Pajiba

Also, 17 days until Iron Man.

The countdown has begun!!!! Well, the continuation of the countdown from the time when it was official that Robert Downey Jr. was cast.

But hey, now we're in the low double digits! Woo!

... and yes, I did read the rest of this review, but that's pretty much the only thing of note.

(Punky Brewster?! Seriously?!?)

Jeez, man, you almost make me scared to comment. No one wants to get excited/pissed off about something that's not even real. But in a zen way, what is real?

What I chiefly remember about Punky Brewster wasn't even the show at all, it was Soleil Moon Frye showing up on The Wonder Years with enormous breasts, so big they freaked Kevin, and me, the fuck out. That certainly made a greater impression on me (at fourteen or whatever) than some silly sitcom about a girl who takes her dog to school in an astronaut costume.

But Lee Horsely is dead, isn't he?!?

If he is, we need to find that resurrect potion, and bring his dead ass back for this movie! Yeah, I would pay to see The Sword and the Sorceror sequel, I ain't afraid to admit it...

But Punky Brewster? Really? Not feeling that one.

Lee Horsley . . . Kevin Sorbo and Christoper Lambert

?

What, Marc Singer wasn't available?

"I would like to point out that one of the above items was completely fabricated."

Oh, please tell me it's Punky Brewster. Not that I have any fond childhood memories of it; it just sounds atrocious. %#*@$ Miley Cyrus. Ugh.

I'm moderately glad for another Austin Powers, actually. Aside from *shudder* Fat Bastard, I've found the movies to be more enjoyable than most comedies out there. Sure, it's cheap slapstick, but there are always a few corny laughs and (with the above-noted exception) they have a pretty low potty humour quotient.

Bobism intrigues me...will withhold enthusiasm until we hear more....

Also, how is The Strangers not Funny Games in Rule of Rose masks? Didn't we just do this? Didn't we just do this last week?

(American Teen looks good.)

In my fantasy world, you made ALL of this up. Because there is literally not one thing in this round up that didn't make me wince (not including the trailers and the Iron Man countdown).

LA LA LA LA LA LA I AM NOT LISTENING LA LA LA LA LA!!!

More and more often, the trade round up is just making me glad I'm young enough that none of MY childhood memories are being stripped of all charm and repackaged in a shiny, new, soulless version.

But, if those bastards touch "The Adventures of Pete and Pete", I will have to join up with the MurderTank.

Second trailer definitely looks promising, like a good date movie. Not a huge fan of the first one, but I'm not even 4 years out of high school myself, I've got no urge to revisit those days for until I've hit (at least) my 10 year reunion.

Bobism intrigues me...will withhold enthusiasm until we hear more....

Me too. Optimism is a masochist's game, but still.

(oh, IMDB, thank you for finding the fake. Hollywood's gone so far I can't even trust logic or reason anymore.)

Looking forwad to it. I saw her on "w e a l t h yR o m a n c e.c o m" last week. It is said she is dating a young billionaire on that site now.

they have a pretty low potty humour quotient

Ok, MO, I'm going to the next one with you, either to see if you're getting different versions or to share some of your 'shrooms. I remember Powers mistaking a stool sample for coffee, lots of fart jokes, a couple of long-pee jokes, and innumerable references to poo.

Not that those things can't work. To be fair, the first one was just as you describe, with a clever overlay of Bond parody, the second one was okay, without the overlay, and the third one was just shite.

It is said she is dating a young billionaire on that site now.

Because that's where all the young billionaires have to go to find chicks -- dating websites. See, if you meet them online, then you know you can trust them and they're not just after your money.

How deluded can Mike Myers be?

The trailer for that "Love Guru" vomitus he created came on my TV recently and my screen imploded from the suck.

Who the fuck is letting him make Austin Powers FOUR? FOUR?

Where's the MurderTank?

And by "long-pee" jokes, I mean jokes about my dry cleaner, Long Pee.

Bam!

Remake Wuthering Heights? What? Wasn't Laurence Olivier, Merle Oberon, David Niven, Donald Crisp, and Leo G. Carroll good enough? Besides, I hated the book. Ugh! "And then Cathy provides an heir." What? You mean she's been preggers for the last 9 months of the book? Wha? Did I miss something? Yeah, it was never mentioned.

Bobism? Sounds a bit like the book "A Canticle for Leibowitz." Walter M. Miller's acclaimed SF classic A Canticle for Leibowitz opens with the accidental excavation of a holy artifact: a creased, brittle memo scrawled by the hand of the blessed Saint Leibowitz, that reads: "Pound pastrami, can kraut, six bagels--bring home for Emma." To the Brothers of Saint Leibowitz, this sacred shopping list penned by an obscure, 20th-century engineer is a symbol of hope from the distant past, from before the Simplification, the fiery atomic holocaust that plunged the earth into darkness and ignorance.

I call BS on "The Sword & the Sorcerer." Although to be honest I read that as "The Sword and the Stone" and got all kinds of confused trying to sort out what Lee Horsley and Christopher Lambert would be doing in an animated movie.

