No "retirement" after 25 years: BLADE RUNNER getting new DVD and theatrical cut

Funny, 'cuz I was just thinking of Blade Runner the other day. It came while going through some things and I found my old copy of the Blade Runner computer game that Westwood Studios released in 1997. Very good game if you can track it down: it seriously pulls you into the world created by the movie. You even get to run the Voight-Kampf test on suspected replicants.

Anyway, Blade Runner is one of my all-time favorite movies, from the time I first saw it in 1992. I've got the original DVD release but I've never been all that happy with how skimpy it is on extra features... like, there are none. The production of Blade Runner and all the elements at work in this story are just too rich to leave unexplored in a medium that welcomes that like DVD. Plus, I've seen both versions of Blade Runner: the original 1982 one that has Harrison Ford's narration and the 1992 "director's cut" (which may have been the very first-ever "special edition" of any movie) and the DVD we have now is only the 1992 version. I happen to like both cuts for various reasons.

Well, today has been a good day for Blade Runner fans: it's been announced that the 1992 director's cut is being re-issued on DVD this fall, followed by director Ridley Scott releasing "the final cut" of Blade Runner in 2007 for the movie's 25th anniversary. The 1992 edition will hit shelves this September, then be on sale for four months before being pulled, after which this "final cut" will be released in theaters. I'm guessing this edition will include some deleted material (like the scene where Deckard visits Holden in the hospital, among others). Following the cinematical run, Blade Runner will be released on DVD again, this time in a pack that will include all three versions of Blade Runner: the 1982 narrated original, the 1992 director's cut and the 2007 version, along with tons of supplemental material.

What else can be said, but that it's a great time to be a Blade Runner fan! Maybe someday someone will figure out that the world of Blade Runner would make an awesome massive-multiplayer online role-playing game where we pay to be either blade runners or replicants or civilians... heck I'd pay 15 bucks for that! Or at least give us an updated version of the original computer game.

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North Carolina finally gets a real lottery today

I never thought this day would come, not in a million years. But, here we are: Starting today you can buy tickets for the Powerball lottery here in North Carolina. We've actually had the lottery since March 30th, when the scratch-off tickets went on sale. But today marks the first time ever that a real numbers racket has been allowed to operated in this state. Who knows, maybe one of us will get lucky and become a multi-zillionaire off this thing.

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Star Wars Celebration the FOURTH coming next May

As a grizzled veteran of two Star Wars Celebrations, I'll vouch for how fun these things are. So I'm glad to hear that Star Wars Celebration IV has just been announced for May 24-28, 2007: encompassing the 30th anniversary of the first Star Wars movie (before it was called A New Hope).

Next year's event is going to be in Los Angeles, which may be a little too far for me to go (depends on some factors. We'll see... I've never been that far west before so this would make a first time experience for me if I did :-).

Now, last year Lisa and I attended Celebration III in Indianapolis and we saw a lot of kooky stuff, including what was almost a near-bloody riot breaking out after they closed the souvenir store that Friday after only being open for an hour and a half!! 'Twas one of the STUPIDEST decisions I've ever seen enacted by anyone in the history of anything. Well, listen to this from the official announcement:

One of the highlights for fans at a Star Wars convention is the chance to buy unique merchandise, including an exclusive, limited-edition action figure. Because this has led to bottlenecks and long lines in the past, the Celebration IV store will be bigger than ever, self-service, well-stocked with merchandise, have plenty of check-out lanes...and be open 24 hours a day from the opening of the show on Thursday until the close on Monday!

I'll believe it when I see it, if I wind up going.

THIS part puts a damper on my hopes though...

To celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Star Wars, Lucasfilm Ltd. and Gen Con LLC will throw the largest party ever for fans of the saga...

