• Looks like Harold & Kumar 2 is shaping up to be fun. Getting Neil Patrick Harris back is the best move they could make.
• Figured there’d be some way around the Vista upgrade restriction stupidities. Not a perfect solution, but a workable one.
• California considers extreme measures to push CFL’s to the public
• I kinda have mixed feeling about this change in Outlook 2007
• I hope this kid’s lawsuit succeeds with flying colors
• This is now in the training manual under the heading, “don’t ever do.”
• Ooooh, now THERE’s a USB hub worth having
• Aardman & Dreamworks split up. I’m a fan of Aardman’s projects, and wonder what this means for their future. Hopefully they can find some other strong distribution channel.
• Sony takes a hit for their stupidity. Serves ‘em right.
• So people are mad at these folks for actually pointing out what should be obvious?
• Gilmore Girls continues to fire on all cylinders. I’m hopeful that they’ll actually manage to go past this season. It’s been understood as likely that this 7th season would be the last, primarily because the actor contracts wer up after the 7th. I didn’t mind that so much during last season, which was easily the weakest of the series. But this 7th season has been great, and I hope the high ratings will get the show an 8th. Veronica Mars is starting to improve a bit, FINALLY. Fingers crossed for a 4th season. Everyone give that rabbit’s foot one giant rub.

Dialog Of The Day: “Michael Jordan plays ball. Charles Manson kills people. I talk. Everyone has a talent.” (Nick Naylor, played by Aaron Eckhart in Thank You For Smoking)

Video Of The Day: Wow, this is totally trippy. Wanna see how salt reacts to frequencies of sound waves?

• No matter what, do NOT press it. Seriously. Don’t do it.
• The ultimate gift for that hardcore biker buddy of yours
• Looks like a Mummy 3 isn’t going to be too hard to coordinate, since pretty much everyone seems to be game for it
• Casino Royale gets a dubious Bond movie honor in China
• Nimoy gets to take us on a Trek through 40 years of history
• Twilight, hmmm? Why does that plot setup sound so farmiliar?…

Dialog Of The Day: “9/11 showed us what human beings are capable of. The evil, yeah, sure. But it also brought out the goodness we forgot could exist. People taking care of each other for no other reason than it was the right thing to do. It’s important for us to talk about that good, to remember. ‘Cause I saw all of it that day.” (John McLoughlin, played by Nicolas Cage in World Trade Center)

Video Of The Day: Man, some of the accuracy in this montage is stunning.

• With the official retail launch of Windows Vista tomorrow (the 30th), Microsoft has kicked out a few Windows Updates and a few Vista Ultimate Extras
• Amazon has some nice deals at 50% off for MGM/Fox TV shows on DVD
• For those who didn’t know, Sci-Fi has made a 22 episode order for a new Flash Gordon series. Kicks off this July. Should prove interesting.
• After all their idiotic restrictions on the upgrade editions of Vista, MS kinda endorses the purchase of OEM versions (what I recommend to people anyway)
• Symantec may be downsizing a bit recently, but that hasn’t stopped them from doing another one of their yearly big company buyouts. This time, it’s Altiris
• Kinda figured that pre-roll ads on YouTube were inevitable. The day is coming.
• The nifty Notepad++ gets a version 4.0 release
• All I can think of these days when I read stuff like this about Britain is Children Of Men
• I may actually have to watch a couple episodes of The Office (I haven’t watched it since I saw the first couple, which I found boring beyond belief). Joss Whedon & JJ Abrams are set to each direct an episode.

Dialog Of The Day: “You know what? Maybe the wireless companies should take a quick break from putting movies on my phone and spend a little time seeing to it I can make phone calls with my phone.” (Danny Tripp, played by Bradley Whitford in Studio 60 1.13)

Video Of The Day: It’s a bit hit-or-miss, but the Chad Vader series of short comedy films definitely has some funny stuff in it

• WordPress 2.1 (”Ella”) went final this week. This blog is powered by WordPress, and has been running on various beta versions of 2.1 for a little while. It is now on the final 2.1 version. All the changes and additions are for the better, and I congratulate the WordPress team for another nice release.
• Too funny. You a Stephen Colbert fan like me? Try out the amusing (and simplistic) COLBoogle.com
• Victor Garber moves from the cancelled legal series Justice (a good show, btw) to another legal series as a hot-shot senior partner, in ABC’s Eli Stone (ordered to pilot). BTW, if Reaper (bottom of same page) gets picked up, it would make for a good shot to follow Supernatural on The CW.
• An interesting tour of the LucasFilm data center
• Vista’s upgrade versions suck in every way possible. Man, that’s depressing. MS continues to alienate PC enthusiats/hobbyists as much as they seemingly can. Morons.

