Art Race 02!!!!

Well, Aeghty Aeght won that first round, but we enjoyed the hell out of it, so it already has a sequel! Art Race II... To the Dyslexic readers No, this is not a scoop about Rat Race II, but
Breckin Meyer will be in Garfield 2... Anyway, the topic for this one is a killing, and not of Breckin Meyer, but LEIA KILLING JABBA. Yea, can ya tell it was my turn to pick? Rules: Line Art, Full color, Full Background and no photo-alterations.

Oh, and be sure to scroll down and check out some of the comics reviews this week. If you have an ember of creativity left in that pile of ash that in a time before your parents made you start paying for things yourself or you had any type of job with a boss you called a soul... pick up this week's Kabuki, and feel the need to fan those flames to life.

COMICS WEDNESDAY! READ KABUKI AND LIVE HAPPY!

Finally some more Kabuki! Does Spidey's the Other get the axe from my pull list and I give Wraithborn some much needed attention this week.

KABUKI #5
To be a single leaf, Kubuki is a gust of wind. Not restrained by being a panel to panel picture play of literally illustrated drama, here consciousness stream with commentary amid a chorus of character introspection and unbound visuals. I'm explaining in the simplest of possible terms that David Mack is taking us all back to school, and showing us all what the format, the art form of comics truly holds in it's potential. If you have never even heard of this title, or character, have never touched or seen a prior issue, but have sat down at any point with a sketchbook, a writing pad, or even some play dough or Lego's with a quantum length of creativity in your soul, you should read this issue of this title, and consider sleeping with it under your pillow. Read it in church. Share it on a plane. Discuss it with your therapist. The art form has struggled for almost twenty years to pass the dramatic zenith of Watchmen. Here the forms most primal molds are broken to be so much more, much as the narrative describes the state of our protagonist. Kubuki could be seen as a thinly veiled clarion call to the comics industry to evolve or die, in the spirit of synchronicity, one of the many subjects of this most recent issue, I'd consider transitioning to the Spider-Man arc "Evolve or Die". For all that could and should be said about Kabuki, you should privilege yourself with such a motivational devotional to the glory of creativity in all its forms. KABUKI #5 sets the bar for what a 5 out of 5 is.


THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #525
This arc started out DAMN strong and in fine form, but every issue has been getting weaker and weaker. It doesn't seem to be Peter David's fault, either, actually, I don't like reviews that are all about blame, unless some fuckhead kills a a movie for instance, like Brett Ratner most likely will with X3, and Micheal Bay may be destined to do.... but maybe not, with Transformers. This Spidey book... okay, it's better than Transformers, but just so mediocre. It's not pretty, or anything close. The art is almost loveless. I admire guys who can churn out sketch after sketch of clean pro-slick comic art, I really do. I can't. I have to labor over every piece. I can't phone it in. Of course, if you read this plot, you'd phone it in too. This poor art team had to live with this for 22 pages... 22 pages of "Peter's condition is terminal, he's dying of" (that was the first issue, strong opening remember) "Tune in next week to find out to..." That was last week... "MAYBE WE'LL SAY IT NEXT TIME!!!" Fuck this arc. 22 pages of to be continued. Asinine. Almost stupid. I'll buy it next week like a sucker... unless it's a big week. THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #525 Gets walked up to the gallows (but is still alive) with a phoned in 3 out of 5



WRAITHBORN #2
As pretty as the plot is typical, so much so the former forgives the latter and your eyes go home happy. Your brain is still fried from reading Kabuki. Here's what a comic looks like when a penciller loves drawing anything! Slurpee cups, mitey monstrosities, school girls, Bluish demonic chicks that glow... unhinged and almost gory violence. Plot? Screw it, it's serviceable. Brunette Buffy gets powers to kill wraiths or something like that... No, it's not original, but it goes great with a soft drink! WRAITHBORN #2 Gets a GRADE A guilty pleasuring Quadruple Cheeseburger without the bypass, 4 out of 5!!!!!

