slothian

Fair enough - I replied thusly. With the exception of Mickey Rourke who really became Marv on the screen, and i guess i will give props to Elijah Wood too (although i think the fact that it was Elijah Wood playing the character made it creepy as opposed to him becoming the character, but it worked so i'm not complaining), everyone else was still terrible, and no amount of props were going to hide that, and Jessica Alba was the worst of all. So apart from Marv and Kevin(? - whoever the mute was), ALL of the cast were terrible?! If you read my most recent article, you'll know that I don't have much time for Alba; nor I care for the acting of Josh Hartnett. Alba was rarely ever the focus of her scenes, playing off either Willis or Nick Stahl, and whilst she's no Meryl Streep, she didn't make Nancy so unwatchable as a character that I had to leave the cinema. Hartnett was petty damn great in his two cameo scenes and I felt particularly moved by Becky the treacherous prostitute, whilst Clive Owen was pretty damn cool as a remorseless killer, as was Willis as the film noir detective. So by that logic movies like "The Public Enemy", "Sunset Blvd.", "Touch Of Evil", "The Maltese Falcon", and "Out Of The Past" are bland looking movies ???? Whatever you say, man. Even so, if Black and White is so bland to you, they could of shot it in color but with a very dried out look, and could of later further pronounced colors in a digital intermediate using digital coloring. I said a black & white version of THE film would be plain - I'm not so culturally bereft that I find monochrome films to be dull or boring. But it wouldn't wholly work for Sin City. What they actually did was very clever; keeping the basic visuals monochrome, but digitally colouring certain things to bring them out (such as Becky's eyes, or Goldies hair). As such, I thought it looked awesome. How did they do that when they didn't bring anything new to the story by bringing it to another medium. I think you need to look up the word adaptation ad·ap·ta·tion - a form or structure modified to fit a changed environment. Sin City didn't do that at all. If anything it did everything in it's power to not do that. In relation to your CGI question, you can make a movie look like a comic book without using CGI, look at the sets on 30 Days Of Night which look exactly like the book, look at the rooftop sequence at the end of the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Trurtles movie which look's exactly like the book, look at certain scenes in Batman Begins that look exactly like Batman: Year One, look at the sets on The Rocketeer which look exactly like the book. All of these were real sets and locations which they filmed on, and in turn made them better movies because of it. If any CGI is used it's just augment a few things here and there, and if it's good CGI you wouldn't even notice it's there. Which begs the question, If they really needed to use as much CGI as they did in Sin City, why didn't they just animate the whole thing including the characters like they did in Beowulf???? That way it would be a fully formed world as opposed to just a bunch of actors standing in front of a green screen. Firstly, it's an adaptation - fitting a changed environment - by not being a comic book. It's a film that visualizes the characters and has human beings play them. As such, that's a changed environment as someone isn't shown turning the pages of a Sin City volume on screen for 90 minutes. As for the second part of your point, it's entirely the choice of the director. You can have a film that relies on no special effects, one that's slightly CGI enhanced, one that is primarily CGI, and one that is fully CGI. Rodriguez chose to do option #3. Now granted, there are all these options, but he picked one of them, and the best one in my opinion. All four can work, just depends on preference as to how effective you find it. As long as Saw is a succesful franchise, my point still stands. With Saw films, you know you're getting gory puzzle-based horror-schlok from the profligacy (I think that's the word) of the films and their well-publicised reviews/advertising campaign. Sin City has its roots in a graphic novel and whilst it has a kill count, to say it's ONLY popular because people watch films simply to see people die is frankly quite wrong. You're twisting my words. I am just saying that regardless of the quality of the movie, fanboys would rejoice in saying that it's such an amazing movie because it's exactly the same as the book. I am not saying that they were the key to it's success but they didn't hurt it's success. Also keep in mind that Sin City was not a box office success, and it wasn't as well received by critics as people like to think it is. It's more of a cult film than anything so saying it won fans from a mass audicne is a little misleading. Sin City box office stats. It made $30 million in profit in America alone and substantially more with the worldwide receipts. Admittedly it isn't nearly the most successful CBM ever, although that does not neccessarily count as an indicator of quality - Batman & Robin made a lot more money, for example. Sin City reviews compilation from Metacritic. Whilst the scale does range from 0-100%, the average review is put at 74% and most of the reviews flash green. I can absolutely see it as a cult film, but if you shop around message boards, you'll find that a lot of them have very nice things to say about Sin City. Some of them will be fanboys, some will be Saw-lovers - some might even be both. But you can't say that that maks up the entirity of the Sin City audience. Some times it really is as simple as a lot of people liked the film! Btw, keen to carry on this debate as long as it stays civil. There aren't many signs so far to say that it won't, but you did jump on my black & white point a bit too readily.

