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Watched this again this evening. Bloody love it.
I really can't get my head a round people complaining or pointing out ludicrous plot elements... I mean, have you never seen a Bond movie before?
Is this movie more or less silly than a fight on a spaceship with a man with metal teeth?

But that's sort of missing the point.

You can't reboot and go all Bourne-style kinetic cameras, grit and lack of humour, and have one lot of po-faced divs crowing about how it was a 'return to the true Bond of the books' and then all of a sudden have Jaws chomping his neck while wearing a fucking  jetpac and hovering over a metal tank full of angry piranhas, simply to appease the other lot who liked the films and the fun and absurdity.

Do one or the other.

I think the books are risible and largely shit, so preferred the films taking a rather loose approach and injecting that classic Sunday afternoon OTT Bond action like You Only Live Twice and Live and Let Die. But I can appreciate that it was a bit anachronistic and Austin Powers.

But let's not pretend gritty 'true to the Fleming' Bond hasn't been done before. Dalton did it. Even Brosnan's first outing was sort of serious, before the absurdity of the cataclysmic shitfest of Die Another Die. It goes in cycles. I've found Craig's films pretty unremarkable, although Casino is far superior to the appalling Quantum. I prefer the more wry, amusing Bonds, because there's little of interesting or memorable about attempting realism when the source material is so stupid in the first place

[Marvel Knights]

Don't quote me on this, but I do believe that Silver Surfer: Requiem is a kind of one-off, what-if, totally self-contained story. I don't think it has any bearing on the main Marvel continuity.

of course, if I'm wrong, I'll happily accept a public stoning.

Yeah you're right, Requiem was published under the Marvel Knights imprint which was (sorry had to use wiki search here!) a "self-contained limited series that think outside the box, that challenge readers to re-think their favorite Marvel characters and re-evaluate the legends that surround them. In other words, Marvel Knights will be a place for top talent to work without constraints, and deliver the kind of product fans deserve!""

If I'd wiki'd in the  first place, I wouldn't have even bothered creating the thread, so I suppose it was sort of worth me not doing that, if only because it's sparked a bit of Silver Surfer love, and some light-hearted sniping about Strontium Dog.

I think it may have sparked a few purchases if nothing else.

And I'm glad he's not dead. He's a super character

I wonder how many people watching when the 'you know what happens' will actually be totally unaware what the 'you know what' actually is?

Even given the huge numbers of people who watch it without reading the books, the sheer amount of interspaz chatter about it surely means it will be the least surprising surprise on telly ever.

The interspaz ruins everything. Trufax.

Don't quote me on this, but I do believe that Silver Surfer: Requiem is a kind of one-off, what-if, totally self-contained story. I don't think it has any bearing on the main Marvel continuity.

of course, if I'm wrong, I'll happily accept a public stoning.

That seems a bit of a cop-out. A "what if?" story about a character dying. It would lack any emotional heft.

Although given that no fucker ever seems to really die properly in Marvel and DC, they're all guilty of that.
At least in 2000AD, if you die, you stay dead.





haha

Yeah, something cool about the Silver Surfer, though I'm only familiar with the Kirby and Buscema incarnations. I remember Stan Lee being interviewed on kid's tv in the 1970s and he said that the Silver Surfer comic was cancelled because it was such a strong idea that he felt it would be copied. Didn't make sense to me then or now. Well, that's how I remember it but it was a long, long time ago.

Yeah. Seems a silly idea, but reading Requiem I remembered why it wasn't. He's written very, very straight. And he always seemed really sad, and noble.

Eeeek! I wish I had wiki-ed him. I totally forgot Jack Bloody Kirby drew him!

Although the version I remember was the other bloke who was a bit like him in style. Buscemi or whatever his name is/ was. Buscema? John Buscema?

WIKI-FREE ZONE!

So he isn't dead, then.

Has anyone in comics actually ever died and stayed dead?

Well he might well have been comic book dead for a while!

Norrin Radd by the way (I'm being brave and not checking the internet to test my nerd skills)

So he isn't dead, then.

Well he might well have been comic book dead for a while!

Norrin Radd by the way (I'm being brave and not checking the internet to test my nerd skills)

I kept thinking "Namor" until I realised that was The Submariner's name. It's horrible how shitty your memory is, and I think Wiki is making it worse because you don't even have to try anymore.

