DVD rental behemoth Netflix had a rare instance of misguided public relations when the company launched its Canadian service. Seems a group of particularly enthuasiastic movie fans were actually actors who were given scripts that extolled the virtues of Netflix. Click here for more

Comedy king Jerry Lewis admits that Lindsay Lohan's antics make him nutty with frustration.

Comedy legend Jerry Lewis has some choice words for wild girl Lindsay Lohan, saying he would find it worthwhile getting arrested for the opportunity to slap her in the mouth and possibly spank her if she didn't modify her self-destructive behavior. We don't know if any psychologists would recommend this cure, but we would sure love it if Jerry and Lindsay agreed to create the scene on screen! For more click here

Riding the crest of good, if not remarkable, reviews, Oliver Stone's Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps topped the weekend boxoffice with $19 million. That figure would be anemic for most movies but it represents a high gross for director Oliver Stone. The fact that the original movie came out in 1987 made the lingering interest in the character of Gordon Gekko even more impressive. Stone made the rounds promoting the film, and for once kept his trap shut when it came to making provocative statements. Fox obviously wanted him to sell a concept both liberals and conservatives could agree on: hatred for Wall Street crooks and manipulators. The film represents a much-needed commercial hit for Stone, whose last movie was the much-ridiculed "documentary" South of the Border, a celluloid wet kiss to crackpot Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez. For more click here

Although the porn industry is notoriously shadowy and highly competitive, it's still a business like any other in that its success hinges on copyright protection. Some of the biggest companies in the porn industry are uniting to stave off their greatest threat to survival: the proliferation of peer-to-peer sites that allow illegal downloads. The companies have already begun suing individuals for illegally downloading copyrighted materials and are moving against the the legions of Youtube-like porn sites that have sprung up recently that allow viewers to access thousands of porn films and clips for free. The result has been a massive drop-off in paid subscriptions to legit sites that own the material. While some of this material is posted by amateur exhibitionists, there are also thousands of clips that are derived from copyrighted videos. The companies will have a pretty difficult job controlling these sites as they can reappear rather quickly. Click here for more

The famed Hollywood Reporter, like its arch rival Variety, has been struggling to survive in the internet age. Studios are no longer cash cows providing revenue through trade ads and many movie fans get their daily dose of news and opinions through their favorite web sites and blogs. The Hollywood Reporter is about to get a daring makeover by ceasing publication as a daily magazine and becoming a revamped, glossy weekly. It's a bold attempt to attract a younger, hipper readership - but some are skeptical it will work. Click here for more

John Williams represents a vanishing trend in motion pictures: the era in which the composer was regarded as an integral part of the creative team. Williams is still going strong, composing scores for major films. Over the decades he has built up an enthusiastic base of followers and admirers. They can satiate their quest for knowledge of all things pertaining to the Oscar winner by visiting the John Williams Fan Network. Click here for access

In a revealing interview conducted before he was diagnosed with the cancer that now threatens his life, Michael Douglas gave a candid interview with Men's Journal in which he blames himself for putting his career before his duties as a father.(His son Cameron was sentenced to jail for drug dealing.) Douglas says he made the same mistake his father, legendary actor Kirk Douglas, did when it came to providing a good role model as a father. Due to their preoccupation with making films back-to-back, they were largely absent from their families. For more click here

Blockbuster, the video rental store chain founded in 1985, has formally filed for bankruptcy protection, a move widely anticipated by financial analysts. Once seemingly impervious to competition, Blockbuster has seen its business damaged by mail order DVD company Netflix as well as the proliferation of DVD rental machines located in supermarkets and other retail chains. The company expects to be keep stores operating while they seek approval for a plan to reorganize. Click here for more

By Lee Pfeiffer

The organization Taping for the Blind has added Playboy to the periodicals it transcribes for the visually impaired people who subscribe to the service, thus giving credence to Hugh Hefner's oft-stated opinion that the magazine has significant cultural worth. Indeed, over the decades, Playboy set the high-water mark when it came to providing some of the best literary minds through original articles and book adaptations. The magazine's legendary interviews often became news stories in the mainstream media. The new narrated version of Playboy transcribes specific articles and also describes the visual attributes of the Playmates. As Hef reads Cinema Retro, I wonder if I can pull a few strings and get a job examining the Playmates so I can accurately describe them for subscribers....

