Abhimanyu

and Black Swan too.

 

This would be a huge loss on your part!

 

Ditto. It is hella creepy. Super dark, expertly crafted, and seriously frightening.

Not to mention the jawdroppingly incredible performance by Natalie Portman. She is so so good in this.

and Black Swan too.

This would be a huge loss on your part!

Holy shit, how could they possibly get away with that? And how is this not HUGE news?

Then again, those are two questions I ask myself every second day, every time I read some similar article about equally heinous shit happening elsewhere.

Your recommendation for 13 is stronger than for The Town? I've seen The Town and thought it was great but according to the press/friends, 13 is a really crappy actioner that didn't get a theatrical release! And I heard most of that cast is barely even in the movie!

So you really thought 13 was better than The Town? If this is the case, I might check it out.

Is Generation Kill worth my time?

HELL, yes.

 

Enjoy it while you can, young man. It will change after you hit 30 if you are not careful.

Hell, it's happening to me at 28!

Up until a year or so ago I was cursing my inability to gain weight without embarking on ludicrous amounts of working out and nausea-inducing football player 3500 calorie diets. Suddenly, after my 28th birthday I noticed the beginnings of a belly! It only got larger and larger until I incorporated cardio into my gym time (for the first time in my life, really).

Oh decrepitude.

I decided to watch the last 2 eps of season 2 & first 4 of season 3. halfway through, what does it say about humanity that the most ruthless cylon fighters/haters were cylons themselves?

To me, it mostly said that the writers were making the story up as they went along and that post-New Caprica, the show was borderline nonsensical. Suspicions borne out by the show's finale.

Yes, it looks good, but I really didn't understand squat about what that's actually about.

Usually the case when it comes to trailers of Terence Malick movies!

 

Dexter season finale was something of a disappointment, alright really but lacked that big scene needed to make it particularly memorable.

 

It was pretty much identical to every single finale that has gone before. Minus the paradigm change of last season's finale. They've been totally enslaved by the formula at this point. The next truly interesting season will probably be the final one. Which might not come for a while given that this is Showtime's highest rated show by far.

 

I agree with you about them milking their formula, but I am not as kind about the totally uninteresting and predictable finale.

 

I was referring to last season's finale as being a potential paradigm change. Not this season. I disliked this season's finale too.

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that the next season of Dexter would be the last.

When Showtime announced that Dexter had been renewed for a sixth season, they specifically mentioned that it would not be billed as a final season. I think they're definitely going to leave this cash cow mooing for a while. My guess is that Dexter will end either when Michael C. Hall gets sick of it or when the show scrapes such depths of awfulness/formula that there's a fan backlash.

 

Dexter season finale was something of a disappointment, alright really but lacked that big scene needed to make it particularly memorable.

It was pretty much identical to every single finale that has gone before. Minus the paradigm change of last season's finale. They've been totally enslaved by the formula at this point. The next truly interesting season will probably be the final one. Which might not come for a while given that this is Showtime's highest rated show by far.

Well, I sort of like Ray Romano's show "Men of a Certain Age". Second season starts this week. Might want to give it a try. You're right though - we're fresh out of dramas for the next couple months.

I love Smoke & Mirrors.

I also love American Gods.

Both rank alongside of Sandman for my Gaiman love, making the Holy Trinity of Gaiman.

 

Usually short stories are what Gaiman is best at with prose, but American Gods seemed like his magnum opus to me.

I've found his career to have gone totally downhill since then.

Anansi Boys, yeah, I just couldn't get into that very much either. It was a far cry from American Gods.

 

Well, Coraline was fun. Nothing wrong with it.

 

Fragile Things has some really good pieces, but I found it overall weaker than Smoke & Mirrors.

Lou-If you did read American Gods, there's a novella in Fragile Things that takes place in the same world as American Gods.

The Graveyard Book?

Personally, I don't see what's so incredibly amazing about Gaiman's YA books. It's not that I didn't enjoy them but it's these that seem to have catapulted him into literary awards heaven and play a large part in sustaining his place in the public consciousness (along with his astonishing skill at image-building). Outside of my comic book nerd friends, most Gaiman fans I know seem to talk about his YA stuff (and his blog) more than anything else. Half of them didn't even know he wrote short stories! Of course, it's entirely possible that this is just my experience and I bump into unusual Gaiman fans.

Anyone read Jonathan Maberry's Pine Deep trilogy?

Ah, 'A Study In Emerald'. For my money, one of the best things Gaiman's ever written. Lots of writers have tried to imitate Lovecraft, and lots more have tried to emulate Conan Doyle, but Gaiman does a nigh-perfect job of pulling off both at once, with a healthy dose of himself in there for good measure.

 

His short stories are, as a whole, far and away his best prose work.

Seconded on all counts.

You should definitely pick up Smoke and Mirrors too when you get the chance, Lou.

What a great season finale for Terriers. The best season of TV that almost nobody saw. Am really hoping it gets renewed but the chances seem slim to nonexistent.

