300 Reasons To Go To The Cinema

I had read Frank Miller's sublime graphic novel some months before they announced that 300 was now going to me a movie. I was overjoyed, and I knew once I started seeing the production stills and trailers that they were going to do as good a job if not better than Sin City. I created this post last October to inform the world about this event. The world listened to my recommendation and the film has recieved high praise and unprecedented box-office success.

The story of 300 is largely irrelevant, it's not Shakespere (well the last 2 minutes is but I'll explain that in a jiffy) so don't expect long protracted scenes of dialogue like you saw in Gladiator. 300 is a balls-out combat movie with the most beautiful, almost balletic battle scenes ever caught on camera. Saving Private Ryan and Gladiator had frenetic battle scenes in their own right but those scenes were confusing as to who was doing the killing and who was dying for the most part until the dust and the fine red mist settled. 300 does not have this problem and in one of the most daring directorial moves in cinematic history, director Zack Snyder actually applied slo-mo to each and every kill- nay, every stab of a Spartan or Persian weapon be it sword, spear or axe was slowed before skewering through or slicing off a multitude of body parts in a glorious sea of red.

Snyder thankfully added a few extra bits in here and there; this was a good thing and necessary as one could read the 300 Graphic Novel in less time than a movie would be so even with slowing down the battles it needed a bit more. Thankfully that extra came in to form of Queen Gorgo played by the wonderful Lena Headey, whose role was extended to include her own battle the homefront against the Spartan elders and politicians stuck to their old traditions. Her dialog was in stark contrast to that of her husband King Leonidas played by Gerard Butler who had to channel Brian Blessed in order to speak. In fact, Gorgo's speech to the Spartan council should be used by the Republican party to justify the War On Terror and could recruit more troops for OIF. Faramir, beg your pardon, Dilios' speech told at the fireside on the eve of conflict in Millers novel became a rousing call to arms on the battlefied before the charge in the movie and would not have been out of place in a Shakesperian battle scene.

I'm not going to tall you how magnificent the make-up and special effects added to this almost religious experience and how fitting the the amazing score by Tyler Bates fits this epic tale, you'll have to see it yourselves. Seldom I can say that a movie is flawless, but that tag can most certainly be applied to 300, easily one of the greatest movies of all time.
Colonel Creedon rating: *****+

French Clowns Publish X-Files

According to Wired, CNES- the French space agency, said it is making some 100,000 documents on supposed UFOs and sightings of other unexplained phenomena available publicly on the net to draw the scientific community's attention to unexplained cases and because their secrecy generated suspicions that officials were hiding something.

At a Pentagon press conference on the role of extra- terrestrial influence on the war in Iraq, Lt. Colonel "Whopper" Creedon, Special Operations Commander for the United Nations Extra Terrestrial Invasion Defence Agency was asked what he thought of the French move.

"Ah yes! CNES: Cowards, Numpties & the Effete in Space. Those irresponsible muppets and their pitiful excuse for a space program could undermine our own efforts in intelligence gathering concerning past, current and future alien incursions on our planet. The frogs have no right to publish such sensitive documents stirring up all sorts of insane conspiracy theories and becoming a breeding ground of nonsensical ideas from the misguided, demented fools who watched The X-Files. I can only hope that we treat these French documents as we would any other: recycle them as toilet paper."

Fox's 24 Performs Vital Service For War-Effort

Read this carefully and see if you draw the same conclusion I did below:

A former U.S. military interrogator in Iraq has admitted that he and his colleagues were encouraged to mimic torture techniques that they had seen in movies and TV shows -- particularly Fox's 24. In an interview with Newsweek, former U.S. Army Specialist Tony Lagouranis said that he was told by his superiors in Iraq "that the Geneva Conventions didn't apply any more. So our training was obsolete, and we were encouraged to be creative. We turned to television and movies to look for ways of interrogating." Lagouranis said that he eventually learned that the torture techniques enacted on 24 are not effective for gaining intelligence "and his success rate isn't lifelike at all. [Plus] the tactics he uses are completely illegal, under U.S. and international law." Lagouranis also told the magazine that he had recently met with the producers of 24 to discuss the issue. "I can't fault them because they're creating art, and the military is responsible for training. But we were simply asking them to think responsibly about what they're doing, and perhaps try to portray this a little bit more realistically."

LOL - Now: eventually learned that the torture techniques enacted on 24 are not effective for gaining intelligence-- which means they tried them all and they didn't work. Just thinking of what I've seen Jack Bauer do to terrorists makes me squeal with delight to think that this was done to real-life filth.

The best part is: try to portray this a little bit more realistically, which sounds to me like: "Give us ideas that will work!" Heh heh, Go Jack! Use a jig-saw on some wog this season.

Iron Man's First Week

Jon Favreau has the first week of production of Iron Man behind him. He informed me that the project is moving along well.

"We are done with the first week of photography. I am happy to report that the ten months of preparation allowed the extremely challenging first week of photography to come off without a hitch. The look is fantastic and the performances are great as well. Downey was definitely the right choice.

I'm looking forward to getting out of the "cave." The first few weeks of shooting are spent, somewhat in sequence, establishing Stark's captivity. It sets the table tonally for the rest of the film. The close quarters and tight schedule make it the toughest part of the shoot on the cast and crew."

I'm with you all the way Jon.

In other related news. I can reveal what Jeff Bridges looks like with his shaved head for his Iron Man role as Obidiah Stane!

The USS New York

It was built with 24 tons of scrap steel from the World Trade Center. It is the fifth in a new class of warship - designed for missions that include special operations against terrorists. It will carry a crew of 360 sailors and 700 combat-ready Marines to be delivered ashore by helicopters and assault craft.

