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AICN-DOWNUNDER: Oscar Etiquette, Black Sheep, And A Stack Of Reviews !!

first by dalbatron	Feb 26th, 2007 06:24:57 PM
maybe its coz im in nz?
dalbatron by hamo455	Feb 26th, 2007 06:36:04 PM
Undoubtedly it is. Wellington reprahzent.
Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends by rxse7en	Feb 26th, 2007 06:36:51 PM
I can see how he would have won the fest if he ripped off Fosters...that show is well done and entertaining. I like to think how I would have perceived today's cartoons 30 years ago when I was a kid. Some of these shows are pretty high concept for a cartoon. Kids are pretty lucky these days...I still remember HATING Casper and that stupid follow-the-bouncing-ball-sing- along crapfest that used to be on. Yeah, I retain anger.
"writer" Paul Haggis by BadMrWonka	Feb 26th, 2007 06:38:46 PM
gave me a good chuckle. Latauro, look at Herc's post about The Black Donnellys in coaxial, it's both sad and funny to me the NBC is so moronic as to replace Studio 60, with Haggis trash.
Letters From Iwo Jima by Lovecraftfan	Feb 26th, 2007 06:42:38 PM
Amazing moving film.
What about that gone with the wind rumor? by Power_Girl	Feb 26th, 2007 06:43:21 PM
The one where its being remade in Australia afters baz does his big film. The remake will also star Gay Wolverine(his marriage to a woman is a cover). Just hearing the rummer made me want to puke yet alone the thought that anyone would want to contemplate this. You were to hard on LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA man! After reading about how the guy who won the Aussie PGL cheated and now this TROPFEST thing all Aussies must be crooks...
Gone With The Wind by Latauro	Feb 26th, 2007 07:04:26 PM
MrWonka, as someone who dislikes the majority of Haggis's works (but, I should stress, not EVERYTHING the man does), it pains me that my current favourite show Studio 60 (to hell with the haters) is going to be replaced by this apparent garbage. Sigh. Oh well. And to Ms Power Girl, Baz is doing a Gone With the Wind-STYLE film with Hugh Jackman. It's likely you're confusing this with the 2008 Broadway musical of Gone With the Wind, as the producers are hoping to get Jackman to star in that as well. And as for your lazy Jackman-is-gay "put down"... yawn. Seriously, yawn.
bah, "Letters" was overdone, Latauro's right by BadMrWonka	Feb 26th, 2007 07:05:53 PM
Letters from Iwo Jima is to war what Crash was to racism.
JB HiFi & The Prestige (spoilers) by Amy Chasing	Feb 26th, 2007 08:09:18 PM
I think the reason many like JB-HiFi is because compared to Sanity & other such record shops, JB is relatively inexpensive and also stocks audio & video equipment. I don't mind it, in fact I'm considering getting my next Panasonic projector from them (friend of mine got a good deal). And am I the only one who thinks Illusionist was better than Prestige? I found The Illusionist more consistent as it was a love story with a guy that, as he says again & again, everything he does on stage is an illusion. No magic mystery there, his act was entirely an illusion which he used in the end for the love story. The Prestige had trouble in my opinion that it was showing how the two magicians did their illusions (because they were illusions, not magic) up until the point when they bring Tesla into the story and his duplication machine/technique. What was _that_ about? Suddenly we've gone from a credible film about illusionists to science-fiction. Just didn't add up in the end for me. Oh, and the less said about the out of place music score, the better (I know they were going for a modern juxtaposition against a Victoria backdrop, but it just didn't work). Illusionist wins hands down (yay Philip Glass).
HD DVD by half vader	Feb 26th, 2007 09:15:27 PM
I don't think it really has all that much to do with JB really. I've been asking left right and centre about HD-DVD and just about nobody (in the stores) had a clue what it was, let alone when it would be released. Serves MS and Toshiba right I guess, as obviously they don't give a shit about the arse end of the world. So much for their big head-start. Digital Bits has a thing about HD-DVD supporters crowing about Circuit City support in the States which is pretty funny. Aren't those the same guys who supported Divx? I know it sounds like I'm a blu-ray supporter but the truth is the conduct of both MS and the rabid hata fans is more and more upsetting - it's more that I'm an HD-DVD non-apologist than anything to do with the 'opposition'. JB probably do a decent trade in blank storage discs. One thing that's hardly EVER mentioned is that this is a big part of the whole high-def disc equation, and capacity is all-important. Maybe it factors in to JB's decision. Oh and Foster's is brilliant. Gives flash animation a good name. I went to see Music and Lyrics - and missed the opening bit. D'oh.
