Who Are You? What Do You Want? Where Are You Going? Whom Do You Serve – And Whom Do You Trust?!
Yahoo has the clip for the Doom movie coming out in October. The Rock is the lead.
The trailer looks a lot like a bunch of screen shots from the game and it looks like they shot a lot of it from the first person perspective. Hopefully no one gets motion-sick too easily.
This should have been a BMW, DKW, NSU, or Zundapp.
Via CNET.
Microsoft has signed a deal with two film studios to make a movie based on its popular space-based video game series “Halo,” a spokesman for Universal Pictures said Wednesday.
Universal and Twentieth Century Fox agreed to pay Microsoft $5 million plus a percentage of movie ticket sales. The total price being paid is capped at 10 percent of domestic box office receipts.
Okay, let’s start with the obvious questions. Who should play Master Chief? Who should play Cortana? Does it matter? Are we mostly concerned with voices? Should we have the voice actors from the game provide the voices and various stunt men and CGI handle the suit and Cortana’s hologram? Will we and should we see Master Chief’s face? I’m thinkin’ not.
Discuss.
Update: Zombieboy and crew are actually discussing this over at Resurrectionsong.
He was a Star Fleet Admiral. And he was falsely accused of rape. And he died yesterday.
And we are all reduced by his loss.
Steve Saleen and Jack Roush have, for several years, produced limited-production, modified Mustangs, distributed through elite Ford dealerships. Now, triple-Ridler winner Chip Foose joins the fray:
But it appears that, at this point, Foose’s work on the Mustang is more show than go:
PRE-PRODUCTION SPECS
— Chip Foose designed body with a modified hood, side molding, revised grille, fascias, custom side marker lights, side “C” pillar ducts, etc.
— Rear aerodynamic spoiler
— Custom graphics using Dupont’s Hot Hues finishes
— Chip Foose designed 20″ custom aluminum wheels
— 20-inch g-Force T/A(R) KDW ultra high performance tires from BFGoodrich(R)
— Sequential taillights (optional)
— Racing inspired front and rear coil springs, front and rear anti-sway bars, billet rear trailing arms and strut tower brace
— Baer Brakes 4-piston front brakes with Eradispeed Cross Drilled Rotors (15″ front and 14″ rear)
— JBA high flow catback exhaust with mufflers
— High flow air filter
— Quaker State synthetic lubricants
— Custom leather seats with dash & trim enhancements
In other news, super-babe Courtney Hansen seems to be out as co-host on Chip’s hit TLC automobile makeover show Overhaulin’. I was just surfing her website a couple of days ago, and there was no mention of it. But Overhaulin’s website no longer includes her in the cast, Chris Jacobs was hosting alone last week, and prankster A.J. (who is also VERY lovely) co-hosted this week.
I’ve just watched about 4 hours of Ultimate Fighting.
I think Professional Boxing is in a LOT of trouble. Watching the guys with good wrestling skills is kinda boring, but the fights with the punchers and kickers? Those are better than any boxing I’ve seen in the past 10 years.
I think the reality TV side of it is kind of lame, but they seem to have paid attention to the mistakes made by similar shows and moves along pretty well.
There’s just more action and if you’re a martial arts fan, there’s just more fighting going on.
A whole freaking day, and not even one guess? Jeeze-Louise.
Ok, here’s a clue: The director of this film was often parodied by Steven Spielberg’s Animaniacs.
Update: Reader Taj broke down and googled the answer.
…Hope you guess my name.
I’m just watching (again) FX’s Nip/Tuck: Agatha Ripp. And I can hardly wait for the new season premiere on the 20th of September. After Battlestar Galactica, and the last season of The Shield, they have a high bar to hurdle. But one thing I hope they don’t change: the killer freaking soundtrack. It’s like the are consulting for their music with somebody from Radio Paradise.
For those of you that wrote-off Steven Bochco’s Over There on FX, after the somewhat abysmal pilot, I invite you to take a second look. While still having its share of technical errors and Hollywood silliness, it has gotten MUCH better.
