Happy Halloween, Part II

BOO!

Scary, huh?

Fast Food Nation

Well, that was a surprise! I didn't expect to like Richard Linklater's Fast Food Nation too much, but I did! I had some free time this afternoon and decided to see a movie, but this was the only one that was on when I showed up at the cinema that I even remotely wanted to see. I was pleasantly surprised. I mean, it's definitely very flawed - too long, too many characters, unfocused at times, but I dunno. It won me over. The "too long" and "too many characters" go hand in hand. And that's even when Greg Kinnear's character (positioned as the only "lead" at the start) completely vanishes for about half the film. Some of the little scenes that you always see on DVD could have easily been taken out and it would've been a good 10 minutes shorter. It jumps around all over the place and doesn't really go anywhere, either.

I liked the cast though, most of them were good. My favourites were Bruce Willis, Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke and Avril Lavigne (yes, Avril) in small roles. Of the main characters I really liked Ashley Johnson (below). I've seen her in a couple of things before and she always comes off looking lovely. And, of course, I essentially had a fit whenever Bobby Cannavale was on screen. He takes his shirt off people. He takes his shirt off! :P The rest of the cast, like Catalina Sandino Moreno, Wilmer Vanderrama, Paul Dano, Ana Claudia Talancon, Kris Kristofferson and co were also good.


I was a bit worried about the already infamous slaughterhouse scene at the end, but when it came around I wasn't as disgusted as I thought I would be. I mean, it's gross stuff (not for weak stomachs), but considering I eat meat I think it didn't effect me as much. I already knew this stuff happens, it's just visualised quite graphically. The worst bit was seeing the intestines roll down the shoot. That was disgusting. The more destressing moments were the scenes showing all the cows in their pens.

It reminded me of Thank You For Smoking actually. Two celebrity-filled casts about big social issues (cigarettes and fast food respectively), but this one went at the issue a bit harder. I never ate McDonalds food anyway, but this film actually tries to get people to stop eating them and that's respectable. It doesn't go hard enough, I thought, but at the same time I appreciated that it didn't come off as a big long lecture, even though it really is. B

Underrated Movie of the Week

Copycat, 1995, dir. Jon Amiel, starring Sigourney Weaver, Holly Hunter, Dermot Mulroney, William McNamara and Harry Connick Jr.

Birthdays and Trick or Treats!

Today is Halloween! Happy Halloween folks. We don't really celebrate All Hallow's Eve down here (although some people continue to try to make it happen. It's like "fetch" in Mean Girls. It's not gonna happen!) so I thought I'd give a "Happy Birthday" to somebody who doesn't have anything to do with Halloween other than unfortunately having been born on that day. Dermot Mulroney. He's dreamy. I'm not entirely sure what it is exactly, but something about him lights my fire. And for a 43-year-old he sure ain't shy about shedding clothes (yay).

Today is also the birthday of the one and only Vanilla Ice of "Ice Ice Baby" and Cool as Ice "fame" (if you wanna call it that). I sooo wish they'd release Cool as Ice on DVD. One of my Top 3 of all time is Rebel Without a Cause and apparently Cool as Ice is a rap remake and has Vanilla showing up (playing a character called Johnny Van Owen, lol. SO cool) in a small town on a neon-yellow motorcycle. Umm... what about that doesn't sound hilarious?

{Happy Halloween, you Freaks and Ghouls}

For crying out loud!

I know it's slightly ironic for me to be saying this considering I talk non-stop a lot of the time, but I just wanted this movie to SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!! For, like, a minute. No dialogue. Please. Of course it was to not be. Instead we got two and a half hours of non-stop talking about crap. Crap that I didn't care about or understand. You'd think somebody who's just realised they're the blood relative of Jesus Christ would have a bit more of a reaction than Audrey Tautou's character does in this movie. Ugh. That dialogue was atrocious ("I'm going to splash some water on my face" or whatever that line was had me laughing though). Tom Hanks was really really bad, as was Paul Bettany. Still, it wasn't as bad as Freedomland.

Love Song For a [Sexy] Vampire

This is part of the Vampire blog-a-thon. Created and monitored by that undead soul that is Nathaniel over at The Film Experience



Vampires: I don't really like them outside of Buffy and a couple of movies. But there's one issue about them that always piques my interest. Hot people! Sexy or Not. That's the constant debate when it comes to vampires and vampire movies. In some movies they are horrible disgusting creatures that want to suck your blood in the most unsavoury of manners. And then there are those movies that feature vampires that want to suck your blood in the most unsavoury of manners, but who are also hotter than a vampire at midday in summer. So I thought for my entry into the Vampire blog-a-thon that I would count down the five sexiest vampires. The ones that you would have a difficult task of actually running away from.

**Please note, Brad Pitt does not appear on hear. I don't particularly care for him in general, let alone in Interview with the Actor where he was about a sexy as a barbequed rat**

5. Kate Beckinsale as "Selene" in Underworld

Fact. I sorta hate Kate Beckinsale. I just really dislike her. I don't get her purpose in the world. And then to go on and say that Underworld is quite possibly the worst horror movie I've ever seen at the cinema, it must be confusing as to why she's on here. I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt. I'm sure that if I were a hetersexual 16-year-old male, the sight of Kate running around in way-too-tight-for-an-action-movie vinyl suit would probably be the equivelent of the moon landing in terms of viewer gawking. Even I admit that she was the best looking thing in the movie (Scott Speedman unfortunately played a strung out werewolf).

4. Gerard Butler as "Dracula" and Jeri Ryan, Jennifer Esposity & Colleen Fitzpatrick as Dracula's brides in Dracula 2000

The movie was a dud, but the window dressing sure was fine. Dracula's a lucky man and I think we all know that Gerard Butler is a sexy bitch. I'd let Gerard attack my neck any time he liked.

3. Stephen Dorff as "Deacon Frost" in Blade

Okay, so there's one scene in Blade that has Dorff's character of Deacon being quite naked. Well, shirtless at least, but I think there was more nekkidness. Either way, there's is plenty of evidence out there that he looks damn fine without a shirt on. It helps that Blade was better than a lot of other movies in this vein. I mean, Stephen Dorff ain't no class actor. I highly doubt he'll ever win an Oscar, but if he's willing to remove clothes in as many movies as possible, then his career will be long and prosperous.

2. David Boreanaz as "Angel" in Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Okay, so I'm cheating by including the television serious, but not only was Angel a hottie (Buffy's only good catch on the series) but he was a major S.N.A.G. I mean, sure, he's a vampire so he can't go out in the daylight, and sure, when Angel and Buffy had sex that one time he turned into an evil vampire again, but for a while there he was really nice! I mean, he did have a soul afterall. David's become a bit too creepy these days (he's nearly 40. time he started to look his age), but back in the heady days of '97 and '98 he was major spunk material.

1. Salma Hayek as "Santanico Pandemonium" in From Dusk Till Dawn
Salma. Bikini. Albino Python. Fangs. One of my favourite vampire movies. That is all.




[Return to Vampire Central at The Film Experience Blog]
(that's Nosferatu in that icon. He's not sexy. At all.)

