Cool News
The Exciting GOLDEN GLOBES TV Show Returns Sunday Night!!
I am – Hercules!!
“Never mind that the [Golden Globe] is considered a joke, given the dubious credentials of the 90-odd foreign journalists who pick the winners.”
-- Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
“Respect? Not much, especially from other journalists, who have publicly called [the Golden Globes voters] moochers, boneheads and bottom-feeders.”
-- Andy Seiler, USA Today
“[The Golden Globe voters are] freeloaders who would sell their votes for a vodka tonic and cross the Alps for a hot dog.”
-- Film historian Aljean Harmetz
“[The Golden Globe voters are] essentially just bottom-feeders around the industry, who've somehow been inflated to this point where their judgment is supposed to be very, very important.”
-- John Powers, L.A. Weekly
“[The Golden Globes represent a case of] let's sell the public a lie."
-- Producer Michael Phillips
"The Globes have long been the entertainment industry’s dirty little secret. At the heart of the con is the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn., the tiny, cliquish group of foreign entertainment journalists – and I use each of those terms liberally – whose votes determine the winners.
"The members of the association are not, generally speaking, film experts (like the people who judge the National Society of Film Critics awards) nor are they members of the creative community (like those who give out the Oscars). They’re not even representatives of prominent foreign publications, like Le Monde or the Guardian or Haaretz.
"Only a handful are full-time journalists; the rest are freelancers for mostly obscure publications, and some are simply hanging on for the parties and movie stars. To maintain their status in the organization, they need only write four articles a year."
-- Sharon Waxman, The Los Angeles Times
Read the rest of Waxman's illuminating 2008 piece on the Globes here.
The choices of organizations far more reputable than the so-called Hollywood Foreign Press Association:
-- Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
-- Andy Seiler, USA Today
-- Film historian Aljean Harmetz
-- John Powers, L.A. Weekly
-- Producer Michael Phillips
"The members of the association are not, generally speaking, film experts (like the people who judge the National Society of Film Critics awards) nor are they members of the creative community (like those who give out the Oscars). They’re not even representatives of prominent foreign publications, like Le Monde or the Guardian or Haaretz.
"Only a handful are full-time journalists; the rest are freelancers for mostly obscure publications, and some are simply hanging on for the parties and movie stars. To maintain their status in the organization, they need only write four articles a year."
-- Sharon Waxman, The Los Angeles Times
NATIONAL SOCIETY OF FILM CRITICS
The Hurt Locker
INTERNATIONAL PRESS ACADEMY
The Hurt Locker
NEW YORK FILM CRITICS
The Hurt Locker
LOS ANGELES FILM CRITICS
The Hurt Locker
(runner-up: Up in the Air)
CHICAGO FILM CRITICS
The Hurt Locker
DALLAS-FORT WORTH FILM CRITICS
Up In The Air
(runner-up: The Hurt Locker)
SAN FRANCISCO FILM CRITICS
The Hurt Locker
BOSTON FILM CRITICS
The Hurt Locker
WASHINGTON DC AREA FILM CRITICS
Up In The Air
HOUSTON FILM CRITICS
The Hurt Locker
DETROIT FILM CRITICS
Up
PHOENIX FILM CRITICS
Inglourious Basterds
ST. LOUIS FILM CRITICS
Up in the Air
(runner-up: The Hurt Locker)
SAN DIEGO FILM CRITICS
Inglourious Basterds
AUSTIN FILM CRITICS
The Hurt Locker
FLORIDA FILM CRITICS
Up in the Air
INDIANA FILM JOURNALISTS
Up In The Air
(runner-up: Fantastic Mr. Fox)
UTAH FILM CRITICS
Up in the Air
(runners-up (tie): The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds)
BROADCAST FILM CRITICS
The Hurt Locker
DENVER FILM CRITICS NOMINEES
The Hurt Locker
A Serious Man
Star Trek
Up in the Air
ROGER EBERT (THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES)
MAINSTREAM:
Bad Lieutenant
Crazy Heart
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Knowing
Precious
A Serious Man
Up In The Air
The White Ribbon
INDEPENDENT:
Departures
Disgrace
Everlasting Moments
Goodbye Solo
Julia
Silent Night
Sin Nombre
Skin
Trucker
You, The Living
(Special Jury Prize: Avatar)
MICHAEL PHILLIPS (THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE)
Up
Where The Wild Things Are
Waltz With Bashir
Of Time and the City
The Hurt Locker
A Serious Man
In The Loop
Sugar
Me and Orson Welles
A Single Man
MANOHLA DARGIS (THE NEW YORK TIMES)
Gomorrah
Tulpan
Summer Hours
The Hurt Locker
The Beaches of Agnes
Public Enemies
Beeswax
Ponyo
The Informant!
Where The Wild Things Are
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Avatar
RUNNERS-UP:
Of Time and the City
Frontier of Dawn
Tokyo Sonata
Sugar
Léon Morin: Priest
Julia
Star Trek
Anaglyph Tom
Séraphine
The English Surgeon
You, the Living
In the Loop
Import, Export
Lorna's Silence
A Perfect Getaway
The Baader Meinhof Complex
Big Fan
Unmade Beds
Crude
A Serious Man
Precious
The Messenger
Big River Man
35 Shots of Rum
Up in the Air
A Single Man
Invictus
Police, Adjective
A.O. SCOTT (THE NEW YORK TIMES)
Where The Wild Things Are
The Hurt Locker
In The Loop
Summer Hours
Of Time and the City
Up In The Air
Funny People
Bright Star
Medicine For Melancholy
Precious
Coraline
Avatar
District 9
A Serious Man
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
Goodbye, Solo
Sugar
Gomorrah
The Baader Meinof Complex
RUNNERS-UP:
La Danse
24 City
Invictus
Extract
Tyson
The Beaches Of Agnes
Crazy Heart
Still Walking
Broken Embraces
KENNETH TURAN (THE LOS ANGELES TIMES)
Bright Star
The Hurt Locker
An Education
Avatar
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Julie & Julia
Up
Up in The Air
CHILDREN OF SUNDANCE:
Amreeka
Adventureland
Big Fan
Sergio
DOCUMENTARIES:
Afghan Star
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
Soul Power
Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
More Than A Game
Tyson
Unmistaken Child
HARRY KNOWLES (AIN'T IT COOL NEWS):
District 9
Where The Wild Things Are
Up
Inglourious Basterds
The Square
Geu-rim-ja Sal-in (AKA Private Eye)
Avatar
Moon
Bronson
Fantastic Mr. Fox
JAY KNOWLES (AIN'T IT COOL NEWS)
Avatar (3-D)
Thirst
MicMacs
Up (3-D)
Lovely Bones
Me and Orson Welles
Where the Wild Things Are (IMAX)
The Hurt Locker
The Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Road
District 9
Kick Ass
Shutter Island
Sherlock Holmes
Inglourious Basterds
Solomon Kane
Star Trek (IMAX)
Invictus
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Coraline (3-D)
Men Who Stare at Goats
RUNNERS-UP:
Daybreakers
Bronson
Watchmen (IMAX)
Whip It
STEVE PROKOPY (AIN'T IT COOL NEWS):
Up In The Air
District 9
Inglourious Basterds
The Hurt Locker
Moon
Where The Wild Things Are
Bad Lieutenant: POCNO
An Education
The Informant!
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Star Trek
The Brothers Bloom
I Love You, Man
Antichrist
(500) Days of Summer
Adventureland
World’s Greatest Dad
Up
Zombieland
A Serious Man
Ponyo
In The Loop
Thirst
Coraline
Away We Go
The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus
Sin Nombre
Humpday
Goodbye, Solo
DOCUMENTARIES
Tyson
Anvil! The Story of Anvil
Best Worst Movie
The Cove
An Unlikely Weapon
The September Issue
Food Inc.
Winnebago Man
Harvard Beats Yale 29-29
The Yes Men Save The World
Herb & Dorothy
Walt & El Grupo
We Live In Public
Every Little Step
The Beaches of Agnes
RICHARD CORLISS (TIME)
The Princess and the Frog
Up
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Hurt Locker
Up in the Air
The White Ribbon
A Single Man
Of Time and the City
District 9
Thirst
PETER TRAVERS (ROLLING STONE)
Precious
Up In The Air
The Hurt Locker
An Education
Up
Where the Wild Things Are
A Serious Man
District 9
(500) Days of Summer
The Messenger
TIED FOR 11TH:
Inglourious Basterds
Capitalism: A Love Story
In the Loop
The Cove
Invictus
Public Enemies
Fantastic Mr. Fox
A Single Man
Nine
Tyson
DAVID GERMAINE (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS)
The Hurt Locker
Precious
The White Ribbon
Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans
Up
An Education
(500) Days of Summer
Passing Strange
Anvil: The Story of Anvil
The Damned United
CHRISTY LEMIRE (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Moon
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Up
District 9
A Serious Man
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Sugar
Passing Strange
Drag Me To Hell
LISA SCHWARZBAUM (ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY)
The Hurt Locker
Up
Coraline
Up in the Air
Where The Wild Things Are
Fantastic Mr. Fox
A Serious Man
Big Fan
District 9
Everlasting Moments
OWEN GLEIBERMAN (ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY)
Up in the Air
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
I Love You, Man
Food, Inc.
(500) Days of Summer
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Girlfriend Experience
The Hurt Locker
Adventureland
DREW McWEENY (HITFIX):
Enter The Void
Where The Wild Things Are
Inglourious Basterds
Fantastic Mr. Fox
A Serious Man
District 9
World’s Greatest Dad
Up in the Air
Avatar
In The Loop
AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE
Coraline
The Hangover
The Hurt Locker
The Messenger
Precious
A Serious Man
A Single Man
Sugar
Up
Up in the Air
THE NATIONAL BOARD OF REVIEW
An Education
(500) Days of Summer
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Invictus
The Messenger
A Serious Man
Star Trek
Up
Where The Wild Things Are
If you’ve a mind to, feel free to forward anything else you think might belong on this page. My email is herculesAICN@yahoo.com.
And remember: if “The Hurt Locker,” “Up in the Air,” “Inglourious Basterds,” “Avatar” or “Precious” gets nominated for an Oscar this year, it’s because the bullshit Golden Globes gave it an award tonight, and NOT because Oscar voters were clued in days and weeks ago by the real critics.
8 p.m. Sunday. NBC.
Follow Herc on Twitter!!
CHEAPEST LOST EVER!!
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CHEAPEST LOST EVER!!
$16.99 Season One!!
$16.99 Season Two!!
$16.99 Season Three!!
$19.99 Season Four!!
$19.99 Season Five!!
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Jan 17, 2010 5:41:46 AM CST
To Hell with this Crap! 24 is on Tonight
by rickety_crickets_bionic_legs
Thank you Jesus for bring back Jack Bauer and his Jack Sack.
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People care more about the outfits and which famous communist makes the most inappropriate rant anyway.
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Bullshit awards aside, I'm watching for Ricky Gervais' hosting.
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But jumping to the conclusion that if the same nominated movies get oscar noms it's because of the Golden Globes...? That's a bigger pile. Now, if NINE gets any real oscar nods (aside from music, song, costume whatever) then you know there's the same funny business going on cause that was a FUCKING SHITHOLE of film
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...to get some cheap laughs? Y'know, like last year? (To be fair, I can't remember if it were at the Globes, the Emmies or the Oscars when he did that.)
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That sounded extremely rantish and bitchy, Herc.
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Watching for him mostly, and I'm kinda curious if he's gonna take some shots at the nbc fuckwits for screwing up primetime and late night.
I thought he was pretty funny on Conan earlier this week. -
... so I might tune in. Plus, it would be interesting to see if any presenters hazard a quip about the late night wars, especially if mention of Leno's name gets booed.
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I was wondering if they'd use a CGI Bea Arthur.
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It is a Sunday Night with fresh Masterpiece Theater, and I know the females in the family - who outnumber me - shall want to watch Return to Cranford, which is a tolerable English Melodrama. *Prays he does not have to hand in his man card yet*
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God I hope so. :-P
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Awards shows are for the weak minded. You know, the same boobs that watch Deal or No Deal. They post the results everywhere, and what're ya gonna do if your favorite does not win? Forget about it by next year so you can invest another 4 hours then? Watch 24! If you need a time waster, at least 24 is not a fast paced American Idol.
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cue Sofía Vergara joke
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Boring and vanilla as could be. Shame on you smug elitists that think so. Now that the British Office is on Adult Swim, it is being exposed for its hackishness. Those that formally praised it are already begining to silence.
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With all due respect, peckerhead, I'm neither an elitist nor am I silenced. The Office (I refer to it as "The Office", not the "UK Office"...there is only one "The Office"), but I wish Sandra Bernhard's earings to scratch the inner thigh of your wife's leg you silly silly man!
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Thanks for convincing me to watch the Globes. Gervais's commentary, at least, is going to be wittier than any of the "reviews" that get posted here.
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in his monologue. The timing is couldn't be better and NBC is his fucking bitch. A live broadcast would be the perfect opportunity to throw in some unplanned scathing jokes at NBC's expense.
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Jan 17, 2010 11:15:42 AM CST
This is the award show where you give back the award, right?
by soylentmean
Doesn't the previous year's winner in every category essentially "pass the torch" to this year's winner? If so, wow, that's lame.
I will give you a trophy and then I will take it back. -
like the Grammys, where you can win an award for best bladder control during a drum solo, best song almost written, best placement of a barcode on a product, and best use of the letter "I".
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But I have to admit, I do find that they award movies that I admire more often than the Oscars.
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Who or whatever wins a Golden Globe, just count on someone else in that category winning the Oscar!
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I know the industry and they're almost without exception all "moochers, boneheads and bottom-feeders" doing everything they can for freebies and junkets. Still, if the Globes are so bad and the industry knows it, why keep promoting it. Morons.
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because this is the time of year when people are chucking around "best of last year" lists and we want to judge last year immediately. These days asking people to wait 3 more months before they can blow their yearly cinema exalting load is too long. Golden Globe watchers are either impatient, gullible, overenthusiastic, or just bored.
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Who doesn't like to watch celebrities getting drunk or teary eyed and saying goofy things? It's the least pompous award show I've ever seen. Does it MEAN Anything? Of Course Not. And the Celebrities know that. It's basically a Big Party. And usually a pretty fun one. Who didn't enjoy Sacha Baron Cohen's "anus and testicles" speech or Mary Louise Parker thanking her newborn for making her boobs look good in her dress?And the Golden Globes are known for making out of the box choices and honoring things before other people do. THE X FILES for example got an early boost from their awards.
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Anything involving 30 Rock wins, despite the show's awful ratings (which means no one likes it).
Meryl Streep wins in any category she's nominated, same goes for Alec Baldwin.
Everything else is just pulling names out of a hat. -
Do any of the awards mean anything? Seems to me it's all what my acting teacher referred to as a "meeting of the mutual masturbation society". Who cares how "legitimate" the people giving the award are. It's all just a bunch of celebrities and hangers-on telling each other how great they are.
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Did anyone else see that earlier this week? So good. Gervais started off by quickly plugging his own stuff and then spent almost the whole rest of the time roasting Conan and trying to find out what he was going to do now.
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and LOL @ the fucking retard calling the original Office vanilla, go watch Two and a Half Men you cunt.
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was father geek? I liked that movie
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I'm watching to see Gervais diss NBC.
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No? Then I don't care...
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I just laughed then threw up in my mouth! Please tell me you're not seriously putting AICN "critics" in the same company as verteran, skilled critics such as Roger Ebert and A.O. Scott. I'm not saying I disagree with many of the worthy movies on your lists, but any talkbalker has as much credibility as Harry, etc. Granted the Globes are bogus, but the show itself is often entertaining. I'm watching for Gervais, Nicholson, and Rourke. Those three + booze = entertainment.