I heard from too many people at last year's Celebration that Gen Con was the reason so many things went SNAFU. Compared to Celebration II - when the Lucasfilm crew was managing everything - Celebration III left a lot to be desired. One thing in particular from last year's show still leaves me cringing in disgust... count me as one of those pinning it on Gen Con. I said it before: they can run role-playing game conventions, but not serious sci-fi/fantasy shows (and that ain't a knock on the good people in the Dungeons & Dragons crowd at all, mind ya). It's just that some things require whole different logistics than others, and in last year's case Gen Con wasn't on the ball. But, everyone deserves a second chance to make things right, so maybe they'll learn from last year's mistakes and hit this one out of the park next year. I wish 'em all the best.

So get ready for five days of incessant Starwargasms next year, fellow fans of the saga. Which may be another reason for me to avoid it next year: four days of it nonstop last year left me dead tired by the time I got home :-)

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Fun and frustration from X-MEN: THE LAST STAND

"Doh you know oo I am?! Ah'm da Jugga-nawt, bitch!"

-- Juggernaut, X-Men: The Last Stand

This is the line that forevermore wiped out any personal sense of being wildly satisfied with X-Men: The Last Stand.

Don't get me wrong though: I had a lot of fun watching this final chapter in the X-Men film series. I was also frustrated beyond belief at the all too numerous problems in this movie.

It's NOT the train wreck that a lot of us had been expecting after hearing reports for the past year or so on how bad things were going during production. Based on some of those, it had sounded like a stinker on par with Batman and Robin. Thankfully, it's not that bad (and I doubt anything again ever will be as loathsome as that piece of dreck from Joel Schumacher).

No, X-Men: The Last Stand is more like being told you've got a beautiful baby on the way... and then being forced to stand and watch as that baby gets aborted against all moral soundness and sanity. That's what X-Men: The Last Stand is most to me, after seeing it at 12:01 AM this morning: an act of cinematic vacuum aspiration sucking out any and all hope of a future for this series.

The biggest thing I have against this movie is that Fox has stated that this will be the last X-Men movie. And they go all-out here to make darned sure you understand without any doubt that they mean it. From killing off several major characters (and not even giving a few the benefit of a meaningful onscreen death) to setting things up at the end so that the whole mutant crisis that's driven these movies since 2000's X-Men is made thoroughly kaput... I've never before seen a major studio fall over backwards to give euthanasia to a successful string of movies, until X-Men: The Last Stand.

There is absolutely no reason at all why the X-Men series could not go on for another two or three installments, or even six or seven more movies… if that few. This could have been Fox's own franchise like the Harry Potter movies, or more accurately the James Bond series. There's more than enough material from the comics and raw potential per its own merit to drive the X-Men movies to last for decades. Oh sure, there'd have to be recasting every once in awhile, like when Ian McKellan decides he no longer wants to do the Magneto thing, but think of the rat race there would be in the entertainment industry to be that next actor who plays Magneto. Or more wildly yet: Wolverine. Who says that has to be Hugh Jackman (who has done an amazing job bringing Logan to life) who plays everyone's favorite Canadian wildman? James Bond has gone on now with five or six actors playing the role... so why can't the same be done with several characters in one franchise? It would keep the whole shebang a lot more fresh and fun, without necessarily going stagnant in the way Paramount’s Star Trek series did. It's... insanely stupid to be stopping a series with such brilliant potential.

But anyway, about the movie...

The story starts with a flashback to 20 years earlier, a time when Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and Magneto (Ian McKellan) are friends and co-workers. We see them approaching the home of the adolescent Jean Grey, to offer her a place in Xavier's school. Look for the amazing effort that was made to make Stewart and McKellan look 20 years younger, if not more. Also look for the obligatory cameo appearance by Stan Lee (that guy shows up at every Marvel party). Pretty solid opening, the movie's going good so far...

Flash forward to ten years afterward, to the office of industrialist Warren Worthington, who walks into the restroom at his office to find his son clipping the feathered wings that have grown from his own back.