Steel from the World Trade Center was melted down in a foundry in Amite, LA to cast the ship's bow section. When it was poured into the molds on Sept. 9, 2003, "those big rough steelworkers treated it with total reverence," recalled Navy Capt. Kevin Wensing, who was there. "It was a spiritual moment for everybody there."

Junior Chavers, foundry operations manager, said that when the trade center steel first arrived, he touched it with his hand and the "hair on my neck stood up. It had a big meaning to it for all of us," he said. "They knocked us down. They can't keep us down. We're going to be back."

The ship's motto? "Never Forget"

Happy Birthday MarSOC

Just the other day, members of the 1,400-strong Marine Corps Forces Special Operations Command celebrated its first anniversary during a ceremony at Camp Lejeune.

Maj. Gen. Dennis Hejlik, MarSOC commander, attached the National Defense and Global War on Terrorism service streamers to the MarSOC battle color. “This is a big day for the United States Marine Corps,” he said afterward. “We are almost at 60 percent of our total force.” The command also has about 50 percent of its required equipment, he said. The plan is to send a total of 2,600 Marines to MarSOC.

The command’s first year included the activation of the first of two planned Foreign Military Training Unit teams, as well as activations of the 1st and 2nd Marine Special Operations Battalions. Four FMTU teams have returned from deployments and the first Marine special operations company deployed with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit in January.

“We have a lot of work to do,” Hejlik said. “We have a long way to go.”

MarSOC is expected to reach full operational capability by October 2008.

District B13: Something Good From The Asshole Of Europe

The entire French nation is a blight on Europe. A cesspool populated by the most boring obnoxious wankers alive. I hate them all more than Aliens or Wogs whom I'm trained to kill...

How ironic then, it is to have those bastards produce such brilliant cinema. The French may have invented cinema yes, but because you invent something doesn't mean you have to be good at it (look at the English and their Rugby team this year).

One such French film which caught my attention back in July last was District B13 (see 2IGTV Episode 21). The Luc Besson produced film made such waves in Hollywood, introducing Parkour as a new martial arts style, that studios immediately wanted to make it their own. Besson, however, thankfully said no to a remake (he probably remembers what the yanks made him do to Taxi *shudders*).

"We're not going to do it," he said. "I don't know, I don't feel it. I'd rather do "District 13 II" with the same guys in France. But at the certain moment, there's a big studio who asked us to remake the film and I said no."

The original starred Parkour founder David Belle and Cyril Raffaelli, taking on criminals in a futuristic city using Belle's fluid art of bouncing off walls. The sequel would reunite Belle and Raffaelli, however Besson hopes for a tonal shift. "We're going to do a sequel in France. It's going to be just a little bit more funny I think."

2IGTV Episode 37

A major Battlestar Galactica character is killed off and we spoil it for everyone outside of the US because we want to discuss it - tough shit to those who don't know. Captain America died a heroes death last week, prepare yourself for an in-depth discussion about Marvel's most recent comic book event; Civil War.

In other news- Battlestar Galactica DVD movie confirmed, news on the latest Babylon 5 DVD movies, the rumour-mill for Star Trek and the future for Heroes. In technology- why doesn't iTunes work with Vista? and in politics why actor Fred Thompson might be a good GOP candidate for '08.

All this and more in 2IGTV Episode 37 here.

John Doe Blown Away! - Part 6 of my "Shoot First, Questions Never" series

Apologies for neglecting my series of stories involving "righteous kills" scored against people with no common sense.

One such muppet, an unnamed man in New Orleans was observed by National Guard members who saw him about 1 a.m. holding a hacksaw while riding a bicycle through the impoverished Lower Ninth Ward, which has been largely vacant since Hurricane Katrina. The Guard has been patrolling less populated areas of the city since June to allow the depleted police force to concentrate on areas where people have returned since the hurricane.

Right: National Guardsmen

"As the guardsmen approached the man, he produced a knife, threatening the military men and then threw a piece of broken glass at them, cutting a sergeant's arm," said Sgt. Joe Narcisse, a police spokesman in a news release. "The man ran into a rundown house, when police and guardsmen entered the house and approached the man, he pointed a BB gun that looked like a rifle at them. A Guardsman shot the man several times".

"Homicide detectives are investigating the shooting, but the guardsman, whose name was not released, appears to have acted appropriately, said Sgt. Narcisse "The dead man did not carry identification" he added.

Source: Fox News

Jeff Bridges is Obidiah Stane in Iron Man

Before I considered that Bridges was going to play Sal a mentor character from the current Iron Man run. I had considered that he would be Obidiah Stane a character from the '80s, a corporate enemy of Tony Stark whom wrested control of Stark International from Tony when he was an alcho and donned The Iron Monger battlesuit to combat Iron Man- but I dismissed that due to Stane being bald and it's not as if Jeff Jesus-hair Bridges was going to shave his head now was it?

How wrong I was...

In Fav's film, a newly smooth-headed and somewhat thinner Jeff Bridges will be Stane. The character will at least start out as a mentor of Stark's but I'd assume would turn to greed, deception and ruthlessness at some point.

Elsewhere in the world of Iron Man, Terrence Howard has been talking recently about USAF Lieutenant Colonel James "Rhody" Rhodes and how excited he's been with the movie's prep work. Apparently he gets to "land on aircraft carriers, do simulated battles and go up in the F-15s in Las Vegas for a month to train with these guys." Already he's waiting for a sequel so he can don the War Machine armour ( a black and silver version of the Iron Man armour with rockets and shoulder-mounted miniguns that Rhody wears in the comic book) "That's what I'm looking for, [but] depending on the success of the first one, War Machine [won't be in until] the second one," Howard said. "[It's cool] because when I create my own War Machine stuff, I put some extra artillery on there." Glad to know he's enthusiastic.

