The Expendables Test Screening

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Ok, the reviews for a test screening of The Expendables have started appearing on-line. Most have been overwhelmingly positive. Here are some examples of comments posted with links so you can read the full review:

Ethelmae said: :… THE ACTION IS C R A Z Y!!!… Mickey Rourke steals every scene he is in … Sly and Jason Statham create an on screen chemistry we haven’t seen in many a moon…

Sir Steve said:… We all knew this film had the greatest action stars of all time in one film together… Stallone has written a script that gives plenty of bits to every Expendable… Stallone — He’s in virtually every scene as the ringleader, but I was impressed by how he kind of hangs back and lets all of these other great action stars play out their roles… I was cheering and pumping my fists with the rest of the crowd.

The Recruiter said:… Two standout action scenes are also worth mentioning: The first was a pier full of baddies getting blown to bits as the result of some creative airplane flying from Stallone and Statham, and the other is the ending siege on the standard issue bad guy fortress…The last “good” item I’ll mention is the hyped cameos from Bruce Willis and the Governator.

Sly even had some thoughts on the test screening that he discussed with Harry at AICN and you can read ’em here.

Girlfriend 1.0

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I found this over at MissCelina.com and thought it was funny enough to pass along…

Dear Technical Support,

18 months ago, I upgraded to Girlfriend 1.0 from Drinking Mates 4.2, which I had used for years without any trouble. However, there are apparently conflicts between these two products and the only solution was to try and run Girlfriend 1.0 with the sound turned off.

To make matters worse, Girlfriend 1.0 is incompatible with several other applications, such as LadsNight Out 3.1, Rugby 4.5, and Playboy 6.9. Successive versions of GirlFriend proved no better.

I tried a shareware program, Slapper 2.1, but it had many bugs and left a virus in my system, forcing me to shut down completely for several weeks.

Eventually, I tried to run GirlFriend 1.2 and Girlfriend 1.0 at the same time, only to discover that when these two systems detected each other they caused severe damage to my hardware.

I eventually upgraded to Fiance 1.0, only to discover that this product soon had to be upgraded further to Wife 1.0. While Wife 1.0 tends to use up all my available resources, it does come bundled with FreeSe*Plus and Cleanhouse2005.

Shortly after this upgrade, however, I found that Wife 1.0 could be very unstable and costly to run. Any mistakes I made were automatically stored in Wife 1.0’s memory and could not be deleted. They then resurfaced months later when I had forgotten about them. Wife 1.0 also has an automatic Diary, Explorer and E-mail filter, and can, without warning, launch TurboStrop and Multi-Whinge. These latter products have no Help files, and I have to try to guess what the problem is.

Additional problems are that Wife 1.0 needs updating regularly, requiring ShoeShop Browser for new attachments and Hairstyle Express which needs to be reinstalled every other week. Also, when Wife 1.0 attaches itself to my Saab 93 Convertible hard drive, it often crashes. Wife 1.0 also comes with an irritating pop-up called MotherInLaw, which can’t be turned off.

Recently I’ve been tempted to install Mistress 2005, but there could be problems. A friend of mine has alerted me to the fact that if Wife 1.0 detects Mistress 2005, it tends to delete all of your assets before uninstalling itself.

Help requested please?

Ortiz vs Coleman

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Last night during Mark Coleman’s live post fight interview following his loss to Randy Couture, Tito Ortiz approached the cage and yelled, “Payback’s a ***** mother*****!”  Reportedly, Ortiz’s girlfriend, former porn star Jenna Jameson, who was with Ortiz, also shot the middle finger to Coleman.  Of course, Coleman responded by calling Ortiz names and saying he’d fight him anytime.

So, is it bad blood or bad hype?

Ortiz and Coleman were scheduled to fight at UFC 106, before Coleman had to pull out due to injury.  Ortiz is now scheduled to fight Chuck Liddell at the conclusion of the next season of The Ultimate Fighter.  So, is Ortiz simply prepping a fight to follow or does he really dislike Coleman?   When Coleman had to pull out of their fight, Ortiz did badmouth him.  That prompted Coleman’s manager to respond with some pretty nasty things about Ortiz’s girl.

So, is it bad blood or bad hype?

I’m not really sure, but played right, it could make for an interesting fight.

Comic Twart

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Here’s an idea for a website.  Round up sixteen top-notch artists like…

Have one of the artists pick a character for all of them to draw.  Post the drawings as they are completed.  Wait a week and do it all over again.  That’s exactly what happens at Comic Twart.