Caine at Heygate: filming Harry Brown in 2009

Heygate housing estate, a notorious south London apartment complex built in 1974, is to be demolished later this year. The projects once housed 700 residents but only 50 people now reside there. The drab Soviet-style design has been used by countless filmmakers to shoot movies and TV series there. Most recently, Michael Caine's Harry Brown presented Heygate as a virtual hell-on-earth. Clint Eastwood also filmed his new movie Hereafter at Heygate. Although the fees from filmmakers for using the property were welcomed by residents, few are saddened by the demise of the dreary estate. For more click here

Among mythical monsters, Frankenstein and The Wolf Man may come and go, but vampires are eternal. The public fascination with the fanged fiends has long been analyzed and linked to psycho-sexual desires. Writer Tory Burch looks back on famous vampires in pop culture history and celebrates their staying power. Click here to read

The bizarre public behavior of Oscar winner Joaquin Phoenix has made him the center of speculation that the actor may be suffering from a mental disease or has been under the influence of drugs. Phoenix has appeared with dark glasses, a ragged beard and on the David Letterman program, was so incoherent that that the audience and host didn't know whether to laugh or call 911. Phoenix is the subject of a new critically- reviled documentary by his long time friend, actor Casey Affleck, which purports to shed light on Phoenix' behavior and the reasons behind it. The only problem is that Affleck now confesses that the film and his friend's behavior has all been a put-on and was never intended to be taken seriously. So, presumably the good news for Phoenix is that he isn't nuts. The bad news is that movie fans now resent him for participating in what may have been an elaborate hoax. Click here for more

Generally, the media likes to stir up fear of sharks every summer in order to spike news ratings. The "crisis" is almost always exaggerated but in one particularly tragic case, it is all too real. A boater and his friends were off the coast of Nassau when their craft developed engine problems. Two men decided to swim to shore but were not seen again. When a tiger shark was caught soon after, the remains of one of the men were found inside. Adding irony to tragedy, it all occurred off of "Jaws Beach", so-called because the 1987 film Jaws: The Revenge was filmed there. For more click here

For those of you who have been kept awake nights trying to think of film titles that include the name of the elements, you can rest easy. Writers Nick Thomas and Dina Taarea, both academics at Auburn University in Alabama, have published an essay that incorporates those elements you used to dread studying in high school with their correlation to the movie industry. Click here to read- and be educated!

Something did get between Brooke Shields and her Calvins: college. The brainy beauty's thesis statement can be read on-line.

Reader Alan Wood alerts us about the web site he is affiliated with, www.onlinecolleges.net.  Alan draws our attention to a rather unusual aspect of celebrity cultures: thesis statements written by celebrities. That's right, folks, not every Hollywood personality thinks that Pearl Harbor was a lounge singer. Click here to read some of the more memorable thesis statements.

By Lee Pfeiffer

It's one of those rare occasions where we feel justified to briefly deviate from legitimate news about the world of entertainment to bring you something out of left field. You may have seen this video, which has gone viral and made an obscure politician the butt of international jokes. A man named Phil Davison was seeking the Republican nomination for Treasurer of Stark County, Ohio. Normally, this would not have been of any interest to anyone, including most people who live in Stark County, Ohio. Davison followed procedure by showing up before a board of commissioners to plead his case for why he should be the nominee. What followed will rank alongside speeches give by JFK and Churchill, at least in terms of getting wide exposure. (It received prominent coverage in London's Daily Mail!) From the moment Davison begins speaking, he is practically frothing at the mouth and soon he is nervously darting around the room while screaming his qualifications for office. You would be forgiven if you thought it was Chris Farley in one those old Saturday Night Live sketches in which he played an over-the-top motivational speaker. The video is so hilarious that it's been carried as a news story on main stream network broadcasts. If you're a Republican who wants to fight back against criticisms that your party is increasingly catering to the tin foil hat crowd, you can take heart from the fact that Davison did not get the nomination. However, if they ever decide to make Paddy Chayefsky's Network into a TV series, we think we have a pretty good case for casting Davison as Howard Beale. Click here to revel in his glorious speech.

The fabled Mansion House at Pinewood houses administrative offices and dining rooms and a legendary pub. It was also seen as SPECTRE HQ in the 007 classic From Russia With Love.

By Lee Pfeiffer

Pinewood Studios, the legendary home base of the James Bond movies, is planning a massive expansion project that would virtually double the size of the studio. The plan has been in the works for years and has run into local opposition from groups that claim the expansion would devastate the countryside area the studio resides in on the outskirts of London. Because it is a relatively small country, England has always been sensitive about preserving its landscapes and historical heritage. Major construction projects are far more difficult to get approval for than they are in the USA. Pinewood is awaiting a key decision as to whether their plans will finally be approved. The studio argues that the expansion will be an economic boom to the country as more Hollywood studios and production companies will have inducements to film there. Click here to read The Hollywood Reporter's interview with Pinewood Shepperton CEO Ivan Dunleavy.

