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| Tuesday, July 27, 2010 04:44 PM |
| On the Viewer - Recently Seen Film Roundup |
by Fëanor |
Holes - I don't know if it's because I'm a big softy anymore, or because I was blinded by my fond memories of the young adult novel that this film is based on, or because it actually is a good film, but I really enjoyed Holes, and found it to be very moving. It's the story of a young boy sent to a brutal work camp for a crime he didn't commit. That story is interwoven with two other stories out of his family's past which turn out to have essential connections to people and events in his present. Ultimately it's a story of redemption, and the way everything ends up coming together is really powerful. It's a funny, clever, poignant film with a surprisingly great cast which includes Sigourney Weaver, Jon Voight, Tim Blake Nelson, Henry Winkler, Dule Hill, and Shia LaBeouf (whom I still like, despite the fact that he was in the Transformers movies and Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull). It's hard to call it a kids' movie, though. I mean, the story set in the Old West that revolves around Hill's character is incredibly dark.
Toy Story 3 - The Toy Story films are probably Pixar's greatest achievement in a long line of great achievements. If you think they're just kids' movies about talking toys, you are woefully mistaken. Toy Story 2, I feel, is about becoming aware of the inevitability of death - or at least, the inevitability of change and loss. In Toy Story 3, that change and loss - that death - cannot be put off any longer, and we must finally stare it in the face and come to grips with it. The film is incredibly effective and moving, especially to a new parent like myself. It's about a child growing up and learning to leave childish things behind. But it's also about a parent learning how to let a child grow up. It's about knowing when and how to stick together, and when and how to let people go. And besides all that, it's also incredibly entertaining, clever, imaginative, fun, and funny, and in the middle it turns into a classic, perfectly executed jailbreak thriller. It's an amazing cinematic achievement. But I warn you - have tissues handy. The scene in the garbage dump, where they're staring the end in the face, and they all join hands? Oh my God!!! The weeping! Anyway, I assume they will eventually release a Toy Story trilogy DVD set, and when they do, I'm going to have to pick that up and introduce Griffin to these films.
Ratatouille - Speaking of Pixar, I missed a lot of their movies! Seeing this one was my first step toward catching up. I almost didn't finish it, though. I watched the first ten minutes or so and I got bored and turned it off. I just couldn't connect with it. I didn't care about a rat who could cook. I think part of my problem, oddly enough, is that I was having trouble suspending my disbelief. Usually at the opening of a movie, I have almost no problem with that; I'm willing to accept nearly any crazy premise you want to feed me, as long as the rest of the movie follows logically from that premise. But for whatever reason I had a hard time accepting a world where rats can not only cook, but also read, and understand human speech. Oh, and they can also talk to each other just like we do, we just can't understand them. I know it's ridiculous for me to rebel at something like that considering all the other insane things I'm willing to believe, but what can I say? I'm fickle. Anyway, I eventually turned the movie back on and watched the rest of it, and it ended up winning me over. I continued to have issues with suspension of disbelief, especially during the sequence [SPOILERS AHEAD!] where the rats take over the working of the kitchen entirely, and the sequence where the famous food critic accepts that his delicious meal was cooked by a rat. But by that time I cared about the characters, I'd bought into the story, and I was willing to let things slide. Plus, c'mon, the scene with the health inspector is hilarious. Ultimately, it's a really sweet story with a rather wonderful moral: not everyone is an artist, but great artists can come from anywhere. I was particularly moved by the scene in which Anton Ego (who's a wonderful character with a great name and a perfect voice - thank you, Peter O'Toole) eats the ratatouille and is instantly transported back to his childhood. It's a wordless sequence that captures perfectly what's so comforting about comfort food, and how deeply someone can be affected by great food - and, by extension, great art. This is not one of Pixar's great works, but it's definitely a fun and lovable film.