Oscars by half vader	Feb 26th, 2007 10:21:39 PM
I was going to post my two cents worth in the big Oscars tb but then I got scared at how excited and surprised everybody was that Clint knew Italian. Does nobody remember (or know in the first place) what flicks made him famous?! Begs belief. Especially considering the reason he was doing the translation. Gah. Maybe I'll tell 'em they're fuckwits. Then run away.
triple post by half vader	Feb 26th, 2007 10:22:53 PM
"When a man loves a Wu-tang" Lat, you've done it again!
The Disilliusionist by Latauro	Feb 26th, 2007 11:29:33 PM
Amy, I actually felt the opposite way. I think Norton simply saying "They were all illusions" is a cop-out, because so much of what he did was quite clearly magic. The dead people getting up and walking through audience members? That's an illusion? The Prestige was quite clear about what was an illusion and what wasn't, and took care to explain which of its tricks were fake and which were real. The science fiction aspects didn't bother me because it was a science fiction film! And vadar, not that I don't appreciate your praise, but why do I always get complimented on my lamest jokes? Even I rolled my eyes when I wrote "When a man loves a Wu-Tang", but then realised I couldn't think of anything better this week, so let it slide. But cheers anyway.
Hey, Lat by QuinnTheEskimo	Feb 26th, 2007 11:44:42 PM
When's Bazura season 2 starting up? I thought season one was aces.
Bazura 2 by Latauro	Feb 27th, 2007 12:27:35 AM
Cheers for that, Quinn. I think we're starting back up in June, but finding an exact date would require literally minutes of me struggling with a calculator and a calendar, and I don't have that kind of patience. But rest assured, you will all be kept informed.
Jackman-is-gay by Power_Girl	Feb 27th, 2007 02:30:52 AM
Live with it the guy loves cock! I still love him but he is one super gay man. A gone with the wind musical will rock my socks!!!Bring it on the people who wrote the lyrics for Little Women on Broadway would be perfect for that job.
Latauro by Amy Chasing	Feb 27th, 2007 03:32:47 AM
Seems to me that the ghostly images that The Illusionist made ruined your suspension of disbelief (guess I can understand that, although it's likely he got this "smoke & mirrors" technique from Asia where he studied), while the duplication machine in The Prestige seemed to be the only element of sci-fi in an otherwise dramatical film about illusionists (nothing else they did was sci-fi that I can remember, so it wasn't a sci-fi film IMHO) and hence was out-of-place for me.
Amy, by raw_bean	Feb 27th, 2007 04:12:51 AM
The clockwork-birdcage-retracting- body-armour that Angiers tries to use at one point was a bit outside the realm of the ordinary. And the mistake is in viewing the film as a serious period drama, rather than the gothic, slightly fantastic novel adaptation it was. Think of Frankenstein. You could say that that seemed to be a plausible drama about a Doctor with an unhealthy obsession with alchemy and necromancy up until the only 'sci-fi' bit happens with his success at creating a living being out of body parts. The film is actually a little less fantastical than the book, which really is a gothic horror novel.
Amy by Latauro	Feb 27th, 2007 04:40:57 AM
You're right, in part. That was one of the bits that took me out of the film, but only in retrospect. For the most part, I was waiting to discover (a) how he could perform such incredible illusions, or (b) that he was, in fact, magic. Given we never really found out one way or the other, the filmmakers were able to have their cake and eat it too, and do pretty much whatever they wanted without having to justify it. I think the SF aspect in The Prestige didn't bother me because they took effort to explain that it had been developed scientifically (or stumbled upon by accident as they tried to invent something very similar). Had the duplication process been dismissed as pure random magic (as in: "by the way, he can do THIS"), Prestige probably would have bothered me as well.
