tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10174646649207880072024-02-18T23:04:42.909-08:00Embrace Your NerdMovies, TV, Comic Books, Pop Culture Minutiae, Lists, etc. Enjoy!Kandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07679564696886248629noreply@blogger.comBlogger35125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1017464664920788007.post-90983176016294678542010-07-08T22:35:00.001-07:002010-07-10T09:24:19.569-07:00Killer Kaiju!!!As a student of film of all kinds, I often feel it necessary to watch movies I don't especially have a yen to see. Recently, I decided it was high time I did some learnin' about the giant monster movies from Japan. Did you know that giant monsters that attack buildings are called Kaiju? Well now you do! I wasn't expecting much from the movies, I had seen a few of the many Godzilla films prior. "Godzilla vs. Megalon" is one of the more ridiculous ones, featuring Godzilla fighting a number of silly creatures, eventually being aided by a robot named Jet Jaguar, who was invented just to sell little Japanese kids merchandise and eventually get his own set of movies. He never appeared again. But the movie did end with a nifty song about him. Listen to the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KKsVwtd0Fw&feature=related">Jet Jaguar song!</a><br /><br />But I figured I'd go back to the beginning and check out not only Godzilla, but some of his contemporaries. I was pleased to discover that they didn't start out very dumb at all. In fact, they were done very seriously and actually well for the time period. The thing that was most amazing is the care that was given to the model work. Obviously, the conceit of these films is that there's a guy in a rubber suit marauding a mini version of Tokyo (or whatever city it happens to be) and to do so, there needs to be a mock-up of the city. The models look really fantastic and they're shot well. You can tell they're fake, but they're the most realistic kind of fake you can have. Reminds me of when I was a kid watching Thomas the Tank Engine. Remember how elaborate those sets were that the toy trains were driven around on? It's just like that, only with big guys in suits destroying everything.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHRs1DwoBGcdC8CR_PvpMzlcaywGWNLbKUOq4DvVmlXfIp6rsIBFmz79fqJQVFupbaWcxnrzDjDB4wGxb2mIFPhptoh7wFCJMQsJQt-CnZ6noE92DaQL28H0-mEmA8nzRfR3-edHXmhU4/s1600/Gojira_1954_poster_3.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 131px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHRs1DwoBGcdC8CR_PvpMzlcaywGWNLbKUOq4DvVmlXfIp6rsIBFmz79fqJQVFupbaWcxnrzDjDB4wGxb2mIFPhptoh7wFCJMQsJQt-CnZ6noE92DaQL28H0-mEmA8nzRfR3-edHXmhU4/s200/Gojira_1954_poster_3.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5491773574161974482" /></a><br />The first film in the cycle, the first Kaiju film ever, is "Gojira" (1954). This is actually a super suspenseful movie, and, like "Jaws" after it, much is done to keep the giant lizard hidden for the better part of the movie. It's black and white, which aids this, and the majority of the attacks take place at night. Practically, this is also a way to keep the effects from being noticeable. A few of the closeup shots in this film are actually done with a hand puppet, which went by the wayside later on. The story is pretty simple: nuclear bombing has caused mutations in a dinosaur creature living on a remote island. He gets enormous and attacks Japan, and it's up to scientists and the military to destroy him before the country is decimated. True of the first few of this movement, "Gojira" actually develops its characters realistically and there's even a tragic love story. The film is also a obvious allusion to the horror of nuclear warfare that befell Japan only a few years before. There's a portion of this movie where displaced women and children huddle together in a makeshift shelter and wail at the loss of their homes and husbands. It's a much darker moment than one would expect from a giant monster movie, and was completely cut out of the American release.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVVXf8knQCZi-HslWFrnTfgwi59xyn9H8WQx0wZErp2pHuD_cIPV2dJzXy27KdY6HCE46h9NQ4WxiN5p-60XCHnyFYXMG7vBG69-EHjfx5iDhlLqGe4UQ0ZhswacISE36QPn4R-aKQlzk/s1600/Gojira_no_gyakushu_poster_2.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 138px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVVXf8knQCZi-HslWFrnTfgwi59xyn9H8WQx0wZErp2pHuD_cIPV2dJzXy27KdY6HCE46h9NQ4WxiN5p-60XCHnyFYXMG7vBG69-EHjfx5iDhlLqGe4UQ0ZhswacISE36QPn4R-aKQlzk/s200/Gojira_no_gyakushu_poster_2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5491773739657590290" /></a><br />After that came the immediate sequel, "Godzilla Raids Again," (1955). This movie suffered from sequel syndrome and things didn't make a whole lot of sense. It also lacked the direction of Ishiro Hondo, who would become synonymous with Kaiju films until his final entry, "The Terror of Godzilla" in 1975. In "Raids Again," Godzilla fights a big ol' Ankylosaurus called Anguirius. The version I saw was dubbed into English, and badly. I wouldn't suggest watching this one unless you're like me and doing a retrospective on them. There's a cool fight by an ancient-looking temple and that's about it.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8AEUwzI_gjpreAium_bJEr7vQYj1Lo-nOTMEat8dk29VRxF5C_IdUWyc6b4zPwgLWRcxjh4m250YuQrifNUxlL6eEwbJEOS_il_19_4DpDKrbR5hIgNwub_tCLqV6Jlhcfa_ss9t8n2o/s1600/Rodan_poster.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 144px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8AEUwzI_gjpreAium_bJEr7vQYj1Lo-nOTMEat8dk29VRxF5C_IdUWyc6b4zPwgLWRcxjh4m250YuQrifNUxlL6eEwbJEOS_il_19_4DpDKrbR5hIgNwub_tCLqV6Jlhcfa_ss9t8n2o/s200/Rodan_poster.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5491774377140513602" /></a><br />The first break from Godzilla came in the form of "Rodan" (1956). Rodan is, apparently, one of the big three in Kaiju, and is a big pteranodon. The interesting thing about this movie is that it's only 75 minutes long and Rodan is only present for the final 15. The bulk of the movie depicts a group of miners who are digging far into the Earth's crust only to discover a clutch of giant, prehistoric insects called "Meganulon." They're about the size of a horse and attack and kill a number of people in the small mining community. These beasts turn out to be nothing more than food for the two Rodans who hatch from giant eggs and attack the entire world. The last 15 minutes of this movie, though, are almost worth the rest. Again, great effects, and watching a big dinosaur fly around and crash through buildings and shit was pretty spectacular.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXo1n0MEHBbcY79gulz7-FAGjZ9DGRI3p8Q6YZ5hcILzq05Pm04YYH2JCtVnQIj7T5BPQ3HdS4L_NwMO1JUjRJPxQ_T5UGPJ2dNOdOr0top6tN_wnjNnhrwDS_pH15m50dEb7ummJEmUw/s1600/Mothra.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 142px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXo1n0MEHBbcY79gulz7-FAGjZ9DGRI3p8Q6YZ5hcILzq05Pm04YYH2JCtVnQIj7T5BPQ3HdS4L_NwMO1JUjRJPxQ_T5UGPJ2dNOdOr0top6tN_wnjNnhrwDS_pH15m50dEb7ummJEmUw/s200/Mothra.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5491774529079548786" /></a><br />Next up was "Mothra," (1961) and is possibly my favorite of the bunch. It follows the exploration of an irradiated island and the discovery of a primitive culture thereupon. Among the strange peoples, the explorers find tiny little twins who sing. Not like midgets, but indeed twin miniature Japanese women. And did I mention they sing? Well they do. What do they sing about? Well, Mothra of course. When thhe rich and greedy Nelson, the financier of the exploration, kidnaps the sisters to exploit them for monetary gain, the sisters sing their Mothra song and summon, you guessed it, Mothra, a massive caterpillar-like creature who hatches from a big-ass egg and makes a swimming b-line to the sisters in Japan in order to save them. A scientist, a reporter, and a photographer who were on the mission take it upon themselves to try to free the twins before Mothra destroys everything. It takes them a long, long time, enough time for Mothra to create a cocoon around itself and metamorphose into the flying insect creature we expected from the name. It continues destroying everything in its search for the girls until they're finally delivered by the good guys. Then everyone waves as Mothra takes them back to the island. No hard feelings I guess. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbfMLE4De2s">MOTHRA SONG!!!</a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM4a9k9jDjMnw72jV-DDHtzhS4ROi6oZTJz_p0kJsECIa1XeqDr4VgDpCIQdYF7ChT_g7G6mdcAx0gAIc1WcVVYciaXpksdkdzn_IVe3_UbLI1Oa6so0ScnV5V3JWav88PQylELuk_bKY/s1600/Mothra_vs_Godzilla_poster.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 145px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM4a9k9jDjMnw72jV-DDHtzhS4ROi6oZTJz_p0kJsECIa1XeqDr4VgDpCIQdYF7ChT_g7G6mdcAx0gAIc1WcVVYciaXpksdkdzn_IVe3_UbLI1Oa6so0ScnV5V3JWav88PQylELuk_bKY/s200/Mothra_vs_Godzilla_poster.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5491774673813486770" /></a><br />Really no hard feelings, since the next film is "Mothra vs. Godzilla," (1964). A similar storyline to the first film with the exception of Godzilla added to muck things up. A giant egg is washed ashore and examined by a slew of people. Turns out the egg belongs to Mothra and the tiny twins reappear to warn everyone to give the egg back, lest the feel Mothra's wrath, but of course they are immediately ignore, cuz they're little, and again enslaved for theatrical purposes. After getting freed by the same collection of good guy jobs as before, the girls return to their island. Good thing too, as that is the exact moment Godzilla decides to rise from under the ground and attack the city. Luckily, Mothra has come to claim her egg and in a considerable show of niceness, decides to fight Godzilla, but gets killed. The egg then hatches and two Mothra larvae are born and do battle with Godzilla. This movie, while not as entertaining as the first Mothra, is still fun and it is the last film to feature Godzilla as an all-out bad guy.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3Y1ySpTP64Jl3-jSRG77otjZqQSV2bPydu3mv5su7DXqzb5KN63A2mvPHZihbhiXXjmheANeLCMzXW7aLrKQvLjglKaLorhVfHHixRlUeMu4wBNg2XaYpm2ut1g8M0VVRq6sslk1PFWI/s1600/Ghidorah_the_Three-Headed_Monster_1965.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 144px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3Y1ySpTP64Jl3-jSRG77otjZqQSV2bPydu3mv5su7DXqzb5KN63A2mvPHZihbhiXXjmheANeLCMzXW7aLrKQvLjglKaLorhVfHHixRlUeMu4wBNg2XaYpm2ut1g8M0VVRq6sslk1PFWI/s200/Ghidorah_the_Three-Headed_Monster_1965.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5491774830601117154" /></a><br />The final film I decided to watch was "Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster," (1964). The plot to this film is SUPER convoluted and involves a princess who may or may not be from Venus warning the people of Japan that King Ghidorah, the horrible three-headed monster is coming to decimate them. What exactly he's king of is anyone's guess. While this is all happening, Godzilla and Rodan appear and decide to fight each other, to the detriment of the surrounding cities. Larvae Mothra arrives with the twins to convince the other two evil things to help it fight Ghidorah. Theres's a whole sequence where the three beasts speak to each other in their respective growls and chirps with translation provided by the tiny twins. That's the moment I knew that I was done watching these movies and they'd passed irreparably to the realm of hokeyness. The three good creatures fight the bad creature with the three heads and then it's over. Good production value and typically fun, this movie is marred by too many Kaiju and a nearly incomprehensible plot for the human actors to be involved with.<br /><br />There are a plethora of other Kaiju films, like "Gamera," (1965) the giant turtle creature movie produced by a rival company to Godzilla's Toho, but I decided to stop there. Before they got TOO silly. But, just to let you know, Gamera is filled with turtle meat. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ghiy-4louJA&feature=related">It says so in the song</a>. <br /><br />Watch these movies for good fun happy times.<br /><br />You're welcome.<br /><br />-KandersonKandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07679564696886248629noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1017464664920788007.post-2078720889369381672010-07-08T12:10:00.000-07:002010-07-08T12:14:35.748-07:00Video!My friend Lincoln Hayes, the other half of the semi-defunct Eclectic Films, just made a new short film. You should watch it. It's funny and good. Good job, Lincoln. Way to make it SEMI-defunct.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VksZ7ltUEI">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VksZ7ltUEI</a><br /><br />You're welcome<br /><br />-KandersonKandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07679564696886248629noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1017464664920788007.post-37986469139850037012010-07-08T09:57:00.000-07:002010-07-09T00:02:20.805-07:00Top 6: Movies Made Before 1960I watch a lot of old movies and I love them, but I feel like a great many people today don't give old movies a chance because they're, well, old. Black and white scares people who're used to the HD-CG-3D bollocks that've saturated the market. So here, for the uninitiated, are my six favorite movies made before 1960. Just my opinion, as always.<br /><br />VI - TOUCH OF EVIL (1958)<br />Considered by many to be the last official entry in the Film Noir cycle, Orson Welles' bleak masterpiece still shocks and astonishes today. It's a gritty, grimy adventure that follows Mexican-American prosecutor Miguel "Mike" Vargas (inexplicably played by Charlton Heston) and his whiter-than-white wife Susie played by Janet Leigh as they cross the border late one night. The sleepy border town is rocked when a car bomb explodes in the opening minute (one of the greatest tracking shots in history) and from there we're introduced to sleazy and corrupt police veteran Captain Hank Quinlan, played for all its worth by Welles himself. The plot gets very muddled, but it's not really about that. It's about these characters and specifically how a once-great man can fall so very far. Three different versions of the film exist due to Welles never getting final cut, but I personally prefer the restoration version that Walter Murch oversaw in the 90s to get as close as possible to the grand auteur's lost vision.<br /><br />V - STRANGERS ON A TRAIN (1951)<br />It's very hard to put only one Hitchcock movie on this list, as he made so many that were just perfect. I decided to put this one on the list because it's the Master Of Suspense at his most sinister. It follows the chance meeting on a train bound for Washington, DC of tennis pro Guy Haines (Farley Granger) and millionaire mama's boy Bruno Antony (Robert Walker). Bruno is a gossip hound and knows far too much about the famous athlete's personal woes, including his estrangement from his shrewish wife and illicit relationship with a senator's daughter. Bruno wagers that Guy would do anything to have his wife gone because he feels the same way about his own father. He proposes a trade, criss-cross. Bruno would kill Guy's wife if Guy kills Bruno's father. Guy laughs this off; Bruno would never be crazy enough to do it. Would he? Hitchcock is known for his set pieces and there's plenty of them here, making two of the most wholesome activities in America two of the most menacing: a carnival and a tennis match. Also watch for the brilliant shot of the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Chilling.<br /><br />IV - THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD (1938)<br />This one's in color, and boy is it ever! One of the earliest uses of grand 3-strip Technicolor, this film also saw the birth of Errol Flynn as a swashbuckling superstar. This is what big budget adventures should be today. The sets are elaborate, the costumes are lush, and the stunt work is stellar even by today's standards. It's well acted, beautifully directed, and the score is thrilling. What more can I say? This movie just makes me feel good when I watch it, and that's what movie watching is all about.<br /><br />III - VAMPYR-DER TRAUM DES ALLAN GREY (1932)<br />One of the earliest "talkies," this German movie may as well be silent. Made by Carl Theodor Dreyer, who also made "Passion of Joan of Arc," "Vampyr" is a surreal, dreamlike depiction of the otherworldly. Allan Grey (Julian West), a traveler obsessed with the supernatural, visits a creepy old inn and discovers evidence of vampires. This film employs a cadre of camera tricks used to induce a general sense of unease, from shadows on the wall disappearing suddenly, to a man digging a grave in reverse, and even Allan Grey himself being buried and his ghost rising from his body. It may seem like kids stuff today, but let's remember this film was made in 1932. It's scary and at times funny but always interesting. Give it a chance, if you dare.<br /><br />II - PATHS OF GLORY (1957)<br />In a time when people were making World War II films like they were on sale at Macy's, a young Stanley Kubrick decided to make his war film about World War I, and have it be about the French. Not a single American character is featured, though most of the actors are, notably its star Kirk Douglas. Its anti-war theme still rings true today as the soldiers on the front line are not only set upon by the enemy only a few hundred yards away, but also the beaurocracy of the officer class, tucked away in their enormous mansion villas. The bulk of the story finds Douglas' Col. Dax having to defend three randomly chosen soldiers on charges of treason and cowardice for refusing to fight in an unwinnable battle. Talk about a rock and a hard place. Douglas gives a wonderful performance as do the three condemned men, who portray all the emotions of the horror of two kinds of war. Early Kubrick is still 150 times better than most everyone in their prime. Kurbick's prime was everthing he made after his first film and before his last film.<br /><br />I - THE THIRD MAN (1949)<br />My second favorite movie of all time. This is simply one of the finest films ever made, by a vastly under-appreciated artist, director Carol Reed. Reed was working 22 hour days and became addicted to pills (and possibly other stuff) during the making of this movie, and it shows in the frenzy and paranoia of the third act. It follows hack pulp author Holly Martens (perfectly played by Joseph Cotten) as he travels to post-War Vienna to visit his old friend Harry Lime. Too bad Lime has just died. He was hit by a car in front of two friends who moved his body off the road. Martens almost leaves immediately after the funeral, except for two things: Harry's girlfriend Anna (Alida Valli) and a porter's claim that there were indeed THREE men who moved Harry's body. Holly then gets embroiled in Harry's seedy past and the post-war politics of Vienna, which has been cut into four zones, each controlled by the US, the UK, France, and the Soviet Union. The British zone's commanding officer, Major Calloway, is perhaps the best part of the film played by Trevor Howard. He tries to convince Holly to leave while giving him little glimpses of the man he knew as Harry Lime. Also great is the ever-present zither music which is oddly fitting in a creepy way. If you haven't seen this movie, watch it now.<br /><br />I'm happy with this list, but even as I was writing it I thought of at least ten others I maybe should put on the list. After all, it seems criminal to exclude the works of Billy Wilder, or David Lean, or even the rest of Alfred Hitchcock. And lets not forget Akira Kurosawa. Crap. Maybe soon I'll have to go back and make another list. Start with these, though. They're excellent. Old movies are fun!<br /><br />You're welcomeKandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07679564696886248629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1017464664920788007.post-52572072053613643252010-06-15T21:19:00.000-07:002010-06-20T18:11:23.557-07:00Torchwood: Because I had to.SPOILERS THROUGHOUT<br /><br />As a fan of all things Doctor Who, I felt it was time I turned my attention to the spinoff series Torchwood. Now I had actually seen an episode of TW before I saw a single Doctor Who episode, and I didn't like it. To be fair, it was the final part of a five-part mini-series and I didn't know who any of the characters were, save one, and I didn't fully understand the stakes. All this in mind, I still thought it was a bit melodramatic and ended on an extremely dark note. But, again, I'm a completist and I like the crap out of DW, so after a few months, I thought I'd give it another chance. Luckily, all of Torchwood is available for instant play on Netflix. God. Bless. Netflix.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBW0b2CkRgAlyjLV6owC0sqDoIWvReEHdKWhCQ2mqdkW0ZDFdpYzEy9q4VpR_gMp8jFUdCzgx3RsZvWP3Xwh65CbqMsiH7dMZ9Id4_fCczKWMJe_SMsTEdyLM6on2PlEaKSOJu3u4mkDE/s1600/585px-Torchwoodtitle.svg.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 177px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBW0b2CkRgAlyjLV6owC0sqDoIWvReEHdKWhCQ2mqdkW0ZDFdpYzEy9q4VpR_gMp8jFUdCzgx3RsZvWP3Xwh65CbqMsiH7dMZ9Id4_fCczKWMJe_SMsTEdyLM6on2PlEaKSOJu3u4mkDE/s320/585px-Torchwoodtitle.svg.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5485025763057382834" /></a><br />First some context. In the first season of the revived Doctor Who, a character was introduced in the last five episodes. His name was Capt. Jack Harkness and he at first appears to be a normal WWII American Air Force pilot on loan to the British. He is quickly revealed to be a 51st Century Time Agent-cum-Con Artist. He's a roguish character, the Han Solo of the series. He's morally ambiguous and a bit of a loose cannon, but never the less a loyal companion to The Doctor. Capt. Jack is played by openly gay actor John Barrowman, which I'm sure aided in the decision to make the character Omnisexual (men, women, aliens, monsters, etc.) and added yet another layer to his already colorful personality. The showrunner of the updated series was Russell T. Davies, the creator of Queer as Folk, and I think in general it was a very brave awesome thing to do to introduce a main character on a "family" show who is GLBT. At the end of the season, Capt. Jack is killed by a Dalek only to be brought back to life by the energy of time. He is, however, stranded in the far future, seemingly forever. That isn't the case, however.<br /><br />During Doctor Who's second season, there are multiple references to the Torchwood Institute, a secret organization started by Queen Victoria as a means of protecting the Crown against alien threats, the Doctor among them. In that season' finale, Torchwood reveals that it takes and adapts alien technology for service to the the United Kingdom, but they are all but destroyed. Or, the LONDON part of Torchwood was destroyed. Torchwood 3 is working just fine over in Cardiff, Wales.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdDbykgn7CiUG2PHwWCv5LiMfVsaOtKqx-Br-UwbShKgT2Yd8aI8x6D7ekxFI2AefLVEjhGJPix4sw7PascXyhOU-UpKhhMif2vRKjDrlur3Gd6t8FBJ9Xif9XAqh_-ajCCWfGt05LII8/s1600/Jack_Harkness.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 166px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdDbykgn7CiUG2PHwWCv5LiMfVsaOtKqx-Br-UwbShKgT2Yd8aI8x6D7ekxFI2AefLVEjhGJPix4sw7PascXyhOU-UpKhhMif2vRKjDrlur3Gd6t8FBJ9Xif9XAqh_-ajCCWfGt05LII8/s200/Jack_Harkness.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5485025999525067826" /></a>And that's where Torchwood season 1 picks up. In Cardiff, as is explained in a Doctor Who episode, there is a temporal rift allowing time and space matter to travel between dimensions, making it a hotspot for alien phenomenon. This follows the Buffy model of having all the action take place around a single area that happens to attract the paranormal. Makes it easy to keep the location shots cheap. Since both Doctor Who and Torchwood are BBC Wales productions, all they have to do is go outside. When series one begins, Captain Jack is the leader of a small team consisting of medic Owen Harper (Burn Gorman), tech-savvy Toshiko Sato (Naoko Mori), and stuffy paper-pusher Ianto Jones (Gareth David-Lloyd). In the very first episode, they are more or less discovered by Police Constable Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles) who helps solve the case and is inducted into the world. Blah blah blah, heard it all before.<br /><br />It took me about five months to get passed the first four episodes. Torchwood was a "post-watershed" series, which in Britain, given the limited number of television station, is the designation of a show that airs later at night and can have much more adult content, including graphic violence, sexual content, and bad language. I am always up for heaping helpings of all of these, except when they aren't handled well. It felt to me that the writers didn't know how to make a show of this nature and as such put in huge amounts of sex unnecessarily, or just because they could. In many cases, the sex didn't have anything to do with the story and was really more just titillation for the sake of it. Sci-fi writers generally don't know how to deal with sex. Gwen, who is dating blue collar Rhys (Kai Owen) has an affair with Owen which is neither interesting nor very important to their characters. There was also, amongst the sex, a fair amount of homosexual activity. One episode finds Toshiko (a female, the name's not a giveaway to anyone outside of Japan) in a relationship with a mysterious blonde woman who ends up being an alien, wouldn't ya know it? Another ends with a sweeping, 360-degree camera sweep around Capt. Jack passionately kissing goodbye to a young military man of the same name. I definitely applaud the show for going there and that much doesn't distract, it's just used in such a sensationalized way.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8LMC3D4s4NLpAjOjNS_i9f_KjwqDb8i6mcNlrbNJN0vZ2ReNPC0AFqp1rcIpVzzVrWpwaKQX22dhEHMTDL_Zi2x2vuDQp0kFxCydkAscs6JEirdJ3uxUk-QOue6IPFxOQksX38xribSo/s1600/torchwood_cast.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 197px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8LMC3D4s4NLpAjOjNS_i9f_KjwqDb8i6mcNlrbNJN0vZ2ReNPC0AFqp1rcIpVzzVrWpwaKQX22dhEHMTDL_Zi2x2vuDQp0kFxCydkAscs6JEirdJ3uxUk-QOue6IPFxOQksX38xribSo/s200/torchwood_cast.