Survivor: The Amazon

I’m curious if I’m the only one who thinks that the all female tribe on the latest version of Survivor is going to quickly devolve into a raging bitchfest. The claws are obviously coming out quickly around camp estrogen. And what exactly was the deal with the granola bar they found in the camp? I get the point of disposing of it. But the fact that none of them would pick it up and instead chose to move it around impaled on the tip of a machete was as bizarre as you can get on network TV. Hey ladies, it wasn’t a big mean spider, it was processed food. I doubt it was going to bite you. I’m not even going to bother to get into JoAnna (the wacky one who doesn’t like the immunity idol) going off on Christy (the deaf one) after Christy states the obvious – that JoAnna is a wackjob. OK, she didn’t put it in quite that way, but she should have.

And just so I don’t come off as being completely sexist here, the guys aren’t all that great either. Sure these bozos did manage to get a shelter up, but these arrogant clowns are still in desperate need of being knocked down a few pegs, even after getting their pathetic butts whipped by the women last week.

Oh yeah, and kudos to CBS for their promo of next week’s episode. That’s right kids; the women decide to get together in the river and get naked. Sure, they are washing, but who really cares if the purpose of the nudity is legitimate or not? And of course the network features prominent shots of ample breasts, with the good parts censored for TV. Note that it was just the hot ones who were getting the close-ups. It’s nice to see that someone at the network is finally acknowledging the fact that many of their contestants are selected based on looks rather than any real ability they might have to compete in this game. Or maybe they are just so thrilled that they still have Jenna and Heidi (the particularly attractive ones who I’m sure will be getting calls from Playboy any day now) in the game at this point and are going to capitalize off of their presence for as long as they can. Hmm, I wonder if a Survivor: Uncensored DVD might not be arriving soon at a video store near you.

Oscar Nominations

Am I the only one who thinks that more than 5 people going to see a film in a theater seems to disqualify it from Oscar contention? Sure, commercially successful films get a few token nominations, but for the most part Oscar nominations always seem to be dominated by films that normal people have never even heard of, let alone gone to see. That having been said, why is the Oscar broadcast so darn popular? If you haven’t seen any of these movies, and the box office numbers make it pretty clear that nobody has, why watch a 4-hour broadcast honoring movies that you didn’t care enough to buy a ticket for? It’s a question I ask myself every year as I sit watching the awards being handed out to movies that I have never seen. Maybe if we all stopped tuning in to the broadcast somebody might get the message that it may be time to start honoring more mainstream movies.

Boston Public

It was another brilliant move by David E. Kelley on this week’s episode of Boston Public. Apparently Kelley has decided to write out series semi-regular Michelle Monaghan, who played one of the teacher’s at his fictional Boston High School. Wow Dave, another brilliant move. Monaghan was one of the few interesting characters left on that show. Unless Kelley brightens up quickly, Boston Public is soon going to become as unwatchable as The Practice. Here’s hoping Monaghan resurfaces quickly on a show with a more talented writing staff.

But all is not lost, at least Kelley has gone a couple of weeks without indulging in his little obsession of trashing the Catholic Church, I guess he feels he can get out all of his Catholic hatred on The Practice. I’m not sure what his issues are, but he really should look into getting some help.

News Coverage

I’m straying a little off the world on entertainment with this post. I’ve been watching the news coverage of potential terrorist threats that may be occurring in the coming days. I keep seeing all this coverage of potential targets and it puzzles me a little bit. Am I the only one out there that thinks that the terrorists watch the news? Doesn’t it make sense that a terrorist watching these news broadcasts may target a different location after seeing that their primary target is now being broadcast to the world? Wouldn’t it make more sense for the government to stop sharing this information with the media? It may just make it easier to catch some of these guys in the act. It certainly is preferable to having them target an alternate location that nobody is expecting. Sure, maybe the information that government is leaking to the press is purposely incorrect and designed to screw up terrorist plots, but after the way government agencies screwed up on 9/11, I have my doubts.

More Trailer Rants

Here’s my lukewarm thanks to Columbia for making the trailer to Bad Boys II in an easy-to-download zip format. It’s nice to see that at least one Hollywood studio is trying to make life easier for the fans. Sadly, even when Hollywood tries to be more fan-friendly, they screw it up. The QuickTime movie that you download has a nasty little piece of code in it that launches your web browser at the end of the trailer and directs you to the Bad Boys website whether you want to go or not. I’m sure the suits at the studio would claim that they did this for the convenience of fans. I, on the other hand, have a different take. If you ask me, this isn’t a hell of a lot different than the tactics used by those who embed viruses in multimedia files. Good going Columbia, you’ve graduated to the ranks of the script kiddies.

While Columbia at least makes a half-assed effort, Warner Brothers doesn’t even attempt to be as fan-friendly. Two of their latest trailer releases, Gods And Generals (not like anybody would care if they saw that trailer anyway) and Terminator 3 aren’t available to be saved for later viewing off-line. What’s worse, if you want to see the full screen version of the T3 trailer, you will have to go through the hassle of upgrading to QuickTime 6. Get a clue Warner, making life so difficult for those that want to see what are essentially commercials for your movies is not a smart business plan. I’ve said this before, and I’m sure I will still be saying it years from now, but…

I get that Hollywood is a little freaked about the prospect of illegal distribution of entire movies on the internet, but stopping the distribution of trailers is just insane. Marketing 101 – the more people that see these trailers, the more people that are likely going to go see the movie. Conversely, make movie fans jump through hoops to see the trailers, and they are likely going to say screw it, and not bother. A sentiment which they may still have in their heads when it comes time to plunk down their cash to see the movie in a theater. The execs at Warner might want to take a cue from their sister company New Line, which made the trailers for the latest Lord Of The Rings movie easily accessible to fans, including giving them the option of downloading a zip file. If you ask me, that gesture probably didn’t hurt The Two Towers when it raked in truckloads of cash.

As a side note, Paramount made it damn difficult to download the full screen version of the Star Trek: Nemesis trailer and that movie could end up being the biggest bomb of the Star Trek series. Sure, the movie stunk up the theater, but had Paramount been slightly less draconian with fans, they may have been more inclined to support the movie. Maybe not, but I know I’m less inclined to shell out money for a movie when I’ve been treated poorly by those making it.