Did anyone ever take that blog seriously? Forget the promotional angle, they write like third graders and have the design of retarded pre-schoolers. It is that hard to even pretend to be semi-professional?

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Hey, as long as you guys aren't planning a site redesign (like so many of your fellow Weblogs Inc. blogs seem to be doing), then it's all good ....

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Yeah, AICN never had a shark to jump.

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I don't think you're using 'jumped the shark' at all correctly. That phrase has an implication that something has outworn (or is on the cusp of outwearing) it's welcome and as a result starts doing outlandish things to keep afloat/popular.

That's not the same as simply becoming irrelevant or unreliable.

If readership was dropping off and as a direct result, Knowles started doing publicity stunts, having Paris Hilton as a guest blogger or somesuch thing, then AICN would be 'jumping the shark'.

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AICN jumped the first day Harry set foot on a movie set - during the filming of Armageddon.

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AICN, has become what everyone wants to be, and that is popular and good at what they do. I mean seriously what fanboy doesn't want to get onto a set, and get phonecalls from famous people. Good for them. This is just sour grapes for someone who isn't has successful.

http://blog.mctimages.com

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I've not come on Cinematical for quite some time now and it seems coincidental that this is the topic I first see.

Well, I don't much care for the writing on movie blogs. I don't find them particularly witty or insightful. They tend to blend into one another and become one banal, juvenile wankfest over the next movie or the next director that bothers giving them an interview. This site, and I don't mean to be rude, is no exception. When Ryan Stewart picked a fight with other movie sites using his influence here, that pissed me off. Then I found out that he is an editor here. Now that was the last straw.

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I definitely agree with the previous statement about the misuse of the phrase "to jump the shark."

To jump the shark would mean to have some person/people give everything to their audience they could and completely please them, and then suddenly come up with something so wacky, so insane, so desperate that it defies all logic, credibility and expectations you'd expect from said person/people.

I do not believe AICN has done this, especially just becaue Harry visited the set of Armageddon. How do you get inside information, or see how a director and his crew works? You get on set. How do you get on set [legally]? You get invited. AICN consistently gives their audience what they want, and doesn't tell them how to think, but let's them think for themselves. Sure they give they're opinions...it's a blog. I see it here all the time.

Your criticism to AICN should more appropriately be considered selling out. And, with all due respect, I can't take such criticism seriously from a website that has AOL and its Moviefone holding its hand. This is definitely the pot calling the kettle, grill, the broiler and hell just for good measure, the blender, all BLACK.

I love ya Cinematical, but this story seems like a reach for me.

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But at what point does the "movie blog" become the "marketing blog" -- a site somewhat controlled by the studios

When it's owned by AOL-Time Warner, maybe.

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"Jumped the shark" has jumped the shark.

Jumping the shark means the precise moment a project has its ridiculous Fonzie-jumping-over-the-shark moment and begins its downhill slide. It doesn't mean anything you've all contended.

Read the header.

www.jumptheshark.com/index.jspa

And AICN is a studio suckbug.

Peace.

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AICN's utterly callous and disrespectful announcement of Richard Biggs' death was the last article I ever read on that steaming pile of dogshit hackery. (Biggs portrayed Stephen Franklin in Babylon 5.):

"For the six or seven B5 fans who haven't heard, Richard Biggs, who played Dr. Stephen Franklin on the show, died of an apparent stroke this past Saturday at the tender age of 43."

Harry Knowles: you suck.

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I hear these kinds of accusations all the time, but from where I'm standing I don't see it. I write for The Ain't It Cool News, in fact I'm sure the phrase "ridiculous foul-mouthed banter" in this post refers to me. (If the shoe fits...)

I don't know what goes on over there in Texas, but for the record I write what the hell I want, I send it to them, and they put it up unedited. If the studios were trying to influence something it sure hasn't trickled down to me. People said they were in the pocket of TRANSFORMERS, but I wrote one of the most negative reviews in existence of that horrible piece of moronic garbage, I emailed it to them, they posted it within 5 or 10 minutes and it stayed their top story for most of the 4th of July week. And I did not receive any demerits or spankings, just lots of angry talkbacks from people who liked the movie.

There was one time when a director of a movie I panned challenged me to a wrestling match in the talkbacks, and another time when Bruce Willis responded to my essay about LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD being PG-13. But I think these are two examples of what's great about the internet and if you're using those as examples of studio pressure or bribes or whatever I think you're stretching it.

Anyway that's my ridiculous foul-mouthed banter on the topic. (fuck, shit, etc.)

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Wow....what a cry baby. Did AICN steal your rattle?
If I wanted to hear about why your vageene hurts I would watch Oprah, I come for the NEWS. Do you sit up at night scrounging for movie news on other sites often? You are a douchebag....with a vageene....a dirty one.

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