Meanwhile... I put up a new video blog last night!  Click on the blurry picture and you'll be whisked away to a world of magical wonder (the vlog page).

Another fantastic Sopranos episode tonight.  Edie Falco has been turning in the best performances of her Sopranos career, and we're only three weeks in.  Steven Shcirripa has also been great.  The character of Bobby has become more and more important and complex over the last few years, and he's done it justice.  I always crack a smile when he comes on screen. 

A lot of the book's best imagery makes its way into the film, like V's costume (and perfectly duplicated mask), V's fiery flashback emergence from Larkhill, Evey's interrogation, and the destruction of London landmarks, although the events took place at different places in the film than the book.  The fight scenes were all pretty cool, even though I think V's final fight was a bit over the top. 

There are quite a few differences between the film and the book, but most aren't that big a deal when you watch the movie.  Even though they remove the idea that V wants to usher in an era of anarchy in England, it can be almost inferred near the movie's end.  Some names are changed, as is Evey's backstory.  The only thing about the film that I really had any problem with was the fact that it takes some shots at the War on Terror.  I didn't like this for two reasons... first of all, it made the movie too topical and takes you out of the story a bit.  Secondly, the book was written in the 80's, making the issue at hand nuclear war, and the reason for the UK's ability to survive while the rest of the civilized world was sent back to the Dark Ages. 

The performances were all quite good.  Hugo "Agent Smith" Weaving manages to make V work, even with the mask.  He's a great actor as it is, and James McTeigue's use of lighting helps give an extra dimension to the mask; the two combine to form a range of emotions coming through that ever-present smile.  Natalie Portman, who I predicted would play Evey long before the movie was even supposed to be made, is stellar, although her English accent isn't the best.  She actually looked better when her head was shaved than not.  I also reveled in the irony of casting John Hurt as Chancellor Sutler, the Big Brother character.  Hurt played Winston Smith in the movie version of Nineteen Eighty-Four. 

Ultimately, if you enjoy the movie, read the book.  If you liked the book, the movie will more than likely please you.  England prevails.

Things have been rather uneventful lately, as you can probably tell from the lack of posts.  So here's a few talking points to fill things out.

• Mom and Dad went to visit Jimmy, Karen, and Elizabeth.  I would have gone, but since I went back to work on Sunday, I couldn't do it.  I'm still looking forward to visiting, hopefully in the summer.
• The Sopranos was great again this week.  Emmies all around for the performances this week alone.  I really wonder how we got along without the show for two years.
• Yesterday was the first day of spring.  You could have fooled me. 
• The Bruins traded Sergei Samsonov.  Nobody has mentioned them in the news because they're such a joke, so I didn't know until about four days later when it was mentioned in the Sunday paper.  Needless to say, I'm now 100% disillusioned with the team.
• On a similar note, Adam Vinatieri has signed with the Colts.  I'm upset, but not angry.  The way things are in the NFL these days, you can't expect anyone (even the Patriots) to keep an entire team together.  I'll miss him; I'm just hoping people don't chastise him over it.
• Hoping to see V for Vendetta tomorrow night with Greg.
• Just started reading Flicker by Theodore Roszak, a novel which Darren Aronofsky is expected to adapt into his first post-Fountain film.  Real meaty, great dialogue, and filled to the brim with movie history.
• Finally got my grubby mits on Ico, the critically acclaimed PlayStation 2 game from 2001.  Holy cow... if you own a PS2 and haven't played this game, you're missing out on what might be the most beautifully crafted video game ever made. 

That's all for now.  Keep it real.

I'm listening to Murmur right now.  It's been a long time since I've given it a spin to really listen rather than use it as background music.  It's got such good sound.  It was R.E.M.'s first album, but they put so much work into it that it doesn't sound like it's their first.  Reckoning, the follow-up, sounds more like a debut because they decided not to go with the same layered sound.  The quality of the songs doesn't dwindle, though (they were all written at the same time), as their body of work didn't dwindle until only very recently.  It's a lot like how Interpol has worked.  Turn on the Bright Lights was a very strong debut from a rather simple band, in terms of instrumentation.  It's also on a respected indie label (IRS vs. Matador).  Every song has real meat to it, like Murmur, and Antics was not as dense, but still a worthy successor in the mold of Reckoning.  I doubt Interpol could reach the heights that R.E.M. has popularity-wise, and that snooty music fan inside of me hopes it stays that way.  But hey, as Duke Ellington said, if it sounds good, then it is good. 

That reminds me that Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the Flaming Lips have new albums coming REAL soon.  I'm curious to see if the "new YYYs" will still carry that sense of reckless abandon.  I'm curious to see just how much more tripped-out the Lips can get.  We'll find out soon enough.

I just happened upon cowabduction.com, and I'm still trying to figure out whether or not it's supposed to be a teaser site for a movie.  Conventional wisdom would point me in that direction because it's a standout advertisement on aintitcool.com, my daily movie insider site.  The production value is too high to be a "real" site on the subject of bovine abduction by extraterrestrials, so there's got to be a hidden agenda, and I'm guessing it's probably connected to some goofy comedy that will likely come out in June or something.  I just can't remember reading anything about something like this coming out.  Anyway, go to the site and check it out because it's absolutely hilarious. 

(Captain's Blog, Supplemental: Maybe I should have noticed the "Copyright 2006 California Milk Processor Board" note in the bottom of the page.)

Meanwhile, if you didn't see my first video blog (I call them vlogs, it's clever and it makes me sound like a vampire!), you can still see it by clicking on this link.  I'm going to make a page up for them in NP1 Films soon, and I'll be making another vlog (or plain old NP1 Film depending on the quality) in the next couple of weeks.  Gimme some feedback on the board!

The Oscars are tomorrow night.  I don't know what to tell you because as usual, most of the nominees are movies that I didn't get to see.  I wanted to see Capote, Crash, Good Night and Good Luck, and Munich, but I didn't, so I can't tell you if they were better than Brokeback.  I just looked down the list of nominees and I realize I only saw about five of the movies that got nominated for ANYTHING.  We need more theaters around here... there was the old one down by Park Ave in Worcester and I recently said, "I'm gonna buy that place and turn it into a theater again" as a joke.  Dad quickly said, "Too late, they turned it into a crackhouse."  Amazingly enough, Revenge of the Sith didn't even get nominated for Best Visual Effects.  There were only three nominees!  How can Star Wars not be included?  It's just King Kong (which will win thanks to Andy Serkis), War of the Worlds, and The Chronic - What! - cles of Narnia.  So you're telling me that Star Wars, which was done 99% in a computer, and quite convincingly, wasn't good enough to fill out a category?  And how about, say, Harry Potter?  That had some good stuff, including a fantastic dragon.  Sheesh.

Oh well.  I guess we can only hope that this coming year only improves the outlook at the movies.  For now, as long as V for Vendetta is even half as good as the book and Darren Aronofsky gets The Fountain into theaters soon, I'll be happy.