A view to a thrill may result in an infected PC thanks to a new insidious worm.

The BBC reports that a malicious worm has been incorporated into a scam E mail that promises the recipient access to free on-line sex films. Sophisticated readers realize that any such E mail has as much validity as those "exclusive" offers from African princes to give you a map to a hidden fortune in return for your banking information. However, millions of people routinely fall for these scams and this one manages to replicate itself by using addresses from the victim's E mail address book. We can't prove it, but we'll bet this problem is probably especially rampant on the computers of elected officials. Click here for more

Entertainment writer Laurie Boeder alerts us to the fact that the New York City apartment that Katharine Hepburn kept for 60 years is now available for rent - assuming you have a spare $27,500 every month. (They had been asking $30,000 per month, but hey, times are tough and they're just going to have to tighten their belts a bit.) For more click here

Years before Eastwood played a spy in The Eiger Sanction, he was offered the role of James Bond by Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman.

Clint Eastwood says he was offered the role of James Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service after Sean Connery departed the series. However, he declined because he felt the role was too associated with Connery. George Lazenby took the part for the film. In 1978, Eastwood was also offered the role of Superman, which ultimately went to Christopher Reeve after he declined. Proof once again that Eastwood, like Dirty Harry, adheres to the adage that "a man's got to know his limitations." For more click here

Clint Eastwood is unveiling his new supernatural drama Hereafter at the Toronto and New York Film Festivals. The film stars Matt Damon as a psychic who comes to resent his gift to see into the afterlife. Click here to watch trailer.

George Clooney's heavily-hyped spy flick The American topped the holiday weekend box-office in North America, but the gross was a far-from-spectacular $16 million- barely enough to nudge out Robert Rodriguez' low-budget gore-fest Machete which was sold primarily to Hispanic audiences with its plot relating to America's hot-button illegal immigration issue. For more click here

Sly Stallone still harbors dreams of bringing the life story of Edgar Allan Poe to the screen.

In an interview with MTV's Josh Horowitz, Sylvester Stallone rejects suggestions that he resurrect Rambo one more time, saying the much-beleaguered hero has earned the right to a rest. However, he did confirm that he is proceeding with his decades-long plan to bring the story of Edgar Allan Poe to the screen. Stallone is hoping he'll be able to direct either Robert Downey Jr or Johnny Depp in the role. "I will direct it, but it's never gonna live up to the hype," he said. He jokingly added, "No matter what I do it's going to bomb, totally. Totally! When you've been talking about something for 30 years, it's impossible [to live up to those expectations]." For more click here

Paul Hogan, the affable Australian star of the mega-hit 1986 comedy Crocodile Dundee, has been barred from leaving Australia by government officials who say he owes tax money on his earnings from the film. Hogan has been disputing charges for years that he used off-shore bank accounts to illegally hide his profits from the film. Although Hogan has largely faded from view in America, the 70 year-old remains an iconic personality in Australia. For more click here

Critic Scott Mendelson argues that, in retrospect, Chuck Norris' films don't seem that impressive any more. Cinema Retro's Lee Pfeiffer argues that they didn't seem that impress way-back-when, either.

By Lee Pfeiffer

Film critic Scott Mendelson argues that the action movies our youth are often glorified in our minds. As Mendelson obviously came of age in the 1980s, the examples he cites refer to the likes of Arnold, Stallone and Chuck Norris. He makes a poignant case that, viewed without nostalgia, these films aren't nearly as good as many thought they were during their initial release. He's right- but for those of us who grew up prior to that decade, I can say without gloating that they didn't look that good to us even at the time of their initial release. I enjoyed these grunt-and-groan action films in the day, but I was always completely aware that The Delta Force was no Dirty Dozen. Mendelson generalizes that most older action films haven't aged well, but his frame of reference seems to start and stop with the 1980s. I politely suggest he watch some of the WWII and tough cop movies of the 1960s and 1970s, for example, and he will see that many of these hold up as well as ever. For more click here

The Nick Fury comics by Jim Steranko are considered classics

By Lee Pfeiffer

MTV reports that there are serious discussions taking place about turning Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D into a new Marvel film franchise. The problem is that the films would be expensive and Fury doesn't have the name recognition of other Marvel heroes, though he has been portrayed as a supporting character by Samuel L. Jackson in the Iron Man films. Fury actually began as a popular Marvel WWII hero with the comic book Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos in a long-running series that began in 1962. In the mid-60s, Fury spun off into another comic during the James Bond rage. This found him working in the post-War years as a hi-tech secret agent for a government agency called S.H.I.E.L.D, which was an obvious nod to U.N.C.L.E. He still had his trademark eye patch and omnipresent cigar, however. The Nick Fury comics were initially drawn by Jack Kirby when they ran as installments in the Strange Tales comics. When he received his own comic, the early issues drawn by the moody but brilliant Jim Steranko were considered to be ground-breaking, but Steranko left Marvel after a short tenure and the Nick Fury comics lost much of their luster. For more on the development of Fury as a screen hero, click here

It's pretty difficult to imagine a scenario in which you might sympathize with Adolf Hitler. However, we're not sure that even the most notorious genocidal villain in history deserves this indignity. Unless- wait a minute!- it must be Moe Howard in one of those Hitler-spoofing Three Stooges shorts!

