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LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- Torture, it seems, doesn't pay at movie theater box offices like it used to. "Captivity," with Elisha Cuthbert, opened at No. 12 at the box office. In recent years, films dubbed "torture porn" have been the darlings of many a Hollywood producer looking to make a quick buck. The latest such release, "Captivity," opened in theaters Friday. But the popularity of blood-and-guts thrillers appears to have waned, prompting some to wonder if the trend is on its way out. "Hostel: Part II" opened last month with less than half the first weekend of the original and quickly faded, and "Captivity" lived down to the recent trend, opening at No. 12 on the weekend box office chart with $1.55 million. "The horror genre has had more ups and downs over the years -- maybe only musicals have more," said Paul Dergarabedian of box office tracker Media by Numbers. "I think what happens is subgenres like (torture) become popular, then play out." Dergarabedian noted that the old Universal Pictures monster movies such as "Frankenstein" were hugely popular in the 1930s, but eventually died off. In the 1950s, horror was represented by alien invasion flicks such as "The Thing from Another World," but these went the way of the graveyard, too. This current wave of horror films seems to have begun in 2004, when Dergarabedian tracked 19 of the movies that raked in more than $1 billion at U.S. and Canadian box offices. The figure was roughly double the $525 million from 13 movies in 2003. Hits in 2004 included "Freddy vs. Jason," at $82 million, and "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," at $80 million, both from New Line Cinema. In 2005, Lionsgate Entertainment's "Saw" hauled in $55 million and spawned two sequels. In 2005 and 2006, Media by Numbers tracked 26 horror movies each year with gross box office receipts of $841 million and $811 million, respectively. Midway through 2007, some 20 scary flicks have reached silver screens and more than 20 others are expected in coming months. Youth-oriented, supernatural thrillers and fright flicks like "1408" ($56 million) and "Disturbia" ($79 million) are working. But adult-themed torture fantasies have mostly failed. "Hostel: Part II" was expected to at least match the $47 million of 2006's "Hostel," but has generated only $17 million in the United States and Canada. "28 Weeks Later" hoped to reach the $45 million of 2005's "28 Days Later" but made only $28 million. Those numbers do not bode well for "Captivity" and upcoming flicks such as "All the Boys Love Mandy Lane" and "Saw IV." Hollywood producers know it and blame the downturn on a glut of horror in theaters. "It's overkill," said Courtney Solomon, president of After Dark Films, which is behind "Captivity," the story of a man and woman trapped and tormented in a basement. "I think audiences have said, 'I've had enough.' It's as simple as that." Anticipating the end of the torture flick trend, After Dark has adjusted its development plans to steer away from a large number of torture movies, Solomon said. Source: http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/Movies/07/...reut/index.html

One wonders if maybe she heard it a long time ago in the background somewhere and the riff was stuck somewhere in the back of her brain...

No Gore can run as many times as he wants. People are practically begging him to run, but he has consistently said he will not run again. The election in 2000 is widely known to have exhausted and disheartened him. Think about it. He had a more successful campaign, got more votes, watched a degenerate who couldn't form a complete sentence win through voting fraud and a suspect Supreme Court vote, and then watched the horror unfold under the Bush regime. That must be really damaging to someone. I'm not a huge Hillary fan. She voted for the Iraq war in every bill until a spending bill about 2 months ago. Barack Obama has the advantage of having a spotless anti-war record since before the Iraq debacle began. He will win the democratic nomination.

Bush has the dubious honor of the most unpopular president in the history of the US. His approval rating now regularly dips below that of Nixon during his impeachment! His policies, domestic and international, have ALL FAILED. I can't think of a single success, even domestically, not one. He's not even a real conservative! He's spent hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars - he's not thrifty when it comes to tax dollars. His policies are policies of corruption. Never in the US has an administration been so deep in corruption - nearly every Bushie up there has been indicted and Karl Rove and Dick Cheney are next in line. Even conservatives in this country are ashamed.

