Blurred Lines

As any of my friends can tell you, I'm not big on current music. My musical tastes tend more toward dated tunes from the 60s and earlier. Of course, I do also have a huge 4-hour long playlist of nothing but 80s chart toppers--but generally speaking it takes me a long time to get into anything new and popular.

So when I heard someone on tv mention this song "Blurred Lines" from Robin Thicke (featuring T.I. and Pharrell) as being the number 1 track of the summer, I just had to listen to it and find out what all the fuss was about.

In Brightest Day, In Blackest Night

No evil shall escape my sight!

Can't say that I've ever been a huge Green Lantern fan growing up. Save for Batman and Superman, most of the Silver Age DC comics superheroes always seemed so lame. I'm more of a Marvel guy. But the new movie coming out sometime next year, starring Ryan Reynolds as the Hal Jordan iteration of the Lantern, is shaping up rather nicely. This is the first official trailer to be seen by anybody. Check it out for yourselves, even if you don't know anything about the property. I daresay this doesn't seem quite so lame as I thought it would be. What about you?

My Lovefest With Technology Continues . . .

I swear, is there really anything my iPhone can't do? I've been a Netflix member now for 3 years, and only recently have I started watching titles through the company's instant streaming interface, which allows one to rent their movies and watch them all online. And now in addition to my PC and HDTV, I can watch stuff that's on my Netflix "queue" over my iPhone as well, from anywhere that has 3G or WiFi coverage.

At first, streaming was a bit laggy when this technology first debuted. But now, thanks to added infrastructure, I have to say I've become highly addicted to this facet of the overall Netflix membership. It's quite smooth and serviceable, to the point that I now get impatient whenever a movie or show is NOT available for instant streaming and I have to wait for snail mail to get my titles. Yuck!

What being able to access my account and watch content on my iPhone does now is allow me to catch up on old episodes of Stargate: SG1 from work. Or any other great tv show I somehow missed during its first run for various reasons.

Yes, I know what you're thinking: oh, bad employee! Watching tv on the company's dime instead of doing his work. But, you see, it's not what you think. We're allowed to listen to music via headphones all day long and until the cows come home here. What I do with the iPhone is similar. I perch the phone up at eye level off to the side. Then I set Netflix to play and go about doing my work at my desk like normal. My eyes are on my work, with only occasional sight breaks to see the important stuff on the small screen before quickly returning. I'm not using company resources, and the screen is not interfering with my PC monitor. In fact, I find I'm able to pay full attention to what's going on in the show I'm watching while barely looking at the phone. In this way, it's really no different than how I sometimes watch tv at home: which is to say, playing in the background while I get other things done.

But it's amazing how much I can get done this way. I guess having my mind occupied on more than one level while I work is a good thing. Not to mention how fast the time seems to fly. And, as an added bonus I get to fly through seasons of tv shows I really don't have much time to watch at home (what with writing and working out and all the other things that demand of my time).

I've said it before here, and I'll say it again: I *heart* technology!

Amazing Scene From HBO's New Show "Boardwalk Empire"

I talked about this latest big-deal original series from HBO back in August. Check out this blog entry for a refresher.

Anyway, I think we're 4 episodes in now, and HOOO-BOY! there was a doozy of a scene this time. Each new show has a scene like this . . . one that sends shivers down your spine at how awesome it is. A scene that displays, in just a few short minutes, that the people behind the series are not pulling any punches in the delivery of grade A drama. Such is the scene I'm about to show you.

To set it up: Boardwalk Empire takes place in Atlantic City during the dawn of Prohibition in 1920. Chalky White is a local gangster who's running a pretty tight moonshining crew in partnership with the city's corrupt Treasurer. In the last episode, one of Chalky's men is found lynched just outside his business. He presses his partner to get to the bottom of who did it, or else his all-black crew will cause a lot of trouble. Eventually the head of the local KKK chapter is brought in, and Chalky White is given free reign to interrogate him in private. Here's what happens next:



This scene actually came close to bringing tears to my eyes, due to the heartbreaking personal story Chalky relates. You know, in most movies and tv shows, you don't often get to see the personal tragedies in the criminal's past that shaped him into the hard and cold man he is today. Scenes like this remind me that even so-called bad guys are not all black and white, but operate in that gray zone of morality that real people and real stories are shaped from.

