finally saw vol 1 last weekend and caught vol 2 the same night.

I didnt find Vol 1 as amazing as some people did, it was however a very entertaining and stylish film. Chapter 1 & 3 rocked, 2 & 5 were ok and 4 was passable.

I was disappointed with vol 2, it had moments but overall the film felt really bloated and could have been paced better.

The dialogue, like the film, had moments of Taranino spark (elle driver's black mamba monologue, the birth testing discussion, and probably the very last exchange between uma and bill), but meandered way too much and felt dull and uninteresting (especially chapter 1, bud's monologues in chapter 2 and the spanish pimp in chapter 5).

Still, chapter 3 with Pei Mei rocked as did 4 with the fantastic fight scene. Chapter 2 was pretty good once Uma was in the coffin and 5 had 2-3 good exchanged between Bill and Uma.

What did others think? 

I also caught Master & Commander last night, which is a very fine film. It's the Das Boot of the normal ship genre : cracking fight scenes, excellent sound and visuals, and decent drama + characterisations. 

When it came out. Good dialog, of course, but the Crazy 88 fight was absuredly stupid. The antagonist would never see it coming when Thurman's character swooped low to severe lower limb extremities, and never attempt the same tactic with her. I watched it with my brother, a veteren of martial arts tourneys, and it was all I could do to keep him from screaming at the screen.

Nice to Chiba again though. 

You're missing out on something vital though. The Crazy 88 fight scene isn't part of a martial arts movie, it's part of an omage to martial arts movies. People who love martial arts movies and westerns are going to get more out of Kill Bill 1 & 2 in the same way people who love french neo realism are going to get more out of Pulp Fiction. The movies have a meta quality to them. 

the fight better if I had not seen it with a knowledgeable sword fighter who nick picked it to death. I guess I was at a disadvantage (and hope the mofo doesn't do one of his periodic visits to this site and see this entry), though I did like the movie it could have been more disciplined (the older martial arts movies tended towards more realism than the modern Segal era movies) in its presentation, and saved me some personal grief as well. 

Yea saw Kill Bill last night (Vol 1). I don't know what to think, as I've lost my ability to opinionize on movies, so I'll just sum it up with "it was alright". 

Old media becomes pretty hard to quantify in how much you take from it after playing something as fun as Farcry for a week. 

Loved both of em, thought they were awesome. Not perfect, but then again nothing is. And the previews for Troy and Hero got my blood all circulated in my groin.

Five point palm exploding heart technique! 

I like westerns and I've seen the odd martial arts movie. Vol 1 felt like it had that meta quality you talk about even though I wasnt a martial art movie veteran. Vol 2 on the other hand still felt bloated. 

While Vol 1 was mostly steeped in the martial arts side of things, Vol 2 was more of the western. Like a western its more psychological then physical. There's more going on, it's full of love gone wrong and regret. I've even said it makes the series a love story. I haven't seen a good reference guide for vol 2, but I'm willing to bet there would be more westerns in that one. 

probably quite a few I even missed, but my argument is that they dont make the film any more interesting. Admittedly, westerns have a lot of talk but in this case the talk isnt interesting, despite the numerous references. 

Yah, the strong Sergio Leone references and the DePalma split-screen stuff were my fave kudos in Vol. 1 -- haven't seen 2 yet.

Meanwhile, Master & Commander kicks un-Godly amounts of ass. I wholy recommend it to anyone who digs historical drama, ship-tp-ship dogfights, and a bit of wacky humor. 

The shot showing the girl on a rooftop aiming down was very memorable 

Pure rockage. I guess the biggest compliment I can give it is that it blows all of Kaufman's other work right out of the water. 

And the previews for Troy and Hero got my blood all circulated in my groin.

Do you mean this: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0299977/ ? 

Hard to be sure, but that definitely seems like it, except Jet Li was fighting the Imperial Army and their 4 best assassins because they killed his village or something, so the descriptions are a little off. Looked amazing. 

Sounds like it. Good movie, especially for the visuals and the fight scenes. It's not really excellent, and some may find it overly patriotic.

Came out here over a year ago, BTW, so you're pretty late. 

http://www.comingsoon.net/news.php?id=5005

"Universal Pictures has optioned Doom for producers Lorenzo di Bonaventura and John Wells, with Enda McCallion attached to make his directorial debut, reports Variety.

The script, originated by Dave Callaham, is adapted from the plotline for the id Software and Activision video game "Doom 3," slated for release July 15.

The story is set at a Mars space station, where an aerospace conglom is conducting secret experiments when something unleashes a demonic force that threatens to overtake the facility." 

i don't know what to make of this...

wasn't there suppose to have been a doom movie that was scrapped way back in 1990ish? 

Not that I ever heard of. Didn't Doom come out in 1991 or later? 

Notice that they're getting a n00b director in - not one who's done this sort of thing (or anything) before. I bet one long bent thing with a sort of lump on the end that if this movie ever appears, the director is Alan Smithee. 

of there being a doom film, a quake film, and a quake 2 film before. I've heard the new rumours that there'll be a doom 3 film. If they make it, it will suck. No doubt.

There's no way they'd get a top director to make a game tie-in... and to make a movie with the basis of doom 3 work, you'd need someone like James Cameron to give us a repeat performance of what he did with the amazing Aliens. Admittedly that'd be awesome, but if they get a crappy director and acting nobodies, the fact that it's based on a game wouldn't make it much more watchable than the standard Hollywood sci-fi fare. 

that the hollywood sci-fi movies of late are about as watchable as seeing your village brutally murdered and your family raped. 

There were reports of a Duke Nukem movie getting made, and they even started hyping it and got a website, etc. That was 3-4 years ago.

And then there was the American McGee's Alice movie, which was listed on IMDb, etc, and has since been taked off IMDb. 

Anyone familiar with GW's Space Hulk ( anyone? hello? ) might remember that they reported plans to make a Space Hulk movie featuring the Deathwing space marines, sometime around...1990? '91? Yeah. Right. Like that would ever happen.
The rather obvious pitfall with this sort of project is that most of these games are non-copyright, other-franchise versions of the classics - Space Hulk was GW's direct answer to Aliens. Doom3 plagiarises so much of that stuff it's not even funny anymore ( well, it is still sort of funny ) Remember the upside-down-head-spiders? Rob Bottin won't see a dime for those either :P
But without the original pieces of incredible design, engaging story and characters that made these movies classics in the first place, all you have is 'Doom3: Aliens Without The Cool Stuff' or 'Alice: Not Quite A Tim Burton Movie'
In other words, pointless.