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It was a good idea but as SBT said, it went on waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long. What was there, 100 episodes? Felt like it. 26 would have done it!

The Filby Case is my number 1. That story started in the very first issue of 2000ad I ever got and it was the story that kept me buying. And by the time that story came to an end I was hooked.
Also liked the Death of Sam Slade a lot, and Verdus of course. The only ones I didn't really like were the football one and the national song year one (that dragged on forever and was pretty sucky).

Assassination Games. As you may or may not know I am a massive Van Damme fan and although a lot of his recent output has been pish, this one was pretty decent. Not fantastic or anything, but well made, well directed, well acted and entertaining from start to finish. Only dragged ever so slightly for a few minutes in the middle. Van Damme used his acting chops again in this one (dont smirk, he's actual turned into a very bloody good actor of late, see JCVD, Wake of Death, Until Death, In Hell to name but a few) moreso than his martial arts ability (well, he is 50 I suppose) but luckily he had Scott Adkins on hand to supply a few nice little combo-moves. Van Damme's character was a bit of cnut in this one, a soul-less mo'fo hitman, dead inside from all the years of murdering people for money. And it shows. There's one part in particular where you go....I can't believe he just did that. Strong stuff.

Gripes with this----not the usual ones I have, about location, dodgy supporting cast, bad dialogue, as they were all pretty good. For some reason though, the director shot this in sepia, so it just looks like you are looking at the movie through a filter of piss. Strange -and annoying - choice. Film didn't need it, no need to be trying to go all arty on something like this. The other gripe is they COULD have fit in a bit more martial arts action, there were loads of opportunities but they didn't bite. I get it - they were going for 'realism' and 'realistically' a hitman wouldnt put his gun down to indulge in five minutes of kicking some armed villain around the place when he could just shoot him. Still...realism doesn't always equals fun in a movie!! Although I loved the ending of this (nice twist) I was also a bit disappointed it wasnt a five minute long sequence featuring lots of kicking.

Good flick though, and will be watched repeatedly!

Who were the writers on these strips, out of curiousity.

I loved this comic but cant remember getting very many of them - I dont think it lasted more than 8 or 9 issues. Thought it was a cool idea being anthology-ish but having all the stories set within the same storyline though following different characters having branched off from the main group. Shame it didn't do better.

That is very cool! I got a page from Flip as well a while ago, it was one of the original pages from the MacCumhaill strip we worked on together, and its framed and hanging in my bedroom now!

You are a bloke, Chi....right?!?!? 

Wow! I hadn't actually seen that yet! Thanks for pointing it out Greg.
That review is great! Really made my day that has!
Well done to all my fellow Vanguardians!

Double 
If you do happen to find any women coutiouns do be good enough to share them with us cybes!
Glad there is some kind of fullstop to this sarger alright - put it all behind you and learn from the experience. IE, next time, no so much faffing about! Good luck!

[Big Tits Zombie]

Have spent the week watching some crazy-ass Japanese splatterfest movies. Nearly all of them have been incredible. The one that wasn't - Big Tits Zombie - promised so much (namely, a zombie with big tits) but failed to deliver. There were zombies, and there were tits, just not quite in the same package. Must be one of those translation error things. It was a good laugh alright but nothing to write home about.

After that - everything was a winner.

Samurai Princess is gore-tastic if very very cheap. We're talking a blood-soaked version of Power Rangers here, the monster villain even looks like something left over from a Power Rangers episode. On the plus side, it was damn good fun, the Samurai Princess herself (another translation error, the actual title of the movie in Japan translates as Demon Princess) is awesome and the blood quotient is pretty high.

Alien Vs Ninja is fantastic. Everybody needs to see this film. Reasonably high budget though the aliens are still quite clearly of the men-in-costumes variety. Doesn't matter. This movie takes the piss out of itself but contains some of the coolest, funnest action scenes I have ever seen committed to celluloid. The final battle between samurai and alien has to be seen to be believed, I was belly-laughing at the screen it was that funny - and cool as shit as the same time!

Machine Girl. Wowzers. I've seen a lot of gorey, bloody films but this has to be one of the bloodiest things I've ever witnessed. Evil Dead 2 is not a patch on it. Thing is, its also amazingly well made for a film of its nature, the action scenes and choreography are fantastic and I had great fun with this one. Some of the scenes were quite disturbing though, as this wasn't a fantasy movie with aliens or demons, this was just about regular people, so was a bit more realistic....well, realistic is not the word for it really...but more grounded in reality at least. The Drill Bra bit....shudder!!!!

Robogeisha is by the same director who gave us Machine Girl and while not as cool, its still completely and utterly nuts and wonderful. Completely insane action and another good helping off blood and gore. I actually exclaimed "Holy Shit!" a couple of times during this one.

I've got more of these to watch - Mutant Girl Squad, Frankenstein Girl Vs Vampire Girl, Rika the Zombie Killer - but will be taking a break tonight....not because all this gore has made me squeamish...but because I picked up the new Van Damme movie Assassination Games today and I am going to spend a pleasant hour and a half in the company of the Muscles from Brussels. And I WILL enjoy it, no matter how good or bad it is. Because I always do!  He the man!!

You know what - I never thought of that! Never used the online store before and didn't realise they had such an up-to-date back issue service.
Thanks for the pointer sir!

Bum - I missed this issue and I don't know how. Picked up what I thought was this on Tuesday but turns out it was 1754 - no wonder I was confused when I sat down to read. Man, first issue I missed since coming back to the fold with issue 1500. Sorry Tharg!!! (Its my wife's fault for running off to Japan and leaving me with all the kids! One rigellian hotshot heading Eastbound please!!!)

Just catching up on the last few episodes of this - great work all around lads. Looking forward to this one being collected.

I love the idea for this. Wasnt really sure how the sequel was going to work and wasn't really relishing the predictable "there were two of them" plot... having seen the trailer, I am looking forward to this much more.

Well my 8 year old daughter watched with me and although she said "Theyre scary" when they first went in to the room with the skulls, the bit where the guy fell in the pit didnt phase her at all. You know, we were watching an episode of the Sarah Jane Adventures on CBBC earlier and it was a story about a haunted house with ghosts. Now, thats a REAL kids show, made as a kids show, and she was pretty scared by that! Kept hiding her face. She's never done that with Dr Who. I guess monsters and skeletons and 'substantial' thingies arent as scary as the unseen, implied stuff, even to young kids.

We really enjoyed that episode. Yes, I guessed the out as well but ONLY as the moment in the episode when it occured to the Dr himself. Probably should have spotted it coming sooner! Also guessed the question but who cares? It was great. And the implications of what the answer to that question must be leave a lot to dwell upon.

10 out of 10 from me and Halo (unfortunately both my boys fell asleep before it came on so cant pass on their opinion!:)