The real-life names of these characters were Lefty, Geri, and Tony.
Update: What? Not even any guesses? While no aspersion on my knowledge of cinema, this is a sorry commentary on my knowledge of popular culture. I really thought someone would get this right off-the-bat
Update: Here’s clue #1:. Las Vegas.
No doubt, this History Channel series will get more lame, as the pickings get more slim. But, just now, I can’t think of any greater confluence of “Man, Moment, and Machine” than Jimmy Doolittle’s Raid On Tokyo.
What was the last movie you saw in a theater?
– The Fantastic Four
What was the last movie you watched at home (DVD/VHS, not TV)?
– Sin City
What was the last TV show you watched?
– Studio B while on the crosstrainer at the gym.
What was the last TV show you watched on DVD?
-Firefly
What is the next TV program you plan to watch?
– Battlestar Gallactica.
Via Ravenwood.
It’s a bit obvious that I stumped ya’ll. So here’s a clue: This quote is particulary ironic, as our subject was the head of a studio which was a pioneer in movie sound.
It is a sad commentary on our times that this commercial is such a pathetic sequel of the original.
The Great Raid is a solidly old-fashioned kind of war movie, of the workmanlike sort made during or in the two decades immediately after World War II. Whether you like it or not depends very largely on whether you see this old-fashioned quality as a good thing or a bad thing.
Three linked stories are competently woven together, all taking place over 5 days in January, 1945, as the Japanese occupation of the Philippines comes to a final bloody end. The threads of the story come together at the POW camp at Cabanatuan, where the last five hundred or so ragged survivors of the Bataan Death March, and the siege of Corrigidor wait for death or liberation. Cabanatuan was the central holding camp for POWs in the Philippines, and by this time the fitter and healthier prisoners had been moved to other camps or to Japan for forced labor. Those left are sick, crippled, starving, many barely able to stand, mentally gone somewhere far beyond despair. They are afraid they have been forgotten by the outside world, but they have not been. In Manila, a Catholic nurse named Margaret Utinsky runs a small underground circle which smuggles desperately needed drugs into the Cabanatuan camp. Margaret, although the widow of an American Army officer, holds a passport from a neutral country and manages to stay at liberty and ahead of the Japanese secret police – for a while. The man she loves is in Cabanatuan, desperately ill with malaria. As the Japanese control over the Philippines begins to waver, he and the other prisoners are in danger of being murdered outright.
A massacre of American POWs at another camp sets the third story in motion; a hit and run raid on the Cabanatuan camp to free the POWs there, and spirit them to safety. The liberators will have to walk the last thirty miles, avoid any encounters with the Japanese forces, and pull it off with no rehearsals. The job falls to 120 picked men from the 6th Ranger Battalion, and their bombastic and colorful commander, Col. Henry Mucci. In turn, Col. Mucci assigns one of his company commanders, Capt. Robert Prince to come up with a plan to hit the camp, and to come up with it in 24 hours. Refining the plan, getting information about the camp, doing reconnaissance on the spot, coming up with a means of transporting the sick and unfit to safety, distracting the Japanese guards— it’s all done on the fly, over the next four days, working in concert with two separate Filipino guerilla organizations.
The elements of the actual raid is the most interesting and seemingly the most carefully recreated, a scheme of meticulously organized chaos— counting down to the last minutes as the Rangers carefully take up positions in the dark, just outside camp, and the Filipino guerillas prepare to block access on the road to either side. The moment when they open up is quite jolting, as it follows on fifteen or so minutes of quiet whispers, and the scuffling sounds of men crawling through the weeds. I think I would have rather seen more of the planning of it, rather than the doomed romance, which seems rather jammed in as an afterthought, and a contrivance. I did think it a little odd— since one of the keys to operating a successful underground organization is to be physically ordinary and persistently unnoticeable— that they could cast a dishwater blond actress who stands a head and a half taller than everyone else, as an underground operative in an Oriental country.
