Free Republic

Tell me if this movie doesn't have "bomb" written all over it. First of all it is being written by Aaron Sorkin. Secondly it is being produced by George Clooney. Finally, the movie theme has BDS (Bush Derangement Syndrome) at its center. Is this not the perfect formula for yet another leftwing movie that is doomed to die at the box office? How long before Hollywood finally figures out that such movies are always doomed to fail bigtime? The most recent such box office failure of a leftwing film is "Che" which so far has grossed a grand total of...

Produced by Wild Eyes Prods. Executive producers, Carl H. Lindahl, David Keane; producers, Ryan Spyker, Aaron Cowden; director, Keane; writers, Bowden, Terrence Henry. Narrator: Bill Lloyd. Editor, Justin Inda; music, Michael Plowman. Running time: 120 Min. “Charlie Wilson’s War” (Wide Release Theater Movie) Genres: Comedy, Drama, Adaptation, Biopic and War Running Time: 1 hr. 37 min. Release Date: December 21st, 2007 MPAA Rating: R for strong language, nudity/sexual content and some drug use. Distributors: Universal Pictures Distribution Production Co.: Icarus Productions, Participant Productions, Relativity Media, Playtone Studios: Universal Pictures Filming Locations: Morocco Los Angeles, California USA Produced in: United...

As the fireworks figuratively and literally went off at the conclusion of Senator Barack Obama’s acceptance speech at Invesco Field in Denver last night, a few observers were reminded of another powerful political speech some 13 years earlier — that of President Andrew Shepherd. Shepherd of course ran in a hotly contested re-election campaign against Senator Bob Rumson when the whole Sydney Ellen Wade controversy was raging. Confused? Don’t be. The rousing speech by Shepherd came not on a convention dais but a Hollywood soundstage. The film was “The American President” and the words were delivered passionately by Michael Douglas...

Former Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson and his ex-fiancee, Joanne Herring, won a second victory at Monday's L.A. premiere of "Charlie Wilson's War." The ex-lovers - who supplied the mujahedeen with the guns they needed to chase the Russians out of Afghanistan - succeeded in detonating parts of the script that suggested Wilson and Herring had also seeded the events of 9/11. Herring, played by Julia Roberts in the Mike Nichols film, tells us she "practically choked" when she read Aaron Sorkin's original screenplay. The movie ended with a shot of the Pentagon in flames, implying that Herring and Wilson (played...

<p>Conservative officials who served in the Reagan administration are upset by the left-wing slant of the new movie about the covert action program that helped Afghan guerrillas defeat the Soviet army during the 1980s.</p> <p>The Reagan-era officials said the movie promotes the left-wing myth that the CIA-led operation funded Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda and ultimately produced the attacks of September 11, 2001.</p>

Here we go: despite receiving an order for three more episodes on Friday, the Aaron Sorkin NBC drama “Studio 60 on Sunset Strip” is about to be put out of its misery. Cast members are already confiding in friends that the end is near. It’s likely NBC will pull the plug shortly I am told by insiders. Last week, Studio 60 had 7.7 million viewers. Compare that with competing "CSI: Miami," with 17.5 million. That gap cannot be closed. But ‘Studio 60’ has trouble internally at NBC, forget its intramural rivals. According to ratings stats, the “Saturday Night Live” behind...

The vicious circle of weakness dominating European thought is countered by the virtuous circle of strength that George W. Bush has expressed. I am not a European. Lee Harris argued, "The world changed on Sunday," March 14, with the Spanish elections, but the real problem is that Europe failed to change. If Europe cannot rouse itself to fight back, after it has been attacked on its own soil, we may conclude that the cowardice we saw after 9-11 was not merely the expression of anti-Americanism and opportunism, but of a deeper paralysis, which is now in its terminal stage. And...

I am not a Spaniard. Somewhere, on March 12, I saw the headline, "We are All Spaniards Now." It was an allusion to the Le Monde headline from 9/12, "We are All Americans Now."As we now know, that initial French (and German) sympathy for America was short-lived. In no time flat, the Old Europe of France and Germany sought to appease Islamism, and while claiming to be our allies, to betray us at every step of the way.Not so, the Spaniards. The 1,300 troops they sent to Iraq were largely a symbolic matter, but the symbolism was powerful.After 911, when...

November 20, 2002 Regime change, anyone? I'm not talking about Iraq, although its oppressed citizens obviously could use a more benign leader. I'm talking about a changing of the guard on "The West Wing." Maybe the time is opportune. The defection of viewers from NBC's Wednesday-night White House drama is the talk of the TV industry this fall. Its overall Nielsen numbers are down about 20 percent from last season - 30 percent if you're talking about the important 18-to-49- year-old demographic. One theory - much discussed and at least as persuasive as the notion that viewers are bailing to...

Not to worry. This debate is only taking place in Aaron Sorkin's crack fantasy world of "The West Wing." The Republican candidate is made to seem a slow-witted dolt and President Bartlet is giving him the verbal beating that Sorkin says that Gore should (but didn't) give to Bush. BTW, I think the guy playing the Republican dolt is Mr. Barbara Streisand.

Just a month ago, Aaron Sorkin, the man responsible for creating and writing the hit NBC series "The West Wing," walked out of a theater in Los Angeles gripping his third consecutive Emmy award for best drama. He had every reason to believe he could head right over to NBC, brandish the latest award and, using the leverage that every producer of a hit show up for renegotiation has, tell the network to pay up. But in one of the more intriguing subplots of the television season, circumstances have changed suddenly and unexpectedly for "The West Wing" and Mr. Sorkin....

NEW YORK -- Magazines aren't just for reading any more. They are the centrepiece of brand identities, core products that can be extended into every avenue of life. Maxim recently loaned its name to a line of hair-colour products aimed at the randy twentysomething men comprising its primary demographic. Last June, Seventeen magazine opened a salon and spa in a Dallas mall, where overstressed teenaged gals could relax with a massage and pedicure on their daddy's credit card. The challenge for brand extension is perhaps a little more acute for the publisher of The New Yorker, an institution that remains...

Just six weeks or so before a real mid-term election, NBC’s The West Wing returned to the air Wednesday night with its fictional “President Bartlet” campaigning for re-election six weeks before a presidential vote. West Wing creator/writer Aaron Sorkin who has Bartlet, played by Martin Sheen, facing off against a dumb Republican Governor from the South, used NBC’s prime time to advance the liberal agenda.      The September 25 episode opened with a campaign rally set at an Indiana farm. Bartlet proclaimed: “We need to find energy alternatives....The Republicans are busy. They’re trying to convince us that they care about...