Re: Harry Knowles accused of sexual assault; AICN staffers leave
 

The only reason I went to that awful site was because the comment section was over the top it was pure entertainment. The people that posted there were just vile human beings, especially the Star Wars talkbacks. I noticed the comment sections were all closed.

Re: Harry Knowles accused of sexual assault; AICN staffers leave
 

Garbage website with absolutely no credibility. I’ve seen them try to break news from their sources and it was so wrong.

Won’t be missed.

Re: Harry Knowles accused of sexual assault; AICN staffers leave
 

The only times I ever visited that website was when Stallone was answering just about any fan question asked of him and he gave some hilarious self deprecating answers, as well as some hilarious stories. The other time was when Bruce Willis started randomly posting in the talkbacks, and only a very few people caught onto it for a couple days until he posted a selfie and things exploded.

Other than that I always thought one day Harry Knowles would be outed as a sex offender. Now that he has been, it still not as creepy as his Blade 2 review.
He also has about as much critical insight into movies as Uwe Boll has insight making movies.

Re: Harry Knowles accused of sexual assault; AICN staffers leave
 

Wow, never knew his Blade 2 review was this controversial?

Now I have to read it.




EDIT -- Just read it and what the fuck?

Re: Harry Knowles accused of sexual assault; AICN staffers leave
 

His review of Heroes was also, shall we say, kinda pervy:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DKcPdnKXoAUU60k.jpg

and his conversation with Eli Roth (which he posted to AICN as part of an interview)...

https://i.imgur.com/OpvdJJR.jpg

Just "edgy" jokes? probably.
But back then, nobody seemed to care about that kind of stuff. I mean... that's an interview posted on one of the most famous movie news/fan sites of the time. If anyone called them out on it then, it surely had zero effect. It would seem that most folks from that era of the internet grew up a bit and realized how that kind of stuff could come back to haunt them. From what I've been reading, it seems like Harry doesn't realize (or care?) how bad ALL of this is for him; not just the old interviews and reviews, but the harassment and assault (one person said he'd wheel his wheelchair up behind women so they'd fall on his lap, among the other stuff discussed).

Crazy stuff all around... some of it may be bullshit, but there's enough that surely isn't.

Re: Harry Knowles accused of sexual assault; AICN staffers leave
 

If anyone is still interested Slashfilm has an article up summarizing everything from the last few weeks involving all players and links too.

http://www.slashfilm.com/films-state...ilm-community/

Re: Harry Knowles accused of sexual assault; AICN staffers leave
 

For a brief period of time I was willing to play devils advocate and give Harry the benefit of the doubt, but the more I learn I realize that perhaps he should be in jail, however, it looks like the statute of limitations in TX is a max of 10 years (except if you are accused of assaulting a child, but that is not the case here). The other issue is that even if the statute of limitations had not passed, there is the difficulty in proving that the assault took place.

I now believe it did happen, and to more than one woman so it is hard to muster any sympathy for Harry as the mini empire he built is being brought down crashing around his ears and if it leads to his having to file for bankruptcy, then so be it. I am not a fan of wishing for someone to lose all their wealth, but short of him doing time, which does not appear likely, the only other way to punish Harry is to choke off his avenues of making money off of his endeavors. This also hurts some innocent employees who work for Harry and / or the Alamo Drafthouse, but hopefully, unlike Harry and some of the folks he dealt with that have their own issues, the folks who are collateral damage can get another job and land on the their feet.

Just a sad situation, I always felt Harry was an adult with a classic case of arrested development who never really grew out of being a child, but this predicament he finds himself in, one that he created entirely himself, could have easily been avoided if he just exercised some self control and tamped down his baser urges.

I know a lot of DVD talkers like to trash talk aintitcoolnews because especially the past several years it has become cool to say you would never touch that site with a 10 foot pole, but I am not ashamed to admit that there was a period of time where I was a (near) daily lurker (I enjoyed the talkback sections but almost never posted, his talkback sections were at times legendary for how fun a read they were) for several YEARS. Granted this was quite some time back, but for a surprising amount of time Harry Knowles' site was the cool site to hit to check out interviews, behind the scenes stories, info about upcoming dvd/blu releases (reviews, what was on sale, etc.), and I even used to get a heads up on what was hot or not on tv, and of course the film reviews from him and other contributors to the site. Once upon a time Harry would even post the occasional review that bordered on professional or would certainly be considered competent and not like the ones he put up for shows like Heroes or Blade 2 which are just inexcusable and would have never been published if he were not his own editor.

I genuinely feel bad for the victims harmed by Harry's actions. It sucks that so many things that I grew up enjoying have been tarnished (such as my memories of The Cosby Show), but yeah...I get it, there were actual victims of the horrendous actions of folks like Harry so cry me a river.

Re: Harry Knowles accused of sexual assault; AICN staffers leave
 

Yeah, I'll say that I was still an occasional visitor to the site - there were (now they've left, for good reason) a few competent writers on staff, but it was all about the talkbacks the last few years. Sorry for the victims, and also fuck Harry and the people who chose to cover it up. Glad to see that people are stepping away in light of this information. Never knew about that Blade 2 review. Ridiculous.

Re: Harry Knowles accused of sexual assault; AICN staffers leave
 

They even mention Cinefamily,, which is out here in L.A. -- going through something similar. I love that place and am a member. I read that 99% of the volunteers at Cinefamily were women by design -- I read on forums and FB that if you were a dude and wanted to volunteer at Cinefamily not to bother, because you would not get picked. It's closed until further notice.

http://www.cinefamily.org/#

Re: Harry Knowles accused of sexual assault; AICN staffers leave
 

It’s like that Seinfeld episode where the diner owner only hires busy women to be waitresses, except not a comedy.