As a would-be writer, it's a lesson I must remember always.

Another Awesome Show From HBO -- Damn!

I don't know how they keep churning them out, but god bless 'em!

Premiering in just under a month on September 19th, "Boardwalk Empire" is a show from "The Sopranos" head writer, Terence Winter, set in 1920's Atlantic City during the early days of Prohibition. Steve Buscemi plays Enoch "Nucky" Thomson, the county's treasurer and real man running things behind the scenes. Seeing the "Noble Experiment" as a golden opportunity rather than a hindrance, he quickly gets in bed with several nasty out-of-town gangsters like the notorious Big Jim Colosimo and Arnold Rothstein--as well as relative newcomers to the crime biz, ones Lucky Luciano and Al Capone--to use the 18th Amendment as their personal piggy bank.

A Movie Scene I Still Love

Was just thinking about the movie "Hustle & Flow" today and how great it was, with one scene in particular standing out for me as a writer. The movie is one of those polarizing effects by which those who have never seen it make wildly inaccurate judgments on what they think it's about, and those who *have* watched it who've come to the realization that it's one seriously good flick!

Yes, the movie is about a Memphis pimp trying to break into the rap game. Yes, it has naughty language and scenes with female bits showing -- OH NOES! But at its heart this is a tale about overcoming the odds and reaching for a dream.

If you have not seen the movie, you should rent it. If you think you're not into this sort of thing, just watch it anyway. Open your mind for 2 hours and think of the real message behind all the cussing and such.

Or, alternately, just check out the clip below and get a glimpse of what it's like to wring creativity out of a few pages of scribbled lyrics:

This Week At The Movies: Legion

Well, time again for another installment of The Movie Maven (aka, Tara Perry) courtesy of Mania.com. Most of you are probably already going to the site on your own anyway (and if you're not, why not?). But, out of convenience, here's an embedded video to aid your laziness just in case:



Ths week Tara covers Legion (a movie I'm definitely looking forward to), as well as some DVD releases like Gamer.

My Space

With the purchase of an HDTV for the living room last month, I decided it was time I posted up a few pics of the spaces around the apartment where I spend most of my time. I'm a self-admitted homebody. I really have very little use for the outside world and prefer to spend most of my free time holed up at home finding many various ways to amuse myself and my darling wife. When I'm not chained to the day-job desk, that is.

Hey, I worked hard to secure a nice little comfy hole in the wall to call our own. Why not put it to good use, right? Besides, have you seen the outside world? Uh, yeah, I think I'll live a little longer if I keep myself away from that mess as much as possible.

Anywho, on to some pics:

This is the entertainment center in our living room. That's a 37-inch LCD HDTV--the only size that would fit in that space and not be too ridiculously small for comfort. Considering we only sit 8 feet away from the tv, it's the perfect size for our needs! If you look closely (or click on the image to make it bigger), you'll see a PS3 snuggled in the perfect little spot just beneath the tv. I use it less for gaming and more for watching DVDs, Blu-rays, Netflix streaming videos, and downloaded tv shows beamed from my PC in the other room. Like the commercials say, Sony's machine really "only does EVERYTHING!" And below the PS3 (to the left) is the Wii. It mostly collects dust as the Wii really is only interesting to people who don't know *real* games. I use it to play old NES and Genesis games from my youth, but beyond that it sees most use from Lisa and her workout games like EA's Active and Wii Fit Plus.

These are my DVDs and Blu-rays. I haven't had a chance to integrate my newly purchased Blu-ray titles into the stacks, but I'll get to it eventually. I'm slowing down on my movie purchases as the money really is better used elsewhere (like savings and travelling and such). But every now and then it comes in handy to have a sizable movie collection to choose from without having to leave the house or wait for long download times.

