Huh. I wasn't impressed by the Sayid/Dogen fight. It certainly wasn't brilliantly shot (or maybe I should say edited). It may have been brilliantly choreographed, but I couldn't really tell. They gave us the bare minimum visual information to get what was happening, but that was it. Otherwise, it was all chopped up…

china beach
So would Shout be a good place for a China Beach release? B/c I'm still waiting for that to come out. Anyone else out there feel the same?

Penguin, I would love to hear other people's point of view on how a finished film should be read. The AV Club keeps having the same argument about Lost (and, before it, Battlestar Galactica). Did they have a fully-formed plan going into production and does it really matter? For some people, it ruins the show to think…

Richard Gere might be a little old now to be believable as a beat cop, but don't dismiss him as one simply b/c he's Richard Gere. Did you see him as the dirty cop in Internal Affairs? That might be the most impressed by him I've ever been. Dude rocked.

What about the fact that when Bryant is showing Deckard the replicant files, they have different ratings listed for their strength? There's really nothing about Deckard's weakness that denies the replicant possibility. Leon and Roy are shown to have high physical strength ratings.

Dammit, I was afraid I'd get those two confused. She made that sketch work. Jennifer Lopez surely didn't.

will forte
That was quite possibly the worst Willie Nelson impression I've ever witnessed.

I have fond memories of them, especially the long-assed one, The Final Encyclopedia, but it was over 25 years ago. I recall thinking (at 13) it was compelling how he had formulated the future as a society split into different genetic classes / planetary cultures—with the Dorsai being military—then trying to describe…

dorsai
I read a lot of Dickson when I was growing up, but it was all his Dorsai stuff. Never read this one. It'd be interesting to go back to his Dorsai novels as an adult to see if they hold up. Has anyone read any of those books recently, especially the early ones? How do they hold up?

poul anderson
"Requiem for Methuselah" kind of reminds me of Poul Anderson's The Boat of a Million Years—a few random people born into immortality and living through human history, with all the attendant pressure of being so different. Obviously that novel came out decades later and goes in some very different…

But then Mad Max is Australian.

Thanks, Todd. Never seen On the Beach, but read the book a couple of times. Guess I need to check out the movie now. Never heard of Testament before now.

Um, make that too "much," not too "many." Maybe if I proofread more closely before clicking "Post," my personal little world wouldn't feel quite so apocalyptic.

post-apocalyptic movies
So, Todd, if the definitive post-apocalyptic tv show hasn't been made yet, what do think are the definitive post-apocalyptic films?

Too many British post-apocalyptic stuff out there, though I'm thinking primarily of written sf. And it also depends on what your cutoff is for modern. There's Greybeard by Brian Aldiss from the 60s, for instance, a precursor to Children of Men (though many people have argued that PD James just ripped Aldiss off, and…

The question is whether Centurion will be as batshit insane. Doomsday was a hoot, but Jesus.

But then that makes Cornerstone there Sgt. Pepper's. Cornerstone. The one with "Babe." Does that mean "Babe" is their "A Day in the Life"? That's . . . that's just not right.

No, Louis, you're not. If I'd never heard any Styx until I was an adult, I would never have liked them. I can only guess that it's partly b/c I grew up in a small town where all my junior high classmates were into Motley Crue and Twisted Sister (though, to be fair, I was into them, too). But something about Styx's…

Which two? Paradise Theater and . . . The Grand Illusion? Pieces of Eight? Jesus, I feel pathetic for still remembering freaking album titles.

ah, leonard
From 1983 to 1985, my favorite band was Styx and I freaking loved Kilroy Was Here. Sadly then I had to grow up. Now I love it ironically, like the rest of Styx's catalog.