Ponyo - I haven't caught up with Pixar yet, but now that I've seen this movie, I've caught up with Hayao Miyazaki. I've seen all his feature length films, and although there are a few I didn't love, there isn't one that I disliked. This latest work is another masterpiece - a simple, weird, beautiful, gentle film which is Miyazaki's take on "The Little Mermaid." It's about how a child's love is so blind and pure, it can save the world. It's also about how ham is delicious. It's a ridiculously cute film, with riotously colorful, insanely imaginative, jaw-droppingly epic visuals. The story is simple, yet also deep. Miyazaki's usual plea for humanity to treat nature with care is delivered with more subtlety than he's used in the past. He introduces us to the characters and their relationships and tells us their stories with careful mastery, using a minimum of words and backstory. We see a mother looking up at her child out of one eye, and in that glance are a thousand words - none of which need to be said aloud, and so they are not. As with many Miyazaki films, Ponyo is pretty much devoid of villains. The "evil wizard" turns out to be more frustrated and misguided than evil, and even the cranky old lady has a good heart. Nobody can paint shades of gray more beautifully than Miyazaki. |
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| Monday, June 21, 2010 11:30 AM |
| (Last updated on Monday, June 21, 2010 12:03 PM) | | Recyclotron |
by Fëanor |
Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.
- You can own your own TARDIS! (Note: TARDIS does not work.)
- Star Wars characters wearing modern fashions.
- In honor of Father's Day, io9 picked the best and worst fathers in sci-fi. What, Captain Kirk a bad father?! Oh... wait, yeah. I guess I have to give them Walter Bishop, too, but come on! He's trying so hard now!
- Here's video of a guy playing the music AND sound effects for classic video games live on the violin.
- Here's a website that lists movies by how many people (and animals) died in them. (Via)
- 22 ordinary things that look like the Starship Enterprise. Some of these are cheating in my opinion, but still.
- Photos from the set of The Hobbit. Yay!!
- Another cool trailer for Metroid: Other M.
- John Carpenter's The Thing in seven minutes. This was handy, as I haven't seen that movie in a long time. Maybe it's time to rewatch it, in its entirety... (Via)
- Photos from the official opening of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
- This time around, I'm totally obsessed with World Cup. It seems like every sport I turn my attention on now I fall in love with. Anyway, I definitely prefer watching World Cup to watching the Phillies at the moment, because gah! I particularly love the dry wit of the commentators, and the way they do not mince words at all, but brutally rip into everybody on the field: the teams, the officials. It's great. Here's a spiffy calendar for following the standings (via). You can also follow the matches in real-time on Fifa.com.
- We could have electronic eyeglasses by the end of this year: "Liquid crystals can change their refractive index when an electrical charge is put through them, so wearers can switch between distance and reading in the time it takes to blink.... Putting in the kind of motion sensors that are used in the iPhone also allows the glasses to sense when someone is reading a book or a newspaper and so change the focal distance of the lenses automatically."
- Pixar/Star Wars mashup art. (Via)
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| Tagged (?): Art (Not), Avatar (Not), Cartoons (Not), Doctor Who (Not), Fringe (Not), Gadgets (Not), Harry Potter (Not), Holiday (Not), Links (Not), Lists (Not), Mario (Not), Metroid (Not), Movies (Not), Music (Not), News (Not), Photography (Not), Pixar (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Soccer (Not), Sports (Not), Star Trek (Not), Star Wars (Not), Technology (Not), Tolkien (Not), Video (Not), Video games (Not), World Cup (Not) |
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| Monday, May 31, 2010 08:13 PM |
| The Take |
by Fëanor |
Fëanor's (semi-)weekly comic book review post.
This post covers new releases from the week of 4/28, new releases from Free Comic Book Day, and also a bunch of old stuff the comic shop wanted to get rid of and therefore put up for grabs on Free Comic Book Day. It was quite a pile of books, and I've been a bit busy lately, so I'm afraid it took me longer to get through them and write them up than usual. I can't say when or if I'll be able to catch up on all the other books that came after these, either. But I'll do my best!
As usual, beware spoilers!
New releases
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Eight #34
Wow. I was a little surprised at first when I started reading this Buffy arc by Brad Meltzer and it wasn't terrible, given how much I've disliked Meltzer's work in the past, but now his awfulness has finally reared its ugly head, and in spectacular fashion. Then again, I'm not sure how much of this I can really blame on him, as I assume the general shape of the story was already laid out for him by Joss and company, and it's mostly the story itself that's bad. I mean, Angel and Buffy having graphic sex for an entire comic? It's kind of gross. And what the hell are they doing having sex in the middle of everything anyway, when Buffy should by all rights be kicking Angel's ass, seeing as how he's been a villain committing MASS MURDER for the entire Season? And why the hell was Angel committing doing that anyway? I still need answers to these questions!! But instead they just throw a lot of really lame bullcrap at us about "the Universe" and how it has manipulated everyone and everything in some really hand-wavy fashion, and manufactured this entire plot line (in fact, very possibly the entire history of reality so far) just so that Buffy and Angel will have sex and thus elevate themselves to some new level of existence, destroying the old one in the process. That's lame. Seriously, seriously lame. It sounds like Angel actually had some inkling this is what was going to happen. But why would Angel ever be so selfish as to deliberately kill thousands of people and possibly destroy an entire universe just so he can get lucky with his ex and have some peace and quiet for a change? I just don't buy it.