On Sunday Fav informed us* that that things are moving forward at a brisk pace. The sets are all being built, the locations are locked, and the cast is, for the most part, set. "We've had a week of rehearsals, and I'm currently working with the writers to tailor the material accordingly. I am going up to visit ILM and the Ranch. I've never been and am as stoked as any of you can imagine. I love my job. Stan Winston Studios has been unveiling suits for us. Once again, they have exceeded our expectations. Those of you who follow my career know that I am very skeptical about the overuse of CGI. I am happy to report that the film will be a healthy mix of both computer-generated and practical effects. My goal is to make the two integrate in a way that they usually do not."

Filming on Iron Man is on schedule for this month.


*The Colonel is a member of an elite online community that receives info directly from Jon Fraveau

Nail In The Coffin Of Mummy Franchise

As folk wondered if Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz would return for Rob Cohen's Mummy 3, some clown was scribing a story about their kid; that goofy little shit from the god-awful The Mummy Returns is now grown up and it seems that the third installment is his very own sequel.

According to sources, the third Mummy movie will focus on Alex O'Connell, Rick and Evelyn's son so Universal doesn't have to pay the stars and can just fling a Bruckheimer-esque amount money at the CGI -- because they know the story will be so fuckin' weak.

Alfred Gough and Miles Millar (Smallville) have penned the latest script (I hope they get paid a Bruckheimer-load for ending their careers); of which a few pages were leaked and is how everyone knows how turgid this will be.

Bizarrely, Cohen (who previously made the excrement The Skulls yes, but can make celluloid masterpieces Stealth, xXx and Dragonheart if he tries) recently announced that both Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh would be appearing in his Mummy. The new hero hasn't been chosen yet, but apparently the twerp's supposed to be in his early twenties.

Source: IGN, RottonTomatoes

Jedi Crisis!

According to The Register here. The United Kingdom's Jedi community has expressed concerns that government plans to ban Samurai swords could hinder their freedom to wield lightsabers in public.

(Left: Lt. Colonel Creedon with his own lightsaber, far from the insanity that is modern Britain)

The Home Office issued a consultation paper ahead of legislation intended to ban Samurai blades by the end of the year. In a bid to "protect the public", replica Samurai swords will become illegal to import, sell and hire in Britain.

The paper notes that genuine Samurai swords would not attract the same penalties, and there are also exemptions for other specific martial arts weapons (presumably Kendo, Iaido and Fencing), it's the cheap, easily available Samurai swords which are being used in crime and not the genuine, more expensive samurai swords which are of interest to collectors and martial art enthusiasts they're after.

For some reason Jedi fear that the Samurai ban would leave them exposed to future legislation against other forms of imitation weaponry, Jedi Temple (Neasden) spokesman Indi-Anna Jones warned: "The Samurai sword ban is only the first step toward compulsory lightsaber confiscations," he said. "the Jedi will be next."

However, not all the 390,000 British Jedi fear the government's reforms. "The proposals' suggested exemptions for groups such as the British Kendo Association should give us a loophole," claimed Jedi Bus-Qyu Simpson. "Everyone knows Jedi-hood is an 'ancient religion', founded long ago in a galaxy far, far away, so it should be safe from this legislation," he said.

The Colonel's Fun Facts:

• More than 390,000 Brits are practising Jedi, according to the 2001 census.
• Brighton is the country's principal centre of Jedi activity, with 6,480 professing to follow the faith.
• The most commonly used weapon in Britain is not a replica Samurai sword but the household carving knife.

Don't Mess With An Ex-Marine

...That piece of advice is obvious, but one Warner Segura did not heed- he was attempting to mug some OAPs when one 71 year old killed grabbed and him with his bare hands.

The Unnamed Ex-Marine put suspect Warner Segura in a headlock and broke his clavicle after the 20-year-old and two other men armed with a knife and gun held up their tour bus, said Luis Hernandez, the police chief of the Atlantic coast city of Limon, 80 miles east of San Jose.

The two other men fled when the 12 senior citizens started defending themselves during the Wednesday attack. Afterward, the tourists drove Segura to the Red Cross where he was declared dead, apparently from asphyxiation.

The tourists left on their Carnival cruise ship after the incident and Hernandez said authorities do not plan to press any charges against them. “They were in their right to defend themselves after being held up,” said Hernandez who added that Segura had previous charges against him for assaults.

Source: Fox News

Mark Wahlberg in G.I.Joe Movie... Hang On, G.I.JOE MOVIE????!!!!

Lorenzo di Bonaventura is a name you know (or should) know as the producer of the lacklustre yet visually stunning Constantine, the magnificent Doom movie and producing a little thing called Transformers. His latest film is Shooter where Mark Wahlberg plays a US Marine Sniper (I like it already) directed by Antoine (Training Day) Fuqua.

Anyhow during the press day for Shooter, di Bonaventura talked a little of his upcoming projects and who he has in mind to star! Suddenly he just fukin' came out and said says that he will:

start working on G.I. Joe immediately after they finish working on Transformers!!!!!

Plus! Mark Wahlberg practically confirmed he will play Duke. Holy Shitballs!!!

di Bonaventura said he'd want Wahlberg to play Duke and Wahlberg says: "You know what, I'll do whatever Lorenzo wants me to do; it really depends on the script, obviously, but it's a cool idea. He says it's going to be kick ass, so yeah. But he's already putting that out there, so who knows. He knows how to get me to say 'yes.'"

