I Already Miss Robert Goulet

Robert Goulet was one of those awesome celebrities who never had a problem making fun of himself. In fact, looking at his career, it seems like for the last 20 years or so he did mostly comedy. Perhaps when I go home today I will listen to one of his records. I think I have a few kicking around. On vinyl. Yes, I have records. ANALOG RULES.

Anyway, let's take a moment to remember both sides of Robert Goulet. Both as an accomplished singer......and as an accomplished singer who is also insane.That was my favorite of last year's Super Bowl commercials.

Robert Goulet died while awaiting a lung transplant. He was 73 and still awesome.

Today's Video 10/31/07 - Chivalry is Dead

The inevitable sequel to Yesterday's Video.Face it, you knew it was coming.

Today's Video 10/30/07 - Amok Time

Kirk vs. Spock. WHO WILL WIN THIS BATTLE OF WILLS AND BLADED STICKS? Watch and find out!So cheesy.

Today's Video 10/29/07 - Put On The Glasses

Since there was an overwhelming response to my earlier post regarding unnecessary hockey violence, I proclaim this week to be Fight Week. This will not, however, be some testosterone-induced nightmare; rather, let's take a look at some interesting and/or hilarious fights.

Saving the best for first: Keith David and "Rowdy" Roddy Piper fight over wearing a pair of very special sunglasses in the film They Live.Fifteen kinds of awesome.

Today's Video 10/26/07 - Haruhi Dance

I don't actually know what this is, but apparently the kids like it. Man, when I was a kid all we had was Inspector Gadget.I feel strangely compelled to learn every move in this dance, despite the fact that the very idea is completely absurd.

Props to Jman for this...thing.

TRAILER - 24 Season 7

That glorious sucking sound you heard earlier this year was 24 beating a dead horse to a bloody pulp. I think Season 6 was the first season I actively hated. I got into Heroes instead.

Will Season 7 be a return to form? Is the return of Tony Almeida more than just fan service stunt casting? How can there be no CTU? How many moles will there be? Will Naked Mandy be back? Will I watch it?

Yeah, I'll be watching. Kiefer Sutherland is like some kind of television crack dealer.

Quick, watch this preview before FOX yanks it from YouTube!

Today's Video 10/25/07 - Rickrolling

A few weeks ago, during and after Internet Meme week, I got some emails from some readers about memes I should cover. One of these suggestions was rickrolling. Since I just got rickrolled while looking for the video I was originally going to post today, I thought I'd highlight this gloriously annoying practice.

Rickrolling is when someone posts a link that claims to be something topical to the subject at hand or otherwise interesting. Clicking this link leads you to, not the promised material, but instead a music video - Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up". This is hilariously frustrating. This is rickrolling.

This is the video:Keep the YouTube link in your internet toolbox - rickroll your friends! Better yet, rickroll your enemies!

What I want to know is, how does that voice come out of a little white guy???

Today's Video 10/24/07 - Nice Catch, Blanco Niño!

These remixed G.I. Joe PSAs just never get old.

Today's Video 10/23/07 - Chris Elliott's Rocket Man

Has everyone done Rocket Man?Cabin Boy, why'd you have to go and wreck a perfectly good comedy career?

Today's Video 10/22/07 - None The Wiser

A scathing expose of Star Trek: The Next Generation for what it truly was - ridiculous!I've got a bad case of The Mondays.

Cheap Shots Need To Stop

One of the big issues in this new NHL hockey season (yes, there is one this year!) is that certain players of dubious character are beginning to take liberties out on the ice. Serious stuff. I first point to last season, where the Rangers' Colton Orr gave my man Alexander Ovechkin of the Caps a cross-check to the face.Ouch! This led to a three game suspension by the league. Only THREE games. Ovechkin's lucky he's not eating through a straw.

Fast forward to this season, where bad-reputation Flyers rookie Steve Downie LEFT HIS FEET to take a run at oft-concussed Ottawa Senator Dean McAmmond. In the PRE-SEASON.Thankfully, the league took notice of this trend and slapped Downie with a 20-game suspension. But I'm not finished.

