watch it: “Hans Rosling’s 200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes – The Joy of Stats – BBC Four”
A fabulous organization of a lot of complex information… and a bit of optimism for the future toward the end, which is very welcome.
talk amongst yourselves
question of the day: What films are the most inappropriately rated?
Bashing the MPAA is always fun, and I will never miss an opportunity to do so. So let’s join the party A.V. Club started yesterday with their list of the 15 most egregious MPAA screwups. In a piece entitled “This film is questionably rated,” they began with the film Once…
question of the day: What fictional home would you most like to live in?
Lots of domiciles from movies and TV exist only as soundstages, but we can dream. Bilbo’s round-doored hobbit hole? The Friends’ spectacular NYC apartment? The Home Alone McMansion? Don Corleone’s Staten Island estate? Somewhere else?
question of the weekend: If you were a diva, what outrageous demands would you make?
Katy Perry recently demanded, as a requirement of her appearing on BBC Radio 1’s Teen Awards show, that she be given crackers and cheese in her dressing room. Not so weird, perhaps, except for one provision: the crackers and cheese had to be on ice. And that’s hardly the most preposterous demand a diva has ever made…
question of the day: Has the definition of “family” and “holiday” movies changed?
When I was a kid, TV over Thanksgiving weekend definitely meant The Wizard of Oz and maybe a marathon of the 1933 King Kong and all those goofy black-and-white Mighty Joe Young flicks. But as Jill Cozzi notes at the new Cinemarati Facebook page, what TV is pushing at us as ”holiday” these days feels kinda different…
question of the day: Do you think DVD region coding will ever go away?
If you’re in the U.S., for instance, and you buy a DVD in Australia — or have a friend lend you one by mail — and it won’t play in the DVD player you bought in Best Buy in Dallas. But with release windows collapsing and more movies being released almost simulateously around the world, perhaps region coding becomes less imperative.
question of the day: How soon will physical DVDs disappear from general usage?
We’ll always watch movies, I suspect — at least until whatever apocalypse we’re in for hits and the electricity goes out — but I don’t think we’ll actually be watching them on plastic DVDs for very much longer. I’m beginning to see a time for myself in the very near future when I may never have to buy another DVD…
question of the day: Will James Franco and Anne Hathaway reinvigorate the Oscar ceremony, or is the choice of them as hosts a desperate ploy to get more people to watch?
“James Franco and Anne Hathaway personify the next generation of Hollywood icons— fresh, exciting and multi-talented. We hope to create an Oscar broadcast that will both showcase their incredible talents and entertain the world on February 27.” Or so the Academy would like us to think…
question of the day: What is your favorite Leslie Nielsen bit?
Just Airplane and Police Squad! alone provide a trove of hilariously deadpan moments. Surely, Nielsen will be missed.
question of the weekend: Did you ever do something so stupid/crazy/memorable that you will never live it down among your friends and/or family?
When I was very little — like, so little I was still sitting in a high chair when this happened — I peeled my finger with a vegetable peeler, apparently just to see what would happen. I’m told I didn’t start to scream until my mother and grandmother started screaming…
