Hard News: Wild is the Weekend
117 Responses
First ←Older Page 1 2 3 4 5 Newer→ Last
-
"Joubert missed that one too -- and, to be fair, a similar professional foul by Sivivatu in the first half. Jeez."
Bobby Dwyer has stepped in about this , "Some of what went on was farcical," he said. "But if referees don't referee what is in front of them and what is in the law book, you end up with this sort of chaos. I talked to some international referees not that long ago and asked them about a point, and their reply astonished me. They told me: 'Oh, we don't referee that, or we don't do it like that'.
The effing reffing is a joke in world rugby and has been for a long time. I don't know how sports fans can watch modern rugby without tearing their hair out. Quite a number of senior coaches have called for a significant change in the way the games is ruled on yet nothing changes. I remember a prominent lions coach stating he didn't even know all the rules.If this was international football their would be wars by now over some of the bizarre decisions.
-
"It ain't all doom and gloom either Tom. All time the ABs have a 74.02% win record and since we went professional it's 80%. The all time record has been dragged up a touch by our record in the last 15 or so years."
Some people do stats , some do world cups. We are the greatest team in the world and have been forever.
-
The effing reffing is a joke in world rugby and has been for a long time. I don't know how sports fans can watch modern rugby without tearing their hair out.
Well, put another way: Perhaps the referees are a joke because it's thought that would appeal to clowns. God knows that the sports media would be so much dead air and blank newsprint without the ritual sledging of the ref. I'd just love to see Chris Rattue on a Saturday morning fending off the "lashing out" of a pack of psycho rugby mothers. Karma baby...
Later, we all went to see The Dark Knight, which explored the classic question of whether Batman is a hero or just another urban pathology. The starring role, of course, was that of the villain. I had thought the posthumous-Oscar-for-Heath-Ledger movement was just sentiment. Now, I think it might well be deserved.
SPOILER WARNING -- COINTAINS MILD-ISH SPOILERS FOR THE DARK KNIGHT -- SPOILER WARNING
Meh... I actually think the whole cast was excellent (though it's no dis on Maggie Gyllenhaal to say she just had to display a pulse to out-act Katie Holmes). But am I the only person who throught the film would have been much improved if:
1) It was at least half an hour shorter. Yes, I know there's all kinds of product placement and promotional tie-in contracts you've got to fulfil. And you've got to prove the nine figure budget didn't go up the director's nose. But really... too much padding with endless action sequences, aerial tracking shots, artful brooding from Christian Bale and so forth that might be beautifully realised but stop the story dead.
2) The Nolan Brothers could have resisted the urge to burden actors with tooth-grindingly pompous speeches that were 'comic book' in the worse sense of the world. I'm kind of glad I couldn't catch all of Garry Oldman's closing monologue over the thunderous score, because what I did catch was painful enough.
3) And am I the only person who thinks, for all the hype, that The Dark Knight ever so slightly wimps out on the question it constantly flirts with: Is Batman kinda sorta a fascist, for whom The Joker isn't an aberration but an almost inevitable funhouse mirror reflection? He gets a bit angsty about using every cell phone in Gotham as part of a spy network that would have Jack Bauer cuming in his pants, but never mind... Because we can trust Lucius Fox, right? And Goddamnit if the ungrateful peasants don't realise that in any war there are casualties, the night (geddit!) is always darkest (really, do you geddit!) before the dawn etc...
I suspect Christopher Nolan has committed Frank (__300__) Miller's __The Dark Knight Returns__ and __Batman: Year One__ to memory. They're both vastly influential books, but at least have the courage of their utter Nietzsche-on-speed abyss sperlunking.
(BTW, Miller's next Batman-related project had the working title __Batman vs. Al Qaeda__
-
And who wants to bet that this, from 300 director Zack Snyder, is going to be equally visually astounding, and equally stupid?
Somehow, I think __Watchmen__ writer (and comics God) Alan Moore made a good call having his name taken off the movie and all royalties paid to artist Dave Gibbons. Moore's crap to quality ratio for adaptations of his work is even worse than Stephen King's, which is truly saying something. :)
-
Oh, and with all due and sincere respect to Mr. Ledger __The Killing Joke__ -- which I read that Nolan used as a reference -- still owns.
-
The effing reffing is a joke in world rugby and has been for a long time. I don't know how sports fans can watch modern rugby without tearing their hair out. Quite a number of senior coaches have called for a significant change in the way the games is ruled on yet nothing changes. I remember a prominent lions coach stating he didn't even know all the rules.If this was international football their would be wars by now over some of the bizarre decisions.
I thought the refereeing was pretty bad over the weekend, but refereeing in any sport varies from country to country, competition to competition, referee to referee, game to game. Very few referees know the rulebook of their sport off-by-heart. There are often obscure rules in the book that you wouldn't need to know for a thousand games.
I find soccer refereeing bizarre. If players came up to me and argued with one of my decisions on the ice rink, like they seem to always do in soccer, they'd all be binned. How you can have a sport that doesn't back its referees up when they make decisions, I have no idea.