A little over a week ago, fellow Flyer Jesse Boulerice cross-checked Vancouver's Ryan Kesler in the face, similar to the Orr-Ovechkin scenario above.The NHL, tired of these intent-to-injure cheap shots, handed Boulerice a 25-game suspension, the longest in league history. Boulerice is kind of a jerk anyway, and not even a decent goon if he lets this sort of thing happen to him:I'm probably doing the entire sport a disservice by highlighting its most negative aspect here, but I just wanted to express my displeasure at the direction the game is going and my hope that we can get things back on track. To that end, here's the best player to ever play the game (with apologies to the best forward, Mario Lemieux, and the best goalies [tie], Ken Dryden and Martin Brodeur), Bobby Orr.

REVIEW - They Might Be Giants (live)

They Might Be Giants have been installing and servicing melodies since 1982. I know this because I have a refrigerator magnet which tells me so. I also know, from personal experience, that they used to have a killer live show back in the day. However, I hadn't seen them live in a few years, so I had some doubts. Have nearly 25 years of touring and making witty records taken their toll on the Twin Quasars of Rock?

I am pleased to report that TMBG have lost none of their trademark quirky enthusiasm and continue to be one of the most entertaining forces in live music in the 21st century.

It helps that they brought along the Velcro Horns, as I am a sucker for a good brass section.

Here's a crappy celphone video of a recent TMBG show:

And that's the deal. John Linnell still breaks out the accordion here and there; John Flansburgh is still a maniac on stage; they always play "Birdhouse In Your Soul", "Particle Man", and "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)"; and they always have some new fun stage schtick - on this tour it's "Calls From Dead People", where the band gets a phone call from a notable dead person. I'm told that Jerry Orbach called them recently. It's a formula that's worked well for years, and they change things up enough that it'll probably never go stale.

There are always a few older tunes I wish they'd play more often ("Put Your Hand Inside The Puppet Head", "Ana Ng", "They'll Need a Crane", and I've never actually heard them play "Don't Let's Start" live), but that's not really much of a complaint.

I have yet to pick up their latest album, The Else, but based on the new songs I heard it's probably a pretty good one. Continuing their trend of educational pop songs like "Mammal", "The Sun (is a Mass of Incandescent Gas)" etc., The Else brings us a nugget of learning and joy called "The Mesopotamians". After hearing the song, you will forever know the names of four prominent Mesopotamians - Sargon, Hammurabi, Ashurbanipal and Gilgamesh. Just like I know the word monotreme but have no idea what it is. Somehow it relates to mammals, I imagine.

Opening for TMBG was a Belfast band called Oppenheimer. If you want to make me happy, give me a horn section. If you want to put me in a state of near-catatonic bliss, give me a fat synthesizer. Oppenheimer delivers this, as well as some robot-voiced backup singing. Check out their video for their song, "Saturday Looks Bad To Me":Oppenheimer is just two guys, and the drummer sings. They're pretty awesome, and they rock out harder live than this song would lead you to believe.

So yeah, They Might Be Giants are still pretty awesome live, and a fun band to see. If you've never seen them live, I suggest you check them out. Or at the absolute least pick up their 1990 album Flood, if somehow you don't already own it.

Today's Video 10/19/07 - Mr. T Does Ibsen

"Ain't got no time for the jibber-jabber. I wanna be Torvald, sucka!""Next time, stay in school!"

REVIEW - Blade Runner: The Final Cut

Before I get into a review of two hours of celluloid bliss, I'd like to say something about the experience of watching films in theaters as opposed to home video.

Over the last few years, I've had the opportunity to see a number of films on the big screen for the first time. For instance, I was like two years old when Raiders of the Lost Ark was released, so I've only known it from seeing it on a television screen. When I saw it in a theater about a year ago, I was floored. The same went for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Goonies, Repo Man, Donnie Darko, and a bunch of other films I missed out on the first time around, or revisited like old friends (I'm looking at you, Jurassic Park).

The major difference is, of course, the facility; the size of the screen, the sound, the people. The screen is bigger than any television or home projection system. The sound is generally better than the average home theater system. And I can't describe how awesome it was to watch Last Crusade in a packed house full of die-hard Indy fans; we all knew the film by heart, laughed at the same things, and the enthusiasm is the room was incredible. It's an amazing experience to have that kind of connection with a room full of strangers.