Otherwise, the attention given to the Philippine underground, and the guerillas out in the country was very appropriate, and much overdue in movies of this sort. The cast is a solid ensemble, turning in respectable performances; the lack of star power being somewhat of an advantage here. (Only three of the leads: Benjamin Bratt, Connie Nielson and Joseph Fiennes are anyone that I have ever heard of, or noticed in a movie before.) The director and producers also hired Dale Dye as their military advisor, and would appear to have paid attention to him, although I am sure that William or any other enthusiastic experts will find small flaws and discrepancies in uniforms, weapons and vehicles. There was also a quiet, unobtrusive nod paid to religious beliefs, which I rather appreciated— another old-fashioned note. And the brutality of the Japanese forces in their treatment of POWs and Filipinos was not softened, or played down in the interests of political correctness; I doubt The Great Raid will play well in Japan, but it will go over splendidly in the Philippines. And if you see it, stay for the closing credits: it opens with what looks like contemporary black and white newsreel footage of the fall of Bataan, the Death March— and closes with the arrival of the transport ship carrying the survivors to a cheering crowd in San Francisco.
I again find myself watching Top Gun on HBO. Not that it’s that great, but it seems like the best thing to go to sleep to right now. 🙂
Anyway, I think we all know about the fictitious “MiG 28” (really an F-5E). But I just caught that phantom narrator line from day one: “the planes you will be flying against are smaller, faster, and more maneuverable.” Well, the A-4 Skyhawk is certainly far smaller than the Tomcat. But they are subsonic, and at a thrust/weight ratio around .5, hardly as accelerative as the Tomcat. And, while certainly able to turn inside the Tomcat at low speeds, they max out at 6g; so at higher speeds, the Tomcat has the edge.
In any event, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the Navy’s Top Gun aggressor squadron is now flying F-16s – IMHO, the best dogfighter this country has ever produced.
Oh, and this is another thing that’s always got me: Miramar is a good 30 miles or so from the ocean. And there’s another 50 miles or so of piney woods between it and the desert, where we see them doing their maneuvers (well below the supposed “hard deck”). But then, on day two, Maverick goes into a flat spin, and is “heading out to sea.” Further, in the next scene, we first see that the canopy (a single assembly on the Tomcat) clearly blows, allowing Maverick to eject, and then Goose ejects into it. Stupid Hollywood BS.
Anyway, goodnight.
I had previously alerted you to Bride Kidnapping of Kyrgyzstan. It is playing again, through 5pm (EDT) tomorrow (check your local listings) It is playing in a block with Seoul Mates, about American GIs taking Korean brides (not really a must see, particularly for seasonened military people, who have seen this IRL several times, but still a good view), and the so-so Russian Brides.
(I bet Sgt. Mom gets this one right off the bat.)
This famous Beverly Hills estate, named for Hollywood’s first “celebrity couple”, was sold by Buddy Rogers, to Lakers owner Jerry Buss, in 1979.
Update: As I predicted, Sgt. Mom got it. see comments
Well, I don’t know WHAT inspired the sole response to my last clue. But here’s another one: Disney (along with Chevron Oil [sic – most likely Standard Oil of California]) was a co-investor, with Dr. Ariel, in the Coto Research Center.
Update: Congratulations to reader Debby on the correct response (see comments).
As no-one seems to have a clue on my last movie trivia question, I’ve decided to give you one: Gideon Ariel.
I’m just reflecting on this comment from Mike Barnett, to my post on the new FX series Over There:
I found this show as offensive as the posters the Nazis printed during WWII to demoralize our troops. Additionally, the errors in depicting various aspects of military personell, training, and procedures were so laughably innacurate that they made M*A*S*H look like a Korean War documentary. For Bochco to claim that his political beliefs do not influence the storyline is beyond absurd. I had to turn it off halfway through the second episode, and I will never watch it again. In fact, I was so offended by it that FX is now blocked on my TV. I will miss ‘Rescue Me’ and ‘The Shield’, but I can not, in good consience, watch a network that would run a show so blatantly anti-military, and in my opinion, anti-American.
