Ben Gardner's Head

STAR TREK Trailer

noreply@blogger.com (Evel Brando) — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 21:25:00 +0000

Granted it's a crappy camera phone, youtube version... but for those of you who absolutely can't wait, here you go.

Poster for Tarantino's Next Flick HELL RIDE

noreply@blogger.com (Evel Brando) — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 20:56:00 +0000

So this is the poster for the Tarantino produced flick HELL RIDE. It's written and directed by some dude named Larry Bishop, who from the looks of his IMDB page, starred in a bunch of motorcycle movies in the Seventies. But what's really cool about this movie is the cast. Dennis Hopper, Vinnie Jones, Michael Fuckin' Madsen (heard he got his middle name change legally to that). With Tarantino's input, I can't see how this baby couldn't be one of the grooviest cinematic happenings of 2008. Click on the image for a larger view.

New X-FILES 2 Pic

noreply@blogger.com (Evel Brando) — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 19:47:00 +0000

New pics for sci-fi movie geeks are popping up today like tribbles on C-deck. Hehehehe... snort... hahahaha... snort... hehehehehe. Okay, I'll stop. Anyway, a new pic of Mulder and Scully from THE X-FILES 2 has hit the internets. The rumor is that the movie won't feature any aliens or mythology from the show. Um... yeah. That's just weird. Anyway... enjoy.

First Pic of the USS Enterprise From JJ Abram's STAR TREK

noreply@blogger.com (Evel Brando) — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 19:25:00 +0000

It's not much. Barely a glance of the saucer section under construction. It is cool, however. Only one more day till we get to see the new STAR TREK trailer in front of CLOVERFIELD.

Aw crap... Highlander the Game

noreply@blogger.com (Evel Brando) — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 19:15:00 +0000

Get your kilts on and be prepared to be completely underwhelmed. That's right, boys and girls, it's time for the HIGHLANDER game trailer. The trailer, featuring some fancy computer graphics and a crappy voiceover, tells the tale of a certain member from the clan McCloud. Ahhh, but which McCloud is the question. Is it A) Connor McCloud B) Duncan McCloud or C) Owen McCloud. If you answered C, you are correct!! C for CRAP! If you're asking, "Who the hell is Owen McCloud?" Move to the front of the class. Seems you can't swing a ivory, dragon-handled katana in the Highlander universe without hitting a McCloud. There can be only one, indeed! WARNING: BAD ACTING AHEAD!!

New Trailer for Romero's DIARY OF THE DEAD

noreply@blogger.com (Evel Brando) — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 08:49:00 +0000

I, for one, am glad that THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT did not kill off the "found footage" movie. True, THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT did pioneer the genre, but there was such a backlash after the movie was released that I was pretty sure we'd seen the end of this kind of film. The studios mistakenly thought that they needed to stick to the tried and true and that the experiment that was THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT was over. Well, the problem with THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT was, quite simply, that the emperor wasn't wearing any clothes. After months of hype, when THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT hit the theaters, audiences saw a lot of woods and shaky cameras and crappy acting and little else. The mythology that had been built up on the internet over the preceding year just didn't live up to the reality of what the movie was. There were no ghosts or witches or supernatural. A pile of sticks does not a scare make. People were disappointed. And rightly so. Studios blamed the "found footage" genre and not the real culprit... the story. THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT just wasn't scary, worse... it was a little boring. Time passed. Now filmmakers like J.J. Abrams and George Romero are bringing this genre back with CLOVERFIELD and DIARY OF THE DEAD. And kudos to them. This way of storytelling has the potential to be groundbreaking and terrifying. These films have a chaotic energy all of their own and are as close to snuff films as I'd ever want to get. I'm glad they're getting a second chance. Anyway, check out the trailer for Romero's DIARY OF THE DEAD below. No one does zombies quite like the master.

Diary of the Dead - Exclusive Trailer

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New Indy Pic (This Time with Cobwebs)

noreply@blogger.com (Evel Brando) — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 20:05:00 +0000

Pretty cool. Suitably cobwebby and temple-y. Shia is there again with Papa Jones. Vanity Fair's Jim Windolf speculates that there will be more Jones adventures after Indy IV, just not Indiana Jones adventures. That's right, Shia's character will continue the Jones family tradition of derring-do. The article is an addendum to his fantastic "Keys to the Kingdom" piece and can be found here. Enjoy the pic.

