Intermarkets' Privacy Policy
Support


Donate to Ace of Spades HQ!


Contact
Ace:
aceofspadeshq at gee mail.com
Buck:
buck.throckmorton at protonmail.com
CBD:
cbd at cutjibnewsletter.com
joe mannix:
mannix2024 at proton.me
MisHum:
petmorons at gee mail.com
J.J. Sefton:
sefton at cutjibnewsletter.com


Recent Entries
Absent Friends
Jay Guevara 2025
Jim Sunk New Dawn 2025
Jewells45 2025
Bandersnatch 2024
GnuBreed 2024
Captain Hate 2023
moon_over_vermont 2023
westminsterdogshow 2023
Ann Wilson(Empire1) 2022
Dave In Texas 2022
Jesse in D.C. 2022
OregonMuse 2022
redc1c4 2021
Tami 2021

Chavez the Hugo 2020
Ibguy 2020
Rickl 2019
Joffen 2014
AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published. Contact OrangeEnt for info:
maildrop62 at proton dot me
Cutting The Cord And Email Security
Moron Meet-Ups

TBD





















« The Ace of Spades Effect: Blog Gets Paul Anka an Appearance on American Idol | Main | Breaking: "Mookie" al-Sadr Offers to Retreat from Cities »
May 26, 2004

Reviewers are Douche-Nozzle Jackasses

That's long been my theory, and it's served me well over the years.

Now, I haven't seen Troy yet, and I don't particularly want to. I'm just not interested.

Still, that doesn't mean that dopey, talentless, brainless reviewers should have a free hand at criticizing the film for entirely ludicrous reasons.

Two Braincells presents an enjoyable panning of the critics' pans:

The film isn't called The Iliad for a reason, and that reason is that it's not a direct adaptation of The Iliad. Homer didn't originate the story of the Trojan war. He wrote the best-known versions of two parts of the saga in the Iliad and the Odyssey, but these are not the only source materials. The choice of Paris (i.e., the selection of the most beautiful among Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite and subsequent awarding of Helen) does not appear in the Iliad. Neither does the abduction of Helen. Neither does the Trojan horse. Neither do the deaths of Achilles, nor Paris, nor Agamemnon. Criticisms based on a supposed lack of fidelity to the Iliad would seem to miss the point in this regard.

I know nothing at all about the Iliad, but apparently I know more than critics. I wouldn't presume to comment upon the film's fidelity to the Iliad, having only read the Cliff's Notes in ninth grade. But that makes me smarter than reviewers, it seems.

This is good too:

For those further waxing wroth over the absence of the gods: you've got to be joking. Has it really been so long since Clash of the Titans that you're actually prepared to swear you'd treat the movie seriously if you'd seen Paris being wafted away in the middle of his fight with Menelaus on Aphrodite's cloud?

Note to self: Must begin making Clash of the Titans references.

And, if you've got a hankering to read through the Iliad with a snarky guide, Jamie R. provides a first-rate fisking to Homer.


posted by Ace at 05:31 PM
Comments



This is exactly why I like the Rotten Tomatoes website. Convenient review summaries and compiled ratings so you don't actually have to read the gibberish spewed by the majority of reviewers.

Posted by: Hermit Dave on May 26, 2004 07:04 PM

Since when did movies even bother to follow books that they're named after. Much less ones they're not. I did see the movie, and I have read both the Iliad and the Oddessy. I had no expectation going into the theater that the movie would have more than the same characters and more or less the same or a sub-set of the plot line. It turned out to be a very entertaining re-telling of the most well known part the story, the fall of Troy (hence the name I would suppose), and did it in such a way that gave plausable explainations to things that the people of the time interpreted as being the actions of the gods, but may have been very ordinary occurances. If you like swash-buckling movies, this one is a lot of fun for the buck.

Posted by: Dacotti on May 27, 2004 12:33 AM

Oh, man. Thank you ever so, Ace, for that link to Jamie R's Iliad site. I've loved and read Homer's stuff for years now (at one point many years back I seriously considered a dual major in classics) ... and that's the funniest thing I have read in a long, long time. I'm still twitching with mirth.

Posted by: Dirge on May 27, 2004 10:59 AM

"Menelaus and Aias finally bring the body of Patroclus to safety, now alas measuring some eight foot four,"

That had me laughing out loud, I couldn't stop laughing for several minutes! I can't wait for Book 23. Or A Brief Brief History of Rome, Part Three.
You have to read the whole thing, it took me 2 hours...two hours well spent.

Posted by: Squirrel on May 27, 2004 06:33 PM

Glad you liked Jamie's site. He's a cool guy.

Posted by: ace on May 27, 2004 06:41 PM

Join the Linux community. Linuxwaves.net

Posted by: Stephen on July 5, 2004 05:30 PM
Post a comment
Name:


Email Address:


URL:


Comments:


Remember info?








