gazelle024's Recent Comments
No More HALLOWEEN or Remakes For Zombie - Sep 08, 2007 - 08:41am
Truth is relative! And all things proceed from our own vision! This is the problem with reboots, remakes, sequels, prequels, comic book movies opr anything that has a lot of fans. It becomes the artistic creative vision of the director and others involved in creating that film vs the vision of what the individual(s) wants or hopes to see in this. Preconceived notions are very often the enemy of such films. Whether or not you or I or anyone else including the box office says the film is good or bad does not necessarily make it so. As far as our own personal collection of good and bad ok, but that is different for each and every one of us and we could debate differences until doomsday with nothing accomplished whatsoever. A scary movie: I personally have not been scared by any film in ages. Perhaps it is that over time I have become too jaded or whatever. I might get an occasional shock moment or I might find something slightly disturbing. Suspense sometimes can for a bit. But when I was a kid almost all of it was scary. Horror: I read somewhere that horror films constituted all the monster films. So Frankenstein, Wolfman, Godzilla, Michael Myers etc. I guess that is one definition, but isn't horror that which horrifies? I personally am not so horrified by these monsters today, but I imagine I was at one time. Horror then includes that which is disturbing, exploitation films and that which we find done very horribly it depends on what is shocking to you. From what I gather this would then have to be called horror even if you also call it exploitation. What is good: The definition of good for any individual is determined by religion, our parents, teachers, society, government etc. There are about as many definitions of that as there are people. Again this is relative truth. The only absolute truth on what is good is determined by God if one even believes in God, but then we can study absolute truth in all the holy writings, which are supposedly from God or inspired by God or some such and then you might have some idea on absolute good. Under this definition of good (and this is debatable or subject to interpretation - relative) then any film defined as horror is by definition not good and then the debate only comes down to whether an individual person liked it or not. Now I don't know if the box office is any true representation, but a lot of people went to see it somehow with the idea that they were going to or at least might like this film. It is now apparent that this is one film where the build up was such that they actually got a relatively large number of people who did not like this film to go and see it. Thus there is controversy with some folks who did not like it arguing about what a pile it was vs those who happened to like it. And that can get emotional with personal attacks and such. Hey it can be emotional for some people when they waste their time and money on something they did not enjoy. What a horror! Yup, this is a horror film and yup it did exploit a lot of people and yup it served it's purpose and that was to make money for the film company. Some of you should feel so used and emotional and maybe this will help you avoid future mistakes. For the rest it is good that you enjoyed yourselves. I guess for you the film was so not good (in that absolute sense) that it was fun, interesting or whatever even good in that relative sense to you personally. Whether this is an important film or classic or cult film or whatever time will tell. Perhaps it will just slide into obscurity, but I rather doubt it.

Katie Holmes as WONDER WOMAN? - Aug 19, 2007 - 10:32am
Oh my gosh! Do not even take this even slightly serious. A studio would have to be insane to do this. Sure it couldn't help but be great for her career, but this is even sillier than the Katherine McPhee idea. With Katherine we have the big risk than she might not be able to act. And here I haven't really cared about Katie since Disturbing Behavior. Of course this brings up once again everyone listing off their own personal favorites for the part. We have our Buffy girl. We have our Firefly/Serenity and Stargate girl. We have our Matrix girl. Our X-Men girl. Our Van Helsing and Underworld girl. We have Xena. We have the Queen of Swords and we have others more obscure to the genre. All of these would have been ok in their day, but they have proved themselves as something else at a time when they were not known and now again we need someone new that is not known as something else already. I know the studio is tempted to go with some level of star power, but realistically to turn this into a franchise that can last ten or more years over 3-5 films before you have to change to a new actress you need someone young who is also everything Wonder Woman has to be. There is probably not a woman alive that can satisfy all the requirements for this part and satisfy everyone. I personally did not like Lynda Carter much, but she was ok and satisfy enough of us. She was an unknown at the time too. If you are just going for a one shot movie sure you could go with Charisma (I only mention her first because her fans seem to be the most rabid) or Morena or Monica or Rachelle or Shari or Rebecca or Evangeline or Lucy or Tessie or Shannon or Paz or Kate or whomever else you want (I think there were a couple others who were mentioned last time). I say bring 'em all in and have a nice amazon competition between them all at the beginning before the real Diana wins out. I love them all! You could even have Lynda play her mom. Whoever she is needs to be of some kind of Mediterranean descent and yet seem all-American enough. She needs to be statuesque in a classic sense and behave as royalty and as a strong woman. She is like a goddess and virtuous. All the lowly stuff is beneath her and yet she is not well versed in the ways of the current American world, so you have a certain naivety about that, but not necessarily innocence. It's sort of like Crocodile Dundee in the city where he does what he knows is right and learns from his experiences in the city and yet is not changed by them.

Pictures of Romero's DIARY OF THE DEAD - Aug 11, 2007 - 08:59am
Oh! We can call this the experimental side story to Night of the Living Dead. It's still low budget, but then sort of weirdly updated for today rather than back in the day. The whole thing just reminds me of Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things. I just hope it doesn't feel much like the Blair Witch Project. These shots look alright. Guess we don't have so very long to find out.

Sylar to Play SPOCK? - Jul 26, 2007 - 10:44am
Nax, whether or not you term the Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Wrath of Kahn, Star Trek: Next Generation and/or Enterprise reboots depends on your perspective. Certainly in a certain sense you might not consider any of them reboots and certainly they are not reboots on the almost absolute scale of Battlestar Galactica, which some still consider Galactica In Name Only (GINO) or the nu-fake Galactica or whatever. And certainly there is a much larger gap between the original BSG and the so-called GINO than there was between TOS, the cartoon and the Motion Picture and TNG and Enterprise, but fans were just as stuck on their own vision of how the show should be maybe more so because of the gap. Now I don’t know about you, but each change in Star Trek took some getting used to for me. Certain beliefs I had about the way things were, were stretched and altered. Costumes were changed, I can get by changes in the ship’s outside appearance easily, but inside we were dealing with vast differences. Sure for the most part they were able to rationalize things so we could easily accept new directions, appearances and the stretching of how we saw things, but these still were to a certain extent re-imaginings. Enterprise stretched things furthest of all. It was really hard getting past the look of the interior of the ship and the uniforms. It just didn’t seem consistent with TOS at all even though they tried hard to stay within established canon. It wasn’t until things got fun in the last season that I felt I could completely overlook some of the glaring problems. Now this film I do not expect to be such a total reboot as Battlestar Galactica, but I expect that it will be as different as Star Trek TOS was to Star Trek: The Motion Picture was to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn was to Star Trek TNG/DS9/Voyager was to Enterprise perhaps more so. They may even attempt to stay within canon on this in which case you might not term it a reboot depending on your perspective. I personally feel that on one hand you might have a better chance of coming up with something really good if you don’t stick too much to canon. On the other hand if you don’t stick to canon you may lose a lot of your fan base. So I expect them to try to balance things as much as possible. In other words do not stray from canon more than you have to to make a great film and don’t let canon limit you so much that there is no life to the project either. There have to be a lot of tough calls made on this I’m sure. I do not think you can go the way of Battlestar Galactica and do such a complete reboot without alienating virtually everyone at this point. Maybe if we waited 25-30 years for this. Meanwhile I think Zachary Quinto could be an inspired choice. I think it is not so hard to envision him playing a Spock that is very similar to Nimoy’s Spock. That’s not to say he won’t put his own touch on it. I mean I’m not looking for a carbon copy, but certainly every Vulcan since Nimoy’s Spock has been to some extent inspired by Nimoy’s work. I hope it works out well.

Sylar to Play SPOCK? - Jul 25, 2007 - 01:02pm
I fully expect some sort of reboot. I know legions of Trek fans probably hate the very idea, but really with the canon the way it is they've pretty much painted themselves into a corner and now things almost certainly have to get messy. In light of the recent reboot of Battlestar Galactica, which some fans may call inspired and some simply hate a new generation of fans were brought into the Galactica fold. Now Star Trek has been through a number of what one might call reboots of a sort in the past. The first was a planned new series that never came out, but instead transformed into the Star Trek: The Motion Picture killing off several of the new characters. This got mixed reactions and they were not satisfied. Then with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn they attempted a new reboot, which hit the mark, but varied in acceptance with ST III, IV, V and VI. Part of the problem here was that new characters were never developed enough to continue on without the original stars. Star Trek: The Next Generation was yet another reboot, which was quite uneven in the first season, improved some things in the second and really hit it's stride in the third. The pattern of TNG was pretty much followed in DS9 and Voyager as we explored new crews in different areas of the known universe. Part of the advantage these reboots had was they never really had to change canonical details much if any although there were at times inconsistencies that were mostly glossed over. With Enterprise that really changed. Again we were looking at a reboot, but they messed with canon here. Many fans simply hated this and really the show was so cautious about remaining faithful to canon that it didn't really interest new fans so much either. In trying to please everyone they were left with something with little life that only held onto some of the die hards. It had simply gotten stagnant. Finally when they'd all but given up they passed the reigns to someone who was allowed to play with things and we saw some of the most inspired material we'd seen in a long time, but it was too little too late as the plug had been pulled. It reminded me of the days when TOS was canceled. To make matters worse and add insult to injury they ended that series with one of the worst episodes of it's entire run. Once again I fully expect this to be a reboot that addresses such things as the cell phone issue and other inconsistencies in technology as well as freshen up the show for a new generation. The wisest thing might be to wait a while to give fans more of a thirst, but the thirst for profits cannot wait long. If Shatner, Nimoy or any of the others appear, I fully expect them to appear as relatives of their characters from the past shows and that they will fill mainly cameo roles to pass the torch so to speak. I expect this film to be very different from all past Trek material and as to whether or not we feel it is inspired or a boatload of !@#$ remains to be seen as the proof is in the pudding. I expect that many fans will simply hate it and some will love it and it will bring in new fans or it will completely crash and burn. I realize that many would rather not take such a risk with this beloved franchise, but it comes down to no guts no glory and the vision of the filmmakers. Hopefully the suits will be able to keep their fingers out of it or else I see little hope, but in the meantime I have faith that this will work out until I see proof it won't.

