question of the weekend: Are you watching the Olympics?
Are you watching the Olympics? I’m not. (If you have a suggestion for a QOTD/QOTW, feel free to email me. Responses to this QOTW sent by email will be ignored; please post your responses here.)
talk amongst yourselves
question of the day: What new specialty TV channel would you create?
Does the American entertainmentscape really need another food channel? Cuz we’re getting one, The New York Times reported yesterday: Scripps, the owner of the Food Network, plans to turn on the Cooking Channel on Memorial Day, May 31, this year, enhancing its position in the category of kitchen programming. Before meetings with advertisers, the company … more…
question of the day: What movies do you find offensive that no one else does?
Today’s QOTD comes from reader/commenter doa766, who wonders: What movies do you find offensive that no one else does? Or, What movies do you see as offering a terrible message but no one else seems to notice it? doa766 continues: For example, I always thought the first Narnia movie was one the most offensive movies … more…
question of the day: If you had a magic wand, which bits of offensive TV would you censor for yourself?
UPI yesterday reported that Turkish television authorities have lost a bid to ban smoking from local airing of Mad Men… by digitally blurring out cigarettes: ANKARA, Turkey, Feb. 16 (UPI) — Two Turkish television stations were each fined $33,000 for airing shows such as the U.S.-produced “Mad Men” that feature smoking. The fines levied by … more…
question of the day: Which Oscar-winning Best Picture is least deserving of that award?
Recently the members of the Online Film Critics Society were polled to see which Oscar-winning Best Picture we thought was least deserving of that honor. The “winner”? Crash, which won Best Picture for 2005. Other films that garnered more than one vote (links go to my reviews): 2001: A Beautiful Mind 2000: Gladiator 1997: Titanic … more…
question of the weekend: How do we fix what’s wrong with American politics?
Last night on The Rachel Maddow Show, Maddow proposed that we need to find a new word for “something that is both catastrophically important to the future of the United States and totally freaking boring,” something that “speaks directly to whether government is capable of actually governing.” She was referring to the filibuster, which is … more…
question of the day: Have the movies (or TV) ever gotten the afterlife right?
We get yet another cinematic vision of the afterlife this weekend in Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief: Percy and pals go to Hell… the underworldly realm of his uncle Hades, and it’s the usual sort of Hell, all sulfurous air and flames and chicks in S&M gear. (Steve Coogan as Hades is … more…
question of the day: How could the Oscar telecast draw more viewers?
Mary McNamara, the television critic at the Los Angeles Times, today offers some advice to the producers of the Oscars regarding ratings. Her reasoning: Last weekend’s Super Bowl drew a huge audience of more than 106 million people, making it the most watched broadcast in U.S. history. Since the Oscar telecast have been hurting in … more…
question of the day: Which TV or movie workplace would you love to work at?
I’m sure many of us have fantasized about working someplace interesting and/or exciting — maybe even someplace completely fictional — that we’ve seen on television or in a movie. But did you ever put that imaginary job on your resume? One guy in England did (via the Mirror): Fantasist Greig Ferguson got a medic’s job … more…
question of the day: Are genre movies getting more respect these days, and if so, why?
Today’s question comes from reader doa766: Why are Avatar and District 9 getting so much critical and awards recognition now when neither Aliens or Blade Runner got any when they were released? is it because highbrow, art or oscar bait movies have decreased in quality? is it because of a generational and average age change … more…
