The Specialist (1994) is listed at IMDb as a Peruvian film. It is distributed by Warner Brothers, but evidently much of the funding was Peruvian. It was made for $45M, and grossed $170M worldwide. It won numerous Razzies and Razzie nominations, including worst screen couple, worst actor, worst actress, worst supporting actor and worst picture. Sylvester Stallone is an ex CIA explosive specialist, who turned his boss James Woods in for questionable conduct, and both left the agency. Woods went to work for a Miami Mafia head, and Stallone started work as a mercenary. Sharon Stone contacts Stallone to take out the people responsible for murdering her parents years before. He eventually takes the job, which brings him into direct conflict with Woods.

There are a few twists and double crosses before the happy ending, a few fist fights, and some great explosions. Stone shows full frontal in a steamy shower sex scene with Stallone, but you have to watch the full screen version to see everything. Both Widescreen and Fullscreen versions are on the otherwise featureless DVD. IMDb readers have this at 4.7 of 10. Ebert awards 2 stars, and hated it, and Berardinelli awards 1 1/2, and only on the merit of Stone breasts and Stallone's biceps. I hate to admit that I was entertained by this mindless bit of fluff and excitement. Then again, I didn't have high expectations, so the rather weak acting didn't really bother me, and the pace was good enough to hold my interest. This is a C-. If you are int he right mood, you might not find it an unpleasant way to spend a couple of hours.

