D-Man

ButI I also caught a glimpse of Loki with the long golden horns on his helmet. That fuckin' rules!

My only reservation right now is that Asgard looks a bit shite. Too glossy or somethin'. Not sure.

I was very impressed by the trailer. I am now officially psyched for this.

Holy Shit!

I wish. No, STALKER is about these guys that guide people through 'The Zone'; a heavily guarded swath of wilderness where the metaphysical becomes the physical. After taking an oblique route through 'The Zone', travelers arrive at 'The Room' where their secret desires are granted. I've never witnessed the entire film but I gather it involves long sequences of minimal dialogue, beautiful photography, symbolism and plenty of self contemplation. The very definition of heavy lifting in film appreciation.

Wow, Slothian. You humble me with your M.M.M.M (Mads Mikkelsen Movie Memory). I never would have matched those two roles with the same actor. Bravo. Checking . . . checking . . . Yes! It is the same eye in both roles. I sense a trend. He's a real chameleon of an actor, isn't he? Check out his gallery on IMDB. He looks totally different from one film to the next. Cool. On another, completely unrelated note. The Tarkovskiy ( not Tarakovsky) film I was trying in vain to reference was not Reaper but STALKER. Duh. My point, however, regarding similarities in filmic stylings, remains intact. Ding!

me too.

Yes, do Koete. It's the perfect film for this time of year and, in my opinion, one of the best Bradbury adaptations going. Also, if you're a Bradbury fan, check out MOBY DICK, Starring Gregory Peck as Ahab, Directed by John Huston and screenplay by Ray Bradbury. And if you enjoy that, check out THE BANSHEE, a story by Bradbury that thinly veils his experiences working with Huston in Scotland on the Moby Dick screenplay. It's pretty great. Bradbury has talked at length about Huston in interviews. He was a game changing presence in the writer's life and early career.

OK. I am so stoked that our KAFKA review is up. I have some additional points to share but first let me say that Mr. Dubisch's BLACK VELVET NECRONOMICON looks fantastic. I'm looking forward to seeing that in print. In anticipation of seeing KAFKA with Des, I dipped into my copy of The Trial and found, in the introduction, some biographical details concerning Franz Kafka himself. It turns out he was a true ladies man. Check out these brief exerts from some letters he wrote to Felice, a potential love interest, in 1912. "My life consists, and basically always has consisted, of attempts at writing, mostly unsuccessful. But when I didn't write, I was at once flat on the floor, fit for the dustbin. My energies have always been pitifully weak . . . " He then goes on to proclaim himself "the thinnest person I know. I consider this a distinction since I am familiar with sanatoriums and so have seen some really thin people" ( as a side note, this is the line that had me in fits of giggles shortly after Des and I recorded our review.) Further, it turns out Kafka actually did work, as the film portrays, at the Workers' Accident Insurance Institute in Prague. About his job, he had this to say, "Since I am nothing but literature and can want to be nothing else, my job will never take possession of me, it may, however, shatter me completely, and this is by no means a remote possibility." A few weeks after this Kafka proposed marriage to Felice, who accepted. Kafka followed up his proposal with this pledge, "It certainly was not my intention to make you suffer, yet I have done so; obviously it will never be my intention to make you suffer, yet I shall always do so." After this promise, Kafka finishes the letter with this, "Felice, beware of thinking of life as commonplace, if by commonplace you mean monotonous, simple, petty. Life is merely terrible; I feel it as few others do. Often - and in my inmost self perhaps all the time - I doubt whether I am a human being." And if that, my friends, does not make you want to run right out and see KAFKA, nothing will.

I haven't read the book but I'm pretty sure it wasn't in 3D.