Flash forward again to "a few years from now", a point some time not long after X2: X-Men United (one of the few sequels that managed to be better than the original). Xavier's Institute is still in pain after losing Jean Grey. Logan is filling in as a "substitute teacher" and when we first see him, he's leading some students through an exercise in something that longtime fans of the comics have been wanting to see ever since this movie series started: the Danger Room. Meanwhile in Washington D.C. word has reached the office of the President that a "cure" for mutations has been found.

It's a very promising first twenty minutes or so. And then things just... start feeling rushed. Tacked-on. Devil-may-care. Instead of one cohesive X-Men movie it feels like bits and pieces of several stories are slapped into place one after another with no sense of plot or pacing or emotional attachment or build-up to something that pays off in the end.

James Marsden's Cyclops is the worst offense. This morning it's barely registering with me that he was even in this movie at all. I think Cyclops probably has less than five minutes of total screen-time in X-Men: The Last Stand, most of that is feeling guilty and angst-ridden about what happened to Jean. The rest is the most clumsy way of getting rid of a character in a movie that I can think of from recent memory.

Though for some reason, as a counter, I feel compelled to praise Kelsey Grammer's portrayal of Henry "Hank" McCoy, better known as that lovable blue furball Beast. Grammer's McCoy was my favorite new addition to the X-Men series: he’s exactly like the comic book original, right down to saying "by my stars and garters" at one point. Grammer had fun with this role, you can tell. You've no problem believing in Beast whether he's in a three-piece suit advising the President of the United States, or swinging in action during the scene's final battle at Alcatraz Island. Of all the good that was in this movie (and there was some), Kelsey Grammer as Beast is the big standout.

Then the pendulum swings wildly toward the other way again when I think of Juggernaut and that horrible "Don't you know who I am...?!" line. For some reason (I think it has to do with a video that's floating around on the Internet) this line garnered the biggest applause from the crowd at where we saw X-Men: The Last Stand. I didn't find it particularly funny or fitting with Juggernaut's character though (and I've already ranted in this space about some of my other issues with the movie's take on Juggernaut). To his credit, Vinnie Jones brings all the right attitude to the onscreen incarnation of Cain Marko. The problem is that one line... and the fact that he's about four times smaller in the movie than Juggernaut really should be. If they'd poured a few million more into CGI enhancing his build, I bet Jones would have made a much more impressive – and scary – Juggs. And he wouldn't need that stupid one-liner that's now probably going to join other legendary American pop-culture quotes like "Eat my shorts!" and "I've fallen and I can't get up!"

Charles Xavier's death... was ridiculous. I didn't feel this at all, at least not how it was probably intended that I be touched by his loss. I don't know what else to say about this before descending into a diatribe against everything that was so wrong about killing him and how the deed was done.

Logan fighting a Sentinel? Cool! Now, why can't they show us more of the Sentinel other than just the head? Come to think of it, why couldn't this entire movie have been about Sentinels hunting down mutants, instead of it being relegated to a mere exercise in the Danger Room? Again, another element wasted that otherwise could have been terrific.

I didn't care at all about Callisto (Dania Ramirez) and the other "punk/gotchic" mutants that follow Magneto. The only one that really seemed cool to me was the one throwing those "bone knives" at Logan during one scene later on in the movie. On a similar note, I didn't feel anything resonate with the Angel (Ben Foster)

X-Men: The Last Stand's director Brett Ratner has taken a lot of flack for this movie, and during the year-long or so run up to its release. I didn't really see anything wrong here to pin on Ratner as a director, just going by what I understand of the situation. Based on everything I've heard, he was just asked to drive the thing toward whatever destination the Fox execs told him to. Indeed, you can see the heavy-handed mangling done by the suits all over this movie. It's like "blockbuster by committee". In some ways it makes X-Men: The Last Stand a harder thing to watch than Alien 3: a movie that had something like forty writers before it ended up on the screen.

This is like what happened to Star Trek V, but far more unforgivably so. Paramount slashed the funding on that movie but they weren't crazy enough to kill off a proven cash cow. X-Men: The Last Stand could have benefited from longer production time, a better script, a longer running time and maybe a bigger budget... everything needed to give this series a half-decent sendoff if this really is what it retires on. It got none of that. It's like Fox couldn’t decide if they wanted a tent-pole summer blockbuster or a tent stake through the heart.