Now Available!
The Deplorable Gourmet
A Horde-sourced Cookbook
[All profits go to charity]
Top Headlines
CJN podcast 1400 copy.jpg
Podcast: Buck Throckmorton joins us for a wide-ranging discussion about the cultural and business shift away from the insanity of EVs and Climate Religion, his calm perspective on last week's election, Tucker is a toad, and more!
Our Favorite British Couple Exploring True America Experiences Flora-Bama And Sees A Side Of The Deep South Rarely Seen. [dri]
Tucker Carlson claims that it's weird that Ted Cruz is interested in the massacre of Christians by Nigerian Muslims, because he has "no track record of being interested in Christians," then blows off the massacre of Christians by Nigerian Muslims, saying it might or might not be a real concern
Tucker Carlson enjoys using the left-wing tactic of "Tactical Ignorance" to avoid taking positions on topics. Is Hamas really a terrorist organization? Tucker can't say. He hasn't looked into it enough, but "it seems like a political organization to me." Are Muslims slaughtering Christians in Nigeria? Again, Tucker just doesn't know. He hasn't examined the evidence yet. He knows every Palestinian Christian who said he was blocked from visiting holy sites in Bethlehem, but he just hasn't had the time to look into the mass slaughter of Christians in Nigeria that has been going on since (checks watch) 2009. He doesn't know, so he can't offer an opinion. Wouldn't be prudent, you know? Don't rush him! He'll sift through the evidence at some point in the future and render an opinion sometime around 2044.
Of course, if you need an opinion on Jewish Perfidy, he has all the facts at his fingertips and can give you a fully informed opinion pronto. Say, have you ever heard of the USS Liberty incident...?
You'd think that the main issue for Tucker Carlson, who pretends to be so deeply concerned about Palestinian Christians being bullied by Jews in Israel (supposedly), would be the massacre of 185,000 Christians in Nigeria itself. But no, his main problem is that Ted Cruz is talking about it, "who has no track record of being interested in Christians at all." And then he just shrugs as to whether this is even a real issue or not.
Whatever we do we must never "divide the right," huh?
Tucker is attacking Ted Cruz for bringing the issue up because he's acting as an apologist for Jihadism, and he can't cleanly admit that Jihadists are killing any Christians, anywhere. There is no daylight between him and CAIR at this point.
One might conclude that Tucker Carlson himself isn't interested in the plight of Christians -- except as they can be used as a cudgel to attack Jews.
Just gonna ask an Interesting Question myself -- why is it that Tucker Carlson's arguments all track with those shit out by Qatarian propaganda agents and the far left? That if Jews crush an ant underfoot it is worldwide news, but when Muslims slaughter Christians it elicits not even a vigorous shrug?
Garth Merenghi is interviewed by the only man who can fathom his ineffable brilliance -- Garth Merenghi
From the comments:
I once glimpsed Garth in the penumbra betwixt my wake and sleep. He was in my dream, standing afar, not looking my way, nor did he acknowledge me. But I felt seen. And that's when I knew I was a traveler on the right path. I'm glad he's still with us.

Now that's some Merenghian prose.
Garth Merenghi on the writer's craft

Greetings, Traveler. If you still have not experienced Garth Merenghi -- Author, Dream-weaver, Visionary, plus Actor -- the six episodes of his Darkplace are still available on YouTube and supposedly upscaled to HD. (Viewing it now, it doesn't appeared upscaled for shit.)
I think the second episode, "Hell Hath Fury," is the best by a good margin. Try to at least watch through to that one. It's Mereghi's incisive but nuanced take on sexism.
CJN podcast 1400 copy.jpg
Podcast: The elections! NYC, Virginia, New Jersey, Texas, California, and the future prospects of the Republican party...
Update on Scott Adams:
Scott Adams had approval for this cancer drug but they hadn't scheduled him to get it. He was taking a turn for the worse. Trump had told him to call if he needed anything, so he did. Talked to Don Jr (who is in Africa) , then RFK Jr, then Dr Oz. Someone talked to Kaiser and he was scheduled. Shouldn't have needed it but he did and he says it saved his life.
Posted by: Notsothoreau
Funny retro kid costumes, thanks to SMH
Good to see people honoring Lamont the Big Dummy
Four hours of retro Halloween commercials and specials
The first short is the original 1996 appearance of "Sam," the dangerous undead trick-or-treater from Trick r' Treat.
On Wednesday, we'll see the "Beaver Super-Moon." Which sounds hot.
CJN podcast 1400 copy.jpg
Podcast: Historian and Pundit Robert Spencer joins us for a wide-ranging discussion about the Islamists in our midst: Mamdani in NYC, all across Europe, and others.
Full Episode: The Hardy Boys (and Nancy Drew) Meet Dracula
I don't remember this show, except for remembering that Nancy Drew was hot and the opening credits were foreboding and exicting
Schmoll: 53% of New Jersey likely voters say their neighbors are voting for Ciattarelli, while 47% say the cheater/grifter Mikie Sherrill
The "who do you think your neighbors are voting for" question is designed to avoid the Shy Tory problem, wherein conservative people lie to schmollsters because they don't want to go on record with a likely left-winger telling them who they're really voting for. So instead the question is who do you think your neighbors are voting for, so people can talk about who they themselves support without actually having to admit it to a left-wing rando stranger recording their answers on the phone.
Recent Comments
Max Power: "If the world was essentially destroyed at some poi ..."

Aetius451AD work phone: "Posted by: Kindltot - I will put Ukraine first no ..."

Boss Moss: "I watched 5 seasons of Slow Horses in three days. ..."

Axeman: "My #1 central "conspiracy theory" is that the elit ..."

Don Black: ">The only conspiracy theory I believe is that Frui ..."

Ol' Codger: "I have 2 vehicles with the dimmer on the floor. ..."

the way I see it: "The Great Schism, more commonly called the East-We ..."

Blonde Morticia: " If you haven"t watched Slow Horses you should. ..."

gp: ""If you haven"t watched Slow Horses you should." ..."

Don't blame the alligators: "The current view of dark energy is the latter, it' ..."

publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (w6EFb): " Now, even if the accelerated expansion turns ou ..."

Paco: "[i] 583 - Four and a half hours of Bruckner - gp[ ..."

Bloggers in Arms
Some Humorous Asides
Archives