Art Race 01 : Willa & Nayda

Well, I'm crossing the finishing line 5 hours after Aeghty Aeght posted, I present mine... (and I didn't modify a photo for the background... that wasn't against the rules... but might be in the future...)

First P3 / Aeghty Aeght art race.

Aeghty Aeght accepted the challenge and has selected the first subject.

The first subject is Willa and Nayda the Warrior Maidens from Thundercats. Both in one picture full color with background.

The posting of which = crossing the finish line, this should be fun.

Boooooooooooooredddddddddd

I'm BOOOOooooooooRrrred! Need to shake things up..... I have this much (pictured here actual size) ambition to fold my laundry... Oh, I'm sorry, couldn't see it could you, it was much smaller than any single pixel on your monitor.

Oh, Nap, I finally now know why an old friend and this guy I worked with back in 97 couldn't SHUT UP about DS9. I just got to the season 5 ender (Call to Arms.) That was almost as good of a finale as Galactica's. Of GALACTICA WARNING. DO NOT READ ANYTHING ON SC-FI.com. Nap, Avoid all Galactica articles on Sci-fi wire... they contain many SPOILERS without warnings.

Anyway... while I'm doing Shout-outs... I'm having Aeghty Aeght envy. He's been posting loads of colored versions of his old sketches and now that new Cheetara pic... ya...

So... Aeghty Aeght I challenge you to a race (or a series of races)... No, cheating on quality, and stick figures don't count. Not a pissing contest of "Whose is better?" But a race. Who post sooner. You draw faster than I do. I can run rings around you in photoshop. You complete and post more pieces than I do. You have the advantage, do you accept the challenge?

It's the END OF THE Week...

One of these days, I'm gonna get myself a sign that say the END IS NEAR, and walk around like that for a whole Thursday with it. Then, on Friday, I'm gonna Have my sign say the END OF THE WEEK IS UPON US... We've all heard of "End of the world nonsense" So, End of the week nonsense might make a good feature.... and I can't think of a better way to start of such a thing...

http://www.google-kai.com/

It's not a joke either. Have a good weekend.

COMICS WEDNESDAY! The stores are still open so go buy some of these!

At least consider some 3/5's, promise to pick up the 4/5's and if you don't get something that's a 5/5... you might not like yourself very much.

Big week though, so lets get started, especially since TRANSFORMERS debuted this week!!!!!

I post in the order I read 'em... and the best way to start things off is;

THE WALKING DEAD # 22
If you're reading this book, this one mostly a talky issue and I won't say much more. To those who aren't already involved in this series, this is not a jump aboard issue. The series is readily available in collected editions and is well worth it. It's just reliably good, and that says a lot for a book that is essentially a daytime soap inspired by George Romero.
Though it spoils us with such consistent quality It can bump it's head held high on the bar it put so high, and walks right into a 3 out of 5.













ROBOTECH: PRELUDE TO THE SHADOW CHRONICLES #2
From one soap to another. Well, the suds are kinda missing. It's not like a beer without the head, it's just like there's no soap in the water, head wouldn't be of an issue since all the women are just strangely absent from the story. Actually, there's an absence of characters in general in this new Robotech. The only character we've gotten familiar with at all is the seditious villain and, really we don't know him very well. The hubbity jubbity of the new shadow technology is more fleshed out than anything. This is a gorgeous book, it looks like Dreamwave's books used to, like stills from a good looking anime that never got to see the light of day. It's hard to really evaluate the story here, this comic isn't a meal, it's an appetizer to a DVD release. Appetizer or not though, there was an awkward scene change that made this whole issue very confusing. One caption mentioning the fact that the scene was on a different ship that was around a different planet changes everything. Hell, when you skip a YEAR between issues, how much might you skip during the issue? Every other time they changed locations in in this nice large font, so if you don't do that... I mean, I feel like an idiot for being confused through a chunk of the book. These characters mostly wear the same uniforms.