And now on the morning after... I feel like I watched a movie with a lot of interesting visuals and a few interesting performances, and enjoyed watching what good there was... but ultimately it went nowhere.

I'm sorry, but Fox really, shoulda, oughtta have done better with X-Men: The Last Stand. I can't say enough that there are some fun moments and bits of eye candy in this movie... but in the end, they really can't redeem this film as being a worthy addition to the series, much less a fitting capstone to it all.

One word of warning: stay for the credits. There's one final scene that's well worth waiting a few extra minutes to see.

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The finales of IDOL and LOST

This was the first American Idol finale that I've been completely satisfied with.

Now, as for Lost...

On a scale of 1 to 10, that was like a 19.

THAT, my friends, is an excellent season finale. It answered a whole lot of questions, left a tantalizing few unexplained and popped open a fresh can of new ones.

So, what is "it"? And what I wanna know is, what the heck is the deal with the giant stone leg with the four toes?

Well, anyway, good show tonight, Lost producers. And to Taylor Hicks, congratulations!! If you ever read this I want you to know that you're the first Idol guy that I'm gonna buy the CD of the day it comes out :-)

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LOST action figures from McFarlane Toys this fall

McFarlane Toys - AKA The House that Spawn Built - is releasing a line of action figures from the hit ABC series Lost! Coming this fall are scale replicas of Jack, Kate, Hurley, Locke, Charlie and Shannon. Here's some more info:

Each 6-inch Lost figure will have a detailed base and photographic backdrop, capturing an episode-specific moment in the character's story. In addition, each package will include a detailed prop reproduction central to the character's story, enabling fans to "own" a piece of the show's mythology. For example, Kate's figure will be packaged with a reproduction of the toy airplane that plays so prominently into her backstory.

And Filmfodder has some more info still:

Each toy will include a full-scale prop that befits its character. For example, Kate's figure will include a toy lead plane and Hurley will come with a lottery ticket. What the heck will they give the rest of the figures? Locke a wheelchair? Jack a coffin with a dead father-type? Charlie a statue with heroin? (That would be kid-friendly!) Shannon.... well, I don't want to guess that one.

If that's not enough, McFarlane will sell deluxe boxed sets that include dioramas of "Lost" locations (the hatch or the beach) and also re-create famous scenes from the show.

Future lines of "Lost" figures will include characters such as Sawyer (Josh Holloway) and Mr. Eko (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje).

The toys will be released this fall, timed with "Lost's" third-season premiere. Naturally.

If action figures aren't your thing, don't worry. Variety also reported that French game publisher Ubisoft has struck a deal with Touchstone Television to adapt the drama into a console videogame.

I can't wait to see the Eko figure complete with "Jesus stick" accessory :-)

My wife is going to kill me once these come out: we've barely enough room for all the Star Wars figures, and now this. But you tell me: who wouldn't want a cuddly Hurley figure bedecking their desktop next to the monitor (maybe he can guard the ranch dressing you're snacking on :-P) I just hope the McFarlane Lost line is somewhat posable: the Spawn figs were only slightly less maneuverable than the old Masters of the Universe toys.

EDIT 3:09 PM EST: Just after posting this I found where McFarlane has released the first pic from their new Lost line. Here's the Charlie figure:

Two things: that figure looks exactly like Charlie. But how can it possibly be called an "action" figure when it looks pretty obvious he's not pose-able at all?

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We just voted 25 times for Taylor Hicks

And I think Mom made a contribution of thirty votes to the cause.

SOUL PATROL!!!

