Hootie and the Blowfish have released “Hold On,” the uplifting first single from the band’s upcoming album Imperfect Circle. The Darius Rucker-led group wrapped up its headlining Group Therapy Tour last month with a pair of hometown shows in Columbia, South Carolina.
“Only heartache on the 6 o’clock news, they oughta call it the 6 o’clock blues,” sings Rucker in the first verse of the new song, driven by a funky, staccato guitar riff. “Hold On” was co-written by Chris Stapleton and Jim Beavers and is the only...
“Only heartache on the 6 o’clock news, they oughta call it the 6 o’clock blues,” sings Rucker in the first verse of the new song, driven by a funky, staccato guitar riff. “Hold On” was co-written by Chris Stapleton and Jim Beavers and is the only...
- 10/18/2019
- by Jon Freeman
- Rollingstone.com
The 25-year-old singer saw off competition from artists including Chris Tomlin, TobyMac, Jason Crabb and Natalie Grant to scoop the accolade. Francesca Battistelli also took home Best Female Vocalist and Pop-Contemporary Recorded Song for Beautiful, Beautiful.
Francesca Battistelli was bowled over by her prizes, insisting, "I'm on cloud nine right now. I'm standing here... speechless. This is totally humbling."
Chris August was another big winner - he was crowned New Artist Of The Year and Best Male Vocalist and earned another award for pop-contemporary album, while Jason Crabb and the group Point of Grace also picked up three Doves each.
Gospel legend Sandi Patty was honoured for her lifetime achievements, with singers including Francesca Battistelli, Grant, Audrey Assad and Kerri Robert all taking the stage to cover her hits.
The ceremony, which is due to air in the U.S. on Easter Sunday (24Apr11), was held in Atlanta, Georgia -...
Francesca Battistelli was bowled over by her prizes, insisting, "I'm on cloud nine right now. I'm standing here... speechless. This is totally humbling."
Chris August was another big winner - he was crowned New Artist Of The Year and Best Male Vocalist and earned another award for pop-contemporary album, while Jason Crabb and the group Point of Grace also picked up three Doves each.
Gospel legend Sandi Patty was honoured for her lifetime achievements, with singers including Francesca Battistelli, Grant, Audrey Assad and Kerri Robert all taking the stage to cover her hits.
The ceremony, which is due to air in the U.S. on Easter Sunday (24Apr11), was held in Atlanta, Georgia -...
- 4/21/2011
- by AceShowbiz.com
- Aceshowbiz
Jessica Simpson had Eric Johnson's help last night as they weaved their way out to their car following dinner at La's Red O restaurant, where her ex-husband, Nick Lachey, was coincidentally eating dinner with his girlfriend and frequent shower buddy, Vanessa Minnillo. The two couples apparently dined next to each other for hours, but Nick and Vanessa were the first to leave. Eric and Jess are back on the West Coast after a stint in NYC so she could record her upcoming holiday special for PBS. Their Big Apple stay came after a trip farther away visiting with troops stationed in the Arabian Sea. All of Jess's hard work and jet-setting have impressed another of her father Joe's artists, Chris August, who recently gushed about getting to know the singer. He said, "She is obviously incredibly beautiful, but I think what people definitely don't realize is just how down to earth she is.
- 10/22/2010
- by Allie Merriam
- Popsugar.com
Chicago – Does anyone else remember when crappy straight-to-dvd sequels were pretty much reserved for horror movies and kid’s flicks? Sure, we expected a new “Leprechaun” or “Air Bud” movie every now and then, but the action market has really gotten into this game recently and produced their share of junk. Take for example the awful “Smokin’ Aces 2,” a shoot-em-up that makes Joe Carnahan’s original look like a genre classic by comparison.
“Smokin’ Aces” Blu-Ray Rating: 3.5/5.0
To be fair, the original “Smokin’ Aces,” also recently released on Blu-ray to coincide with the ignominious debut of its quasi-sequel, Is a genre classic to a lot of young fans who turned it into a massive hit on the home market. Action films always do well on DVD and “Smokin’ Aces” is an unapolegetic bullet opera with a ridiculously talented cast.
Watching “Smokin’ Aces” again in glorious HD (Universal’s 1080p transfers...
