A Critical Mass bicyclist is attacked by police in Time’s Square on July 25th 2008.

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This Week: August 26th, 2008

New Releases

What Happens in Vegas - 6.4/10 - Trailer
Starring Cameron Diaz, Ashton Kutcher, Queen Latifah
Set in Sin City, story revolves around two people who discover they’ve gotten married following a night of debauchery, with one of them winning a huge jackpot after playing the other’s quarter. The unhappy pair try to undermine each other and get their hands on the money — falling in love along the way.

Special Features:

1-Disc Set

• 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen with 5.1 Dolby Digital
• 99 minute Theatrical release of the film

2-Disc Set (Extended Jackpot Edition with Digital Copy)

• 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen with 5.1 Dolby Digital
• 101 minute extended cut of the film
• Director commentary
• Outtakes, deleted scenes and trailers
• Digital copy of the film

Blu-ray:

• Same as 2-Disc DVD set

Recommendation: Rent

Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden? - 7/10 - Trailer
Starring Morgan Spurlock
Spurlock searches for Osama bin Laden by visiting countries associated with the Al-Qaeda leader (Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Afganistan, and Pakistan), as well as others affected by Al-Qaeda (Greece, Egypt, and Israel). In each, he interviews individuals about their views of the United States and Islamic fundamentalism. He also constantly asks people he meets, “Where is Osama bin Laden?” Intercut with Spurlock’s search are the late stages of his wife’s pregnancy and the birth of their son after he returns. Much of Spurlock’s commentary is based on the concerns of a new father.

Special Features:

• Alternate Ending
• Animated History of Afghanistan
• Interviews: Israeli President Shimon Peres, Former IRA Leader Martin McGuinness, Egypt’s Democracy Activist Saad Ibrahim
• On being a Women in Saudi Arabia
• Secret meeting at the Watergate Hotel

Recommendation: Rent

Redbelt - 6/10 - Trailer
Starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Tim Allen, Emily Mortimer, Alice Braga, Rodrigo Santoro, Joe Mantegna, Rebecca Pidgeon, Ricky jay
Mike Terry is a self-defense instructor whose method of teaching is focused entirely on self defense that can be used in real world situations instead of sports combat. After a series of events, Mike is introduced to promoters, movie stars and debt. In order to pay off his debt and keep his business, Mike must enter prize fighting for the first time.

Special Features:

• 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen with 5.1 Dolby Digital
• Commentary with David Mamet and Randy Couture
• Q&A with David Mamet
• Interview with Dana White (President of the UFC)
• Fighter Profiles
• Featurettes: “Behind the Scenes of Redbelt”, “Inside Mixed Martial Arts”, “The Magic of Cyril Takayama”

Blu-ray:

• Same features as the DVD release

Recommendation: Rent

Postal - 6/10 - Trailer
Starring Zack Ward, Dave Foley, Julia Sandberg Hansson, Verne Troyer
The story begins with a regular Joe who tries desperately to seek employment, but embarks on a violent rampage when he teams up with cult leader Uncle Dave. Their first act is to heist an amusement park, only to learn that the Taliban are planning the same heist as well. Chaos ensues, and now the Postal Dude must not only take on terrorists but political figures as well.

Special Features:

• Director commentary with Uwe Boll
• Deleted scenes
• Featurettes: “Raging Bull”, “Verne Troyer as Indiana Jones”
• Free Postal 2 PC Game

Blu-ray:

• Same features as the DVD release

Recommendation: Pass

Re-Releases

The Nightmare Before Christmas - 8.2/10
Starring Chris Sarandon, Danny Elfman, Catherine O’Hara, William Hickey, Glenn Shadix, Paul Reubens
The film follows Jack Skellington, the leader of a holiday-themed world known as Halloween Town, who becomes bored of his repetitive lifestyle and eventually stumbles upon the world of Christmas Town; interested in the new world’s culture, Jack attempts to combine the two holidays, with disastrous results.

