Simian Farmer

Angst and torment

Of all the characters on Foxtrot, I can relate best to Jason.  This is one of the reasons:

I have been informed by my wife that, even though the DVD comes out today, I had better wait on the off chance that 'someone' may have bought it for me.

My only hope is that it's going to be a birthday present instead of a Christmas present.  That'll mean I get it a week earlier.  There are over 50 minutes of additional footage that my eyeballs are craving like a heroine addict for his next hit.  It was an exercise in willpower not to go out and buy the regular version when it came out.  I only made that mistake for Fellowship; ended up owning two copies, one of which I'll never watch again.

Ah well.  They say anticipation is the best sauce.  In which case, consider me covered in gravy.  (Not like that...)

The Prisoner of Gaylord Place

Amy and our son went on a dedicated outing this past Wednesday.  The third Harry Potter movie had just been released on DVD this week.  It speaks volumes about our domestic confinement that she and I never went to see it in the theatres when it was first released.  (I should have gone with her to buy it; she bought the full screen version.  Aaarrrggghhhh!!  It's wide screen or nothin', baby...)

The Prisoner of Azkaban was a most excellent movie, and more closely mirrors JK Rowling's book than did the first two.  (I love Gary Oldman in anything he's done.)  I might actually write a more comprehensive review on it some time later when I get a chance to see it again.  We had ordered pizza in, Granny came over to visit with the baby and it took us over three hours to watch the two hour and twenty minute movie.

One of the subtleties that I was able to pick up on, while in conversation with my mother and listening to our baby breath through his head cold, was the identity of one of the paintings.  For anyone who's read the books or seen any of the movies, you'll be well aware that all of the paintings in the wizarding world are sentient.  They can converse and the residents of the canvas even have the ability to move between frames amongst a collection of paintings.

In one particular scene of the movie, a painting's figure turns to Harry Potter and chastises him for bringing his brightly glowing wand into the hallway and disturbing his sleep.  That figure was quite evidently one of Rembrandt's self portraits.  I admire the fact that the movie-makers have gone to the effort of including such features for some of the more discerning viewers.  It's the sort of detail that makes me want to see a film several times to pick up on certain trivialities that I may have missed.

It makes me wonder why the decision was made to change the title of the first movie from Harry Potter and Philosopher's Stone to Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone solely for the American viewership.  At least in Canada and in the UK it retained its philosophical moniker.  Do the Very Important People who make these sorts of decisions really think that the general American movie-going public is so ignorant as to not know what a philosopher is?  'Cause if they don't, I'd wager they're no better at demystifying the term 'sorceror'.

Is there some sort of conspiracy in the US by the Smart People to keep the Dumb People dumb? 

What does your heart tell you?

Today, Friday, 19 November 2004, represents the 6-month mark before the release of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.

Just 181 days to go.

Anticipation is the best sauce, and I'm looking forward to a banquet unlike any other I've experienced.  I know it would suck if I were just setting myself up for disappointment here, but I can't help it...

Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen

Some lucky schlep got the opportunity to view the first 8 minutes (still rough in spots) of Revenge of the Sith.  He wrote a report that was posted up at everybody's favourite movie news site, Ain't it cool.

There are some minor spoilers, but not really anything that's not evident in the teaser trailer or the Sith video game trailer.  I'm positively twitchy at the prospect of a Yoda vs. Sidious lightsaber duel.  My ears are bleeding with envy right now.

"I see you becoming the greatest of all the Jedi"

Video games are coming close to being hyped just as much as movies are these days.  On my regular rounds at The Force dot Net, they have posted a link to Lucasarts' next most anticipated game release: the game version of Revenge of the Sith.  Coming out on May 5th, two weeks before the movie.

There is even a trailer for it.  But be warned, there are some minor spoilers in there not evident in the theatrical teaser trailer.  Nothing an ardent fan would be at all surprised by though.

