While I concede that using a cross DC Crisis plot wasn't the best example, I was actually trying to highlight the fact that it's pretty much the norm for the batman universe to introduce fantastical/magical/madshiznat elements as and when the writers feel the need.

And yeh, Nightfall, was a good story arc. Prefered No Man's Land/Cataclysm tho... 

fair enough, they do put that stuff in Batman, but it's possible to do a serious interpretation of the material - the core concept does not involve marvel-type wacky pulp scifi. That said Wolverine does look sweet. 

Role Models (2008)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0430922/
Awful. The story, morality, emotions are for kids and maybe young teens (puberty and struggle at home). Yet the language and some of the jokes are very not for kids.
If you watch the trailer and think "OMG! It's Stiffler and some kid doing pretending he asked him to get his pants down, this is gonna be laugh fest" you will be disappointed. 

Haven't read the graphic novel, approached the film in it's own right.

Thought it was great overall. Powerful, flamboyant, and kept me interested for it's whole length - not knowing the plot helped with that. Really liked some of the characters, Dr Manhattan was fascinating, and Rorschach was viciously excellent.

I did find it a bit camp in places and a bit gory in other places, which was an odd blend. But in between that it was good, gritty entertainment.

Yeah, so, cool. 

usually paul rudd is damned hilarious. :P 

Watchmen (2008) - pretty good adaptation of the source material and a pretty good movie in its own right. There are a few downright bad scenes, and Malin Akerman is responsible for most of them, and there are a few overly gratuitous scenes, but on the whole it�s a pretty impressively paced and made film. It also works better when it sticks to the themes and characters of the source material rather than when Snyder demonstrates his obsessive fascination with slow mo (really a lot of the action scenes are very similar to 300 and just as ineffective). But by retaining most of what made the source material so good and by nailing the characters of Rorshach and Dr Manahattan, it still provides an entertaining deconstruction of the superhero myth.

7.5/10


Seven Days in May (1964) - excellent political drama from John Frankenheimer that will be familiar in terms of plot to anyone that has seen a season of 24. But the script has class, some of the dialogue is particularly well written and the performances from Burt Lancaster, Frederic March and Kirk Douglas are strong. It feels a bit overlong, especially since the plot is too familiar these days, but there is enough quality in Frankenheimer's classical style to keep you interested throughout.

7.5/10


Les Enfants Terribles (1954) - a collaboration between Jean Cocteau and Jean Pierre Melville but it really does bear Cocteau's stamp on it much more than Melville's minimalist style. Having said that, it�s also noticeably less surreal than Cocteau's other works, presumably because Melville's realism compromised Cocteau from maintaining his more preferred approach. Otherwise, its basically a more likeable version of what Bernardo Bertolucci tried with The Dreamers, with two siblings isolating themselves from the world and creating their own world to live in until reality catches up with them as they grow up.

6.5/10


Robin Hood Series One - I'm a bit of a sucker for medieval set movies/shows and this one nicely fits the bill despite never really being above average. Shot in and around a hungarian forest, it looks fabulous and although the episodes follow a formula and are pretty hard to tell apart in terms of plotting, it�s a lot of fun. Keith Allen chews as much scenery as he can as the sheriff of nottingham which provides a nice contrast to the otherwise straight faced nature of the show.


6-6.5/10 

She is pretty WET isn't she :S.

I didn't notice the slo-mo apart from the start. Maybe because I much prefer it to the MTV-style chop-a-thon that ruins plenty of action scenes in plenty of films. 

So no BSG fans on this board, I take it? Or are there any thoughts on the finale / series as a whole? 

because I could never work out if it was any good or just a cult thing like star trek :) 

well, it is to some, but it's actually a great show which deals with a lot of interesting topics (militarism, AI, what constitutes life, terrorism, religion, racism, war, love,...), and it's one of the very few sci fi shows that don't use the fact that they're sci fi as a plot device. It's simply the setting in which the story takes place. There are no space monsters, there's no techno babble etc. like you may know from star trek. It's about the characters first, which is what all the great shows have in common.

In fact, every person I have showed the pilot to became hooked instantly, even those who usually loathe sci fi. I would really suggest you give it a try because I think based on your taste in movies that you might like it. Plus it has a fantastic soundtrack! Just go get the miniseries plus a couple of episodes from the first season. If you're not convinced by then, you probably never will be. 

Liked the originals :) 

Yeah great show, the finale was a mixed bag in my opinion, careful, SPOILERS ahead!


It feels like they cut off all the lose ends with the "religion" thing, which annoys me. It would have been ok if there was just one religious aspect (Kara, or Gaius and Caprica's imaginery friends) but having two kinda sucked. I also can't imagine a people that would willingly get rid of all their technology, but I guess they've been on the run from their own machines for a while now, so I guess it's believable in context.
The first half of the finale was bloody awesome.