This is a wider shot of our sunken living room.

And this? Why this is my "den" -- my home within a home. This is the room I go to when I need to be on my own. I do many things in this room: play video games, workout, surf the net. But most importantly, this is where ALL my writing takes place. In fact, that's the room's most important function. Because when I close the door . . . it's all business, baby!

Close up view of my work area. Pretty standard, really. Desktop PC, scanner, printer, modem, wireless router, and landline phone. The boombox on top works, but is mostly for show. I can't remember when was the last time I played music out of a dedicated music player that wasn't my iPod or PC's CD drive. Sign of the times, eh?

My books! I have a lot of books--and this is only the half of them! What you see is a vast assortment of geekery: genre titles, comics (graphic and HCs), game guides, China-related scholarly tomes, and a crap load of various monthly science magazines I subscribe to. I really need to get magazine collector's bins to gather up the several hundred issues I've amassed. Ugh! There's a nice collection of sci-fi/fantasy pulp mags hidden beneath the pileup along the bottom shelves, too. As you can see, there is no end to my eclecticness (yes, I know that's not a real word).

My gaming set-up. Here I have a 23-inch HDTV. Might sound small, but it does the job for such a compact space. If your eyes are sharp enough, you'll spy an Xbox 360 parked underneath the TV, yet another PS3 to the right of it (and this one used strictly for gaming), and in the corner is a huge pile of junk consisting of game cases, errant DVD and Blu-ray movies, and a few dozen gaming magazines and guides. On a lonely day (which is any weekend when Lisa has to work the night shifts), you'll find me in this room rolling back and forth between writing on the PC and gaming on the tv. One of these days I'll figure out a way to get a job doing both, maybe? Would make sense.

On the other side of the same room is my workout space. Nothing much to talk about here. I spend six days a week torturing myself into keeping fit, usually immediately when I come home from work. I've got the standard bench with a few pneumatic pulls and resistance bars thrown in. On the floor are my various loose weights. The curl bar has 120 lbs on it, which is quite a pain in my ass to curl. The straight bar currently has only 40 lbs on it, but I add more when I want to do squats and lunges. The dumbbells are 45 lbs each. And on the bench I'm pressing close to 230 lbs, which is the max it will go. I'm going to need to register with a gym at some point if I want to go any further in my weight training goals. Of course, there's nothing like the bare floor for classic push-ups and crunches.

And last but not least, my treadmill. Me and this baby have a contentious relationship, but honestly this right here is the real key to my success at staying in shape. This is my second machine, as the first one finally gave up the ghost earlier last year. It's a beaut! I run 4 miles two days a week, and then 6 miles on Sundays. Once in a blue moon I switch to running 3 miles every single day for 2 months straight, just to mix things up.

The real boon of having a treadmill, though,  is two-fold: 1) I get to set it at a steep incline for a real burning workout; and 2) Probably the most important part -- I get to watch tv while I run! Don't laugh, you wouldn't believe how fast time flies when you run while watching an engrossing nature program or history documentary.

So there you have it! These are the things I spend the majority of my time doing. I love having a big apartment that I get to do whatever I want in. And as you can see, why would I ever seek to venture outdoors? Sure, I do get out quite a bit when the mood strikes me. But really, this is where I'd rather be almost all the time.

I know years from now, when we're living in our house and maybe have little ones running around, that I'll look back on the time we lived in this nice little apartment and feel a twinge of nostalgia. So, here's to having pics for posterity!

Poster Plagiarization, Redux

If you recall back in August, I addressed the issue of promotional billboards copying each other as of late. In particular with regards to the new (at the time) movie posters for Jennifer's Body, which were disturbingly similar to the promotional art for HBO's vampire series, True Blood. You can click on the posting here to refresh your memory.