So anyone want to take bets on if the makers of "Wuthering Heights" will be able to work in the Kate Bush song of the same name and have it covered by, oh, let's say Paramore just for pure randomness?

canticle for leibowitz, yay!
i especially like the way everything goes full circle and there is a second nuclear holocaust

speaking of which: punky brewster 2008 =hanna montana?

(actually, if you count TV and foreign productions, it will actually be the 14th time)

Actually, if you count Giant which was just Wuthering Heights set in Texas that would make it the 15th time.

Socalled: I believe you have dumped for an online flirtation with the Spambot. Have I fallen that low?

Also, who or what is Punky Brewster?

I believe you have dumped for an online flirtation with the Spambot.

I'm going to pretend there's a "me" in there to avoid unpleasant mental images. And what can I say? The spambot gives good ted. Interacting with it produces the level of coherence and responsiveness I expect from a near-comatose drunk girl, i.e., someone who might go home with me.

I'm ignoring all this and have only one thing to say:

Flatliners - I liked that movie.

Also, who or what is Punky Brewster?

Use the google!

Paddydog: Also, who or what is Punky Brewster?

Punky Brewster was an American TV show from 20 years ago that starred Soleil Moon Frye (real name) as a kid named Punky Brewster (see photo at top of this page) and Brandon the Wonderdog. Soleil was a cute kid who grew up to have HUMUNGOUS BOOBIES in real life, which they had a hard time hiding when she was supposed to be playing a little kid. I think she finally had breast reduction surgery.

It was very Little Orphan Annie-ish. Punky and her dog are abandoned in a grocery store by her mom, and doesn't want to stay in an orphanage and finds someone to take her in, or something like that.

Punky Brewster? I had Punky Brewster shoes in elementary school. Dustin, you are correct. Punky was about 6-8 years old during the show. I remember this well since she was what I watched on days I could convince my mom I was sick enough to stay home from school.

Wuthering Heights made me want to blind myself in high school so I could quit reading the damned thing. Everyone in the class got assigned a book and I wound up with that one. The teacher had to have hated me. It wound up being my first experience pulling synopsis from the internet. It was also the first book I could not bring myself to finish.

Austin Powers? The first one was good for a cheap thrill. Everything after? Meh. Oh, also, shut up Beyonce. You sucked in the third one.

"Also, 17 days until Iron Man."

Locks self in bunker, sucks thumb, and rocks back and forth until salvation comes.

There's even a split-second image, at 1:46, that looks positively iconic.

I guess that would be this one.

Huh. My reactions to today's roundup:

Statham makes everything better!

Stop effing with my childhood. I liked PB and used to beg my mom to let me wear a bandanna tied around my jeans. She always said no.

My adoration for Natalie is going to take a hit if she insists on doing these crappy literary adaptation films. I hated Heights. But she's still hot.

American Teen looks awesome, if only because I went to a private, all-girls Catholic high school and had none of those experiences. It'll be like watching Meerkat Manor.

By the way, the second trailer spooked the bejeezus out of me, and I'm sitting in a brightly lit room. I will now have nightmares about that, as opposed to the nightmare I had last night about SpongeBob.

Punky Brewster must be the bogus story - as much as Miley Cyrus scares me, I think she would know better on this one. I remember watching the show as a kid, but it really wasn't very memorable otherwise.

Here at work they just recently blocked YouTube, so I have resorted to making lists of stuff I have to go back and watch once I get home. It really is annoying that I can't get all my internet viewing done during business hours . . .

I loved Wuthering Heights :( I've read that book at least 5 times and have been thinking it's about time to give it another read. The despair? The unrequited love? The Scottish moores? Ralph Fiennes and Juliet Binoche? C'mon!

Thank you all for the clarification on Punky Brewster. From the name I was epxecting something far more edgy.

Why all the Wuthering Heights hate? Yes, it's overly dramatic and bleak and full of repressed feelings and then over-expressed feelings, but if you were a spinster living in a cold rainy place and your friends and siblings kept dying on you and your father was a puritanical clergy man and you had to wear one of the most unflattering hairstyles ever thought up for young women because it was considered proper, wouldn't you want to let your imagination run riot? Give the Bronte chick a break. This was all she had. Do your hair up in one of those Jane Eyre-ish split down the middle severely with loops over your ears jobs and see if you don't suddenly hunger to sit down and write about over-the-top characters.

Nicole, you are going to have to divulge details. Spongebob?

Also, Commandant Lassard was the person who adopted Punky. I think he was forced to, or was the last of kin or something. Either way he wasn't happy about it. Oh she was a Totally 80s! urchin alright, wore mismatched color All Stars if memory serves, and would teach Ol' Doddering about Michael Jackson and such.

Actually I liked Goldmember more than Shagged, but I didn't see it for a long time due to the overwhelming I'd underwent in 99.

