Messages

So is Eightball a pool reference or a Daniel Clowes reference?

Or War Machine?

[CAN'T KILL MY HATE!]

Ezquerra's art was sublime. It was just a shame that he shied away from the sealed-up nose and mouth look by giving the prisoners dainty metal noses. Improved technology I suppose.

I'd imagine that was editorial's decision. The point about Rico's facial surgery was that it obliterated his (and Dredd's) features. A few dozen of those running around the page would lead to some confusion regarding who was who- I found Grice and the equally muscle-bound Bundy (female) indistinguishable in shots where the moustache wasn't visible as it was.

Old-school respiratory surgery would have interfered with the potential for dramatic expression in stuff like:

CAN'T KILL MY HATE!

Tonight, BBC4, 10pm, Iron Maiden: behind the beast. Documentary following the band on tour, followed by En Vivo, a concert in Chile. Repeated at 02:10 am.

[really]

The original was a boring film with an interesting premise.

As a kid, I had to research a presentation on Hergé and discovered that he'd carried on drawing the adventures of his boy detective for Le XXe Siècle, the catholic newspaper he worked for, even after it fell under the editorial control of the invading Nazis. Me and a pal fell into a discussion about how we'd react in similar circumstances and that sparked my interest in how ordinary people dealt with life under occupation.

Since then, I've read a good few books on the invasion and occupation of Europe, Scandinavia and the Far East and their various forms of active and passive resistance and survival, like Maquis and If This Is A Man; and I've watched stuff like L'Armée des Ombres, Defiance and even Secret Army. I'm really interested in this subject, but I've no interest in watching this film.

I think it's meant to communicate that the reviewer has never read any Poe and can't even be bothered googling his name to see which modern day films other people have compared his work to.

[double skull]

Proficiency in skulling isn't something women normally shout about. A double skull- featuring two women- just seems greedy, and I can't see how the logistics of that would work out.

It's raised its ugly, bald head on Aint it Cool's poster thread. The lack of 'Judge' in the title shows contempt for fans of the comic, apparently. I'm off to bed, why don't y'all deal with it:

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/57401

It was a competition, wasn't it? You could win some Star Wars shite or something if you spotted something or other. Jarvis Cocker appeared in The Pit, but I don't think I won a copy of His 'n' Hers for spotting that.

[I WANNA BE A DRUG SNIFFIN' DOG]

I WANNA BE A DRUG SNIFFIN' DOG

I once put that on over the PA at work, and my horrified manager asked "what is that?". I started explaining about Jello Biafra and Al Jourgensen, but he interrupted- looking existentially disturbed and confused- and clarified, "no, what ... is ... that?". He has David Guetta as his ring tone.

That is the sound of David Guetta in the prison shower!

Powerful image. My favourite Ministry song:

YOU NEVER STOP TO SMELL THE BURNING FLESH

Well you can't deny that it's also taking inspiration from other character posing on top of building ledge posters.

The difference between the images would be the semiotics.

Dredd posed atop the city perfectly reflects the thematic concerns of the material; while aggravating his haemorrhoids by perching on architraves is just the kind of thing Pete Parker does most evenings. If that Spiderman image was trying to reflect the theme of the films, Tobey Maguire would have been posed atop Kirsten Dunst.

The Ultimate Future Shock! http://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2004/10/ufs1/ By our own crazy genius, "Weird" Al Ewing.

Couldn't we just print a link to that instead of any more Future Shocks, and use the money saved to commission more Zaucer of Zilk?

The Denominator bullet. Awakening Of Angels-inspired technology, a direct hit from which completely obliterates not just the character, but retroactively strikes all mention of their name and erases any story featuring them from the strip's history.

First tested on the wee boy we were told Dredd used to visit every week, this valuable addition to the Dredd can(n)on is now being adapted for use on creator credits boxes too- first in line, any story written by 'Sonny Steelgrave' and computer coloured by Alan Craddock.

[same]

The concept DJs are too much of a deviation from the originals that I think it would be a case of if they change them that much why bother?

Agreed. If DNA want to avoid finding themselves in the same invidious position as the holders of the Bat and Spider franchises, of having to reboot the series every couple of years so they can tell the same stories with the same characters all over again; then mimicing the Dredd strip's ability to effortlessly incorporate a host of different genres, narrative modes and visual styles would be a good place to start.

The abrupt changes of genre and visual aesthetic between Ridley Scott and James Cameron's Alien films extended the life and expanded the scope of the series. Like the returning Ripley and Geiger's alien, the established design of the Judges, MC1 and Dredd himself provide the visual constants that would allow the gear change from Sci-fi/Action into Gothic Horror to be performed smoothly and without slamming the brakes on the whole enterprise.

[$2.5 BILLION]

In the USA, any child- no matter how humble their beginnings- can grow up to be President. As long as they can raise:

$2.5 BILLION

That's shocking, but can you believe our own shitey little effort cost $49 million? The only bits anyone can remember from the whole campaign are the "I agree with Nick" telly debate and Gordon Brown not telling a pensioner she was racist- that should have come to a few grand at most.

[Directors' Top Ten Greatest Films of All Time:]

Every decade, Sight and Sound conduct a poll to see which films critics and industry professionals rate most highly. Across both lists, I've only seen nine (the most obvious) of the greatest films of all time, and that doesn't include the critics' number one. Anyone seen them all, do you agree with the rankings, and are they worth seeking out?


Directors' Top Ten Greatest Films of All Time: 

1 Tokyo Story (Ozu, 1953)

2 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1968)

2 Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941)

4 8 ½ (Fellini, 1963)

5 Taxi Driver (Scorsese, 1980)

6 Apocalypse Now (Coppola, 1979)

7 The Godfather (Coppola, 1972)

7 Vertigo (Hitchcock, 1958)

9 Mirror (Tarkovsky, 1974)

10 Bicycle Thieves (De Sica, 1948)


Critics' Top Ten Greatest Films of All Time:

1 Vertigo (Hitchcock, 1958)

2 Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941)

3 Tokyo Story (Ozu, 1953)

4 La Règle du jeu (Renoir, 1939)

5 Sunrise: a Song for Two Humans (Murnau, 1927)

6 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1968)

7 The Searchers (Ford, 1956)

8 Man with a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929)

9 The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer, 1927)

10 8 ½ (Fellini, 1963)