A great article that I’d lost track of by David Brin… “Star Wars” despots vs. “Star Trek” populists
Anyway, when it comes to portraying human destiny, where would you rather live, assuming you’ll be a normal citizen and no demigod? In Roddenberry’s Federation? Or Lucas’ Empire?
See also his “incautious and heretical re-appraisal of J.R.R. Tolkien”… this latter article should be mandatory reading for would-be fantasy writers.
Now, this just about begs some Amazon links, but I’ll spare you the blatant shilling today. Just go look at the links, instead.
Ok, it’s not going to win any Oscars, but Harold Kumar Go to White Castle was a lot better than I expected, and is my favorite comedy recently – plenty of gross-out, yes, and stoner jokes that would make Cheech and Chong proud, but also real heart, likeable characters, and a fine sense of the absurd.
Rumor has it, there may be a sequel. So if you missed it in the theater, give the DVD a rent.
I also broke my long string of not making it to any films in the theater for a while (the last one was The Incredibles) by going with Marie to see Phantom of the Opera this past weekend. Overall, I thought it was pretty good… more after the break, minor SPOILERS
Continue reading “Best. Comedy… err, recently.”
From Today’s Daily Illuminator:
It’s A Wonderful Life
In 30 seconds. Re-enacted by bunnies.
Right here.
If this doesn’t get you into the holiday spirit, we’ll try again. You’ve been warned.
No direct link, sorry, it’s on the AngryAlien front page. And not up to their prior horror parodies. But worth passing on nonetheless.
Well, not quite — Ursula Le Guin is very much alive, and has thoroughly (and IMO deservedly) panned the film Earthsea which is loosely based on her novels Wizard of Earthsea, Tombs of Atuan, and The Farthest Shore…
I stress loosely… I saw the first episode last night, and it’s entertaining enough, although I’m glad it’s been ages since I read the novels. The differences were obvious pretty immediately… they switched the hero’s “true name” and his social name from the books, added plotlines. I’m watching the second episode as we speak, and the changes only get more obvious and to some degree, more silly.
Ah well.
The Lord of the Rings films weren’t perfect, but they were at least relatively true to the spirit of the novels… I think Tolkien isn’t rolling over in his grave, and might even be pleasantly surprised at how well they translated. But this is one of those Hollywood rewrites, and the kindest thing I can say about their choices is that it’s nowhere near the perversion that Starship Troopers was.
There’s a good thread on this on rec.arts.sf.fandom which also supplied the link to Ms. Le Guin’s site.
Update, a few minutes later: Replaced the link with a better one to the same short essay on her site. Here’s a link to the film on the Sci-Fi channel’s web site though heck, they really don’t need the free advertising.
I just finished re-cataloging them, and if I’m counting right and have removed all the duplicate entries properly, well over 400 of them (I had an exact number there but have already noted duplicates and omissions).
A list, for the truly masochistic (or those who want to gloat that they’ve got even more) after the break. Actually, it’s mainly for family to make sure that any Christmas gifts don’t duplicate ones I already have.
Continue reading “I have too darn many DVDs”
