Nostalgia by Veidt

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Lowest ratings in the history of the Emmys

The 60th Primetime Emmy Awards was the biggest loser that night.

The broadcast was presented by "reality TV hosts", the writing was awful, and the speeches were full of self-righteous political speak that should have turned off both sides of the aisle.

It is certainly in their right to express their political views in public - and it's one of the reasons why people aren't watching award shows anymore (along with the insipid self-important congratulations and pats on the back they give each other).

Congratulations to them for turning their wins into a soapbox. They've not only pulled us out of the show during their speech - but have perhaps pulled us out for the rest of the broadcast. When they pull things like this the next day isn't a discussion about "how X show won or Y person won" it's "Did you hear X actor/actress say '[political comment entered here]'" Much like this entire entry right here.

Their acceptance speech may be the "best" place to do it if they're looking for sheer numbers to preach to, but it's inappropriate given the venue. They're there to celebrate their win - they should not be there to talk about how stupid some people are or who people should vote for. Leave the off-topic comments to the press out back.

In a world where you can get 24/7 political news online and on multiple news channels, some people just want to escape and forget things that divide us, such as politics. Until they realize this award shows will lose more and more of it's audience.

Oh, by the way - congratulations on Mad Men for their win.

Watchmen tie-ins

For the young ones.

One of the worst weekend box office takes ever

Box Office Mojo estimates that "Bangkok Dangerous" opened with an estimated $7,800,000. million dollars. That's pathetic.

I wish I had owned these when I was a kid

Ozymandias action figure:

She didn't need pillars: 41+ million people see Palin speech

As reported by the news, Obama pulled in 38.4 million viewers on the commercial networks, and after factoring in PBS and C-SPAN, the numbers topped 40 million.

Nielsen has estimated that roughly 37.2 million people watched Palin on the commercial networks with 4 million more viewers watching her on PBS. From what I can tell that does not factor in C-SPAN viewers, which probably only account for a few hundred thousand at best.

So a Vice Presidential pick "no one" knew a day prior to her selection for VP candidate and was reported as being a pretty uninspired pick by many in the media, picked up what is estimated as being over a million more people watching her speech than the extremely popular Barrack Obama, the Presidential candidate?

Now I'm really curious about the numbers from tonight.

Update: I'm also surprised to hear that the teleprompter was not working well for much of the speech and that she had on hand an "outdated" version of the speech. Some of the parts that got the loudest applause were completely ad-libbed. This bodes well for her during the upcoming VP debate.

Modern "spoofs" are dead - thanks to two "filmmakers"

Most of the "spoof movies" in the 2000s aren't spoof movies. They're just referencing films and events and throw in some "jokes" about break dancing, browsing the internet, and shilling out products (which aren't jokes). You can actually get more excitement out of watching 70 minutes of trailers for all the movies that the films reference, whether you're talking about "Disaster Movie", "Epic Movie", or "Meet the Spartans".

A lot of the "jokes" in these films are recycled jabs at celebrities or films that sometimes are already jokes themselves, Amy Winehouse anyone? Paris Hilton? Miley Cyrus sings then gets hit with a meteor? This is what passes as a "spoof"?

You can't "spoof" comedy unless you're specifically adding something to it. They don't. Take for example: Find some washed up 80s comedian and make him do Michael Richard's infamous racist rant verbatim. Comedy Gold? Not in the least. In bad taste? Of course. Spoof? Only in the most loose consideration - like in cases where Jason Friedberg or Aaron Seltzer aren't involved in writing it (by the way, if that appears in one of your films - provided you ever make one - I'll sue since you've yet to come up with an original idea).

Jason Friedberg or Aaron Seltzer just copy scenes word-for-word and scene-for-scene with no added effort. Many times they've done nothing to change the situation except throw in other actors in.

"That one scene with Ben Stiller from 'Along Came Polly'? That was HILARIOUS, throw it into the film!" Occasionally they insert a "funny" segway between scenes they rip directly from films and put in product placement ("so funny!") or... BREAK DANCING! Will the hilarity ever end?!?!?!

The films also show no adeptness to the editing process as every shot appears to be abrupt and awkwardly placed to a point where it's obvious they didn't give a damn to the quality of the finished product. The narrative is mediocre or just plain-old-fashioned-bad which only makes the overall product that much worse.

With the crashing and burning of Disaster Movie, perhaps there's hope yet that we'll never see another one of these films in the theater.

Tim Kaine: Delaware borders Virginia

BREAKING NEWS:

"Joe comes from the state Delaware that borders Virginia, the eastern shore part of Virginia and Delaware are not only bordering but very similar." - Virginia Governor Tim Kaine

What a brilliant man.