Thumbs Down
Captain America #605
A fun and slightly sad conclusion to the Captain America vs. the Tea Party storyline, ending with a classic comic book fight on top of the Hoover Dam. I'm sure we haven't seen the last of crazy '50s Cap. (I didn't even bother reading the Nomad backup story; that shit is terrible.)
Thumbs Up
New Avengers #64
Now we get to see the events leading up to the Fall of Asgard from the perspective of The Hood. So I guess we're going to get to see the same events from the perspective of every single character in the Marvel Universe eventually. Sigh. Anyway, what we learn in this run-through is that Loki pulled a literal deus ex machina, took The Hood gang's power away from them, and gave it to the good guys. I'm not sure why that happened, or why I haven't already read about it in some other, more important comic book (like Siege #3 or something). It's a confusing twist, and I'm not sure what I'm supposed to feel when I look at the final panel of this comic, which is a picture of The Hood's girlfriend's gold mask with The Hood's face reflected in it. I can't say I find either of these characters all that interesting anymore. I mean, The Hood's story so far has been that he got magic power, and then he lost it, and then he got magic power again, and then he lost it again. Yawn.
Thumbs Sideways
Siege: Secret Warriors #1
This is a pretty cool one-shot revealing what Phobos, the God of Fear, did when he learned of the death of his father, Ares. Basically, he flips out, kills a lot of Secret Service agents, and then drops a really bitter, angry, well-written letter on the President's desk. In between, there is a truly hilarious and fantastic scene in which Nick Fury and Steve Rogers - the two bad-ass old campaigners - have a casual conversation about hanging out in the middle of the Siege of Asgard. I loved this scene so much I can't even tell you. It's ridiculous and warm and funny and hardcore all at once, and really wonderfully illuminates these two characters. Surprisingly good one-shot!
Thumbs Up
The Terminator: 2029 #2
We open with a gigantic firefight, and then we get to meet an interesting new faction of humanity: a lone wolf pack who don't follow John Connor, but just go roaming around the wilderness hunting machines. It's a different philosophy of the post-apocalypse than we've seen before, and brings up some interesting questions. Do you take the risk of settling down - building families and making connections - or do you go off on your own, avoid connections, and fend for yourself as best you can? The same conflict of philosophies is on display between Paige and Ben - Paige wants to shut herself off from everyone, because she's afraid to be hurt again and lose someone else who matters to her. But Ben is willing to take the risk. And finally Paige takes it with him. But then something unexpected interrupts them: the old man Reese saved from a machine outpost turns out to be a future version of himself, who asks for Ben by name! Woah. Clearly this Reese is from some other timeline than the one we know. Either that or he's just some crazy guy. Either way, I'm intrigued! This is good writing, and an exciting story.
Thumbs Up
Thor #609
Lots of exciting action and god-fighting in this one. Plus Loki gets some good lines: "I am Loki, the fire that burns. And why does the fire burn? I know not. But I am he." He admits to having fashioned the plot that led to the Fall of Asgard, but claims he didn't think it would go this far. Balder gets all bad-ass, and exiles Loki, but in fact it looks like that may have been part of Loki's plan all along. That tricky guy. There are some corny moments in this issue, but all-in-all it's pretty entertaining.
Thumbs Sideways
FCBD new releases
Bongo Comics Free-For-All!
Despite the title, which would seem to suggest that this is a sampler of various comic titles put out by Bongo, it's actually just a handful of Simpsons stories. They're all mildly amusing, with one or two decent gags, but there's none of the true comic brilliance from the show's heyday.