Voting fraud in the final deciding state, Ohio, was rampant. Also Bush and his cronies spent the first 4 years of their administration gerrymandering, meaning they re-disctricted areas to better the chances of republicans. In Texas that piece of $h!t Tom Delay (who was later indicted on fraud charges and shamed like EVERY OTHER BUSHIE) redistrcited urban and subruban regions, splitting heavily democratic areas so that it became nearly impossible to get a democrat elected even in heavily democratic areas. Bush was re-elected because, well because it was simply impossible for him to lose. His campaign was scare-mongering on the most despicable level. Do you know he had video footage of the flaming World Trade Center on his RELECTION COMMERCIALS?! utter filth, the most disgusting man imaginable. He and his cronies also engaged in a massive and slanderous campaign to disgrace Kerry. They spent tens of millions on commercials and press releases lying about Kerry's war record and suggesting his numerous medals and awards of merit and honor were all fake. Democrats always get laborers and unions, democrats always get women, democracts always get youths, Blacks, hispanics and Catholics. But Bush changed this in 2004 because instead of a campaign based on traditional republican stances (small government, low taxes, family values, etc.) he said "Vote for me or 9/11 will happen again" People do stupid things when they are scared...

The 2002 terrorist attacks in Bali involved a car bomb exploding at night in an leisure/nightlife district. Granted the driver didn't run away but still. This isn't entirely unprecedented. Certainly does look like the work of amateurs, though. I'm afraid that's the point at which foreign policy has officially failed. Terrorist attacks are no longer exclusive to sophisticated, highly-trained and likely brainwashed al-Qaida operatives...

I agree. And computer generated images don't also have to necessarily be 3D. Beauty and the Beast was widely publicized as the first film to use the assistance of computer animation in the background of several scenes, most notably the whirling background of the interior of the castle as they danced. The result was dramatic and successful.

To anyone with any sentiment or even an ounce of appreciation for the revolutionary and beautiful films Disney's "full length animated films" once were, these sequels were at best complete c**p, at worst utterly offensive. I can't decide what better exemplifies the demise of the Walt Disney Company -- these trite, biannual computer animated ("Cars"?! What?!) films or "The Lion King 1 and 1/2". -_- I remember when Disney only released a feature animated film every few years, when those films were breathtaking and timeless. Sorry if this sounds overly sentimental but having grown up marveling at the likes of The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King, I feel bad for the kids today whose perception of animated films is limited to computer animated, loud-mouth slapstick c**p.

I actually can't STAND Barenaked Ladies although I can appreciate why people worship them. Canada really does have a remarkable pool of musical talent, especially for female vocalists. All recognizable by first name. Avril, Shania, Celine, Alanis, Nelly... My favorite may not be well known in the UK but a cover of hers has no doubt delighted Westlife fans since 2003. 7CbAjj80NIM PS: Is there ANYTHING those douchebags haven't covered?!

Don't know much about this specifically but the greater point leaves me conflicted: Should the government be able to overtax things such as cigarettes in an effort to force a broad social change? While I am usually a nazi for civil liberties... let's be honest, getting people off cigarettes would save BILLIONS in public health costs and save tens of thousands of lives each year. This is undemocratic of me, but maybe people are too stupid to know what's good for them. Only an individual on the fringest of fringes would dismiss seat belt-enforcement laws. Are they really all that different?

PS: Not to bring up another film (wrong forum!) but this is also why I so hated (and people on this board know it :D) "Crash." People generally don't go around saying "N*****!" to each other. To present racism this way is deeply incorrect. Racism is so deep, so complicated. Some people say thinks that aren't racist but appear to be to some, or think they aren't racist but are. If the problem were people running around calling each other slurs, if everyone who used the N word was 100% racist, then it would be easy to eradicate and to punish. But that's simply not true.