Well, now it seems we're back at it again. This time between two popular genre tv shows. A poster for the upcoming and final season of ABC's Lost has been released, biting off the same Da Vinci's "Last Supper" motif which Battlestar Galactica used for the promotional art going into its own final season. Jeez, people, can you put a little more originality into this? Check out both posters for yourself:

Now, I give credit to Battlestar here. Yes, The Last Supper is an original piece of art from the man who put the Renaissance into "renaissance man" himself, Leonardo Da Vinci. But BSG was making an obvious parallel here given the direction the plot of the overall series had been steering for the past couple of seasons. And after actually watching the final season, the allegory of the Battlestar poster makes literal sense, too.

Not so with the Lost poster on top. Given what we know of the story so far on Lost, the allegory in this case is rather ham-fisted and silly. Yes, we get it, Locke is the deus-ex-machina of the show. He tries so hard to be the "Jesus" guy with all the answers and who will save civilization. But I always got the feeling that he's really the butt of some terrible cosmic joke. We shall see what really happens once the season gets under way, of course. But, really, I think the poster is just lazy PR once again. Just like with the Jennifer's Body ad. I think someone on the Lost PR account was so enamored with the BSG poster, that they just *HAD* to join in on the fun and steal some of that thunder.

Blech! I hate the Lost poster. It's so cheesy looking. But worse yet, it's blatantly biting off Battlestar Galactica, one of the finest sci-fi tv shows of all time. The BSG ad is dramatic and kind of foreboding. The Lost one, it's just goofy! If I didn't know better, seeing this artwork, I would think that Lost was a comedy of sorts. Wouldn't you?

Do Movie Posters Plagiarize, Too?

Somehow this escaped my notice, but seeing as how I'm such a big fan of HBO's True Blood vampire series (based on the Charlaine Harris novels), I should have spotted it sooner. Has anyone seen the movie poster for Megan Fox's latest flick, Jennifer's Body? It's a complete, straight up, jacked rip-off of the Season 1 True Blood poster. Seeing as how the latter was pasted up on every single corner you turned leading up to the show's September 7th premiere last summer, it's kind of hard not to think this was done intentionally by the movie's marketing team. But why be so obvious? The two have absolutely no connection, and True Blood's poster is still very fresh in the minds of fans. Not the least of which is because the just released DVD box set of the first season uses the very same image on the box art.

Anyway, see for yourself:

JENNIFER'S BODY:





TRUE BLOOD:




Wow, that took like no ounce of imagination whatsoever. The only thing removed is the fangs. And of course, the tongue is on the opposite side. Yeah, no one will notice NOW.

Of course, some people might not know this, but both posters are actually paying homage to the original Angelina Jolie cover story photo in an issue of Entertainment Weekly back in 2003, famously shot by Martin Schoeller:




Hmmm, are there copyrights on photographic material? How much are you allowed to get away with? I feel the True Blood poster--when it came out last year--was a cool little nod to the Jolie pic. But this Jennifer's Body poster is a blatant ripoff of the True Blood art. As much as I want to see the movie (almost only because it's Megan Fox--hey!), this type of unoriginality has me thinking twice.

What do you think?

A Hairy Subject . . .

I gotta see this simply because it's a Chris Rock documentary by his own entertainment shingle, but it seems rather interesting, too.

It's a heated subject in certain circles, actually--this concept of "good hair." Of course I have my own opinion, which can be summed up as: everybody has a right to prescribe to and maintain their own definition of beauty. Whether that definition is informed by the media or not is inconsequential, given that both men and women adhere to certain other cosmetic ideals that are influenced by outside factors anyway.

But to put it more flippantly: relaxing one's hair or adding extensions is no different than fake lashes, hair coloring, high heels, or mascara. All of these are items used to "enhance" the natural feminine form and present a package that is not what one was born with, but fits within society's concept of what is attractive. You can't criticize the one and then practice the other. So, keep this in mind black women out there. Hell, white women too!