Thumbs Sideways
DC Kids Mega Sampler 2010
Yep, these are some DC kids comics. Nothing very exciting. I like Art Baltazar's exaggerated art style, and Batman has some fun lines about his desire to punch things in the final story, but that's about it.
Thumbs Sideways
Doctor Solar: Man of the Atom/Magnus: Robot Fighter
These are previews of two new titles from Dark Horse Comics, both written by Jim Shooter. The first is simply awful. Incredibly cheesy writing, totally lacking in subtlety, and a story that's entirely unimaginative. It's reminiscent of every superhero origin story ever, but the character is probably most similar to a really boring version of Doctor Manhattan. Robot Fighter is slightly more interesting, as it has a quirky sense of humor instead of just being painfully earnest. Plus, the story's not as dull and lacking in creativity as Doctor Solar; here we've got a human being who's somehow strong enough to fight rogue robots, but he also has a robot friend, and can interface with the robots in a limited way. That's not to say this is a really good comic; the relationship between the main character and the story's only woman is the classic contentious, they-hate-each-other, they-love-each-other dynamic. And the plot ends up being pretty dull. You can bet I won't be collecting these comics when they start asking you to pay for them.
Thumbs Down
Green Hornet
This book contains previews of most, if not all, of Dynamite's many Green Hornet-related titles. First up is part of Kevin Smith's awful Green Hornet book, which I already read and hated, so I skipped over that. Next up is Green Hornet: Year One, which has some nice art by Aaron Campbell, but pretty ho-hum dialog and story from Matt Wagner. Then there's The Green Hornet Strikes! There's not really enough of this one to get a good feel for it, and there's even less of Kato Origins and Kato (the former has color but no dialog; the latter is black and white and doesn't even have ink, let alone dialog). I doubt there's any reason to buy any of these. The last one, after all, is just a spin-off of Kevin Smith's story, focusing on the hot Kato with large boobs, so it's almost certainly awful.
Thumbs Down
Incorruptible/Irredeemable
This is just a book containing reprints of the first issue of each of Mark Waid's great new series. A good way to get into them for anybody who hasn't yet. Anybody want my copy?
Thumbs Up
Iron Man/Nova
It's Iron Man and Nova versus a team of super apes! Except one of the apes defects and helps them, in return for candy. Pretty cute and fun. In the back is a goofy Superhero Squad short about Iron Man trying to find a way to repair all the damage from Hulk's constant smashing, but Hulk points out that prevention would be the better course. Also kind of cute.
Thumbs Sideways
Iron Man/Thor
The opening image of this one - Thor standing with his hammer in front of a giant oncoming wave and ordering it to yield - is a really powerful one. But it's not the prelude to a surreal, philosophical comic. In fact the story is about some folks who have stolen one of Tony Stark's inventions and are using it to make the moon habitable and the Earth inhabitable. Iron Man and Thor team up to stop them. I'm kind of surprised these two are willing to work together, after the bad blood that's passed between them lately, but whatever. There's some fun banter, Romita provides his usual excellent artwork, and the story is reasonably exciting.
Thumbs Sideways
Kizoic Presents
This book has two Penguins of Madagascar stories on one side and two Shrek stories on the other. The one Shrek story about Donkey and Shrek getting sick and being quarantined together is oddly pointless and never goes anywhere, but the rest are all pretty standard kids' comic stories - mildly entertaining, but not very exciting, and not terribly imaginative either. I wanted to like the Penguins stories more than I did, since I enjoy the cartoon, but they're just okay.
Thumbs Sideways
The Library of American Comics
This is little more than a long ad for collections of old newspaper strips. It includes a bunch of samples of what the company has to offer, including really early Archie, Blondie, and Li'l Abner. Mostly it just convinced me that, yes, some comics do eventually become hopelessly dated.
Thumbs Sideways
Toy Story
It's disappointing to me that nearly every Toy Story story has the same format: a new toy arrives, and the other toys react to it with fear and suspicion, but usually end up embracing it in the end. This story is no exception. The only wrinkle is that this time the new toy is another Buzz Lightyear, which Andy receives by mistake, and which his Mom promises to exchange for a new, better toy. But the new Buzz gets switched with the old Buzz, and is about to be taken back to the store when the comic ends. The book has its moments, but there's nothing so exciting here that it makes me want to start collecting this series again.
