Rants and raves about burning topics that have caught my attention midweek, be it greedy corporate shenanigans, frustration or joy in regards to the Philly sports teams, a movie, show or DVD that has fired up my imagination, an intriguing personality, or my on-going battle to lose weight in our fast food world. — Lori Hoffman, Associate Editor, Atlantic City Weekly

It became official on Monday, March 8.  New ownership led by Carl Icahn took over the Tropicana Casino & Resort, signaling a new era. Multi-billionaire Icahn has been a wheeler-dealer in the Atlantic City market before. Back when the Sands Casino Hotel filed for bankruptcy in 1998, he swooped in two years later and bought controlling interest in the property, winning in bankruptcy court over Park Place Entertainment. At the time Icahn also wanted to purchase the Claridge, but eventually Park Place Entertainment won that battle. Park Place Entertainment, now known as Caesars Entertainment Inc., owns Bally’s/Claridge, Harrah’s Resort, Caesars and Showboat/House of Blues.

Carl Icahn

Icahn, who has been described as both a corporate raider and a corporate savior, sunk significant money (reported at $65 million at the time) to try and improve the bottom line for the Sands. Still, the smallest casino in town, once home to Frank Sinatra and Cher as regular entertainers, continued to lose money. Eventually Icahn sold the Sands to Pinnacle Entertainment in 2006.

The Tropicana has a lot going for it as a destination casino with the dining, shopping and nightclub complex, The Quarter, and 2,129 hotel rooms. Despite that, the previous owners mismanaged the property into the loss of its casino license and bankruptcy. In essence, Icahn and his partners have brought a property sold for 2.75 billion in 2005 for the fire sale rate of $200 million of the property’s mortgage for equity.

The Tropicana has managed to survive quite a bit of chaos the last decade and Icahn should certainly bring financial stability.

In a press release, Mark Giannantonio, president and C.E.O. of Tropicana Casino & Resort said, “It’s a whole new year, new energy, new era at the Tropicana. Now, with a great partner like Carl Icahn at our side and our staff of dedicated and hardworking employees, we can really move the Tropicana forward as the pre-eminent entertainment resort in Atlantic City.  We’re thrilled about the possibilities.”

To see the Trop’s new direction, check out this Web site. (more…)

Rants and raves about burning topics that have caught my attention midweek, be it greedy corporate shenanigans, frustration or joy in regards to the Philly sports teams, a movie, show or DVD that has fired up my imagination, an intriguing personality, or my on-going battle to lose weight in our fast food world. — Lori Hoffman, Associate Editor, Atlantic City Weekly

As both a film critic and devoted movie buff, I get excited about the “super bowl for movie fans,” the presentation of the 82nd Annual Academy Awards, which takes place this Sunday. More often than not I make Veal Oscar and crack open of a bottle of bubbly to enhance my enjoyment of the night. (Check out my predictions here.)

However, the ratings for the telecast have been declining in recent years, as not enough casual movie fans are hanging around to wait for the winners to step to the podium for their golden boys.

The Academy decided this year to try and draw more fans by increasing the best picture nominations from five to ten. The idea was that this would open up the nominations to more mainstream, popular movies. Surveys conducted by the Academy showed that movie fans were tired of seeing movies they didn’t see — and didn’t want to see —winning all the major prizes. Well it worked, as The Blind Side, District 9 and Up joined the expected nominees like The Hurt Locker, Avatar and Inglourious Basterds.

Sandra Bullock

Will The Blind Side win? Not a chance, but Sandra Bullock is the best actress frontrunner for her wonderful performance in the film.

Personally, I think giving out Oscars to movies that were brilliant, even if they weren’t big box office hits, is the way it should be. The ideal behind the Academy Awards is to honor movies that try to do more than earn a boatload of cash. When popular movies are also brilliant examples of artistry, that is the ultimate win win situation for the Academy.

Back in 1998, the success of Titanic, the top grossing movie of all time, gave the Oscar telecast its best ratings in more than 20 years, 57.25 million viewers; by comparison when No Country For Old Men won in 2008, the numbers of viewers was 31.76 million. Both were wonderful, Oscar worthy movies. One was a love story; the other was dark and sad. Dark and sad movies just aren’t going to be major box office hits.
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Rants and raves about burning topics that have caught my attention midweek, be it greedy corporate shenanigans, frustration or joy in regards to the Philly sports teams, a movie, show or DVD that has fired up my imagination, an intriguing personality, or my on-going battle to lose weight in our fast food world. — Lori Hoffman, Associate Editor, Atlantic City Weekly

First off, I was apparently very wrong about interest in the Olympic Winter Games, as discussed in my last Hump Day Report. The ratings are a ratings bonanza for NBC and in fact, coverage of the games even toppled American Idol. Last Wednesday when American Idol was revealing its Top 24, Lindsey Vonn, Shaun White and Shani Davis had TV viewers switching to the Games. It was Idol’s lowest ratings night since 2004. Overnight ratings showed the Olympics with 30.1 million viewers (9.0 rating/22 share) to American Idol’s 18.4 million (6.9 rating/17 share). Idol had nearly 7 million more viewers for the comparable show in 2009. However, the night before, when America’s big stars weren’t in the spotlight, Idol did win the time slot. And, yesterday’s overnight ratings had Idol averaging 24 million total viewers, compared to 20.8 million for the Olympics during the same 8-10pm timeslot.

