Bring Me A Bucket - Rant

What is with Countdown to the Most Inspiring Movie of All Time (Sun 7 830P) followed by an actual screening of One of the Most Inspiring Films of All Time (Sun 7 1120P) ? The Countdown too “includes commentary from many of Hollywood’s most celebrated actors and filmmakers, including …” wait for it, “Jessica Alba.” Jessica Alba ? Plucked from obscurity for her round breasts and blonde hair in Sin City, I would hardly put her quite alongside other Countdown alumni like Steven Spielberg, Jane Fonda or Ben Kingsley.
What lazy programming channel 7 (and 9) are feeding us these days. They have their brand new “20 to 1” equivalent nostalgia show, Good as Gold, commencing before the Countdown counts down (with the promise by the show’s executive producer that “we’re using moments that we haven’t seen for a while that we’d like to see again but with each show we’ve tried to find stuff that hasn’t been rehashed over and over again.” Oh goody.) Small production costs, no sets, one host and lots of air time filled up with pap from straight out of the archives.
And as to the Countdown ? I hate to break it to you (and if you really do want to watch then look away now) but this is a cut & paste from the CBS television event in June (at least it was this years). The AFI (American Film Institute) have been pumping out the best 100 whatever each year for 10 years and all we see is the same 100 films placed in slightly different orders (best comedies, best quotes, best ever yadda yadda) and the latest, the Most Inspiring. It’s A Wonderful Life topped the list, closely followed by To Kill A Mockingbird and Schindler’s List. Talk about nostalgic crap. There have been no movies worth getting more excited about since 1946 ? What are we, stoopid ? Thank God for 9/11 it seems. We can justify the “safe at home,” “happy memories in the past” homilies now that international terrorism is a reality in our lives. Most folks under the age of 40 aren’t going to put up with this crock and they will continue to laugh at their elderly relatives in exactly the same way that the generation before were brushed off as being out of touch. I suppose it is a surety that we will reach that intransigence in years to come too but hopefully not too soon. John Howard can’t be PM forever, can he ?