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The mental captivity of the two-party believers

This is a paraphrase of something that I found on a political discussion forum earlier today, one well-noted for its rabid Republicanism:

"We can't afford to pay attention to a third party candidate or some other 'unknown'. That would hand the election over to the Democrats, which we absolutely cannot have. This is NOT A GAME! We have to PLAY TO WIN! First we get a super-majority of Republicans in the House and Senate and away from the Democrats, and THEN we knock off the 'Republicans In Name Only'. Only then can we be in a position to do anything meaningful. But we can't be bothered with somebody who is third party or is otherwise unelectable!"

Let's address the obvious first: There will never be a so-called "super-majority" of either party in Congress... or at least not enough to satisfy this kind of mentality, which is all too dominant in America.

And even if one of the two major parties did overwhelm the "opposition" in a massive show of force, what good would it do? Neither one of them – and especially the Republicans of late – have shown the American people that they are as good as their word when it comes to adhering to the principles of the Founding Fathers.

The mindset that originated the above sentiment is at the heart of what is destroying this country. I don't know what is worse: the raw hatred this person has toward anything "Democrat" or his/her unwillingness to see that they have been perfectly indoctrinated by the two-party system into being a good little subservient.

Not even the slaves that lived before the Civil War were in so terrible a bondage as exists over the mind of the average American who refuses to look past his party affiliation.

Third parties and other challengers are not allowed a real turn at the table in America for two reasons: the first is that the two-headed monstrosity that is the Democrats and Republicans has too much power over outside challengers. It is the Republicans and Democrats who control the ballot-access laws. They are the ones who make sure the eye of the media does not fixate itself on any possible threat to their corrupt system. And they have the absolute ability to utterly destroy anyone who does manage to maneuver himself into making a kill shot at the beast.

The other reason is the one that disheartens me most of all: the apathy of the American people and their unwillingness to consider anything beyond the wicked machine of the Republican-Democrat duopoly. On command, the typical American turns his head away from the table as the Democrats and Republicans steal the food from his children.

And what is the reaction of said American? Nothing better than "Thank you sir, may I have another?"

It's time to ask ourselves: what good have the entrenched in power – the ones put there by political alliance or family connection or media favoritism – done for us, as our professed leaders and benefactors? They certainly have not been the servants that too many of them swore an oath to be.

How much longer can we let them get away with hiding behind the curtain of political affiliation? How much more of the fruit of our labors are we willing to let them take from us without recompense?

In short: how angry do we have to be before we lash out against the ones who've been playing games with our posterity's future?

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In the pipeline: THE CHARLES SCHULZ CODE, feature-length feature, and something... controversial

Am working on getting the KWerky Productions blog going full-bore which is where updates on our film projects will be posted. But in the meantime...

Production on The Charles Schulz Code has been going on for about two weeks now. We've done some location scouting and have a few roles cast. This one won't be the 54-minute long behemoth that Forcery was: that length may have been a liability with our first movie. This one will be much more "digestible" i.e. less dense with detail. But don't fret: it'll still have plenty of stuff to laugh at especially if you're a fan of The Da Vinci Code or Peanuts lore. Expect it to be done and released in a few weeks.

Work on The Charles Schulz Code is something of a respite from the big project, the feature-length film which we're aiming to have in the can by the end of 2007. Right now it's still very much in the "research" stage, then I'll sit down and work on the script and prolly edit that down a lot. Am really looking forward to seeing the camera roll on this one: I'm just trying to figure out what kind of genre to define it as. It's definitely not humor or anything parody.

And yesterday an idea hit me to try something a little ummmm... eyebrow-raising. This definitely ISN'T something that falls under the KWerky banner: it's more for my own curiosity/enlightenment/satisfaction. A few years ago some guy re-edited Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace so that it was tightened up considerably (among other things, Jar Jar has a somewhat reduced role). Some people said that this "Phantom Edit" was an even better version than George Lucas's original cut. Well, I'm working on an already-existing movie and doing a few things to it that will make it... more timely, among other things. Lord only knows what the reaction to this is going to be.