The movie will be (and should be for obvious reasons) set before the rise of COBRA organisation and should ideally be about General Flagg's formation of the team but should ultimately focus on how Cobra Commander came to be and created the "ruthless terrorist organisation determined to rule the world" (no matter how passe that may seem in modern dynamics). Other COBRA characters, such as Destro and Storm Shadow, are being planned to be included in the film. As for who is on the JOE team, look for appearances by the team's main players, such as Hawk and Snake Eyes in addition to Duke.

I know for a fact that there's a lot more on this coming within the next few days- stay tuned.

Sources: IGN, IESB.net

Weird Moon Shit At The Blog Awards

The United Nations Extra-Terrestrial Invasion Defence Agency were on full alert last evening due to the lunar eclipse.

In the past, both the vampiric Drakkulans and the formidable Hol'eck-NaaR Empire have attempted to invade Earth under the erroneous assumption that the "puny humans" would all be distracted by uncommon space phenomena such as comets and the increased visibility of Mars last year.

Despite the danger, Lieutenant Colonel "Whopper" Creedon spent the evening in Dublin City at the 2007 Irish Blog Awards to meet both fans and peers as both he and Mark were nominated as Best Podcasters for 2IGTV. "We didn't win but we had a good time and I was pretty sure that there would be no alien attack last evening" said The Colonel earlier today. "They know we're ready for them to strike during lunar, celestial or planetary activity now. When everyone's watching the cosmic magic; UNETIDA is vigilant over those who would seek to destroy us all" he exclaimed triumphantly.

UNETIDA Director Air Commodore "Albatross" Davenport III is expected to give an "all clear" report to the UN Security Council tomorrow.

2IGTV Episode 41

In this Duracell-powered Episode 41. Mark fascinates us with a tale of terror at 200ft "When Theme Park Rides Go Bad!!"
Major Indiana Jones IV news and fantastic Nicholas Cage shocker! Script-doctor Paul Haggis returns to Bond 22 and Chow Yun Fat wants more US lead roles. He-Man to return to the silver screen but Mark pulls the plug on The Colonel's Aliens vs. Predator 2 report. The Clone Wars returns and we reveal the next of Frank Miller’s works to be filmed.
In the world of tech: Why not order and pay for your food via Microsoft's new interactive dining table.

Oh yeah, we also give our final verdict on Heroes and talk about Pirates. It and much more is all here.

Man With Sword To The Rescue

What's With All This Sword-wielding Recently? Here's another instance of a sword being used in the news:

James Van Iveren of Wisconsin, was in his apartment listening to music when he heard loud cries from a woman he thought was pleading for help. The 39-year-old thinking he was being chivalrous, grabbed a US Cavalry sword, a family heirloom, and rushed upstairs to forcibly open the quarters of an upstairs tenant he barely knew. "It was a woman screaming," Van Iveren said of the Feb. 12 incident. "She was screaming for help."

The appartment's occupant Bret Stieghorst admitted to police that he was watching a pornographic DVD when Van Iveren kicked open his door, damaging the frame and lock in the process, with a 39-inch blade in hand.

Example of a US Cavalry Sword

Stieghorst said Van Iveren demanded "Where is she?" while thrusting the sword at him.
He said he became increasingly aggressive as he repeated the question, insisting that he had heard a woman being raped. With the sword pointed at him, the neighbor led Van Iveren throughout the apartment, opening closet doors to prove he was alone.

"I had the sword extended. But that was all," Van Iveren said. "I walked in the front room and looked around. When I saw there was no woman, I left," he said.

Police arrested Van Iveren on misdemeanor charges of criminal trespassing while using a dangerous weapon, criminal damage to property while using a dangerous weapon and disorderly conduct while using a dangerous weapon. If convicted he could face a maximum total penalty of 33 months in jail. Officers also confiscated his family's sword.

Van Iveren called it a mistake and said "Now I feel stupid.

Source: Fox News

2IGTV Episode 36

The 79th Oscar's post-mortem! What's the deal with Ghost-Rider? Discover who's teaming up with Ben Stiller for The Hardy Men! James Cameron (not exactly the sanest man on the planet) joins the ranks of the batshit crazy! Aaron Eckhart is Harvy Dent but would he have made a better Joker, or even a better Batman?

Following in the success of Rocky Balboa, Stallone changes the title of Rambo IV. Will Abrams Direct Trek after all? All this and more of the usual stupidity here.

Making The Headlines

Three different people cut this out of the back of a newpaper and wished me luck...

Snake Crandall Gets Medal Of Honor

As a 32-year-old helicopter pilot, Major Bruce "Snake" Crandall flew through a gauntlet of enemy fire, taking ammunition in and wounded Americans out of one of the fiercest battles of the Vietnam War in Ia Drang Valley in November 1965.

At the time his unit has no administrative staff and had no way of supplying the required paperwork to Washington to award Crandall the Medal Of Honor. Generals in-theatre could approve nothing higher than the Distinguished Service Cross, so he got one of those, but now 41 years later the paperwork and bureaucracy has been filed and completed and yesterday President Bush awarded the 74 year old retired Lieutenant Colonel Crandall his overdue Medal Of Honor.

The 7th Cavalry regiment "taking some of the heaviest casualties of the war, out of water and fast running out of ammunition, was engaged in one of the fiercest battles of the Vietnam war against a relentlessly attacking, highly motivated, vastly superior force," said U.S. Army documents supporting Crandall's medal. The U.S. forces were up against two regiments of North Vietnamese Army infantry, "determined to overrun and annihilate them".