ROBOTECH: PRELUDE TO THE SHADOW CHRONICLES #2 Gets an uneasy, and almost generous 3 out of 5... But be warned Robotech, being pretty and an old love can't save you all the time.

MARVEL KNIGHTS: SPIDER-MAN #19
Continued from last week, the "The Other: Evolve or Die" storyline jumps to a title I've never picked up, and in this week of Transformers who do I find but Pat Lee doing pencilling chores on Spiderman, and a big ass Honda ad where the story would normally start. They're draggin out the tension of some shocker in this plot line, so 2 issues in and we're at a tenuous commitment to completion already, well on the Spider-Man line. The B plot with Mary Jane is a star turn that makes you think horrible things like; "Why doesn't she have her own book?". Well, if she did, it'd get old and it'd probably suck most of the time anyway.

MARVEL KNIGHTS: SPIDER-MAN #19
idles at 3 out of 5.


This week needs help. At least nothing sucks yet.





ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR #24
This was one of the two best books of the week. Greg Land just makes so much look so pretty. Sue's mom may be a little too pretty... for being 20 some years after having kids, and is showing a Hell of a lot of cleavage. But, you read into it and she's enough of a bitch to get away with looking like that. Aside from her and a massive amount of pretty, this book has a nice pulp sci-fi feel... That's what I really get into with this book, but going to the ruins of Atlantis just has you back watching old serials or reading comics from a flea market, or books that smell like BOOKS. Land's art is almost too much for this story, it hits in an odd way, but at the same time, Land relies on reference so much that the visuals aren't fantastic enough. They need to be plucked more from the mind, but, they're still pretty.

ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR #24 is a
comfy 4 out of 5





TRANSFORMERS #0
Simon Furman on TRANSFORMERS!!!! Lets give him a great welcome and a fresh start. No hard feelings about anything, he's a legend in the Transformers community, and I'll make no further comment. I want a good Bot-book so bad, I'm willing to give even this a chance, cause it's better than nothing. So there's a guy, with wild hair, a GREEN shirt, and a van, looking to solve a MYSTERY. A MACHINE MYSTERY. You're a legend in the Transformers community? You dedicate the 0 issue of the new start to the franchise in comics to a Shaggy Doo reference? Without even a dog? Maybe you thought no one would pick this up? And why is Thundercracker an F-22? Yes, the Raptor is the replacement for the Eagle, but the F-15 is still in service... so leave them ALONE!!!!! And how the hell can Shaggy see in the cockpit of one flying by... in the desert? I won't even get to the Terminator speak (or plagiarism) that the autobots do. Thanks for nothing. EJ Su drew a better book than you wrote Simon. I can't even begin to compare this to what Dreamwave left behind.



TRANSFORMERS #0 's Art and name
get it 2 out of 5. The $.99 price helped. IDW, you've screwed up. Fix this mess fast.

STAR WARS: REPUBLIC #78
This is why I saved Republic till last. I always save Star Wars until last, just to wash any bad taste out of my mouth. This week, it was needed, and worked. And I was loving this until Casey Jones from Ninja turtles showed up... Okay a bounty hunter who looked like him. I thought this was a solid 4, but I'm stuck on Casey Jones.

STAR WARS: REPUBLIC #78 hit's 3 out of 5.








At least when Republic goes, Dark Horse is going to make their passing easy, with 2 series, named after my two favorite Star Wars Video Games. Star Wars REBELLION will have 5 issues a year. Then, there's well, I leave you with this....

Commentary on Morality and Science in the Media

I'm gonna soapbox. I said I wouldn't, but this falls under the category of media criticism, so, I'll allow myself to do it. Just as I'm sick and tired of "Controversy" being newsworthy, and Elizabeth Vargas or Fox News or MSNBC reporting on every time anyone is pissed off about anything they have video that roughly goes with the subject, they run with it. It warps public perception, and generally makes this a bitter and pissed off nation of folks. Americans were much better people before they had to wait in 2 hours of rush hour traffic every night just to go to bed after hearing on the news that everything in their house will kill them and everyone outside their home is going to destroy their way of life.