Dialog Of The Day: “Do you wanna come with me? ‘Cause if you do then I should warn you, you’re gonna see all sorts of things. Ghosts from the past; Aliens from the future; The day the Earth died in a ball of flame; It won’t be quiet, it won’t be safe, and it won’t be calm. But I’ll tell you what it will be: the trip of a lifetime.” (The Doctor, played by Christopher Eccleston in the season 1, or season 27 depending how you count it, cool preview trailer)

Video Of The Day: Could somebody explain to me why these morons seem to continue driving around, crash after crash?

• NewsLeecher, the greatest binary newsgroup reader/downloader, just got better. New beta features auto PAR2 checking/queue/extracting! Woo hoo!
• Still working on the 2006 retrospective. Slowly. Very slowly. Depressingly slowly. Adverbably slowly.
• Will start adding 2007 movie reviews soon, to be kicked off with at least The Hitcher and Blood & Chocolate (the two I’ve seen so far)
• Just added a 500GB SATA2 Western Digital and two 400GB PATA Seagate hard drives to my workstation at the house (brining it up to JUST a hair under 2TB). This also frees up a couple 250GB PATA drives from that workstation that the 400’s replaced to hook up to the server via USB or whatever. Tellin’ ya, I can fill any drive space I can get my grubby little paws on…

Dialog Of The Day: “I know he can get the job, but can he do the job?” (Frank Waturi, played hilariously by Dan Hedaya in Joe Vs The Volcano - one of my all-time favorite movies)

Video Of The Day: Pulp Fiction - Jedi Edition

Every war movie should have a fascinating counterpoint film like this. It’s very interesting to see the flip-side of the battle, and those involved. While this movie shares a great deal with Flags Of Our Fathers, it is a much more intimate and restrained production, far tighter and smaller in scale. While I may not consider this movie to be quite of the Best Picture level (such as it got as an Oscar nomination), but it’s certainly deserving enough of the honor. I actually prefer Flags Of Our Fathers a bit more to this film, but this one is still absolutely excellent.

Writing: The story is weaved in such a way, seen through the eyes of a few primary characters of different rank and background, that you get a very interesting picture of what the legendary battle was like for those on the losing side. It’s particularly interesting because the pretty much knew they were going into a battle they were going to lose. Vastly outnumbered, they quickly figured out they didn’t stand a chance in the long run. What’s ultimately the driving force in the narrative of the film is the characters facing the fact that they are sure to lose. I also like the little bits and pieces of material that directly tie into other bits and pieces we saw in Flags Of Our Fathers.

Production: Benifiting from all the hard work in development that the crew pulled off for Flags Of Our Fathers, this film takes full advantage of the filming locations and quality of production. It affords it a level of authenticity that a smaller, contained story like this would probably have otherwise gotten. The cinematography is again absolutely fantastic, repeating Flags Of Our Fathers’ technique of deeply crushed blacks (which gives the black sand beaches of Iwo an almost alien feel). The few bigger visual effects sequenes also benifit greatly from the work done on it’s partner film.

Cast: There are two remarkable performances in this film. The first is veteran actor Ken Watanabe’s stoic yet charming performance as General Kuribayashi. The second is Kazunari Ninomiya as the slighly goofball low-ranked Saigo. The two of them are excellent on their own and together in scenes. Other roles are filled out with very capable actors.

Music: Clint Eastwood steps aside from composing duties (which he did for Flags Of Our Fathers) and turns scoring duties on this film over to his son Kyle as well as Michael Stevens. Like father Clint’s score to Flags, Kyle and Michael Stevens’ score is subdued, touching and spot-on. Neither are candidates for best score of the year.

What do you get when you give two fantastic actresses some deliciously juicy material to play? A very good movie, that’s what. From start to finish, this story is both happy and friendly while at the same time being deeply twisted and devious. It’s not one to back away from getting messy, and dragging its characters through the mud with it.

Writing: The script must have been quite good to translate so well to the screen. We have two characters who have motivations both obvious and mysterious. It’s written as something of a self-reinforcing feedback loop. The more destructive these characters are to each other, the closer they become through understanding and desperation. It’s really a strange film of character relationships, and it all works so well.