The Sarah Connor Chronicles and a NEW LOST Teaser!!

noreply@blogger.com (Evel Brando) — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 19:48:00 +0000

Okay, so what did I think of the rather clumsily named TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES last night? I actually thought it was pretty cool. Nice action, engaging story, good actors. The biggest compliment that I can give Lena Headey, is that I didn't think of Linda Hamilton once during the premiere. She became Sarah Connor, playing the role with the weight it deserved. She was haunted, burdened, tough yet maternal. Thomas Dekker played John Connor as less of a kid than Eddie Furlong, but then again his innocence would be stripped away after the events in T2. Summer Glau is Summer Glau, River Tam always rocks. I liked the way the series bridged the gap between T2 and now, the time travel was a nice element. The action was suitably action-y and it appears like they got away with a lot for network TV. Apparently the Connors versus Skynet is going to be the predominant arc of the show, so you're not going to want to miss an episode.

So was it all peaches and cream? Of course not. There were... things. Bad things. For instance, they decided to make the good terminators eyes glow blue instead of red. You see? Red bad. Blue good, dumb TV audience. Also, a terminator, posing as a substitute teacher, felt the need to hide his gun in his fleshy thigh, the only way of being able to extract it being to cut into the aforementioned fleshy thigh with a knife. In front of a roomful of students. I know. Now I know when you time travel you can't take items or clothes. You arrive to your temporal location naked and empty-handed. But the substitute teacher-terminator was able to get a hounds tooth jacket. Wouldn't buying a gun and putting it in the pocket of your jacket be a better plan than slicing open your leg in front of a bunch of fifteen year olds? I'm just saying. Also, the very instance Sarah Connor and her clan arrives in 2007, naked as the day they were born, some kid videos them with his cell phone and apparently gives it to the news. And the news plays it! Because it was newsworthy? I don't know. And, also every single person who knew Sarah Connor eight years before happens to be watching the newscast. But I guess if I lived in a town where naked ladies lead the day's stories, I would be watching too. The whole thing just screamed, "PLOT DEVICE!" But all in all, none of these things were enough to put me off from watching. I mostly enjoyed what I saw. I can handle a little cheese. I'll be tuning in tonight for episode 2.

The last thing here is a teaser for the first episode of LOST, season 4. I can't wait for this series to start back up. The teaser's pretty cool. Check out the reflection in the water at the end.

What Does Sarah Connor, Spider-man, and Robert Plant Have in Common? (Not a thing).

noreply@blogger.com (Evel Brando) — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 21:03:00 +0000

I don't have much today. First off, The Sarah Connor Chronicles starts tonight on FOX. This is the show that actually starts right after T2 and kind acts like Claire Danes and pretends T3 never happened. I, for one, dug T3 but obviously the producers of this TV show didn't because they've been talking all sorts of smack about it to the press. But I like the fact Sarah Connor lives on and didn't die of leukemia inn 1997 or whenever, as T3 put forth. So I'll be tuning in. It's actually getting fairly decent reviews. Check some of them out here.

Also, I kind of wanted to say something about Spider-man's Brand New Day story arc. In a previous post I was fairly vocal about what I thought of the direction this comic was taking. Basically I thought it was a half-cocked idea and it was disrespectful to the past of the character and the previous creators. I thought the book was going to suck and from the rumblings around the net it seems that I was in the large majority. Well, then I did something. I read the first issue of Brand New Day. Did it put the amazing back in spider-man? Quite frankly, no. But it wasn't that bad either. In fact it was kind of cool. Parker does ask his Aunt May about wheat cakes but it was a joke. J. Jonah Jameson does yell, "PARKER!!!!" But then he drops to the floor with a heart attack. The villain is not Doc Ock but some sinister badass named Mr. Negative who looks awesome and gin-sues two of his henchman to make a particularly bloody point. So basically it seems like Dan Slott (the writer) and Joe Q. (the editor) knew what the arguments against were and tackled them head on. It works. Well mostly. I think MJ is a superhero named Jackpot who runs around saying "Tiger" all the time. I know. Lame. But Greg Land did the art on Jackpot's bonus story so it was a little easier to stomach... but still. Regardless, they kept me around. I'll keep reading.

One final thing. Before turning in last night, I was flipping channels and came across VH1, one of the last "music" channels to actually play music (albeit sporadically) and I saw the Robert Plant/ Allison Krause video for "Gone, Gone, Gone." I had known Plant and Krause had done an album together and I had absolutely zero interest in ever hearing a track off it. But this song was awesome. It reminded of something that would be playing on a roadhouse jukebox in a Tarantino movie. It had that certain kind of seedy yet cool vibe to it. I ended up buying the CD of Amazon MP3. It's not something I would normally buy, (in my eyes, Plant stopped being a Rock God when Led Zepplin broke up and who the hell is Allison Krause anyway?) but I dig it. Check out the video below. I like the way Plant claps.