At the time, Crandall was a commanding a company of the 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile). He didn't have gunners for his aircraft and flew unarmed helicopters into the battlefield. He didn't have night vision equipment and other later technology that lessens the danger of flying.

The fighting became so intense that the helicopter landing zone for delivering and resupplying troops was closed, and a unit assigned to medical evacuation duties refused to fly. Crandall volunteered for the mission and with wingman and longtime friend Major Ed Freeman made flight after flight over three days to deliver water, ammunition and medical supplies. They are credited with saving more than 70 wounded soldiers by flying them out to safety, and Freeman received the Medal of Honor in July 2001.

Without his actions, the embattled men at Ia Drang would have died "cut off, surrounded by numerically superior forces, overrun and butchered to the last man," the infantry commander, Lt.Col. Hal Moore, wrote in recommending Crandall for the medal.

Moore, now a retired lieutenant general, later wrote a book We Were Soldiers Once ... And Young. The book was also adapted into the 2002 film We Were Soldiers with Mel Gibson as Moore and Greg Kinnear as Crandall.

"In men like Bruce Crandall, we really see the best of America," President Bush said. "For the soldiers rescued, for the men who came home, for the children they had and the lives they made, America is in debt to Bruce Crandall."

"I'm still here," he said of his 41-year-wait for the Medal of Honor. "Most of these awards are posthumous, so I can't complain."

Source: Fox News

Blacksite: Area 51

Who remembers the Area 51 lightgun game? I certainly do and I always preferred it to House Of The Dead; probably due to the fact that I've "taken down" aliens in reality, but demons and zombies are firmly in the realm of fantasy. This however sounds like something I've been writing about myself... the truth.

In early 2005, developers Midway rejuvenated the lightgun shooter franchise on the PC, Xbox and PlayStation 2 with Area 51. The game was a pleasant surprise all around, boasting fantastic visuals and an engaging storyline that wound tighter and tighter as it progressed. Now, this year they will unleash its sequel on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC in the form of BlackSite: Area 51.

It will not be a true sequel but more a game inspired by the previous game. It's more rooted into the fiction of what's going on in today's world and what we afraid of today: Terrorism, world wars, powerful governments that are secretive to the population - things like that.

Blacksite is an FPS where you're now in complete control of a Special Forces squad. Their morale will play a part in how well they perform. Properly commanding them will have them at their best, but running them poorly into bad situations will negatively affect their aim, wear down on their fatigue and make them even lose the will to fight. Squad commands are said to be contextual, utilizing a single button to take care of all your available commands without the need to scroll through menus or whatnot.

Vehicles will also play a part in the game. Vehicles such as HMMWVs, ATVs and even civilian vehicles will play a part in the action. The level design is promised to be multi-pathed with various routes that you can take to surround and flank the enemy. Cover points will be prominent, encouraging you to make proper use of your squad and covering fire. The cover won't be safe for long however as much of the game's environments will be destructible.

The storyline is being scripted by Susan O'Conner previously responsible for Gears Of War and Acts Of War (which is on my playing list on the right sidebar). Apparently you start off in Iraq; you're actually on the battlefield in a war that's happening today. You and your squad mates are there fighting the war and you see some things that are kind of strange, which then ties you into the fiction that brings you back to the United States to investigate a strange town where some being has been found.

The game's producer Zack Wood said "There are some parallel elements to what you saw in Iraq and what you see in America and that ties those elements together. We're toying with that idea of what it'd be like if there were alien elements involved in what we face today as a society. It's kind of fun to play with those ideas a bit."

Personally I was thinking of bringing a lawsuit against them as its obvious from that "storyline" that the writer has seen part of the manuscript of my autobiography, but perhaps if the world is exposed to these ideas through the video-game medium first then when I eventually reveal the truth I won't be ridiculed. It also won't hurt to find out if this game isn't mysteriously shit-canned and if all involved don't have fatal accidents, then I know the way will be safe for me to do what I need to following my eventual retirement.

Lance Corporal Promoted Himself To Colonel

I was researching a little-known fact about the Medal Of Honor recently- that apparently the amount of people pretending to be recipients of the award outnumber the amount of living recipients.

During this research period, I came across this clown who, while not claiming the MOH, was instead passing himself off as a Marine colonel for years...

Albert T. McKelvey, 69, was ordered to pay a $2,500 fine when he was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Hardiman for pretending to be a Marine colonel.

For one Eugene McLaughlin, the punishment wasn't nearly enough. He described to Judge Hardiman his first meeting with Mr. McKelvey. He was in a meeting of his Marine Corps veterans association when Mr. McKelvey walked in, wearing a colonel's uniform. He told the members he'd been "ordered by generals in Washington, D.C., to take over this outfit." Too bad they don't have a firing squad," said the former Marine sergeant who spent eights years trying to expose McKelvey before turning the case over to federal authorities.

In 1998, prosecutors say McKelvey began ordering uniforms, medals and insignia to support his bolstered rank. His dress blues uniform was soon adorned with a Purple Heart, Navy Cross, Silver Star, Navy Distinguished Service Medal and the Navy Marine Corps Medal as well as the full "bird" colonel insignia on the shoulders.

"He holds delusions of grandeur, a need to hold a title, a need to be something more than he is, which I find sad," the judge said.

He wore the uniform and played the role of colonel for years at veterans functions, holiday ceremonies and military funerals, giving speeches, celebrating the birthday of a Navy admiral and presenting folded flags to widows.

When one of McKelvey's friends confronted him for wearing the uniform some years ago, he claimed he was a colonel and said that he had done some classified work in the military but that the paperwork was lost or otherwise unavailable.

