All Entires In Entertainment Category
By Normally on a Saturday I would be going roleplaying. However, Colin and Scoot are off to a Stag Do tonight so the game isn't on today. They had mentioned last weekend that they wouldn't be about this weekend but I totally forgot. I even went and bought snacks for the game.
Anyway, rather than sitting around and just browsing the web or playing games I've decided I'm going to catch up with one of the myriad of shows that I have fallen behind on. The show I've decided to catch up with is Showtime's Dexter, based on the novels by author Jeff Lindsay. Dexter is a forensic analyst who also happens to be a serial killer, allegedly targeting the truly-deserving.
I've got both Season 1 and 2 on DVD; 24 episodes in total, and if I start now I can get 7 or 8 episodes watched before Doctor Who starts at 6:40pm. I can then get another episode in before the 3rd game of the Boston Red Sox - New York Yankees baseball. I can then make inroads into the rest of Season 1 after the baseball finishes.
Don S. Davis, who played Major General George Hammond on Stargate SG-1, has passed away at the age of 65 years old. He suffered a massive heart attack on Sunday morning, June 29th.
Well, we watched a total of 8 films yesterday including Futurama: The Beast With A Billion Backs, DOA, The Sasquatch Gang, Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer, In The Name Of The King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, Run Fatboy Run, The Incredible Hulk and Superhero Movie.
The unexpected highlight was The Sasquatch Gang, which started out and appeared as if it was going to be a Coming of Age movie in a similar vein to Stand By Me, but turned out to be a really good comedy. Check it out if you can find it.
On the way home I popped into a local shop and managed to pick up True Romance and Mars Attacks for a combined total of £5.
Speaking to Colin last night he doesn't feel up to running his game this weekend and neither do I. So, we've decided not to have a roleplaying session today but rather have one of our infrequent DVD sessions. We'll get together at Colin's around 2pm and will take turns in selecting DVDs to watch until the wee small hours of the morning. A lot of what we watch is cheese but that's half the fun. It's a chance to sit down and have a natter whilst watching a few films. It's a nice change of pace from roleplaying.
This weekend is the sixth annual Download Festival. After much deliberation I finally decided that I really couldn't afford to go; and to be brutally honest, there wasn't really a lot to attract me to it anyway.
Of the bands that had interested me, I've already seen Children Of Bodom, Within Temptation, Apocalyptica, Motörhead, In Flames and Alter Bridge. The only band that I was really desperate to see that I hadn't already seen was Disturbed; and I wasn't forking out close to £200 that I couldn't afford to go and see them. In fact with fuel and spending money it would've been closer to £350.
It's likely Disturbed will tour the UK sometime in the next year or so anyway and I will instead look to pay £20-£30 to go and see them then instead. Hopefully, by that time, I'll be back in full-time employment.
Shirley Manson, lead singer of Scottish rockers Garbage is joining the cast of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles for season 2. She will play Catherine Weaver, the CEO of a cutting-edge high-tech precursor to SkyNet.
I sat down and watched the latest Indiana Jones adventure earlier this evening. Happily, it can be summed up in just one word.
Brilliant!
It's 2 hours of high adventure; very much in the style of the previous 3 movies. I had read some disparaging comments about the movie prior to watching it, but it had also received praise from some critics. Whatever you've heard please ignore the comments and watch it on it's own merits. It really does stand up as a classic matinee-style adventure.
I've heard that although nothing has been discussed a fifth movie would be welcomed by some of the cast and crew. I can honestly say that I hope they do make a fifth movie; as long as it maintains the standard of the series.
The BBC pre-empted Doctor Who last night; ostensibly for the Eurovision Song Contest. But if you actually look at where shows have been airing recently and where they will be airing in the weeks to come that's not exactly true.
Doctor Who has been airing at 7pm during it's current run and looking ahead 3 or 4 weeks it will continue to air at that time. The Eurovision Song Contest didn't start until 8pm last night. Shows that normally run in that time-slot are I'd Do Anything, followed by The National Lottery 100-1 and then Casualty.
If they had dropped Doctor Who and just moved I'd Do Anything into it's slot I could've understood. After all, I'd Do Anything generates good business and ratings for the BBC. However, the rescheduling went even further than that.