• POKER: Silver Dollar Sam's Nuggets - Murphy Reels in a Fish
• Battle of the Network Anchors - Ted Koppel and Jon Stewart face off on the convention floor.
• The trailer for the Ruropean thriller-horror film, High Tension : "The film centers on two teen girls who settle in for a relaxing weekend at a country farmhouse, unaware that a violent intruder is speeding toward them to transform their dreams into a relentless, bloody nightmare."
• Complete professional Natal Report for George W. Bush "you may do things that others judge to be childish or irresponsible"
• Crisco-Americans protest diet industry: "overweight activists are mounting a feisty protest movement against what it calls the medical establishment's campaign against obesity"
• Boners: Best volleyball ever
• Anna Nicole Smith has wardrobe malfunction, ala Janet Jackson
• Tom Cruise says: "I'm the guy who loves relationships. I love women." I love women even more than Mike Piazza. I mean I love women even more than Mike Piazza loves women. You know what I mean. I'm all man.
• Oscar-winner Halle Berry has reportedly backed out of two new X-Men movie sequels
• Straight Dope: What the hell was that final episode of "The Prisoner" all about?
• Bobblehead Detente : "Arnold Schwarzenegger's ill-conceived legal fight to curb the sale of a bobblehead doll featuring a likeness of the California governor came to an end today. The Republican politician has agreed to allow an Ohio manufacturer to continue producing the dolls, though future Arnold bobbleheads will not be carrying an assault rifle "
• The success of 'Fahrenheit 9/11' has inspired movie theaters to book more political documentaries in the hopes of luring customers.
• the cast for MGM and Dimension's remake of THE AMITYVILLE HORROR is complete
• Reeves, Hounsou & Lawrence on Constantine (movie adaptation of Hellblazer comic)
• Long-awaited Doom 3 leaked online
• Borowitz: G.O.P. QUESTIONS KERRY'S HAMSTER HEROISMA mass email from the Republican National Committee is questioning whether or not Democratic nominee John Kerry actually saved his daughter Alexandra's pet hamster, Licorice, from drowning during a family boating trip as Ms. Kerry has claimed.
• The Mousketeer's career reviewed by YAAFM
• Something useful for a change. ConsumerAffairs.Com Rogues Gallery tells you which companies suck at customer service. There are some big names on there, like Best Buy, Circuit City, Hewlett Packard, Blockbuster, Disney Cruises, Holiday Inn, and Home Depot
• Mike Lupica's Shooting From the Lip: Yankees finally see light on new stadium
• Pornographers Firing Back At Military's Free Boob Jobs. They are paying women NOT to have breast enhancement surgery.
• Crappuccino? It turns out thatthe world's best coffee comes from cat shit!
• You can't be too cautious. Use the UK's blind-dating safety system. Or ... you could go out with people you know, or with blind dates who are well known to your friends or family .... naaahhhhhh!
• Average Joes and Janes will be able to digitally mingle among celebs such as Tom Arnold and the former Mrs Rodman when 'Playboy: The Mansion' hits video game stores this winter. Whoa! Mingle with Tom Arnold? Throw in Carrot Top and David Schwimmer, and I'm there, dude.
• Jennifer Garner loved shooting the lesbian love scenes in her new movie Elektra. Garner says that her lesbian scenes were "some of my best kissing work." The line for Elektra has started to form at the local Cineplex.
• Eating every other day may increase your life span, or not.
• The famous urban felching legend, performed by sock puppets.
• The six steps of courtship for male fruit flies. The things that we can learn from bugs are just amazing.
• Favorite Steven Wright Jokes and Clips. It doesn't actually have clips, only links to clips, but hey, you can't have everything. Where would you put it?
• Sand Sculpture Photos on the Web. Like LEGOS, except shorter lived.
• A video for National Orgasm Week in the UK.
• Houston Police mistake landscaper's hibiscus for pot. "He hadn't even gotten his hand on the doorknob when it flew open and he was looking at the barrel of a pistol. Behind the gun were about 10 members of the Harris County Organized Crime and Narcotics Task Force, who burst into the home, guns drawn, and began shouting at him to get down on the floor. It took a while to figure out that what had caused the swarm of lawmen to descend upon him was the hibiscus in his front yard."
• VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: Neve's MPAA-Banned Trailer for "When Will I Be Loved" You'll see brief flashes of nudity in this trailer for James Toback's latest flick.
• Sleazy Rider - Biker gal romped through Pennsylvania town in birthday suit The usual good news and bad news. Bad new: arrested. Good news: two words - movie rights. I vote for Christina Ricci as the naked biker.
• Al Franken Radio Show to Be on Cable TV
• Sex offenders who target youth using the Internet do not generally deceive their victims about their age or intentions, and few use force or coercion
• Britain's Library of Unwritten Books, including "One-Eyed Olaf, The Man Who Was Addicted to Seeing, Poke the Pig and my own personal favorite, Scrumping in Persia."
• 'Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?'
• A German court has ruled that Germans are allowed to stick their tongues out in their passport photos. I guess with all that Nuremberg nastiness aside, their courts now have time for some less weighty matters. In other news, Gene Simmons has applied for German citizenship.
• NBC Hopes Bill Clinton Will Host 'SNL'. Tina Fey better stock up on Chap Stick ... jokes.
• Victoria Gotti (daughter of John Gotti) and her sons are the subject of a new reality show, 'Growing up Gotti'
• American actor Brad Pitt will become the first topless exhibit at the Amsterdam Madame Tussaud museum
• Golfers face new hazard - bullets. Reminds me of a true story. About ten years ago I'm working in Zimbabwe, doing a project for Mobil, and I'm trying to figure out how to pass the weekend. The travel agent in Harare asks me "golf, or Victoria Falls?" I respond, "Can't I do both? I thought there was a course near there." She says, "Yeah, nice course, very near, but closed because of the drought." I fall for the bait, "So, they can't keep the course watered? But isn't it on a river?". She responds, "No, you don't understand. Irrigation is no problem. The problem is that when we have a drought, the lions expand their feeding territory - to include the golf course." Now THAT's a hazard.
• Hey, Vito. When I told you to steal 41,000 clams, this isn't what I meant. And when I told you I needed some dough ... well, just stay away from that bakery, OK?
• The Daily Show looks at John Edwards's speech.
• Restaurant bans those under 25 " any establishment with a liquor license can set any age restriction it wants, as long as the exclusion is applied evenly and consistently."
• Keira Knightley to star in biopic of Lawrence Harvey's daughter. : "Domino Harvey ditched a career as a Ford model to become a bounty hunter." Why, this is incredible! Lawrence Harvey would have had to sleep with a woman to have a daughter in those days, wouldn't he?
• That master of subtlety, The Filthy Critic, reviews Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle.
• The Gena Lee Nolin sex tape
• Bill Maher would choose to be handcuffed for 24 hours to New York's junior senator over Condoleezza Rice, Laura Bush or Greta Van Susteren/ His basic reasoning: Hillary is "mellow" (and therefore probably wouldn't mind Maher jerking off while their hands were attached.)
• A tipsy Tara Reid flashes New Yorkers from her Range Rover (Sorry, no pictures!)
• John Kerry has dated Morgan Fairchild and Catherine Oxenberg. Yeah, Morgan Fairchild, that's the ticket.
• No surprise here: 98 percent of all emergency calls in Norway are a waste of police time.
• Silver Dollar Sam's Nuggets, August 2, 2004 - Texas Hold 'Em, as written by a poker pro.
• The Sawdust Joint, Chapter 1. Silver Dollar Sam talks about Vegas in the Good Ol' Days. Interesting yarn.
• Holy Hannah! Give me back that tinfoil hat. The New Republic was right! The news of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani's capyure came just hours before US presidential candidate John Kerry delivered his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. They had captured him four days earlier. The timing of the disclosure has rekindled controversy surrounding an earlier New Republic article specifically alleging US pressure on Pakistan to produce a "high value target" in July during the convention. One source in that article said that a White House aide suggested to Pakistan’s intelligence chief that the first three days of the Democratic convention would be the "best" timing. Both US and Pakistani officials have denied the story - and continue to do so!
• The New Republic's original article about the "July Surprise"?

Other Crap archives. May also include newer material than the ones above, since it's sorta in real time.

Click here to submit a URL for Other Crap

MOVIE REVIEWS:

Words from Scoop.

.avi's from Shiloh.

.wmv files made by Scoop from Shiloh's .avi's.