Anyhoo, just thought I'd post an update on what we'll be up to film-wise in the next little while :-)

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Wedding and alligators

At the beginning of this month Lisa and I attended the wedding of my good friend and collaborator "Weird" Ed and his lovely bride Olivia down in Charleston, South Carolina. Which was the very first wedding I ever attended at 11:30 AM on a Monday morning, but anyway... While we were there we got to hook up with one of Lisa's friends from college and she showed us around town. And now Lisa posts a report on her own blog about what went down, including the dozen or so live alligators we saw running around the wedding site:

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THE NORMAN ROCKWELL CODE is now online!

Last week I found this trailer for a soon-to-be released spoof of The Da Vinci Code. Well, I checked back last night and the complete film The Norman Rockwell Code is now online! Serious props to Alfred Thomas Catalfo and his crew for not only doing an on-the-spot job parodying The Da Vinci Code but also paying homage to the comic genius of Don Knotts.

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"The Age of Steel": New DOCTOR WHO gets FIVE STARS!! Plus: "Max Headroom" returns?!

"I thought I was broadcasting to the security services, what do I get: Scooby-Doo and his gang... they've even got the van."

"I'm London's most wanted... for parking tickets."

"Even better... that's the name of my dog."

"Ex-cellent!"

"The human race, for such an intelligent lot you are all susceptible. Give anyone a chance to take control and you submit. Sometimes I think you like it."

"Upgrade THIS!"

"What the HELL was that thing?!?"

"Sally. Sally Phelan."

"This is the age of steel and I am its creator!"

"I'd call you a genius except I'm in the room."

"Ordinary stupid BRILLIANT people!"

"The most ordinary person can change the world."

"I'm sorry."

"That's the Doctor. In the TARDIS. With Rose Tyler."

"He's gone home."

"Nothing wrong with a van... I once saved the universe with a big yellow truck."

Once again, I had to download this week's new Doctor Who episode off the Internet via file torrent, a few hours after it aired in Great Britain. 'Cuz it'd be a year or so otherwise before we get it here in 'Merica.

I thought last week's "Rise of the Cybermen" was one of the best of the entire revitalized series, and definitely tops so far as David Tennant's time as the Doctor goes. Last week there was no "teaser" for this week's episode, and that was a very wise decision as it ratcheted up the "oh @&#$ NOW what?!" factor waiting to see what happened next time.

Well, "The Age of Steel" does NOT disappoint! If anything it's even better than last week's was. The Doctor and gang escape the Cybermen trap and make off in the Preachers's van (with a great Scooby-Doo reference by alter-Pete Tyler). Meanwhile John Lumic, the insane head of Cybus Industries, has decided to accelerate the "upgrading" timetable: thousands of Londoners get zombified by those earplugs and start marching into the Cybus factory. The Doctor and crew quickly come up with a plan to break up and do what they can to stop Lumic... who is about to get an upgrade of his own after his "children" have sympathy for him following an assassination attempt.

There is horror, there is humor, and there is heartbreak in "The Age of Steel". Remember how Aaron took that last look at the moon as he's marched into the death chamber in War and Remembrance? That's what I thought of as Rose and Pete feign going along with the crowd walking toward the conversion chambers. This episode, more than any other Cybermen story I can think of, brings down the boom on the fact that these are humans beneath the steel, as we see not only the business end of them getting cut apart and reconfigured but also what happens when these poor saps get their souls back and finally realize what's been done to them. One scene in particular might strike up some controversy: the Doctor practicing euthanasia on a cyber-converted woman who was supposed to be married. And then there's the heart-rending sight of this other world's Jackie as a Cyber-person.

But the biggest thing of this very emotional story is Mickey. This is Noel Clarke's final appearance on the show, and I've always liked his character immensely for some reason and am sad to see him go, but he definitely goes out swinging. He's been the "tin dog" for long enough and in "The Age of Steel" he makes his mark as fine as any other of the Doctor’s companions. In the end he decides to stay on this alter-Earth, despite the fact that the TARDIS can never return to this other reality, but here he still has a grandmother and now a mission: stop the Cybermen. The last scene is a real "go get 'em tiger" moment. Clarke and Billie Piper have a really sweet goodbye scene that will have some weeping for sure.