Bale Talks DARK KNIGHT - Jun 27, 2007 - 12:44pm
I don't know about all this bigger stuff. I didn't get that from this article at all. All I got was that the story has to progress and the characters have to progress and you keep doing what worked and don't do what didn't work and you try some new things. We can all sit here and say we know the story, but with all the various versions of the story (ie the old Earth-1, Earth-2, the TV version, the old movie version with Burton and the one with Schumacher, which to me was going back to the old tv show and making it for kids and then all the animated versions, the Batman since Crisis on Infinite Earths and the newer Batman since Zero Hour, Identity Crisis etc, etc, etc.) Here I'm looking at enjoying this new Nolan/Bale movie version, which varies somewhat from all other versions, but not entirely from any of them. So here we develope a character and mess with him and that developes character further and so on. All you gotta do is not get greedy and stupid. Try to make something intelligent that we can feel for not this silly kid's stuff from the past. Batman was always meant to be serious. He always had serious problems in his life, which made it easier for him to be dark and alone. He dealt with villains that were even more messed up than he was. He was saved by dealing with these problems and developing a great Shirlock Holmes like intellect, deduction and reason, unbeatable physical skills (Bruce Lee eat your heart out), not to mention the occasional James Bond like gadgets. In the very early days he was a true vigilante who sometimes even killed the evil doer, but got away from that avenging angel kind of thing. These days he's dark, brooding and mysterious. Who knows what drives him sometimes, but he somehow keeps it all together. He is very cynical, but it usually leads him to the correct conclusions as human natures play out as expected more often than not especially with the sorts of villains he deals with. I don't know if Dark Knight will be bigger or better than Batman Begins, but as long as it doesn't get carried away and carries forward an interesting story and character development I don't care. That is something for stockholders and the board of directors to worry about not the director, so as long as they can keep their meddling fingers out of it it should be fine.

DEATH PROOF Crashes Into Dvd - Jun 23, 2007 - 09:29am
You just know they are going to release each of these films seperatly and then re-release them together as a bundle or as they were originally. Now as for a Hard R I thought I'd heard they had trouble getting this the rating they wanted and I assumed they cut some stuff that they could put back in for the DVD releases. Then in the films just as we were getting to the potential sex and nudity part we get a missing reel. Hmmm! I don't know if there was actually truth to this notion I have really, but it seemed to make sense. I agree that it was a mistake to release this on Easter weekend and that under age guys were buying tickets to some other more family friendly film and then seaking into this one. Still the way grindhouse films went though is that they had no huge audiences, but played to guys that wanted to see this stuff again and again over a long time. I imagine DVD sales will look much better than ticket sales for a multitude of reasons. Now I agree that the "theory" that metalwater puts forth, but that is all it is is a theory that is supported by evidence. I am sick and tired of people talking of scientific or medical fact, when these so called facts are never anything more than either the best current theory supported by the evidence or just the best supported theory. All science, medicine and also psychology is are works in progress. We do not know everything about any of these things, but we use the best methods we know at the time. It is a work in progress afterall and then we do research or experimentation and look at our findings to alter the current theory or come up with a better one or to support the current one. As time goes on the theories become more advanced as we get closer presumably to answering all of the questions. In the meantime there is nothing absolute about any of this. There was a time when the theory that the earth was flat was accepted as scientific fact too. As long as people just accept these things as fact rather than being open minded enough to see the possibilities in other theories they actually stand in the way of progress. You put six psychologists together with this information and they are going to come up with six different theories using entirely different terminology. The fact is we do not know everything about the psychological connections between excitement generated by fear or excitement generated by sex, but evidence suggests that there are connections including the release of certain chemicals in the brain that as far as we know don't have other purposes. We are talking about endorphines I think. There are such chemicals that come from eating chocolate too and other things I will not go into here. There could be other things happening too that have not been studied. Some have successfully taken advantage of these findings in film, which gives further credence to the theory because of it's apparent success. If the formula works why not use it. I had not heard that serial killers are number one with most women, but I do know women who are into that stuff.

Actors Sue New Line over LOTR - Jun 09, 2007 - 10:18am
The thing is that this is just one of the many symptoms of a huge problem with the economy. There has come to be a huge gulf between the filthy rich and the unreasonably poor all over the world. The 45 year plan that most people grow up being taught to believe in doesn't work. That is working from the age of 20 to 65 and then retiring. Most people are not able to retire and live comfortably at 65. Even with 401k plans this is not working. Meanwhile the rich keep getting richer and they've got the power to keep that happening and the poor are getting poorer. Not only that but the middle class is shrinking as more and more formerly middle class folk join the lower class. This country was at it's healthiest economically when the middle class was the majority. Something has to be done or else the system will just snap one day. The rich don't see how this is really not in their best interests in the long run and that this will not continue forever, but today they get fat on excess. The same kind of excess that led to the downfall of the roman empire. If you talk with folk around the world you can see the signs of the masses rising up are there. Having the top military might didn't save the roman empire. These cases are usually one of a few things. It can be just a frivolous case, but it's likely some relatively poor person trying to jump into a higher economic class or relatively rich people negotiating out a new deal through the courts. It almost certainly will be settled out of court. Meanwhile the public gets to see these folk acting like babies over what really isn't that much to them, but is huge to the rest of us. Just check out Land of the Dead to see what kind of thing can happen although in a fantasy world of zombies. Many don't like this idea, but the truth hurts. Those that are in denial even react very negatively. No wonder Land of the Dead didn't really do that well.

Kosinski Warms-up for LOGAN'S RUN - May 26, 2007 - 09:09pm
Having read the books I had been excited to see the original film, but then was disappointed to see how far it strayed from the story. Then I had some hope for the series, but that pretty much followed the film mixed with Gene Roddenbury's Genesis II, Planet Earth and Strange New World along with the Fugitive, which we saw played out over and over again in everything from the Invaders and the Immortal to the Incredible Hulk. The Island did bring us some elements that were missing from the original film too, but this remake has been in development hell for a long long time and once again it looks like it's going nowhere fast. I'm not too surprised. If it ever does get made I hope it's really done right and not just something slapped together to cash in that should have gone direct to video.

Distant Horizons to Bring Back FU MANCHU - May 19, 2007 - 12:34pm
Yeah, I was thinking about Rob Zombie's Werewolf Women of the SS too. Nicholas Cage as Fu Manchu gives one a chuckle just thinking about it. Next thing you know they'll turn 'em loose on England and then we could call the sequel Werewolves of London.

"The Cage" Enterprise - May 19, 2007 - 12:27pm
The thing about these labels (nerd, geek or whatever) is that it is a way to group people and put them down. The reality is we are all different from each other. No two people are exactly alike. We should all be proud of what we are. It is called self-esteem, but not to the point where we put others down to feel better about ourselves. When we put down what others do that we don't agree with, we are saying that we are right and they are wrong. The thing is no one completely knows another person and can say exactly why he or she does a lot of things they do. In my mind the only things we can't put up with are where people hurt other people. This causes distress and what follows are all these feelings that get passed on through hurting others and so on. We need to stop the cycle. It doesn't matter what we like to call ourselves. Some like to think of themselves as nerds or geeks and some don't. We can all call ourselves that as we all fit at least some people's idea of the profile and build a comraderie from that ala Revenge of the Nerds. I personally have Asperger's Syndrome sometimes known as aspies. The profile for those with Asperger's Syndrome fits the profile for nerd or geek pretty well too, but we are all humans. What is it going to take for us to come together in some kind of harmony an alien invasion?

