I need to see V again sometime. I remember when that was first aired when I was a kid and it was the coolest, scariest movie ever.

This weekend I saw Fracture, which was pretty good. I originally dismissed this as a poor choice for Ryan Gosling to follow up his Oscar nominated role, but it was an intelligent thriller, and who wouldn't jump at the chance to share the screen with Anthony Hopkins? The only thing that I didn't like about the movie was that the final confrontation at the end was a bit of a letdown, like "That's it?" I expected a little bit more.

Most mythological names are pretty generic, they just sound fancy in a different language. Though most modern high fantasy people just jumble up syllables.

I watched PotCII with a friend of mine, and it was late, so we only watched the scenes with Johnny Depp in them.

It's a lot shorter, and you don't really miss anything. And you get 100% Johnny!

I think with V, the Genericness of the names falls right in line with the themes. The Visitors are all about the propaganda. Where are we from? Our Home Planet. Who do we obey? The Leader. Who do we fight? The Enemy. Humans hear that and think, "Well, of course, that makes sense." ANd they fall in line.

I remember the end of the first miniseries had The Rebels sending a signal to The Enemy to show up and help them. I remember that was a plot point that was never followed up on.

I always thought that was fairly stupid of the Resistance - the Enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend. You've already got one superior force harvesting your species for food - do you really want a second one fighting it out over your head for the right to do so?

The remake/sequel is continually in development hell, but Robert Englund is apparently talking it up again.

Oh yeah it works. Should be an object lesson that Count Dookus and Treknobabble aren't always needed.

Given the direct historical allegory to the Nazis, The Enemy might have been intended as a Stalinist Russia parallel. Making a deal with one devil to stop another. I gave up on the weekly series because it was such a mess, was that idea expanded at all?

I remember as a kid what an event V was, all that nostalgia for Brandon Tartikoff era NBC (Miami Vice, Knight Rider, A-Team even Manimal).

Martin was my favorite character and still is, now I can see why. He's got some depth to him. Rather than just a blank hero he's scared shitless about being a traitor and all his vacilating and noncomital makes him more heroic in my book because he's fighting that in addition to the enemy.

Leonard Cimino nailed his part. You can see the heart break of not only it happening again, but also his grandson being a part of it.

ETA: Does it get anymore badass than Michael Ironside? His last name is Ironside for fuck's sake.

Cinema Paradiso

[cries some more] and Damn You Ennio Morricone.

No. My 10-year-old dreams of bird-aliens showing up to eat the lizard-aliens were never fulfilled. Or, technically, dashed.

No. I caught a recent episode of Stargate SG-1 with him, and the man has not aged. I think he actually died in 1986, but he told Death to piss off and leave him alone.

I firmly believe Michael Ironside in Highlander 2 inspired Peter Jackson's version of Denethor.

I finally rented V for Vendetta and absolutely hated it. For a start, if I were a fascist dictator, over the course of a year I might get round to checking central parts of the old transport system for clanging noises. Also, I couldn't believe we were meant to accept that what was done to the Portman character was okay 'cause it 'made her free'? What offensive twaddle. At the end I was thinking "Don't kiss him, knee him in the juicy bits - hard!"

Just saw Sweet Land and am in total love with this movie. It's beautiful and subtle and simple and very, very sweet. It was great to see Alan Cummings and the two leads were amazing. This is a lovely little gem.

And Gil Bellows (Billy on Ally McBeal) was a producer for the film and talks on the commentary track, so it was awesome to hear him again. He dropped off the face of the earth I thought.

I saw Sweet Land too, last week. It was very cute but I didn't really have strong feelings about it.

So, over the weekend I watched all six hours of The Best of Youth. It was sort of slow to grab me, but then I was captivated. There is a scene about four hours into the movie that affected me, I think, more than any other scene in any movie has. I'm still thinking about it. Anyway, it's a beautiful movie.

I got Wind Chill, a thriller/ghost story starring Emily Blunt that was apparently given a limited release here in the States before it was dumped onto video. It wasn't fantastic, but it was interesting, and the story was more original and engaging than a lot of the crappy horror movies that have been popping up lately.

I just rented We Are Marshall and it reduced me to tears multiple times. I'm not sure why but I know it did. I was also endlessly amused by the number of times Matthew McConaughey managed to slap David Strathairn's ass, in fact he slapped the ass of every man in the movie at some point.

Toothy Tile in action? Heh heh.