algroth

I think there's about five minutes' worth of interesting stylistic choices in it, but the film has little else going for it and it all does become a little redundant and stagnant over the course of an entire film. For what it's worth, when I learned that the next Panos Cosmatos film was with Nic Cage I felt that at the very least he'd be able to add some vigour to the whole thing and elevate it from the narcoleptic experience that his former film felt like. I've also heard that it's just a more enjoyable film all around. So, looking forward to it, even if not necessarily meaking it a priority right now.

You'll probably want to skip Panos Cosmatos' Beyond the Black Rainbow too then. I'm pretty sure its more experimental than Mandy. I'd suggest skipping Beyond the Black Rainbow because it's an awful film, experimental or otherwise. Haven't seen Mandy yet but I'm planning on doing so some time.

What disappoints me the most about that trailer may not even be that it's bad compared to Del Toro's version, but that it's also the work of Neil Marshall, who at some other point in his career made The Descent and who was in charge of some of the most explosive and spectacular Game of Thrones episodes up to that point. Even Doomsday, for all its flaws, had something of a style or personality going for it. Even without Del Toro's films as reference, this is some dreary, colourless, lazy, direct-to-video-level bollocks, and shows no signs of promise, not a hook or an interesting shot or potential setpiece to be found. You told me this was directed by some hack like Paul WS Anderson or Rob Cohen and I'd be inclined to believe as much.

That Hellboy trailer is beyond awful. How is this any better an option to a third Del Toro film?

This is a real album btw

We need Mike.

Christmas music

The indiegogo campaign referred to in the trailer is here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/in-search-of-the-last-action-heroes--3#/

No, because there's nothing to "atone" for.

Victor Hayden, a.k.a. The Mascara Snake

Pioneers

Pioneers.

I got to see the Stooges live back in 2006, one of the best shows I ever attended. How couldn't it be, with Mike Watt of Minutemen fame on bass and the entire Funhouse getting played?

Inb4 fans demand Outer Worlds 2 have romances because they want to shag Ellie, and Outer Worlds 2 includes romances, but not for Ellie.

My one concern is how many of these are related to the "Fallout 76 backlash train" and how the awareness for the game will endure once the commotion dies down.

This is something of a neutral announcement for me. On the one hand I think a romance that is properly developed and involves more than just shagging your NPC can add a *lot* to one's emotional attachment to them, such as Safiya in Mask of the Betrayer or Viconia in Baldur's Gate 2 or Annah in Torment... Yet on the other they can lead to a lot of soap operatics (see Aerie) or seem tacked on (see Deadfire) or there for the sake of gratiutous pixel-sex (Witcher and Dragon Age sagas in many occasions), and can be both intrusive to one's relationship with said companion and a time-and-resource sink for no real benefit to the overall game - made worse when the whole "there should be more than one romance option, per sex/orientation/whatever" argument begins to demand several options if any one romance is to be included at all. If the devs didn't feel a romance would fit this game or they just didn't find an interesting hook for it, it's probably for the better that they decided to not go for them altogether.

Is this Green Lantern 2?

It boggles the mind that they've chosen to cancel Daredevil after this latest season - their best work without a doubt - and choose to nevertheless carry on with the execrable Jessica Jones for some odd reason. Go home, Netflix, you're drunk.

Oh my GOD IT'S A KING CRAB SPACE CRUSTACEAN RPG!!!! OUR PRAYERS HAVE BEEN ANSWERED BOISSSSSSS!!!!

Just watched Widows myself. I was worried from the previews that it'd play out as a Snowman/Counsellor-type affair where a lot of talent was poured into what ultimately plays and looks like your average heist thriller, but I'm glad to inform, it's a Steve McQueen film through and through, it shares basically the same feel for pace, framing and almost lyrically fluid montage that the rest of his work has, and is paired with that effortless sensibility to it all that makes his stuff feel so unique and genuine in a moment where most contemporary 'auteurs' seem so driven by their search for style and cinematic virtuosity that their works feel plastic and overwrought in comparison. I like that it's at once something of a crowd-pleaser heist film, but at the same time has a way of capturing the American setting in a way that is very unfiltered, replete with all the warts, idiosyncracies and grotesqueness that makes it feel very genuine and rooted. This is proper political filmmaking through and through, even if at times the film may suffer due to wearing some of its commentary as overtext, and the odd farfetched story beat which, to be frank, is just about what you'd expect from a script that comes from the author behind Gone Girl. But these few missteps hardly affected my enjoyment of the whole, and the end result is thoroughly engaging, imbued with a propelling energy, and simply unmissable. Worth a watch on the big screen. Great soundtrack too - Nina Simone, Procol Harum, Van the Man...

Bernardo Bertolucci... Another giant in cinema. R.I.P.

R.I.P. Nicolas Roeg, director of films such as Don't Look Now, Performance, Walkabout and The Man Who Fell to Earth. One of Britain's finest, a unique and idiosyncratic voice in the world of cinema.