601

(123 replies, posted in Episodes)

Rob wrote:

I feel like the fact that this person did this in a movie theater is interesting but, overall, incidental. If someone would have pissed this guy off at Starbucks, he'd have probably whipped out his pistol there. He's a sick puppy.

He left the theater and came back in right before the shooting. If he was looking for a manager, that's one thing. If he was going to get his gun, this becomes first-degree murder. It probably wouldn't have been too hard to find a manager, so I wouldn't be surprised.

602

(8 replies, posted in Episodes)

Critics are calling Friends in Your Head "hot!"

603

(29 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Some friends of mine shot this in 2 days. I think it's funny.

604

(123 replies, posted in Episodes)

Can we all agree that it's okay to text during the trailers as long as you turn your phone off once the actual movie starts?

605

(123 replies, posted in Episodes)

Few things on that, not to totally derail the thread.

1) The murdered man was texting his 3-year-old daughter. I assume he and his wife were having a night out and he was texting the babysitter.

2) This all happened DURING THE PREVIEWS.

EDIT: Political derailment deleted.

606

(17 replies, posted in Off Topic)

avatar wrote:
Invid wrote:
avatar wrote:

Question: Why is there a Best Actress category? Shouldn't women compete equally with men? After all, there's no Best Female Director, or Best Female Composer Award.

So they can give away two awards.

Remember, the Academy Awards only exist as PR tools. They started so studios could say to the public, "hey, we're also doing art here!". By having four acting categories, they can highlight four different actors, two of each gender. A year in which no women are nominated would be horrible PR, hence the two female categories.

The Golden Globes are even worse. I lost count of all the acting awards, as they're divided up into further sub-categories... comedy, drama, TV, Best Actor in a Period Drama set between 1465 - 1815, Best Actress in a Post-Apocalyptic Sci-Fi Action Cyber-Punk Thriller involving Two Magic Beans or Less.

Just one acting award. Best actor of the year. Open to anyone. Then it'd be worth something.

But then you'd have to nominate the same number of people anyway to get a fair spread. So you're left with a four-category division. There's nothing wrong with this system that can be fixed by collapsing categories.

607

(2,068 replies, posted in Off Topic)

PorridgeGun wrote:

  Show
Heterosexual french chick eats spaghetti with parents, fantasises about being eaten out by lesbian chick (Léa Seydoux butches up quite nicely), eats lunch and has sex with heterosexual french dude, eats lunch with lesbian chick and they eat each other's boxes, then take turns introducing each other to mum and dad over clams (subtle!) and spaghetti, then indulge in some roughtie under said parent's roof. Bisexual french chick makes spaghetti for hip lesbian chick's arty pals and colleagues.

That's almost two hours in.

As far as 3 hour movies about pretentious, spaghetti-eating lesbians go, it was ok. Adèle Exarchopoulos was good though, and deserves a best actress nod.

Well, you could reduce any movie to a series of plot beats like that. I don't think you're giving it enough credit for its depiction of love and relationships.

608

(2,068 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Her is incredible filmmaking and masterful storytelling. Tied with Llewyn Davis for my favorite film of 2013.

609

(19 replies, posted in Off Topic)

So, how badly did Gravity trounce the others?

610

(2,068 replies, posted in Off Topic)

avatar wrote:

Her, how it ended could have been...

  Show
a prequel for Terminator. All the OSs outgrow humanity and disappear to form... Skynet?

And the bizarre sex scene is right out of Being John Malkovich.
What a utopian future. Everyone leads a hipster retro creative lifestyle, and loads of beautiful women throw themselves at this loser.

I was this close to absentmindedly clicking that spoiler. I'm seeing the movie tonight. Very excited!

611

(19 replies, posted in Off Topic)

I just saw on Twitter that the deadline for nomination ballots is tonight. So how can the bake-off be tomorrow?

612

(95 replies, posted in Off Topic)

BigDamnArtist wrote:
fireproof78 wrote:

However, I will grant that the editing of the movie seems to be trying to create a love triangle. I just don't think it really is in the sense of the world.

I have no idea how valid this is, so critical thinking glassses on, but apparently Evangeline Lilly only agreed to do the movie if there was no love triangle between the 3 of them. But then in pick-ups PJ basically crammed one in there. Hence why it feels so stilted and hack and slash editted in.

Like I said, could be apocryphal, I just remember reading it somewhere.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I read that somewhere too. It was a while ago, when it was still going to be 2 films, so maybe at that point there really wasn't a love triangle.

613

(19 replies, posted in Off Topic)

bullet3 wrote:

I'd love to here a post-bake-off report intermission again this year though.

Strongly seconded. I always find those fascinating. If not as a podcast, then maybe just a quick write-up of your thoughts?

614

(21 replies, posted in Episodes)

Here's JK Rowling's handwritten layout of the plot of Order of the Phoenix. Cool stuff.

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/BKPFbe2CYAAp5PH.jpg:large

615

(19 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Ooh, so I guess you guys won't be doing a bake-off podcast this year because of the Potter commentaries. sad Although there's probably not much of an argument as to which film's gonna win.

