Woah. Make room. Scary post coming through.

continue the cringe

Embrace the cringe! BEEEEEEEEE the cringe! :)

Wooly valley episodes-yay

OMG! NZ On Screen, I would like to marry you, in some sort of abstract way.

I'm not sure we're compatible, if strange broom-figures from the 80s get your juices flowing :)

OTOH, have been compelled to continue the cringe today as I watched [[http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/the-marching-girls-1987 |The Marching…

DPF gave him "20 demerit points", which was greeted as an appalling assault on free speech by various other loons, who duly got "demerit points" themselves.

Ah yes... the people who don't get that the idea of "freedom of speech" doesn't oblige anyone else to give them a platform.

DPF gave him "20 demerit points", which was greeted as an appalling assault on free speech by various other loons, who duly got "demerit points" themselves.

I'm reminded of about 20 years ago when I found myself playing dungeons and dragons with a rather pompous twit as a DM.

Any…

Yes, it was the time just before PAS came along. But they were still nutty, I recall endless comments to the effect that it was a lamentably failed assassination attempt.

Redbaiter set the tone in today's thread about the electoral office attack by suggesting Key had it coming.

DPF gave…

You'll have to slake your thirst with locally produced raygun madness by Dr Grordbot instead.

The Righteous Bison Indivisible Particle Smasher looks like a good deal – the only full-sized raygun on offer for under half a grand.

Not metal though, which kind of spoils the fun. Moneyed geeks may…

Except, sorry, it's ended. You'll have to slake your thirst with locally produced raygun madness by Dr Grordbot instead.

Wonder what the comments were on those blogs when HC's office was attacked with an axe... maybe that was pre-blogging days. I suspect the comments would have had a somewhat different flavour, or am I being uncharitable?

That was my first thought. They're actually not especially nutty at all. Only…

Wooly valley episodes-yay

OMG! NZ On Screen, I would like to marry you, in some sort of abstract way.

Regardless, setting fire to someone's office is a pretty dumb way to make…

Gotta love the demerits being liberally handed out as DPF struggles to control the wild lynch mob.

In the spirit of bipartisanship, The Standard also decided to throw out the troll bait while pretending that they're doing no such thing. And we have a bite...

Who wants to bet that…

...at which point District 9 turns into yet another fanboy flick made by fanboys for the fanboys who are going to review it and buy the merchandise and play the video game.
Aliens as oppressed minorities is hardly novel, and plonking the space ship above…

Why link a to a Kiwiblog thread. Seriously, can we call for a moratorium or something? There is enough sadness and misery in the world.

Aw, come on... Master Baiter citing that evil Socialist radical Nelson Mandela in his defence is pure comic genius. Or it would be if I…

Police and fire safety officers are investigating an arson attack on Prime Minister John Key's electorate office northwest of Auckland early today.

Farrar's free-range troll farm is [[http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2009/09/keys_office_fire_bombed.html|living all the way down to…

Who needs a gun when you can have a frikkin' knife missile?

Who needs a weapon at all when yer standard culture warship can stand off several light years away and use it's effector to play the entire planet like a giant videogame?

I'm surprised your missed the plot point that really broke my bullshit-o-meter, but its a tribute to the film that it hit me until the film was over.

SPOILER AHEAD...

So, Christopher Jr. not only knows how to activate the battlesuit and operate it remotely (thereby getting Wikkus…

one memorable weapon from Iain Banks' Consider Phlebas , which converted from a pendant into a tiny, silent-firing lacework pistol

Who needs a gun when you can have a frikkin' knife missile?

Nitpick: I thought that the gun in question actually converted from an artificial tooth?

Touche. District 9 may be closer to Lazy Gun territory...

Consider Phlebas , which converted from a pendant into a tiny, silent-firing lacework pistol

Nitpick: I thought that the gun in question actually converted from an artificial tooth? Mind you, it's been a while since I've read Consider Phlebas.

I must get around to sorting out babysitting so we can…

Phasers I can take or leave; I was thinking more along the lines of one memorable weapon from Iain Banks' Consider Phlebas , which converted from a pendant into a tiny, silent-firing lacework pistol – with the firepower of a grenade launcher. Probably wouldn't work right on film though.