On a personal note, long dark hair is my definition of beauty on a woman. Whether it comes natural or through chemicals, I don't care. It would be nice if women didn't have to use chemicals in their hair--even if it means *gasp* using a weave--but until the day comes when ALL cosmetics are banned outright (yeah, right!), critics of this practice should enjoy a steaming hot cup of STFU and go about their own business. Unless your personal definition of beauty is to go au naturale, in which case: I applaud you.

And this also applies to men as well. Some men use makeup and hair products. Not yours truly, of course *ahem*. But I'm sure my deodorant, cologne, and contact lenses loosely qualify as aesthetic enhancements--i.e., cosmetics.

Anyway, check out the trailer above for "Good Hair," which was co-written and produced by Rock. It's even won an award at this year's Sundance Film Festival, and was nominated for another. It has HBO attached to it, so I'm sure I'll be seeing it on my cable channel in the near future.

The King Is Gone, Long Live The King!

I wasn't going to do one of these, because I think there are enough blogger tributes out there that mine won't be adding anything that hasn't already been said. But you know what? Screw it! I'm an 80s kid, and Michael was a huge, inseparable part of that era. If I had money, I would have a dedicated 80s room in my mansion -- complete with neon glow, Ms. Pac-man and Donkey Kong arcade cabinets, a pizza parlor . . . and MJ's Off The Wall, Thriller and Bad albums playing non-stop rotation through artfully set up boomboxes in Dolby Surround! I mean, YEAH!!!!

A lot of people consider Bad to be the better album, but not me. I remember listening to the title track off the Thriller album when I was just 6 years old, at a friend's birthday party that was more for the adults than the kids. The album had just released and, although I was so young, I remember being able to follow the lyrics and subsequently scaring the beejeebus out of myself! And to a 6 year old boy, that's just RAD, man!!!

There's not one song off the Thriller album I don't love. And while the same is almost true of both Off The Wall and Bad, to me Thriller most perfectly captures the pulse of the 80s -- a time period that has grown to almost mythic-quality in my nostalgia.

This is a sad, sad day for me. I feel sick to my stomach. RIP, Michael! You truly were an icon of your time.

I'll be listening to my specially designed MJ playlist all day today at work. If I can make it through without choking up, that is.

That New Quentin Tarantino Flick . . .

OMG, I'm so excited to see this movie! Quentin Tarantino's next flick is coming out late this summer, and the first trailer just aired this week. The film's called Inglourious Basterds [sic] starring Brad Pitt, amongst many other notable faces. At first I was put off by the idea of Pitt being in a Tarantino production. For some reason, the two didn't seem a right fit. I like Brad's work, don't get me wrong, but really?

Anyway, this trailer has proved me wrong. I can see the genius behind casting Mr. Jolie now. I should have known to leave it to my man Quentin to know what the hell he's doing! And, hey, from a purely marketing viewpoint it works as well. I mean, how many more women will turn up now? Probably a heck of a lot more than usual for Tarantino, I can tell you that much.

Anyway, here's your trailer:



The film is looking like a cross between a typical World War II Nazi flick, and a Spaghetti Western. Yeah, imagine that. Quirky, but we are talking QT here. I mean, what'd you expect? (heh, heh)

Ha-Ha -- My 80s Cartoon Inner Geek Smiles!

Sometimes--just sometimes--YouTube has something truly geeky and amazing to behold. This my friends . . . this is that time! :)

Someone went ahead and, as a purely technical exercise, constructed a fictitious trailer for a fake live-action Thundercats movie. For those of you who do not know the awesome animated greatness that was the Thundecats series -- it was pretty much the be all and end all of existence for little 8 and 9 year old boys in the mid 80s like my brother and I.

Well, this ingenious person or persons spliced together a bunch of clips from various recent movies like: Pitch Black, Lord of the Rings, Troy, Planet of the Apes, Chronicles of Riddick, Farscape, Stargate, and a few more I can't quite place but know I've seen. The faces were superimposed with gimpy Thundercats F/X makeup, but it still works somehow. I mean, check it out for yourself. Kudos to whoever is behind this. You will go far in Hollywood someday, methinks.