Thumbs Sideways
War of the Supermen #0
I've been avoiding all the Superman titles lately because they're all being written by authors whose work I've disliked in the past. This free zero issue convinced me I've been making the right decision. It's just lots of cheesy, overwrought, melodramatic dialog and narration. Plus, Superman comes off as self-righteous and preachy. There's nobody in the book you can like or identify with. Even the villains just stand around and spout the standard villain cliches.
Thumbs Down
Worlds of Aspen 2010
I was not familiar with any Aspen comics before I looked at this sampler, but it seems clear now that all of their books are about boobs. There's some sad attempts at dialog and story attached to the boobs, but they're clearly an afterthought. The only exception is Dellec. The sadly extremely short preview for this book is actually pretty funny, as it involves a gang of big guys dressed as apes who call themselves The Kongs.
Thumbs Down
FCBD back issues and old data
Charlemagne #1
This is a book put out by a publishing company called Defiant in the early '90s. It's an absolutely awful story which opens up in the '70s with a young boy worrying about his soldier brother, who's overseas in Vietnam. He ends up getting over there somehow and trying to save his brother, only to fail at the last moment. Then he goes into a coma for many years and somehow develops super strength. I couldn't even read the entire thing, the dialog and narration were so poorly written; I just skimmed the last three quarters or so. It's melodramatic and overwrought and cheesy and just bad in every way that writing can be bad. The credits reveal that it was plotted by five different people working together, which is not a good sign; too many cooks in the kitchen, clearly. Apparently the actual writing was done by only one guy, though: D.G. Chichester. I'll have to make sure to avoid his work in the future - assuming it even comes up.
Thumbs Down
Fantastic Four Versus the X-Men #2
Fantastic Four Versus the X-Men #3
These are two issues from the middle of a four-issue miniseries published in the mid-'80s. They're written by Chris Claremont, so they're exceedingly over-narrated and seriously lacking in subtlety. Plus, Franklin Richards baby-speak dialog makes me want to punch somebody. That being said, it's a surprisingly effective story, which finds the X-Men so desperate to save Shadowcat from an odd medical condition that they are even willing to fight the Fantastic Four when Reed refuses to help them, and accept the assistance of Doctor Doom when he offers it. But the FF is going through its own issues, as it turns out Sue has recently discovered a book that appears to be Reed's diary, and which states plainly that he knew what would happen on the fateful flight that turned them all into superheroes (and Ben into a freakish monster), and that he planned it deliberately. The book is a lie, but that doesn't stop it from briefly tearing the FF apart. Despite how melodramatic the story gets, it never feels unbelievable, and Claremont treats the characters well. Maybe it's because I'm a new father and therefore vulnerable to this sort of thing, but the tender moment between Reed and Franklin put a lump in my throat. As a final note, it's hilarious how incredibly inaccurate and sensationalized the covers of each of these comics are. The scenes they depict have absolutely nothing to do with what actually happens inside the books.
Thumbs Up
Fantasy Masterpieces #2
This book, from January of 1980, finds an extremely emo Silver Surfer (the opening panel features him lying stretched out on his board with one arm flung over his eyes in classic Victorian-lady-with-the-vapors style) protecting the Earth from invisible alien invaders, despite the fact that the humans constantly misinterpret his actions and repay his selfless acts of kindness with only hatred and violence. The writing, because it's by Stan "The Man" Lee, is really rather ridiculous. But, because it's by Stan "The Man" Lee, it's also reasonably fun and entertaining.
Thumbs Sideways
The Incredible Hulk #315
This book, from January 1986, actually documents a pretty important moment in the history of the Hulk, wherein Doc Samson manages to split the Hulk and Bruce Banner into two physically and mentally separate beings, only discovering after he's succeeded what a terrible and dangerous thing he's done. The writing and art are both by John Byrne, whose work I've enjoyed in the past, and he delivers a pretty entertaining comic here, although the opening metaphorical chase between Bruce and the Hulk is a bit overdone, and there's maybe a bit more exposition - and talking in general - than there really needs to be.
