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['In Bruges', 'The Savages', 'Rambo', Iron Man, 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall', 'Harold & Kumar 2']

Pah! You lesser mortals with your web based critiques! I have flown that coop to become a radio celebrity.

Oooh, 'ark it 'im with 'is 'oity-toity, radio celebrity airs and bleedin' graces! Forgot where 'e come from, 'e 'as.

Best of the year for me include 'In Bruges', 'The Savages', 'Rambo', Iron Man, 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall', 'Harold & Kumar 2' (not as good as first one though), 'The Happening, 'Dark Knight, 'Hell Boy 2', 'City of Ember', 'Taken', 'Burn After Reading' and 'Ghost Town'.

Bugger! Forgot about Burn After Reading (sadly not about an arsonist touring the dormitory towns of Berkshire, as the title originally made me suspect) ... I shall have to fit that in before Christmas. Not a summer blockbuster, though ...

I may consider my season ticket renewal, especially if they disregard my request for a 'no arsehole' rule.

How will you sit if they agree?

Cheers!

Jim

(Sorry if this smacks of rampant egotism, but I couldn't be arsed tracking down the relevant threads for each movie and tacking my comments onto the end of each of them ...)

Over the last couple of months, I've been catching up with the summer's big blockbuster movies on DVD and have, I must admit, been pleasantly surprised by the general lack of suckage ...

There may be SPOILERS but I'm not tagging them in movies that have been out for months. You have been warned.

Dark Knight Returns: OK, I actually paid to see this one in the cinema. I'm not entirely convinced that the plot holds together, and have a suspicion that on a repeat viewing the whole thing may fall apart. However, on the whole I found a first viewing carried you through the film's running time in reasonably satisfactory way. Best line went to Morgan Freeman and -- if you're going to swipe chunks of your plot wholesale from the comics -- there are worse things to swipe from than Killing Joke, with which the film shares much more than it does with its titular* semi-namesake.

Hellboy II: Likewise, a cinema viewing for me. I'll be interested to see whether this works on DVD, since the film seemed to be short on plot and long on "Ooh! Pretty!" It felt a lot less like a Hellboy movie and much more like a Guillermo Del Toro movie (to the extent that I am slightly concerned for The Hobbit now). Nonetheless, there was much to like here. Pretty much every scene looked fabulous and the raw imagination on display was impressive. Ron Perlman is always watchable and reprised the role with same gruff charm and engaging petulance that worked so well in the first film.

The Incredible Hulk: Although I can see the attraction, I've never been a particular fan of the comics and -- I think it is uncontroversial to say -- the last attempt at a film version sucked pretty mightily. Thus, the uncomplicated pleasures of this film provided a thoroughly entertaining couple of hours. I can do no better than agree with the Right Honourable Mr Tordel B. Ack when he said: "Much was smashed by the Hulk, including large amounts of military hardware. Betty worried prettily, Thunderbolt Ross hunted obsessively, the Abomination abominated".

Iron Man: Suprise hit of the crop for me. Iron Man has always seemed to me be a brilliant idea for a superhero, but Marvel have, over the years, filled his title with thoroughly odd and fanciful villains which seem to be at odds with what is a remarkably down-to-earth and "straight" SF concept. Fortunately, they pretty much went with a splendid performance by Downey Jr, a lot of hardware getting blown up or mangled, and a massive punch up at the end. The script was sprinkled with an excellently judged dusting of humour and all the subsidiary performances were more than satisfactory.

Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: I don't know whether I my expectations were pre-lowered by some piss-poor word of mouth, or whether I was prepared to give this film a free pass because, well, you know, it's an Indiana Jones movie, but I enjoyed it a whole lot more than I expected to. There's some oddly shonky CGI at the start, on some totally mundane backgrounds as well, but beyond that I enjoyed it pretty much without reservation. I've read some people complaining about silliness and unrealistic elements, but this is an Indiana Jones movie. Likewise, complaints of the ending degenerating into a special effects fest which has little relation to, or involvement by, the hero ... it's an Indiana Jones movie. Could it have been better? Doubtless, and probably by an order of magnitude with a better screenplay. However, it was exciting in all the right places, funny in all the right places, and was much enlivened by a splendidly sparky performance from Karen Allen, who must have a painting in her attic that doesn't look so good.

Wall•E: For some reason, I have to fight with my wife to make her watch every Pixar movie. In fact, I practically have to tie her to a fucking chair** to make her watch them. Despite loving Monsters Inc, I've had to insist on watching FInding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille and now Wall•E. I don't know exactly what it is that Pixar have, but it's a magic touch. Wall•E is touching without being sentimental, charming without being ingratiating, funny without being laboured, and manages to be engagingly subversive as well. As if all that wasn't enough, it looks absolutely fantastic, too.

