When you make it big in the entertainment industry you can either be a singer or an actor, I wanna make a law saying that once you’ve picked one you can’t do the other without first proving you have the actual talent to do it.
Hannah Montana is a teen sensation, she’s got screaming fangirls all over the nation... and she can’t act for crap. Sit through one of her shows and you’ll realise why there’s a laugh track, cos it’s the only way to let people know there’s a joke somewhere in what you said. You know you can’t act when Gilbert Gottfried is the least annoying element of an episode. Now don’t get me wrong, I know she can sing. I may not like her style of music but I’m not going to deny the woman can sing... she just should stick to it rather than trying to earn her SAG card while she’s at it.
Then there’s the Jonas Brothers, 3 brothers with the same name, same haircut and I’m pretty sure the same acting coach. A massive pile of steaming crap. I don’t even know if they can sing, I didn’t hear anything during the one episode I sat through because I was too busy trying to stab my eye’s out with a shrimp fork to make the pain stop. If you can’t act you shouldn’t and I really wish someone had told the Jonas’s that before they infected my eye’s with their attempt to be actors.
Now I know what you might be thinking, these are teenager shows and therefore they don’t have to be good as long as they appeal to kids. Well mysterious debating partner you’re absolutely right, they don’t have to be good actors but man it’d be nice if they were. It’s a general rule of thumb that when a singer act’s in a movie more often than not they’ll suck. Look at Glitter if you need more proof.
Now this isn’t to say that singers can’t act in musicals, hell I applaud those that do because then they’re using their actual talent and distracting me from the pain of watching them act. I would happily pay money to see someone like Kelly Clarkson in a musical just don’t expect me to praise her on her acting.
And don’t think I’m saying that ALL singers can’t act, there are some notable exceptions. Cher won a freaking Oscar for her role in Moonstruck in 1988 so yes she can act. Meatloaf actually refused to sing in any movie after Rocky Horror just to show that he could act, only singing for his cameo appearance in Tenacious D. Justin Timberlake was in Shrek 3 and Southland Tales and was really good in both roles.
There are certainly people who are versatile and can do both, but these people are the minority and just because you can do one doesn’t mean you get to try and do the other automatically. First prove you have the talent then give it a shot.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
American Idiot: Take 2
Remakes, rehashings, retellings, redoings.
I have had it up to the hind teeth with America's needless retelling of stories that were told perfectly well the first time. Type in Frankenstein into a IMDB search and you will come up with 16 movies with the title alone, all of them retelling Mary Shelly's original story.
Now I'm not saying I object to all remakes, provided they add something. The Producers was a fantastic little film back in the 60's that was perfect in terms of comedy and story telling, show it to someone today and it will still get a laugh. When they remade it they added musical numbers and made an entirely different movie, characters were taken out and sub plot's put in. I can live with that and I know a lot of people can do because it was a decent retelling and it added something to make it worthwhile.
Psycho however was a gripping movie done by Hitchcock, it was brilliantly made and shot and after the movie ended there didn't need to be any more... until the box office returns came in. What followed was threee pointless sequels and a shot-for-shot remake of the original. Nothing added, nothing gained, what's the fricking point?
Then there's America's fascination with taking shows that worked perfectly when aired overseas and so they insist there be a US version. Kath & Kim was a worldwide success, one of Australia's most beloved programs and one of the few shows we were able to send around the world and have them love. Then America came along, took out all the good parts and vomited out something that was nothing like Kath & Kim and it died in seconds. Then there's Little Britain which was a great little English comedy that again had huge appeal worldwide, but apparently that's not enough. Little Britain USA was born and while it had the same writers and the same actors in it there was something that just felt needless about it. It didn't need to go over to the US, it's called Little BRITAIN and so should be set in Britain. Seems like logic to me. Now there's rumors going around about the US doing their take on Torchwood, a great little BBC series that is like a more cool version of Doctor Who. Why? Why the hell is a US take on a great british tale needed or even wanted.
Now I understand sometimes when the US makes remakes of films that are 30 years old. The latest Friday The 13th remake, while oddly pointless and in my opinion stupid, made some kind of sense because it'd based on a 30 year old movie. I understand trying to reboot a franchise. The remake problem starts however when you remake a film 3 years later, which is what they're doing with Death At A Funeral which in case you're wondering is a film that failed at the box office. It barely made back it's budget during it's release and yet they're going to make it again.
