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It will make you go Zonino for it is such a god flick.

Just don't waste your time on this one. I literally fell asleep in the cinema it was that bad.

As part of a shameless plug for the simpsons movie there is a Simpsonize me website that allows you to turn a picture of yourself into a simpsons style character. This is my end product.

Sorry kids, I know what was being attempted. Unfortunately it just killed. The pacing was all over the place. There were too many bad guys. The character development was surreal.

Forrest Gump is a good movie. I hate movies that make me cringe, this one doesn't. It is a carefully crafted collection of ups and downs designed at the end to make me feel more happy than sad. I do wish there could be more movies that end on the proper inflection. Sad is more likely than happy, and reality is a drug best served on it's own.
Grumpy? not really, just watching another of those convincing movies...

The remake of 'The Producers' is practically the entire original movie - word for word, with some extra musical numbers. I mean they didn't even try with this one. You would hope that they could at least try, but Matthew Broderick's acting in this was cardboard to the point of annoyance, not a touch on the original Gene Wilder one (simply without compare). Nathan Lane was a bit better, but didn't have the right level of desparation that Zero Mostel brought to the original one. Let's just leave Uma Thurman's role out all together, and Will Ferrell deserves to be clobbered for this one. Seriously, stick to the properly low-brow comedy like 'the ballad of ricky bobby'.

I laughed so much I nearly peed myself. You must see this movie; it is brilliant. It pays homage to practically every cop movie ever and most of those 70's small village but something bad is happening here movies. I may just see it again tomorrow, and definitely one to buy on DVD.

Sad to say, I think I wrote the plot. I won't claim to have written the script.
Funny.
Predictable.
Shame.
My super ex girlfriend IMDB link

I went to see Silent Hill a few nights ago after signing up for an evening course. It feels like a game - lots of scary slashing nightmare/reality interleaving pieces. The monsters seem like something that walked straight out of an H.R. Giger print - somewhat scary, but at the same time really smooth and slithery.
Overall not the best movie, but worth seeing. The end is what you should have in a horror movie.

Film critic Jim Emerson recently compiled a list of 102 movies that you should see before you can consider yourself movie literate:

...they [are] the movies you just kind of figure everybody ought to have seen in order to have any sort of informed discussion about movies. They're the common cultural currency of our time, the basic cinematic texts that everyone should know, at minimum, to be somewhat "movie-literate."

Like another blogger, I decided to replicate the list, and mark with an asterisk the movies I've seen:

* 2001: A Space Odyssey
The 400 Blows
* 8 1/2
Aguirre, the Wrath of God
* Alien
* All About Eve
* Annie Hall
* Apocalypse Now
* Bambi
The Battleship Potemkin
The Best Years of Our Lives
* The Big Red One
The Bicycle Thief
* The Big Sleep
* Blade Runner
* Blowup
* Blue Velvet
* Bonnie and Clyde
Breathless
* Bringing Up Baby
* Carrie
* Casablanca
Un Chien Andalou
Children of Paradise / Les Enfants du Paradis
* Chinatown
* Citizen Kane
* A Clockwork Orange
* The Crying Game
* The Day the Earth Stood Still
* Days of Heaven
* Dirty Harry
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
* Do the Right Thing
La Dolce Vita
* Double Indemnity
* Dr. Strangelove
Duck Soup
* E.T. -- The Extra-Terrestrial
* Easy Rider
* The Empire Strikes Back
* The Exorcist
* Fargo
* Fight Club
* Frankenstein
* The General
* The Godfather, The Godfather, Part II
* Gone With the Wind
* GoodFellas
* The Graduate
* Halloween
* A Hard Day's Night
Intolerance
It's a Gift
* It's a Wonderful Life
* Jaws
The Lady Eve
* Lawrence of Arabia
* M
* Mad Max 2 / The Road Warrior
* The Maltese Falcon
* The Manchurian Candidate
* Metropolis
* Modern Times
* Monty Python and the Holy Grail
* Nashville
The Night of the Hunter
* Night of the Living Dead
* North by Northwest
* Nosferatu
* On the Waterfront
* Once Upon a Time in the West
Out of the Past
Persona
Pink Flamingos
* Psycho
* Pulp Fiction
Rashomon (guilt, I should have seen this)
* Rear Window
* Rebel Without a Cause
* Red River
Repulsion
The Rules of the Game
* Scarface
The Scarlet Empress
* Schindler's List
* The Searchers
* The Seven Samurai
* Singin' in the Rain
* Some Like It Hot
A Star Is Born
* A Streetcar Named Desire
Sunset Boulevard
* Taxi Driver
* The Third Man
Tokyo Story
* Touch of Evil
* The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Trouble in Paradise
* Vertigo
* West Side Story
* The Wild Bunch
* The Wizard of Oz
I've seen 76 of them, which I consider quite reasonable. Some may question the list, but it seems to contain the essence of good movies.