Special Features:

2-Disc Collector’s Edition

• 1.66:1 anamorphic widescreen with 5.1 Dolby Digital
• What’s This? Jack’s Haunted Mansion Holiday Tour
• Frankenweenie (Uncut Version) with new introduction by Tim Burton
• Vincent short film
• Tim Burton’s original poem narrated by Christopher Lee
• All-New Audio Commentary by Tim Burton, Director Henry Selick and Music Designer Danny Elfman
• Behind-the-scenes making of Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas
• The worlds of Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas Halloween Town, Christmas Town, The Real World
• Deleted Scenes
• Storyboard To Film Comparison
• Original Theatrical Trailers and Posters

Ultimate Collector’s Edition

• 2-Disc Collector’s Edition
• Individually numbered, hand painted ultimate collector s bust
• Plays sound bites from the movie
• Includes Sandy Claws hat and beard with matching disc case
• Booklet containing original poem
• Letter of Authenticity

Blu-ray:

• Same features as the 2-Disc Collector’s Edition

Recommendation: Buy

Brotherhood of the Wolf: Director’s Cut - 6.4/10
Starring Samuel Le Biahn, Vincent Cassel, Emilie Dequenne, Monica Bellucci, Jeremie Renier, Mark Dacascos
In 18th century France, the Chevalier de Fronsac and his native American friend Mani are sent by the King to the Gevaudan province to investigate the killings of hundreds by a mysterious beast.

Special Features:

• 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen with Dolby Digital 5.1
• Director’s cut (2 hours 31 minutes)
• Deleted Scenes
• Behind the scenes documentary
• Production notes
• Storyboards and trailers

Recommendation: Buy

Miami Vice (Blu-ray) - 5.9/10
Starring Colin Farrell, Jamie Foxx, Gong Li
Based on the 1980’s TV action/drama, this update focuses on vice detectives Crockett and Tubbs as their respective personal and professional lives become dangerously intertwined.

Blu-ray Features:

• Anamorphic widescreen with DTS-HD 5.1
• Commentary with Michael Mann
• Featurettes: “Miami Vice Undercover”, “Miami & Beyond: Shooting on Location”, “Visualizing Miami Vice”
• PIP function with tech specs, cast bios, production photographs and more

Recommendation: Pass

U-571 (Blu-ray) - 6.2/10
Starring Matthew McConaughey, Bill Paxton, Harvey Keitel, Thomas Kretschmann, Jon Bon Jovi
In the midst of World War II, the battle below the seas rages. The Nazi’s have the upper edge as the Allies are unable to crack their war codes. That is, until a wrecked U-boat sends out an SOS signal, and the Allies realise this is their chance to seize the ‘enigma coding machine’. But masquerading as Nazi’s and taking over the U-boat is the smallest of their problems. The action really begins when they get stranded on the U-boat.

Blu-ray Features:

• Anamorphic widescreen with DTS-HD 5.1
• Commentary with director Jonathan Mostow
• PIP function

Recommendation: Rent

End of Days (Blu-ray) - 5.7/10
Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gabriel Byrne, Robin Tunney, Kevin Pollak, Rod Steiger, Udo Kier
At the end of the century, Satan visits New York in search of a bride. It’s up to an ex-cop who now runs an elite security outfit to stop him.

Blu-ray Features:

• Anamorphic widescreen with DTS-HD 5.1
• Commentary with director Peter Hyams

Recommendation: Pass

The Unrated Blogger’s Cut

I’ll be renting Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden? because I really enjoy Morgan Spurlock’s work. I’ll also be updating my DVD collection with the director’s cut of Brotherhood of the Wolf even though I already own the original version. The film has great action and is a really great foreign film, I highly suggest any action fans watch this film.

How many films are you picking up this week?

Coming up next week:
New: The Promotion, The Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow*
Re-release: Transformers**, Eraser**, Outbreak**, Under Siege 2: Dark Territory**, Black Mask**, The Invincible Iron Man**
* denotes separate DVD and Blu-ray releases
** denotes Blu-ray only release

Similar Posts:

• “Everyone hail to the Pumpkin King”
• Hellboy II: The Golden Army An Early Look
• RA: Renters Anonymous - August 12th, 2008
• RA: Renters Anonymous - August 19th, 2008
• Now, “This…is…Sparta!”

BRIAN ROSS
ABC News

DENVER-Police in Denver arrested an ABC News producer today as he and a camera crew were attempting to take pictures on a public sidewalk of Democratic Senators and VIP donors leaving a private meeting at the Brown Palace Hotel.

A police official later told lawyers for ABC News that Eslocker is being charged with trespass, interference, and failure to follow a lawful order. He also said the arrest followed a signed complaint from the Brown Palace Hotel.

Eslocker was put in handcuffs and loaded in the back of a police van which headed for a nearby police station.

Video taken at the scene shows a man, wearing the uniform of a Boulder County sheriff, ordering Eslocker off the sidewalk in front of the hotel, to the side of the entrance.