So far we’ve been treated to their riffs on Zorro, The Rocketeer and Torpedo.  I can’t wait to see what next week will bring.  Heck, truth to tell, I’m excited about what will be posted tomorrow.  I’ll bet you will be to, if you spend a few minutes checking out Comic Twart.

“The Walking Dead” Moves Closer

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Patrick Sauriol at Coming Attractions has posted an exclusive review of Frank Darabont’s pilot script for AMC’s “The Walking Dead”.  Darabont, who will also be directing the pilot is perhaps best known for his work as the screenwriter/director of “The Shawshank Redepmption”, “The Green Mile” and “The Mist”.

Saurol’s review is extremely positive and the following paragraph gives the best indication of why he thinks “The Walking Dead” will be a great series:

Contained in Darabont’s 60-page pilot script are all the elements to make the show a success. There’s plenty of horror that happens in those 60 pages. The director’s script covers the broad range of the zombie horror emotional spectrum, such as giving us moments of extreme gore (hey, any zombie TV show wouldn’t be a zombie show if it didn’t have folks being munched on!), moments of shock value (hey, you didn’t think that there was a zombie hiding behind that car, did you?) and the moments that I believe are the best indicator that The Walking Dead TV series has what it takes to transcend the boundaries of being simply labelled a horror show, the psychological horror scenes. Those scenes are the hammers that you’re going to remember and the ones that are going to propel this show to be viewed as something more important than just a scary show.

You can read the full piece by clicking here.

As a long-time fan of “The Walking Dead” comic series, I’m psyched as the television adaption moves closer and closer to my tv screen.

Dick Giordano’s Demolition Man #6

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Dick Giordano, the comics legend is back! During his fifty plus years in the biz he’s done everything from ink all the greats (including himself) to serve as Editor-in-Chief of DC Comics, to co-founding his own comic company.

I had the good fortune to pick up six model sheet headsketches of Sly that Mr. Giodano did before starting work on DC Comics adaptation of “Demolition Man”. This is the sixth. To see all of the other headsketches, click here.

Hang the Batman

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I’ve always liked this drawing of Batman.  It was pencilled by Mike Nasser [aka Mike Netzer] and inked by Joe Rubinstein with colors by Cory Adams.  The art appeared as a panel in a comic story written by David V. Reed called “Hang the Batman” which was part of Batman Spectacular, Summer 1978.

As a kid, I loved those big comic anthologies.  You always got more bang for your buck!  The Batman Spectacular, Summer 1978 also featured a Marshall Rogers cover; “I Now Pronounce You Batman and Wife” comic story written by Denny O’Neil with art by Michael Golden, and a prose story by Denny O’Neil called “Death Strikes at Midnight and Three” with spot illustrations by Marshall Rogers.

At any rate, I’ve always liked this drawing of Batman.  I hope you do as well.

Avery Cates on the Silver Screen

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I’ve been on the Jeff Somers bandwagon since before I even read his first Avery Cates’ novel,  The Electric Church.  It was described as “Blade Runner meets The Dirty Dozen, with a dash of Sergio Leone” and that was enough to check it out.  I read the first chapter for free and then discovered Jeff Somers’ blog. I then ordered The Electric Church and totally loved it.  It’s hard to believe, but I dug the next Avery Cates’ novel, The Digital Plaque even more!  The third in the series, The Eternal Prison, was another fine addition.

Today it was announced that Sony Pictures has picked up movie rights to the Avery Cates series.  Congrats to Jeff Sumers [who should take a day to celebrate and then get back to work on the next Avery Cates adventure]!

Dave’s New Deal: Everyone is a Winner

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Less than a week ago, I wrote about a neat idea that Dave Wachter had to encourage folks to make a donation to aid the people of Haiti.  Dave was doing a raffle for free drawings to anyone who donated to Doctors Without Borders to aide earthquake victims in Haiti.  Several people took Dave up on his offer and some of the raffle winners’ art has started to show up on his blog.

Today Haiti was hit with another devastating earthquake.  They’re going to need help more than ever so Dave decided to make a new offer to those considering a donation to help the Haiti relief effort:

NEW DEAL: No more raffle, everyone gets a sketch

That’s right EVERYONE who makes a donation to Doctors Without Borders and sends a copy of the receipt to Dave will get a FREE SKETCH CARD.  Click HERE to read Dave’s post.

It’s a cliche that the worst times bring out the best in people.  It’s also true.  If you can spare a few bucks or more, why not send some to help the folks in Haiti?   You’ll feel good and get a great drawing for your troubles.  And if you believe in karma, you’ll earn some points… you know Dave should surely have some good mojo heading his way!