Oh and Rowles, I was gonna call you a gunky, but it looks like you weren't lying about the one thing I'd go see. PHEW!

Em, osmate77:

I hate to be that person, but Wuthering Heights is set in Yorkshire, England.

I emapthize with you Dustin on not feeling this morning....by 10 am I had already gotten into a long drawn-out "discussion" with my boss about the culture and way of life in Afghanistan - he's a conservative christian, I don't think I need to say anymore....I am already drained of my will to live and its not even lunch yet

it is definetly going to be one of those days...

and count me into the small group of people who liked Wuthering Heights...the book in high school I despised was Jane Eyre

oh, and The Scarlet Letter

Oh and

Jane Eyre is my dawg. 'specially if Orson's in the house too, but I like her anyway. Though it amuses me that "Wuthering Heights" is shelved in the Romance section at work. No other historical/classic/whatever stuff there, but that one qualified. Hold your head high, Emily, you're not in the museum.

But why has no one thought to put werewolves in it? Isn't it on a probability scale somewhere of wild hairs producers get? Room With A View Of Hell! Staircase Of Satan! Pond Of Death!

I think I've mentioned it before but, though I've never read "Wuthering Heights" I always sympathetically chuckle when a kid says they need to read "Ethan Frome". "Comedy Classic!" And a story of FUCKING DOOMED people who tried to be happy or at least free is perfect for when you're 16.

My vote for worst high school read is Tess of the D'urbervilles. That book made me want to stab myself in the eye with a pen. I hated it so much that I don't even care if I spelled "D'urbervilles" right.

Melody, there's not much I remember about the dream except that SpongeBob was responsible for sinking the ship I was on, no one could find a way out, Rose Tyler was wearing a metal suit that turned into a rocket, Patrick killed the captain, and the second-in-command was too busy listening to her iPod to notice. I think the Jagrafess was in there somewhere too.

But I wasn't fucking a cupcake.

I read Wuthering Heights. I remember that to was entirely too long, and it became a chore to try to finish. I even read it without having it assigned to me to read. Yeah, I'm a nerd. To be honest, I remember more from the Olivier movie version than I do from the book itself.

Moby-Dick was an assignment, and I never could get through that one. It was then I discovered Cliffs' Notes.

I thought Bobism was the fake item, then I started reading the comments, and now I'm not so sure. I hope the Hannah Montana/Punky Brewster idea is the fake, because that just sounds like crap.

"it was entirely too long." It's the little words that will trip me up.

Ugh, Moby Dick -- talk about a faux classic. That book just sucks ass, I'm sorry. Now Billy Budd was a good read. Melville could get it going when he wanted to, but Moby Dick has to be the most overblown, obtuse, empty monolith in literary history.

I love Jane Eyre, but I think Charlotte Gainsborough is responsible for that. I don't remember having any regard for it prior to seeing her in the role, but I re-read it after and enjoyed it much more. Plain Jane, indeed, but I would totally rescue Jane/Charlotte from her situation to make Elizabethan monkey babies. Or would those be Georgian monkey babies?

Kevin Sorbo and Christopher Lambert in the same film?? Naw, I'm not buyin' that, Dustin. If that is even the slightest bit true, I'm climbing the nearest mountain and spending my remaining days anxiously awaiting the apocalypse that will surely be upon us soon.

Cruel joke, dude, really cruel.

Nicole, you could have used Spongebob to plug the leak in the boat. He is a sponge. Cupcake assault is all Julie.

I loved Moby-Dick. That was a book I read of my own free will. I also read a lot of Shakespeare on my own.

Jay:

There was a hilarious op-ed piece in the NYT on Saturday about the fact that Edith Wharton's house in Massachussetts may have to be sold and the museum disbanded because of debt. The call was for New Yorkers to save it because her best work is set in NY and the writer proposed that no-one from MA would want to help because prior to Ethan Frome, people from MA were thought of as happy hardworking northeasterners and after Ethan Frome they're thought of as dour, humorless, grey people (and might I add zombie-hoarders).

My vote is for Punky as the fabrication, just because of the cognitive dissonance that occurs every time I think of Fred Savage directing both It's Always Sunny (awesome) and Daddy Day Care (suck). He obviously has a lot of potential and an eye for the offensively absurd, so I can't believe he could also be responsible for making a movie based on a crappy 80's TV show that is more popular today as a memory based on Soleil Moon Frye's breast size alone. But then again she was in an episode of The Wonder Years with him. The whole thing makes my head spin. I'm not going to think about it anymore.

Did anyone, ever look at Soil Moon Pie and for a moment, confuse her with Alanis?

If she did in fact have a breast reduction, is there any way we can find out where they're being stored? I'd like to use them for the front-seat cushions on the MurderTank...

In regards to "High School Musical 4" - how long is it gonna take those samsabatches to graduate? Shouldn't it be "College Musical" by now? Or is that treading dangerous waters, what with alcohol, drug experimentation, sexual exploration (looking at you Zac!), and the like? Plus, with all the singing and dancing that's been going on in the previous installments, I would think that their grades have suffered... Maybe "Community College Musical"?

