Why do they have to have the Oscars? They're invariably crap.

I think puppets or South Park-stylee are the only ways to go, though, unless they want to wait nine months for the animation to be done.

Oh, dear.

Roger Avary done for manslaugher and felony DUI.

I really like some of the videos people have been making in support of the writer's strike, this one is a particular favourite:

Murder Unscripted

Because everyone's life is crap and it makes them happy to see smiling rich celebrities in pretty clothes.

Dirty Mary Crazy Larry Screening At BFI with Q&A with Susan George

Listners To Help Write Ongoing Radio Drama

That is a big uh-oh as I would consider myself a fan of his work. But if you do the crime...

Maybe Grindhouse will be getting a full-length double-bill screening after all. The BBFC have classified it for cinematic release, fake trailers and all. Meanwhile, the Prince Charles Cinema is screening both Planet Terror and Death Proof in their own back-to-back double bills, with promise of their own added extras.

I really should go to the Prince Charles more often...

I got to see it at the cinema like that.

To be honest I think they suffer seen together, because after Planet Terror, Death Proof seems like a bad film, and it really isn't. But after the excitement of a packed cinema cheering to Terror quickly fades and it's too slow a film to follow on.

If they were shown the other way round it'd be much, much better.

Hammer Horror Kronos Reunion Event

...how ironic.

Have we talked about party boy Corey yet?

What a wanker...

Seconded.

Nathan Barley's.
They're popping up everywhere.


Look at him. Look at him there & his childrens pants.

Don't blame Planet Terror....Death Proof really is 75% fucking awful.

You may be right. The double-feature wasn't here long enough for me to catch, but I watched them in that order when they came out on DVD.

After the relentless, numbing tedium that was Death Proof, I was in need of a good, old-fashioned, tongue-in-cheek, over-the-top action fix, and Planet Terror deliver in spades.

If I had watched it the other way around, I doubt I could have made it past the first 20 minutes of Death Proof.

Yup.

More like 85-90%.

he has got a nice body though, I'm sure I could straighten him out...Or not.

Edit:



He's Cassidy the vampire from Preacher.

Hey, don't forget the t-shirt! Now those sunglasses are famous...

ShortList magazine's 20 Greatest TV Series Ever

1. The Sopranos
2. The Office
3. Seinfeld
4. The Simpsons
5. Curb Your Enthusiasm
6. The West Wing
7. Fawlty Towers
8. Doctor Who
9. 24
10. Blackadder
11. I'm Alan Partridge
12. The Shield
13. Minder
14. The A-Team
15. Father Ted
16. Family Guy
17. Battlestar Galactica (old & new)
18. Prime Suspect
19. Life On Mars
20. Heroes

Without I Love Lucy I can't take the list seriously.

Shortlist is treading an increasingly fine line between being quite good and a free version of Zoo.

'The A-Team' is far from a good television show, let alone a top 20. And 'Minder'? What the hell?

This is quite clearly because shows like "Bring Back The A-Team" and that sketch on Little Britain reminds people that they existed when they really should have faded away into obscurity. Probably.

What do you guys think of this:
MacBook Air

Personally, I think it's ahead of its time, i.e; totally impractical while we are still encumbered by physical media and hardware, but this no doubt a big step to some wonderful wireless Minority Report future.

I won't be satisfied until I can log in by having it scan my cornea.

Specifying old Galactica is a bit of an odd choice as well. I mean I like it, but that is due to nostalgia. Most of it is ropey as hell!

It's not worth £2k.

And I disagree with most of that list. The shows are good, but are they the best ever?

I sense another Spaced Out Ultimate Poll coming on . . .

That could seriously spiral out of control...

I want an all in one bodysuit with computer built in like a space ninja would have.

We'll all be wearing these one day.

Or a Borg.

On second thought...

It's an extremely sexy piece of machinery, but the lack of an optical drive makes it too special. I'll wait for our Minority Report future before I buy one.

It retails over here at about £1200.


Is that really too much of a problem? The wireless tech they have going on inside means the information can just fly through the air to permanent hard-drives. Now if you don't mind, I'm off to the Tatooine pod races.

It seems rather impractical to have to be within a certain distance of another media device to use them. I can really understand what its practical uses are. As for the touchpad, I don't know about anyone else but I never use mine as I'd much rather plug a mouse in. It also seems rather flimsy although I haven't actually felt one in the flesh (plastic) so I don't know how robust or well built it is.

But think about what you do with CDs anyway - most people burn information onto a CD at work, put the CD into the laptop and work with the documents on the train or at home. The Air just eliminates the disc. Sit the thing on your desk, and transfer the data you need through the ether.

