The Amazing Screw-On Head

Well I finally got around to watching The Amazing Screw-On Head, this was a cartoon I was interested in seeing but like so many other things I just never got around to it.

I was shocked and somewhat disappointed to see that it's running time was only around 30 minutes, for some reason I thought it had a longer running time but then according to the special features this was a pilot for an animated series, while I did enjoy the pilot I'm glad I got this DVD very cheap on eBay as I'd be really annoyed if I paid full price for this disc based on it's contents.

I've never read The Amazing Screw-On Head comic which is what this episode is based on but I think I'd like to check it out at some point, it's another quirky creation of Mike Mignola and it had the same feel as Hellboy.

The Amazing Screw-On Head isn't something that I imagine would appeal to everyone but I really liked it, it's a shame that more episodes of this series weren't produced.

One of those days

My Grandfather called me today to say he wanted to buy a high definition plasma screen and he was wondering if I'd go with him to look at them, he knew pretty much what he wanted to spend and roughly what size screen he'd like and thankfully he was prepared to spend a reasonable amount of money.

We found a very nice Panasonic Plasma screen on sale so that's what we bought and took it home, then he decided he needed to reorganise his lounge room ( which actually meant he wanted me to do it ).

Of course with all his components moved around it was back off to the shop to pick up some longer cables and then back to his place to hook up everything, then he asks he if it's possible to connect his old VCR to the plasma, I should've said no but I didn't think quickly enough and answered honestly.

I don't know why but getting that VCR to work with his plasma was a massive pain in the ass, I connected it, disconnected it, swapped cables and did a bunch of other stuff and the damn thing just refused to work for the better part of a couple of hours and then suddenly it was fine, of course using such a poor quality format on such a nice screen seemed criminal but at least it works - for now.

A busy couple of Days

Like the title says it's been a busy couple of days, I re-watched the first series of Spaced as well as watching a few episodes of Relic Hunter and the recent mini-series version of The Phantom.

I also finished reading The Road to Dune which was a book I really enjoyed, then Aaron and I recorded a nearly 3 hour long conversation for Sci-Fi Dig and I finished re-playing Star Wars: The Force Unleashed as well as watching a few more episodes of the iFanboy video podcast.

I never said it was a productive couple of days, just busy.

Moon 44

I remember renting Moon 44 on video many many years ago, I enjoyed it at the time even though the special effects for the most part were pretty bad and so was the acting.

I watched the movie again on DVD last night, the cast with the exception of Malcolm McDowell were pretty bad ( why does he keep making these cheap-ass films ? ) and the production designer seemed to be copying what he saw in Alien / Aliens and Blade Runner but that really helped the movie in terms of atmosphere.

You can see Roland Emmerich's visual style beginning to emerge in this movie, unfortunately he still had a lot to learn as a writer.

Moon 44 is a fun little B-grade sci-fi movie, it's nothing special but it's also not as bad as a lot of people suggest either.

iFanboy

I'd sort of been aware of the iFanboy podcast for a while, like so many other things I'd downloaded a bunch of episodes a while back, I hadn't listened to any of them but I had downloaded them.

A few days ago I discovered they also did a video podcast so I thought I sit down and watch an episode, over the last three days I've watched something like 15 episodes so I've only got something like 150 to go.

I've really enjoyed how they have gotten to interview various comic creators at various conventions and signings at stores but the shows where they just geek out at comics have been a lot of fun as well.

If you even have a mild interest in comics click here to give iFanboy a try

The Road to Dune

I was a big fan of Frank Herbert's first three Dune novels, his later Dune novels were OK but I didn't enjoy them as much as the original three, I haven't read any of the prequel books written by his son Brian and Kevin J Anderson as I've heard mixed ( more bad than good ) things about them.

A while back I picked up The Road to Dune and so far it's been a very interesting read, it's sort of like the print version of DVD special features, it contains letters that were exchanged between Frank Hebert and his agent as well as various other people, the original much shorter original version of Dune which was called Spice Planet ( I didn't like it very much to tell the truth ), deleted and alternate versions of material from Dune and Dune Messiah as well as some short stories.

If you are a fan of the Dune books then I think this is well worth a read .

Actually catching up a little

With Fiona still being somewhat incapacitated after her surgery I haven't been doing too much or going away for too long just in case she needs help with something, the end result of that has been I've been home a lot more than usual, this has enabled me o catch up on my reading a bit, in fact I've read three novels in three days, they were just Doctor Who novels not War and Peace or something like that but at least it's a start, now I only have about 50 unread novels to go and I'm all caught up.