Good news for Ginny, I guess

I don't know which I find more disturbing- the news that Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe is set to appear in a bizarre stage play about a mentally-disturbed boy who cavorts naked with horses and then stabs them in the eyes with a metal spike as a religious experience;

...or the fact that the director's comments regarding said nudity have set rumor mills abuzz regarding Radcliffe's, er... you know, the particular, uh, dimensions of... um, how much he's grown up. If you follow me. As the director put it, "We had never seen him with his clothes off before. We all went 'Wow!'"


.....


...you know, it's not like child stars growing up and trying to shed their wholesome images is anything new; but I think I can safely say, I could have happily lived the rest of my life without knowing either of those things. How about you?

What I'm Renting... er, Buying

Since our little blog here is partially for us to talk about more movie stuff, I thought I'd share a few DVD purchases I'd made lately. You know. Just because.


Wonder Boys - I finally, finally found a copy of this movie that didn't cost me $30. I'm also nervous about showing it to my wife after talking it up. I mean, I remember it being great, but it's been a while and who knows what the little movie gnomes have changed since then?

Dog Soldiers - My wife found a cheap copy of this on eBay. God bless eBay! After watching The Descent, I had a craving for the director's first -- and definitely funnier -- film.

Accepted - After renting this little college comedy last week, I knew I had to go buy it. It held up on a second viewing, although I haven't yet gotten around to writing a review for it.

Idiocracy - This was one of my "faith buys"; i.e. a movie I'd never actually seen, but purchased on faith along that it'd be good. The premise is interesting (a man gets cryogenically frozen and wakes up in the far future when society's dumbed us down through our dependance on merchandise), the reviews are great, and it's directed by Mike Judge (Office Space).

Scrubs Season One - Now I need season two, darnit!

Brick - 'Nuff said.

I usually don't buy this many movies at once, but I had a bit of leftover Christmas money and I decided to get some really good movies. I think I accomplished that.

Oscar Nominations

Because I always find this entertaining... Oscar nominations are out! Of course, I can't really comment much because I've seen so few of the movies. I suck.

Am very disappointed in the nominees for Best Picture, though. I've heard The Departed is good, but most of them look as dull as dishwater. :P

MRFH: Behind the Scenes!

Okay, it's not the most exciting thing in the world, but since blogs are all about dumping parts of our lives into your laps, I thought I'd share what an average week of MRFH-related work goes on.

Each of the staff submits material on their own time, sometimes in a batch, sometimes one thing at a time. These get thrown into a very special e-mail folder called "MRFH To Do", and I am a happy man when it overflows with submitted goodness. As for myself, I probably watch about 2-3 movies a week -- sometimes on the big TV with my wife, sometimes on my trusty portable 7" DVD player -- and hack out reviews when I have the time.

Back in the day, we used to update MRFH about 3 times a week, and these updates would take place in the evening. I've long since switched to morning updates as the process got more streamlined. Monday through Friday, I'll jump out of bed, shower and then spend a half hour getting an update online. Some of these go extremely fast, and some take some time, but an average review page takes about 20 minutes to gather graphics, information, and format. Although I jokingly call myself an editor, I only read through the material about once (due to the need to, you know, get to work) before it goes up.

Thursdays are more or less "article day", because articles take considerably longer to work up, and that's my day off of work for the week. Saturday updates depend on what I have going on -- sometimes I'll get an update out, sometimes not. I also lean more toward doing "grab bags" and other non-review/article updates on those days. Sunday, I have no underpants because of God, and we have no updates.

So, really, not terribly exciting, but always satisfying. I do enjoy uploading my reviews -- as would anyone -- and I really enjoy reading a staff-submitted review for the first time. The rule for review pages is that anyone who does a particular movie FIRST gets to do all the fun extras -- such as choosing the graphics/captions, the top page quote, the Mutant Meter and so on. Additional reviews can add to the extras but never take them away. I reserve special Head Mutant rights to cull through a review and select the quote that appears in the garish green sidebar, which fascinates the staff, who always try to guess what sentence I'm going to pull ahead of time.


There ya go!

Ice, Fire & HBO

OogieBoogieMan brought our attention to the apparent news that HBO is producing a series based on George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire book series. Those happy screams of joy you hear? Fantasy lovers the world over who adore this terrific series. Can't wait to hear more!

How Cold Was It Last Night? Cold.

Also, nerds can be scary people. I tried not to make eye contact, which was easy since my eyeballs never stopped shivering in the 45 minutes I stood in a parking lot waiting to buy something that -- yes -- I could have bought the next day with no waiting.

Anyway.

