’s why anybody should watch this show or any other show like it. Just because someone doesn’t say damn or bare their butt isn’t what makes it special or worth watching or even not worth watching. I’ve bought Eight is Enough, and I own a copy of Show Girls. Your comment is just as stupid as if I said in a review, “Everybody should watch Showgirls because it has a lot of tits and ass so it’s a really great movie. Give your children a lesson in female anatomy”
Hell, no show was any more clean pure family oriented than Full House and that half hour of hell just plain flat out sucked. What should I say, buy it even though it was a really sickeningly sweet piece of crap because you don’t have to worry about D.J. giving Michelle the finger when she scribbles in her diary with a Crayola?
I’ve seen some really pure as the driven snow shows that my kids watched and loved. But there were just as many so called G rated fun for all shows that made them want to puke with boredom. Shows like Full House. Ugh!
If any adult with half a brain can’t figure out what certain members of their family may or may not be able to watch, then perhaps birth control should be on their agenda somewhere. It’s just stupid to put it in a movie review. It tells nothing about the show or movie. Why not word it correctly?
”Hey look at me! I’m pure! I’m not watching any sex, nudity and violence. I’m better than you are as a person. My kids never hear dirty words in my house. They just pick them up at school and on the street the same as I did when I was their age”
Give me a break. I don’t know how old you are but if you’re my age, I hope I don’t know you. You’re undoubtedly one of those people who sits in front of their TV 24 hours a day with your freakin’ notepad, writing down every damn, hell, or ass word so you can quickly pen a letter of complaint off to the FCC while one of the world’s top ten asshats, Tony Perkins, drools all over you. I’m thinking that now, and only now, are you recovering from the stroke you had at the sight of Justin Timberlake exposing Janet Jackson’s breast for a millisecond at the Super Bowl. And I bet if I scrolled through all the reviews there would be three or four people telling me how much better Eight is Enough is than something like The Shield, or Shameless, because it’s just good clean family fun.
If you want to tell people something about the actual show, then please do so. Sticking the label “Mr. & Mrs. Goody Two Shoes” on your forehead and broadcasting it as if the rest of us were morons just doesn’t fly. I’m willing to bet that if you ever read my little commentary here, you’ll absolutely hate it. I hope so. Next time, tell us something about the show that might interest us, besides the fact that Nicholas didn’t say the fuck word. We already know that.