Pardon me for sounding a little petty but what the fuck? Are we out of original ideas already? Has it gotten to the point where originality is a lost art and we're going to end up remaking movies over and over again, making countless sequels that add nothing to the story just to pad the pockets of a few people? This is one of the reasons why there's piracy in the world, maybe if Hollywood (And I specify them because America is where most of the movies and TV we see nowadays comes from) learned some originality then maybe there'd be less people hitting the torrent sites and grabbing the work for free.
Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but flattery will get you nowhere
I have had it up to the hind teeth with America's needless retelling of stories that were told perfectly well the first time. Type in Frankenstein into a IMDB search and you will come up with 16 movies with the title alone, all of them retelling Mary Shelly's original story.
Now I'm not saying I object to all remakes, provided they add something. The Producers was a fantastic little film back in the 60's that was perfect in terms of comedy and story telling, show it to someone today and it will still get a laugh. When they remade it they added musical numbers and made an entirely different movie, characters were taken out and sub plot's put in. I can live with that and I know a lot of people can do because it was a decent retelling and it added something to make it worthwhile.
Psycho however was a gripping movie done by Hitchcock, it was brilliantly made and shot and after the movie ended there didn't need to be any more... until the box office returns came in. What followed was threee pointless sequels and a shot-for-shot remake of the original. Nothing added, nothing gained, what's the fricking point?
Then there's America's fascination with taking shows that worked perfectly when aired overseas and so they insist there be a US version. Kath & Kim was a worldwide success, one of Australia's most beloved programs and one of the few shows we were able to send around the world and have them love. Then America came along, took out all the good parts and vomited out something that was nothing like Kath & Kim and it died in seconds. Then there's Little Britain which was a great little English comedy that again had huge appeal worldwide, but apparently that's not enough. Little Britain USA was born and while it had the same writers and the same actors in it there was something that just felt needless about it. It didn't need to go over to the US, it's called Little BRITAIN and so should be set in Britain. Seems like logic to me. Now there's rumors going around about the US doing their take on Torchwood, a great little BBC series that is like a more cool version of Doctor Who. Why? Why the hell is a US take on a great british tale needed or even wanted.
Now I understand sometimes when the US makes remakes of films that are 30 years old. The latest Friday The 13th remake, while oddly pointless and in my opinion stupid, made some kind of sense because it'd based on a 30 year old movie. I understand trying to reboot a franchise. The remake problem starts however when you remake a film 3 years later, which is what they're doing with Death At A Funeral which in case you're wondering is a film that failed at the box office. It barely made back it's budget during it's release and yet they're going to make it again.
Pardon me for sounding a little petty but what the fuck? Are we out of original ideas already? Has it gotten to the point where originality is a lost art and we're going to end up remaking movies over and over again, making countless sequels that add nothing to the story just to pad the pockets of a few people? This is one of the reasons why there's piracy in the world, maybe if Hollywood (And I specify them because America is where most of the movies and TV we see nowadays comes from) learned some originality then maybe there'd be less people hitting the torrent sites and grabbing the work for free.
Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but flattery will get you nowhere
Sunday, January 17, 2010
The Purpose Of This Blog
Everyone has an opinion on things, mines just more logical.
That's pretty much the way everyone thinks nowadays anyway, they know best and you know nothing... well I'm that kind of person. I'm not saying I know everything, I don't know how to make a pecan pie and I honestly don't know why someone looked at a pecan and a pie and thought "I wonder what they'd be like together" but I know what's sane.
That's one of the things we seem to have lost as a people, a sense of sanity as a group. We believe that we can say something stupid and when someone calls us on it then they're a bad guy and possibly a baby-raping crack dealer so who do you wanna believe. How about you believe that little voice in the back of your head that says "Oy dickhead, you're about to lose an eye"?
That's pretty much the way everyone thinks nowadays anyway, they know best and you know nothing... well I'm that kind of person. I'm not saying I know everything, I don't know how to make a pecan pie and I honestly don't know why someone looked at a pecan and a pie and thought "I wonder what they'd be like together" but I know what's sane.
That's one of the things we seem to have lost as a people, a sense of sanity as a group. We believe that we can say something stupid and when someone calls us on it then they're a bad guy and possibly a baby-raping crack dealer so who do you wanna believe. How about you believe that little voice in the back of your head that says "Oy dickhead, you're about to lose an eye"?
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