PHANTOM MENACE tried to explain how the Force worked and, yes, that whole movie came off like bad fan-fiction. Seeing NEW HOPE & EMPIRE in 3D would be pretty thrilling but I'll pass on the rest of them. And Yeah, Okay, I'll probably see RETURN but only for the speeder bikes and the final space battle and the pit of Sarlac. But that's all. Okay, I might (might) see REVENGE, but that's it. Alright, I might (might) sneak in for the last twenty minutes of PHANTOM. Duel of the Fates would be pretty cool in 3D. You couldn't drag me to see ATTACK, though. Except maybe just for the sequences with Obi-Wan by himself. But that's it! Final answer.

Are you sure that qualifies as 'actual episode news?' "This just in ... Show hosts laugh their asses off ... at nothing in particular ... " I think we were a little punch-drunk that night. When you post our Retro VHS Episode (we'll definitely have to do that again) I'll try again to finish that sentence that had me giggling so bad.

Having seen TIME CRIMES and a couple of Vigalondo shorts I'm going to assume there will be more going on here than the INDEPENDENCE DAY-like premise would suggest. He's an original and unpredictable visionary. EDIT - Here's a link to Dread Media's review of TIME CRIMES: http://forums.earth-2.net/index.php?showtopic=7199

Christmas 2010 will see the release of the Criterion edition of Guillermo del Toro's CRONOS on Blu-Ray. While this news is cool enough on it's own, what I really wanted to share was this video of del Toro himself visiting the Criterion offices and raiding the Blu-Ray collection stored there. This video really tickled my Geek ivories and made me dream of owning even half of that wall of shelves. Here is the video: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=992251652678 Enjoy.

"No one knows better than McCain just how angry you can be when they cage you in with laaaaaawws."

That looks really cool. The art has a real 70s vibe going, especially in the inks. I wonder, though, how they'll capture the infectious humor of the movie or will they play it pretty straight?

I'm sure you're right, dc, but I can't help wishing a film would come along and be David that is the Goliath of the SAW franchise. Last year it could have been TRICK 'R' TREAT but the studios chickened out. This could have been the year of Carpenter's triumphant return. A good marketing campaign that takes full advantage of his amazing body of work to sell this new film to a young audience could have pushed it over the top. In a way, Carpenter has been gone so long it's like he's starting his career over again. There is a whole generation of casual film goers that are not familiar with the Carpenter brand of cinematic genius. It's time that changed. They should re-release a handful of his films in theaters just to prime the audiences for the WARD. THE THING, ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, and PRINCE OF DARKNESS. I would see them multiple times in a theater re-release.

John Carpenter's THE WARD is playing at the Toronto International Film Festival and first reviews are looking promising. We should be seeing this one in general release sometime next year. (How about later this year, Powers That be?) It goes without saying I am psyched for Carpenter's return to the silver screen. I do wish he was doing something Lovecraftian but I'll take what I can get. This looks to be a lot of good, old fashioned fun. Can't wait.

Yeah, I know you're right. "Machete don't do logic. Machete improvises."

I've been thinking it would have been better if Machete's jump over the gate on the motorcycle had kicked off the Mexican attack on the compound. Instead he makes the jump half way through the battle for no discernable reason. Just saying.

I agree with KnightWing. This is a costume designed for stunts. Made roomy for extra padding and movement. However, having said that, I have to comment on the anachronistic shoulder pads and abdomen pads. If they are representative of the actual costume then I have a problem. They look way to modern and out of period. I'm willing to reserve judgement but those pads worry me just a little. Those Hydra agents are pretty badass, though. Right?

Come on you guys. I really want to see some opinions on this one. Love it or hate it?

I would not mind doing a Ninja Scroll review. In fact, here it is: It's fucking awesome. Perhaps someday I will expound upon that. I have it on VHS. That's how I roll. Old School.

Personally, I'd rather Lucas release these in two separate boxed sets: Original trilogy and Prequel Trilogy. I'll leave you to guess which set I would buy.

PONTYPOOL truly is a fantastic film. A real scary gem. I recall being at a loss for words during the review. I was still kinda' shaken by it. Highly recommended.