On the Horizon

Next spring will see the release of a Pokemon based collectible miniatures game. I hate Pokemon's premise, that being slavery. I hate the show. I hate the card game. But I might just be interested in playing this miniatures game. Have you looked at the Charzard?

Marvel Comics is developing a TV series based on my favorite Batman ripoff Moon Knight.

Fantasy Flight Games' Marvel Superheroes Boardgame should be coming out any day now. You can look at some pictures here.

The boardgame based on Wizkids' popular "Pirates of" constructible card game series of games was just released, "Quest for Davy Jones' Gold."

Eden Studios will no longer be producing game products based on the Buffy and Angel licenses.

How Are You Ringing in All Hallow's Eve?

This weekend, my wife and I are inviting some friends over to watch classic horror films and play one of my horror themed boardgames. This year's likely candidate is The Fury of Dracula by Fantasy Flight Games, it's actually a new edition of a classic Games Workshop game from when they did more than miniature wargames. We'll likely slide in an old Vincent Price or vintage Hammer film and have a roaring good time.

That is, if we don't go over to the Alex Theater to watch Vincent Price exact revenge in larger than life fashion in House on Haunted Hill. In a move that would please Tim Burton, the Alex screening includes the EMERGO effect where the skeleton emerges from the screen and floats over the audience. At least that's what the website promises.

What About Frankenweenie?

The Calendar section of the LA Times has a nice bio of Tim Burton and his return to Los Angeles for the 3-D opening of his classic Halloween musical The Nightmare Before Christmas. The bio is filled with some interesting Angelino nostalgia points that are useful to LA Implants like me, for example the location of a historic restaurant in Burbank or discussions of how Hollywood's facelift might affect an aging goth.

The article is quite good, but the intro paragraphs focus on Tim Burton's "dark side" and how it is evident in films like Edward Scissorhands or The Corpse Bride, but what isn't mentioned is how Burton's dark side is only dark in appearance. His films are about outsiders, who often misunderstand normal society, whose attempts at kindness often appear frightening to those around them. His films are a wonderful expression of the desire of a person to love and be loved, but who doesn't understand or value "normal" society.

Besides, the article didn't mention my favorite Tim Burton film Frankenweenie. How can you say that someone has a frightening dark side when he makes a film that is a tale of wish fulfilment for any child (or adult) who has ever had a dog die. His combination of the Frankenstein story with the "terrors" of suburbia is genius. Go watch it on your The Nightmare Before Christmas DVD and you can see what I am talking about.

Entertainment News Rundown 10/25

I am thinking of doing a new feature, similar to Fishbowl LA's rundown of LA news. I'd like to do a quick stroll through entertainment news.

Anne Thompson has a good post on how the NYT is covering the box office results for Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers. She also has an excellent article on Aronofsky's upcoming fantasy The Fountain.

TV Critic Ray Richmond weighs in on the Madonna adoption.

The Los Angeles Times reports that Borat will no longer be a wide release, rather it will open on 800 rather than 2000 screens demonstrating just how much Americans don't pay attention to foreigners. Ah, the power of YouTube...show the first four minutes of a major studio release and have to cut back the number of theaters.

Patrick Goldstein, unlike the NYT, understands that October is also early Oscar season and not just when we worry about grudges.

You too can be baffled as to why the best new show on television was ranked 24th last week.

Shawna Benson keeps us appraised of the state of the fall lineup. I know that you can get info from the Futon Critic as well, but I like the way Shawna structures the results and predictions.

Bill Cunningham gives us the lowdown on Drive-in studio AIP. Bill's comments on how direct to dvd is the new AIP is very informative.

Construct Your Own Cylon for Halloween

Thanks to the folks over at Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories, you can now build your very own Cylon Jack O'Lantern for Halloween.

Before you do though, I would like to add the following cautionary note. Be sure that your household does not have a wireless ethernet router. It is one thing for sinister alien androids to take over your neighbor's computer, or even the city's computer system. One might even argue that alien androids taking over city computers might be a good thing, but one's own computer? Nay, I say!

Oh, and after the holiday, make sure that you have a class V disruptor as the combination of plant matter with computer circuitry makes the Cylon O'Lantern resistant to Classes' I through IV.

Titanic: Two the Surface

In a world gone mad with sequel-mania, one man had the courage to go where no sequel had gone before.

The 300 Teaser Trailer

The Battle of Thermopylae is one of the classic battles of Western history and a quintessential few against many story. A few years ago, Frank Miller wrote an acclaimed comic book adaptation of the story and a film based on Miller's adaptation is scheduled to be released early next year. I couldn't be more excited. I am a big fan of the story, and of the cheesy film version The 300 Spartans by Rudolph Mate. I expect great things from the latest version, which seems like it will be filled with common Spartan wit.

Watch the trailer to get an example of Spartan comments, but know that many of the best lines were not written by Miller. Rather they are matters of historical record and can be found in Plutarch's Moralia.


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Now that you've seen the video, here are some quotes from the Moralia.

• Leonidas: When someone said, "Because of the arrows of the barbarians it is impossible to see the sun," he said, "Won't it be nice then, if we shall have shade in which to fight them?"


• Thearidas: Thearidas, as he was whetting his sword, was asked if it was sharp, and he replied, "Sharper than slander."


• Themisteas: Themisteas fortold to Leonidas, the king, the coming destruction both of himself and of his fellowsoldiers at Thermopylae, for he was a prophet. He was sent away by Leonidas to Sparta, on the pretext of announcing there what would come to pass, but in reality so that he should not suffer death with the rest. He, however, would not brook this, but said, "I was sent out to fight, not to carry messages."


• When the ambassador from Elis said that his citizens had sent him for the especial reason that he alone emulated the Spartan way of living, Theopompus said, "Is your way of living or that of the other citizens better?" And when the man said that his own was, Theopompus said, "How then, can that State be saved in which, among many citizens, only one is a good man?"


• Theopompus: When someone pointed out to him a wall, and inquired if it was strong and high, he said, "Is it not a place where women live?"


• Cleomenes: When somebody inquired of him why Spartans do not dedicate to the gods the spoils from their enemies, he said, "Because they are taken from cowards."


• Leonidas: Being asked why the best of men prefer a glorious death to an inglorious life, he said, "Because they believe the one to be Nature's gift, but the other to be within their own control."

In Thucydides Peloponessian War, Archidamus describes the Spartan character by saying:

The quality which they condemn is really nothing but a wise moderation; thanks to its possession, we alone do not bemome insolent in success and give way less than others in misfortune; we are not carried away by the pleasure of hearing ourselves cheered on to risks which our judgment condemns; nor, if annoyed, are we any the more convinced by attempts to exasperate us by accusation. We are both warlike and wise, and it is our sense of order that makes us so. We are warlike, because self-control contains honor as a chief constituent, and honor bravery. And we are wise, because we are educated too little to despise the laws, and with too sever a self-control to disobey them, and are brought up not to be too knowing in useless matters -- such as the knowledge which can give a specious criticism of an enemy's plans in theory, but fails to assail them will equal success in practice -- but are taught to consider that the schemes of our enemies are not dissimilar to our own, and that the freaks of chance are not determinable by calculation.

There are many more, but that should whet your appetite.