Thumbs Sideways
JLA: Paradise Lost #2
The middle issue of a three-part miniseries by Mark Millar, with art by Ariel Olivetti. I hardly need the first and third issues to understand the story, however, as it's a really old one about guardian angels who forsook their places in heaven for the love of mortal women, and another angel who's rebelling and plans to overthrow God. The fact that the Archangel Michael turns out to be a tattooed smoker is kind of amusing, and it's both entertaining and embarrassing to note that this was during the period where Superman didn't have the cape, and instead wore a ridiculous blue and white jumpsuit, and even had purple skin for some reason. This book also features one of the (apparently many) times that the Martian Manhunter died. It doesn't have a lot of that over-the-top, Millar charm, but he does get to show the evil angel burning some people alive and throwing a boat around, so there's that.
Thumbs Sideways
Will to Power #8
This is a short, 16-page book from the mid-'90s about a young, snot-nosed super team and their far more experienced boss facing off against a guy who appears to be a sort of Superman-gone-wild. We're clearly coming in at the middle of the story here, and what with that and the fact that there are so few pages, it's hard to get a feel even for who's meant to be the heroes and who's meant to be the villains. Luckily none of the characters are particularly interesting or fresh, so it doesn't really matter.
Thumbs Sideways |
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| Tagged (?): Avengers (Not), Brian Michael Bendis (Not), Buffy (Not), Captain America (Not), Comic books (Not), Ed Brubaker (Not), Fantastic Four (Not), Free Comic Book Day (Not), Green Hornet (Not), Hulk (Not), Iron Man (Not), Kieron Gillen (Not), Mark Millar (Not), Mark Waid (Not), Nova (Not), Pixar (Not), Siege (Not), Simpsons (Not), Superman (Not), Terminator (Not), The Take (Not), Thor (Not), X-Men (Not), Zack Whedon (Not) |
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| Monday, May 17, 2010 09:40 AM |
| Recyclotron |
by Fëanor |
Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.
- Some clips from, and about, The Cape, NBC's upcoming superhero drama. Looks a bit corny, but also intriguing.
- Alec Baldwin tries to sell you the Timecrowave, a rather dangerous time-warping kitchen appliance.
- Disney has hired David Fincher to direct their new take on 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. What? David Fincher?? Really?! In nearly as odd movie news, they've got Charlie Kaufman polishing the script for the next Kung Fu Panda movie, which is subtitled The Kaboom of Doom.
- Tom Felton, the actor who plays Draco Malfoy, talks about how they filmed the epilogue scenes for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
- Sexy renditions of the Disney ladies. Good lord.
- Video of a tiny cannon being fired at various targets.
- Super Punch highlights some hilariously inappropriate Golden Books by Josh Cooley, who happens to be a story artist for Pixar. Check out the rest of his blog; it's pretty great.
- Wonderful Alice in Wonderland-inspired image. (Via)
- Amusing He-Man T-shirt design.
- Bruce Willis and Joseph Gordon-Levitt will play the same character, but in different time periods, in Rian Johnson's upcoming film Looper. Awesome!
- Samuel L. Jackson says there's going to be a S.H.I.E.L.D. movie, but Cinematical warns he may just be confused.
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| Tagged (?): Advertising (Not), Art (Not), Celebrities (Not), Comedy (Not), Craft (Not), Disney (Not), Harry Potter (Not), Links (Not), Masters of the Universe (Not), Movies (Not), News (Not), Pixar (Not), Recyclotron (Not), TV (Not), Video (Not), Wonderland (Not) |
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| Thursday, April 29, 2010 11:13 AM |
| Recyclotron |
by Fëanor |
Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.
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| Tagged (?): Advertising (Not), Art (Not), Celebrities (Not), Comic books (Not), Craft (Not), Kaiju (Not), LEGO (Not), Links (Not), Monsters (Not), Music (Not), News (Not), Photography (Not), Pixar (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Robots (Not), Star Wars (Not), Thor (Not), Toys (Not), TV (Not), Video (Not) |
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| Friday, April 23, 2010 12:57 PM |
| Recyclotron |
by Fëanor |
Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.
- A sequel to Monsters Inc. is scheduled to be released on November 16th, 2012. Good stuff! (Via)
- Dark Night Of The Soul, the musical collaboration between David Lynch, Danger Mouse, and some dude who calls himself Sparklehorse, now has a release date: July 13th. (Via)
- Fun new clips from Iron Man 2.
- The Venture Bros' awesome ode to progressive rock. YES!
- If Daniel Craig doesn't come back for the next James Bond movie (whenever that is), Sam Worthington might take his place. Man, that guy gets all the jobs anymore!
