Resident Evil 5 trailer


Poll #1170821
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Is the Resident Evil 5 trailer racist?

1 The Taken - Dean Koontz
2 Coyote Blue - Christopher Moore
3 Y: The Last Man - Unmanned - Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra
4 Bangkok Tattoo - John Burdett
5 State Of Fear - Michael Crichton
6 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
7 Ex-Machina 1 - The First Hundred Days - Brian K. Vaughn and Tony Harris
8 Ex-Machina 2 - Tag - Brian K. Vaughn and Tony Harris
9 Starter For Ten - David Nicholls
10 Pushing Ice - Alastair Reynolds
11 100% - Paul Pope
12 Forever Odd - Dean Koontz
13 Vernon God Little - DBC Pierre
14 Ex-Machina 3 - Fact vs Fiction - Brian K. Vaughn and Tony Harris
15 Ex-Machina 4 - March To War - Brian K. Vaughn and Tony Harris
16 Unspeak - Steven Poole
17 Magic For Beginners - Kelly Link
18 Nobody's Son - Sean Stewart
19 Resurrection Man - Sean Stewart
20 Deliver Us From Evil - Tom Holland
21 Batman: Year 100 - Paul Pope
22 Galveston - Sean Stewart
23 The Night Watch - Sean Stewart
24 The Dark Knight Strikes Again - Frank Miller
25 Blindsight - Peter Watts
26 The Fourth Treasure - Todd Shimoda
27 Bareback - Kit Whitfield
28 Neverness - David Zindell
29 The Hawk Eternal - David Gemmell
30 Ciaphas Cain - Hero Of The Imperium - Sandy Mitchell
31 The Ambassador Chronicles - Graham McNeil
32 The Blade Itself - Joe Abercrombie
33 The Lies Of Locke Lamora - Scott Lynch
34 Black Man - Richard Morgan
35 Glasshouse - Charles Stross
36 Perfect Dark: Initial Vector - Greg Rucka
37 Before They Are Hanged - Joe Abercrombie
38 A Dirty Job - Christopher Moore
39 The Atrocity Archives - Charles Stross
40 Perfect Dark: Second Front - Greg Rucka
41 Walking In Shadows - Donald James
42 Basket Case - Carl Hiassen
43 Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - Susannah Clarke
44 Halo: First Strike - Eric S. Nylund
45 On - Adam Roberts
46 A Fire Upon The Deep - Vernor Vinge
47 The Big Sleep - Raymond Chandler
48 Old Man's War - John Scalzi
49 The Ghost Brigades - John Scalzi
50 Farewell My Lovely - Raymond Chandler
51 The Jennifer Morgue - Charles Stross
52 Red Seas Under Red Skies - Scott Lynch
53 Ghost In The Shell - Masumune Shirow
54 Strontium Dog: Ruthless - Jonathan Clements
55 Fat - Rob Grant
56 1603 - Neil Gaiman & Andy Kubert
57 Eternals - Neil Gaiman & John Romita Jnr
58 Astro City: The Tarnished Angel - Kurt Busiek & Brett Anderson
59 Kane: Greetings From New Eden - Paul Grist
60 The Husband - Dean Koontz
61 A Game Of Thrones - George RR Martin
62 A Clash Of Kings - George RR Martin
63 A Storm Of Swords - George RR Martin
64 A Feast For Crows - George RR Martin
65 The Devil You Know - Mike Carey
66 Vicious Circle - Mike Carey
67 End Of The World Blues - Jon Courtenay Grimwood
68 Dead Men's Boots - Mike Carey
69 The Terror - Dan Simmons
70 The Privilege Of The Sword - Ellen Kushner
71 Icarus - Roger Levy
72 Galactic North - Alastair Reynolds
73 A Wizard Of Earthsea - Ursula Le Guin
74 The Tombs Of Atuan - Ursula Le Guin
75 The Farthest Shore - Ursula Le Guin
76 Tehanu - Ursula Le Guin

Top ten
The Handmaid's Tale
Unspeak
Galveston
Neverness
The Blade Itself
The Atrocity Archives
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Old Man's War
A Clash Of Kings
The Terror

Stats
Non-fiction: 1%
Short story collections: 3%
SF: 82%
Comics: 17%
YA: 0%
Books by women: 12%

(via oletheros)

"Batman and Robin isn't just bad by comic book standards, it's bad by the standards one applies to getting hit in the face with a festively-decorated baseball bat."

The seven least faithful comic book movies.

I must admit to liking Constantine (though that could well be because of Rachel Weisz) and also Hulk, which was pretty decent until the last ten minutes where Banner battles his father in one of the most abstract finales ever.