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Katie Stevens

Speaking of Idol, I’m on the fence when it comes whether this year’s contestants are as good as or better than previous years. I will, however, join the “Paula Who?” bandwagon and vote for Ellen DeGeneres as the best addition to this year’s show. She is funny, honest and talks in a language we can understand.

As for the contestants, since we saw the ladies last night, my favorites so far are the two women at the extremes of the competition. Folk rocker Crystal Bowersox is the anti-Idol. She is not an Idol type and has admitted she never watched the show that much before she decided she needed to get a bigger paycheck. She is in it for the money and the exposure and she has the talent to stay around, but not the “cute” factor to keep the Twitter generation coming back for more. Still, you can’t deny the talent she showed with her version of Alanis Morissette’s ”Hand in My Pocket.”

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Rants and raves about burning topics that have caught my attention midweek, be it greedy corporate shenanigans, frustration or joy in regards to the Philly sports teams, a movie, show or DVD that has fired up my imagination, an intriguing personality, or my on-going battle to lose weight in our fast food world. — Lori Hoffman, Associate Editor, Atlantic City Weekly

My mind couldn’t come together for one topic this week, so in the tradition of jazz music, I’m going to do a couple of riffs on the two topics floating around in my brain. Let’s start with the Oscar nominations.
I’m feeling pretty good about the Academy Award nominations and my predictions. I pretty much nailed all the major categories; my only miss in the acting ranks was supporting actor Christopher Plummer (The Last Station); he took the spot I thought might go to Oscar co-host Alec Baldwin (It’s Complicated). And while other prognosticators thought

Maggie Gyllenhaal

Julianne Moore would take the final supporting actress spot for A Single Man, I went against that conventional wisdom and decided the Crazy Heart surge would push Maggie Gyllenhaal into that final spot. I was right.

The ten nominees for best picture suggest that perhaps the decision to expand from the traditional five might actually work and bring more viewers back to the Oscar telecast. This was my weakest category, although I’m sure my top five (The Hurt Locker, Avatar, Up in the Air, Inglourious Basterds, Precious) would have been the only five in a normal year. I loved Sandra Bullock’s performance in The Blind Side and it is a solid film but not truly Oscar worthy as a best picture nominee. District 9 was okay but overrated, and while I thought Carey Mulligan was brilliant in An Education, the film was good but not excellent. I have no problem with Up being nominated; it was one of my favorite films of the year. I have to confess I didn’t see A Serious Man.
My one crushing disappoint was that former Margate resident Scott Neustadter failed to get an original screenplay nod for 500 Days of Summer, despite the fact that he earned a WGA (Writers Guild of America) nomination. I loved the film and his screenplay, co-written by Michael H. Weber.

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Peyton Manning

Is it just me, or is the Super Bowl failing to create much buzz this year, especially in our area? I don’t hear many people talking about it, even though it should be an entertaining showdown between two of the most prolific scoring QBs in the game, Drew Brees and Peyton Manning.

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Rants and raves about burning topics that have caught my attention midweek, be it greedy corporate shenanigans, frustration or joy in regards to the Philly sports teams, a movie, show or DVD that has fired up my imagination, an intriguing personality, or my on-going battle to lose weight in our fast food world. — Lori Hoffman, Associate Editor, Atlantic City Weekly

By my calculation, I’ve lost six or seven hundred pounds over the years, usually in 50-pound blocks. This means, of course that I have also gained the weight back. Two years ago, I decided to have weight loss surgery and had a gastric lapband placed around my stomach. The idea of the band is to create a small pouch at the top of your stomach. When this egg-sized portion of your stomach is filled, the theory is that you are no longer hungry and therefore you lose weight. The band is tightened with a saline solution periodically, to maintain your weight loss.

That is the theory anyway. It never really worked for me. While it curbed my hunger somewhat, it never allowed me to be satisfied with a small amount of food, and I had complications that led to several emergency room visits.

So here I am two years later and I’ve regained all the weight, fueled by frustration, anger and a WTF-nothing-works mentality. Most morbidly obese dieters have been there, done that.