-
How you can have a sport that doesn't back its referees up when they make decisions, I have no idea.
Well, you don't. I don't know about anyone else, but after reading crap like http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/4/story.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10498845, it's pretty hard to feel any sympathy for sporting codes on any level who bleat that nobody wants to put themselves in the cross hairs of every armchair ref, and sideline psycho who can do it so much better.
-
"Very few referees know the rulebook of their sport off-by-heart"
We are talking international referees Kyle....and to be honest I think you're doing other codes a diservice.
I'm not aware of players and coaches ever struggling with football (soccer) rules to this extent. The rules of football almost certainly are it's popularity.
-
"Well, put another way: Perhaps the referees are a joke because it's thought that would appeal to clowns. God knows that the sports media would be so much dead air and blank newsprint without the ritual sledging of the ref."
Sure but the trend is more to slag off players and coaches for the
inexcusable sin of not anticipating a shocking referee performance,
indeed the "rattue-style" logic is build a gameplan around bad calls. It's absurd.We do waste to much time on sport. Why does it have it's own slot on the news?.....and our sportsmedia seem to enjoy developing personal beefs with OUR sporting heroes rather than talking about the reality and context of OUR NATIONAL sport.
-
Fair points well made, Jeremy. But I've got to admit that I scan Chris Rattue more for grim entertainment than insight into a field that's well outside my usual interests. :) Seriously, does The Herald offer an all-expenses paid vacation to a tropic resort for the most feral and downright stupid columnist? Darth George might be paying for his own summer hols this year, if Chris keeps masticating the scenery like this.
-
We are talking international referees Kyle....and to be honest I think you're doing other codes a diservice.
I spoke to an international referee the other day about a game he did. First thing he said was that he needed to learn more. I look through my rulebook often, and after two years of refereeing, including at national finals, I often find out new information by reading it.
I wouldn't know the football rulebook if I fell over it, but rugby isn't the only sport to have complex rules.
There are umpteen areas of rules that football doesn't have to cover. Rucks, mauls, scrums have no equivalent in the round ball game. If we were to simplify the rugby rulebook we could remove all contact and call it touch rugby, which would be much simpler, but not necessarily a better game.
-
.'I spoke to an international referee the other day about a game he did. First thing he said was that he needed to learn more.'
Ii think we know what that refs name was.
I think you'll find in at least rugbys case the fact that refs have different rulebooks and different gaps in knowledge makes for an
injustice when it comes to results and my team the all blacks ,undoubtedly the greatest team in the world deserve better...but there is a war in the middle east which makes these sporting debates seem small.
and good luck with your reffing, it is a tough job.
-
"Darth George might be paying for his own summer hols this year, if Chris keeps masticating the scenery like this."
Yep, he's got competition.
-
First thing he said was that he needed to learn more. I look through my rulebook often, and after two years of refereeing, including at national finals, I often find out new information by reading it.
Ah ha, an expert parading as a spectator. You're for it now Kyle.
But seriously, the missed tackle on Sivivatu was a remarkable omission; actually a lot worse than the "foward pass" that cost us the last World Cup. Aren't the linesmen now "assistant referees", where on earth were they?
-
crap to quality ratio for adaptations of his work is even worse than Stephen King's
I've been told the rough rule of thumb goes like this....
If the screenplay/script of a movie based on a Stephen King novel is also written by Stephen King..... its probably crap.
If the screenplay is written by someone else, its probably OK.
I take no responsibility for the accuracy of that.... it was passed on to me by a writer/film reviewer about a decade ago.
-
watchmen.
unfilmable.
In fact most graphic sequential art is not suited to interpretation to the screen. however it is possible to re-interpret it sometimes without breaking it too much [see persiopolis, ghostown, hellboy]. Watchmen however derives much of its stunning sucess to the way it is structured [partly why it is one of Time magazines top100 novels evah]its the symmetry; the way the stucture and pacing informs the narrative; the way you linger over certain images; taking in the background detail; finding things that will be important later; flipping back to certain points and jumping forward again.
I see some small hope in that it looks like the story will work across simultaneously released games and a dvd of 'the black freighter' [no word yet on whether we will see hollis mason wearing the strap-on breastplate to The Ride of The Valkyries].
Ultimately the film will have to work as a standalone piece. and I really cant see it doing the work justice.
-
If the screenplay/script of a movie based on a Stephen King novel is also written by Stephen King..... its probably crap.
Well, King himself will cheerfully admit that this work of crap-tastic genius was a divine revelation that he should never, ever direct any more "moron movies". And he keep the Golden Raspberry Award for worse director in his study to make sure he never does. But there have been a hell of a lot of films/TV adaptations of King's novels and stories -- around 65-70 by my count. And I don't get why there aren't more that are actually good, given that we're not talking about James Joyce here.
But, as King himself has often said, if he's going to option his work then all he can really do is cash the cheques and hope for the best. Though I'm not looking forward to Cell getting the Eli Roth torture porn treatment...
Post your response…
This topic is closed.