Which leads me to Blade Runner: The Final Cut. If you've never seen the film, do yourself a favor and go see it in New York or Los Angeles. If you don't live near either metropolis, and somehow can't afford a plane ticket for this very important trip, pre-order the DVD. It streets on December 18. Do it right now. I'll wait.

Okay, so basically, Blade Runner is like the greatest film ever. This is established fact, because why else would there be so many different versions of it? The plot, for those who are still waiting for their pre-ordered DVDs to arrive before they see it, is this: In 2019, humans have genetically engineered replicants, which are synthetic humans who are designed for off-planet labor and entertainment purposes. They are illegal on Earth, and if they make it to our planet they are to be hunted down and killed. This job falls to "blade runners", police officers like Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford). A group of replicants led by military model Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer, in a career-defining performance) make it to Los Angeles to seek out a way to extend their four-year life span. Unfiltered awesomeness ensues.

Entire books have been written about the making of this film, so I'm not going to get into all the behind-the-scenes intrigue and compromises that led to the Theatrical Version, Workprint, International Cut, and then later a Director's Cut, and finally Ridley Scott's Final Cut. Suffice it to say that this time, Scott and his team have fixed any lingering special effects issues and plot discrepancies, cleaned up the print and put in some dancing girls with hockey masks on because it's a neat visual that got cut originally for whatever reason.

It's difficult to sit here and run down the list of what's new in this version. Some of the fixes are obvious: wire removal on the spinners, digital face replacement of Zhora's stunt double, some redubbing in the exposition scenes with Captain Bryant, and they actually added a few bits of violence. But a lot of the other little things I noticed may have been there previously and I never detected them. As I stated earlier, it's a completely different experience watching a film in the theater that you've only ever seen on a television screen. A lot of times - especially these days thanks to DVD - I'll just put a movie on and do other stuff while watching. Seeing a film in the theater forces you to give it your undivided attention, which is why I almost stabbed myself in the pancreas when I noticed they took the guns out of E.T.: The 20th Anniversary Botch Job. The upshot of this, of course, is that you see cool new things you never saw before in stuff like Blade Runner.

Of course, you can't fix everything in a film. Ford's chemistry with Sean Young is still as creepy and uncomfortable 25 years later. It's a weird angle to portray a love affair, but if you dig deep contextually, maybe it works. One thing that never needed fixing was Jordan Cronenweth's cinematography; the fact that it WASN'T EVEN NOMINATED for a Cinematography Oscar is an absolute travesty. At least he won the BAFTA that year. Cronenweth was a genius and Blade Runner's lighting is a thing of beauty to behold.

Ultimately, Blade Runner (whichever cut you choose) is a modern classic which proves that style and substance can work together to produce an amazing vision of a not-too-distant future that is both thought-provoking and visually stunning.

See it in a theater, if at all possible.

Trek Casting Complete?

So, now that Chris Pine is confirmed as Kirk, there was one major part to cast - Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy. And while I'd heard that they were talking to Karl Urban about the part, I just thought that was a joke or something.

APPARENTLY NOT.

So here is a hastily photoshopped cast pic (not done by me). Not sure if it's the poor quality cut/paste job or what, but it doesn't exactly instill me with confidence...J.J. Abrams, I hope you know what you're doing.

Today's Video 10/18/07 - Promesas

From Los Mono, the Chilean supergroup that's sweeping the globe? Neat!

TRAILER - Casshern

I'm not sure what the deal is with this film, but it came out on DVD yesterday so I'm about to find out soon, but it's all up to Netflix.It looks pretty crazy!

REVIEW - Michael Clayton

So I haven't been able to make it to a movie theater in months (at least it seems like months), and I missed out on The Bourne Ultimatum, In the Shadow of the Moon, The King of Kong, and a whole bunch of other stuff. (I did see one film, and my review on that is forthcoming.) Now the Oscar bait films are coming out, and I really can't afford to miss all of them. I really wanted to see Elizabeth: The Golden Age, but I've heard some remarkably bad things about it; I may yet see it, but I really wanted to see Michael Clayton so I checked that out instead.