"We were having so much fun finding new ways to shoot men in the face in slow motion that we entirely forgot to try shooting them in the crotch until our helpful Midway rep suggested it. We can now report that it results in an eye-watering and incredibly long animation of a howling man staggering around clutching the bloody mess that used to be his crown jewels."

I suppose the most damning legacy of John Woo's Hollywood films is that there is more excitement over a game that he has produced than his forthcoming and seemingly cursed The Battle Of Red Cliff. But when that game is based on Woo's best film, where you get to control Chow Yun-Fat wielding two pistols, sliding over tables, down stair rails and diving across floors - that right there is a slice of PURE AWESOME.

Inspired by UKSFBN's interview with Steph Swainston, and Jonathan McCalmont's review of The Harlequin's Kiss.

Poll #998139
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Magic in fantasy

The end of No Present Like Time uses

2) Insanity / Pregnancy / China

Raise The Red Lantern.

Guess the films from their IMDB tags:

1) Remake / Martial Arts / Belt (Fist Of Legend - guessed by ajr)
2) Insanity / Pregnancy / China
3) Based On Comic / Post-Apocalyptic / Exploding Head (Hokuto No Ken/Fist Of The North Star - guessed by memetic_glutton)
4) Teeth Extraction / Post Hypnotic Suggestion / Octopus (Oldboy - guessed by despotliz)
5) Tap Dance / Gambling / Sword Fight (Zatoichi - guessed by gonecaving)
6) Flying Ace / Transformation / Italy (Porco Rosso - guessed by snowking)
7) Hong Kong / Title Based On Song / Neighbours (In The Mood For Love - guessed by communicator)
8) Siege / Class Differences / Showdown (Seven Samurai - guessed by despotliz)
9) Teahouse / Paper Cranes / Gun Fu (Hardboiled - guessed by solipsistnation)
10) Wuxia Fiction / Visual Poetry / Walk On Water (Hero - guessed by ninebelow)

I hadn't planned on them all being Asian, but I was trying to avoid using films that other people had chosen. When I wound up with only three from Hollywood, I changed them to suit.

EDIT: only two guesses for 2) so far and lots of wrong guesses for 3). You can do it!

(via the Aversionline mp3 blog)

Since only one person said that they were fed up of posts about bloody SF, here's another one.

A recent SFX poll has determined that Serenity is better than Star Wars. I don't personally agree but you know, these things happen. Except they also think that Serenity is better than Alien, Blade Runner, The Terminator, The Matrix and even Back To The Future. Blasphemy!


Poll #958864
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Which is the best SF film?

EDIT: the films in the poll above are taken from the top 10 films of the SFX poll. Hence no Gattaca or Aliens. Sorry.

Poll #914442 A hypothetical question
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

Which of the following is the most entertaining implement with which to kill a zombie?

Buy it at the Valve store here

I managed to nuke the file containing my books and films of 2005 so I can't do much in the way of comparison. I have no idea whether I've seen more films this year or not, though at a rough guess I would say that I have since by May 2005 I had only seen 22 films compared with 55 this year.

Looking back over my 52filmchallenge posts, I can see that I have used the words, "hysterical", "hilarious", and "batshit" far too often.

( 104filmchallenge )

( The best of the bunch )
Some random stats:

Japanese: 28%
Korean: 8%
Chinese/HK: 6%

Poll #898936 No one else did it so...
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

2006

Nintendo Wii = £179.99
Twilight Princess = £39.99
Total = £219.98

So not £259.00 then, Littlewoods you profiteering bastards. Funnily enough, the "Contact Us" part of their website seems to be down at the moment.

In lieu of content or polls:

Following excitement back in May at the demos of Super Mario Galaxy and Red Steel on the Wii, the latter turned out to be a bit shit. Nevertheless praise heaped upon Wii Sports (bundled free with the console) and various friends saying that Twilight Princess was the best thing ever convinced me, so I caved in and bought one on Amazon this morning.

As it happens, I almost bought a Wii on launch day. Amazon had 'acquired' new stock and put up a page saying that they would be put on sale between 3 and 4pm. I managed to snag one out of the blue and I gazed in momentary disbelief as it sat in my basket. The effect was marred slightly by some other item lurking in the basket, so I clicked the "Save For Later" button at which point the screen refreshed and both Wii and unwanted item shifted in the Saved For Later list. My assumption that having an item in your shopping basket would reserve it for you turned out to be a load of cobblers and while I was dithering around someone else nabbed it. Bah.