And while I'm not particularly itching for a live-action Thundercats movie to be made (my childhood would be raped yet again, I fear), I confess I did suffer a minor geekasm watching this!

Enjoy.

Has Someone Been Raiding My DVD Cabinet?

As some of you know, I'm a huge China buff. I love the country, the people, the language, the art, the music, the literature, etc. And I especially love its movies--both the dramatic and the wu-xia varieties. I like the serious and the action-y stuff alike!

Recently, however, I've been expanding my tastes to include other Asian cultures. Japan was a natural, followed by Korea. But now I'm totally hooked on India, too! While still not a terribly huge fan of Bollywood-type movies, I do in fact enjoy the music a lot. I've been on a serious Indian DVD watching fix since the beginning of this year, collecting the ones I like and scoping the music of the films from various sources both on the web and in the stores.

Well, seems like someone has made a movie just for me, and it's being called: Chandni Chowk To China. It's sort of a zany East meets . . . er, further East mismatch. Bollywood meets Chinese Kung-fu comedy -- a wickedly fun looking actioner in the vein of Stephen Chow! I had no idea this movie was being made, but now I MUST watch it when it hits stateside. Thank god I live in NYC, where I always have access to limited release art-house and foreign films. Sweet!

Check out the trailer for yourself. Oh, and the movie will have Gordon Liu playing the villain. You don't get any more awesome than having the original Master Killer of the 36 Chambers in your movie. I'd pay full admission just on this fact alone!

Well, I Caved And Bought It!

A while ago I posted an entry here about a DVD box set dilemma I was having. I'm still up in the air about the Fraggle Rock box set, but I finally bowed to the pressures of consumerism and purchased the Blu-ray HD dvd set of the Planet of the Apes. Because, you know, I care so much about our economy that I thought I'd give it a little boost. Yeah.

This set commemorates the 40th anniversary of the original film starring Charlton Heston. It also contains the 4 sequels as well. And since this is a collectors' set, it comes with a hefty and very, very nice 200-page production booklet. Oh, and the box art/construction is pretty SWEET, too! Take a look:

I don't know when I'll get the chance to watch this, tho. Probably during my 2-week Xmas vacation I'm taking starting on the 2oth. I plan to be busy during my time off, but I should have free time at night at least to sit back and watch a movie or two. It will be a luxury for me.

Hooray HBO! I Knew You Could Do It!

Finally! It took them nearly two years from acquiring the rights to George R. R. Martin's acclaimed fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire, but HBO has finally greenlit the production of the first book in the series, A Game of Thrones, for their original lineup. Variety.com announced the details earlier this week, so check out the link if you want the full scoop.

I'm ecstatic! This is the best set of fantasy books since Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. Trust me, I don't deliver such praise lightly. The funny thing is, ASoIaF doesn't actually delve so much on tried and true fantasy tropes as most books of this ilk do. There are no elves, barely any magic at all, and dragons (for the most part) are only mentioned in songs. There are giants and ghouls and all sorts of weird, crazy things in this world though. But they're kept behind a massive protection wall, sort of like what China tried to do with the invading Mongolian hordes (and look how well that worked out for 'em!)

The series, instead, deals primarily with internecine and devious strategies between several vying factions and kingdoms, all jockeying for control of the high throne. Hence, the title of the first book, A Game of Thrones. For me, this is the series' best selling point--it's sorta like The Godfather/Sopranos meets King Arthur! In fact, not unlike HBO's previous series, Rome, now that I think of it. Clearly the network has a keen love of the twisted power-play theme for their shows, and in this case Martin's books will fit right in.

Now that the show's been greenlit, fans can breathe a collective sigh of relief. A script for the pilot has been written, and so hopefully this means we can see an air date of sometime in 2010, although early 2011 would be my best guess. I can wait. Maybe in that time the author can *finally* deliver his latest book in the series, A Dance With Dragons, which fans have been waiting on now for going on 5 years!

There's A Black Panther TV Show?

As my grandma would say: Slap me silly and call me Shirley!