What a tosser! These people are a disgrace and should be shot.

Ireland v England, Croke Park

An edited excerpt from a letter published in the English Times referring to the upcoming Ireland vs. England Rugby match being played in Croke Park this Saturday:

Ireland may well be missing BOD and O'Gara on Saturday and don't have the resources in depth to overcome such losses. However neither will England have the armoured cars and machine guns they had the last time they entered Croke Park!

-Frank, Co. Wicklow

Kudos to the editor of the English times who had the stones to let Frank's letter go to print.

For those of you historically challenged (or from a far-off foreign land), Frank is referring to an infamous massacre during the Irish War Of Independence by the Auxiliary Division of the Royal Irish Constabulary (a British force) of 13 spectators and a football player at Croke Park in Dublin in 1920. These shootings, on the day which became known as Bloody Sunday, (not to be confused with the 1972 Bloody Sunday in Northern Ireland - What is it with the Brits and shooting unarmed folk on this island?) were a reprisal for the assassination of a dozen British Intelligence officers by Michael Collins' Squad earlier that day.

Historically, any 'garrison games', or those believed to have stemmed from British rule, were banned from the stadium by the ground's owners the Gaelic Athletic Associations (GAA), until a groundbreaking vote allowed rugby and football matches to be held there while Lansdowne Road stadium undergoes renovation.

Change to the "New" Blogger.

Blogger received a massive upgrade in late 2006 which required you to migrate your blog to the new Google servers. Many claim the service is now more reliable, due to the quality of the servers; I've not found anything that would make me disagree with that claim yet.

I'd been holding off on this until I had implementation time, so before the weekend I moved Whopper's Bunker over the new Google-Powered Blogger. Now, one is not forced to move (as yet) but I'd received a lot of encouragement from Blogger to make the move, most notably in the form of in big letters "have you moved to the new Blogger yet?" etc. when I logged in, replacing my dashboard editing screen with Google account applications and information on the three steps to make to migrate the Bunker.

Well it wasn't as painful as I imagined, but there were some changes to existing settings and a few new options to ignore or adopt. Along with the migration to Google servers, several new features were introduced:

Label organisation. This is the ability to apply labels or topics beneath each post. Clicking on the appropriate label should now bring up posts which I've applied that label to, like President Bush or GWOT (Global War On Terror). I've made specific ones in some cases for say, Star Wars or Paris Hilton and generic ones such as TV and Games. They take time to apply as I have to revisit and attack labels to almost 400 posts but should be working by this Friday.

Drag-and-drop template editing interface. As I have a custom template, I'll have to investigate this before implementing it or everything could go wonky.

New Web feed options. I didn't notice much in the way of new options at least anything that I'd use, but I'll investigate further later. One alteration that could not be helped was the change to the RSS site feed, so if you use an RSS reader to access my headlines then you must now point your aggregator to: http://genthar.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss to avail of my wisdom.

Furthermore, blogs are updated dynamically, as opposed to rewriting HTML files which decreases posting time and ensures quicker updates.

As always if you see anything wonky on any browser (except Opera mobile or whatever you were on about the other day Sithy) let me know.

2IGTV Makes Irish Blog Awards Shortlist

Thanks to everyone who voted for Mark and I for the 2007 Irish Blog Awards.

The shortlist was announced this evening and 2IGTV remains in the running for an Irish Blog Award on March 3rd at the award ceremony in Dublin.

Cheers folks.

The Bionic Brit

The news was broken on 2IGTV some months back that NBC was working on a "re-imagination" of the 1976 series The Bionic Woman which starred Lindsay Wagner as Jaime Sommers, a tennis professional whose body is rebuilt with electronic parts after an accident, giving her superhuman abilities.

News came this week that Michelle Ryan (left) who protrayed slapper Zoe Slater on Eastenders for a few years has landed the lead role in the remake. She apparently beat a host of Hollywood names to the role according to Variety.

The original was a poor offshoot of the superior The 6-Million Dollar Man starring Lee Majors. I think this version should be superior if only because Ryan's tits are bigger than Wagner's. But let's just hope that god-awful East-End accent was faked or she'll be too hard for the yanks to understand and the show won't get very far.

2IGTV Episode 35

2IGTV nominated for an award! Mr. & Mrs. Smith cast. Battlestar Galactica Game on the way. Coppola's new ego-trip. Is J.J. doing Trek or not? Release date for Indy IV. Will they de-age Brian Cox for Wolverine? What will Robert DeNiro's role be in The Departed 2. Intel's new 80-Core processor and Mark sees General Colin L. Powell in action.



It's all here.

The Hoff still loves you!

Because of the day that's in it...

2IGTV Nominated for Irish Blog Award

When someone says "award" to me, I obviously think of shiny medals which I'm pretty used to getting at this stage of my military career but when Mark said to me Sunday that: "We're up for an award!", I thought "Oh Christ!!".

I heard of The Irish Blog Awards last year, most likely through Mark as I pay little attention to the Irish blogosphere (yes that's a "word" apparently) and I had forgotten about them until the Sunday revelation. From what I learned it sounded like an excuse for a load of Dubliners (pardon, and Damien Mulley) to get together for a piss-up and praise each other for their accomplishments and enhancements to the Irish blogosphere (there's that word again).

However looking at this year's nominees, I'm thinking of revising that opinion. I see that there are people outside the pale up for awards as evident by the number of entries as Gaeilge. As I've never heard a Dubliner, or a true Dubliner rather speaking Irish; they must be from other places in Bogland.