"Netflix early today (Tuesday) took the wraps off its long-rumored online movie service, saying that it had struck deals with Universal, Sony, MGM, 20th Century Fox, Paramount, Warner Bros., New Line and Lionsgate. (Conspicuously missing was Disney, which currently has a deal with Apple.) The service, called Watch Now, uses a delivery system that appears to be a kind of hybrid of online streaming and downloading. A movie of DVD-like quality is actually downloaded to a home PC over broadband connections, and it can be viewed beginning 10-15 seconds after the download starts if the PC owner has a fast Internet connection. The movie can be shown once and is free to Netflix's subscribers. Those who subscribe to the $18.00 monthly plan may download up to 18 hours of movies per month; those on the $6.00 plan, 6 hours. Netflix's online service is expected to launch nationwide in June, following a phased roll-out involving a small number of viewers that is set to begin at once. The service requires a computer running the Windows operating system."

How cool is this? Cool. We get the movie rentals we're already getting, PLUS another 9 movies delivered to us instantly every month. Justin might just catch up on his queue!

Yup, I'm one of THOSE nerds

So, at 11:59pm tonight, you won't find me curled up in bed or howling at the moon, per usual. No, tonight I'll be one of the thousands of dorks who couldn't wait another eight hours to grab their copy of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade at their local video game outlet (yes, I preordered, thank you very much). I honestly cannot remember being this excited about a new game release in years... well, since WoW first came out, I guess.

From everything I've heard, the expansion is nothing short of the usual brilliance and polish that Blizzard's shown in their past games, and my guildies and I have spent the last week getting ready. That mostly means raiding dungeons completely nude (our characters, not our physical selves... as far as I know) and running in circles in Stormwind screaming "THE END OF THE WORLD IS NEAR!"

Yes, my wife thinks I'm a dork as well, but she will keep it to herself since she's spent the past couple weeks going berzerk at post-Christmas clothing sales.

Switching topics, I spent the afternoon at the car dealership getting a tune up ("Mr. Olivetti?" the service guy came in with a concerned look on his face. "You have a nail in your left rear tire. You want us to remove it?"), and I watched one of my latest Netflix rentals on my trusty portable DVD player. This title was "Accepted", some college comedy that got onto my queue somehow (I think I have an evil subconcious personality who does things when I'm not looking), and proceeded to blow me away with sheer hilarity. Seriously, this is one of the funniest and best college comedies I've seen, well, since PCU. I can't wait to write a review, and buy my own copy.

That will have to wait until 12:01am. I have plans until then.

Era-going-going-gon

Is this thing on? *tap tap* Hmm, dang newfangled contraptions.

ANYWAY, SoM1 and I went to see Eragon last night. This, in my opinion, has just got to be incontrovertable proof that I love my son.

I'm sure that at some point I'll either review it or (better yet) do a mutant viewing, but suffice to say that when you catch yourself repeating, "Oh for Heaven's sake!" over and over and over during the course of a movie... well... it's not a good sign.

T'was a silly thing, but Jeremy Irons has a sexy voice anyway.

X-men Evolution: Using One Letter Of the Alphabet To Death

I've watched the first couple of discs of this with Sibling 1 this week while we were working out. I never saw it while it was on tv, not because I won't watch cartoons, but rather because I prefer to sleep until around 11 a.m. on Saturdays. The animation is definitely better than the original show; framerate is a little sad still, but better than average for the low-budget Saturday morning crowd. Styling is slimmer and less muscular, but that's an aesthetic decision that doesn't impact so much on the quality of animating, though I recall on the "making of" segment on one they commented that having everyone wear black saved them the trouble of trying to animate individual muscles.

There's a visible mix of drawing and CG animation that is better blended than I expected. Other shows have been getting better at this, and X-men: Evolution is no exception. (See, I could have made an X-pun there, but once you've seen this cartoon you get over finding that funny REALLY fast.)

The bad news here is the writing.

Going with an older X-group was a smart decision for the original cartoons, because let's face it, most of those making it were last teenagers when the word "hip" was, well, hip. That's also true in this case, but the cast are supposed to be much younger and consequently there's been an attempt at writing teenagers who talk like teenagers. This was a very bad idea. The new X-group sound so much like a Baby Boomer's idea of how current teens talk that Sibling 1 can now crack me up utterly by saying "Because I'm HIP!" or "Like, TOTALLY!"

Also, I would very much prefer never again to hear Nightcrawler say "The way this homey talks is wack." Thank you. (Further Sib1 comment: "He said lederhosen. Because he's (fake accent) Gerrrrrman.")

The overall effect is pretty hilarious. We're enjoying it vastly. I haven't even mentioned the fact that Rogue appears to be a Southern goth in denial of the fact that she and punk Toad are wearing the same spiked bracelets. Same old "ugly=bad" dynamic we're all used to seeing (the Blob never has a chance, does he?), but interestingly enough the Scott/Jean/Logan love triangle doesn't appear to be pursued so far; Logan is cast definitely with the grownups this time around and as such gets to hang around mostly with Xavier and his kept woman, Storm. At least, I assume that's what she is, based on the fact that she does his bidding and follows his wheelchair around striking sexy poses.

En fin: nothing earthshaking, but worth your time if you're an X-fan.

Hairy Feetsies

The saga about the proposed Hobbit movie took a turn for the worse, as New Line's studio head Robert Shaye refuses to work with Jackson "Never ever ever! I'm telling Mom!" and soforth. The bright side is that Jackson hasn't ruled The Hobbit out, and neither has Hobbit right's holder MGM.

