So as most of you know, I am no longer with “The Movie Blog” and my new gig is as the Senior Editor for AMC Entertainment’s “Script-To-Screen”. It’s a great site and a great company to work for.

Anyway, me and the S-T-S crew just did our video running down the best films of the decade and I thought I’d share it here:

I really liked this movie:

Ok, if you saw my review of “Avatar” you know I loved it. But just because I love a movie doesn’t mean I can’t call it on some of its weak points… like the fact that it felt like a Dances With Wolves rip off.

Some people flatly deny this. To them I ask this question:

What movie am i descripbing here:

“A soldier for a stronger culture goes to observe a primitive culture. The stronger culture has plans for the primative cultures land.

The soldier eventually changes sides and decides to fight along side of the more primative culture against his own people because he feels it’s the right thing to do”

So is the movie I just described “Dances With Wolves” or “Avatar”. If you say “both”, then you’ve just proved my point.

Got out to see a midnight IMAX screening of Avatar last night. The place wasn’t sold out… which surprised me… but I guess that’s not to surprising considering the movie is 2 hours 40 minutes long on a work night, which meant we didn’t get out of the theater until almost 3am.

Still… GREAT movie. Here’s my review:

I had a strange conversation with someone today that’s left me scratching my head a little. Without all the boring details, here’s how it went…

I mentioned that physical attraction is a significant thing when one is considering pursuing another person. I didn’t say that was a good or a bad thing… just that if there is going to be a connection between two people at least SOME sort of physical attraction at some level has to exist.

The person I was talking to insisted that made me a shallow person and proceeded to get quite upset with me.

Once again, I didn’t say that’s how it SHOULD be… I merely pointed out that it was a fact. But to this person… just stating that made me a shallow person.

So what gives? Is some sort of physical attraction important or not?

Whhheeee… the Golden Globe Awards are coming! So obviously I’ll be counting down the days until the event right?? Well… actually.. no I won’t be. Not even for a minute. To me, the Golden Globes are nothing. Actually they’re less than nothing. I have no idea why they are as “big” as they are, but they certainly shouldn’t be.

I didn’t always feel this way. I actually used to like the Golden Globes. But the more I watched them, and the more I learned and understood how they worked, I just lost more and more interest. Now my interest level in the “Second biggest Hollywood Awards” is less than zero. And there are 2 important reasons why.

1) The “Best Comedy or Musical” category. Ok, now I know this will seem a bit lame (and to be honest, I think it’s a bit lame too). I used to like the idea of a separate category… but what the hell do “Musicals” and “Comedies” have to do with each other??? Why not make another category and call it best “Snuff Films and Short Animated”. It make no freaking sense. What on earth do “NINE” and “THE HANGOVER” have in common? Explain to me how they belong in the same category.

For example… when Lost In Translation won the Award the other year for “Best Musical or Comedy” the Golden Globes completely turned me off. For those of you who have seen it, you know Lost in Translation was neither a comedy nor a musical. So what the hell??? My impression was they just wanted the biggest movies to get the biggest buzz to draw attention to themselves (The Golden Globes and their organization “The Hollywood Foreign Press”). Which leads us into…

2) The Hollywood Foreign Press is the organization that runs and votes for the Golden Globes. Who is the Hollywood Foreign Press? Well (and I’m really simplifying this) basically they’re film critics who live in L.A. and work for non-US media outlets. That’s it. And how many people are in the Hollywood Foreign Press that vote? 1000? Nope. 500? Nope. There are only 92 voting members. That’s it.

So basically, the Golden Globes are the awards given out by 92 film critics who don’t work for US companies. Whhhheeeeeee. Who the hell cares?

At least the Oscars are voted on by over 6500 people who all work in the movie industry. Writers, Directors, Animators, Actors, ect. ect. ect. With over 6500 people voting, any biases or unfair advantages of “who knows who” is limited because the base is so much larger (although it’s still a problem).

So to me, The Golden Globes are a huge non-issue. 92 film critics voting for their favorites movies. Who cares? Although I will admit in recent years the show itself is better to watch than the Oscars… but still.

Back on July 24th 2003… about 6 and a half years ago… I started “The Movie Blog” and in doing so (along with many others) helped create and shape the film blogging community that we have out there today.

I was the very first person to establish a regular podcast for movie sites (now just about every film site has a podcast), won awards, appeared in just about every media outlet, and was given the chance to do a lot of cool things.

But as Star Trek: The Next Generation said on their series finale, “all good things must come to an end”.

With those words, I announce that my time with “The Movie Blog” has come to an end as of the end of this month.

First of all I have to say the current ownership of “The Movie Blog” has been FANTASTIC. Very supportive. Very enthusiastic. In general, just couldn’t be more of a pleasure to work for and work with. I will really miss working with them on this level.

Secondly, I have to give a big shout out to all those many many people who have helped “The Movie Blog” be the site that it was. Rodney Brazeau, who has been doing much of the posting the last few months, has been an off and on contributor ever since the site started. You can continue to follow Rodney on his new film site (It’s not that new actually) www.TheStub.ca. It’s a wonderful site where Rodney’s film insight will continue to be be published. You should all check it out daily.

Doug Nagy gave the sight incredible personality for the years he was a part of the site. He worked along side of me on the Podcast and was a huge part of why we won the inaugural “Podcast of the Year” award. Doug continues to be a stand up comedian and you can follow him online at DougNagy.com.

Richard Brunton brought a wonderful writing style to the site and runs his own online film site called FilmStalker.Com

Todd Brown was one of the first contributing writers to the site and now runs the incredible TwitchFilm.Net

From Pia, Dan, Ashley, Sharon, Serena… the list goes on and on.

There are just too many people to list individually, but to all of them I owe a HUGE debt of thanks.

Most of all… thank you to all “The Movie Blog” readers. Many of you have been with me and the site from nearly the beginning, and I can’t express my gratitude to you enough.

You will still be able to find me writing about movies as the Editor at the new AMC Entertainment movie news blog that you can find here:
www.amcentertainment.com

I’m also going to start posting again at my personal blog over at www.campea.wordpress.com

Chapters end, and chapters begin.

Thank you again.

~John

There are many many many things I enjoy about hanging out here in Los Angeles. The weather is simply amazing. Being a movie guy there is no better place on earth to be than right here. Culturally there are endless things to do and see and on top of all that I’ve made some great friends here.

However… Christmas time just doesn’t feel right without 2 important things. Family and SNOW!!!! Family is obvious… but man… without snow on the ground it just doesn’t feel like the season to me. So later next week I’m going to hop on a plane and head back to Hamilton Ontario for a couple of weeks to enjoy Christmas. Christmas with the family… and Christmas with snow!

A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, “What does love mean?”

The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined. See what you think:

“When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn’t bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That’s love.”

- Rebecca – age 8

I can across this one today… laughed my fool head off:

“A blonde suspects her boyfriend of cheating on her, so she goes out and buys a gun. She goes to his apartment unexpectedly and when she opens the door she finds him in the arms of a redhead. Well, the blonde is really angry. She opens her purse to take out the gun, and as she does so, she is overcome with grief. She takes the gun and puts it to her head. The boyfriend yells, ‘No, honey, don’t do it!!!’ The blonde replies, ‘Shut up, you’re next!’”