Take Me To Your Lizard

I dunno, something about The Two Towers left me feeling a little disappointed. Maybe it's just that the 'wow' factor from last year is gone, maybe it's because they deviated greatly from the book. Whatever it was, this didn't do for me what the Fellowship did this time last year. I was looking forward to seeing Merry and Pippin developed more as rounded characters (not just comic relief) as the second book deals with them a lot. But they were mostly left out, and remained their daft selves when they did get a scene. Gollum was very nicely animated (though reminded me strangely of Dobby from the new Harry Potter film), and his parts were great. The battle scenes were awesome and though they dipped into comedy even here, it worked pretty well. I can't put my finger quite on why I feel a bit unfulfilled. It deserves another viewing and I might appreciate it more the second time around. It is definately worth a watch and is without doubt one of the greatest films in years. Maybe I just expected too much.

Yeah, another for the face/off crew. John Woo rules :shoot:

Eep

Only a week till the new Lord of the Rings DVD comes out. More footage! Cast/Crew commentaries! Can you say 'Geeky Heaven'?

"Did you just call me a fuckass? You can go suck a fuck!" "Oh please tell me Elizabeth, how does one exactly suck a fuck?" - Donnie Darko (Absolutely brimming over with quotability)

Saw this the other day, was bloody impressed. I can see how you could find fault with characters, plot, or script, but the whole is so much more than the sum of these. It unnerved me a little actually, and made me think. Would definately recommend it, if just for the excellent appareance of Patrick Swayze!

Heh, jus' to be a prick I'll add: - I've not seen Pearl Harbour and don't intend to anytime soon. - The Cell was a crap plot, shit acting, and lame script backed up by bloody nice visual ideas that are worth a watch. I loved the bit where she walks in the room with walls lined with silk and the fucked-up egomaniac on a throne. He stands, and walks down a massive set of steps, and his cloak is so huge - it was that around the wall, and it billows out behind him impressively.

A good friend of mine says Bond's past it, over the hill, just not cool enough anymore. And it doesn't help that Pierce ain't getting any younger. She loved xXx for its cool and style, and said the following, which made me seriously laugh: As critics go, she may be one of the more colourful in her imagery, but does she have a point? I thought xXx was pretty nice. The action scenes were spot on, Vin makes for a pretty stylish spy, and if the plot was a little weak ... what the hell, it's a spy flick. Good fun all round. Who cares if the stunts are sometimes beyond the bounds of rationality, it's all entertainment. Still, I must admit I've never been a massive fan of old school bond. I much prefer the direction it's been going since Brosnan came along. More style, more action - yeah! I thought GoldenEye and The World is Not Enough were the two best Bonds yet. Thing is, can Pierce keep up? He'll need Q to install nifty zimmer frame gadgets soon enough, and against xXx and all the new wave spy films that'll be hitting us soon, Bond may just be out of his league. I reckon the only thing that'll save him is by clinging onto the wit, manners, and English charm that made Bond the institution that it is. Looking forward to seeing if the new one manages the balancing act of action and style vs sophistication and smugness. Fuck but I do go on a bit. Sorry.

Have to agree with a lot of what's been said here. The FFVII Sephiroth scene is chilling, and that music just makes the whole thing damn incredible. I'd have to say the whole Cloud's dream sequence from that game rates highly too. I especially love the Diablo 2 scene with Tyrael when he steps out of time for a moment and goes "Fool!...", and the resulting fight. In fact, all the D2 cut scenes are amazing - the weary narrative just builds and builds and the ending (before the expansion) is very cool.

Well I went for Fargo. The Big Lebowski rates higher for me as a movie, but if we're talking just Buscemi's part, Fargo has to be it. Was tempted by Con Air though.

I went to this really energetic 'seafood disco' the other night ... and pulled a mussel.

I want to be a part of it, New York, New York!

I'm pretty sure it is Mandarin. I really like it, sounds soft and pleasant, like French. MLB - Get Laura to speak some for you!

I worked in a video shop over the summer, and the amount of people who brought films back complaining they were in another language was incredible. Amelie was the worst, so many people come back demanding a refund because it's in French and it doesn't say so on the box. Oddly enough, the only version of BotW on video that we had was the awful awful dub, and most people came back saying they loved it. When I asked if the Frenchness had bothered them, most hadn't even realised it was dubbed. You watch it and tell me you don't notice. I have formed the opinion that the general public (or at least the video-renting portion of it) is almost entirely mental.

I thought about voting for OLP just because nobody else will and I like 'em, but I'm afraid 3 doors down have it. Boo ya!

Wowee. Since Episode 6 is currently unwatchable, I downloaded the Kenshin OAV. If you haven't seen this yet, get it. It's incredible. The animation quality is brilliant, the content more darkly serious. Only trouble is the sub I have isn't translated brilliantly, but hell it's more than watchable.

Grr! Have watched up to episode 5 but 6 is playing up. First the sound was mismatched with the video, so I uninstalled a few codecs, added some others, now it just keeps flickering again and again. Episodes 6-10 are like this, 11 onwards are ok. Doh!

Boo ya! My 100th post. It might not mean much to you 2000-odd post guys, but it's worthy of contemplation to me.

Anyone else seen this? I got the first 15 episodes last night (I love broadband) and from the first few it seems pretty good. It's a Japanese samurai swordsman affair - Kenshin was a warrior who helped overthrow the old dynasty and bring about a more peaceful age, and has now vowed never to kill again, but instead uses his legendary skills to protect people. The tone is really lighthearted - there are some dramatic moments and nice swordfighting, but there is a lot of silly humour and joking around. The animation qualilty is nice, and the music is really well done. If you like your cool samurai stuff (I know you do, IC!) it's worth a shot.

I can't decide whether I like Daredevil or not (the comic I mean). It's kind of a nice character concept, but there's something not quite right about it. Hmm.

"We have no choice... Observe how he has entered deep into our territory, performed his duty, and now walks boldly out again, with righteousness on his side. This is the strategy of Kõma, from Sun Tzu's 'Art of War' " "He is a dreadful opponent, this lone wolf and cub."

Just to say, the little girl in pink has some cheap-ass sweeps and I'll be returning that ass-whooping in due course

MLB - I'm writing this from our brand spanking new broadband connection. Yeah baby! I'll be using Kazaa Lite, and recommend it to anyone. Kazaaa is great, and the Lite version is free from all that nasty spy/adware stuff.

Ring was an odd film. I couldn't decide how much I liked it. It never scares you, but always suggests that it's just about to. After it finished I wasn't immediately impressed, but it's a film that stayed with me, dwelt in my mind for a little while. On reflection, I really liked it. It never really does anything exciting or thrilling, yet it has this constant tense edge that eventually tips into a crazy hysteria. The ending seems odd, but in a good way. You have to watch it really :approve:

The Academy don't like sequels, and the Academy don't like fantasy. Shame really, as the first LotR was one of the best films I've ever seen, and since they were all filmed together, I have high hopes for the second. Let's just hope the first wasn't fluke. I doubt it though, Peter Jackson is a great filmmaker and a commited Tolkein fan. You might expect it to get best visuals, best costumes etc, but since Fellowship racked up a few of those this year they might be reluctant to give em out again to the sequel. Looking forward to finding out!