Blog Marco

We all know Aussie TV is way was behind schedule compared to the US. But Everwood takes the cake. The series is currently shown on Channel 9 on a daily basis during the Summer non-ratings period and is about three years behind the US schedule. The interesting this is that Everwood is actually shown during prime-time in the States but yet here it only gets a daytime slot. Just as Channel 9 screwed loyal viewers to Smallville they screwed us with Everwood. Smallville is also years behind schedule - but thanks to Channel 10 picking up the series we are slowly making progress as Channel Ten shows the program on a bi-weekly basis. (And for you Americans reading this - two points - stop laughing and secondly bi-weekly in Australia means twice a week - not every two weeks; we call something that happens every two weeks fortnightly)

With a lineup of French actors Christian Clavier and Gérard Depardieu (who stars in nearly every French film I've seen) and the Italian Actor Roberto Benigni from La Vita è bella or better known as Life is Beautiful - Asterix and Obelix vs. Caesar (or in French Astérix et Obélix contre César made in 1999) was an amusing translation of the Asterix comic series onto the silverscreen.

I've never picked up a copy of the Asterix comic series, it was there in my primary school library (back in the old days), I knew other people that borrowed it but the picture of a small wiry fellow with a hat with wings and a fat bloke beside him never did appeal to me. Christian Clavier stars as Asterix and Gérard Depardieu stars as his sidekick Obelix. The molding of real-life actors to model cartoon characters was well done. Special effects was used sparingly but very effectively. In some movies special effects are sometimes overused and if the movie has a low budget it is very apparent in the quality of the special effect - in this movie all the effects were well done.

It is known that the writer of the Chronicles of Narnia - a series of seven books is a well established Christian writer. An article I read in the news wrote about Narnia being an allegory (a fable: a short moral story (often with animal characters)) and some believe it to have a parallel to the Christian Story of Jesus and His resurrection.

"The Irish-born writer and Oxford academic filled this land with mythical creatures and talking animals. It was ruled by an evil white witch who maintained a permanent winter and outlawed Christmas.

In the snowbound parallel universe of Narnia, the Pevensie children are embroiled in the battle to return a mystical lion called Aslan to the throne.

J.R.R. Tolkien, a friend and Oxford colleague, disliked The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, describing it as "a meaningless jumble". With its story about sacrifice and resurrection, others considered it Christian propaganda. But the seven novels of the Narnia series have become children's classics, selling 95 million copies in 41 languages since 1950. With every Hollywood studio looking for its own children's franchise, it was inevitable that someone would turn the Narnia novels into a movie.

I was watching Oprah while eating lunch yesterday and the whole show was dedicated to the DVD movie release of "Crash". (Sometimes I wonder if Oprah is turning into a huge infomercial show - but on a higher plane of existence, compared to Kerri Anne and Bert Newton's Morning talk shows with Infomercials and Moira)

Anyway, the "Crash" plot line is that: Several characters of different racial backgrounds collide in one incident, The different stereotypes society has created for those backgrounds affect their judgment, beliefs and actions, This in turn causes problems for each of them.

I've actually watched Crash on the Flight to Philippines - I thought it was a good movie when I watched it but I had forgotten its name.

Anyway, Oprah featured it on her show because she feels so strongly about racism and discrimination in America. The show was an interesting watch as most of the cast from "Crash" turned up to chat about the issues revolving around the movie - stereotypes and racism: Don Cheadle (Ocean's Eleven and The Family Man), Matt Dillon (From There's Something About Mary), Thandie Newton (From Mission Impossible II), Terrence Howard (From Mr. Holland's Opus), Sandra Bul

#64 Spirited Away was recently aired on SBS along with a line of other films also by the same writer/director Hayao Miyazaki. All his films that I've watched were memorable - all of them had an element of adventure and the spirit of growing up and has an underlying message of peace. SBS also showed "Laputa: Castle in the Sky" (aka Tenkû no shiro Rapyuta), Kiki's Delivery Service (aka Majo no takkyûbin), Porco rosso (aka Kurenai no buta) and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Winds (aka Kaze no tani no Naushika). And they also feature girls as the main character...

The english versions of these films also feature the voices of stars such as Mark Hamill, Kirsten Dunst and Patrick Stewart.

This top 100 movie listings are from a nationwide poll by the ABC:
Movies I've watched: [Y]
Movies I haven't watched, but heard of [X]
Movies that I've never heard of [W]

Looks like I need to do a bit of catching up.