The following are all the blogs participating in the Vampire Blog-a-Thon. OMG I was bad/lazy and just got the source HTML code from Nat's page and copied and pasted it into here. What you gonna do? SUCK MY BLOOD?!

The Bloodsucking Blogs
Flickhead has capsules on five favored vampire flicks
Gallery of the Absurd imagines Interview with the Antoinette
House of Sternberg posts original short fiction The Starving
Certifiably Creative offers up Theater Des Vampires
No More Marriages on Pittsburgh as the star of Innocent Blood
Eddie on Film views Fright Night as the top 80s vampire flick
Forward to Yesterday gets political w/ Guy Maddin's Dracula
Silly Hats Only on George Romero's Martin
As Little As Possible loves Dracula: Dead and Loving It
Modern Fabulousity pays tribute to Klaus Kinski as Nosferatu
Low Resolution stays up late From Dusk Till Dawn
goatdog on the dwindling House of Dracula at Universal
Cinemathematics on vampire imagery in Shadow of a Doubt
Burbanked Blame the screenwriter: blood sucking edition

...And Still More Undead
Richard Gibson goes contemporary: Martin and The Addiction
When I Look Deep... pits Drácula against Dracula
Pfangirl on a "bloody awesome trio" of lady bloodsuckers
QTA loves the ladies. And so do the ladies in Vampyros Lesbos
Cinema Fromage 'yeah baby, Dracula in 70s London'
zoom-in requests a DVD fix of The Addiction
Stinky Lulu loves Ketty Lester in Blacula
Way of Words on women: from victims to vampire slayers
Music is My Boyfriend offers tunes for the blog-a-thon
Pen15 Club "When Hilary Duff attacks"
My New Plaid Pants finds Paxton ‘finger lickin’ good’ in Near Dark
Nicks Flick Picks on Coppola's Bram Stoker’s Dracula
Being Boring on the homo-cautionary Interview…
Culture Snob resurrects and old look at Nosferatu
The Horror Blog 'fesses up to some anti-vampire prejudice

The Vampires Are Everywhere!
Tuwa's Shanty on Martin & Nosferatu
Catherine Cantieri the giant sucking sound of 1992's Dracula
The Boob Tubers asks the eternal question: Spike or Angel?
novaslim says a "vuck you" to Grace Jones in Vamp
European Films on Frostbite, a Swedish horror comedy
popbytes recommends Christopher Lee in Hammer's Dracula series
Glitterati points out the most unbelievably cast vampire…ever
100 Films the monster mashup: Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein
Peter Nellhaus on Brides of Dracula
Bright Lights After Dark 'Browning and the Slow Club' (Dracula)
Tim Lucas declares his half dozen favorite vampire flicks
Film Vituperatum Ninjas and Vampires --uncanny similarities!
Film of The Year 'That's Why The Lady is a Vamp'
All About My Movies Angelina Jolie IS a Vampire
Critic After Dark two vampire movies from The Philippines
Agence Eureka a vampire gallery
Cinevistaramascope finds Herzog's Nosferatu superior to Murnau's
Auteur Lust obsesses on Persona: 'The Vampire's In Us'
Bitter Cinema a treasure trove of YouTube vampire trailers
Cutting Room remembers his first time...w/ Bram Stokers Dracula

The Comedy Sensation of 2006!!!

Forget Kenny! Forget Borat! Hell, you can even forget Snakes on a Plane because I just watched the year's best comedy. Wow. Funny, funny stuff! Freedomland is hilarious! Whoever wrote this movie deserves a prize. That dialogue is just filled with zingy one-liners ("thanks a lot brotha-fucker" omglolz!!!!) and it's so based in reality that it just rings true. I mean, I could believe everything that was happening. Whoever's idea it was to make the lead detective character an asthmatic is a genius! What character development!!!

Of course, it wouldn't be anything without the delightful comedic work of actors such as Julianne Moore, Samuel L Jackson and Ron Eldard. Just watch the scene between Jackson and Moore as he interogates her about her child. The subtle nuances are just so compelling and all that hyperactive editing and ridiculous directing just makes it so much better. And Julianne Moore's method acting style (looking like a strung out coke addict who doesn't own a brush) was stunning. OSCAR!!! I must say though, shame on Edie Falco! She let the team down. I don't know what movie she thought she was in, but it's as if she's trying to make a serious and adult drama. Shame Falco, Shame!

And what of Joe Roth's directing? Wow. He really knows how to handle this movie that is a balancing act between madcap hyjinx comedy and absurdly overwrought drama. It could've gone the way of drama, but no - he stuck to his guns. Racial tension, abduction and domestic violence really is hysterical. He must've researched long and hard when preparing for this movie. Everybody involved (except Edie Falco) really puts in 110% to make this the most absurdly delirious comedy of the year.

...wait, what? It wasn't meant to be a comedy? Oh dear... If it wasn't supposed to a comedy then why I was Samuel's character nicknamed "Big Daddy"?

I'm totally Strasberg

Robbie Williams
"The Actor"

italics denote the female reply in song.

VERSE ONE:
First you can't act, now you can't stop,
What's my motivation?
I used to like you... a lot,
I was the class nerd
Exactly who I'm s'posed to be,
I'm totally Strasberg
You play a doctor on TV,
What you're doing is SO brave

VERSE TWO:
Deep down you're dirty but you try,
I'm a good person
The truth would break you so you lie,
I want my work to matter
It's in the choices that you make,
I want to inspire
No talent, just fate.

CHORUS:
I don't know where you begin,
I end, we start
Again,
They need, you love,
We all watch
The Actor Acting.

VERSE THREE:
Good from far but far from good,
All I have is my instinct
You love to act, I wish you would,
It's not acting, it's re-acting
Act like you're not from out of space,
When I'm on stage I feel alive
You know ambition isn't grace,
For me it's the craft

VERSE FOUR:
Made of Sex, Maida Vale,
Would I do better in New York
You are the Alpha Male,
I'm just too pretty for that role
You are the good, you are the great,
The words have power
Now let me fill you with my hate.

(CHORUS)

MIDDLE 8:
Monroe,
Monroe
Barrymore,
Barrymore
Mansfield,
MANSFIELD
D-d-d-d-Dame d-Dame d-Dame Judi Dench,
Judi Dench
Madonna Ritchie,
Ritchie
Ritchie, Ritchie, Ritchie.
Streep,
Close,
Hepburn,
Burt Reynolds.
Niven,
Danson,
Bundy,
BARDOT.
Joaquin,
Joaquin,
Joaquin,
Joaquin,
Joaquin,
Joaquin
Joaquin,
Joaquin
Joaquin,
Joaquin
SWANK.

(CHORUS)

OUTRO SPEECH:
In the future,
Everybody will be anonymous for fifteen minutes,
You are, we all are a test card,
The stars of CCTV,
We ARE the nature of the beast.

