People with the discerning sort of taste like mine who have seen 1995’s Hackers a dozen or more times will be very familiar with the film’s villain, one Eugene “The Plague” Belford. The actor who played Mr. The Plague is named Fisher Stevens, and he was all kinds of awesome in the 80s and 90s, also starring in classics like Short Circuit and Super Mario Bros.
Well, it seems this villainous looking goateed man wasn’t doomed to obscurity like I had assumed, he’s actually become a successful director, and he just won an Oscar for producing 2009’s Best Documentary Feature, The Cove. Fisher’s film takes a look at Japanese dolphin hunting in Taiji, Wakayama with an opposing view. You wouldn’t think a man who looks like a cartoon villain would be capable of that kind of compassion, but Fisher is a surprising man. Then again, his film has been quite controversial in Japan, with the mayor of Taiji saying it makes claims “not backed up by scientific proof.”
The best films of 2009 were supposedly honoured last night at the 82nd Academy Awards. The experts rightly guessed that The Hurt Locker would pick up the Best Director and Best Picture awards. Those results come as sweet relief for me, I was convinced the academy wouldn’t be able to help themselves give Cameron a chance to make an ass of himself on stage.
Sadly, the real best picture of the year, Star Trek only picked up one award, although it was the first for the series. That award was for Best Makeup, and perhaps as a small consolation to nerds everywhere, Ben Stiller came out to present it in full Avatar-makeup. District 9, last night’s other sci-fi underdog didn’t pick up a single award, demonstrating once again the horrendous bias against science fiction the academy holds.
All-time coolest dude Jeff Bridges won Best Actor, which I can definitely live with. I was hoping for anyone but Sandra Bullock to win Best Actress, and so, of course, she did.
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Following an outcry from the ignorant masses, the Canadian federal government has backed down from the idea that the national anthem should be altered in order to make the line “in all thy sons command” gender neutral. The original wording of the anthem contained an easy alternative: “thou dost in us command” which sounds better anyway, but to the public at large it’s apparently preferable to maintain entrenched sexism from a time in which Canadian women weren’t allowed to vote. It’s tradition, you see.
The idea of changing the even more blatantly unnecessary and woefully prejudiced line “God keep our land glorious and free!” wasn’t tabled, despite its inclusion lacking even the “tradition” excuse, having only been added in 1968.
As is tradition right before the Oscars, the worst films of 2009 have been dishonoured at the annual Razzie Awards. The big winner/loser this year was, most deservedly, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which was awarded worst screenplay, worst director, and yes, worst picture of 2009.
My hatred for Sandra Bullock has weakened slightly due to these awards, she actually showed up to accept her Razzie, she won worst actress for her role in All About Steve. You can see the video above. Other dishonourees included The Jonas Brothers as worst actor(s) for their performance in Jonas Brothers: The 3-D Concert Experience, Billy Ray Cyrus as worst supporting actor for Hannah Montana: The Movie, and Sienna Miller with worst supporting actress for her work in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.
This year, The Razzies celebrated their 30th anniversary by naming some of the worst in film for the decade just past. Battlefield Earth was named worst picture of the decade, Eddie Murphy was awarded worst actor of the decade for more roles than I can list, and Paris Hilton won worst actress of the decade for performances like her turn as “the hottie” in The Hottie & The Nottie.
Conan O’Brien’s internet usage came around only after years of failed attempts at starting a career in real-world entertainment. He had brief stints as a writer for The Simpsons and Saturday Night Live before landing a gig as host of an obscure late night talk show called Late Night. O’Brien flirted with real success when he was promoted out of that bleary late-night/early morning vacuum into his dream job as host of the Tonight Show. O’Brien quickly found that position to be ill-suited to his dedication to quality and originality; he was fired soon after accepting the job.
It was only after these many years of struggling with the hardships of the real-world entertainment industry that O’Brien finally found his place, and it happened to be on the internet. On February 24, 2010, O’Brien got a Twitter account, and his career took off with immediate and explosive success. At last, O’Brien had found his place.
