No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to dine!

A list, compiled from memory, of all the times the villain had captured Bond but couldn't be bothered to kill him.

I vent

Who the FUCK thought a section of a game wherein the game deliberately forces fun killing-crap like, say, lag on you would ever be fun? WHO? WHO!?!??!

This looks fun

Can't decide if it's Moore-Bond with attitude or a Brosnan film done right. Either way, I wanna see it.

Also, that infrared bulletproof umbrella thing. Remember when Sam Mendes (Skyfall, Spectre) said that the best Bond gadgets could be found in an Apple store? I said that demonstrates extreme lack of vision and probably counts as evidence why, beautiful cinematography aside, Mendes needs to go. Doubling down on that now, because the infrared bulletproof umbrella thing is awesome.

Speaking of James Bond we have this little insight from The Incredible Suit:

Damn skippy.

Spectre's coming back

One of the ideas kicked around for The Spy Who Loved Me was to open with a "new" SPECTRE coming in and blowing away the old guard (Blofeld apparently included). This ultimately went nowhere (just Google "Kevin McClory Thunderball" if you want a long and sordid history), though Blofeld himself was ultimately bumped off in For Your Eyes Only in a very off-hand way.

Now we "know" that SPECTRE - the Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion - is coming back. One wonders if they're going to replace QUANTUM in the same way.

A better question is WHY???

SPECTRE was a fun campy 60s supervillain group, parodied by Austin Powers. In other words, it's the thing current Bond is running from. (And we can debate the merits of that artistic decision. I like my campy Moore and my edgy Dalton. I'm allowed to be indecisive like that.)

SPECTRE was all volcano lairs and hypnotized dolly-birds and SPACE LAAAAAAZERS. QUANTUM is, essentially, the Bond equivalent of the MCU's HYDRA. They infiltrated several governments. They don't need to take over the world because they already have all the parts they want. QUANTUM fits the Craig films' tone so much better than SPECTRE does that I really question this decision.

A second thing I'd like to note is that the Spectre teaser includes what looks like a bullet hole in glass with a black background. I've seen that somewhere before, I just know it.

But hang on, the Craig films already did the "Bond starts out as energetic and arrogant and turns into a more familiar character via the process of falling in love with a doomed girl who can act in a long-but-bothered-to-tell-a-story film with a sucker-punch aimed at book-readers" one. So they're probably not doing that.

Weekend Songs

Did you know that the two greatest love songs ever written were both released in 1969? Now you do.

Bonus: Frank Sinatra covered Something. Apparently George Harrison kept the "Jack" substitution in later performances.

A brief review of AC/DC's new album

Which, if memory serves, was called one of the following two things:

Highway to High Rock Voltage and Roll Hell (All Night Long) (We Salute You) (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)

or

Milking the Money Cow, Volume XVI

I honestly can't remember.

Why I'm bent out of shape about the lightsaber crossguard

It's not so much that it's just a stupid, transparent attempt to sell new toys (it is, though).

It's not because it Westernizes the Jedi, who have basically Eastern-exclusive influences up to this point (I really don't care, but some people do).

Rather...

Yes, logically, lightsabers should have crossguards. You know, just like, logically, there should be some explanation for how the Force actually works.

In other words, the last time somebody overthought something cool and iconic and StarWarsy, we got f*cking medichlorians.

Lemme nerdsplain to you why Star Wars VII is gonna suck

Do you know what made the original Star Wars so epically awesome?

Another thought on Interstellar

is that it can't quite decide what it wants to be.

As I said last time, the first hour or so of the film sets it up (misleadingly) as Atlas Shrugged In Space.  The second hour of the film: "Humans are flawed. Some will make mistakes and others will just outright lie and endanger the entire human race to save their skins." The third hour: one part Doctor Who space magic (Steven Moffat's probably slapping himself for not having come up with this already, as the third act is totally right up his alley), one part Spielberg sentimentality.  The first two hours aren't entirely at odds with each other, but the third most certainly is.

And therein, to me, lies the main problem. As late as the scene where Matt Damon was failing his docking maneuver, I was prepared to love the film.

Stuff you may not know about me, entry CXLIV

I'm (very slowly) sifting my way through David Weber's Honor Harrington series. (I'm alternating back and forth between these and the Ian Fleming James Bond novels.)  Aside from some poorly-timed infodumps I'm greatly enjoying them.

Interstellar

sploilers