As for the touchpad, the kind of interactive control which is currently being popularised by the iPhone will become standard over the rather clunky mouse. It's more like manipulating actual pieces of paper and photographs than being removed from them with a piece of unergonomic hardware.

asian film awards - nominations;

No Best Picture nod for The Bourne Ultimatum?

I thought we already did.

Well we have the communicator bit, but we can't be given orders through Billy Dee Williams' watch, or "talk" to our computer telepathically yet.

I just thought of something, actually. Lando tells Lobot and his security team to kidnap all those stormtroopers, then he leaves Bespin and never comes back, leaving them with the consequences of his actions. Some administrator he is.

No. No.
That sounds about right.

How To Win An Oscar



$4 million spent just to sway members of the academy! You can make a couple of really excellent independent films for that price, just don't expect to win any awards.

Golden Razzies noms announced

You know, the more I hear about I Know Who Killed Me, the more I think I'm going to have to gather some friends, get really drunk and watch it. It sounds unbelievably hilarious.

My first thought is *snap*, my second thought is 'that picture makes it look thinner than it is'. My third thought is 'how do I install software' followed by 'actually most of it is downloaded now anyway'. Optional solid state memory - limited life, you can only read/write to flash memory so many times. But it's optional, it comes with 80GB of HDD anyway. That's not a HUGE amount. Especially when this thing looks fairly unexpandable, and is supposed to be ultra portable. If you want ot watch films and play music it needs to be on the machine, and 80GB won't hold a lot. But then maybe you could stream video wirelessly. You only get one USB port, which is not good. I have two ports on my laptop, one has a 7-port hub plugged into it which is full.

Ultimately, I think it will have some distinct flaws, but they're covered by the fact that it looks good. And I think that's one of the most important things about it. I notice it comes with a Cleaning/Polishing cloth in the box. Says it all. I've never cleaned or polished my laptop in my life.

Well let me tell you how he got that job, affirmative action strikes again.

Coen film leads Oscar nominations.

New Look BBC Three.

I'll miss those little animated characters!

Best Motion Picture of the Year

Atonement (2007): Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Paul Webster
Juno (2007)
Michael Clayton (2007)
No Country for Old Men (2007): Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Scott Rudin
There Will Be Blood (2007): Paul Thomas Anderson, Daniel Lupi, JoAnne Sellar


Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

George Clooney for Michael Clayton (2007)
Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood (2007)
Johnny Depp for Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)
Tommy Lee Jones for In the Valley of Elah (2007)
Viggo Mortensen for Eastern Promises (2007)


Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

Cate Blanchett for Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007)
Julie Christie for Away from Her (2006)
Marion Cotillard for Môme, La (2007)
Laura Linney for The Savages (2007)
Ellen Page for Juno (2007)


Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

Casey Affleck for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)
Javier Bardem for No Country for Old Men (2007)
Philip Seymour Hoffman for Charlie Wilson's War (2007)
Hal Holbrook for Into the Wild (2007)
Tom Wilkinson for Michael Clayton (2007)


Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

Cate Blanchett for I'm Not There. (2007)
Ruby Dee for American Gangster (2007)
Saoirse Ronan for Atonement (2007)
Amy Ryan for Gone Baby Gone (2007)
Tilda Swinton for Michael Clayton (2007)


Best Achievement in Directing

Paul Thomas Anderson for There Will Be Blood (2007)
Ethan Coen, Joel Coen for No Country for Old Men (2007)
Tony Gilroy for Michael Clayton (2007)
Jason Reitman for Juno (2007)
Julian Schnabel for Scaphandre et le papillon, Le (2007)


Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen

Juno (2007): Diablo Cody
Lars and the Real Girl (2007): Nancy Oliver
Michael Clayton (2007): Tony Gilroy
Ratatouille (2007): Brad Bird
The Savages (2007): Tamara Jenkins


Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published

Atonement (2007): Christopher Hampton
Away from Her (2006): Sarah Polley
Scaphandre et le papillon, Le (2007): Ronald Harwood
No Country for Old Men (2007): Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
There Will Be Blood (2007): Paul Thomas Anderson


Best Achievement in Cinematography

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007): Roger Deakins
Atonement (2007): Seamus McGarvey
No Country for Old Men (2007): Roger Deakins
Scaphandre et le papillon, Le (2007): Janusz Kaminski
There Will Be Blood (2007): Robert Elswit