Conan’s Twitter is a stunning piece of internet humour done right. He posts with an unobtrusive reliability, and always has something amusing to say. Take, for example, this early message: “This morning I watched Remington Steele while eating Sugar Smacks out of a salad bowl. I was naked.” Now that’s good writing.
O’Brien’s latest spark of creative internet genius was to announce the first person he would follow with his account, Michigan resident Sarah Killen. His wit drove thousands to her humble Twitter account, and she has quickly gone from 3 to 11 000 followers. That’s the power of real internet celebrity.
Conan O’Brien, Shufflingdead salutes you for being one class act.
Brooklyn’s population of filthy hipsters has a problem: they’re getting old, and that means the inevitable divide between those with, and those without horrible miscreant children has crept into their insatiable appetite for supporting local drink houses.
Apparently, babies are technically allowed in New York bars, and tight-sweatered indie-as-fuck types like Matt Gross just love heading down to the local pub for a pint with their spawn in tow. Of course, bars are also the destination of choice for the lonely, single, drunken, rowdy, and horny of the world, and they don’t mix well with children. The two groups have clashed repeatedly in recent times over things like bans on buggies in bars.
It seems the breeders have found their sense of entitlement grow to such Brobdingnagian proportions that they now see no reason not to encroach on the last piece of sacred, adults-only ground in society. It’s astounding to me that this has been allowed to occur at all, don’t New York bars ID?
When a conversation takes place on the world’s largest internet message board, people listen. Combined with fervent nationalism, the results of a little trash talking can lead to all out internet war.
A South Korean group recently launched a massive denial of service attack on Japan’s almighty 2channel, causing an estimated $2.5 million in damages. The attacks came in part as a means of celebrating Korea’s March 1 independence day, but also as a response to criticisms made by the anonymous posters of 2ch regarding Korean Olympic figure skater Kim Yu-Na.
Most of 2ch’s servers are located in the US, and the site’s hosting company is looking into having the attack investigated as cyber terrorism by the FBI. Responses to the attack have ranged from the expected Japanese internet counter-invasion to the establishment of a relief fund for victims of the Chilean earthquake.
Michael Atkinson is a well known public figure in Australia. He’s the South Australian Attorney General, as well as the country’s biggest hater of video games. The man is actually at the centre of an ongoing government crusade to keep any form of an “adult” games rating out of Australia. That means that games that would be rated for adults only end up never coming to the country.
As you can imagine, being a controversial public figure like that can make you some enemies. In particular, last year Atkinson garnered the ire of Dean McQuillan, a poster on an Adelaide-based website. McQuillan’s fury took him to such a hateful place that he dared called Atkinson a “crook.”
Well, Atkinson isn’t taking the accusation lying down. He feels the lashing was undeserved and demanding of retribution. He’s suing McQuillan for $20 000 in damages. Apparently, Atkinson regards the fairly mundane term as “highly defamatory.”
Good thing I don’t live in Australia, I called the man “king of crazy” not long ago.
The 82nd annual Academy Awards are airing this Sunday, and you know what that means, it’s two days until James Cameron climbs up on stage and thanks his adoring fans for worshiping the giant blue gods he created and then smashed into the script for Pocahontas.
This year’s best picture race is a peculiar one. The Academy decided the show wasn’t getting enough viewers from the “unwashed masses” demographic, and so they opened up the ultimate category to ten nominations instead of the usual five, with the hope that more mainstream films would get included. Well, their little plan seems to have worked, Avatar, Up, District 9, and even The Blind Side are all best picture contenders this year.
Since I felt compelled to make an Oscar post anyway, I might as well include my predictions as well as personal preferences for some of the major categories.
Best Picture:Avatar will win, Cameron’s acceptance speech will consist of him trying to think of a line from his film to quote, then realizing the dialogue was so poorly written that nothing stands out. My preference: District 9.
Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow will win for The Hurt Locker, crowd members will clap politely, not having seen the film themselves. My choice: Jason Reitman for Up in the Air, because he’s the son of Ivan Reitman.
Best Actor: Prediction and preference: Morgan Freeman for playing Nelson Mandela in Invictus. He’s Morgan Freeman.
Best Actress: Prediction: Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side because the world hates me that much. My choice: anyone but Sandra Bullock.
March 8th, 2010 by 
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