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5485026473379960882" /></a>One bit I did enjoy about the season is just how deeply damaged all the characters are. Gwen struggles with her personal life and her work life, Owen hates himself and wants to die, Tosh is crippled with insecurity about everything, and Ianto, a straight man, grapples with his growing romantic feelings toward Jack. We also learn little bits about what happened to Jack after he was stranded in the 24th century. Turns out the time energy that brought him back to life left him immortal, or more accurately, left him with the ability to come back to life after getting killed. He is shot, stabbed, strangled, smothered, and other means of dispatch not beginning with S only to eventually gasp back to life. We also learn that he somehow got sent back to the late 1800s and has to live through the whole 20th century waiting for the off-chance the Doctor will come find him. <br /><br />Because of the not-so-great writing and sometimes way dramatic acting, I'd say I actually liked 2 and a half episodes of the 13. But I kept watching because I heard it got better. At the end of Torchwood season 1, Jack goes off to find the Doctor leaving his team without a leader. That storyline picks up in the last three episodes of Doctor Who season 3 where Jack does indeed find The Doctor and travels with him and his new companion Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman). A whole mess of stuff happens that I won't get in to if you ever want to watch it, but at the end of it, Jack decides he misses his team and working for and with Torchwood and leaves The Doctor to return to them.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjssQ9dnkFIDobLC6wZt4G_X_3qwQXsxY1YFYc1WijVGO1uj3LRQhpQxMuYzVwm86AHAAUxUmNMc-IYZbSWJBPSLUH0A_HbhTwmFJNUZgePJEks5EJWnthxRa80saNvYY0eJjLpkNNBzU4/s1600/Torchwood-Series-3-promo-pic-torchwood-6457166-567-799.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 142px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjssQ9dnkFIDobLC6wZt4G_X_3qwQXsxY1YFYc1WijVGO1uj3LRQhpQxMuYzVwm86AHAAUxUmNMc-IYZbSWJBPSLUH0A_HbhTwmFJNUZgePJEks5EJWnthxRa80saNvYY0eJjLpkNNBzU4/s200/Torchwood-Series-3-promo-pic-torchwood-6457166-567-799.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5485026891070327362" /></a>But when he does, at the beginning of Torchwood season 2, he finds a team that is at once happy to have him back and resentful that he left in the first place. During this season, the writer's calmed down a bit and found their own rhythm. They introduced a few character's from Jack's past (which is our future... wibbly wobbly timey wimey) and strengthened the character relationships. Gwen is engaged to her boyfriend Rhys and eventually tells him about her job. Toshiko tries to confess her feelings to Owen, who just doesn't get it. Ianto embarks on a romantic relationship with Jack that is allowed to develop naturally. My favorite arc occurs in the middle of the season where Martha, now an agent of UNIT (Unified Intelligence Taskforce) comes to Torchwood to help. During this time, Owen is killed and Jack tries to bring him back to life. It half works. Owen is animated again, but he's still technically dead. None of his bodily functions are operating, his heart isn't beating, he doesn't get tired, he can't drink or have sex. If he's injured, it won't heal. So he has to deal with being the living dead, which doesn't go too well.<br /><br /><br />Season two had uniformly better writing and acting, but it was still far too "monster-of-the-week" and often those monsters were uninteresting. The season ends with Owen being disintegrated and Tosh is killed by the bad guy, leaving Torchwood severely diminished. The next time we see Jack, Gwen, and Ianto is during the finale of Doctor Who season 4, where every character who ever existed reappears. It's a pretty ridiculous finale. But after THAT, is the five-part miniseries "Children of Earth" which is pretty damn amazing, I must admit. It's basically a sci-fi version of 24, which I also loved. The writing is top notch as are the guest stars. I could try to describe what it's about, but I wouldn't want to spoil any part of it. If you like sci-fi at all and think I have good taste in anything, give "Children of Earth" a watch. It's on instant play on Netflix and it's only five episodes. What's stopping you!?!?!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFg9fYKifaF6bd_aGZBVNPOmVtvGqudat3kwF8p6TAPqUYrQoA4hANEBZdkjyXp1KOEayF7GutYf5y2lcn2hOx80gM0uV3HBp6rF5ulVWe2EKvHRSYsLfShMuSU_4vdsQIaWWJ-FaSgPY/s1600/TorchwoodChildrenofEarthPromo2.png"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 158px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFg9fYKifaF6bd_aGZBVNPOmVtvGqudat3kwF8p6TAPqUYrQoA4hANEBZdkjyXp1KOEayF7GutYf5y2lcn2hOx80gM0uV3HBp6rF5ulVWe2EKvHRSYsLfShMuSU_4vdsQIaWWJ-FaSgPY/s200/TorchwoodChildrenofEarthPromo2.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5485027719354847426" /></a><br />For a whole calendar year, there's been no new Torchwood, but in the recent weeks it has been announced that BBC, BBC Worldwide, and Starz Entertainment are teaming up to produce a fourth season of Torchwood, starring the remaining cast, and adding new people. This version will also travel beyond Cardiff for an "international flavor." I won't say I'm excited, but I have tempered optimism. The show improved every time it came back, and if it ups the ante of CoE, then we're in for some excellent crap.<br /><br />Man, I do go on.<br /><br />You're welcome.<br />-KandersonKandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07679564696886248629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1017464664920788007.post-14489006289662982372010-06-14T19:30:00.000-07:002010-06-14T22:02:50.704-07:00Top 6: Ways Sci-Fi Movies Lied To UsThe 1961 film, "The Phantom Planet" begins with a narrator telling us that since the splitting of the atom, Mankind has triumphed in breaking through the atmosphere and is now exploring the vastness of space. It depicts rocket launches occurring from the moon and artificial gravity inside the oddly Hobbit-sized rocket ship. It's a vision of a future we know little about, but we should. The story is set in 1980. None of that shit happened. What a load of bollocks. (See for yourself. The whole movie, which is pretty hysterical, can be watched on <a href="http://www.hulu.com/watch/141418/the-phantom-planet">Hulu</a>) Ever since people started writing fiction with science in front of it, we've been given hypothetical potentialities for futures that, at the time, seemed so far away and yet, we've more or less passed all of them. It's to the point where thinking about it is laughable for having missed the mark so badly. Here are the 6 most egregious errors committed by science fiction.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdb7LhP72RlB0zyX_AYyBzVmdEJRhq47LSThQB9HEtUw4Y-f3VOUdj-zCP3bWFXL7FT2tNNfrOy5Otp8Lekd7njV8VSE4aAm-spJdt1uCPUmkhyphenhyphen8ezd0f8u3A3KUGWYvd6McuF5jHLyFc/s1600/delorean.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 124px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdb7LhP72RlB0zyX_AYyBzVmdEJRhq47LSThQB9HEtUw4Y-f3VOUdj-zCP3bWFXL7FT2tNNfrOy5Otp8Lekd7njV8VSE4aAm-spJdt1uCPUmkhyphenhyphen8ezd0f8u3A3KUGWYvd6McuF5jHLyFc/s200/delorean.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482857380868415026" /></a><br />VI - The Flying Car (BACK TO THE FUTURE PART II)<br />To say nothing of time travel, which is excluded because it's not depicted as a universal thing, Back to the Future part II shows us all the crazy, and really unnecessary, bits of technology we have to look forward to in five years (the movie takes place in 2015). For example, food hydrators preparing pizza in seconds, a weather service that can accurately predict a rainstorm to the second, and holographic movie adds that pretend to bite you in half. But the most glaring lie is the fact that cars can fly, or "hover" as they say in the movie. Now, hovercrafts we have; they're about two inches off the ground. These things fly, through the air, and have traffic lights and taxi cabs up there. Doc Brown mentions that he got the Delorean hover-converted in the early 21st Century, which would seem to allude to sometime within the first decade and unless we're gonna hover-convert the shit out of our cars this year, BTTF2's claim in just plain phony.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAb8ifHw1Dpba6DbSMO0mPAMjYTFOk0Jnr5oU5fvu0nIkxpwaQ8kWQLc-Egwfz4OMxWeG-NmPmI5pon7AX1Lt9LoRjJtc7k19zqvDuD7WzK-oF5p5mjQkHfPgFf3Jv0xon-1oA_YKTTSk/s1600/Escape_From_New_York_Wireframe.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 123px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAb8ifHw1Dpba6DbSMO0mPAMjYTFOk0Jnr5oU5fvu0nIkxpwaQ8kWQLc-Egwfz4OMxWeG-NmPmI5pon7AX1Lt9LoRjJtc7k19zqvDuD7WzK-oF5p5mjQkHfPgFf3Jv0xon-1oA_YKTTSk/s200/Escape_From_New_York_Wireframe.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482857971309360770" /></a><br />V - Manhattan Island is a maximum security prison (ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK)<br />The conceit of this 1981 movie is that the crime rate in the United States gets so bad in the future that there wasn't any more room in the prisons. The solutions was to move every criminal in the entire country to a fenced off and patrolled Manhattan where they could roam freely and do whatever they wanted to each other. The trouble is, this was all supposed to happen in 1997. I'm damn skippy that didn't happen. In 1997, Bill Clinton began his second term, arguably the most prosperous time in America for a long-ass while, the crime rate was the lowest it had been in 20 years, and the New York Yankees had just won the World Series. As much as I love this movie, it could not have been more wrong.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkbjkL4aId3v5zSOjKGOfvpOhxHrA5sq9xiFKrHNdsYkQOrI867T_3AF4ud4ISZ-eQnUJ2IvMboVcyIjVZh9qJ3I94XmrQglLXUyTQEhzwzlt5IzExfockqmQR0hthQK1-fLGfmlHZapA/s1600/aliennation3.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 112px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkbjkL4aId3v5zSOjKGOfvpOhxHrA5sq9xiFKrHNdsYkQOrI867T_3AF4ud4ISZ-eQnUJ2IvMboVcyIjVZh9qJ3I94XmrQglLXUyTQEhzwzlt5IzExfockqmQR0hthQK1-fLGfmlHZapA/s200/aliennation3.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482859064670838802" /></a><br />IV - Aliens live among us relatively peacefully (ALIEN NATION)<br />In one of the more audacious examples of counting your chickens before they hatch, the film Alien Nation was released in 1988 about a world three years after an alien invasion...in 1988. Yes, the filmmakers so wanted to date their film, they made the initial landing of alien Newcomers just a few months after its release. That's about as "near" as the "near-future" can possibly be. The bulk of the action takes place in 1991 where the Newcomers have become part of the society and are discriminated against in a thinly veiled nod to race relations. People watching this movie when it initially came out on video were already in a world where this couldn't possibly be real, since aliens did not indeed land and gentrify the nation in 1988. Couldn't they have even waited until 1990 for the landing? At least give people a little time to pretend. We all know it's fiction, but that seemed destined to fail from day one. That'd be like if I wrote a thing about giant rocket powered flamingos that took place the day after I wrote it. Anyone reading it would go, "Okay, well this didn't happen."<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR7Wspxs87eQTnESNMX94iHWy6QyLFe9DqIzHFJMVBv2SIjSHq4_rAuhXJO2scTk3bKXnB2QvtxT4LD81d92xxqYysKzvOEeoC0HMijEzbunWmYQMEtxb2ne7BITURqYh6dp-xYMs-GLA/s1600/Linda_Hamilton_-_Nuke_Scene.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 135px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR7Wspxs87eQTnESNMX94iHWy6QyLFe9DqIzHFJMVBv2SIjSHq4_rAuhXJO2scTk3bKXnB2QvtxT4LD81d92xxqYysKzvOEeoC0HMijEzbunWmYQMEtxb2ne7BITURqYh6dp-xYMs-GLA/s200/Linda_Hamilton_-_Nuke_Scene.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482860118016297170" /></a><br />III - Nuclear Holocaust caused by sentient computer (TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY)<br />This is something I feared for a long time, and in many ways still continue to fear. Ever since I saw the 70s tv movie "The Day After," I have been scared to death of the end of the world via nuclear annihilation. So, when I first saw Terminator 2 when I was 14 and it actually gave a date to this horrible event, 29 August 1997, I was petrified. Until I remembered that it was six months earlier. Yes, James Cameron's best film is still considered among the top ten sci-fi and action movies ever made, and in 1991 when it was released, it could still be seen as visionary. Skynet, the insanely smart computer thing, is going to become self-aware in 1997, and it's up to the Connor clan and a re-programmed T-800 to see that it doesn't happen. Or, they could just not do anything, cuz it fucking didn't become self-aware at all. We were not vaporized by atomic explosions, nor have huge mechanoids started marching up and down the streets, destroying anyone they see. I never understood why it becoming self-aware was such a bad thing. I know a fair amount of people who could benefit from being a little more self-aware.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi0j2MvRHDqGxhXvplBJO4EyCLyZc_wh7alr0u4PeN0_oo4GOO-Ug9uUnO_0h2ZIIplYK6oEbWi-UueBE4ADkMAkebhOarUbj7HWJVXX6tnI91JdC_IuGVIGOx8Giobv2L9dirZPS-Zds/s1600/405_MarsColony02.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 148px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi0j2MvRHDqGxhXvplBJO4EyCLyZc_wh7alr0u4PeN0_oo4GOO-Ug9uUnO_0h2ZIIplYK6oEbWi-UueBE4ADkMAkebhOarUbj7HWJVXX6tnI91JdC_IuGVIGOx8Giobv2L9dirZPS-Zds/s200/405_MarsColony02.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482860860787514146" /></a><br />II - We have colonized Mars (BLADE RUNNER, TOTAL RECALL, et al)<br />According to these movies, and some others too, we took off from Earth, terraformed our nearest celestial neighbor, and began building a population. Blade Runner takes place in 2019, and although the action is entirely on Earth, there's much talk of replicants being used for labor on Mars. Total Recall takes place in 2084, but we've already had a colony on Mars for sometime in that film. Gonna get a little scientific on your asses now; here's why we can't do that. 1) GRAVITY: The surface gravity of Mars is just a little over 1/3 that of Earth's. 2) COLD-ASS: The average surface temperature of Mars is -63 degrees Celsius (-81.4 degrees Fahrenheit). The coldest it's ever been on Earth was in Antarctica where it bottomed out at -84 degrees C, whereas Mars routinely falls to -140 degrees C. 3) WATER: There's no fucking water on Mars. 4) PRESSURE: The atmospheric pressure on Mars is ~6 mbar, and in its current condition, is well below the Armstrong Limit, 61.8 mbar for people to survive without pressure suits. Since terraforming cannot be expected as a near-term solution, habitable structures on Mars would need to be constructed with pressure vessels similar to spacecraft, capable of containing a pressure between a third and a whole bar. 5) MONEY: No one on Earth is going to give money for colonization of Mars when they could easily spend it on the new Miley Cyrus album or the Shake Weight. In short, we're never going to Mars, apologies to Philip K. Dick.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTucqzRZjmujLoO3DzZO824XrHKTJpGpFNBX4RHiU5YpkIfE4MTw7cDRI6yKsUcfIoLlutHY7q5gslR7Ytuz4cFbufuCGxf_o5KTOhR-ODYdm6IaCiucyfjY304sDNEg6Q_KD04lBwW8g/s1600/Space_Station_V.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 95px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTucqzRZjmujLoO3DzZO824XrHKTJpGpFNBX4RHiU5YpkIfE4MTw7cDRI6yKsUcfIoLlutHY7q5gslR7Ytuz4cFbufuCGxf_o5KTOhR-ODYdm6IaCiucyfjY304sDNEg6Q_KD04lBwW8g/s200/Space_Station_V.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482861277791293842" /></a><br />I - Space Odyssey? (2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY)<br />I was really looking forward to this and here we are nearly a decade later and we've not had a single space odyssey. There is no regular transportation from the Earth to the moon, there is no artificial gravity, super computers have not reached sentience (see number III) and we've found no enormous slabs of black granite anywhere that inexplicably turn us into giant, glowing, omniscient babies. This is probably one of my top ten favorite movies of all time, and yet I still can't get passed how wrong it was. Granted, it was made in 1968, a full year before Man set foot on the moon, so it had very little to work with, but come on! In the aftermath of Kennedy's great "New Frontier" speech, the world seemed to be bursting at the seems to go live in space, but we just never got there. Too many worldly concerns got in our way, technology didn't advance as fast as films had promised, and the world lost interest. This might also be the first example of a film AND its sequel being proved wrong. Part two of this saga, 2010: The Year We Make Contact is happening right now. Again, we're not living in space, and we haven't made contact with any alien life forms.<br /><br />So to sum up: Nothing cool will ever happen. People nowadays are far too jaded to actually believe in the hope of ever breaching the atmosphere, and with the economy in trouble, NASA has just taken a huge budget cut, effectively putting the kibosh on even the smallest celestial glimmer. It seems that we as a people are too self-centered and small-minded, myself included, to realistically go into space or even develop "space-age" gadgetry without an app being involved. Unfortunately, it seems, even our visions of the future are behind the times.<br /><br />You're welcome<br />-KandersonKandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07679564696886248629noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1017464664920788007.post-59437808289594340482010-06-02T20:19:00.000-07:002010-06-03T18:29:39.465-07:00Top 6: Romero-Free Zombie MoviesAs a fan of horror, and specifically the zombie sub-genre, it's hard not to be a fan of George A. Romero. He not only breathed new life into an already-passed-its-prime monster, but gave it the lore and rules that are still being followed to this day. His first three entries into the cycle work not only as gorefests, but as sophisticated satires of a society bent on self-destruction long before the dead started rising. Unfortunately, since the first three, Romero has made three other films bearing "of the Dead" that few could deem sophisticated. With his latest, the totally nonsensically-titled "Survival of the Dead," getting panned across the board, I thought I'd mention some of the entries into the genre that don't bear Romero's name or myth at all. These are the Top 6 Romero-Free Zombie Movies.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZGAGbAJb2Vr7-2eWl1RgeqPXJ6aqHlkrBdVBNZK6WuQg0p_si_vKbErus15nuaZPs3eH6gNMutD9EFU4RP2vZQrQSqFyCEkCJ-tfBa61HeQd4jGrK6cPRy_hNJ9tej5UJKQGjYYonZi0/s1600/Do_Not_Speak_Ill_of_the_Dead_poster.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 145px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZGAGbAJb2Vr7-2eWl1RgeqPXJ6aqHlkrBdVBNZK6WuQg0p_si_vKbErus15nuaZPs3eH6gNMutD9EFU4RP2vZQrQSqFyCEkCJ-tfBa61HeQd4jGrK6cPRy_hNJ9tej5UJKQGjYYonZi0/s200/Do_Not_Speak_Ill_of_the_Dead_poster.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5478421378689452402" /></a><br />VI - THE LIVING DEAD AT MANCHESTER MORGUE (1974)<br />This Spanish/Italian film from the pre-Dawn era of undead flesh-eaters is an under-appreciated gem. It tells the story of long-haired hippie George (Italian heartthrob Ray Lovelock) accompanying pretty Londoner Edna (Spanish actress Cristina Galbo) through the countryside in her tiny little English car. Along the way they are attacked by people who just plain don't look right. It's probably because they're reanimated corpses. Obviously. Unfortunately, when the youngsters go to the police, they are immediately suspected of the grisly murders themselves by the youth-hating Inspector (Arthur Kennedy). The Manson murders had just recently been committed so this movie definitely sought to point out the backlash the counterculture felt shortly thereafter, and to offer some kind of revenge against the squares. This movie is noteworthy also for having a number of completely unrelated titles. The original Italian title is "Non si deve profanare il sonno dei morti" or "Do Not Speak Ill of the Dead," which no one on screen really does, nor is that the reason they rise. Another title is "Let Sleeping Corpses Lie," which, again, is not something anyone is disagreeing with. I think George and Edna would have happily left the dead fuckers alone the whole time. The most absurd one is "Don't Open the Window," despite there not being a single instance in the film where someone befalls any harm after opening a window. Nor is there a scene where someone opens a window. Nor is there a scene where there's a window. The best title is the "Manchester Morgue" one, even though the main end fight takes place in the Manchester hospital and not its morgue.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvw8x9fSdalj-Du9rD0icF3uc43M1StiBG1dimQiU3quWbUfgoI72Z4Gj43WYhMkT4r6uAD-jTzLdB6CyWEqemuW61ZZdJeKfJsN50TkSE-IrFHz1ns2hQsWeeOF2Ho8gexyo7CZeOE9w/s1600/With_dead_things.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 132px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvw8x9fSdalj-Du9rD0icF3uc43M1StiBG1dimQiU3quWbUfgoI72Z4Gj43WYhMkT4r6uAD-jTzLdB6CyWEqemuW61ZZdJeKfJsN50TkSE-IrFHz1ns2hQsWeeOF2Ho8gexyo7CZeOE9w/s200/With_dead_things.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5478421863686403106" /></a><br />V - CHILDREN SHOULDN'T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS (1973)<br />This movie is, to put it mildly, one of the weirdest fucking movies I've ever seen. Long before he made "Porky's," and "Baby Geniuses," director Bob Clark used to make interesting horror movies. The year after this, he made both the slasher archetype "Black Christmas" and another zombie movie "Dead of Night" (aka "Deathdream) about a boy killed in Vietnam who returns home as an decaying bloodsucker. Both are interesting in their own right, but it's his first that is the most notable in my book. It follows an irritating theatre troupe as their leader tries to raise a dead body. They go to a cemetery and play pranks on each other and argue for most of the film as they dig up a body, named Orville, and say some phony magic words. A little over two-thirds of the way into the movie, something unprecedented happens: the other dead bodies in the graveyard begin to rise. The rest of the movie is a genuinely scary and bleak zombies-attacking-a-house story where the annoying people get their comeuppance and Orville has a "coming out party." A remake was in the works until Bob Clark's untimely death from a car accident in 2007.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjla8GTULGewbN4RW3wgXgBCTnr_np0ty1vHZ9DbRYFzG-QF25R_8Uq3F85_pUkfLIDASZy8Xk70fsWb9yX0i3BI3EaQ92L9-1m4KR9WaZGg2Yg9Qz0izhWxzKhtI9AKqaxw0hApZeWKj8/s1600/grapes_of_death_poster_02.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjla8GTULGewbN4RW3wgXgBCTnr_np0ty1vHZ9DbRYFzG-QF25R_8Uq3F85_pUkfLIDASZy8Xk70fsWb9yX0i3BI3EaQ92L9-1m4KR9WaZGg2Yg9Qz0izhWxzKhtI9AKqaxw0hApZeWKj8/s200/grapes_of_death_poster_02.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5478422144590124066" /></a><br />IV - THE GRAPES OF DEATH (1978)<br />Director Jean Rollin was known for pornographic vampire films in his native France when he was approached by producer Claude Geudj to make what became this film. It began as a desire to cash in on the American disaster movies like "Earthquake" and "The Towering Inferno," but when finances proved prohibited, they decided to modify the format of a group of people hindered in travelling from point A to point B by various problems (every four minutes) into the horror oeuvre Rollin was used to. The premise is what makes this movie interesting. A certain vineyard is using a hazardous pesticide on its crops which gets made into wine. But instead of just making people sick, drinkers of the vino made from the Grapes of Death start to rot from the inside out, making them mindless and bloodthirsty ghouls who stalk the French countryside. Displaying a good amount of a gore, and even R-rated versions of Rollin's X-rated roots, Les Raisins de le mort is a worthy entry to the non-Romero group.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje8b2rz2glWvhbQuS5HJRxm_s6fsIaWklkgiO0Alls8-oJr_SObUEe0OJZmO7HdtJZTtZBqINQzzRPBEgqJMfLgu4PGQa6jLj8vEm5IxaolagzWJPPNExEkRVCMBkx-5VJ98WQmAdYjmo/s1600/Cemeterymanposter.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 132px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje8b2rz2glWvhbQuS5HJRxm_s6fsIaWklkgiO0Alls8-oJr_SObUEe0OJZmO7HdtJZTtZBqINQzzRPBEgqJMfLgu4PGQa6jLj8vEm5IxaolagzWJPPNExEkRVCMBkx-5VJ98WQmAdYjmo/s200/Cemeterymanposter.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5478422340087784418" /></a><br />III - DELLAMORTE DELLAMORE aka CEMETERY MAN (1994)<br />It's rare to find an understated horror-comedy in any capacity, least of all one from the zombie ilk, but this Italian outing manages to be just that. It's a film full of romance and heartache as well as misunderstandings and silliness, but there's also a fair amount of head shooting and throat-tearing. It's the story of Francesco Dellamorte (Rupert Everett) who is the proprietor of the local mortuary/cemetery. This particular cemetery seems to bring people back to life, so on top of all his normal duties, Francesco also has to put the residents back down once they get up. He falls in love with a young widow and in a particularly ill-conceived instance, has sex with her on her husband's grave. Go figure, he gets up and is pretty pissed about this whole thing and bites his wife, forcing Francesco to shoot her before she becomes an undead creature herself. Of course, she didn't die from the bite and he shot her when she was alive. Francesco is wracked with guilt and starts killing the townsfolk BEFORE they die to save him the trouble of dealing with them later. The film ends with probably the bleakest and most existential of finales proving that there really isn't nothing out there but our own little worlds.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLReEJailGvgnUXRk9FttIpWHI8GmM9JiWQuPI-MT34F00A-iRaT-LZyjE46SfO12Uau7nHXYufuDm7_oxYEWlK3gBMKkK7imjfDEvJTJSzc9rOyjJzdJW9MzwpSiXl2oew05hIJkRMeQ/s1600/Reanimator_poster.png"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 131px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLReEJailGvgnUXRk9FttIpWHI8GmM9JiWQuPI-MT34F00A-iRaT-LZyjE46SfO12Uau7nHXYufuDm7_oxYEWlK3gBMKkK7imjfDEvJTJSzc9rOyjJzdJW9MzwpSiXl2oew05hIJkRMeQ/s200/Reanimator_poster.