Best Achievement in Editing

The Bourne Ultimatum (2007): Christopher Rouse
Scaphandre et le papillon, Le (2007): Juliette Welfling
Into the Wild (2007): Jay Cassidy
No Country for Old Men (2007): Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
There Will Be Blood (2007): Dylan Tichenor, Tatiana S. Riegel


Best Achievement in Art Direction

American Gangster (2007): Arthur Max
Atonement (2007): Sarah Greenwood
The Golden Compass (2007): Dennis Gassner
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007): Dante Ferretti
There Will Be Blood (2007): Jack Fisk


Best Achievement in Costume Design

Across the Universe (2007): Albert Wolsky
Atonement (2007): Jacqueline Durran
Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007): Alexandra Byrne
Môme, La (2007): Marit Allen
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007): Colleen Atwood


Best Achievement in Makeup

Môme, La (2007): Didier Lavergne, Loulia Sheppard
Norbit (2007): Rick Baker
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007): Ve Neill, Martin Samuel


Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score

Atonement (2007): Dario Marianelli
Into the Wild (2007): Michael Brook, Kaki King, Eddie Vedder
Michael Clayton (2007): James Newton Howard
Ratatouille (2007): Michael Giacchino
3:10 to Yuma (2007): Marco Beltrami


Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song

August Rush (2007)("Raise It Up")
Enchanted (2007)("Happy Working Song")
Enchanted (2007)("So Close")
Enchanted (2007)("That's How You Know")
Once (2006)(“Falling Slowly” )


Best Achievement in Sound

The Bourne Ultimatum (2007): Scott Millan, David Parker, Kirk Francis
No Country for Old Men (2007): Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff, Peter F. Kurland
Ratatouille (2007): Randy Thom, Michael Semanick, Vince Caro, Doc Kane
3:10 to Yuma (2007)
Transformers (2007): Kevin O'Connell, Greg P. Russell, Peter J. Devlin


Best Achievement in Sound Editing

The Bourne Ultimatum (2007): Karen M. Baker, Per Hallberg
No Country for Old Men (2007): Skip Lievsay
Ratatouille (2007)
There Will Be Blood (2007): Matthew Wood, Christopher Scarabosio
Transformers (2007): Mike Hopkins, Ethan Van der Ryn


Best Achievement in Visual Effects

The Golden Compass (2007): Michael L. Fink, Susan MacLeod, Bill Westenhofer, Ben Morris
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007): John Knoll, Hal T. Hickel, Charlie Gibson, John Frazier
Transformers (2007): Scott Farrar, Shari Hanson, Russell Earl, Scott Benza


Best Animated Feature Film of the Year

Persepolis (2007): Vincent Paronnaud, Marjane Satrapi
Ratatouille (2007): Brad Bird
Surf's Up (2007): Ash Brannon, Chris Buck


Best Foreign Language Film of the Year

Fälscher, Die (2007)(Austria)
Beaufort (2007)(Israel)
Mongol (2007)(Kazakhstan)
Katyn (2007)(Poland)
12 (2007)(Russia)


Best Documentary, Features

No End in Sight (2007)
Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience (2007)
Sicko (2007)
Taxi to the Dark Side (2007)
War Dance (2007)


Best Documentary, Short Subjects

Freeheld (2007)
Corona, La (2008)
Salim Baba (2008)
Sari's Mother (2006)


Best Short Film, Animated

Même les pigeons vont au paradis (2007)
I Met the Walrus (2007)
Madame Tutli-Putli (2007)
Moya lyubov (2006)
Peter & the Wolf (2006)


Best Short Film, Live Action

At Night (2004)
Supplente, Il (2006)
Mozart des pickpockets, Le (2006)
Tanghi argentini (2006)
The Tonto Woman

Is that the Oscar nominations?

Amy Ryan from The Wire. Hooray! Hal Holbrook. Hooray!

It all looks good but I say Blanchett will win one or both of catagories.

I think she'll win best supporting actress but the generally frosty reception to Elizabeth: the Golden Age means that she'll probably lose to Julie Christie since she's got all the awards momentum behind her now.

I have to say I'm quite surprised by the strong showing for Michael Clayton. Not because I think it's a bad film or anything, I never got around to seeing it, but because it's generally been eclipsed in the build-up.

I hope Roger Deakins wins for Cinematography. The Assassination of Jesses James by The Coward Robert Ford and No Country For Old Men are the best looking films of the last 12 months.

At this point Javier Bardem looks like a lock for Best Supporting Actor but I wouldn't mind an Affleck win. Hell, it's just great that he got nominated for such a fantastic performance.

Ratatouille has also done very well for an animated film.