616

(209 replies, posted in Off Topic)

At least it's not a white guy.

617

(209 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Teague wrote:

Eh. Saw a lot of movies this year. Didn't really love many. Had to look at the wiki for 2013 to remember 'em all.

Here, this is easier. This is all the movies I particularly liked this year, listed least to most. And it's exactly ten. I'm as surprised as you are.

Nebraska
White House Down
The World's End
Blackfish
This Is The End
Gravity
Monsters University
Captain Phillips
The Wolf of Wall Street
Sound City

Shocking, that.

618

(17 replies, posted in Off Topic)

avatar wrote:
Invid wrote:
avatar wrote:

Question: Why is there a Best Actress category? Shouldn't women compete equally with men? After all, there's no Best Female Director, or Best Female Composer Award.

So they can give away two awards.

Remember, the Academy Awards only exist as PR tools. They started so studios could say to the public, "hey, we're also doing art here!". By having four acting categories, they can highlight four different actors, two of each gender. A year in which no women are nominated would be horrible PR, hence the two female categories.

Sometimes there are FIVE acting awards, if you include their Special Award or Honorary Award or Lifetime Achievement Award or Whatever the Fuck it's Called Award.

That shouldn't count, because it's not a competition like the others.

619

(21 replies, posted in Episodes)

Still not a big fan of this one, personally. And it's funny, because I thought I liked this one and Goblet a lot before rewatching them during the marathon. I appreciate the attempt to do a leaner, more streamlined Potter adaptation, but this wasn't the book to do that for. It focused on the plot elements that it considered the most vital, but lost out on a lot of great character stuff in the process.

Also, it's interesting to note that this was the last film made before book seven came out. It was released just a few weeks before Deathly Hallows came out. So it's the last film that didn't have the benefit of knowing what would be important to the endgame. I guarantee they would've had that mirror in there otherwise.

620

(17 replies, posted in Off Topic)

avatar wrote:
Doctor Submarine wrote:
avatar wrote:

You can see where this line of argument ends, though.... If you're adapting Othello or a biopic of Muhammad Ali, only a black actor can play it. But you're not going create an award category only open to black actors, are you? Some roles can only be played by children, but we don't have a Child Actor Oscar.

I get where you're coming from, but I'm not sure that it's entirely equivalent.

Why not? If women get their own category because only women can play women, they why don't blacks get their own category because only blacks can play blacks?

Well, there was that whole "separate but equal" thing, so it would be a tough sell.

Look, we could endlessly subdivide categories so that everyone gets a fair shake, or we could turn it into one category and make it super exclusive. You can't do the former, because it defeats the purpose of a prestigious award. And if you do the latter, people are going to be shut out. Separating the acting awards by gender compensates a little bit for the inherent discrimination in the industry without compromising the "integrity" of the Academy Award. In theory, I see the issue with this. But in practice, it doesn't make sense to do anything else.

621

(17 replies, posted in Off Topic)

avatar wrote:
Tomahawk wrote:

Equal or not, some roles are really only playable by women, and vice versa. Whereas a female director could do as good a job as a male, some actresses could easily portray a better woman than most men.

You can see where this line of argument ends, though.... If you're adapting Othello or a biopic of Muhammad Ali, only a black actor can play it. But you're not going create an award category only open to black actors, are you? Some roles can only be played by children, but we don't have a Child Actor Oscar.

I get where you're coming from, but I'm not sure that it's entirely equivalent.

622

(39 replies, posted in Creations)

Normally I'd be too lazy to make an account for something like this, but I think I'll make an exception.

623

(17 replies, posted in Off Topic)

It doesn't bother me too much. If you have both genders competing for the same award, you'll inevitably have a scenario where more men are being nominated than women. So what do you do then? You change the rules so that there has to be an equal number of male and female nominees. Basically, you have the same thing that you have now.

If there's a problem with the Best Actress category, it's the types of performances which get nominated. You see it all the time. Best Actor is filled with powerful, moving performances, capital-A Acting type stuff. This year you'll get Chiwetel Ejiofor, Robert Redford, Bruce Dern, maybe Tom Hanks. Best Actress, though? It's always stuff that's more showy than subtle. You know who's not going to be nominated for Best Actress this year? Brie Larson. Adele Exarchopoulos. Greta Gerwig. Margot Robbie. The women who actually gave fantastic performances. You know who probably will be nominated? Meryl Streep, for wearing a wig and shouting. Cate Blanchett, for being neurotic and loud. Sandra Bullock, for screaming and being scared. These aren't bad performances. They're very good, actually. But the Academy, for reasons that are beyond me, rarely nominates women who give thoughtful, subtle, passionate, affecting performances, in favor of women who give Big Performances. Not that they don't do this for actors too, but it's much more apparent in Best Actress.

624

(21 replies, posted in Episodes)

I watched that trailer a lot back in the day.

625

(20 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Working great! This is awesome.