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"There were about 5 things (from the opening that they told him were too risque). So I told them that I wouldn't say them, but I'm going to say them."
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I hope there are TONS of jokes about the NBC Leno/Conan dispute...this kind of gold mine only comes around once in a while, and it's ripe for the plucking, and once it's over we won't have these jokes to tell. Please, please, PLEASE let Gervais go all out. I want the whole shebang, no matter how squirm-inducing it is for the audience--the more squirming for celebs, the BETTER I say. I want Tiger Woods rips and mockery of AVATAR (even though I liked it), but what I DON'T want are any "safe" jokes. Can't stand the "Man, L.A. is a crazy town, I saw a hooker standing outside today yatta yatta yatta" kind of jokes. Gervais, in the land of Uptight Rich Americans, the lone Brit is KING!!!! Let em have it! Bwahahahahahaha...anyways...we're all just floating...
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it has its moments, and i watch it, it just bothers me how every episode there seems to be some big party and most of the jokes end up either about somebody being a drunk or david being awkward in a party situation
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Jan 17, 2010 6:01:05 PM CST
Herc hates Ricky Gervais. Herc hates The Office (the Original).
by michaeljacksonlovedthegoldenglobes
Herc hates the Golden Globes. What is it that you have against us? All the Ricky Gervais non-fans, need to check out the Ricky Gervais show and Karl Pilkington to realize how well read Gervais and Merchant is. Pilkington is a genius. I am not connected to Gervais in any way, commercially. I've listened to all his recordings. Herc is petty, a petty, petty cunt. I live in Toronto, Canada. If I'm banned again, it just shows how petty AICN is. hahahahahaha
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so honestly fuck his opinion. I don't know how Whedon has such an incredibly faithful fanbase, but it's hilarious to see his shows get cancelled. I don't want to be an arse, but it's just so pleasing to see Whedon fans get invested into a series and then have it crash.
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At least half of this "press association" probably melted if they ever got face time with Clooney. His movie should be a lock.
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Who should we get to replace Helen Mirren in Precious? I KNOW! Mariah Carey!
Brilliant! -
was fucking inexplicable. Holy shit. Anna took it like a champ though.
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Hendricks alert!
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he looks snazzy
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Golden Globing on here tonight?!
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Trinity owns all.
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Being used as "bait" to try and lure George Clooney in by that Guiliana on E.
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well one award down. i mean... good for monique, but REALLY?! really?! i haven't seen the movie, did she really deserve this?
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She had, like, one big emotional scene, but she probably did more than the other ones nominated here.
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I see knives and forks and booze but not any food on the plates. Or plates at all. Is it just supposed to *look* like a dinner? Just watched Gervais' opening for the jokes, now gonna work for 50 minutes then it's the hour of bauer power.
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then maybe i'll reserve judgment until i see "precious" on HBO.
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i too am only waiting for 24 to start
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Shes not american? Wow.
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You didn't know she was Australian? So far Gervais was pretty solid.
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AHHHH!!!
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Hell yeah
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I'm happy.
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So, is that like the first award it's ever received? About damn time.
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Yeah, I had no idea. She does a great American accent
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Parenthood? Didn't they already try that as a TV show years ago?
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Does Michael C. Hall have cancer? I'm being sincere here too, like... really?
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some people had no idea what to do. wasn't shocked by no shot of brad and engelina at the chinese baby joke.(bet that was one nbc said no to) and loved the "better hurry up before nbc replaces me with jay leno."( bet that was another)
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but its in remission. He's almost beat it.
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I've noticed they only really play off non famous people. John Lithgow just gushed and goozed over nonsense(ps Michael C. Hall does not look well. I guess the globes were his reason for coming out of the cancer closet.)but meanwhile the dude from UP gets like 20 seconds tops.
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Has to explain Michael C. Halls presence.
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I had no idea about Michael C. Hall's cancer, I hope all turns out well and yeah he didn't look particularly good in that cutaway shot.
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Are just hearing about Haiti for the first time from watching the golden globes.
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Did something happen down there?
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Gervais is banned from nbc after tonight.
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What the FUCK am I staring at right now!? This man is truly frightening.
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This is awesome.
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MCH deserves it
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*scattered applause* Poor Mrs. Kevin Bacon...
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Was that a dig at NBC? When MCH said "I love to work at a place where everybody gives a damn?" Go MCH
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I do like the novels, though.
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on the cheek is a win/win situation for hilarity.
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Is everyone is digging at NBC? FUCK YEA The "having faith in a 10 O'clock drama" comment by JM
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Damn, everybody's taking their digs at NBC.
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Lithgow, Julianna, Hall, and Monique...
Refreshing. Although Mad Men is still easily the best thing going. -
is so blazed haha
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...to this day is how The Wire never got any goddamn recognition at all throughout its entire series run, best show to ever run on TV and it got nothing, such bullshit.
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Probably the only way they could get him there.
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He was weeeeeeird. I like it.
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Seriously ... 40 seconds is plenty. Get off the stage you fat bitches.
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Jan 17, 2010 7:58:49 PM CST
Who's the asshole who decides, start the music during the speech
by orionsangels
Hurry up. You're not as important as other actors.
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Now he's just old. He's half asleep when he's not acting.
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I bet Sir Paul was trying to get his finger wet all night. Boopity Doop.
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Jan 17, 2010 8:03:20 PM CST
Now Meryl Streep gets to talk for ten minutes of course.
by orionsangels
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wait you're not drew barrymore...cue the music. Meryl Streep, we'll cancel conan to let you gush about your mom and julia childs.
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Just like the Abby Elliot impersonation last night on SNL. Can't she ever just say "thank you" instead of feigning surprise and then torturing the viewers with several minutes of self-important rambling?
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SHe's still talking!
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only 65 year old on Earth that I want to fuck.
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Is it me or did she seem fake?
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Drew (nips ahoy) Barrymoore!
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Gervais rocks!
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Pretty emotional speech by Jason Reitman. Though he got the music cue as well.
Is it just me or are they doing all this superfast? -
Jan 17, 2010 8:29:21 PM CST
Yeah super fast until an elite superstar wins. They can talk for
by orionsangels
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You could put an entire paragraph in the subject line. I'm still wondering what the point is of having a subject line. It just gives us extra work. We have to click on the subject just to see a post. Why not get rid of the subject and just have the main post appear?
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what is she, royalty?
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Jan 17, 2010 8:34:43 PM CST
Geez it's just Sophia Lauren, not the queen of england!
by organized chaos
and what the hell is Leo doing here? ain't gonna be none for you tonight buddy!
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Jan 17, 2010 8:37:44 PM CST
You're german and not famous in the states. cue the music early.
by orionsangels
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He'd probably make the music stop, by waving his hand like a Jedi.
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Jan 17, 2010 8:42:08 PM CST
Hercules, you need to get out of the industry if you're going
by johncarteroffarts
to spout off this kind of hatred. Get yourself together. Great news about Michael C Hall, though you should have won years before
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for the Mad Men guy?
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I wonder if the actor who plays Pete Campbell was told to grow that beard in preparation for season 4 filming or is she relaxing in between seasons? If season 4 is indeed a jump ahead of 3 years, the beard kinda makes sense.
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Jan 17, 2010 8:46:23 PM CST
Poor taylor lautner has to speak while people are going back to
by organized chaos
Go 500 days
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... agreed. Wow, even the wifey was like "holy hell, she looks hot".
Even though Dexter didn't win for the show, it's great to see Hall and Lithgow win - amazing work they did this season.
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Damn! HBO bends over backwards to distance the show from Mormons, and there she goes, blowing all their hard work.
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BUT WHY?
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Really. Fucking. Beautiful.
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appalling.
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But the "hot 35 mm stock" crack was pretty good.
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"New York, New York"
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one shot of him ruined my whole evening
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was a nice touch lol. Yay free publicity!!!
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These award shows are one big circle jerk, at least Gervais doesn't mind offending people.
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That's whats good.
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Best Director? Really? REALLY? Damn good film but... I don't see it.
See, even he admitted it. -
Mel Gibson is one scary motherfucker LoL
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What a joke...he was the least deserving. This award was bought. The movie stunk. I'm going to really laugh my ass off if it wins best picture. it wont even be nominated for the Oscar for best director or picture haha
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Must be out of the Wilderness.
Cameron? Yawn. -
No fucking way that deserves to win over The Office, or Modern Family.
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Did he REALLY just speak a bit of the Navi language in his acceptance speech? Barf!
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is hot....
I think Community should be at least nominated. It's a funny show -
Best bit of the night for Gervais!
And as long as Cameron doesn't win for best picture, I'm cool with him getting the director nod... -
Do you realize how hard of a movie Avatar was to pull off, and pull it off well? You do know Cameron had to invent new technology just to make the movie?...and this technology will have a more lasting impact on the industry then any single movie will. Cameron aimed higher and pushed himself further then any of the other nominees. Plus, a man who can make two CGI cat-aliens the focus of a drama - and make it work perfectly - deserves some sort of award.
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You do realize that Avatar is the front-runner for best Picture along with Up in the Air. Your seriously an idiot if you don't think it will get a Best Pic and Director nod.
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Jan 17, 2010 9:28:18 PM CST
James Cameron by far the most deserving
by turd_has_risen_from_the_grave
Avatar was an astonishing achievement. Cameron deserves his award. Ah, the Avatar train keeps on a-rumbling."The award was bought off! The box office grosses are only because of ticket mark-ups! People may like Avatar now, but in a few years time they'll realize that's it's a shitty movie! The Earth is flat and the moon is made of cheese!"LOL!
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Give the man a prize.
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i hate being drunk
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Jan 17, 2010 9:32:07 PM CST
Mel tld Ricky as he walked off stage. You're dead after the show
by orionsangels
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Seriously...have you idiots defending Avatar seen a movie in the last 20 years?
By your own logic, Jurassic Park should have won every award on the planet due to the T-Rex and Velociraptor characters...if you consider blue flat-nosed mongoloids to be some amazing innovation in characters. Or how about The Phantom Menace with Jar Jar Binks? As bad as he was, George Lucas was putting CG characters amongst real actors a decade ago. Cameron did nothing but steal everyone else's ideas...hell, he even stole his own ideas because half of the movie looks like it was deleted scenes from Aliens.
Avatar was garbage. The end. But then again, maybe some of you are so stupid that James Cameron hypnotized you with his talk about how amazing the movie was 5 years before it even came out. I'm sure some moron actually believes what he says.
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500 Days of Summer was so much better!
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Jan 17, 2010 9:33:35 PM CST
Avatar is going to make over $2 billion dollars worldwide
by turd_has_risen_from_the_grave
Even I wasn't nutty enough to predict THAT.
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AAAAA...
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Awesome. Soooo awesome.
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The bitterness drips off your post like grease off Devin Faraci's unwashed fat rolls. Come to think of it, that douche must be reaching for the cyanide right now! Happy days!
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Avatar's script was still an utterly predictible clichefest. Not one original thought in its empty head.
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Seriously...same thing. The only difference is Beowulf didnt have any real stuff thrown in...oh, and Beowulf was 100x better, actually.
So why didn't Robert Zemeckis win a Golden Globe for best director? I'm trying to figure out what Avatar did that no other movie has ever done -
What is this I don't even...
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Stop pushing that weak theme. Always gotta throw a nod at the tag line in the thank you.
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what is the fascination with that movie?! 500 days ftw
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I'm about as bitter as you are funny...not at all. I'm just speaking the truth. I could care less who wins, which is why I didn't say who should win instead. It's just odd that the only person who DIDNT deserve to win is the one that did.
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Jan 17, 2010 9:39:55 PM CST
The Hangover won for best comedy/musical
by turd_has_risen_from_the_grave
Now there's a movie whose success that for the life of me I can't figure out. It wasn't terrible or anything, but simply a mildly amusing comedy. Why did it make so much money?
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Because people like being mildly amused I guess.
DOWNEY JR. YESSS. -
glad you're here to inform us all. And what's wrong with my jokes? I'm a comic genius. I think you are, too, with your suggestion that Cameron is the one person who didn't deserve to win. A laugh riot.
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Jan 17, 2010 9:43:52 PM CST
If that's funny then show me the websites that says Cameron will
by slimbutnotreally
No one saw it coming...because Avatar sucked. That's why no one predicted it. See?
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and should be the inside fav for the emmy....the man is brilliant
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Yes it was at 8 pm. If you are on the East Coast. I missed the entire show, but I just got to see RDJ's speech.
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Seriously we know GG is a joke! Cameron and Streep for that matter makes me sick! They gush and act like its all a surprise if they win an award and they know goddamn they had one in the bag months before the show!
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But Joseph Gordon Levitt was so much more deserving in a much better movie.
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"if you play violins I will tear this place apart"
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Jan 17, 2010 9:48:26 PM CST
"No one saw it coming...because Avatar sucked. That's why no one
by turd_has_risen_from_the_grave
Wow, that's really convincing logic. fucking hell, next you'll be telling me the flying spaghetti monster exists because there's no mention of it in any holy book.
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The CG wasn't the best.
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Haven't seen the movie yet, but still.....It's The Dude!
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JP won for best visuals in every award possible. So that was justified. The first CG humanoid like character though, that worked for me was Gollum and now Avatar. In 20 years that's it. That says a lot. While not perfect, what they managed to do was make me forget they were CG. That's not an easy thing to do. Apparently only Weta can do that so far.
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no 500 days love.
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For the majority of the planet. This is there first 3D movie. Simple as that.
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Reitman looked pissed off.
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UGH.
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When he won for best writer he acted all surprised and said he's waiting for them to call Quentin's name...yet when he doesn't win for best director and picture...he looks like an angry 14 year old.
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It's a whole lot of fun being an Avatar fan right now. Ya did good James.
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Jan 17, 2010 9:59:14 PM CST
Zoe Saldana is the only thing that held that movie together...
by commiepinko
storywise.
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How can this shit win over The Hurt Locker! Chrissake, they might as well stand in line to suck Cameron cock!
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EVER.
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It's a loong loong line.
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the faces on Reitman and Tarintino were priceless
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Indeed!
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Any comments against that. That proceeds this comment. Doesn't count!
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Too fucking true.
Ferngully 2: Thundersmurf Boogaloo.
I don't care how much money it makes. I don't care how people still slobber over it. It's still a juvenile, trite, predictible cartoon.
AHHHHHHH!!!!!!! -
It was the Populist awards this year. Cameron, Bullock, and RDJ? Really?
They awarded the most popular, most lucrative movie instead of the best. -
The Avatar haters are throwing their toys out of the crib. Love it.
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hahahaha, suck on that haters...
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Was walking inside the house after a smoke and the teevee was on the post-game show and they were talking to NPH and I'm pretty sure he just said "fucked up". After 11, but still. Too much vino for Dr. Horrible.
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was the best movie I've seen in like, five years.
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Jan 17, 2010 10:08:36 PM CST
Blue Smurf offered nothing already seen in a videogame!
by hollywoodhellraiser
New? Yeah, if you been hiding in a cave for the last 20 yrs!
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Have a good night.
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I think I would prefer Tarantino get it, because Basterds is the best movie of the year and the best thing tarantino's done in a decade, but on the other hand, Cameron basically spent the last 5 years making this movie, and it ended up being both awesome and a massive hit, so good for him. He still can't give an acceptance speech to save his life though.
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as the Second Coming of Cinematic Jesus.....If Avatar is a "revolution in film", I weep for the medium.
All the pretty pictures cannot change the fact that the script was as original and subtle as an old Captain Planet episode.