I'm sorry for all this Robbie-love, but jesus this is a good album. "The Actor" is one of the standouts. The number of actors who has said "I want my work to matter" or "for me it's the craft" or "I was the class nerd" (sorry, I do not believe Jessica Alba or Jennifer Lopez were ever nerds) is funny. The female reply is great. How great is the line "You love to act, I wish you would" Robbie is so cheeky. And he even gets his own "Vogue" moment!

[SRC]

Nine Weird Things About Me.

I got tagged (THANKS A LOT, EMMA!), so here we go. Nine weird things about me. Some of these things may already be apparent in my writings, but hopefully not. And while some of them are just weird freaky things there are indeed some that are quite embarassing. Eep.

1. I have the uncanny ability to look at digital clocks at exactly 12:34. Seriously, no kidding. It only happens twice a day, but best bet is I'll catch it at both instances.

2. I have a secret crush on Steve Carell. OMG, I have no idea why cause he's not exactly the most aesthetically pleasing guy out there. I think it's his adorableness.

3. I hate dairy. I hate cheese (unless it's on a pizza) and drinking milk, eating yoghurt and all that stuff just... no. But, cheese is the worst. I wanna gag whenever i taste it. Gross.

4. I have a big giant massive phobia of bees and wasps. So much so that just the other day when a bee flew in front of my face I nearly had a full on panic attack right out in the open with other people around. And once when one landed on me at work I had to stop working because I was so freaked out.

5. I turned The Da Vinci Code off half way through because it was making me sleepy. It is so bad. I had to return the DVD to the shop, but I put it on my computer so I'll try and watch the rest of it later.

6. I have a date on Saturday night. Like, a dinner-and-a-movie type date. How odd. His name is Nick, which is hilarious to me because I've had three crushes in the past all with the name Nick (or Nic in one case, but that's details).

7. One of my top 5 lines of dialogue is "I've got towels!" from Showgirls right after Nomi tells her black dancer friend that they can't have sex cause she's got her period. So romantic, non?

8. I own a Spirited Away fan! My friend in LA gave it to me as a present when I visited her over there. She also gave me a Van Helsing action figure that looks nothing like Hugh Jackman. But I can imagine. Oh yes, I can.

9. I'm gonna go watch Freedomland now. I... am not anticipating greatness.

Apparently I need to tag nine others! Crikies. Umm... How about, Adam K, Ali, Javier (to get out of his writing funk), Mike, Cal, Drew, Ramification, David and Simon. Sorry.

I love this movie already

Sorry bout lack of updates, but I've been a tad busy. The end of school is rearing it's head so assignments must be completed. Plus, I worked yesterday and all day today and then there's just the general feeling of not having anything to say.

So... yeah. I dunno. I can't stop listening to "We're The Pet Shop Boys" and "The 80s" from Robbie's Rudebox album. That and "The Crying Game" by Boy George. God, that song is brilliant. Well, that version of the song anyway.

I'm truly one of a kind!

Seriously! I did a search. If I lived in America there would be not one single solitary person with my name. So, go me! How many of you are there?

Say Wha...?

How on Earth did Robbie Williams manage to create one of the year's best albums in the form of Rudebox? I mean... what? It's truly one of the the most bizarre albums I've heard in a long time. I'm fairly certain it was conceived in a haze of pot and booze. But, man, at times it's fuckin' brilliant. I mean, sure it has it's head scratching moments ("Dickhead" most prominantly), but when it's great it bloody well soars. Even the song "Rudebox" seems better in context of the album. My favourite at the moment is probably "The '80s", a hilarious Streets-rip off detailing every moment of Robbie's life in the 1980s, and Robbie's cover of My Robot Friend's "We're The Pet Shop Boys" (delightfully producers by, er, The Pet Shop Boys), and "Kiss Me" a sky-high pop dance moment that reeks of Madonna (she is all over this record. She's namechecked in three songs). "Good Doctor" is some strange car accident of about seven different genres, but it (like a car accident) fascinating. "Keep On" is vaguely racist I think, but is also sort of stupendously hilarious. "The Actor" is smooth and manages to named check Judi Dench, Madonna, Joaquin Phoenix AND John Barrymore in the space of 30 seconds. "The '90s" is about as close to a traditional Robbie song as you get and even then it's at the same time nothing like traditional Robbie. "Viva Life on Mars" is country-infused pop. He even manages to fit in a cover of Human League's "Louise" (a very identical cover too).

Seriously, one of the craziest most bizarre and out right strange albums by a high profile artist. But for that he gets big points. He actually came through with his threat of changing musical direction (you hear me Mr Timberlake!). It's definitely not an album for everybody (I'm not exactly sure who it is an album for), but it's the most gleefully ridiculous album of the year and that's a hell of a better than what 98% of mainstream pop artists are doing right now. And you gotta give him credit for not simply jumping into bed with Timbaland or Will.i.Am to produce an album and instead chose producers like William Orbit and the Pet Shop Boys to give him something altogether new. God, this album has done my head in.

About Bloody Time

Thank Christ somebody's saying it. It's about time that anti-homosexual slurs actually became something other than idle gossip. There was a story in Australia earlier this year where a well-known football player made a slur and it was news for about a day. There was all this talk about how the player (Nick Reiwoltd or however it's spelt) should apologise and should educate younger players about descrimination and all that crap. Nobody's heard anything about it since. Yet, if a player says something racially insulting they get shamed and people cry out (so they should) for changes.

And the Mel Gibson example is just way too true and disturbing, I choose not to even think about it just like I choose not to think of that disgusting filth The Passion of the Christ. Ugh.

This Week in Australian Cinemas

A fairly blah set of releases this week, as all of them are niche films. There is some bright spots though that look intriguing. Plus, we get (for the second week in a row after Children of Men) a decent-profiled film debuting here weeks before the US. Still, I'd much rather have Marie Antoinette, Volver, The Fountain, Babel, The Queen, etc at the same time as the US that two films before. Bah. I hate distributers more than... something else I hate.


Fast Food Nation, 2006, dir. Linklater
Richard Linklater's adaptation of Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation arrives on Australian screens a full three weeks ahead of the US, so, umm... yay. However, I doubt that this film will be anywhere near as good as Children of Men. However, it has a very large cast, which is very interesting. Greg Kinnear, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Bruce Willis, Patricia Arquette, Bobby Cannavale (let us ogle him yet again), Wilmer Vanderrama, Paul Dano (from Little Miss Sunshine if the name isn't familiar), Ethan Hawke, Luis Guzman, Kris Kristofferson, Avril Lavigne and Cherami Leigh. The film was shown in competition at Cannes, but that's never a guarantee of quality. Still, I might check it out.

Spellbound With Crossword Puzzles Wordplay, 2006, dir. Creadon
Worldplay is one these new-age hipster documentaries like Mad Hot Ballroom that are trying to follow in Spellbound's giant massive near-unpassable footsteps by taking a typically geeky/boring/silly/niche recreational activity (here, the New York Times' crossword puzzle) and make it and it's participants appeal to a mass audience. The problem is that Spellbound is freakin' SPELLBOUND and it's damn hard to beat that. Still, this could prove to be an entertaining DVD rental.

