Phosphor

Definately. Everything I've seen and read about Batman Begins points to a darker, more serious and visceral Batman.

Yep. I am so looking forward to this film. Brilliant casting and the images released so far look wonderful. There's definately a Dark Knight Returns feeling to this film in terms of grittiness and severity. It's not Batman 4, but a new beginning (hence the title) and has nothing to do with any of the previous films.

Looks like the Enterprise production people are desperate for ratings with season 4. LOS ANGELES, California (Hollywood Reporter) -- In a guest starring role sure to attract the attention of die-hard Trekkies, Brent Spiner, aka Lt. Cmdr. Data, is being beamed up to "Star Trek: Enterprise." Spiner, who played Data on the syndicated "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and in several "Star Trek" features, has been tapped to do three episodes of UPN's "Enterprise," playing the great-great-grandfather of Dr. Noonien Soong, the creator of Data. He previously played Dr. Soong in an episode of "Next Generation." There has been a lot of speculation about another "Star Trek" veteran, William Shatner, possibly making a visit to "Enterprise," but sources indicated that there are no immediate plans for a guest appearance. "Enterprise," originally scheduled for 9 p.m. Fridays in the fall, will now air at 8 p.m., to be followed by a repeat of the reality series "America's Next Top Model."

So now Bryan Singer, the fellow behind the X-Men movies, has been attached to the much-beleagured new Superman movie. Taken from Yahoo News. 'X-Men' Director to Take on Superman Franchise Mon Jul 19, 2:49 AM ET Add Entertainment - Reuters to My Yahoo! By Borys Kit LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - "X-Men" director Bryan Singer has signed on to shoot the next Superman movie, replacing "Charlie's Angels" veteran McG, who dropped out a week ago over such issues as budget and location. By signing on, Singer puts his next two high-profile projects in a gray zone. He was scheduled to direct "Logan's Run," and then return for a third shot at the comic-book franchise that propelled his career into the realm of big-budget tentpoles: Fox has already scheduled "X-Men 3" for a May 5, 2006 release. There is no scheduled start date for Superman which, like "Logan's Run," is in development at Warner Bros. Superman's script is probably the most time-consuming element that will determine any production start. The previous script was written by "Alias" creator J.J. Abrams. Singer has a reputation for being very involved in the writing of his movies, as well as working with his own stable of writers. Singer has long nursed a dream to direct a Superman movie. "My interest in Superman dates back many, many years," he said. "In fact, it was the Richard Donner classic film that was my day-to-day inspiration in shaping the 'X-Men' universe for the screen. I feel that Superman has been late in his return and it is time for him to fly again." Singer's other credits include "Apt Pupil" and "The Usual Suspects." Besides McG, directors Tim Burton and Brett Ratner have also been involved with the resurrection of Warners' once-profitable franchise. The primary reason given for the exit of McG, ne Joseph McGinty Nichol, was the inability to agree on a budget, which reportedly hovers around $200 million, similar to what "Spider-Man 2" cost. Casting also was an issue, as was the shooting location. McG favored a New York shoot, while the studio favored Australia.

I didn't see it (we don't get SciFi in Canada, though maybe it aired on Space, but I haven't watched TV at all for ages), but Shyamalan pulled out of that project quite early on when he realised the point was to be sensationalist drivel and not a serious documentary. But SciFi went ahead and did it anyways, without Night's co-operation or approval. So no wonder it was a piece of crap.

Heh. Amusing observation. The robots aren't supposed to be scary, that's kind of the point. They are designed to be benevolent and useful assistants to humans; they are supposed to be non-violent (it's one of the Rules Of Robotics). Making them look scary would be rather contrary to the premise of the story. I do have some pretty scary dustbunnies roaming the house right now.. So I better tend to the hauswerk.

I've met just as many super-friendly and polite Americans as I have Canadians, and an equal amount of stupid and belligerent Americans as Canadians. In the people themselves there's not a big difference, despite what either might like to believe. Usually it's a combination of politics and national image/identity that is the cause of disdain for another country, more than the individual people themselves.

Ahem. That's 4 kilometers thank you very much. Uphill.

Coming in at number four is pretty good, too, I think.

Haha! That is fun.

Brain dead perhaps?

Well, it's the brain's visual cortex that's being used, not the eyes. But yeah, it's basically a simple illusion caused by your brain attempting to correlate and order the information it's recieving from the eyes, hence the "movement".

I guess that's how people can stomach supporting Bush.

Yep, Puppy live is like nothing else. Have seen them twice. Joy Division were frelling brilliant. One of my favourites. Unknown Pleasures and Closer were, or rather are, phenomenal albums.

You lie!

The only time I've seen Henry Rollins live was on the first Lollapalooza concert and gods, I was bored to tears with his show.

That's exactly what it is. Troy is a 1960's style sword-and-sandal epic of the very best calibre.

Precisely. And this outlook was wonderfully presented by Achilles tying Hektor's dead body to his chariot and dragging him back to the Greek camp, while the Trojans looked on.