What the BBC actually did was they pre-empted The Kids Are Alright from it's pre-Doctor Who slot, also pre-empted Doctor Who, shortened The National Lottery down to just the draws and then finally pre-empted Casualty.
They aired a repeat of The Weakest Link Paranormal Special at 5:50pm and followed that with I'd Do Anything at 6:50pm and then the National Lottery draws leading into the 8pm start for Eurovision.
So, whereas Casualty was pre-empted for Eurovision, Doctor Who was actually pre-empted to make room for a repeat of a quiz show. Now, I'm not totally convinced of the all around merits of Eurovision, but at least that only comes along once a year.
If the special episode of The Weakest Link had been a new Eurovision special I might have seen the reasoning, but a repeat of a paranormal special that had no relevance to the rest of the evening?
The BBC could have easily dropped The Kids Are Alright and Casualty as they did last night anyway and then moved I'd Do Anything into the slot vacated by The Kids Are Alright without dropping Doctor Who at all
With Doctor Who taking a break next year I would've thought the BBC would have been more accommodating of their main cash cow. There was nothing stopping them holding the special over until Doctor Who ends it's run; especially considering the lack of relevance.
As most everybody is already aware Russell T. Davies has already announced that he will not be at the helm of Doctor Who when season five is broadcast in 2010.
BBC Wales have today announced that Steven Moffat will take over the role of Lead Writer and Executive Producer. He will join as Executive Producer on season five by Piers Wenger, who is taking over from Julie Gardner, who is also stepping down.
Season four is currently just past half-way through it's 13-episode run and then Doctor Who will return in 2009 with four specials. Season five is scheduled to be broadcast on BBC One in 2010; planning for which is apparently already under way.
Moffatt previously wrote the episodes The Empty Child, The Girl In The Fireplace, Blink and Silence In The Library; the two-parter that will be broadcast when Doctor Who returns from it's Eurovision enforced break.
It's great news that the BBC have decided to go with somebody that already has a history with the show.
The BBC are reporting that Guillermo del Toro; director of Pan's Labyrinth and both Hellboy movies, has been named as the director of the The Hobbit and its proposed sequel.
The films, planned for release in 2010 and 2011, will be prequels to the Lord of the Rings trilogy directed by New Zealand's Peter Jackson. Jackson will produce the films, to be made back-to-back in New Zealand.
According to studio New Line, the first will be an adaptation of The Hobbit, the novel Tolkien published before his Lord of the Rings cycle and the second will be an original story focusing on the 60 years between the book and the beginning of the Rings trilogy.
Tricia Helfer, Six/Caprica from the new Battlestar Galactica has landed a role in the second season of Burn Notice. She will play Carla; Michael's handler.
Amy Acker, formerly of Angel, has been added to the cast of Joss Whedon's Dollhouse and will co-star with Eliza Dushku.
Sky's drama department has commissioned Blakes 7 Productions, a subsidiary of Blakes 7 Media to write 2 60 minute scripts for a potential relaunch of the BBC's cult sci-fi classic; Blake's 7. No word on dates or potential cast yet.
Reports are also circulating that both Sarah Chalke and Britney Spears will be be reprising their roles in upcoming episodes of How I Met Your Mother.
Finally, rumours are rife that Gary Dourdan may be leaving CSI; some reports even suggest that he may have been fired, and that Khandi Alexander appears likely to be leaving CSI:Miami.
Strong rumours coming out of Fox suggest that they've renewed Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles for a second season. Yay, more Summer Glau!
We have now reached the pinnacle of the movie industry.... Yeah, right, my thoughts exactly.
I watched the season 4 premiere of Battlestar Galactica last night. It was a pretty damned good episode and really got the viewer immersed in the narrative right from the start. Now, when you compare it to the season 4 premiere of Doctor Who it's fairly obvious that there must be a considerable disparity between the budgets for both shows. Both are flagship shows for their broadcaster but it's clear that BSG has a much higher budget. And when you consider the BBC's place in the global market, that's a shame.
Dr Who is probably one of the best shows on British TV at the moment but when you compare it to BSG it's really does feel like it's made on the cheap. The BBC really need to inject some extra money into the show; especially considering it's their top cash cow. Don't get me wrong; I love Doctor Who, but BSG just comes across as a slicker, more polished product.