The Grudge 2, 2006, dir. Shimizu
A look at director Takashi Shimizu's IMDb filmography is quite startling. He has three Ju-On: The Grudge film's listed (they would be the Japanese version of the franchse) plus the two American versions (still set in Japan though). I really think it's time for Shimizu to give up on this franchise already. Not even Wes Craven directed more than one Nightmare on Elm Street (until Wes Craven's New Nightmare but that's a whole different beast). I don't know what it is with these Japanese horror directors. Hideo Nakata of the Ringu franchise is the same. Notice how I'm not talking about the actual movie? Yeah, that's because the original American Grudge (well, all of them really) is one of the worst movies I've seen in a cinema for a long time. Like, was there even a plot until the last 10 minutes? And I got sick of the whole 10 minute vignette leading up to a predictable scare involving those stupid white-faced dead people, after the second one. Ugh. And why is Teresa Palmer (left) who was impressive and recently AFI nominated in 2:37. Blah.

Suburban Mayhem, 2006, dir. Goldman
Speaking of AFI nominations, Suburban Mayhem from director Paul Goldman (who recently made Australian Rules) received 12 nominations. Emily Barclay is looking pretty solid for the win I think. She really impressed me in 2004's New Zealand film In My Father's Den and was the best thing (and AFI nominated again) for the TV movie The Silence. This film is about Katrina, as she plans to murder her father and then... do stuff? I'm not really sure. It's gotten a very mixed responce (some say it's great, others most definitely not). But, seriously, that poster is brilliant. So good that I want it for my wall even if the movie is shithouse. I'm definitely gonna seek this movie out.

No. 2, 2006, dir. Fraser
This is an adaptation of a one-woman show, yet it has a big giant cast. Talk about adapting to the cinema! No. 2 is a New Zealand film (one of their highest grossing ever, I believe) that bares are striking resemblance to many other ethnic-minority films. The one where the old matriarch decides to put on a big giant feast. This time the woman is selecting a successor, which must be something of native New Zealand culture that doesn't make sense to me. But, whatever. It stars African-American legend Ruby Dee as the matriarch. Looks more DVD-friendly to me, but who knows.

Trust the Man, 2006, dir. Freundlich
So me and my two besties (Hi Hannah and Georgie!!!) go to the movies a lot on Tuesday's because it's cheap ticket Tuesday. They've mentioned on numerous times that they want to see this movie because it has Julianne Moore and Maggie Gyllenhaal (two actress I definitely l-o-v-e) but something just keeps making me resist it. There are many directors out there who fall into the Woody Allen lite category (most recently, Ben Younger and his film Prime), and Bart Freundlich definitely looks to be in that category with this film, which also stars David Duchovny, Billy Crudup, Garry Shandling and Eva Mendes. It just seems like such a DVD movie. But, I do love me some Moore and Gyllenhaal (and in Moore's case, there's no lost children in sight!!!)

Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont, 2005, dir. Ireland
All I'm gonna say is: THIS LOOKS AWFUL. At least Ladies in Lavender looked mild. This one looks like a barely reanimated corpse limping around with no place to go.

Women of the Sun: 25 Years Later, 2006, dir. Weis
This is a follow-up documentary to the 1981 Australian mini-series Women of the Sun, which followed four Aboriginal women. Seems like it should've been put on TV though.

The Nightmare Before Christmas: 3D, 1993/2006, dir. Sellick
On October 31, The Nightmare Before Christmas gets a 3D release. However, it's an incredibly limited release so I probably won't have the chance to see it. DAMN YOU!!!!

BOX OFFICE
1. The Departed (2)
2. BoyTown (1)
3. The Devil Wears Prada (4)
4. Little Miss Sunshine (3)
5. Children of Men (1)
6. Crank (1)
7. Step Up (4)
8. Kenny (10)
9. Garfield 2 (7)
10. The Covenant (2)

The Departed remains at #1 in it's second week with $1.8mil, falling only 28% - a great hold no matter what. It still has the best per screen average in the top 10 (beating Little Miss Sunshine by $500) and looks to stay at the top next week considering the releases on offer.

New Aussie comedy BoyTown scores the best debut for the Australian film all year (and the best since Wolf Creek at the end of 2005) with (and this is the exact number) $998,719. So close to $1mil! Hopefully this will have some decent word of mouth, but I fear they released it at the wrong time. The film is aimed more-than-somewhat towards teens and uni students, yet as of right now they're all in study and exam mode. The Devil Wears Prada slides another 37% to just a few hundred thousand under one million. It has so far grossed $13.6mil with much more in the tank. This movie is a definite big motha hit and as of now is the highest grosser in the top 20.

Little Miss Sunshine slips a scant 10% in it's second week of national release. It so far as $2.3mil and will definitely reach at least $4mil, but will hopefully go higher. Children of Men debuts at #5 with just under $800,000 (it grossed $2000 less than LMS to miss out on fourth spot). That may not sound good, but considering the only advertising I saw was a trailer in front of The Departed, it's pretty good. Where was the TV campaign? Crank debuts one spot lower but with only $432,000. It'll be a distant memory in a week.

Step Up hangs around because there's nothing for teenage girls. Kenny moves back into the top 10 in it's tenth week, with a rise of 4% in takings. It now has $5.6mil and should hit at least $6.5mil. Now that school holidays are over, Garfield 2 falls 69 laughable per cent. The Convenant falls 58%.

Elsewhere, at #11, World Trace Center is going to go down as a big miss in Australia. It barely has $2mil and has the fourth-lowest per screen avarage in the Top 20. New entry Don at #15 does great with an average of over $8000 and An Inconvenient Truth approaches $3mil. Irresistable falls 39% in it's second week and will approach $300,000 by the end of it's run. Everything else is dead weight kids films that are dying now that school is back in. Debuting outside the Top 20 was Roberto Benigni's The Tiger and the Snow which debuted with a laughable $22,000 and an average of $1,128. Go back home, Roberto!

When Bad Posters Strike: Déjà Vu (Part II)

I thought the insults towards the Déjà Vu poster were over, but no. They decided to create a new one for France, and man... levels of stupidity. Okay, well, it may not be completely ridiculous because I'm sure there's some French still in the dark, but does anyone else find it slightly silly that the tagline is word for word, the dictionary description of "déjà Vu". Ya know, considering it's a French term.


And then there's the design of the poster. This is one of the standard thriller designs. Similar examples can be seen here, here and here. They usually have three or four panels, depending on number of main cast members. Each panel has a different cast member and they all happen to be facing opposite directions. Like at the top they'll be looking left, middle right and bottom left again. Or like the Under Suspicion poster, they all look at the same direction, but they are placed on opposite ends.

Ciao. I need sleep.

OMG

I think I just broke a rib, laughing so much. !!! OMG BLOG !!! gets 10 gold stars for that one.

