Mr. Hakujin

Let The Right One In A- If Terrance Mallick was Swedish and decided to make a vampire/suspense movie starring two tweens it might’ve come out like this film. It’s quiet and slow paced yet never tedious. The cinematography & directing are both beautiful and unsettling, and the performances by the two child leads are compelling throughout. Bangkok Dangerous C- Nicolas Cage as a hitman who grows a conscious in Thailand. The directors (The Pang Brothers) desperately want to be the next Jon Woos, and action is OK, but the film had a seriously weak ending.

With the help of Wikipedia to I'll try (emphasis on try) and go backwards chronologically: 2008 Mixed Nuts (local band) Cold Weather Fox (local band) Flogging Molly Van Halen (the show was disappointingly meh) Voodoo Fest '07 Rage Against the Machine (so fucking awesome) Smashing Pumpkins (kinda meh) Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals M.I.A. Spoon Motion City Soundtrack Black Rebel Motorcycle Club Various other shows throughout The 2000s: Incubus Flogging Molly A Perfect Circle TOOL Iron & Wine Weezer Guns-N-Roses Incubus Pink & SUM41 (separate shows, but saw both b/c of my gf at the time) Rip Slyme (Japanese hip-hop) Mongol800 (Japanese punk rock) Andrew W.K. The Hives Pearl Jam Voodoo Fest '00 311 Ben Harper Eminem Stone Temple Pilots Cypress Hill Cowboy Mouth Rahzel Blues Traveler Various other shows throughout The '90s: Tori Amos (4 times) Guns-N-Roses Metallica (twice) 311 Cypress Hill Stone Temple Pilots Better Than Ezra (great live show!) Pearl Jam NIN PWEI Cowboy Mouth Lollapalooza '94 The Smashing Pumpkins, Beastie Boys, George Clinton & the P-Funk All Stars, The Breeders (my first time ever in "the pit"), A Tribe Called Quest, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, L7 Lollapalooza '93 Primus, Alice in Chains, Dinosaur Jr., Fishbone, Arrested Development, Front 242, Babes in Toyland, Tool And there's a bunch more I'm forgetting. I've been to Jazz Fest about 3 or 4 times throughout my life and they all kinda blend together. I know I've seen Wilson Pickett, Smash Mouth, Dave Matthews & Lenny Kravitz there...mostly it's lesser known artists though.

Ditto. Plus it made me remember this classic bit of I<3Huckabees behind the scenes drama.

The whole Old Man Logan arc is on there. Go now and DL! I hereby grant thee permission to call me Hakujin. Like Janet, I'm only Mr. Hakujin if you're nasty. Can't believe you weren't as gaga for that issue as I was, but then again my enthusiasm might be a bit overboard b/c I'm a big fan of McNiven's work w/ this story. The dialogue from Millar in issue #70 was far from his greatest, but the expressions McNiven put on Logan's face were fucking deadly. Outstanding stuff. Thanks for the Mysterio update. As for the other character you mentioned in the OML story: I'm enjoying this story way too much to even risk running into a spoiler.

Yeah, definitely avoid the spoilers if you're not up to speed on the story. And the Marvel U is letting bodies hit the floor left and right...outside of "normal" MU continuity that is. And I too re-read issue #70 again immediately after finishing it.

Holy Christmas! Fuck me sideways w/ Sarah Connor's cancer ridden corpse if this wasn't one of the greatest single issues of Wolverine ever. Evah, I say! I'm not sure how many more issues Millar & McNiven are going w/ this storyline, but this is the best dystopian tale of superheroes since Kingdom Come. As for why Wolvie turned farmer... However, I'm wondering a few things after reading this issue and maybe some more knowledgeable fanboys can help me out here: 1. 2. 3.

I agree: I luvs me some Deb. The best was when she'd make fun of Layla, "Pardon my tits." Did you see the final ep. of S2 yet? Killer ending.

Now that is what I call a ringing fucking endorsement. Can't wait to see this one on DVD now!