Haven't got round to Whatnot of Solace yet, but that will pretty much clear the decks of 2008 films I wanted to see. Bring on Star Trek, Watchmen, Monsters v Aliens, Terminator: Salvation and Up. Oh, and Apoloosa.

Cheers!

Jim

* Huh-huh-huh ... I said "titular". Ahuhuhuhuh.

** But enough about my private life.

[ai ftagn!]

Hurrah! Prog!

Exams! Revision! Boo! Never mind, I can take a little time off in the pursuit of thrill-power, eh?

Dredd: it's not actually bad, it just doesn't feel like Dredd, and never does when Pat writes it these days. That's not actually a particular criticism; there're bloody few writers who can make Dredd work as a character, even when the plot is up to scratch.

Stalag: not sorry it's done. I couldn't really care about any of the characters, and it could really have used four episodes pruning off. I think at a shorter run, this would have been a solid, workmanlike thrill. I hope Tony won't be too disheartened by the negative comments (poo notwithstanding), because there was quite a lot to be positive about here. I think a more focussed cast and a faster pace were all that was really required.

ABC Warriors: ah. Now I get it ... I remember where we are now! I couldn't really summon any enthusiasm for Zippo, so I'm glad to see the Warriors reappear. I go back and forth on Langley's art, but I quite like this episode.

Amply Crucial: I'm still undecided. Somehow, it's all seemed a bit, well, mundane so far. I wanted more exotic fruit-loopery, more gibbering eldritch monstrosities, more, I dunno, ai ftagn![/b]

Dante: nasty, nasty! This is superb stuff. I think there is an element of ambiguity in Burns' painted work that lends itself to the mood of this story, that Simon's clearer, cleaner line wouldn't have provided (and I say that as a HUGE Simon Fraser fan).

Not a bad prog, but I'm looking forward to the decks being cleared for the end-of-year extravaganza.

Cheers!

Jim

Good stuff Herr.Bhuna.
D'israeli has a good step by step runthrough on how he produces his pages on his blog site. I would post a link but haven't got a clue how. Worth a look though.

Follow this link and just keep clicking "next" until you're finished.

By the time you get to the last page, you'll be able to draw as well as D'israeli. Honest!

Cheers

Jim

Interested to know what you lot thought of it, and whether you had seen the original.

Didn't watch, didn't see the original. Which makes this post pretty pointless, I suppose, but your comments, Herr Von Scott, have triggered off a line of thought ...

Am I missing something? Is it just that we're so jaded now that TV drama lacks the power to shock and, yes, frighten us? Or is just that the focus-group-ruled, OFCOM fearing TV companies are incapable of producing something that genuinely scares the crap out of the audience?

I mean, I have some very vague recollection of (what I presume were repeats of) Quatermass, but my childhood TV was populated by early Baker Dr Who, Nightmare Man, The Day of the Triffids, Sapphire and Steel, and then, later, Threads, Edge of Darkness ...

Moffat's Doctor Who has approached that level with The Empty Child and Blink, but otherwise ... where is this stuff?

Random thought over. We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

Cheers

Jim

Well, since this topic is also -- by a strange coincidence -- also on the 2000AD review site, I can't really do any more than repeat my comments from there ...

Progs 250 - 350, however, gets you:

The Apocalypse War Edit to add: although my memory was slightly faulty when I made this claim - it ACTUALLY starts in issue 245.

Rogue Trooper with Colin Wilson and Cam Kennedy on art as Gibbons bows out

Ace Trucking

Harry 20

Robo-Hunter

More Dredd (including Trapper Hag, The Stupid Gun and Cry of the Werewolf)

Nemesis Books II and III

Slaine (including the debut of McMahon, although we miss Sky Chariots with this selection)

And ... the start of DR & Quinch.Edit to add: although you lose this if you move your 100 progs back to 245-345 to get the start of the Apolcalypse War.

You might shift these 100 issues forward by about 10-12 and include the whole of DR & Quinch and Sky Chariots, but you lose the Apocalypse War as a complete story in doing so.

I will roll up my sleeves and fight any man who says that this is not an absolute epoch of thrill power!

Edit: I would add to the above -- having Ezquerra pretty much full-time on Dredd costs us Strontium Dog during this period, which is the only thing that keeps this from being an absolutely perfect run of progs. There are some pretty bad Mean Arenas during these two years. Imagine if we'd had classic Wagner/Grant Stront in that slot!

