Sorry Jason. If this was just a Critical Mass Cast episode I would have tried to shut up more. I just had a lot to say … lol.

Sorry

All jokes aside guys it was great to do this simulcast I look forward to MANY MANY more.

Shawn

First off her stage banter is AWFUL, perhaps some of the worst, most kissassy and inane I’ve ever heard. I’ve heard her give annoying interviews before but it took this show to convince me she’s actually… kind of stupid. And yet at the same time her banter was condescending and insincere, the way she “interacted” with the fan in the crowd, ugh.

i like her actual songs, and i wanted to see Gaga be able to let loose and be a rock star, but that is not the case at all with her shows. she is either stuck in a dance routine or immobile chained to a dress not suited to movement. it felt all so very well, contrived obviously, but it just wasnt fun and it robbed all sponteneity out of the show.

as a whole it felt like a PG-13 rated show marketed towards an increasingly G rated audience, and that is really unfortunate. I legitimately thought she had some edge but I dont anymore.

Loved this ep! Ryan again you made me laugh out loud in my cubicle when you gave me a shout out. It is so bizarre to hear your name being spoken on a podcast you’re listening to on your zune. I’m so looking forward to dishing with you guys.

So now on to my thoughts on this ep! I am totally in the Greg club of not liking the child actress of Dakota Fanning. I just found her repetitive and annoying as a child actor. Granted I have not yet seen the Runaways so maybe she’ll surprise me.

I loved your mention of Michael Shannon and his appearance in Revolutionary Road. He was amazing in that role! Absolutely caustic and powerful. Fantastic performance.

You guys mentioned how during your viewing of Chloe how the audience laughed at inappropriate moments. I had a similar experience while working on Mary Stuart. There was a rape scene in the play and for the first two weeks almost every audience laughed at it. Now I had seen this scene a million times but even still it made me cringe and it scared me that the audience would laugh at this because it wasn’t funny.

I learned a couple of things from this the first being that often when an audience is uncomfortable with what they are viewing they laugh because it’s an easy way to distance themselves from what they are watching. The second thing is that sometimes it’s the actor’s performance or tone that is evoking the laughter. In the case of this place the actor’s tone was a big part of it. In the third week the actor playing the ‘rapist’ changed his tone and it killed some of the laughter the scene would get. In fact his tone became much more menacing and it made me even more squirmy when that scene would start. It never killed the laughter completely but it certainly curbed a fair bit of it.

I saw Alice in Wonderland and I wasn’t that impressed. I wouldn’t bother with the 3D it was just not that impressive. Avatar had effective 3D but Alice didn’t in my estimation. Speaking of 3D I’m starting to think it’s overrated because a good many film companies aren’t shooting in 3D but then changing the movies to 3D last minute. This is probably the worst use of 3D as it’s just a blatant money grab and the viewer really doesn’t get much for it.

An example is that I just saw Clash of the Titans last week and it was a movie that wasn’t shot in 3D but converted later. It really wouldn’t be a movie I would want to see in 3D because it wasn’t designed to be presented in 3D which would mean the 3D effect wouldn’t be impactful. It’s different when the 3D visuals are planned in advance and designed to give the audience a real experience but when the movie was never meant to be viewed that way and you add 3D as some throwaway add-on it’s just lame and you’re wasting your money to see it.

Back to Alice though I thought the story was decent I just wasn’t impressed with the 3D. I myself prefer the classic story to Burton’s sequel.

If you want to see a really good version of Alice look up the 1985 TV version with Natalie Gregory. It was a musical version and it has tons of old school classic hollywood actors in it like Red Buttons, Sherman Hemsley, Shelley Winters, Sammy Davis Jr, Martha Raye, Telly Savalas, Sid Caesar, Ringo Starr, Ernest Borgnine, Beau Bridges, Lloyd Bridges, Carol Channing, Merv Griffin, Harvey Korman… you get the idea. The effects are probably cheesy now but I still think it’s a fantastic adaptation. It’s both Alice in Wonderland and Alice through the looking glass. It’s pretty long though it was aired over two nights.

Thank you so much for the shout out by the way. It really brought a huge smile to my face!

Also, I have to say thank you thank you thank you for playing the Brandi Carlisle songs. “The Story” is such a beautiful, haunting song, and I had not heard it before.

They rarely recognize the work of the ones that design for modern time periods. She was trying to say that she didn’t need to be recognized for her work anymore and that the Academy should start looking at the work of costume designers in movies other than period pieces.

