AICN Ridicule Page

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We once roamed the vast forums of Corona Coming Attractions. Some of us had been around from The Before Times, in the Days of Excelsior, while others of us had only recently begun our trek. When our home became filled with much evil, including the villainous Cannot-Post-in-This-Browser and the dreaded Cannot-Log-In, we flounced away most huffily to this new home away from home. We follow the flag of Jubboiter and talk about movies, life, the universe, and everything, often in a most vulgar fashion. All are welcome here, so long as they do not take offense to our particular idiom.
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The Swollen Goiter of God
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Re: AICN Ridicule Page

Post by The Swollen Goiter of God »

It's a shame it's closed for comments. I dubbed this thread the official "Let's Talk about That Other Thread!" thread. Other Talkbackers were receptive to the dubbing. Soon after came the Harry drubbing.
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Re: AICN Ridicule Page

Post by Dalty »

Harry's wife is my new favourite.
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Re: AICN Ridicule Page

Post by Dalty »

So now it appears naughty old Harry got VSA Texas charity funding as well for his show? So more than $128k, longer than it took to make a new Star Wars movie. These shows will be totes amaze!!!
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Re: AICN Ridicule Page

Post by The Swollen Goiter of God »

The Daredevil teaser is everywhere but AICN. People keep pointing out how AICN clearly makes a lot of its money from Amazon and how Amazon and Netflix are competitors.
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Re: AICN Ridicule Page

Post by The Swollen Goiter of God »

Also, it's beginning to look like AICwHK won't be available for people on the web unless they were Kickstarter funders.
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Re: AICN Ridicule Page

Post by Dalty »

I don't subscribe to conspiracy theories, however.............
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Re: AICN Ridicule Page

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Re: AICN Ridicule Page

Post by The Swollen Goiter of God »

I had to check to make sure it wasn't a Legendary Pictures feature.
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Re: AICN Ridicule Page

Post by Dalty »

It clearly wasn't a Nolan. He hates a Nolan.
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Re: AICN Ridicule Page

Post by Mal Shot First »

With that poster, I had to check to make sure it wasn't a Lucasfilm feature.
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Re: AICN Ridicule Page

Post by The Swollen Goiter of God »

So far, there are three reviews for Jupiter Ascending on AICN. All three are positive. The Tomatometer for Jupiter Ascending is currently at 26%. The Metacritic score is 41.

I can't comment on the quality of the movie, but it does seem that AICN is bucking the critical trend with its 100% positive rating. True, they only have three reviews for it (so far) on AICN. True, many would consider the AICN folk who have reviewed it not to be film critics in the traditional sense. True, what might appeal to X audience isn't necessarily the same as what might appeal to some generic notion of the film critic. But still!
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Re: AICN Ridicule Page

Post by Dalty »

It helps if you just dismiss even the slightest notion that any of the "writers" on that site are even on passing terms with word "critic".
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Re: AICN Ridicule Page

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Re: AICN Ridicule Page

Post by The Swollen Goiter of God »

Here's what I posted in response:
Congrats, Harry. I look forward to getting to watch the episode whenever it becomes available.

Will this episode feature the same Danny Boyle interview material you shot back in 2013? Did you have to re-interview any of the old guests? I know you shot interviews with Wes Craven, Danny Boyle, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Campbell, Fede Alvarez, Jane Levy, and Tony Danza before you started the Kickstarter, so I look forward to seeing those. Will there be other interviews to look forward to? If so, are you guys keeping them under wraps/as a surprise?

I'm pretty interested to find out more about how everything played out. I'm also interested in stuff on a technical level. What all was done after the Kickstarter? I'm guessing the set was reassembled and the audience bleachers were installed. I imagine a lot of the time and effort was spent on CG and post-production. Will we be getting any behind-the-scenes looks at any of that? It would be cool to see some pictures/video.

How was shooting with an audience? Will we all get to see a clear, pausable view of the Wall of Thanks? I'm also curious about the phone calls and Skype sessions. Did you chronicle any of that? Could make for some cool behind-the-scenes material in its own right.