Full Review: Children of Men

I rarely write full-length reviews, but here is one. Enjoy (or conversely, be confused by my poor writing)

What is it exactly about the apocalypse that I find so fascinating? I seem to always find myself respecting films that for whatever reason decide to end humanity. Maybe it’s because it’s the ultimate definitive, or maybe it’s because we actually kinda had it coming. No more life equals no more me. No more you. No more anything. And so when a big budget Hollywood(-esque?) movie comes along and basically ends the world that we know, I sort of have to give it up to the filmmakers for actually doing so. Take Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines for example. That very-Hollywood-friendly movie ended with the human race succumbing to the robots. We (humans) were left to fend for scraps in a metal world (of course, the inexplicably upcoming Terminator 4 is sure to provide a much happier snappier ending to the franchise, no doubt).

There was a definitive sense of the apocalypse during Alfonso Cuarón’s latest movie Children of Men. Essentially, the human race is going to die out and there’s nothing we can do about it. When a character asks “Why are women infertile”, you kind of want to know, but at the same time, as Clive Owen’s Theo says, there’s no point in knowing, because at this point everyone’s going to die. Why fuss with the details? The film builds this world so thoroughly that, even at the early stages of the film, you just accept it. It’s not like it’s hard to believe that the entire planet could turn to the crapper, considering how things are going.

All of this hopelessness is a build up for what Children of Men really stands for. The desire for hope. One scene in particular towards the end actually had me welling up. A moment played for all it’s worth (it even has an opera soundtrack) that actually works. For people who haven’t read the book (I assume the book is similar? But I wouldn’t know), I won’t spoil it for you, but it’s one of the most stirring bits of cinema I’ve seen in quite a while. But, Children of Men is realistic and it doesn’t have any false moments. It just keep building and building until for just a brief moment in time goodness shines through, but in the end goodness isn’t enough. And that just kind of makes it hit home all the more. War is hell, and unlike this movie, there isn’t even a terribly worthwhile reason for it.

The cast and crew of Men work incredibly hard to make you believe. Clive Owen is typically sullen and depressed as you would be from 21 years of end-of-the-world senarios, and Michael Caine is bright as his much-less pessimistic friend. Newcomer Claire-Hope Ashitey completely won me over as she runs the gamut from sassy to serious. She is definitely someone to watch in the future. And Julianne Moore? …I can't discuss that.

Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki and editor Alex Rodriguez really work hand in hand better than most films of this type. Lubezki’s camera is ever roaming and the editing is not flashy, but plain old simple. You barely even notice it at times. The production design and art direction is suitably effective. It’s grimy, yet ever so slightly futuristic – the movie is only set 21 years in the future.

Yes, the film has modern-day connections (and they’re easily picked with all the news we constantly hear about the Iraq war and shit like that), and it’s as if the film is going out of it’s to make viewers demand not only a better future, but also a better present. Children of Men is strong, effective filmmaking and if you substitute the science-fiction infertility angle for something much more prevalent in today’s society, then it just gets scarier and more powerful. A-

Blog-a-Thon

No, I'm not hosting a blog-a-thon, but I just thought I'd remind people of some of the upcoming blog-a-thons that are happening throughout the blogosphere (and that I am participating in). Wow, that's a lot of "blog"!

Nat at the Film Experience has his Vampire blog-a-thon on October 30 (that's next Monday, folks). I'm still not sure what I'll discuss because I realised recently that I'm that well versed on vampires (we're excluding the Buffy tv program.) Oh well, I'll come up with something.

The Film Vituperatum's Alfred Hitchcock blog-a-thon is on November 15. Quite opposite to the vampire one, I have nearly too much to blog about on this subject.

Lastly (but certainly not least), Stinky Lulu's Supporting Actress blog-a-thon is still a goer, but now (well, now as of a month ago) on January 7. I'm fairly certain who I'm gonna be discussing. I need to watch the movie again though so she's fresh in my mind. Plus, nobody else will be talking about my lady (or, I can't imagine them doing so).

I'm so freakin' bored right now

I just turned off Haneke's Time of the Wolf. I just am not in the mood to sit through another hour and fifteen minutes of... that. Doesn't help that the reception is shithouse. Oh well, I may catch up with the rest sometime in the future.

Something Kinda HELL YES!

I've said it before, and I'll say it again - Girls Aloud are the best pop group of the 2000s. Seriously. Plus, they hate Pete Doherty, so they've got that going for them. But, yeah, "Something Kinda Ooh" is just sublime dance pop. Video here.

Russell Crowe is a wank

Okay, let me get this straight first. I really like Russell. I think he's a great actor and I gotta respect him for hosting the AFI awards last year and, well, not sucking! But I just could not stop myself from laughing when I read this at ComingSoon. I mean... who does he think he's fooling?

CS: Many people who saw "Cinderella Man" last year thought it was a shoe-in for Oscars, but it was snubbed. How did you feel about that?
Crowe: Well, when I see some of the decisions that are made, you do ask yourself how you can take it seriously. I believe "Cinderella Man," for example, I think we had three nominations at the end of the day for a film that I believed deserved a lot more, and not just with my own work, but Ron Howard's work, Renée Zellweger's work, Paul Giamatti. Paul Giamatti not winning Best Supporting Actor for that performance, you have to stand back and say, "Well, it's not healthy to take any of this seriously." The thing is I talk about "Cinderella Man" ten times a day. I'll be walking down the street and people stop me and they put their hand on their heart and they start to cry. I'll be having those conversations ten years from now. It will be interesting to see how many conversations people are having about other films down the road.

I call bullshit! I do not believe for one single second that 10 people a day come up to him and cry over that movie. And this is from somebody who actually sorta liked the movie (Yeah, I know. Strange.) True to form though, I thought Paul Giamatti was the worst part of the film.

I'm also gonna just pretend that A Good Year doesn't exist (not only does it feature that male-Dakota, Freddy Highmore) but it just looks awful. I'll wait for American Gangster and 3:10 to Yuma thank you very much.

Brief Mind Spasms

So, it's pretty much a well documented fact that there's a lot of shit going on in the world. Most of that is because human beings are horrible creatures. But, you know what I like? I like it when somebody stops being the cliche society tells us they should be and becomes the sort of person you wish everybody was.

I won't mention who I'm speaking of because only a scant few of you readers will even know him, but I don't understand why this 16-year-old male high schooler can be so unestablishment and carefree in regards to certain things such as a person's sexuality, yet legions of seemingly well-adjusted adults can't.

It's people like him and others like him that actually makes me glad I'm growing up now and not 20, 30, 40 years ago. I mean, were 16-year-olds so nonchalantly accepting back then? I doubt it. The cliche tells us that if you're 16 and a male you must "hate fags" or whatever and that if you befriend one you're obviously gay too.

So, I thank whoever it is I thank for small miracles. I'm so glad my friends aren't hate-mongering wankers.

(and no, I'm not drunk. I had to make that clear, but Children of Men got me thinking about life and society and then my friend just kind of hit me for six. This entry probably made no sense. I need sleep.)

Children of Men

Question. A- or B+?? Either way, Children of Men is excellent. Standout performance belongs to unknown newcomer Claire-Hope Ashitey as the "fugee" Kee. Technically great. Julianne Moore? How do you say "What the fuck?"

More later.

Google Me

Just cause I'm procastinating doing homework (again), here are the most recent Google searches that have resulted in people finding Stale Popcorn.

