spilling thoughts on everyday movie news
Posted by Robin Hare on May 19th, 2010 | View Comments

Yarr: piracy is a crime, especially if you downloaded THE HURT LOCKER

Internet piracy has always been a fraught venture: there’s the difficulty of finding a good quality file of the right size; finding enough seeders to allow you to download the film in a timely fashion; the monthly internet usage juggling-act, often divided between games, movies and porn; and then the hassle of burning the film onto a DVD so you don’t have to watch it on a crappy little PC monitor...
Posted by Robin Hare on Apr 30th, 2010 | View Comments

This time I agree with Ebert: 3D sucks

I wrote a few months ago about why I thought 3D movies were crap; but that was before Avatar came out, so I was writing with some degree of optimism. Now that Avatar has come and gone I can safely say that I’m still not on board for 3D. A higher degree of immersion doesn’t negate a boring script or lazy world-building. If you don’t know who Roger Ebert is, then … you’re missing...
Posted by Robin Hare on Mar 29th, 2010 | View Comments

GREEN ZONE review: no country for good men

The War in Iraq, since its inception seven years ago, has become the butt of a dozen jokes, to the point that you don’t even have to make a joke about it any more; merely mentioning the War in Iraq is a punchline in itself, reminding listeners that America dropped the ball bigtime, and the rest of the world isn’t happy with it. While the War on Islam (euphemised “terror”) in...
Posted by Jason Stringer on Mar 8th, 2010 | View Comments

Thoughts on a ground-breaking Oscars ceremony (82nd Academy Awards)

It used to be that I’d have to endure a media blockout through an entire Monday so I could enjoy the Oscars telecast. As it happens live on a Sunday night in the States, it’s actually around 10AM Monday morning in Australia, and in the past the TV network screening the event wouldn’t do so until the prime time slot later that evening, usually 8 or 9 pm. This meant having to avoid all...
Posted by Robin Hare on Mar 1st, 2010 | View Comments

Summer review round-up: the good, the bad and the ugly

Way back in the beginning of December, in our first week of existence, I posted a list of the five most anticipated films of the summer. Now that it is officially autumn (even if the weather obstinately refuses to accept this incontravertible truth), it’s the perfect time to look back over the past three months and put the summer releases in perspective. There were a few surprises, some hits and some...
Posted by Robin Hare on Feb 23rd, 2010 | View Comments

BAFTA awards snub AVATAR, earn my respect

Ah, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts: Britain’s answer to the Academy Awards. I don’t think I know any people who speak of the BAFTAs (or the Golden Globes, for that matter) when comparing the calibre and critical worth of films; it’s always the Oscars that everyone talks about ten years after the fact. But the Oscars are weird and unpredictable, especially when it comes to...
Posted by Jason Stringer on Feb 17th, 2010 | View Comments

THE HURT LOCKER review: Universal themes cloaked in the American flag

I can appreciate the extra-exhilaration an American citizen might experience when watching The Hurt Locker. While the film speaks for any human soul with a will to live, it remains incredibly patriotic and makes sure to put things like ‘the American way of life’ and ‘The American Dream’ in the spotlight. Without getting overly political about the actual situation in Iraq and why...
Posted by Jason Stringer on Jan 18th, 2010 | View Comments

Keeping the 2010 Golden Globes in perspective

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that James Cameron and his 3D epic fantasy adventure film Avatar (or, as Arnold Schwarzenegger pronounced it, ‘Avada’) won some big ones at the Golden Globes this year. Given the worldwide box office and general-audience reaction to Avatar being so jaw-droppingly mammoth, it was to be expected. But I still had a glimmer of hope that maybe, just maybe it could...
Posted by Jason Stringer on Dec 4th, 2009 | View Comments

UP IN THE AIR & INVICTUS get awards season head-start from NBR

The National Board of Review has given Up In The Air a good head-start to the upcoming awards season, honouring it as Best Picture of 2009 and awarding its star George Clooney Best Actor (sharing with Morgan Freeman in Clint Eastwood’s Invictus… even despite his questionable accent). Up In The Air is director Jason Reitman’s third film (following Thank You For Smoking and Juno), and has been...
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