I gotta go poop.

Nicole, you would have been better off if you had been fucking a cupcake. Trust me.

I used to live next door to Bryan and Mark Singer's cousin-they had everyone over for Christmas the one year and my brother, sister and I spent the entire morning trying to get a glimpse of the Beastmaster. Alas, it wasn't meant to be.

I should have invested in one of those witchy eye rings.

Just caught the Olivier/Oberon "Wuthering Heights" last night, and boy was it ever sanitized! I had to pull out my copy of the book (yup, I be a book nerd; my fave olde timey melodrama is "Far From the Madding Crowd," since we're sharing) to make sure I wasn't unjustly painting Heathcliff as a utterly evil mofo. And I wasn't.

How in the hell did that fictional sonofabitch ever become a romantic icon? The mind boggles.

Thank god they're not making new Poe movies. Although "Pit and the Pendulum" is probably a precursor of the "Saw" movies, now that I think about it....

Community College Musical would be the coolest thing in the whole world.

Except for being informed that Skit has to use the facilities.

Oh, and GoR, ditto on the "The Adventures of Pete and Pete"... I will go into full-blown stabathon mode. The MurderTank will need to hit the Suds-n-Stuff a few times through should that abomination come to fruition...

Wait, Bryan is Marc and Lori's cousin?

Oh weeeird.

Far From the Madding Crowd

Ah, I love that book! Gabriel Oak, right?

Ooh, and add me to the list of people who LOVE Jane Eyre. Love love love.

Pete and Pete! God I wish I were still 13 sometimes.

...no I don't.

Hmm! I used to think along the Heathcliff = evil lines, but then I had a boss who treated me pretty much like the Earnshaws treated Heathcliff (you're a valued member of our team but I feel free to piss on your work and make you feel like crap in front a a room full of your peers whenever I feel like it) and you what? I would persecute and destroy his family through multiple generations given the chance. I'm just sayin.

My main problem with Wuthering Heights was the same one I had with Cold Mountain. I read the books, then watched the movies and went, "Wait. . . there was sex? When was there sex? And damn. . . when was it that kind of sex?"

And fuck all you bastards for killing what few happy childhood memories I have left. I think I claimed bartender in the murdertank.

I hate my work computer - I can't ever watch the trailers, they skip and sputter and then finally die, usually about halfway through and just as my interest is peaking. Cheap bastards.

I used to watch Punky Brewster as a child, but I remember not actually being so fond of the character. She annoyed the shit out of me, but I coveted her bed. Remember her bed??

Oh, and Skit, two words: Courtesy flush.

Captain Steve, you have to read between the lines to get to the sex. Really between the lines. You have to stare at the pages with such intensity that you burn a hole through the book, your living room wall, and your neighbors' bedroom where they're going at it on the floor.

I blame Big Pete for my ill-advised obsession
with redheads.

And, top banner ad -- who knew there was a Soleil
razor.

Yeah, Gabriel Oak is the man! And how can you not love a main character named Bathsheba? That book is such a saop opera.

re Heathcliff: I've had a few jackass bosses, and of course at the time I would have doused them in acid given half the chance. But in the end, I guess I'm more of the "let the bastards ruin their own damn selves while I stand back and watch" type than the "spurn your 'one true love,' marry her sister-in-law, deny your own spolied, namby pamby, psychopath kid medical treatment to spite them, force his teenaged cousin to marry him and then lock her up in the decrepit house, go nuts and die from spending nights weeping on graves" type, but that's just me.

I am still scarred from the episode of Punky Brewster where her group of friends were playing hide-n-seek and Cherry (the black one) hid in an abandoned refridgerator and almost suffocated. That show was several levels of awesome. Punky hid out in an empty apartment with her dog until the building super found her. She convinced him to let her stay for "one night" but he ended up adopting her. Suicide, homelessness, death, classism and even random violence (her "dad" got mugged and beat up in one episode)all told from a child's perspective. I haven't watched the show as an adult so I don't know how well it held up, but it has come up in several conversations over the years amongst various groups of women who are in their late twenties. There is nothing like it on tv now, as the lower and middle classes are ignored. Unless you count Earl, which I don't. My guess is that Hannah Montana version won't have any subject matter more important than a makeover and a school dance. Again I weep for this generation as we are training them all to be shallow little monkeys focused on consuming.

You have to stare at the pages with such intensity that you burn a hole through the book, your living room wall, and your neighbors' bedroom where they're going at it on the floor.

"What is it, Leftenant Sebastian?"
"I... I'm arranging matches."

Frumpiefox:

I think I love you. I am clearly more vengeful than you are but I love you.

But, if those bastards touch "The Adventures of Pete and Pete", I will have to join up with the MurderTank.