Production: The film is very grounded and simplistic in many respects when it comes to production design. While it features a handful of lush and flashy cinematography, it’s not the primary style of the film. This is made by people who want their characters in a real world. In particular, the school they work at feels extremely real, almost surely filmed completely on location rather than sets.

Cast: On top of the excellent writing, we have a fanastic cast. Cate Blanchett is one of my favorite actresses. She’s incapable of a poor performance and this is no exception. Judi Dench is at the top of her game in this as well. Like the writing, both of these actresses are very deserving of their Oscar nominations. Add some other excellent cast members to the mix, like Bill Nighy, and you’ve got gold.

Music: Philip Glass got the film’s fourth Oscar nomination, and his score is deserving enough. He’s had a particularly good year of film scoring, with this movie, Roving Mars and The Illusionist featuring excellent scores. The Illusionist is his best score of 2006, but his score for this film is also quite good. It’s very much in his traditional “Philip Glass style,” and works very well because the tumultuous story of the film thrives on the kind of boiling minimalist composition he’s famous for.

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t particularly motivated to want to see this movie. I’m reminded of Frank Drebin’s line in The Naked Gun: “No matter how silly the idea of having a queen might be to us, as Americans we must be gracious and considerate hosts.” That pretty much sums it up for most Americans, myself included. Thankfully, I was surprised by the movie, which was definitely better than I was expecting. Sure, it’s still kind of superficial, but it’s a fairly interesting character study.

Writing: The script does a pretty good job at weaving in and out of public domain type material of historical record and behind-the-scenes motivations. We get to see that which one normally wouldn’t get to. Sure, it’s anybody’s guess as to how truly accurate it all is to history, but it feels real enough to my uninformed eye. The relationship between Blair & The Queen is well developed, and there are a few deliciously juicy lines to be found. The most telling of such lines is when The Queen warns Blair at the end of the ordeal that public sentiment and approval are ridiculously fickle things, able to change on a dime with hardly a second thought. How true that ended up being for Blair.

Production: Intermixing plenty of news and other public domain footage into the production helps sell the realism of what they are filming. At the very least, it puts it into context quite well. Set design is convincing, with excellent scale and cinematography.

Cast: Helen Mirren has been getting such rave reviews and an Oscar nomination, but as far as I’m concerned it’s Michael Sheen who deserves the highest praise for his performance of Tony Blair. Mirren is rather stilted (as she should be for the character), certainly doing a good job with the performance, but I’d hardly consider it Oscar caliber. Other fine cast members help fill out the supporting roles, such as James Cromwell (in one of his less-sympathetic performances).

Music: Alexandre Desplat does a nice job capturing the dramatic and regal quality of the film. It’s not a particularly stunning score or anything, but it’s definitely solid and well done.

• Wow, another quasi-spinoff series (of sorts) for Doctor Who. Cool that Anthony Stewart Head will be doing a guest voice.
• Oooh, cool. 300 is to be simultaneously released in IMAX. I’m so there.
• Guess we’ll have to start hoarding pennies
• So much for smart people having the stock market figured out
• Man, sometimes it’s impossible to wrap your mind around the work of these insane scientists/engineers.

Dialog Of The Day: “I’m really depressed. I haven’t felt this suicidal since…… since I was alive.” (Morgan Turly, played by Ben Weber in Medium 3.09)

Video Of The Day: Now here’s a cool way to rescue an animal

Director Steven Soderbergh has a hit-and-miss track record. He’s not afraid to experiment, and this film is one of the most experimental he’s done. It’s something of an odd mesh of modern day cinema set against a WWII era production style. Ultimately, it’s the cast that makes this movie work.

Writing: The script is a bit stilted and hammed up, but that’s to be expected from the fact that they are trying to make it feel like a period-produced movie. The dialog is overly direct and dead pan. The plotting is sometimes clever, but typically obvious and over-the-top.

Production: Dropping modern-shot black & white footage into historical footage is interesting. In particular, the efforts to insert elements into historical footage is even more interesting. It doesn’t always match up perfectly (typically for reasons of quality difference), but it’s kinda cool to watch. Cinematography is slick, but also slightly amateur in feel (also probably intentional, in an attempt to capture the production era). For the record, I’m not a fan of the golden or silver ages of cinema. The acting and production are always way too over-the-top, and this movie tries too hard to recapture that. This isn’t tongue-in-cheek style like the fantastic Sky Captain & The World Of Tomorrow pulled off. This is an honest attempt to make a period produced movie without the period restrictions.

