Pajiba

Dang, Dustin, how'd ya let little things like a new baby and your job get in the way of finishing a Harry Potter book?

Finding out Thomas Jane was off Punisher 2 actually ruined my whole day. His Punisher is definitely one of my guilty pleasures. I looked around and saw he chose to leave after disagreeing with the way the movie was going. I guess I can respect that, but as much as I loved Titus Pullo I won't be able to bring myself to see Punisher 2 when it comes out.

Hey Dustin, when is the little Pajiblet gonna put up his first review? I mean, you gotta make the little ankle biter earn his keep somehow, right?

Shame Tom Jane isn't sticking around for The Punisher 2, even if the first one blew anyway. I seem to check out everything he's in, regardless of suckage... I think this is because he looks a bit like Christopher Lambert, who is the only person cooler than Tom Jane (one must concede that if Tom Jane could do that French cackle thing he'd be unstoppable, cool-wise).

Ruining any credibility I had: I think Mystery Men is one of the more underrated movies of the last 10 years.

It's weird. I have no interest in Hugh Jackman in any role exept as Wolverine. Then I get all hot for him. Something to do with hormones?

Not to worry, Armando, all the rabid Potter fans are too busy not reading Chez to worry about you.

Y'know, I got all crazy over Harry Potter in the beginning, but stopped reading after the third book. The movies were gaining so much hype and IMO, the first film was the best and the others were ok. I lost interest. I'll read the final one after I read the other 3.

No Thomas Jane for Punisher 2? Damn!

FUCK NO!
did you somehow follow me? jesus christ, i've seent that stupid motherfucking trailer 5 times in 2 days. i saw all these indie and foreign films ,and for some reason, they all kept playing that stupid trailer at the beginning. i hate you jane, i hate you frilly puffy shirt guy, and i hate you james cromwell(no i don't).

i needed to vent

p.s. Stander rocks my world, But Tom Jane on Arrested Development playing Tom Jane was my absolute favorite.

As a heterosexual female I've always felt like I was missing out by being totally uninterested in Jane Austen. So much so that I read the books AND watched the movies, just sort of hoping that I'd get struck with a lightning bolt of girliness and collapse under the weight of all that longing and romance.
Alas, it never came.
For me it's always been the frustrating equivalent of listening to the most annoying girls you know complaining about their boyfriends/lack thereof, and I just can't take it.

[Hank Kingsley voice]: Hey now ... that list is called the "If I Had to" list for a reason ... and Titus Pullo is on it, baby. Mmmm, punish me, big boy.

That said, Anne Hathaway is one of those pretty, empty-ish people, like Jessica Alba or Josh Hartnett, who were put on Earth for one reason -- and it ain't acting.

I was asked to read the Harry Potter books by a friend when there were only five out. I gave up pretty early in the fourth one (and it took a while to get there, so tedious. Dang, I read Ulysses faster), when it turned out she was going to pull out the SAME COCKING-FUCKING PLOT AGAIN! I keep hearing that the actual story hasn't started at this point, well Joanna, how many g**damn mulligans do you need to actually start a story? Astro-fuck! Now I know that all of the H.P. acolytes are going to be chanting for my blood, I'll live with it. You can say whatever you want to me, because I've heard it all already. The books are not entertaining to me, I don't find them good, they are overhyped dross. Yes better this than CHUCK AND LARRY, but are those our only choices?

And it's pretty mind-blowing that J.K. Boring (who has gotten WAAAAAAAAAY too big for her britches, has anybody else seen that 'Boston Tea Party' remark? Cunt, please!) has made 100 million dollars this weekend. So I'm sorry to everybody who loves these books, if you like them, fine, I'm not mad at you. But don't ask me to give them another chance, I won't do it. I'm only five feet tall, so if somebody hands me another one of these books, I'm just going to stand on it to reach a book that isn't recycled horseshit. Okay, I've said my piece, hand me my cigarette and blindfold.

I guess that was 'scathing and bitchy'. Sorry guys, end rant.

Dustin, whilst reciting today's DVD releases I was shocked and appalled that you did not mention the 20th Anniversary Edition (only edition) of Monster Squad. Come on man, don't tell me you've never had the good graces of viewing the most overlooked and underrated film of our generation?

Okay, first of all, Mr. PaddyDog will love you forever for the Austen/hetero male dig.