First of all, this is not a typical Hollywood lawyer movie. This is not the story of some lawyer triumphing over adversity and saving the world or finding love in unexpected places or swindling clients out of millions and getting away with it or winning The Big Case or whatever. Writer/director Tony Gilroy, in an interview with Ain't It Cool News, described it as a "needle drop" into probably the worst point in the protagonist's life. Michael Clayton has an ex-wife, a kid, a gambling problem, a failed restaurant, a $75,000 debt to the mob over said restaurant, and a couple minutes into the film his car blows up. Add to this the fact that his job at a prestigious law firm is to clean up after other people's messes, and you have a guy with a lot on his mind. The last thing he needs is for one of the firm's best lawyers to go off his medication and flip out during a deposition, potentially damaging the defense of a very important class action lawsuit, which of course is exactly what happens.

This sounds like ten movies' worth of problems, but in the deft hands of Gilroy and a stellar cast, Michael Clayton will certainly be one of the best films of the year. George Clooney continues to demonstrate that he's not just some handsome leading man guy, he's also one of the smartest actors in the business. Tom Wilkinson has the unenviable role of the freakydeakycrazypants lawyer, and in any other hands the role could easily have fallen into caricature. But as we all know, Tom Wilkinson is the man, so this outcome is simply not possible. Best Supporting Actor? This is very possible. Tilda Swinton, who I've been following since The Deep End, turns in yet another effortlessly strong performance, though I think her character may have been a bit underwritten. Then again, the film is about Michael Clayton, not her character. Sydney Pollack turns in another solid acting job, as he normally does when he shows up in other people's movies.

I don't want to get into the story any more than I have, but Michael Clayton is as tight a film as you're ever going to see. If you appreciate really good acting and a really good story, check it out. For serious.

Today's Video 10/17/07 - Revenge of the Gromit?

Some genius put together a Wallace & Gromit clip with dialogue from Revenge of the Sith, and I'm not sure there's a more perfect, seamless job out there. I mean, this thing is awesome.

Today's Video 10/16/07 - Turkish Star Wars

I have no idea what is going on here, but stuff like this makes the world a better place.Learn more about the history of this film here.

Today's Video 10/15/07 - Mr. T Is Back, And He Needs Work!

Drink your milk!Again I ask, WHAT IS THE DEAL WITH A DOG WITH A MOHAWK?

Slices of Fried Gold in Star Trek Casting News

Casting is a key element of remakes, and while I wait for Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson to be cast in a comedy remake of Easy Rider, I can content myself with some of the interesting decisions J.J. Abrams and his team are making with their Star Trek reboot/reimagining/whatever.

Hikaru Sulu will be played by John Cho. Please, no jokes about the Enterprise getting lost on its way to planet White Castle, or Neil Patrick Harris playing a Klingon who snorts Andorian cocaine off the back of an Orion slave girl or whatever Harold and Kumar joke you have planned. This is serious stuff here. WE ARE BEING SERIOUS RIGHT NOW. That said, the kid's a good actor that probably won't get much to do. Are they skewing young here, or am I just getting old? I'm probably just getting old.

Eric Bana (who you may remember from Hulk, and I thought he was pretty good in Munich as well) has been cast as the villain of the piece, apparently named Nero and possibly a Romulan. Now, I know the Romulan stuff always kinda ripped off elements of the Roman Empire, but calling a Romulan bad guy Nero is a bit too on-the-nose, don't you think? I mean, they're basically militant, emotional Vulcans; how did they base their planet's civilization on an Earth civilization that's been dead for a couple thousand years? Maybe it's more of the famous Abrams misdirection. We can only hope.

The rumor mill continues to churn out talented(?) young actors to play James T. Kirk, and the new one is a guy named Chris Pine, known mostly for being in a Lindsay Lohan movie I studiously ignored whilst on a plane once, called Just My Luck. This one also works if they decide to go with Matt Damon some time down the road. Still, the best Kirk casting idea I've heard was to just get Shatner and ignore the fact that he's pushing 80. Think about it...you know it's the right thing to do.