Anyway the point of this post is to let you know that Mark and I have been nominated by some goon with more time than sence, who, upon discovering that there was a Best Podcaster category in this year's awards decided it would be a great idea to put us in the ring. Whoever you were: What the hell were you thinking?

Have you any idea how much a real award would go to my head? Don't you think I'm unstable enough already?

Actually it's great! Because I get attention, so go here, stick in your name and E-Mail, scroll down to Best Podcaster, select 2IGTV from the dropdown list (and obviously make other selections as you see fit) and submit. Only do it once, you clown or you'll make your vote null and void. Voting will close February 16th at 17:00 GMT so don't wait around.

Music video tribute to the legendary Michael Bay.

Iron Man to be a trilogy

Well that's Fav's plan at least and he's signed up Downey, Paltrow and Howard for three movies, possibly Jeff Bridges as well.

Yes I said Jeff Bridges. He joined the cast last week and while not officially revealed yet, I suspect he'll be Sal a mentor character from the most recent Iron Man run (Volume 4) based on the The Hollywood Reporter's article where it's said he'll be "a confidant and close business associate of Stark, a longtime employee at defense contractor Stark Industries who plays a major role in shaping Stark's life." Marvel's president of production Kevin Feige added "He's excited about doing a movie like this, and we're excited to have him in this particular role. There are many facets to this character which I can't discuss, but looking at the spectrum of all of Jeff's roles, this fits in nicely with the man who played Starman, Tucker, Big Lebowski with a little bit of Tron thrown in."

The origin film will obviously be self-contained, but it may contain threads that will continue in future outings and set-ups that will come in to play later like Tony's drinking perhaps. War-Machine for instance will most likely not appear in the first Iron Man but that character was a key factor in casting Terence Howard as Rhody so I'm glad that Favreau is thinking that far ahead for trilogy cohesiveness (unlike say the Wachowski Brothers).

Mark Fergus one of the Iron Man writers was interviewed by a Jewish run entertainment website during the week.

Anna Nicole Smith is Dead

This is hardly news; anyone anywhere should now know that the woman who became famous for being a celebrity is dead at 39. However, I myself was somewhat shocked to see the headline on the Sun that some bloke was reading on the bus at 7:30 yesterday morning - and I'm not often shocked.

Every day while filtering through the news for both Whopper's Bunker and 2IGTV, I saw news stories about her battles with her stepson over late husband's (the 93 year old billionaire) fortune and more recently the death of her 20 year old son and the custody battle over her newborn baby.

It's fascinating the way the media has all but "cancelled" all other news to focus on Anna Nicole's death before even knowing the cause. Batshit crazy broadcaster Larry King, disclosed that he has a painting that Smith had done hanging in his home. King predicted that there will be "a major motion picture" about her. Esewhere, on Fox News, New York Daily News publisher Mort Zuckerman commented that Smith's life had aspects of "a certain kind of really lousy Hollywood script."

I guess all we need now is the lousy script and get some balloons for, oh let's say Jessica Simpson to stuff down her blouse to play her :)

Chewie Goes Apeshit! ***Updated***

Updated with Video Footage

A man dressed as Chewbacca was arrested after police said the street performer head-butted a tour guide operator in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

Frederick Evan Young, a 6-foot-4 street performer was seen arguing with a tour guide who had expressed concern the wookie impersonator was "harassing and touching tourists" in violation of city law according to police Lt. Paul Vernon.

The city passed ordinances last year seeking to crack down on the colorful assortment of actors who perform outside the landmark theater. The move was prompted by complaints from tourists who said the actors were aggressive and abusive if they refused to pay for pictures.

Security guards escorted Young off theater property, but Chewbacca decided to strike back and head-butted the tour guide, Vernon said. "The lesson here is you can have the force with you, You just can't use illegal force."

The tour guide, Brian Sapir, told the Los Angeles Times that he asked the Chewbacca character to stop harassing two young Japanese tourists when the actor exploded in anger.

"He said, 'Nobody tells this wookie what to do,"' Sapir said.

Source: Fox News

A sword-wielding teenager gunned down - Part 5 in my "Shoot First, Questions Never" series!

In Huron, South Dakota, a sword-wielding teenager killed his mother and injured three others before police shot and killed him.

When officers arrived at the family's home Friday, they saw 16-year-old Josh Gilchrist wielding a long sword one officer described as "something you'd probably see in an ancient knight-type movie." Gilchrist struck one of the officers several times before the others fired shots and killed him, Huron Police Chief Doug Schmitt said Friday. "We don't have any background or any events leading up to the assault this morning that would give any indication of a motive," Schmitt said.

Police found 49-year-old Betty Gilchrist dead. Fourteen-year-old Rebekah Gilchrist and a foreign exchange student were injured. The injured officer was treated at a local hospital and released. Four officers were placed on administrative leave pending an investigation, which is standard procedure when police fire a gun.

Sounds to me like a D&D LARP got out of hand :)

Source: Fox News.

Pic on 3DRealms ad was Duke Nukem 4 Ever Screenshot!!!

Everyone who has any intrest in gaming saw that 3DRealms were hiring a new programmer as of last week. Attached to the ad here was this picture of Duke Nukem with a gun. It was assumed that this was a pre-rendered image of a kind usually reserved for advertising or a cutscene.

We were all mistaken.

"...That's an in game, real-time shot of Duke standing in a random hallway.", the developer's George Broussard stated on 3D Realms forums in a thread about the image. "It was really done as a small teaser for the ad. Nothing more. I'm glad some of you enjoyed it," he continued, adding "we'll show more later as we start to wake from our slumber and decide how best to show the game off."