I don't know how this news slipped by me, but apparently at this summer's San Diego Comicon, Marvel announced plans to bring its Black Panther property to the BET network as the channel's first prime time adult animated series. The tv show will hit the air sometime in Feb. 2009.

And just this week IGN.com reported that actor Djimon Hounsou will be voicing the famed Wakandan king turned superhero, which I think is just all sorts of awesome! I mean, DAMN, this is just the guy to get for the role!

Wow, this is so exciting! I've been waiting a long time for Marvel to finally get around to this, although personally I was hoping more along the lines of a movie deal. And starring Wesley Snipes, of course. Since Wesley is currently playing the stupid rich black man role in tax-evasion prison, I guess that will have to wait.

But in the meantime, this is the next best thing. I'm hoping for something along the lines of HBO's animated Spawn series over a decade ago, or even Spike TV's Afro Samurai mini from last year. So far, though, the details are looking good.

Apparently the show will spring directly from the most recent incarnation of the BP comic series as penned by Reginald Hudlin and drawn by John Romita, Jr. Hudlin also happens to be BET's "Entertainment President" at the moment, and the man responsible for bringing the show to the network. Right now it seems the show's run will directly follow the first six issues of the recent comic line, before going off to tell its own story. The art style is being strongly reflective of Romita's artwork, recreating the artist's look for the television screen.

From what I've seen of the teaser trailer (voiced before Hounsou came on board), it appears they've captured the look and feel of the comics perfectly. In fact, it's uncanny! Take a look for yourself:

Box Set Dilemma -- And More Fraggles!

Those of you reading this thing semi-regularly may be aware of my recent run-in with Fraggle Rock related issues. If not, click here and here for a refresher. Seems I can 't get away from the little buggers now. And to make matters worse, I just learned of a GARGANTUAN box set release of the entire show on DVD!

That's 20 discs of Fraggle mayhem, folks! I mean, my god, how tempting *is* this? And it's not really that bad of a price for such a huge haul -- only 90 bucks on Amazon.com. I want so badly to ask for this for Christmas, but there are so many box sets that, to my chagrin, I've also discovered on Amazon. It must be that time of year I suppose, because already my bank account is screaming at me.

Case in point:

Exhibit A

Exhibit B


Seriously, how can I resist? The Planet of the Apes complete movie collection is especially sweet because it is on Blu-ray. But then, Batman: The Animated Series is the greatest cartoon show of all time.

Surely the solution is simple, no? I must BUY THEM ALL!!!!

Haha, no. I wish I could, but I can't. If I really, really could only choose one . . . I'd have to go with my buddy, the Dark Knight.

Yeah, that's what I'll do.

And yet . . .

Thems Folk In Nippon Sho Iz Trippin!!!

In more wacky entertainment news from the Land of the Rising Sun -- oh wait, is there any other kind? -- seems some folks at the WB have gotten creative with the soon-to-be-released Blu-ray edition of the Ultimate Matrix collection. The set will consist of 7 discs, 4 of which will be the high-definition Blu-ray versions of the 3 movies, plus the Animatrix shorts. With the remaining 3 discs consisting of standard definition "making of" documentaries. Since I already have the Ultimate Collection on standard DVD, I would normally pass on this.

But that's just the tip of the iceberg! Because included with this set is a 2-foot scale model of Morpheus's ship, the Nebuchadnezzar, which collectors may use to store the discs in lieu of the standard storage box that's also included.

Of course, I would *never* collect something as gaudy as this, but you have to admit it's pretty damn sweet if you're into this sort of swag. And those worrying about the movies playing here in the U.S., don't. Although this set is only being offered in Japan, WB's Blu-ray movies share the same region coding in both Nippon and North America. So if, like me, you own a PS3 and you find yourself with an overwhelming desire to get your Neo on while rocking out aboard the Neb (in your acid-trip dreams, at least), then this set will bring you that much closer to your goal.

You can find the original scoop over at Gizmodo.com.