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Archives - January 1999
Village January 23, 1999
Movie Reviews: Playing By Heart
This weekend's new releases -- and those being given wider rollouts -- are not likely to shake things up much at what is generally thought to be a weak period at the box office anyway. Getting the most attention because of its impressive cast (including Sean Connery, Gillian Anderson, Dennis Quaid and Gena Rowlands) and the fact that it received a best-film Golden Globe nomination, is the low-budget Playing by Heart, which New York Times critic Stephen Holden describes as "a likably sappy romantic comedy" and "a highly buffed soap opera seasoned with bon mots." Too many "mots" for several critics, however. Washington Post critic Rita Kempley's review of the movie is headed: "Say No More: Chatters of the Heart." And Andy Seiler in USA Today comments: "At times, the film resembles an endless audition in which a series of actors do monologues." But Rod Dreher in the New York Post calls it an "observant and brilliantly acted" film. "The calm, constant rhythm of the film mesmerizes," he adds.
Copyright 1998, Studio Briefing
The Daily Telegraph January 23, 1999
In the Thirteen section was the following. It's not an X-Files story but a good example of how the TV show has infiltrated the "real world".
Bureaucratic conspiracy or pure coincidence?
A few scribes at State Parliament feel they could well be on the end of an X-Files stitch-up.
Thirteen hears notices for jury duty have been arriving at the Macquarie St press gallery faster than you can say "State election".
The idea is, taking journos out to do civic duty (we don't already?) means fewer to watch those wily pollies when it matters most.
The Sunday Telegraph January 17, 1999
In the TV Guide liftout was a story under the heading Files Closed.
As this was a spoiler it was added after the episodes screened in Australia.
You won't see them in Australia until later this year but X-Files episodes screening in the US next month are expected to drop some bombshells.
Insiders claim some of the deliberate ambiguities in the series will be cleared up and some loose ends about aliens and government conspiracies tied up.
One loose end - Scully's apaprent scepticism in the face of overwhelming evidence - will be tied up once and for all. She will become a "True Believer".
There was also a story on First Wave, created by former X-Files writer Chris Brancato.
The Daily Telegraph Thursday, January 14, 1999
In the Thirteen section was a story titled X-Files star abducted by ad men
X-Files star and skinny sex symbol David Duchovny is being hunted for an exclusive role on Australian television.
Duchovny's people in the US have been approached to make a series of ads for Coca-Cola in Australia.
But instead of Coke, Duchovny would be pushing the company's lemon-flavoured drink Lift which doesn't sell in the United States.
Thirteen's spies report the ad campaign would rely heavily on Duchovny's X-Files character Agent Fox Mulder to sell the fizzy stuff.
According to spies in Hollywood, Duchovny will not travel to Australia to create the campaign.
But there are whispers that parts of the ads will call for an "action man" performance against some rugged backdrops, perhaps insinuating he travelled Down Under for the shoot.
Ah, the reality of Hollywood.
The Sunday Telegraph, January 10, 1999
The Benelong column on the back page included a story The truth is in the mail with a photograph of Mulder and Scully looking to the heavens.
Channel Ten and Foxtel's copyright lawyers would be kept busy for a year if they pursued what could be the copyright case of the century.
Benelong hears a brisk trade is active in Sydney, but instead of the usual suspects - drugs or alcohol - this trade is in X-Files episodes.
Or, more specifically, just-aired episodes of the X-Files posted from the US, which Australian Fans are lapping up at top speed.
The new series, which doesn't make its TV debut here until February, began to air in the US last September *. Since then, tapes have been sneaking past Customs at an alarming rate.
The old boundary of incompatible formats (we use PAL, while the US uses NTSC) doesn't matter these days, as mots PAL VCRs come with "NTSC playback" capability.
"We just have to grin and bear it," a Fox source told Benelong.
* actually November
The Sunday Telegraph, January 3, 1999
The liftout TV Guide magazine included a website in the TV Net section http://www.xfmma.com/xfmma/video/movie/index.html/
X-Files junkies should go here to check out some footage which graced he cutting room floor. Scenes such as the "almost kiss" are here and ready for download in MOV format. Most are theatrical trailers and there is some blooper footage, so check it out. When you're done, have a look at the entire site. ****
also in the same newspaper ...
The At Home Science page featured a story titled Zapping out X-File logic
The X-Files is not a documentary, apparently. In his latest book, Beyond Star Trek, physicist Lawence Krauss points out a few logical inconsistencies in the popular TV program.
Consider the scene where Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) are watching bright disk-shaped-objects zapping around the skies. It transpires that the UFOs are alien spacecraft being flown by some crack air force pilots.
And the Earthlings are giving the saucers a bit of a thrashing: zapping back and forwards across the sky at astonomical speeds and dropping the odd right-angled turn in mid-air. Couldn't happen, says Krauss.
He calculates that, under reasonable assumption, a ninety degree turn would induce a G-force of at least 700. A human can survive about 8 Gs, and that's only for a short time. A G-force almost 100 times greater would be like having 35 one-tonne trucks dropped into your lap at once.
The story goes on to mention Independence Day and Phenomenon.
The X-Files is © 20th Century Fox
The Sun-Herald and TV Now are both © John Fairfax Publications Pty Limited
The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph and TV Guide are all © Nationwide News Pty Ltd
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