Just one example of the gulf in production values is the bit in 'Partners In Crime' where Donna is hanging from a window cleaner's cradle. It's blatantly obvious that it was green screened; you can tell from the fuzziness around Donna. A lot of effects in Doctor Who feel decidedly cheap and tacky. I know people will argue that Doctor Who has always been like that and it's part of the charm. But, the truth of the matter is that the TV marketplace has moved on from the 70s and 80s and cheap and tacky looks just that. Cheap and tacky. Especially, when compared to some of the more polished product available.
While I can applaud the 4th season of Doctor Who I still feel troubled by the obvious failings in the production values of the show.
Season 4 of Doctor Who launches on BBC One tonight at 6:20pm. Don't forget!
Season 4 premieres tonight in the USA and on Sky One on Tuesday 15th April. Oh, and Sky Two are showing the two parts of the season 3 finale tonight at midnight. Thay are also re-running the mini-series this Sunday and Monday. Sky One are also airing Razor a couple of times next week and a couple of documentaries also. You'll also be able to find repeats of most of the new stuff they're airing across Sky's three entertainment channels; including the free-to-view Sky Three.
Check out the BSG content on Sci-Fi's website.
Wrestlemania was live on pay-per-view from Orlando, Florida last night. I didn't watch it live but watched it this afternoon; meaning that I could fast forward through all the associated back stories and backstage crap that goes on. Fast forwarding past all the crap saved an hour in viewing time.
Anyway, I fully enjoyed the show. A number of predictable results but also a couple of surprises. Nothing really stood out as being bad but there was at least 2 or 3 matches that I would rate as really good.
What can you say? The guy is a legend...
We were supposed to be going to Birmingham this evening to watch Nightwish. Unfortunately, Stuart wasn't able to get tickets when he tried; about a month ago. So, we're not going. We will be roleplaying as usual instead.
HMV currently have a sale on. I was going to buy myself a copy of The Simpsons Movie for only £4.99 but instead spotted The Omen: Pentology for only £7.99 instead. There were loads of other things I could've also bought but restricted myself to just the one item.
I have recently discovered a rather awesome fan written web comic called The Ten Doctors. If you're a fan of Doctor Who I suggest you go and check it out. The previous link will take you to the archives so you can start reading from Page 1 without spoiling future pages.
I've just watched the second part of Sky's adaptation of The Colour Of Magic and thoroughly enjoyed it. I would class myself as a fan of Pratchett's work; not an absolute fanatic, but somebody with more than a passing familiarity and can honestly say that I'm happy with the job they've done with this adaptation.
Although nothing has been confirmed it's very likely that more adaptations will follow; David Jason has already said he would like to do more. On a related note, Sam Raimi owns the rights for The Wee Free Men and although no further details are available, it's expected to hit cinemas in 2010.
Following on from Sky's hugely successful, Christmas 2006, adaptation of Terry Pratchett's Hogfather, we were treated to the first half of their adaptation of The Colour Of Magic last night. They've actually adapted The Colour Of Magic and The Light Fantastic into one film. The first part was pretty faithful to the first book with only a few scenes left out for timing and narrative purposes and they have really spent some time getting the Discworld looking and feeling right. My main gripe is that the special effects for the luggage seems amateurish and feels more comedic than it should be. But, even with that, I'm still really looking forward to part 2 tonight.
I hadn't seen this until Craig showed it to me at Paul's party and thought I would share the dangers with everybody. Beware of the deadliest virus on the planet:
Apparently, rumours coming out of the Sci-Fi Channel in America are hinting at a prequel for Battlestar Galactica. A 2 hour pilot written by Remi Aubuchon and Ronald D Moore, with Jeff Reiner set to direct is due to begin casting shortly. No official details on Caprica are currently available.
Doctor Who: Season 4 is only a matter of a few weeks away. The BBC will begin showing trailers for it starting this Saturday; 22nd March 2008. Usually, they start airing trailers two weeks before the show goes live. If so, that would mean a premiere date of 5th April 2008 for Season 4.
Anyway to get you in the mood, I present the trailers they'll be airing on TV and in the Cinema.