Brutal Legend Trailer (A Heavy Metal Video Game)

noreply@blogger.com (Evel Brando) — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 20:40:00 +0000

From the demented mind of Tim Schafer, the man who brought us Psychonauts, comes BRUTAL LEGEND, the tale of one roadie who's "hurled back in time to the mythical age of metal" to save mankind. This is the game I'm most anticipating in 2008. Yes, even more than GRAND THEFT AUTO IV. It's basically like Schafer took the artwork from every heavy metal and rock album since 1970 and incorporated them into one kickass game. We're talking demons, skeletons, scantily-clad barbarian chicks with feathered hair, and giant axes, baby. Throw your devil horns in the air and check out the trailer.

CLOVERFIELD Monster Seen

noreply@blogger.com (Evel Brando) — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 20:46:00 +0000

So Harry Knowles, over at the fantastic web site Ain't It Cool News, has seen CLOVERFIELD and in turn has seen the Cloverfield monster. And what does he say it looks like? He says, "It's not a fucking upright walking whale. It doesn't look like any iteration of GODZILLA that we've ever seen. It is enormous. And even though I've seen it... I am hard-pressed to come up with a comparative creation. You know that big fucking thing in THE MIST? It isn't that. Is the creature a biped? I'm not sure, I think it might've been a four-legged beastie... it has a tail, it has teeth and freaky eyes like that horse that died in ANIMAL HOUSE. It's kinda of a grayish-yellowish-off-white looking thing." So it's not a whale and it's kind of yellow and off-white. Harry can really paint a mental picture. I guess we'll just have to keep wondering till the 18th of January. He does rave about the movie, however and his review has me amped to see this baby all the more. His review has some minor spoilers but it's an entertaining read. Find it HERE.

Pursuit of Happyness Review (and yes I know it's been out for like a year)

noreply@blogger.com (Evel Brando) — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 20:02:00 +0000

In my everlasting quest to keep you, dear readers, up to date with the latest movie critiques and most current film analysis, I bring you my "Pursuit of Happyness" review. I know it's on STARZ. Shut up. Don't judge. "Pursuit of Happyness" follows a down on his luck single father, played by Will Smith, as he tries and becomes a stock broker while taking care of his son. His unpaid internship and a series of unfortunate events causes him to lose everything, including his fleabag motel room. He and his son are put out on the street but he refuses to give up. There's no Plan B. He's determined to be a stock broker. As he goes from subway station bathrooms to various shelters for the night, he dotes on his son, cramming for his final internship exam as his son sleeps. This film is about one man's perseverance to make a better life for himself and his son. It's about not giving up, no matter what. It's about a parent's love for their child.

So in other words, "Pursuit of Happyness" is a sappy, string pulling, overly sentimental film that does everything save kill a puppy, to wring a tear out of you. And you know what? It works. Or at least it did on me. I got a text from a friend and when I replied that I had just watched this movie and loved it. His response was "Eh." Of course his response was that. He's a single guy who's well enmeshed in his bachelorhood. When we saw "House of 1000 Corpses" together in the theater, and Sheri Moon is walking up to the liqueur counter and the camera is trained on her chaps-laden ass, he blurted out, "Daddy likes." No shit. He's that guy. Beer and bimbos are the order of the day. To him responsibility is bagging it before you're tagging it.

I, on the other hand, lead a completely different life. I have a son who is three years old who I would do anything for. I do have a beautiful wife and a nice home and my son didn't drop his Captain America doll in the street (see the movie) but I can relate. I have responsibilities to my son, my wife, my family. I put them above all else. So I guess you could say that I'm this film's target demographic. I think all parents are. So what can I say? I dug it. Will Smith did a fantastic job, as usual, and his son in the movie, played by his son in real life, did a pretty good job as well. Can't say it was a bad way to spend a Sunday night. Goddamn, I'm getting soft.

Rock Band on Conan

noreply@blogger.com (Evel Brando) — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 20:20:00 +0000

This isn't exactly that new, but it is awesome. The fantastically, addictive game gets a little love from Late Night. The best part is at the end, when Edith Bunker via Conan O'Brien does the Beastie Boys "Sabotage." You just need to watch it.

