TV And Films

The shows and movies I like (or don’t).

Pre-release bloopers

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Harry at the graveI found this report on The Leaky Cauldron this evening:

Many readers have emailed us here at Leaky over this photo that appeared recently in Entertainment Weekly showing a scene from the upcoming Goblet of Fire film. The source of the uproar stemmed over the fact that in the photo Harry is shown standing in front of a grave with three names written on in, including one that reads “Tom Marvolo Riddle 1915-1943”. As we know, that is the name of Lord Voldemort, and who, despite his…err…unnatural state at the begining of the sequence of Goblet of Fire, was not buried in that grave. He also did not kill the Riddles until 1944 or 1945. Readers have also pointed out that even if this was the name of Voldemort’s father, then he would have only been 11 years old when Voldemort was born (and Voldemort’s father’s middle name would NOT be Marvolo; Marvolo being from his mother’s side of the family — phew!). Finally, many readers also pointed out that in Half-Blood Prince we learn of Voldemort’s birthdate as December 31st, 1926.

While there’s a certain amusement to all of this, what really struck me was that in this internet-centric age, fans are able to catch bloopers in movies before the movies are even finished — and in this case, possibly allowing the studio to correct the error before the final film is released. Pretty amazing.

Fanfic

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There’s a short article in Wired today about fanfic, with one bit that jumped out at me…

As befits its beginnings, the genre is planted firmly in pop culture’s nerd division. The films most often given the fanfic treatment – The Matrix, X-Men, and Pirates of the Caribbean – wing straight out of dork central.

Well, chalk me up as a pop-culture nerd living in dork central, as my one — and so far, my only — foray into fanfic so far has been a short piece called ‘Glitch‘…and yes, it’s Matrix-derived.

“This is useless, we’re wasting our time here. Let’s go.” I stood up, letting my chair roll back a couple feet behind me. “Dan?” Dan looked up at me, then nodded, getting up from his chair too.

“I don’t think leaving will be quite as easy as you expect,” said our host. He reached out and pressed the button on his intercom. “Could you come in now, please? We’re having some…difficulties…in our negotiations.” The door to the conference room opened, and the two thugs that had ushered us upstairs came in and took positions in front of the door.

Dan glanced at me and rolled his eyes, then shrugged. We’d had to fight our way out of rooms before — it’s not our preferred exit strategy, but sometimes there just isn’t an option. “You know this is pointless, Rourke,” I said. “You can’t hold us here indefinitely. Even if you tried, we’d already called in to the precinct before coming in here, so when we don’t report in, more police will be on the way.”

Rourke leaned back in his chair, tapping the table with his pen. “Maybe,” he said, “but you don’t play this game as long as I have without taking a few risks when necessary. We have a little time, at least, before your superiors start to get restless. So may I suggest, gentlemen,” — the pen stopped tapping as he leaned forward again — “that you sit back down.”

Okay, while it’s not likely to win any awards, it’s not too shabby, either. Feel free to give it a look if you haven’t seen it before.

Shiny!

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Just a quick note of thanks to Bryan, Dori, Shelley, Tvindy, Jacqueline, Johan, and probably others that I’ve forgotten. All of you have, at one point or another, either personally or through your weblogs, recommended Firefly. I just finished watching the last episode tonight…

…and damn if I’m not as excited about Serenity as the rest of you are.

Two quick questions (spoiler-free answers, please):

  1. I couldn’t find Book anywhere in the trailer. Am I just missing him, or did they not put him in for some reason? I’m sure I’ve read that all of the primary cast came back for the film.

  2. Isn’t Kaylee just one of the cutest/sexiest women ever? Admittedly, part of that may be that she’s about the closest thing to a “clone” of an earlier Whedon character (Willow, of course) who was consistently my favorite on Buffy…but even if I hadn’t had a silly fanboy tv-character crush on Willow, I’m pretty sure I’d have one for Kaylee.

Anyway, thanks for mentioning this show often enough and with high enough praise that it caught my eye. It was well worth it.

Now to see if I can get Prairie to watch the series before the movie comes out…

Pledge of Allegiance

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A young kid was suspended from school for one day when, while everyone else in the classroom was reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, he recited his own pledge of allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United Federation of Planets, and to the galaxy for which it stands, one universe, under everybody, with liberty and justice for all species.

Good for him, I say — and good for his mom for laughing in the principal’s face when she was told what her boy had done.

(via Boing Boing)

Tron sequel back in the works?

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An item in Boing Boing about Disney comic books caught my eye today. Not for the comic books, but for the subject of one of them…

…Tron, an extension of the original film and the 2004 video game Tron 2.0, as well as a lead up to a second feature film…

Could the long-hoped-for sequel to Tron finally be back in gear? I don’t want to get too hyped up about this — the last time I did, it turned out to be a 3 — but I can certainly keep my fingers crossed.

iTunes “New World Firestarter” by Bloodhound Gang, The/Ministry/Prodigy (2003, 6:05).

Kumquat Mania

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‘Kumquat’ has long been one of my favorite words. It’s rather silly, fun to say, and sounds like it might be something slightly perverse, but it’s nothing more than a little orange fruit.

I just stumbled across this Fark Photoshop competition:

Theme: Replace a word in a song or movie title with the word “kumquat” and photoshop the result

I generally skip most of Fark’s photoshop threads, as they’re generally only of fair-to-middling quality, and the level of humor is often lower than I generally get a kick out of. This one I had to check out though…and I’m glad I did.

As it turned out, there were lots of good gags. As images posted to Fark tend to be transitory, I’ve snagged the best of them here. One to start with, then the rest behind the cut (it’ll be a bit image-heavy, modem users beware)…

Dark Side of the Kumquat

Read more

March of the Penguins

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This is rather horrendously teen-girl-Livejournal-y, but for once, I’m actually tempted to let lose with an “EEEEEEEEEE! PENGUINS!”

Penguins

(ahem)

Now that my inner thirteen-year-old (who’s apparently female…but we won’t discuss that) has had her say, I’m just going to have to find a way to see this. Apparently it has two shows in Seattle next weekend, out at the Harvard Exit: Saturday the 11th at 6:30pm, and Sunday the 12th at 11:30am.

Penguins

Must be seen.

They’re so cute!!!!

Penguins

(ahem)

Okay, I think I’m done now.

(Thanks to Julie for this!)

Blade: Trinity

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I just got finished watching Blade: Trinity. While I’m certainly not going to make any claims about it being a good movie, it ended up being far more entertaining than I expected it to be (and probably more than it had any real right to be).

I can chalk this up to two simple things:

  1. Parker Posey as a vampire. Parker’s long been one of my favorite actresses, inevitably taking oddball roles in quirky movies and absolutely going to town with them. She’s always a joy to watch, and this was certainly no exception.

    Parker Posey

  2. ‘Pac-Man’, the vampire pomeranian. Hands-down, one of the most bizarrely funny things I’d seen in a long time.

    Vampire Pomeranian

From here on out, I think every movie should have a vampire pom in it. I don’t really care if it makes sense, or fits into the film at all. I just want more vampire pomeranians in my movies.