Sunday, March 04, 2007

So Much for Resolutions
It only took me a little over 2 months to violate my New Year's Resolution to update at least once a week. Still, I'm only a day late.

Books
  1. Checkmate: A King's Game by Greg Rucka, Jesus Saiz, Cliff Richards, et al. Spies & superheroes.
  2. Hellshock by Jae Lee.
  3. John Constantine, Hellblazer: Red Sepulchre by Mike Carey, Marcelo Frusin, & Steve Dillon. Carey's Sandman spin-off, Lucifer never worked for me, but I quite liked his run on Hellblazer, and decided it was time I started picking up the collections.
  4. Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling. I have decided to reread the entire series in preparation for the seventh volume, but I don't want to be reading them all back to back in July, so I'm starting now.
  5. Hero Squared, vol. 2 by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, and Joe Abraham. Light-hearted super-hero fare.
  6. Alan Moore's Exit Interview by Bill Baker. Moore's thoughts on the comic industry & why he has pretty much left the field.
  7. Claymore, vol. 4: Marked for Death by Norihiro Yagi. (Checked out of the library.)
  8. Daredevil, vol. 13: The Murdock Papers by Brian Michael Bendis & Alex Maleev. Bendis's final story for this comic.
  9. Hellboy: Weird Tales, vol. 2 by various. Other people tackle Hellboy & associated characters.
  10. Jack of Fables, vol. 1: The (Nearly) Great Escape by Bill Willingham, Matthew Sturges, and Tony Akins. Fables spin-off.
  11. Hikaru no Go, vol. 2: First Battle by Yumi Hotta & Takeshi Obata.


Movies & TV
  • Return to Oz. I remember Siskel & Ebert panning this when it came out. Their problem was that it wasn't like the Judy Garland movie. I suspected that Return was more like the original books. When I finally saw it years later, my suspicion was confirmed. If you like Baum's books, this is a great movie.
  • The Departed. Jack Nicholson just gets scarier & scarier as he ages.
  • Arrested Development, Season 3.
  • Walk the Line.
  • The Ring 2. Not nearly as scary as the first one. Due largely, I think, to the fact that the viewer has at least an idea of what's going on. And, the deer attack is just ludicrous.
  • Pan's Labyrinth. Very good, but in places it can be hard to take.
  • Doctor Who: The Ark in Space. Rather enjoyable, but I had forgotten just how low the special effects budget for this show used to be. There are several scenes where a character is turning into a slimy monster, but it's clear that he is just covered in bubble-wrap that has been painted green.
  • Notting Hill. I had never seen this before, but I quite enjoyed it. That scarcely seems surprising considering that I have also enjoyed other romantic comedies written by Richard Curtis: Love Actually and Four Weddings & a Funeral.


And with that, I have finally caught up with movies.

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