There can't be a story about Science in the media anymore without this same controversy, every discovery has a detractor and... well... fuck it all. Everyone who has ever questioned the morality of ANY scientific discovery needs to abandon anything made after the invention of the slightly sharper rock. The history of discovery shows just how bad we are at knowing where knowledge will lead. You tomorrow could make some observation about birds outside your back yard, or numbers on a calculator that some dude 20 years from now will do some thesis about, 30 years later it leads to some minor breakthrough and then a technological revolution in 2143, and all of a sudden two inventions and a leap later humanity wipes itself out. How dare you look out your window. How dare someone came up with math.

You can't apply some abstract morality to any science. On the morality side, well, every one has a different yardstick to measure by. On the science side, you don't know how it's going to go until you've done it. Once done, it doesn't get undone. In medicine, some things are going to live and some are going to die. You don't tell your vegan friend how many rabbits got plowed for his salad. You want to keep your friend, or you tell her, just to drive her nuts...

Morality and ethics are, unfortunately illusions. Most of the "bad" people you've ever heard of, didn't see themself that way, and many felt guided by some moral compass.

Most people have some result they would love to be able to gain from technology, science, or medicine, and they all have an idea of what obtaining it would be worth to them. It's probably aligned with their morality too.

The media though, seems to be loosing it's moral compass more and more every day, and mor and more are telling us what are morality should be.

We're smart enough to figure out if we think somethings a good idea or not.

X-Men 3 Teaser...

If you go to the movie's official site, and skip the flash into, YOU MISS the teaser. But, since we've all been worried, it looks like the people who made that Fifth Element teaser back in the day found work again. I love logo teasers... they make new crayons look like sharp objects. So, I'd link to the site, but why? I'd say go, but you'd waste your time. Is this a pointless blog entry... I'd say it fits Monday nicely.

I will say this... we introduced Keypunch Monkey to Magic: The Gathering... watch his blog evolve in a Magic blog... :)

The Blond Bond Sell.

I know this much about Daniel Craig, the BBC showed him bellicosely arriving to the press conference on a patrol boat. Oh, and he's blond.

Wow. I was so interested in this entry, I honestly got up and forgot I was even writing it for a couple of hours. Which cuts straight to the point I was going to make. I'm reading fuss and praise hopes dreams and nightmares, piss and vinegar all over the net getting all... well, whatever your disposition on the man is, about this guy and the future of the Bond series. But... wait I can't say it...

Okay, let me preface this carefully... I do love Bond, I have since I was... damn, I can't remember not loving Bond. I can remember diapers, and not being able to walk. I can remember lying in my baby crib, not as clearly as some things but I do remember it, and I'll say, that at that age I MIGHT not have LOVED James Bond, but I DOUBT IT.

But, as far as Daniel Craig and the "future of the franchise". I don't care. I implore fellow fans to chill out, and not care... we'll all go see Casino Royale. But, c'mon, it's only a movie and I can PROVE IT.

Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, Daniel Craig

Can you see a pattern? Here Look again:

Sean Connery

George Lazenby

Roger Moore

Timothy Dalton

Pierce Brosnan

Daniel Craig

Relevance of the lead leap frogs through this series. Okay, we have a long relationship with a bond, and then we have a rebound*.

Daniel Craig is almost destined to be a "James Bond" Question on Jeopardy in a few years. History says he won't have the role for long.. frankly I hope he's only there for one movie, and I hope they do it right. Start by quitting on thing; quit upping the ante on action. Bigger isn't better. Better is. Bond needs to become a suspense and intrigue franchise, for at least ONE movie... Casino Royale should be that movie. Next, an "R" rating. Don't shoot for it, but don't avoid it. Feel free to get the story out... actually that's another point...