NOTE: because of a unique combination of circumstances with the Windows media player and some substantial bandwidth theft, we will have to do all of our movie files in zip format. Left click on the files as you normally would to view a picture. When you get a choice, click on "save", and put it on your hard drive in the directory of your choice. UnZIP and play from there.

I know this is not especially convenient, but it allows the film clips to continue. I can protect .zip files from hot-linking in the same way I can protect still images. For some reason, if I protect .avis and .wmvs from hot-linking, they will not play in the Windows media player, and I can't get a satisfactory work-around. Perhaps I will find a better solution, but for now this new policy allows you to continue getting the movie clips you want to see, which is much preferable to my abandoning the clips altogether.

Variety

• Janet Leigh takes a shower in "Psycho". Is this the most widely imitated scene in movie history? If you count all the elements that have been copied - the shower curtain, the music - maybe so. ( .avi- zip) (.wmv - zip)

• Janet Leigh in "Psycho", Part 2 ( .avi- zip) (.wmv - zip)

• Celebrity lesbonics. Jennifer Tilly and Gena Gershon get it on in "Bound". Not as good as Joan Chen and Anne Heche, but still pretty easy watchin'.  (.avi- zip) (.wmv - zip)

A few more .wmv conversions from Scoop's corner

• Debra Winger - Her career defining role in "An Officer and a Gentleman". (.wmv - zip)

• Romane Bohringer in "Total Eclipse". Nice clip originally done by Graphic Response. (.wmv - zip) . Two words: big ones!

Perhaps these tips will help if you have trouble with the codecs for these movies:

Shiloh says:

FYI when I hypercam vids to make the file size smaller I use DivX MPEG-4 Fast-Motion for the video compressor, then I use virtualdub to compress the audio. The properties for the vids says the video codec:  DivX Decoder Filter & audio codec:  Morgan Stream Switcher which I'm not familiar with. When I compress the audio with virtualdub I use MPEG Layer-3.  A friend of mine told me about compressing the audio about (6) mos. ago. Like I said previously, only been capping for a year & a half & I'm no expert. Hopefully this info will help members with the proper codecs for my vids.

 

When I cap big brother's I use hypercam mostly & sdp & asfrecorder if the set up allows me. I stopped using camtasia cause the file sizes were always too big, could never figure out the process, over my head lol, plus it cost too much to buy in my opinion.

A reader says:

You mentioned that some users were having trouble with the videos on your site. There is a tool designed to determine what codec is needed for a video. http://www.headbands.com/gspot/ Hope this is useful to you or your users.

Scoop says:

I made the .wmv versions of each video. The codecs for these: Windows Video V8, Windows Audio 9. The upside of these is that you know the codecs, and they'll play in the Windows Media Player. The downside is that they are slightly larger, and slightly lower quality.

Today from the Ghost...Italian actress/writer/director/producer Asia Argento showing off her great bod in several scenes from "New Rose Hotel" (1998).

Links 1-3 feature Asia swimming toplesss.
In link #4 we see Asia and a couple of other people have some pseudo sex (a single exposed breast in this one)
Link #5...black undies.
Link #6...beautiful wonderbra cleavage.
Link #7...topless in an after sex scene.
Link #8...semi-nude side view with a little breast exposure toward the end.

• Asia Argento individual zipped .wmvs (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
• All .wmvs in one zip file

In yesterday's Fun House I noticed that you wrote that Amy Yip's nipples where 'probably from a body double', but "Sex and Zen" is the only film to date in which Amy Yip exposes her nipples, something she reportedly did under triad coercion.

Jr's commnets:
Yep, I've heard that what we see are in fact Yip's nips. However, I'm far from an expert on Hong Kong sortcore, and I've never seen any official source that documents whether or not it's her. I've visited several fan sites online, and some say the nipples are her, others say body double. I suppose the Yip's Nips question is just one of those mysteries in life without an answer. Much like "did Oswald act alone" or "how many licks does it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll pop". The world may never know.

Now moving on to today's goodies....

Rose McGowan and Amy Locane both topless in scenes from "Going All The Way" (1997).

• Rose McGowan...the girl really needs some sun, but still, what an amazing chest. (1, 2, 3)

• Amy Locane (1, 2, 3, 4)

Hey Scoops,

I haven't seen this scene capped so far, but on one episode of the new HBO series Entourage (a pretty good show IMHO), the boys go to a party hosted by Jessica Alba. When she greets them, she is showing very clear pokies. Does anyone have any 'caps of that scene?

-Freaky

CAT POOP COFFEE DOES TASTE BETTER
I Prefer Pony Piss Beer - Many people scoffed when they learned the world's most expensive coffee, Kopi Luwak of Ethiopia, which fetches $35 a cup from coffee fanatics, is made from beans swallowed and excreted by wild civet cats. But Prof. Massimo Marcone of Canada's University of Guelph says he's proved it tastes better. He did field research and tests with taste machines and humans and found that the cats' digestion breaks down proteins that make coffee taste bitter. So he says a "crappuccino" does taste better than a cappuccino.