Cast: The cast in the film is excellent. I’m a fan of Clooney, and he does a very nice job. Cate Blanchett is one of my favorite actresses. As usual, she can do no wrong. Tobey Maguire plays a wide-eyed character in the film, but he’s a devicive and nasty one, which plays against his typical role stereotype. The rest of the cast is filled out with quality actors, like Leland Orser and Beau Bridges.

Music: Thomas Newman’s score is something I didn’t like much. That isn’t to say he did a bad job. Actually, it’s a compliment. Despite the fact that I’m a huge film score nerd, I do not like the old school approach to scoring. Newman fully embraces the melodramatic, hit-it-over-the-head nature of scoring from the era. In fact, if I didn’t know any better, I would assume it to be a genuine film score from 1945. It feels that genuine, which is why I didn’t like it much.

• Looks like Waldo may not be hiding so much any more
• As always, Dakota Fanning comes off as far more mature and intelligent than the actual grown ups involved.
• Not sure which part of this story is more disturbing, or amusing.
• Love the fact that Miss Kitty Fantastico has her own WikiPedia page
• Michael Muhney (who plays the wonderful Sherrif Lamb on Veronica Mars) has become a Browncoat. I’d love to see him get a part in a future Joss or Tim project.
• The moon will be under attack. On purpose.
• Google reveals their plans for YouTube and the future of Google Video

Dialog Of The Day: “I wear the cheese, it does not wear me.” (The Cheese Man, played by David Wells in Buffy The Vampire Slayer 4.22)

Video Of The Day: Making music with an HP scanner. Too cool.

• Another great t-shirt from ThinkGeek
• Yippie! Another season of Wings is announced for DVD. Keep ‘em coming (4 down, 4 to go)
• Guess I better start installing some of those Mandarin language packs
• The battle over Everywhere Girl’s WikiPedia page continues. For the record, they should stop deleting the page. It’s a valid entry for the site.
• Wow, now that’s some overclockin’ action
• For those who care, OneCare 1.5 has gone final
• Have I mentioned recently how much I hate Explorer in Vista?
• For those wondering how much further down reality TV shows could climb, check this one out (though I have to admit that I love the overtly sadistic title)
• And you thought some of the court scenes in Boston Legal were amusingly strange. Good grief.

Dialog Of The Day: “My brain is a wild jungle full of scary gibberish: I’m writing a letter. I can’t write a letter. Why can’t I write a letter? I’m wearing a green dress. I wish I was wearing my blue dress. My blue dress is at the cleaners. The Germans wore grey. You wore blue. Casablanca, Casablanca, such a good movie, Casablanca. The White House. Bush. Why don’t I drive a hybrid car? I should really drive a hybrid car. I should really take my bicycle to work. Bicycle. Unicycle. Unitard. Hockey puck. Rattlesnake. Monkey, monkey, underpants.” (Lorelai Gilmore, performed as only Lauren Graham can in Gilmore Girls 7.11)

Video Of The Day: How bout some talking cats?

• Hmmm, I hadn’t really thought of Cobie Smulders in the role of Wonder Woman, but I think it would actually be excellent casting.
• Looking for a good deal on a nice hard drive? Newegg has a Western Digital 500GB SATA2 for $149 with free shipping
• Cool. If you like shows with a twisted sense of humor, check out The Loop, which has the short season 1 hit DVD on March 6. Just in time for the slightly longer second season to begin airing on March 15 on Fox. Too bad the DVD won’t have the unaired, original pilot.
• The new Google Groups system comes out of beta to replace their daffy previous version. Haven’t spent enough time with the new one when it was in beta to have much of an opinion about it as yet. They added some new features to it as it went final today.
• ISOHunt comes back to life
• Haven’t really played with it much yet, but Microsoft kicked out a photo info edit tool for Windows XP/Vista
• Work slowly continues on my 2006 Retrospective write-up. Some day soon, I swear. Got 3 movie reviews to still post (Letters From Iwo Jima, The Good German and Notes On A Scandal). Might catch a couple of the just announced Oscar nominated films that I haven’t seen yet, like The Queen.