You should, SHOULD, have shot the movie for 40 million before EVER announcing who the new bond was, with a title like Crimes of Blood, never had any attention drawn to it and let the main actors, and a FEW creative people have a clear vision for it. You spend so much, you want to gaurd every drop of your investment with every last ounce of life and drain exactly that out of the picture. Yes, Die Another Day worked, and worked well, but on the whole they feel like too many meetings go into the mix.

Don't mess with the format. Okay, we know you're not that dumb.

Oh, one other thing, no more gadgets. An Omega Seamaster, an Astin Martin and a Walther PPK are all the man needs. I loved most of the gadgets, but now by they get to the screen after the writers think of them, they're on the market or in the arsenals of the worlds governments. Bond doesn't need to be a walking Sharper Image catalog right now. Save it for when we do get Ewan or Hugh and they're around for 6 or so pictures. Besides, we never get toys of them, actually...

Dear James Bond,
Our generation was raised on movies birthing toys, and you, you absent father of a celluloid male role model, your toys were hardly ever there, and what quality was there when they did come around? I hate you for it, I always have. Stay away from mom... signed, your toy loving son of a generation of movie goers.

We can be more forgiving than that... out side of McFarlane Toys, MOST female action figures are anything but hot, and what's Bond without the girls?


*Diamonds are Forever DOESN'T COUNT as Connery's last Bond film. He broke it off after You Only Live Twice. Lazenby is then our rebound... Diamond's is the equivalent of screwing your ex after the breakup, you're not re-establishing the relationship, you're enjoying sex with no strings attached. We also did this AGAIN with Never Say Never... you never get over that first love.

COMICS WEDNESDAY! READ SOME AND LIVE HAPPY!

This week I picked up:
At the recommendation of Steve down at Comics Headquarters, I grabbed FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN #1. My first reaction (knee-jerk to the title) was aww fuck, kid friendly. I hate "Kid friendly" Kid friendly usually means weak, watered down, punches pulled a plenty!
Brief tangent; MOST writers are not wanting to tell stories that are kid harming. I.e. This month Spidey takes on cocaine nose first while discovering his first taste of anonymous cock, getting better money working glory holes than selling Spidey pics. He'll need it now to support his coke habit true believer. Okay, there probably some assholes who want to write that story, and a few more who want to read it. So, never mind, back to the review, and NO that is NOT the plot of this issue or ANY Spidey story ever done by MARVEL... Ok.
It seems like so many fans love Mike Wieringo... I can see why, when the costumes are off and you see characters, I'm sorry my non-spandex loving asses definition of characters... people with faces and emotions, he's damn phat. The panel the red and blue comes on, it looks like the art on those Spider-man stickers my mom bought me at Ben Franklin back when they sold candy cigarettes and stores being open on Sunday was a new thing. Actually, I remember one of those stickers had the same art (that Marvel was always recycling) of a photocopy drawing that I got autographed by "Spider-Man" at an event at Toy Chest, when he was on "The Electric Company". For those who can't remember Ronald Regan, I won't even try to explain. The rest of you get that I think it looks.... RETRO. I wont say it's bad, Hell, it's redeemed by just the acting chops his pics pull off (on like page 8 for example) when a woman is begging for her life. Oh, now you're interested, just a bit. I hadn't even touched on that Peter David's the writer here. Or that this is a crossover arc with Peter David doing 1/3, Reginald Hudlin doing the second act, and J. Michael Straczynski doing the third act... then a fourth act with each of them trading off a little quicker.
Is this like WOW... eh, but I wish all comics were reliably this good. Then you could pick up anything on the shelf and feel this satisfied... well, I read Empire after this... so I'm trying to digress to how I felt after reading Spidey. If you haven't read the wall crawler in a bit, this may be worth a look see.

FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN #1 gets a 4 out of 5.

