cinema | the m0vie blog

Pleasing All of the People Some of the Time – Oscar Voting for Dummies…

Posted on September 3, 2009 by Darren

You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.

John Lydgate

The above quote is frequently attributed to Abraham Lincoln (though Lincoln actually substituted ‘fool’ for ‘please’, in a bit of West Wing-style trivia for you, say what you will of “Honest Abe”), and applies to many things in life. Since this is a movie blog, and the Oscars changed the practice of counting votes for the Best Picture, today it applies to the practice of counting votes for the Best Picture. The Academy used to adopt both approaches – favouring all in the selection of nominees, but only some (as little as 18%) in its selection of winners – but now it looks like the academy is shifting towards adjusting the selection of winners to allow all (well, a lot more than before) members some say in the matter.

Anyway, we’ve put together a little maths guide to how the new system will work in practice.

If I have three Oscar statuettes, and Meryll Streep moves in with her thirteen Oscar statuettes, how inferior am I going to feel?

If I have one Oscar statuettes, and Jack Nicholson stands next to mewith his three Oscar statuettes, how inferior am I going to feel?

Continue reading →

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: academy, AMPAS, awards, best picture, cinema, democracy, elections, examples, film, maths, Movies, Oscars, plurality, single transferable vote, stv, voting, voting for dummies | Leave a comment »

White and Wrong: Contrarian (Anti-Popularist) Film Critics

Posted on September 1, 2009 by Darren

I was away in Florida when the whole Armond White thing broke last month. For those out of the loop, users of film review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes decided that they’d had enough of White’s contrary approach to film reviews after he ‘ruined’ the perfect Tomatometer for District 9 – and generated quite the reaction on the site. With District 9 being released in the UK and Ireland this week, it seems almost the perfect time to revisit the discussion, with the benefit of hindsight. Plus, film criticism is one of those topics that I take a great deal of recreational interest in.

Somehow I doubt we'll ever see eye-to-eye...

Continue reading →

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: armond white, cinema, criticism, critics, district 9, film critics, Movies, popularism, roger ebert, rotten tomatoes, taste, tomatometer | 2 Comments »

What a Basterdly Ending…

Posted on August 31, 2009 by Darren

Alright, since the entire point of this post is spoilers, consider yourselves duly warned. I don’t like spoiling films, but I also really think that there is a lot of discussion to be had about the end of Inglourious Basterds. Only read on if you have seen the film, or know you won’t. Because there’s no going back. Seriously. It’s something you should really see for yourself before you make up your mind on it. Anyway, those disclaimers out of the way, here we go…

Shoshanna's got an axe to grind...

Continue reading →

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: cinema, climax, ending, films, history, hitler, inglorious bastards, inglourious basterds, Movies, nazis, quentin tarantino, spoilers, subtext, tarantino, themes | 1 Comment »

Navan Cinema Describes Bruno as “Vile”…

Posted on July 16, 2009 by Darren

The Diamond Cinema in Navan have a… shall we say unique way of advertising their cinema listings. On ringing up today I heard the voicemail message informing me what time they were airing Bruno at and offering some advice for perspective audience members…

Now, Bruno is particularly vile. It leads to a hell of a lot of complaints from people who say, ‘We didn’t think it was that bad’. It is that bad, it will offend every prejudice in the book, believe me so don’t come on after the film and tell us how horrible it was.

One or two people have enjoyed it though.

The news is apparently doing the rounds. My brother has seen it and says it isn’t that great and it seems to have gone out of fashion fairly quick in the United States (dropping 40% between Friday and Saturday). People are telling me that it’s just not that funny. Ah well. This made my day and reminded me why it’s great to live in Ireland.

Vile?

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: bruno, cinema, cinema listings, funny, Ireland, navan, sacha baron cohen, snark | 1 Comment »

Getting a Sense of the Censor…

Posted on July 16, 2009 by Darren

The Irish Film Classification Officer, the ever-fantastic John Kelleher, made an appearance on The Right Hook (which is an institution on evening drives in our car) discussing IFCO’s decision to give the controversial arthouse flick Antichrist an 18’s certificate. Over the course of the interview with George Hook (who – though I love him dearly – showed himself to be more than a little out of touch, stating that swear words from Mark Wahlberg as his most extreme cinematic experience), the man who formerly held the title Irish Film Censor outlined his office’s understanding of their role in Irish life. And I whole heartedly agree.

Probably the best censorship board in the world....

Continue reading →

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: antichrist, censorship, cinema, films, george hook, ifco, irish film categorisation office, irish film censor, john kelleher, manhunter 2, Movies, the graduate, the right hook | 1 Comment »

Great Film Adverts Are Even Better…

Posted on July 14, 2009 by Darren

I’m a sucker for great cinema. I’m an even greater sucker for ways of paying tribute to great cinema. Turner Classic Movies have launched their Summer Under the Stars season (where stars like Cary Grant and Sidney Poitier get a whole day dedicated to their classics over the month of August) with a variety of teaser posters which treat these movies as if they were brand spanking new. I have my own favourites of the collection after the jump, but it got me thinking about other great ways of advertising films. Not particular films, but cinema in general or classics. As an amazing experience.

I’ve come up with some great examples that I’ve been taken with lately.

If they showed these ads in cinemas, I'd be happy...

Continue reading →

Filed under: Movies, Television | Tagged: advertising, adverts, cinema, film advertisements, films, great films, high definition, montages, Movies, posters, sky, sky digital, sky hd, tcm, turner classic movies | Leave a comment »

Academy to Cut Honorary Awards from Telecast…

Posted on June 29, 2009 by Darren

I’m going to give the expansion of the Best Picture category the benefit of the doubt and I don’t really care about the Original Song rules, to be completely honest, but I am a little ticked off at the announcement that the Honorary Oscars are being shunted back stage. Talk about completely missing the point – the Academy doesn’t seem to get that most viewers aren’t clamoring for that extra High School Musical song so badly that they’re shunt off someone who has made such a massive contribution to popular culture as to warrant the Honorary Award. I just don’t get this decision.

We want the Academy to take its hat off to Charlie Chaplin...

Continue reading →

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: academy awards, AMPAS, charlie chaplin, cinema, film, Honorary Oscars, Movies, Oscar telecast, Oscars, Zac Efron | 4 Comments »

The Sweetest Film Story of the Year

Posted on June 23, 2009 by Darren

It’s a news story that’s got a fair bit of coverage all over the shop, but I thought I’d simply put it up here.

Pixar got a phonecall from the family of ten year old Colby Curtin, a child dying of cancer. Colby was a huge fan of the studio’s work to date, and had told her mother that she’d hang on in to see their latest film, Up. The family had planned to take her to the cinema, but she took a turn for the worse before the release. Apparently the family didn’t even know anyone at the company, they’d just made the call when it became clear Colby would not be able to see the film in cinemas. Pixar sent out the film to her house for a private screening. Apparently Colby was impressed with the result. Having seen the movie, she died later that night.