Wrestlevania

The trailer implies that Ledger's only able to do the following three cinematic Joker trademarks: Gurning One-liners That hammy laugh I'm disappointed because I think it's got to be underselling what should be a superb blend of writing, directing and acting talent. That's what I'm hoping anyway. It's a pandering, generic trailer that doesn't show off anything that knuckle-draggers couldn't shake a faeces-encrusted paw at and bellow, "Cool!" I want something more intelligent and considered. And not least because, given all the effort that's going into the viral campaign, this is such a straight-laced, predictable "reward" when compared to all the other interesting promotion that's going on around the film. Plus I'm annoyed that Gotham seems to have turned into New York City, even though a decent proportion of it was engulfed in a cloud of hallucinagen* and crawling with lunatics when Begins ended... ...and no, I'm not trying to be clever or insightful with that; never been to NYC, never plan to and have nothing against it either. * Sorry.

After seeing that truly shit trailer, I'm now a little worried that Ledger may in fact turn out to be rubbish as The Joker. Hopefully, it's just a very poorly cut sequence though.

Stardust was great and we both really enjoyed it. Appropriately enough, it's surprisingly appropriate for this time of year, being as it's a little bit like a pantomime in it's form and function. Great characters, pretty much excellent performances throughout and some very good special effects. Definitely recommended. ...and I'm really getting excited about The Dark Knight. Downloading the trailer now.

This is becoming alarmingly commonplace.

Taking Mrs. V. to see Stardust tomorrow for our 7th wedding anniversary. We're both really looking forward to it, so hopefully it'll be worth seeing. Certainly looks promising.

From me, to you.

Encore!

Wow, nice score there. Wouldn't mind seeing a photo of the customised DS you're getting. And congratulations -- well deserved I think.

And, by comparison, the human industrial revolution has progressed many orders of magnitude faster than the speed of light...

Quick 'n' dirty: Edit: OK, it was a bit too quick and dirty. So I've tweaked it's pixelly little parts a bit.

Going by Spaff's diagram and Dan's summing up (thanks, gents), I find the Death and City Watch series' immediately appealing. I observed a bit of either Discworld adventure game when I was younger and liked the Death character in them.

McGowan is excellent, granted. Tarrantino is only capable of playing one character and that's a rather weasley wigger. (Shoot me down, but I've never perceived his on-screen portrayals as anything other.) It's not the casting that bothered me so much--I've already alluded to how superb I thought Kurt Russell was in the role. It's more the sitting around, through two different iterations of exactly the same story that bothered me. Plus the pay-off for either strand just wasn't worth the preceding build up in my opinion. It's a good "watch once" film, I agree. But Tarrantino seems intent on slipping into this sort of disposable pop cornery at the cinema, without actually making any meaningful statement when he does so. Granted, I appreciate the surgically precise homage he's made to 70s drive-in cinema here, but he's added nothing. If anything, it was rather obviously flawed in that he included plot mechanics such as one character sending text messages on her mobile phone. Stumbling across this whilst having been expertly immersed in period nostalgia was jarring and uncomfortable. That said, I can still imagine Death Proof having been somewhat spectacular when seen on the big screen. But even so I don't think you'd be back for repeat sittings. At almost 2hrs long, maybe it's the 'unrated' cut that's at fault here. I wouldn't be surprised if the original, significantly shorter Grindhouse cut was much more punchy. Especially off the back of Planet Terror. I can't rightly recall the play order for those two. But, regardless of how they came together, I think the relationship is perhaps too symbiotic for them to be enjoyed in separate, longer sittings. One is an all out guns blazing, gore-splattered action flick, with (what should be) a very obvious payload for the viewer. The other is a broody and sinister road movie, which ebbs and flows quite sombrely for the most part with a very abrupt - and not entirely satisfactory - climax. You know, given perhaps due consideration, I'm very tempted now to get hold of the original Grindhouse double bill and watch both films together, in one sitting, as was intended by Tarrantino and Rodriguez. Hopefully I'll be able to alienate having seen the longer cut of Death Proof from my mind when I do this, as it may be that already knowing a lot more of the incidental happenings would mentally embellish the original edit featured in the double bill. Man alive, do I want to be a professional critic for a living...