1-10
Y 1. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
X 2. Amelie
Y 3. Blade Runner
Y 4. The Shawshank Redemption
W 5. Donnie Darko
Y 6. Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope
Y 7. Pulp Fiction
W 8. The Princess Bride
Y 9. Gone With The Wind
Y 10. Fight Club

11-20
Y 11. The Sound of Music
Y 12. To Kill A Mockingbird
Y 13. 2001: A Space Odyssey
Y 14. Casablanca
W 15. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Y 16. American Beauty
W 17. Doctor Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
W 18. Monty Python's Life of Brian
X 19. Lawrence Of Arabia
Y 20. Apocalypse Now

21-30
W 21. Cinema Paradiso
X 22. Doctor Zhivago
Y 23. The Matrix
Y 24. The Castle
Y 25. Singin' in the Rain
X 26. A Clockwork Orange
Y 27. The Blues Brothers
W 28. Withnail and I
Y 29. Life is Beautiful
Y 30. The Godfather

'They've identified subject areas that interest the vast majority of the population. They are unashamedly populist and they don't overestimate the audience and their attention span." That's how Peter Meakin, the straight-shooting head of news and current affairs at Channel Seven, explains the success of Today Tonight and the show he was responsible for until early 2003, Channel Nine's A Current Affair.

These two shows shouldn't be enjoying a golden period. Everything would appear to be against them. Since the popular current affairs genre was mercilessly parodied in the hit show Frontline (now 11 years ago), Today Tonight and A Current Affair have been routinely clouted by Media Watch and others. They have been faced with new competition from all sides, including pay TV, the internet and more niche current affairs shows on free-to-air."
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Fight School was aired in Australia in the early hours of the morning - 1am, 2am etc. mid 2005.

In this reality television show, Fight School breaks barriers. Here they have ten amateur martial artists from England ­ five men and five women, go through "Fight School" in a dojo in china - possibly based somewhere near Beijing. At that School they train together and undertake tasks - undergoing mental and physical challenges. These ten pupils are all established champions in their field of martial arts.

Towards the end of the episode - after the challenges have taken place, the strongest performer is chosen by the sifu (the teacher) and the weakest performer is also chosen. From there, the strongest chooses another pupil to compete against the weakest. The weakest and the one chosen then competes in a tournament style match. These fights are not judged on force but on skill alone. The loser immediately leaves and the winner stays.

There is one main sifu - some chinese guy and three sub sifu's whose names were:
Sifu Becky, Clive and Nathan the Megatron

The final three were:
Paul - specialty: kickboxing
Toby - specialty: Tae Kwon Do
Emma - specialty: Kung Fu, Kickboxing and Wu Shu

A screen capture of Toot and the Hot Black Girl (with a tail) from Drawn Together a Comedy Central Cartoon Comedy.

This is a hilarious cartoon show that spoofs the reality show "Big Brother" cartoon style. Taking cartoon characters putting them into various situations. The cartoon characters themselves are wild imitations of superman, pikachu, zelda (from the nintendo game), a princess and sponge bob. You can probably figure out who Toot is spoofing.

Here is a screen capture of Donald Trump being spoofed by "Drawn Together" a Comedy Central Cartoon Comedy.

Behind Trump stands his right hand man and woman George H. Ross and Carol Kepcher.

Television shows like CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, depicting forensic scientists at work, are helping criminals avoid identification, New Scientist magazine says.

Channel Nine replayed my favourite CSI episode tonight: "2X21: ANATOMY OF A LYE". (I'm no geek - I didn't know that these episodes had a title.)

I didn't even realise that these shows are transcripted by fans until I Googled "You were off the hook until he died CSI scripts" which includes a line in the episode. The search led me to http://www.crimelab.nl/ which is CSI heaven to any fan.

In my opinion this is the best episode due to the ending. The ending gives the a little twist in the end... have a little read:

BEN WESTON is the criminal lawyer who is under investigation of running a pedestrian over.

SARA and GRISSOM are both Las Vegas CSI's

....
(SARA closes the door, sits down and hands the paper to GRISSOM. GRISSOM puts
his glasses on to read it. He looks over at SARA. GRISSOM takes off his
glasses and turns to BEN WESTON.)

GRISSOM: When a driver hits a pedestrian the presumption is the driver is
negligent. When a driver's been drinking and he hits a pedestrian it's no
longer negligence, it's reckless homicide. But when a pedestrian intentionally
throws himself in front of a moving vehicle then the driver's no longer
responsible. Legally, he's off the hook.

SARA: This suicide letter was written by Bob Martin to his wife Charlotte.
When you hit him Monday night it wasn't an accident.

(Quick flashback to close up of BOB MARTIN standing behind the bus stop. As the
car driven by BEN WESTON approaches, BOB MARTIN deliberately walks toward it,
stops and stands in front of the car waiting to be hit. Cut to BEN WESTON
looking to the side presumably to put his cell phone down. The car impacts BOB
MARTIN and he crashes in through the passenger wind shield. End of flashback.
Resume to present.)

SARA: You were off the hook.

GRISSOM: Until you let him die.

(Camera holds on BEN WESTON.)

FADE TO BLACK.

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THE END
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