Also,…

Leo informed me last week that Disney had acquired Marvel Comics, and we were discussing the implications.

Here's one implication.

My take was that alien guns weren't meant for day to day use, menacing muggers etc, but for 'when the shit hits the fan'. Which it didn't, ironically, until a human manages to work out how to use one.

I took them to be designed for a different environment, and…

By the way, the battlesuit was a cool idea I could just about buy, but IMO the other guns were ridiculous – if your idea is alien handweapons with a serious punch, why not make them tiny and menacing, rather than colourful BFGs at every turn?

Are you serious? I'd…

Had the same bind with the Matrix – couldn’t wait to get the whole story, got it in spades, immediately wished the sequels had never happened…

I had the same thought – a friend told me a bunch of reviewers had said District 9 was the 'best thing since the…

... Enjoyed it hugely but couldn’t help but notice some of the major plot holes. And the way it suddenly showed its heritage with the shootout scenes – the better half (who was unfamiliar with Halo or…

Leo informed me last week that Disney had acquired Marvel Comics, and we were discussing the implications. I put it to him that if Disney planned to make animated Marvel movies, it was a good thing, because Lasseter would be overseeing things. Live action? Who knows ...

I certainly don't,…

Then you have White's tendency to use whatever film is under discussion as the foundation for some socio-political rant that bears no relation to the text, or is (more often) pretentiously incoherent.

Quite. Some reviewers seem to be unable to realize that just because there is a hint of allegory…

Arg. Sorry. Mitigating circumstances: Wednesday morning, 14" screen about two feet away from me...

Nice to see my plan of picking a gravatar that could be mistaken for Russell's from two feet away is paying off.

That was Gio ...

Arg. Sorry. Mitigating circumstances: Wednesday morning, 14" screen about two feet away from me...

I can't add much more than your reaction, Russell.

That was Gio ...

Speaking of District 9, Evan Calder Williams took this picture in the streets of LA.

Christ.

I can't add much more than your reaction, Russell.

Meanwhile, numerous acquaintances of mine have been keeping an eye on the almost complete and rather nice St Patrick's Square renovation, and pontificating over how…

Pixar, IMNSHO, is proof that commercial "mainstream" American cinema doesn't have to be brainless, soul-destroying crap — and can even turn a profit.

Leo informed me last week that Disney had acquired Marvel Comics, and we were discussing the implications. I put it to him that if Disney planned to…

Christ.

District 9 has only just opened in the UK and. in most reviews I have read, they make the…

Disney-owned 3D animation studio Pixar have become the first team to receive the lifetime achievement award at the Venice Film Festival.

The Film Festival's red carpet was festooned with balloons to mark the award for director…

Anyway, the point still stands- Hoberman is a great critic.

I liked his review of Inglorious Basterds. Nice to see him suggest that in a way it is more a Western, and even science fiction (that thought occurred to me, too), than war movie.

No.

And a lot of people inside the TV industry think they are a load of rubbish as well. In such a small industry, the idea that an award (usually judged by foreign academics and locals who have been outside the industry for decades) holds any weight is…

Does anyone outside the TV industry give a sh** about the TV awards?

Thought not. Why are they even on national TV?

At least with the Emmeys or Oscars you get a temper tantrum or 2!

without coming to the conclusion that Italian-Americans are all sociopathic gangsters with Tourettes.

Must be when they're not driving ice cream vans.

Anyway, the point still stands- Hoberman is a great critic because he's everything Armond White is not (but desperately wants to be).

I can't stand Armond White- it's not that he's a contrarian, it's that he's a contrarian who has a seriously over-inflated sense of his own writing and no real logic to his contrariness (even…

Answer: Two are blogs, the other is _.

A group of on-line columnists?

=)

Looked like SA in the 70's to me , perhaps it was meant to.

It's almost like it's....allegory.

Then you have White's tendency to use whatever film is under discussion as the foundation for some socio-political rant that bears no relation to the text, or is (more often) pretentiously incoherent.

From what I can tell, he's a proudly pretentious Po-mo who enjoys living in Opposite World. What a…

In his defence, he hated There Will Be Blood.