I just discovered that there's a new The Lost Boys movie in the pipeline. The Lost Boys 2: The Tribe is slated for a July 2008 release. Even though it has both Corey Feldman and Corey Haim attached the fact that it is going straight to DVD probably tells us all that we need to know.
I've had an iPod for a month now and it's almost become an extra limb. Prior to winning the iPod I had never bothered with podcasts and got most of my tech news and such by browsing the web. Now, although I do still browse the net a fair bit, the main source of information has become a variety of different podcasts.
I originally started off listening to just 2 or 3 podcasts but am now subscribed to over 20. These include:
- 5 different podcasts from The TWiT Netcast Network
- 3 different podcasts from CNET.com
- 3 different podcasts from GameTrailers.com
- 3 different podcasts from Escape Artists, namely:
- the sci-fi based Escape Pod
- the horror based Pseudo Pod
- the fantasy based Pod Castle; due to launch April 1st
- 2 different podcasts from BBC Radio
- The trailers podcast from ScreenRush
- The video podcast from DL.TV
- The video podcast from Kerrang
- The EPL (English Premier League) podcast from ITN
- The 1Up Radio podcast from 1Up.com
- The audio fiction series The Metamor City Podcast
No sooner do I decide that I'm not going to Download this year; due to a lack of acts that I was interested in, than they announce some acts that are making me reconsider.
Out of the original set of announcements only Mötörhead and Disturbed really interested me. Since then Kid Rock, Apocalyptica, Alter Bridge, Within Temptation and Children Of Bodom have also been announced.
I'm now back in two minds again.
I've just discovered that Canadian blues & jazz guitarist Jeff Healey has died from a rare form of cancer, retinoblastoma, at St. Joseph's Health Centre in his home town of Toronto, Canada. He first came to prominence when he appeared in the 1989 movie Road House. He was 41 years old and is survived by his wife Christie and two children.
I didn't have much planned for today so decided to watch a couple of movies.
The first was Rambo; which is a pretty straightforward action-fest. It's set in Burma and has our eponymous hero rescuing a group of missionaries/doctors that had been taken captive. It's nothing special and has the, as expected, high gore and body count. It was probably more believable than some of the other movies found in the genre and I enjoyed it.
The second was Cloverfield. It started really slowly before picking up from about 20 minutes in. It follows a group of 5 young New Yorkers trying to escape Manhattan when a huge monster attacks. I found the filming style very reminiscent of The Blair Witch Project and was very off-putting in places. But, the film has a solid story and maintains a strong tension and sense of impending dread throughout. Definitely a highlight.
I'm off roleplaying this evening but might watch Unstable Fables: 3 Pigs & A Baby when I get home.
I thoroughly enjoyed yesterday's LotR marathon. We got there just about 10am and by time other people arrived we ended up starting just before 11am and finished just shy of midnight. I wasn't particularly tired by then and myself, Steve and Paul sat down to watch the Resident Evil trilogy afterwards. Paul fell asleep and ended up going to bed after the first film but both Steve and I watched all 3; before calling it a night at just about 4:30am. I was up again by 8:30am for breakfast but am now starting to feel tired again. I think I'll be having an early night this evening.
I'm away all day today and the title of this post gives a big clue as to why. I'm getting together with some of the Monday night roleplaying group and we're going to have a marathon Lord Of The Rings session.
We're not going to do anything unusual but watch the extended editions of The Fellowship Of The Ring, The Two Towers and The Return Of The King one after another. Total running time is approximately 11 hours 45 minutes. We'll be having meal breaks between the 3 movies; Soup at lunchtime and Jacket Potatoes this evening.
I don't know about other people but I sometimes find it rather difficult to get to sleep at night and if there's no Ice Hockey or Basketball on the tv I end up listening to the radio for a good couple of hours before finally succumbing. The show that I tend to listen to is Up All Night presented nightly from 1am by either Dotun Adebayo or Rhod Sharp on BBC Radio 5Live.
Monday morning is a book phone in, Tuesday morning is pods & blogs, Wednesday morning is US sports, Thursday morning is a science phone in, Friday morning is a Medical phone in, Saturday morning is a world football phone in and Sunday morning is a film phone in.
The website offers you the opportunity to listen again to the various shows and subscribe to the podcasts.
The 3 headline acts and the first 4 support acts have been announced for this year's Download Festival.