I just know that as soon as the new year comes and I can start to see May coming 'round the bend, I'm going to start being nearly intolerable with anticipation.

Only now, at the end, do you understand

Just after the release of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, I suffered some derisive comments from various good friends of mine about the quality of the prequel trilogy. I have always been a staunch supporter of the films to date and, having not 10 minutes ago viewed the Episode III teaser trailer as it was kindly Emailed to me, will continue to defend them.

I promised one of the derisive-commenters that, should Revenge of the Sith not far exceed the quality of the first two prequels, I would take a grinder to my two Star Wars tattoos. Now, having seen the teaser trailer for Episode III, I know for a fact that my skin will be held sacrosanct.

In less than 200 days' time, non-believers will be believers and the faithful will be vindicated in our unwavering support.

It's a large file, so I'll take it down in about a week or so, but in the meantime, here's the teaser trailer for you to download, should you so desire...

Impressive... most impressive.

The real Sith Shady

On October the 8th I posted a Star Wars Episode III teaser poster that has since been revealed to be a fake. These things often crop up around the time that the real propaganda machines get fired up. I have posted here the real Sith teaser poster, as I found it on AICN.

Frankly, I preferred the look of the one I posted earlier this month. But then, this one below isn't at full quality. What I really preferred about the previous poster was the higher level of subtlety. Still, this is a nice tease.

Milestones

There are a couple of significant events transpiring this weekend aside from the obvious one of Canada's Thanksgiving Day. That's Columbus Day for our American neighbours. Or I guess that would be neighbors.

The more news-worthy of the two is the fact that my home city just turned 100 years old. Edmonton has now passed the century mark. (Well, Amy and I did move to St. Albert a year and a half ago. But it's still an Edmonton sleeper community.) At first that sounds kind of impressive, but then you stop for a second and realize that it's a CITY, and a mere hundred years sounds rather paltry. There are humans that have been around longer than that. I mean, the 2004 Olympic games were just held in a city that measures its age in millenia. So happy birthday Edmonton. I've been here for 26 of those years. That almost makes me a pioneer!

And the other bit of news is rather more trivial. Of import, really, only to those few of us that live and die by the Force. Today is the ten thousandth day since the opening of the original Star Wars movie back in 1977. The 10,000th day. That's actually fairly impressive. I don't think there will ever be another movie that will ever be as iconic as this has been.

So Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Be thankful for all the events that transpire in your life. Be they significant or trivial.

Hilarity ensues

If I asked you what would make you laugh out loud right this instant, I bet the first thing that comes to mind is definitely NOT the picture of Harrison Ford dressed as a scruffy bus driver, raising his hand in salute and proclaiming, 'Whatup Beeyatch!' On the other hand, I bet it'll still elicit at least a grin from you.

Apparently, the kids who made this little film are friends of Harrison's son Malcolm, and he was good enough to to pose as the bus driver. He insisted on being credited only as 'Jethro.' The link was found on Ain't it Cool.

In news of a more mundane nature, Amy and I have gotten the car back from the mechanic's. Apparently, there is a coil of some sort that is near the front of the car and which is, again apparently, instrumental in sending electricity to the spark plug, thereby igniting the fuel and driving the horseless carriage forward. Well, on very rare occasions, this coil can become cracked and, when exposed to water as it was in the car wash on Monday, will short out. So, three hundred and fifty bucks later, we now have an operational 1996 VW Jetta. We are crossing our fingers that this was a one-off sort of thing and it will now run flawlessly for the next 10 years.

By the Power of Greyskull!

I've always loved movies. My second job was working behind the concession at a Famous Players movie theatre in high school. And I've come to like John Woo as a director. That's why hearing the news that he is in the process of making a live action He-Man movie gets me kind of excited.

I saw the stinker that starred Dolph Lundgren back in the '80s, so this new one couldn't be any worse than that. Especially with lines like, "Where we come from we don't say 'Goodbye,' we say, 'Good journey.'"