Smallville: Phantom - May 19, 2007 - 10:21am
I agree that there is no chance that Lana is dead and although Clark never really gets together with Lana, she and Lois do become rivals for a little while. On the other hand both Chloe and Lionel can die and I have been waiting for their deaths since day one. Also whatever happened to Pete Ross? As for Bizzaro his face was becoming more like what we are used to with him. Perhaps his thinking will too. I can hardly wait to hear him say "Bizzaro Smash!!!" or "Puny humans leave Bizzaro alone!" or some such like our green skinned friend from another universe. It seems that he already knew how to fly before he got these powers and the Phantom Zone always looked to me like some kind of block shaped world anyway. Perhaps the Phantom Zone is some sort of Anti-Matter Universe on this show. With the Lana/car explosion/mail truck bit. I fully expect that Lana somehow ducked away. Although it seems strained to think she might have rigged her own car. Otherwise she might have been grabbed as the truck passed, but perhapsod thing for her to disappear. This leaves Clark free to move to Metropolis and now perhaps with Chloe's spirit connected to Lois she goes too and things progress between them. That's something that would have a hard time happening with Lana around.

"The Cage" Enterprise - May 18, 2007 - 04:08pm
My initial thought on reading this news was on it possibly being useful for those working on fan films based on Star Trek. I personally never much worried about the design changes over the years or from the first pilot to the second to the series. I have other things to worry about, but I realize some folks are extremely detail oriented about such things. Sometimes I find that trivia interesting, sometimes not. This time I did find the perspective interesting, many other times I've heard it before. I imagine such folks could do well in Trivial Pursuit or even on such games shows as Jeopardy. Some might think it's not much of a life to obsess about such things, but it is a God given right to choose and hey whatever makes you happy. I find there is someone out there for every one, so here's hoping that any so-called geeks find a geek of the opposite sex or same sex if that is what you are into with similar interests. Who are any of us to judge whether or not someone else has a life just because they don't enjoy the same things we do or worse enjoy things we loath, but seriously to be moved to kill or otherwise harm such people of differing perspectives shows some distress of our own that we have not gotten over that we are holding onto and allowing to fester and otherwise make us unhappy. I say let it go, get over it and grow up. Of course that is your choice, but don't you want to be happier or do you want to let this stuff get to you. Either way it doesn't matter to me after making my attempt to help out. This stuff is central in regards to racial problems and even the battle of the sexes. It is people of one group being intolerant of people in another. The reality is if we can put this aside and embrace differances it is possible to find strength in diversity. The USA itself is based on such concepts. Initially it was 13 diverse colonies setting aside differences to overcome a common problem or foe. We invited people's from anywhere here to become a great American melting pot, but what has been going on today. We are moving away from what made us strong and great to just what we came here to get away from. Such intolerance is in the realm of Hitler and his ilk. Maybe not leading such a campaign, but perhaps willing to follow one. These days there are plenty of folks who would just as soon kick anyone out of the country who doesn't see things there way. And here this all starts with some Trek fan sharing an interesting idea that sounds like all the other possibly irritating trivia we might have heard a thousand times. One wonders why such a person would even look at this news item except to attack the first little thing someone says. I'm afraid it just strikes me as irrational and the reactions to it strike me as approaching that same irrational level too, but in defense instead of attack at first. Let's just chalk it up to people's feelings and let it go. It is better to remain positive and welcome everyone and if someone is moved and can't resist saying something negative let's try to be understanding and try not to react in kind. That just escalates and in the end is really no fun.

Distant Horizons to Bring Back FU MANCHU - May 17, 2007 - 07:58pm
The problems between different so-called races is one of the if not the most challenging issues facing mankind, but technically we are all one race; the human race. We do however have different cultural backgrounds and ethnicities, but really most of us are a mixture of several or what is commonly called multi-racial. The pure anything is in the minority. I notice that are people in any group that don't complain, but just take things as they come, but there are always a few that do speak out who apparently have some distress or trauma from their past and just like when a bad apple spoils the whole bunch we tend to think everyone in a group or most are this way when one or a few do complain or whine. I wonder if Fu Manchu's daughter will appear in this...

Heroes: Landslide - May 16, 2007 - 10:10am
There are so many things to talk about on this series, but first Hiro's training. It seemed to me the time that went by in the real world was perhaps an hour or so, but it just made sense that Hiro stopped time during part of this or slowed it or even went back after his training was done. It was certainly not the first time that they've been lazy about showing every detail of how Hiro did something, so I don't seriously worry about this. I just say hmmm and chalk it up to making the episode flow better for our better enjoyment. I'm sorry if this seeming inconsistency pulls others out of the story. Second, I think Lindeman has got to be dead since his brain was removed. It must be blatantly obvious by now that the powers are controlled by the brain, so unless Lindeman can reconstitute himself around his brain I can't see him surviving that. I don't see his power working like Claire's anyway. I think he could have healed DL though. Speaking of DL he should be able to let the bullet pass out of him, but that won't stop the bleeding or any internal damage done. And now what exactly is Nikki's power anyway. I think it's clear what Jessica's power is, but perhaps as DL dies she can take in his essence and then switch to his personality along with his powers as she seemingly did with Jessica when she died. We didn't see DL or Lindeman in the future so one would think they don't make it through all of this anyway. We also didn't see Molly, so will Bennett kill her as he stops at nothing to protect Claire. That would certainly would divide his alliance with Matt or does he take Molly and use her for his own underground or something else. Now what is going to happen with Candace, Micah and Nathan. It seems that one way or another Sylar will come after or encounter each of them. Also I think it's pretty obvious that Ando is Hiro's heart. It was wonderful seeing George Takei doing this in his roll. This elevates him close to the level of Sean Connery or Harrison Ford. I fully expect to see him next playing the emperor of Japan and Sylar has become the Sephiroth/Dr Doom/Joker of this show. Can you really kill him off permanently, but how else do you stop someone like this short of killing him? Is there a way to take away his powers? Hmmm, maybe, but it involves the Haitian taking away his memories. It seems to me Sylar's powers are dependent on his memory of what all these individual's brains looked like and then adapting his brain to match.

NBC Announces HEROES: ORIGINS - May 15, 2007 - 09:35am
I believe this sheds a little more light on this as it appears to be quoted from the original news tidbit: NBC "bulks up" with 30 combined episodes of "Heroes" and "Heroes: Origins," an innovative new spin-off that each week will introduce a new character -- one of whom will be chosen by viewers through the "Heroes" website on NBC.com to become a cast regular the following season. This suggests to me that this is in next years fall schedule and meant to take the place of Heroes during the winter hiatus. I imagine the winning hero would then possibly appear late in the season, but probably not until the following season.

"Children of Hurin" heading to big screen? - Apr 18, 2007 - 10:06am
J.R.R. Tolkien himself although interested in the potential of his stories being turned into films was very concerned about studios staying true to the story as he had presented it. In particular he did not want Disney getting their hands on any of his material and sanitizing it with their own vision. Since Tolkien was something of a friend of C.S. Lewis one might wonder what he would have thought of the latest Narnia film. Christopher Tolkien in trying to stay true to his father's vision would not let the rights to any of the material beyond LOTR and The Hobbit go to any studio easily. Those two had already had the rights sold long long ago and there is nothing to be done about that. I had heard there were to be two films to come, one being The Hobbit and the other being something else presumably between The Hobbit and LOTR to bridge the gap between the two, perhaps being called The Hobbit 2 or something of the sort. It would be unclear what material it would draw from since they would be hard pressed to procure the rights to anything else. Who would then write such a thing? This all being said Children of Hurin sounds as if it might make as good a film as anything else in all the Middle Earth material, but then again I'm not under the impression that Christopher was particularly impressed or pleased with Peter Jackson's films or any of the earlier cartoon films and hard core Tolkien fans were often not very pleased with changes Jackson made to the stories. I myself have mixed feelings, but can see why some of that might have been done. Other genre fans I know agree that some if not most of the changes helped make it better or at least more popular for today's audiences. Jackson's involvement is important to the majority of these folks, but if he cannot be brought in bacause of a falling out with the studio then someone else whom we might trust such as Raimi might do very well. There is a lot of debate about the "everyman" aspect of these books and Star Wars and that seems to be a valid point. Just as seemingly valid is the so called cumbersome writing style that Tolkien used. Hey he wrote this stuff as if it was a history and all og the notes he left concerning Middle Earth were details of things that happened or were in existence. It is praiseworthy that Christopher could have compiled all of this in any form that would make sense to any of us. Who could know better that he his father's vision of this fantasy world? The Hobbit and LOTR at least have character development that most of the rest lack. I mean the whole LOTR story takes up about a paragraph in The Silmarillion, which only mentions the few details that are important in light of the history of Middle Earth. How would you ever turn such a thing into a film. You would have to make a huge series of films and have other writers flesh out all the personal details of characters who were involved. Who could do that and remain true to any vision of this world even remotely similar to Tolkien's. Personally I skip around in The Silmarillion just reading of parts that strike my interest, but it's like reading a historical textbook with fantasy elements.

