September 1, 2015

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Today in Movie Culture: Meryl Streep's Lifetime Channel Biopic, Disney's 'X-Men' and More

Here are a bunch of little bites to satisfy your hunger for movie culture:

Wes Craven Tribute of the Day:

More videos in memory of Wes Craven are coming in, like this supercut of screams from the horror-meister’s movies from Screen Crush:

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Actress Parody of the Day:

Watch Christina Applegate portray Meryl Streep for a fake Lifetime Channel biopic from Funny or Die:

Fan Art of the Day:

Maybe one day if Disney and Marvel Studios ever get the rights to X-Men movies, they can do an animated feature and it will look like these Disney-inspired drawings by Randy Bishop (via Geek Tyrant):

Movie Takedown of the Day:

Speaking of Disney Animation, Honest Trailers roasts the short film Frozen Fever and boy does it burn:

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Video Essay of the Day:

The latest episode of Frame by Frame looks at two set pieces to show how the first two Terminator installments define action movies:

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Anniversary Movie Poster of the Day:

You can almost hear the painful screeching of nails on the chalkboard when you look at Scott Woolston’s new Jaws poster, which celebrates the film’s 40th anniversary (via Bloody Disgusting).

Vintage Film of the Day:

Edwin S. Porter parodied his own famous silent film, The Great Train Robbery, with The Little Train Robbery, which debuted 110 years ago today. Watch it in full below.

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Alternative Poster Art of the Day:

Big Eye Agency has created minimalist-design character posters for The Breakfast Club, including the one for Claire “The Princess” (Molly Ringwald) below. See the others at the Big Eye website (via Paste).

Star Wars of the Day:

Here’s a parody of the Batman: Arkham Origins commercial (see it here) with Darth Vader instead of the Dark Knight (via Cinematic Montage Creators):

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Classic Trailer of the Day:

Today is the 10th anniversary of the Venice Film Festival premiere of George Clooney‘s Best Picture-nominated Good Night, and Good Luck. Watch the original trailer for the film below.

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U.S. Stock Markets Tumble By Nearly 3 Percent As China Worries Renew

Both the Nasdaq and the Dow Jones index were hit by losses Tuesday, as concerns again rose about China’s economy. The Dow is now down nearly 10 percent in 2015, after falling 469 points Tuesday to close at 16,058.

Markets in Europe and Asia also suffered, after renewed worries about a slowdown in China, the world’s second-largest economy.

“The latest evidence is China’s purchasing manager’s index,” NPR’s John Ydstie reports, “which shows the country’s manufacturing sector contracting.”

John says, “Another jolt for the market was a comment from the head of the IMF that growth in Asia could slow even more. The irony is that while U.S. stocks are tanking, estimates of U.S. growth have been upgraded, U.S. auto sales are strong and consumer spending is rising.”

For U.S. stocks, today’s losses were spread around many sectors. Bloomberg News reports:

“Energy shares fell for the first time in five sessions as oil retreated after the commodity’s strongest three-day rally since 1990. Exxon Mobil Corp. and ConocoPhillips slumped more than 2.8 percent. Banks were among the hardest hit, with Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. losing at least 4.1 percent. Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp. sank more than 3.9 percent to drag down technology shares. Copper producer Freeport-McMoRan Inc. dropped 8.2 percent.”

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Mob Museum Unveils FIFA Corruption Exhibit

The Mob Museum’s new exhibit highlights the “rampant corruption that plagues” the world soccer governing body, FIFA. It opened Tuesday. The Mob Museum hide caption

itoggle caption The Mob Museum

Take a trip to The Mob Museum in Las Vegas and you’ll find exhibits on gangsters, corruption, killers, crime bosses, drug traffickers — and, now, the international governing body of soccer.

Tuesday, the much maligned FIFA Congress finds itself alongside the likes of the Mafia and drug cartels, thanks to the opening of a new, temporary exhibit called “The ‘Beautiful Game’ Turns Ugly.”

“This is good, old-fashioned corruption,” the museum’s director of content, Geoff Schumacher, said of FIFA’s operations that resulted in the May indictment of 14 officials. “Organized crime has always thrived on corruption: bribes, kickbacks and influence that get you what you want.”

According to a press release about the exhibit, the aim is to provide “a breakdown of the kickbacks, secrecy and match-fixing” that led to the charges against the FIFA officials.

“While allegations of corruption have been made about FIFA for more than a decade, its activities were finally confirmed by U.S. FIFA representative Chuck Blazer in 2013. Blazer admitted to taking bribes to ensure South Africa would host the 2010 World Cup and agreed to wear a wire to record FIFA conversations. As a result of his cooperation, a May 2015 indictment by new U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch charged 14 top-ranking soccer officials and sports marketing executives with taking more than $150 million in bribes and kickbacks over 25 years.”

Schumacher told NPR that the museum, also called the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, began planning the exhibit following the May 27 announcement of the indictments.

“There was such big media coverage,” says Schumacher. “But it was also very quick to tie the FIFA scandal into organized crime, and we recognized that immediately as an opportunity for us.” Schumacher says the museum also considered the exhibit’s appeal for international visitors. “Soccer is growing as a sport in the United States but it is the thing in the rest of the world, so this FIFA scandal is always front page news.”

The exhibit, which comprises photographs, media clippings and cover stories, is the first in what the museum envisions as a series on contemporary organized crime.

“One of the things we are interested in doing is using it as an educational tool to talk about what organized crime looks like today versus 30, 50, 100 years ago,” Schumacher said. “It is a history museum. But in the old days when people wore fedoras and carried tommy guns, that’s not how it looks today.”

So what’s next in the series?

“We think the next exhibit will be on the El Chapo prison escape in Mexico,” Schumacher said.

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Pope Francis Announces Window To Forgive Women Who Had Abortions

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Pope Francis is giving all priests a window of discretion to forgive women who have had abortions. The window is during the upcoming holy year, which will begin in December.

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