Take Me To Your Lizard

Beirut - The Gulag Orkestar. Indie based on Balkan folk music? Hell yeah!

I got in from a night out and my copy of Jeff Mangum - Live At Jittery Joe's has arrived! Wasn't expecting it for a couple of weeks yet. The one thing I really wanted and couldn't rip off the Internet. And it's extremely beautiful. "The closest music has ever come to poetry", I've said before and I'll say again, because it's true. Ahhh....

Hey, I just bought a DS this week. Mostly 'cause I was round MyLeakyBucket's city pad (what a namedropping whore I am) and he showed me his (and don't start, you know I mean a DS). So I went out and bought one, as did my lady friend, snagging Mario Kart and new Mario Bros in the process. I picked up a cheap copy of the new Castlevania off eBay, and I'm a happy soul. Otherwise, I dip into World of Warcraft quite regularly. Anyone here for the online roleplaying games? I wasn't sure it'd be for me but here I am, one year on, having a blast.

One year of this thread and nobody's yet to say they didn't like Serenity. Allow me. But first, to put things in perspective: I loved Firefly. A hell of a lot. Man, what a series. So don't go all thinking I'm just a hater who doesn't get the genius of this story, these characters. And neither, I think, did I love it just so incredibly much that ANYTHING, short of a full second series, would be a let down. I thought Serenity had a weaker plot, weaker dialogue, weaker characterisation than Firefly. Alone, it was a sub-average sci-fi flick made above average only by the history of the series and the knowledge of story, character etc. that we start the film with (assuming we've seen the series). Alright, so I'm not really saying I didn't like it. It was pretty enjoyable and great stuff to see the Firefly crew back on the screen. It was just less than it could have been. And this Serenity love-in of a thread needed a devil's advocate.

So I wake up feeling like shit, but conscientiously decide to go to my morning lecture anyway. I drag myself out of bed, rush to campus with minutes to spare, and realise that the room has been changed and the lecture is elsewhere. I go find out where, then go to the building, only to wander around a maze of rooms not knowing where the hell they've hidden 'C13'. Finally, I decide that this morning was an omen of sorts, clearly telling me not to go to my lecture. So instead of learning about transcendental philosophical arguments, I'm here in the computer room checking out the forum. Bah.

She Talks to Angels, Black Crowes. I watched the world float to the Dark side of the moon After all I knew it had to be something To do with you I really don’t mind what happens now and then As long as you’ll be my friend at the end

Alright, 1. Blade Runner 2. Lord of the Rings 3. The Silence of the Lambs 4. The Crow 5. American Beauty 6. The Matrix 7. Braveheart 8. Star Wars Trilogy 9. Leon 10. Alien series 11. Shawshank Redemption 12. Terminator 2 13. Amelie 14. The Princess Bride 15. It's a Wonderful Life 16. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 17. Donnie Darko 18. Face/Off 19. Chasing Amy 20. Harold and Maude It's not quite right but I'm such a feckin' perfectionist about some things that this is probably the best it's getting.

I'm pretty sure that's the Bee Gees, 'How Deep is your Love'. Was an honest man Asked me for the phone Tried to take control I don't see it that way We shared some ideas All obsessed with fate Ways we're all the same I don't see it that way

I maxed Secret of Mana on the SNES, getting all 3 characters to level 99, and maximum experience with every weapon, and maximum experience on the spells and shit. I could kill the last boss with one hit from the main character. Heh, I loved that game.

I can recite the alphabet backwards. It's an odd skill, yes, but one that has gained me much respect and stature over the years.

It feels weird including it in a list of all time best films, as most (but not all) of the reason I love it has nothing to do with the filmmaker's but the author's original work. Granted, other films up there (especially in my case The Princess Bride) were based on fantastic books that I loved, but it seems there's been more adaptation for film going on in those cases, as with Hamlet the source was a made-for-performance work. Of course, Brannagh has interpreted and innovated as any Shakespearean director does... oh I dunno ;)

This is hard. I may have rushed this a bit but here's a tentative top list, in order: 1. Blade Runner 2. Lord of the Rings 3. The Silence of the Lambs 4. The Crow 5. American Beauty 6. The Matrix 7. Braveheart 8. Star Wars Trilogy 9. Leon 10. Alien Series 11. Shawshank Redemption 12. Terminator 2 13. Amelie 14. The Princess Bride Others I may want to put in somewhere: Face/Off Donnie Darko Chasing Amy Harold and Maude Die Hard And things I'm considering: Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet (Dunno if this counts ) It's a Wonderful Life Indiana Jones Series Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Vanilla Sky Samurai X/Princess Mononoke/Ghost in the Shell (Gotta have an anime somewhere) Mission Impossible 2 (Yeah, I actually really like it) And I know I'm forgetting stuff. Going to watch Spirited Away tonight, seems a few people saw fit to enter that in the top 20. I'll let you know.

No problem with these, I think Arnie really can do a good comedy if pressed. I think probably his funniest film though was True Lies, even though not overtly a comedy it had some great moments.

Go ahead, but if you win you're buying it! I'm not losing my money. I just watched some of the film to check it definitely works ok, and to see if I'd missed something in my first viewing. You know, like maybe I was taking it too seriously and it really is a lot of fun, and guys in rubber suits are actually quite hilarious. But I was right, it's a load of crap. You're right though, anime was big for a while in the early 90s. That's when I started watching; a friend of mine had some tapes and we rented a few (well, got our parents to rent a few, I was about 11 myself). And shite movies rock. I remember hiring Dungeons and Dragons, that film gave me more amusement than most comedies. Likewise, Battlefield Earth is amazingly entertaining.