My knees are killing me and I’m back on diabetes medication (that I was able to stop taking after the surgery), but on a brighter note, I’m finally on the other side of my regain binge. So what’s next? Where do I go from here on my weight loss journey?

Well, for one thing I am going to listen to my doctor. He was happy with the modest 40-pound weight loss that I maintained for two years. Therefore, instead of dreaming of a Biggest Loser-sized 150 pound weight loss, I’m going to shoot for losing 40 or 50 pounds.

My current diet of choice is the F-Plan, a high fiber diet that was popular in the mid-1980s, based on the book by Audrey Eyton. I was on it before and lost weight.

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Rants and raves about burning topics that have caught my attention midweek, be it greedy corporate shenanigans, frustration or joy in regards to the Philly sports teams, a movie, show or DVD that has fired up my imagination, an intriguing personality, or my on-going battle to lose weight in our fast food world. — Lori Hoffman, Associate Editor, Atlantic City Weekly

I learned all I needed to know about politicians when I went trick or treating back in the early 1960s in my hometown of Ventnor. When we went to the middle class neighborhoods where we lived we got full size candy bars or even candy apples, back when we weren’t afraid that homemade treats were poisoned.

However when we ventured up toward the fancy big houses on Atlantic Avenue and the beach blocks it was a different story. I remember going to the home of the biggest politician in our area, influential state senator Frank S. Farley. They were giving out little Tootsie Rolls. Not a handful, but one or two each. We walked away saying, “cheapskates!” Little did we know that it was the norm for powerful politicians to shaft the working class and keep the big money for themselves and their powerful friends.

Gov. Chris Christie

That memory was triggered by the swearing in yesterday of New Jersey’s new governor Chris Christie. While I voted for the other guy, it was with little enthusiasm, mostly because I hated Jon Corzine’s disgraceful negative ads that said Christie didn’t want health coverage that supported breast cancer screenings.

Christie seems like a regular guy, so I’m going to assume that he really wants to do what he says he wants to do. Of course, an awful lot of politicians think they can change the system then find out that the state capital is really a steel cage filled with brawlers. Maybe you are the last politician standing or maybe most of your policies get knocked to the canvas.

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Rants and raves about burning topics that have caught my attention midweek, be it greedy corporate shenanigans, frustration or joy in regards to the Philly sports teams, a movie, show or DVD that has fired up my imagination, an intriguing personality, or my on-going battle to lose weight in our fast food world. — Lori Hoffman, Associate Editor, Atlantic City Weekly

Well David Letterman is getting the last laugh after all. Back when he and Jay Leno were both fighting to earn The Tonight Show mantle from the retiring Johnny Carson, he lost out and moved over to CBS. Their battle behind the scenes was made into the HBO movie The Late Shift in 1996.

Now a Late Shift II shake-up is happening all over again. Last summer we endured months of annoying promos announcing Leno’s big move to NBC primetime five days a week. Even worse was the actual show itself. The people spoke: they didn’t want to see late night programming in prime time.

When the ratings were first revealed, the NBC executives were quick to point out that Leno’s show was so less expensive than scripted dramas, bad ratings did not mean they were losing money. However, the local NBC affiliates across the country were not happy that NBC’s Leno dead zone was killing the ratings for their 11pm news broadcasts.

NBC had to admit they made a big mistake and have announced a shakeup. After the Olympics, Leno will move to 11:35pm with a half hour show and The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien will movie to 12:05am with Jimmy Fallon moving to a 1:05am start.

As Letterman watches on the sidelines, he can enjoy the new in-house feud. O’Brien released a statement saying he was not happy about the change. “I’ve been suddenly put in a very public predicament, and my bosses are demanding an immediate decision,” he wrote in a statement. He added that “I . . . passed up far more lucrative offers, and since 2004 I have spent literally hundreds of hours thinking of ways to extend the franchise long into the future. I cannot participate in what I honestly believe is its destruction.”

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Rants and raves about burning topics that have caught my attention midweek, be it greedy corporate shenanigans, frustration or joy in regards to the Philly sports teams, a movie, show or DVD that has fired up my imagination, an intriguing personality, or my on-going battle to lose weight in our fast food world. — Lori Hoffman, Associate Editor, Atlantic City Weekly

When I was about ten, a teacher in school asked us to figure out how old we would be in the year 2000. I remember thinking, 46, that is so old!!

Well now it is 2010 and I’m still here. My dad, local sportswriting legend Harry Hoffman, died at the age of 56, so I’ve reached that milestone with an odd blend of relief and trepidation. And, as I contemplate the decade ahead, I remember with a wry grin my teens years as part of the large Baby Boomer Generation.