Flashy visuals should not be a substitute for a crap script. -
should have won for best screenplay, not Up in the Air from that nepotic beneficiary, Jason Reitman. But then dear old Quentin's head, a man with a much greater ego than Cameron(who actually has a dry sense of humor and is self-deprecating) would have swollen up like a ripe old watermelon. As if it wasn't physically large enough already.
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best drama???? lol best melodrama of the year was precious best subtle dramedy was up in the air best drama was the hurt locker when will you avatar nuts admit that the movie STEALS heavily from other, better made films
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Guaranteed #1 all time both WW and Domestic. 84% Fresh rating on both Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic. Now Best Picture Golden Globes and a strong chance of picking up Oscars.
But yeah, the movie sucks. Sure. Keep singing that tune. Keep singing it about Star Trek, TF2...Hell, just keep being absolutely wrong about everything. It's hilarious. -
Jan 17, 2010 10:14:08 PM CST
Haters must be the new word for people who aren't mouthing Camer
by hollywoodhellraiser
Gotta love the logic of being deemed a hater just because you have a different opinion.Those intellectual basement dwellers seemed a tad bitter considering Cameron win!
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Look, I was behind Cameron with Avatar, even when the hater bandwagon started to form, but COME ON! I will give Avatar credit to where it deserves it, it has changed everything TECHNOLOGICALLY in Hollywood forever. Best Picture? Sorry, but no. Up in the Air and the Hurt Locker were well told stories...not Dances with Na'vi
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They're different things. Especially on my 2nd viewing, it becomes apparent how well everything is constructed. Its a 2 and a half hour movie, and there isn't any wasted screentime, every scene is either setting up something important, or paying off something that was set up. In terms of being unoriginal in following the classical hero's journey, thats intentional to allow an easy introduction into this new universe. I'll agree, you can fault it for some bad dialogue, but in terms of story structure, its perfect.
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a list of films that dont steal, and plunder from numerous pre-ceding films, then I can maybe begin to take your point seriously......
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He'd BETTER get the screenplay oscar, and hopefully best picture or director
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what is missing from avatar is character development...that is a fact cameron was so intent on wowing the audience with his visuals, he forgot all about what made films like aliens so special....you fucking cared about the characters i didnt give a shit about that fucking criple or the blue people the bad guys were corporate cut outs, and the jar heads were all straight out of central casting the movie kept bashing you on the head with messages that totally took me out of the moment im glad that cameron is king of the world...the dude is a geek, and geeks now control every form of media i just expect better from the guy...he is not michael bay
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I don't give a shit anymore.
I haven't truly liked anything Cameron has been involved in since Strange Days (directed by Katherine Bigelow, a TRUE filmaker). So this neither surprises me nor particularly concern me.
Cameron keeps cranking out his cartoons and you'll keep lapping them up. Good on him.
Frankly, I can't see the difference between Cameron and George Lucas anymore. -
throwing their toys out the cot indeed.....Whaaa! it used cgi. Whaaaa! it was nt original like all those "original" films in my delusional mind. Whaaaa! its populist and not elitist and art house enough.......bwahahahahh....
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was a leftist slant... go h-town!
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Jim next time get someone to write a script.....if you really want to give us something "never seen before" do it!!!!!!!!!! don't just hang your hat on bringing us something pretty to look at
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yes...there is nothing new under the sun but shit, dont make it so fucking blatant christ, everyone knows that star wars is basically a remake of the seven samurai....but you didnt walk out of the theater saying that cameron got lazy with the script...he borrowed from all of his previous films and took from others...he did the same exact thing with titanic, swiping whole scenes from the 1950s version of the movie....its fucking lazy, and he is better than that
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It's been so long, I can't really tell.
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is nt incredible technical filmaking just as worthy of praise? Isnt film as much a technical medium as it is artisitic? Why should nt a film useing cgi deserve praise? Actors playing cgi characters (Gollum, Davy Jones, Neteryi) deserve to be recognized for such good performances, maybe one day you guys will join us here in the 21st centuary....And why the fuck should nt a pulp serial sci-fi film win at awards useally allergic to sci-fi films? I dont know who the fuck can call themselves a geek and at least not take some pleaseure in the fact that a sci-fi film will be the biggest bo film of all time again, and that Avatar could be the first sci-fi film to finally get recognized by the Oscars. At least it will finally breal open the doors to sci-fi getting the recognition it deserves.....
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I still think Bigelow takes the Oscar. It's a chance to make history, and the Academy sure loves to pat itself on the back. Avatar probably wins best pic and takes most of the tech awards. Bridges gets best actor, Bullock wins best actress, Waltz and Mo'Nique in supporting. Anyway, good for Cameron and Avatar. Not my pick for best of the year, but a terrific MOVIE nonetheless.
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one had different tastes, but your point are purely subjective, I did nt feel that way about the characters at all. And many people would disagree with you completely.....
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Jan 17, 2010 10:30:53 PM CST
Cameron's script for Avatar is excellent
by turd_has_risen_from_the_grave
That's why it was nominated for a WGA award. I suggest you jokers actually study it, because it could easily be broken down and demonstrably shown to be well crafted, with scenes advancing the plot, character arcs, pay offs, etc. Cameron took an epic story, that was diificult to plan out because of the amount of exposition and supporting characters, and made it extremely clear, efficient and streamlined. No easy task.
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Jan 17, 2010 10:31:15 PM CST
What worse than Cameron BS win is Sandra Bollocks!
by hollywoodhellraiser
Are the GG telling the world that Sandra Bollocks is going to win a Best Actress Oscar for that medicore performance thats scene on Lifetime and soaps everyday???Seriously, the women from Mad Man, Damage, and Son Of Anarchy give better performances!I'd rather see them get an Oscar!Sandra Bollocks potential of getting an Oscar is a disgrace!For real people? For real?
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don't you think you deserve better than this souless, gearhead clichefest? Is there one moment that you didn't see coming from a mile off? Didn't you want to be surprised? Didn't you want some characters to actually give a shit about that weren't cardboard cutouts?
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Dude, has used the word Hater so much, I think he has it tatoo on his ass!
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Definitely, Cameron takes the award for bad speeches. The first one where he spoke Na'vi was cringeworthy...and then the second one where he told a room full of Hollywood folks to congratulate themselves, a paraphrased version would be: "You're all winners, people, so give yourselves a pat on the back." Pure cheese. Honorable mention goes to Drew Barrymore's awful speech. How does that airhead continue to get work? Who is she blowing? And did anyone notice an awkward tension when the 300 guy came out with Rachel from friends, and was like, "I'm so happy to presenting this with you," in a sarcastic voice? Weird.
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just not a very good movie.
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was in very huge ways similar to those of other movies. I expected it to ruin my experience. I doubted the fuck out of this movie But you know what? A strange thing happened. The movie started and I stopped giving a fuck. I was absorbed by everything including, yes, the narrative. If that's not a sign of a great director, I don't know what is. Cameron is a master.
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Hurt Locker will get best pic and best director. The Golden Globes are closer to the MTV awards than the Oscars. People should know that by now. Half the people in the room looked pissed when Avatar won anything.
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of course im being subjective but im sorry, when i know what the plot points are after watching only 5 minutes of a movie, it is not a good movie maybe its cuz im old and jaded and have watched too many movies, but i was hoping that avatar wasnt just another rehash of the great white hope saving the poor ignorant colored people
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Jan 17, 2010 10:42:07 PM CST
The best scenes in Avatar were all character based
by turd_has_risen_from_the_grave
The most affecting scene of the lot is when we see Jake with his atrophied legs, juxtaposed directly after scenes of flying exuberance, looking dejected and unkempt in his real body, like a waking zombie. Why do you think that Cameron waited till that moment, deep into the film, when we had become accustomed to all the visual kineticism and beauty, to show you Jake's disability properly for the first time? Very deliberate. That scene, without dialogue, tells you everything you need to know about that character. It's little touches like that that show Avatar to be crafted by a master storyteller. It's amazing how these critics of Avatar keep harping on about a 'simple story' but only analyze things on a superficial surface level. Avatar is filled with metaphor and deeper resonances. It is a profoundly lyrical and beautiful film, and that is one of the things I was not neccessarily expecting from it. These aspects clearly go over the heads of the unimaginative.
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small independent films. How many young people are going to get into film after seeing Avatar? a lot.
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HURT LOCKER is the best pic of the year but I'd gladly have Avatar win over Up In The Air
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THe main thing I was doing while watching it was re writing the script in my head to keep my brain from shutting down.
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OK, I agree there were a few clunky lines, but almost evey film has those. It's entirely forgiveable. No film has the perfect screenplay. That said, I thought the script was smart and beautifully constructed. It hit all the neccessary notes a film story needs to hit in order to take the viewer on a joruney. I felt it had some real emotional weight to it. The scene where the Hometree is demolished was quite powerful. I could go on. Suffice to say, the story was simultaneously accesible to people from all over the world and it was exciting and involving.
Even the dreaded Voice Over was handled inteliigently. Filmmakers (and fans) know what a risky step using voice over is. It's so over used and it can often fuck up a film. Cameron handled it cleverly and made it all part of the lead character's video log. He ingrained the v.o. right into the fabric of the movie of itself. I thought that was admirable.
I know nothing can deter the haters from being disgusted by Avatar. It's really too bad you guys loathed it so much. Seriously. I wish this film had a common, positive, consensus. Instead it's polarized genre fans. I really thought it was magical. No, not perfect, but what film is? -
Opinions are assholes, you are one :)
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Absolutely dead-on. There are character moments in this movie that are absolutely devastating. Jake admitting to the videolog that he can't tell what's real anymore. The bittersweet smile on Grace's avatar face in Jake's manhood ceremony. The laugh Jake and Neytiri share after they elude the leonoptryx. Neytiri embracing Jake's broken and atrophied human body. Terrific movie.
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oh please...jake is promised the ability to walk if he helps the earthlings obliterate the navi...which he gladly does for most of the movie, until he gets a real whiff of navi pussy...which is a fucking shitty plot point btw, care to explain super hispanic chick's sudden tranformation into han solo? lyrical films dont constantly smack you over the head with messages...and im a fucking lib, but even i got tired of the whole bush and the neocons are bad...its what turned me off to the fuckin prequels
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I call clumsy, obvious manipulation. Even those had a rote, predictability to them. I was just bored.
But whatever. -
worthington cannot do an american accent to save his fucking life millions spent on a movie and they couldnt afford a good accent coach? and they sure as shit didnt seem to care, as his english accent kept popping in and out
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I'll actually take the Prequels over Avatar. At least those had a couple character I could root for.
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and it honestly was a thousand times more entertaining and less stuffy than the fucking Oscars. Everyone looks like they're genuinely having a good time and, (obviously the alcohol), feeling loose. It doesn't feel as self-important as most of the other shows (even if the winners do - Streep, Barrymore), and for the most part they come off like a bunch of people who just work in the same business instead of studio-created robots, as they do at the Oscars. I'll be watching this from now. Also, if Avatar wins the Oscar after this, it's definitely going at least a hundred million beyond Titanic.
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Was sure hurt Locker would win, and am sure it will win the Oscar
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cuz i really wanted to like the movie, and i did think it was beautiful...but 30 years after the advent of the blockbuster, i just want a bit more
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Avatar is getting repeat viewings and making billions. So a billion dollars worth of people are seeing Avatar and then afterwards they wanna see it again. It must be bad. Sherlock Holmes is obviously better. According to you. The minority, right? Sherlock Holmes look reminds me of that Wild wild wild west will smith bullshit! CG infested 19th century movies.
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Well done, all brilliant, all very deserving
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Those fucks take themselves way to seriously.
The awful "im shocked" speeches. The losers pretending to adore the winners. The standing ovations for no reason. I could go on. Just make good films and i'll watch. -
Jan 17, 2010 10:58:24 PM CST
archer1949....the only character i liked from the prequels
by brabon300
was the emperor...and i think that was more due to the actor than lucas' hamhanded direction and awful scripts...i did like darth maul, but he wasnt given enough to do
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I avoided all information about it. I actually was intrigued by the scant gossip that trickled through about it.
When I saw the first teaser trailer, my heart sank. It could not have been as blockheadly cliched as it looked, could it?
But it was. It was as if Cameron just got out of a screewriting class and this was his final project. He spent all that time and effort on THAT? I don't get it.
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im not saying avatar is bad...its just not great, and if you are gonna spend half a bil making a movie...it better be great and say what you want about holmes, its much closer to the literary holmes than any of the prior treatments hopefully in the sequel they will show holmes snorting coke
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can't understand why they can't get a girlfriend. It isn't opinion that the movie wasn't perfect. It also isn't a line drawn in the sand that it was terrible. There are more than 2 ways to feel about a movie. Avatar is NOT a perfect masterpiece. I enjoyed the eye candy. That is all. Avatar is jacking off not a real relationship. SUCK IT HATERS! The cry of the pathetic.
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Whether you personally liked the film or not, it was an achievement on many fronts. 1) The man developed his own fucking technology for the movie 2) He spent a decade working on it - that's hardcore devotion to your craft 3) It was a visually stunning spectacle 4) He's the first filmmaker to actually pull off a fully realized CGI character that not only doesn't suffer from the 'dead eye' Uncanny Valley problem, but that is so realistic the viewer can easily forget that the person they're seeing on screen doesn't actually exist. Which I did several times. I was actually shocked after seeing Avatar to look up Zoe Saldana and realize that she actually looked nothing like her CGI character. That CGI face was an achievement in it's own. 5) and here's the most important part...off all the directors in that room, not one of them would have been able to pull Avatar off, hell, they probably wouldn't even know where to start. That certainly doesn't mean Cameron is a better director than anyone in that room, but his achievement simply outshines anyone else's this year. By a mile.
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Cameron knows all too well about these 'criticisms' of Avatar's familiar story. You can bet your bottom dollar that he's going to take things into much more self-consciously cerebral territory with the sequels (he already has the arc mapped out, and has for years). He knew that a relatable plot that crossed cultural boundaries was what he needed to do to get the audience onboard and accustomed to his original sci-fi universe. Now he can do what he likes. Cameron was and is a vociferous reader of sci-fi literature - he has studied at the feet of the masters. And he can match cerbral hard-core sci-fi with the best of them. Expect Avatar 2 to be a much more intense, darker and complicated film than the first. Of course, the dissenters will then find another angle to complain about; it's teh nature of the beast. But not only will the subsequent films be incrementally greater films on their own, they are going to form an overarching trilogy that will be something profound. Cameron already stated that he avoided editing out certain scenes that are going to be key in the sequels. Avatar is not just a great stand-alone movie, but I'd wager the foundation of something remarkable, the first step in a larger journey. We have not really seen anything yet.
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no matter what cameron says, this story hasnt been with him since hs, there is too much of his other films in it the man wanted to make a spectacular, in the vein of demille...and he succeeded go watch cleopatra...the movie sux....but dang, it is beautiful (have to see it in something like the cinerama dome to really appreciate the beauty) but i remember walking out of aliens and being totally blown away sure, i had seen all the characters before...sure the plot was right out of a comic book...but it was done in such a way (especially with the twist of making weaver the tuffest mother figure in the uni) that i didnt notice
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I hope that it will win the Oscar, if only to drive Devin Faraci over the edge, and make him throw a public childish temper tantrum.
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than 3 hrs of Avatar.
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good points. well said.
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look anything like smerkis??? its fucking animation wouldve been much more impressive had he made the characters look much more human and really figured out how not to give them that dead eye look
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Jan 17, 2010 11:13:05 PM CST
Aliens' characters are no deeper than Avatar's
by turd_has_risen_from_the_grave
I still think Aliens is Cameron's best, but much of these criticisms could be labelled at it also. No internet forums then; that's the difference. Avatar is actually a much more mature film. Playing favorites, though - both films are fantastic.