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5478422543155379714" /></a><br />II - RE-ANIMATOR (1985)<br />Part "Frankenstein," part "Braindead," Stuart Gordon's 80s monster classic "Re-Animator" is the perfect mix of grossness and hilarity. One of the themes of these movies I've chosen (with the exception of the previous one) is that the zombification is explained as opposed to the Romero model of having zombies appear due to God knows what. In "Re-Animator," it's all there in the name. This guy, Dr. Herbert West, is TRYING to raise the dead, and breaks all kinds of ethics laws to do it, even resorting to murder. That's how you get the freshest specimens after all. Full of black humor and memorable lines, "Re-Animator" also has one of the most shocking images in all of horror, where a dead body holding its own decapitated head attempts to perform oral sex on a kidnapped co-ed. It's so insane that you wonder why no one thought of it sooner.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjauLQvVolewlvOK-XFK30XTKg84zJU_IuSJXvrsV3g4kXjCqbmkvMkE6Q9Tq_x_tEffg3jHVng4VRP626RWiDXGHSb6j7I3PWy2QAm3aSXZ3SJ-0nXj3FNRSNza6-ugp6_ICvY5g8xNtw/s1600/Theycamefromwithin.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 136px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjauLQvVolewlvOK-XFK30XTKg84zJU_IuSJXvrsV3g4kXjCqbmkvMkE6Q9Tq_x_tEffg3jHVng4VRP626RWiDXGHSb6j7I3PWy2QAm3aSXZ3SJ-0nXj3FNRSNza6-ugp6_ICvY5g8xNtw/s200/Theycamefromwithin.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5478422842128193602" /></a><br />I - SHIVERS (1975)<br />David Cronenberg is often hailed as the king of body horror, which started early with this Canadian horror classic. In "Shivers," also known as "They Came From Within," a semi-mad scientist is experimenting with parasites in an attempt to aid in transplants (?) but really he thinks people have lost touch with their instincts and flesh, so the parasite is actually part aphrodisiac and part venereal disease. He infects his teenage mistress and sets her loose in an enormous ultra-modern apartment complex in Montreal. The effect of the parasite on the host is to create a sex-crazed maniac, hell-bent on spreading the disease to everyone in the vicinity. It's up to a physician and his assistant to stop it before the city is lost to mindless lust. Some of the images from this film were copied by Romero in "Dawn of the Dead," and even though the premise sounds like a porno version of a zombie movie, "Shivers" actually works as a pitch-perfect allegory to the AIDS epidemic, which was just in its infancy back in the 70s.<br /><br />One of my goals with these lists is not only to entertain but to educate and I would definitely recommend all of these movies to anyone who hasn't yet seen them. You might also notice I didn't include "Return of the Living Dead," which is in many ways the anti-Romero film. The reason is simple. I fucking hate that movie. Don't watch it, it's awful. Happy viewing!<br /><br />You're welcome.<br /><br />-KandersonKandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07679564696886248629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1017464664920788007.post-18954665614599660532010-05-24T22:14:00.000-07:002010-05-24T23:26:22.695-07:00It's Over!: A Musing on TV FinalesSo many shows are ending this year, by choice or otherwise, that I felt it necessary to address the nature of series finales and how often they are less than satisfying to the fan. Specifically, I'll be like everyone in the known universe and talk about "LOST" because I just watched it.<br /><br />In this day and age, it's amazing that shows even get a "planned" ending. More often than not, the show gets axed by the network brass after the last episode gets filmed and there's never a proper (or even a rushed) sendoff. It just ends. Take "Firefly," which didn't even get to air all of the episodes it had filmed before getting the boot. Yes, the show was revived for a really good spinoff movie, but one wonders how much more the characters could have accomplished if the series was allowed to progress. Then there are those shows, the bulk of them, that barely get time to develop a fan base before shuffling off to Buffalo. So when a show gets the opportunity to end its own way, on its own terms, it's a pretty special thing.<br /><br />But it's a double-edged sword. The longer a show goes on and remains popular, it becomes increasingly difficult to end things with the proper amount of gravitas and make all the fans happy AND end the narrative naturally. You also don't want to overstay your welcome. Look at "Heroes." "Heroes" had the opportunity to be one of the best tv-experiences ever. A fantastic 23 episodes and out, but instead it got to big for its own britches and went on for three more awful seasons. It's hard to sustain even the best of concepts. I won't go so far as to say it can be a burden to have a successful and popular show, but it's definitely a tricky place to be in.<br /><br />Even shows that remain popular and have great finales, like "M*A*S*H" for instance, run the risk of overstaying their welcome. "M*A*S*H" actually lasted longer than the Korean war it was depicting. I almost have more respect for a show that chooses to end while the getting's good. The show might not have as big a cultural impact that way, but it sure as hell would have a bigger thematic impact. It's easier to craft a complete narrative over three seasons than it is over eight.<br /><br />"LOST" decided its sixth season would be the last, giving it finality and time to craft a proper ending. Now, people will argue forever as to whether it was a "proper" ending, but it was an ending, a definite one. It was ambiguous, granted. But some of the best shows, especially genre shows, end in such a manor and they're talked about still. "St. Elsewhere" ended with the entire series existing within the mind of an autistic boy with a snow globe. "Battlestar Galactica" ended with some kind of parable about how present day Earth is what happened after thousands of years of humans and cylons mating and then we better watch out because we make robots too...or something like that. "Battlestar" is a lot more heavy-handed than it probably could or should have been, but essentially it was effective. Possibly the best, "The Prisoner" ends with our hero, the titular Prisoner, unmasking the fabled "No. 1" to reveal first an ape mask and then his own maniacally cackling face.<br /><br />"LOST" ended with two storylines, one in the real world and one in the weird sideways universe (which we finally learn the nature of at the end). This satisfies both halves of Campbell's hero's journey. In the Island World, Jack travels the external path, encountering monsters, a cave, certain doom, and his own mortality. In the Sideways World, he's on the internal path, dealing with his father issues and his own faith and issues of failure. This is pretty textbook storytelling, albeit with some curve balls thrown in along the way.<br /><br />Both journeys end triumphantly, which should satisfy everyone, right? Well, there are also about 900 mysteries the show brings up that don't get addressed, but to be honest, all of that stuff is window dressing when you get down to it. The characters are what mattered. We found out WHAT was happening, we don't really need to know the HOW or the WHY. <br /><br />This is not to say it was perfect. The episode ended more or less without conflict. Once the ____ _____ was defeated and Jack put the ____ back in the ____, there was next to nothing left to worry about. It sort of felt like the end of summer camp. A lot of buildup to not much fanfare. We all go home and remember the fun we had, but it's basically all too fleeting. In the annals of television, I still think "LOST" will go down as a great sci-fi show with a pretty okay ending. And that's as good as you can hope for from a finale these days.<br /><br />You're welcome.Kandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07679564696886248629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1017464664920788007.post-36959206012196218512010-05-09T16:07:00.000-07:002010-05-09T17:57:55.964-07:00Doctor Who: The Colin Baker Years<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJOxPP8u48zSTMx2VbaZdH8u9JQAs-MOpEha-Tua4aHr_H_dEalSzKKbK2gM1TH99Jo4OHSm7gs_qO2e-TXZOn0gY0KPdqqrV21xlnMShrmV5CIJrmlJq7wuLwvSrpo2-0w_klk5fmzyQ/s1600/sixthopening.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 256px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJOxPP8u48zSTMx2VbaZdH8u9JQAs-MOpEha-Tua4aHr_H_dEalSzKKbK2gM1TH99Jo4OHSm7gs_qO2e-TXZOn0gY0KPdqqrV21xlnMShrmV5CIJrmlJq7wuLwvSrpo2-0w_klk5fmzyQ/s320/sixthopening.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469432794937809490" /></a><br />When we last left the Doctor, he was dying from spectrox toxemia in the end of "The Caves of Androzani." It was 1984 and Peter Davison had decided his third season in the role would be his last. The question again became who would play the eponymous time lord. Producer John Nathan-Turner decided to cast character actor Colin Baker, who had actually played a supporting role in an earlier Peter Davison story. The thinking behind the regeneration this time 'round was to give the fans an entire story at the end of season 21 to get to know Colin Baker before the season break. Thus began arguably the most turbulent time in the show's history.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidqeE_fRrZ2P5FvFiLIOydbrbTZZo-zsUayE6-I3CLQ-EUp7SRDyG8lfKOJeNTmQwSS3siiOdRXv2kTo79GPeuude8Y1xidXVME-RPYNjkqTxJVaUdy8aUcnRW93BKvtQ2jtstr8yuKhM/s1600/Sixth_Doctor.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 151px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidqeE_fRrZ2P5FvFiLIOydbrbTZZo-zsUayE6-I3CLQ-EUp7SRDyG8lfKOJeNTmQwSS3siiOdRXv2kTo79GPeuude8Y1xidXVME-RPYNjkqTxJVaUdy8aUcnRW93BKvtQ2jtstr8yuKhM/s200/Sixth_Doctor.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469434386848679906" /></a><br />The idea was to make the sixth incarnation of the character a sharp contrast to the amiable, fatherly, and all-around likable fifth; to make Baker's Doctor one that audiences, and other characters, weren't sure about and then eventually, over the years and years he'd play the part, peel away the outer layers until he becomes more or less what people were used to. The story, titled "The Twin Dilemma," introduced audiences to an arrogant, bi-polar, and ultimately unstable lead character, an attribute given within the narrative as a regenerative crisis. The instability of the character was expressed visually be a loud, clashing costume that is by all accounts the least attractive piece of clothing ever worn on a human. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJHyGRrXj2Ln1TZoAwayOocqHPV8FR6i-EdX3n-mclY3FvcFp232eRiCSzJNNCKLSYPERYjpn5DK26TakLNuCEIVCSjTabtFSxQjN3TX3yicwph_5jOULBVuHdLqHo__wDx_AdNmIrboo/s1600/Twin_Dilemma.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 120px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJHyGRrXj2Ln1TZoAwayOocqHPV8FR6i-EdX3n-mclY3FvcFp232eRiCSzJNNCKLSYPERYjpn5DK26TakLNuCEIVCSjTabtFSxQjN3TX3yicwph_5jOULBVuHdLqHo__wDx_AdNmIrboo/s200/Twin_Dilemma.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469434662289727426" /></a>The rest of the story follows this post-regeneration weirdness, and at one point The Doctor actually physically attacks his companion Peri, only to become aghast at himself when he sees his reflection in a mirror. He then decides to exile himself, and Peri as a result, to a distant rock planet to atone for his ways. The rest of the story is unimportant and frankly pretty bad, as it has something to do with twin boy geniuses who are brainwashed into helping a giant slug move the planet into the path of another planet... and it just goes downhill from there. It is the coupling of the sub-par script with the shocking new direction of the lead character that have caused many to deem this one of the worst episodes in the series' history. In fact, in the Doctor Who Magazine poll of the 200 stories broadcast to that point, "Caves of Androzani," as I mentioned <a href="http://embraceyournerd.blogspot.com/2010/03/doctor-who-peter-davison-years.html">last time</a>, ranked as number 1, "The Twin Dilemma" which immediately follows is ranked 200. <br /><br />The first full season with Baker 2 saw a change in format, going from four 25-minute episodes to two 45-minute episodes comprising each story. While this difference did offer a great deal more time to develop individual characters or ideas, it cut down the episode-ending cliffhangers which had been a staple of the series since its inception. Another change was that the level of violence was upped considerably. Blood was actually shown in a few scenes, which was very limited prior, and The Doctor himself actually causing the demise of some enemies. This fit the new characterization Baker was employing, with a much more passionate Doctor often leaping before he looked, but this did garner even more concern from censorship groups claiming that the show was too scary for children and should no longer be allowed to be so.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7tlI3RmGCmUoJicpyO0bx8Nx9jzRzUQzbalOALAxyAFEgdvBxzLuvxwmEaJC780K-N1VDyl3ybJr5eDfo1Mz546HziX5ltfrsE3gibyuLy0SuPfHZ60Pnb1VtMKSDGl4GVyYCiPUMgAM/s1600/Attack_of_the_Cybermen.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 116px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7tlI3RmGCmUoJicpyO0bx8Nx9jzRzUQzbalOALAxyAFEgdvBxzLuvxwmEaJC780K-N1VDyl3ybJr5eDfo1Mz546HziX5ltfrsE3gibyuLy0SuPfHZ60Pnb1VtMKSDGl4GVyYCiPUMgAM/s200/Attack_of_the_Cybermen.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469434806076831394" /></a><br />This season also saw a marked lowering in both production cost and quality of scripts. John Nathan-Turner continued his decree that established Who or sci-fi writers should not be commissioned and new, fresh writers be given a chance, much to the chagrin of script editor Eric Saward who had been with the show since Davison began. A show always known for its low-budget effects was now at its lowest which, even to fans of the show and the genre, makes it increasingly hard to stay committed to the premise. Saward tried everything to make the season worth watching, bringing back old favorite villains like the Cybermen and the Daleks, and even an appearance by second Doctor Patrick Troughton. Even so, the ratings started to slip slightly, and the network brass desired to make new programs. So, despite still being quite popular, the BBC decided to cancel Doctor Who at the end of season 22 in 1985.<br /><br />That is until JNT and the fans started petitions to keep the show around, leading to the eventual agreement that the show be placed on an 18 month hiatus, after which time it would return to its 25-minute format and the number of episodes be cut from the usual 26 (or 13 longer episodes) to 14 episodes, making it the shortest season of Doctor Who ever. The shakeup more or less stopped for the moment, though, as neither Saward nor Nathan-Turner, nor any of the cast, were fired or replaced. This very much seemed like a short reprieve rather than a full pardon, and Saward and company decided to depict the show being on trial for its life with a season-long saga of the Doctor on trial himself.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm1lLpwHvKAQAut9kh_UMxAF_-Niwl9fTJkD7CldBcH0NZ_LxSFwNCDaC8KhfmLPL4ZRXd0U4HroCgrTuQneMd2PZ1P-KlocerI9k-8SUHUzEcSHoah0iwh5goNu-kqWs3ntzDUAFmtJg/s1600/Trial_of_a_Time_Lord_DVD_cvr.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 142px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm1lLpwHvKAQAut9kh_UMxAF_-Niwl9fTJkD7CldBcH0NZ_LxSFwNCDaC8KhfmLPL4ZRXd0U4HroCgrTuQneMd2PZ1P-KlocerI9k-8SUHUzEcSHoah0iwh5goNu-kqWs3ntzDUAFmtJg/s200/Trial_of_a_Time_Lord_DVD_cvr.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469435914720468706" /></a><br />"Trial of a Time Lord" ran the length of season 23 and consisted of a frame story wherein the Doctor is taken out of time by his people, the Time Lords, and put on trial as a menace. The story-proper was split into three with each normal adventure being played as evidence at the trial. The final two episodes would tie up the trial storyline and wrap up the season. Longtime Who writer and script editor during the best period in the show's history, Robert Holmes, was brought on to write the first four episodes and help Saward write the last two. Unfortunately, Holmes took ill before the script for the final episode could be written. John Nathan-Turner did not agree with Holmes' idea of ending the season with a cliff-hanger and forced Saward to change it. As he was very good friends with Robert Holmes, who actually passed away during the skirmish, Eric Saward refused to change anything and subsequently left the series in a huff of bad blood. Nathan-Turner asked husband-and-wife team of Pip and Jane Baker to write the last episode, having just written the third story of the season.<br /><br />The ending wrapped up the season in a lovely little bow and ensured Doctor Who would remain on the tv schedule at least for another year. However, the BBC decreed that Colin Baker should not return to the role for a third season. It was believed that much of the backlash the series had received over the passed two years was due directly to Baker, which is unfair to my mind. While he isn't my favorite Doctor, he does grow on you and he is quite good at playing the arrogant yet honorable blow-hard the character became. I thought full-well before I started that Colin Baker would be my least favorite Doctor, and while he doesn't rate nearly as highly as Davison or Pertwee, he served the purpose necessary and did so admirably.<br /><br />As stated, the Colin Baker years were pretty light on good stories, in fact only one was ranked in the top 100 in the DWM poll, but still I will recommend three with the caveat that they are not probably for people unfamiliar with the show. Watch some Davison first, then check these out.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj9N5RFuJAhYM_DDNQ_8oae7h2bXT2zCQ8zqAEClKjZFjG1kXMmJ0snMuwDIDRRIrY9SjqukF-E-8caYdChuq9WGu3nwOWzvrhYO40hYfSxIqDxl6UIpfPTL-RFTDeyOlG_d7sAl88K74/s1600/Vengance_on_Varos.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 156px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj9N5RFuJAhYM_DDNQ_8oae7h2bXT2zCQ8zqAEClKjZFjG1kXMmJ0snMuwDIDRRIrY9SjqukF-E-8caYdChuq9WGu3nwOWzvrhYO40hYfSxIqDxl6UIpfPTL-RFTDeyOlG_d7sAl88K74/s200/Vengance_on_Varos.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469436084302384690" /></a><br />First, "Vengeance on Varos," wherein the Doctor and Peri arrive in a cave-world on which the people vote for everything by watching television. They vote whether political prisoners should live or die, and indeed if the president proposes new legislation, he is himself executed via public electrocution if he is voted down. It hearkens back to Roman times with gladiators subject to the whim of the people, and public shows of violence were common entertainment. There's also a really great villain in the form of Sil, a small reptilian slug creature who has the real control of the city.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSUNC2a7YWZ7478u8Y82r51GdQX38iC66XTAPsYBqV_l5e7P2gJSlLCoi5aCXICNaTuH_00TSCyHI4rsE9m9QIfMgT5_vDJD30ssXVrm2CN3xPCoyaUohZfnsmbs17tDxcY_ptF4rMYvI/s1600/Two_Doctors.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSUNC2a7YWZ7478u8Y82r51GdQX38iC66XTAPsYBqV_l5e7P2gJSlLCoi5aCXICNaTuH_00TSCyHI4rsE9m9QIfMgT5_vDJD30ssXVrm2CN3xPCoyaUohZfnsmbs17tDxcY_ptF4rMYvI/s200/Two_Doctors.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469436307552772786" /></a><br />Second, "The Two Doctors," the only three-part story of the bunch. It features the return of Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor and his longtime companion Jamie McCrimmond, played again by Frazier Hines. While the actual story is a bit thin here, with genetic reassignment and alien conquerers, it's great to see Troughton again as the Doctor. He's a personal favorite of mine and I will discuss the Second Doctor at length in my next "Who-Review."<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXh8uhuX2rmjEKHTcLKvkyrH5vnwPCHCesC9na8BDHzQcW30BMAZrupKmoLwV6VNPiUMGjTbMWJgkM4jbSeHcUBx0JTB4a7unt-ViGC4LIbwdr4QqHa6_bpIT5ZHMpl3hD9OSYhbwOSoc/s1600/Revelation_of_the_Daleks.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 166px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXh8uhuX2rmjEKHTcLKvkyrH5vnwPCHCesC9na8BDHzQcW30BMAZrupKmoLwV6VNPiUMGjTbMWJgkM4jbSeHcUBx0JTB4a7unt-ViGC4LIbwdr4QqHa6_bpIT5ZHMpl3hD9OSYhbwOSoc/s200/Revelation_of_the_Daleks.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469436450461007138" /></a><br />The third, and best of the bunch, is "Revelation of the Daleks," written by Eric Saward himself. It is a twisty story that sees two rival factions of Daleks, one ruled by the Dalek Emperor, the other by their mad-scientist creator Davros. The Doctor actually takes more of a secondary role in this story as there are many many side characters, including a pair of assassins, an all-seeing DJ, and the dastardly proprietor of a funeral home. The plot is pretty hard to describe without going on for awhile, but needless to say, it's good fun with the Daleks and probably the best writing of the entirety of C. Baker's run.<br /><br />Poor Colin Baker was in the role for such a short time that all of his episodes have been released on dvd. "The Trial of a Time Lord" set includes some really great commentaries and documentaries that both enlighten and entertain.<br /><br />Next up for me with Doctor Who... I don't know. The Seventh Doctor, Sylvester McCoy, has barely any stories released and I don't feel it prudent to write a review based on having not seen everything available. So, next we're going back to the Second Doctor, who also saw some unfortunate happenings with his output, though not in the same fashion as the Sixth. Until next time.<br /><br />You're welcome.<br />-Kanderson<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigmzOJPwa-SMqhNSl6JbR1ckCrNzKFx3KlLCEH2FwcCyM4EdNeevQB-qKQvvQWoIHpn1bW3lmL41kfOSDujckiosyMiI1E3Gxa9ywYJ73ejzEBfE3LrXWUW2m2_SZEDtaCt9cuMxIQlIU/s1600/sixth+doctor.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 232px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigmzOJPwa-SMqhNSl6JbR1ckCrNzKFx3KlLCEH2FwcCyM4EdNeevQB-qKQvvQWoIHpn1bW3lmL41kfOSDujckiosyMiI1E3Gxa9ywYJ73ejzEBfE3LrXWUW2m2_SZEDtaCt9cuMxIQlIU/s320/sixth+doctor.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5469436603621828386" /></a>Kandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07679564696886248629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1017464664920788007.post-57614079210398592842010-05-03T21:47:00.000-07:002010-05-03T21:53:08.709-07:00TeasersHi all, just writing to let everyone know that there are going to be some exciting new things here on the ol' Embrace Your Nerd blog. Still getting the details worked out, but the site will be expanding and bringing in new factors. Vague enough for you? Just a taste for now. Get psyched!<br /><br />You're welcome.<br />-KandersonKandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07679564696886248629noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1017464664920788007.post-64206445783660951242010-04-28T19:37:00.000-07:002010-04-28T22:09:30.055-07:00Top 6: Remakes That Don't SuckWithout question, I think remakes are awful. Not necessarily the quality of the film itself, but the sheer audacity, NAY!, the balls to deem it prudent to remake a movie that is already good. Especially nowadays, no movie made since the invention of cinema is safe from the money-hungry clutches of the uncreative. I am not looking forward to this weekend's "A Nightmare on Elm Street," despite enjoying the remakes of "Halloween" and "Friday the 13th." The reason is, most remakes just pale in comparison, I'm looking at you, Gus Van Sant's "Psycho." This all being said, there have been a few examples of the remake being as good (if not better) than the original. These are the top six remakes that are okay.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj11uEnw_hYCd17i5eUWfkWv_0OyhOFtUvB7SodlsFOMDWGni8PmN_bUZtvB9jx7UblvNA3918ZKFvm0hpuVX2FoThK0OKdLrM86SAEk_E4BiiRr_cndlxH0QxpoIhRXIgO3uBVeLX5Fk/s1600/3-10-to-yuma-poster-1.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 135px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjj11uEnw_hYCd17i5eUWfkWv_0OyhOFtUvB7SodlsFOMDWGni8PmN_bUZtvB9jx7UblvNA3918ZKFvm0hpuVX2FoThK0OKdLrM86SAEk_E4BiiRr_cndlxH0QxpoIhRXIgO3uBVeLX5Fk/s200/3-10-to-yuma-poster-1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5465420661675844514" /></a><br />VI - 3:10 TO YUMA (2007)<br />Fifty years after Delmer Daves' minor classic, James Mangold did a slam-bang action-rich version of the story of a poor farmer charged with transporting a wanted criminal to a station to make sure he boards the eponymous train. Starring famous angry men, Russell Crowe and Christian Bale, the 2007 remake of 3:10 succeeds in making a western that speaks to modern audiences. Not since "Unforgiven" has there been such an enjoyable entry to the genre. It upholds the western film trope of honor among men, even enemies, while still having fairly raucous action sequences that the original didn't attempt. Mangold does pretty drastically change the ending, for good or bad, that makes the film an interesting counterpoint to its source material.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqAt7GXdhrgr2ON0_NBla79S_zX5eZ0hsav111DYTg2H4c0zXa-Ob4WB_8D1Uuh4xWNhiGOS6MnKWM4QBuD0nb7P8QAahZy2iVTvG9TChwj65E88YXV8X6jkRS7q5BBgY-vN-2rAeqIQQ/s1600/the-departed.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 135px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqAt7GXdhrgr2ON0_NBla79S_zX5eZ0hsav111DYTg2H4c0zXa-Ob4WB_8D1Uuh4xWNhiGOS6MnKWM4QBuD0nb7P8QAahZy2iVTvG9TChwj65E88YXV8X6jkRS7q5BBgY-vN-2rAeqIQQ/s200/the-departed.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5465420856295561538" /></a><br />V - THE DEPARTED (2006)<br />Most people probably didn't know that the Oscar winner was a remake of a Hong Kong think-piece when it came out, but it is. I actually saw the original, "Infernal Affairs" long before "The Departed" came out, picking it up at Blockbuster when I was in the throes of my John Woo-inspired Asian action phase. I was slightly disappointed as it wasn't a double-pistoler, but it definitely had something about it, as the two lead characters, a cop posing as a criminal and a criminal posing as a cop, face their moral, professional, and personal dilemmas. Martin Scorsese's fantastic redo has the same amount of pathos, but what makes it better in my opinion is that it fleshes out all of the supporting characters into much more memorable and indelible figures, specifically Jack Nicholson's mob boss character who is present in the Chinese film, but is much less defined. I went to see "The Departed" three times in the theaters, so yeah, I like it.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDe4XnA3jMEwdif_oa-CUnAohoUYOmCI_7wpmKhDJPdyWELm1SHsXGahkSuTeTaVoBxGw38eURAcnviMz0cnlfw5WORZFvivyTTIGWE6zOsiRgGjSuwfxE2onxGCKS28ospNweJS07s9k/s1600/thing-movie-poster.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 130px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDe4XnA3jMEwdif_oa-CUnAohoUYOmCI_7wpmKhDJPdyWELm1SHsXGahkSuTeTaVoBxGw38eURAcnviMz0cnlfw5WORZFvivyTTIGWE6zOsiRgGjSuwfxE2onxGCKS28ospNweJS07s9k/s200/thing-movie-poster.