• In the Beginning...
• Yar Me Hearties...
• Damn You Belloch
• Geekdom Calls you
• I Don't Keep it Loaded Son
• Burnin' down the house
• Honey... This is the Wrong Finger
• No Mr. Bond... I expect you to die!
• Sorry... I don't speak Crazy Bitch!
• Die! Bart, Die!
• Why is the Rum Gone?
• First Time Pluggin' a guy?
• If you love her, Buy her a gun!
• I'm Makin' This Up As I Go!
• I'm Goin After That Truck
• This is a Really Shit Idea
• There be Monsters Here!
• Fear Is The Mindkiller
• Year End Craziness Pt. 1
• Year End Craziness Pt. 2
• Year End Epilogue
• You are not put on this world to GET IT!
• Well Miami sucks! But the cops are kinda nice!
• We Must Have Waffles! We Must have Waffles Forthwith!
• "Have another one Paddy!..."RIP Fred O'Keefe
• "Geez i'm Goin Crazy Out There At The Lake"
• Trade Secrets My Son
• "If We're Not Back by Dawn, Call the President!"
• "Is That a Fish Tank?"
• "Prepare to Meet Kali... IN HELL!"
• "Is That Gasoline I Smell?"
• On My Signal... Unleash HELL!
• Life in Every Breath
  

STEVE'S DVD COLLECTION DVD VERDICT
IMDB.COM
JEFF GREENE
ALLMUSIC
YOJOE.COM
NOTANYWHERELAND_3
IRON MAIDEN
LONELY GUY IN NY
MONDO MISCELLANEA
BMWRACER'S RAMBLINGS
DREW'S SCRIPT-O-RAMA
GREEN IMP
PENNY ARCADE
ANIME ON DVD
WING KONG EXCHANGE
INDIANA JONES
LONELY GUY IN NEW YORK INDYFAN.COM
CASTLEVANIA DUNGEON
BRUCE CAMPBELL
THE SHEAVY FAN PAGE
PEARL JAM
SAM ROBERTS
DAILY REVIEWS
I LIVE IN A GIANT BUCKET
THE TEA PARTY
GNARLY CUE BALL
TACTICAL ACTION HERO
A HIGHER BROW BLOG
TWENTY-6
CUBIST CARTOONIST
TREAD IS BACK!

The move is all but done. We're settled in, majority of boxes are unpacked - and life has returned to something resembeling normal. In the excitement of the move i aqquired a 27-inch Sony Vega flatscreen - let me say, this thing is SWEET! About the sharpest image i've seen in a tube set, beautiful color balance, just all around awesomeness - sure it ain't a 57-inch widescreen set, but it'll do in a pinch! Much better than the old JVC D-Series. I'll post some pics of my home theatre setup soon... promise!

Harry Potter enters his third year at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and maturity seems to be the name of the game this time around. The film opens with Harry at home with the Dursleys as the first two did, but from there everything changes. Harry learns of Sirius Black, a powerful wizard recently escaped from Azkaban prison, who will undoubtedly come looking for the young Potter in order to send him to join his folks in the great beyond. Sounds simple enough right? Well it isn't! The plot is very layered for a film of this type, things are seldom what they seem.

The third Potter outing has definitely brought with it a new level of maturity, the storyline is much darker, the film has a newfound sense of visual flair, and the actors are now into their teenage years, making Harry, Ron, and Hermoine much more interesting people. Harry himself has grown somewhat edgy, his rebellion against the Dursleys in the opening act, and subsequent facing of concequences, is Harry's first step into the world of an adult. Hermoine has matured beyond her years, now tackling the courseload of a university student, and her sense of womanhood is definitely blossoming. She's far removed from the bookworm we saw in the first film. Ron is still Ron, yet there's a newfound wit under his "dumb"-ish exterior. The ancilliary cast shines as well, the mainstays from the first two films see a little screentime here, though Alan Rickman seems a little underused (his portrayal of Severus Snape is absolutely brilliant!) Of note is Michael Gambon as Albus Dumbledore (replacing the late Richard Harris), Michael's portrayal is dead on to Harris', though there's a slight twist on the character making him seem a little more cunning, it's very subtle, but i enjoy it dare i say even more than Harris' version. Gary Oldman chews the scenery with style as Sirius Black, and David Thewlis gives a great performance as Professor Lupin.