Right, I can't comment on the N word but I can sort of speak from personal experience with "f*****." I admit, it has become almost an affectionate word among many gay communities. It's as though the word is used so offensively for so long against us that we defiantly take it back as our own. Now there are many gays and lesbians who find this reprehensible and think the word is awful no matter who says it. Think of, say, the film Bring it On. A straight female character asks a gay male character "Do you speak fag?" and he responds enthusiastically "fluently!" Yet she says it with affection. If she'd said "Are you a fag?" it would have changed the situation entirely. Almost as though the word is acceptable idiomatically and if said by someone tolerant, but used in other ways it isn't. Anyway all this goes to prove that these words really aren't black/white. Maybe they should be but intolerance and racism and homophobia are all very complicated and involve a lot of subtleties. Perhaps this is why.

You're right but think of it in the broader time period. Those words were ok and probably unoffensive in the 1960's but the civil rights movement was still in the beginning stages and racism was far more prevalent. The racial equality movement is much further along today and one of the reasons is that people have come to terms with the history of the N word and society thus no longer deems it acceptable because of that.

With the help of the wonderful YouTube, post your fav scene from a film. I'll start with a scary scene from one of the best horror films of all time: aG5X8xvL2_k

There have been a ton of legal issues surrounding them. I guess there's only been one arrest during a protest because one of the kids was tearing up an American flag which is a misdomeaner crime in Nebraska. However because of them, many states have passed laws to keep protests more than a certain distance from funerals. They are protected by law to say anything they want but the courts would love to nail them. One time they were picketing on a street and some woman drove over the curb and ran over one of them! She was found not guilty due to "temporary insanity" which is sort of a ridiculous case. But you can see that the courts are going to be biased against these psychos.

Meh... I was upset back a couple years ago when I thought the Westboro Baptist Church was an actual church. In reality, it’s just a large family holed up in literally a compound in Kansas. By the way, every Baptist denomination in America has denied any legitimacy to calling themselves a “Baptist” church and legal action is being threatened. They weren’t well known except for their web site and occasional pickets on a street in Topeka Kansas. That is, until they started picketing the funerals of Iraq soldiers. Since then they’ve stepped it up to picketing about every major event or funeral. Thought Jerry Falwell was about the most deranged, right-wing evangelical? The Phelps even picketed his funeral. Frankly it’s just a bunch of crazed maniacs and they don’t deserve the attention they get.

Great for Amy Winehouse - Rehab is now in the iTunes top 10 so it should rise further next week! :dance: So is Umbrella officially the biggest single of 2007 worldwide?

I've loved her voice since Enigma's "Gravity of Love," but I'm underwhelmed by this album. All of the songs are mediocre and sound dated, like Enigma/Olive rejects from the mid 90's without the great production. And the cover of "Drive" is unnecessary and uninspiring. Still, thanks for the recommendation. I don't imagine many people remember or recognize this vocal talent.

Kidney Transplant TV Show Is a Hoax By TOBY STERLING Associated Press Writer Published June 1, 2007, 6:44 PM CDT AMSTERDAM, Netherlands -- A television show in which a woman would donate a kidney to a contestants was revealed as a hoax Friday, with presenters saying they were trying to pressure the government into reforming organ donation laws. Shortly before the controversial program was to air, Patrick Lodiers of the "Big Donor Show" said the woman was not actually dying of a brain tumor and the entire exercise was intended to put pressure on the government and raise awareness of the need for organs. The three prospective recipients were real patients in need of transplants and had been in on the hoax, the show said. The program concept had received widespread criticism for being tasteless and unethical. But Lodiers said that it was "reality that was shocking" because around 200 people die annually in the Netherlands while waiting for a kidney, and the average waiting time is more than four years. Under Dutch rules, donors must be friends, or preferably, family of the recipient. Meeting on a TV show wouldn't qualify. "I thought it was brilliant, really," said Caroline Klingers, a kidney patient who was watching the show at a kidney treatment center in Bussum, Netherlands. "I know these transplant doctors, and I thought they'll never go and actually do it. But it's good for the publicity and there are no losers." During the show, 25 kidney patients were vetted by "Lisa," and most were quickly dismissed for being too old, too young, smokers, ex-smokers or unemployed. Contestants gave moving pleas for why they should receive the organ. "It really hurt watching that," said Tim Duyst, whose wife is awaiting a transplant and cannot work. "You're dismissed in a wave of the hand." Viewers were called on to express an opinion or vote for their favorite candidate by SMS text message for 47 cents. The show was produced by Endemol, which created "Big Brother" in 1999. The Royal Netherlands Medical Association, known by its Dutch acronym KNM, had urged its members not to participate and questioned whether the program might just be a publicity stunt. "Given the large medical, psychological, and legal uncertainties around this case, the KNMG considers the chance extremely small that it will ever come to an organ transplant," it said. All seven of the country's transplant centers had said they not cooperating with the program, KNMG spokeswoman Saskia van der Ree. Earlier in the week, the Cabinet declined suggestions from lawmakers to ban the program, saying that would amount to censorship. Copyright © 2007, The Associated Press

