Our final proposal was knocked down by Paramount. We will not see a season five for Star Trek Enterprise. All money as I stated earlier will be refunded starting Monday or Tuesday of this week. We will not allow people bashing our efforts on our own forums. Please keep in mind that our members are fans just like you are. If you feel the need to rejoice over this

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What a shame. Granted it was a long shot, but these guys got pretty damned serious about trying to save the show. And in case you haven’t been watching Enterprise, this last season has been pretty good. I’ll miss it.

We finished watching Berserk last night. I’d played a game based on this anime on, iirc, the Dreamcast a long while ago.

It was pretty intense anime. The major flaw was the main character being named “Guts” which is mighty hard to take seriously.

The whole series is one long flashback. It starts off with Guts as a grizzled warrior and flashes back to show how he got (partway) to where he is today.

The end of it really left me wanting more, but I guess they never made a Season 2, so I’ve ordered the first of the Berserk manga.

This was a swordplay series, more or less pseudo-medieval setting. None of the wacky comedy that a lot of anime sprinkles into a serious series.

Definitely for mature audiences, as the violence is very graphic, and the themes are quite mature.

It takes a while to grab you…if you decide to try it, promise to sit through a least the first 2 DVD’s before making a judgement.

What a great film. Max Pomeranc will charm you to death with his portrayel of 7 year old Josh Waitzkin, who reveals an incredible talent for playing chess after watching some speed chess being played in Washington Square park. Laurence Fishburne plays homeless player Vinnie, who takes Josh under his wing, while Ben Kingsley plays Josh’s ‘proper’ instructor, Bruce Pandolfini. Joe Mantegna play’s Josh’s father, who like so many parents, gets too caught up in the competition and starts taking all the fun out of playing.

It’s a chess movie, sure, but it could just as well be a Little League (or insert any sport/activity with parents that get overly involved to the detriment of the children playing) movie in a lot of ways. In any case, it was very, very good. See it.

Last night we sat down and watched the new Extended Version of Return of the King. It was incredible. Now, I really enjoyed the theatrical cut, but this version blows it away. Not only are there a few big chunks of new material (most notably a confrontation with Saruman) but all through the film were little snippets that just enriched the experience and smoothed out the pacing of the film.

There’re still things missing and in a few parts the added footage just raised more questions for people who haven’t read the books.

I’m looking forward to watching the 2 DVD’s full of ‘Appendix Material’ as well.

The only downside to watching this movie is knowing that this is it for the forseeable future. Hopefully at some point Jackson will release a super-extended version. 😉 But for now, the journey is completed. And that’s kind of sad.

Yet another film I saw this week. This one is inredibly misunderstood and it saddens me to see people who I’m sure would really enjoy it turning their noses up based on the trailers.

This isn’t your typical King Arther tale. This is a Dark Ages King Arthur, a Roman soldier faced with fighting back an invading Saxon army while the might of Rome is leaving the people of Britain to fend for themselves. Arthur, who is actually half-British, can’t find it in his heart to leave the common folk to be slaughtered by the Saxons (who are killing and burning everything as they advance) so he stays to fight.

The knights are there against their will. Merlin is the leader of the Woads (the native people that have been driven north of Hadrian’s Wall by the romans) and there’s not a spot of magic or mention of a Holy Grail throughout the film.

It might be easier to ignore the title and just see it from the point of view of a Dark Ages period piece. Its a damned fine film and its a shame that its being overlooked by so many.

Finally got to see Spiderman 2 today. No big surprises…I loved it just as much as everyone else did. I hope there’s an extended or director’s cut version, and I’d love to see a ‘making of’ featurette too.

Toby Maguire is such an unlikely candidate to play Spiderman, and he pulls it off so damned well. Its amazing how authentic he can look as a nerd AND as Spiderman. The special effects were freaking AMAZING. I think I snagged one effect in the entire movie that ‘jarred’ by not looking like it fit in perfectly. Kirsten Dunst is still pulling off the ‘incredibly hot yet very wholesome’ thing, and the actress who played Aunt May looks like she stepped out of the pages of the comic book.

Some really funny scenes, some great cameos, lots of incredible action, some real tear-jerker moments…the movie just hadseverything you could ask for. It gets my vote for Movie of the Year so far!

I watched Armitage: Dual Matrix the other day. It was pretty good if you’re an anime fan. It wasn’t good enough that I’d recomend it universally, as I would say Spirited Away or Grave of the Fireflies or even Princess Mononoke. But for anime fans, a decent movie.

Fairly typical plot. You have your earthers and your martians. The earthers hate robots and want to suppress robot rights, the martians like robots and need them to help the colony survive. Some evil dude sets up a massacre so that it looks like the robots killed a bunch of people. Armitage is a robot, a “type 3” and she has to fight the conspiracy while avoiding capture. Someone wants to take her apart to see what makes her tick since she’s done something no robot has ever done.

Lots of action, a decent if predictable plot. Good voice work on the English Dub. All in all, as I said, a decent movie for anime buffs.