At the beginning of the year I remember seeing a trailer for Push. Looked interesting. Start with psychics, mix in some secret government agency, and an Asian city to give it a exotic look. Then add a touch of fate of the world to top it off.

But it never turned up in the cinemas.

Maybe Division sent a Wiper out and I don’t remember seeing it? Because, if you look at Amazon, you can see the DVD of Push on sale (as of July).

No, I noticed a advertisement for it on the back of a bus the other day. It appears that Push has only recently been released in Australia (10 September).

Why do we have to wait an extra 6 months for movies to be released here? Sure, some of the big name movies are released everywhere at the some time (eg Matrix, Lord of the Rings). But most movies seem to get stuck in a time dilation effect. Aging at a different rate in Australia than elsewhere in the world.

This slow release schedule, in a fast inter connected world, I can see having 2 main effects.

The marketing effort spent on the movie is wasted. That the online reviews pushing the movie will have gone. Will the public see a movie panned 6 months ago?

People will see it before it makes it to the cinema. Via legal means, buying DVDs online from other parts of the world. Or via piracy, downloading movies shared on the internet.

The film industry seems to be stuck in the old world. And needs to learn to use the new one (without suing everyone).

Other links of interest:

• Official Push site
• IMDB – Australian movie release schedule
• IMDB – USA movie release schedule

There are some good bits, and some bits where you just wonder ‘why am I watching this’. I can see why people have said the film is really bad, but I think is intended to be.

The SMH review was interesting to note that Sacha Baron Cohen has become that which he once mocked. And I wonder how he continues to be able to get away with his interviews.

The thing I’m most annoyed about is that I sat through all the credits, and there was nothing else to see on the end.

For those that can’t read all the text on the movie poster:

presented by
OFFICE OF FILM AND LITERATURE CLASSIFICATION

Stephen Conroy as Guy Montag

Fahrenheit 451

2009?

staring STEPHEN CONROY and STEVE FIELDING director AUSTRALIAN COMMUNICATION AND MEDIA AUTHORITY producers APATHY, CONFUSION and KNEE-JERK REACTION executive producer AUSTRALIAN TAXPAYERS distributor NATIONAL BROADBAND NETWORK

R18+ May not be available on the Internet in Australia

So, how did I come to make the image?

I went looking for information about lists of banner books in Australia. One of the points stressed about the censorship regime of the previous government (but not that of the new one) is that while the list of banned books is available (or you can test for them), but the list of banned sites is not.

It was interesting to see that ‘Fahrenheit 451′ was amongst the lists I found, because of coarse language used. Which sparked the above poster.

The current government is trying to impose a blank filter on all Australians. This is despite the reports received about the effect on network speed, and the unreliability of filters.

Perhaps the movie should be called Centigrade 435 after the temperature at which network cables ignite?

(Network cables have a PVC covering, which has an ignition temperature of 435C)

Commentary about censorship in Australia:

• Somebody think of the children
• No Clean Feed

Some interesting sites about book banning:

• Banned in Australia: Introducing Australia’s Bibliography of Banned Books
• Yippee! A banned book list!
• Books : A – I – That have been Censored, Banned or Challenged
• Australia Won’t Say What Websites They Ban

Looking at the Aliens vs Predator: Requiem site tonight it was interesting to see that there are three types of English: North American, Outside North American, and Australian.

So what is the difference? Should we feel privileged, or outcasts?

Examining the different English options I found the major difference for the ‘English Australia‘ sub site is the addition of an intermediary age verification page.

I presume that has to do with some legislation in Australia that prohibits access to R rated sites for minors. Hence you need to verify your age.

The thing that annoys me though is: If you are going to do a site specific for Australia you might like to get the date format correct on the age verification form.

Australia uses the international date format day/month/year.

(see YouTube movie below the fold)

What you need to tick
The form asks for your details, requires you to tick the ‘I agree to the Terms and Conditions’ checkbox, with an supposedly optional checkbox to join the Paramount Pictures Movie Club.

But as you an see from the screen capture, if you fill out all the required fields and tick the ‘YES – I have read and accept the Terms & Conditions’ checkbox you still get an error message.

The problem is that the Paramount checkbox is also marked required in the code, despite there being no indication that it is required. And why should I be required to sign-up for a opt-in mailing list?

<label>

<input type=”checkbox” name=”entry_additional_1″ value=”False” required=”true” title=”Terms & Conditions” />
YES – I would like to subscribe to the Paramount Pictures Movie Club</label>

Looks like a copy past job where they forgot to remove the required=”true” from the Paramount checkbox.

The above is the main problem I have with the competition entry form, but since I am posting errors I thought I might as well continue.

Verifying email
The JavaScript that verifies that fields are filled only checks there is something in the email field, not that it is a valid email address. The script the form is submitted to also doesn’t check the email address validity.

While they could say it is the responsibility of the entrant to check their details are correct. If you are going to check a field is filled you may as well check it is valid.

Squashed terms and conditions
The terms and conditions being squashed into five lines scrollable of text makes them a little hard to read. I understand that most people don’t bother reading them, but it is assumed that you have so it would be nice to make them easier to read.

Competition closed but form still available
I noticed the problems above a few days ago. Unfortunately I’ve only just had time to write them all up. As a result if you go to the SciFi competitions page you can no longer enter the Transformers competition. But if you enter the URL directly you still get the competition form.

Note: I noticed that they have now fixed the Paramount required checkbox. Not that you can enter the competition any more because it closed yesterday.

Finding this movie on YouTube I see that someone has. And has the skills to create it. Good animation and reasonably scripted scenes.

(YouTube movie on full post page)

(Pity that the WordPress editor is such a pain trying to use embed objects. It keeps trying to ’smart’ format them, breaking up the object and param tags.)

“Creative scientists have until next week to submit proposals for creating a shape-shifting military robot that can shrink and then reconfigure itself to normal height and shape.”

Looks very much like a promo for the new Transformers movie. But after reading the following:

“The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is accepting proposals for building the so-called Chemical Robot (ChemBot) from researchers until July 2.”

It became obvious that the US government department just wants an advanced screening of the movie before it opens on 4 July in the USA.