"Totally Studly"

Never one to avoid the risk of seeming geeky, the title to this post references Pit-Fighter, one of the first arcade beat-'em-ups to use digitised video of people for in-game graphics (long before Mortal Kombat), which would use the above phrase to describe any victory.

But why choose this phrase to begin a post?

For no other reason that to lead into a brief review of Zack Snyder's cinematic interpretation of Frank Miller's 300, which I saw at London's IMAX cinema this last weekend.

The movie has had its share of bad press. Some folks have described it - bizarrely - as 'Fascist propaganda'... quite how they reach this conclusion is anyone's guess. Most likely (a) they have no idea what Fascism is, (b) they have no idea what propaganda is and/or (c) they didn't actually bother watching the film. Nevertheless, it stormed the US box office.

It's not hard to see why... Mr Snyder executes (pun intended) the movie with aplomb. Sure, he rips off 'bullet time', but he does so to frame a moment, and to display it as it was in the graphic novel. Yes, it's graphically ultra-violent, but it tells the story of a war where superior numbers were battered back time and time again by a small but very determined force. That said, I preferred Snyder's Sin City as a movie and 300 does, on occasion, veer dangerously close to style-over-substance. Xerxes was portrayed as more than a little camp and one of his dialogues with Leonidas is basically a long stream of double entendres which would have been perfectly innocent if he didn't look like a seven foot tall drag queen. The experience was summed up for me when, as I was leaving the theatre, a father said to his son "It's probably more of a boys movie than a grown-ups movie."

OK - just to get it out of the way, you understand - other things that must be said about 300:
Beeeeeeeeefcaaaaaaaaaaaake (not that I ever watched South Park if I could avoid it)
Manboobs
"Pass the baby oil"

In other news, I have a new watch. Yes, WatchCam has been usurped. The bloody thing kept crashing and, frankly, until Casio come out with a version of their software that bypasses XP's nasty habit of commandeering the IR port and not letting go, it's next to useless to me anyway.

So, what manner of gadget-laden watch do I sport now? Erm, actually it's just a watch. It tells the time. With hands. It does show the date, and it does glow at the touch of a button, but that's it. And it has a leather strap which is so darned comfortable, I can almost forget I'm wearing it... a huge improvement on the implement of torture that was the second-hand metal strap that went onto WatchCam after the original broke.

I managed to get through the rest of Saturday without buying anything (other than dinner). Curious, considering my mate Paul and I went around Forbidden Planet and two branches of Orbital Comics. At some point between now and my last visit, they split into Orbital Comics, which deals with US and UK stuff, and Orbital Manga, which deals with the Japanese stuff, including the TransFormers. This new branch was, on Saturday at least, staffed by a young woman dressed as Go-go from Kill Bill. Bonkers...

They actually had a couple of things I wouldn't mind bagging, but since I'm off to Memorabilia this coming weekend, I figured it could wait until after... Might even get a better price at the show.

On another note, some time ago - hopefully before I started this blog because I don't believe I've written about it, and it would be silly to have forgotten to write it up - I had a dream where I was running around 'Ealing' (actually more like a mirror image of a particular part of Acton, but with an added enclosed shopping centre) looking for toy shops. At one point I learned of a new one that had opened outside the shopping centre, but it had closed before I got there...

...Well, last night, I was back there. As it turned out, the place I'd thought was the toy shop was actually something else entirely (I didn't bother getting a close look in the original dream because the place was shuttered up). The toy shop was next door and, as of last night, still being fitted. I saw several people putting up shelves and bits of scenery, but the shop itself was locked up and without stock. Something tells me I'll be dreaming myself back there soon.

Work is still pretty silly, but at least I got my bonus this month. An extra 500 quid (less tax)... perfect for taking to Memorabilia.

This time, my friend and I are staying at a hotel at the NEC complex, rather than the usual nice, comfy, somewhat extravagant place, so we can actually make use of our 'early bird entry' tickets. Kinda makes the parking ticket I bought redundant but, hey. While it was rumoured that Hasbro UK would be turning events like Memorabilia into 'TransFormers Events' in the run-up to the movie, it so far seems as though the spring show is too early in the year for them. That, or Hasbro UK are a bit useless, as there's no sign of this happening so far. I'm prepared to be pleasantly surprised though.

Whether that happens or not, Memorabilia weekend is going to be a lot of fun. The only question is how early we get out of the office. The magazine going to press on Friday isn't one of mine, and the Property salesman is notorious for fucking things up at the last minute...

We shall see.