"Heroes: The Fix" - Feb 01, 2007 - 11:51am
This is the only show going right now that I simply cannot wait for the next episode every single week! The thing about having to cover all of these characters is first that they each have so little interaction with each other and if they have any at all it is fleeting. They all have interesting stories they are playing out although some drag at times, but really the problem will always be that some of these stories are more interesting than others. When a character's story does drag you may decide to cut down their screen time some, but to eliminate them on screen altogether leaves one wondering what is happening to them or wondering why we haven't seen them in a while. The other thing of course is since we have so many characters to cover we really do not make that much progress overall. As for Nikki/Jessica, how much do we know of her power? Is it possible that she somehow absorbed her sister's persona when she died? That would suggest she really isn't sick at all, but actually has two people (or two spirits) inside her now and if I were Jessica I would be pissed and cynical about what happened to me and who to trust and that force may be the only answer. Is it then possible that Nikki/Jessica isn't just superpowerful when Jessica is in control, but powerful all the time. The other possibility of course is that Jessica had her own power that manifests only when she is in control. That would leave Nikki's power as somehow adding a dying person's spirit or whatever to her own. At this point I'm also expecting that Hiro's father/George Takei also has some sort of power too.

"Bond 22" Update - Jan 30, 2007 - 11:23am
Things had gotten too silly since Roger Moore took over as Bond to the point where it was so out of control they were forcing Pierce Brosnan to do things that didn't feel right to him for the character. All the gadgets reminded me over and over again of a kid with a new toy. He might as well have been Maxwell Smart or Austin Powers as we were leaning this way by this time and victory seemed more a matter of luck too often. After Jason Bourne's films came along these were just looking so weak. I began remembering the Ian Fleming books I read and how this just didn't compare. Sean Connery and George Lazenby had done better than this and even James West on the Wild Wild West. Here was a guy who when he fought fought dirty and fought to win. He was kind of a small guy, but he was tough like a wolverine. They really messed this up in the Will Smith movie as they made that one weak like Bond had become. Of course the Q of that show was Artemis Gordon. Updating the Casino Royale story for today looks like a good move now. Here we have a Bond who is computer saavy enough to be a pretty good hacker. In fact if anything Bond seemed to be a bit on the nerdy side, but built for toughness with the brutal mentality you need for this job. Here he has not developed the sauveness that we've seen before, but he is quick to get right to it as a killer would. We did see him here with a weakness for a certain lady, but now maybe that is stamped out perhaps for good or until the remake of On Her Majesty's Secret Service (if that ever happens). Perhaps this death is what spurs him on to remaining detached even when he can get so close to the lady of the moment. I don't think you need a whole lot of Q or Moneypenny, but I imagine they'll be along from time to time when appropriate. Here we have an M that is only concerned of the wellbeing of her agent as long as he's useful and can drop and replace him when necessary, but she's honest with him too. Certain elements of this remind me of Dexter and his father.

"Heroes'" Sylar is Misunderstood? - Jan 29, 2007 - 07:20pm
I would think that Peter absorbed during his meeting with "Sylar" his ability to understand the workings of things like watches and the brain, but that doesn't mean he knew how to use that ability as "Sylar" has learned to do. It would seem that it did have some affect on Peter though, but we don't know how long the powers Peter absorbs lasts. There are lots of possibilities on how Peter's and "Sylar's" powers work and how each of their powers affects their respective brains. It appears that all of these powers are caused by changes in the brain and controlled by the brain as evidenced by Claire's power not working until she had the wooden spike taken out of her head.

"Heroes'" Sylar is Misunderstood? - Jan 29, 2007 - 07:14pm
The thing about serial killers is a matter of the normal course of a person's development going wrong in some way. Whether that is a problem in the mind in some organic way like schizophrenia or autism or some environmental things involving trauma or being brought up completely differently or a combination of all of these things. In the case of "Sylar" he fixed broken watches, but his power wasn't just to fix watches but the brain as well. It is debatable whether or not the differences in people's brains on this constitute broken or not. Certainly the brains are different in some way. Maybe every one of them has a difference that is different from all others. As for Charlie didn't she have some brain tumor or something. In this case her brain was broken in that way or maybe it was really just what some doctor thought the difference in her brain was. As for "Sylar's" ability to alter or fix his brain to take on other's abilities. It seems he has to see what the difference is to make that change in his own brain, but is he constantly making a change in his brain everytime he wants to use a specific power. In other words does he just have one or a limited number of powers at once or has he made numerous changes that are all permanent? It would seem that some of these changes would overlap or nullify each other or reak some other kind of havok in his mind.

James McAvoy joins "Star Trek XI"? - Jan 27, 2007 - 09:29pm
We'd sooner see Matt Damon or even Ben Affleck as Kirk before Brad Pitt, but really we like the guys on New Voyages, James Cawley and Jeffrey Quinn as Kirk and Spock. We think Gary Sinise would be good as McCoy and AngelaBassett or even Jada Pinkett-Smith as Uhura, but not Rosario Dawson. James McAvoy might be great as Scotty too. Still thinking about Chekov and Sulu. Of course it all depends on what period in their careers we are looking at. I'm getting the impression we may be jumping around in time or something and who knows how many of our friends will be appearing anyway. At the time of Where No Man Has Gone Before only Spock, Scotty, Sulu and curiously Lt Leslie. Of those only Spock was in The Cage pilot episode serving under Captain Pike, so the only one who served on the Enterprise for sure when Kirk took command was Spock. Any of these others may or may not have been present. The Doctor was likely either Dr Phillip Boyce (from The Cage) or Dr Mark Piper (from Where No Man...). Number One could still be first officer and we could still have a Lt Jose Tyler or Yeoman J M Colt still serving or we could see Communications Officer Alden, Lee Kelso, Lt Commander Gary Mitchell or Yeoman Smith. We might only see McCoy, Uhura or Rand if Kirk happened to know them personally from Star Fleet Academy or when he served on the USS Farragut or the USS Republic. It is possible we could see Kirk's brother George Samuel Kirk Jr or other members of his family etc

Katie Holmes drops out of "The Dark Knight" - Jan 27, 2007 - 12:38pm
This seems rather strange to me. Here she was ok in Batman Begins, but nothing to get excited about, but then too many fans thought she was bad for the part and yet they were going to give her a small role anyway. I'm sure Tom and her talked about it and thought it wasn't right for her, so here we have her leaving as a result of her own choice instead of hanging around for no good reason. As far as I'm concerned the only women you'd expect to hang around are Vicki Vale, Catwoman and Batgirl (and she shouldn't be around near the beginning). No one else should even have Bruce Wayne's/Batman's attention for more than the moment it takes to save their lives. Katie Holmes should be the past that is overwith. So good and thanks for that Katie.

James McAvoy joins "Star Trek XI"? - Jan 27, 2007 - 12:24pm
Has it really been confirmed that Matt Damon will play Kirk or is that still up in the air and speculation. It sounds like this news about James McAvoy playing Scotty isn't certain either and now speculation on Zachary Quinto playing Spock?!? I am amazed at all the speculation it makes one's head spin. I'm not going to worry about this until they actually confirm who's playing whom. As to this stuff about the original series being the last three years of the five year mission. I think that is specualation too, but perhaps based on some evidence. If you say the episode Where No Man Has Gone Before was from early in Kirk's career as captain. Perhaps the first year soon after taking command after Captain Pike left as the similarities between that episode and the original pilot The Cage are striking and later episodes seem to zip ahead in time a bit perhaps even two years as personnel have changed and uniforms as well and even though there were further changes they were much more gradual. You can also say there was a significant period of time between the last episode and the first movie and then again between the first and second movies. Of course the proposed second series that folded into the first film would have occurred in there somewhere. Some of this talk may come from novels, which is not exactly Star Trek canon. And then you could put the cartoon series into the last year or two of the mission as well.

"Battlestar Galactica: Rapture" - Jan 24, 2007 - 01:03pm
To me this episode just quickly wrapped up a lot of loose ends. Yeah things felt rushed and too neat and tidy, but it also felt like they were brushing away this first half of the season that hadn't gone over all that well with fans for the new offerings to come. Lucy Lawless was always just a guest star anyway and it always felt that she'd come out of nowhere to have too important a role because of who she is personally only to lead to this way of getting her out of the way for a while or until we decide to have her back as a guest star. I don't know that I was looking forward to seeing Athena hanging around on the basestar. I think she would have been very limited in what she could have done. It was interesting for her to meet up with her former Galactica counterpart and see the extreme differences in their attitudes and then to see how this number six (called Caprica) reacts. It seems she had had enough of all the stuff D'Anna had been pulling with Baltar even though she just stood around and ate that #$%^. It always seemed that her priority was the baby even though she seemed to feel some jealousy about it. Now I think Caprica on the Galactica is more interesting than Athena on the cylon basestar so I can get over that neat and tidy plot twist. I think this series has always been full of that sort of plot points of convenience. Otherwise I see no reason to believe the cylons wouldn't have wiped them out long ago. I still believe they could do it whenever they chose to. I also thing the president should die before they get to earth. Assuming they ever do get to earth.