Whatever the case, I'm glad the episodes are finally seeing the light of day. I'm sure it'll have both the well-wishers and naysayers talking for a while. I'm also glad you managed the extra episode. I had this idea earlier on that it would be more episodes than it ended up being, but I guess half-hour episodes are a good bit longer than the ones you were doing for Nerdist. Did having the longer episodes change the way you approached things? Since it's PBS, does half-hour mean almost thirty minutes, or does it mean something more like the twenty-two minute commercial broadcast standard?
My digs were of a more subtle nature. We've gotten no assurances that the Wall of Thanks (something featured in a number of Kickstarter rewards) exists, people who paid hundreds and thousands for phone calls and Skype chats still haven't gotten them (as far as I know), there's been no talk whatsoever of a live audience watching a show (this was another thing featured prominently among the Kickstarter rewards), and there's been no indication that they've shot any new interviews since the summer of 2013.

Other people in the comments have hit harder. When Harry says he couldn't talk because he was "muzzled" by the local PBS affiliate, people have pointed out that there was no mention anywhere in the Kickstarter proposal that a potential PBS deal was on the table. It's understandable that backers would feel a little cheated and suspicious. They were given the impression they were paying for a show that would resemble the old show and would appear first in the same place as the old show. They were given the impression they would be able to watch the thing being built from the ground up.

These people backed the show in good faith (well, some of them definitely backed it in bad faith), and as backers, they were led to believe they would be able to have something like a virtual backstage pass. If the deal with the local PBS affiliate made it so that the AICwHK team couldn't honor this, they shouldn't have made the deal with PBS until after the shows were all on-line. It was stated multiple times and in multiple places, pre-local PBS affiliate involvement, that there *would* be updates along the way--and not just for backers. Seems kind of shitty to go back on that.

The AICwHK team shouldn't have used the Kickstarter as a pitch/to show that there was a general interest in getting the show made. Did the local PBS affiliate give them money, too? Did it equal or exceed the amount given by Kickstarter backers? If it did not exceed the Kickstarter amount, should they have even been able to "muzzle" Harry?

On the other hand, it's not like the backers truly managed to make the Kickstarter happen. Tens of thousands were contributed by Harry's celebrity friends in the eleventh hour. There is usually a slight backer uptick toward the very end of a Kickstarter campaign, but almost never one as huge as the one for the AICwHK Kickstarter. I mean, look at the Kicktraq for the thing. That's a huge and suspicious upswing. Kicktraq's prediction software indicated that it would come nowhere close to being funded as late as two days before the end date. (This software is neither smart nor thorough. It basically just divides the amount earned so far by the number of days passed so far. Even so, it's usually a pretty good indicator of whether or not a thing will get funded.)

And how about the dude who paid $1,000 dollars to have his film trailer shown on the show? Will his reward be honored? Will it even matter? He paid for that shit seventeen months ago. Does it even matter, at this point?

Does being "muzzled" mean total radio silence? Is there any reason Harry or the team couldn't have posted something incredibly vague and brief once a month? You know, something like, "Hey, guys! Still hard at work on the show. We have plenty of surprises for you! I'd love to tell you more, but the local PBS affiliate wants us to keep things hush-hush! Can't wait to be able to show you this stuff!"

Instead, we get Harry taking a victory lap and saying, "Well, gotta give all the folks defaming me and making libelous claims a place to tell all you supporters that they were right all along, there is no show... riiiiiight? giggle." I haven't watched the episode yet, but it's my understanding that there is no Wall of Thanks visible anywhere and that no mention is made of Kickstarter backers in the "made possible by" section of the credit roll.
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Re: AICN Ridicule Page

Post by The Swollen Goiter of God »

I've started the first episode of the second season. I'm two-and-a-half minutes in. I had to take a break. Some observations:
  • they just listed a bunch of corporate sponsors
  • no mention was made of any of the Kickstarter contributors (What did that money even go toward, if none of it warranted a mention?)
  • same music score and intro from the Nerdist series (I was hoping they'd at least get rid of that shot of his father's disgusting fingernails.)
  • same set as before (How much money does it cost to reassemble a set?)
  • some stuttering/awkward pausing in the intro (I get that they might want to go with an unscripted feel, but maybe they could try doing a couple takes on occasion. It's painful to watch.)
  • tells us his favorite director is Curtiz, goes on to mispronounce Curtiz's name a dozen times (Maybe he's trying to approximate the pronunciation of his Hungarian birth name?)
All right. Back to it. Only twenty-two-and-a-half more minutes to go.
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Re: AICN Ridicule Page