Kiss, The Offspring and Lostprophets are set to be the daily headliners for the main stage at the Donington Park event over the weekend of June 13, 14 and 15.
Mötorhead, HIM and Rise Against have been announced as daily headliners of the second stage.
Judas Priest have been announced as very, special guests and although it hasn't been confirmed on which day it is rumoured they will be appearing with Kiss.
I'll be honest and say that of the 7 bands announced I would only be interested in seeing 1 of them; Mötorhead, and I've already seen them before. I'm in no rush to go and get tickets; even if I could afford them. I will be waiting and seeing if anybody else is announced that could persuade me to part with £150; a £15 rise on the 2007 ticket price.
A better quality version of the teaser I mentioned previously has now appeared on the official Star Trek movie site. The trailer's no different than the previous one other than improved quality. There is also the option to watch the trailer in HD and also to register for updates.
I took my kid sister shopping earlier this evening and had Melissa Etheridge's latest album, The Awakening, playing in the car. Now, I must admit, I'm a huge fan and whenever you get in my car there's a fairly good chance that if it's not a metal/goth album; such as Rammstein, Slayer, Within Temptation or Lacuna Coil, playing it'll be a Melissa Etheridge album instead. However, I didn't realise until this evening just how true that was. Melissa's not exactly mainstream music in the UK but my sister was sat in the passenger seat singing along to different parts of various songs.
Shocked to discover that Heath Ledger, star of 10 Things I Hate About You, A Knight's Tale and Brokebank Mountain was found dead this afternoon in his Manhattan apartment. Police have said they do not suspect foul play. He was 28.
He plays the Joker opposite Christian Bale in this summer's Batman movie; The Dark Knight and had also been attached to Terry Gilliam's next feature; The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, which is currently filming.
Seatwave.com is quite a useful site if you're thinking of going to a gig or sporting event and cannot find tickets.
A teaser trailer for the new Star Trek movie has managed to find it's way onto the web. It's very dark and low quality but can be seen here. It's likely the trailer may play alongside Cloverfield in the cinema.
The long-mooted Dragonlance movie has finally arrived. It was released in the US straight to DVD on Tuesday and I've managed to get hold of a copy of it.
Vocal talent includes Kiefer Sutherland as Raistlin Majere, Lucy Lawless as Goldmoon and Michelle Trachtenberg as Tika. With Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman both acting as creative consultants it's fairly faithful to the original novel and would appear to be the first in a series of films; depending upon how successful it is.
I watched it this evening and whilst it's not the greatest movie ever released, it's still reasonably enjoyable. It's an animated film more in the style of an updated version of the old Dungeons & Dragons cartoon rather than something like Hoodwinked or Flushed Away.
Due to the current rules regarding licensing fees for Internet music services Pandora are to block access to its service by UK users. Pandora founder Tim Westergren recently sent out an e-mail to Pandora users explaining that the U.K. version of the site would have to shut down. In the e-mail Westergren writes, “both the PPL (which represents the record labels) and the MCPS/PRS Alliance (which represents music publishers) have demanded per track performance minima rates which are far too high to allow ad supported radio to operate and so, hugely disappointing and depressing to us as it is, we have to block the last territory outside of the US.”
There is a petition on the 10 Downing Street website asking the government to look at the current situation and legislate if necessary. Please visit and sign the petition.
Was in Glasgow last night to see Within Temptation.
Joss Whedon and Eliza Dushku are teaming up again. Check this out.
The Copeland area is the first in the UK to move over to digital tv.
Went to see From The Jam on Friday night.
As promised:
Got home from Download okay. I had a great time and will blog about it at some point.
This weekend is the 5th annual Download Festival.
Was in Glasgow last night to watch Within Temptation. They were brilliant.
The headline acts for this year's Download Festival were announced last night.
Going to see Within Temptation in April. Tickets have arrived already.
New Theatrical Trailer and Original Teaser are both online. It's looking good.
Got back home safely. Gig was awesome.
Going to Glasgow this evening to see Lacuna Coil.
This weekend is the fourth annual Download Festival. I shall be attending for the third year running.
The new American TV season is upon us.
Finally got round to buying Half-Life 2 today.
Wanna listen to some music over the internet?
September 19th sees the release of a new album from Queen.