“Smokin’ Aces” Blu-Ray Rating: 3.5/5.0
To be fair, the original “Smokin’ Aces,” also recently released on Blu-ray to coincide with the ignominious debut of its quasi-sequel, Is a genre classic to a lot of young fans who turned it into a massive hit on the home market. Action films always do well on DVD and “Smokin’ Aces” is an unapolegetic bullet opera with a ridiculously talented cast.
Watching “Smokin’ Aces” again in glorious HD (Universal’s 1080p transfers...
- 1/28/2010
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Courtesy of Universal Studios Home Entertainment.
Universal gives up the goods on the Smokin' Aces sequel. This is a direct to DVD flick, but should be entertaining as the first installment. It's all about over-the-top action-sequences and cool deaths anyways. Here's what one gets from the DVD release:
Smokin’ Aces 2: Assassins’ Ball, the all-new movie about the adrenaline-pumping world of blood, bullets and badasses, is blasting its way onto Blu-ray™ Hi-Def, DVD and digital download January 19, 2010. Also available On Demand. Executive produced by Joe Carnahan (Narc), the writer-director behind the shockingly edgy hit Smokin’ Aces, and directed by P.J. Pesce (Lost Boys: The Tribe), Smokin’ Aces 2: Assassins’ Ball features a sexy cast, whip-smart script and hyper-kinetic visuals. And, with the return of infamous assassins Lazlo Soot and the Tremor Brothers from the original theatrical film, audiences will experience a furious frenzy of explosive action that will keep them...
Universal gives up the goods on the Smokin' Aces sequel. This is a direct to DVD flick, but should be entertaining as the first installment. It's all about over-the-top action-sequences and cool deaths anyways. Here's what one gets from the DVD release:
Smokin’ Aces 2: Assassins’ Ball, the all-new movie about the adrenaline-pumping world of blood, bullets and badasses, is blasting its way onto Blu-ray™ Hi-Def, DVD and digital download January 19, 2010. Also available On Demand. Executive produced by Joe Carnahan (Narc), the writer-director behind the shockingly edgy hit Smokin’ Aces, and directed by P.J. Pesce (Lost Boys: The Tribe), Smokin’ Aces 2: Assassins’ Ball features a sexy cast, whip-smart script and hyper-kinetic visuals. And, with the return of infamous assassins Lazlo Soot and the Tremor Brothers from the original theatrical film, audiences will experience a furious frenzy of explosive action that will keep them...
- 1/4/2010
- Tampa Film Examiner
Toronto International Film Festival
TORONTO -- Battle in Seattle is a dramatic freeze-frame of five days in 1999 when tens of thousands of activists took to the streets of Seattle and virtually shut down a meeting of the World Trade Organization in protest of globalization and environmental damage by multinational conglomerates and powerful governments. The film is something of a rarity for an American political film. While it makes no bones about where its sympathies lie, these fictional stories show a genuine fascination with the role politics plays on both sides of such confrontations and how things can spin out of control with no single person to blame.
Naturally, the film was made by a foreigner, Irish actor Stuart Townsend, who makes a remarkably confident writing and directorial debut. Political movies are always iffy at the boxoffice, but the time may be ripe this film: Mainstream concern over these issues today has caught up with the 1999 protest. And the weave of multiple storylines with an ensemble cast, not unlike Bobby or Crash, gives the film an immediacy that could attract concerned adult audiences.
Indeed the Hollywood shorthand for Battle in Seattle could be Bobby meets Medium Cool. Townsend and his team smoothly integrate archival news footage into stories of protestors, police, government officials, innocent bystanders and news people who experience five rough days in the final moments of the millennium.
First the activists come into focus. An amusing and prophetic opening sequence introduces one leader, Jay (Martin Henderson), as he rescues attractive tough girl Lou (Michelle Rodriguez), as the two dangle perilously from a crane to hang an anti-WTO sign. Soon everyone will be performing a high-wire act.
Jay and his good friend Django (Andre Benjamin, aka Andre 3000 from Outkast) have spent months preparing for this conference to insure the protest is peaceful and successful in shutting down the conference.
Mayor Jim Tobin (Ray Liotta) -- a fictional stand-in for Paul Schell who was mayor at the time -- is equally concerned with the first goal. A former Vietnam protestor himself, Tobin wants to give a legitimate arena to free speech so long as no one gets hurt. But his police chief is wary.