The sheriff’s officer is seen telling Eslocker the sidewalk is owned by the hotel. Later he is seen pushing Eslocker off the sidewalk into oncoming traffic, forcing him to the other side of the street.

Read More

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About maybe 6 or 7 years ago I met a guy in the pub, a friend of a friend who was reading a book about the Illuminati - it was the first time I’d ever heard of them. Seeing I was interested, he then began to explain this fantastic yarn about a plot to rule the world that began in ancient Egypt and is going on this very day in Bohemian Groves and Bilderberg Groups around the world. I must say I was captivated, especially at the claims that Clinton, Bush Sr. etc would be spending the Millennium in the pyramids at Giza where the missing Golden capstone would be added at the structure’s apex for an occult ritual, or his dissection of a dollar bill for all the Masonic symbolism.

To top it all, he ended his rant by telling me the book had since been recalled, and all copies destroyed.

In the following years I read books and books of conspiracy literature, watched videos and scoured websites guzzling information. I was determined to get to the root of the ancient conspiracy, to find the true “secret history” of the world. Naively, when I began my research I had assumed there was one definitive truth about the history of the Illuminati. After studying a little while it soon became apparent that there were many competing theories as to who they were, and major differences as to their origin, intents and goals.

It took me many years to figure out what the Illuminati actually represents: the roots of a future religion, currently rife with theological differences waiting to be ironed out. You can find many parallels with the emergence of Christianity in the first to Third centuries. In the first century especially, there were extraordinarily diverse views of who Jesus was, on notions of the afterlife and such.Was Jesus a man? If he was, how could he be resurrected? Then was he a spirit? If he was a spirit then how did he suffer on the cross? Was he a god? If he was a God, how was he also the son of God? Were they the same person? And so on. (much of this was eventually settled with the advent of the Trinity doctrine some 400 years after Jesus died) You even had Christian Gnostics who thought the universe was made by an evil god; polytheistic Christians and a kaleidoscope of other weird and colourful cults.

Illuminatism is a fledgling religion, and 9/11 is its crucifixion.

Why a religion and not a serious theory? Because it relies rather heavily on dogma and belief, rather than facts and figures. Don’t’ get me wrong facts and figures are cited to death in conspiracy circles, but they are often used the same way fundamentalist Christians use facts and figures, as a way to support a conclusion they’ve already arrived at. Because of the belief that the Illuminati are in control of all major media, and a huge number of prominent media figures and politicians are under their direct control or influence, then all information from these sources are seen as lies spun by the Illuminati to condition us to the New World Order master plan. However, if the information from these sources supports the worldview, they are adopted into it, and used to strengthen pre-held beliefs.

I call these “anchors”, news reports, events, documents and even physical objects that provide “proof” of an intangible belief that can be referenced in reality and shared wth others. We use them as place markers, associate our own particular meaning to them and over time, and build up a conceptual map of reality relative to belief in the Illuminati. One that is shared an enriched through communication, and evolved through debate that explains away internal contradictions and other nonsensities with all the vigour of Star-Trek fanboys explaining the sudden appearane of Klingon bumps. But that’s all it is, a map, and as all you fans of General Semantics already know, “the map is not the territory”, it’s merely a convenient and often crude approximation.

Belief in the authenticity of your map over others is an effective tool for dismissing things that don’t fit into it. Take Alex Jones and his like’s dismissal of Peak Oil campaigners and Climate Change scientists. These people are seen as pawns of the Illuminati, stooges peddling lies so the Illuminati can pave the way for their microchipped big brother world government. Anyone who does not agree 100% with Jones’ conclusions are doing the will of the Illuminati, knowingly or unknowingly. That’s why I had to wince when Jones was interviewing Chomsky on his radio show, and called the 80 year old anarchist a “new world order shill” because of his views on gun control - a herasy.

Why has it become so popular? Because since 9/11 people are questioning things and not getting straight answers from the media, politicians or other icons like celebrities. People are looking for answers.

9/11 especially acts like a conspiracy “hook” into the Illuminatism worldview, and often encourages digging deep into the rabbit hole. You find out about the Bilderberg group and the Council of Foreign Relations, the Rothschild family and the Freemasons. Suddenly a whole new way of viewing the world, of viewing reality, begins to unfold. There is a hand behind world events, a malevolent one; much like Satan was blamed for everything that went wrong in Medieval society (disease, crop failure, sudden unexplained deaths), it is possible to blame the Illuminati for in ours (Bird Flu, Engineered Resource Shortage, the death of David Kelly). It’s rationalisation is a rich and voluminous, a complex tapestry of a thousand sources - what else to expect from the first mainstream religion of the
Information Age?.