The direction of Alfonso Cuaron (taking over from Chris Columbus) seems assured and confident, which, coming from an indie background into the worlkd of blockbuster effects-fests, is a miracle in and of itself. He provides the film with a newfound sense of artistic style which simply wasn't there in the first two features. He paints a much darker picture, and uses his actors wisely, their on-screen personas mirroring the "coming-of-age" nature the actors themselves face in reality with the talk of them becoming "too old" for the franchise. If their maturity is handled as well in subsequent films and Warner can keep them coming one every 12-18 months, then i have no issue whatsoever with Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Gint, or Emma Watson continuing with the series until its conclusion. The downside of all this darkness is the loss of innocence. Prisoner of Azkaban loses much of the whimsy of the first two features, much of the wonderment has been drained from the picture, as Hogwarts becomes run of the mill for its students, it also becomes so for us, the viewer. Gone is the sense of whimsy we got from the first film, replaced with something a little more day-to-day. It's never boring or tedious, but at the same time it feels less eventful. In truth, this is a complaint i can't easily defend, like a third year university or college student, the day to day happenings really should become a little more routine for the students of Hogwarts, but a part of me pined for that sense of wonderment, that wide eyed Harry Potter of The Philosopher's Stone or The Chamber of Secrets.

***1/2 (out of ****)

Next Week: The Chronicles of Riddick

On a bit of a sci-fi kick this week:

Pitch Black - I wasn't a huge fan of this flick initially, i had picked up the original DVD release used and gave it a shot, but i was left with a bad taste in my mouth. With the whole media blitz surrounding The Chronicles of Riddick i decided to revisit the original. It's one of those rare instances where i actually really enjoyed the thing on my second go-around. Damn fun little slice of sci-fi that owes a lot to Ridley Scott's Alien. Vin Diesel is considerably less "Dumb" here vs. his later films. Very glad i gave this one another shot.

Firefly - I may have gone into detail on this one in a previous post, here we go again... In the future, mankind has ventured out into a space more resembling the Wild West. Captain Malcom Reynolds leads the crew of the firefly-class starship "Serenity" in a series of adventures. The show was the brainchild of Joss "father of Buffy" Whedon, and as is typical of sci-fi shows on network TV, was criminally neglected by FOX, and wound up shitcanned before it's initial run was even finished. Thankfully the DVD audience has kept this one going, and Joss has started work on a Firefly feature film entitled "Serenity", which is due in 2005. The writing throughout the series is brilliant stuff, witty as hell, and despite how mundane each of the episode synopsis may appear on the DVD packaging, each and every one is full of suprises, and brilliantly executed. The cast shines, and the special effects are awesome for television. Well worth a look for Sci-fi fans.

Back on my old Megadeth kick again... Mainly the Youthanasia album, which was just goddamn brilliant stuff! Some rather exciting Megadeth news this week... The entire back catalog from Peace Sells... to Risk will be re-released on July 27th, complete with additional tracks and extensive remastering. That's 7 albums worth of goodies! The remastering on the earlier albums sounds rather incredible... and to top it off, there'll be a NEW 'Deth album released in September!! Not too shabby for a band which was believed dead two years ago! Heard one cut from the new album, a tune called "Kick The Chair" and it is freaking awesome stuff... bring it! Iron Maiden last Sept, now Megadeth in '04 - September is a blessed month for metal it would seem.

Back into Freedom Fighters while i take a little break from Final Fantasy XI. I posted my thoughts on this bad boy more than once... seek and ye shall find. One of the best games of last year. Driver 3 (or Driv3r) hits next week... ohboy! I'll have me some fun with that one.

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