Dialog Of The Day: “You’ll never get it past Lorelai. She had a bad reaction to Magnolia. She sat there for three hours screaming “I want my life back!”. Then, we got kicked out of the theater. Actually, it was a pretty entertaining day.” (Rory Gilmore, played by Alexis Bledel in Gilmore Girls 1.06) (I had the exact same sentiment, btw)

Video Of The Day: A hilarious video on body language

• Larry Miller’s “5 Levels Of Drinking” comedy routine. Absolutely hilarious. I suggest just listening to it, rather than cheating and reading it on the linked page.
• Oooh, I wanna try out the HyperBike!
• What, the record labels are finally figuring out what we’ve been screaming at them all along? That DRM is a bad thing for everyone involved?
• Vonage makes an interesting competitive move. I particularly like the idea of international callers making domestic 1-800 calls.
• I suppose none of this example for over-reaction should come as a surprise to me
• I haven’t played too much with Notepad++ yet, but I definitely like what I’ve seen so far. Here is the latest build.
• Who says geek love isn’t for sale? Not Microsoft.
• 22% of Windows copies non-legit? Sounds about right.
• Why, is that prostitute you are wearing? Man, that must be a pretty interesting event to attend.
• Oooh, I’ll definitely have to pick up a copy. Michael Palin’s Around The World In 80 Days comes to DVD.
• Please have material from the score by Craig Armstrong, Marius de Vries and Nellee Hooper. PLEASE?!?!?!
• Good grief. What a bizarro reason for kicking somebody off a flight. Guess I shouldn’t wear my “Just Add Nitro” t-shirt on my next flight.
• Something tells me this guy isn’t expecting to get much in the settlement
• Sometimes it’s the comments on a Slashdot story that make it all worth while.
• Why am I suddenly reminded of the little hover-drones from Dark Angel?
• Wanna find out if you’re a good driver? You’ll have to check one piece of information on your driver’s license. The birth date.
• Microsoft & Google go to war over who’s got the most/biggest data center(s)
• “Okay, maybe I went too far.” Scott Adams is at it again.

Dialog Of The Day: “I like you. You have the boldness of a much younger woman.” (Jack Donaghy, played by Alec Baldwin in 30 Rock 1.01)

Video Of The Day: *LANGUAGE WARNING* A quickly leaked Battlestar Galactica Season 3 Gag Reel. It contains stuff up through this week’s mid-season premiere episode or so. It has some hilarious material. A small amount of it is the usually lame antics of a gag reel, but there’s plenty of brilliantly funny stuff in this one (the Galactica gag reels get better each year - probably as the cast get even more and more insane)

For all the deficiencies of the mid-season finale, yesterday’s return episode (”Rapture”) for Battlestar Galactica more than made up for. What an utterly fantastic episode. It was filled with brilliant twists and ideas. The end of the teaser is a sudden “oh yeah, that’s a great idea” moment. The teaser itself is full of great setups, getting things moving again after the sluggish mid-season finale it has to pick up from. This mid-season opener is a fast paced, tightly edited masterpiece. There are wonderful character beats scattered throughout the episode. Gary Hutzel and his visual effects team went above and beyond the call of duty (and surely the budget). His work as the “Cylon Centurion agent,” always trying to get them a bigger role, paid off in this episode. For a TV series, this show constantly raises the visual effects bar. Not all of it will ever be 100%, but to think of the insanely tight timeline they have to work with and the staggeringly limited budget, I’m constantly amazed with what Hutzel and his team can accomplish. Notable staff writers/producers David Weddle & Bradley Thompson deserve oodles of credit for a fantastic script, too. All in all, a brilliant episode of a fantastic show continuing an overall wonderful third season.

I felt the need to put this one into its own post, rather than lumping it in with the other daily ponderings posts. Veronica Mars returns from hiatus tomorrow, Tuesday, at 8:00 (CST). Second only to Battlestar Galactica for best show on TV, this series deserves far more audience than it ever gets. Already shorted 2 episodes for this season, it’s going to need every point of ratings it can muster for a 4th season to be ordered. I’m trying to not get my hopes up for the 4th season, but I can dream. If you’ve fallen behind in watching, or haven’t previously been a fan, it’s worth noting that the newest running mystery begins with this week’s episode (well, it was actually setup at the end of the previous episode before the hiatus began), so feel free to jump in at the beginning of this new mystery.