Yeah, but Jane's version had no Yakuza. Advantage Lundgren.

Asian Kung Fu Generation - After Dark http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ko0zp2aFew

Yes, the finale was one of the best episodes in TV history. It was a complete and total payoff for fans of the series. I loved how it expressed the cyclical nature of the war on drugs. It summed up the tragic futility of this "War" quite beautifully.

Well, I'll be honest and say not all of the items on my list are on DVD and some *ahem* reside on various hard drives. ^0^ . What can I say, the Internets is a good thing for impatient (and poor) anime fans. Series: Batman: The Animated Series (vol. 1&2) Bleach (ep. 1-75 I stopped watching around #30 and really need to catch up) Chobits (complete series) Clerks (complete series) Cowboy Bebop (complete series) Family Guy (seasons 5&6) Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex (series 1) Harvey Birdman: Attorney At Law (seasons 1-3) Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (season 1) Paranoia Agent (complete series) Ranma 1/2 (season 1) Robot Chicken (seasons 1 & 2) *Samurai Champloo (complete series--and my favorite Japanese anime series of all time!) The Simpsons (season 1) Space Ghost Coast To Coast (vol. 1-3) Sea Lab 2021 (seasons 1&2) South Park (seasons 9-12) Venture Bros. (seasons 1-3) Movies: A Bug’s Life Aladdin Alice In Wonderland Animatrix Batman: Gotham Knights Castle In The Sky (Laputa) Chicken Run Cowboy Bebop: The Movie Finding Nemo Ghost In The Shell Ghost In The Shell 2: Innocence The Incredibles Justice League: The New Frontier Kung-Fu Panda My Neighbor Totoro Nausicaa: Valley of the Wind Nightmare Before Christmas Persepolis Princess Mononoke Ratatouille Secret of N.I.M.H. The Simpsons Movie Spirited Away Steamboy TMNT Tokyo Godfathers Ultimate Avengers The Movie

If Dolph woulda had the fuckin' skull logo on his chest that woulda been the best Punisher movie to date. I'll have to wait for DVD to see how Pullo w/ a gun did int he role as it was only in theaters here for 2 weeks.

Gran Torinio A- Clint Eastwood delivers another memorable screen character as Korean War Vet Walt Kowalski—a man who lets out more politically incorrect humor on his own than Black, Stiller, & Downey combined did in Tropic Thunder. You can definitely compare this to Eastwood's other Oscar winning low budget film about a faithless man mentoring a misfit--Million Dollar Baby. However, I found Gran Torino reminded me of a more somber and violent version of Karate Kid—characters from American & Asian cultures (here the other being Mhong) learn important lessons on life they couldn’t or wouldn’t learn from their own culture. Slumdog Millionaire A Unsettling. Uplifting. Original. The story follows a Muslim boy growing up in the slums of Bombay (now Mumbai) and his journey to freedom. The closest film I can think of that made me feel the way this film did is Shawshank Redemption.

GIGANTIC=Best Pixies song sung by Kim Deal WHERE IS MY MIND=Best Pixies song sung by Black Francis. Gun to my head, and since I had to only vote for 1, I picked GIGANTIC for several reasons: a.) Kim Deal is the original Queen of Alt Rock 2.) Reel Big Fish also do an awesome cover of the song, and c.) Neanderthal, close minded, Dubya-lovin'-douche-bags unwittingly singing along to a song about getting fucked by a big black dick=hilarity on multiple levels

No shit, Shirley. We can't all go off spousing obscure Liz Phair & Blondie lyrics like some sad cutter from the 90s. :p Your last one was ATOMIC by Blondie, which I only know b/c an ex-gf used to play their greatest hits album CONSTANT-FUCKING-LY in college. New (and markedly more difficult than my previous effort) lyrics: Wind me up, put me me down, start me up, and watch me go. I'll be running circles around ya sooner than ya know. A little off center and I'm out of tune...

