that way it look more burns-ey!.

i do wonder though...why is burns not writing the screenplay himself, or at least working with gaiman and avery? or is he?

anyways, for what it's worth, beowulf looks like complete shit to me. live action or 2-d would have been cool, but that polar express final fantasy soulless photo-wannabe look makes me want to puke.

Contact ... the only thing I like about that movie is the journey, which was awesome for its time. The father bit was such a cop out. I respect the hell out of Carl Sagan though, for the record.

Best Zemeckis movies are still Back to the Future 1 and 3. I'm surprised he's not as prolific as Spielberg, he should direct more than he produces.

Gump well as I said before, I liked it up til his jogging cross country in the desert w/ a beard, say, and then-really it needed to end about there. Not my fave but it was okay.

Castaway-well nothing wrong w/ that per se either, not my fave movie, Hanks is good and you get to enjoy a Lari White cameo too! besides that, ala Gump, it's one I've never been interested in seeing again. Ditto Contact.

What Lies Beneathe-well it was shot not far from me over in Vt from what I remember, it nearly put me to sleep the first hour, but improved as it went along. Can't say I ever wanna watch That again, either. Ford's last hit til now.

And now, Transformers-Big Fucking Bots hitting Each other. I prefer that to about all of the above save for Contact. That's sad but true.

BAck to the show.

As for Cast Away, I dug what Hanks did with the role and the effort he put in but I just can't forgive the gap between when he's rescued and when he's mostly assimilated back into society. It just reeked of bad story telling.

As for BEOWULF, I have to agree with others. The animation and the whole "dead eyes" thing still just creeps me out. I don't care how spectacular the 3D is, it still looks and feels like a bloated cartoon. Those above who asked would you have loved LOTR if it was done this same way in motion capture are right - part of the heart and charm to Rings IS the spectacle of seeing flesh and blood humans in action, and then enhancing everything around them with SFX.

But at least I'm lucky...living here in Hollywood I'll have access to the 3D version, although ultimately I have to wonder just how much the box office will be hurt in those areas where it's only available in 2D and the average middle class person and movie goer just looks at this and says "Eh, it's a cartoon and it's based on some literature thing I faked reading in college. Sounds a bit boring. What else is playing at the multiplex, honey?"

But we'll see. On the other hand I gotta salute Zemeckis for sticking to his guns and his vision over this thing and give credit to Paramount for rolling the dice to see how it does. Assuming the 3D really IS that great then it just seems to me the biggest beneficiary is...Cameron and Fox, as audiences get jazzed up for the next big thing in 3D but WITH real humans (and not animation) at which point I'm willing to be Cameron will be the one to REALLY knock the 3D thing totally into the stratosphere.

On the flip side, this thing could get ugly really, really fast. The key to any strike is obviously Union solidarity, however since I live and work here in LA myself, I know that many people are also NOT backing the writers this time, basically because any type of production shutdown will hurt their wallets as well. In fact, if you check out assorted news message boards you'll see a lot of that. In other words, you'll find a lot of other Hollywood trade people already posting things like, "Fuck you guys for striking like this! I'm a daily hire, so work is hard enough to come by as it is AND I have a family to feed! Who the fuck are you to shut down production and put us ALL out of work?"

In addition, I know many Union people here in town have already received letters and emails and faxes from their own Locals and Union officials likewise telling them "Look, our contract provisions with the studio/network over your particular job do NOT allow us to honor the WGA picket line. In fact, if you do, you are subject to termination and there is nothing we can do to argue against it with the company. So you MUST report to work and disregard their strike line."

So as I said, this one is going to get ugly and fast. What I have to wonder is, how fast the studios or agencies will find all-new writers willing to jump the line as well, since by pure legal definition any newbies are not part of the WGA membership and thus not beholden to the strike or any existing WGA rules -- heck, that ends up being a wacky by product of the strike itself too; legally speaking once the strike takes effect there are no legal provisions in place preventing new NON-union people from making deals for themselves.

As another weird twist, someone told me today that there's a trade union in Arizona (I think that's where it was) that is essentially saying that because they are based out of California that their union contracts and the way it was legally written DOES allow writers to be declared freelances and does allow them to keep working or to continue bargaining on deals independently. According to what I heard, they sent a letter or something to the WGA as well and sort of said the same thing as some of these angry tech workers, saying "Fuck you. Who are you to stop our people from doing work? You're in California but our people here have the right to work and support their families."

So like I said, the key to this strike is going to be solidarity, but in an era where Union activism and enrollment is at an all-time historical low -- as is support amongst the general public for unions (most of whom will probably simplify this strike down to "overpaid Hollywood crybabies trying to milk more money out of companies" anyway) -- it will be interesting to see how this all unfolds and who actually blinks first.

This WGA strike...if it actually happens come Monday...is going to be a REAL test for all forthcoming Hollywood union talks here in town. And for those of you who don't work out here, let me tell you -- more than EVER management at all of these production companies are DETERMINED to break as many union contracts or depower the unions as much as they can so this can be far less of a union town -- and where management feels it is now free to hire who they want, when they want, for whatever reasons they want, and then likewise be able to let them go when they want, no questions asked.

Mori: Couldn't have said it better. And thanks for DEPLANTING me! LOL!

As for the game itself, look at it this way -- the way both teams are playing they're sure to collide once again in the playoffs. So much like last year, the Colts will only have more emotional motivation going into that game -- not to mention revenge in the playoffs and knocking someone out for good (versus just playing a regular season game) feels all the sweeter...

AICN KICKS ASS! FUCK PLANTS & FALSE ACCUSATIONS THEREOF!!!

But again, I'd still say cheer up. I'm still betting on Peyton and the Colts to come back and kick New England's ass in the playoffs in a repeat of last year's post season face off. Then again I'm also still hoping that in their second divisional match up that that's the ONE game the Dolphins win for the year, coming from out of nowhere and against all odds to ruin New England's undefeated run...

Seeing is believing with Robert Zemeckis’ mighty, monumental “Beowulf,” which opens Nov. 16. This extravagant adaptation of the epic poem about a cursed kingdom invents a 6th century A.D. Denmark that is so richly detailed, romantic and engrossing it’s like seeing the Prince Valiant comic strip brought to blazing, 3-D life, a childhood fantasy realized in such a complete way you’re stupefied with delight. Using the motion capture technique that “Lord of the Flies” managed to create the lisping monster Gollum and that Zemeckis employed on the saccharine “Polar Express,” “Beowulf” is nothing less than an immersion into a world that is somehow familiar – they live in a harsh climate like Boston, they drink mead, get drunk and pass out, they have a wife and a mistress – and totally strange with its demons that morph into flying dragons, sea monsters that can be slain by blond Beowulf, a hero for all times. The fight scenes are startling, not the least because like “Eastern Empires” Beowulf is nude as he takes on Grendel in mano a mano to-the-death combat. The homoeroticism, a friend said, outdoes Gerald Butler’s “300” by “500.” Ray Winstone may look nothing like this sleek god-like warrior but he sounds perfect. The cast includes a brilliantly underplayed aging king by Anthony Hopkins, a Bette Davis-style villain in John Malkovich and Angelina Jolie’s siren, a shape-changing seriously seductive sylph who gets a laugh in her six-inch heels. Big Oscar Question: Is this in the running for Best Picture or Best Animated Feature?