• OK, technical difficulties fixed (for now, anyway)
• Woah! Christopher Eccleston (the recent Doctor #9) joins Heroes. Very cool.
• “This Film Not Yet Rated” - I’d be interested in seeing it. Not sure it’ll be balanced in opinion, but the MPAA and their mondo-bizarro ratings rules does deserve a good smacking.
• PIXAR reveals their next movie in line for production, WALL-E
• AFI honors Galactica
• More Drive goodies (so, the premiere date is now April 15? Getting hard to keep up)
• The oldest statue profession
• The HD anti-DRM goodness continues
• Windows Vista SuperFetch, huh? Sounds dubious, but I’ll be interested to check it out.
• Hmmm, a very interesting SATA RAID controller
• I wouldn’t name my kid “Darling,” but this situation is just plain stupid.
• I guess some of those movie/TV show plots aren’t as unrealistic as one might think
• So much for those unique snowflakes
• Greg Grunberg gets more screen time on Heroes. It’s about time. His story is one of the best parts of the show. Can we get less of Ali Larter’s character, please? (I’m a fan of Larter, but her character and story is boring beyond all hope)
• Also welcome is a lighter tone when Lost returns
• If all she wanted to watch was American Idol (Russian Idol?), I think he should be aquitted.

Dialog Of The Day: “After investigating her, I found myself in better shape than ever before in my life. To me, she will always be a singular unforgettable event, the only time I ever took leave of my objectivity. Perhaps the most able blackmailer of her time, she was at once the worthiest opponent and the greatest ally, and the only woman I have ever… the only woman, period. And though I never would’ve anticipated it, in the end she did for me what I have done for so many: help solve a problem, first by observation, then by careful intervention - in other words, the Zero Effect.” (Daryl Zero, played by Bill Pullman in Zero Effect)

Video Of The Day: One of my most anticipated films of 2007 is Danny Boyle’s sci-fi film, Sunshine. Here’s the brand new trailer (with yet another great use of Clint Mansell’s score to Requiem For A Dream)

There will be a brief interruption in postings while I try to fix the WordPress posting editor, which is currently messed up. I’m on my way out for the rest of the day, but should get it working at some point tomorrow hopefully.

• COOL. Amy Acker joins Drive. First Nathan Fillion, now Acker. I’m getting way too anxious waiting for March 1. And I’ll be ticked off somewhere in April, when Fox cancels it.
• I’m all caught up on movie reviews. Still got a couple 2006 movies to see (Letters From Iwo Jima, The Good German, etc). 2006 retrospective will now take priority, hopefully to debut this weekend.
• So long, GD-ROM
• Bloggers, light the fire on those flamethrowers (I can’t wait to see them enforce this)
• Now medical science just needs to figure out how to make me live to see it
• Funny, she does look like a mother who’d serve alcohol to her 15 year old daughter and her friends…
• Trying to figure out what to do with that old PC?
• 10 megapixel? Hah, try 1. No, not 1 megapixel. 1 pixel.
• Cool, I’ll be able to buy the latest GTA in NYC (like I’d ever buy one anywhere)
• Hmmm, an interesting move on the part of MySpace (a site which, to be honest, annoys me to no end). Wonder if it’ll help or hurt.

Dialog Of The Day: “What doesn’t kill you defines you.” (Gloria Sullivan, played fantastically by Kim Dickens in Zero Effect)

Video Of The Day: The brand new version of the trailer to the very cool looking movie, “300″

If ever there was an example of a potentially fantastic movie hurt significantly by a terrible ending, this is it. Directed by Tom Tykwer (who directed the excellent Run Lola Run, The Princess + The Warrior, as well as the under appreciated and great Heaven), I was anxious to see the film. And right up until the final 10 minutes of the film, I thought I was watching one of the greatest and most unique serial killer movies I’d ever seen. In that last 10 minutes, the movie falls completely on its face. To describe that final sequence in the film would not do it justice. I will say that even though it fails, it is still just as unique as the rest of the film - including what has got to be the biggest scale scene of nudity ever seen on film. Seriously, the scale of it is almost hard to believe (it must have been insane to produce and stage).

Writing: Like I said, right up until the end, I was totally loving the film. The main character is extremely well written, with a very unusual history and talent. The story is set in a perfect time and place (France, during the 1800’s, I think). Surrounded by filth, the main character is unceremoniously born (in the single most unique and sickly amusing birth scenes I’ve seen on film), and almost instantly develops a nearly perfect sense of smell. Throughout the movie, he is obsessed with putting his talent of smell to good use, which takes him on a very interesting and disturbing journey.

Production: Tykwer employs his reliably fantastic crew to bring this film to life. Career-collaborative director of photography, Frank Griebe, makes the movie look downright amazing. From start to finish (yes, even in the disastrous final scenes), this movie looks fantastic. Production design and visual effects are equally impressive. Tykwer’s talent towards telling stories that border on that of fables continues through this film. He’s a very talented director, and this movie greatly benefits from him and his experienced crew.