CULTURE BOX FILM + MUSIC SPOTLIGHT I'm not sure if there is any interest here or if this is in the right forum BUT, I want to highlight some of my favorite film scores. Typically these can be arranged by composer, since there are so many fabulous composers...John Williams, Danny Elfman, Randy Newman, James Horner.. however I will begin with my personal favorite. Hans Zimmer is an Academy award winning composer. Some of his best film scores are below. All are Youtube files but you don't necessarily have to watch them. JUST LISTEN! From Backdraft jKVkoc8PFD4 From Gladiator (with the amazing Lisa Gerrard) 0Wu5mh8KGPY and perhaps his most famous (for which he won an Oscar), the Lion King xTKUBF-JIYc

The problem with comparing Jordin and Blake to previous Idol winners is their #1 debuts weren't really... genuine. CD single sales are practically nonexistent in the US and so an Idol winner would sell a few thousand and skyrocket to #1 simply because he/she was the only CD single anyone was buying. Now that downloads are figured in the chart, these debuts are more accurate. Frankly, Rihanna and that Party Like a Rock Star are outselling the Idol darlings pretty heavily in downloads. I think a lot of people want to wait for their real albums.

Ideally this is definitely the best option, but I just can't seem to work up enough faith in the UN to believe it will happen. When things get ugly, the UN bolts. I mean, I can't necessarily blame them. You say pan-Arab but would you, as an Egyptian, really agree to travel to a deadly war zone and risk your life for a bunch of Iraqis?

It's a really, really difficult question and I imagine the lack of responses so far reflects this. I am for immediate pullout, not because I feel Iraq's government is ready and not because I feel the UN will step in to take the "peace-keeper" role. But I believe the damage has been done, the moral and ethical blame for this catastrophe already lies with the US/UK. The strategy simply isn't working. We haven't stabilized a thing - even the Green Zone is no longer safe. You can fight small militias which is what we're doing, but you can't prevent suicide bombs and roadside bombs. Again, I'm not saying pullout won't lead to civil war and chaos. It likely will and all the blame lies squarely with Bush/Blair. But frankly, what we're doing right now isn't working and any radical change will require hundreds of thousands of more troops. That's not only technically impossible, it's politically impossible.

For some reason most former Soviet states are REALLY behind on this. There is violence every single year at this time in Moscow. The mayors of Moscow and Warsaw are disgustingly and unapologetically homophobic. It should be surprising especially to this community (Buzzjack) because of all the flamboyant popstars that have come out of this region of the world. I deal with a lot of young Russians and Ukrainians in my job and they are usually tolerant but the neo-Nazi groups are out of control and apparently the politicians are nearly as bad.

This is her THIRD CAR ACCIDENT in the last year and a half. Who the hell keeps insuring her $180,000 Mercedes' anymore?! And how many times has George Michael been found drugged up and slouched over his steering wheel in the middle of a London intersection. Like 8 times now?! As Scott said, it's UNREAL that this keeps happening because these people can afford a driver!