Pulling in the fringe

Couple of boffin bits, firstly a little from Wired (via NS) concerning much neglected mad genius Nikola Tesla's wireless electricity idea finally finding favour and another (also from the New Scientist) about our entire universe being a giant hologram, which has been about for a bit but still sends my noggin spinning.

Guidestones of the wasteland

Odd American monument built to guide the survivors of the coming apocalypso. Seems it's been attracting some vandalism from religious nuts suspicious of the Rosicrucian gent who paid for it all anonymously back in the 80's. Original article on Wired, via Strange A

Monday PS3

Uncharted 2 done and dusted finally, it's a real blast I just couldn't be bothered with the multiplayer and looks like I'm not the only one getting tired of being hammered online by potty mouthed teenagers with an interesting article from Wired. I'll rejoin the kids when 'Splitters 2 finally gets a PSN release in the meantime here's where my money went.

PS3 must-haves on the horizon

Fallout: New Vegas, due this autumn, has it's first teaser here.

Salivating like a Pavlovian mutt for The Last Guardian too but still no release date, bunch of screens and that on the new official site.

Recommended 7's Part 4

Clockwise from top left tis - Getting Remade Vs Been Remade, Mental Hospitals Vs Mentalists, Bad Vs Hunts and Director B's Vs Director V's.

2 bad 1 good but grim

Vincent Price, ham of hams, stars in the so-so Theatre of Blood from 1973. It's quite funny in bits I suppose but it's neither gory nor scary and I spent most of the time just drooling at Diana Rigg and spotting forgotten British actors. Price plays Lionheart, a ridiculous over-actor who fakes his own death only to return and slaughter his critics using death scenes from Shakespeare.

Ralph Bakshi's Wizards was a dud - I kinda expected it to ropey but it well surpassed that with ugly, inconsistent animation, rank scripting and an under-developed post-apocalyptic plot about two warring Wizards on a far future Earth. Thank god it was only 80mins long.

Short Eyes is, by far, the best of today's little bunch of films. Starring and soundtracked by Curtis Mayfield this gritty prison drama deals with some serious issues when a be-suited Peedo lands in a gang ridden NY jail. This is powerful stuff and during the peedo's confessional scene rather disturbing too. The acting is decent enough but some of the dialogue is almost incomprehensible 70's street slang and they really should have subtitled some of the Puerto-Rican bits - none the less this is good film and a world away from Shaft et al.

Cameron's Spam

Seen a few of the artistically improved versions of this poster on the news & print but here's a whole heap of nicely photoshopped versions.

It hasn't been a great week again for the Eton massive with creepy Osborne dropping the economic ball with a loud thud. Ken Clarke must be laughing his moobs off.

Sunday Screenings

Dante's Inferno Animated was ok, not great but plenty of blood and gore. Inspired rather than based on the literary work it follows a Crusader's quest through the 9 levels of Hell to save the soul of his beloved fiance, Beatrice. Can't say the multi-animator approach worked that well but some were decent. Hope the game is better.

Daybreakers was equally as ho-hum, set on a vampire dominated earth with corporations farming humans for blood factory-style, Ethan Hawke stars as a vamp scientist trying to find a legitimate substitute to the red stuff. It's a jolly enough mish mash of cliches and action sequences but it makes little sense overall and it almost instantly forgettable.


Super daft french spy spoofery returns with OSS-117 Lost in Rio. Steeped in 60's style (think Flint or Diabolik) with a cracking soundtrack it follows Hubert's hunt for a Nazi in Brazil alongside a slinky Mossad agent. It's doesn't quite reach the comedy heights of the first film, maybe if I understood French it'd be funnier though as there seemed to greater reliance on puns and language gags this time. The first film had France colonial past in it's sights but this time I guess it's Nazi collaborators but it's thinly developed which was a shame, still it provides plenty of material for our bumbling ever ignorant hero.