I just wonder how many firefighters have blocked FX in response to their portrayal in Rescue Me, or police officers for their portrayal in The Shield?
I am currently watching Thunderball on AMC. Any Bond purist will tell you that the formula was totally fleshed-out with Goldfinger, and reached its highest point with Thunderball. Everything since has been but a pale imitation.
Personally, I think many of the Brosnan Bonds , when compared on a level playing field, surpass all the Connery Bonds. It is just that they are not so impressive relative to their contemporaries.
Oh, and Cpl. Blondie might be happy to know that, last I heard, Ioan Gruffudd was a favorite to be the next Bond. Personally, I would prefer Cary Elwes.
I’m predicting a quick (and correct) response to this one as well. 🙂
While considered a classic today, this film’s innovative use of anthropometrics was lost, on both the critics and the paying public, when it was released.
This seafaring comedy team – stars of both the big and small screen, started their careers as a marionette and a sock-puppet at KTLA in Los Angeles.
… I opined about American Graffiti and Fast Times At Ridgemont High, as being benchmarks of teenage coming-of-age comedies. Let me further this thesis: The last truly great one is American Pie.
The reader should not confuse our subject with that other Meni Suvari flick, American Beauty, also from 1999, and an undeniable nouveau-classic, which also concerned teen “coming-of-age” – but delayed until midlife. One might also not consider this in the same pantheon as American Graffiti or Fast Times. No, we must concede American Pie to the measure of its genre, and relative to its contemporaries. One at least knows this is something different from just another ’90s teen movie, because the student body never spontaneously breaks out in a perfectly choreographed line dance. 🙂
Anyway, I could continue to opine. But, as with the last post, I hope to elicit some worthwhile reader comment.
Update: Just a note here: Googling Allison Hannigan’s name doesn’t come up with her webpage in the first ten anymore. But, three or four years back, I did some work-up on her relative to Buffy. And I found she was second only to Will Wheaton in fan accessibility.
Update II: Ok, here’s a start: Compare/contrast the characters portrayed by Natasha Lyonne to Phobe Cates, Tara Reid to Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Jason Biggs to Brian Backer.
As it’s fallen off the front page, I’ll repeat my post for the Movie Trivia Clue for 8/02/05:
WPA Project 891
Of course, you could Google that, and get the answer right now. But let’s allow somebody that knows the answer, and hopefully the backstory, respond first, ok?
Update: What? Googled, and no freaking answer; this is beyond the realm.
Ok, here’s another hint: John Houseman, Orson Wells.
The answer is Cradle Will Rock, Tim Robbins’ 1999 movie about the political controversy surrounding the 1937 play, The Cradle Will Rock, which was initially produced under the WPA’s Federal Theater Project #891 in NYC. John Houseman was the producer, Orson Welles the director, and the writer was Marc Blitzstein. Here’s a pretty good article, for those further interested.
…but the prices were too good and the old one was starting to get weird on us.
This is really sweet. I really haven’t even started playing with this yet but from what I’ve seen so far, everyone in the family’s going to be very happy with their gaming experiences.
And yes, I went to the store to replace a fried video card and came home with a new video card and a new computer…makes perfect sense to me…especially since the dual cores are driving the prices down so much.
I LOVE the fact that I can plug every memory card, camera, MP3 Player and Microphone/Headset that I own or plan on buying into the front of this if I want to and still have open USB ports on the rear.
So no, I didn’t build it, but yes, we finally got the new computer. Beautiful Wife didn’t even raise her voice, she just rolled her eyes because she knows I’m not going to get much sleep the next couple of days until the new one is fully loaded with everything the old one had. This thing made it a breeze to transfer files over.
Sigh…but I still have to mow the frelling lawn before the yard nazi gives me a ticket tomorrow.