"starkey mp3 hey bang bang"

"victoria Thaine nude"

"oh mein papa lyrics robert gilbert"

"i will be the flame midi 80s"

"first ten best pictures of popcorn"

"romper stomper sex scene clip"

"k.k. barrett interview marie antoinette"

...riiight.

omg, I'm listening to "I'll Be Your Shelter" by Taylor Dayne right now. Remember her?

Sidebar

So, I finally got around to finishing rejuvinating the sidebar to your right. Now, if I forgot to put your blog or site on there (and you know I visit your site) let me know. If you'd like me to add it on there, again, let me know. My contacts are now at the top (email and myspace) so it's easy as pie. Also, now if I rewatch a movie I will put in a bracket the number of viewings denoted by (x#). Of course, I have no freakin' idea how many times I've watched Scream. It's definitely around 100. I swear I watched that movie ever day of my school holidays in 1997 when my brother bought a VHS copy. That and The Lion King are definitely my most watched movies ever. The numbers are scarily high.


Now, I need to do some homework. Bleh.

Usted aprende algo nuevo cada día

Hah! How do you like that! I can speak spanish (er, not really). But, I say the topic in Spanish because I was perusing around my StatCounter.com account just now and finding out some interesting facts about my readers. They took a random sample of 100 readers and came up with these results.

24 are from Australia
21 are from the USA
13 are from the UK
12 are from Canada
4 are from India
4 are untracable
3 are from Spain
3 are from Slovenia (whoa. go slovenia!)
2 are from the United Arab Emirates
2 are from Denmark
2 are from Croatia
2 are from Singapore
1 is from China
1 is from the Philipines
1 is from Germany
1 is from Uruguay
1 is from Finland
1 is from Poland
1 is from Ireland
1 is from Sweden

How bloody interesting!!

And it gets even more Fatal Attraction.

Of the people from Australia, 8 are from Sydney and 5 are from Melbourne and the rest are unknown.

From the States, there are three Georgians and three Rhode Islanders (including somebody who goes to Brown University, and whenever I think "Brown University" I just have to quote The Simpsons - "Oh no! Not BROWN!" teehee. We quote that all the time whenever we play Trivial Pursuit). Five from New York, two from Florida and another two from California. One from Massachusetts, District of Columbia, Illinois, Washington and Minnesota.

There are 9 British Columbians and one from Ontario and Quebec for good measure.

The two Croatians are from Grad Zagreb. Two of the Spaniads are from Cataluña and the other is from The Canary Islands. And it keeps going on like that. How crazy. Oh, that crazy Uruguay person? Who on earth could that be? I've never heard of this "Montevideo" before.

:P

All those people and I'm all the way down hear in the very south of Australia. I love everyone and I want to jump into Jupiter and make love to it.

...Wait, what?

Links!

Sorry folks, I don't really have anything to say. And I didn't yesterday, either. What you gonna do? I've had work and social commitments and just a lack of interesting things. So for pure shits and giggles, go to some of these links if you haven't already. Oh, i'll mention that the sidebar is slowly revamping itself, so hopefully I'll have all the links put in again soon. But it takes time y'all!

Ja at My New Plaid Pants talks about Michael Haneke's Funny Games. This is an English-language remake of Haneke's own 1997 film. I'm only new to the world of Michael Haneke, and I've only seen three of his films (Hidden, The Piano Teacher and Code Unknown, which I discussed earlier this week. The Time of the Wolf is on tele next week though so I'll defo try to catch that). Unfortunately Funny Games isn't available down here yet, but as I said in the replies to that entry I made, the good thing about American remakes is that somebody always releases the original on DVD just in time to make some quick cash. So, anyway, Ja has some links to new images of the English-language version starring Naomi Watts and Tim Roth as the couple and Michael Pitt and Brady Corbit (from one of my absolute favourite films of last year, Mysterious Skin) as the psychopaths. Interesting.

It's this time of the year that Nat at the Film Experience really hits his stride, and he's doing so as I type. He has a review of Running with Scissors, he has more Best Foreign Language Film news than you can shake a stick at (go TEN CANOES!!!!), the ever-incestuous relationship between Burton-Depp-Carter continues with Burton's Sweeney Todd and he weighs in on the eternal battle of good vs evil... aka Martin Scorsese vs Clint Eastwood. I like Eastwood (well, I liked his last couple of movies. I haven't seen Unforgiven), but come on. Scorsese! But, I still wish The Aviator had of won a couple of years back.

GQ lists the 25 most Stylish films of all time. Of course, being a men's mag means it's all about men. I haven't seen a lot of those movies, but I gotta ask. They mention James Dean three times I believe yet not one of his films (Rebel Without a Cause being the obvious one) is listed. The white tee, red jacket and denim jeans is iconic, folks.

Top 10 World War II Movies. Pardon me while I yawn, but WWII is a topic that I just don't care about in movies anymore. Yes, Saving Private Ryan is good blah blah blah, but WWII movies are just like Hollywood blockbusters sometimes. Big fight sequence followed by quiet dialogue followed by fight scene (a path that Flags of Our Fathers seems to have taken. I find it amusing that the best ones on there are typical war films - Casablanca and Mrs Miniver. I haven't seen Schindler's List though. I really want to, but they never send it to me.

Dave Poland's 20 weeks to Oscar columb. And stuff.

Arden at Cinephilia says Little Children is for "Winslet and Field fans only" I'm a Winslet fan, but not a Field fan (I didn't like In the Bedroom that much) so should I still watch it? Hmmm.

I love reading Tech Support over at Kris' In Contention. The Tech departments don't get enough love.

The Envelope Buzzometer is up. The Queen, Flags of our Fathers and Dreamgirls take the top three spots for Best Picture buzz, but the actress category? Well... that's a shambles right now. So many possibilities. Mirren and Dench take spots #1 and #2, but at #3 is another Brit, but this time of a much younger generation: Sienna Miller. I actually predicted Sienna Miller for a nomination all the way back in April when nobody else even gave her a second thought, so it's funny seeing her get buzz let alone actually be in contention. I don't think she'll get a nom anymore, but ya know. I also predicted Cruz all the way back then too, so give me props please (lol, don't). Winslet and Bening round out the top 5. So... yeah, it actually is a shambles. No Streep. Huh? And apparently Ed Norton is in contention for Best Actor with The Illusionist or The Painted Veil. I... didn't see that one coming.

The Prestige gets a For Your Consideration ad. Alongside a Best Picture and Director consideration, they have two for Best Actor (Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale), one for Best Actress (Scarlett Johansson), three for Best Supporting Actor (Michael Caine, David Bowie and Andy Serkis) and two for Best Supporting Actress (Piper Perabo and Rebecca Hall). Something tells me they'll be getting none of those. Although, how much would it KICK ASS to see David Bowie as an Academy Award nominee?! A lot! That's how much.