Give Peace A Chance (reminds me...I need to get that one on my iPod) New lyrics: When I was just a baby, my mama told me, "Son, Always be a good boy; don't ever play with guns." But I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die. When I hear that whistle blowin' I hang my head and cry.

Saw these 3 movies this weekend. Here're my mini-reviews of each one along w/ my "Grade" for the film (A+ being the highest & F being the lowest). Sukiyaki Western Django B+ Japanese Director Takeshi Miike (Audition, Ichi The Killer) brings his unique blend of violence and dark humor along in this homage to Sergio Leone’s Spaghetti Westerns. The plot is a direct lift from Kurasawa’s Yojimbo yet this film comes off as surprisingly original. The DVD includes an interesting documentary that originally aired on Japanese TV. A Must see for genre fans. Ghost Town B- Ricky Gervais in a romantic comedy. If I had to compare it to his previous work I’d say this film comes off as entertaining as the best episode of Extras, but not as good as his best episode of The Office. Gervais’ humor makes up for the plot holes & one-dimensional characters, and thus makes Ghost Town an entertaining enough rental. Eagle Eye B An engaging popcorn action/thriller that’s basically an update/re-imagining of the 80s film War Games and focuses on Big Brother’s technological chickens coming home to roost with a bunch of car crashes thrown in for good measure.

Dr. G, you won't be disappointed! It's one of those shows where I watched the entire first season on DVD in 2 days. The plot, pacing, and characterization in S1 is outstanding. S2 is good, but not as good as S1, and like The NZA mentioned, S3 is better than S2. And I did finally see the S3 finale and it was outstanding. I loved the twist where I'm wondering given the events where S3 left off if they won't do a time jump into S4.

I was hopeful for The Spirit until I saw that 1st teaser trailer when it came out a while back. Then my hopes dwindled. And now after seeing the film clips online I've no hope for this film at all. I'll still rent it though for Scar Jo if nothing else. And I was never a Buck Rogers fan, but I wish Miller and Rodriguez would "Sin City-up" a fucking sequel to Sin City already. I've been waiting for A Dame To Kill For to hit the screen for ages.

That's a sweet hall! YR1, Killing Joke, & Long Halloween are on my list of top 10 BATMAN stories. I started Maus a while ago, but put it down w/out finishing it--too depressing. As for my collection I've got more books in my "too read" pile these days than anything else. I've got a bunch of 100 Bullets TPbs to read and I need to catch up on the Bat Books. I always crack open The Walking Dead, Captain America, and Wolverine right away though.

Anyone still watching this show? I haven't seen the finale (Ep. 3.12)yet but episode 11 was frackin' insane.

I'm always curious how the script was written, the movie got made, how the CGI was done, etc. So when I buy a DVD I usually go for the special edition. The Batman Begins Sp. ed. DVD was especially good so I was really looking forward to the Dark Knight sp. ed. I assumed there'd be some insight/interviews etc. into Heath Ledger's performance, but there was nada. The only thing is a 17 min. doc on the fucking music score! Oh, and it has the 6 IMAX scenes in IMAX format--fat lotta good that does me w/out a fucking IMAX screen in my home. Thanks for jerking me out of an extra $10 Warner Bros! I usually wait until I catch a sale online and generally spend no more than $10-$15 for a NEW DVD, but I got TDK on an impulse buy. That's strange that the WALL-E special ed. was lax on features though. Pixar usually goes all out on the special editions. I love the movie, but haven't got it on DVD yet.

Yeah, I just looked and the V-Mas special is on the S1 DVD set as well, which I own. So yeah, I feel like a big dummy right now.

^^^ Yep, that was the S3 finale. There's a 10 min Christmas Special I found on piratebay. I'm not sure when it aired on Adult Swim, but I'm assuming it's recent. Look for it online--you won't be disappointed! Oops... Just looked it up online. Thank God for Wikipedia. Apparently it aired during S1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Very_Venture_Christmas