All Aussie
Read this news article first.
I think it’s a valid point up until Mr Baldwin “looks to the gaming industry for inspiration”. Games are made solely to make a profit, films are not. When filmmakers set out to shoot a documentary, there’s typically another agenda going on besides making profits. And after Howard proposing all schools must have the Australian flag flying on their front doorstep, this just proves my point (which I’ve yet to mention on the site) that we’re one step closer to becoming another American state.
But I think Mr Baldwin has a point in that the government hands over a lot of money to fund these films yet they aren’t making a great deal of return. How much should the government give to fund Australian films when that money could go into education or health for example? It’s a tricky situation and one which maybe some of you can help answer or at least offer some opinions on the matter. Personally, I can’t see the Australian film industry possibly competing with US box-office sales nor do I want to see the industry compromising its integrity for increased profits. But its gotta stay afloat somehow right? Hrmmmm
Onto less important matters, did you all watch the new revised SBS Movie Show last night? I thought it wasn’t too bad but nowhere near as great as the old one. Megan Spencer was bearable and it’s good to see that Jaimie Leonarder is likely to be her sparing partner on a few things in the future. I just sensed a vibe there even though he mostly agreed with her criticisms. Fenella Kernebourne, perhaps not quite as hardcore as Megan or Jaimie brought a nice sense of the normality to her reviewing approach. And 19-year old Marc Fennell did well with the DVD reviews. One thing I didn’t agree with was their review of Shrek 2 (my review coming soon). They stated that the visual effects improved significantly from the original film but my brother and I couldn’t really notice anything drastic at all. And generally I take note of the quality of the visual effects in films (yes I am a film geek. Sue me!) but I didn’t see any earth-shattering changes (but three views against one isn’t making my arguments worth shit either). Finally, I wasn’t happy that in order to check out their reviews for certain films, you had to check the website. Couldn’t they have just flashed them on the screen at the end or even just quoted the rating and then told people to check the website for more details? Oh and yeah, the new Movie Show website wasn’t up at the time of writing this so how can I check the damn things! Grrrrrrr. Aahahahaha nah I’m cool. Overall, it’s discussing film, it’s on TV, it’s Australian-made and produced, I’ll stick with it for a while.
3 Responses to “All Aussie”
Missed it, because I was at the cinema. (does that count as “irony”? - I’m too scared to use that word post-Alanis.)
Though it was pretty terrible myself. Found the three way interaction between the hosts a little awkward and the interview segments during the reviews distracting.
Then there’s the hosts themselves: they all possess that slightly-difficult-to-pinpoint wanky arrogance that left me feeling like the only reason they purport to love fim is because it’s a fashionably cool thing to do.
It’s not that far removed from infotainment review shows frequently sponsored by companies such as Blockbuster.
With these guys hosting I don’t see much potential for passionate debate.
Yes, that was irony, Lyn!
I saw the last half of the new Movie Show and I agree with Nick and James. It was hard to follow the banter between them all, and mentioning films but not reviewing them or commenting further was annoying. And by covering DVDs they will have less time for Margret/David-style discussion, which is more illuminating than chipping in remarks.
Doing any TV show is a touch gig, I suppose. Good luck to them, but I’ll be sticking to At the Movies.