And I have to agree that The Dark Knight was horribly over-rated, and there's a thick vein of simple-minded nihilism in the film I find hard to stomach. But having read quite a bit of White's work, it too often feels…

Also: Idris Elba will always be Stringer Bell to me.

And I get that very few actors have the luxury of waiting by the phone until something as good as The Wire comes along, but really... It's sad watching someone as talented as Elba (or someone with the profile of…

I can hardly wait until tomorrow! Squeeee!

Me, I'm looking forward to someone ripping and posting the (sort-of-)multitracks.

That list of movies he slated was hilarious, but not as hilarious as this comment about G.I Joe, which he appears quite fond of:

"G.I. Joe must be understood as an authentic measurement of our cultural values. Its appeal to the pop-commercial synapses…

“He gonna leave yo’ ass for a white girl!”

There is no 'gonna' in that Kanye line. (I'm not sure what that proves, except that he's an inaccurate lyrics quoter.) Also: Idris Elba will always be Stringer Bell to me.

Beyoncé’s Sharon Charles, a young black middle-class homemaker, protects her domicile, child and her man, Derek (Idris Elba) from strangely maniacal harassment by Lisa (Ali Larter), an unhinged, almost comically sexualized white interloper.

Sharon’s actually…

Especially from a man known for his brave and stalwart defence of Michael Bay movies.

I have seen a lot of speculation as to whether or not he is simply a troll that's managed to go pro.

Movies he didn't like

Fools will accept District 9 for fantasy, yet its use of parable and symbolism also evoke the almost total misunderstanding that surrounds the circumstance of racial confusion and frustration recently seen when Harvard University tycoon…

I played Beatles: Rock Band last night. It's pretty cool if you like that sort of thing.

I can hardly wait until tomorrow! Squeeee!

Answer: Two are blogs, the other is _.

in a crass of it's own?

Answer: Two are blogs, the other is _.

...an ad homonym?

Q10. Who or what are Whale Oil Beef Hooked, No Right Turn and Public Address?

Answer: Two are blogs, the other is _.

are pirating it in very large numbers

Yeah, in the emporiums here about the time if was in the theatres. And in good quality, I'm told. But that's not unusual, and neither is it unusual to see them on the shelves before cinema release.

As I said here, it bemuses…

I think someone should have a little chat with Mr White about the strange (and far from new) state where American critics feel confident about potificating about cultural and sociopolitical contexts they're obviously clueless about.

His "it's a disgrace to the memory of the Soweto uprising!" thing is quite a…

This guy really doesn't!

Man that's a pretentious, royally-point-missing review!

Especially from a man known for his brave and stalwart defence of Michael Bay movies.

This guy really doesn't!

Oh that's charming — drop in a weasel word qualifier to call Peter Jackson a racist, without putting yourself to the inconvenience of making an evidence-based argument. I think someone should have a little chat with Mr White about the strange (and far from new) state…

I think you can put the particular portrayal in District 9 down to some sci-fi licence.

Also, you could hardly put District 9 down as a glowing portrait of whitefellas. The CEO of MNU (who we see in passing) might be black. But our "hero", Wikus van de Merwe is…

Nearly everyone likes District 9, right? Can you think of who might really, really not like it?

This guy really doesn't!

"Instead, District 9 illustrates the strange new state of racial and political identity. It suggests some lingering Afrikaans’ fear or, possibly, how Jackson really thinks about the Maori and…

OK... but somehow I've managed to sit through The Godfather, The Sopranos and Marty Scorsese's back catalogue without coming to the conclusion that Italian-Americans are all sociopathic gangsters with Tourettes.

Quite. And it's a fact that Nigerians are
major players in organised crime in the republic. I think you can…

Yes, the Nigerians, for reasons which will be understandable to anyone who's seen the film.

OK... but somehow I've managed to sit through The Godfather, The Sopranos and Marty Scorsese's back catalogue without coming to the conclusion that Italian-Americans are all sociopathic gangsters with Tourettes. (Though on that score, I…

Maybe TV3 are spending too much time fighting and not enough time producing winning news journalism?

I think both sides have been guilty of that at times.

That's why I was not impressed when Kathryn Ryan (her producers having cajoled me into coming on her show) suggested that I was…

Peter Gluckman

D'oh! In hurry! Writing too fast!

Fixed now.