I went to the cinema last night with the full intention of seeing V for Vendetta. It's not the same as the graphic novel, but I think that it hit the spot in terms of what's happening in the world today. I enjoyed it and would recommend it for other folks. A bit schmaltzy at the end, and missing the point that 'plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose'. Go, see, enjoy a bald Natalie Portman.
IMDB link.

And all I can think is... damn, I want to see Battle Royale again.
If I was listening to music at this time, I would be listening to Stinkarelli; I watch too much TV

I was looking at the results of the Oscars last night. Considering that I was unimpressed with most of the movies. My heart was warmed by Philip Seymour Hoffman winning the oscar for best actor, he was the best of the nominees in my humble opinion. The fact that Brokeback didn't win best movie is only testamount to the fact that cheats never win :)
honestly, the overall quality of movies this year was terrible! Make better movies on a lower budget and don't shove the horrible ones on us because you have the money to advertise them.
I never realized (until I saw it ono IMDB) that the full title of 'The Talented Mr. Ripley' was 'The Mysterious Yearning Secretive Sad Lonely Troubled Confused Loving Musical Gifted Intelligent Beautiful Tender Sensitive Haunted Passionate Talented Mr. Ripley'. What a sad title.
Besides, I got such slagging over the Marmalade pudding recipe.

I've been re-watching the new series of Battlestar Galactica, and damn, but it's great. I've played several tactical games on the computer, but I've never encountered anything that has had the player in such an impotent position. You are dealing with an enemy that can increase it's number by simply pressing the 'more' button on a console. I don't think that anyone could play a game that ultimately, regardless of what you did, was unwinnable.
There are a few missions in games (such as the 10 minute survival ones in starcaft) that gave you a sense of just how hopeless it was, but they really don't contribute to how awful it is.
There are few games that get close to this fact. Freespace 2 was one of them. It concludes with the baddies causing a supernova. It leaves us with a sense of hope. The only problem is that it, at some level, it allows us to feel that we can win.
I want an armageddon situation.

I just had the experience of watching 'The Skeleton Key', a bit of a scary one. I don't want to spoil the movie for anyone, but once you've seen it, and if you're familiar with the tales of H.P. Lovecraft, then you should know what I mean when I say almost complete rip-off (cough - Thing On The Doorstep - cough). That said, the movie is quite well done, and I've got shivers following it.
Now I'm watching 'Old Boy'. Fun for all the family.

I was in London last weekend, and I went shopping. I got to a store that sold movies. Interestingly enough, they only sold DVDs, which only goes to show how technology progresses - even HMV sells VHS tapes still.
Having purchased a DVD from them I was given an option to purchase a DVD at a really low price. The only two that stuck in my head were 'The Punisher' and 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'. I had the unenviable benefit of seeing 'The Punisher' once before on Sky Movies. All I can say is that it reminded me of the game 'Far Cry', rather than the actual character of 'The Punisher', as portrayed in the recent Garth Ennis punisher comic.
I chose 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'. Can you blame me? At the moment I'm enjoying it on the laptop as I type this entry.
If anyone cares, I'm using DVDidle Pro to watch the movie. It saves battery on my laptop, as well as allowing me to watch non region 2 DVDs, which is kind of important.

Well tonight I was thinking of going to see the new Wallace & Grommit movie, but instead I decided to stay in and get some programming done. To that end, I've been treated to Hellboy on Sky Movies. It's a great movie, but you need to appreciate where it's coming from.
This afternoon I was treated to my sister in the house talking about here 'killen'. Just like issues with the pronunciation of 'fillum' I'd like to say for the record that I've stopped correcting people, I just groan inwardly. This coming from the lad who read the 'curry'man newspaper every week :)

I saw this last night on the telly. It's a fun action flick with a premise that could have been taken from a PKD short story. There is the mandatory dove that is part of all John Woo movies. I would not have seen this at the cinema, and I don't think it would have lasted long enough there to have even slightly piqued my interest.
On the other hand, someone was telling me that 'The Magic Roundabout' wasn't in the cinemas here. I can't seem to remember it, but I may have been not paying attention to the cinema at the time. Anyone else remember?

