One of the great misconceptions about Hollywood is that it is a liberal institution. Several false assumptions inform this misconception: thinking of “Hollywood” as a monolithic entity in any way besides its shared corporate infrastructure, confusing public endorsements of celebrity politicians by celebrity movie stars as political activism, thinking that left-leaning consumers of movies see Hollywood as representing their political beliefs in any way, selectively reading a limited number of texts (e.g., Green Zone “proves” Hollywood’s liberalism, but every superhero movie ever isn’t proof of its conservatism), and, most importantly, thinking that the most public figures associated with Hollywood (i.e., stars and filmmakers) are Hollywood. This last point I think is one that has continued to be the least considered when such straw man critiques are drawn, because Hollywood here is equated only with its most visible figures who overshadow its intricate but also not-so-shrouded political economy. It’s no mistake that despite the fluctuating numbers of major and minor Hollywood studios in the past 100 years, the most powerful studios, like the biggest banks in the nation, have been referred to as “The Big Five.” And indeed, to the surprise of no one, both Big Fives have had and are continuing a lucrative relationship with one another. Hollywood’s agenda, of course, has always been profit, and the representatives of this ideology are not George Clooney and Matt Damon, but Michael Lynton and Amy Pascal (Chairman/CEO & Co-Chairman, Sony/Columbia), Stephen Blairson (CEO, 20th Century Fox), Brad Grey (Chairman/CEO, Paramount), Ronald Meyer [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

June was a rough month for This Week in Blu-ray. Only a few of you actively missed it, judging by the emails, but I’m sure that even more of you felt a hole in your very souls due to the lack of weekly Blu-ray buying advice. By my count I am four weeks behind as of today, four weeks that each had worthy releases — some of which you may have purchased already. So in an effort to be brief, I’ve selected the most prominent releases and mixed them in with the Blu-rays hitting shelves this week. It’s my way of smashing four weeks of release together and wiping away the blood. In the end, it should give you a good road map for what you should have been doing all along.

When Matt Damon led the U.S. Army into Iraq, it’s no wonder he couldn’t find any WMDs… because he’s Myaaaattt Dyaaaaahmuuuuhn. It was enough to drive him to drink. This is the real reason why Paul Greengrass made the film Green Zone: a way for his sweaty, hunky soldier to relax.

Go buy Cult Spaghetti Westerns, Death Race 2000, and Mulan! Go rent The Good Guy, Green Zone, Hung, Kakera, Riverworld, and She’s Out Of My League! Stay the hell away from Twelve!

There were no really big surprises this weekend at the box office, as Alice in Wonderland continued to make a ton of money. It finished with a $62 million weekend and its overall domestic haul has now hit an impressive $208 million.

Kevin Carr sits his chubbiness down weighs in on Green Zone, Remember Me and She’s Out of My League.

Green Zone takes us back to Iraq shortly after the invasion in 2003. Explosive battles are still being fought throughout the country and the capital city of Baghdad, and Chief Warrant Office Miller (Matt Damon) is leading a team with a singular goal… find the weapons of mass destruction, aka WMD’s, that helped lead to the invasion in the first place.

it’s shaping up to be another weekend for Alice in Wonderland to dominate the box office. Not that there isn’t going to be plenty of competition out there this week, looking to knock Alice off.

Some sound gremlins invade the Magical Studio in the Sky as Neil prepares for drinking and partying at SXSW. Neil is also recovering from a bout with food poisoning while Kevin is recovering from seeing Robert Pattinson’s Remember Me (and Kevin insists he suffered more).

What would happen if Jason Bourne went to Iraq to look for weapons of mass destruction and had to go rogue in order to do so? You’d get Paul Greengrass’ upcoming actioner Green Zone…

Our friends over at The Bad and Ugly have scored a first look at Matt Damon in another Paul Greengrass movie, which will hopefully have more steady camera work. The film is called Green Zone and it tells the story of a pair of CIA agents on the trail of certain Weapons of Mass Destruction and a foreign correspondent following their mission.