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Variety Now Being Sued For Publishing/Unpublishing/Republishing Negative Review

The whole Iron Cross fiasco we covered last week is getting a whole lot worse. Basically, after getting flack for deleting an offending review of a major investor, Variety republished it. And the investor was not happy. Not one bit. So, in the time honoured manner of resolving matters of honour, they are going to sue the pants off the film magazine.

Variety sold

Is there a refund on that?

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The Twilight of the Superheroes?

We’re a bit late to the party, but this week we’ll be celebrating the 75th anniversary of DC Comics, with a look at the medium, the company and the characters in a selection of bonus features running Monday through Friday. This is one of those articles. Be sure to join us for the rest.

Earlier in the week, I wondered if the dominance of the comic book medium by superheroes was affecting the general  perception of the relatively young medium. Is the time of the superhero long gone?

Some characters take this "superheroes as pagan gods" schtick a bit too seriously...

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Looks like we made it…

the m0vie blog has somehow made it through the first round of judging for the Irish Blog Award 2010 to the (not-too-)shortlist. Don’t worry, we have no idea how either.

Sean-Penn-ness may have been exaggerated... But barely...

Anyway, we have to pick a category by Friday at 3pm. We’re nominated in:

  • best newcomer
  • best pop culture blog
  • best entertainment blog

The Hip, Cool Oscars…

I’m getting old.

That’s the only way to really explain it. The more I think about, the more irritated I get. There really isn’t too much commentary to be made on the awards handed out at the ceremony, it was the bland and safe option for just about every major category. I was more interested to see what elements of last year’s radical overhaul they kept and which ones they disposed of. Basically, my problem with the Oscars can be summed up with two questions: Who invited Taylor Lautner? And why is Kristen Stewart giving out an award?

Neil Patrick Harris gets a pass... because he's awesome!

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Battlestar Galactica: Season 4

I don’t want to be human! I want to see gamma rays! I want to hear X-rays, and I — I want to — I want to smell dark matter! Do you see the absurdity of what I am? I can’t even express these things properly because I have to — I have to conceptualize complex ideas in this stupid, limiting spoken language! But I know I want to reach out with something other than these prehensile paws, and feel the solar wind of a supernova flowing over me! I’m a machine, and I could know much more, I could experience so much more, but I’m trapped in this absurd body! And why? Because my five creators thought that God wanted it that way!

– John Cavil, No Exit

We could feel a sense of time, as if each moment held its own significance. We began to realise that for our existence to have any value, it must end. To live meaningful lives, we must die and not return. The one human flaw that you spend your life times distressing over – your mortallity – is the one thing which makes you whole.

– Natalie Faust, Guess What’s Coming to Dinner

There’s a moment in the show which perhaps best symbolises the sense of trepidation that I felt in sitting down to watch the final episodes of the show. We had alread witnessed three phenomenal years, so wasn’t it worth getting worried about the endgame? Admiral William Adama sits in a chair beside the dying President Laura Rosalin, his favourite book in hand. He reveals that he’s never finished it. And yet it’s still his favourite book. Because finishing it would be to acknowledge that it was the end – there was nothing afterwards. You had experienced how good it had been, but that was in the past. There is another familiar sense of dread that must be acknowledged: What if the ending doesn’t live up to expectations? What if it disappoints? How can it not?

From the look of it, Giaus was about as confused as I was when he found out how this was going to end...

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The Crisis Surrounding “Crisis Crossovers”

We’re a bit late to the party, but this week we’ll be celebrating the 75th anniversary of DC Comics, with a look at the medium, the company and the characters in a selection of bonus features running Monday through Friday. This is one of those articles. Be sure to join us for the rest.

In 2012, we will witness the first true superhero crossover on the big screen, with Iron Man, Captain America and Thor joining forces as The Avengers to battle evil. The Hulk may even get in on the action. However,this sort of overlap is hardly new to the source material which will inform the film. It seems that the comic book medium is dominated by the crossover fad, with the two major companies churning out massive event after massive event. Is this a good thing which demonstrates the strength and flexibility of the monthly-publishing schedule, or does this style of writing only serve to make the medium even more insular?

Yeah, see how messy this picture looks? Multiply that by about 42 and that gives you the idea of the complexity we're looking at...

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Comics for Grown Ups?

We’re a bit late to the party, but this week we’ll be celebrating the 75th anniversary of DC Comics, with a look at the medium, the company and the characters in a selection of bonus features running Monday through Friday. This is one of those articles. Be sure to join us for the rest.

Comic books are what Neil Gaiman once famously described as “the medium that’s always confused with a genre”. The fact that they are typically populated with spandex-wearing superheroes has led to a bit of a pop culture stigma around the medium, as stories about grown men in their underwear pounding each other are the only stories that could be told in that format. Anyone even loosely familiar with the history of the genre will know better, but I’ve always imagined comic books having a hard time fitting in to popular culture in the same way that books or film or television do. So can comic books ever really draw in that elusive adult audience?

Smoking? In a comic book? That will not stand!

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It’s the Hurt Locker!

I’ll probably have a more well thought out reaction tomorrow, but woot! My brother owes me €10!

He looks kinda like an Oscar statuette!

Other than that though, didn’t this seem like the most predictable Oscars ever, with the acting categories all sewn up even before nominations were announced? Still, great to see Mo’Nique and Christoph Waltz win. I particularly liked Mo’Nique’s confirmation it could be “about the performance and not the politics” – though I’m cynical enough to see her season-long disengagement as a calculated political move, it still made me smile.

Sandra Bullock on the Razzies: Worst Film Awards Ever, But Thanks For the Statue!

You’re reading this asthe 82nd Academy Awards kick off, but perhaps the most interesting awards-related snippet occurred at the Razzies, the anti-Oscars which held their ceremony before the Oscars (in a calculated attempt to steal some thunder). Basically the Razzies pick out the worst-of-the-worst from the past year and give them the recognition they so sorely deserved. I am more than a little skeptical about the awards, given how they exist mainly as an in-joke, nominating the biggest flops as opposed to the real worst films of the year. In the tradition of Halle Berry, Sandra Bullock showed up in person to collect her award. As is the norm for such celebrity appearances, the crowd loved her. But what did Sandra really say?

Thanks a crateload... of All About Steve DVD's...

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It’s the 75th Anniversary of DC Comics…

… and to celebrate, we’ll be running a selection of comic book themed posts throughout the week.

We've come a long way, baby...

We’ll be looking at:

Those interested in this might like to check out The Dark Week, a week-long Batman-related event we ran to celebrate the anniversary of The Dark Knight and Batman’s birthday last year.

For those here for the movie news and reviews, don’t worry, this won’t itnerrupt with regularly-scheduled posting.