The awesomest news to hit is that Simon Mothertrucking Pegg is playing Montgomery "Scotty" Scott. Surprisingly, the geek community hasn't embraced this one as much as I'd expected. There are complaints that Pegg is too skinny; these people are likely unfamiliar with Pegg's role in Run, Fat Boy, Run (but then again, who isn't unfamiliar with a film directed by David Schwimmer?), or the fact that he lost like 50 pounds to do Hot Fuzz. There are complaints that he's a "comedy actor"; it's been my experience that comic actors are at times the best dramatic actors, and Pegg has done roles in serious stuff like Band of Brothers, so I think this will work. Pegg's a super geek and will come at this role with respect and do an awesome job. I can already see him getting off the intercom with Kirk and being completely frustrated at having to save the day AGAIN. Like Scotty used to. If nothing else works this bit of casting will. Think about it, he basically already did Scotty in Mission Impossible III, just without the accent.

Paul McGillion, an actor who was also up for the role of Scotty, looked like he would have probably been a good choice as well, but it's Simon Mothertrucking Pegg! I mean come on.

Looking at the list, it looks like Kirk and McCoy are the only main roles left to cast. Look for an announcement soon!

Today's Video 10/12/07 - William Shatner's Common People

We close out Shatner Week with his rendition of Pulp's classic tune, featuring Ben Folds and Joe Jackson.This song can be found on Shatner's Has Been album, which also features "I Can't Get Behind That", a duet with Henry Rollins, which is basically throwing the two greatest non-singing singers in a booth together to fight it out. IT IS PRETTY AWESOME, GUYS.

Is it just me, or does Joe Jackson have some kind of Palpatine thing going? Weird.

Today's Video 10/11/07 - It Was A Very Good Year

...because Shatner scored some really good acid?Holy cow.

Today's Video 10/10/07 - Shatner Funk

Somebody took the funkyfresh beats to an interview between Shatner and Conan O'Brien. You may need sunglasses due to the blinding brilliance of this clip.

Today's Video 10/9/07 - William Shatner's Seven

With a twist ending you just didn't see coming...

Today's Video 10/8/07 - William Shatner's Rocket Man

I think it's gonna be a long, long time.Yeah.

Did someone say...Shatner Week?

Behind the Scenes: Valkyrie

I really hate Entertainment Tonight. They seem to find people with the shrillest, whiniest voices to work on the show. But sometimes they get the exclusives, so I guess it's something I have to live with. They got some neat clips from the set of the new Tom Cruise movie, Valkyrie, which looks awesome and will probably be awesomer when Leonard Maltin isn't talking over everything. Check out the clip here.

Today's Video 10/5/07 - The Dead Parrot Sketch

"Pining for the fjords?"Classic.

REVIEW - Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie For Theatres

There is a small portion of the world's population that actually doesn't dislike, malign, or actively hate Adult Swim's Aqua Teen Hunger Force show. A ragtag band of ruffians who enjoy their humor in non sequitirs, and don't mind completely random humor for the sake of being retarded. I am one of these people.

While the Aqua Teens would probably be even more hilarious while under the effects of controlled substances, I've never personally had the experience. The film Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie For Theatres might be a time to test this theory. Because I really wanted to like it a lot, but in the end it was just okay.

First of all, there is a plot. It's chaotic and nonsensical, but there is an actual structure of sorts to this thing. I realize that if you're making an 80 minute film instead of a ten minute one, you need some kind of cohesive structure. But part of me wishes that it was even less structured than the final product turned out to be. Like the show. The show has NO plot. Ever. It throws the viewer off and inevitably the episode ends in a completely unexpected way. The film ends in the same way, but it feels like a bit of tacked-on randomness rather than anything earned.

We learn the origins of the Aqua Teens, their relationship with Dr. Weird (sort of), and find out far more about Frylock than anyone really cares to. Some plot elements from the early parts of the film seem to come from the closing credit sequence of the show, with an appearance by Time Lincoln. On the plus side, we get visits from the Mooninites and Plutonians (though Emory and Oglethorpe were underutilized, in my opinion), and the Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past From the Future is a major supporting character. Fans of his "Thousands of years ago..." schtick will not be disappointed. Carl also has a number of memorable moments, though he too isn't used as much as I'd like. MC Pee Pants shows up briefly, and Neil Peart, drummer from Rush, makes an inexplicable cameo appearance. Sadly, Bruce Campbell's much-anticipated role as a chicken nugget was somewhat anti-climactic.

The story, involving the Aqua Teens trying to stop a renegade piece of exercise equipment known as the Insan-o-Flex while Frylock unlocks the mysteries of why Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight" keeps playing in his head, is remarkably structured for an Aqua Teen Hunger Force production. Note that by any other standards, the film is an insane, nonsensical mess. But compared to a regular episode of the show, the film pales in comparison.

