Favorite Horror Movies In The U.S.

 The charts above are from a YouGov Poll conducted between October 11th and 14th of a nationwide sample of 1,000 adults.

The Movies Nominated For Academy Award Best Picture

The following movies have been nominated for best movie of the year for the Academy Awards.

THE FATHER

David Parfitt, Jean-Louis Livi and Philippe Carcassonne, ProducersJUDAS AND THE BLACK 

MESSIAH

Shaka King, Charles D. King and Ryan Coogler, Producers

MANK

Ceán Chaffin, Eric Roth and Douglas Urbanski, Producers

MINARI

Christina Oh, Producer

NOMADLAND

Frances McDormand, Peter Spears, Mollye Asher, Dan Janvey and Chloé Zhao, Producers

PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN

Ben Browning, Ashley Fox, Emerald Fennell and Josey McNamara, Producers

SOUND OF METAL

Bert Hamelinck and Sacha Ben Harroche, Producers

THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7

Marc Platt and Stuart Besser, Producers

"Dexter" Didn't Do It !

I am a fan of crime shows -- both fictional and real-life. You might think that after working in various types of law enforcement for more than a quarter of a century, I should have had enough of crime and want to avoid those types of TV shows and movies. But it didn't work that way with me. While I have no desire to commit any type of crime myself, I remain interested in the genre. All my experience has done is to let me laugh when a show does something that bares to no relation to reality.

Yesterday I was indulging in some true-crime shows on one of Discovery's channels, and a show came on about two killers -- one in Indiana and the other in Canada. The only thing the two killers really had in common was their affinity for a TV show on the Showtime channel -- Dexter. For those of you unfamiliar with the show, it's about a serial killer who kills other serial killers. And it's a pretty good show with a large fan base.

But the TV show I was watching took and giant leap and blamed the murders these two men committed on the TV show Dexter -- and they even had a psychiatrist (or psychologist -- I'm not sure which) that blamed the murders on the TV show. That's a ridiculous notion, and one that's been around for a long time. For years, people have been trying to blame violence on TV, movies, or even music -- and it's always been a silly notion.

Does anyone really believe these disturbed individuals would not have committed a murder if Dexter wasn't on TV? I don't. The truth is that if they didn't have Dexter to blame, it would have been another source. You could do away with television, movies, and music, and people would still find a reason to kill. You simply can't sanitize society enough to eliminate violence. They'd just then blame some fairy tale (some are fairly violent) or the Bible itself (a very violent book).

The truth is that as long as humans have been around there has been violence -- and disturbed individuals. That's just an uncomfortable fact of life. Dexter didn't do it -- and neither did any other TV show, movie, or song. And eliminating Dexter (or any other TV show, movie, song, or book) will do absolutely nothing to lower the crime rate.

There's only one person to blame for any crime -- the person who committed it. That may seem harsh, but it's the truth. That doesn't mean there is nothing we can do to reduce crime. We can institute better parenting, better education, better policing, and we can eliminate poverty and other childhood hardships. But still, the only person responsible for a crime is the person who committed it (because that person is the one who made the decision to commit a crime).

Dexter didn't do it!

Hollywood Finally Honors Dennis Hopper

It's about time this happened. Even though they should have done it years ago, Hollywood finally got around to honoring Dennis Hopper with his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Hopper's star is located in front of the historic Egyptian Theater.

The 70 year-old Hopper (pictured) is in the terminal stages of prostrate cancer and currently weighs only about 100 pounds, but his doctors OK'd his attending the ceremony. The native Kansan, who came to Hollywood at 18 years-old, told the crowd, "Everything I've learned, I've learned from Hollywood. This has been my home and my schooling." The actor wore a shirt decorated with scenes from Easy Rider (probably his most famous film).

Starting with his role as a teenage hoodlum in Rebel Without A Cause, Hopper has appeared in over 100 films. He has long been one of America's finest actors. He has played heroes and villains, and done both leading roles and character roles. Few actors will leave a legacy as rich as his.

Producer (and friend) Mark Canton spoke at the ceremony and said Hopper was "the coolest guy on the planet. . .He is a force of nature. He is a world-class original, a legend in his own right, whose impact on the arts and people that he loves so dearly is second to none."

Congratulations Dennis! It was a long time in coming, but you richly deserve the honor.

Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Swedish magazine-writer Stieg Larsson wrote three amazing novels, now called his Millenium Trilogy, and delivered them to his publisher. Sadly he died before the novels were published, beginning in 2005. He never got to see the international success that the three books have enjoyed (so far, 22 million copies have been sold and the third book has yet to be released in the United States).

The trilogy is some of the best reading I have enjoyed in many years. They were so good that I couldn't wait for the third to be released here, so I had to order it from England. If you are an avid (or even tepid) reader of fiction, you need to put these books on your must-read list. Although written in the suspense/detective/thriller genre, the books easily transcend the genre. They are also very feminist-friendly, and I have no doubt they'll someday take their rightful place on the literature shelf among the world's greatest writers.

The books are, in order, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (originally titled Men Who Hate Women), The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest.

The Swedes have already made the first two books into movies, which have grossed over $100 million and become smash hits in Europe. Noomi Rapace (pictured), who plays the the books young heroine (Lisbeth Salander), was even nominated for a European Movie Award for her role in the movies.

I have to wonder -- why haven't these movies been released in the United States? I have no doubt there would be a large audience eager to see them. The popularity of the first two books in America virtually assures that. I seldom go to a theater to see a movie anymore, but I would be first in line and pay a premium price to see these movies.

But instead of just importing these movies, which seem to have been done right, the dunces in Hollywood are going to make their own star-studded English-language version. Just the thought of this makes me mad. Hollywood has remade hundreds of foreign movies, and royally screwed-up 99% of them.

Frankly, these books are too good to get the "Hollywood treatment". I shudder to think about how badly he books will be butchered when Hollywood gets hold of them. Why can't they just import the Swedish films and let us see them done right?

Worst Movies Of This Decade

This is a rather interesting post over at the Rotten Tomatoes blog. They have completed the unenviable task of listing the 100 worst movies of this decade. I appreciate them torturing themselves to compile this list for us, and I'm just glad I didn't have to do it myself. Here are the ten worst movies according to them. Go on over and check out the full list of 100 if you dare. One thing the list proves is that even really good actors and actresses can make some really bad movies.

10. Witless Protection (2008) - Larry the Cable Guy, Ivana Millicevic, Yaphet Kotto

09. Redline (2007) - Nadia Bjorlin, Eddie Griffin, Angus MacFadyen

08. 3 Strikes (2000) - Brian Hooks, N'Bushe Wright, Falzon Love

07. Strange Wilderness (2008) - Steve Zahn, Allen Covert, Jonah Hill

06. Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2 (2004) - Jon Voight, Scott Baio, Vanessa Angel

05. National Lampoon's Gold Diggers (2004) - Will Friedle, Chris Owen, Louise Lasser

04. King's Ransom (2005) - Anthony Anderson, Jay Mohr, Regina Hall

03. Pinocchio (2002) - Roberto Benigni, Carlo Guiffre, Nicoletti Braschi

02. One Missed Call (2008) - Shannyn Sossamon, Edward Burns, Ana Claudia Talancon

01. Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (2002) - Lucy Liu, Antonio Banderas, Gregg Henry