Don't want to steal your thunder 2track, but if we're talking shit movies I've got something that's bothering me. There's a Japanese manga called The Guyver, about a guy who finds an alien device that turns him into a sort of biological super-weapon. It's pretty cool, and they made a half-decent anime out of it. However, they made a movie using the license, just called "The Guyver" in the states I think. Over here it got the inspiring title "Mutronics - The Movie". I saw it for sale second-hand years ago. I bought it. Big mistake. It's the biggest pile of crap I've ever watched. It has Mark "Star Wars and Wing Commander" Hamill in it, sporting a very dodgy moustache. The script is laughable, the plot is non-existent, and the effects make me think of an inferior (honestly) Power Rangers. I'm selling some of my VHS tapes on eBay, and thought I'd see if anyone actually wanted this piece of shit. Within two days the bidding was up to £16. (That's currently $25.12 in Yankland). The link is here: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...3320522776&rd=1 (I can't get the link button on DD to work right now, and I can't remember the code to type it in manually. Is this just me or a real problem?) So what's going on? Does anyone actually like this movie? Or have I stumbled on some sick Mark Hamill fanboy group? Help me understand!

Now this is a tough choice. Arnie has been in some excellent films, all up there are good choices (don't even mention Jingle all the Way, just don't). He is also a genuinely funny guy. I may even be one of the only guys in the world to like Conan. Feckin' genius. ;) Well, I reckon it has to be between Total Recall and Terminator 2 at the end of the day... hmm... overall, it's got to be T2, though a close run battle indeed. Arnie, we salute you.

Booya, time to change avatar. Yes, I know I'm such a fanboy.

Got some bad news MLB. My computer has been making this bad whirring sound recently, which does stop when I thump it (percussion maintenance) but is getting worrying. I suspect it's the fan, and if I leave the computer on too much it starts to crash a lot. In the short term this means I can't leave it on too long, so it won't run the proxy server, so you won't have your broadband in Nottingham. However, I hope to fix it if I work out what's wrong. Any you guys think you know what it could be? If it's the fan can I just buy a new power unit? If I do that, do I have to change anything on the motherboard or do I just plug the new one in? I can swap things in PCI slots fine, but never changed a PSU before. Whirr whirr *thump thump thump*

I'm tryin to catch up after my absence, I really am. Give me one day and I'll get my list up there.

Man, what a nonce! I started THIS thread without realising there was a Kenshin one already and I posted some AMV stuff without realising there was a thread for that. Heh. I've got the U2 one which is great, I'll check the others out when I get back to Uni (Broadband-Land).

Is it just me, or is the bit where Ed gets electrocuted in the chessmaster episode just the funniest thing ever?

They finally got round to releasing Samurai X: Betrayal on DVD in the UK. I saw the OAV fansubbed, but the translation was less than amazing and video quality was very poor. But now I've seen it all, and it is incredible. Also, have some time off Uni and 30 more of the TV series to watch. Ahhh, life is good. For those that have already seen the OAV, check out this pretty nice Anime Music Video. You probably don't want to watch this if you haven't seen the 4-part OAV yet, as it contains some spoilers. While you're there, look at the Cowboy Bebop - Kung Fu Fighting AMV, the only one I've seen where the guy has actually lip-synched the video to the lyrics.

Simple fact is Lord of the Rings has so many more named characters than Star Wars, which gets by with quite a small named cast in the films. Course, if we were talking about 'every' person in the movies, I'd love to see Stormtroopers going up against the hosts of Mordor.

Talking of OVAs, I just watched the Rurouni Kenshin series (Four half-hour episodes) and they are excellent. Much more serious than the TV series, and with a dark, gritty artwork style to compliment it. There's no comedy, no mucking around, and no unrealistic fighting stuff. The story is fantastic; why Kenshin is a wanderer, why he's vowed never to kill again, and why he has the cross-shaped scar on his cheek. Plus, it has the best anime fight scenes I've seen outside of Ninja Scroll. It's released in the US and Europe as 'Samurai X' (2 DVDs, Trust and Betrayal, 2 episodes on each) - don't let the shitty name put you off; it rocks.

**Some minor spoilers from Two Towers possible, but nothing too big and nothing to spoil the next film/book at all** Yeah, I understand why they changed stuff, just don't entirely agree with it. The ending of the Two Towers from the book kicked ass, and I really expected them to end the film with it, since a dark unhappy ending is a winning formula for the second film of a trilogy (Empire Strikes Back being my fave of the holy trilogy). But I see that there would not be much left for Return of the King if they included everything as it should be, since I expect them to cut a lot of that book. TopDawg - the original work was six books comprising one volume called 'The Lord of the Rings'. Tolkien was forced to break it into three as one book was too large and six was too many, so the three books that the films are named after are pairs of Tolkien's original intended books. This film did stray from them a great deal. In the book, Helm's Deep happens at the beginning and is more or less skimmed over by Tolkien, then the rest is the fall of Isengard and Frodo, Sam, and Smeagol's journey into Mordor, ending with some cool action at the end. I wonder why they deviated from this? They added a battle on the way to Helm's Deep, Aragorn's fall and the Arwen stuff, and changed Faramir's character from this smart noble guy into another Boromir. When Sam and Frodo go to Osgiliath Sam says "We shouldn't be here" - appropriate seeing as in the book nothing like that happens. Not that there's anything wrong with changing things, PJ's own interpretation is what we were always going to get. But still, Tolkien came up with a great story with brilliant cliff hangers and a great structure - I'm sure it could have worked in a film.