Hollywood

This Is Spinal Tap is now such a deserved comedy behemoth that it’s easy to forget how gradual its ascent to generally agreed greatness was. Only over the years did so many lines and scenes from a low-key 1984 mockumentary about a heavy-rock band (amps that ‘go to 11’, a tiny Stonehenge, a classically inspired piece called ‘Lick My Love Pump’) become part of our lives.

Spinal Tap II: The End Continues, by contrast, comes amid a loud fanfare – which may be part of the problem, because the result certainly doesn’t live up to expectations that are inevitably sky-high. Then again, the sad truth is that it mightn’t have lived up to lower ones either.

I honestly can’t remember if Kathy introduced me to Spinal Tap or not.

No matter we both loved the original and a quote or two became standard responses within our world’s language.

“I’m very, very nervous for the future,” one top studio executive told the far-left Hollywood Reporter.

Okay, then, maybe make better movies, replied America.

Executives at Walt Disney Studios are reportedly pressing Hollywood creatives for movie ideas that will bring young men back to the theaters. According to Variety, Disney is hoping to get Gen Z men, which it defines as ages 13 to 28, interested in original films.

“The sources say Disney has been seeking new IP and pitches such as splashy global adventures and treasure hunts, as well as seasonal fare like films for the Halloween corridor,” Variety reports. “The calls come as the Star Wars machine struggles to produce any film project and the superhero genre sheds audiences by the minute.”

The Disney Grooming Syndicate’s open and seething hostility towards men and boys reaches back more than a decade. Franchise after franchise has been retooled, deconstructed, and woke-raped to tell young men they are a disease and to deliver sweet feelzzz to women and the LGBTQ crowd. And as we have seen at the box office, that approach has blown up in the groomer’s bigoted, smug, self-satisfied fat face.

The magazine’s editor hasn’t caught on that America is done with Hollywoke.

One of the recurring features of the Mike Holman novels I’ve been writing over the past couple of years is the regularity of their content coming to pass in real life, and the latest, Blockbusters, which is available here at The American Spectator in serialized form, is no different.

Blockbusters essentially games out a scenario in which a large amount of capital is applied toward the idea that control of entertainment media transforms the film and TV industry into something very different and far more successful. It’s sort of a Get Shorty-meets-Wall Street-meets-Secret Of My Success.

It’s a lot of fun.

The film industry has already pretty much abandoned Hollywood, devastating thousands of jobs, but now it is abandoning Georgia and other southern states, where it went after dumping LaLaLand. And it’s all about the Benjamins.

Former late-night TV host Conan O’Brien is saying that his former genre is dead, but he is also sure that canceled CBS host Stephen Colbert is “too essential to go away” permanently.

You mean non-stop woke whining and insulting half of America every night wasn’t a rating success?

As subscription costs rise and choice diminishes on legal sites, film and TV fans are turning to VPNs and illicit streamers, with Sweden – home of both Spotify and The Pirate Bay – leading the way

With a trip to Florence booked, all I want is to rewatch Medici. The 2016 historical drama series tells of the rise of the powerful Florentine banking dynasty, and with it, the story of the Renaissance. Until recently, I could simply have gone to Netflix and found it there, alongside a wide array of award-winning and obscure titles. But when I Google the show in 2025, the Netflix link only takes me to a blank page. I don’t see it on HBO Max, Disney+, Apple TV+, or any of the smaller streaming platforms. On Amazon Prime I am required to buy each of the three seasons or 24 episodes separately, whereupon they would be stored in a library subject to overnight deletion. Raised in the land of The Pirate Bay, the Swedish torrent index, I feel, for the first time in a decade, a nostalgia for the high seas of digital piracy. And I am not alone.

Lucasfilm and the Walt Disney Company have reached a mutual agreement in their legal dispute with Gina Carano following her firing from “The Mandalorian.”

A Lucasfilm spokesperson said in a statement provided to Variety, “The Walt Disney Company and Lucasfilm are pleased to announce that we have reached an agreement with Gina Carano to resolve the issues in her pending lawsuit against the companies. Ms. Carano was always well respected by her directors, co-stars and staff, and she worked hard to perfect her craft while treating her colleagues with kindness and respect. With this lawsuit concluded, we look forward to identifying opportunities to work together with Ms. Carano in the near future.”