Eric Roberts joins "Heroes" - Jan 24, 2007 - 12:44pm
I choose to give these shows and their writers etc the benefit of the doubt on these little inconsistentsies. The first thing of course was that this episode did take place two weeks later after Sylar did in poor Eden. In my opinion he did try to escape and was stopped. We just didn't see it all. This is what they did to Sylar afterwards. A secret corporate operation like this one has connections, which I do not think will be stopped by borders. To me that just stated how formidable they could be. I don't assume that the Haitian is the only operative that Bennet has left even if it looks that way now. Last we are worried about a case being unlocked that when we looked at it after the fact didn't in fact contain anything valuable anyway and an alarm did go off as I remember. Who knows what is going on here, but it appears to me that Lindeman knew that Hiro would be coming for the sword, left a message and made it easy for him for whatever purpose. Back in the '60's and '70's and perhaps longer Marvel comics had their readers so involved with the creative process that they actually invited readers to report errors in the story and then to come up with creative explanations why these errors were in fact not errors at all. They then would receive a coveted no prize. I would rather speculate about why these inconsistencies fit into the grander scheme of things than nit pick a show I like into cancellation. One of two things is always happening in these things either the writers made an oversight or they have some reason for these things. In reality stranger things have happened as it is often said that truth is stranger than fiction. How air tight do these plots have to be anyway. No one here is perfect. Oh ye of little faith. I think that we've seen so many of these shows get cancelled before they really have a chance we expect it to happen and we do not get involved emotionally and instead come up with all manner of reason why we shouldn't. Just relax the show will run as long as the powers that be let it. We can just enjoy it while it lasts. When it gets flat it will be cancelled, but that time is not yet. I do want to see what is going to happen with Niki/Jessica aka the She-Hulk as well as everyone else. I am also looking forward to perhaps find out how Sylar was able to do that to Eden and then not escape. I could care less about the roaches. No one ever said this place was air tight anyway, but roaches have a way of getting in wherever they like. They do sometimes get quite big if the infestation is not controlled and here it appears that no one cares that the roaches are crawling over Sylar. I've always liked Eric Roberts to some degree. I don't see why we have to worry about his sister. It is an interesting idea to have the former Dr Who knock the Master one for a relatively poor showing in the Dr Who movie concerning his previous incarnation. I believe there are audio stories concerning the adventures of that Dr Who (Paul McGann, the eighth incarnation) and novels too that lead up to the Eccleston (Ninth) Doctor.

Next James Bond Book Title: "Double or Die" - Jan 04, 2007 - 12:09pm
Now that they've finally done a film based on the first Ian Fleming title it would seem to be a good time to continue on through some of the Gardner titles. Licence Renewed seems like a good place to start. Granted it doesn't seem like it makes a huge difference making films that titles don't come from any of the books because most of the later Ian Fleming titled films were his in name alone as the film didn't often have much to do with the book it was based on. Still I'd like to see a Colonel Sun titled film as well as any of the last few Ian Fleming short stories. I would prefer to keep the basic plot lines from the books even if things are updated. I think the adventures of a young James Bond is rather silly though, but may be ok for teens. I'm not interested in films based off of that though.

J.J. Abrams says "Star Trek XI" in 2008 - Dec 15, 2006 - 02:29pm
On the contrary Berman and Braga rarely did anything that was up to the vision of TOS. They tended towards the polished, plastic Hollywood style that rarely takes risks. I agree with what someone said about there being too many humanoids that just had extra ridges on their face to distinguish them from us.

J.J. Abrams says "Star Trek XI" in 2008 - Dec 15, 2006 - 06:12am
I have long wondered what happened to Arex and M'Ress. As for insectoid beings I would like to see more of the Tholians, Species 8472 or the insect Xinti. It seems there should be other similar beings around somewhere in the Federation. Also I have long wondered why there were a number of energy based life forms encountered in TOS and so few since. Also creatures like the cloud creature in Obsession or the creature from the Immunity Syndrome I found very interesting, but I don't recall anything much on this level since the crystalline entity. I have long wondered where the Doomsday Machine came from or what did Nomad and V'ger run into that changed them. Could that have anything to do with the Borg? One of the things I always found interesting about TOS is how anything could be possible out there in space and it was very often very dangerous. Kirk got through by the skin of his teeth all the time through wits and guts. What happened to all of that since? Only occasionally do we see anything approaching the early days in the later days. I personally don't care if this film has nothing to do with Kirk, Spock or the Enterprise nor do I care if it has appearances by any actors or actresses that I've ever heard of. I would prefer some fresh young talents whom I do not already associate with other parts anyway.

J.J. Abrams says "Star Trek XI" in 2008 - Dec 14, 2006 - 04:59pm
There are so many rumors about what is going to be in this film it makes my head spin. At one point I read it was going to concern the Romulan War and at one point Ben Affleck was going to be in it. I don't know about this Star Fleet Academy days thing, but I was under the impression that Kirk and Spock were not going to have starring roles. I imagined Kirk as a kid. The rumor that Matt Damon is going to be in it just goes along with the Ben Affleck rumor and it seems to me that people give that one more credence only because they like Matt better and feel he'd be better than Ben. In any case all of this sounds like the days when they were planning a second Star Trek series with a new Captain, a new alien and a new vulcan. Then they cancelled that and made a movie where they killed all three of them off. Ultimately that film was not all that satisfying, but the Wrath of Kahn rocked. Everything was going fine until they decided to bring back Spock, kill off Kirk's son and lose Kirstie Alley as Saavik because they didn't have the foresight to sign her up for multiple films. TNG did alright once it found it's groove and DS9 had the Dominion War, which didn't entirely satisfy. Now folks want to bring back Kirk because he didn't die the right way and Data can never be the same again after Nemesis. It wasn't until the last season of Enterprise that I once again consistently found myself awaiting each episode as I had back in the '60's. Something that had only happened occasionally since TOS. Right now I feel this occasionally with some of the fan fiction out there. Now I'm hoping that JJ does something completely new with new interesting characters, but with the spirit of the original. I would try to consult with some of the people from TOS and Wrath of Kahn as well as Manny Coto on what that spirit really is.

"Heroes: Six Month’s Ago” - Nov 30, 2006 - 12:15pm
I have to say that Nathan's flying from the car just then was like a reflex reaction and that he was completely surprised and even seemed to be trying to return to the car, but as he had not learned to control his flying he was unable. I have to think he feels guilt over this, but at the same time tries to hide it as if it is something wrong with him. He may even in the future act against other super powered people like himself. That his brother is superpowered also should have an effect on this, but he has already acted against his brother most obviously when he tried to destroy the painting so Peter couldn't see it. It is interesting that Nikki's power may not be just some Jekyll/Hyde thing, but rather a connection with her dead sister. I'm not so sure that Hiro cannot change the past just because he couldn't save Charlie. This blood clot in the brain or brain tumor is a problem that any or all of them could have. It seems clear that Sylar can see how things work whether it is a watch or someone's brain and then can fix things so they work better. It then is reasonable to assume he is rewiring his own brain to take on more and more of these powers. I had thought that when Peter confronted Sylar he would take on Sylar's powers, but if that is only to see how things work and rewire things it doesn't help Peter in a fight with Sylar much unlike Claire's ability to heal. Theoretically Sylar could also save someone like Charlie by fixing her brain too. At this point I am interested in seeing just how saving Claire changes everything. Perhaps if she were to die her father would take some sort of vengeance or perhaps it has to do with the guy who puts out radiation or both or maybe it does make Sylar unstoppable. Even now he's pretty formidable.

Sam Raimi offered "The Hobbit" - Nov 25, 2006 - 07:24pm
When I first heard they were going to do The Hobbit I thought it would be nice to get Peter Jackson id only to cool the jets of so many fans who would be ready to protest, but ya know there are qute a few hard-core Tolkein fans that did not like some of the changes Jackson made to the story. I found myself missing some things as well, but found the films fine as Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings not Tolkein's. Now I know Tolkein's son doesn't want his father's works filmed at all, but the movie rights to Lord of the Rngs and The Hobbit were sold long ago. I find myself wondering what exactly could be in a second Hobbit movie to lead up to Lord of the Rings and I also think on things that appeared in the Lord of the Rings films that were not from those books, but actually from material that no studio has any right to as far as I know, so what material can they use here? Now we all know that the Hobbit itself is very much different from Lord of the Rings. It really isn't such an epic tale for one thing or at least it doesn't compare to LOTR in that sense and perhaps it needs a director with a different vision anyway. Sam Raimi might just be fine. It would be like the difference between the first couple Harry Potter films and the last couple. It might be more than just nice to have Ian play Gandalf again, but just as you've mentioned Dumbledoor, I would say Dumbledoor may not be a big deal to some, but he is to others. As far as Bilbo it would be like Obi-Wan Kenobi being played by the same guy or even Aniken "Darth Vader" Skywalker himself. Maybe this will be great maybe it will be awful. I refuse to pre-judge such a thing until we see the finished product. Here we are likely to see some of Sam Raimi's favorite people rather than Peter Jackson's though. Perhaps even Bruce Campbell. As long as this doesn't get too far off into what someone here calls snarky. If you've seen Army of Darkness you know how it can get. As far as Spielburg hmmm. Somehow he seems a bit too much like Disney to me and I know that Tolkein pretty much loathed Disney. I'm sure C.S. Lewis is rolling over in his grave as well over Narnia. Lewis and Tolkein corresponded while they were working on their respective tales, so there are comparisons. Whether that would work or not to me depends entirely on Spielberg's vision for it. This is in a way a story for kids, but not to the extent that we've seen Narnia and Harry Potter made.