- Word has it Marvel might make a series of smaller budget films to cover some of its lesser known properties, like Dr. Strange and Luke Cage. While I'd definitely like to see a Dr. Strange movie, I'm not sure I like the idea of them throwing together a cheap film adaptation just to have one. But we'll see how this goes.
- Ridley Scott revealed some plot details for the upcoming Alien prequel in an interview with MTV. It'll be set 30 years before the first movie and focus on the story of the "space jockey" who appeared in the derelict spacecraft.
- Check out this beard trustworthiness scale. Depending on whether you interpret my beard as a "Full Beard" or a "Homeless Beard," I'm either "Very Trustworthy" or verging on "Threatening." (Via)
- A couple of cool gamer-related images.
- Fun with LEGO.
- Looks like The Last Airbender and Green Hornet are both getting converted to 3D now, too. I was all for 3D at first, but this is really getting a little ridiculous.
- Okay, now that's just kind of twisted.
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| Tagged (?): 3D (Not), Aliens (Not), Art (Not), Avatar (Not), Cartoons (Not), Celebrities (Not), Comedy (Not), Comic books (Not), Craft (Not), Gaming (Not), Iron Man (Not), James Bond (Not), LEGO (Not), Links (Not), Monsters (Not), Movies (Not), Music (Not), News (Not), Pixar (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Star Wars (Not), Toys (Not), Video (Not) |
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| Friday, April 2, 2010 04:17 PM |
| Recyclotron: Supplemental |
by Fëanor |
Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.
(I usually do only one of these a day, but I found some more links, and I don't know when I'll get the chance to post again, so...)
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| Friday, March 12, 2010 10:00 AM |
| (Last updated on Friday, March 12, 2010 10:11 AM) | | Recyclotron |
by Fëanor |
Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.
- Look up and check out the hot new Robin Hood trailer. This movie is really looking good. Max Von Sydow! Love that guy. Rise, and rise again! (Via)
- Warner Bros. has picked up a script treatment called Leonardo da Vinci and the Soldiers of Forever which "re-imagines [the artist] as a member of a secret society who falls headlong into a supernatural adventure that pits him against biblical demons in a story involving secret codes, lost civilizations, hidden fortresses and fallen angels." Dude. I'd watch that. As long as it's nothing like The Da Vinci Code.
- LEGO mosaic Totoro!!
- Cool posters for Aliens vs. Predator 2 and Tron Legacy.
- Fun LEGO version of a scene from Up.
- Dude, sweet! Hugo Weaving is going to be the Red Skull! This makes me feel loads better about the casting of Captain America.
- They're going to release an extended version of Avatar to theaters in late summer. Oh, come on! Just stop. You already made all the money in the world!
- Check out "The Video Game Bosses' Lament." It's funny, and nostalgic! I played a lot of those games.
- The producer of Metroid: Other M reveals which filmmakers inspired the game's style.
- Cool art involving castles, knights, and dragons.
- Man, I hate regular expressions. They're useful and powerful, but they're so confusing that I rarely take the time to try to figure out how to put one together that can help me. So this online tool for building them could really come in handy. (Via)
- Criminal Empire for Dummys sounds like it could be a fun crime drama. The cast includes Michael Clarke Duncan, Harvey Keitel, and Gary Oldman.
- So, they're making a live-action Smurfs movie starring Neil Patrick Harris as... somebody, Jonathan Winters as Papa Smurf, Katy Perry as Smurfette, and now Quentin Tarantino as Brainy Smurf. Umm... what? This is real? This is not a joke?
- UPDATE: They're gonna make a Dan Dare movie! And they want Sam Worthington to play Dare! Nice!
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| Tagged (?): Aliens (Not), Art (Not), Captain America (Not), Cartoons (Not), Celebrities (Not), Craft (Not), Hayao Miyazaki (Not), History (Not), LEGO (Not), Links (Not), Metroid (Not), Movies (Not), News (Not), Pixar (Not), Predator (Not), Quentin Tarantino (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Robin Hood (Not), Toys (Not), Tron (Not), Tron Legacy (Not), Video (Not), Video games (Not) |
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| Monday, February 15, 2010 11:36 AM |
| Recyclotron |
by Fëanor |
Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.