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If the projective Sequels do bust out of the Formulaic box that the first one was in, I'll be the first to cheer. But as is, I am not impressed by this suppossed "grand arc".
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"wouldve been much more impressive had he made the characters look much more human..". I have to disagree there.Making alien stuff more human is not harder, it's easier. I wanted a MORE alien world. Horses with 6 legs instead of 4? Come on! All the Pandora life forms were some derivative of what we already know.That is why the alien in JC's The Thing was awesome...cause it was so unhuman.
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what has been the prob with cgi and motion capture? the humans look fine until you look them in the eyes cameron got around this by using live action for the human scenes if he wants to impress me, make a motion capture character that is human and looks just as lifelike as a real fucking human being then i wont care what the story is until then, all the guy did was make smurfs with better bodies and really cool hair
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And the intentions of that type of film, which was intended to be as fucked up and surreal as possible. But it certainly isn't created from a study of real or possible biology or zoology. Ditto Giger's Alien, which is something out of a bad dream, nightmare logic - that penile head would have caused the creature to be top heavy and tip over. Those films were going for the subconsscious, the psychological. Avatar is different - it is going for a plausible ecosystem. A planet and creatures that could possibly exist. Therefore, they share common traits, though not exclusively, with earth creatures. All six limbed with two eyes because they come from a common gene pool. Cameron wasn't going to create bizarre shit with no logic to it, just so people could say 'that's weird; that looks alien'. Pandora is most definitely an authentic alien world, based on scientific supposition from studying deep ocean creatures and animals from environments with different gfravities, air pressures, etc.And btw, I think Avatar decisively cracked the 'dead eye' problem. That's a fact. What are you people smoking exactly? Avatar is technically flawless.
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Jan 17, 2010 11:34:25 PM CST
If he wants to impress you he must create human characters in CG
by turd_has_risen_from_the_grave
Some are never satisfied. If you don't think Avatar was impressive in its technical achievements you are taking the piss. Smurfs with better bodies? Don't be a damned idiot.Battle Angel - that's where he's going to create an all CGI 'human' character.
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thought they were close to that human thing with Surrogates. The CG Bruce willis was not to bad.
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Humans landing on a planet of aliens who are totally destroying their planet and strip mining it. The aliens will be big and brawny like Galka in Final Fantasy XI. In the end the humans will teach the aliens to appreciate their planet because they only get one. After a large scale battle of course.
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And that was a hellova lot of action. Nee-haw!
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you when you saw Star Wars? Thus I doubt you would have walked out saying how much like Hidden Fortresss it was as I doubt you had seen that many films or knew who the fuck Akira Kurosawa was. Avatar is a film in the same vein as ANH, both have simple narratives, archetype characters, and predictable plots, and you know what, in both cases it does nt matter and its probably why they have succeeded so much. What a lot of you guys dont get is that Cameron was smart to do what he has, if you want people to but into and feel emotion for 10 foot tall blue cat aliens, you have to paint in broad strokes so that you dont alienate the average person. Think about this films success ibnternationally, 1.1 billion! Its because its themes and story resonate regardless of language or culture, just like ANH. Imho Cameron was smart to streamline and simplify the narrative, he has to first establish this universe and draw people into it. Lets remember that Star Wars never was complex or deep until ESB, before that is was just as simple a narrative with not terribly deep characters. For the record I will have to wait and see if Cameron can pull offf the same trick as ESB and make the narrative more complex and deeper with Avatar 2....
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'dead eye' wan't an issue for me in the movie, but I think the only reason to go with a biped physiology and 2 eyes is so the viewer can relate to the characters. Same gene pool? What were they 5, 6, 10 years away from the planet?I think one of the most disappointing aspects of any alien film (not just this one) is the idea that other life forms look like us. It is a little arrogant of us as a species and un interesting.Of course Sully isn't gonna fall in love with a ball of ooze covered in varicose veins either so I can understand the artistic choice.
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nt like Avatar, we are all welcome to our own tastes. The hatersd are the arrogant cunts who predicted its complete failure for months beforehand and attacked anyone that was interested in or likes Avatar. There are many reasons to like Avatar, and just because you cant see them does not make it a bad film. And neither is it bad just because its making so much money. No film can become such a phenom without having something compelling about it at its core.....
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sci-fi is right? Especially when you want your two main characters to be non-human. So I am afraid you better have something the average person can relate to, otherwise good luck with that. I love what Cameron has done because on paper it should nt work at all, but he found a way to make the average filmgoer completely buy into 10 foot tall blue cat aliens as the main characters, as well as a love story between said main characters. And again, how can you be a geek and not at least be happy that a sci-fi has captured the publics imagination like this? And is even getting Oscar buzz! For a sci-fi film!? At the very least the studios will now be way more open to sci-fi....
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And to your point about universal themes. I saw the movie here in HK on IMAX. There was no English subtitles at all so during some scenes when the Na'Vi were talking their own language I didn't know exactly what was being said, but it was very obvious from the context on what it's about. And especially anyone that has moved away from home and lived in a foreign country with a foreign language you very quickly learn to pick up context and body language.
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I'll agree catering to the masses is smart but it doesnt ingratiate the film to genre fans. it just alienates.No one stands up and shouts about the banality of a film.We(I mean everyone)want to feel like we are in on the secret of how good something is, not just another number/ticket sale.Cameron went for mass appeal cause he had to make sure he would make $500 mil back. Smart? Sure, but I'm not gonna give a standing ovation.I really do hope he steps up the story but like you said, we will have to wait and see.
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I believe that no matter what I think, at a certain point, there's obviously SOMETHING there. I personally do not like Titanic, but I can't deny that there's something great about that movie. Different strokes, man... I don't think The Dark Knight is the greatest thing ever either, but it obviously struck a chord with people. I loved Avatar but not as much as District 9 or Moon, yet I won't sit here and say a bunch of bullshit about it either. I'm just saying, when a movie hits a certain amount of success, well... you can't really argue with it too much. You can personally dislike it or have things that irk you about it, but it doesn't make a fucking lick of difference. And then to sit there and deny that it obviously hit a chord is disingenuous... ESPECIALLY with the unprecedented worldwide success of the movie. For someone to make the most financially successful movie of all time to take 12 years to make his next movie then have THAT movie become the second (and most likely will be first) most successful movie of all time... well that's just fuckin' insane! Stuff like that hardly ever happens and I actually enjoy seeing an artist prove people wrong and have the kind of success that happens to very few. I'm thinking Lucas and Spielberg just after Raiders, Coppola after Godfather 2, and if you want to go into music, the Beatles with Sgt. Pepper (at a moment when everyone thought they were either breaking up or becoming irrelevant) or Michael Jackson's doing Motown 25 with his brothers, then doing the solo spot with Billie Jean and effectively leaving planet earth, then having Thriller and the Victory tour. People just don't hit those heights anymore, and you're seeing Cameron do it right now. I just find that interesting and gratifying to see that it still can happen in this world where we have 9,000 different things vying for our attention at any given moment.
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Jan 18, 2010 12:04:51 AM CST
$1.6 Billion and counting means Cameron has already won.
by snakecharmer
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Avatar, The Blind Side, GLEE, some fruitcake from Twilight presenting...looks like The Golden Globes has thrown in the towel in trying to appeal to the intellectual viewer and they want idiots to watch!
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does it make either one a good movie? the masses are retarded...that is a fact
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But being popular doesn't mean its a bad movie.
TF2 made a bundle of cash, but if you look at something like rottentomatoes its down around 20%. New Moon also very low amongst a consensus of critics.
Avatar is making a tonne of cash and is around 82%. Dark Knight made a tonne of cash and was in the 90s on RT. -
if the dark knight had received the same accolades as avatar. Im not saying the dark knight was the best movie from 2008, but it was imo at least better than avatar.
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Jan 18, 2010 12:44:33 AM CST
No, I think a certain KIND of popularity doesn't mean it's great
by sk229
Movies like TF2 and Twilight can only hit a certain milestone. For a movie to do what Avatar is doing, just like Titanic, I believe there's something else there. When something is just trash for the masses, it always hits a brick wall, imho... a glass ceiling for shit. To get through that, there has to be SOME substance and SOMETHING striking a chord in moviegoers besides the LCD mindset.
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Nothing competed against it. Sometimes a movie just succeeds because there's nothing to take it on.
A couple of years ago when the first Narnia movie came out it was in the same boat. It kept making money week after week because there was nothing else for kids to see. Harry Potter had come out a month before, so it was "old."...but Narnia, a mediocre movie, did very well. A LOT better than Prince Caspian.
Twilight did well because there wasn't a High School Musica 50 that came out a month later to hurt it.
What is there to see for the braindead action fans other than Avatar? Up in the Air? no.
That's why Avatar is making so much money. Also, it's a movie anyone in the family can go see. Titanic, Avatar, The Dark Knight, Spiderman. All movies that don't really alienate anyone. -
People didn't feel like they had to see TF2 or Twilight. As a man, I knew Twilight was "gay", so I didn't need to see it. I didn't need to see TF2 (still haven't seen it) because I knew it was stupidHowever, I did see Avatar. Why? Because James Cameron kept bragging about it for the last 5 years and I figured I'd give it a shot. It was instantly forgettable, but guess what? They still got my money.
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Since when is Sci-Fi a hard sell? Star Wars, Star Trek, The Matrix, Transformers, etc. I'm sick of people trying to claim Sci-Fi doesn't sell. It sells better than anything else.Indie Sci-Fi doesn't sell, but is Avatar indie? Absolutely not. McDonalds didn't have a MOON promotion, did they? No video game tie-in for it, either
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was the real lack of ricky gervais... he was out there what, like 4 times? i was really hopin to see a bit more of him during the show, and let him chew some people out..
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Jan 18, 2010 1:19:55 AM CST
Avatar had nothing to compete aginst it so that's
by turd_has_risen_from_the_grave
why it made money? A laughable argument. Not only did it have Alvin and The Chipmunks and Sherlock Holmes, two near $200 million dollar grossing films, it now has stuff like The Book of Eli. It beat them all. But it's irrelevant anyway - Avatar didn't just make SOME money, it has made a MASSIVE amount of money. You know, 2nd of all time worldwide, approaching that in domestic, likely to take first place in both. Yeah, that happens everyday. You haters are becoming more and more pathetic by the minute, defying all logic, intelligence, reason and common sense. Wait a minute, isn't this the movie you stupid bastards said would struggle to get to $70 million dollars domestic; that was going to be the biggest flop in history? Thought so. Some of you must be going full retard, I swear it.
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It's not everyday that a movie that requires no brainpower whatsoever to enjoy gets any credit. Since you're lacking in the brains department, Avatar is a godsend for you. That's why you love it.These awards shows have their favorites. That's why 30 Rock wins 50 Golden Globes per year even though it's ratings are so bad it should have been cancelled 3 years ago. Meryl Streep wins no matter how lousy the movie she's in, and Alec Baldwin wins because raspy voices and turkey necks are apparently all the rage with the HFPA. Clint Eastwood usually wins, but the problem is that James Cameron is more important than Eastwood so he had to be allowed to win this year. He makes them too much money to ignore.
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Loved the movie, buts its box office numbers are amazing, is second overall (at the moment) and would still be very high on an all time worldwide adjusted amount.
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the most pathetic bastard yet encountered on these talkbacks. I think you even top that Nerd Rage character. I'd love to believe you're actually making all those comments tongue-in-cheek, but alas I think you are indeed serious. I'd have thought it impossible that one could possibly be lacking in intelligence, or anything resembling logic and reason, to your sordid and pathetic level. I have to say, I'm in hog heaven right now. I absolutely revel in how Avatar and its undeniable success continues to enrages you cunts. I swear one of you weirdoes is going to pull out a gun and kill either yourself or others if it goes any further - so much repressed rage and impotence. Ah, Avatar - long may it's success continue. Just make sure to shoot yourself in the comfort of your own home and not take it out on innocent bystanders!
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Jan 18, 2010 2:10:47 AM CST
3D was the key factor in why Avatar made so much money!!!!!
by orionsangels
Everyone I know. Every celeb, most critics. All say the same thing when referring to the 3D. I never saw anything like it. That tells you one thing. These people have never been to a 3D movie. My first 3D movie was Hanna Montana's 3D concert. I was blown away by the 3D. I told everyone and they thought I was crazy. I thought the movie sucked, but the 3D blew me away. Now imagine your first 3D movie is Avatar. Mind blower!!!! Avatar is the first high profile global release of a 3D movie. This is the majority of the planet's first look at a 3D digital movie. They're amazed by the effect and they wanna keep revisiting that 3D effect. That's why Avatar is making so much money! Now STFU!
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Eat this, haters!
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let me first start off saying i really enjoyed avatar.. it was a great moviegoing experience. it's the kind of movie that gives people a reason to go to the theatres. the visuals were stunning and to see film using a medium like that left me in awe. however, like most, the story was nothing terribly original and the acting was alright. great movie, tons of fun, but not worthy of winning a best picture award.. at least not ahead of hurt locker or basterds. lastly, for those of you flaunting avatar's commercial success, it still doesnt mean it's a great film. it just means that it was really well marketed and hyped. for the last few year it's been deemed the film that will change movies forever, so obviously everyone's going to go and see it and it's going to make a shitload of money. the chipmunks have made a couple hundred million and that's a complete stinker. avatar's broad and just appeals to everyone. it's not making 2 billion dollars because it's the greatest movie of all time
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that all the arrogant cunts are eating crow are stupid because we like Avatar, please enlighten us what films we should like, and what you are a fan of so that we may laugh at the garbage you like....
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overlooked, the film has made most of its money overseas (1.1 billion) and there are nt that many 3D screens internationally. I live in Korea, and there is only one 3D screen anywhere close to me (and its actually quite far), baring in mind that I live just outside Seoul. Thus the vast majority of the world is in fact seeing Avatar in 2D....
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It wasn't about a team of Nazi killing Jewish soldiers. It was about a Jewish woman who escaped to France, opened up a movie theater and lured all the top ranking Nazis inside and killed them. The titular Basterds were guest stars in their own movie. Tranatino is a jerk-off.
At least Avatar was a movie about Avatars. -
Better than Entourage????!!!!???? This is all horseshit.
Although I'm kinda glad Avatar won, rather than a movie that was soley created to win awards like The Hurt Locker. -
first, Trek is a ridiculous example to use because it has never appealed to the mainstream en masse. Most people still view trek as having a serious dork stigma, and would nt touch it with a ten foot pole. Transformers sells in part because its very juvenile and has the whole 80s kids nostalgia blowjob thing going on. But you are right about the Matrix and Star Wars, sometimes sci-fi does sell by dint of just being that damn cool. But I never all sci-fi is a hard sell, I meant simply that it often is. Otherwise why did Chronicles of Riddick, Tron, Serenity, Blade Runner, Starship Troopers etc...all bomb?
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make money because it does nt have tie in etc.....Thats truly ridiculous, Its because its not entertaining. Well made, well acted yes, but entertaining? Um, no. People want to be blown away and taken somewhere when they plonk ther cash down for a film, now if said entertainment can be intelligent, have depth, and be good sci-fi at the same time, then everyone wins. But when a film is just an exercise in intellectual wanking, and does nt give a shit about giving the paying public its money's worth, then its as bad a TF2 in my book, just on the other end of the spectrum. Im a greedy basterd, I want my sci-fi cool, intelligent, visually awsome, thought provoking, and entertaining all in one....
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like Moon, and fanboy stuff like Watchmen. In fact you can keep it. While I found them both well made, neither made me give a shit about anything that was going on, wowed me visually, or fired my imagination...
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Sorry but Star Trek is considered mainstream now, while the old series' may have something of an unfair stigma of geekiness attached to them, the new film does not.
