Menori Weirdness

As some of you may know, I host Gary’s blog - Menori - for him.

Is There Food? has just moved hosts but, for now, Menori is still alive and well on the old host. Or at least I thought.

The site seems fine, but the FeedBurner feed seems to have ended up pointing at me…somehow. Don’t ask me how: I have no idea. I don’t have access either, so I can’t attempt to fix it. Gary - if you read this while you’re away, get in touch.

As a temporary measure, I’ve turned off FeedBurner redirection from Menori, so if needs be readers can access the default feed for the site. Normal service will be resumed asap.

For now: welcome aboard Menori readers! And apologies for the weirdness!

Movie Review: Yet Another 300 Review

aka I Didn’t Like 300!

Yes, I know world + dog has now reviewed this, but I don’t care

Let me shout this from the very top of the review, as the doomed king Leonidas and his Spartans are so fond of doing: I DIDN’T ENJOY 300!

There, I’ve said it. I can hide my controversial opinion no longer. An army of fans - enough to put the fear of God in old Xerxes himself - is no doubt marching this way even as I write this. My review comes a little late to the party thanks to my location (why does the UK get everything last?), and it’s easy to attack something that’s met with success in order to court controversy, or do something different; but I can’t help the fact that, for me, a large part of Zack Snyder’s creation doesn’t make for very entertaining cinema.

For the record: I’m a fan of the original graphic novel, and a fan of Frank Miller in general. I’m also a fan of Zack Snyder, given that he took on a terribly unpopular idea - remaking Dawn of the Dead - and produced a damn fine movie as a result. There are moments in Snyder’s zombie apocalypse that throb with a visceral ferocity, and I had high hopes for 300. But that’s always my curse: high hopes = low opinion.

A note to the reader: at this point things get a bit spoilery. I’m assuming that, by now, pretty much everyone’s seen 300. If you’ve not, I’d recommend stopping at this point and coming back when you’ve been to your local multiplex and made your own mind up. And with that out of the way…

There are so many things wrong with 300; so many irritating elements that detract from what could have been a glorious whole. The ferocity that existed within Dawn is, despite all the violence, missing from 300. Limbs are severed, blood is spilled, and many a beefcake is pierced by a Persian arrow. The problem is: none of it seems real, none of it makes an impact. It’s the overuse of CGI that’s largely to blame: you can’t make computer generated blood look the same way as real blood, it doesn’t stain the clothes and skin, it doesn’t splatter, it just sprays unenthusiastically, unsubstantially. It’s the same with severed limbs; prosthetics give a real sense of ouch when blade meets flesh, but the lightweight CGI limb removal in 300 just doesn’t hurt.

Quick Bite: 28 Weeks Trailer

It’s online and can be found here.

Let me know what you think. A good idea? Hungry for more? Or should they have just left the original to stand alone?

Richard Stanley is Alive and Well…

… and living on YouTube!

Found via Joblo: two short films from Hardware and Dust Devil director Richard Stanley. They’re both well worth watching, and I just wish somebody would give this guy a chance to make a full length picture again. There are also a couple of music videos to be found, one of which was directed by Stanley, and features Dario Argento!

A word of warning: they’re a bit odd. But that should come as no surprise if you know Stanley’s work.

Edit: fixed videos. Damned rich text editors.

Want a 160gb Freecom Drive for £40?

Steve at SVP is offering a bit of a bargain on the DVD Forums here.

The catch is, you need to email him. Visit the forums link above, follow the instructions, and when 200 people are interested you’ll get an email back.

Got to be done, eh?

New Bloggers

I forgot to tip my hat in his general direction when he started, but Mark “Captain Literal” Sheppard has been furiously blogging about Microsoft’s rather lovely PowerShell over at CaptainLiteral.Net. It’s turning into a fantastic resource for all your PowerShell needs, and I believe Mark could become a valuable member of the PowerShell community.

But anyway, enough about techy stuff (that should go over on Techsplosive - plug, plug - even if there’s no content yet) there are a couple of other new bloggers I should mention.

Andy Murdy has started his own blog under the guise of Colonel Irrelevant. He’s already posted a number of thoughts, and I expect more entertainment is on the way.

And last, but by no means least, Stuart Estell - who you may know from my previous posts about The Village Wakes - has created his own blog/site to showcase his music; it’s not a blog in the conventional sense, but it’s similar. It’s called, imaginatively, StuartEstell.co.uk. There’s some great music and information on there already, so download away.