Among the police on duty, Dale (Woody Harrelson) is preoccupied with the pregnancy of wife Ella (Charlize Theron). He barely notices the rah-rah bloodlust of fellow cops such as the hardhead Johnson (Channing Tatum).
On Day One, organizers outsmart Seattle's containment plan. Protestors, some dressed as endangered animals, jammed key intersections downtown, trapping delegates in hotel rooms and causing the cancellation of opening ceremonies. Then anarchists take over, destroying property and hijacking the protest from its peaceful organizers.
On the second day, calls from the police chief, White House and an impatient governor overrule the mayor's best judgment. Police in riot gear respond to crowds with tear gas, pepper spray and brutal tactics. Later, the National Guard is called in, forcing news reporter Jean Asbury (Connie Nielsen) to switch from covering key issues such as delegate Dr. Maric's (Rade Sherbedzija) campaign for low-cost medicine in developing countries to covering what is essentially a police riot.
This is not the film's only terrible irony. The most horrific moment comes this second day when Ella gets caught in the riot and one of her husband's fellow officers throws a contemptuous baton into her stomach, causing a bloody miscarriage. This triggers a fierce reaction by Dale the next day against a taunting protestor, who is Jay.
Hundreds swept from the streets wind up in jail, creating a dilemma for the mayor, who understands that worldwide news coverage and the sheer impossibility of sending each and every case to court have tied his hands. There is no way to save face.
The personal stories -- Jay and Lou's romance that falters on the barricades, Dale and Ella's tragedy, the mayor's predicament and Jay's own dicey legal status when he lands in jail -- are caught only in snatches and suffer from occasional contrivances. Yet they do humanize the conflict and raise the stakes all around. The film may not have the knockout energy of Paul Greengrass' docudrama Bloody Sunday, but it doesn't have the superficiality of Bobby either.
Townsend has a good grasp of what happened in Seattle and how to convey these events in personal stories. He catches people under enormous stress that brings out the best and sometime the worst in them. Tempers flare, belligerence rules and physical and emotional pain ensues.
The 1999 issues on display have not gone away. If anything, things are much worse. Another Seattle may not happen because governments have learned how to better prepare. But public anger, corporate greed and worldwide unrest continue unabated. Battle in Seattle catches the opening skirmish.
BATTLE IN SEATTLE
A Hyde Park Films presentation of an Insight Studios/Remstar production in association with Proud Mary Entertainment and Redwood Palm Pictures
Credits:
Writer/director: Stuart Townsend
Producers: Mary Aloe, Kirk Shaw, Maxime Remillard, Stuart Townsend
Executive producers: Julien Remillard, Ashok Amritraj, Vanessa Pereira
Director of photography: Barry Ackroyd
Production designer: Chris August
Costume designer: Andrea Des Roches
Music: One Point Six
Editor: Fernando Villena
Cast:
Ella: Charlize Theron
Dale: Woody Harrelson
Mayor Jim Tobin: Ray Liotta
Jay: Martin Henderson
Lou: Michelle Rodriguez
Dr. Maric: Rade Sherbedzija
Django: Andre Benjamin
Jean: Connie Nielsen
Abasi: Isaach de Bankole
Johnson: Channing Tatum
Running time -- 98 minutes
No MPAA rating...
TORONTO -- Battle in Seattle is a dramatic freeze-frame of five days in 1999 when tens of thousands of activists took to the streets of Seattle and virtually shut down a meeting of the World Trade Organization in protest of globalization and environmental damage by multinational conglomerates and powerful governments. The film is something of a rarity for an American political film. While it makes no bones about where its sympathies lie, these fictional stories show a genuine fascination with the role politics plays on both sides of such confrontations and how things can spin out of control with no single person to blame.
Naturally, the film was made by a foreigner, Irish actor Stuart Townsend, who makes a remarkably confident writing and directorial debut. Political movies are always iffy at the boxoffice, but the time may be ripe this film: Mainstream concern over these issues today has caught up with the 1999 protest. And the weave of multiple storylines with an ensemble cast, not unlike Bobby or Crash, gives the film an immediacy that could attract concerned adult audiences.