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I enjoy Entourage, but its one of the laziest shows on TV. Jeremy Piven really is the only one trying.
Curb Your Enthusiasm is much much better, -
many others, and how many tv shows? The new trek is a really small part of trek as a whole, not just the OS. And even then my friend, remember that the new Trek was only a big hit in North America (over 70 % of its b.o), and failed to do much internationally. Here in Korea it was nothing more than a blip....
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It didnt do badly in the UK where I live, but Star Trek has always been popular here.
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I love Entourage, but you are right, most of the cast have been phoning it in for a few years, they cant seem to find a decent story for Vince or Turtle.
If it wasnt for Ari and Drama, I would probably have stopped watching, but even at its worst Entourage is still better than most of the rubbish on the small screen. -
BUT, Camerona definitely should be in the running for Best director.
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if unclear.
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Because Axl Rose was working on it for the better part of 15 years and he got some of the best musicians int he business to come into the studio and tinker endlessly.Do you see how fucking stupid that sounds? Thats what apologists sound like when they drone on about technology creation and Cameron spending years on Avatar. Get it straight, IT DOESNT FUCKING MATTER!!!!! I don't care if he's been working on it since the dawn of fucking time. If all human acheivement was culminating to Avatar and now the Rapture can occur. Its a shitty fucking movie on its lack of merits as good storytelling and lack of originality in its visual scope and shallow character depth. And it looks like a video game cut scene, so I guess their technology didnt fucking work. You're blind or willfully ignorant if you cant see that.
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were Christina Hendricks' Golden Globes. That, and some of the bored, if not downright disdainful looks caught during some of the speeches. Show some respect when Professor Scorsese is speaking, Harvey Weinstein! Or was that reserved from DeNiro's hair? Aside from that, Gervais was flat, some of the winners were puzzling (but no surprise for the HFPA). And when did Julia Roberts turn into a hippie?
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Oy Vey! *Sarcasm*
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What a legend.
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Helen Mirren still looks like a GILF.Great speech from fattie gurl Monique.Downey gets more props for Sherlock Holmes (good movie BTW, Much better than the overrated Inglorious basterds.)Sam J is introduced as Nick Fury in Iron Man 2 (suck it haters!)Sam Worthington has the persona of an Clamshell while Zoe is a fucking dime. (meaning "10" as in hot!)Martin Scorsese's acceptance speech...zzzzzzzzzz..(still pissed off that the dwarf supports child rapist Polanski.)..Cameron is once again "King of the World" with Avatar winning best pic and director.Good film but also overrated.
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Ahahahaha @ whichever mouth breathing cretinous cunt rag called The Office 'vsnilla'. Someone said go and watch 2 and a Half Men but i fear even thats too good for you. How about season 2 of 8 Simple Rules? You fucking scum bag. The Office changed the face of sitcoms the world over and is a work of art. Gervais and Merchant are master craftsmen where as you sir, are a cunt. And a thick one at that.
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I think you should stick to trying to stop black people drinking from your water fountains and leave the movie critiques to those with fully operational brains. Moon was a brilliant film. Its your own fault that it obviously went way over your head. I hear GI Joe is highly 'entertaining' though so stick with that you dumbass.
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and TF2 dickhead. Sorry I did nt see Moon's "brilliance" and that makes me stupid the I guess you arrogant cunt. Gee I guess we really should leave movie critiques to pompous, eliteist, hipster, indie fuckheads like yourself. Dont take your frustrations in life out on me pal, blame the vast majority of people for not giving a shit about your precious Moon. Fuck off to some art house site you cunt if pulp sci-fi and adventure is too beneath your vast intellect. So I will just leave you with this because I know it will piss you off, and make you throw your toys out the cot....1.6 Billion worlwide, 84% fresh on rottontomatoes, golden globe wins.....SUCK IT FUCKHEAD.....Bwhahahahahah
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coming to this site. To watch a presumably grown man throw a complete hissy fit because a film he does nt like is winning awards and making money......aaah, keep on with the success Avatar, and nothing makes me more happy than the fact that we are getting sequals. So much more to piss off the pompous elitist protectors of cinema like industrykiller and cutoutwitch....
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I hated Basterds but Waltz was fucking fantastic.
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nt really win for best picture, though I would like to see a sci-fi film actually win a best Oscar because Im such a sci-fi dork, and I feel great sci-fi films like bladrunner, 2001:a space odessy, alien, aliens, ESB etc.. have all been snubbed and ignored as if they are beneath real consideration...
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best director, as Avatar is an incredible technical achievement, and unlike some delusional assholes I can at least recognize that film is as much a technical medium as it is an artistic one. And there is no reason why exceptional technical filmaking should not be rewarded too......
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see if you are brave enough to tell me which super enlightened, ultra progressive society you are from where your shit does nt stink apparantly......
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from getting too much glory! George Clooney can suck it with his overrated ass!
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.....in matters of taste, only do so when that person, deep down, actually believes the other party to be more elite. Which I guess, in a roundabout way, makes it true. heh.
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ing conversation guys. And one final piece of advice for certain people here, chill out, get a life, calm down... its just a film, ok? Your world wont end because a film you dont like wins anything or makes money. Film is art and its highly subjective, right? So stop throwing tantrums about it. You are more than entitled to hate Avatar all you want, but anyone else is just as entitled to like it and be glad to see it succeed....
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thought. Actually I only call someone elitist when they act like a pompous ass. And I guess you are smug about that and think its a compliment because deep down you know you are a pompous ass?
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Both have their relative strengths and weakenesses. The UK office is perfect for what it is, but you have mostly superficial characterization and a lack of any real development. The US office has crossed the realism boundary since its inception (not even counting the "documentary" style) but actually has characters that seem to grow and evolve in an organic way. Every time I see the Jim/Pam thing headed for a cliche iceberg, the show appears to steer clear.
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The UK version is far more subtle and clever, and arguably better written.
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And start casting his next hookup for Battle Angle?
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And while I'm at it Mel Gibson as Hal Jordan's father in Green Lantern
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Awesome name. Quantum Leap is my alltime favorite show. And for a series finale whose ending was slapped together after the show was canned by NBC, it still brings many a tear to me eye. "Dr. Sam Beckett never returned home." Whaa!
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Their Faggots from now on,
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Avatar should only win fx honors cause it was NO WHERE NEAR the best flick of the year. All the awards shows are bullshit anyway so meh.
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Last year I wrote a whole new Quatum Leap season, trust me, Sam Beckett did indeed return home. He and Al are running the QL project, and Sam's daughter Cally is leaping around time, with Sam as the hologram.
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fuckin killed me when I was younger, that is one reason why I don't watch TV series now, and I know I'm missing out on alot, The Wire, Sopranos? I got so burned so bad by that last episode of Quantum Leap I just couldn't trust another TV series.
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are they on the net anywhere? Post them somewhere dude! Fuckin Reboot!
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"Avatar just bukkaked 'Gone with the wind' all over it's face, and is now brutally sodomizing it, in that order" - BO Mojo tinyurl.com/th445zs
Just text Na'vi to 4206969 and a donation of $5,000 will go to James Cameron.
"I worship our lord and savior, JC" - The Pope after one of Canerons ex-wifes tackled his pope ass -
I'd love to post them on my site, but I wrote them by hand.
I only did 3 complete episodes.
1. The Bridge
Set in middle america in the 50s, it revolved around Sam trying to stop a husband from killing her wife, and in the present day Cally and Al trying desperately to Bring Sam back. Of course the QL accelerator malfunctions and traps Cally in the past...
2. Challenger
Cally leaps into the body of the female astronaut on the doomed space shuttle.
3. Blood And Petticoats.
A gothic tale set in 1890, with Cally as a local whore, being hunted by Jack The Ripper.
Maybe I can type them up when I get a chance. -
here you go...
http://tinyurl.com/yb8vmqb
That article has been around for quite some time, and it appeared on pretty much every site. Basically it highlights Avatars unexpected rise to Oscar frontrunner. You clearly don't know shit if you think no one predicted an Avatar win, because that's all people have been predicting.
And I hate to break it to you, but Avatar DID break all sorts of ground with it's CGI characters. Jar Jar Binks and Gollum were each the only CGI characters in their respective films, and in Jar Jars case, the movies success was not hinged on him looking real, and certainly the films emotional hook wasn't around his character. Gollum had a more pivotal, dramatic role, but once again, only one character, and still looked very cartoony. Avatar is the first film to feature main characters that are completely CGI in a completely CGI world, and still be a live-action film. Think about it...a LIVE-ACTION film depended on audiences buying the relationship of two CGI aliens. The first time that the uncanny valley has been bridged, a film where real actors performances were translated 100% to their CG counterpart. And I suggest you read up on the virtual camera invented for Avatar...truly a remarkable technological advancement which allows directors to shoot CGI like live-action, part of the reason Avatar felt so real.
I really find it hilarious how hypocritical the lot of you are. A month ago you were all CONVINCED Avatar would be the biggest bomb of all time. Now that it's obvious you were so horribly off the mark, your new defense is "It's a hit cause of the 3D! Audiences eat up these epic movies! Sci-fi is an easy sell! There's no other competition!". Hahaha yeah, right. I call BS on all of those. Avatar was one of the biggest risks in cinema history, hands down. Handled in the wrong way and yes, it could have been a massive failure. There are plenty of eye-pleasing epic films out there, and none of them have seen the success of Avatar. Avatar is showing repeat business like crazy, not even dropping 50% from it's first weekend, to it's fifth weekend. Films that suck do NOT get repeat business, for example: Transformers 2, 2012, New Moon. All films with HUGE openings, none of them came even close to performing at Avatars level. People act like what Avatar is acheiving is simple, then how come no other film has ever come close to Titanics record, except ONE in the last 12 years...and that was a huge franchise movie, fueled by the death of one of the stars. You can hate it all you want, but Cameron has made a brilliant film, one of the most memorable and astonishing adventure stories to come around in ages, a film that's easily comparable to the original Star Wars film, A New Hope, most of you are just too old and bitter to see that now. It's sad because anything popular is AUTOMATICALLY hated on this site. James Cameron whos given us a handful of the best sci-fi films ever, came back with another amazing sci-fi movie, that just won a Best Picture award. Most people would be THRILLED by this...as far as I'm concerned, he's just getting what he deserves for almost 3 decades of brilliant movies. -
The Challenger one would be awesome, send them in somewhere, isn't there an online petition to start a new series or reboot or something.
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Thanks. The Challenger ep was my personal favourtie, the show would have been half focused on Cally, and the rest would be modern day in the base, it had an arc plot about the military trying to send people back too.
Question is, who do I send it too?
Maybe I can put a petition in the back of my next book. -
But I don't think thats the way to go unless it gave the whole thing closure. As for sending them somewhere, soz dude I wouldn't have a clue who to send them to though, But a whole new series should be considered, because it shows a great premise, as youve proved.
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...for no other reason than the voters deciding that it's time a woman won, I'll be totally fine with it. She did more with less than any of the leading candidates with the possible exception of Lee Daniels, who may very well miss out on a nod anyway. Yes, Cameron had amazing vision and delivered great spectacle, but when you have hundreds of millions and state of the art equipment at your disposal, you need to be graded on a steep curve.
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"I'm trying to figure out what Avatar did that no other movie has ever done"
You're the only one. Doesn't that tell you something? -
James Cameron's Laser Cats. That bit of spoofery was priceless...gamechanger..hehehe.The technology that everyone's poopooing about is the system that allows the director to see cgi representations of the mocapped actors live, while filming. How that revolutionizes filmmaking as a whole, you got me. Seems like pretty specialized technology.
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youtube all that Augmented reality stuff. I'm not saying all that came from Camerons camera, but you can see it can be applied to lots of everyday uses.
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No one mentioned it as theywalked out of the theater bc it's more a remake of The Hidden Fortress than Samurai, films that STILL aren't widely known today. Ifyoure going to attempt to criticize that which you hate, at least know what you're talking about. PS: The Phantom Menace is the closer SEven Samurai remake you're looking for.
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I'd too find it totally ok if Bigelow wins Best Director and Hurt Locker for Best Picture. I loved Avatar. In fact, it's the best movie I've seen from 2009, (in my opinion, of course) and while I'd like it too if it won for Best Picture, and JC got Best Director, I'd still feel the same level of satisfaction if it all went to Bigelow. She's proven to the world that women can do very well-directed, serious films. If the big winners at the oscars are Avatar and/or Hurt Locker, I'd be totally fine with it, along with some other certain films, like Inglorious Basterds winning best original screenplay and Up in the Air taking the best adapted one, and if Christopher Waltz wins best supporting actor, and so on.
Now, as for the "big budget = quality" thing, I have to disagree with you there. Bayformers 2 had a budget of around $200 million, that's 2/3, roughly, of Avatar's budget, and yet that movie wasn't even a 1/9 as good as Avatar. In my opinion, one of the main things that determines how talented a director is is what he/she brings to the table with their given budget, and I assure you, had anyone else the access to a $300 million budget for a film, they wouldn't have done a movie as well-constructed and technically revolutionary as JC did with Avatar. NO one. -
Still amazed that Moon only cost 5 million. And the effect work is top notch.
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When Cameron receives best picture at the oscars, will he go "king of the world" again or be a little more humble :)
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First it's the "SW is a remake of 7 Samurai." Now you say you're disgusted with the prequels bc of supposed bashing of Bush and neocons (give me a break). Then you think Sam Worthington is English. Mistakes like that hurt your credibility in debates like this.
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Uhhh, YES, Gollum DOES look like Andy Serkis. Unless I misunderstood your point, which seemed to suggest he looked nothing like the actor. Which is of course wrong.
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In the Loop would wipe the floor with the rest of the films. (and I enjoyed Avatar, Hurt Locker and IB). And Fassbender's performance in Hunger shits all over the Wrestler 2: Ram goes Country. Fuck Jeff Bridges with his Oscar-bait bullshit.
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Because there's 10 noms this year, there's more choice, and it will be harder for any single film, to play spoiler to the Avatar behemoth. All the other films will have their popularity diluted and they'll get lost in the clutter. Meanwhile, Avatar is truly a unique movie and will stand out from the others.
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I hear you - I'm not belitting Cameron's accomplishment. Avatar's same budget and technology in the hands of a hack like Bay would probably yield a piece of trash. Look to Transformers 2 for the proof. James Cameron showed what he can do with limited budgets on The Terminator and Aliens. What I was really trying to say is, at least to me, taking basically a shoestring budget and virtually no-name actors (unless you count Guy Pearce and David Morse, both in tiny roles) and crating a taut, memorable, high-quality picture that stands with the best war movies of the decade, not to mention sets the standard for the current war, is the more impressive feat. Avatar is inseperable from its technology. The Hurt Locker is just a great movie.
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Technology, in and of itself, won't make a great movie. It's just a tool to tell a wonderful story for the audience, and James Cameron achieves this with Avatar. He has an uncanny gift for making his vision look easy on camera, though it's a really a pain-staking and tricky process, requiring patience, creativity, and technical chutzpah.
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and despite strong performances across the board and very assured direction by Bigelow (stylistically different from her other work, very handheld vs stedicam), I found it coming up a bit short. Maybe I was looking for answers as to why Sgt James was an adrenaline junkie (800+ bombs diffused...whew!)and !!!SPOILER ALERT!!!!!! why he would leave his stunning wife and child for another year of duty. Was it sense of duty, guilt over the child who died, all of the above? Did I miss something? I would still call it one of the years best, though.
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raised in australia, so he has a mixture of an english and aussie accent...either way, his american accent sounds like shite and if serkis looks like gollum, i feel bad for him he doesnt look like gollum at all, which is why no one bothers him when he walks down the street...you absolute tool
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in Na'Vi.