That's a very good point actually; both Half-Life games have had the player traverse an enormous amount of distance, whether it be running/driving overground or crawling deep in the bowls of a top secret military science installation. Thinking about this gives me a rush of nostalgia, too... Hurry up, Black Mesa!

Did they use just one person for all the voiceovers, simply adjusting the tightness of the elastic band around his scrotum to compensate? Awful -- they've no idea who their audience is. EDIT: And did Mario really just fart out a mushroom whilst appearing to have some kind of stress-related seizure?! Okay, they've caught my attention again.

For the record, as much as I enjoyed the main Half-Life 2 game I found Episode 1 rather trite and uninspiring. It's only noteworthy point for me is the new heights Valve has soared to in terms of NPC connection and interplay -- Alyx is simply brilliant in every aspect. Please, for me, at least play up until you've done the bridge. That's my most favourite gamespace to date as I write this; it's unlike any other set piece I've played, blending several highly contrasting gameplay formats/structures (platforming, FPS, stealth) into one section so brilliantly. It's also quite breath-taking to just see in my opinion -- I really hope you get that far and enjoy it too.

Thanks for the tip. I'm in the midst of The Dice Man at the moment, but this is going on the list as my next potential read.

Tried several, couldn't get into them. Having one read to me by Tony Robinson was good though. But I don't have my own personal Tony Robinson for bed times, so I've not tried the analogue versions again since.

Don't play it on a console? If you don't enjoy the second game, even now, you need your head looking at.

Not that I've read his books, but I enjoyed the audiobook of The Colour of Magic immensely. Very sad to hear all the same.

Again, I LOL'd at least twice uncontrollably into the office.

Fixed.

Here's my one word review of the 'unrated' feature length cut of Death Proof: flacid. Is it Tarrantino's explicit modus operandi to become ever more irrelevant with each film nowadays? I can't see any point to Death Proof except that it was probably fun for everyone involved and it's a nice portfolio piece for Kurt Russell. Other than that... why? PS: The WMP11-Xbox 360 media connectors are excellent -- the video upscaling is really smooth and playback is seamless, unlike when I tried TVersity in the past. Thank you, Microsoft.

What is it with this game? Why do people like it, exactly? OK, I understand the basic premise. You get to run around one "spooky" warehouse interior after another, maybe tramping through a vaguely sewer-like section in between, shooting stuff with big guns -- "stuff" being exactly the right term. Am I really supposed to be some 7ft musclebound SWAT-trained beefcake with the upper arm strength of a toddler? I mean, come on. I'm all for a modest amount of realism in shooters, but with the hateful aiming mechanic you're constantly hosing your limited ammo supply across the walls, floor and ceiling. Everywhere but actually into your enemy. And let's get one thing absolutely straight, before this stupid myth perpetuates its self into the annals of gaming history for good: whoever decided the AI in this game was "probably the best since the grunts in Half-Life" needs their fucking head examined. Over and over the bumbling idiots trot right in front of me whilst trying to take up flanking positions, without even so much as a rifle stock to the solar plexus. And I mean right in front of me, like they have to run around where I'm standing in a tight corridor on their dizzy way to fuck know's where. I'm not even going to bother mentioning the piss-weak paranormal aspect except for the incidental music, which is great. The gore wouldn't scare a 12yr-old.

Sorry, but that's another sweeping statement I'm calling "bullshit" on. Not that anyone's remotely interested in my meatspace existence, but I've been presented with two financially attractive buggeree opportunities in the past and turned them both down because I didn't agree with them in principle. I'm not talking about life-altering amounts of money, but not peanuts either. It's down to the individual and their perception of honesty and integrity. This is why the subject interests me so much I suppose, but more importantly because this is an enthusiast-led sector for the most part.

I believe the system they're planning / have created is that the further the camera pulls back the more overhead it becomes, until you end up with a decent 3D interpretation of the original series' viewpoint. So I'm assuming that you'll be allowed to rotate the camera around some arbitrary point to achieve an accurate copy of the isometric view many "fans" are frothing for.