Plenty of everything in this ep, including some old-school Cybermen lore from the Doctor and a quick nod to last season's "Dalek" episode from Rose. Roger Lloyd Pack is still in fine form this week as mad industrialist John Lumic... and just as bad-a$$ as the Cyber-Controller. If you're an American on this side of the pond like me, don't wait for Sci-Fi Channel to run it next year, it's definitely worth grabbing off of torrent or wherever.

But there's one more thing that caught my attention from this episode that might be worth mentioning...

After the Doctor unleashes hell at the Cybus factory, there's a shot of Lumic - now the Cyber-Controller - sitting on his "throne" where he starts yanking cables out of his body so he can pursue the destroyers of his plans. And Lumic/Controller starts screaming "Noooooo..." in a cyber-fied voice. He does this again as he's hanging from the dirigible a few minutes later.

What I happened to catch was that while he's doing this, Lumic/Controller sounds exactly like the infamous "Max Headroom" video prankster who hacked the signal of a Chicago TV station in 1987 (click here to watch the actual video on YouTube). Not only does Lumic/Controller's scream sound just like "Headroom" but the hackers broadcast their pirate signal... while the station was airing one of the Tom Baker episodes of Doctor Who!! I doubt that the BBC did this intentionally... but it was still something sorta ironic that I couldn't help but notice (though I do tend to notice a lot of weird things anyway).

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The wife and I go OVER THE HEDGE

Earlier this afternoon Lisa and I went to see Over The Hedge at the Brassfield here in Greensboro. It's a darned good cute smart lil' movie! I've been looking forward to this for awhile, being a longtime fan of the "Over The Hedge" comic strip by Michael Fry and T Lewis. The strip is about a group of forest-dwelling animals living on the edge of suburbia, where they make wry commentary and snide comments about the inanity and over-gluttony of us humans while wrecking havoc with the very things we buy and consume, like TV and fast food and lawn ornaments.

And the movie did a pretty good job of capturing the spirit of the original cartoon, I thought. It seems to be like an "origin story" almost for how this group of critters first comes together. We see R.J. the raccoon (voiced by Bruce Willis) have his first meeting with soon-to-be best bud Vern, a turtle (Garry Shandling). Central to the plot is R.J. having to replace all the pillaged food that he stole from the den of Vincent, a bear who's promised to find and kill R.J. if the 'coon hasn't restored Vincent's stash in one week (Vincent, by the way, is voiced - somewhat appropriately enough - by Nick Nolte). The movie ignores a few characters from the strip (like R.J. and Vern's girlfriends, the woodtick etc.) but introduces some newer ones that are part of Vern's "family": William Shatner and Avril Lavigne star as father-and-daughter possums, Catherine O'Hara and Eugene Levy appear as the head of a porcupine family, and Wanda Sykes makes for more than a few outrageous moments as Stella, a skunk. The real scene-stealer has got to be Hammy the Squirrel (one of the comic's regulars), the most manic animated character I've seen in a good long time, played by Steve Carrell.

Well, we laughed a lot during Over The Hedge and the kids around us had a good time with it, even during the gags that were obviously intended for the "grown-ups" to catch onto (there's one hilarious reference to A Streetcar Named Desire that readily comes to mind). Definitely worth catching at the theater or later on DVD. If you need any more reason to go see Over The Hedge, it's that it features a much more realistic "treasure hunt" than that other movie opening this weekend has in it :-P

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SITH Happened: One year ago today...

...the Star Wars saga finally came full circle with Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.

I actually saw Sith twice that day: at 12:01 AM with "Weird" Ed, Darth Larry and his wife and Phillip and a few other good crew, and then a much saner time that evening with my wife Lisa and Brian again ('cuz he and I weren't going to end that day without seeing Revenge of the Sith two and possibly three times :-P). And it just kept getting better and better.