I agree wholeheartedly, although I can see it now: Nickelodeon greenlights an all new movie version with a twist. It'll be called Tyler Perry's The Adventures of Pete and Pete and he'll play the parents, Artie the World's Strongest Man, and Petunia, while Eddie Murphy takes on the roles of both Petes, Ellen, Mona, and Mr. Tastee. The theme song will be updated, too, with Fiddy and Diddy teaming up.

And then the apocalypse.

JH, if that actually happens, I am coming after you with the force of, I dunno, a plauge of locusts for even putting that idea out there

tho I gotta say, I idea of Tyler Perry acting out a tatoo does amuse me to a small degree.....

Kevin Sorbo and Christoper Lambert have also been cast.

I gotta say this is the fake. Unless the producers are intending a straight-to-dvd release. Why would you cast either of these two otherwise? I mean, I dug Highlander, but that was like two eons ago. Besides, Lambert has been relegated to vigilante movies with Ice-T since then.

Fun Pete & Pete fact: Little Pete had a band in Philly a few years back that opened up for the band of a friend of mine. They did a mean cover of "Lawyers, Guns & Money.' Little Pete was very nice.

I am so glad there is Pete and Pete love here. I don't know which one I appreciated more, Big Pete for showing the struggle that weird kids having trying to be normal or Little Pete for just embracing his weirdness and giving a big old "fuck you" to the normal world.

Bethy I'm slightly less amused by that idea. Because if anyone got "cast" as either "Petunia" or "Mom's Plate" (both got opening credit mentions) I will end them.

G(aR) you bring up a good point...I think its mostly that I am just in a weird fuckin mood today. I am finding the most unusual things "funny" that I would probably openly scorn on a normal day.....

but I can say this with all my limited sanity backing me, I am totally in on any "ending" or "MurderTanking" that would be done to any producer who dares touch Pete & Pete...

Hey Dude too....it was probably an awful show, but by Godtopus I loved it when I was little

plus, it had Sally Sitwell in it!

I'm sorry to be a contrarian, but American Teen looks like a shitty piece of sentimental pablum that doesn't even come near capturing the essence of "the high school years."

It plays on stereotypical pigeon-holes that people find themselves shoved into in the categorical hellhole of dealing with other people's simplistic perceptions of roles/individuality during high school. A person is faced with 1500 other simplistic perceptions, convinced they're the only complicated person in a world full of robots.

On first glance this film seems to wallow in its wholesomeness and, gosh, gee, isn't high school tribulation just great y'all?

If we were to really do justice to the "high school years" film, and not merely ape the frame of The Breakfast Club (or even claim kinship with it), what other "types" could we add to this weak representation to approach something resembling reality?

The nihilistic antichrist; the guy/girl who will *never* get accepted into a social circle far outside of h.s; the drugheads who are trying to relive the '60s-'70s euphoric chemical excess. Don't they get a spotlight?

Maybe I'm looking for something grittier and more real as opposed to "Real World meets high school", which, in actuality, could not be further removed from reality.

thank you for including the trailers at the end.
everything before that was so depressing that i was inventing fun scenarios during which i could be banned for life from every movie theatre in north america, one forced ejection at a time.

My bad on the geography. Sincerest apologies to those with hardcore Yorkshire pride and to those with the equally hardcore Scottish moors pride. Recommence lurking.

In the name of holy accuracy, I must correct your claim that Vanessa Hudgens has topless pictures on the internets! They are not merely topless pictures, they are lecherous, fully nude pictures - an important distinction as if they had been just topless I would probably never have known what her bush looks like.

Scott Speedman? nom-nom-nom...

don't care what movie it is, i'm so there.

Scott Speedman? nom-nom-nom...

Ha ha ha!

Ok, I just watched the trailer for The Strangers again, thinking that maybe I was being a little bit of a puss earlier.

I wasn't. Holy hell. This is why I live in an urban area; this shit does not happen when you live in a rowhouse.

This is why I live in an urban area; this shit does not happen when you live in a rowhouse.

Sherlock Holmes said something to that effect, once.

If you're at all into urban planning, I suggest reading 'The Death and Life of Great American Cities' by Jane Jacobs. Remember that Kitty Genovese story? Jacobs makes an excellent case that it was the planning of the apartment structure itself that led to her death, not the already-proven myth of 'bystander apathy.'

osmate77 - Don't go back to lurking!

It's like Pajiba hazing. Someone is bound to be nit-picky with your comments - any spelling mistakes, grammatical mistakes, title mistakes, geographical mistakes, or any other blunders are going to be highlighted for the world (i.e., the Pajibaverse) to see.

You simply have to 1) proofread the bejeesus out of your comments; 2) stop caring; or 3) refuse to read any comment that starts with "I hate to be nitpicky" or "I don't want to be that girl/guy" or "Don't mean to be a grammar nazi" - because you know what's coming: a big ole BUT - and not the Kim Karada-shahshah-whatever kind (because I don't want to be a spelling nazi, but that would have two "t's", you dumbass).

"Guardian of Ga'Hoole" sounds like a euphemism for a diaphragm.