New Comic Day, Spider-man, and um...yeah, TRON

noreply@blogger.com (Evel Brando) — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 20:34:00 +0000

So another new comic day is upon us. So let's see what is notable, at least in my corner of the comic universe. The Amazing Spider-man starts it's thrice monthly schedule with it's Brand New Day arc. I'm looking at the cover and I hardly care. I'll read it. See what I think. But after the One More Day arc, we are back at square one. And that just sucks. I always liked the comics because it was like the comic readers had a little piece of the mythos that the movie fans and cartoon watchers didn't have. Peter grows up, gets married, still fights crime, lets his identify be revealed to Aunt May, reveals to the world that he is Spider-man (maybe this could have been erased), fights more crime. The character was about change and that's all gone. I'm sure the new arc will have Aunt May trying to get Peter to eat his pancakes because he's too scrawny and Peter will be having girl trouble and J. Jonah Jameson will be low-balling Peter on his pictures and yelling, "PARKER!" and Spidey will be fighting Doc Ock and the like. Make it stop. It seems so tedious. Maybe the new book will surprise but I doubt it. I'll stick it out for a few issues. Rant over.

Ghost Rider also came out. It's a fun book. The Mighty Avengers came out with the blurb Secret Invasion above the title. Wonder what that's about? Messiah Complex Chapter 11 in X-factor #27 is on the stands. I'm really enjoying this massive X-title crossover. Reminds me of the X-men titles of the 80s only written much better. And The Evil Dead issue 1 from Dark Horse is out today! This will make the second monthly starring Ashley Williams. I gave Army of Darkness a try, and a good long try at that, but eventually I had to drop the title. It just didn't feel like Ash, it felt like someone writing Ash. Does that make sense? Kind of like someone describing a South Park episode to you rather than you actually watching the episode. It was just kind of phony. So I dropped it. Now I see Dynamite Comics is planning an Army of Darkness crossover with Xena. So I rest my case. Here's hoping that Dark Horse succeeds where Dynamite failed. Of course there were other titles that hit today but those are the ones I was most excited about. Not a bad week.

So, yeah... TRON. I remember a few years ago I was telling all my friends that Phantasm was the scariest movie of all time. It was hard to find so no one had really seen it. I happened to catch it on HBO when I was like seven and it remained ingrained on my imagination. The Tall Man, the metal sphere, the graveyard, the Jawas (still don't know what they were doing there), this was the stuff of cold sweats and sleepless nights. Anyway, long story short, I got my hands on a copy and I sat down to re-watch it. Let's just say the mind can play tricks on you. Horror movies had progressed at this point to make Phantasm seem silly and quaint. It was not the movie my mind had told me for years it was. And last night, I was reminded of this experience as I played TRON. The graphics are, of course, terrible but that's not what really sinks the game. The controls are awful, beyond awful. The right analog stick stands in as the little dial thingy that was on the cabinet and let's just say it doesn't works. At all. So that means you can't aim. At anything. Ever. You die. A lot. All the time. It's an exercise in frustration. Stay away. Far away. Easily one of the worst titles I've purchased on arcade. Which is disappointing since I was really looking forward to the game. TRON is easily the Phantasm of video games. Too bad.

TRON Coming to XBOX Arcade and New Release Day

noreply@blogger.com (Evel Brando) — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 21:03:00 +0000

That's right, get your Jeff Bridges on and battle Master Control. TRON is coming to arcade. This was announced with relatively little fanfare, since Microsoft seems to be giving a big push to Omega Five (which is released the same day). But then again, Microsoft probably knows this one is going to be huge no matter what they do, after the success of last years TMNT. I mean this is TRON, considered by many to be the greatest arcade cabinet title of all time. I have a friend who has been trying to buy a TRON cabinet for years, not only are they extremely hard to find, they are outrageously expensive when they do pop up. But now this classic can be yours for a mere 400 MS points (which is a super annoying way of saying 5 bucks). Three Words, TRON nerds. Light cycles online.

On the DVD front, nothing super exciting is hitting today. Two of note, "3:10 to Yuma" and "Sunshine." I think they both look like renters. I haven't seem either. Probably will pick up Sunshine this weekend. Alex Garland wrote the script. He's beyond talented. He's a genius. "28 Days Later" and "The Beach," the novel, are two of my favorites.

Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD or How I Lost the Format War

noreply@blogger.com (Evel Brando) — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 18:00:00 +0000

That picture, my friends, is of a Sony Betamax player. It is a distant cousin of my HD DVD player. So this news is a couple of days old, but turns out Warner Brothers got paid a lump of cash from the Blu-ray camp to go Blu-ray exclusive. Check out the story here. So this puts about seventy percent of the studios firmly in the Blu-ray camp. Which means the the end is near for HD DVD and the selection of DVDs for my HD DVD player is going to be dwindling faster than coffee at an A.A. meeting. Guess I choose the betamax of the new millennium. I'll be picking up a Blu-ray player to sit besides my dusty HD DVD player before summer's out. I'll let you know what I pick up and what I think. After my day one XBOX 36o (which died a loud and painful death) and my HD-DVD player, I'm thinking being an early adopter is probably not the way to go. Maybe patience is a virtue.

New York Doll- The Documentary

noreply@blogger.com (Evel Brando) — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 01:57:00 +0000

I just watched this terrific documentary called "New York Doll" on the Sundance channel. And it was about, yep... you guessed it, the New York Dolls. But more specifically it's about their bass player, Killer Kane. Now I know the Dolls music, and a little about David Johanson, and a little about Johnny Thunders, but I knew nothing at all about Killer Kane. Turns out he lived the typical rock n' roll nightmare; substance abuse, failed relationships, suicide attempts. After he took a header out a three story window in an attempt to end it all, Killer Kane saw an ad in the TV Guide for the church of latter day saints. He dialed the number and found God. The film opens with an older, frail gentleman jumping on a bus to go to his job at the mormon temple's library. This man is Killer Kane, thirty years after the New York Dolls. He seems content with his life, happy that he's found his calling, but he has unresolved feelings about his past. Enter Morrisey who's putting together a music festival in London. His dream is to reunite the remaining living Dolls to headline. I really don't want to go into anymore detail, it actually surprised me and I think it will work better the less you know. You should just see it. It's funny, sad, triumphiant, and the ultimately heart-breaking. Just set your Tivos. It's playing on the Sundance channel this month. It's a sad, unforgettable film.

The Road Warrior meets Ace of Spades

noreply@blogger.com (Evel Brando) — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 01:54:00 +0000

Now this just kicks ass. Works as a trailer for The Road Warrior or as a video for Motorhead's high octane song. Resident Evil: Extinction, you wish you were half as cool.

Resident Evil: Extinction

noreply@blogger.com (Evel Brando) — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 05:39:00 +0000

So on Saturday night I threw in the Resident Evil: Extinction DVD. And you know what? It wasn't that bad for a B-movie. I was raised on a steady diet of B-fair so I'm especially forgiving of any movie that is post apocalyptic, or features zombies, or has lots of pointless explosions and gunplay, or clunky dialogue, or features hot chicks kicking ass. And let me tell ya, RE: Extinction has all of those things in abundance. This movie is like a weird mash-up of Day of the Dead and The Road Warrior, though a lot dumber than either of those and not nearly as compelling. Though it's shot well with lots of moving cameras, long lenses, helicopter and crane shots it's edited like Lil Jon's "Throw It Up" video. The movie starts a few years after the second one and the world has gone to hell. The T-virus has turned most of the global population into zombies and the world into a desert. Who knew there was a link between the undead and global warming? Paging Al Gore (there's a zombie joke somewhere in there but I'm just too tired to find it). Anyway, Alice (the lovely Milla Jovovich) is wandering around the southwest United States in brown leather chaps with her new Jedi Powers (don't ask) and hooks up with a convoy of survivors (I told you they were aping The Road Warrior) and the stripper chick from Heroes. She must save the survivors, overcome her Umbrella programing (she might be a robot??) and slice and dice some guy in a rubber suit. Will she? Guess.

As a side note, Russell Mulcahy, the director of Highlander directed this. I'm genuinely glad this guy is still working as Highlander was one of my seminal films growing up and I consider it a classic (and no I am not being facetious).

Can I recommend it? Well, if you have any inkling to see it, go ahead and see it. You probably won't be too disappointed. If you disliked the previous two or the trailer looked beyond tedious to you, skip it. This movie is definitely for a specific audience, and that ain't you, baby blue.