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i really need to see "Avatar." i thought i was finally caught up to the best-of-2009 shit when I saw "Moon" and "The Hurt Locker" on tuesday... but having not seen Avatar yet is eating at me. I hope the box office success ensures a longer theatrical run--because it doesn't seem like the type of movie that will resonate on DVD.
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the first time I saw The Hurt Locker I was blown away. Now I'm just thinking it's merely just a solid film. It has about as much substance as Avatar (yeah I said it).
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james is a modern day captain williard he knows he is only good at one thing and that is why he leaves his stunning wife and baby knowing full well that if he stays home too long, he is gonna fuck it up he also might have a death wish
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... even though he is widely regarded as having an Australian accent. However, Gollum DOES look like Andy Serkis, and perhaps he IS bugged about it as he walks down the street, or are you some sort of stalker of his and you know for sure?
The LOTR filmmakers had a COMPLETELY different design for Gollum in the beginning, and after Serkis started acting the part, they went out of their way to redesign the character to make him look more like Serkis. But I guess you didn't know that. "You absolute tool". -
Shit was hilarious. New Dr. Strangelove for sure. I'm amazed that his film has been completely ignored by the academies. It's been on almost every critic's top 10 so that should count for something right? It will be a fucking embarrassment if Star Trek and District 9 get nominations over this.
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His American accent tends to slip dangerously back into the real one. This was more prevalent in Terminator than in Avatar, where I can only recall such an incident happening once.
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I thought it was a really well-made film, extremely taut and suspenseful at times. they did a good job of milking the atmosphere to create tension and the performances were all great, especially Renner, who i've really liked every since "Neo Ned." with that said, the fact that "The Hurt Locker" is considered an Oscar favorite is a testament to 2009 being a down year. not a bad movie by any stretch of the imagination, but not one that will go down as an all-time classic. 2009 kind of reminds me of a few years ago when "Crash" won over "Brokeback Mountain" i think it was... two "good" movies, but not too much more than that.
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and it reinforced the definition of shitty forced messages. Now Brokeback Mountain, that was great. Heath Ledger really should have won that year. His performance in that really made me think of a James Dean.
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...fights taking over every talkback.
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In the Loop, Avatar, the White Ribbon, Inglorious Basterds and Hunger were some of the best movies of the decade. Hurt Locker and others were alright too, but the ones I just listed really impressed me and I could easily rewatch them.
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Best Original Screenplay in the only awards show that matters (Acadamy Awards..duh), I'm calling screwjob. Biggest screwjob since Transformers not winning Best SFX (Golden Compass won that year...what?).
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honestly every line out of Malcolm was fucking gold! Gold!
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I completely agree on "Crash," but I was being lazy and didn't feel like elaborating further. it was a hackneyed attempt at a message movie that only resulted in negatively reinforcing the very stereotypes that it was criticizing. and the lauded ensemble cast was, honestly, mostly washed-up and mediocre stunt casting. I quite enjoyed 2009 as a year of film, but thats because im a genre nut. District 9, Inglourious Basterds, even the extremely ambitious Watchmen... all very good movies, to me at least. but as far as "Oscar bait" type of movies go, it was a down year.
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Such great timing for them to expand the number of entries in Best Picture. I would suspect the reasoning behind not as many "Oscar Worthy" films would be due to the money people not wanting to invest in films that aren't a sure thing / money losers.
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Dumbest comment on the talkbacks. What kind of fucking imbecile actually believes that? God how the hell get we get rid of the philistines?
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Let's hear it. Half of the movie was taken from Aliens, even the sassy hispanic military chick. The rest of it was taken from The Phantom Menace. The blue cat people were nothing more than a bunch of Jar Jar Binks' running around NOT quoting Wayne's World.
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Jan 18, 2010 2:01:13 PM CST
Oh, and the overall plot was ripped from Second Life
by slimbutnotreally
seriously...it was. So don't try to claim that the avatar part was unique.
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The biggest problem with Avatar was the Na'vi are lame. Poorly designed, poorly imagined, dull. Cameron and co. put so much effort into the (pseudo) science, the flora and fauna are awesome, the tech is great, everything well thought-out and cool but then the Na'vi are so weak. I can't believe how unimaginative the society at the movie's center was. I don't even mind most of the dialogue; it was good cheese when it was cheese for the most part.
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I honestly wasn't such a wanker that I went into the theaters pissed off and started raging when the basic plot was similar to other things. Oh yeah and then I started throwing popcorn and had a fit. Aaargh this shit is so unoriginal I can't stand it. Shut the hell up already. It was an extremely enjoyable film and one of the best theater experiences I've ever had. That counts for something.
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I'm amazed that the film did so well despite everybody's judgements on the character design.
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I am sounding like quite the prissy bitch now aren't I?
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If Avatar flopped it would have affected my life none. It's a huge success, and it improved my life none. I didn't invest in it. I didn't work on it. Why should I care? Come on... lovers, stop citing massive box office success as a reason as to why it's good. Transformers II was a box office success, and don't tell me you enjoyed that. You hate it when people cite success for things you don't enjoy, so don't do it now that something you did enjoy was successful. Bad logic. And haters... people enjoyed this movie. So? You didn't. Cameron didn't take over another property or remake something, so what do you care what he does with Pandora. I thought it was alright. Certainly nothing to change the way I looked at cinema. Cloverfield did that more than Avatar. But it's far from an example of moron movies plaguing America, i.e. Meet The Spartans, Michael Bay movies, etc.
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That is unless by unique it means has major plot and action elements from Dances with Wolves, The New World, Apocalypse Now, Last Samurai and Dune.
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with his game changing technology. And get some real actors to play the parts of Anakin both young and old this time.
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All I said was that I enjoyed the film a lot. And honestly I didn't give a shit if it was Dances with Smurfs. Honestly who liked Dances with Wolves anyways? I was more of a Last of the Mohicans guy anyways. Fuckahs.
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All Cameron did was cross the Smurfs with the Thundercats.
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despite it's annoyances (that kid and Jar Jar) it's nowhere near as awful as the other two. And honestly I would take Jar Jar over the horribly declining quality of dialogue in episode 2 and 3. They should have also replaced Sam Jackson's character with Qui Gon that way maybe you'd give a shit when Anakin kills him instead of bursting out in laughter. And also replace Hayden Christensen with Shia Labeouf.....:)
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it's just underwater shit taken to the surface. Their language isn't unique either, it's taken from a mix of different aboriginal languages. James Cameron's look isn't unique either, the Quaker Oats guy did it first. blah blah blah. Shut uuuuuuup.
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Herc foretoled that the foreign press would come up with something bullshit and he was right. "Avatar" for best drama is true bullshit.
But if the award was for Best Unintentional Comedy then it was a deserving choice. -
as a sledgehammer. Anyone see the Indian headress plaqued on the corporate reps office wall? And the echoes from other films..Vasquez/Michelle Rodriguez (mentioned above)..Apone waking up from hypersleep with a cigar in mouth in seconds/Sig Weaver demanding a smoke first thing upon waking..but most bothersome was Horner's decision to crib major portions of his score from bits of Star Trek 2 and Aliens. But these are minor quibbles in a very enjoyable film.
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Well here it is: the Academy got destroyed last year for not nominating the Dark Knight. And someone tell me, off the top of your head, what beat Star Wars in 1977? The industry views Avatar as a game-changer and for the Academy to not reward it would humble its already shaky credibility that it's earned in recent years. Bear in mind that this is a prediction, not a wish. I think the award should go to Inglourious Basterds, personally. And that's just based on the fact that it will get nominated and my real choice, District 9, won't.
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and neither is writing. BUT he gets the job done in the end. I really liked all of his films with the exception of Titanic and Abyss. Titanic I thought was cool in some parts and is actually one of the best chick-flicks of all time. Entertaining for what it is. The Abyss just hasn't aged well for me and comes off as cheesy. Everything else is still very watchable for me. If he tackles Battle Angel I hope somebody else wrote the script.
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He lost for best director. The shot on his face you could tell he was looking at his dad thinking, "But pappa you said you paid the silly speaking people enough so I would win! I want to be a serious director!" Just as funny was Spidermans face realizing that he'll forever been known as Spiderman the rest of his life no matter how mean a face he can make.
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Star Trek was good... I chose to miss TF2 because I heard it was dreadful.
I enjoyed Avatar, but I enjoyed it on the same level as Star Trek. That means that it is simply popcorn fluff and should be treated as such. -
Now that's a dumb statement.
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can't seem to find an anamorphic DVD for my flat screen. How has it not aged well? The ending?
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What a tragedy.
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To see Reitman shut out at the end of the Globes. That look on his face was pretty priceless.
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Man it was fucking priceless. What made him come across like even MORE of a dick was the fact that fucking EVERYONE! Even Jeff Bridges mentioned how much impact their parents had on them...and Reitman didn't even thank his dad (who I'm willing to bet directed 75% of Thank You For Smoking) till they queued the music on his punk ass. And his fucking dad was there in the audience. Jesus the dude had ONE shot to get on my good side, some out and fucking admit that he owes everything to his dad, and he cop out and insisted on Cloontangs ball sucking instead. Hopefully the Oscars shut him down, but I'm pretty sure he'll get screenplay there as well.
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...things in this talkback. Really, things that anyone should be ashamed to post on a movie site. Who remembers what beat Star Wars for the Oscar in 1977? Annie fucking Hall. A movie a movie geek should know about even if you weren't a little kid crying at how mean Hollywoodland was to Star Wars when it won. (not sayng I was). Star Wars is a remake of The Seven Samurai...wait, let me repeat that. Star Wars is a remake of the Seven Sanurai. Yeah, somebody posted that. Here. The Seven Samurai was about poor farmers collecting a motley crew of mostly loser Samurai to defend their village from a coming attack by bandits. It examined, better than...well, better than any film ever made, the complexities of the relationship between commoners and warriors in a feudal system. The Seven Samurai was remade in Hollywood as The Magnificent Seven, which managed admirably for a big Hollywood production, to preserve some of the original's thematic and structural depth while transplanting the action to the old west. It's a fine movie, with an iconic score by Elmer Berstein. Since then the basic structure of the film has been reused numerous times, most amusingly, perhaps, by Roger Corman in Battle Beyond the Stars. Ironically, perhaps, given the current caterwauling in this thread, the score for this movie was done by James Horner. Horner actually composed music for Battle Beyond the Stars and Humanoids From the Deep, and Corman proceeded to use and sell those scores until bits of them have appeared in more than a dozen movies. But my favorite low budget riff on The Seven Samurai is World Gone Wild, starring Bruce Dern, Michael Pare, Lord Bowler (or Shogun Sjo'nuff, if you prefer), Adam Ant and Catherine Mary Stewart. Seriously, this is hard to find but is well worth your time if you love movies that hit that precise sweet spot of being so bad they're fantastic. Now there are some people who point to a lesser known Kurosawa film, The Hidden Fortress, as an inspiration for Star Wars. And there are similarities, but they are the same sort of similarities one could point to between say the original Halloween and Bay of Blood, which is to say there may have been inspiration there, but there was no direct copying. Probably the closest similarity comes between the comedic relief in both films. Do we still watch movies here or just jack off into a cup while we post uninformed crap about them? Huh?
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Best Director? I did catch Peter Parker's sour puss and it was beautiful.
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...to the vast majority of people here who are extraordinary movie fans. But damn.
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Yeah I'm tring to find one. Wish I hadn't deleted it to clear up DVR space. I need a new dart board.
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BTW it was Annie Hall, which beat non sequencial storying like Pulp Fiction by about 15 years, and its grandkid would be 500 Days Of Summer. But I know what you mean, I'm sure the movie industry was praying for Avatar to succeed, to help boost the Oscar ratings ala Titanic.
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the Academy...
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When saying Star Wars is a remake of Seven Samurai, mainly bc you point out what Seven Samurai is about but don't connect it at all to A New Hope, which really is more of a remake of The Hidden Fortress than Samurai. Episode 1 is more of a remake of Seven Samurai than ANH was.
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among the highlights:
1.evil white people invade innocent natives, one white guy changes sides, then becomes the saviour of the hopeless natives and repels the evil whities.
2.Michelle Rodriguez in every role she's ever played.
3. the corporate guy is ALWAYS evil.
about a million more. -
...I thought I was pointing out that it wasn't.
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How Star Wars is a remake of 7 Samurai. Maybe had you said Bugs Life? Star Wars takes things from 7 Samurai but what doesn't?
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I just couldn't pick out your sarcasm =).
Also, you forgot to mention A Bug's Life as a Samurai remake. One of my favorites. -
Mainly bc Brabon300 used a lot of factual inaccuracies in his arguments, that being one of them.
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...or the wars we've had there. I have no way to explain this, it just is. End of post.
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...I rarely get legitimately mad at something that I read here, but that was like a one two punch of stupid and I wrote the post in about a minute of screaming WTF... See, I apologized for my tone right after.
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There are a lot of stupid "facts" that get tossed out around here, a lot of movie fans that don't actually know what they're talking about, so its quite all right to put them in their place from time to time and set the record straight.
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Jan 18, 2010 3:35:14 PM CST
Boy I sounded like a pretentious asshole right there, didn't I?
by d.vader
Though not as bad as IndustryKiller I suppose =P.
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No Star Trek film has ever looked so convincing, and the Enterprise has never looked more beautiful.But we all know the overblown cartoon Avatar will win.
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Yeah I've always pictured the engine room to be a place for brewing this.... http://tinyurl.com/ygmysxa
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Why do people hate Rietman the younger so much? Serious question, too. I don't understand. Feel like I must have missed something.Herc, Avatar is on other people's lists. So your assertion that it being nominated due to the Globes is kind of silly.Are we really still discussing/debating the merits of Avatar and it's lack of original story? Hasn't it all been said already? It's going to be the highest grossing movie in cinema history. Why is that? Doesn't anybody find that interesting? Where do people keep getting this half a billion dollar production cost for Avatar? Can somebody quote a source? Sony's costs are not Avatar's? Sony has their own R&D wing. And I guarantee you they will make back what they spent on developing Avatar tech tenfold. Beowolf looks shit compared to Avatar. Absolute shit. Also, not an original story. But anyway. lol Moving on from STILL discussing Avatar. Why does Cameron give the worst speeches in the history of Hollywood. Did anybody notice that most people didn't clap when he told everybody to give themselves a hand. The camera cut to DiCaprio, who WAS IN Titanic, and he actually looked kind of annoyed.Glad to see RDJ win anything. Dug his speech.Yaaaay Dexter! But I didn't know dude was dealing with cancer, or that he was married to his horse faced co-star. Sucks for him on both counts. Thought Gervais was gold! He should have had more opportunities to speak and they should have him back (but they won't). His Mel introduction ruled!Cher needs to disappear into whatever museum exhibit is being prepared for her eventual death.
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engine room is because you know where it was filmed. Everyone I know that a)wasn't angry about Abrams, or b) didn't know it was the Bud brewery thought it looked futuristic and convincing.Get over it already.
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...you sounded just fine. But, looking back, at that, post, I see, my use of commas, nearly approached Media, Messiah levels of incomprehension. I think I should have counted to three before posting.
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I'm just fucking with you. I don't give a shit where it was filmed. I didn't know till afterward. When I saw it I was like??? That engine room is fucking huge. And sort of made more sense since I know what a real engine room looked like. But I still think First Contact is the best looking Star Trek film. And thinking anything will beat Avatar for Visual effects......keep wishing.
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But it would be nice. First Contact looked good, you're right, but to me it didn't have the depth and realism the new one did. It should win strictly for the one shot of the Enterprise rising out of Saturn's ring.
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Gimme a break.
