Saturday 18 October 2008

TV

Have I Got News For You
36x01 (17/10/08 edition; extended repeat) [2nd watch]

The National Lottery: Who Dares Wins
2x06 (18/10/08 edition)

Articles

Bourne 4 Gets Writer by Emily Phillips
(from Empire Online)
But will it be called The Bourne Legacy?

First Look At Inglourious Brad Pitt by Dan Goodswen
(from Empire Online)
More interesting than the photo, in my opinion, is the (brief) article itself: "Quentin Tarantino has painted his WWII epic Inglourious Basterds [sic] as his take on a spaghetti western, even joking that he might title the film Once Upon a Time in Nazi-Occupied France. [It's about] a group of Jewish-American soldiers, known as 'The Basterds' who are chosen specifically to spread fear among the Third Reich by scalping and brutally killing Nazis." Cool.

Movie Reviews: Max Payne
(from Studio Briefing)
"About the only thing it has going for it is the stylized production design and a few cool special effects, but the story couldn't be more inane nor the characters less credible." Oh dear. But no surprise, really.

Movie Reviews: W.
(from Studio Briefing)
"Somewhat surprisingly W. has turned out to be director Oliver Stone's best-reviewed film in ages... Josh Brolin's portrayal of the president receives nearly universal praise [but] 'making a Bush movie that doesn't dramatize 9/11 nor mention the historic 2000 election controversy is negligent at best' [and] 'Why, when Americans and citizens around the globe are still coming to terms with the implications of so many Bush policies, would they want to pay money at the box office to see what amounts to an extended Saturday Night Live skit?'" Too soon? I think so.

Click to enlarge

Review of Quantum of Solace by Kim Newman
(from Empire Online)
"A pacy, visually imaginative follow-up. If it doesn’t even try to be bigger than Casino Royale, that’s perhaps a smart move in that there’s still a sense at the end that Bond’s mission has barely begun and he’ll need a few more movies to work his way up to destroying the apparently undefeatable Quantum organisation. The only real caveat is that while it’s exciting, it’s not exactly anyone’s idea of fun. To keep in the game, perhaps the next movie could let the hero enjoy himself a bit more." It's sounding good to me! Still undecided on that poster though. I don't hate it, but it's not half as good as CR's.

As they did earlier this summer with The Dark Knight and... oh, some other blockbuster, I forget which... Empire are having a Bond Fortnight in the run up to the release of Quantum of Solace. It began yesterday with 30 Second Guides to Every Bond Movie, and continued today with their review of QoS (see above). There's 12 more features to come over the next two weeks.

Magazines

Doctor Who Magazine #401
Including the title of the next Christmas special (already widely reported), the director of the first 2009 special, and a huge ovation for Bernard Cribbins. Quite right too. And the You Are Not Alone column is about Terry Nation, rather than some sad "woe is me" fandom-related bollocks. Appropriately, it's a lot better than usual, though is still almost killed by the column's usual pathetic final 'funny' paragraph.

shameless eBay self-promotion: items end tonight!

I wasn't going to bother with an eBay update today, as very little's changed... but then I realised that most things end tonight, so thought I'd point that out. Anything in bold is being bid on, anything crossed out sold since this was posted; everything else also has a Buy It Now option.

The following items end somewhere between 11:42pm and 1:22am tonight:

DVDs
  • Casino Royale 2-disc Collector's Edition
  • Ghost in the Shell
  • L.A. Confidential

  • Books
  • Casino Royale (Penguin Modern Classics edition)
  • Dr No (Penguin Modern Classics edition)
  • From Russia With Love (Penguin Modern Classics edition)
  • Goldfinger (Penguin Modern Classics edition)
  • Live and Let Die (Penguin Modern Classics edition)
  • Moonraker (Penguin Modern Classics edition)
  • On Her Majesty's Secret Service (Penguin Modern Classics edition)
  • Thunderball (Penguin Modern Classics edition)
  • You Only Live Twice (Penguin Modern Classics edition)

  • And these final four DVDs end on either Sunday or Monday:

  • Doctor Who Complete Davros Collection box set (new)
  • Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking
  • The West Wing Season 1 Part 1
  • The West Wing Season 1 Part 2

  • And these two aren't listed yet, but will be one day:

  • Doctor Who Empress of the Racnoss action figure
  • Se7en (2-disc Special Edition)

  • S'all for now.