Indeed the Hollywood shorthand for Battle in Seattle could be Bobby meets Medium Cool. Townsend and his team smoothly integrate archival news footage into stories of protestors, police, government officials, innocent bystanders and news people who experience five rough days in the final moments of the millennium.
First the activists come into focus. An amusing and prophetic opening sequence introduces one leader, Jay (Martin Henderson), as he rescues attractive tough girl Lou (Michelle Rodriguez), as the two dangle perilously from a crane to hang an anti-WTO sign. Soon everyone will be performing a high-wire act.
Jay and his good friend Django (Andre Benjamin, aka Andre 3000 from Outkast) have spent months preparing for this conference to insure the protest is peaceful and successful in shutting down the conference.
Mayor Jim Tobin (Ray Liotta) -- a fictional stand-in for Paul Schell who was mayor at the time -- is equally concerned with the first goal. A former Vietnam protestor himself, Tobin wants to give a legitimate arena to free speech so long as no one gets hurt. But his police chief is wary.
Among the police on duty, Dale (Woody Harrelson) is preoccupied with the pregnancy of wife Ella (Charlize Theron). He barely notices the rah-rah bloodlust of fellow cops such as the hardhead Johnson (Channing Tatum).
On Day One, organizers outsmart Seattle's containment plan. Protestors, some dressed as endangered animals, jammed key intersections downtown, trapping delegates in hotel rooms and causing the cancellation of opening ceremonies. Then anarchists take over, destroying property and hijacking the protest from its peaceful organizers.
On the second day, calls from the police chief, White House and an impatient governor overrule the mayor's best judgment. Police in riot gear respond to crowds with tear gas, pepper spray and brutal tactics. Later, the National Guard is called in, forcing news reporter Jean Asbury (Connie Nielsen) to switch from covering key issues such as delegate Dr. Maric's (Rade Sherbedzija) campaign for low-cost medicine in developing countries to covering what is essentially a police riot.
This is not the film's only terrible irony. The most horrific moment comes this second day when Ella gets caught in the riot and one of her husband's fellow officers throws a contemptuous baton into her stomach, causing a bloody miscarriage. This triggers a fierce reaction by Dale the next day against a taunting protestor, who is Jay.
Hundreds swept from the streets wind up in jail, creating a dilemma for the mayor, who understands that worldwide news coverage and the sheer impossibility of sending each and every case to court have tied his hands. There is no way to save face.
The personal stories -- Jay and Lou's romance that falters on the barricades, Dale and Ella's tragedy, the mayor's predicament and Jay's own dicey legal status when he lands in jail -- are caught only in snatches and suffer from occasional contrivances. Yet they do humanize the conflict and raise the stakes all around. The film may not have the knockout energy of Paul Greengrass' docudrama Bloody Sunday, but it doesn't have the superficiality of Bobby either.
Townsend has a good grasp of what happened in Seattle and how to convey these events in personal stories. He catches people under enormous stress that brings out the best and sometime the worst in them. Tempers flare, belligerence rules and physical and emotional pain ensues.
The 1999 issues on display have not gone away. If anything, things are much worse. Another Seattle may not happen because governments have learned how to better prepare. But public anger, corporate greed and worldwide unrest continue unabated. Battle in Seattle catches the opening skirmish.
BATTLE IN SEATTLE
A Hyde Park Films presentation of an Insight Studios/Remstar production in association with Proud Mary Entertainment and Redwood Palm Pictures
Credits:
Writer/director: Stuart Townsend
Producers: Mary Aloe, Kirk Shaw, Maxime Remillard, Stuart Townsend
Executive producers: Julien Remillard, Ashok Amritraj, Vanessa Pereira
Director of photography: Barry Ackroyd
Production designer: Chris August
Costume designer: Andrea Des Roches
Music: One Point Six
Editor: Fernando Villena
Cast:
Ella: Charlize Theron
Dale: Woody Harrelson
Mayor Jim Tobin: Ray Liotta
Jay: Martin Henderson
Lou: Michelle Rodriguez
Dr. Maric: Rade Sherbedzija
Django: Andre Benjamin
Jean: Connie Nielsen
Abasi: Isaach de Bankole
Johnson: Channing Tatum
Running time -- 98 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 9/14/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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