I think the allusions and inferences were very much in place. The ending sequences with the Trojans running through the burning streets while the Greeks rampaged through, combined with the rather malicious nature of Agammemnon defining the Greecian psyche, pretty clearly indicated that things were going to get worse.

Do you really need to ask that? For mass appeal of course. If they had shown Achilles as gay, the movie would have tanked at the box office. I thought the ending was quite miserable. Troy is rare in Trojan War movies in that it sides you with the Trojans rather than the Greeks. Often the Trojans are shown as the filthy degenerate enemy while Greece are the shining paragons of virtue and honour. Troy paints the Greeks as the warlike people they were at that time, and ultimately here the bad guys win. Troy burning while the Greeks rampage through the streets was quite powerful, but the killing of Agammemnon was weak. They must have done that to give the "good guys" some sense of victory, but it was a poor choice, both dramatically and historically.

I understand why they removed the gods, I think it was a good decision. The only downside to it is the Achilles character, who loses a fair bit via that removal. Had the gods been in the film, it would have been pretty cheesey and would ultimately have drawn critical comparison's to Clash Of The Titans. I'm not condemning the removal of the gods, nor am I perplexed regarding their absence. There's no doubt that Pitt would have no problems playing Achilles as homosexual; it was clearly a decision made elsewhere, likely for mass-audience appeal. Brad Pitt being hunky was a major seat-filler for the film.

I just listened to some sound samples from the new Puppy album, and it's pretty much as I expected, which is good. Though it's hard to actually see it as Skinny Puppy, since it sounds more like Download and Plateau; it seems that Key and Ogre are SP in name only, due to the virtue of the two working together. And I see there is a new Tear Garden which I must acquire soon. Key also has an album with Ken Marshall, all old stuff from the mid-80s which sounds spectacular. *sigh* Feeling old.

I have mixed feelings about Troy. Some of it I liked, some of it I did not. It wasn't intended to be The Iliad, it was merely based upon it. I thought Pitt did a decent job, but Achilles wasn't a very full character. The removal of the supernatural took a lot away from that character, since his entire background is steeped in myth (being dipped by his mother into the the river Styx, hence his essential invulnarability, save for his ankle which is where his mother's hand held him). With that gone, there's not much to work with. Changing Patrolocus to his cousin rather than lover was a bit lame, I must say. Were he his lover, I think his human motivations would have been more compelling. I thought Bana's Hektor was superb, and Troy really was his film, not Pitt's. Cox's Agammemnon was brilliant as well, as expected. I hated that he was killed off though, there was no reason for that in the least. Which leads me to what I found to be the biggest flaw in the film, and that is the unsatisfactory fates of all the characters. No one had a good conclusion. Character omissions weren't too bothersome save for the absence of Cassandra. I think she would have been perfect for the film, particularly given Priam's sheer faith in the gods (O'Toole was a great Priam, too). In terms of historical accuracy, some areas were good (costuming in particular) and others not so good (coins on the eyes? coins weren't invented for another century or so). I rather liked that the Greeks were shown as very warlike, and not the stereotypical godlike fonts of philosophy and enlightenment. The mix of cultural backgrounds comprising the Greek army was a nice touch. Achilles being blond and rather Adonis-like is clearly intentional, designed to conjure an image of godhood. I also liked the fighting style they gave him; very athletic and reminiscent of Olympic games, hunting and war imagery seen painted on Grecian pottery. Again, it was obviously an intentional choice with a clear purpose. Other random thoughts.. I didn't care for how the time frame was so condensed. The siege of Troy was something like a decade in length, not a week as the movie suggested. Sean Bean's Odysseus was good, though I couldn't figure out what his character was about. He seemed at odds with Agammemnon's decrees, but supported him as he was obliged to, being a king of Greece. He seemed to not be supportive of the war, but then turned around and devised the horse, which didn't make a lot of sense. In any case, I'd very much like to see Bean play Odysseus in a similar film adaptation of the Odyssey. It was nice seeing Orlando Bloom get the crap beat out of him (I like Bloom, but still..) and though well cast as Paris, the bow thing was a bit much coming so soon after LOTR (though one of the aspects of the film true to the story). Troy really was a modern-day sword-and-sandal epic in the vein of the classics like Spartacus, Ben Hur, Quo Vadis and so on (films I love). If those films were made today, they'd be like Troy. I left the theatre a bit perplexed, ultimately. While I enjoyed the film it seemed a bit stilted and unsatisfactory. The more I think on it, the more I like it given that I have time to mull things over, and I'd like to see it again so I can confirm what I really think of the film.

And that differs from "techniques that allow them to stand on the ceiling for a short period of time" how....?

I think Ritalin was inteneded only as a one-off. Rarely does Martin Atkins dedicate himself to an ongoing project unless it's Pigface or his record label. Bill Leeb will keep FLA going until he drops dead, I suspect. Never cared for them that much. Tactical Neural Implant was good and they had some decent songs here and there, but I always thought they were quite over-rated.