Thanks twig. I have a nerdish fascination with this type of thing, along with a horrific fear of serial killers, but that's just tangential. I will check that out.

I'd like to call BS on just about everything mentioned. Austin Powers franchise? I prayed that corpse was in the ground for good after the poo-for-coffee gag in the last one. It's entirely possible that there's nothing Hollywood execs won't exhume. Someday, this will bring about the literal downfall of our civilization when they start exhuming dead celebrity corpses and reanimating them. But I think the real fake is Punky Brewster being remade....just because I don't think Miley Cyrus would be cast in it. I don't think Punky Brewster reruns are on TV enough (unlike Saved by the Bell) for Miley's current fan base to know who that is. But then again, just having her in the movie would be enough to get her fan base to see it. Just like if they did make another Austin Powers movie, some people would go see it even if they didn't like the last one and the previews suck. The zombies are all around me already, aren't they?

I think serial killers are fascinating, mainly because their antisocial behavior is beyond the realm of anything I can imagine. I've loved reading about them since I was younger...

...I think I'll go back to lurking now.

twig, more ammunition in my crusade to bring down the sprawling american suburb? I'm in!!

[goes surfing on amazon and realizes she will have to wait till she gets pain....damn]

paid....not pain, oops

Osmate77:

Please don't resume lurking because of my call on the Yorkshire thing. It was intended educationally and not as a slam. I was actually being kind hoping to get it out of the way before one of our Scots or Geordie friends decided to give you a thesis on why the two should never be confused (coz, you know we're kind of pedantic like that on this site when we can get our brains out of the gutter for a few seconds, which I'll grant you isn't very often, but nonetheless).

WITHOUT READING ANY OTHER COMMENTS - MY GRANDMA USED TO LIVE IN WARSAW, INDIANA. Like whoa.

I NEED to see that movie. It looks s'marvelous.

Think of all the horrible ways they can bastard more Bond titles...Thunderball, GoldenEye, Octopussy, Living Daylights, From Russia With Love, On Her Majesty's Secret Service... I think they're out to ruin my life. Kill me immediately.

Fred Savage has my vote on almost anything. He was a genius in Rules of Attraction (the cigarette in the bellybutton? AMAZING.) and he's the voice of Oswald on Noggin. That's one of the cartoons on there that I can stomach with the little people, he's an octopus, and he has a dog named Weenie, and it actually looks like a hot dog in a bun, it's pretty fantastic. I digress. Not too keen on Miley's "acting" abilities, but I'll probably have to sit through that one with the little people, and Fred Savage will hopefully make it easier.

Bethy,

I'd also suggest "The Immortal Class: Bike Messengers and the Cult of Human Power" for some interesting bits on the development of Chicago and the conflict between the city's design and the automobile.

The author is a little bit full of himself, IMO, but it's still a good read. (Disclaimer: I am only a minor urban planning dork, and I have the same romantic notions about bike messengers that most people have about pirates, ninjas and superheros.)

*Heehee* You do have a point, Socalled. Admittedly, I probably was drunk watching the third movie, if not all of them. Selective memory, I guess.

However, I stand by my opinion, if they lose Fat Bastard, it could be watchable. They could always replace him with Long Pee, the secret agent/ dry cleaner....

Kash, you like Rules of Attraction? I hated that movie.

I did not even finish it because I hated so much.

twig, those are RIGHT up my alley
I'm actually an architect who just applied for an sustainable urban planning fellowship in London, so books like that are like crack to me....

it bad, like its a full-on addiction. I have more books than shoes, and I have LOT of shoes....

congradulations, you just became another one of my enablers!

(and I also have romantic notions towards pirates and nijas.

especially pirates

especially Johnny Depp pirate....

mmmmmmmmm

oh shit, you haven't already filed Johnny Depp, have you Julie? cause I shared Ryan Reynolds and you beat me to John Krasinski.... I think I am laying claim to Depp while I still can....

restraining order be damned)

Bethy I love Rules of Attraction, but probably because I would willingly submit myself for sex with Bret Easton Ellis if it were only to bear his child and he would never have any contact with me ever again (except for when the fated day arrives where I chase after him like a crazed person with all that paternity test stuff and force him into humiliation and paying for our lives as well as the kid's complete education in the finest schools in the world, plus a Bentley).

But I get that a lot. There's really no in between with RoA, people despise it or swear by it, and I'm okay with it.

And now I feel like a fool after having read all the comments and kind of agreeing with the people who called bluff on Punky.

Damn.

Bethy, there's one more I'm looking for, it's more rural than urban but it was all about this guy's foundation to provide poor, rural families with sustainable, local modern-style housing. I'm not doing it any justice - it was brilliant work, but I can never find a google search that will give me what I want.

I am a bad, bad book enabler. I used to work at a bookstore and then spend my weekends... in other bookstores.

The Jacobs book is absolutely wonderful, though. It might not be as illuminating since you're a professional, but I really, really got into it.