In the same thread, 3D Realms staffer Joe Siegler promised that "When we open the floodgates, you won't have to do any convincing - the game will do it's own convincing" in response to poster Spooger asking to get the DNF image in high-res as "I'm having trouble convincing some friends that DNF is the second coming of Christ with a 200x100 pixel pic".

More on this life-defining event as it happens. Stay tuned.

Ze Germans want CIA arrested

This shit really annoys me: A court in Munich has issued warrants for the arrests of 13 suspected CIA agents who allegedly kidnapped and tortured a German citizen.

The men are accused of falsely imprisoning and causing grievous bodily harm to Khaled el Masri. Mr Masri was arrested in Macedonia in late 2003 and says he was handed over to the CIA. He was then flown to Afghanistan, where he was held until his release at the end of May 2004.

State prosecutors say the accused are thought to have been on board the plane which took him to Kabul. They were identified with the aid of intelligence provided by Spanish investigators.

"According to current findings, the particulars of the suspects listed in the arrest warrants suggest these could be cover identities of CIA agents," prosecutors said in a statement.

The case has increased speculation in Europe about so-called rendition flights, where US intelligence agencies allegedly used private planes to transport suspects from one legal jurisdiction to another.

As I said, this really annoys me. Just look at the guys name: Khaled el Masri it's not Hans so he can't be German and so he's obviously a terrorist. The CIA do not torture people, they "persuasively interview" people and if you co-operate with them then there no need for waterboarding. So why didn't this wog co-operate? Because he was a terrorist. Anyhow, it's pretty obvious Ze Germans are just looking for some excuse to get back at the US after having their ass kicked in WWII.

Source: Sky News

2IGTV Episode 34

Mega-long Vista-free podcast. In this episode we don't discuss Vista, but we do talk about 24 this time. We also address the political career of The Governator. What is Eli Stone? We update you on Get Smart casting. Discover who may direct The Hobbit and what Timothy Olyphant's next role is. What's the big deal with WOW? Exhaustive tech-talk on High Definition, Intel and the future of virtual speculators.

It- and much more, is all here.

If Aliens watch Television....

Scientists have speculated that new radio telescopes may be able to pick up TV transmissions from alien civilisations. Any within 1,000 light years of Earth could be detected by spotting their leaking television signals.

(Left. Dear God let it not be Alf)

One of the first of the new-generation telescopes is the Low Frequency Array being built in the Netherlands. It is equipped to receive radio waves emitted by hydrogen molecules in the early universe.

Although these signals originally had short wavelengths, the expanding universe has stretched them over time. Today they have wavelengths of several metres, which means they fall within the range of TV, radio, and military radar transmissions.

Scientist Dr Abraham Loeb, from Harvard University, said: "By a happy accident, the telescopes will be sensitive to just the kind of radio emission that our civilisation is leaking into space." If ET is producing similar signals, these will be visible as "spikes" in the radio spectrum.

But whether aliens are discovered depends crucially on their stage of development. To pick up TV or radio signals from an alien civilisation, it would have to be about as advanced as our own.

The future of Knights Of The Old Republic II: The Sith Lords

Star Wars video games have usually been some of the better efforts of their respecive genres. X-Wing and Tie-Fighter are beloved space-flight simulators, Battlegrounds and Empire At War are strong Real-Time-Strategy games, The Dark Forces/Jedi Knight series are welcome additions for First Person Shooter fans and many enjoy the MMO Star Wars: Galaxies daily. It was with Knights Of The Old Republic however that something entirely different was created for Star Wars fans- a Dungeons & Dragons style Role-Playing Game set a long time ago in a galaxy far far away.

Bioware, veterans of D&D RPG's were tasked with creating Knight Of The Old Republic and they succeeded brilliantly. KOTOR became the hottest property on the X-Box, second only to Halo at the time and did more than considerably well on PC too. It was enevitable after that success that a sequel was announced and was in development by Obsidian.

However only after 12 months were we assured that KOTOR2 would be released albiet on X-Box in the US but that concluded that the game would have to be finished by then. This gave rise to speculation by the gaming press that if it were true and the game did not "slip", then it would be impossible for the sequel to live up to the expectations of the original which had a 3 year development cycle. Their fears were proved correct and once the US X-Box owners had finished the game- there was a lot of bewildered players flooding the internet forums asking questions.

The game got mixed reviews upon release, while overall the game was very good and there were some improvements of the RPG elements which were a staple of the original, there were an unnatural amount of bugs and plot holes left the player with dozens of questions left unanswered. This gave rise to several players delving into the game files on the installation discs in an effort to retreive answers to these questions and to their horror: discovered characters, cutscenes, voice files, plot twists, different endings and even an entire planet which had not appeared in the game.

It was later was revealed that LucasArts demanded that Obsidian complete and rush out the game for the lucrative holiday season in the US in '04. As the game was obviously not complete, Obsidian were forced to delete the planet and characters and snip the endings to the game among many other things.

While Obsidian and LucasArts have fixed many bugs and upgraded the quality of the music score and cut-scenes since the games release, they did not adress the missing content. However, a group of enterprising modders known as Team Bantha were hoping to restore the deleted planet and interaction with Jedi Master Vash but they appear to have failed. Team Gizka however are attempting what is known as The Sith Lords Restoration Project which will apparently attempt to restore the endings and much of the deleted content which didn't make it to the final game. Here's a youtube video of some of what you didn't experience (or experienced differently) in KOTOR2.



While it's planned that it will be completed this year, nothing in the 'mod' community is certain but I will keep you appraised.

An informative Wikipedia resource for KOTOR2 including an exhaustive list of deleted content can be found here.