Someone should make Time-Bandits vs BMX Bandits.
Then we'd see who was better out of dwarves or kids on bikes.

Never seen BMX Bandits. I think it was released at the point where I was old enough to realise going to the cinema was not enough of a treat to not actually care what film was showing

He was still alive and kicking as of a few months ago as he was part of the Defenders (2011-2012 series)

I've just remembered why he struck such a chord with me. I used to have a run of The Defenders from about Issue One when I was a kid.

So he isn't dead, then.

As for dwarfs in jobs, I watched The Train Agent about a really pissed off dwarf who lives in a train depot. quite nice for a film where nothing out the ordinary is happening but chasing trains and overcoming the crowd as an individual. Trains and dwarfs man! What's not to like?

Best film with the under statured ever is Time Bandits.

Not really a huge genre is it? i mean, you could point to memorable dwarf roles in films (Nik-Nak! The racist coke-head from In Bruges! Mini-Me! Tyrion! Ewoks! Willow!) but there aren't many starring roles for dwarves in which their dwarfism isn't the reason they were cast.

The Time Bandits would work as a film even if they weren't dwarves. Although them being dwarves does make it funnier, I'll admit that.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this.

*stage whisper*: "nowhere"

Yes. Thanks. It's probably nowhere.

["Death of Batman/ Superman/ Robin/ Spiderman/ Daredevil!"]

I picked up Silver Surfer "Requiem" while browsing in the GN section of our local library and then stayed there for 45 minutes reading it.

I've never really kept up to date with any American comics (apart from the obvious Bats GNs, The Walking Dead, Preacher, The Punisher and Sandman) and the interminable "Death of Batman/ Superman/ Robin/ Spiderman/ Daredevil!" followed by the "Rebirth of Batman/ Superman/ Robin/ Spiderman/ Daredevil!" bollocks bores me to tears, but this felt rather final. And I felt a bit sad.

Maybe partly through guilt. My favourites have always been Bats, Spidey and The Punisher. The Silver Surfer was always rather minor. A bit silly maybe. A Fantastic Four sideshow. He's a surfer for Christ's sake. In space.

But from the depths of my memory I seem to recall that what I had read about SS and his elegiac, noble but often thankless guardianship of Earth from Galactus, was always rather well written, and often beautifully illustrated. And not silly at all.

I may start building up a collection, in memoriam. My own small tribute to....er, whatever his real name was. Something alien like NORAD, but not that.





He's not dead is he?
I bet he bloody well isn't dead. I can hardly bear to wiki. Someone tell me. Someone I trust.

I am wallowing about in my Deep South Misery phase, reading about white trash hillbillies inflicting terrible atrocities upon eachother (and themselves), interspersed with the occasional moment of obsidian-black comedy and lashings of crystal meth.

And it's been GREAT.

The Devil All The Time - Donald Ray Pollock
Knockemstiff - Donald Ray Pollock
Crimes In Southern Indiana - Frank Bill
Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned - Wells Tower
A Feast Of Snakes - Harry Crews

We had a viewing at a mates place of Videodrome last night. My first ever viewing of it. Madcap! Good to have a look at Debbie Harry as a brunette.


As for dwarfs in jobs, I watched The Train Agent about a really pissed off dwarf who lives in a train depot. quite nice for a film where nothing out the ordinary is happening but chasing trains and overcoming the crowd as an individual. Trains and dwarfs man! What's not to like?

It's called "The Station Agent" and stars Tyrion. (Or Peter Dinklage as he's otherwise known).

Cronenberg directed my favourate movie of all time, Videodrome, as well as a number of other loves (Scanners, The Brood etc) so I had to see Cosmopolis at the theaters...it wasn't great but i enjoyed it for what it was. Cronenber will always be worth my money I say.

I don't think I've ever seen a Cronenberg film at the pictures - I was too young to get into The Fly and his earlier 18 (sorry, X-rated) films and never been interested enough in the later ones - but skimming through his imdb page, it's quite telling that I've watched about 90% of the rest on DVD/ TV.

Almost always interesting.

Apart from M. Butterfly, obviously