I'm taking this to PM, chaps. Carry on the feedback.

If anything, I liked the karioke! Then again, I like that sorta thing in general - here's proof from when I was living in Banff: On topic, I loved the sound effect at the beginning (Sexual Deviance - yay!!!) and the playing of Muse, who are one of my favourite bands - especially live. That needs to be on a "things to do before you die" list.

Good lord... I guess that's just a difference of opinion then. I felt Sin City as a movie didn't work at all. The acting was very wooden and the use of big name actors as opposed to character actors did more to hinder the intent of the filmmaker since you weren't able to see the characters just the actors attempting to portray them. Not to mention the actors weren't very good, and really weren't right for the roles they were trying to portray (the notable exception being Mickey Rourke). I'd argue that whilst this usually true of films with an ensemble cast, the visuals of the film made you look past the fact it was big name actors in the role. Be it Bruce Willis's scar making him Hartigan, not McClane or Elijah Wood's giant glasses making him look un-Hobbit-esque, or Mickey Rourke's mega prosthetics, I thought the film did a good job of making the actors more in keeping with the Sin City universe. And I'd have to rewatch the film first to really pick out who had a weak performance, but I don't remember anyone being "not very good", even Alba. A black and white version of the film would be pretty plain. The CGI look in contrast made it look like the action of the comic/graphic novel (whichever Mike deems it to be) coming to life off of the page. That's why it's a great adaptation of the book, rather than merely being a film based off the plot points of the book. I feel that Rodriguez/Miller did exactly what you said in your first sentence. How you can say that setting a CBM in a stylized CGI environment ISN'T a vision being brought to the screen confuses me. Right, that's the one reason Sin City was successful. Because teenagers today are sociopaths. So you'd rather an amazing storyline from a comicbook wasn't directly transferred to film because it would only attract fanboys?? Sin City won fans from a mass audience, many of whom hadn't ever read Miller's books. I'm one such person. Again, morally bankrupt teenagers are the SOLE cause of the film's success? WhyIoughtta.... Sin City is a stylistic action-fest with a strong narrative in each tale, due to it being a direct adaptation from three storylines from Miller's anthology. The cast is somewhat starry, which may have put a few more bums on seats, but with the creator of the characters co-directing the film, there wasn't going to be a single performance there that didn't get his own stamp of approval. So there we go - argument #2!! ON TOPIC Great review from Mike & James, which tied in nicely with Mike's review. Whilst I got more of a sense of the JLA's troubles/stories than I did of the Government or the Centre, it was a great review that made me check out youTube for some clips afterwards. Looks darn good! Then again, this episode caused me to really consider a certain question: who does Mike review things best alongside: James, Des (another great review btw - I was just very tired by the time it got to that review) or Jenny? All three dynamics are great, but the fact we had two of them here in the same episode made me mentally contrast them. Sadly, I fell asleep before coming to a conclusion, but both were great!

Eh, on paper it could be a very good film, but that trailer doesn't really impress me.If anything, it indicates that it could be the same generally-good-but-pretty-flawed-too film that the original Hulk was. One thing's for sure - I can't wait for my all-singing, all-dancing Hulk episode this June!

I too am blocked from work, but only the main page. The forums are fine, hence me sending this note from work! Rather than the werewolf porn, the reason stated is that earth-2.net comes under gambling. Am I missing a sub-forum at all??

Yeah, sorry - forgot to congratulate Kellen! I'm pumped for this because I haven't heard his Canadian tones for quite a while!!

I think we've had one disagreement over the Turtles films and after I responded the debate kinda stopped! But many thanks! As I said in the seg, check Mike & Jenny's IAL episode to hear of the discrepancies. As for The Mask, the film is somewhat faithful towards the beginning - Stanley Ipkiss is a put-upon loser who finds The Mask and confronts hoodlums in an alley - but after that, the film never gets as dark as the comics do. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE The Mask but it's clearly a Jim Carrey-vehicle rather than a Sin City-style loving homage. And on this occasion, it really works with the business, but I don't think you can say the film is too faithful to it's origins - the creator himself wanted the film to be more Tex Avery-style than horror-based. Gosh, our second disagreement there! Well, I have to pull out all the stops if I'm to beat IIWY? in next year's awards! Expect me to cover Wanted in character as Neo, lamenting how "Matrix" the whole thing sounds.

Well, no-one screams paedophile more than Shia LeBeouf.... Seriously, that guy's younger than I am. Whilst Rosenbaum would look like an odd Freddy unburnt, I think he could do *a* good job. Then again, the remake would probably kill all of what made the original film good. Especially if Michael fucking Bey is involved.

Apart from seeing the end of the pilot when channel surfing a few months ago, I had no real idea of this show's existence. A quick youTube search saw me watch the entire pilot and I was very impressed, save for the B-movie Liz Hurley playing the Star labs woman. Even so, I'm very tempted to pick this up, following the reviews provided here - many thanks for doing this series!

