I tell you this right now:

Joss had better beat Miranda July and her unbearably pretentious Me and You and Everyone We Know for Best Breakthrough Achievement in Filmmaking, and Summer had better best Naomi Watts' terrible turn in King Kong for Best Performance by a Female Lead.

That is all.

UnpluggedCrazy | January 25, 19:16 CET

:) So let it be done...

zeitgeist | January 25, 20:21 CET

Naomi Watts terrible in King Kong? I would strongly disagree. She turned in one of the best performances of the year.

And hey, I used to write reviews for this website! They've come quite a long way since I was over there. I don't think I'll be voting though, because too many choices there are far too difficult.

MindPieces | January 25, 20:43 CET

Have heard that quite a bit, haven't seen the flick so I can't comment except to say the previews didn't exactly disabuse me of the notion that that might be true.

ETA - the negative Naomi nods were all from people I spoke to, not critics. How was Adrien Brody?

zeitgeist | January 25, 21:18 CET

Boy, was it just me, or did they do their best to hide the link to actually register? But hey, we're persistent.

jclemens | January 25, 21:23 CET

I liked King Kong, and enjoyed all the lead performances: Watts, Brody (although he had relatively little to do), and especially Jack Black. Like many, I thought there were three too many action sequences, and 30 minutes too much movie, but I loved the homagey 30s filmmaking style that Peter Jackson employed, especially in the first third of the flick.

How are the nominations on this site put together, BTW?

SoddingNancyTribe | January 25, 21:57 CET

I liked the whole sensibility of the awards: sometimes, we like a good action sequence. Sometimes, we like to think. And sometimes, we like to do both.

XanFan32 | January 25, 22:02 CET

Hmm - I think we broke the polls!!

I was going through and voting when the polls suddenly became locked and then disappeared. This message has now appeared on the forums.



Prior to this message going on there had been some discussion as to the number of new registered users today and whether they were trying to fluff the vote.

[ edited by Cider on 2006-01-25 20:34 ]

Cider | January 25, 22:32 CET

The awards are now back online

Cider | January 25, 23:54 CET

I voted, but I made sure I voted for other movies, when appropriate. Or I had any knowledge of the movies to make it realistic. I wasn't going to vote on something I had no knowledge of, but I didn't want to be a ballot-stuffer.

XanFan32 | January 26, 00:06 CET

Oh dear. I hope the message about "looking a gift horse in the mouth" wasn't written about undue Serenity vote fluffage.

phlebotinin | January 26, 00:16 CET

phlebotinin - pretty likely that it was, so let this be a reminder - if you go to vote, please vote your conscience and please vote all categories. You don't help anyone by stuffing for Serenity mindlessly. Plus, they have a great site over there that's worth checking out, from the reviews to the podcasts to the forums.

zeitgeist | January 26, 00:21 CET

I voted (yes, jclemens, it was difficult to find how/where to register!). I voted for "Serenity" in all the categories it was in, but also voted in other categories if I had any knowledge of the choices. I would like to have voted for David Newman as composer of the best score, however.

samatwitch | January 26, 00:26 CET

I have voted in as many catagories as I could, there were some I just couldn't vote in as I had either not seen any of the films in that catagory or the one's I had (Star Wars) I did not deem worthy of my vote. I think their main problem was that suddenly the votes for the catagories that have Serenity in went up. They have now accepted that this is (mainly) due to Serenity fan traffic either from this or other sites and not a deliberate attempt to fluff the vote.

Cider | January 26, 00:28 CET

I haven't actually bothered to vote (I'm too lazy), but I like the website. Bookmark-o.

gossi | January 26, 00:59 CET

Re: "fluffing the vote." This seems to be an ongoing and, IMHO, rather ridiculous state of affairs, and one we saw recently with the Spike/Serenity poll fiasco.

People registering at a site simply and specifically to vote in a poll shouldn't be a problem. In fact, the site should be happy to have them. People voting for the same movie in all the categories it appears shouldn't be a problem - they're indicating their preference. People not voting in certain categories because they don't have personal knowledge of those choices shouldn't be a problem. In fact, voting without personal knowledge is the problem, it seems to me.

I simply don't get what is "suspicious" about any of that.

The only problem is where some kind of automated voting or some other mechanism is taking place whereby one individual can cast numerous votes. That is what is meant by "ballot-stuffing," IMO. (Or I suppose a situation where other people are actually prevented from voting for alternatives, or prevented from hearing about the poll - we haven't heard that to be the case here).

Anything else is simply an expression of the desire of a fan, or set of fans, to voice their opinion. If a site offers a poll, it should expect fans to react and vote accordingly. If Serenity (or Spike) draws an unexpectedly large contingent of visitors - well, what of it? Yes, it's gaming to some degree. Public Choice Theory. A small but focused group might get rewards out of proportion to its size against a larger but more loosely organized group. You anticipate and deal with that in the way you set up your voting system. You don't accuse fans of doing what you asked them to do in the first place - vote for their favorites.

/rant

SoddingNancyTribe | January 26, 01:10 CET

I just didn't get why Claire Danes and Anne Hathaway are nominated in the "Breakthrough" category. Haven't they been in a lot of big films before this? If you count foreign language films in this category, then Ziyi Zhang has also been in a lot of big films before, too. Someone like Summer would make a lot more sense under this category! ;-)

billz | January 26, 01:15 CET

Its not breakthrough as in new, its breakthrough as in performance of exceptional quality or particularly rising above what we've come to expect from them.

zeitgeist | January 26, 01:17 CET

I did try to not automatically vote for Serenity everytime it was an option, and I managed not to a couple of times. But when they recognize what a great team Joss and the cast are, well, how can one help but agree? I liked some of the categories as they made me think a bit.

Lioness | January 26, 03:33 CET

Can those of you who managed to register, please share with the class *how*, exactly :)

Seriously, I looked anywhere I could think of on that site, and couldn't find it.

Which Witch | January 28, 05:42 CET

I've not done it myself, but it seems if you try to login using any old username/password, when it fails you get to a login page which has the register option. Don't know if there's another way but that should work :) (The register option is in the top right corner where the login bit was on the original page)

ETA: Of course I could just supply a link.

[ edited by Paul_Rocks on 2006-01-28 17:02 ]

Paul_Rocks | January 28, 19:01 CET

Thanks so much, Paul. Hey, what do you know, you really do rock :)

I actually tried the "bogus username" method, but it didn't work for me - still couldn't find the registration option. Your direct link did work, though, so thanks again.

Which Witch | January 29, 02:01 CET

You're welcome, glad I could help.

Paul_Rocks | January 29, 02:41 CET

Hey all... Old topic, I know, but if you're still looking to register, follow the link bschnell posted, scroll to the bottom, and click on "register if you haven't already".

Actually, I'll give you a direct link... here.

We're on the last week of voting... My guess is Serenity doesn't need much help, but if you want to push for a landslide victory, now's your chance.

P.S.  I'd like to apologize for the unfriendly welcome by some of our (former) staff members to the Browncoats who participated in voting and engaged in conversation. Most of us understand the democratic nature of the Internet, and while movies with strong fan support may have an advantage over other films, all's fair in love, war, and web polls. :) We hope you found SP to be an otherwise fun & inviting place to be.

Thom | February 17, 12:12 CET