The thing about the Aqua Teen Hunger Force show is that it works best in its short format. Watching too many episodes in a row (on DVD, for instance) kills the humor and I think the same problem applies to the film. I'm not sure who thought an Aqua Teen Hunger Force film was a good idea, but I think they were kind of wrong. I like the fact that they did it, though.

Maybe it just needed more Carl?

Today's Video 10/4/07 - Dylan Moran vs. the Funk Soul Brother

Ireland's finest standup comic deconstructs Fatboy Slim.

In Rainbows, or: How Much Would You Pay?

Radiohead is trying something different. Those who follow the band are not at all surprised.

Having fulfilled their six-record deal with Parlophone/Capitol/EMI, and therefore under no obligation to anyone, the band is free to experiment with new forms of self-distribution. Their plan: potential listeners visit the In Rainbows website, name their price, and download the tracks digitally.

For Luddites, a special discbox will be released on December 3 and will contain In Rainbows on both CD and two 12" records with artwork and lyric booklets, and a bonus Enhanced CD which contains 8 bonus tracks. The overall set will be packaged in a hardcover book and slipcase. The discbox also includes the digital download. Altogether, the discbox will run about $80. The band are also planning a CD release of the album for early 2008, I guess for...poorer Luddite fans?

This whole digital download thing is hopefully scaring the holy neebles out of the music industry. If this experiment works, the industry as a whole no longer needs to exist, or at least is greatly marginalized.

But what if people pay a penny for the thing? Well, Radiohead fans are loyal, so I'm willing to bet they'll do all right, but it's a valid question for the industry. Well, that'll mean that there's less money to be made from record sales. SO WHAT. If nothing else, it'll remove certain people from music-making, like the people who are in it for the huge piles of money. You think a folk singer in a cafe would get upset if 20,000 people worldwide downloaded her songs off her website for a dollar? She just made 20 grand without a manager, A&R guy or manufacturing costs.

Radiohead has a great advantage here, however - they have a built-in, loyal international fan base willing to buy their songs. That folk singer in the cafe probably doesn't have that kind of fan base. Promotion and distribution are still controlled with an iron grip by the music industry, who have the RIAA and ClearChannel in their pocket to prevent anything from leaking out of their music machine. The interwebs are the great equalizer - it levels the playing field in promotion and distribution - but the playing field is so vast. How does the folk singer in the cafe in Des Moines get her music heard by Joe Nakamura in Osaka? Podcasting and internet radio can help in this regard, but we've seen the industry crack down on these avenues to prevent this sort of independent thinking from get out of control.

The distribution method behind In Rainbows could catch on, but it will take the concerted efforts of art, technology, and idealistic lawyers to break the chokehold the music industry has on the marketplace. Let's get working, people!

Rolling Stone magazine is nice enough to provide a track-by-track preview of In Rainbows here. It's nice to know that even household-name journalism is also just throwing up embedded clips from YouTube...

TRAILER - There Will Be Blood

Here's the latest from P.T. Anderson. I'm told that Daniel Day-Lewis has already locked up the Best Actor Oscar and the film isn't even out yet.There Will Be Blood hits in limited release on December 26.

Today's Video 10/3/07 - Star Wars Jackass

I laughed till I stopped!

Untitled Tintin Project

If you're like me (and I know I am), you're a fan of the Tintin books by Hergé. The intrepid reporter and his sidekicks are a pretty awesome bunch. Steven Speilberg, Peter Jackson, and a director to be named later think so too, and will be directing a trilogy of Tintin adventures.

I am very excited by this, and not just because decent directors are going to adapt Tintin to the big screen. It's the process. Robert Zemeckis has been going crazy lately with his 3-D motion-capture stuff (Polar Express, Beowulf, etc.), but as awesome as it is in a trechnical way, the characters still look a bit creepy and kinda not right. Speilberg and Jackson agreed that a traditional live-action Tintin wouldn't work, so what they've decided to do is use 3-D motion-capture animation techniques to present the familiar Hergé images of the Tintin characters, but in realistic, detailed surfaces, and with the ability to effectively represent human expressions and emotions. Says Peter Jackson:

For well over a year now, artists at Weta have been quietly testing the theory of creating life-like reproductions of Tintin, Captain Haddock, Professor Calculus and many of the other core cast - faithfully replicating Hergé’s original designs, but not rendering them as cartoons, or the familiar looking computer animated characters – instead we’re making them look photo realistic, the fibers of their clothing, the pores of their skin and each individual hair. They look exactly like real people – but real Hergé people!