Coming out of the theater that day was sort of bittersweet, but something of a relief as well. Knowing that there will not be anymore Star Wars movies, I felt like this series has accomplished what its creator set out to do, that it had nothing more to prove and now it got to go out on top. And now we could go on just being fans of a great saga, instead of fans so busy rabidly hanging onto whatever news trickled out about the movie that we forgot to just simply enjoy the thing. Believe me, as someone who once worked for a good while at what's still the best fan-run Star Wars site on the Internet (and here's hoping that you won the big race, Dustin :-), I've seen way too much of that to not know what I'm talking about.

Guess what I'm trying to say is that with Revenge of the Sith now behind us, I think that Star Wars fans can and finally have become what we were most supposed to be anyway. It's just hard to explain what that actually is, but I believe "respectable" is legitimately something that comes to mind :-)

And for me, on a more personal level, Revenge of the Sith and the closure it brought made me want that much more to be a father, and be able to share this beautiful story with my own children and wonder and cry and laugh right along with them as we watch it together. I really hope and pray that God will give me that opportunity someday, and not none too soon. If there had been the possibility (threat?) of more Star Wars movies, it would have taken away from that thrill. It would have become too much like Star Trek. No, this ended at just the right time, and it ended well. And it's in a good place now: on a bookshelf, waiting to be opened and shared with and appreciated by the next generations of "readers".

Well, I could go on, but that would just be adding "more" to what's probably been said a million times already. If anyone's interested, here's the review of Episode III: Revenge of the Sith I wrote the following day, and if you want a laugh there's also this now-legendary post about me and Darth Larry doing the final "Midnight Madness" of Star Wars toys... and the terrible hangover that ensued.

So happy birthday Star Wars Episode III. It was a heckuva fun ride: one for the ages, definitely :-)

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Something cryptic for your careful consideration

Chronolism is a crack in the crystal that is Creation.

Calculated contemplation of this conundrum causes considerable clarification concerning the curious cosmology of Christopher.

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Last night's LOST (and a little bit about IDOL)

Lost is a show that has only gotten consistently better as the past season has progressed, especially the past several batch of episodes. Last night brought us "Three Minutes", and we finally learned what happened to Michael after he went running off into the brush with a gun to find his son. Speaking of which, we got to see Walt at last. Admittedly he looks a little bigger 'cuz of his growth spurt, but the Lost creators have said this is going to be addressed at some point soon. My theory: the DHARMA guys have been playing around with his genetics, as part of their age longevity program... would make a pretty plausible explanation given what is being leaked about DHARMA through the Lost online game and such. The new character Mrs. Klugh, I don't think she's supposed to be "the Man in Charge" but she's definitely one of the top dogs running the Others show. She was one character I wanted to see Michael go upside her head on, for sure. Definitely feel sorry for Michael, and maybe a little understanding of "why he did it" even though that still doesn't totally exonerate him. But after his exchange with Eko, I think forgiveness is one thing he certainly wants. All told, excellent episode that ends with an intriguing cliffhanger, that if you remember a certain inhabitant of the hatch from the beginning of this season then I think that's who the boat belongs to...

As for American Idol last night: I really wanted Elliott Yamin to make it through and it be him and Taylor in the final round. But Elliott is going to have a terrific career no matter what. Definitely think it'll be mah man Taylor Hicks gonna win next week: he'll probably pick up what votes Elliott would have gotten. Otherwise I really believe that Elliott might have won.

On a related note if I can figure out how to post sound files I'll try to put up my impersonation of Taylor screaming out "Soul Patrol!!" :-P

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Today...

You know Hugh Laurie's character Dr. Gregory House on the FOX show House? He's the doctor with no bedside manner, always looks grizzled and tired and surly and dresses as if he's a flood refugee. But he gets the job done.

I feel like House tonight, after a lot of things today. Not saying I'm that gruff and arrogant, but it's how he looks on that show... that's my picture of myself right now.

Long story about why that is, but right now I'm able to smile, and thank God for a few things. Was a really amazing day, and tomorrow promises more.

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