Category Archives: Cinema

Talk about slack and lazy!

Posted on March 20, 2007 by Stephen Dawson

A couple of people have emailed me, politely I’m happy to report, wondering whether I’m ever again going to add something to this blog. For the past, ugghh!, four months I haven’t felt inspired enough to add anything new here. … Continue reading →

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A proper understanding of Starship Troopers

Posted on August 11, 2005 by Stephen Dawson

Robert Heinlein’s 1958 novel Starship Troopers is totally misunderstood by many, not least the makers of the 1997 movie of the same name. Take the issue of race, for example. The movie features pasty white Casper Van Dien in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema, Rant | Leave a comment

Should you wait for the right DVD?

Posted on March 25, 2005 by Stephen Dawson

I have previously made reference (Frankenstein and Metropolis) to cheap and nasty, and good quality, DVD releases. The other day I bought one of the latter to replace yet another of the former. In this case it was His Girl … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema, Disc details, DVD | Leave a comment

A great review of The Passion of the Christ

Posted on February 7, 2005 by Stephen Dawson

As a professional writer, I can’t help but feel skittish about the world class amateur writing appearing so prolifically in Blogs these days. Take this review of Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ for example. None of the reviews I … Continue reading →

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Accurate timing of videos

Posted on August 17, 2004 by Stephen Dawson

Rod, who runs the excellent The Chopping List, has asked me: I was talking to a friend who has also adopted a censorship watchdog role about VHS running times for movies. To get a duration for a film on tape … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema, How Things Work, Video, Video tape | Leave a comment

Hollywood thinking, planning and financing

Posted on May 3, 2004 by Stephen Dawson

Excellent analyses — a little old (by several months, that is, rather than years) — of the US movie industry, how to estimate whether a movie has made money, and how what is happening now will affect what we’ll see … Continue reading →

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A Passionate Dichotomy

Posted on April 8, 2004 by Stephen Dawson

Regardless of what you may think about Mel Gibson’s movie The Passion of the Christ, it seems to have aroused a passionate response, both from its fans and detractors. One of the many useful things about the Internet Movie Database … Continue reading →

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Is Black and White cinema that good?

Posted on February 25, 2004 by Stephen Dawson

Having just read this Blog entry from the erudite 2Blowhards on the wonder of black and white cinema, I feel rather inadequate. I prefer colour in general, and clearly I haven’t educated myself enough about the mood differences generated by … Continue reading →

Posted in Cinema, Video | Leave a comment

Film ratings, a private alternative

Posted on February 13, 2004 by Stephen Dawson

When I was a student at Sydney University in 1976/77 I heard over the air waves for the very first time the F word. It was broadcast on the student-run low-powered experimental University radio station. And its broadcast was somewhat … Continue reading →

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Movies and DVDs Censored in Australia

Posted on July 23, 2003 by Stephen Dawson

I’ve just added to the DVD Links section on the Blog a link to ‘The Chopping List‘, which contains lots of fascinating information about which movie bits we Australians don’t get to see, thanks to Australian (and sometimes foreign) censors.

Posted in Cinema, DVD | Leave a comment