I think a lot of people are going nuts over what is, really, a prologue. To suggest that The Hobbit -- a kid's-level novel -- should be split into 2 or 3 more movies is absurd. Would it be great to see? Sure. Many of us loved LOTR and would like to revisit that world, even in a smaller capacity. But it certainly isn't worth all this hubabaloo.

In other news:

• James Cameron's finally making a new movie!
• The Mummy 3 might be a go
• J.J. Abrams keeps scaring the crap out of us about Star Trek 11
• World of Warcraft unleashes a new patch and prepares to open the Dark Portal
• Pan's Labyrinth got "Best Picture of 2006" at the Film Society Awards

What I Got For Christmas

Further Webcomics

I've mostly quit reading Two Lumps. Too many excrement-related jokes and I'm really not into that.

I forgot to mention this comic before:

http://www.meleecomics.com/chaos/

Hilarious if you're into superhero comics and/or remember the grandiose days of yore, the original Dr. Doom, et cetera.

Also the art is really excellent and somewhat more narratively cohesive than a lot of beginners in this art style.

I'm not sure if I also mentioned www.elfonlyinn.com. It started out as a sprite comic about a chat room and evolved with the artist's drawing skills into something impressive but still quite funny. Some of the original humor is gone in favor of a more serious tone, but the improvement in art makes up for it.

I'm a MONSTER!!!!!!

While it's nice to be looking forward to Doctor Who Series Two coming out in a week or so, my Christmas break TV DVD thrills came from Arrested Development Season 3. Let's get past the SHAME ON FOX! for letting this critically-acclaimed show go unwatered until the final season was axed to 13 episodes, the last 4 of which were shown in a two-hour block opposite the Olympics opening ceremony. Fox sucks.

Still, we had 3 seasons and 53 episodes of the incredibly funny, highly rewatchable Bluths, and that ain't bad. I even found out that our Nancy is a fan (as well as an avid watcher of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air). Good for her.

While the third season is indeed short -- and the finale comes at such a rush as to boggle the mind -- it kept the laughs coming non-stop. I probably laughed the hardest during the "sweeps" show, meant to parody the ridiculous lengths that many sitcoms go to during Feb/Nov sweeps. Example: all of the sudden, for no reason whatsoever, the screen warns you to "Put on 3-D glasses now!" and a character chucks a tomato at the lense while the screen goes into that weird red-green 3-D mode you might've seen at IMAX. The Godzilla parody -- involving a jetpack, a giant mole and model homes -- rocked my world too. Oh, and the scene where the family abducts Charlize Theron in an unwittingly creepy manner while barreling down the road in half of a cabin strapped to a truck. Happy sigh.

I haven't decided who my favorite AD main character is yet -- GOB is an obvious choice, but Buster's insane romps qualify him, and Tobias' flaming, yet unrecognized homosexuality screams out "winner!" However, I don't think there's any competition for favorite secondary character: Franklin the puppet rules the roost. He even gets real speaking lines in season 3... of a sort.

"My name is..." "JUDGE!"

At least now newcomers can buy all 3 seasons and get in on the jokes for themselves. I've gone back to watching the first two seasons, marveling over and over how clever the running jokes and foreshadowing is.

And it's just plain good times to say "Bob Loblaw Law Blog".

Look Again

Bones

Sibling 2 keeps making me watch episodes of this show. She liked it well enough that she bought the first season, and since she is presently hunting a job it's almost always on when I get home at night.

It has one or two moments, notably in The Man in the Bear. Mostly I don't care for it. It's just another pseudoscientific crime show featuring amazingly attractive, fashionably dressed people with fantastically clean and well-lit labs stocked with millions of dollars' worth of machinery that no state or federal government would commit to law enforcement because they're busy spending it on congressional haircuts and subsidized car tabs.

Television at large is a little more fond of science now than formerly, but only when it comes to law enforcement, and only when it's been dumbed down to the level of... hmm... Basically the rest of television. Ask a real forensic specialist how they feel about CSI some time.

It's not that I'm against escapism. I just prefer my fantasy to involve swords.

I can think of so many movies this would work with...

How awesome is this: Star Wars as a silent film? The answer? Awesome to the max!

In other news, CNN has completely flipped.

2006 Independent Games Awards

Getting away from the AAA video game titles, I thought that GameTunnel's Top 10 (Independent Developers) Games of the Year might be a great source of gaming fun. Virtual Villagers looks particularly interesting... hmm... will have to check that out!

Indiana Jones: The Bedpan of Eternal Peril

After a long period of hemming and hawing, Lucas and Spielberg have announced the beginning of filming for Indiana Jones 4 this year. I know this is a very controversial move, especially within fan circles, but I'm such a sucker for sequels that I can't wait to see what they do with it. Why can't old fogies be action heroes?

Oh... hm... maybe that's why.

In other news, looks like Silent Hill 2 is on the way -- Neil Gaiman involved? Possibly, but probably not.