Cheers!

Jim

Has no one else got this or has everyone else got better things to do?

Door mat was bereft of prog this morning, yes.

Cheers!

Jim

Did I ever mention that I'm only 22 years of age?

My leather jacket is older than you!

Cheers

Jim

We all agreed, and lord knows it took long enough to get this far.

It'll probably take three years just to re-convene the committee. Best just to leave it be, as far as I'm concerned.

Cheers

Jim

Sanctuary:

It's not bad actually. I think you'll find the English accent she is speaking is the one being faked though.

[Edit to add:] Apparently, Tapping was born in the UK, but moved (was deported?) to the colonies at an early age. Thus the show's producers are trying to claim an authentic English accent on Tapping's part. With hilarious consequences.[Edit ends]

No, the series is not bad. What it lacks (after some considerable pondering on why this probably won't get a second series) is a decent male lead. They can't decide if Speccy is a geek-out-of-his-depth or an underestimated-action-hero and they're floundering about between the two.

What they need to do is drop a piano on this character (whose name I'm struggling to remember) and introduce a proper male lead. Ironically, I think they have one right under their noses, in as much as they only need to turn the lion-esque bloke already in the cast into something like Joshua from Dark Angel and they would probably be there.

There would possibly need to be a change in the relationship dynamic: I'd have Tapping as a sexier Miss Havisham trying to shape the destiny of her hot ninja-ish daughter, whilst vehemently opposing the unsuitable suitor in Lion Geezer.

Otherwise, the whole green-screen, CGI-driven thing works quite well, and speaks for some fantastic TV over the next few years.

After that, the kids will all be so jaded with it that they'll probably all kill themselves through boredom and that will be the end of the human race.*

Cheers!

Jim

*Depressing enough for you, Ush?

Would someone be kind enough to e-mail me via the board's messaging facility when this eye-buggering monstrosity is fixed, because I really can't be arsed with it?

Cheers!

Jim

[please!]

On my monitor it looks fine - I'd actually say the redesign is an improvement. The massive 2000ad banner has been shrunk down which will cut down on the amount of hastily shuffling round the windows I have to do in order to hide it when I'm browsing at work.

It's f**kin' horrible. It's too bright, the spoiler tags don't work, and the gratuitous use of unadulterated cyan is an affront to the very concept of graphic design.

Somebody fix it, please![/b]

Cheers

Jim

Yikes!

The board update ...

1) Looks horrible

2) Appears to have broken the 'SPOILER' tag.

Cheers

Jim

Rough times indeed.

I have to say that the current issue didn't please me very much ...

I'd rather 2000AD published six blank pages than let Pat Mills write another Dredd story, and as much as I like Vince Locke's artwork, Dredd is really not a good fit for his style.

ABC Warriors ... don't care. Pretty pictures and not much else. Is it a flashback, where are we in relation to the main narrative? I have no fucking idea, and I don't care.

Stalag BlahBlahBlah: Dear God, has this STILL not finished? Whilst I may not have been the world's biggest fan of the Diggler's "rocket fuel" approach, it least it would have shaved a good four episodes off this bag of old pants.

Ample Cruise-ship: Devlin Waugh, much? Apart from playing spot-the-reference (got the Thunderbirds one last issue) and cross-referencing more entries into the Edgyverse (Leviathan this week), I'm not getting anything from this series. Nice art,  obviously.

Dante: best thing in the prog. Even in a much better prog, it would probably have been the best thing in the prog. At some point, Dante will end and -- at that point -- I think it will stand as a remarkable body of work, one of the most sustained pieces of story-telling I've seen. Huge kudos to the Morrison-droid for his efforts here.

Cheers!

Jim

Good Meg.

I have to admit, there were a couple of issues a few months ago that never actually made it out of the envelope, so great was my apathy for the contents.

This month, though,  I enjoyed all the strips ... the Ewing droid is definitely showing more promise on Dredd than many more experienced 2000AD writers and I hope for many more stories of the quality he's delivered so far.

I particularly enjoyed the Gerry Finlay-Day piece. I won't say I was convinced by the arguments put forward, but it was nice to read such an active and spirited defence of GFD's contribution the the Galaxy' Greatest. The additional context of GFD's career was particularly fascinating.

(I'm starting to suspect that Pat Mills has just written a programme to spit out variations of the same old shite whenever called upon to contribute to this sort of piece, however.)

I'm not sure what mix of contents made this issue work for me, but something is right here that hasn't been up until quite recently. If Mr Smith is reading this: good work, sir. More of the same, please!

Cheers

Jim