Monte Carlo

Robin Hood. The Ridley Scott / Russell Crowe effort. My wife pulled a face at the end and said "there was a big hole in that movie somewhere" and I think she was right. The characters were under-developed, the actions scenes were meh, the plotting was all over the place. It was just... OK. I don't expect just OK from the calibre of people involved. I usually enjoy anything Crowe stars in. The best character was Kate Blanchett's Marion, but she's another one of those actresses who manages to transcend anything she's in, even that Indiana Jones distaster.

I think nightshape is being wilfully obtuse, although I don't think he'd claim history was his strong point.

^ Medieval Australia wasn't noted for it's Christianity.

That graph is so meaningless it's not even funny.

My next project, after not making one for twenty years, is a 1/32nd Scale half-track. A German one.

Fargo and the Big Lebowski were great. The rest are meh. I don't buy into the hype around the brothers.

Strange, because I was enjoying the movie for about an hour then it scurried, in my opinion, up it's own arse. The ending was awful to this callsign.

At least Bio is consistent, they appear to treat mods the way they design their games for players. Big Brother Bio is watching you and helping you make the right decisions.

DISCLAIMER - I do not have any real-life armoured fighting vehicles in my den, it simply isn't that big. I do have a pretty big RC Tiger tank and some 1/32 scale AFVs though.

I like a physical copy for three reasons: 1. I view games in much the same way as I view books. If I like a game I put it on a shelf. It sort of says "these are the games I like, this is the sort of gamer I am." Rational? Probably not. But that's how I feel. Games are a big part of my den, as much as my esoteric collection of tanks, cognac, cigars and movie posters. This is why I am getting into collector's editions. 2. Convenience. As others have said, I like to install stuff offline and when I freaking well like and I simply don't trust Steam et.al. 3. I'm an old fart, cranky grognard. If I buy something I want to be able to pick it up.

I'm only here for the lulz, I'm not buying it. But it's like buying tickets for watching a slo-mo car crash.

By the Coen Brothers. They don't listen to questions. The Coens do whatever the heck they want, and with good reason. What, overblown and pretentious dreck like No Country...? What does that mean?

I like to own a physical copy of a game. I also like, like any other rational human being, to pay the most competitive price. So, yes, I've bought games at supermarkets although I'm a long-standing Game loyalty card holder and buy stuff there too. Specialist retailers have to offer more to offset the competitors, the most obvious one for Game is the trade-ins for console gamers but even that doesn't appear to be working. And please don't talk to me about Steam, their prices are scandalous. I'm now shopping for games online, mainly, nowadays.

I had to stifle a giggle when I saw that freaking awful video, the Final Fantasy comedy swords and Warner Bros blood splashes. It's the apogee of the side-scrolling fighting game made flesh, but without any of the style or humour. Congratulations, Bioware. Bravo.

I'm not being crabby for the sake of it, but re-making True Grit? That's answering a question nobody asked. John Wayne leaves me unmoved normally, but that's an almost perfect movie. I love Jeff Bridges to bits, and he'll do a good job I'm sure but he's not filling those boots anytime soon.

It's probably easier for me to tell you that I don't believe in: miracles, walking on water, water-into-wine, resurrection, prophets, revelations, pillars of salt, apples and serpents, dogma, testaments new or old, pantheons of elephant-headed gods (no matter how cool the iconography), reincarnation, karma, the power of prayer, statues crying, stigmata.... or whose imaginary friend is the most all-powerful. However, I do believe that religion has left behind it as much good (if not more) as it has bad, that the Judaeo-Christian heritage that has forged the culture and society of where I live is a Good Thing, and that people should be left alone to practice their beliefs in peace. But the organised religions of the world are as much an anthropological phase as animism or paganism. Technology is already stretching moral and ethical barriers between the sacred and the profane. This will continue. I'll end by quoting Jesus, who explains why Christianity has been so successful and such a good basis for human development: Jesus said to them,

I accept that when they do find alien life it will probably be as exciting as plankton.

+1

Hmmm. Victorians didn't buy into cars because they honestly thought that humans would literally explode if they travelled at speeds over 30mph. Scientific paradigm shifts, when they happen, are dramatic. I have to defer to your knowledge - I am hopeless at physics - but isn't it slightly arrogant for us to believe that an area of science can never advance because of theoretical recieved wisdom? Imagine telling a medieval scholar that you can travel in the air faster than an arrow and transplant a man's heart into another human being. His response might be a bit like yours, Oblarg.

^ I'm sort of with Morgoth, there gets to a point where several tons of circumstantial evidence starts soaking up the scepticism and makes you wonder what the truth is.

Darth is right, Hurlie you're a teacher, I bet you wouldn't screw up a kid's grades if say they'd given your kids a hard time at school or whatever. Cops can deprive people of their liberty, carry weapons, ruin your day. I'm not sure the guy should be sacked, but some sort of reprimand is in order.

I'd describe myself as agnostic but in a very open-minded way.

'European' has become a pejorative term simply because of the EU. Which is unpopular, unless you are a French farmer. I am proud to have so many splendid European countries as neighbours, friends and allies. It's just that my country has followed an utterly different historic trajectory than them and is different. The core issue, in case you were wondering (and as a lawyer might be of interest to Gromnir) is that they have vestiges of the Napoleonic Code in their legal and political systems and we don't. This makes us less very different, and is why EU law, predicated on European systems that share so much commonality across the continent, is tough a tough fit with the UK.

No, the kid was only doing what young guys have been doing since time immemorial. I'm just thinking that the cop should have used his imagination and kind of created a bit of distance from it all.

I am a sucker for a UFO story, any UFO craziness brings out the Lone Gunman in me. I so badly want there to be aliens. OK, I want them to be friendly aliens, not scary human-eating reptiles, but that's not important right now. So check out this story in a not-very-good UK newspaper. Does anyone here know anything about these guys or are they the real deal? And, if anybody here is of a scientific bent, why might a saucer be an optimal shape for a space-craft? Cheers MC