I'm an Austen girl, no shame about it either although I really hate the people who don't get her enough to understand that Bridget Jones' Diary was not an homage or a clever modernization. It was just a bowl of santorum shoved in our faces (google the definition of santorum if you're not keeping up here).
As others have noted, this trailer indicates that the film bears very little resemblance to her actual life (having read three well-researched biographies, I believe I am in a position to say this).
If the trailer reflects the film, then it's aimed at the aforementioned Bridget Jones cluster of girlies.
On the other hand: Maggie. Smith. She is President Emeritus of the Jane Austen Society. Would she lower herself to this if it didn't have some merit?
Anyway, I'll probably see it just to punish Mr. PaddyDog for some offense he's bound to commit in the next few weeks: maybe leaving the toilet seat up would do it.
However, the big question on this one is WWRD: What would Ranylt do?

Socalledonlycousins: Absolutely the P&P mini series with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehles was a truly loyal adaptation which succeeded in conveying all of the burning sexuality that I first read in the book (at age 12) without even one era-inappropriate lip-on-lip kiss.
S&S was good in spite of the exceptional mis-casting of Hugh Grant (hate), plus any film that puts Hugh Laurie and Alan Rickman on the screen for me at the same time can do no wrong.
Now watch Ranylt rip apart everything I've said.

Persuasion. Ciaran Hinds as Captain Wentworth (the man is NOT russian. . .though you wouldn't know it based one his past few films), Amanda Root as the non-starlet Austen heroine. Truly a LOVELY adaptation of my favorite Austen novel.

How refreshing to see that other women dislike Austen. Thank god. As an English teacher, I have been taught to revere her works like a gift from the lord. What the fuck ever.

Ah, Ray Stevenson, how I long to see you kick ass on the big screen. However, the "crap flick" warning is going off in my head, so unless convinced otherwise by scores of good reviews, I'm going to skip Punisher 2.

And as a heterosexual female, I have a strong revulsion toward any Austen. I wanted to sock Elizabeth Barnett right in the mouth for being such a stand-offish bitch and find Mr. Darcy a real woman. That being said, I saw this trailer before Away From Her last weekend and thought it looked adorable, mainly because of James "I'm completely human this time" McAvoy. Matched with Maggie Smith and James Cromwell, it's the hat trick of people I long to hear talk in elevated accents while wearing puffy clothing and shoes with buckles.

"Not to worry, Armando, all the rabid Potter fans are too busy not reading Chez to worry about you."

Whew! Thanks for the heads up, Julie. Although I think my colon cancer idea would've made a more believable ending. (Hence why I don't make my living as a fantasy writer!)

Straight man and reader of Jane Austen novels right here.

But my wife does write an Eng Lit essay blog on Austen novels, so there's that. And she hates this film already without having seen it. It's bullshit and not a biography, just cashing in on Austen's name.

Shame that men are getting put off a great and historically important author by a bunch of crap, corset, romantic comedies that can't for one second convey the depth of the novels.

I have inhaled these books and am an active member in fandom. While this book ultimately achieved what the last book in the series was meant to achieve, maintaining Harry's innocence, while fulfilling of the prophecy and NOT killing Voldemort (vanquishing him with a paltry spell), the book, IMO, was tired. The contrivances were endless, as she tries to marshal the trio from plot point to plot point. I'm not going to list them here, this is not the place, but in several key instances I wondered if Harry had taken stupid pills. The book succeeds as the final installment of the concept, but it fails utterly as a book.

Rebecca H., what's wrong with The First Wives Club?

"Mystery Men" blew big time. It was stodgy and obivious from the first frame to the last.

If a comic book movie with a sense of humor is what you want watch "The Incredibles." It's humorous without being condescending, poignant without any a hint of mawkishness. Granted it is animated but it's "witty" enough to amuse the "high brow" set while at the same time delves into comic book lore to keep aficionados enthralled.

Not to keen on Rogen as the Green Hornet but paired with Chow it could be very interesting. Still there might be the chance that the film could be like many other adaptations of pulp TV material with all the urgency sapped out of the work with only an adumbration of wit stuck in its place. "The Dukes of Hazard" and "Starsky and Hutch" come to mind as prime examples of adventure/action television adapted for the big screen just for laughs and nothing else. "Miami Vice" to me seemed to be the exception to the rule
and was better for it.

Finally I love Stevensen as The Punisher. Not built like Jane but certainly wields the heft to give a visceral performance as Frank Castle. Kevin Nash ain't gonna push him around.

Sheesh, lots of overeaction to Anne Hathaway-she was pretty good in Brokeback Mountain. I mean, she is definitely not the most riveting example of female acting but I would say she is at least..."credible"? I would have never thought to have much of an opinion of her until I read some of the responses to this column-does she sacrifice little babies to Satan or something besides trying to have a film career?