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5465421019025636658" /></a><br />IV - THE THING (1982)<br />John Carpenter's favorite filmmaker is Howard Hawkes and has actually remade two Hawkes films: "Assault on Precinct 13" (1976) is essentially a remake of "Rio Bravo" (1959) and this film which is a remake of Hawkes' production "The Thing From Another World" (1951). Carpenter dropped a reference to the first "Thing" in "Halloween" and a few years later was given the opportunity to mount a remake. As fun as the earlier film is, Carpenter's film eclipses it by heightening the sense of isolation, the paranoia, and of course the viscera. The special effects by Rob Bottin absolutely make the film what it is. The creature can look like anything and can assimilate anyone, evidenced at the end when it manifests as six people and pieces of a couple dogs. Compare that with James Arness in a head application from the original. Also, Kurt Russell is a badass. Nuff said.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc5HpR81qwaTATasEE4qTEbE7ajC7oKyDoOF1FgT76En2sJhOjZFJ-9zeFA0_4xFRir90N1OSTEVPtOpMw7th-8I-W9o_Qh6gbq8vMD3ULEYMubnpDGCCwH-ERDUwhQC05s6kGRrptViw/s1600/the-magnificent-seven-1-800.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc5HpR81qwaTATasEE4qTEbE7ajC7oKyDoOF1FgT76En2sJhOjZFJ-9zeFA0_4xFRir90N1OSTEVPtOpMw7th-8I-W9o_Qh6gbq8vMD3ULEYMubnpDGCCwH-ERDUwhQC05s6kGRrptViw/s200/the-magnificent-seven-1-800.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5465421693909666034" /></a><br />III - THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN (1960)<br />The samurai genre from Japan is very closely tied to America's wild west. They both depict men of action displaying their own codes of moral conduct in a relatively lawless environment. I was tempted to put "A Fistful of Dollars" which remade "Yojimbo" on here, but I decided to go with the earliest example. "Seven Samurai" is one of the greatest movies ever made. It's an epic by every definition of the word. It's also 3hrs 27min long. John Sturges' western is not as fantastic a movie as its predecessor, but it's very accessible and it's a great deal of fun. It is also one of the first examples of a heroic team. Up to this point, the western hero was a loner and an outsider who has to save a town/woman/family/horse/whatever, but "Magnificent Seven" gives you seven such characters to choose from, each with their own backstory and personality. It starred Yul Brynner and started the careers of universal cool guys Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, and James Coburn.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-gW871iTWyTtIDn7htWdbGmL1927su0arhuoV8r7Eo5ICWvPt43uJ_yrfUWVqQE_q1NxrwztJMt6yS2W21Pf0HeTUQmLXonlPhFquTTwDrX70CvMis8hk0_3a-WZVTJvczy3g3aOvww8/s1600/403px-dawn_of_the_dead_2004_movie.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 134px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-gW871iTWyTtIDn7htWdbGmL1927su0arhuoV8r7Eo5ICWvPt43uJ_yrfUWVqQE_q1NxrwztJMt6yS2W21Pf0HeTUQmLXonlPhFquTTwDrX70CvMis8hk0_3a-WZVTJvczy3g3aOvww8/s200/403px-dawn_of_the_dead_2004_movie.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5465421853539323586" /></a><br />II - DAWN OF THE DEAD (2004)<br />The idea of this seemed blasphemous. George A. Romero made a modern classic in 1978 with his adventurous satire against consumer culture and for some unknown music video director (Zack Snyder) to touch it went against everything I held dear. And then I saw it. While not as thoughtful or profound as the original, Snyder did a phenomenal job of taking Romero's original concept and making it about family and friendship, as well as making it a horrifying ride. For me, the film works best as an action movie that happens to be about zombies, rather than a "scary" horror film. It's full of gun fights, explosions, chases, and running around. It's a fun romp through a post-apocalyptic America. Plus, it turned me on to Richard Cheese's brand of lounge covers of metal and rap songs. So thanks.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSMkWOJTFYYvSjz4mZ1j7QRWsaYu3W81Boweqh3rQJq7WRYbsQHV8_vOStsCd1DLNQTm1isrYGjkZBbBMrzwUg4BHKVXfHj0kNmKFfBBSj86A2aMuMhHoN-63Yj8qx6Ywx9K_zIx_AG4g/s1600/maltese.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 148px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSMkWOJTFYYvSjz4mZ1j7QRWsaYu3W81Boweqh3rQJq7WRYbsQHV8_vOStsCd1DLNQTm1isrYGjkZBbBMrzwUg4BHKVXfHj0kNmKFfBBSj86A2aMuMhHoN-63Yj8qx6Ywx9K_zIx_AG4g/s200/maltese.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5465421999034302322" /></a><br />I - THE MALTESE FALCON (1941)<br />You might think such an old film couldn't possibly be a remake, but you'd be wrong. John Huston's classic noir flick (arguably the first in the movement) that stars Humphrey Bogart as private eye Sam Spade was actually the third attempt at making Dashiell Hammett's novel to the screen, made once in 1931 and again in 1936. Both were disappointments, but the last one was an unqualified success. I haven't actually seen the first two so I can't compare all of them, but I will say that this is the instance where remaking something works best. Why should GOOD movies be remade? Why not remake ones that suck or fail for one reason or another? Maybe one day there'll be a remake of "Howard the Duck" or "Teen Wolf" that improves upon the underwhelming performances of the originals? I'd be all right with that. Let "Maltese Falcon" be the model; if it ain't broke, don't fix it, but if it is broke, fix the shit out of it until it's good.<br /><br />You're welcome.<br />-KandersonKandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07679564696886248629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1017464664920788007.post-34917584028724860272010-04-20T17:57:00.000-07:002010-04-20T18:02:45.227-07:00Cigarette Burn PicturesHey all, do you like independent film, silly videos, new content every week, and essays about the inner workings of a soon-to-be-huge production company? <br /><br />If you do, (and really who doesn't?) head on over to <a href="http://www.cigaretteburnpictures.com/">Cigarette Burn Pictures</a> site and say hi to Rob, Monty, and Steve, three of the best, most stand-up guys you'd ever want to know. <br /><br />Check out their latest masterpiece, <a href="http://www.cigaretteburnpictures.com/node/160">"Son of a Beach."</a><br /><br />You're welcome<br /><br />-KandersonKandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07679564696886248629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1017464664920788007.post-8163847600912270782010-04-18T22:20:00.000-07:002010-04-18T22:41:04.422-07:00Defending "Victory of the Daleks" - aka Another Doctor Who post no one will readI'm a huge nerd and have been keeping up with the UK transmission schedule of the new Doctor Who season so I'm about two weeks ahead of anyone who just watched "The Eleventh Hour" premiere last night on BBC America. If you've seen episode 3, "Victory of the Daleks," read on. If not, I'd suggest waiting until you've seen it.<br /><br />It’s sort of disheartening to hear how several podcasters didn’t think much of this episode, in particular I refer to Tom’s recent review for <a href="http://www.twominutetimelord.com/2MTL/Two-minute_Time_Lord_Podcast.html">Two-Minute Time Lord</a>. This is crushing to me as I felt it was a great episode, certainly much better than last week’s “The Beast Below.” What I liked so much about it is that is was FUN. When’s the last time we’ve honestly had any fun with a Dalek episode? Yes, I realize they’re the scourge of the universe, the Doctor’s sworn enemy, the annihilators of Gallifrey, but they’re just so darn stuffy. Even “Dalek” which we can all agree is the best new series Dalek episode, and arguably one of the best ever, is awfully dour. With each subsequent appearance since then, my interest in the Daleks has gone down exponentially. “Victory” is the first one since “Dalek,” where they haven’t been portrayed as a nigh-omnipotent plague and I haven’t then rolled my eyes at the very sight of them. Each and every time they show up, it’s an all-out melodrama, complete with Captain Jack proclaiming “We’re dead” and cowering behind something in Torchwood. The Daleks stopped being menacing. The reverence we’re meant to have for them was gone. By that point, they were no longer a threat in my eyes. How many times can they be destroyed en masse just to come back as large and in charge as ever?<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjonCQPFNLDCHyBwZk4UN7QB07wCze_Qd7O_WxM1oS16ZLGGoohjNZGxuCItBI5YbTHGQ8hbt3ynd1ygUPTYQbWgbsVqymIvAHllQmDsOLFV6n76LJFZIR2_ZFI5AdpkP6StrPVPrB3Hfo/s1600/victory1.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 188px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjonCQPFNLDCHyBwZk4UN7QB07wCze_Qd7O_WxM1oS16ZLGGoohjNZGxuCItBI5YbTHGQ8hbt3ynd1ygUPTYQbWgbsVqymIvAHllQmDsOLFV6n76LJFZIR2_ZFI5AdpkP6StrPVPrB3Hfo/s200/victory1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461718615989899602" /></a><br />But this one is different. The Daleks are running scared. Their numbers have dwindled. There are only three at the beginning, and even after the upgrade and cleansing of the impure, there are only five. And the “end of the world” aspect, the Bracewell bomb, is really just a means for them to get away. They are victorious, but they succeed by retreating. THAT’s the kind of villain I want. They’re wily and opportunistic as well as being unfeeling and ruthless. Say what you will about the new Dalek design, but like everything about the Moffat era thus far, it’s a bold move. The Daleks have been different every single time you see them in one shape or another. Here they have again evolved but there isn’t a human-hybrid or a Davros’ head in the bunch. They’re just plain old Daleks again, if a little beefier. They have cleansed their race, a further allusion to the Third Reich.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgubu-bzSQlryMeJn1WFEFg1E_75RKI-zq2g9D99hLc2K-nSPqvU5TitDIY-u0vObAqb7duSIHIFIV9fGBYEvZsKlNv_tdueZH643zNWZunCTzvr5mmCXIcZvxUVunDoRTpky4R6z4bGgo/s1600/victory2.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 140px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgubu-bzSQlryMeJn1WFEFg1E_75RKI-zq2g9D99hLc2K-nSPqvU5TitDIY-u0vObAqb7duSIHIFIV9fGBYEvZsKlNv_tdueZH643zNWZunCTzvr5mmCXIcZvxUVunDoRTpky4R6z4bGgo/s200/victory2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461718769991873618" /></a><br />One criticism I completely disagreed with is that this episode wasn’t “Doctor Who” as it was back in the day. Now, I wasn’t there from the beginning. I’m 25 years old. I was born two months after the last episode of the Twin Dilemma was transmitted, AND I’m American, so admittedly, I don’t have the history with the show that a great many fans have. But over the passed year since I discovered the series, I’ve been watching as many adventures, both new and old, as Netflix will allow and what’s great about it for me is that, it’s ALL new. Every time I watch an adventure, it’s new Doctor Who. It’s all happening now. Victory of the Daleks is 100% in line with the classic series and the bulk of the new series. It’s everything between Turn Left and End of Time that seems incongruous. It’s like we’ve forgotten that the Doctor is a HERO and not always a TRAGIC hero. Tragic’s overdone.<br /><br />Was it a perfect episode? Absolutely not. For starters, the stuff with the professor didn’t really work for me. While the performance of Bill Patterson was very good, I wasn’t ever sold on the ramifications of his coming to terms with not being human. Sadly that’s the bit that was too long. I think there needed to be greater build up to the Doctor’s near-frothy blowup at the Dalek. I would have liked to have seen more of them being “helpful,” beforehand. Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t there talk that this was supposed to be a 65 minute episode? Clearly a lot was cut out of the beginning. The Doctor ended up on the Dalek saucer way too soon. This could have easily benefitted from a few extra minutes if not a whole second part for development’s sake. Like “The Beast Below” before it, “Victory of the Daleks,” suffered the most from poor direction on the part of Andrew Gunn. The camera was almost never where it needed to be. The Doctor/Dalek confrontation would have been excellent if we could have seen it properly. Also the pacing of the two episodes, especially last week’s, was very off. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE84EB6VQ1OGwH6U7v4cfBlslHb6Rqg5rwcMqJcxOGVYl2i88MpHMInVwpvbE1ZNmAkSnijH24FwahefowPEm2DvW6iJRmf4boftb_AEtI-0wKxAeLSqkxO7HkW3aCWnLCORHPcNkXyOU/s1600/victory3.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE84EB6VQ1OGwH6U7v4cfBlslHb6Rqg5rwcMqJcxOGVYl2i88MpHMInVwpvbE1ZNmAkSnijH24FwahefowPEm2DvW6iJRmf4boftb_AEtI-0wKxAeLSqkxO7HkW3aCWnLCORHPcNkXyOU/s400/victory3.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5461719264641874866" /></a><br />That all notwithstanding, “Victory of the Daleks” did come away as a victory for me. It’s an adventure, it’s a swashbuckling, Flash-Gordon-y throwback to a simpler era. I think if we can glean anything from the first three episodes of Steven Moffat’s era, it’s a deliberate attempt to reconnect with the 1960s, down to the TARDIS’ control panel which looks to me like what science fiction films of that decade thought the future would be like. If this whole season were in black-and-white, I don’t think it would feel the least bit out of place. Like the WWII era movie serials on which its clearly based, this episode stands as a rip-roaring, high-flying good time that possessed wide-eyed kidness that the latter RTD years sorely lacked.<br /><br />You're welcome<br />-KandersonKandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07679564696886248629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1017464664920788007.post-50457353847881306432010-04-18T22:05:00.001-07:002010-04-18T23:46:37.247-07:00Top 6 Returns!I saw Kick-Ass today, which is a film about people becoming real-life comic book heroes, except instead of having super powers, they shoot and stab people to death. This is not going to be a review of that film, though I did quite like it. What it did get me thinking about is how unfun it would actually be to do all that stuff, realistically. Even in a movie depicting "real" superheroics, there are a huge number of liberties taken into the "That'd never happen" category. So here the "triumphant" return of the top six will be - FANFARE -<br /><br />The Top 6 Reasons It's Stupid To Try To Be A For-Reals Superhero<br /><br />VI - The Idiotic Costumes<br />Have you ever worn spandex? Does it look good? Even if you're super hot, it's unlikely spandex is flattering to your every nook and cranny. Have a particular part of yourself you'd rather others not focus on? Too bad! Everyone's gonna see it now that you've become a super hero. And you're going to get laughed at. Hardcore. There's always the scene in every hero movie, and particularly in Kick-Ass, that depicts the bad guys ridiculing the good guy the first time they see him/her. Your weakness better not be the sound of laughter or you're fairly well sunk. <br /><br />V - No Downtime<br />In order to find crimes you either need a series of security cameras feeding directly into your secret hideout that depict what's happening throughout the city (or whatever your chosen turf is) or you need to spend all your time walking around looking for crimes to stop. Crime doesn't stop because you're tired or bored. Patrolling has to be the most annoying part of a superhero's day. Street crime happens so fast, how can you be sure you're in the exact spot at the right time? It involves an enormous amount of coincidence, which I'm sure most of us don't have the patience for. Logistically, given constant movement, you'd probably stop one crime every two months. And that crime would probably just be a pick-pocketing<br /><br />IV - Lack of Fightable Crime<br />Superheroism depends and awful lot on criminals who are stupid enough to commit their crimes out in the open. Most crimes nowadays are either internet or fraud-based and don't actually include much dark alley shenanigans. And why are old women always walking home at night through dark alleys in the first place? Don't they know that's where jackbooted thugs amass and take turns playing the murder game? Anyone who'd fall prey to that type of stupidity is probably going to do it again even if you save their life. Then, all things being equal, not saving them is really just helping Darwin along.<br /><br />III - Lookie-Loos<br />If I know anything it's that people are two things: Discourteous to retail employees, and nosy as hell. Even if you're a "stick-to-the-shadows"-type hero, you'll probably get a lot of people looking at you and wondering what the hell you're doing. You lose the entire element of surprise if you get a group of passersby pointing at you as you lie in wait for the unsuspecting criminal. If I were a bad guy, which I am not, I'd surely want to steer clear of any large congregation of citizenry. I'd probably go around them or turn around and walk the other direction. Even now, if there's ever a massing of people looking at something, I'll go somewhere else. For all I know there's a superhero just around the corner waiting to punch me in the face. I don't want to get punched in the face.<br /><br />II - Physical stamina and lack thereof<br />To say nothing of agility, speed, and strength, the sheer amount of fighting you'd have to do would put a tremendous strain on your body. Most professional fighters train for months at a time to ensure they're in peak physical form before getting into the ring, or octagon, and slug it out. And usually they're wrecked afterwards. Imagine going out night after night and, perfect conditions applied, stopping two crimes a night. Just two! You'd be battered and bloody and probably get a concussion before having to sit in a bathtub for six hours so you can do it all again. Your utility belt would have to be full of Icy Hot and 5-Hour Energy. Exhaustion would set in long before your heroic vow was fulfilled.<br /><br />I - Death<br />You would die. Flat out, die. Probably by getting shot, but possibly also stabbed, bludgeoned, impaled, strangled, crushed, or devoured by angry guard dogs. But mostly shot. Oh baby, would you die. Probably the first day, too. You'd be all, "I'm Action Guy, and I want you to leave that young Episcopalian alone," and they'd be all, "Just walk away, freak show." Then you'd do the Adam West chuckle and say something witty and strike a fighting stance. And that's when the guy would pull his gun and shoot you in the chest. And you'd be dead. If you happen to be "Getting Shot Man," then you'll probably be used to stuff like this happening, but that doesn't necessarily mean you won't still die when they throw a grenade, or drop a piano, or suggest you read "Twilight" so you can pick up all the Nazi references, confusing you long enough for them to poison you with a strychnine-laced crossbow bolt fired from across the street. <br /><br />Basically, don't be a superhero.<br /><br />You're welcome.<br />-KandersonKandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07679564696886248629noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1017464664920788007.post-84011706270984390132010-04-11T21:03:00.000-07:002010-04-11T21:08:47.976-07:00This is why these movies suckI have absolutely no affiliation with this guy or his site, he just has the best reviewing style I've ever heard. Enjoy.<br /><br /><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/FxKtZmQgxrI&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/FxKtZmQgxrI&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><br /><br /><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/CfBhi6qqFLA&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/CfBhi6qqFLA&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><br /><br /><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/uJarz7BYnHA&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/uJarz7BYnHA&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><br /><br />You're welcome.<br />-KandersonKandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07679564696886248629noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1017464664920788007.post-78454081481502670842010-04-06T10:49:00.000-07:002010-04-06T16:18:24.155-07:00From One Extreme to the OtherFirst of all, I ask you all to read <a href="http://blogs.laweekly.com/stylecouncil/film/kevin-smiths-twitter-campaign/">this</a>.<br /><br />As I've stated in my very recent <a href="http://embraceyournerd.blogspot.com/2010/04/wonder-con-day1.html">WonderCon blog</a>, I am a fan of Kevin Smith, but I've been less enchanted with his recent filmic output. That all being said, I'm always prepared to give Mr. Smith the benefit of the doubt and usually side with him. This argument, however, I not only totally disagree with, but it actually has angered me to the point where I needed to blog while at work.<br /><br />The function of film criticism is to provide an educated evaluation of a film product on either an entertainment or culturally relevant level, sometimes both, while giving a nod to the proficiency by which the film is executed, technically or otherwise. I have always been a firm believer in the profession of film criticism as viable in and of itself. Some of my favorite DVD audio commentaries are by critics providing an intellectual and historical context for the film. Listening to Roger Ebert discuss "Citizen Kane," Stephen Prince dissect "The Seven Samurai," or especially Sir Christopher Frayling speaking in minute detail on the films of Sergio Leone, was not only interesting and entertaining but greatly enhanced my enjoyment of those films in subsequent viewing.<br /><br />Ever since I started watching films as art and not just entertainment, I've turned to film critics for analysis on a deeper level. Not every movie, but many of them, the ones I wanted to know more about. This is the part of Kevin Smith's argument that might have the most validity. Mindless movies don't really need to judged through the same microscope as ones trying to make a point or are particularly stunning. But I've read plenty of reviews of "stupid" movies that actually say things like "It doesn't break new ground but it's enjoyable," which is the first thing a film should do. If it doesn't educate or amaze, it should at least entertain. <br /><br />Kevin Smith is upset that the same criticism used for the weighty movies was used on his film "Cop Out," saying it wasn't "Schindler's List." Obviously not, that's ridiculous. No one went to see "Cop Out" and thought it was going to be anything like "Schindler's List," but it still needs to fulfill one of the those three tenets I mentioned: educate, amaze, or entertain. "Cop Out," if you're to believe the critics, didn't really do any of them, the third being the most important, but should those critics be barred from sharing their opinions because it's just a movie called "Cop Out." If so, it's up to the studio or filmmaker to inform us that the movie is not good enough to warrant proper criticism. Until filmmakers start going on record to say they've made a stupid movie but we should go see it anyway, it's up to the critical community to do so.<br /><br />Smith also makes the point that if critics aren't going to pay to see the films, they shouldn't be allowed to give their opinion on it and affect the box office returns. He says 500 random Twitter followers should be given the same opportunity and that their opinions are just as valid. I submit there is a world of difference between an opinion and an EDUCATED opinion. In a perfect world, everyone would have the same level of film knowledge or ignorance as everyone else and their opinions would hold the same amount of water. Only in math and science can we use the "all things being equal" scenario and not in real life. People come from different backgrounds and experiences that temper their views of everything, film included. Personally, I'd rather hear what educated film experts think than someone who watches "The Hills" and "Jersey Shore." If the movie caters to that crowd, then chances are they don't listen to or read reviews anyway.<br /><br />To my mind this all comes down to Kevin Smith not taking rejection of any kind well and being overly sensitive. A bad review isn't always a personal attack on the filmmaker, in fact usually it isn't. Critics were very divided on Martin Scorsese's "Shutter Island," but no one who gave it a bad review said anything about Scorsese either as a man or as a renowned director. If Smith is as proud of "Cop Out" as he claims, and it indeed was the highest grossing film he's ever made, then it shouldn't matter that the film only received a 19% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, right? Smith has famously had a love-hate relationship with critics over the years, but that hasn't stopped him from giving bad reviews himself publicly of both Paul Thomas Anderson's "Magnolia," and Woody Allen's film, "Scoop," the latter a guest hosting stint for Roger Ebert on "At the Movies" a few years ago. He might have paid for those movies, granted, but he's still giving a public review based on his years of filmmaking and watching experience.<br /><br />In 2008, "Zach and Miri Make a Porno," was poised to be Smith's highest grossing film and was getting mixed but largely favorable reviews. It ended up with a 65% rating on RT, garnering it a "Fresh" certificate, and was getting very good buzz from studio people. Then the movie came out and was indeed his most financially successful film of all time, though not as much as he and people around him were hoping. Some might call that a success, but Kevin Smith didn't. I listened to an entire episode of SModcast, the podcast Smith does with his friend and frequent producer Scott Mosier, where he spent the entire time lamenting how awful it was that the film didn't perform better and basically how he fell into a deep depression because of it. So what makes this guy happy? He's up in arms when critics don't like his movie but the public at-large does, and when the critics mostly like it, and indeed a lot of non-critics do too, he's depressed because it didn't make AS MUCH money as he wanted. Disappointment is a natural reaction, but to expect a critical and monetary hit every time out is not only naive, it's unrealistic. For the record, I spent the money, being a fan, and I didn't like it. So my opinion on this should therefore be more valid than all the critics who saw it for free and praised it.