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I'll go out on a limb here and say that ORIGINS has faltered somewhat for me of late.  It seems like there's too much dull basil going on - we should be seeing more of DREDD and his gang on little adventures each of which add a bit to ORIGINS rather than everyone sat in a cave hearing a story.

And in that story, I want to see the GREAT ATOM WAR and the GERM WAR (that comes after) and the Judges taking power - I don't need to see every nook and cranny of why BOOTH was bad and corrupt especially when he is a pretty poorly realised stereotype of an American President*.

I'm a bit spoiled because I've been reading CASE FILES 02 at the moment and this covers quite a bit of similar ground in, and I feel I must say it, a much more entertaining manner.  I preferred the unfinished jigsaw left by MILLS and WAGNER from the CURSED EARTH than I do this.

ORIGINS is definitely a "could do better" for me.

* I could be wrong here but I think MILLS may have done the original Bad Bob Booth thing in which case, apologies to Mister Wagner who is trying to polish a turd with this character.


Oh and the cover was rubbish, STICKLEBACK was fun, KINGDOM slightly dull fight (predictably not getting to an end), DANTE enjoyable enough - I prefer these episodic ones (even though the Jungle casino one was dreadful) and ABC Warriors was fun but the art is too murky in places.

[o01rvmhy,n. m.+hvgt ,ujn+, ybm4c09v,,g ,+b+.c.Ã¥c.v]

o01rvmhy,n. m.+hvgt ,ujn+, ybm4c09v,,g ,+b+.c.Ã¥c.v

Isn't this a spoiler for Season 3 of LOST?

Or an unaired X-Files episode title.

Still waiting for my Wii (split between me and Tiny Tips) but managed...

DVD shaped
===========
Call of Duty 3 for the Wii
Superman II - Richard Donner Cut
Superman Returns
4 Bond films
Indiana Jones box set
Big Lebowski

Less DVD shaped but still pretty rectangular
=============================================
Judge Dredd Case Files 02
Commando - True Brit
Smellies
Socks

I only wish I'd had time to watch most of my films (we squeezed in the Indiana Jones films as Tiny Tips has never seen them - great films but disappointing set of extras)

Taste in films aside...

It's a spy film so it has a few staples of the genre thrown in and, sure there's an explosion on a bridge but I'd hardly say that qualifies it as a bad remake of TRUE LIES (itself a writ dodging mixture of "homage/pastiche/nobody saw the french version" all of it's own).

That was pretty dull. Catherine Tait was actually bearable but overall, I can't help thinking that, despite what they keep telling us, hardly any thought goes into writing these.

I keep reading in interviews that the writing arcs are dead clever because "character x starts off this episode as damaged goods but by the end..." but I never see any evidence as to why Character X is damaged.  Sure, they might gurn at the camera once or twice or there will be some really cloyong music as they look at a picture of character Y but there's never anything that makes me think "What a clever bit of writing!".

Another thing that shows up the laziness of the writing is the palaver that goes on everytime the tardis has to fly.  For no readily apparent reason, there are psarks, flashes, the Doctor rushing arond with a mallet and lot sof screaming adn shouting. Every time.  

Now, I see this as a rather crap attempt to build up a bit of drama.

But it's just rubbish.  Surely the Doctor (Brain the size of a planet) and the Tardis (always fixing itself or the daleks or the universe) would take a bit of time out to fix itself.  But no - we need some artificial drama so the slapstick tardis control stays in the show.

Just after watching Dr Who, I watched the mostly excellent MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 3 which has a rather fabulous example of how to do this sort of thing exactly right.

The MI3 team are in a helicopter (instant cool) being pursued by another helicopter gunship (drama) through a field of wind turbines (added excitement and thrills) while trying to defuse the microbomb planted in a team members head (fan-fucking-tastic).  

Not only did all of these elements occur in the scene for vaguley logical reasons (OK, I'll admit, the wind turbines were just thrown in to spice it up - but it's not unreasonable to believe a skilled pilot might try to lose his pursuer among them) but you had added tension in that you never knew whether the bomb would kill just the team member of the whole team.

Compare this to the tardis loopiness (no logical reason for it and any tension is artificial because you know nothing will really happen or an "accident" will deposit the Doctor exactly where the plot needs him to be) and hopefully you can see why a lot of people moan about the quality of the writing on Doctor Who.

And they could have got the spider to move at least once.

oOOPS - just bought the Beatles LOVE for the wife.