I went to a few Cinefamily shows over the years but I always thought the American Cinematheque was the top of the boutique theater scene in Los Angeles. They have the best theater in the Egyptian (the Aero is fine too but nothing special), the best film selections and he best guests. My fondest memories of film going in LA we’re at the Egyptian, I probably spent half my life there. All the other spots like the New Beverly, the Nuart, and Cinefamily paled in comparison.

As for AICN, I never saw the appeal. It was an assault on good taste, both in terms of the writing and the website design. I blame Knowles for a severe dumbing down of film criticism, where things became about catering to a 12-year old boy mentality. Many of the writers who came up in the wake of AICN were no better, having nothing substantive to say, and incapable of having a real conversation about these things. What annoys me is that it took sexual assault to make people realize how scummy AICN is, not the actual site itself.

Re: Harry Knowles accused of sexual assault; AICN staffers leave
 

Never been to the Egyptian. The Nuart got remodeled from top to bottom and was quite comfortable. New Be is ok and the Aero is too far for my taste.

And DTLA is getting a new Alamo Drafthouse, so I'm curious as to what effect that will have on it.

Re: Harry Knowles accused of sexual assault; AICN staffers leave
 

You’ve never been to the Egyptian?! Take your cock out of your hands and get over there pronto!

Re: Harry Knowles accused of sexual assault; AICN staffers leave
 

I hate the seats at the Egyptian.

Re: Harry Knowles accused of sexual assault; AICN staffers leave
 

Who would have thought that this guy isn't a hit with the ladies

http://www.hollywoodnews.com/wp-cont...es5Bullets.jpg

Re: Harry Knowles accused of sexual assault; AICN staffers leave
 

Re: Harry Knowles accused of sexual assault; AICN staffers leave
 

You swear you better than us :p

Re: Harry Knowles accused of sexual assault; AICN staffers leave
 

That's exactly the angle I have when in the floor seats. I wish they would just level out that section.

Re: Harry Knowles accused of sexual assault; AICN staffers leave
 

I’d click on AICN daily from 1997 probably until they late 2000s. Rarely looked at the Talkbacks. They were painful to look at, though the “insert celebrity name” gotta eat joke was sort of funny to me. Basically got into reading it for all the Star Wars rumors that started there. It was like a daily-dose of the Starlog magazine rumor column.

Re: Harry Knowles accused of sexual assault; AICN staffers leave
 

TalkBacks were pretty heavily moderated at the time. I'd see posts disappear.

I would visit the site for the leaked images of high profile productions going on. I remember the Starship Troopers bug concept art. And I contributed a couple of times, too, when I was at WB. But I never bothered to read it when it tried to legitimize itself.

Re: Harry Knowles accused of sexual assault; AICN staffers leave
 

Same here, though I still check the site out regularly. There was a time when AICN often brought films to my attention that I would have missed otherwise, -some I've loved, some I've regretted. That hasn't happened in a long time, -both the site and the market has changed. I check the site now mostly out of habit. I generally avoid Harry's entries because his writing has only gotten more self-indulgent and badly-conceived, and I avoid the Talkbacks because it's mostly about slamming Harry, which gets old, even if it's deserved.

Re: Harry Knowles accused of sexual assault; AICN staffers leave
 

It's weird... AICN has been my home page for twenty years. Mostly out of inertia... it would seem weird to change it.

But I rarely click on any stories. I'll just sort of browse the headlines and if something catches my eye I'll look it up elsewhere. The site really is that worthless.

I can remember, back in the late nineties and early aughts when it was a fairly exciting place to visit. All kinds of rumors, insider stuff, and exclusives.

And then Harry turned into a big shill. He got too close to the industry, got too much access, and became another ass-kisser. The rumors and inside dirt dried up as Harry seemingly became too afraid to rock the boat and lose his access.

Do these allegations surprise me? Not really. It happens at tech companies, at comic book companies, with gamers, and Fox News. Whetever you have men with some degree of power and little or no accountability within their own little kingdoms, they're going to creep on women.

Re: Harry Knowles accused of sexual assault; AICN staffers leave
 

I started reading AICN back in 1996. I was a fan of its scrappy charm and Harry's seemingly earnest geek enthusiasm. Back then it was fun to see this sort of grassroots geek community start to have a real voice, especially in film, and especially in GENRE film, where the fan community was routinely disregarded and rarely engaged.

Then it all went to shit. I think it was that Godzilla review. Ecch. And then "Me Want Pwesents". I think I threw up in my mouth a little.

Re: Harry Knowles accused of sexual assault; AICN staffers leave
 

I had read that Blade 2 review before, but mercifully had expunged it from my memory, until now. That Heroes review is disgusting too. Harry is gross. It's not a great leap to imagine that the current allegations against him are legitimate.

Re: Harry Knowles accused of sexual assault; AICN staffers leave
 

Four more women accuse him of sexual harassment: http://www.indiewire.com/2017/09/wom...nt-1201880349/

Re: Harry Knowles accused of sexual assault; AICN staffers leave
 

It’s a shame that the Ain’t It Cool News tv pilot from around 2001 never leaked online. Really wish I could have seen it. I think it was for Comedy Central and I believe David Cross was one of the guests. Some of the AICN regulars like Moriarty were also on.
Although, if it was anything like that horrible YouTube show Harry did a few years back, then never mind.