Monthly Archives: May 2006

Let the Hostilities Commence

It has been the subject of countless geeky dorm-room debates: which would win in an all-out slug-fest for supremacy, an Imperial Star Destroyer or the Starship Enterprise?

The partisans for each of the two pre-eminent science-fiction franchises have been relentless in battles almost as fierce as the most famous space-combat scene never filmed; their fights have spanned Internet message boards and video arcades and parents’ basements. At stake: nothing less than the honor and glory of their preferred fictional universes.

But now, some brave soul with some video-editing software and a lot of free time has decided to settle the fight once and for all. Well, sort of, since this version ends in an inconclusive draw:

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First Glimpse of the New Bond

This is interesting: I’ve run across a French trailer for the upcoming film Casino Royale, which producers hope will reinvigorate the 007 franchise with a new actor in the lead and a new realism in the storytelling (I understand they’ve ditched Q and the gadgets in favor of good old-fashioned fist-fights.) An English-language version has yet to be released, so if you don’t speak French — and I don’t myself — you’ll just have to guess at what’s going on. Not that this is so difficult; it’s a trailer for a James Bond film, after all.

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Too Soon? Apparently Not…

Hm. Well, it appears my concerns about that deluge of new visitors from The Whatever were overblown, since nothing much seems to be happening around here. So much for my delusions of grandeur.

Moving right along, I see that my skills at predicting box-office success are no better than my estimation of my own celebrity drawing-power. By which I mean that I was surprised by the generally good business done this weekend by United 93, the movie about one of the doomed 9/11 flights. I honestly didn’t think there would be a market for this film.

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