I love No-Necked Monsters run by fellow Victorian Michael Scott (oh, the memories of that name). Today he has a review of Children of Men. I must admit to also being guilty of being filled with joy that we're getting a highly-anticipated Hollywood production a full two months before the United States. I'll hopefully be seeing it on Tuesday. eep. He also has a great write-up for the little Aussie gem from about 8-years-ago called Soft Fruit. I liked it when I saw it on VHS about five years ago, but it's true that nobody seems to remember it. Well, I do Michael! I DO!!!

And that's all for now, cause I need to eat and then get ready for work. Ciao.

The Jackal starring Jack Black!

LOL, I just saw an advert on the TV for channel 10's airing of The Jackal (the awful Bruce Willis/Richard Gere remake) and I couldn't believe my eyes and ears. The voiceover goes "Before he was Nacho Libre, Jack Black was an arms dealer. But he's going to find out that dealing kills" or something along those lines. Then goes "Jack Black and Bruce Willis in... The Jackal"

...I...

He's in it for, like, 10 minutes! Or that's how much I remember of the movie anyway. What was Sidney Poitier doing there?

An Open Letter...

Dear Random Stranger from Geelong,

If the extremely sexy European parametic who I served tonight, at BiLo in Belmont, is out there please for the love of god, e-mail me! leave a comment! DO SOMETHING! Apparently you were checking me out (two people said so!) And, seriously, you were European (I'm fairly sure you were Italian omg) and you were hot and you wear a sexy uniform and you save people's lives for a living. You're like the perfect man. So, if you're out there, let me know.

;)

Love,

Glenn

Siez Mattres

You can watch the trailer for The Good German is Small, Meduim [sic] or Large. Well done Warner Bros. Well freakin' done.

AFI Complete Nominations.

BEST FILM
Candy
Jindabyne
Kenny
Ten Canoes

I thought Kokoda would get in here and if it were to be beaten by anything I didn't think Candy, but at least it wasn't the other Australian drug movie this year Em4Jay. That was shit. Way to go to these films - three of y'all are definitely worthy

BEST DIRECTION
Ray Lawrence, Jindabyne
Clayton Jacobson, Kenny
Paul Goldman, Suburban Mayhem
Rolf de Heer & Peter Djigirr, Ten Canoes

I didn't have Goldman, instead I thought voters may go all mastabatory wankfest on us and choose Ana Kokkinos (thank god they didn't!), but the other three I picked.

BEST LEAD ACTOR
Heath Ledger, Candy
Gabriel Byrne, Jindabyne
Shane Jacobson, Kenny
Steve Le Marquand, Last Train to Freo

YAY!!! I thought the AFI voters would scrub Byrne off their list and replace him with Tom Long (for The Book of Revelation, which is thankfully absent from every major category except Screenplay) purely because he's internation. I'm so glad I was wrong. I have never been a fan of Byrne (in fact I've vehemently despised him in the past), but he was supurb in Jindabyne. Oh, and yay for Heath Ledger, Jacobson and Le Marquand who I correctly predicted. I would have prefered someone like Peter Mammone (The Caterpillar Wish) instead of Le Marquand, but I can deal with him.

BEST LEAD ACTRESS
Teresa Palmer, 2:37
Abbie Cornish, Candy
Laura Linney, Jindabyne
Emily Barclay, Suburban Mayhem

Whoa, I didn't see them nominating Teresa Palmer!! Good move, voters. She sure was impressive all things about the film considered. I had Victoria Hill from Macbeth in her spot. And the other three I all correctly predicted.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Geoffrey Rush, Candy
Ronald Jacobson, Kenny
Tom Budge, Last Train to Freo
Anthony Hayes, Suburban Mayhem

Well, I correctly guessed Rush and Budge (they were obvious), but the others I didn't. I hadn't seen Mayhem so I didn't know anyone else but Barclay and Ronald Jacobson? Well, I wasn't a big fan of his part (quite small, too)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Noni Hazlehurst, Candy
Susie Porter, The Caterpillar Wish
Deborra-Lee Furness, Jindabyne
Genevieve Lemon, Suburban Mayhem

I only got Porter and Furness (YESSSS!!!!!) correct. I have Porter's Wish co-star (and Aussie legend of sorts) Wendy Hughes and Deborah Mailman in The Book of Revelation (cause she made the last act better than it would have been). I'm glad Hazlehurst is back here after winning this category (deservedly so) last year for Little Fish - KEEP ACTING NONI! And Lemon? Well, I haven't seen the film in questions, so...

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Mulari K Thalluri, 2:37
Shane Jacobson & Clayton Jacobson, Kenny
Alice Bell, Suburban Mayhem
Rolf de Heer, Ten Canoes

4/4. Go me. The directors didn't fancy Thalluri (I suppose we'll never know if the controversy about the lines between fact/fiction played a part in that) but they gave him a screenplay nod for his trouble. The rest? Pretty standard, but good anyway.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Ana Kokkinos & Andrew Bovell, The Book of Revelation
Luke Davis & Neil Armfield, Candy
Beatrix Christian, Jindabyne
Reg Cribb, Last Train to Freo

4/4 again. Go me. But considering there were only 16 films in contention, the screenplay categories are always much easier to predict cause there's on average 8 films to choose from.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
David Williamson, Jindabyne
Will Gibson, Macbeth
Robert Humphreys, Suburban Mayhem
Ian Jones, Ten Canoes

3/4 here. I got Jindabyne, Ten Canoes and Macbeth right (they do all deserve to be there) but had Candy instead of Suburban Mayhem, which despite not having seen the film, I did not expect to be so prominent in the technical categories.

BEST EDITING
Dany Cooper, Candy
Clayton Jacobson & Sean Lander, Kenny
Stephen Evans, Suburban Mayhem
Tania Nehme, Ten Canoes

Only got one out of the four here. Ouch. I had 2:37, Jindabyne and Macbeth over the first three. I did get Ten Canoes though. Shame Jindabyne isn't there, I thought the editing there really helped it. I don't understand the nod for Kenny. There wasn't anything special about that.

BEST SOUND
Jindabyne
Macbeth
Suburban Mayhem
Ten Canoes

LOL, only one from four again. And again, it was only Ten Canoes I got right. I had 2:37 (which really should've been nominated), The Book of Revelation and Kokoda. Oh well, can't complain really other than 2:37, it deserves to be there.

BEST ORIGINAL MUSIC SCORE
Cezary Skubiszewski, The Book of Revelation
Paul Kelly & Dan Luscombe, Jindabyne
John Clifford White, Macbeth
Mick Harvey, Suburban Mayhem

Colour me confused. I didn't even think Macbeth had a score. Lol. Oh well. I don't understand the nod for Skubiszewski either.

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
Robert Cousins, Candy
David McKay, Macbeth
Nell Hanson, Suburban Mayhem
Beverley Freeman, Ten Canoes

Well, I got 3 here. Ten Canoes, Candy and Macbeth. Thank god Macbeth got in there. That was stunning stuff.

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Anna Borghesi, The Book of Revelation
Phill Eagles, Kokoda
Jane Johnston, Macbeth
Melinda Doring, Suburban Mayhem

3/4 here, I had Candy instead of Suburban Mayhem. Strangely, This was Kokoda's only nomination (well, it got another one outside of the feature section). I was sure it'd get a sound nomination or something because it was pretty good technically (I didn't think the film itself was that great).