I went. I liked. It didn't suck. I know why they had to do the 'world saving' stuff - nobody likes a low scale movie.
Apart from that, I hope there is more to come from that universe because I find it an interesting place to see, but don't over-do it like Buffy. Maaan I was sick of it by the end and just wanted it to be over.
For all the fanboys: Please don't shoot me!

Why will I be going to see Serenity. It's simple really. When I first saw the series I was not impressed. I think I was in a bad place personally and just didn't appreciate it. Upon repeat viewing I will have to say that the series really made me think about what life could be like in the future, and how a system such as Traveller with it's varied tech levels might actually come to exist.
Simple premise, simple stories, well drawn characters. Add in the frontiers of space and it works well.
Shame it didn't last, but I think a lot of the folks never sat around to give it a second look like I did.

I like movies. I like violent movies like Sin City. Old boy - disturbing, but just wow, what a story. Starship Troopers - people really need to figure out what it was all about, and dammit it was a wonderful telling of the book.
There I am tonight watching Sweet Home Alabama. Intially I didn't think much of it. The problem is that I've developed a liking for the romantic comedy/dramas, and tonight was one of the many times.
We've got other flicks too. Office Space, which is a romantic comedy dressed up as a work sucks flick.
Then there's my love of Japanese animation. I'm not a big fan of the giant robot genre, but I do have the essentials - Neon Genesis Evangelion. But what I really like are the ones that have just a touch of mysticism in them. A series which I picked up last Christmas when I was in New Zealand was Haibane Renmei, which is truly beautiful. It's the tale of a girl with charcoal feathers, and tells a wonderful tale. More recently I've got the series Air, which is subtitled only, and I love it. It's a story told over the course of a Summer. It has characters that you just fall in love with.
Ahh, zombie movies. Tonight I'm watching the Romero 'Dawn of the Dead'. I love the original version for the slow zombies and their inexhorable march after the humans.
I wonder how Rob and Edie are doing?

My copy of Sin City arrived in the post yesterday.
It's the Chinese edition, so it's got a few extra bits and bobs with it - a little note book, and some post cards. Cute little things that i'm sure I'll make no use out of at all.
Gosh, but I'm tired.

Well before the Borg, well before the Replicators there were the Daleks. These without doubt were the single scariest monsters in TV history. Over many years they unleashed their own brand of hell on the universe. These creatures were without mercy, without emotion and with one thing on their minds - the extermination of anything living thing other than themselves. They upgraded themselves constantly, but the constant for the Dalek was the shape they held, and their plunger and gun at the front.
Their creation is explained in the Dr. Who tale Genesis of the Daleks. After a thousand year war a scientist by the name of Davros created the Daleks as a container for the Kaled race, or at least what was going to become them after several million years of evolution. This scientist was not happy with the fact that the creatures were going to still possess such trivialities like emotions, so he genetically modified them to eliminate all emotion. The result was then governed by a computer program built into the machine that was a Dalek's exoskeleton.
Of course all creators get their just desserts. Given a program which only permitted the Daleks on top of the food chain, they of course decided that as Davros was inferior, he must be exterminated.
The final destruction of the Daleks was supposed to have happened at the end of the great time war, where the Daleks and the Time Lords fought for the ultimate salvation of the universe. This of course was scotched by the 2005 Dr. Who episode Dalek which tells the tale of the last of the Dalek race. If there ever was an episode that deserved an Emmy, that would be the one.
As for me, practically every time I hear the refrain 'Exterminate, exterminate' it sends a shiver down my spine, for it means that they are coming, and you'ld better pray for the Doctor.