You almost have to admire Paul Anderson, the guy who wrote and produced all three Resident Evil films and directed the first one. He had the tenacity to keep churning these things out despite the critical drubbing and the low box office. Maybe he has a passion for the material like Peter Jackson had for the Lord of the Rings, so he continues to poop these films out every couple of years. It's kind of sad but kind of life affirming at the same time. And by the way, if you were expecting the series to be done, because this was the third film in a trilogy and all movies aspire to be trilogies these days, guess again. The ending is left wide open and nothing is resolved. Expect another one of these gems in a couple years. These movies must be a way for the mob to launder money. Oh well, bully for us. Poop on Mr. Anderson, I'll be watching.

Robots and Groovy Chicks Make Out

noreply@blogger.com (Evel Brando) — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 21:09:00 +0000

Oh you Sixties, you were such a funny decade.

Anyway, this video makes me happy... except at the end... which is kind of sad. What do the cops have against human/ robot love anyway? Fascists!!

New Indy Comic Solicitation Art

noreply@blogger.com (Evel Brando) — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 20:56:00 +0000

Pretty cool. Temple in the background, Harrison's not looking too old. I read in the Vanity Fair article that Shia's character's name is Mutt. I like the symmetry of that. Indiana taking his name from the family dog and his son's name is Mutt. Yeah, I know, beat me over the head with it, Lucas but whatever, I still kind of like it.

Comic Day and Y the Last Man

noreply@blogger.com (Evel Brando) — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 20:05:00 +0000

Comic day. Yes, it's Friday but the new years holiday set New Comic Day back two days. Pretty slim week. The new Buffy Season 8 came out today and so did the new Star Wars Legacy. Had some other assorted titles in my pull box but nothing stands out.

I'm reading the graphics of Y the Last Man and all I can say is that I am so glad that I didn't read this as a monthly title, I don't think I could have handled the wait between issues. It never really interested me when it first came out because it just seemed like such a Skinemax-y premise. All of Earth's men die except, for one, so obviously for the sake of humanity he would have to sex, sex, lunch, then some more sex. Let the hot tub parties begin. Great concept for a late night pay cable movie but maybe not so much for a comic.

But then I started hearing rumblings about the book. I started hearing it was smart, fresh, funny, and political. I heard it was one of the best books no one was reading. So I bought the first graphic novel and I was blown away. Brian Vaughan is a tremendous writer. His view of a world run women is probably not what most people would think. I have heard the slogan and seen the bumper sticker, "If the world was run my mothers, there would be no war." Not in Vaughan's universe, baby. His women are vicious and brutal and smart and brave and angry and sad and relieved and depressed and noble and petty and war-like and peace loving and murderers and philosophers. They can be anything and many things. The one thing the women are not are bumper stickers. They are incredibly well rounded and 3-dimensional. The world is not a peaceful Utopia but then again it wouldn't be. It's a world where fifty percent of the population has died and what that means to the survivors. This book is about the left wing, the right wing, cloning, feminism, how one faces loss, and hope. Do yourself a favor and read it. I'm only on Book 3 but already I'm a believer. Hopefully the rest of the series will hold up. I'll let you know.

I haven't said anything about the end of Straczynski's run on Amazing Spider-Man (One More Day). I'm still thinking about about it. I do know that I didn't like it but it was pretty powerful. That everything could be simply erased like that, with just a simply push of the reset button is almost disrespectful to all the creators that have come before. I'm not a continuity whore, but come on, we're talking about forty years of history here. That Peter's and MJ's whole relationship just never happened is ridiculous. But I can't deny that Straczynski did a masterful job. He's one of my favorite writers and I'll follow him on whatever he writes, so I feel bad about bagging on the guy, but this arc was just so damn ill conceived . Love it or hate it, people are talking about it.

Best. Internet. Video. Ever.

noreply@blogger.com (Evel Brando) — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 21:08:00 +0000

Second. Best. Internet. Video. Ever.

noreply@blogger.com (Evel Brando) — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 20:56:00 +0000

New Indiana Jones Pics

noreply@blogger.com (Evel Brando) — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 20:27:00 +0000

The sickness which has besieged my wife and kid has now taken up resident in my lungs. And I have to go to the bar tonight. Ahhh, second hand smoke, come mate with the virus in my lungs and make phlegm babies. Man, this cough medicine is great!

Anyway, Vanity Fair has just posted a great article about the Indiana Jones movie with some new pics. I know Harrison Ford should be making GRUMPIEST OLD MEN: HOW MUCH WAS THAT CUP OF SOUP? or whatever. But I so want this movie to be good. You have the trifecta here: Spielberg, Lucas (begone haters), and Ford. How can it not be great? And that question was completely rhetorical and a bit ironic. So in other words, don't answer that.

Check this out:

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2008/02/indianajones200802