http://www.hitsville.org Sun, 11 May 2008 21:49:36 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Terrence Rafferty in the NYT notes the fiftieth anniversary of Vertigo, depending on where you sit a bottomless masterpiece or one of Hitchcock's most arbitrary concoctions. Rafferty is in the first category and makes a case for its difficulties: This movie isn’t constructed, as most thrillers are, to get us from ... http://www.hitsville.org/2008/05/11/kim-novak-to-the-dark-tower-came-vertigo-fifty-years-later/ Speed Racer flops on its opening weekend, ekeing out barely $20 million on more than 3500 screens. Nikki Finke gleefully jumps on the corpse here. A more sober AP story is here; Box Office Mojo's weekend list is here. The world Finke lives in can be slightly unhinged; but it ... http://www.hitsville.org/2008/05/11/the-wachowskis-flame-out/ Variety liked "Speed Racer." Hitsville liked "Speed Racer." Nobody else did. Joe Morgenstern in the WSJ: This toxic admixture of computer-generated frenzy and live-action torpor succeeds in being, almost simultaneously, genuinely painful -- the esthetic equivalent of needles in eyeballs -- and weirdly benumbing, like eye candy laced with lidocaine. "The Matrix" gave ... http://www.hitsville.org/2008/05/10/speed-racer-gets-pounded/ When Hitsville began compiling his celebrated "R. Kelly SexFacts™," it was a work, not of star-besmirching, but press criticism. It seemed a little odd that, in an age where child predators, to hear a lot of the media tell the story, lurk behind every corner, skulk near every school yard, and ... http://www.hitsville.org/2008/05/09/r-kelly-and-the-nyt-the-freaky-defense/ The latest news from the NBC-Zune-Microsoft front is fascinating. The story thus far is that NBC, which had a very popular slate of shows available at the iTunes Store, wanted to raise prices. Apple said no. NBC, a media conglomerate that kicks it old style when it comes to feeling like it ... http://www.hitsville.org/2008/05/08/the-zune-heightening-nbcs-contradictions-since-2008/ That's what a judge in Los Angeles has ruled, according to Cnet. The company is Torrent Spy. The story said the company earned the judge's enmity by allegedly destroying evidence: According to the court, TorrentSpy operators had intentionally modified or deleted directory headings naming copyrighted titles and forum posts that explained ... http://www.hitsville.org/2008/05/07/a-111-million-fine-for-torrenting/ ... or his lawyer? From yesterday's AP precede story on R. Kelly's child-porn trial, set to begin Friday: The 41-year-old Kelly, whose first name is Robert, faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted. But Kelly — one of urban music's biggest stars, and a consistent hitmaker despite his legal woes ... http://www.hitsville.org/2008/05/07/who-ya-gonna-believe-r-kellys-publicist/ Variety likes it: True to its origins as a ‘60s Japanese animated kiddie favorite, “Speed Racer” blasts into cultural prominence four decades later as an ultra-cartoony actioner defined by its Day-Glo colors, resistance to any laws of physics, and notions of good and evil that go no further than having the ... http://www.hitsville.org/2008/05/07/speed-racer%e2%80%94first-review/ BUILT TO SPILL "You Were Right" from Keep It Like a Secret "You Were Right" is one of those songs: half jokey, half-not-jokey; absurdist, serious; nonsensical, profound; about nothing ... about everything. It could only have come out of the 1990s. If you haven’t heard it, it begins with a crashing, soaring, repeated chorus: ... http://www.hitsville.org/2008/05/06/songs-about-rock-vii-you-were-right/ Up until recently, Microsoft's Zune was reduced to promoting a Joy Division-themed music player, wrong on so many levels. Now here's an AP story saying that NBC is going into business with Microsoft, and will allow its shows to be sold for use on the player. This is part of ... http://www.hitsville.org/2008/05/06/nbc-goes-to-zune/