While installing the latest release of Solaris Express on my laptop (which took waaay too long) I was watching Dawn of the Dead on the telly. I tell you those zombies were just way too fast for my liking. It makes for a much scarier experience for us fans of the genre. The experience left me just a little shaken it was done so well. I mean, hell I laughed during Scream, but this had me turning my head on more than one occasion.
Obligatory Link of the Day: V.G. Cats. Humourous computer-game based comics by Scott Ramsoomair. Check out the T-shirts. I'm tempted myself.
Aargh! sucky iTunes just crapped out on me while burning mix cd #8 for the party this weekend. At least I can just deselect the tracks that have been already written and get on with the burning. I suppose it's part of the iTunes does not like writing large compilations (this one's 14.2 hours long). Scratch that - It's decide to keep burning the same tracks. I suppose there's a bug there somewhere. Piece of chit Apple software.
It looks like iTunes tries to make them unusable on computers as well. I have a single badly labelled CD track on the disk.
The music is?

Went to see Charlie and The Chocolate Factory. Yummy; Johnny Depp was just creepy. I liked it a lot.

I just went to see the last of the Star Wars movies with my 3 nephews. I will have to say it all comes full circle - every i is dotted, every t crossed. Movie wise, it's a really hectic ride, mostly action from start to finish with a few angst ridden moments suffering from Hayden Christian's woefully wooden acting.
I'll say yayy to the light-saber duels, especially the quad saber wielding cyborg.
Based on the speed of Padme's pregnncy, I'm expecting that the movie took place over a 7 month period, assuming a 9 month pregnancy; but we don't know that for a fact; do we Mr Lucas? I'll have to say the kid brings balance to the force by the end of movie VI, the prophesy was correct, people just can't deal with a ~40 year span between his discovery and fulfillment.
The final fulfillment of Vader is most excellent! The only half believable emotional cry of the entire movie from that character; even if it was distorted by the mask.

Star Wars Revelations .. A Panic Struck Productions Film Interesting.

Aargh! two of the chapters on disk 1 of the zim dvd collection are corrupt. I wonder what the returns policy on cdwow is? This is the second time I've received a bad dvd - the last one was the first black books series - the last section of the episode involving the subbuteo man, the chipper, the bottle of absinthe and the weather forecast is corrupt. I got a collection of the entire series recently so the loss of the one disk is kind of moot. However I want to see the end of 'parent teacher night' and the start of 'walk of doom' on dvd dammit!
Update: called them up - they're sending out a replacement as we speak. Nice of them.

Fox Searchlight: Kinsey Great acting, well told story with the correct finish. It did inspire quite a few immature giggles from the audience (myself included).

Charlie & The Chocolate Factory Poster - MovieWeb

The first time I saw this movie it was about 3am and I had come home from the pub. Normally when I get home from the pub I fall asleep on the sofa (sad but true! what do you do?) but when this was on I could not fall asleep until I had seen y way through to th end. I've been telling people about it but noone else I know claims to have seen it.
So what do I do? I buy a copy of the DVD of course so I can inflict it on everyone I know. All I have to say is... you took my stapler and I want it back.
But for heaven's sake don't think that this corresponds to where I work. We don't have cubicles, we don't have to fill in arbitrary TPS reports and normally we only have to report to two bosses.
On the plus side we're only expected to work from home at weekends, and that's when we've got deadlines looming. Every morning I get into the office. There are about 120 emails in my inbox, another 120 mixed and matched amongst my other mailboxes. Trust me when I say I do not read all the email I get. I have been known to just tag whole reams of email as deleted if I'm not in the mood. This can cause problems - people damn me with faint praise and I miss it! I will say, for the record, that project related email gets the highest priority in the morning, followed by email that's in my inbox that is either (a) from someone who I recognize or (b) contains a useful subject line. An example of a useless subject line is not having one, or please help - dear god people do you have any idea how mush utter shite I have to wade through every day?
Well that turned into an unintentional rant.

Myself and Nicky from the office went to see Oldboy tonight. Oh my god. It was great, disturbing and sick at the same time. It did my head in ... it's Seven meets a love story. Deeply chilling, darkly humourous and definitely a head job.

William H. Macy, Alec Baldwin, Maria Bello. Damn it's a sweet movie. William H. Macy plays a cooler. His job is to cause people to lose money in the casino. Every time he bets the house wins. The only problem is that he falls in love and it causes him to win.
It's deeply, deeply cliched - The loser is a total loser, the mobster/casino owner is a complete f**ing asshole. but overall once you get to the end of the movie it gives you a good feeling - in just the same way that Magnolia did.
I'll give it a thumb up bob!.