STAR WARS: EMPIRE #36. This book had been a lifeless as this lame duck series is about to be. The last arc was a test of endurance, and at times almost no fun. That arc is over. Where's a smiling emoticon when I need one... those little bastards, so unreliable. Spidey was so good this week that I was beginning to doubt my save Star Wars for last policy. Never doubt! First off... Davide Fabbri is going to be the penciller on the whole arc. He last did an issue of Empire 20 issues ago, the art was... "Hmm, Nice." Now, it's a slow growing pants bulge that will slow you down in reading the book. You'll almost be like those commercials where Bob has wood and a happy missus, for one BIG aspect of this art, you can FEEL the locations. His art isn't photo real, but you get such a good essence of the scene and setting that you feel like you could walk around there.

Go, read the preview.

Those aren't the worst pages in the book, but there are like 17 better pages. Basically, it all get better from there!
Well, it was good to have a good comic week, small for me, but I'll try to make this Wednesday page a habit.

STAR WARS: EMPIRE #36. Gets a hardy and almost unfairly LOW 4 out of 5. seriously, it's more of a 4.85, really, I mean come on 5 out of 5 would be like Sandman: A Season of Mists, Watchmen, Bone, Walking Dead has never been a 5.. wait till next week, I'll probably pick up some crap on accident or on purpose...

Oh, and I rented HHGTTG on DVD, just to see if Redbox at Mickey Dee's included the special features disc... THEY DON'T. So, I'll watch the commentary track hoping for an apology and probably re-crucify the movie tomorrow.

Movie: Dungeons & Dragons (2): Wrath of the Dragon God

The following was overheard at Normal People HQ;
"Men, it's a sequel to Dungeons and Dragons. The first one sucked, but didn't suck hard enough to cause those gaming geeks to just kill themselves and get out of our way. Then that Lord of the Rings crap made them look so normal that Best Buy brags that they employ them, and Nicholas Cage even named his kid after a comic book character. If we DON'T stop this at once, people who read, and have imaginations might be... everywhere, and I can't imagine that! It's time to once again use our ultimate weapon; Dungeons and Dragons, that vile role-playing game where people tell stories, solve problems, use their imaginations and have HARMLESS FUN... These were the kids in school who couldn't see the delight in harmless vandalism like mailbox baseball, and tee-peeing a neighbors yard. Most of them didn't even revel in underage drinking and drugs. What's that make them? Wussie momma's boys! <> Now, with this movie we'll have them cry until their daddies beat them in to being MEN!

First, get me some no-name actors, cause if I don't know their name, they must be no damned good!

We've got nobody you've ever heard of sir!

Excellent, next skimp on the effects! Let these nerds use their imaginations that they're so proud of!

Consider them skimped on sir.

This needs to be cheap, very cheap.

The whole movie will cost about what Rob Schneider got for Deuce Bigalow...2!

Yes... PERFECT! That will doom it to ... no, Finally... The writing needs to be abdominal get people who have worked in softcore porn!

One of the writers was the AD on Emmanuelle in Space sir, both have little to no experience.

Yes! The geeks doom is at hand!!!! Muwhahahahaha!!!!!!!"

End tape.

Seen it. Sorry asswipe, but I'm still here, and... I can't wait to get the DVD. I hated the first D&D flick. It was an eyesore. This, is no LOTR. Duh. It's too short to be as deep as Record of the Lodoss War, but I really, really dug this movie. The FX did at times look cheap, BUT there's a balance between quantity and quality here, and we come out ahead. They're never distractingly bad, like the first movie, they are not $100,000,000 perfection either. So what? The movie pulls you into the feel of gaming.

Let me say again, it feels like a D&D game, a good one. The actors are a bunch of competent professionals who you've never heard of, and won't care that you haven't. The biggest shock is the writing. No great dialogue, it's all very functional, but the damnedest thing happened with this movie. It was absent the day they taught formula and irritating, though seemingly necessary, cliche's!