The Huffington Post has compiled a slide show of the worst and creepiest wax figures ever made. Click here to access the Hall of Shame.

This isn't the symbol of American values we wanted the Iraqis to adopt.

By Lee Pfeiffer

When the American government led the invasion of Iraq, the intention was to render useless weapons of mass destruction, remove Saddam Hussein from power and spread American values to the Middle East. The results have been a mixed bag by any standard. The brutal dictator was deposed and executed but those gosh-darned weapons of mass destruction have yet to turn up. As for spreading American values, the idea was to instill democratic traditions. The jury is still out on how well that will succeed, but there is one aspect of American life Iraqis have adopted with great enthusiasm: an obsession with pornography. Porn has always existed in Iraq, of course, just as it has in every civilization in history. (Archaeologists routinely discover depictions of sex acts etched into cave walls!) However, Saddam put on the pretense of being a devout Muslim and had anyone caught selling pornography imprisoned- or worse. This, despite the fact that his two sons routinely rode through Baghdad and commanded that any attractive women who suited their fancy be required to service them. With Saddam's regime a thing of the past, the pent-up demand for porn is booming and is becoming one of Iraq's few successful growth industries. The downside is that even children are peddling the blue movies and many of the titles glorify violence against women. For more click here

Angelina Jolie as Marilyn in Life Or Something Like It

Click here for a slide show of the most famous (and infamous) Marilyn Monroe impersonators. Warning: the photos include a sobering shot of then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Village Voice gossip columnist Michael Musto in drag!

Among Disneyana collectors, The Haunted Mansion holds a special place. Walt's classic theme park attraction has a fanatical base of enthusiasts. However, when Disney first attempted to translate the ride into a major film in 2003, those fans were turned off. The film was played strictly for laughs and starred Eddie Murphy slumming his way toward an easy pay check. Now acclaimed producer and director Guillermo Del Toro says he is involved in bringing The Haunted Mansion back to the big screen, saying “Dark imagery is an integral part of the Walt Disney legacy. After all, Disney himself was the father of some really chilling moments and characters - think Chernabog from Fantasia or Maleficent as the dragon or the Evil Queen in Snow White. I couldn't be more excited to be a part of my own adaptation of the original theme park attraction Walt envisioned and that remains, for me, the most desirable piece of real estate in the whole world!" It remains unclear whether Del Toro will actually direct the film, but does promise this time around, it will be scary. For more click here

Click here to access a very clever spoof utilizing the character of Lando Carlissian (Billy Dee Williams) in a Blaxploitation version of Star Wars!

A recent poll finds that "Make my day", the line uttered by Clint Eastwood in the 1983 Dirty Harry movie Sudden Impact, ranks as the favorite movie saying of all time. Coming in at #2 is Arnold Schwarzenegger's famous "I'll be back" from The Terminator. For more click here

Your local Blockbuster store may be Gone With the Wind.

By Lee Pfeiffer

There was a time when Blockbuster seemed to be King of the World in terms of dominating the home video rental market. The company became a dominant force back in the 1980s after mom and pop businesses developed and refined the concept of renting videos to consumers. (Remember when you had to pay an annual fee to the local video store in order to rent your favorite movies?) Blockbuster waited in the wings for small businessmen to iron out the kinks in the business, then swooped into neighborhoods and shut out the little guys. For years, consumers decided to "Make it a Blockbuster night", as the company's effective ad campaign promoted. However, in recent years, consumer habits have changed. It's often almost as cheap to buy a DVD as to rent it. Movie fanatics have libraries that are bursting through their walls and many can't even get to watching the ones they already own, let alone renting other movies. Most tragically for Blockbuster, the soaring popularity of downloading films has made it difficult for the company to maintain their "brick-and-mortar" neighborhood stores. Add to this toxic soup, the worst recession in memory - a time when additional funds are scraped together to pay for rent, mortgages and health care, not to rent the latest Adam Sandler comedy.  Consequently, the company, which closed over 300 stores in America last year, plans to close an additional 500+ this year. They are not alone. Click here to read how the sinking economy is impacting other major chains