"Heroes: Homecoming" - Nov 25, 2006 - 06:45pm
I agree that Nikki/Jessica is a Dr Bruce Banner/Hulk rip off which itself rips off Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde. So what! I wonder if and when Nikki might gain some sort of control over her alter ego. Her husband seems like less of a bad guy than she is. I also don't care about the hype, but I was going around saying save the cheerleader, save the world for weeks. It was fun. I don't care that it didn't deliever on it's promises this episode, but I paid no attention to what they promised anyway. This show more than any other right now I just can't wait to see the latest episode. Hiro is the most fun of all. How cool was it when he came back from the future as ninja-Hiro. Now I suppose that New York City is supposed to get blown up by the guy giving off radiation. Perhaps it is set off by his death or something and I suppose that Claire is the only one that will be able to survive getting close to him besides Peter who would need to have Claire nearby anyway. Reminds me of the guy in the Global Frequency pilot.

Masi Oka talks NBC's HEROES - Oct 18, 2006 - 05:33pm
Well even if he did have sex with the dead girl she was all cut open. I seriously doubt any fetus survives that. Meanwhile it seems that her spontaneous regeneration doesn't work while there is a stick jammed into her brain. This suggests that all of these powers operate under the control of the brain and do not just work by themselves. This would then seem to have to do with why Sylar goes for the brain. It's cool to see ninja Hiro appear. I guess we always knew he could just appear from the future whenever he wants. This means that anyone killed is not necessarily permanently dead if Hiro wants to do something about it. Whatever happens Hiro has certainly gotten serious about it and lost weight too besides whatever apparent martial arts training he's received.

Tracklisting of STYX album revealed - Oct 18, 2006 - 08:02am
Well this does not contain any of their top hits: Babe, the Best of Times, Mr Roboto, Show Me the Way, Lady, Don't Let It End and Come Sail Away instead opting for it's second tier hits Too Much Time On My Hands, Renegade, Blue Collar Man and Fooling Yourself. The North American release has A Criminal Mind instead of I Don't Need No Doctor. Everything All the Time and Just Be are the new tunes. The DVD has all of these plus both A Criminal Mind and I Don't Need No Doctor and also Lorelei (another second tier hit) and a medley that contains Put Me On, Mademoiselle, Heavy Metal Poisoning, Midnight Ride, Sing For the Day, Shooz, Queen of Spades, Great White Hope, Half Penny Two Penny, Borrowed Time, Rockin' the Paradise, Lights and Man in the Wilderness. Sing for the Day, Mademoiselle and Borrowed Time were some of their third tier hits. There are also two bonus tracks here: Ring the Bells and All I Want. The CD is due to be released in North America on November 7th, the DVD on November 21st. They plan to broadcast it on HDNet on November 19th and also on PBS in November as well.

Masi Oka talks NBC's HEROES - Oct 18, 2006 - 07:29am
I to find that I just can't hardly wait for the next episode of this. I've gotten that feeling at times with Battlestar Galactica and Lost, but this one seems to be more consistent at least so far. It feels a bit like Lost at times. I had the same idea as Mishrak after watching Sylar get apparently shot, fall down and then get up and fly. I suppose that you could explain most or all of this with telekinesis, but I just think this guy is supposed to be powerful enough that one hero alone would not have a chance at this point. So far it appears he may steal his powers from taking other heroes brains somehow in which case as he tracks down more heroes he would become more and more powerful. Of course Hiro could just go back in time and reverse these killings and thus take away Sylar's powers one by one. Hiro is easily my favorite he is so excited about being a hero and doing good. The others are interesting in their struggles to deal with their powers. Next thing you know Cheerleader Girl Claire will be put through a woodchipper and then regenerate together again within minutes. I suspect that whatever mutant genes that our heroes pass on cause rather random abilities and even if Claire were pregnant a fetus wouldn't survive the damage she's likely to take and survive unless her body somehow protects the baby as a temporary part of her body. That could go a number of ways really. Probably she was dead enough so she wouldn't conceive anyway or perhaps he body protects her from something that would cause changes in her body like pregnancy or cancer or anything the body considers abnormal. Lots of directions to speculate on this. We'll have to wait and see if these questions are ever answered.

You Can't Please Everyone... - Oct 16, 2006 - 01:10pm
I don't think Heroes moves too slow. Besides it's hooked me with a variety of mysteries. Besides I'm wondering if Ali Larter's eyes bulge when she becomes outraged and then her skin turns green like the She-Hulk. We all like the japanese guy best. Hiro is an ironic name for him, but the guy is just so into being a super-hero that you gotta love him. Fast healing girl looks to be heading into big trouble and she is extremely accident prone. What's up with the super-powered psycho/serial killer and can that guy actually fly like his brother or did he just copy his brother's power somehow. I'm also looking forward to seeing Jericho and what's the story with the supposed ex-cop from St Louis. I love post-apocalyptic stuff, but this is different somehow. There seems to be some kind of conspiracy involved perhaps something like the theories that went with JFK's assassination and the theories on 9/11 so it's not just a remake of The Day After. As for what to include in this column; just list any genre shows on any channel that are new /first run shows and films and any re-runs that you think are worthy of catching and anything else you happen to personally be watching.

Weekend Box Office Report: Got Grudge? - Oct 16, 2006 - 12:52pm
I'm surprised The Grudge 2 topped The Departed this week. The Departed clearly is the best film in this list and possibly the only film worth catching in the theater. The Marine sounds like Commando, Man of the Year looks something like Good Morning Vietnam. The Grudge and Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake were ok, so I plan to wait for the sequel and prequel of same to come out on DVD. I could always watch Ju-on 2 or TCM 2 or 3 and be better off anyway.

Ali Larter talks HEROES - Oct 15, 2006 - 05:21pm
To fuck this schizo probably means ending up in an unmarked mass grave by the side of some back road somewhere. I wonder if she turns green when she changes like the she-hulk. I thought Mutant X was just ok. Nothing I couldn't miss or anything. It was a lot of unrealized potential something like Dark Angel and Birds of Prey both of which I liked better. Heroes seems better than any of them something like the 4400.

Silver Surfer pictures online - Oct 15, 2006 - 05:16pm
I agree that Doom didn't seem to be an imposing enough figure. He should be like Darth Vader who I imagine is based off of Dr Doom anyway. A booming voice would have helped a lot. Did they think that just because Julian McMahon was a demon on Charmed that he could pull this off too? It's ok that they changed him from ruler of some small rich country to the ruler of some rich corporation. I guess it's close enough, but I wasn't so into his origin being so closely linked to the FF. I know there are connections, but this connections brings up complications in future storylines. Oh well I imagine they will work on this, so in the meantime just up his presence without going too far over the top. Yes, I've read some issues of FF that we all could have done without and I don't really expect much from super-hero movies that have to deal with the origin first anyway. It always feels like two episodes in one. I always felt that once you got by the FF origin story things would look up, so I'm happy they even want to make a sequel here. It can only get better I think.

Ali Larter talks HEROES - Oct 14, 2006 - 11:09am
Now that sounds like it might end up being like something out of Hostel. My advise don't ever sleep with anyone crazier than yourself.

Silver Surfer pictures online - Oct 14, 2006 - 11:02am
I know Uwe Boll never worries about continuity. He has his own vision of how a film should work and what he thinks is popular. It is a very juvenile vision! He has been known to fire people who point out these continuity flaws and tell him what the public will like when it conflicts with his vision. All he wants are yes men around him not someone that is interested in making a good film. I imagine he even edits his films himself rather than trust someone who could do a good job. The FF crew did a much much better job than that. There may be a few continuity flaws, but there usually are a few in movies like these, but at least it is fun. At times it is a bit too campy, but the stuff between Ben and Johnny is a bit campy anyway. As is Ben's interactions with the Yancy Street Gang. At least they did a good job with that. I can also excuse Susan's immaturity as she has to adjust to and fret over her powers as long as she gets over that. I was looking for Reed to rise to the occasion and become stronger and a leader that can bring this mess together. Maybe I was expecting that to happen too fast. With a Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner film in development I was expecting the FF with him before seeing the Silver Surfer and Galactus. So this could have been a lot worse with Boll at the helm. Hopefully Marvel will let none of their properties fall into his hands!

