Views & Reviews From Writer Steve Miller
Formerly Reviews and Stuff at Rotten Tomatoes, 2005 - 2009.

Currently Showing at Cinema Steve

Friday, May 7, 2010

The Nazis Quit Blogathon comes to an end


It was my intention to keep posting reviews of graphic novels and movies right up to this very day, the day where Nazi Germay surrendered once and for all to the Allies. But, scheduling weirdness with other projects and an unexpected (but very pleasant) development on my birthday--today--made it so virtually no Blogathon materials appeared this week.

I still have "Ogre," "Inglorious Basterds" and "SS Hell Camp" to post reviews of, and I never did get the wrap-up post done. However, Tom over at Motion Picture Gems did a far better wrap-up for my mini-blogathon than I could ever do.

Click here to read Tom's review of "Underground" and an image of one of the many front pages that carried the "Nazis Quit!" headline on May 7, 1945.

It's May 7th, so....


Reviews will be appearing throughout the day--including one of "Iron Man 2"--but you can also celebrate by getting a gift for yourself (or me--hehe) from my wish list. Or you can just watch movies all day!

I hope you have as good a day on my birthday I am planning to have!

(Oh... and today is ALSO the day that Nazi Germany submitted like the sorry creatures they were. Exactly 65 years ago today, the Germany military surrendered unconditionally to the Allies. A great day to be born on!)

Thursday, May 6, 2010

This is Terror Thursday!

Every review I post for the rest of today will be of a movie with the word "Terror" in the title. It's my way of reaching out and acknowledging the concerns of those who are worried that the upcoming Everybody Draw Mohammed Day might offend terrorists and those who enable and justify their psychotic, murderous activities and murderous actions.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

The Man-baby is back....

For the past few years, an emotionally stunted man-child by the name of Mbutu Mondondo Bienvenu has been in the news on and off, with his moronic lawsuit over racism in "Tintin in the Congo."

He's in the news again. With an expanded lawsuit.

With his criminal trail against the foundation that manages the creations of Belgian writer/artist Herge--they're a bunch of evil racists according to the deranged Bienvenu--going nowhere, he rounded up some race hustlers and ambulance chasers to bring a civil suit against the foundation AND European combic book mega-publisher Casterman, seeking to get the book yanked from stores.

Casterman has, in a polite fashion, told Man-baby and his attorneys were to stick their copies of "Tintin in the Congo," and so far seem like they're going to fight this bit of idiocy. Here's hoping they win (even if "Tintin in the Congo" is a one of the worst books in the series, with only "Tinin in the Land of Soviets" being worse.)

Click here to read more about this case. And look below for a picture of the Man-baby himself, posing with the eeeevilest of tomes!



(I wonder of Casterman and the Moulinsart foundation could sue Manbaby for misappropriating their trademarked and copyrighted materials? THAT would be hilarious!)

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Stay thirsty, my friends, with this review of a western featuring two Spanish Ladies who will undoubtedly be the subjects of future "Tectonic Tuesday" case studies.

Bandidas (2006)
Starring: Penelope Cruz, Salma Hayek, Steve Zahn, Dwight Yoakam, Sam Shepard, José María Negri, Denis Arndt, and Audra Blaser
Directors: Joachim Roenning and Espen Sandberg
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

Two young Mexican women from wildly different backgrounds--one is a wealthy, European educated sophisticate (Hayek) and the other is a rough-and-tumble farm girl (Cruz)--team up with an American criminologist (Zahn) to stop a rogue agent of a major American bank (Yoakam) from driving poor famers from their land to make way for the railroad.


"Bandidas" is an action/comedy heist movie set in the late 1800s. It's about as predictable as it could possible be (with one tiny little twist toward the end that I didn't see coming), but it is so breezy and fun, and its two very attractive leads are so charming and sexy that it really doesn't matter. Penelope Cruz's performances is especially fun, and Salma Hayek's cleavage is always a welcome sight.

This is probably one of the better, completely forgettable eye-candy movies I've seen. It was a fun way to spend an hour-and-a-half, and I'm surprised this movie never saw a wide North American release; it's got some plot elements that could be construed as anti-American, but it's far better than some of blatantly political and America-hating crap that was in movie theaters around the time it was made. (Or maybe that's why it didn't see wider release. It wasn't anti-American enough.)

If you like light-hearted westerns that feature explosions, train robberies, and darkhaired beauties in cleavage-revealing tops, this is a film that's worth a look.



Tuesday, May 4, 2010

May 20th IS the first annual
'Everybody Draw Mohammed Day'


In this post, I reported briefly on Molly Norris and her joke that got taken very seriously by a good number of people who are disturbed and angered by a group of violent psychopaths who want to force their idolatry of the Prophet Mohammed (peas be upon him) onto the rest of world, along with the oppression and suppression that goes along with it.