<br /><br />I really like Kevin Smith and will continue to do so, but all of this serves to show that he's been surrounded by fans for far too long. If all he wants is for people in his community to have an opinion on the work he does, then he shouldn't be working in Hollywood. <br /><br />Smith finishes his rant by saying:<br /><br /><blockquote>Just my observation based on 15yrs of doing this and a decision to change the way I approach it from now on. Not trying to burn it all down; I just feel, from now on, I'll be going another way. The people who're criticizing me the loudest are easily 10, 15 yrs my junior with less experience writing about film than I have making 'em.<br /><br />I've got longevity on my side now. I've been doing this since 93: so 17 years. I'm a veteran of the film biz. And as a veteran - not just some spectator with an opinion - I think I know what's better for me & my career than total strangers whose Google-able history proves they've NEVER had my best interests at heart. So I'm gonna listen to THOSE people? Nyet. Listening to me, not them, has gotten me THIS far.</blockquote> <br />It's not the job of the film critic to have the filmmaker's best interests at heart. That's why they just comment on movies and not advise careers. It's their job to have the movie-going community's best interest at heart and take their expertise and put forth a concise reading of the film and offer a recommendation or a warning. Only that. It's up to the viewer or reader to decide if that review has changed their mind, good or bad, about the movie and make the choice based on that. And speaking as one of the youngsters 10-15 years his junior who don't know nearly as much about film as he does, I can say that it's us who were and in many cases still are his biggest fans and want to see Smith's output go back to the edginess and realism that his early films had. <br /><br />So I'll finish by saying this to Kevin Smith: You are always going to be one of the fathers of my love of film and I will follow your career until it ends, but if you don't want critics to give negative reviews, stop spending all your time on Twitter and make a good movie again.<br /><br />You're welcome.<br />-KandersonKandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07679564696886248629noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1017464664920788007.post-20738050364784986722010-04-05T20:46:00.000-07:002010-04-05T22:43:14.617-07:00Con CrazyWonderCon, like its big brother Comic-Con, is an interesting sort of beast. Nerds of all ages, races, faiths, sexual orientations, and perversions flock to these events in hopes of catching a glimpse of someone who represents the thing they idolize, but also to congregate with others like them. It’s definitely a place where everyone gets along based solely on solidarity. San Diego Comic-Con is enormous and there are lots and lots of movies, tv shows, and video games trying to entice their target audience to buy into it; basically a big trade show. WonderCon, on the other hand, is only really really big and the bulk of the floor is made up of comic book sellers or publishers, with the other media represented only marginally. This Con really hones in on die-hard fans and weeds out a lot of the riff-raff.<br /><br />Saturday was a full day of walking the exhibition floor. It was about half the size of the one in San Diego, but I would say it was more focused. Comic-Con is a massive explosion of pop culture and promotional material while WonderCon is a bit of promo but is mostly independently owned comic book and merchandise sellers. Which is great and all, but if you aren’t in the market for action figures, t-shirts, or vintage comics, it’s only so interesting. Still, there were plenty of odd little artist and craftsman booths to occupy my brain. What really make these conventions great are the panel discussions.<br /><br />As I already mentioned, the Kevin Smith Q&A was a great treat, but just as inspiring to me was a panel I attended Saturday morning with eight of DC Comics’ top writers. As someone who aspires to write for a living, I’m always eager to hear other writers talk about their process. I’m also a huge DC fan, so to hear the people who write the books I read is pretty fantastic. The big problem you run into with any Q&A or panel is crazy or stupid people asking crazy or stupid questions. Since most people who’d go to WonderCon are familiar with this, the questions tended to be respectful and topical, if leaning toward the fanatic side. At Comic-Con, the questions were a mix bag of good ones, awful ones, and “Security.”<br /><br />Which brings me to the nature of fandom. A great many people who go to these conventions are die-hard fans of one thing and they show it by dressing up and outwardly deriding fans of other things. This makes no sense to me. I don’t like Star Trek, but I’d never make fun of somebody for liking Star Trek because I know full well it’s no less nerdy than half the crap I like. Yet to overhear some conversations, it’s like the Jets and the Sharks, but if those gangs were in totally different cities. I wore a Flash t-shirt on Saturday which is about as close as I come to dressing up in costume, but there were people with full-on, professionally made outfits that look like they could easily be put in a movie.<br /><br />Stormtroopers and bounty hunters from “Star Wars” were big this year, as were Justice League people, but I also saw a guy dressed like Bumblebee from “Transformers” in a fully articulate plastic shell that for a second I thought was a remote controlled robot. And these people, called “CosPlayers” don’t just wear the clothing, they embody the characters they represent in every way, which is somewhat off-putting. And also there’s the matter of being, *ahem* suited to wearing the costume. For every Super Girl or Wonder Woman who were knockouts, there were three others that were TKO’d, if you pardon the bad analogy. But, for having the guts to wear them in the first place, I must applaud them.<br /><br />Saturday night I wanted to see the screening of the new episode of Doctor Who (not surprising) and in order to get good seats, we decided to go in to the room two panels early. The first we heard was for “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” cartoon series, which I’d never seen. The panel began by showing the 1979 theatrical trailer for “The Empire Strikes Back” as this is the 30th anniversary of its release. That was pretty amazing and made me miss that movie, which I sold last year. Then that feeling slowly went away when the rest of the panel consisted of talking about the cartoon series which was heavily steeped in the prequels, which if you don’t know are the worst things ever created by human beings. But there were people in the room who lived and died Star Wars even in spite of the crap. I got bored.<br /><br />That was followed by the DC panel for Brightest Day, the immediate follow up to the excellent Blackest Night which just ended last week. The panel basically consisted of introducing the writers and artists of the main book and ancillary titles and then having the audience ask questions that couldn’t be answered for fear of spoiling anything. I’ll probably read these books because I read the previous ones, but it’d be nice if they didn’t have to make so many of them. I can’t afford it. <br /><br />Now, I am a fan of Green Lantern and the DC books, but it was clear that a good many people in the room were Doctor Who fans waiting for the screening and not enjoying the DC panel one little bit. I overheard them griping about how stupid the panel was and making little rude comments about the things being discussed. This makes zero sense to me. Why hate on something other people like just because it isn’t the same thing you like? I could get on my soapbox now and spend five pages lambasting people in this country for their intolerance and their “Us vs. Them” attitude about everything and how it actually hurts the fabric of our nation when individuality comes in the form of exclusion and hatred, but I won’t do that. I’ll just say it doesn’t make sense, ESPECIALLY in this case. Doctor Who is an alien who flies through space with a human and makes things safe for all the planets of the universe; Green Lantern is a human who flies around space with aliens and makes things safe for all the planets in the universe. Why the hate? They aren’t told in the same way, surely, but they are definitely kindred.<br /><br />I won’t go too into detail about the actual Doctor Who episode given that it doesn’t hit screens here in the U.S. until April 17th, but I’ll just say that it was fantastic. The new actors and head writer are setting up a great new series of adventures and it looks great. <br /><br />For my blog entries, I usually like to end with a conclusion paragraph to tie everything up and put a little bow on it, but as I’ve been working on this far longer than I should because I’m deliriously tired, I’m not going to do that. Sufficed to say, I had a good time, the convention was fun but different than Comic-Con, and fans express their love and unlove of things in strange and excessive ways. Not articulate, but accurate.<br /><br />You’re not as welcome as you usually are.<br /><br />-KandersonKandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07679564696886248629noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1017464664920788007.post-11378448053636270542010-04-03T09:19:00.000-07:002010-04-03T09:21:40.204-07:00Wonder Con: Day1After a horrendous LAX experience, and I guess we all need at least 3, my WonderConning was off to a rocky start. That could be a blog unto itself, but as none of it was particularly nerdy, I’ll refrain. <br /><br />By time we finally arrived at the convention hall it was nigh on 4:00pm and the prospect of a wasted day looked sadly like an inevitability, however there was a Kevin Smith Q&A at 6:00 and I thought if anything can put me right, an evening with Kev could.<br /><br />After arriving in the ballroom very early, we were treated with episodes of “V,” “Fringe,” and “Human Target,” which were dumb, weird, and better than expected, respectively. Then we had a wait, our fiftieth since arriving at the airport at 7:00am. The tiredness was creeping toward the “pass-out-or-break-down” stage, when a guy came out to introduce “the man himself,” Kevin Smith. I saw Kevin Smith last summer at San Diego ComiCon from about the 200th row and while he was funny and I enjoyed myself, I wasn’t terribly moved by him. This time we were sat about 10 rows from the front and in fact he was directly in front of me the whole time.<br /><br />Kevin Smith is one of the three filmmakers that directly influenced me during my impressionable late-teens and without him, I surely wouldn’t have gone into movie writing, let along blog-writing. Without putting too much emphasis on it, “Clerks” is the reason I wrote my first script, which sucked incidentally. I heavily immersed myself in Smith’s “Askewniverse” and quoted those films with my equally irritating college friends ad nauseum.<br /><br />Still, in recent years, I’ve grown apart from Smith’s work as a filmmaker. As of last Thursday, I’ve sold all of his dvds, save “Clerks” itself. I’d moved on in my movie tastes, off of the likes of Kevin Smith and onto Stanley Kubrick. I wasn’t the emo 18 year old anymore. His films represented a specific time in my life and for the most part don’t hold the same feelings they once did.<br /><br />Even though I had moved on from the man’s film work, I was and am still an avid fan of him as a personality. For the passed 111 episodes, I have listed to SModcast, which is a hilarious conversation Kevin has with one of his friends, usually his longtime producer, Scott Mosier. SModcast is often ridiculous and always entertaining, and it’s patently obvious that Kevin enjoyed SModcasting as much as I enjoy listening. He’d become less of a filmmaker in my eyes and more a commentator of popular culture. Was I selling the man short?<br /><br />Friday night’s Q&A was definitely illuminating for me. Amid the usual kids asking dumb questions and Kevin responding with a barrage of lewd comments and stories, someone asked him out of all the many things he does (write, direct, edit, etc.) he enjoys the most. Kevin’s response was a bit of a shock. He said very simply that making movies doesn’t hold the same power over him as it once did, that now he enjoys interacting with people, via Q & As, Tweeting (or Twittering, I never know what the proper verb is) and especially SModcast. He enjoys the continual conversation with people those outlets provide for him. It’s the immediacy he craves.<br /><br />He said that while he still loves film and enjoys making it, “it’s not religion anymore.” He also said that he looks at his film “Zach and Miri Make a Porno,” and it seems inauthentic to him. It was made by a guy who didn’t entirely believe what he was saying. All of this is very clear to me, as I wasn’t so much a fan of “Zach and Miri.” It felt forced. He made his name by making stories of foul-mouthed working class heroes, but couldn’t accurately depict that anymore. And that made me sad initially. One of my heroes didn’t speak to me anymore. But he felt the same way about it.<br /><br />To hear this type of honesty coming out of a filmmaker is refreshing. Kevin Smith has always been overly forthcoming with details of his sex life or bowel movements (a story he told at the end of the night involved both having a two hour shit and trying to have sex with his wife for the first time high) but I’d never heard him be that frank about his career or where it’s headed. This is a man who thoroughly enjoys his life and what he’s doing. He’s at a point where people come in droves to hear him speak and listen to and read his every thought willingly and filmmaking is just another outlet.<br /><br />There’s always going to be a new crop of young, whiny kids who discover “Clerks” or “Chasing Amy,” get inspired, and become Kevin Smith fans, and that will ensure that he’ll be relevant for years and years to come, which is really all he wanted in the first place. I can only hope to be so lucky.<br /><br />You’re welcome.<br />-KandersonKandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07679564696886248629noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1017464664920788007.post-43654770615959286752010-03-28T22:15:00.001-07:002010-03-28T23:50:53.531-07:00Top 6: SidekicksThe hero gets the girl, kills the baddie, and saves the day. So what? The sidekick gets the best lines. Every hero or heroine worth his or her salt has a best friend who stands next to them through thick and thin and does his/her best to make them look good. Flatly put, these are the top 6 best friends anyone could have in a life or death situation.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5pmrlhith_GgXgkNo0dWVDmTrtpUVjUBvqaaGx1oqM4N1HS2QdleIMrt23sOwnebMzQnjKHCLxzm5Im18DgZFkelJKBcly1-VBSzwaEsjQ6G8Uxcr9HfJsZmfpb_qMrOHPK2IWtlZ7R0/s1600/Feature_Dogma-SilentBob-med.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 126px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5pmrlhith_GgXgkNo0dWVDmTrtpUVjUBvqaaGx1oqM4N1HS2QdleIMrt23sOwnebMzQnjKHCLxzm5Im18DgZFkelJKBcly1-VBSzwaEsjQ6G8Uxcr9HfJsZmfpb_qMrOHPK2IWtlZ7R0/s200/Feature_Dogma-SilentBob-med.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5453943033635897490" /></a><br />VI - SILENT BOB<br />Jay is annoying, ignorant, sexist, morally reprehensible, and never shuts up. That's why it's such a boon to find a guy who is the exact opposite of that and still wants to hang out. Spanning six films, a cartoon series, a brace of comic books, and merchandise everywhere, Jay and Silent Bob have had more than their fair share of adventures. They've fought demons, run from security guards, sabotaged convenience stores, and of course sold copious amounts of marijuana. While Jay spends the entire story swearing like a sailor and making lewd comments, Silent Bob remains quiet and supportive until he pipes up to drop some philosophy on one of the many hapless heroes. Played by writer/director Kevin Smith, Silent Bob was originally supposed to be completely mute, but last minute had to deliver a line meant for Jay that Jason Mewes couldn't get right. Thus began a spate of him speaking the moral of the story. Only in a Kevin Smith movie would a guy named SILENT Bob still talk quite a bit.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbiLHwMKt7gJGSSABm7voHrVbiV5nXjbjS2P9KSKS4AGRh-RwbpUsAjcT2c6u6hqQVsLK7FMljT2FhkIz4xHmQ1r4gQl-e5KZe57NFk7VZc4kP-UmEBgTPls-SlOKeVrF76scxSUFjBX4/s1600/kato01.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 156px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbiLHwMKt7gJGSSABm7voHrVbiV5nXjbjS2P9KSKS4AGRh-RwbpUsAjcT2c6u6hqQVsLK7FMljT2FhkIz4xHmQ1r4gQl-e5KZe57NFk7VZc4kP-UmEBgTPls-SlOKeVrF76scxSUFjBX4/s200/kato01.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5453943164417751922" /></a><br />V - KATO<br />Lets be honest: Robin is lame. Batman can do just as well, if not better, without Robin around. But the Green Hornet would get his masquerading ass kicked if not for the prowess of his faithful butler/chauffeur/life saver Kato. He didn't say a whole heap, but Kato was a master of Kung Fu and would regularly show up in the nick of time to save GH from some nefarious criminal plot. And you know why he was so cool? He was played by Bruce friggin' Lee! Before he Entered the Dragon, Bruce Lee played second fiddle to Van Williams (who?) as the eponymous hero, but really Kato was the reason people watched the program. In fact, in Lee's native Hong Kong, the show was marketed as "The Kato Show." What I'm saying is, if Kato has your back, you could basically talk shit to Chuck Norris.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_-uD1lvtcc_Q8zrdicEGtOgIh2SnHHmod-HTDh_X39q4tpjNDhIkwH-qInTh9tZaMJvfOo-FSsq5_ZGYvFMp3o9MSjXNNpdWD7DtzVZIzSmTOkwaEyXTosVSGA1qOvXbS7gzHw1PmsSA/s1600/ed.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_-uD1lvtcc_Q8zrdicEGtOgIh2SnHHmod-HTDh_X39q4tpjNDhIkwH-qInTh9tZaMJvfOo-FSsq5_ZGYvFMp3o9MSjXNNpdWD7DtzVZIzSmTOkwaEyXTosVSGA1qOvXbS7gzHw1PmsSA/s200/ed.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5453943308477209730" /></a><br />IV - ED<br />When taking on slow-moving zombies, it might not seem smart to bring along a loud, fat guy who's always making things difficult for you, but one wonders how far Shaun would have gotten without Ed by his side. He knows more than anyone about the zed word, fire arms, car driving, hog lumps, and molotov cocktails. That type of knowledge is indispensable. One of the many themes that run through the film is that of friendship and loyalty, and Ed is at all times characterized by the lapdog-like way he hangs at Shaun's side, as evidenced by blindly joining the Mexican standoff in the pub toward the end of the film. Conversely, Shaun is always defending Ed to the others who call him "dead weight" or "a fucking idiot." I can think of no sadder moment in any movie than Ed dying only to be replaced by odd glee when we find out that even in undeath, Ed remains Shaun's favorite Player 2.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUixiGSyiUZ5m0TOCQhAHwBkS34PsNBW4X8g5rZDxW0LC4590wivvjkAwo7VawuYi5FZfiUb_yJDQLvsUzZIcuhvwpDEPa_RvlfyiQDSCjvAVLUCJlH7UN79i96ODStfg2ERvkI6Q8t64/s1600/dr-watson.png"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 198px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUixiGSyiUZ5m0TOCQhAHwBkS34PsNBW4X8g5rZDxW0LC4590wivvjkAwo7VawuYi5FZfiUb_yJDQLvsUzZIcuhvwpDEPa_RvlfyiQDSCjvAVLUCJlH7UN79i96ODStfg2ERvkI6Q8t64/s200/dr-watson.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5453943464540574242" /></a><br />III - DR. JOHN WATSON<br />Every crime-solving, cocaine-addicted, violin-playing, half-insane genius needs a level-headed live-in physician. I think it was a law in Victorian England. As good intellectual sidekicks should do, Dr. Watson question Holmes and allowed him to come up with his best deductions, the ordinary man against the brilliant, emotionally-detached analytical machine. Watson was a smart and capable man in his own right, but it was his work assisting Holmes that brought about the best in both men. Without him, the phrase "Elementary, my dear Watson," would just be "Elementary, my dear," which is kind of condescending.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgURQLqPLcQGAPxeqXQkO5OE9HGZPwlo0ZWMLpGSeEJ7AsBYOcOm7zwhvy8EdnBVfokDWveWPUP5BIGLooKJVhswy0dLG_oNaWnJz9w71z1-l8ID3e_jfkdZNrIW-wFYqkdKu9w6Qo9meg/s1600/haircut_chewbacca.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgURQLqPLcQGAPxeqXQkO5OE9HGZPwlo0ZWMLpGSeEJ7AsBYOcOm7zwhvy8EdnBVfokDWveWPUP5BIGLooKJVhswy0dLG_oNaWnJz9w71z1-l8ID3e_jfkdZNrIW-wFYqkdKu9w6Qo9meg/s200/haircut_chewbacca.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5453943637299521186" /></a><br />II - CHEWBACCA<br />Falling into the same category as Kato, Chewbacca acted as the insurance policy for Han Solo's smart-ass mouth. Designed by George Lucas to act as a sentient dog, Chewie was the muscle Han needed to take on whoever needed on-taking in their smuggling activity. It didn't hurt that he could rip people's arms out of their socket and fix anything mechanical in the galaxy. It's also very convenient that Chewie can understand humans and Han can understand Wookie while never learning how to speak the other's language. Chewie was willing to be tortured, sold into slavery, and face possibly being eaten by a sinkhole with teeth to save his buddy's life, which is about as loyal as loyal can be, you know. Walking carpet or not, Chewbacca is the best co-pilot a scruffy looking nerf herder could hope to find.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSErXFj-odh3hP56WfcdKxZbR0R3j7KH4YALhS9Zn5Ic9yt8LUb0Glwfx-HU1aodM7SF1YboYJNX9UIoxxpsk8bgzYdtPAzBCcw5_59X4jvXWAvUCoV_93tPZXJqEMjEOjCSsXjjBWflo/s1600/sancho.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 116px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSErXFj-odh3hP56WfcdKxZbR0R3j7KH4YALhS9Zn5Ic9yt8LUb0Glwfx-HU1aodM7SF1YboYJNX9UIoxxpsk8bgzYdtPAzBCcw5_59X4jvXWAvUCoV_93tPZXJqEMjEOjCSsXjjBWflo/s200/sancho.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5453943796420724898" /></a><br />I - SANCHO PANZA<br />Going all the way back to the beginning for this one. Don Quixote's squire is considered by many to be the first official sidekick in literary history. Nothing more than a poor neighbor of the wacky knight, Sancho rode with Quixote during his most famous adventures, like fighting windmills, astride his noble donkey. Portrayed as quite dimwitted, Sancho represented the Spanish everyman who would comment on the state of the country and Europe in general while off on his master's imagined quests. When Don Quixote is finally disenchanted and realizes his quest was meaningless, falling into a deep despair, Sancho is the one to try to revive his sense of wonder, saying he would gladly become a pastoral shepherd again, thus becoming "Quixotized" himself. Knowing absolutely nothing but still doing what's right by his friend and master and influencing sidekicks the world over puts Sancho Panza at the top of this list.<br /><br />Next week's Top 6 will surely have something to do with WonderCon which I am going to in San Francisco this weekend. Hope to see you there. What sidekicks did I omit? Tell me in the comments below.<br /><br />You're welcome.<br />-KandersonKandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07679564696886248629noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1017464664920788007.post-40605620267614873822010-03-28T18:03:00.000-07:002010-03-29T00:19:41.553-07:00Doctor Who: The Peter Davison Years<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr6Pv-I292FYvf2yoTtACq7tSiAaAOaKbvxa5gzJd6qT9_neSReFkK1uVUju-AxGdEPrAWdvXgdhk1uwC6H1iuLvGTGi57qWKnnB0E6xLheV58VkDbieolGjPqr429DRDTsnxBenYotlY/s1600/fifthcredits.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 242px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr6Pv-I292FYvf2yoTtACq7tSiAaAOaKbvxa5gzJd6qT9_neSReFkK1uVUju-AxGdEPrAWdvXgdhk1uwC6H1iuLvGTGi57qWKnnB0E6xLheV58VkDbieolGjPqr429DRDTsnxBenYotlY/s320/fifthcredits.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5453896211951562098" /></a><br />That didn't take long, now did it? After combing through the seven years of Tom Baker, I found it rather a breeze to traverse the three seasons of "Doctor Who" with Peter Davison, 1982-1984. Unlike Tom Baker, I had seen a fair amount of Peter Davison's "Who" prior to starting the chronological journey and consider him one of my favorites straight through to the end. Before delving into the episodes, here's a little backstory.<br /><br />John Nathan-Turner took over as producer in 1981 and would drastically revamp the series to become more in touch with the new decade, changes that would remain until the show's cancellation in 1989. Nathan-Turner was a young, first time producer with a great many ideas for the direction the show should go, including filling the show with young companions and steering away from the silliness the series had reached in the Douglas Adams days in favor of hard science-fiction. These decisions put him at odds right away with the established Baker and it was decided that the show's 18th season would be the last for the Fourth Doctor.<br /><br />Another decision that put Nathan-Turner apart from his predecessors was not to cast another unknown in the part of The Doctor as Tom Baker had been and instead he cast Peter Davison who was currently a regular on three other series (the product of such short seasons in Britain) in the role. Davison was the youngest Doctor to date at just 29 when he took over and some worried his age and good looks might distract from the already well-established character.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxk2lA492LUnpwYQU-7-ap5jFPorw4c-u0M_hMOdICIW2yRkkm1iPW3_iZKdUjLsU60HaLPmrCJK9w2umPsp4AfZj9tnrZZcOtxgdtkPDlRM2plM07n6F_l3WiGbxvV0kR3PiXaogprkY/s1600/fifthcompanions.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxk2lA492LUnpwYQU-7-ap5jFPorw4c-u0M_hMOdICIW2yRkkm1iPW3_iZKdUjLsU60HaLPmrCJK9w2umPsp4AfZj9tnrZZcOtxgdtkPDlRM2plM07n6F_l3WiGbxvV0kR3PiXaogprkY/s200/fifthcompanions.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5453896756578200290" /></a><br />In order to fight against these trepidations, John Nathan-Turner loaded the last few Tom Baker stories with new regular companions as holdovers to take the audience into the new era. Among them were Adric, a mathematics whiz kid, Nyssa, orphaned scientific genius, and Tegan, a mouthy Australian flight attendant. The precedent was set early in the show's history, as the First Doctor began his travels with three companions, though after so many years of one regular sidekick, the writers had to work to give each character their due and often come across as one dimensional. In the three seasons, the Doctor saw six different companions, later including devious alien Turlough, a robot called Kamelion, and finally a young American girl named Peri Brown. It is this era of the show that is often cited as "The Crowded TARDIS."