Silver Surfer pictures online - Oct 13, 2006 - 08:20pm
We can say about pretty near every film, "it could be worse, it could be done by Uwe Bol!" I didn't have a huge problem with them changing Doom it's just the actors in this were over the top consistently as if highlighting the characteristics of each one as defined in the comics. It literally was the comics come to life, it might as well have been the Incredibles. I know we don't all have the same vision as far as the way things should have been, but this was not very near the vision I hhad hoped for. It was mostly fun though. I just found Reed annoying, Susan a bit too immature and silly to be called the Invisible Woman. Invisible Girl? fine! Johnny was immature too, but you expect that with him and Ben was fine. He really is smarter than he appears. Dr Doom just didn't feel right to me, I can't put my finger on it. Maybe many people found him fine.

JERICHO gets picked up for full season - Oct 13, 2006 - 08:07pm
I like Friday Night Lights so far. It's like the movie without copying it exactly. I know it won't be like Six Feet Under which I miss, but I hope Dexter will be interesting. I'm going to check it out when I get the chance. I never worried too much about Hurley not losing weight. For one thing he was binging every chance he got. Second, if he does stop eating his body will go into fat storage mode anyway. He really has to eat a healthier diet and exercise and then he'll lose weight fine. It's not like the folks on Survivor who have a strict diet and compete in competitions and gather food and work on their shelter etc. I always thought the Skipper on Gilligan's Island had plenty to eat also at least most of the time. He was pretty lazy too as he got Gilligan to do most of the work.

Silver Surfer pictures online - Oct 13, 2006 - 11:44am
I agree that Dr Doom and Reed Richards were not right in the first film. Reed was just plain annoying. I personally think the Human Torch, the Thing and Invisible Girl were a bit off as well, but not bad. I hope it is just a matter of growing into these parts and getting used to it. I knew once the Incredibles came out and they spoke of re-shooting and changing some things that they were in trouble with this. If you have that much confidence in your product you just do not worry about what others are doing. At least this is fun in it's own way especially with Jessica Alba in there and is much better than Roger Corman's version. I'm hoping some of the problems of the first film can be ironed out here. We know the Surfer isn't going to be green, but this pic gives some idea of the surfing the airways shots.

JERICHO gets picked up for full season - Oct 13, 2006 - 11:27am
I like this show ok, but I've always been interested in this post-apocalyptic genre. As for new shows I prefer Heroes and I still like Battlestar Galactica and Lost. I was wondering if anyone has an opinion on Dexter and if that is worth watching. What is it about Criminal Minds that makes it so good? I take it it's not just some CSI show.

Ali Larter talks HEROES - Oct 13, 2006 - 11:20am
Now if you'll excuse me I'm gearing up for Battlestar Galactica tonight!

Ali Larter talks HEROES - Oct 13, 2006 - 11:19am
When I see yummy associated with someone I think back to the Joe Shmoe Show where they were licking chocolate off of some stripper. Now I might do this with my girlfriend or wife, but it seems sort of gross with some random person you don't even know no matter how hot they look. People get all sorts of nasty illnesses this way.

Ali Larter talks HEROES - Oct 13, 2006 - 11:15am
I'm watching both Jericho and Heroes so far and I prefer Heroes. The only problem I've had so far is that that little cheerleader girl seems so accident prone or she attracts accidents or something. It's a good thing she heals every injury so fast or she'd be dead a couple times over. Of course just because she heals doesn't mean she's invincible. Throw her in a vat of acid and see how invincible she is. It may take a while to dissolve her, but she'll either be gone or she'll heal so fast that she can climb out of the vat and then really heal and if she's unconscious can she keep healing indefinitetly? Healing also doesn't help her if she gets grappled down and tied up. She needs to learn to fight, wrestle etc and build up her muscle and agility. Now I know Ali Larter looks hot, but she is a person and I would prefer not to see all the objectifying comments. I can sense the drool. Maybe that is asking too much though. I know it is a natural thing for a lot of people, but at least try to rise above that lower nature a little bit. We are really meant for nobler things. I know that it is mostly instigated by the hot photo here anyway.

Galactus is in FANTASTIC FOUR sequel - Oct 07, 2006 - 04:25pm
I remember all the Secret Wars stuff more or less, but I remember one story that had Galactus returning to Earth and starving for energy. He was so weak that he didn't feed on Earth, but just passed out into a coma. Various aliens from other worlds that had been destroyed by Galactus heard of this and came to try Galactus for his so-called crimes. At least they were crimes to these people. They wanted to punish him for the things he had done. Reed Richards as I remember defended Galactus and was able to put across something about the reasons for Galactus' existence. In the end Galactus was revived and was brought to a place to re-energize without loss of life. The Surfer as Galactus' herald tended to lead Galactus to uninhabited planets, but other heralds that Galactus had after the Surfer did not care about life being lost. To some degree the responsibility fell on the herald as the herald had more of a connection to life in the universe than Galactus. These things tend to beneath other beings similar to Galactus such as Eternity, the Living Tribunal, The Watcher etc. The Beyonder was to some degree like this as well.

Galactus is in FANTASTIC FOUR sequel - Oct 06, 2006 - 09:29pm
This kind of discussion can get extremely philosophical and religious and can get extremely difficult because different people have entirely different perspectives on these things. One may completely get what I'm talking about while the next may think it insane or non-sensical it all depends on what one believes to be true. Truth is relative and all things proceed from one's own vision.

Galactus is in FANTASTIC FOUR sequel - Oct 06, 2006 - 09:25pm
The Watchers were almost similar in certain ways, but instead of going around consuming planets they just studied and watched the course of events through the universe with some higher understanding of how one thing here affected another on the other side of the universe, so changing the course of events in one place could bring about a bigger disaster some place else in the cosmic order of the universe and Eternity.

Galactus is in FANTASTIC FOUR sequel - Oct 06, 2006 - 09:22pm
To make Galactus an evil being to me suggests a profound lack of understanding about what Galactus is all about. I seem to remember that Galactus was the last of his race. A race that acieved the ultimate in knowledge, but then he transcended in some fashion and then there was the hunger for energy. He apparently has some great importance in the workings of the universe and seems to know of his own importance and why he must survive. Consuming a planet was never anything personal you just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Galactus is in FANTASTIC FOUR sequel - Oct 06, 2006 - 09:18pm
realities beyond a humans ability to perceive. In the Hindu religion there is a trinity of God. One of those aspects of God is the destroyer. Likewise we see this in the story of Noah and the Ark and in other instances in the Bible and in other religions as well. There has always been a lack of understanding as to why God allows humans to suffer and die in earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis and other natural disasters as well as man made disasters such as war and terrorism etc. Some think God an evil being, but there is no real understanding. Messengers have come from God like Christ for example to help us understand a little of what we are capable of understanding and to help us with the circumstances of the day and what we need to know to go on to the so-called kingdom of heaven instead of being lost in hell. In any case Galactus always seemed to me to be ammoral as far as our own concepts were concerned. He fed when he had to just as we would feed on animals when we must, but Galactus is much like a force of nature. He has no feeling about us any way you look at it. To attract his attention at all you have to infringe somehow on a higher level and that is dangerous for beings like us who do not understand the first thing about such things. It is like an atomic bomb in the hands of a monkey how you normally would pay little attention to, but suddenly is very important when he is about to set the thing off.

Galactus is in FANTASTIC FOUR sequel - Oct 06, 2006 - 09:17pm
There are two ways to look at evil. One is that evil doesn't really exist in that all it really is is the absence of good just as darkness doesn't really exist and is only the absence of light. Another way of looking at evil is as being relative to some standard that is relative according to the perspective of the beholder. In this case truth is relative and it proceeds from one's own vision. In our society what is considered good and what is considered evil is in accordance with the standards of the society and this has changed down through the ages. Now Galactus is considered to be a god-like being. Any god=like being is considered in a different kingdom than humans just as minerals are in a different kingdom from vegatables or plants and just as plants are in a different kingdom from animals and animals are in a different kingdom from humans. Humans are able to reason while animals only act in accordance with their natures. Because of our reasoning ability we are able to resist our natures and act differently if we so choose. In other words we can act as more than an animal. As civilization has advanced so too has the standard of behavior and what is considered evil and we have found reasons to suspend our natures for higher purposes than just what we want now. From experience we can project results that may not be in our best interests. The differences between these kingdoms is like the differences between the first dimension, second dimension, third dimension, fourth dimension and so on. A being that lives in a first dimension world cannot perceive the reality of a second dimension being except in it's limited first dimension terms and so on as the second dimension being cannot perceive the full reality of the third and so on. Likewise the mineral does not perceive the full reality of the plant, the plant does not perceive the full reality of the animal and the animal does not perceive the full reality of the human. Likewise a god-like being perceives real

Epps, Ortiz and Lewis join ALIEN VS PREDATOR: SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST - Oct 05, 2006 - 10:02pm
Yes, all of Paul Anderson's movies are just popcorn movies meant to be escapist fun and devoid of any real depth. I mean we are looking at Mortal Kombat, Resident Evil, Soldier, Event Horizon and Alien vs Predator. These all have flash as far as special effects, but are meant for the adolescent crowd. There was no surprise that AvP turned out the way it did. It is not the worst movie ever in my opinion nor is it considered the worst movie ever that honor goes to Plan 9 From Outer Space. I personally think all Uwe Boll movies or worse than anything Ed Wood ever dreamed of putting out. What he did to House of the Dead, Alone In the Dark and Bloodrayne was criminal and soon Dungeon Seige and Postal as well no doubt. As far as I'm concerned AvP is the past. It would have been nice if it was better, but it is what it is and all I can do is try to encourage the powers that be to do a better job in the future and hope and pray that it becomes so. If it doesn't work out so well it might be a bit disappointing, but there is always next time or not or some other film based on something else. In any case despite some folks insistence to mess up film after film there is always someone that puts out something worth while sooner or later.