After D&D, I was hopeful that maybe a long time from now and good movie could be made of it. Well, the first GOOD D&D movie is here, if you like the first one, pull up a seat and love this one. It you hated the first, but wanted a live action Lodoss... it's here on DVD November 8th!

This sold me a DVD! And I might even consider it for my top of the year list, even though it was on TV. (No, it's not a great movie, but it's FUN, like ... Serenity.)

Headline: Some X Criticize Y because of Z

I'm sick, SICK of that headline!!! How is that news? How is someone being offended newsworthy? And why is my being offended never newsworthy? Everything done in this country is going to offend someone. Today a bunch of people who are better than you are gathering and making a big deal about something some people have always done, that honestly usually doesn't hurt others, and it's something they happen not to enjoy anyway... so what? A couple weeks ago Adam Carolla said he was offended by people eating bugs on Fear Factor. No news outlet reported his outrage! The system doesn't work! Aren't you supposed to report all outrage you lunatic idiots of the media? You ball-less sacks of human waste, not all journalists, just ones like Elizabeth Vargas on ABC... actually ABC WNT is becoming the sickest display of pansy pandering I've ever seen.

In related news:
ALL GHOST STORIES, EVER ARE BULLSHIT.
If there were such a thing as Ghosts Peter Jennings would haunt that broadcast that they've destroyed in the past few months.

The following contains fowl language, so stop reading if you're a childish moron.

Idiots offended by the word fuck, and ya, if you're offended by THAT word, you are a childish idiot, it's almost lost all meaning anyway. Grow up. Anyway, idiots offended by that word don't let their children hear it... (BTW, They've heard it, and don't care!!!! You ass caught, anal irritating, sesame seed!)

I'm offended by operations being shown on TV, should I not let my child watch such things... she loves it, goes with that "want to be a doctor" thing that occasionally is on her mind.

I couldn't be a doctor... it's just disgusting. If I were your doctor, you'd "meet" your stupid teddy bear you pieces of mental flotsam. I'm offended by how disgusting the human body is. Be glad so many aren't even phased by this. They're more grown up about it. I'm childish, it's GROSS to me. Your doctor sees this as childish, and saves our sorry asses that are to stupid to live in a healthy manner.

Trailer: Over the Hedge

I haven't seen Madagascar, and the more previews I saw, the less I cared. BUT, I appreciate suburb humor... these lil fuzzies show some promise.

Over the Hedge

Movie: Serenity

Did you like Star Wars? I'm not asking if you liked Star Wars Episode IV : A New Hope, I'm talking about that movie, 28 years ago that was called Star Wars, and described as a space western. Star Trek started out as a space western too... both series became, well, not westerns. Star Wars became myth, Star Trek became a vision, they became "more important" than popcorn, fluff, matinee style entertainment. I love them dearly, but fuck even Galactica left behind the space cowboy fluff to be the "best drama on television"! It's great for sci-fi to be ambitious, and it should, especially when the material is good enough, but would anyone dare be ambitious enough to make a QUALITY piece of fluff sci-fi? Well Joss Whedon was!

Serenity is more like Cowboy Bebop than Star Wars or Star Trek. The Earth is unusable, and human kind has colonized another solar system, in Bebop it was just the rest of our solar system. It has a ship as it's base of operations, Cowboy Bebop has the "Bebop", and Serenity has the "Serenity" a Firefly model ship... Both series sport an eclectic cast of characters, but most series do, and they're morally good groups who are on the wrong side of the law, slightly.

Serenity is the type of movie I've wanted to see since the Mos Eisley segment of Star Wars, and that want has grown with every viewing of the original Star Wars. To put is simply, if you were unsatisfied with the Star Wars prequels for the lack of sarcasm and wit and almost all of the bitches about the prequels... Serenity is EXACTLY the movie you wanted to see. I must be an odd form of geek, I loved both. Lucas and Whedon have such opposite strengths and weaknesses, your fanboy heart may wish they could work together. One of the best movies of the year, and I won't redo my top five list for awhile so Serenity can digest some.