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Messages - Jim_Campbell

#2176
I'm not familiar with the original comic, so have no idea how faithful, or not, the TV series is an adaptation, but it seems to me that the thing would have worked just as well without the undercurrent of raging homophobia.
#2177
Film & TV / Re: Last movie watched...
02 November, 2019, 11:10:45 PM
Terminator: Dark Fate. What was the point of that? Basically a re-skinning of the (metal) bones of T2. Competently directed and assembled, but lacking any originality or, frankly, excitement with the added handicap of some credulity-stretching plot logic (or lack of it).

If the box office is as lacklustre as Frank suggests above, it's high time this franchise was rested indefinitely.
#2178
Books & Comics / Re: Rok the God Kickstarter
30 October, 2019, 12:56:14 PM
Quote from: Frank on 30 October, 2019, 12:26:43 PM
Good man! An endorsement or genuine testimonial's better than a thousand words of PR blurb:

Thank you, Frank, and apologies to Sinx for my rather brusque reply — I'm currently trying to do a day's work and fix an uncooperative laptop at the same time!

No excuse, though — thanks, Sinx. To clarify my original point: the price of the print edition is as cheap a quote as we could find and includes a substantial overprint so that 1) John and Dan will have copies to sell once the campaign concludes, and 2) to drive the unit cost of the print run down as much as possible (ie: to make the book as cheap as we can).

If we sold twice as many physical copies through the Kickstarter, it wouldn't change the cost of the print run...
#2179
Books & Comics / Re: Rok the God Kickstarter
30 October, 2019, 12:16:55 PM
Quote from: Sinx on 30 October, 2019, 11:55:33 AM
I've backed it.

One thing - I think it would have been better not to have a digital version and lowered the price of the printed version a bit.

The print version costs what it costs. Having a cheaper digital version has no real bearing on the cost of the print version, just offers a cheaper option to those who might not have the money for the physical book.
#2180
Off Topic / Re: The Political Thread
29 October, 2019, 10:38:00 PM
Quote from: JayzusB.Christ on 29 October, 2019, 10:29:32 PM
So what now for Brexit? This isn't rhetorical or anything, I really would like to know. I've lost track

All up in the air. A 1.4% swing to the Tories gives them a majority and Brexit is on, a 1.9% swing to Labour makes them the largest party and they should be able to cobble together a coalition which puts a second referendum on the cards. My gut tells me the Tories are going to take it, but May had bigger poll leads and lost her majority.
#2181
Off Topic / Re: The Political Thread
29 October, 2019, 09:54:53 PM
December 12th it is, then. Corbyn's alternative date was defeated by ten votes, coincidentally the exact number of Tories Johnson just restored the whip to.
#2182
Off Topic / Re: The Political Thread
29 October, 2019, 08:05:48 PM
Quote from: radiator on 29 October, 2019, 06:39:26 PM
I feel like this period of history will be very interesting to watch a documentary about in twenty years time, when we know how everything worked out and we can see the bigger picture, but its so exhausting trying to keep up with it all in real time.

Basically, follow Ian Dunt and David Allen Green on Twitter.

(Dunt is a known Squaxx and Green is not averse to littering his tweets with comic book metaphors...)
#2183
Off Topic / Re: The Political Thread
29 October, 2019, 06:28:50 PM
Looks like it might be the 9th. Corbyn's moved an amendment to change the date that seems to be picking up support in the house. The difference between this and the 12th is that the 9th doesn't leave Johnson enough parliamentary time to try and force his Withdrawal Agreement through the Commons again.

That's actually fairly shrewd from Corbyn... not only is it politically a good idea, it shows up Johnson's real intention (he couldn't give a toss about an election) if he fights it, and also puts the Tories on the back foot as the ones trying to delay an election.
#2184
Quote from: karlos on 25 October, 2019, 03:42:08 PM
I'll always love John Ostrander's Legacy and Agent of the Empire.

I haven't read these specific stories, but I've read a fair bit of Ostrander over the years and he's always struck me as the closest thing the US industry has to Wagner. Absolutely rock-solid no-bullshit storytelling as the baseline but frequently capable of hitting heights that pull you up sharply because you've been so expertly wrong-footed.
#2185
Film & TV / Re: HBO Watchmen
25 October, 2019, 02:05:54 PM
Quote from: JayzusB.Christ on 25 October, 2019, 01:54:49 PM
Well, don't sound so surprised. If there was one thing Alan Grant wanted to do with The Watchman, it was to create moral certainties and get rid of grey areas. Why do you think he made Rawshack the hero?

This is the sort of close-read criticism that really cuts to the heart of the matter. Bravo!
#2186
Prog / Re: Prog 2154 - Combat Shock!
25 October, 2019, 12:19:04 PM
Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 25 October, 2019, 11:35:32 AM
none of this has been made explicit yet, so patience is in order!

Potentially spoilery speculation: [spoiler]My money is on Hershey having had a child the old-fashioned way and the 'other mother' reference is because she had the child adopted by someone in the (pre-robot takeover) safer environs of Guatemala, beyond the reach of those who might try to attack her as Chief Judge by targetting her child.

This would explain Dredd's uncharacteristically equivocal response to being propositioned. The realisation that everyone he respected or thought of as a friend (Fargo, Giant, now Hershey) thought the celibacy rule was bloody stupid and basically ignored it might give him pause, in the later stage of his life, to ponder a very different life that might have been his.[/spoiler]

And if any of that turns out to be correct, that's some heavyweight shit I certainly wasn't expecting from this story.
#2187
Prog / Re: Prog 2154 - Combat Shock!
25 October, 2019, 11:35:32 AM
Quote from: norton canes on 25 October, 2019, 11:30:40 AM
Bit lost, sorry.

Dredd makes an as-yet unexplained reference to finding "the grandchildren" in the preceding episode, so I'm assuming that this is Hershey's daughter (clone or natural, we don't know) and the grandchildren are the ones stolen by the robot regime... but none of this has been made explicit yet, so patience is in order!
#2188
Quote from: Funt Solo on 20 October, 2019, 03:58:12 PM
I'm quite guarded in non-Internet social situations so end up not saying much.

This is why they invented beer.
#2189
Film & TV / Re: Movies you haven't seen?
20 October, 2019, 12:46:58 PM
Quote from: JayzusB.Christ on 20 October, 2019, 12:01:21 PM
It hardly seems worth watching now as an adult; it's something that would have amazed me as a kid but I can't be arsed now.

I re-watched BttF on the big screen when they re-released it for the 30th anniversary, having not seen it in many years. Honestly, it's great. From its long opening shot that loads up so much information, to the realisation that "Ostracised scientist illegally acquires nuclear material for his unauthorised time travel experiments and falls foul of the terrorists who sold it to him" would have made an entire movie in 2019 but is the first ten minutes of this film and serves only to get you to the actual plot...it's brilliantly made, the plot advances relentlessly but entirely logically (within its own terms!) and the performances are universally great.
#2190
Prog / Re: 2000 AD in Stages
20 October, 2019, 10:56:48 AM
Quote from: Colin YNWA on 20 October, 2019, 10:20:53 AM
I think describing Zippy Couriers as ahead of its time is pretty fair. I think Hilary Robinson's work of this time is often unfairly reflected.

A bit of a mixed bag, but overall a lot better than the consensus would often suggest. I liked Zippy Couriers as a decent change of pace/tone within the prog (and some lovely art, too) which, surely, is the point of an anthology. Medivac 318 also seems widely under-appreciated, despite strong scripting and some genuinely wonderful art from the much-missed Nigel Dobbyn.