Download was just as good this year as last year; if not better.
It's the Download Festival this weekend.
Meh! Who cares?
Will be travelling to London in just under a week to see Rammstein. Driving down Saturday morning/afternoon, going to the gig Saturday evening, staying overnight in a hotel and travelling back Sunday morning/afternoon. Really looking forward to the gig, not looking forward to driving through Central London on a Saturday afternoon.
I've just finished planning my Ratkin game for the 24 hour charity roleplaying event this weekend. We're raising money for the local maternity ward and to help a former club member raise funds to do a sponsored walk up Mt Kilimanjaro for Scope.
Sunday dawned nice and sunny, and gradually got hotter as the morning went along.
Iggy and the Stooges arrived on to stage to very little fanfair and it was immediately evident that he'd been back in the gym again. I think the main standouts from his set is the fact that he didn't play any of his later stuff which most people today would know him for, such as Lust For Life or The Passenger, but rather stuck to the old stuff. Iggy's famous for crowd-surfing during the middle of his set but he took it one step further here. Rather than go out in to the crowd he got the crowd to clamber up on stage with him. Security tried their hardest to prevent it but sheer weight of numbers eventually got to them, although 1 guard, rather short-arsed, decided to do his own little Hitler impression and started frog-marching people from the stage area with arms shoved up their backs. It was quite funny standing on the sidelines watching some young kids, 14-17 years old or so that had shown no interest in the set suddenly jump up and start pegging it to the stage in a rather sad and pathetic effort to get on stage. Whilst he had the crowd on stage Iggy clambered off stage and went off in to the front of the crowd anyway. Looked like the head of security was about to have a nervous breakdown.
Saturday morning dawned cool and dry with a very slightly overcast sky; no real indication of the weather ahead. Spent most of Saturday morning pottering around doing nothing much. Colin and Scott decided to go and queue up about 10:00am ready for the main gates opening at 11:00am. We decided to leave it until closer to 12:00 and Scoot decided to try and get some extra sleep; apparently a group of revellers a few tents over had kept him awake all night. At 12:00 we made a move and headed off to the queue.
I'm home; I survived, I got photographs, and I'll blog at some future point about it...
Suffice to say it was awesome...
This weekend is the Download Festival at Donnington.
I was thinking that my life seems to consist of getting up in the morning, going to work, coming home, doing nothing much, going to bed, sleeping, getting up in the morning, going to work, coming home, doing nothing much, going to bed, sleeping, ad infinitum. But, recently, I've managed to do a few things.
Yay! My Donnigton tickets arrived today; well, technically yesterday, but pfft.
It's a real minefield.
I went and saw Matrix Revolutions tonight. I felt that overall it's a much better movie than the second one. The interaction with The Architect spoiled the flow of the second movie in my opinion. This new movie flows from start to finish and is over 2 hours of pure enjoyment...
I had a nice day off work today and went into town to do a bit of shopping.
I've finally gotten around to updating the contents of my eStore.
No updates recently; I've been away for the weekend in Folkestone, visitng friends. Weather was excellent and as usual we consumed a fair bit of alcohol and demolished about half a freezer of various meat products on the barbecue.
Took Amanda, and a few other friends, to see Matrix Reloaded last night. Boy, was it an action-fest, didn't disappoint, although a couple of the fight scenes seemed overly long to me. A lot of the time sequels tend to come up short when compared to their parent movie; not in this case. It delivers... If Matrix Revolutions; which is previewed after the End Credits of Reloaded, remember to sit through them, delivers anywhere near the same level it'll have to go down as probably the greatest sci-fi movie trilogy of all time.
Hey, like most of the people that I know I went to see X2 tonight, dunno why they just didn't go with X-Men 2 as a title, after all it identifies the franchise...
Saw Bulletproof Monk the other night; in places it kinda reminds me of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; and you can see John Woo's influence, he was one of the producers of the movie, on some of the scenes. Definitely worth going to see; I'd give it 8½/10, and I will be buying it when it's released on DVD.
Saw Bulletproof Monk the other night; in places it kinda reminds me of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; and you can see John Woo's influence, he was one of the producers of the movie, on some of the scenes. Definitely worth going to see; I'd give it 8½/10, and I will be buying it when it's released on DVD.
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