Sons Of Anarchy season finale: redeems the season somewhat, but not enough (plus, you have to believe that the Sons are suddenly highly intelligent to pull that stunt off). but hey at least there's one good thing:

ding dong, the witch is dead.

 

Amen to that. Also, it was about time Chibs got himself a badass moment.

That was more like it. Highly implausible but a whole hell of a lot more fun than the twelve episodes that came before. Wasn't too clear on some stuff though. Will wait for John to catch up before I post about it.

 

Dexter was great again this week, the Lumen/Dex dynamic is just a whole lot of fun and Robocop's bitter nutter is one of my favourite ever supporting characters from this (or any other) show.

Agreed. He doesn't get nearly enough screen time to showcase his awesomeness though. I was quite disappointed by their meeting at the police station. I was expecting some 'De Niro/Pacino in Heat' type sparks to fly.

The latest episode was the best since the pilot IMO. Some great scenes there, not the least of which is the show's biggest departure from the comic to date. I'm really quite enjoying this.

I see. I don't entirely agree, since I view HP mainly as teen flicks, not kid flicks, but I'd agree that the film indeed is a lot darker than many other made for that age segment.

Yeah, I take your point. They would certainly be more easily/better classified as teen movies. It's just that Harry Potter is still so big with the pre-teen segment that I still see it marketed plenty to the kids. Even so, a lot of the movies I see aimed at teens seem to take the 'let's talk down to them' approach so I admired the movie for not going that route.

:D

Chaw does annoy me sometimes with his reviews too so I can absolutely see why you'd feel that way! It's just that this time I agree with much of what he has to say.

What I thought was brave about it is that it goes a lot of places where kid cinema does not generally go. Of course, one could say that the HP films are not really 'kid cinema' anymore but it is certainly marketed as such in a lot of places. It really does engage with some complicated subjects (loss, sacrifice, love, loneliness, betrayal etc) in a manner that approaches maturity. It strays about as far from the usual condescending/whitewashed approach taken by movies aimed at kids as you can possibly get. In terms of the sheer psychological and physical damage being done to the good guys (as well as the unflinching way it's depicted), I do think the film is taking a lot of risks. It's not the first HP movie to do this, of course, but that doesn't detract from it.

It's entirely possible that I'm just not watching the right family movies but, Pixar aside, I don't see too many like this. It's likely that my opinion of this film was coloured by the fact that I had to take some kid cousins to Tangled (the Disney Rapunzel adaptation) just a day previous and everything I disliked about that film was done right by HP 7.

Again, I should stress that I didn't like the film anywhere near as much as Chaw did. I just think he did a good job of pointing out the brave/brilliant bits.

That's just it - I actually felt that the movie was very brave

Leaving aside the fact that we clearly had a very different experience of the film, I really don't get this. Brave? How?

I'll leave it to a much better writer than I am:

http://filmfreakcentral.net/screenreviews/harrypotter7.htm

I didn't like the film as much as he did. I did think much of it was badly paced and the middle sequence was laggy and occasionally incomprehensible. But he explains the stuff I did like about the movie very well. Chaw has a tendency to over-intellectualize the films he loves and I think he overstates the Christ metaphor stuff but, generally speaking, he articulates my feelings about the movie's high points effectively. He does tend to ignore its low points.

Just saw the movie and (mostly) enjoyed it. Kreachur and Dobby are the greatest.

 

The first 40 minutes or so were excellent. I really wish they'd shown us more of how the fascist Ministry was affecting lives, Muggle and non-Muggle alike.

 

I thought those house elf special effects were just amazing. Just beautiful expressions and animation.

 

Something else I really liked? the scenes of the trio in the british countryside with the radio voiceover listing missing and/or dead wizards and witches. Had a very seventies vibe to it.

 

Also, I've heard a lot of people complaining about that "dance" scene, but I really liked the awkwardness of it. and hey, Nick Cave! I think Cave would make a terrifying Death Eater

 

Also, I was surprised that they took Ron's Harry/Hermione vision as far as they did. Hollywood and all..

That's just it - I actually felt that the movie was very brave and contains a few moments of outright brilliance. That dance sequence was IMO one of those moments. Conveyed a really strong sense of how isolated those two were while simultaneously bringing across their affection for each other. And the song choice definitely made it even better.

The Holocaust imagery was very well used as was the vaguely postapocalyptic feel of so much of the film. Parts of the scenery looked like it was straight out of The Road. Generally speaking, they took the characters to places I rarely see a film of this sort go. And goddamn, that animated sequence was incredible.

If it had been paced better and more attention had been paid to putting the narrative structure together in a way that it hung together without leaving non-Potter-fanatics totally in the dark about some of the events...this could've been a classic. A kids' movie (well, sort of) that doesn't talk down to its audience.

Just saw the movie and (mostly) enjoyed it. Kreachur and Dobby are the greatest.

The first 40 minutes or so were excellent. I really wish they'd shown us more of how the fascist Ministry was affecting lives, Muggle and non-Muggle alike.

This latest action of Stahl's was just beyond stupid. Every single scene involving her takes me completely out of the story.

Otherwise, agreed with Sean. Little better than what's come before.