Depending on which route you go down in your research (which could be influenced by your previous beliefs), you can go down one of these following paths (not exhaustive). Each a Illumiantism sub-sect with its own particular focus and specialisation. If you follow it for long enough you’ll experience a complete paradigm shift, a totally new way of organising incoming sensory information. Literally, a new reality.

Christian (Pro-Government)

Territory pioneered by Hal Lindsay and Pat Robertson in the 70s, 80s and 90s. The Illuminati is a Satanic plot to engineer the rise of the Anti-Christ and herald in the World Government. The United Nation is their primary tool. This movement seems to have split with the one below and become pro-Republican sometime in the late 80s. Believe Hilary Clinton is an Illuminati Witch.

Christian (Anti-Government)

Shares much in Common with the above worldview, except both Democrats and Republicans are two heads of the same beast (controlled from London by secret societies). Aspects relating to the Anti-Christ are traditionally toned down and emphasis is placed on sci-fi aspects of the Illuminati plot such as microchipped super-surveillance societies and hi-tech mind control. Typified by one of the Grand Imam’s of the conspiracy world, Alex Jones and popular in survivalist circles. Illuminati often described as “communist”.

New Age / UFO

Shares much in common with the above in terms of practical details and organisational structure, however Satan is not the villain of the piece in this strange reality; it is the mysterious Annunaki. Strongly influenced by the strangely charismatic David Icke, this movement sees the Illuminati as being either trans dimensional or extra-terrestrial entities attempting to keep mankind in a spiritual as well as physical prison to use as labourers on a planetary plantation. Influenced by Buddhist thought and draws, somewhat haphazardly, from sources as eclectic as Zulu shamans, UFO abductees and quantum physics.

Far Right / Anti-Semetic

The most traditional of the Conspiracy worldviews, this sees the Illuminati as a tool of Jews, who plan to enslave the white man and dilute his race with inferior stock. Israel is often seen as the source of the global plot to control the world via international Banks. US Government often described as ZOG - Zionist Occupational Government. Some views expressed by the shady Lyndon LaRouche.

Far Left / Rationalist

Sees banks as the power behind world events, and often described in the language of Globalisation. Religious aspects of the Illuminati are toned down, and often the name “Illuminati” is not even used. Particular emphasis put on corruption and secret societies like Skull and Bones. A very diffuse grouping of beliefs. Some ideas relayed by Michael Parenti.

The other reason, of course, that such thinking is becoming increasingly popular, is the sheer amount of information available today. Belief in the Illuminati is a way of making sense of an intimidating and unpredictable world which we can never hope to truly comprehend. Like religion, it is a way of simplifying an infinitely complex universe to once that is internally cohesive and provides a basis for understanding reality. Also, the more indoctrinated (i.e obsessed) one gets with the Illuminati, the more evidence one will see of their existence. If they truly have their hand in everything, they might be monitoring your computer, they might have spies after you, they might be trying to shut you up. That way, madness lies. Two of my friends have had nervous breakdowns, both did so via paranoid fear of the Illuminati.

But as I say, these are early days. In the centuries ahead, especially as society becomes more technologically advanced and bewildering (or conversely, as the world spirals into increasingly titanic wars), beliefs in Illuminatism - that a Malevolent force is guiding world events - will become more and more prevalent. We’ve just began to see the first high profile adherents of such beliefs - Charlie Sheen has just come out and said he believes 9/11 was an inside job, and was interviewed on Alex Jones radio show. CNN done a follow up interview with Jones and took a poll of who thinks he’s right. 83% of the CNN audience thought Sheen was correct.

Was that the tipping point?

Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar were arrested by the Minneapolis Police Department. Charged with conspiracy to riot. Footage from Rick Rowley and Brandon Jourdan.

On April 29, 1964, the Dubuque Telegraph Herald reported that two Dubuquers, Paul Kies and Larry Kratzer, spotted a UFO while traveling near Socorro, New Mexico.

A researcher from UFO Hunters, a documentary cable series on The History Channel, recently contacted Carnegie-Stout Public Library to request information about this incident.

The episode mentioning the Dubuquers is tentatively scheduled to air on Wednesday, October 15, 2008.

~ Mike, Adult Services

RNC fascism. Pre-emptive politically based raids. Detainment and confiscation without probable cause. Welcome to the USSR.