This is probably the greatest idea since ever. If it works.

An awesome thing that leads me to believe that this might be non-disastrous is their choice of writer. Scripting the films will be Steven Moffat, who isn't exactly a household name but he wrote the single best episode of the new Doctor Who show, "The Girl In the Fireplace". This guy is on point, knows his stuff, and should turn out some awesome Tintin action.

It's too early to say when we'll see the first Tintin film, maybe 2010? One thing's for sure, it's NOT SOON ENOUGH.

TRAILER - Wall-E Trailer B

This Wall-E trailer (sorry, link only, no embedding) is similar to the first one, except this time it's got a great bit with the Pixar lamp and apparently Wall-E has a pet cockroach. Also, it's in glorious Quicktime, so that's awesome.

In fact, do me a favor and freeze a frame from the trailer. The detail, the depth of field, the lighting...Ratatouille was incredible, but I think Wall-E is going to blow the rats away. Will Wall-E win the Oscar for Best Picture?

YES. YES, IT WILL.

TRAILER - In the Shadow of the Moon

Ron Howard presents a documentary about the space program, and as I understand it it is the DEFINITIVE word on the subject. Everybody but Neil Armstrong shows up in this thing (I think Neil's still a bit embarrassed by the fact that history has immortalized him already), and I really want to see it. SO MAYBE I WILL.

Today's Video 10/2/07 - There Is A Gorilla

Whoever's idea it was to put non-animated gorillas together with Phil Collins IS A GENIUS.

TRAILER - Funny Games

Tim Roth. Naomi Watts. MESSED UP.

Today's Video 10/1/07 - 21st Century Censorship

Part of this dovetails nicely with last week's internet meme theme. Isn't that convenient? Here's something I've been stewing over for about a week or so.

Some people think we're in an enlightened society, and that we have Constiutionally-protected freedoms and stuff like that. But then Sally Field went on the Emmy Awards last week and got smacked right square in the censorship.Fox, who aired the awards show (incidentally the lowest-rated Emmys in a long time - does anyone really care about this sort of thing?), claims that it censored her speech because she used the "g-- d---" word, which is unlikely since 1) people use bad words on Fox shows all the time and there doesn't seem to be much of a problem, 2) Jack Bauer ripped out some guy's trachea out with his teeth on Fox's 24 last season, which I'm pretty sure is worse than some older lady saying g-- d---, 3) Bono said a much worse word at the Grammys not too long ago and the censors let that one through, and 4) they could have just bleeped it out instead of cutting the live feed for the duration of the speech if it was just an objectionable word that was the problem. I'm sure Sally Field is a very nice lady, and she also seems somewhat annoying, but when you win an award you traditionally have a minute or two to thank whoever or talk about Chile's gross domestic product or bronze-age archaeology or those new alcoholic energy drinks or whatever. She wanted to make a political statement. I don't care what she says either way but she has every right to say it. It's one thing to start the music and cut off her speech because it runs too long, and quite another to refuse to allow people to hear what she has to say. I mean come on, is it really such a big deal to let somebody say "Let's face it, if the mothers ruled the world, there would be no G-- d---ed wars in the first place,"?

And then there's the "Don't Tase Me Bro" guy. Prank or not (and there is some dispute), this guy genuinely did not want to get tased. I wouldn't either. Some people have medical conditions, you know. So did this kid get tased because he mentioned Skull and Bones? Or because he questioned why Kerry let Bush take the election in '04 despite many voting irregularities? Or because he pushed to the front of the question line? No one can give a definite answer yet. Kerry was all, "No, I want to answer his question," but across the room the cops were zapping this poor dude who was trying to hear the answer to his question.

I'm not trying to make some kind of political statement here, I'm just saying that people need to take it easy and let people say stuff because there are laws that allow people to say stuff if they want, is all I'm saying.