Category: Fanboy

Thief! Baggins! We hates it forever!

Tickets for The Two Towers seemed to have gone on sale today…everywhere but Manhattan. Grrr… As recompense, though, “Gollum‘s Song,” the very Bjork-like coda to the film (much like Enya’s “May it Be” for Fellowship), is now available for download here. And as for the rest of the soundtrack…well, I really have no recollection of downloading it from Kazaa, but I suppose I might have…(Don’t worry, I’ll buy it also.)

We are Farscape.


Although the initial flurry of activity may have dimmed considerably, the quest to save Farscape continues across the fanboy/fangirl nation. Next week, this fan produced ad will start appearing in 24 major media markets…it looks a bit rough but hopefully will spark some media coverage. Meanwhile, here in NYC I’ve taken to postering all the bus ads for Sci-Fi’s upcoming Taken around campus with BOYCOTT SCI-FI signs. Somebody keeps ripping them down, but hey…it adds structure to my walks with Berkeley.

It came to me…

While TTT news flies fast and furious (stills, songs, and even the film’s opening are now available online), the extended version of Fellowship breaks today (expect updates around here to go way down.) To be honest, I flipped through most of the new stuff last night after a midnight madness sale, and I’d say 25 of the 30 new minutes are great additions. [Spoilers in next paragraph.]

The Galadriel/Lothlorien stuff works much better now, with both Galadriel and Celeborn taking on the flavor of Tolkien’s tome. Moreover, all of the underutilized members of the Fellowship – Boromir, Gimli, Merry, Pippen, and even Samwise – are given more characterization. And it just seems to take longer to get from place to place, which might take away from the film’s dizzying pace, but definitely captures more of the feel of the book. The only insertion I don’t like at the moment, other than Isildur‘s death (which seems unnecessary), is the additional Shire stuff at the very beginning. The cut to Frodo reading after the voiceover was a powerful one in the original version, but now there’s more filler about hobbits in between, courtesy of Bilbo. Perhaps it’ll grow on me (it’s a bit jarring to see a new version of a film you’ve seen fifty times, particularly when people are saying the same lines in a different take), but at the moment the “Concerning Hobbits” segment seems a bit leaden. (I dig the Green Dragon scene, though.) All in all, I love a lot of the stuff in here, and particularly the restored Lothlorien. Definitely worth a look-see…I’m having a few gatherings this week to show to friends, and I’m curious to see how first-time viewers react to the longer film. I suspect that this version is less accessible to non-Tolkienites than the original cut, which, on its own terms, is probably the better film.

On a side note, I also picked up the Episode II DVD (more out of dutiful resignation than of anything else) and, however strange some of the hobbit additions may seem, they’re infinitely better than some of the thankfully deleted scenes on this disc. It’s hard to figure out what’s more embarrassing – Lucas’ awful “Amidalas around the dinner table” dialogue or Natalie Portman’s stilted, wooden, and grotesquely bad delivery in every scene. If you buy one DVD this month, buy Fellowship.

Reality Bites.

Andrew Leonard of Salon pretty much sums up my thoughts on the Winona Ryder trial. I too grew up a Winona teenager…after Princess Leia, she was my second crush (and between the two of them, they pretty much locked in my predisposition toward wry, witty brunettes.) She was definitely the female icon of a certain generation of brainy, awkward guys (all the more reason why I always thought John Crichton naming his gun thus was one of those grace notes that made Farscape such a wonderful show.) Ah, well. On the bright side, fellow eighties icon Mia Sara appears to be making something of a comeback these days, even if it is on a show as lousy as Birds of Prey.

Space Ghost, Earth Nazi.

Anyone else feel like taking a trip off-world today? George Clooney laments what have been in the Internet exclusive trailer for Solaris. Also in the trailer bin is this first look at Max, starring John Cusack as a German art dealer and Noah Taylor as his not-so-promising student, Adolf Hitler. Update: You can go ahead and add Daredevil to the mix as well…cheeseball Affleckisms and lame wire work have quashed any hopes I had for this project for the time being.

Books, Bagginses, Belluccis.


A slew of teaser posters for long-awaited flicks have hit the web in the past few days, included the one-sheet for Adaptation, four more character-oriented TTT posters, and this first look at the lovely Monica Bellucci as Persephone in the Matrix sequels. (Notice her head isn’t cut off as in the first six preview posters…as it turns out full versions of each of them can be seen at the official site.)