I'll miss my weekly BSG. =( 

...Do you plan to read the comics? 

cool, will give it a rent and check it out. Eventually, once my unwatched pile is a bit more manageable. Still have 4 seasons of The Wire to get to. 

Still bitter. 

nitin: Here is an interesting article comparing BSG to The Wire (very minor spoilers):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2009/mar/19/battlestar-galactica-review

HERE BE SPOILERS!!!
Bal, this pretty much sums up my opinion about the whole abandon-technology issue:
http://galacticasitrep.blogspot.com/2009/03/renunciation-of-technology.html

I have to say that I really liked the finale, but I was expecting it to be like this. I wasn't expecting a rational explanation for everything at all, and I was very sure that Starbuck would just vanish and her nature would not be elaborated on. I think they answered all interesting questions while still leaving some room for debate. But to me, they gave a very definitive answer to the question of whether there is a higher power at work and what the nature of Starbuck and the head people was. The were sent by a higher power to influence the events so that the cycle of destruction is broken. That was the plan all along, and by merging the cylon and human races, they were both lead to their respective ends (Kara Thrace == harbinger of death).

Anyways, there's a lot of debate going on, and from what I can see there are a lot of people who would have preferred a more rational explanation for everything, but I'm not one of them. To me, this was a pretty much perfect finale to a very good show! I'm just sad there won't be more of BSG, just "The Plan" and Caprica. 

It's simply the setting in which the story takes place. There are no space monsters, there's no techno babble etc. like you may know from star trek. It's about the characters first, which is what all the great shows have in common.

In fact, every person I have showed the pilot to became hooked instantly, even those who usually loathe sci fi.
I bet those persons didn't loathe what in germany is called a "soap". What you're describing is exactly what I hate about most shows i see :( I hate when they don't have an interesting story to tell and instead focus on the characters :) 

Are you comparing BSG with a soap? And since when is a soap about the characters? I think you misunderstood me here. Besides, BSG has a very interesting story to tell with very relevant themes, I think. But you can't please everyone, I guess.

Oh, and btw - I don't like soaps at all. In fact, I don't even have a TV set. 

More SPOILERS.


Yeah, for the abandoning technology thing, I agree, as I said, it didn't really surprise me so much. As is described in the article, I myself can't imagine making that choice, as I still have high hopes for what technology can bring (= I want to fly around space and shoot laser guns).

I was also expecting Kara to be an angel or whatever, it was pretty obvious considering the piano episode (which I really enjoyed). I just have difficulty linking her to the fake Gaius and Caprica, do they represent the same entity? Seems strange considering how differently they operate.
And about the cycle of destruction, how is it broken? Cylon and human, by the end you couldn't really tell the difference anyways, but once evolved nothing's to stop them from starting over (make low-tech cylons etc).

I hate soaps and don't have a TV either, yay! 

Nope :). 

cool, will give it a rent and check it out. Eventually, once my unwatched pile is a bit more manageable. Still have 4 seasons of The Wire to get to.

Means you have seen the great season three Stinger Bell/Stanfield story arc :) 

I am not sure what exactly Kara was, but I think she was a tool used by "god" or whatever entity controlled those events. Just like the shared opera house vision or the head people. What's to stop a divine power to use a corporeal entity for its plans?

I think the cycle might be broken because cylon and human are now genetically mixed. I think that is what head six meant in the end when she said that she thinks that this time it's different. The system has repeated itself many times, and this time it's different because only the hybrid and its descendents (we) remain. But yeah, it's not clear, it's up to us, which is what the final "advances in robotics" images meant.

And I really enjoyed the Starbuck / father / Watchtower episode. The inclusion of this song in the show, transcending the barrier between the on screen characters and the viewers was a stroke of genius IMO. It kind of foreshadowed the events and made everything so much more interesting. From the minute I identified it as All Along the Watchtower in Crossroads pt. II, I was even more hooked on the show. 

there's some interesting stuff they do on the show with the CG.

it's something i first started noticing on firefly (and then serenity) where the CG camera is treated as if it was a real camera. in BSG, they took it even farther to where the CG sequences feel a lot like film documentaries which really boosts up the quality. the live action parts are for the most part filmed in that way too, so everything ties together really well.
i think there's a lot of good about this method, it's better than super choreographed railroad CG cameras, anyway. 

no only seen season 1 so far. 

I agree, and btw, it's the same fx company that worked on both shows. They invented the style for firefly and used it again for BSG, because the makers wanted the documentary style. Oh, and they put the serenity into the BSG mini series (in the scene on Caprica before the fall where Roslin finds out she has cancer, she is in a room with a huge window through which you can see ships flying by - one of them is serenity).

I also liked how they lowered the sound volume in the space scenes, but I wish they had had the guts to turn it off. But I guess it wouldn't have worked as well without sound.