Man, urban planning in London. I can't even imagine how complex that is. @.@

twig, perhaps you are thinking of Samuel Mockbee? he ran the Rural Studio out of one of the universities down south, in Alabama I believe. every semster he would take his studio out to an impovrished area of the state and they would design and build a house or a community center or the like out of sustailable, local and usually very peculier materials (ie used car windsheilds, hay bales and old wine bottles), and all pro bono too

it may not be the guy you were looking for but definetly worth a look-see, he and his students did some incredible stuff

I am definetly going to check out the books you recommended, I am ALWAYS up for a new perspective and a good read. when it comes to bookstores and art stores, I am like a kid in a candy shop. they are they reason I am so poor. that and the afore-mentioned shoe problem....

and I hear about the fellowship in a couple weeks...I am excited, wish me luck!

Yes! That's him! He was awesome! This is me writing it down so I won't forget it when I inevitably reference him in a year.

And good luck to you!

I guess Dustin's a "Felicity" fan?

If someone were to say "what are Kevin Sorbo and Christoper Lambert doing in a movie?" they are missing the point, and might even be completely unaware that the point is MATT HOUSTON PICKING UP THE SWORD AGAIN.

The baddest-assed sword that there ever was.

Seriously, you remember that shit? When the villain went all monstery and Lee's all "yeah, but check out my fuckin sword, creep!".

Classic, total classic.

thanks!

and glad to help! I have a (few......) books on him, fascinating stuff (btw, little know fact, but architects can't spell for shit, its actually a job requirement, apologies all around in advance)

if you need any more recommendations for good books, let me know, I have a small library to consult

Bethy, I haven't read a whole lot, just as I come across them, so I'm always open for a few new good reads.

Spelling! Ha! I come from a family of medical practitioners. The letters look like the numbers! The numbers look like the letters! The signatures look like mini-Pollock paintings!

twig hahaha. I wish my signiture looked liked a mini-Pollock painting....its just a scribbly mess

my dad's on the other hand looks like a Mondrian....just a whole bunch of lines that is theoretically supposed to spell his name. I always want to color in the voids with primary colors...

I used to work in a law office with a lawyer who had the best handwriting - the real distinguishing factor was that he'd do his o's about half the size of his regular letters. With the rest of the flourishes, it ended up almost looking like Arabic - gorgeous stuff.

I, on the other hand, tend to have the scrawl of a kindergartener/meth addict.

Wuthering Heights was the most boring book ever. In the history of the world.

PaddyDog: Perhaps you're more vengeful, or perhaps I'm more lazy...inertia is my main (non-)motivating factor.

Either way, it's nice to be loved...and I'm not just saying that out of fear for my future generations' welfare, either ;)

I actually find it slows me down to write with lowercase letters now

never saw THAT coming, let me tell you

but on the whole architects tend to have fairly legible handwriting....

Thanks tt_marie and PaddyDog. I truly expected a lambasting for my faux pas. My labmate and I were just talking yesterday about how easy it is to offend people with one uninformed comment, so when I saw the Yorkshire vs. Scotland correction, I just thought, awwwwwww shitty. Plus the fact that I said "i've read this book 5 times and loved it!" yeah, you don't even know where it's set, dumbass. I will say, I have read it several times and did love it, but the last time I read it was a good 5-10 years ago, when I was not as aware of the danger of mixing and matching UK countries.
In any event, I appreciated the correction (would have even if it had been a slam) as I do hate wallowing in ignorance. Now I'll be sure to remember the setting next time it comes up in trivia. De-commence lurking, returning mind to gutter.

I have a unhealthy obsession for the Bronte sisters, all three of them. And Wuthering Heights was the book that introduced me to the screwed up bunch. Heathcliff was a big piece of shit but to be fair so were all the main characters in the book, either dumb and foolish, full on bastards or pretty freaking useless. the idea of seeing this reduced once again to a very romantic story makes me wanna puke. Also, I remember there was some talking of a movie about the bronte sisters, man I would love to see that. Those three were some hardcore bitches.

"Heathcliff was a big piece of shit but to be fair so were all the main characters in the book, either dumb and foolish, full on bastards or pretty freaking useless."

Agreed! It's not that I really disliked the book, or that one character was a prick, it's that this book is shelved in the romance section, people hold up the Catherine/Heathcliff relationship as a great love story, and the rest of the relationships are so disfunctional (*hyperbole alert!*) it makes most modern battered spouses look like Real Housewives of OC. It's the classic book version of the Jerry Springer Show.

It's a horror novel, and I don't mean Catherine's sad-sack ghost moping around the moors. It's a gothic tragedy; all of the characters who are nice or "good" (The Lintons, Hareton) are either corrupted, killed, or both. And even the "happy ending" is marred by the freaky three-way-cousin-marriage. The Brontes were some seriously twisted women.

BEST. LINE. EVER. "I would like to point out that one of the above items was completely fabricated." That had me more fired up than Amy Winehouse's crackpipe! I re-read the text as many times as George W at a Scrabble Tournament and STILL am not sure which one it is. Big balls to you, Dustin!