<br /><br />During the Davison era, the show saw a reinvigoration in the fans as well, with ratings returning to upwards of 7 million viewers and even reaching the 10 million point for some of the 19th season episodes. Despite its success, Davison had made his decision to do only three seasons on the advice of Second Doctor Patrick Troughton. Both Jon Pertwee (5 seasons) and Tom Baker (7 seasons) found it difficult to be separated from the role and get non-Doctorish work. Troughton before them had only appeared in three seasons and had almost immediately returned to steady work as a character actor. So the Fifth Doctor's time was limited to three seasons, and while there are fewer standout stories than in Baker's time, Davison's stories held together as a continuing saga and his performance was much more accessible and grounded, and to my mind more likable.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWTmqr6sB1zMvtv_SXFdV00MTWuLgP83ddG6gfpxi5cNHhJ3vrIWnuDTNcwWDQu-M9TRfuPTaXdi3nehTwep_LBNTqVPQuMQ9pBt81a79lUDffeXYw6jrqTk75ofb1m2fkRrFx1J8qAdA/s1600/TheDoctorMonitoredByCybermen.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 159px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWTmqr6sB1zMvtv_SXFdV00MTWuLgP83ddG6gfpxi5cNHhJ3vrIWnuDTNcwWDQu-M9TRfuPTaXdi3nehTwep_LBNTqVPQuMQ9pBt81a79lUDffeXYw6jrqTk75ofb1m2fkRrFx1J8qAdA/s200/TheDoctorMonitoredByCybermen.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5453896981319584546" /></a><br />There are definitely five great stories in the Davison bunch which I will discuss now. The first is 1982's penultimate adventure "Earthshock." This serial saw the Doctor and his crew land in a cave in Earth's future only to be accused of murdering a team of scientists by some military types. Who really murdered the scientists turns out to be old foes the Cybermen, who are basically people enslaved to become large monstrous robots. The Cybermen are secretly operating out of the scientists' own freighter orbiting the planet. The original plan was disrupt a peace accord between the Earth's dignitaries, but eventually they decide to just crash the nuclear freighter into the Earth itself, destroying all life on it. The Cybermen are excellent villains and display a deviousness in this story not seen before. This story is also notable as it saw the death of a regular cast member, Adric played by Matthew Waterhouse. While an annoying character, no one likes to see a good guy blow up.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjebHd_ztN5mBQwlRVh5Csc2c29GI5Sh_17mQvMlcSiMTHNW7C-KswZUYGiWEdxiMoQeg97Kwtfrml9hyphenhyphen0XnJxO1GnnWy5GNgAru2V2tGIhiyJ0JtXPgWk95eEVTwBtD2aIqpXoMgSRk3E/s1600/Enlightenment_(Doctor_Who).jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 148px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjebHd_ztN5mBQwlRVh5Csc2c29GI5Sh_17mQvMlcSiMTHNW7C-KswZUYGiWEdxiMoQeg97Kwtfrml9hyphenhyphen0XnJxO1GnnWy5GNgAru2V2tGIhiyJ0JtXPgWk95eEVTwBtD2aIqpXoMgSRk3E/s200/Enlightenment_(Doctor_Who).jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5453897372651631010" /></a><br />The next one for you is "Enlightenment" from the series' 20th season. It is the end of the three-story arc known as "The Black Guardian Trilogy" in which the evil Black Guardian tries to force new companion Turlough (Mark Strickson) to kill the Doctor for foiling his plans some years ago (see: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Key_To_Time#The_Key_to_Time">The Key to Time</a>). This is easily the best of the three, in which the TARDIS lands under mysterious circumstances aboard an Edwardian sailing ship, apparently in the middle of some kind of race. The ship's officers are definitely a little off and the crew have no idea when they boarded or when or where the race began. We eventually find out that this ship is not in the water at all, but is a space ship designed to perfectly mirror its historical counterpart by strange beings called Eternals. The race, between ships from all different historical periods, is for "enlightenment," though exactly what that is is not known. This offers some of the best sets and costumes of the whole of Davison's era and the idea of sailing through space plays very well.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwx_2_OF7M7yJJwV_OdK3e5K6Do9GuWb27k4brnltmUpxagBYLORSJeQgv-72YBOcjHq50Ga-B8ZIZ99zHK1QQ72ivt_ezdEblfXQegA3D2l851mmttglmll5qsFjSyC4Ek_NftcLjyBw/s1600/Five_Doctors.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 158px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwx_2_OF7M7yJJwV_OdK3e5K6Do9GuWb27k4brnltmUpxagBYLORSJeQgv-72YBOcjHq50Ga-B8ZIZ99zHK1QQ72ivt_ezdEblfXQegA3D2l851mmttglmll5qsFjSyC4Ek_NftcLjyBw/s200/Five_Doctors.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5453897517166575538" /></a><br />Thirdly we have "The Five Doctors" which was a 90-minute special that took place between seasons to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the show. Much like the tenth anniversary special, "The Three Doctors," "The Five Doctors" saw all the previous incarnations of the Doctor working together to stop a great evil. Someone or something is pulling the Doctor's various selves out of their respective timelines and into a strange land where they must reach a massive tower or be destroyed, rewriting history and ending the whole show right there. Obviously they weren't about to let that happen. Tom Baker refused to take part in the special as he had only recently left the program and was still very proprietorial of the part, so his appearance was limited to footage from an unfinished story from season 17. Also unable to appear was First Doctor William Hartnell as he died in 1975, so for the purposes of the special, the original version of the character was played by Richard Hurndall, who did an okay job considering. Second Doctor Patrick Troughton and Third Doctor Jon Pertwee did appear along with some companions from each of the eras, as did villains The Master, The Cybermen, and a Dalek for good measure. While the storyline doesn't make a whole lot of sense, it is great to see so many versions of the character all in one place. This story will always hold a special place for me as it was the first Classic Who I had ever watched.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_dpsqBam8fxGtbWlObxd1a0eWNyZsMq_slTRGKhqxJbm8shB1zOIq7jDx_ka61Lju3d0irsdtX6LnEUYXl0q8eOjuCcIx4Io0GjU6BVmDZHMvZpTyBY_5tPTf2bG5QfI7Vwi2ttkPcsw/s1600/TheDoctorBeingDuplicatedByDaleks.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_dpsqBam8fxGtbWlObxd1a0eWNyZsMq_slTRGKhqxJbm8shB1zOIq7jDx_ka61Lju3d0irsdtX6LnEUYXl0q8eOjuCcIx4Io0GjU6BVmDZHMvZpTyBY_5tPTf2bG5QfI7Vwi2ttkPcsw/s200/TheDoctorBeingDuplicatedByDaleks.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5453897708746839282" /></a><br />Speaking of Daleks, we have 1984's excellent "Resurrection of the Daleks," which has the Doctor, Tegan, and Turlough getting trapped in a time corridor only to be spat out on present-day Earth. The nature of the time corridor turns out to be caused by the oldest of foes, the Daleks, who are kidnapping people in authority positions around the world and replacing them with clones who will do their bidding. Also reappearing is the Dalek's creator Davros, who is thawed out of suspended animation to replenish the dwindling population of the mechanical mutant species. Davros and the Dalek Emperor do not see eye to eye and are soon at odds with each other over who should rule. This was a surprisingly dark story that saw something like 43 onscreen deaths, not including Daleks. After "Destiny of the Daleks" from Douglas Adams' season as script editor, which was stupid and ridiculous, it's nice to see a return to form for the pepperpots. This also was the last appearance of Tegan (Janet Fielding) who was the Doctor's longest-running companion. She doesn't die though, so don't worry.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTLKG_-QNj7ayzYamoAQTt2WdNnTbNgmGOq35Sef8Fvk0Wdng7nubOIvcqk4f6x6E7qhB6VtvS-CxJ0wMtUf83op4UgD9YicTtRV35OCRinfqYgibl09gGwlo99ZYHPcmB0HtWOEarUYY/s1600/caves_of_androzani.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 134px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTLKG_-QNj7ayzYamoAQTt2WdNnTbNgmGOq35Sef8Fvk0Wdng7nubOIvcqk4f6x6E7qhB6VtvS-CxJ0wMtUf83op4UgD9YicTtRV35OCRinfqYgibl09gGwlo99ZYHPcmB0HtWOEarUYY/s200/caves_of_androzani.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5453899739747396482" /></a><br />The last and absolute hands-down best story from the Peter Davison age was in fact his final story. By the time "The Caves of Androzani" was being filmed in 1984, it was already well-established that Davison would be leaving, so John Nathan-Turner decided to make the changeover as easy as possible, again, by having the Doctor lose his companions, first Tegan in the aforementioned "Resurrection of the Daleks" and then Turlough in the following story, "Planet of Fire." In the latter story, which I have not seen as it isn't released yet, the Doctor picks up a young American girl named Peri Brown, played by English actress Nicola Bryant, to be the upcoming Sixth Doctor's regular consort. It's the fact that he barely knows his new companion that makes the story all the more fantastic. <br /><br />The Doctor and Peri land on the rocky, cavernous planet of Androzani Minor, which serves as a mining planet for the people of the twin planet of Androzani Major. What is being mined is the strange elixir called spectrox which gives the drinker an unnaturally long and youthful life. As you might expect, such a drug is in very high demand and is therefore the most expensive thing in the universe. After venturing into a cave to explore, Peri falls into a strange webby hive thing which the Doctor then touches to get her free. They develop rashes and blisters where they touched the stuff, which they find out is the first symptom of spectrox toxemia, a disease contracted from touching raw spectrox. The only cure for this is the milk of a rare bat which lives in the caves (not kidding), otherwise they will die. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQpP2mo7fnUGHYJZ0YEL0uZiqJLLNy_NhokxWzo5TloWmxbujOfugamuBRuKLgnC_g0Silvr1TnzSVUFmUJ_lmjXZ3YT-J_1hDkjiFdbwfQjqU7AJmSa-vaKwYlmeLpCq0N6gk2xIYCE8/s1600/Caves_title.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 153px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQpP2mo7fnUGHYJZ0YEL0uZiqJLLNy_NhokxWzo5TloWmxbujOfugamuBRuKLgnC_g0Silvr1TnzSVUFmUJ_lmjXZ3YT-J_1hDkjiFdbwfQjqU7AJmSa-vaKwYlmeLpCq0N6gk2xIYCE8/s200/Caves_title.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5453899882640214482" /></a><br />Before they can even attempt to retrieve it, they become embroiled in a war with three rival factions: the military under employment of cruel businessman Morgus who owns all the spectrox mines, androids controlled by the mysterious masked Sharaz Jek who has commandeered a stockpile of spectrox for ransom, and a group of ruthless mercenaries lead by Stotz, who are playing on both sides. Jek has a score to settle with Morgus who caused his disfiguration. He kidnaps the lovely young Peri, who is dying of toxemia, and the Doctor is taken aboard the mercs' ship for questioning by Morgus. The Doctor, despite slowly dying himself, escapes his shackles and crashes the ship back into Androzani Minor, saying "I owe it to my friend to try to save her." This is Davison's Doctor to a T. He might not even know the person that well, but he would risk everything to see that no harm comes to them, no matter the odds. From the first, to his very last, the Fifth Doctor is the selfless hero. "The Caves of Androzani" stands as one of the best written, directed, and certainly acted stories in all of "Doctor Who." Davison himself has said several times that if he got more scripts like "Caves," he might have stayed on for a fourth season. In 2009, after the 200th story of the show was broadcast, a poll was held for fans to rank all the stories, and "The Caves of Androzani" came in at No. 1, beating out the much loved David Tennant episode "Blink."<br /><br />And that's what I know about the reign of Peter Davison. I will soon (after a trip to San Francisco for WonderCon) be starting the stories of Sixth Doctor Colin Baker. I have never seen a single Sixth Doctor story and I've heard the quality starts to go downhill during this time, but I will see for myself.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyXmP7pE9iELzxki_R8bGgW4FdHfdRDLP6cr2bphpsN0RmCLYxs3gLjDkQHSW0rDC86a-fdIEZMNI03DUGI_hab36rGouQaBXgDsPMI5ImaqzWw8RklOPzp7JdfXTfqwmkD3qNs3v8XlM/s1600/200px-Fifth_Doctor.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 304px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyXmP7pE9iELzxki_R8bGgW4FdHfdRDLP6cr2bphpsN0RmCLYxs3gLjDkQHSW0rDC86a-fdIEZMNI03DUGI_hab36rGouQaBXgDsPMI5ImaqzWw8RklOPzp7JdfXTfqwmkD3qNs3v8XlM/s320/200px-Fifth_Doctor.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5453898148226716242" /></a><br /><br />You're welcome.<br />-KandersonKandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07679564696886248629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1017464664920788007.post-12175363071527377542010-03-22T20:48:00.000-07:002010-03-23T10:34:26.181-07:00Top 6: Stupid SuperheroesAll of the Top 6s up to this point have been movie related, so I thought I'd give a nod to comics. Nowadays, every comic under the sun is being turned into a major motion picture, but over the long and varied history of the medium, there have been plenty of additions that should never have a movie made of them ever. EVER. Here you have the top 6 lamest superheroes of all time.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgemLGHTREwNvzX9D3AZOgoabCHvr0lipLwVMFWBl3zohHz34w8U9nCcVPJQtXwFCDTmPWVOzlEja3hNafOYytaW_2ADQ8kC7HGeAPXtdpInNKkjW5dzttjdS1v2WFsWTeU-dcbEJslz9Q/s1600-h/459987-redbee_super.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgemLGHTREwNvzX9D3AZOgoabCHvr0lipLwVMFWBl3zohHz34w8U9nCcVPJQtXwFCDTmPWVOzlEja3hNafOYytaW_2ADQ8kC7HGeAPXtdpInNKkjW5dzttjdS1v2WFsWTeU-dcbEJslz9Q/s200/459987-redbee_super.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451696015718666354" /></a><br />VI - THE RED BEE<br />Appearing in the 1940s in "Hit Comics #1" the Red Bee was basically your powerless vigilante type character. However instead of wearing a cool costume like Batman or the Shadow, the Red Bee opted for a red pirate shirt with pink puffy sleeves and red and yellow striped tights. Truly frightening only to epileptic villains. However, what made the Red Bee especially lame wasn't just his gaudy, vomitous costume, but the fact that he fought crime with the aid of a single trained bee. That's right, friends. A trained bumble bee named Michael that lived in a compartment in the Red Bee's belt buckle. Seriously, I'm not joking. A friggin' trained bumble bee... named Michael! Not even a swarm, just one. So unless the Red Bee's villains were deathly allergic to the combined sight of creatures that shouldn't physically be able to fly and grown men dressing like color blind buccaneers, he wasn't much good.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimWVbh1abBWK6U-elJlu1vq8bgDMNpkoRjFlfabvBUuPrL3l38wDbEsqMbBtGuwJW4VbWyIh-hAK5DBWVgIn_fgl-MqRbWv7jBAP-zsnicqbfixGcdtt46ZGmS_XDEobph1ADP5EBWBvA/s1600-h/matter-eater_lad.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 194px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimWVbh1abBWK6U-elJlu1vq8bgDMNpkoRjFlfabvBUuPrL3l38wDbEsqMbBtGuwJW4VbWyIh-hAK5DBWVgIn_fgl-MqRbWv7jBAP-zsnicqbfixGcdtt46ZGmS_XDEobph1ADP5EBWBvA/s200/matter-eater_lad.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451696223395312402" /></a><br />V - MATTER EATER LAD<br />The name Matter Eater Lad does not roll off the tongue very easily and certainly doesn't strike fear into many a villain's heart. In the 1960s the writers at DC comics were always looking for new and strange powers for their quickly growing cast of teenage futuristic heroes. However, though it seemed like they'd hit their all time low with Bouncing Boy, it turned out they could sink even lower with Matter Eater Lad. As you might have guessed, Matter Eater Lad's power was the ability to eat through any substance. So if you locked your keys in your car, instead of calling a locksmith, you could just have Matter Eater Lad devour the door handle. Matter Eater Lad wasn't into cannibalism, though, so he never actually chowed down on any bad guys, completely missing what could have been a useful power.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMB0fAXXU_u0kQqq38Vm7sdyLJ-TP9qfF2zzK6cHCMM52eSyM7aOB6EhbYrqY6WdenMN318Qi4-cOqR-bjWrE6jeL5RPz-ohYWRW2GVYTig4SHaIkqkLcYKnXsLxjs6TmrccivgF9xqdY/s1600-h/377763-75738-dogwelder_super.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 162px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMB0fAXXU_u0kQqq38Vm7sdyLJ-TP9qfF2zzK6cHCMM52eSyM7aOB6EhbYrqY6WdenMN318Qi4-cOqR-bjWrE6jeL5RPz-ohYWRW2GVYTig4SHaIkqkLcYKnXsLxjs6TmrccivgF9xqdY/s200/377763-75738-dogwelder_super.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451696389459281602" /></a><br />IV - DOGWELDER<br />Dogwelder was a character from Garth Ennis' "Hitman" series. Dogwelder was part of a superhero team known as Section Eight which was a band of these crazy guys that fought crime in rather inane ways. Dogwelder was a name that really stuck out to me, and like most of these on the list, that's where the bulk of the ridiculousness comes from. He's this madman in a silver welder's outfit that basically just goes around welding stray dogs to villains' faces. That's it. That's how he fought crime. Welding dogs to people. It certainly wouldn't be fun to be on the receiving end of that. You try to rob a bank and you end up with a Lhasa Apso welded to your face, yapping for eternity. It's really just more an irritation than a fighting style and relies too heavily on the cooperation of the weldee. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0jKWeBhfIUqNTjYrrbG_gtf51YP28Y6BFSB2BFcrtQ9XOQ4zqeyxaAhnKyWiWxN9qAVwu3qVBqNLmo5XhQ7-DPzgW9V_a0vZto-BWsA3Xasn-yvodWz4SWu6GhNjnIZ9-YncyIyNu5Mw/s1600-h/Armfalloffboy.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 164px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0jKWeBhfIUqNTjYrrbG_gtf51YP28Y6BFSB2BFcrtQ9XOQ4zqeyxaAhnKyWiWxN9qAVwu3qVBqNLmo5XhQ7-DPzgW9V_a0vZto-BWsA3Xasn-yvodWz4SWu6GhNjnIZ9-YncyIyNu5Mw/s200/Armfalloffboy.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451696601697479186" /></a><br />III - ARM FALL OFF BOY<br />Just like "Texas Chain Saw Massacre," you know exactly what you're getting with this guy. Arm Fall Off Boy is an oddity all his own because although he only made one appearance in a comic book ever (Secret Origins #46 [1989]), his appearance was so memorable that he has a cult following to this day. Arm Fall Off Boy made an apperance at a Legion of Superheroes recruitment drive where he displayed his "astounding" power to some of the more legitimate heroes. His power? To detach his left arm from his body and use it as a club. Arm Fall Off Boy was surprised when the Legion let him know that his talents weren't quite right for their organization, though I can't imagine why. A better super hero would have been Arm Made Of Razor Blades Guy or Arm That Doubles As A Thing That Kills People Fellow. Or even just Guy With Two Fully Functioning Arms Capable Of Wielding Big Giant Swords.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8w_96llT6E2JD-2D1MAg8oU3HSi7d-T-OTCLxFU0P5CkXBghXBD16SoYaMJQhLkvdLM5yphCgYjtiuPPhus-u2nNr7ILefftokOs9jyzhx81Oc5bOenrMZf4yqm4fZBKwPqyKHs-LT-M/s1600-h/whizzer3.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 94px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8w_96llT6E2JD-2D1MAg8oU3HSi7d-T-OTCLxFU0P5CkXBghXBD16SoYaMJQhLkvdLM5yphCgYjtiuPPhus-u2nNr7ILefftokOs9jyzhx81Oc5bOenrMZf4yqm4fZBKwPqyKHs-LT-M/s200/whizzer3.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451696788132910642" /></a><br />II - THE WHIZZER<br />One of Marvel's earliest superhero creations, The Whizzer's powers have nothing to do with peeing, despite what his costume might suggest. Like many Marvel superhero characters, The Whizzer was a rip off of a DC character, The Flash in this case, and as such, he was super fast. How did he get that way, you ask? Well let's see what <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whizzer_(Robert_Frank)">Wikipedia</a> has to say on the subject:<blockquote>The origin of the Golden Age character begins while Robert Frank is on a trip to Africa with his father, Dr. Emil Frank, where Robert is bitten by a cobra. Dr. Frank saves Robert by a transfusion of mongoose blood, and soon discovers that he has developed super-speed.</blockquote> That's actually real. Mongoose blood. Apparently in the '40s it wasn't such a big deal to put a completely different species' DNA into your system, mongoosian AIDS be damned.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXqUnBKeUgtjWqDNCUH6NP9M3yla5qM1sdceNif4WKL4i2TlIn5m41_dl0ROknHeO4kp4-1xxV6pgB-Ux9eyYYpiRDRNL7VET_6R7svr_2273bDIDiUaYwBaqttv_AUe97Wtc7Hdt3ji0/s1600-h/zan.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXqUnBKeUgtjWqDNCUH6NP9M3yla5qM1sdceNif4WKL4i2TlIn5m41_dl0ROknHeO4kp4-1xxV6pgB-Ux9eyYYpiRDRNL7VET_6R7svr_2273bDIDiUaYwBaqttv_AUe97Wtc7Hdt3ji0/s200/zan.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451697335185630610" /></a><br />I - ZAN from THE WONDER TWINS<br />If you hop in the way-back machine and think of the amazingly awesome cartoon "Superfriends," you'll probably remember the two-tone purple clad Half-Asian duo The Wonder Twins with their Beatles hairdos and blue monkey in a cape, Gleek. You might also remember that when the Twins put their rings together and said "Wonder Twin powers ACTIVATE," they could transform into stuff. Jayna could become any animal of her choosing. Quite a good power. What did brother Zan have? The ability to turn into anything water-based. How exactly do those two powers go together? You'd get all kinds of adventures where Jayna would turn into a bear or a lion or something and Zan would turn into a puddle or... yeah, that's it, just a puddle. Although, to his credit, he could turn into a refreshing glass of Kool Aid AND the ice cubes with which to cool it. Nevermind, he isn't useless at all.<br /><br />And there you have it, friends. Remember these guys the next time you think about mocking Aquaman.<br /><br />You're welcome.<br />-KandersonKandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07679564696886248629noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1017464664920788007.post-13919973456478802142010-03-18T15:01:00.000-07:002010-03-18T20:12:13.219-07:00Doctor Who: The Tom Baker Years<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwpNXfZMszOKiSkUjPkUn8w4jCDNiccgyr0hea55tjNHH5x9Ff1XZQbb4ug3qZwb9ULc2cZAWGJWAqe1KH8NY0cbTu4S305ac1lyWFDWsx7F20WyY4Up-kfgYhjIAn0YJWq6agMYhLWBs/s1600-h/bakeropen.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 239px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwpNXfZMszOKiSkUjPkUn8w4jCDNiccgyr0hea55tjNHH5x9Ff1XZQbb4ug3qZwb9ULc2cZAWGJWAqe1KH8NY0cbTu4S305ac1lyWFDWsx7F20WyY4Up-kfgYhjIAn0YJWq6agMYhLWBs/s320/bakeropen.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5450174638742183906" /></a><br />I've been watching Doctor Who for the last six months or so and today did a tally wherein I realized I've seen less than half of the available stories. That's slightly depressing, but the show has been on for 30 seasons. I recently completed watching the tenure of the longest-serving Doctor, Tom Baker, the Fourth Doctor who played the character from 1974-1981. <br /><br />Tom Baker was a relative nobody when he took over the role from Jon Pertwee. While Pertwee's Doctor was a suave, sophisticated man of action, Baker played the Doctor with more outward weirdness, a deliberate attempt to make the character more alien. He would often switch from silly to serious at the drop of a hat, making him seem pretty bipolar. It was during Tom Baker's run that the show was at its most popular, being essential viewing for families every Saturday night. When the series was syndicated to America, it was Baker's episodes that most people saw, making him the most recognizable actor to play the role around the world. He is known primarily for his big, toothy grin, curly hair, and ridiculously long, striped scarf.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9GdkzLX3WmK3dZ416-lgzGvJIkhb1BkYy3veg6cx1hH31rc7XYEyUZDdqjM6xmv56NKasdCS9mtCf_I0Os4CsIgu3l7thJw5ahq2Qc_ySL1MI_DL_Z2bUrmTv99xyS70stmhaq-aYlbI/s1600-h/tom-baker-lalla-ward.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 147px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9GdkzLX3WmK3dZ416-lgzGvJIkhb1BkYy3veg6cx1hH31rc7XYEyUZDdqjM6xmv56NKasdCS9mtCf_I0Os4CsIgu3l7thJw5ahq2Qc_ySL1MI_DL_Z2bUrmTv99xyS70stmhaq-aYlbI/s200/tom-baker-lalla-ward.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5450175264288554498" /></a><br />As one might expect, such a long run has its ups and down, with the middle bit being less than stellar to my mind. Of the Fourth Doctor's 173 episodes comprising 40 stories, I've seen all except the 12 stories that haven't been released on DVD in the U.S. Thanks to Netflix, it only took about six weeks. Seven years of television in six weeks. Amazing. As I'm not about to review everything I've watched, as it would be a waste of everyone's time, I decided to talk briefly about my five favorite stories from Tom Baker's era, five that I recommend to the casual viewer.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcoaab0bpEUfsRUROiJ_xjnutimpwHwAGk2awR0gCnF6K3u2z5JlXJbIENjnS0jIrSetNElCBRCcv9Hj0cCXWUfWgsrPLsZBrFPn-Q0GWl7jSHUtiMBn3123Oj1vLjtmZqozgFEJ3WgSY/s1600-h/Scaroth.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcoaab0bpEUfsRUROiJ_xjnutimpwHwAGk2awR0gCnF6K3u2z5JlXJbIENjnS0jIrSetNElCBRCcv9Hj0cCXWUfWgsrPLsZBrFPn-Q0GWl7jSHUtiMBn3123Oj1vLjtmZqozgFEJ3WgSY/s200/Scaroth.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5450175614776332242" /></a><br />Probably the best one to start with is 1979's "City of Death," a four-parter which sees the Doctor and his companion, Romana (Lalla Ward) on vacation that ends up being far less than restful. Set mainly in Paris in 1979, the plot concerns a scheme by an alien, Scaroth, to steal the Mona Lisa to finance experiments in time travel in the hope of averting the accident that marooned him on Earth four hundred million years previously, the furthest back in history the show ever dares tread. The fourth episode was watched by over sixteen million viewers, the highest audience ever attained by an episode of Doctor Who. Writer David Fisher's original script was heavily re-written by script editor Douglas Adams (of Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy fame) and the story benefits from Adams' weird brand of humor. Look for John Cleese's cameo as an art critic at the Louvre, commenting on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TARDIS">blue police box</a> as a fine piece of post-modern art right before The Doctor and Romana casually enter and dematerialize.