The albums that haven't been off my CD player all year are SURF by Roddy Frame and ANALOGUE by A-ha.

When was GIRLS ALOUD - LOVE MACHINE released? That's great.

Oh and Kylie vs. Ludakris - CAN'T LICK YOU OUTTA MY BED. Is that old as well?

But these are probably just me...

Caught this on TV tonight - saw it years ago.

I actually thought it was pretty good stuff; fairly brave by Hollywood blockbuster standards to show the corruption at the heart of the US GOVERNment (and to leave the ending open).  Don't think they'd make a film like that now.  (Unless of course it's really like PLATOON where the WAR IS HELL message is actually subverted by the "wink-wink, but we love it" sub-text)

Plus I like Harrison Ford and that attack on the convoy, the laser guided bomb and how Ryan and the bad guy come to the same conclusion through different methods are all great.

Even John Legizmo is less egregious than usual.


Plus that great big robotic arm you see in the background of one scene (where the bloke is figuring out passwords) - I sold one of those to an insurance company once...

Ah yes - I knew it was coming, being enough of a Verhoeven fan (not enough to bother spelling his name right, obviously) bt they just thought I'd gone mad...

Ah yes - I knew it was coming, being enough of a Verhoeven fan (not enough to bother spelling his name right, obviously) bt they just thought I'd gone mad...

STARSHIP TROOPERS II, on the other hand...

Surely you mean "DENISE RICHARDS and DINA MEYER in the same movie."

With a shower scene.

STARSHIP TROOPERS is a work of genius.  

However, I do rememeber dragging a load of my mates to see it and they missed the first five minutes (and the first sight of the bugs) and were giving me terrible glances of displeasure as we had to sit through twenty minutes of Beverley Space Hills 90210 (even with Denise Richards).

[Though it looks like Dredd is going for his bollocks!]

Though it looks like Dredd is going for his bollocks!

Yeah. Batman will always beat Superman because Batman fights dirty.

But Dredd would wipe the floor with both 'cos he'd fight dirtiest.

I'm still working through Zelda with Tiny Tips so that keeps me on the Wii just about everyday. It uses the extra motion sensitive aspects of the control just about perfectly - you never realised you weren't using it until you have to. It just sort of sneaks in and out exactly when required without screaming "look at me, I'm using a motion sensitive controller" in your face.

And as a family, we still drag out Wii Sports and Wii Play on a regular basis.  They are the sort of games that, because of the nature of the interaction with other real people, don't get tired.

But it must be said, I am waiting for a few more of the big name games to arrive.  Am I imagining the usual Nintendo software drought seems even worse than usual this time around?

It must be said I do love my Wii when I get a chance to sit down and play it.

Zelda: OK, so it's the same game - again - but when it's such a good game, you can't really complain.  The boss battles are fabulous.

Call of Duty 3: Jolly good fun if slightly on rails and repetitive.  I like the short fifteen minute chunks you can break it down into. Using the sniper rifle was great fun and having to" "hand crank" mortars and field guns seemed so right.

Wii Sports - Easter Sunday. My two brothers. Boxing. With a Mii Jesus. And a lot of beer. Hilarious like nothing else I've ever played on a console.

Wii Play - Tanks is brilliant. So is Shooting game. And how restful is the billiards?
Wii Vote - strangely addictive.

Wii Opera Browser - When we banned Teenage Tips from the PC for downloading too mucch pr0n, this meant he could still stay in touch with his mates on myspace etc.  Also Wiicade has loads of browser friendly games.

Super Monkey Ball - gaming crack.

Sonic and the Secret Rings - Tiny Tips quite liked this but I couldn't do with it myself.  Possibly the worst example of controls I've seen so far.

I've had no problem playing Gamecube games at all (though it doesn't like cheat discs) and it even takes the Bongos and the Dance Mat.

Other Stuff
I've used an SD card to display some photos so far but haven't managed to get it to play any MP3 stuff ('cos I don't have any on an SD card).

Not tried any of the mailing stuff too and from people yet.

Oh and I vaguely recall getting a mail saying taht they were going to start charging for the browser. Any idea when and how much?

I think my next purchase will be Resident Evil 4 Wii.  Any other recommendations?

Everyone should have a Wii.  And I'm saying that before they've even released SUPER MARIO GALAXY.

Swap them for Nintendo points? In which case, I take back my cheeky request - I thought they were only good for getting printouts of Mario origami and such.