Amazon aren't guaranteeing that it'll arrive before Christmas but the estimated delivery date is the 23rd which gives me time to buy Zelda, a RGB cable and perhaps another Wiimote and nunchuk controller. That should keep me going until Metroid Prime 3 comes out in February.

In the meantime, check out the Japanese Wii safety manual, what happens when idiots start throwing their controllers around, and Wiimotes used to control PC software

67) DOA: Dead Or Alive - exploitative, mindless, excessive wire-fu, and yet oh so very entertaining. Probably bears no resemblance to the source material, but who cares? Also, Devon Aoki is not remotely attractive. Seriously. Whoever cast her should be taken out and shot. I would have happily settled for a Chinese actress to play the Japanese ninja instead, someone that looked less alien.

68) Casablanca - despite watching a massive number of films, I've seen very few made before the 80s and so a fellow film buff made me watch this. I'd watched bits of it on TV before but never really paid attention. Shame on me. I knew the basic plot and what have you, but what really surprised me was the sharp dialogue and the sheer presence of Bogart. Well deserving of its accolades.

69) Yugo The Negotiator - the first of the films I saw in the Firecracker Asian Festival. Anything low-key like this had to feature DVDs, and this was 2+ hour long stitched together OVA anime series. Yugo is a top negotiator who is hired to rescue a hostage held in the mountains of Pakistan. An interesting premise but it was spread out far too thinly.

70) The Bow - more minimalism from Kim Ki-Duk as part of the Firecracker Festival. An old man lives on a boat with a young girl. They bring fishers to the boat and he counts the days off until she comes of age and he can marry her. Sparse dialogue, long shots of the sea, the boat drifting in the water, and a very bizarre ending. I seem to like this more than other critics of Ki-Duk's work, but it really isn't a patch on 3-Iron and Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter...And Spring.

71) Pan's Labyrinth - I liked this a lot, even though I seem to have passed on the analysis going around LJ. Apparently I'm a big softy for thinking it was all real. :P

72) Guns And Talks - another Firecracker Festival film, this is a comedy thriller about a group of hitmen who run into troubles when one of them falls in love with his target and another decides to take on a suicidal job purely because the customer is a newsreader beloved of the group. It's silly, slapstick in places, but not overly stylised and doesn't outstay its welcome, ludicrously implausible finale aside.

73) The Host - and another, and one of only two films shown that wasn't obviously a DVD. Rampaging monster flick done Korean style, with Song Kang Ho out to rescue his stolen teenage daughter with the help of his dysfunctional family. The science is just as stupid as any Western film (we've developed this gas that'll kill the beast dead, along with any other living thing except, um, except humans. Right) and it's a little too farcical at times for the dramatic bits to have any emotional impact, but the WETA-created beastie is impressive to watch, in particular its rather unique way of getting around town, and it's interesting to see a big budget Hollywood-style film done in the Far East.

74) Election 2 - the final Firecracker Festival film, and the best of the bunch in my opinion. Following on from the events of the previous film, the incumbent head of the Triad gang is determined to change the ancient traditions and serve another 2 years of office. Everyone else's choice for the job is trying to get out of the criminal life by setting up a legitimate business on the mainland, but when that goes sour due to an incompetent underling, he sets himself up as a contender and proves every bit as ruthless in competing for the job. Gritty, realistic and very very good, a trilogy that seems to be improving with each installment unlike the disappointing Infernal Affairs sequels.

75) Crank - adrenaline fuelled revenge flick that is hyper-edited to the point of nausea, Statham provides a suitably OTT performance as the terminally poisoned hitman, but to be honest I expected a far higher bodycount. Not a patch on any similar film made in the 80s (eg: Stallone/Arnie and their ilk). Those were the days!

76) Clerks II - hysterically funny from start to finish, even with a slightly more serious slant to the life of now 30-something slackers with no real purpose in life. Rosario Dawson is clearly the best thing about it, but Jay and Silent Bob come close to stealing the show again.

EDIT: Whoops. I posted to the wrong journal. That should have gone to 52filmchallenge so I've reposted it over there (link), which is going to make this entry look faintly redundant now. Oh well.

"Australian scientists have created a T-shirt that allows air guitarists to play real music - without resorting to a real guitar."

\m/

Amazing scenes, if a slightly barmy application of the technology. I can see how right arm movement can be translated to rhythm (for right-handed guitarists at least), but how would pitch work? I suppose you'd be able to define a range of useable pitches on the computer and take it from there, though I'm not sure how one could differentiate between chords and single notes.

Ah. The demonstration video only shows the guy playing chords or muted notes. Slightly more rubbish than I thought, but hey it's all good for non-muso types. Now you too can be just like immortalradical!

On second thought, perhaps not.