response 76 of 94:

Mar 29 14:02 UTC 2002

Ah.  I should have realized that since it was full of ax handles.  Silly me.

response 78 of 94:

Mar 30 00:57 UTC 2002

(I've never been sure which was the Stars and Bars:  the Battle Flag, or the
one with the three horizontal bars.)

response 80 of 94:

Mar 31 23:08 UTC 2002

"Oscars Blackout" was the buzzword for the lack of black nominees and the
encouragement of oscar boycotting, as recently as the 73rd oscars, which took
place in: 2001.
http://archive.nandotimes.com/73rdOscars/opinion/0,5606,nandotimes,00.html
so, there's a big whoop made this year about 2 black best actors for a reason.
someone much earlier in this item attributed this big whoop to barbaric
attitudes in hollywood, but considering all the 'oscars blackout' press
there's been each year in the past few, it would have been mighty odd this
year if nobody made a big whoop.
then there's the idea that the winnings are the result of the academy wanting
to make good with african-america, which would get the 'blackout' heat off
the academy's neck, and would be profitable for, well, everyone. everyone
involved, anyway.
maybe. i saw both 'training day' and 'monster's ball'. halle berry knocked
it out the fuckin park, and had the backup of a great cast (with the sole
exception of pee-diddy, who received acting acclaim for being "surprisingly
low-key", which isn't really a comment on acting so much as it is a comment
on pee-diddying; meanwhile, i've now seen mos def, who is a tremendous rapper,
act twice -- the first time in 'bamboozled' -- and there's a real actor in
that guy. hopefully he keeps acting, and busts out soon so i can stop hearing
about will smith ... and if he does, i hope he keeps putting out albums
because they're REALLy good).
denzel did NOT have the backup of a great cast, since most of his cast was
tremulous ethan hawke. every other little part (all of which were absolutely
essential) was acted well. the writing was surprisingly good other than a lame
dog plot destination, and the direction was good. and denzel knocked it out
the fuckin park. i was surprised, but glad to see him break out of a ben
kingsleyish run of typecast roles. (on the side, did anyone see 'sexy beast',
where ben kingsley finally broke out of his own ben kingsleyish goodguy
typecast, the rule for him since 'gandhi', stealing the show in the process?)

response 82 of 94:

Apr 1 01:38 UTC 2002

(Yes.  He was also the good guy in "Ghandi".)

response 84 of 94:

Apr 1 03:34 UTC 2002

        Yeah, but was Kingsley playing a bad-ass mafioso or a schziophrenic
with a Cockney personality?  I had to watch the movie with subtitles on to
catch half of what he said.

response 86 of 94:

Apr 1 13:22 UTC 2002

Learn something new every day...

response 88 of 94:

Apr 2 00:40 UTC 2002

Yeah, I had to look it up too.

response 90 of 94:

Apr 14 20:00 UTC 2002

i finally got around to seeing Momento last night. i have to say it's one of
the most brilliant films i've ever seen.

response 92 of 94:

Apr 15 05:17 UTC 2002

84 when i saw Sexy Beast i got into an argument with a dame about the accents.
she argued that as the movie went on the accents thinned out and became more
intelligible because of poor acting. i was exasperated-- first, the movie's
told out of sequence, and so of course not shot in the order shown, typical
of movies; second, I suggested the experience was similar to seeing
Shakespeare, you acclimate to the language as the show goes on. she disagreed
without counter-argument, and christ is that exasperating. opinionated bitch.

90 i liked it, but not generous enough to give it a "brilliant". as
entertainments go, though, it was top shelf.

response 94 of 94:

Apr 15 11:44 UTC 2002

We saw Frailty over the weekend.  A really, really dark movie.  There 
might've been three daylight scenes in the whole thing.  It consisted 
of 95% setup and 5% punchline.  Directed by Bill Paxton, who can't have 
expected to attract much box office with it.  C+ for good intentions.