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU-ePJta49i3Lq11D1gbV5frNtTsWPex-YqHQuQWJNFRMel8-ZJ-Tb5Q45PbvgEm-dBpXQWt6nC_c1BJ81bPu4t97qWb1Ug8j2dAQ8yNlPD6Lc99-zl_0iSdBzLKfP8qz7OdbOFB8JJoQ/s1600-h/Brain_of_Morbius.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU-ePJta49i3Lq11D1gbV5frNtTsWPex-YqHQuQWJNFRMel8-ZJ-Tb5Q45PbvgEm-dBpXQWt6nC_c1BJ81bPu4t97qWb1Ug8j2dAQ8yNlPD6Lc99-zl_0iSdBzLKfP8qz7OdbOFB8JJoQ/s200/Brain_of_Morbius.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5450175872083126642" /></a><br />The early Tom Baker era was known for its emphasis on Gothic horror-themed stories and one of the best examples of this is the horribly underrated "The Brain of Morbius" from 1976. Essentially a reworking of Frankenstein, this serial follows the Doctor and my favorite companion, Sarah Jane Smith (played by Elisabeth Sladen) as they land on a strange planet littered with wrecked spaceships and dismembered alien bodies. They soon come to a castle atop a hill where the mysterious scientist Solon and his disfigured assistant Condo welcome them with all-too-open arms. We soon learn that Solon is a disciple of the evil Time Lord, Morbius, who was destroyed many years ago, save for his brain. Solon is making a body for Morbius out of the alien remains, but has yet to find a suitable head. Enter the Doctor. This story got a lot of flack for it's overt depiction of violence, and is generally thought of as nothing special, but for my money it ranks as among the best of the era. As far as horror-themed science fiction, you can get no better than the hulking monstrosity of Morbius' new body stalking a temporarily blinded Sarah Jane.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9Suqk7UbN2x9DvSFbQsdbzobK-1JsjPGmcv81omAway0qSyLr5XocQphGge9ogvJgHgmr9kMpyRDVmgujC8iIxskCy9pkzR6YpholmLro_hW8dZc9lLkXtJxiejh0qrbeWCPKutXTjH8/s1600-h/Morphing_Rutan.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9Suqk7UbN2x9DvSFbQsdbzobK-1JsjPGmcv81omAway0qSyLr5XocQphGge9ogvJgHgmr9kMpyRDVmgujC8iIxskCy9pkzR6YpholmLro_hW8dZc9lLkXtJxiejh0qrbeWCPKutXTjH8/s200/Morphing_Rutan.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5450176085036718978" /></a><br />Speaking of horror, I would like to point you in the direction of "Horror of Fang Rock," from 1977. The last of its kind before the show transitioned from tension-driven horror to mind-numbing silliness, where it lingered for the next three years. The action takes place entirely on or around a Southern English lighthouse in the early 20th Century. In a thick fog, three different vessels become stranded on the small island called Fang Rock: a rich man's sailing yacht, the Doctor's TARDIS, and a mysterious and hostile force. The story plays out like a modern-day slasher film with characters showing up and getting bumped off one by one by the unseen alien and if anyone's going to survive, they're going to have to trust the Doctor, something no one ever seems to be able to do. It's like an Agatha Christie mystery with aliens. It also gives some good moments to the supporting cast, all of which are fully fleshed-out characters with faults and treacheries of their own.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnkGaRJWGm5c-iPuvlSfiTJtVwtxjvzRsfrnEKElNtx4iGmC3IYH4GsB9O0YJo-yAuvCW6dKuctYr-mEaJb2xLyyQw9fU95W6zWnxt0-fdVkajRQo7-0sNNSpBtr9smLSL7nkJcEXvh2Y/s1600-h/Deadly_Assassin.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnkGaRJWGm5c-iPuvlSfiTJtVwtxjvzRsfrnEKElNtx4iGmC3IYH4GsB9O0YJo-yAuvCW6dKuctYr-mEaJb2xLyyQw9fU95W6zWnxt0-fdVkajRQo7-0sNNSpBtr9smLSL7nkJcEXvh2Y/s200/Deadly_Assassin.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5450176246343577234" /></a><br />For some straight sci-fi, I direct your attention to 1976's "The Deadly Assassin." This is a notable story as it is the only story in the classic run where the Doctor does not have a proper companion, something that was a consolation to Baker who maintained he didn't need a sidekick. It's an interesting experiment, but he really does need someone to bandy ideas off of, otherwise there's a lot of the Doctor talking to himself, spouting exposition. The Doctor is summoned to his homeworld of Gallifrey under strange circumstances. He soon gets rolled up in the assassination of the Time Lord President and has to clear his own name while trying to catch the guilty party. Before I mention this next bit, I want you to remember this is 1976. The Doctor connects his brain to computers and enters the data network known as The Matrix, where the villain is controlling everything, and inside it is a construct where the Doctor and his adversary must battle in a totally virtual realm. Way to rip off "Doctor Who," Wachowski Bros. It's even CALLED The Matrix. Part political thriller, part mind fuck, "The Deadly Assassin" is an anomaly in the "Who" canon that really stands up.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOsgJ-eedwltW1hhTE4mhAInIWGkI7yP9h5hJYKArfvv17Hs3Jjvt7U8sXleK5frVd93glyFeLPoQhwYubSORaKnhyphenhyphenMROKioz_eDz8Z7BbwhwfmW7kQ3F8AbPbD0vBrwKIoxSQXE8eFaM/s1600-h/Genesis_of_the_Daleks.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 148px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOsgJ-eedwltW1hhTE4mhAInIWGkI7yP9h5hJYKArfvv17Hs3Jjvt7U8sXleK5frVd93glyFeLPoQhwYubSORaKnhyphenhyphenMROKioz_eDz8Z7BbwhwfmW7kQ3F8AbPbD0vBrwKIoxSQXE8eFaM/s200/Genesis_of_the_Daleks.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5450176502881630690" /></a><br />My last pick, and my hands-down favorite in the era, is 1975's "Genesis of the Daleks." Since the second story of the entire series all the way back in 1963, the Doctor's greatest enemies have been the tank-like killing machines known as The Daleks. They can't be reasoned with, they can't be bargained with; all they want is to subjugate or exterminate all beings that are imperfect (meaning anything that isn't a Dalek). This story takes us all the way back to their creation. The Doctor, Sarah Jane, and military medic Harry Sullivan are intercepted by the Time Lords to travel to the planet Skaro at a time before the Daleks existed with the goal of stopping to altering their creation, sparing the universe of their evil. Our three heroes are soon embroiled in the bloody war between Skaro's two humanoid races, the Kaleds and the Thals. Neither side is willing to lose and their methods of warfare have been getting more and more nasty over the years, resulting in a huge portion of the populations of both races mutating thanks to all the chemical weapons. The Doctor learns that the leader of the Kaleds, the deformed and crippled Davros, has been experimenting on his own people in hopes of creating the ultimate being, taking away their physical form and their free will until they are ultra-loyal, single-minded death machines. This story has very overt allusions to Nazi Germany and also tackles some deep moral debates, like whether someone has the right to commit murder to prevent genocide. This is a six-part story, which in some stories can be a detriment, but this one never loses momentum or focus. I would absolutely recommend this one to anyone who enjoys things.<br /><br />While he isn't my favorite Doctor, Tom Baker and his corresponding episodes are definitely entertaining, memorable, and worth a look. If you can get passed the sometimes laughably low-budget special effects you'll get to see some interesting and fun stories (and some stupid and bad ones, but only toward the end). I'm moving right along to the Fifth Doctor, check back in a few short weeks for another Doctor Who report. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwYRY8y64LyGlied_R_onHQbuIJNc55hGU6E99s11Kozyd3HBw9CyVDYib0VH0CiLF-pBdk76b2HMhF2v413gpe5C1LnLmbrOu_dE59zup6z7YHp5ghlZt2oDB3Q6kKk51Z_3FlKRiFA4/s1600-h/baker.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 297px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwYRY8y64LyGlied_R_onHQbuIJNc55hGU6E99s11Kozyd3HBw9CyVDYib0VH0CiLF-pBdk76b2HMhF2v413gpe5C1LnLmbrOu_dE59zup6z7YHp5ghlZt2oDB3Q6kKk51Z_3FlKRiFA4/s320/baker.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5450176711938994466" /></a><br /><br />You're welcome.<br />-KandersonKandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07679564696886248629noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1017464664920788007.post-75982891563313863952010-03-14T22:45:00.000-07:002010-03-15T13:47:43.930-07:00Top 6: Trilogies Worthy of a Sunday MarathonFor the last several weekends, my brother and mother in snowy Colorado have been having movie marathons wherein they watch all three parts of selected trilogies (i.e. ones they have) and it got me thinking, as most things do. There are a great many trilogies out there these days, but only a few of them are uniformly good. Take for instance, Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man" saga: the first movie is excellent, the second movie is even better, and the third movie is a pile of undigested goat meat. It's so bad in fact, it nearly taints the other two films, which is sad. "Indiana Jones" has the same problem, with "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "The Last Crusade" actually being quite good movies, and "Temple of Doom," however enjoyable I now find it after the smoking turd that was "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," is very obviously the weak link. A grip of other trilogies may be enjoyable throughout, but only one part could actually be considered "good," in the classic movie sense, such as "The Matrix," where the first movie is the game changer, or "X-Men," when the second part stands head and shoulders above the others.<br /><br />It seems it truly is difficult to find a series of movies where all three are actually worth watching over and over, but I'mma gonna find six and list them for you below. These are the Top 6 trilogies worthy of a Sunday marathon.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPpr-EulfZwPBjFc540GnZK7Ixo-wmw3g2jHp3JZVTPWf15IVOQzc-ecxTbNCt1YG19Px0vyjv_2p2LU5ow5wEbxMk7OQxUYhGimakicxQYwZRzL-S4cvUl1thPa-8V-68YCZXcS7Fxjs/s1600-h/jason-bourne-gun_001_1197330917.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 133px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPpr-EulfZwPBjFc540GnZK7Ixo-wmw3g2jHp3JZVTPWf15IVOQzc-ecxTbNCt1YG19Px0vyjv_2p2LU5ow5wEbxMk7OQxUYhGimakicxQYwZRzL-S4cvUl1thPa-8V-68YCZXcS7Fxjs/s200/jason-bourne-gun_001_1197330917.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448940225943149298" /></a><br />VI - THE BOURNE TRILOGY<br />Despite the second two parts having a different director (Paul Greengrass) than the first (Doug Liman), the spy actioners starring Matt Damon as Jason Bourne are surprisingly consistent. All three employ frenetic editing and camera movement (some would argue nauseatingly so) and all three have plots that both make sense and are easily followable, within reason. It seems there's no limit to the depths Jason Bourne has to dig to learn what a bastard he was before he lost his memory, nor how much worse those who employed him were. All three were based on books by Robert Ludlum, whose entire canon have similar titles employing "The" followed by the name of someone or something and ending with an impersonal noun. Such as, "The Osterman Weekend," "The Rhinemann Exchange," "The Holcroft Covenant," and "The Scorpio Illusion." These movies are like more believable James Bond adventures, though admittedly without some of the fun, and they are all as exciting as the last. Just take some Dramamine and enjoy.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0CtWNDUyfkXNtTOSm-iJjq78-bzI7Sp1rNA8FihXBVWADTUgikDACCPTyy6pgaDEZ_CvZFqqNo46vM6ebdxqadfLF-abyh7Tc-ftlyo-ytt2HdY1RwdEJxNe37oUIB-nSersw185Srq8/s1600-h/back-to-the-future.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0CtWNDUyfkXNtTOSm-iJjq78-bzI7Sp1rNA8FihXBVWADTUgikDACCPTyy6pgaDEZ_CvZFqqNo46vM6ebdxqadfLF-abyh7Tc-ftlyo-ytt2HdY1RwdEJxNe37oUIB-nSersw185Srq8/s200/back-to-the-future.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448940839422907346" /></a><br />V - BACK TO THE FUTURE<br />I wore the tape out of these movies when I was a kid and made me want a Delorian to this very day. Michael J. Fox stars as Marty McFly who thanks to his friend, the inventor Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown, travels through time and changes his family history and eventually future, all in the course of a week. He starts in 1985, travels to 1955, heads to 2015, to a tangential 1985, back to 1955, and then to 1885 before finally returning home. The more I learn about the theory of time travel makes this far less plausible (like how if he traveled back to 1955, then he will have always been in 1955 and his future couldn't possibly have changed...wrap your head around that) but no less enjoyable. Also, why is Marty seemingly a loser and a cool guy at the same time? And why does he hang out with an crazy, white haired guy in the first place? That all aside, these movies have plenty of humor and Alan Silvestri's score is a gold standard for film themes. I actually saw Back to the Future 2 in the theater and remember being scared to death of the big Jaws thing and completely confused by what "Son of a Bitch" could mean. Ahh, good times.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzaxXMaUJDXjyDIHqi3z0k9M6IRvVPw5ZYNG0nu5fOokbHim1VGRcVDLB5Vv0h-E0yXaaEPdElXm0e4kA1ZkPAIGkdo0QBcJuOoyzg-2QFrcuHRN45RxMuA-TLc3RCQXlYu9eHwLKbD-8/s1600-h/evil_dead.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzaxXMaUJDXjyDIHqi3z0k9M6IRvVPw5ZYNG0nu5fOokbHim1VGRcVDLB5Vv0h-E0yXaaEPdElXm0e4kA1ZkPAIGkdo0QBcJuOoyzg-2QFrcuHRN45RxMuA-TLc3RCQXlYu9eHwLKbD-8/s200/evil_dead.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448940977137054690" /></a><br />IV - THE EVIL DEAD<br />You could not have three less similar horror movies, and yet, thanks to Bruce Campbell's shrieking and silly portrayal as Ash, they hang together very nicely. Like all of these movies so far, they all depict a lead character put in a strange and dire situation mostly through bad luck, and no one is less lucky or less equipped to fight the legions of evil than Ash. The first film plays like a melodrama which leads to all out gory terror as a cabin-in-the-woods weekend goes from kind of okay to the worst thing ever to happen to anyone ever. Ash's friends are slowly picked off and possessed by Kandarian Demons leaving him to fight them off and dismember them. The second one is somehow scary while being purposely sillier. It's often been described as a demonic Warner Bros. cartoon, which is very fitting. "Evil Dead II" is my favorite of the series and is not, I repeat NOT, a remake of "The Evil Dead" as many have claimed. The first ten minutes or so are a rehash because Raimi & Co couldn't get the rights to show clips from their first film, so they had to make do. They changed Ash a bit to make him more in line with who he'd be in the new film, and instead of four friends, it's just Ash's girlfriend who gets possessed. The third film, "Army of Darkness," is a complete departure. After being sucked into a time portal (like ya do) Ash and his Oldsmobile Delta 88 end up in England in the middle-ages being proclaimed as the savior from the Deadites. "Army" forsakes most of the horror for swashbuckling and is really like a low budget Ray Harryhausen movie. I've watched this trilogy many many times and it's always a good one for a large group.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgyeDoLVE1XJJx8x66AcT7CSD9Zb6Pkaf3oXKdsonY5AwjCUncyKOGpqI7QRuAtBOqgueU1vZ4pubXga7k6d_BMyx2kYwLbJLwN_uwJj8v4T1PjAPx9_pVooplX6s9GqR9yoVu_bW33zg/s1600-h/manwnn.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 158px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgyeDoLVE1XJJx8x66AcT7CSD9Zb6Pkaf3oXKdsonY5AwjCUncyKOGpqI7QRuAtBOqgueU1vZ4pubXga7k6d_BMyx2kYwLbJLwN_uwJj8v4T1PjAPx9_pVooplX6s9GqR9yoVu_bW33zg/s200/manwnn.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448941148898250402" /></a><br />III - THE DOLLARS TRILOGY<br />All one really needs to make a trilogy is a strong central character, and Sergio Leone certainly got that with Clint Eastwood in these films. Eastwood's "Man With No Name" as he was dubbed in the States is a drifter and works as a mythical trickster character, getting involved in the action for his own gain while also helping a few people along the way. His character does have a name, in fact a different one in all three films. He is called "Joe" in "A Fistful of Dollars," where he enters a town beset with two criminal families and plays the sides against each other until he is the only man standing. In the sequel, aptly titled "For a Few Dollars More," he is a bounty hunter chasing an escaped bandit with a tentative partnership with an older rival and is called "Manco," (essentially "Lefty"), and in the best movie of all time, "The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly," he is throughout referred to as "Blondie." It could be easy to claim these are not related films at all and are just all westerns starring Clint Eastwood, but Leone does the interesting thing of letting visuals connect the films and not overt narrative. At the end of the first movie, Eastwood's hand is crushed and stomped on, in the entire second film, he wears a brace on it that is eventually a giveaway to the baddies that he is who he is. The third film, we find out, is really a prequel for two reasons. Firstly, it takes place during the Civil War, which is very much finished in the first two films, and second Eastwood starts the movie in a completely different costume and as the movie moves along, picks up the various pieces of his familiar garb until the very end he is the man with the poncho and the brown hat. Three of the best movies of all time and I can watch all of them at any point in my life, though I tend to watch the last one the least because it's my favorite and I want to savor it.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCI2uC96rF4TqYAUs31jJbVKanI51gcCYhd318-sdNwxovgL5N63zqsSuYmQhMy4apbe5VayMNP0XRCVzheZxfEcIwrey17Tb2s_TOFZpmZMDkOhQOZHVruyeMY_fn8KImr8MX7vMQ76E/s1600-h/LordOfTheRings.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 146px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCI2uC96rF4TqYAUs31jJbVKanI51gcCYhd318-sdNwxovgL5N63zqsSuYmQhMy4apbe5VayMNP0XRCVzheZxfEcIwrey17Tb2s_TOFZpmZMDkOhQOZHVruyeMY_fn8KImr8MX7vMQ76E/s200/LordOfTheRings.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448941302783039842" /></a><br />II - THE LORD OF THE RINGS<br />You have to get up very early in the morning to watch all of these movies in one day and be prepared to dedicate the next 14 hours of your life to it, if you watch the extended editions as I do. J.R.R. Tolkien wrote this as one giant tome and the publisher is the one who split it up into different volumes, thinking no one would want to sit down and read an 1150 page book in one go. Yet in the case of both the books and the movies, that's exactly what people do. These movies are the Alpha and Omega of the sword and sorcery genre and despite being close to ten years old, still benefit from extremely believable visual effects. Many fans of the book complained about certain changes and the removal of some characters and events, and even though I can spend hours on how irritating it is when people deride movies for not being page-for-page depictions of the books, I think the films are nigh-on perfect to maintaining the heart of the novels while making them easier for a film crowd to digest. Each movie has a memorable battle scene (or nine) and are chock-a-block of lush landscapes, miraculous sets, and fantastic makeup. One feels like they really are in a different world from a different time. As far as watching them in one day, it's easy to hit the Rings Wall, but if you make sure you have plenty of Lembas bread you should be able to make the journey.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ5itsfTLRQ9qa_6Rn76WqkMeJavyQ4hhoSWl-vOLDkg2kLqhxKY7aMV9xSPddFJckA8iV_dUIAH1knN3C8E1GbBxKOcqAtLCsjX8VIwI-G_hM4KNf6bd0A7WBl_2P9XVVLL8tVqJX4Oo/s1600-h/01.Star-wars.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 159px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ5itsfTLRQ9qa_6Rn76WqkMeJavyQ4hhoSWl-vOLDkg2kLqhxKY7aMV9xSPddFJckA8iV_dUIAH1knN3C8E1GbBxKOcqAtLCsjX8VIwI-G_hM4KNf6bd0A7WBl_2P9XVVLL8tVqJX4Oo/s200/01.Star-wars.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448941519965075106" /></a><br />I - THE STAR WARS TRILOGY<br />Not the fucking prequels, okay? The TRILOGY. There are trilogies today, in such ridiculous numbers, due almost entirely to these movies. The sense of wonder that one gets when first watching these movies cannot be underplayed. You can sit any child down with "Star Wars" and they'll have the best time ever and want to be jedi or rebels or what have you. George Lucas seems dead set on tinkering with these movies to be more in line with the prequels, but why doesn't he change the prequels to make them more in line with the originals? They're the ones everybody likes after all. And even with the unnecessary additions and CGI replacements, "Star Wars," "The Empire Strikes Back," and "Return of the Jedi," remain indelible pieces of pop culture and film history. They had heart, character, awe, and fun. Good movies are not made by having the newest special effects or the greatest amount of crap moving in the background, good movies are made by having a universal story and memorable characters you care about. It's easy to forget that the first "Star Wars" was nominated for ten Academy Awards and won six of them, and if not for "Annie Hall" would probably have won all of them. I can't overstate this enough, a bigger budget does not mean it's a better film. Take a year or three to let the stink of Episodes I-III wear off and then go watch the originals again and try to recall the day when "Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope" was just called "Star Wars."<br /><br />And there you have it, friends. Let me know which are your favorite movie trilogies in the comments below.<br /><br />You're welcome.<br />-KandersonKandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07679564696886248629noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1017464664920788007.post-84004041827026727412010-03-11T12:36:00.000-08:002010-03-11T17:46:21.362-08:00The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, And How It Probably Can’t Destroy The World<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNkd1edymTxMyQVWOIkHhkglHYoha_yP1ST3pzNqXavD_L2sf_fzZRzaesYDpbtUNp8Dm9JTvGzohe8ebK9CXVV-UxEq23JcarIQ7CT32kXq-Norkp1RkkyqI43hknC5MOvHCDpv94K04/s1600-h/340x_owlmananimatedgrantmorrisonearth-1.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 112px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNkd1edymTxMyQVWOIkHhkglHYoha_yP1ST3pzNqXavD_L2sf_fzZRzaesYDpbtUNp8Dm9JTvGzohe8ebK9CXVV-UxEq23JcarIQ7CT32kXq-Norkp1RkkyqI43hknC5MOvHCDpv94K04/s200/340x_owlmananimatedgrantmorrisonearth-1.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447478605566718418" /></a><br />"The Heisenberg Uncertainty Over-ride taps into a limitless pool of destructive energy," Owlman says in Crisis on Two Earths, describing his evil world-destruction plan. But what is the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle? And could overcoming it really end in explosions?<br /><br />The one sentence description of the Uncertainty Principle is as follows: Scientists can know the position of a particle, or the velocity of a particle, but not both at the same time.<br /><br />The Uncertainty Principle has been described as the idea that it is impossible to observe a situation without changing it. There are a hundred documentaries about how, for example, sharks behave. Yet even the most naïve of television watchers will suspect that the shark filmed attacking a diving cage might not behave the same way if it weren't swimming through huge chunks of rotten fish only to run into a guy waving a camera at it. The idea that even a careful scientist influences the outcome of an experiment is easily understood.<br /><br />That's not the Uncertainty Principle.<br /><br />The Uncertainty Principle is also often explained by an illustration of why we have such trouble with small particles in general. Human sight is the brain's interpretation of photons that have bounced off other materials. When the materials are large compared to the photons, there isn't much difficulty. Consider mapping out a room using ping-pong balls. Each time a ball bounces back, it would tell the thrower how close the wall is, whether the wall is angled towards or away from the thrower, and if there were any objects on it. It wouldn't be an enjoyable way to spend an afternoon, but it would be possible to form an accurate picture.<br /><br />Now consider using that technique to map out a human hand. An apple. Another ping-pong ball. Each diminution of scale and weight would result in fewer and fewer details being known. When the ball hits something its own size and weight, the impact itself changes the position and momentum of the object it hits. An accurate picture is impossible.<br /><br />That's also not technically the Uncertainty Principle, although it comes closer.<br /><br />The Uncertainty Principle is not a practical problem. Practical problems can be resolved. A camera can be made small and unobtrusive enough not to bother a shark, and the only problem with the mapping experiment is the lack of smaller balls. We can't know both the velocity and the position of, say, an electron because particles on that scale do not behave the way objects on our scale behave.<br /><br />The heart of the principle is the fact that light is both a particle and a wave. A good way to demonstrate it is by using that most useful of all io9 fascinations; the laser.<br /><br />Imagine shining a laser through an open doorway. What would the result be? Since the only thing used to measure the position of the photons is a doorway (three feet by six-and-a-half feet), they march through in an orderly fashion and their velocity is predictable. They are confined to a red dot on the opposite wall.<br /><br />But what if the measurements got more precise than the space of a doorway? Try narrowing the doorway - either with conventional sliding doors, or one of those cool sliding stone exits that always nearly kills Indiana Jones. At first, the result is predictable. The laser beam is cut off on both sides by the narrowing doorway. The space that the remaining photons travel through gets smaller, our knowledge of their position at one point in time gets more precise. And the red spot on the wall will get slimmer. The more the doorway closes, the slimmer the spot on the wall will get.<br /><br />Until the space between the sides of the doorway reaches a certain point. Then, instead of a tiny dot on the wall, the laser light will branch out, and look like this:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwshgy5SNkH1Ftwg8V5Nlu3CkMzvY75kS87_jO36oxopxRx4ruemIRvx5B-xE-qlYPuEFC0ZjzcpRdn76_777K57ASUDrUecOxlIgAvBBjdGYonHF9nHtJKmYjo3HXG9agP5gmQv-FBi4/s1600-h/500x_q2-single-slit-diffraction.