I also was shocked at the White Ribbon not winning. Now to be fair I haven’t seen it but I have heard about it EVERYWHERE. I did ask my co-worker Chris, who attends the film festival every year, about The Secret In Their Eyes and he saw it and he saw the White Ribbon and his opinion was that the Secret in their eyes was superior. He’s a big film aficionado so I usually trust his opinion.

I attended an Oscar party and I got second in the Oscar pool. So I didn’t do too badly with my picks. I was much better this year at keeping who I wanted to win separate from who I thought would win.

So thrilled for Kathryn Bigelow. She rocks! So glad we didn’t have to put up with another King of the World speech. I really hated though how she was constantly being spoken of as James Cameron’s ex-wife. As if that is her only defining characteristic. So much for this being the year 2010! Some would have us believe women are still the property of their husbands!

Were you guys irked that Farrah Fawcett Or Bea Arthur wasn’t in the Oscar in memoriums?

What I found so interesting about this interview was that he mentioned that he became a father very late in life (69) and The Road was essentially a love letter to his son.

According to Wikipedia he has a son from a previous relationship but I suppose becoming a father again so late in life would mean that your view of fatherhood would be very different than when you’re in your 20s or 30s.

I keep looking for Marina’s north american dates but, alas, only a couple in the US at this point.

by the way, we tried to put MP3′s up in addition to the M4A files, but it seems to cause wordpress to spontaneously combust (or at least messes up our itunes feed in a big way). hopefully this M4A file worked for you?

aldo digging Marina… if you like her I will recommend Florence and the Machine as well as Bat for Lashes. Florence is coming to Toronto in April and I cant wait:

F&TM: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQZhN65vq9E

Bat for Lashes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00ZHah-c0hQ

Star Trek – LOVED IT! I am not a hard-core trekkie. Never cared much for original trek and only really watched Next Generation. I have to say I love the brilliant way they wrote themselves a free ticket to write a whole new Star Trek. Let’s be honest – the Star Trek franchise has pretty much written themselves into a corner. They were so bogged down in their own lore and backstory that it really left almost no fresh choices story-wise. This new Trek ensures many new and exciting story choices in the future.

Michael Jackson couldn’t care less. I mean it’s sad that he died in such an untimely way but I was never a huge fan.

Balloon boy – didn’t even know what this was about when I caught it on the news. Tuned it out completely.

Susan Boyle – people love the story of the underdog. If regular people can find a fairy tale then the public is all over it. She is very talented and kudos to her for not giving up on her dream. It was sad how the crazy media machine surrounding her almost swallowed her up and threatened her sanity.

Adam Lambert and American Idol – I have to say while I once enjoyed American Idol I cannot even start watching it till all the audition rounds are done. For the most part they don’t even bother showing the good singers anymore. It’s become so formulaic and contrived I cannot endure how these people revel in their own self-importance. I really get annoyed by their textbook way of trying to manipulate people’s emotions with all these contestants hard luck stories. It seriously reminds me of that movie with Hugh Grant and Mandy Moore…what was that called again?

As for Adam Lambert, the guy is clearly talented however I don’t think he needs to use the shock tactics to win fans. His music and talent speaks for itself. That aside I don’t think that what he did on the American Music awards was appalling since he’s hardly the first person to do stuff like that – hello Madonna!

Obama – He is a great president. He has done a lot for the country and I think that people won’t be able to truly grasp what he has accomplished till his term is done. When he was inaugurated they showed it all on the big screen in the board room. I still remember my favourite line from his speech “Your people will judge you on what you build and not what you destroy.” Take that W!

Keep up the great work boys!

Have to agree with you on New Moon. To be fair to the Chris Weitz though he had NOTHING to work with. If you think the movie was boring then you don’t want to read the book.

Chris Weitz actually did an amazing job pulling out the only exciting parts of the book and skipping the extraneous filler. There is A LOT of filler. The book is long, drawn out and boring. There is hardly any action and as far as story structure goes it severely lacks it. So Chris Weitz cannot really be blamed for the lack of decent original material.

The only reason this movie got made is because it’s a love letter to 13 year old girls. Stephanie Meyer captures exactly what it’s like when you’re a moody teenager and you lose your very first boyfriend who you believed to be the love of your life. That is the only reason this movie makes money. As a writer Stephanie Meyer isn’t so hot.