Please forgive, but do we think Jackman is gay? by Col. Tigh-Fighter	Feb 27th, 2007 05:42:10 AM
It cant be just because he did musical theatre? Has he beenc caught snogging a bloke like John Travolta was? Not that I'm bothered, but I'm a sucker for Hollywood gay gossip! True story. Went backpacking in Mexico in 1999. Met an Irish guy who said he was an assistant director in Hollywood. He seemed to know what he was on about, so I didnt disbelieve him. I asked him who was gay (as you do). He told me 2 people; Kevin Spacey and John Travolta. Spacey has already been found on Hampstead Heath at 4 in the morning asying he had lost his mobile phone, and Travolta who has just been cuaght kissing a bloke on his private plane. Come on fellas, be out, load, and proud!
Learning to embrace the lame Lat by half vader	Feb 27th, 2007 08:54:53 AM
I think early on I moaned and whimpered a bit about your obligatory dadjokes (y'know, the sort of joke that just makes you cringe). Eventually however I learned to admire your chutzpah/shamelessness in giving us the clever highbrow gear but still ruthlessly slamming us with the low blow. Maybe it's your literary generosity - never let it be said you don't cater for all types of audiences! I found that now I actually look forward to an awful pun or rotten joke, even if I do hafta wait fuckin' forever 'til you get off your arse and post something!
I remember the TV show "Baa Baa Black Sheep" by Doctor_Sin	Feb 27th, 2007 09:41:27 AM
And it was probably better than this Australian killer-sheepshit crap.
Black Sheep... by JimmyLoneWolf	Feb 27th, 2007 10:18:27 AM
I'd see this just for the shot when they say "oh no" and we see flocks of sheep charging over the hillside...this looks like inspired goofiness!
I ALSO stand with you Amy by IndustryKiller!	Feb 27th, 2007 12:16:48 PM
Whenever you see the name Christopher Nolan associated with anything on AICN just realize that here are people on this site who for some ungodly reason read that name as Jesus and will go on any number of crusades to protect it. There are people here who actually think the guy is Stanley Kubrick good. And Latauro I'm wondering exactly how you figure The Prestige wasa science fiction film. Unless you were familiar with the source material beforehand I doubt you had any idea before the end that anything like electric cloning would occur.
Ooooookay... by Latauro	Feb 27th, 2007 03:11:28 PM
StrangeCo, have you been arguing on AICN talkbacks so long that you can't tell the difference between a flame war and a discussion? Look back and you'll see I wasn't giving shit Amy. In fact, I was enjoying being able to have an intelligent debate with someone about these films. I think Amy made some excellent points, but I didn't agree with them, so I countered with my own. That is what a discussion is. Industrykiller: I didn't realise it was SF until we reached that point (or until I figured out what was going on). I was prepared for it to be a straight drama, where everything had a practical explanation, or a fantasy where it turned out someone was actually doing magic, or a science fiction piece, which it turned out to be. I certainly didn't know that going in. Halfvadar: you give me waaay too much credit. Much as I would like to confess to cleverly switching between high and low brow jokes to cover all demographics, I really just put down the first thing that comes into my head... which is why my hit/miss ratio is so high. Or low. Whatever the bad one is.
thanks for the support guys.. by Amy Chasing	Feb 27th, 2007 04:15:34 PM
I too have friends who loved The Prestige, not just because it was a Nolan film, but because they genuinely enjoyed it and think it a fantastic movie. I'm just wondering what the fascination is. The comparison to Frankenstein, I understand, I just don't think The Prestige pulled it off. It wasn't Mary Shelly worthy, and the first half of the film, which wasn't sci-fi, just jarred against me when it suddenly became a sci-fi. Just the way I felt about it. But The Illusionist did make illusions. I never got the sense that he was making magic, but more that (as he taught the police officer) when you know how the illusion is done, the "magic" is lost. So I just accepted the ghostly images he produced as another illusion (quite ahead of his time perhaps, so if I were him I would have patented that holo-projector there and then).

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AICN-DOWNUNDER: Oscar Etiquette, Black Sheep, And A Stack Of Reviews !!

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