- In honor of Valentine's Day I present, above, the venerable "Crunchy Frog" sketch from Monty Python's Flying Circus. Enjoy those chocolate assortments, folks! And while we're talking about the holiday, check out some geek (via) and Mr. Freeze-themed Valentines.
- This Nic Cage as Everyone entry is particularly well done, and particularly appropriate: Nic Cage as Mola Ram!
- Trailer for an intriguing-looking YA fantasy movie called Lost for Words.
- A gallery of photos of the toys and games presented by Hasbro at the Toy Fair. I'm particularly amused by the Iron Man 2-themed version of Operation.
- Sounds like Fringe is in danger of being cancelled. There won't be any TV shows left that I look forward to watching regularly if that one goes.
- A video anthology of werewolf transformations. Slightly NSFW.
- There's going to be a third Riddick movie. I'm not sure how to feel about this news. I loved the first movie, and although the second one had a lot of problems, it did have some great ideas and a great ending. So I'll remain cautiously optimistic for now.
- Neil Marshall's got a new movie on the way called Centurion, about a small band of survivors of a brutal attack on a Roman legion trying to escape enemy territory and make their way home. Here's the trailer. Eh. Could be all right. Although I'm not a big fan of the Romans being the good guys. (Via)
- The latest Let's Be Friends Again takes my favorite page of Siege #2 and makes it even better. If only this could happen in real life.
- Mike Mignola was brought in for a week to lend a hand on pre-production designs for The Hobbit. Yay!
- Amusing stop-motion animated video made using T-shirts.
- A thorough examination of the Toy Story 3 trailer and all its Easter Eggs. Totoro has a cameo! (Via)
- The official website for The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is live. (Via)
- Heh. Concept art for an imaginary McDonalds-themed video game. (Via)
- Posters and other bits of art Photoshopped to give them a Star Trek theme. (Via)
- Leonardo Da Vinci, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Yes, This is a real thing Marvel is doing. I'm vaguely interested. (Via)
- Images and video of a Cabinet of Dr. Caligari puppet show.
- A space cat riding a dinosaur. Now that's a T-shirt!
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| Tagged (?): Animals (Not), Art (Not), Board games (Not), Cartoons (Not), Cats (Not), Celebrities (Not), Clothing (Not), Comedy (Not), Comic books (Not), Dinosaurs (Not), Fringe (Not), Harry Potter (Not), Hayao Miyazaki (Not), Holiday (Not), Indiana Jones (Not), Links (Not), Mike Mignola (Not), Monsters (Not), Monty Python (Not), Movies (Not), News (Not), Photography (Not), Pixar (Not), Politics (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Shirts (Not), Siege (Not), Star Trek (Not), Tolkien (Not), Toys (Not), TV (Not), Video (Not), Web comics (Not) |
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| Friday, February 12, 2010 09:59 AM |
| Recyclotron |
by Fëanor |
Fëanor pours the entire internet into the Recyclotron, and only the best links come out the other end for you to enjoy.
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| Tagged (?): 3D (Not), Animals (Not), Art (Not), Books (Not), Business (Not), Cartoons (Not), Cats (Not), Comedy (Not), Craft (Not), Holiday (Not), Links (Not), Lists (Not), Movies (Not), News (Not), Photography (Not), Pixar (Not), Recyclotron (Not), Robots (Not), Science (Not), Terminator (Not), Tolkien (Not), Toys (Not), TV (Not), Video (Not) |
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About
Welcome to the blog of Jim Genzano, writer, geek, and web developer. For a more detailed run-down of who I am and what goes on here, read this.
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Feanor: "Huh. Strange. Yeah, I thought the show was uneven, but smart and different, with the potential to be ..." on Recyclotron
S.Tarzan: "Yeah. The weird thing is that they extended the cast contracts to November (which effectively postpo ..." on Recyclotron
Feanor: "Ah, I posted before I saw your second comment. November seems a little late, but okay!" on Recyclotron
Feanor: "Hmm. Well, I will try to remain optimistic, but it seems weird that there's been no announcement yet ..." on Recyclotron
S.Tarzan: "I should add that apparently Syfy is going to make a decision about Caprica season two by November o ..." on Recyclotron
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No, not necessarily. Ron Mo ..." on Recyclotron
poppy: "Which is exactly why I loved it so much! Hysterical." on On the Viewer - Recent Film Roundup
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