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 226px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwshgy5SNkH1Ftwg8V5Nlu3CkMzvY75kS87_jO36oxopxRx4ruemIRvx5B-xE-qlYPuEFC0ZjzcpRdn76_777K57ASUDrUecOxlIgAvBBjdGYonHF9nHtJKmYjo3HXG9agP5gmQv-FBi4/s400/500x_q2-single-slit-diffraction.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447479360618314498" /></a><br /><br /><br />Notice how there are peaks and valleys to the brightness of the light. That is the wave part of the particle-wave duality. It is what makes it impossible to know both the position and the velocity of a photon. Once the slit becomes small enough for an observer to know, to a certain degree, where the photons passing through it are, the velocity of the photons becomes less predictable. The photons aren't traveling dutifully towards a single dot on the wall. Each one could be going towards any of a number of spots. While researchers can predict the likelihood of a photon ending up in any of those bright spots, they cannot say for certain where the photon will hit.<br /><br />This isn't a failure of experimentation, or precision. This is an intrinsic property of the photons themselves. This is the reason behind the Uncertainty Principle.<br /><br />What does that mean for a James-Woods-voiced vigilante with a heart of purest lead, intent on destroying all of mankind?<br /><br />That depends on how one views the Uncertainty Principle. Einstein famously said, "God does not play dice with the universe." If he was correct, then the Uncertainty Principle is merely a function of our current understanding of the universe. It can be changed as we undertand more, or view things in a different way. Still, the idea that one can ‘tap into a pool of destructive energy' just by knowing where an electron is and where it's going at the same time stretches credibility. It would earn Owlman a Nobel prize, though.<br /><br />The other possibility is that Owlman's device would change the way quantum particles behaved. It might collapse either the wave or the particle property of an elementary particle. Should he be able to collapse the particle part, the earth wouldn't explode, but since light waves wouldn't travel through a vacuum any more than sound waves would, it would get a bit chilly. The sun's rays wouldn't travel to the earth. The biggest source of energy in the world would be gone. In space, no one can hear you freeze to death.<br /><br />Taking away the wave part of a photon doesn't seem as disastrous. At first it just seems to make make the laser experiment a lot less fun. The absence of a wave state may, though, make it impossible for the photon to be a massless particle. This would in turn change the speed of light. It might even put an end to the conservation of energy. Which, again, would most likely kill everything on earth by freezing us to death, or starving us to death, or both.<br /><br />Probably for the best that he failed, even in fiction.<br /><br />This taken from <a href="www.io9.com">io9.com</a><br /><br />You're welcome<br />-KandersonKandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07679564696886248629noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1017464664920788007.post-75999319957405898552010-03-07T21:33:00.000-08:002010-03-08T23:13:48.963-08:00Top 6: BadassesTonight was the Oscars and if Avatar had won any of the big awards, I probably would have done a top 6 about how utterly preposterous that is and what a travesty our industry is. But it didn't win so I can put away my four letter words and do the top six cinematic badasses. What makes a badass should be self-evident, but for this here list I'm going to boil it down to three criteria: 1) Ability to overcome obstacles using guile and cunning as well as force, 2) durability in the face of overwhelming odds, 3) Swagger to laugh, or smirk, at whatever situation presents itself. There are plenty of characters that I've left off the list by simple fact that they are hot heads, so guys like Indiana Jones or Martin Riggs are suitably awesome, but lose their cool too often to be considered for this list. Get it? Let us begin.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrV_MAELviAcdydKkJzGf4xnSpm3YW3kSxw44-zDIpQJLgwcib6hEaAcwjUEArTdi1XM59Ubtp3tPTvQQBSEslg1QVAndgZMq7eRt-3FYl68WCG19iH6edL8SUY48aCOqR1vXm-WJmYTs/s1600-h/pointblank.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 158px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrV_MAELviAcdydKkJzGf4xnSpm3YW3kSxw44-zDIpQJLgwcib6hEaAcwjUEArTdi1XM59Ubtp3tPTvQQBSEslg1QVAndgZMq7eRt-3FYl68WCG19iH6edL8SUY48aCOqR1vXm-WJmYTs/s200/pointblank.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5446158745945625666" /></a><br />VI - Walker in POINT BLANK (1967)<br />One of the many adaptations of Jim Thompson's novel "The Hunter," in which a man is imprisoned and his money stolen by his so-called friends. He wants his money, no more, no less. As far as single-minded characters go, Walker is probably the best. Played by the always solid Lee Marvin in his gruff and sturdy prime as evidenced by the scene in which Angie Dickinson beats on him as hard as she possibly can and he not only doesn't get hurt, he doesn't even move. Walker is the kind of character we know will kill you if you get in his way. The scene most exemplifying his badassery comes when he calmly dangles, then drops, his former friend Mal Reese off of a balcony, then just as icily leaves the scene of the crime before anyone notices.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy90H6xPSa1Ig81mlVzwS1CZjOCKEyQTiGiVWx_rITp5bal1dWaC4ID_vQp8zbseXok7pNTAzfLdE3lNhDThg2WrqbvI35cxLoN_imckAMkdl5XI8ZrWJeFlDcy09JiiLfARmlaU3GGg0/s1600-h/yojimbo1227423164.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 152px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy90H6xPSa1Ig81mlVzwS1CZjOCKEyQTiGiVWx_rITp5bal1dWaC4ID_vQp8zbseXok7pNTAzfLdE3lNhDThg2WrqbvI35cxLoN_imckAMkdl5XI8ZrWJeFlDcy09JiiLfARmlaU3GGg0/s200/yojimbo1227423164.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5446158903316033346" /></a><br />V - Sanjuro in YOJIMBO (1961)<br />A masterless samurai walks into a gang-ravaged town with nothing but a sword and a sneer and leaves with a pile of bodies behind him. Toshiro Mifune, in a role that would be his calling card, displays subtlety and nuance behind his rock-hard glare and solemn face. "Yojimbo," one of Akira Kurosawa's very best, is one of the first movies to depict the hero getting the snot beaten out of him only to have him pick himself up, dust himself off, and kill every last fucker he's ever seen. The iconic, and famously ripped off, scene where he's just sliced two guys to death and hacked the arm off another. Sanjuro calmly walks to the cooper and says, "Two coffins. No, maybe three."<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXzM-DgEng73hIALn3k3ktkutkCHf0NBjqITLuyXaPEUA13kBiDMuDBvJkgRjYRqWW07304e_cqZFZDKuTghXINXZXDrEMBjeOaE95i19zXDI9GIXYjxuJfoFAZOjyPPqBcxYqpeLpZIg/s1600-h/john_mcclane.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXzM-DgEng73hIALn3k3ktkutkCHf0NBjqITLuyXaPEUA13kBiDMuDBvJkgRjYRqWW07304e_cqZFZDKuTghXINXZXDrEMBjeOaE95i19zXDI9GIXYjxuJfoFAZOjyPPqBcxYqpeLpZIg/s200/john_mcclane.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5446159096320297522" /></a><br />IV - John McClane in DIE HARD (1988)<br />This is the role that took Bruce Willis from comedy tv actor to full on action god. John McClane embodies wrong place at the wrong time motif, but where some characters might just stay quiet and let the proper authorities handle it, he dives in head first and pretty much single-handedly kills every terrorist-cum-thief in the entire Nakatomi Plaza. He also pioneered the Jack Bauer trope of fighting back a man-cry during a particularly heavy and dire situation. His crowning achievement, of course, comes when he coined the immortal phrase "Yippee-Ki-Yay, Motherfucker," which he has said in all four films. For a moment that is specifically "Die Hard 1," though, we turn to the scene in which he jumps of a roof, barefoot, his feet cut up with glass, tethered by a fire hose and slams full boor into a plexi-glass window, which he then shoots and falls into. Talk about risking life and limb.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg09LwNf1I1c7opfDEWiocOvMBFZ3EHQ9gttLehKGyRJOVxsW2G0mkLTLS9xvtOG5IE3qK3PIMZuy3AaRtotsUIHTsUMXv5wR2Qa-kvEEmQ3FEx-Ap2NbKkaeP2u1qHFvCA0iw1_8qkQnU/s1600-h/jules-winnfield.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 142px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg09LwNf1I1c7opfDEWiocOvMBFZ3EHQ9gttLehKGyRJOVxsW2G0mkLTLS9xvtOG5IE3qK3PIMZuy3AaRtotsUIHTsUMXv5wR2Qa-kvEEmQ3FEx-Ap2NbKkaeP2u1qHFvCA0iw1_8qkQnU/s200/jules-winnfield.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5446159297004541122" /></a><br />III - Jules Winnfield in PULP FICTION (1994)<br />In Quentin Tarantino's canon of badassery at all costs, Jules, played by the monstrously badass Samuel L. Jackson, is his crowning glory. For not being in the movie quite as much as John Travolta or Bruce Willis, Jackson is easily the most memorable part of the whole shebang. From his bravura show of force at the beginning of the film to his quiet realization of the value of life at the end of the film, Jules easily has the largest arc. Basically the only character in the movie to come out more or less unscathed, his transformation is the lynch pin holding all the others together. His piece de resistance comes during the ending diner heist where he ponders the futility of life, death, and his role in them while spouting bible verses and participating in one of the zig-zaggiest Mexican standoffs in all of filmdom. He's trying real hard to be the shepherd.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCg1uH7-XUSAFfNj1wjxmMSj5FipIpLGNTmgjuCZALIUKUw9Sdq6Ya_KN1ZFe47fk_ZD21EG_3eMJsks_roVIepOHDg1ulSAKrTOt7ySSkUm-dj1oOw5Mic24IcssaqUGkWmviRMpnwUg/s1600-h/jamesbond.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 193px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCg1uH7-XUSAFfNj1wjxmMSj5FipIpLGNTmgjuCZALIUKUw9Sdq6Ya_KN1ZFe47fk_ZD21EG_3eMJsks_roVIepOHDg1ulSAKrTOt7ySSkUm-dj1oOw5Mic24IcssaqUGkWmviRMpnwUg/s200/jamesbond.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5446159438368856354" /></a><br />II - James Bond in any James Bond movie<br />There are few literary characters in the last 100 years that have as famous a surname as Bond. The name immediately evokes cool. Ian Fleming envisioned his super spy as nothing more than a paper-pusher who kills, a government stooge. Little did he know that his blunt instrument would become one of the most popular and enduring figures in Western culture, appearing (officially) in 22 films between 1962 and 2008. Bond is always there to foil some evil, and often ridiculous, plot to destroy or hold ransom the entire population of Earth and he always does it with a twinkle in his eye, a shit-eating grin, and the ability to bed anything with a vagina. It's almost impossible to nail down just one of the great Bond moments over the years, but one of my favorites has to be in "From Russia With Love," (1963) when he has a shootout with a helicopter and comes out the victor. After shooting it down with a small sniper rifle, and the ensuing glorious explosion, Bond merely quips, "I'd say one of their aircraft is missing."<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdd-6sBWwEfIhk2bCvdCWF6BBW4AckLk4phTgk-kGQ-G7Di3PEYqXrP4HjrUPcIl-cSbAK2NDVhRY0Dklu9t_nK9AVRRlzfGmg-dO_iBBpkczvY3rgTNK_caDd0x0C4aj_Xo11JQ86Ouw/s1600-h/clint.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 178px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdd-6sBWwEfIhk2bCvdCWF6BBW4AckLk4phTgk-kGQ-G7Di3PEYqXrP4HjrUPcIl-cSbAK2NDVhRY0Dklu9t_nK9AVRRlzfGmg-dO_iBBpkczvY3rgTNK_caDd0x0C4aj_Xo11JQ86Ouw/s200/clint.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5446159624249630082" /></a><br />I - The Man With No Name in THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY (1966)<br />Sure, I may be a little bias given the film is my number one favorite of all time, but it's hard to argue with Clint Eastwood's gravitas in the badass department. What makes TMWNN so different is that he's a trickster character who is truly only in it for the money and is always scheming for the best position to get it. His skills as a gunman are unmatched, but it's his brain that gets him out of most situations in this film. He always makes sure he has the upper hand, even when it looks like a surefire demise. This is the third film to feature Clint as this character and though he has the fewest lines of the three leads, he makes the most of them. Every line he utters is memorable, as is every gunshot. The entire movie builds to his ultimate ascension to badass royalty, culminating in the greatest showdown in Western movie history and one of the best lines ever: "There are two types of people in this world, my friend: those with loaded guns, and those who dig. You dig." He's not a very nice guy, but there's definitely a reason he's called "The Good."<br /><br />And there you have it. Go rent some movies and enjoy some badassitute.<br /><br />You're welcome.<br />-KandersonKandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07679564696886248629noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1017464664920788007.post-15953358392654028052010-03-04T14:58:00.000-08:002010-03-05T19:33:09.434-08:00The Legend of QuatermassAnyone who knows me, or has read some previous blog entries, will know I'm enamored with British popular culture. It's just better than ours in many ways. To say nothing of their music, which I also find brilliant, I think their storytelling ability is second to none. In the last few years, my appreciation for it has moved passed "Monty Python" and "Spaced" and hit upon some of the action-adventure and sci-fi telly from the 1960s, "The Prisoner" and "Doctor Who." Very different shows, while still being staunchly British. In my research (and I am a research machine) I found that both series, and indeed most science fiction as we know it, owe a great deal to a 1950s creation entitled "The Quatermass Experiment." I, being a holistic fan of reference, decided I needed to see this. First, the facts.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTNXZzUiwF122DgQdn-baaaOPzymtsjYGs9QHNTl5wKOJmIJE44bb7ce84WngNPMAW7g8upmKnRAG6jTa7u9-naHVXVEfMdNrcpFOe1JQ14-DqafQVgPIrwxW1BBRVCMC0WDBNkOR8pAI/s1600-h/Quatexp02.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTNXZzUiwF122DgQdn-baaaOPzymtsjYGs9QHNTl5wKOJmIJE44bb7ce84WngNPMAW7g8upmKnRAG6jTa7u9-naHVXVEfMdNrcpFOe1JQ14-DqafQVgPIrwxW1BBRVCMC0WDBNkOR8pAI/s200/Quatexp02.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5445043356162482978" /></a><br />In the summer of 1953, a six-part series called "The Quatermass Experiment" was broadcast on the BBC between July 18th and August 22nd. It was the first science-fiction themed program aimed at an adult audience. Conceived and written by Nigel Kneale and starring Reginald Tate in the title role, "Experiment" told the story of the first manned flight into space, overseen by Professor Bernard Quatermass of the British Experimental Rocket Group. When the spaceship that carried the first successful crew returns to Earth, two of the three astronauts are missing, and the third is behaving strangely. It becomes clear that an alien presence entered the ship during its flight, and Quatermass and his associates must prevent the alien from destroying the world.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH3KmWUBrrR4CrOP-EjlMlyqjKfYjUXd8V65pWt1qHBBGnuSrk7Nup-lgygx_oqP8QEUf3zv_j1BDrMpUIAW39UFF555Lfbv9dWe0PoIj9gUNfSssQTCKYmM1LJCPwzSjGQcYwQqc3SIU/s1600-h/Quat202.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH3KmWUBrrR4CrOP-EjlMlyqjKfYjUXd8V65pWt1qHBBGnuSrk7Nup-lgygx_oqP8QEUf3zv_j1BDrMpUIAW39UFF555Lfbv9dWe0PoIj9gUNfSssQTCKYmM1LJCPwzSjGQcYwQqc3SIU/s200/Quat202.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5445043563645807650" /></a><br />The unexpected success of "The Quatermass Experiment" led to the production of a second set of six episodes in the autumn of 1955. Nigel Kneale aptly named this series, "Quatermass 2," and it replaced Reginald Tate, who had passed away, with John Robinson. The serial sees Professor Bernard Quatermass being asked to examine strange meteorite showers. His investigations lead to his uncovering a conspiracy involving alien infiltration at the highest levels of the British Government. As even some of Quatermass's closest colleagues fall victim to the alien influence, he is forced to use his own unsafe rocket prototype, which recently caused a nuclear disaster at an Australian testing range, to prevent the aliens from taking over mankind. This serial is often credited with inspiring, among other things, "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," and praised for its allegorical concerns of the damaging effects of industrialisation and the corruption of governments by big business.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFehFgLCi2GUoqyvEmrwtD6Ul5f8rZ4n_i3UOFN8NLi4IcB_kc12XQNnxAp8-VldA0_edbuJM0T61t0bk6nKTtra4Se0vyH-5hPSvIwPvloUjFqUeDHkXefJbB-ycs__dv9jqdXSOfF-4/s1600-h/300px-Qatp03.JPG"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 154px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFehFgLCi2GUoqyvEmrwtD6Ul5f8rZ4n_i3UOFN8NLi4IcB_kc12XQNnxAp8-VldA0_edbuJM0T61t0bk6nKTtra4Se0vyH-5hPSvIwPvloUjFqUeDHkXefJbB-ycs__dv9jqdXSOfF-4/s200/300px-Qatp03.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5445043747275682034" /></a><br />The final Quatermass serial, "Quatermass and the Pit," was broadcast between December and January 1958-1959. Again, the lead character was recast, this time with Andre Morrell. The series continues the loose chronology of the Quatermass adventures, and begins with Professor Bernard Quatermass being forced out of his role at the British Experimental Rocket Group, with the organisation being passed into military control by the British Government. Quatermass and his new colleague, Colonel Breen, become involved in the discovery of a bizarre object at an archaeological dig in Knightsbridge, London. As the serial progresses, Quatermass and his associates find that the contents of the object have a horrific influence over many of those who come into contact with it. As this influence increases, affecting Quatermass himself, darker implications are revealed about the entire nature and origins of mankind. This serial was voted one of the top 100 British Television Programmes by the British Film Institute and has been cited as an influence by both Stephen King and John Carpenter.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTbC4DjGpHWl61S5qWyNUa_IOAIGSb_rvOm7fDv5Nb5eTfzkHd2tsPpGJ1nyKm6Z7G9mZmtFlprry4vmwtLMsJJiYs06_uKYY5RXzZH_VRcGuk3qsDlTYji-a3v05s8LnpRhQU_nqJSLk/s1600-h/briandonlevy17.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 153px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTbC4DjGpHWl61S5qWyNUa_IOAIGSb_rvOm7fDv5Nb5eTfzkHd2tsPpGJ1nyKm6Z7G9mZmtFlprry4vmwtLMsJJiYs06_uKYY5RXzZH_VRcGuk3qsDlTYji-a3v05s8LnpRhQU_nqJSLk/s200/briandonlevy17.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5445048072171323330" /></a><br />So great. These sound amazing, but they aren't available in the States. What's a guy like me to do? Luckily, my old pals at Hammer Films decided to adapt these into films. Bad news, these films are also not available in the United States. They are, however, definitely available via bootlegs purchased on ebay. For a measly $15, I got all three. The first two on one disc and third on another one. Before I popped them in, I wanted to know what I was getting myself into.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTj8N7AXPZC0LH5laWi-2Cgx-0eIKazmzkTnvcuACAwTykUCYtB5BXZR_ODfKs55wPdaji2M17hqTn52NNtv2HdkZNB_wOSYqTw2Uye8lOOFMYXUDFqyT3vvG7k1SpPBARZiM-J4lAS8A/s1600-h/Quatermass+2+06.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 148px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTj8N7AXPZC0LH5laWi-2Cgx-0eIKazmzkTnvcuACAwTykUCYtB5BXZR_ODfKs55wPdaji2M17hqTn52NNtv2HdkZNB_wOSYqTw2Uye8lOOFMYXUDFqyT3vvG7k1SpPBARZiM-J4lAS8A/s200/Quatermass+2+06.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5445046378187209922" /></a><br />Around the time "Quatermass 2" was being produced for the Beeb, Hammer Films were in the process of turning the first serial into a film. Directed by Val Guest, "The Quatermass Xperiment" was co-written by Guest and Richard Landau. The title was a reference to the fact that the film was given an X certificate in the UK. As the film would be a United States co-production, it was decided that a known American actor be brought in to play the story's lead. They decided upon tough guy actor Brian Donlevy who'd earned an Oscar nomination for Beau Geste in 1939 but was otherwise known for westerns or light comedy. Not exactly the kind of person you'd expect to play a brilliant rocket scientist. The character's creator, Nigel Kneale agreed, quoted as saying, "Donlevy played him as a mechanic, a creature with a completely closed mind." <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDQE9CQ-CwSUftODt8HXoolHPY5emeeDHQSmdHrGDXYu6H0mVQu0dN8LZH6sNAQ1F_IE8YrKnLtaFj_8Wvhv_iHMDcVM2XVXehyAdO35qDHWjJ_RxVp4jQ-eYXDMP-FGtGAd5z3ZCzmOg/s1600-h/Andrewkeir.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 158px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDQE9CQ-CwSUftODt8HXoolHPY5emeeDHQSmdHrGDXYu6H0mVQu0dN8LZH6sNAQ1F_IE8YrKnLtaFj_8Wvhv_iHMDcVM2XVXehyAdO35qDHWjJ_RxVp4jQ-eYXDMP-FGtGAd5z3ZCzmOg/s200/Andrewkeir.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5445046524618677346" /></a><br />Despite the writer's misgivings, the film was successful enough to warrant adapting "Quatermass 2" to "Quatermass II" in 1957. This time, Kneale himself co-wrote the script with returning director Val Guest, though Donlevy also returned, making him the only actor to play the role twice. The third film didn't come around until 1967, directed by Hammer contract director Roy Ward Baker with a script entirely written by Kneale, unsurprisingly extremely close to his original television version, with whole scenes and chunks of dialogue remaining essentially untouched. Replacing Brian Donlevy as Quatermass was Scottish actor Andrew Keir. In contrast to Donlevy, Keir's performance as Quatermass has been very well-received down the years, and the film is generally felt to be the most faithful of the three cinematic adaptations, although it was not as commercially successful as its predecessors.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkav_VJe0_yUaHQ-cW1JnvmDL7rXQtmgWF4JMTNBh5-TL8TWWrSWbmmV_8lc_HYTERWV3D_-hDhOVNwWJJ2derF6ZMeMFSu3p6hVb3OlAZ_s6EoPkMAdFnr3zqOd2VrheRbcuCg1cFGFg/s1600-h/The_Quatermass_Xperiment.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 141px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkav_VJe0_yUaHQ-cW1JnvmDL7rXQtmgWF4JMTNBh5-TL8TWWrSWbmmV_8lc_HYTERWV3D_-hDhOVNwWJJ2derF6ZMeMFSu3p6hVb3OlAZ_s6EoPkMAdFnr3zqOd2VrheRbcuCg1cFGFg/s200/The_Quatermass_Xperiment.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5445046801057866434" /></a><br />So this morning, I embarked on my own Quatermass Experiment, watching all three films back to back. Easy to do since they're only about 85 minutes a piece. The first film was not my favorite. Despite the cool beginning with the rocket crashing, the middle bit slows down quite a lot as Quatermass and his colleague, Dr. Briscoe, do a lot of experimenting. Brian Donlevy by and large does not fit the role as I understand it. Half the time he's like a cop, the other half he's whining. Still the movie's all right and has a good ending.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipr8XscEyAF83mZ6ih_jZb5OdoJZHJP6akqCce_yOo1J1bEGyzVhDJ_Bcu8AMfsi3esvfZiLK0-b8i3jqfOCOFsqnPAQK00wEJ0_5enVmIC_uFZ80EBI04w2tcU-bAC1QQ1TXtH3SWeH8/s1600-h/Quatermass2.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 152px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipr8XscEyAF83mZ6ih_jZb5OdoJZHJP6akqCce_yOo1J1bEGyzVhDJ_Bcu8AMfsi3esvfZiLK0-b8i3jqfOCOFsqnPAQK00wEJ0_5enVmIC_uFZ80EBI04w2tcU-bAC1QQ1TXtH3SWeH8/s200/Quatermass2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5445046944363659042" /></a><br />"Quatermass II" is a much better film, which I'm sure has something to do with having over double the budget of "Xperiment." There's much more scope and the story is more interesting. It ends with a kind of quasi-zombie showdown between townsfolk and alien-infected military in a natural gas plant. The downside to this one is that Brian Donlevy's performance actually is weaker than he was previously. I've read he only took part in these movies for the paycheck and it really shows. Still, the story and direction make up for him in a lot of ways.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhorld9m_iu9Os9tjimMk8GQTdlwArQfDfqscDqi1eLm3G_CResjRqBxVJqEVq-jNnMxkGaTVPe2_ApNbfpiPpreZ54Q8HU1jU6xKOmAUK0qpsYXlmg6X-05gE7uLwshvtQAgNENIOlmiQ/s1600-h/Pitposter.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 145px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhorld9m_iu9Os9tjimMk8GQTdlwArQfDfqscDqi1eLm3G_CResjRqBxVJqEVq-jNnMxkGaTVPe2_ApNbfpiPpreZ54Q8HU1jU6xKOmAUK0qpsYXlmg6X-05gE7uLwshvtQAgNENIOlmiQ/s200/Pitposter.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5445047106268494706" /></a><br />The third film is superior in almost every way. First, it's in color, and while I love black & white, there's something about the way Hammer movies looked in the mid-60s that just makes me happy. Second, the story is absolutely phenomenal, regarding ancient alien locusts who may be behind the way humans developed. Nigel Kneale's script is taut, interesting, and at times quite frightening. Thirdly, and most importantly, Andrew Keir as Professor Quatermass is exactly the way he should be. Steadfast and strong, with a little bit of the sense of wonder that any man of the future should have. And it also didn't hurt that the transfer on this bootleg was infinitely better than the first two. "The Quatermass Xperiment" was taped off of Turner Classic Movies and transferred to disc, evident by the TCM logo that would appear in the lower right corner every so often.<br /><br />If you get a chance to watch any of these films, please take it. These are some of the most involving, innovative stories of aliens from outer space I've ever seen. Until the day we can watch the television serials here in this country, these bootlegs will have to be sufficient to understand the legacy of Quatermass. As a character, he represents all that is possible in science, always looking ahead to the next big discovery. Much the same way I will continue my search for great, overlooked gems in the realm of British sci-fi and horror and tell you more than you ever thought you'd want to know.<br /><br />You're welcome.<br />-KandersonKandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07679564696886248629noreply@blogger.com1