That's it folks. Apart from a few categories there where it really is just pick-and-mix (and I happened to pick and mix the wrong ones) I did pretty good, averaging 3/4 for each category. It's sorta disappointing that The Caterpillar Wish and Opal Dream, two movies that really surprised me, didn't do better. But at the same time, I'm happy that movies like Footy Legends and Solo, which I hated, got nothing and The Book of Revelation and Em 4 Jay and Kokoda, which I was blah about, only got a few nominations between them.

Outside of the Feature Film categories, there are more awards though, so here's a few of them.

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS (this category can include feature films, documentaries and television)
Hunt Angels
Kokoda
Unfolding Florence: The Many Lives of Florence Broadhurst
Wicked Science

YOUNG ACTOR AWARD (film and tv)
Frank Sweet, 2:37
Marni Kennedy, Mortified
Christian Byers, Opal Dream
Mia Wasikowska, Suburban Mayhem

BEST TELEFEATURE OR MINISERIES
Answered by Fire
RAN
The Silence
The Surgeon

LOL, The Surgeon was a television show that got axed after, like, 7 episodes. So that makes it a miniseries. Heheh.

BEST LEAD ACTOR IN A TELEVISION DRAMA
David Wenham, Answered by Fire
Dan Wyllie, Love My Way
Charles Passi, RAN
Richard Roxburgh, The Silence

BEST LEAD ACTRESS IN A TELEVISION DRAMA
Claudia Karvan, Love My Way
Asher Keddie, Love My Way
Susie Porter, RAN
Justine Clarke, The Surgeon

BEST DOCUMENTARY
Hung Angels
Raul the Terrible
Vietnam Nurses
Welcome 2 My Deaf World

BEST DIRECTION IN A DOCUMENTARY
Alec Morgan, Hunt Angels
David Bradbury, Raul the Terrible
Gillian Armstrong, Unfolding Florence
Polly Watkins, Vietnam Nurses

(i love how they slotted Gillian Armstrong in there)

BEST SHORT ANIMATION
The Astronomer
Carnivor Reflux
Gargoyle
The Safe House

BEST SHORT FICTION
The 9:13
The Desert
Small Boxes
Stranded

BEST SCREENPLAY IN A SHORT FILM
Louise Fox, A Natural Talent
Matt Rubinstein & Ian Kennedy Williams, Paper and Sand
Lee Whitmore, The Safe House
Kathleen O'Brien, Stranded

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN A SHORT FILM SCREEN CRAFT
Adam Arkapaw (Cinematography), End of Town
JoAnne Bouzianis-Sellick & Greg Sweeney (Production Design), Gargoyle
Skye Wansey (Acting), A Natural Talent
Emma Lung (Acting), Stranded

GO EMMA!!!

THE END

AFI Nominees Announced

The nominees were announced about half an hour ago for the Australian Film Institute awards. Suburban Mayhem received the most nominations of all with 12, yet failed to get a Best Film nomination. Unfortunately the nominations haven't been posted yet so all I can tell you are the Best Film nominees. Candy, Jindabyne, Kenny and Ten Canoes. Well, I got three out of four. I had Kokoda instead of Candy. I prefer Candy but I'd prefer something else. The other day I thought my love for Jindabyne was waning and then I just remembered more scenes from it and then I decided "No. It's still brilliant", and I was happy.

I may have anticipated the Suburban Mayhem thing if I had actually seen it (it's the only eligible release I missed) because some of the pre-release reviews weren't that glowing, but my friend Simon loved it and last night on At The Movies Margaret Pomeranz said it was one of if not the best Aussie film of the year. Interesting.

More later when the nominees are actually released (do it now, fuckers!!!)

One Night Only

[src]

Teehee

Off to the movies we shall go,
Where we learn everything that we know,
Cause the movies teach us what our parents don't have time to say

The songs from South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut never fail to get me chuckling.

What My CD Collection Wants...

My CD collection will have... Go to Sarah Blasko's MySpace to get live streaming of her latest album What the Sea Wants, The Sea Will Have, which is released nationwide on Saturday. I've waxed lyrical about Sarah before. She really is one this decades greatest new artists (plz fuck off Missy Higgins kthnx). The album features the fantastic new song "[explain]". go here for the wacky tobacky video clip for "[explain]". It's sort of awesome. As is Sarah. You shouldn't expect any less. I sorta also just love typing "[explain]". Square brackets are fun.


(By the way, I realise this is the third non-film related entry for today alone. But... what are ya gonna do?)

The Seven Wonders

Just a quick link for y'all - I was up extremely early today due to a plumber being in the house so I've already read the paper, watched the news, had breakfast and even done some cleaning, hence being on the computer before Midday. Anyway.

go here to vote for what you think should be the new Seven Wonders of the World! It's pretty cool and really quick. It takes a minute to signup and then another couple of minutes to vote for what you wanna choose out of the 21 possibilities. You have ages to vote ('til 07/07/07!) but do it now so you don't forget.

The reason they're doing this is because only one of the original seven wonders still exists (that being the Pyramids of Giza). I found it odd that that wasn't automatically selected to still be one of the wonders, so do vote for that. It'd be tres embarassing if the Pyramids failed to get enough votes but the Sydney Opera House of the Eiffel Tower did. The 21 possibilities (wittled down from something like 200 entries) are:

1. The Acropolis, Greece
2. Hagia Sophia, Turkey
3. The Kremlin/St. Basil's, Russia
4. The Colosseum, Italy
5. Neu-schwanstein Castle, Germany
6. The Eiffel Tower, France
7. Stonehenge, United Kingdom
8. Alhambra, Spain
9. The Great Wall of China, China
10. Kiyomizu Temple, Japan
11. The Sydney Opera House, Australia
12. Angkor, Cambodia
13. The Taj Mahal, India
14. Timbuktu, Mali
15. Petra, Jordan
16. The Pyramids of Giza, Egypt
17. The Statue of Christ Redeemer, Brazil
18. The Easter Island Statues, Chile
19. Machu Picchu, Peru
20. Chichen Itza, Mexico
21. The Statue of Liberty, United States of America

Some really good choices there, but also some strange ones. Not that I know what to replace them with, but whatever. My seven votes went to:

The Pyramids of Giza - Duh. They're still one of the greatest things on this planet.
The Easter Island Statues - These fascinate me. And I think they are a wonder of the world.
Stonehenge - It's rocks on top of rocks, but... but... look at it! I sort of am of the believe that Stonehenge is one of the few actually paranormal things on this Earth.
Machu Picchu - Apart from it being a major feat of construction, it's also sort of tragic what happened
The Taj Mahal - I went with this just slightly over Angkor because this was built for a deceased love one, and you gotta respect that
The Colosseum - Uh, have you seen that thing?
The Great Wall of China - You can see that motha from space, if that ain't something then I don't know what is. This thing still amazes me.

So, yeah, go there and vote. MAKE HISTORY, PEOPLE!