Galactus is in FANTASTIC FOUR sequel - Oct 05, 2006 - 09:41pm
Yes Galactus is no more evil than nature. He just is what he is. Consumes energy because he must to survive. Galactus being evil is just wrong!

Epps, Ortiz and Lewis join ALIEN VS PREDATOR: SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST - Oct 05, 2006 - 12:15pm
The original AvP script was never made into a film.

Epps, Ortiz and Lewis join ALIEN VS PREDATOR: SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST - Oct 05, 2006 - 12:04pm
THEY kILLED DIZ!!!

Epps, Ortiz and Lewis join ALIEN VS PREDATOR: SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST - Oct 05, 2006 - 12:02pm
Also I want to see gobs of space marines ala Starship Troopers...

Epps, Ortiz and Lewis join ALIEN VS PREDATOR: SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST - Oct 05, 2006 - 12:00pm
AvP was in development hell ever since Predator 2. There was a script that involved Space Marines that would have worked fine and they even made a video game for the Jaguar system and later on for the PC. The Dark Horse adaptation was fine too. Things kinda went downhill with Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection somewhat until the stock was such that they basically went through the motions with AvP when it finally got greenlit. One thing that helped that happen was another popcorn favorite Freddy vs Jason. The humans were all just stereotypes waiting to be slaughtered like red-shirts. Even the heroine, who I did not see as any sort opf love interest to the Predator, was only competent in survival in this sort of geographical setting and not a warrior of any kind. The Predator had some respect for her only so far as that as she might be useful and it worked out, but she was not some Ripley or even a Vasquez substitute. A lot of things were done half-way in this film besides the humans and are too numerous to mention. It was fun as far as escapism, but fans were looking for so much more than that. Unfortunately the studio was not willing to spend the kind of money it would have taken to make this right. They apparently do not have or never did have the faith in this project or these days vision either to make this something great. I say lets find the Aliens origin world then lets see Aliens vs Predators on some alien outpost world somewhere, then let the Aliens get to Earth and have Predators show up to take them on. Perhaps there is still some far flung war between these races going on. If you like fill in some of the time between Predator 2 and Alien and show the space jockey and how the aliens got on that planet in the first place.

Galactus is in FANTASTIC FOUR sequel - Oct 05, 2006 - 11:27am
It went without saying that if the Silver Surfer was going to be in this that it was as a forerunner of Galactus. Now if you follow the story you could also see The Watcher appear although I imagine this is not so necessary to the story. The Silver Surfer is to Galactus what Christ is to God. The Silver Surfer can defeat the Fantastic Four alone. If Dr Doom is appearing it may be in a storyline that occurs after Galactus leaves exiling the Surfer to Earth where Doom tricks the Surfer and temporarily steals his power for his own. Perhaps this is important in combatting Galactus in this story, but I don't see that working well. In any case I don't care if Galactus looks anything like he does in the comics. All he has to be is God-like puny humans like us are beneath his notice even if they have relatively great power. Even the Surfer's power is as nearly nothing to Galactus. The only thing that stopped him was the Ultimate Nullifier a device capable of destroying even Galactus at the price of the user's own life. A device which should not fall into the hands of puny mortals. Galactus needs to be absolutely overwhelming. There clearly should be no chance in standing up against him. He has to be huge in size. Only the Surfer himself distracted Galactus even for a moment from the work of draining off the Earth's energy until the Ultimate Nullifier arrived upon the scene. Only then were these ants even worth speaking with.

Robert Downey Jr. is IRON MAN - Sep 30, 2006 - 07:18pm
Never been one of my favorite people/actors (much like my feeling for Tony Stark himself) although I've seen him in plenty of roles. He has never caused me to not watch a film because of his presence (again much like Iron Man himself). I remember the feelings I had regarding Fu Manchu films with Christopher Lee and miss that stuff. I always had the feeling that the Mandarin was a similar kind of character. I don't know how all the pieces are going to come together and how close that is going to be to the Iron Man story I remember and the Mandarin connections, but I'm feeling the potential is there so far. Now what will matter is who is playing The Mandarin and are they going to play this too far over the top in the cheese or will it work. Of course Iron Man himself must look right too.

Fox Casts Two for AVP 2 - Sep 25, 2006 - 01:12pm
Certainly Alien Vs Predator (the movie) was not great. The fast gestating aliens were just unforgivable. The film could have been longer with a lot more aliens fighting predators goodness. There are lots of complaints that these predators were not up to the level of what we saw in the Predator films as well. In any case I would still hope this second AVP film does a lot better even though I fear that Hollywood in it's infinite wisdom of reverting to the old tired tried and true and rarely if ever doing anything new and creative will find a way to screw up something that should be easy to make into something good. I don't know what happened in Batman vs Predator or Superman vs Alien or the video games, novels or pretty much anything else that was not in the films, but I have notions that there were some good things that happened between the more modern Predator, Alien vs Predator and Predator 2 and the futuristic Alien, Aliens, Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection. I wonder what the sory of the space jockey from Alien and how was it that the corporation knew to send Ripley and friends to that area where the planet was. Perhaps these were explained somewhere. I for one do not consider AVP the worst movie ever. It was disappointing, but I can think of literally hundreds of films much much worse than this starting with anything by Uwe Bol. The thing that makes this a travesty is that it is in the much loved Alien/Predator universe and that this film was long awaited and long chomped at the bit for and to have it not pan out very well at all is just crushing similar to the 1986 world series was for Red Sox fans. My hope is that there is a 2004 World Series for AVP fans at some point maybe not with this film, but even failures can lead to something good.

Fox Hires RINGS' Weta for SURFER - Sep 25, 2006 - 12:50pm
An almost Christ-like figure who would defend us despite all our flaws. The Fantastic Four were his first friends, but there were others. He made numerous attempts to leave Earth for long years before he finally was allowed to leave. Since then he has returned on occasion. Things didn't exactly work out for him when he tried to return home.

Fox Hires RINGS' Weta for SURFER - Sep 25, 2006 - 12:48pm
The Surfer began in the '60's on a peaceful planet that was a paradise. Galactus came to suck the life energy from this planet and then ended up making a deal with the Surfer to spare his world (and his love who lived there) as he was in need of a herald or scout to find suitable planets for him to suck the life out of. The Surfer was given incredible powers by Galactus and the Surfer searched for planets that had no intelligent life forms to minimize the loss of life at the hands of Galactus. Galactus did eventually find Earth even though the Surfer would attempt to lead him away from such planets and then had no choice, but to help Galactus feed. After meeting the Fantastic Four and realizing that humans on Earth had the same spiritual potential as people from his own world he decided to help even though it could mean forfetting hios own world to Galactus. Galactus was stopped due to a device known as the ultimate nullifier, but because of the Surfer's betrayal Galactus released him from service and confined him to Earth by means of a force field keyed to the Surfer which he could not pass. The Surfer then wandered the earth and witnessed the brutality that man sometimes committed on each other as well as the potential in bright moments. He was extremely spiritual and a pacifist, but also one of the most powerful beings on Earth comparable only to Thor, a god. He went through depression at times and was sometimes easily fooled and at times when riled his self-righteousness could be brutal. He had a logic which reminded me at times of Mr Spock and with all of this he was nothing but a surfer dude thin, agile and beautiful like a dancer. He was not powerless without his surf board, but he used it to fly and he had a mental control of it even from a distance almost like it was an extension of himself. In the '60's and '70's his story was a commentary on the state of mankind from the perspective of an innocent being that was perhaps higher than ourselves. An a

Fox Hires RINGS' Weta for SURFER - Sep 25, 2006 - 12:22pm
Are these special effects for a Silver Surfer film or special effects for Fantastic Four 2 or both?!?

Battlestar Galactica Recap Videos - Sep 20, 2006 - 11:22am
Ok has anyone yet heard why some of us had our accounts deleted last night? Most of the posts here got deleted as well as we went from 7 pages of messages to 2 in seconds.

Salli Richardson and Alice Braga join I AM LEGEND - Sep 20, 2006 - 11:19am
I personally thought Constantine was great, but a large number of people I know who usually like stuff in the genre hated it (perhaps it was Keanu) so I'm not sure this is a good thing as far as the film doing well. Having Will Smith in it also does not bode well. However hope springs eternal and hopefully I'll be pleasantly surprised.