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What is there to LIKE about Reitman? He's a fucking douche bag who looks like Andrew WK. He fucking has to say in EVERY interview he's ever had how he had NO HELP what so ever from his dad, even if the question wasn't even brought up. Its like he worried people will find out that his dad pretty much made his career. Plus why bring up such fucking HUGE TOPICS as unemployment, teen pregnency, cancer sticks and then really say nothing about them. Sure I get the idea that THOSE ARE PEOPLE too. But there just isn't enough substance in his movies to justify all this critical love he gets. Maybe if his movies came and went and people were like, well looks like Baby Reitman is coming along nicely, people are calling him one of the greatest directors already??? For what? The same movie twice then a lame teen dramady with kitschy talk.
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I still need to see it again on VHS to see if I like it as much as I did in theaters.
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Jeff Bridges was in Ironman? Sure his part was dog shit forgettable. Fuck he probably doesn't remember he was in it either. You think someone would've made the connection between him and RDJ.
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Nepotism, overratedness concealing mediocre at best talent and a lack of real life experience while purporting to tackle societal issues.
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You mean First Contact, right?
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The one from the new Trek that SithMenace pointed out, I mean.
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...I liked Bridges in Iron Man. It was like Jeff Bridges playing Sterling Hayden playing Obadiah Stane.
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No I mean the new Star Trek? GAH! I can't afford Lazer Disc, not in this economy. Maybe one day they'll be a new way to watch hom video but for now I'll stick with VHS.
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Worlds worst villian. Fuck Sharon Stone in Catwomen would've kicked his ass.
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I feel for you brother. I agree with you about Bridges btw, worst part of a great movie.
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He brought the hero pizza.
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...to have to disagree on this one, Series 7.
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Nepotism is beautiful. Nothing wrong with helping your family succeed.
"overratedness concealing mediocre at best talent" That's a matter of opinion. I really enjoyed Juno and Up In The Air."lack of real life experience while purporting to tackle societal issues" I wasn't aware that anybody posting at AICN actually knew him that well in the real world. Thanks for giving me a real answer, though. I understand where you're coming from. I just wish it didn't feel like so much of the usual hate for anybody else having success that runs rampant on this site. It always seems so personal, when nobody really knows these people on that level. Opinion are clearly subjective, though, so I'll just have to accept that some people hate his films. Like I said, I've liked them so far. -
Fuck it was the lamest TWIST in a villian's character. One minute it was like HERE'S PIZZA! Then out of no where he was just like ehhh I'm gonna kill you I've always hated you. It was like they looked at him and how fucking evil he looked and said....Good enough. Don't get me wrong I love Bridges, the man made one of the greatest action films of all time (Blown Away) but he was throughly wasted in that movie. Fucking Fatrow cannot make a villian to save his life, he's probabaly just too nice of a guy.
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I was talking to my Mother a couple months ago about movies we'd recently watched and she expressed her outright HATRED for Juno. lol And she's a pretty easygoing movie watcher. Loves romantic comedies and their like. So, ya know, clearly that one strikes a chord of dislike for some people.
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Whats not real in my answer???? Are you trying to tell me that he DOESN'T look like Andrew WK?
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Ummm his dad directed Ghostbusters....he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He went to med school. He got to sit around and do nothing with his life for five years while he "SHOPPED" around Thank You For Smoking. Probabaly means he spent five years dicking around wasting daddy's money until daddy found someone to help him. Give me the name of any other director that just got to sit around for FIVE YEARS not doing anything just to go right into making their first movie?
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...you would have known Bridges was evil from the get-go even if you didn't know the character. There was no twist there. And I thought bringing the pizza was just a beautiful bit. Now for me, his stock as a great villain did fall dramatically after he came out of the closet and put on the iron suit, but that doesn't comment on Bridge's performance so much as third act simplification. Anyway, I spent the first half of the movie wanting to hear him say "purity of essence" just once.
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Sofia Coppola? Though I'm with you pretty completely on this one.
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Thats what I'm saying about the evil. They made him SO stereo typical evil looking, shaved head goatee? That they didn't try to even make his actual personality/character evil. I feel like they should've saved him for the second movie. He was too subued for the first half and not over the top enough for the second half. Like his heart wasn't really into it.
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hahahahah good call.
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Even though her dad was FFC that it didn't help her get into film. I got another one: Breck Eisner
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It's a tough one...Waltz' speech had this incoherent rambling about universes and globes and crap. I understood what he was doing...but boy was it terrible, but at least he spoke in English and not some made up language. Cameron's jibber jabber and translation of gayness was one of the biggest douche chills I've had in ages. I tried to erase it from my memory, but I think he said something like "Mecka lecka hi, mecka hiney hiney ho..that means you had me at hello" or something.
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I actually have no idea what you guys are going round about right now. I just don't do new Star Trek convos anymore (I've explained my pov many times) and I've honestly not seen Iron Man. I was discussing Ivan Rietman with Stabby. My last post was only in response to that.
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...this may just be a semantics problem, but although helping one's family is beautiful... ...nepotism is certainly not. Nepotism is showing favoritism to those who are related to you... ...Without Regard To Their Merit. And that is neither beautiful nor right. Now you may believe in this case that little r has merit, and therefore this is not nepotism. That would be a matter of opinion. Also a matter of opinion is how cute Jennifer Carpenter is. And you're welcome to your wrong opinion.
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..question, too. So, uhhh, see my response to Stabby. Moving on ---->
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I was talking about Jaseon Reitman to you.
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...yeah, I think we're comparing performance to character here, so we're in danger of talking past each other when I'm not sure we disagree that much.
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From someone who worked on The Crazies. Said Breck had no clue what he was doing as a director and would do take after take after take bc he was either unsure of himself or was totally clueless. Said that by the end, a fed up Timothy Olyphant was the one calling the shots like "No we got it. Let's move on."
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...is a remake I'm dreading. And yes, I will see it anyway. But I'm stupid.
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Till I remembered who the fuck Breck was. Screw that movie. Seriously, I wonder if its hard or easy to maketrailers these days?
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And you got yourself a trailer. Though one not as good as the one for the video game Gears of War. Biggest recent trailer failure? The A-Team. Holy crap what a wasted opportunity. They should have edited it to look just like the old opening credits.
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Man that would've been cool. But then again....who fucking remembers that? That is actually going to see the movie?
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It would have been awesome. "Liam Neeson as John Hannibal Smith."
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After all the thunderous praising for Fantastic Mr. Fox upon it's release, not one person cares that didn't get a single award. I guess we all figured out how terrible it really was and stopped caring about it?
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no help from his dad. No one can deny how talented he is. And who cares if he looks like Andrew WK?
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Is waaaay better than Star Trek in every category. The story is a cliched throwback to the old cowboys and indians movies, but at least the last half 20 minutes isn't just thrown together as sloppily as Trek. Ooohhh, Kirk and Spock have to be friends because old Spock told them too! The villain who's barely there for the whole film has to be defeated by a ship over a hundred years inferior to it! Kirk gets command of the Enterprise nilly willy! No thanks, I'll take Avatar instead: Cliched stories are better than bad stories.
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when a bunch of Smurfs cry over a burning tree. A TREE. How about the hippie wave, or the huge Deus Ex Machina about the aliens having the ability to switch conciousness from body to body. What incredible screenwriting that was. Look, I don't hate Avatar, it just didn't do it for me. And if you had actually read my post you would see I said Trek should win for VISUAL EFFECTS. And while Trek had it's problems your complaints are idiotic.
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and I'm sure he didn't mind. It was pretty funny though.
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Jan 18, 2010 7:15:10 PM CST
Series7, FIRST CONTACT IS INDEED THE BEST LOOKING TREK MOVIE....
by tehcreepythinman
That's because Frakes had the sense to hire Matthew F. Leonetti (Poltergeist, Weird Science, Dawn of the Dead remake among others) as his DP. As for New Trek, I loved the cinematography as it was rich in color as opposed to the usual grungy monochromatic look that most Sci-fi movies have today.
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Come on Herc... where are the Mamma's Family beats The Leno Show headlines...?
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That last quote that included an Israeli newspaper made me laugh.
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That last quote that included an Israeli newspaper made me laugh.
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Maybe I was getting food or taking a piss but I was away for maybe 1 minute of the Globes and want to know...did they even show the celebrity deaths of 2009?
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But isn't that usually the downer Oscar moment? Whatever they may be, THFP is certainly trying to make it clear that they AREN'T the Oscars.
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But not much else. Its not Oscar worthy, hell its not even Golden Globe worthy. Its a cool, fun flick. That's it! Nothing more, nothing less.
Those creaming their underwear over it need to calm down and gain some perspective. The haters also need to calm down and separate their hatred for Cameron from Avatar.
I do agree that The Hurtlocker was waaaaaaaaaaaaay better than Avatar, and Bigelow is evidently more talented than Cameron (much to Cameron's disgust). -
Thank you, Avatar was a good time at the movies, nothing more. While Cameron made what may be my favorite Sci-Fi film of all time with Aliens, I officially don't care about his last three movies. Last four if you count Aliens of the Deep.
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It was miles better than Star Trek (a film I liked btw)
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I liked it, but...there's nothing much there. In fact it's nothing more than just a very solid action film. I think "In the Loop" should be nominated and should be winning all these awards, I've been waiting for a modern day Dr. Strangelove for far too long. Avatar and Hurt Locker are nothing more than very enjoyable popcorn entertainment.
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If you really can't see the HomeTree as being anything BUT a simplistic tree, then perhaps you just aren't thinking hard enough.
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I would have been happy with either of them winning! Still though, compared to nominees of past years like There Will Be Blood, Goodnight & Goodluck, Frost/Nixon, Magnolia etc, this year is a pretty weak one...
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....for best pic is because of the new ten film rule. Since I agree that this wasn't the strongest year in cinema history it will be interesting to see how they fill out that number.
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You're really missing the point if it's only a tree getting destroyed to you in the movie. It's kind of established as kind of sort of being, oh I don't know, THEIR CENTRAL HOME.I guess you just saw the twin towers as a just some metal falling to the ground, eh?
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but in the movie it just didn't work for me. I know there was supposed to be major emotion there, but for some reason it didn't work for me.But it's interesting that 2 people pointed out the tree to me but decided to ignore my other points.
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is offensive and cheap. But I guess you bought into Cameron's imagery for quick emotional manipulation. Good for you.
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Should it win? No. The Hurt Locker should. Avatar would get a nomination if the best picture category had only five openings. Why? Any film that has had that kinda of impact should be nominated.
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And I even like Cameron and his films.
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WTF! EW really hates Avatar.
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of film analysis. Their snippets are perfect for passing the few minutes it takes to void your bowels. And those snippets are then as quickly forgotten as the turds you flush down the pipes.
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Just when it looked utterly hopeless, when it looked like we were going to get nothing but stupid, half-assed superhero movies like The Dark Knight for the rest of fucking eternity, we get Moon, District 9 and Avatar all in one year. I didn't see it coming. Maybe a lot of film geeks did, but I was caught off guard totally, and in the most thrilling way possible. 2009 reminded me of my youth, when I got to see Empire and Raiders and Aliens and Fire & Ice and Blade Runner, etc. It seemed like we'd never see those amazing days again, but here we are.
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Moon should have been nominated over Avatar. It's an amazing film. You could stake a claim that the theme is unoriginal...but so is AvatarI just saw In The Loop tonight and it should have been nominated for best Comedy. It's hilarious, smart, and overall great.I'm having City of God flashbacks. That's still one of the top 10 movies ever made and it didnt get a single Golden Globe/Oscar NOMINATION.
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Jan 19, 2010 3:36:54 AM CST
If James Cameron directed District 9...would it have won?
by slimbutnotreally
I wish I had the ability to alter the universe to prove my points. I'd like to see District 9 and Avatar's directors swap. No change to the movies at all. But I'd bet anything that if James Cameron's name was on District 9 it would have won the same awards Avatar did. If you think about it, people would actually be amazed that James Cameron did something original after all these years. We wouldn't be complaining. The truth is that District 9 is superior to Avatar in every single way. Even the visual effects were better. That is a fact. I don't care how many explosions Avatar has...the cat people look fake. The aliens in District 9 are phenomenal and they look like they could be dudes in suits.
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IT IS
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His films tap into something that gets people back and back into the theater. You might not like Avatar but you have to give him props that his films do so good.
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I was just about to post about how trite and insubstantial Moon was when I read your post and relaized it was true. Avatar is a sci-fi Dances with Smurfs.
Having said that, I still do not understand people's love for Moon. Rockwell turned in a good performance as always, but the story was kind of empty. -
Jan 19, 2010 7:33:37 AM CST
EW's reviews are potential ad blurbs strung together ...
by colonelfatheart
... or if it's a negative review, it's one cutsey, snarky bon mot after another. Gleiberman, especially, is a less-literate version of the New Yorker's Anthony Lane, who also tries my patience.
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http://tinyurl.com/ybheelw Authorities are worried it may "incite violence," Hong Kong's Daily Apple reported.
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Especially when its something so specious as "the visual fx are better in District 9 than in Avatar. Fact."
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People responded to your criticism about the HomeTree bc you put so much emphasis (and misunderstanding) onto it. Really, all your criticisms in that post were pretty trite. Avatar sucks bc they cry over a tree and have tribal rituals? Gimme a break.
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Tue Jan 19, 1:34 am ET
TAIPEI (AFP) – A 42-year-old Taiwanese man with a history of high blood pressure has died of a stroke likely triggered by over-excitement from watching the blockbuster "Avatar" in 3D, a doctor said Tuesday.
The man, identified only by his surname Kuo, started to feel unwell during the screening earlier this month in the northern city of Hsinchu and was taken to hospital.
Kuo, who suffered from hypertension, was unconscious when he arrived at the Nan Men General Hospital and a scan showed that his brain was haemorrhaging, emergency room doctor Peng Chin-chih said.
"It's likely that the over-excitement from watching the movie triggered his symptoms," he told AFP.
Kuo died 11 days later from the brain haemorrhage, and the China Times newspaper said it was the first death linked to watching James Cameron's science-fiction epic "Avatar".
Film blogging sites have reported complaints of headaches, dizziness, nausea and blurry eyesight from viewers of "Avatar" and other movies rich in 3D imagery.
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That story proves it right there. Avatar may incite violence? It takes too much money away from domestic films? BOO FUCKING HOO!
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As a threat to the public health.
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An economic powerhouse fueled by cheap exploited labor and reinforced by intimidation and violence against the poor masses ... the roots are extremely weak on this particular tree. How long will the Chinese put up with their corrupt officals and business people (who are often one and the same)? Let Avatar be the beacon to light their way.
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those of Chairman Mao's throughout China someday? Will he be revered as the Great Leader? Is there even a question?
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I keep getting error messages every once in awhile...
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Now we know what the Chinese fear: 10 foot tall blue cat people. I think we need to send in a new group of newly outfitted special forces...
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But I'm failing. Moo Blue Gai Pan? The BluePu platter?
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I thought I got the banhammer for some reason.
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If Baby Reitman needs no help from his dad....then why was his dad the executive producer on Up In the Air? OHHH because he's probably directing the movie. Some day the truth will come out.
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Fenggully?
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Right after I got my old name back too! I was about to go apeshit.
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being contrary for its own sake is easy to spot a mile away.