Cast: Ben Whishaw does a very good job in the lead role of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille. He gives the role both an innocent beauty and a sinister darkness. Dustin Hoffman is fantastic in his moderately brief but excellent supporting role. He gets to play it up a bit, and clearly enjoys doing so. Alan Rickman does the kind of performance he can always do best - this time in the form of a caring and protective father. Rachel Hurd-Wood is enchanting as the main object of Grenouille’s pursuit. The rest of the cast does a great job.

Music: Tykwer continues his collaboration with composers Reinhold Heil and Johnny Klimek. The three of them craft one of the best scores of the year. Following their work together on Run Lola Run and The Princess + The Warrior, this score distinguishes itself in being different in almost every way from those scores. But it is also just as fantastic as them. Tykwer brings out the best in Klimek & Heil when he’s their co-composer. Their output is definitely better in his films than in other films that they co-compose. The score to this film is easily up to par with many classical works, and it works remarkably well in album form. If somebody didn’t know any better, they’d probably assume it actually is a classical album. Overall, a fantastic score.

I didn’t know much of anything about this film before going to see it. My main reason to want to check it out was that 2 of the stars were Jennifer Connelly and Kate Winslet. It also had a music score by Thomas Newman, so that was an extra incentive. Ultimately, I was quite disappointed. While I didn’t completely dislike it, I didn’t particularly like it, either. With a number of running plots and characters, much of which takes place in suburbia to include unhappy married couples, I could not help but make certain comparisons to American Beauty. While the movie is different from American Beauty in most key ways, there are certainly noticeable undertones and approaches that make it seem much like it. Heck, they even got Thomas Newman for the music score.

Writing: Some of the character stories in the film work. Some of them don’t. Ironically, the most sympathetic character in the film is a child molester. Frankly, it’s the story with him and his loving mother that was my favorite part of the film. If the rest of it were as good as their material, this would be a great movie. Sadly, he is surrounded by characters like a screwed up cop, who spends nearly every waking hour tormenting said character and his mother. This cop character is abrasive, annoying and just plain doesn’t work. He’s completely stereotypical Hollywood cop, having suffered the ever-favorite dramatic story of having accidentally shot a kid (how often does this actually happen in real life? Seems to happen to cops in the movies all the time). After saying all this, I haven’t even mentioned the primary characters, which are two dysfunctional married couples. Actually, the couple played by Jennifer Connelly and Patrick Wilson scarcely seems dysfunctional. Wilson’s character comes off almost completely unsympathetic, and as something of a childish jerk - despite how socially nice he always is. Winslet’s character does work, though, which helps offset the deficiencies of Wilson’s character.

Production: Excellent cinematography and some nice production design help make this film work better than it probably should. Nothing to complain about in this category, really.

Cast: Kate Winslet does a nice job in what would arguably be called the lead character. Patrick Wilson does an adequate job with a poorly written, somewhat annoying character. Jennifer Connelly is excellent in her thankless role, undeserving of her husband’s indifference. Jackie Earl Haley is fantastic as Ronnie, the child molester. And Phyllis Somerville is also fantastic as his mother. They are the true highlight of the film. Noah Emmerich, who is a fine actor, gets saddled with one seriously annoying character, so I couldn’t help but take pity on the actor.

Music: Thomas Newman turns in what is easily describable as a “Thomas Newman score.” He’s doing his job well enough, without completely knocking off his fantastic work on American Beauty, falling more on the orchestral side of his compositional style.

Up front, I’ll state that I was really looking forward to seeing this movie. It had tremendous buzz and reviews, and it was directed by Guillermo del Toro (director of films like Hellboy), so I was psyched to see it. Perhaps my expectations were a little bit too high, or perhaps it’s doesn’t exactly fit into the type of film I’d normally love. Still, I quite enjoyed it, though I think it’s over-hyped a bit.

Writing: My biggest problem with the film is probably the writing, actually. There are a number of interconnected stories through the film, existing in both the real world and the fantasy world. The stuff in the real world wasn’t fleshed out well enough, and often didn’t quite feel completely thought out or correctly motivated. We have this unexplained conflict between an authoritarian military tyrant in control of an official army, and renegade rebels in the woods. Without any more explanation than that, it’s hard to motivate the actions of either side of the conflict, or the other people caught in the middle, without knowing much of what’s going on beyond how big a psycho the military commander is. Add to that the muddled antics of the fantasy world, equally unexplained beyond the little girl’s fascination with fantasies and fables, and it’s hard to completely invest in the characters or situations.