Post by The Swollen Goiter of God »

Maybe you wanna enjoy this with me. Here you go:



See if you can make it to the end.
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Re: AICN Ridicule Page

Post by The Swollen Goiter of God »

Now Harry is telling me what makes a film geek a film geek.
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Re: AICN Ridicule Page

Post by The Swollen Goiter of God »

There was a really bad cut from the scene where Harry is telling me which directors might be Modern Day's answer to Michael Curtiz to Harry's interview with Danny Boyle. Since Boyle's interview was videophoned in (back in 2013), and since they could have chosen from any number of compositionally sound angles for Harry, it's strange that they would make such a jarring cut. It's also weird that Harry is positioned behind the magic ball. It's like he's talking to the back of Boyle's head.
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Re: AICN Ridicule Page

Post by The Swollen Goiter of God »

Danny's talking about a movie he made two years ago. There's a halfhearted attempt on Harry's part to make it sound like he's just asking about this movie from a couple years ago, but it's clear that they're talking about it like it's newish because it was newish when Boyle originally filmed his spot.

Boyle's a good guest. They keep cutting to Harry smiling and nodding. Looks dumb. There's a bad cut or two where the audio pops. With the kind of money and crew they had, these kinds of things should be smoother.
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Re: AICN Ridicule Page

Post by Mango »

A couple of random thoughts.

I don't think I've ever actually seen Harry before. I'm not a frequenter of his site and knew of him only via reputation and an occasional review. He has a very punchable face.

Can't fault him for loving "Murder, My Sweet" though. I'd likely list that as my favorite noir as well.

The interview was very uncomfortable. Boyle was fun and very energetic but the straight on camera always feels unnerving. I also agree that Harry appears to be looking at the back of Boyle's head, but his facial expression reads as "Please stop moving so I might crack your head open and suck out the delicious cream."
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Re: AICN Ridicule Page

Post by The Swollen Goiter of God »

At 19:49, I learned of the existence of a William Wyler film I'd never heard of: Withering Heights. Must be some sort of softcore sequel to Wuthering Heights.
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Re: AICN Ridicule Page

Post by MPG »

Mango wrote:I don't think I've ever actually seen Harry before. I'm not a frequenter of his site and knew of him only via reputation and an occasional review. He has a very punchable face.
Well, you could say that the face is not his fault (except for the over-eating of course), but he is the prototypical neckbeard, and that very much is his fault. Add to that the terrible new hairdo...

My biggest problem though is that I just can't listen to him speak. He really needs to reduce the usage of the higher registers in his voice. His voice is annoying enough as it is - it doesn't help that his voice keeps going up all the time like he's the "Yes Guy" from the Simpsons.

Watching him reminds me of when the first Lord of the Rings movie was released. I think it was Ian McKellen who said that Gandalf kinda looks like the stereotypical wizard, with the long beard, the pointy hat, etc. But then he pointed out that after all, it was Gandalf who defined that stereotype in the first place, so it's completely ok. When I watch Harry, I feel the same way. I keep thinking: "Wow, he looks, moves, speaks, thinks, acts just like the stereotypically annoying ultra-geek!" but then I realize that he is the one who helped define that stereotype in the first place. He is like the Gandalf of Internet-geekdom. Just not in a good way.
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Re: AICN Ridicule Page

Post by Dalty »

"You shall not pass........ me in the buffet line!"
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Re: AICN Ridicule Page

Post by Dalty »

So in summary - none of the Kickstarter cash in on the screen in the slightest, and it looks like he got additional cash from elsewhere, also not on screen. Plus his interview is one from nearly two years ago, before Kickstarter?

Something smells fishy, and it ain't just Harry.
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Re: AICN Ridicule Page

Post by The Swollen Goiter of God »

In this week's episode of Ain't It Cool, Harry discusses the "insanity of the Oscars" and tells us "why we love the Oscars." He also interviews Austinite and author Ernie Cline. I imagine Harry & Co. are going to do their best to pretend this wasn't shot two years ago. We'll see how well they manage.
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