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I mean, really - it wasn't exactly the strongest year for movies was it? As much as I liked Titanic, there were many strong fims that year that were arguably better - Boogie Nights, LA Confidential, The Sweet Hereafter, etc. But Avatar's competiton? None of those films are going to be remembered. Avatar will - it's going to become a beloved classic like Gone with the Wind, Star Wars, and the like -thanks to its broad appeal and universal story. Its not a hipster movie tied to its era. Its just great, classicist storytelling. Inglourious Basterds and Hurt locker are both very good, but that's all they are. I wouldn't say they were outstanding. It's also bizarre that when they initially came out, I don't remember much praise for them at all, and certainly not for Basterds. In fact that movie was barely even discussed on this site (unfairly so), while AICN was busy still jerking over the unworthy Star Trek. Now it seems to have made a comeback at awards time. Up in the Air shouldn't be anywhere near an awards ceremony and Jason Reitman is an ungrateful spoiled brat. If they really want to split the vote, then Cameron should get best director, Bigelow best picture, and Tarantino best screenplay. Reitman should get shafted yet again - see his face at being bested at The Globes? What a complete prick.
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on the geek who humps the stars through the nebulai, one star at a time. Hump that star you maggot! Alas it was just a glitch. I was worried though. I've emitted some foul posts on this wee site, and even though I've been trying to be good as of late, there is no statute of limitations on what may have pissed the Great Red Man off. I fear the banhammer falling in response for drunk, venom-laced posts I uttered 2 years ago.
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I will fucking scream. And AsimovLives will have a heart attack. PS, I too would love to see the Reitman Pout again at the Oscars, Turd.
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I'm going to hold off saying it right out until I catch "Up In the Air" and "The Hurt Locker", but I don't see why Avatar shouldn't be given the 2009 Academy Award for Best Picture.
And hell yeah, it was a delight watching that young pissant Reitman get all shitty and crestfallen when he lost the Golden Globe to Cameron. I loved it. -
My Oscar party in my head, with a picture of Reitman's DADDY YOU SAID YOU BOUGHT ME THE AWARD face! And the word Bitch under it for us all to wear.
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Avatar, IB (though i haven't seen it I'm willing to bet it will), Star Trek (just because it'll be on cable all the fucking time), Moon and District 9 (because these will be the movies we tell our kids about to go see and they will). Also if I had my say, The Collector would become some cool horror movie hit (but I doubt that anyone will give a shit about it). Oh actually a lot of Animated films will be around for a while Up/Cloudy/Fox (because Wes IS SOOO hipster cool)/Coraline (Hot Topic has to sell something). Though I doubt Wild Things Are will be around, I mean it will but not many people will give a shit about it.
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that will be remembered past 2010? I'm drawing a blank. What about Prescious? (haven't seen it, although I wanted to. money is tight)
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It's the Golden Globes, for chrissakes, and he already won one! Why be so disappointed? Remember when Kate Winslet looked absolutely disgusted when Helen Hunt beat her for the Oscar? It took her a while to finally win one despite a good decade of Oscar bait. Reitman better swallow his pride if he truly wants to win one of the big ones, famous daddy or not.
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The Road and who can ever forget (500) Days of Summer? Moon was very good, but The Road was riveting and lingers in your memory.
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(500) Days of Summer was really good, and just as good a second time around. I doubt anyone will give a shit about The Road, it wasn't anything special.
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I haven't seen it, but based on all the reviews/descriptions I've read, it'll probably be remembered as more of a melodramatic exploitation flick, in the vein of Mommy Dearest.
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but I don't understand that reaction to The Road. Was it the dreariness of it? The ending? For me, the performances were absolutely top notch. I don't get why there's not a lot of love showered on it.
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There's not a lot there that screams "rewatch!" to me.
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Did you read the book? Just curious, because to me its a movie where if you've read the book you can't seperate the two because the movie just sort of adds on to the book. For me I haven't read the book and saw the movie as just another I Am Legend survival movie. And the ending did ruin the movie because it fucked the attempt at a point to the whole thing. SPOILERS I mean was the dad just an idiot too dumb/crazy to know how to survive? Because that other family had two kids and a dog, and were afraid to get near the dad? So then what was the point going through that journey? To show that sometimes overbearing and protective parents are not the best thing? Also maybe had they shown that before the blast they were homeless or living in a trailer so AFTER the blast it was almost like a step up for them in life. May have made be believe why the dad was soo keen on living. Also the use of the fire at night? I guess hunters do not hunt at night after the end of the world? It was just dumb and over pretencious trying to hard to tell you what to feel. Very repetitive as well....they walk somewhere something happens, they fall asleep, flashback, wake up suddenly, walk somewhere else.
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Was the kid suppose to be mentally handicaped?
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Every time they used a fire at night, I wondered about the cannibals using that as a way to find fresh meat.
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I wonder what the fucking budget was. Because you know that scene where they are coming into a city, and there are two giant ass boats crashed and broken next to a highway? And it all kind of looks really CGI....they actually filmed that. I can't find the picture online but I saw it in a FX magazine. It was pretty nuts.
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And rewatchability is not its strong suit as there is not a lot of plot and action. BUT I do want to rewatch it for the performances.
I haven't read the book. And your points do shed light on some of the weaknesses, and although I was aware of them during the viewing, I guess I had suspended belief because the performances were so good. I do think that it's loads better than I Am Legend though. It felt real, and that's what affected me most. -
I didn't see the Globes so I can't comment on his facial expressions, but let's face it, Cameron and Bigelow (at least) did real directing. All Reitman did with Up In the Air was stir and serve and then get a lot of credit for the movie being so "topical" because it shows people getting laid off when in reality it's no more topical today than it would've been ten or twenty years ago. Don't get me wrong, I thought it was OK, good even, but hardly worth honoring or even revisiting.
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But it just wasn't anything special. I think I am Legend is better just because the relationship between Will and his dog is a lot stronger then Father and Son. Seriously if it had been said at the begining that the father was a mentally disturbed man (maybe even possibly killed his wife) and the son was mentally handicapped, I think would've made for a much strong interesting film. Sure yeah we are suppose to believe that the man has just fallen into despare over the course of the 12 years, but if they had just stared off saying that he was already crazy could've made for a more interesting film.
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Totally agree. Also another reason its not even topical is because. Thats his fucking job, he fires people. Obviously he's going to be doing it ALL the fucking time no matter if there is a recession or not. The recession isn't even brought up really. Also Air Lines are tanking harder then any other company out there, so upgrades to First Class aren't what they used to be, and that stupid club he wants to get in isn't even real. Its just a sad attempt for hollywood to pretned they know what the everyman is like, by casting a bunch of people that have never had to be the everyman or a director thats got no idea what its like to be the everyman. Also the book was written pre 9/11 and they did nothing to update air port sensiblities about that.
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I thought too about how Guy Pearce seemed to fare better. But he had his wife, and he looked like he might've been a tough hombre before the holocaust. The fact that his family was intact could've made him stronger. Perhaps Viggo weakened not only from physical illness, but lack of hope? I don't know, but it's fun to think about it. Anyway, time to stock up on canned goods and semi-automatics.
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I didn't notice this when I saw it, but my friend did, as did some others I spoke with. They said Guy Pearce and the black thief were missing their thumbs. Uhhh, do what now? Was this mentioned in the book? Did they cut them off to eat, or were they both attacked by the same cannibal who only eats thumbs?
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Also the line that Molly Parker said to the boy. "We were afraid to approach you when your father was around" made me go???? Was he just fucking mental?
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And then I wondered why this couple was in the habit of stalking and kidnapping children.
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That it does allow for good discussion.
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http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=10134019844&topic=22645
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Jan 19, 2010 12:09:19 PM CST
Avatar haters: Do the honourable thing and eat a shotgun
by viewmastermike
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Great post. I feel the movie was trying too hard to be topical. Especially with the documentary style reactions from laid off employees at the end. It just felt tacked on for manipulative effect. It just felt so disingenuous, especially considering there was so much product placement and brand references. Sure, I'll give some of it pass due to guerrilla filmmaking , bartering with companies to use their locations for free. But all the brand references littered throughout the script that had nothing to do with the story were jarring like when the girl said her ex took a job at "Con Agra" and drove a "Toyota Forerunner", I just felt like bitch-slapping Reitman.
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Yeah, we get it, you saw The Graduate a bunch of times. You probably even have it on Blu-Ray. That doesn't mean you have to throw in 150 montages scored to acoustic music. Maybe lay off that a bit the next time around?
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They're stupid scenes, to the point of almost pulling me out of the movie. And you ignored my point about the huge Deus Ex Machina at the end. Those are just a few examples to show that Avatar's writing was on par with Star Trek, yet Star Trek turned out to be a far more entertaining movie, with much more likable characters. All of you people that are so busy blindly supporting Avatar are doing so because it blew you away visually, but you're having a difficult time admitting that there really isn't much else going on with that film. Instead of valid discussions all we get is "eat a shotgun" and "Your opinions are trite". It really makes me wonder what the average age is of the hardcore supporters of this film.
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ridiculously overrated. Sure, it was very well-acted and all, but aside from that, it really didn't do anything special for me. I tried re-watching it a 2nd time to see if I could see what others did that made them love it so much, but instead it only made me see it worse. The character Juno herself is a really annoying hipster bitch, and Michael Cera played HIMSELF again, like in every single film/tv show he's been in so far. Can't that kid do any other role other than the awkward teenager? In the end, out of Reitman's 3 films, I only loved one. Like I said, I liked Up in the Air, but I didn't think it was THAT special, and now I think Reitman's one of today's most overrated directors.
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I ignored the rest of your criticisms bc the one about the tree was just so simplistic and stupid. That's why I focused on that one. Let's see, I also mentioned the tribal rituals, so let's check that one off. Okay, the "deus ex machina". First off, its only a deus ex machina if it comes of nowhere without any setup. Therefore, what you perceive to be the deus ex machina at the end is in fact NOT so, because it was set up earlier in the movie with Sigourney Weaver's character. And it all makes sense with the way the biochemistry of this world has been set up and developed. The Na'vi believe they can talk with their ancestors (the same way many cultures on earth believe they can do so), only for them, there was an actual biochemical explanation for it. They really *could* talk to their ancestors the way the planet was networked and the way memories could be transferred and stored. It does make sense that they'd be able to transfer Sully's consciousness. It was all set up. Its not a Deus Ex Machina in the least. And no one said your "opinions are trite." I said those specific criticisms were.
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Hey that's making for some fascinating reading. BTW how did you get your handle back? Did Harry come through?
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My original name, this one, just stopped working for some reason back in November. It wasn't banned, posts didn't disappear, it just stopped working. I asked Quint for help, he said he would, but I think he kept forgetting. I kept sending email reminders without much response. I got tired of waiting, so I created a new name, DVader without the period. That name ended up getting banned without any (noticeable) reason. I emailed everyone with questions as to why I got banned but didn't get a response other than "I didn't do it, here's how to avoid getting banned in the future." Someone also told me you can get banned just bc of something you did in the past, which makes it sound like pple hold grudges (scary). So when that got banned, I went back to Quint. He put me in touch with an IT guy who said he'd help. After more email reminders, he finally got it back working, for which I'm very, very grateful. So it was a long process, and I hate having to constantly remind pple they said they'd help me (I'm afraid it'll come across as irritating) bc I'd like to give them the benefit of the doubt, but I think they just kept forgetting about me. But now, here I am! Good as new =).
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See? You kept hope alive through your own "road" and instead of eating you, Quint worked it out. That's great.
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Wonderful and timely.
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Juno sucked because of that dike Ellen Page and her annoying character. It was a good character, but it was an annoying cunt. She should have been the villain of the movie rather than the hero. The movie was actually good...very realistic, and that's why I fucking HATED it.
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It's awfully convenient that the Na'vi had the exact same natural ability that the humans had through technology, AND it was just what was needed for Jake and the girl to live happily ever after. It may not be a Deus ex machina to the letter, but it was almost literally a solution from the Gods, with or without previous setup.I would have been happier with an answer like if the equipment is destroyed the conciousness stays in the body it's in at the time of destruction. It would make more sense for the answer to come from the technology that created the problem in the frst place, but instead, we get the transfer at the spirit tree or holy place or something. It did not work for me. Plus the movie had some extremely clunky dialogue, which is typical of Cameron and I can give it a pass, but one of the biggest problems for me was the unlikable characters, especially Worthington. The pacing was an issue, the length of the film was questionable, and the ridiculous cliche of the outsider that moves into a native civilization and becomes their leader within months.Was it a fun time at the movies? Sure, but it's not the film everyone is making it out to be. The only reason it's so successful is because the standard movie going public, the lowest common denominator, is blown away by flashy visuals and telling all of their friends. Not to mention the high cost of IMAX and 3-D tickets. That is all.
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You see it as convenient, but I think that was the whole point. Its the logical conclusion Cameron wanted to take it: the crippled soldier gets to be reborn into a new, better life. I disagree with your idea that it'd be better if the answer came from technology, as thats the antithesis of one of Cameron's points that technology doesn't offer a lot of solutions and in fact causes a lot of problems (barring the fact that technology is what allowed the Avatars in the first place). I think having technology be the answer betrays one of his points about the relationship with nature being important. Also, I don't see the outsider becoming accepted as being a cliche as its pretty much a classic storytelling trope. I also take issue with your thought that its only successful bc "the standard movie going public, the lowest common denominator, is blown away by flashy visuals and telling all of their friends." First off, that's not true. The standard movie going public is not necessarily the lowest common denominator. Secondly, that is a specious argument and suggests other high-grossing films, like The Dark Knight, which is an intelligent film, only got its money bc of its whiz-bang visuals too. There's more working than just what you say, and that applies to both films.
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But wasn't it technology that allowed Cameron to make the film in the first place? That's pretty hypocritical on "tree hugger" Cameron's part, since it's technology that has allowed him to become the undisputed King of Hollywood. The Dark Knight, while an incredible film, had a huge push in it's gross through morbid curiosity of an incredible (semi)final performance. Plus flashy visuals. It was just the rare film to combine intelligence, and alot of people came out of it confused because of it. In fact if you look at the top 10 grossing films of all time, every one either has flashy visuals or a gimmick/hook. 3 of them are just downright stupid movies but are shiny. Some of those movies sneak intelligence in, but that's not why they're successful.I used to give the average movie goer the benefit of the doubt, because it sounds elitist to say most of them are dumb, but the sad truth is, with only a few exceptions there are mostly dumb tasteless people going to the movies. How else do you explain huge grosses for Wild Hogs, Paul Blart, Twilight Transformers 2, Wolverine or The Squeakuel? All terrible movies, but successful because people saw either stars or spectacle.
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None of us will visit another planet with life, not to mention intelligent life within our lifetime. Cameron created something special and unique, and that is an immersive film experience on an alien world. No movie I have ever seen (including any Star Trek or Star Wars) has been able to replicate that experience.
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but only in it's visuals.
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I absolutely hate when pple argue "But technology allowed him to make this in the first place, therefore this is bad." Its the same dumb argument conservatives used against Wall-E: "The movie is decrying consumerism and yet look at all the toys this movie sells!" Or the other conservative critics of Avatar- "He's crapping on the country that allowed him to make this movie!" Gimme a break. Its not hypocritical at all to use technology to say "technology isn't always good", just as its not hypocritical to use the freedom of speech to point out what's wrong with our country or government (and I'm not suggesting that's what Avatar was doing). I just hate hate hate arguments like that. They don't have any real merit.
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Seriously, Avatar is nothing more than a re-telling of Disney's Pocahontas. It's almost the exact same movie. The world Pocahontas lived in is almost identical to the world of "Pandora", which makes me vomit to say. What a cheesy name.
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So how do you really feel about arguments like that? I'm not saying the movie is bad because of that, it's just one more thing on the growing list of reasons I was unhappy with the movie. Imo, it's a shallow film, paper thin with shiny spectacle, and in 10 years it will be remembered as an fx game changer, nothing more. It doesn't have the mythology that Star Wars had to sustain it for 30 years (even though that got fucked by the prequels), so when people remember Avatar they're going to look back and say "Yeah, dat muvie looked kewl. Herry up or we'll be late fur Transformers 7".
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