The Men Who Stare at Goats

The defining joke of The Men Who Stare at Goats is this: The organisation that's exploring the military application of psychic ability calls itself the Jedi. One of their members (George Clooney) wants Ewan McGregor to join them.

If you're rolling around on the floor right now and almost passing out because the laughter's keeping you from breathing, then you should go see The Men Who Stare at Goats right away. If, on the other hand, you're thinking, "Heh. That's kind of cute, but it's really not that funny," then you know how I felt for an hour-and-a-half in the theater last night.

The best part of the experience was the realization - thanks to that moustache - that George Clooney would make a great Thomas Magnum if they ever decided to make a movie based on that show. But then I realized that that'll never happen and I was disappointed all over again.

Two out of five hippie warriors.

And Now the News: Try to control the panic

Cave Girl vs. Skull Heads



Those skull-headed guys are the coolest jungle villains ever. [The Comic Book Catacombs]

Given enough prep time...



The old maxim goes that given enough prep time, Batman can defeat anyone. Diamondrock proves though that Batman doesn't need no prep time. He's always ready.

Drake Bacula: MonSTAR



Brandon Terrell (Horrorwood) has found a new way to combine his love of horror with his love of Hollywood in a new chapter book about a child-star vampire. It's targeted at grades K-3, which means that I'm totally getting this for the boy.

Death Day



Sam Hiti (Tiempos Finales) is serializing his new graphic novel Death Day on his website before offering it for print. I say this as someone who loved Tiempos Finales, but from the first two chapters, this is the best thing Sam's ever done. It's eerie and mysterious and exciting. And free. Please go give it a look.

Aurora of Jupiter



Go get that space monster, Aurora! [Pappy's Golden Age]

Elsewhere on the Internets...

Here's what else I've been up to online lately...

Amazon Princess



Wonder Woman slots, the art of Greg Horn, and panties.

What Are You Reading?



A few words about the great start to Greg Rucka and Matthew Southworth's new detective series.

Gorillas Riding Dinosaurs



January's pile of adventure comics will include Bigfoot vs. cowboy cannibals, a talking cat detective, funny animal Frankenstein, an Elvis impersonator, vampire reporters, Victorian escape artists, robots vs. dinosaurs, a WWII pilot in medieval armor, a haunted house, a kid in a cow costume, a burnt and half-mechanical Pinocchio, and a samurai rodent. Gonna be a good month.

Amazons and Nazi Gold

The jungle girl story I wrote for When Drive-Ins Attack has been posted in its entirety at Dread Central. It's free, so go check it out!

Hell Cow

While it's true that the Cownt is the world's best vampire cow, he isn't the first. That distinction goes to Hell Cow from Howard the Duck, whom you can read all about at Daily Scans.

I am SUCH a nerd

So, one of the guys at work is married to a woman from Latvia. He mentioned earlier in the week that she was going back for a visit, so when he got off the phone with her today and told me, "The eagle has landed," I knew what he meant.

"She made it okay to Latveria?" I said, completely unaware of the slip.

He just stared at me, obviously trying to figure out where the heck Latveria is.

At which point I realized my mistake and had to shamefully explain that I'd honestly mixed up his wife's homeland with the fictional kingdom ruled by Doctor Doom.

Yeesh.

Eastwick RIP

So, Eastwick's been cancelled and I'm a little bummed about it. Especially since there won't be any closure in the final episode. I'll still be tuning in until the end though, because more than the mysteries of the show, I really like its tone and the characters. It's not my favorite new show of the season (that would be Modern Family) or even my favorite new one-hour drama (White Collar), but I enjoyed my weekly trips to the Stars Hollow-like town of Eastwick and watching these funny, attractive women try to unbury the local mysteries.

It's been a long time since I've seen the 1987 movie The Witches of Eastwick, but I don't remember being that impressed by it. My recollection is that it was more about the star power of its actors than it was about telling a satisfying story. It had a cool concept though, so I was immediately interested in a TV show with lesser-known actors and the same basic plot. The trick was going to be finding someone who could play Darryl Van Horne with as much charisma as Jack Nicholson, but without directly imitating him. Fortunately, Eastwick nailed it with Paul Gross. He's convincing at both scary and charming, often at the same time.

As for the girls, I've only just now realized that they aren't playing the same characters from the movie (or the John Updike novel). They're similar, but their names are different and their occupations, life circumstances, and even their personalities seem to have been tossed in a blender and redistributed. Which was all for the better, I think, because it keeps the whole thing fresh instead of a rehash of a 22-year old film that I didn't like that much to begin with.

When I mentioned being more interested in the characters than the mystery though, I wasn't implying that the mysteries are uninteresting. It's been a lot of fun watching the women try to figure out who Darryl is and what his relationship to Eastwick (and a previous trio of local women) is really all about. I'm sorry I'm not going to learn the answers.

But yeah... more than that, I'm sorry not to get to hang out with these characters anymore.

And Now the News: The Wreckage of a Woman's Soul

Still catching up on some old news...