The name itself started this annoying trend of coming up with a nickname for all the generations since, Generation X, Generation Y and according to a quote from Dwight Yoakam this week during my interview with him, Generation Z. I guess my nephew Garrett, 18, falls into that group.

Those of us who came of age in 1960s and ’70s, born in the 1950s, figured we would not grow up to be like the old farts we were rebelling against as we protested against the war in Vietnam, and fought for Civil Rights and women’s lib (now there’s an antiquated term!).

Well guess what, I have turned into one of those old farts. Perhaps not in mind and spirit but certainly in the category of bitching about the cultural changes over the decades that are now really pissing me off.

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Rants and raves about burning topics that have caught my attention midweek, be it greedy corporate shenanigans, frustration or joy in regards to the Philly sports teams, a movie, show or DVD that has fired up my imagination, an intriguing personality, or my on-going battle to lose weight in our fast food world. — Lori Hoffman, Associate Editor, Atlantic City Weekly

Well I’ve decided to give into the obvious temptation to sum up the year and in this case, the decade that has passed in Atlantic City, NJ.

Let’s start with the obvious. Things have been better around here in the casino industry that drives this town, a lot better.

In fact it was not that long ago that Atlantic City was earning tons of praise for continuing its transform into a true destination resort. When the Borgata opened in July 2003, it ushered in an era of new prosperity. Atlantic City was instantly appealing to a younger demographic. The Borgata did everything in a big way and the other casinos felt the need to match this new industry giant. The improvements and expansions of many casinos in town, the success of The Walk, the Pier Shops at Caesars and the Pool After Dark at Harrah’s Resort provided more entertainment, late night and shopping options. Hotel rooms were being added, including the Borgata’s own Water Club.

Everything was coming up roses in our town but roses can wilt quickly and all that prosperity turned into near panic as the economic crash hit the casinos hard.

Carl Icahn

The hand wringing particulars included the expansion of slot parlors in Pennsylvania that took a serious bite out of revenues; the announcement of new casino construction, followed later by the news that all the new properties like Revel, Penn National Gaming and Pinnacle Entertainment were suspending their AC plans until the economy approved; and the bankruptcy woes faced by Trump Entertainment, the Tropicana and the possible foreclosure of Atlantic City’s first casino, Resorts.

Yes, there is a ton of gloom and doom in the air, but damn my optimism, there is a silver lining in that black cloud. The economy will get better. Billionaire Carl Icahn thinks so.

He heads a group of investors that bought the Tropicana, and he is looking to lock horns with Donald Trump for control of the Trump properties. The fact that the big boys still want to play in our sandbox is an encouraging sign. Sure, they are getting these properties at a fire sale, but the point is, they feel the economy will recover. It was also good news December 21 when it was reported that Colony Capital LLC handed Credit Suisse the deed to Resorts. That gives our town’s first casino new life.

Atlantic City will survive these trying economic times.

Rants and raves about burning topics that have caught my attention midweek, be it greedy corporate shenanigans, frustration or joy in regards to the Philly sports teams, a movie, show or DVD that has fired up my imagination, an intriguing personality, or my on-going battle to lose weight in our fast food world. — Lori Hoffman, Associate Editor, Atlantic City Weekly

Movie fanatics love to have fun putting together lists, especially when a decade comes to a close. In honor of that tradition, I’ve put together a list of my favorite movies from the past 10 years. In the ebb and flow of the movie biz, there seems to be an unforgettable decade of movies about every forty years. The decades that qualify in my book are the 1930s and the 1970s. If I can hold on for ten more years, perhaps the films of 2010-2019 will keep the trend going. In the meantime, here are the films from 2000-2009 that were the best of the best, a nice mix of epics, indie favorites and international cinema. For comedy fans, my apologies, but dramas and sci-fi are my two favorite genres.

In alphabetical order, my faves for the past decade:

Avatar (2009)
The Bourne Identity (2002)
Children of Men (2006)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
Far From Heaven (2002)
Garden State (2004)
An Inconvenient Truth (2006)
Kill Bill, Vol. 1 and II (2003, 2004)
The Lives of Others (2006)
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001, 2002, 2003)
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)
Memento (2003)
Million Dollar Baby (2006)
The Station Agent (2003)

James Cameron’s awesome blend of breakthrough technology and emotionally satisfying storytelling in Avatar lived up to my expectations. It’s a spectacular flight of fancy that has a strong enough story to keep up with — and be enhanced by — the OMG technology.

Back in 2002, hot indie filmmaker Doug Liman (Go, Swingers) invaded the land of Hollywood genre filmmaking with his blissfully old-fashioned spy thriller, The Bourne Identity. Although set in modern times, the movie’s ambiance is from the time when spies were out in the Cold War, spying around colorful European locations and John Le Carre set the standard.

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