Patrick the Angry, Angry Viewer
http://www.myspace.com/patricktheangryangryviewer

Yea Osmate77:

That's the spirit! You'll love it down here in the gutter with us. (Watch out for the zombies). Frankly, I was on my way to go and drag you bodily from your lurk-cave since this site obviously needs as many Wuthering Heights fans as it can muster up.

Aw, I liked Wuthering Heights, and I read it for pleasure, but then again I love me some dark romance novels full of obsession and madness.
And to be quite honest, I had a fit of the giggles when I saw the trailer for The Strangers with The Ruins. So will it be any good, I don't know. I have given up on new Horror ever since The Ruins movie did not live up to my expectations.

Does anyone have any instructions for a good homemade flame-thrower? It's easier to see flaming zombies, makes an easier target for shooting.
The gutter actually smells sweeter than my cave. This could be a good change. As long as I don't get any gutter juice on my copy of Wuthering Heights.

Jay made a Matt Houston reference! Jay made a Matt Houston reference! Houston, the Eagle has landed. We are officially out of pop culture references and must re-start at the beginning.

So, I can't wait to see if they make a film about our ancestral cave drawings of Og's attempts to take credit for Gok's invention of fire and the wheel. Stay away, Hollywood!

The fact that "Hannah" greasy faced,eyeliner smudged,most-annoying-kid-star-of-the-decade "Montana" is playing Punky Brewster makes me want to shit myself and die. Sorry if I'm being overdramatic, but my inner child just had a massive seizure.

I am really glad that you included American Teen in the trailer watch. I actually saw it this year at the True/False Film Festival in Columbia, MO.

It is actually a really inspiring and well run festival. They have a wonderful selection of films and every film has either the director or one of the producers come along with it. If you live in the midwest or even if you don't, you should think about coming.

Anyway, I really enjoyed the film. Certainly it played on stereotypes somewhat, but there was so much more to it than that. I would definitely recommend it to any and everyone.

Well, Punky was just a rip-off of "Pippi Longstocking," so she kinda has it coming. Karma's a bitch.

You know what else there's 17 days till? My birthday bitches! I like to pretend that the whole movie is a personal gift to me direct from RDJr to me.

Ellen Page should play Punky. Maybe the Juno plot could figure in? I'd watch that.

Isn't 'The Strangers' a remake of the French film 'Them' ? Which is no bad thing in itself as 'Them' was fairly terrifying. Scary-assed trailer either way....

Alex The Odd I was just scrolling down to post the very same observation. Except for the fact I wasn't too keen on it myself.

Pajiba people can see for themselves here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFTbcDRkG1o

Nooooooo they be in my movies, raping my childhood. I loved Punky Brewster, I was the same age as Punky and it was like we grew up together (though I never forgave her for getting bigger boobs than me). There was this one episode where she battles the No Girls Allowed neighborhood remote-control car racing group, and kicks all of the young sexist boys asses (and those of their fathers), plus also has to deal with the old-school sexism of Henry, her very own stepfather! Very dramatic when you're 7. That episode made a tremendous impact on me and shaped me into the feminist I am today, I shit you not.

Sigh. Fucking Miley Cyrus. I really hope this isn't true. I'm going to quietly sing the theme song to myself to cheer up....

("Eeeeevery time I turn around/I see the girl that turned my world around/standing there/ Every time I turn around [do do do do do]/her spirit's lifting me right off the ground/What's gonna be?/Guess we'll just wait/and see.")

Nooooooo they be in my movies, raping my childhood.

This makes me think of a LOLtopus that jumps out of the ocean like Gamera whenever a producer announces something's being remade or Americanized. But he is not a figure of wailing sorrow, he is something to fear.

why is liv tyler doing a remake of kate bekinsales (killers in a secluded place) movie? Last year it was called vacancy

I am really glad that you included American Teen in the trailer watch. I actually saw it this year at the True/False Film Festival in Columbia, MO.

*heehee* Laura, it took me a few seconds to figure out that you weren't addressing this comment to me specifically. Had me a bit confused, to be honest.

first thing i ever saw singer in...
a pbs production of "kiss me kate"
he was actually good in it.

beastmaster was a horror, my fav thing.. the woozlez... but OMG that bod!

Shit, the things I do for Natalie Portman. I'm gonna have to see this. Especially since they're intent on casting either James McAvoy or Jonathan Rhys-Meyers as ol' Heathcliffe.

I don't see this ending up as a sanitized romance. John Maybury doesn't really do "happy" movies (that one with Daniel Craig was great). I heard they wanted Keira Knightley (*jesus*) for the role, but Portman took a meeting with the director after reading the book and script and he decided to go with her. And the script is by the woman who did Girl With A Pearl Earring. So I don't think this adaptation will suck. Completely, anyway.

Scott Speedman can touch my Strangers anytime!!