Production: There’s nothing to complain about in terms of production. The real world is grimy and gritty and the fantasy world is full of striking imagery (though also a bit grimy and gritty). One of the most surprising things about this movie is the amount of violence scattered throughout, which is quite unusual for a movie of the genre. Prosthetics and visual effects are excellent, as is sound design.

Cast: Young Ivana Baquero does a fine job in the lead role, and the supporting cast comes through quite well. I have little to specifically compliment, other than all around, generally good performances.

Music: Javier Navarrete crafts an enchanting and occasionally dark score that fits the movie quite well. The main lullaby theme is enchanting, and is worked into the film very well (through characters singing and humming it, etc). Overall, a very nice score.

• He he. Serenity gets another unique little footnote in movie history…
• Good grief, a USB turntable
• Long-standing torrent (and earlier) site ISOHunt shut down
• Now here’s a home theater. Yikes.
• Man, talk about being grounded

Dialog Of The Day: “I always say that the essence of my work relies fundamentally on two basic principles: objectivity and observation, or “the two obs” as I call them. My work relies on my ability to remain absolutely, purely objective, detached. I have mastered the fine art of detachment. And while it comes at some cost, this supreme objectivity is what makes me, I dare say, the greatest observer the world has ever known.” (Daryl Zero, played by Bill Pullman in Zero Effect)

Video Of The Day: This is WAY too funny. YUB NUB!

• One of the notable fan convention organizations, Booster Events, closes up shop
• A 2.5″ 15K hard drive? Yikes. Hate to see the cooling solution they come up with for that
• A MS written intro to IPv6. Guess I should get around to learning IPv6 one of these days…
• I *weep* for the future
• Then again, there’s the more accurate reasons
• Or the better solutions
• Everywhere Girl does get some credit

Dialog Of The Day: “Now, a few words on looking for things. When you go looking for something specific, your chances of finding it are very bad. Because of all the things in the world, you’re only looking for one of them. When you go looking for anything at all, your chances of finding it are very good. Because of all the things in the world, you’re sure to find some of them.” (Daryl Zero, played by Bill Pullman in Zero Effect)

Video Of The Day: The first promo for Drive (can’t wait for the March 1 launch)

I sit here watching the episode New Earth, the first episode of the second season of the revived Doctor Who (well, not counting The Christmas Invasion), on the DVD set that was released today. I’m actually listening to the audio commentary, as I’ll be cranking through them all throughout the week. I already watched through the other extras on the set today (well, I actually watched the great video diaries via download a little while back). As I watched the deleted scenes, I came to a realization. I sat there realizing just how much I enjoy David Tennant in the role of The Doctor. I mean, he’s enormously entertaining, even in rough cut, unfinished deleted scenes. I’ve loved him in the role while watching him through all of his season (and so far, the Christmas special, “The Runaway Bride,” leading into the upcoming third season). I really liked Christopher Eccleston a whole lot when the series came back to life in it’s first year of rebirth. I was disappointed when it was announced he’d be leaving after just the one season. What I didn’t know is how amazing his successor would be. At any rate, getting back to my revelation while watching the deleted scenes - I’m going to say it: David Tennant is my favorite Doctor. If you’ve known how dedicated I’ve been to Sylvester McCoy’s portrayal for darn near 20 years now, you know how big a statement that is. Every Doctor Who fan has their favorite incarnation. For most, it’s Tom Baker (but not me). For me, it has long been McCoy. Well, as of now, it’s Tennant. Below is my revised list of the actors to play The Doctor in the order I prefer them. For the record, I don’t dislike any of them (well, Colin Baker maybe). I’m not going to have Peter Cushing in the list, sticking only to the TV versions of the franchise (Cushing played the role in the two theatrical films from the 1960’s).

1. David Tennant (#10 / 2005-Current)
2. Sylvester McCoy (#7 / 1987-1989)
   
3. Christopher Eccleston (#9 / 2005)
   
4. Jon Pertwee (#3 / 1970-1974)
   
5. Peter Davison (#5 / 1982-1984)
   
6. Paul McGann (#8 / 1996)
7. Patrick Troughton (#2 / 1966-1969)
8. Tom Baker (#4 / 1975-1981)
   
9. William Hartnell (#1 / 1963-1966)
   
10. Colin Baker (#6 / 1984-1986)