buy this boxset

Have just read Empire's Helen O'Hara eulogising on the 'The Ineffable Appeal Of Nathan Fillion' and as a result, I have been reminded of something. And so, I feel the need to make a demand.

Fillion is excellent: having first encountered him as that demented priest in Buffy (remember that guilty pleasure, boys? Good grief, that makes me OLD - I can remember when Sarah Michelle Gellar had a career) I continue to be wonderfully unsurprised as he continues to appear in many of the top TV shows, and the occasional great film, across American television. But the greatest, and most tragic, of all of these, is surely Firefly, a short-lived piece of small-screen magic that anyone who has any kind of soul should indulge in. It's hard to describe what the Joss Whedon's ill-fated labour of love, and arguable work of genius, is really about (it's Sci-Fi, but - I'm told - in a similar way to BattleStar absolutely nothing to do with Sci-Fi, you dig?) But if I had to sum it up, it is in one of the most brilliant phrases any man can hear: cowboys in space.

And it really is; it's basically a western TV series, but they ride quads and drive space ships rather than use horses (although they even do, as part of a storyline involving transporting cattle!) BUY THIS BOXSET. Get it in Blu-Ray if you can - it was one of the first series to be broadcast in complete 1080i HD. Check out the critical appraisal in its wiki entry. If you are disappointed, I'd almost say that heck, I'LL give you you're money back.

But I'm not an ATM, so I won't.

---

bomb voyage!

I knew it! I wonder how many people in the country spotted this particular reference in their Christmas day entertainment.

"Somedays, you just can't get rid of a bomb!"

Amazing...

-----

watchmen delayed?

"And I'll look down, and whisper 'no.'" (Please, no!)

arranging

This is a great explanation of a problem faced by all true film fanatics - something I tried to articulate to a cruel audience (well, Ruth) a couple of weeks ago.

For the record, I adopted a system from my cousin, who at the time had such a large library it took up wall-to-wall shelves and most of the floor too. Studio, then year. Although this does still split up vanilla discs of trilogies, for example (the Dollars trilogy in my case) in the case of boxsets (The Godfather, Indy, BTTF) they are filed by the year of the initial release. This also (usually) guarantees most works within a director's canon will be within touching distance (e.g. Kevin Smith's Mirimax years) and also, thanks to the one-dimensional nature of the modern studio system, works are usually also in loose genre.

Thoughts? Feelings?

only by night

I know I'm getting repetitive on this one, but there's a new Watchmen trailer viewable online (as in not the one with the Pumpkins in the background, but a shiny new one with Muse.) It's the first bit of footage I've seen that actually attempts to introduce the story - by giving away that the first few pages of the book are concerned with someone chucking the Comedian out of his high-rise apartment window (that doesn't really count as a spoiler, does it?) Watch it and weep at the beauty.

Also interesting, if you're a fan of the book (and everyone should be) is a bit of a cryptic interview with director Zack Snyder on Empire Online, where he mentions how they've decided to deal with the ending of the book, without actually giving away anything to anyone who doesn't know about it already. Also, it sounds as if they intend to pack the DVD with extras mirroring the book's "extras" - clippings and extracts from articles and books that come between the chapters in the graphic novel. Touches like that should make it a whole experience onto itself.

I actually can't wait.

-------------

who you gonna call?

You've probably heard this already, but still... I swear, if Columbia make this into the nightmare that would be the team getting together to hand over the reins to a new generation of ecto-dodgers, I will cry.

(A team which would no doubt be headed up by Shia LeBoeuf and probably feature at least two of the cast of Heroes, and a geeky girl character who ends up being strangely hot once she puts her jumpsuit on. And an 'adorable' dog ghost. Too far?)

On the other hand, if Murray, Ackroyd, Ramis and Hudson roll back into New York for one last hurrah, then those tears will be tears of recaptured adolescent joy...

Read the Empire Online summary of the news - Columbia plans Ghostbusters 3...