The Deep Blue Goodbye



20th Century Fox is adapting John D MacDonald's novel about houseboat-dwelling private eye Travis McGee and some lost treasure in the Florida Keys. Leonardo DiCaprio is attached to star.

Pirates 4 Updates



Turns out, it is an adaptation of Tim Powers' novel as suspected. Powers and screenwriter Terry Rossio shed some light on why that news was slow in coming, explaining that Disney pretty much had to buy the novel because they were planning to do a movie about pirates looking for the Fountain of Youth. It sounds like that's where the similarities end, but Powers speculates that Barbosa may be standing in for Blackbeard from the book. And indeed, Geoffrey Rush has been signed to reprise that role.

Meanwhile, there's some cause for concern that Johnny Depp's enthusiasm for doing the film has been lessened by the departure of the Disney chairman who originally brought Depp on board.

Tarzan the Spy



The Double-O Section has a great look at how '60s Bond-mania temporarily influenced everyone's favorite jungle hero. You need to click through just to see Tarzan firing a machine-gun Rambo-style.

The Conspirator



I'd like to pretend that I'm excited about The Contender because it's about Lincoln's assassination and I'm always interested in learning more about that. But really I'm more excited because Rory's going to be in it.

The Asylum's Sherlock Holmes



You may have heard that there's going to be a big deal Sherlock Holmes movie coming out pretty soon. Which of course means that there's going to be a cheapo Asylum knock-off to go with it. I should remind everyone at this point that even though the poster promises dinosaurs, dragons, and some sort of giant cephalopod, the chances of being satisfied by the actual presentation of Holmes' fighting these creatures is very slim.

Not that the Asylum can't make entertaining movies. They can. But those are rare and it's best to go into them with some skepticism.

Speaking of which...



I guess the Asylum's getting a good headstart on Andrew Stanton's John Carter of Mars movie. With Traci Lords as Dejah Thoris, no less.

Refuge



Sam Raimi's making a Yeti film. [Illustration by Doug Bell.]

Thor movie update



They've cast Sif and Odin. I don't know anything about Jaimie Alexander, but I'm thrilled to see Anthony Hopkins as Odin.

And Now the News: Hooker with a Heart of Gold

Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs, & Chanteys



I appreciate a good pirate band at the local Renaissance Festival. I'll even buy their CDs if they're cool enough. But that's not what this is. This is 43 pirate songs by folks like Nick Cave, Lou Reed, and Bryan Ferry. This is something that just went into my Amazon shopping cart.

Asgarda



Not sure how real this is, but it's a story about a Carpathian tribe of modern-day Amazons. And that is the coolest sentence I will type this week. [Boing Boing via Rose and Isabel]

Ghost Town Gallery



Ransom Riggs has a great collection of photos from what's left of the old mining boomtown of Bodie, California. It's spooky and exciting and full of cool history. I wonder if Rosa May, a town whore who died after nursing some men through a pneumonia epidemic, was a distant relation.

20 Movies That are Better Than the Books



There's only one movie on the list that I've also read the book for, so I can't speak to most of the entries. Especially since the write-ups for each don't go into detail about what makes the movies better. But I do agree with that one entry. As much as I enjoyed Tolkien as a teenager, Peter Jackson's movies are an improvement.

Arabian Nights movie

It's doubtful that the new Arabian Nights movie in the works will ever make that list. The description does make it sound pretty lowbrow. Instead of Scheherazade's cleverly saving her own skin with a series of stories, she'll be the damsel-in-distress as an unnamed hero teams up with Sinbad, Aladdin, and the genie to rescue her.

I think that there could be a way of making that plot work on its own terms, but as an adaptation, particularly seen from a feminist viewpoint, that completely sucks.

I had to laugh when /Film described it as "Rob Leifeld’s version of the story," and was further amused (though also slightly horrified) when they noted that that had already been done and linked to the Adventureblog as proof. I still stand by my assertion that Dan Wickline's story in Zenescope's Sinbad series was a lot of fun, but I do get the Leifeld comparison in regards to some of the art.

Christmas is coming

And I totally want this shower. Hint hint. [Brother Cal]

The Return of Futura



Finally, I'm very excited that Sleestak is going to be posting some more Futura comics. As he describes it:

Futura is the story of a secretary kidnapped by aliens in order to provide superior genetic material for their dying race. Futura, however, rebels and escapes her captors, vowing to make her way in the cosmos while fighting to bring down the evil masters of the galaxy.

He's also indexed the links to his first eight entries in the saga, so go get caught up!

The ABCs of Awesome

Since finishing that huge music meme, there's a hole in my Sunday blogging. Not sure what I'll eventually fill it with, but for today, I've totally gacked this idea from Cal.

Apes



Barbarians (fighting Apes)



Cephalopods



Detectives



Elasmosaurus



Frankenstein's Monster



Giant Things



Head Kicks



Islands



Jungle Queens



Keira Knightley



Lost Civilizations



Musketeers



Namora



Obelisks



Pirates



Quetzalcoatl



Ray Guns



Space Girls (with Ray Guns)



Treasure



Underwater Cities



Valkyries



Wonder Woman



X-Ray Vision



Yeti



Zorro