Chalk another vote up for Samurai Jack. Fucking awesome show.

Des is better than half of the people on the internet by the way.

The BBFC stuff is rather irksome. Whilst the UK isn't unliberal, Gordon Brown's Labour party has moved to the centre-right and whilst they aren't the same political party as that of Thatcher, they get away with a LOT of distinctly Thatcherite policies whilst painting themselves as better as their rival party when they were last in government over 10 years ago. I have a feeling Stavros is a Labour man, so I apologise if this thread gets hijacked for a debate on British politics! (Even if I'm a lapsed Liberal Democrat with no current affiliations!) Anyways, good to hear my compatriots featured this week! The actor who plays the absentee Lord, incidentally, is well-known for two prominent BBC sitcoms so I always get caught off guard when I see him seriously act.

Ever wonder why my ish isn't on Earth-2.net weekly? Well, I've recently launched an excuse for where my writing energies go! Sloth Town is Blogspot's answer to Dread Media in that it's updated weekly on Mondays. But it isn't specifically about horror. Or audio. Or award-eligible. I guess that wasn't a very good analogy... Either way, it's me writing about non-Comic Book Movies stuff. Some of it (like my most recent post) will feature references that may whizz over the heads of non British residents, but hopefully that won't put you off. Plus the first post shills Earth-2.net, so I feel this site now owes it a look!! :happy:

Even if I went away empty-handed this year, I honestly feel more honoured by the on-air feedback for my writing. Last year, I got awards for my contributions, but mere laughter and talk of my voice's ability to "wetten panties". So on the whole, I haven't had cause to complain on either year!! Congrats to all the winners. I am legit surprised that WFP8 didn't make the top 3 though - I thought everyone preferred bad reviews to good ones (although I don't begrudge either Mask of the Phantasm or the Demon's Quest of their positions as both episodes were fantastic). Also glad to see WFP3 get recognition because it was so nicely balanced in terms of content.

Tell you what Mike, post these pictures and I won't carry Jenny off in my strong accent come November!! Although don't think I didn't know who you meant by "Smarmy Brit" - it shall be pistols at dawn, sir! Pshaw!

Can't really add much to the above glowing praise, James! But damn it, I'll try! .....I like that you grade out of 100! Even if that sounds jokey, it does at least define scores better than out of 10. If I have several Comic Reel-lief films rated 8.5, I'll simply order them in terms of preference and explain the positioning when I do my Top 10/15/20 list. Your way is much easier in that regard!

Honestly, this is probably my least favourite article of mine, if only because I was going to tear the JLA film a new arsehole and then the production status really screwed that over! I'm glad I pinned down my Alba thoughts though - I've got a more general look at the role of women in CBMs to come, but I tempted to save it until after this summer's crop of films.

I've NEVER seen this show before, so I'm quite interested - not least by Mark Hamill's Trickster. Given that Hamill would go on to voice him in the DCAU, you almost wonder if it could be considered in continuity. Admittedly it would be pre-Wally West of the S:TAS/JL/JLU....and this show IS live action, but still. Much like his Joker voice was used to begin another DC live action show Birds of Prey (which I also didn't see), Hamill's career whoredom might well theoretically link ALL TV shows EVER to JLA!!

True enough - I've pimped it recently, but episode 72 is somewhat award-winning! The problem is not so much that it affects the new Batman universe, or to a lesser extent the Superman one with asthmatic Superboy and a character called "Lois Lane". The problem is that this may be the basis of a New Wonder Woman universe, Lantern universe etc etc. I'm really hoping that somehow these movies did a and had a character interlink any stand-alone films with the Nolan Batman films, to obscure the relevance of this JLA movie.

Do Warner Brothers not read my columns?!?!? They're about to tar some of DC's greatest heroes and set back proper feature films of them by years/decades just so Adam Brody and his seemingly Australian Justice League can fight Maxwell Lord in Canada. Did Catwoman teach these people nothing? And do they really want to piss Chris Nolan off so soon after his Joker dying already limits his third film scope? Haven't the producers who suggested Superman can't fly when facing a giant spider been pensioned off? Can anyone persuade the writers to strike again? I've got a million of these, trust me... :grumble:

No love for the B-52s?

Here's a question for peops: do you like famous bands from your area/state? My home shire produced notable modern day alternative acts The Young Knives (who are awesome) and Kasabian (who are best heard live). Also attached to Leicestershire: Showaddywaddy, Mark "Return of the Mack" Morrison, and Engelbert "Please Release Me" Humperdinck

On second thoughts, I think these count as spoilers. With Mike not around, I'm going to censor myself - I suggest you do the same JG