As I said in that post, it was clear to me that Norris was joking from the get-go and that she was simply drawing a silly cartoon that no more depicted Mohammad than Matt Stone and Trey Parker had on "South Park" earlier that week.

Norris' mistake was to invent a fictitious "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" as part of her gag. She apparently was unaware of the level of frustrating and anger that exists over the fascist terrorists who are the public face of the "Religion of Peace." She did not see that her gag could be seized upon as a way for the voiceless to speak out.

Norris disavows any involvement in any real "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day," as she continues to say over and over with cartoons on her website (visit it here). That is a shame, but it is her right to be cowed and to apologize for speaking the truth, even if I hope I never end up like that.

But, DESPITE what Norris would wish, DESPITE what Islamo-fascists would wish, DESPITE what I said in my original post on this topic, "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" is becoming a reality. And this is a good thing.

Everyday common citizens are standing up to these thugs, because it's increasingly clear that major media outlets and even our governments will not do so.

On May 20th, I will take part in "Everybody Draw Muhammed Day." I will be posting original cartoons here and at "Shades of Gray." It's been at least a decade since I've put pen-to-paper in this fashion, so they won't be very good (and probably not all that funny), but at least they will be here. If you want to take part, I will happily post cartoons you create, or you can send them to these sites that are also dedicated to make what started as a joke a reality:

Everybody Draw Mohammad

Citizens Against Citizens Against Humor

Draw Muhammad Day 2010!

Freedom of expression has been under assault from these mentally diseased people since at least 1989 when the senile (or possibly syphilis-ridden) Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Supreme Leader of Iran, issued a fatwa calling on all good Muslims to kill author Salman Rushdie and his publishers for the novel "The Satanic Verses." (You can read about that incident and the murders committed by the worshippers of Muhammed [may pits be upon him]here. You can also read about the REAL Satanic Verses here.)

The crazed cultists were not quite as visible back in those days, but even then they issued death threats. I got one myself, and I cherish it as a badge of honor to this day. When the government of Iran upped their bounty on Rushdie (issued in conjunction with Khomeini's fatwa, because apparently Good Muslims need millions of dollars to contemplate committing murder), I wrote a column for a paper on the topic that was similar in tone to the Mad Muslim posts you find around here. A Good Muslim wrote in that she had seen me crossing the street the day the column ran and that she had thought about running me over with her car for insulting the Holy Men of Islam and the Good Muslims who heed their words. An apology was demanded by her and many other letter writers. None was given, except in a very sarcastic follow-up column.

I didn't give an inch to Muslim psychos and bullies then. If put in the same position today, I wouldn't give an inch now. (Of course, my columns would probably never even have been printed today.)

Twenty years hence, the efforts to silence speech they don't agree with continue on the part of the Cult of the Prophet Muhammed (piss be upon him) are more virulent and violent than ever. Every unwarranted apology and every attempt to show them respect only emboldens them and makes them demand more concessions and silence from those they don't agree with. They are now issuing death threats for NOT showing images of their idol, as we saw a couple weeks back with Trey Parker and Matt Stone's "South Park."

"Everybody Draw Muhammed Day" is a must. I hope everyone reading this will participate.

If you want to post your cartoon here, send it to me by May 19 as a jpg attachment to stevemillermail@gmail.com. (You can also send it to any of the sites linked above... or perhaps even post it to you your own site. But I and the others can protect your anonymity of you fear for your safety....)

Tectonic Tuesdays: Jennifer Love Hewitt

In an effort to save innocent people all over the world, the "Tectonic Tuesday" series is devoted to providing supporting evidence for the divinely inspired claim made by Iranian holy man and modern-day prophet Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi. It is he who said: "Many women who do not dress modestly [...] spread adultery in society, which (consequently) increases earthquakes."



Third Case Study: Jennifer Love Hewitt


A child actress who grew up to wear revealing outfits on screen and outfits that reveal even more in magazine pictorials, Jennifer Love Hewitt became a danger to the world starting in when she and her breasts starred in the slasher flick "I Know What You Did Last Summer". The year was 1997, and in October (the same month the film was relased) central Chile and an earthquake and tsunami devastated Shikotan Island off the eastern coast of Russia.


In 2001, Hewitt played a slutty con-artist in "Heartbreakers," and the display of her cleavage on screens around the world caused the earth to shudder in American Northwest and the southern part of Peru. And since 2005, when she returned to series television to play a woman with a love of lowcut tops and the ability to speak to the dead in "Ghost Whisperer," there have been at least four major earthquakes every year! As if more evidence was needed, when Hewitt's latest photo-spread appeared in the May 2009 issue of Maxim magazine, Los Angeles was struck by an earthquake.

And all because of the immodesty of Jennifer Love Hewitt.


(This woman is SO nefarious that she's also been featured in my "Saturday Scream Queen" series at Terror Titans. To see more of this weapon of mass-destruction, click here.)