June 1st, 2009 admin
So the Susan Boyle fairytale has ended and the most remarkable and uplifting human-interest story of this week has come to a close. Well good, quite frankly. Thank Christ she didn’t win! Not that I have anything against Susan Boyle - because I don’t - and not because she doesn’t have any talent - because clearly she does. What I object to is the Susan Boyle phenomenon brought about almost entirely by our sad and absurd obsession with lifestyle and appearance.
Had Susan Boyle delivered the exact same performance from behind the eyes of a 5’11, size 6 blond with a 34C chest, the world would have yawned and changed the channel. But because she happens to dress like a frump and exhibits little or no shame in looking like a cross between a giant koala bear and a haunted rag doll, she’s suddenly amazing. Now, please do not misunderstand: this is not Susan Boyle’s fault, it’s ours. The fact that we fawn over something like this because we can’t believe anyone so ordinary is capable of anything other than wasting away in their own filth (never mind exhibit an actual skill) means we should all be thoroughly ashamed of ourselves.
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May 19th, 2009 admin
“We’re outnumbered, and we have all lost so very much. If you’re listening to this, you are the resistance.” No, that’s not Christian Bale putting the word out to the beleaguered remnants of humanity in the trailer for the new movie Terminator: Salvation, but rather the message Sarah Connor Chronicles fans were putting to each as the rallied in an attempt to save their show.
On the bubble and under the gun from the word go, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles dodged the cancellation budget first time around by the narrowest of narrow margins. But now it seemed the notoriously impatient Fox executives, who expect their shows to perform well and perform now, were ready to pull the plug.
But rather than sit idly by while one of the richest and most involving sci-fi shows in recent years is put to the sword, presumably to accommodate yet more reality TV, fans organized and attempted to fight back. A campaign was launched under the banner of “Save Sarah Connor” whereby fans would take pictures of themselves with products that sponsored the show and post them online. Much like John Connor and his rag-tag, post-apocalyptic army; their goal is not to win this one single battle (they didn’t – the show sadly has been cancelled) but to win the larger cancellation war.
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February 21st, 2009 admin
Tomorrow night in Los Angeles, as the 81st Academy Awards commence, there will be a fevered buzz amongst indie fans and filmmakers the likes of which we’ve scarcely seen before. For the first time since, well, ever really, an indie picture has a legitimate shot at a major award. Several major awards actually, and while it’s still competing with the pricey prestige pictures and the Oscar-baiting biopics, Danny Boyle’s Dickensian fable Slumdog Millionaire is widely regarded as a Best Picture favorite. But we’re not quite there yet and lurking in the back of the mind are some very serious, well-founded doubts that invite the possibility that the Academy could just bottle it. Why? Because they’ve got a long and glittering history of doing just exactly that, as up to now they’ve had their very own get out of jail free card – the Best Original and Best Adapted Screenplay Oscars.
The Academy receives more than its share of shtick — labeled by some as being something of a stuffy, insulated, self-congratulatory organization more concerned with backslapping than rewarding good art. Indeed, last year’s audience figures (the lowest since 1974) combined with the exceptionally low gross of the night’s major nominees indicate that the gulf between what the Academy rewards and what average people on the street actually pay to see may even be widening. But let’s be honest, apart from a few alarming gaffs (hi, Driving Miss Daisy) they generally tend to get it right the majority of the time.
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January 24th, 2009 admin
The month of January really invites this discussion. January is a cinematic graveyard, a dumping ground where the unwanted and unworthy get tossed out there while prestige films get released amidst the Oscar buzz (this week sees the release of a film where a bloodthirsty creature from another world crash lands in the time of the Vikings and fights Jesus – seriously).
So who exactly is going to win then? We’ll make our predictions and then please feel free to make yours. We’ll go ahead and limit it to the “major” categories, but if you’re one of those people who will likely spend post-ceremony twilight hours stumbling drunk and naked through the streets, barking at strangers and parking meters that Wanted was robbed for best sound mixing, then feel free to add a category.
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December 31st, 2008 admin
The Dark Knight aside, 2008 would have to go down as a pretty underwhelming year in the grand scheme of things. A lot of promise, hype and pedigree culminated in an end product that was more often than not well, kinda crap really. But it wasn’t all bad and there were some clear winners this year with some real breakout performances delivered along with some more established players cementing their status as genuine heavy hitters. This year also produced its fair share of monumental, cataclysmic screen bombs that might not necessarily sink careers, but have certainly sunk a few franchises. So here is a brief summary of who made out this year and who will likely spend 2009 wandering the wastelands of career wilderness.
What’s Hot?
Josh Brolin – Following last year’s breakout supporting roles in such prestigious vehicles as American Gangster and In The Valley of Elah, capped off with a matured lead in Best Picture winner No Country for Old Men, Josh Brolin scored big in 2008. A quietly understated performance as the conflicted and unstable city councilman in Gus Van Sant’s Milk came hot on the heels of a star making turn in Oliver Stone’s ultimately rather pointless biopic of number W., where Josh amazingly managed to make Georgie and his daddy issues almost sympathetic. If there is one drawback, he is now almost certainly too famous for The Goonies sequel.
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December 20th, 2008 admin
**Warning – contains some spoilerage**
Christmas time is right around the corner. Decorations are being put up, credit cards are being maxed out, and cantankerous old relatives are being flown in for the requisite awkward domestic atmosphere. You know, all the usual good stuff. Though with the economy in the tank the way it is and people being layed-off in the tens of thousands all across the nation, this year more than ever we desperately find ourselves in need of some holiday cheer of bailout proportions.
As is customary during every holiday season many people turn to the movies. They’re cheap (relatively), they’re fun (providing whatever you’re watching doesn’t have Mark Wahlberg in it), and they also go a long way towards offsetting that aforementioned awkward domestic atmosphere. But to look at this year’s post-Thanksgiving line-up it’s a small wonder people aren’t walking out of theater right in front of the nearest bus, because boy is there some epic misery on display right now.
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December 12th, 2008 admin
This year sadly saw the passing of the legendary Paul Newman. With a career spanning more than fifty years Newman was not only a superb actor with buckets of charisma, but also a great philanthropist and ambassador for human kindness. Today also happens to see the release of Clint Eastwood’s latest picture Gran Torino, in which Clint saw a man so ill tempered yet so stoic in his masculinity that he felt he had no option but to step back in front of the camera himself, for what could conceivably be the last time. So it really begs the question of who exactly is going to replace the likes of these guys when they’re gone?
The screen icon is a phenomenon as old as cinema itself and the so-called “first movie star” Florence Lawrence dates back to 1909. From there the clumsy process slowly refined itself and the likes of Charlie Chaplin flourished before giving way to stars such as Bogart and Bergman, and later the likes of John Wayne and Henry Fonda. In the seventies the new wave kicked in and the focus shifted somewhat to the concept of the maverick director, but by the dawn of the eighties we were awash with the likes of Sylvester Stallone and of course “Ah-nuld!”
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