Don't get me started.... must stop... blood coming out of eyes...

I hate this movie. It's just as bad historically as Gladiator and Braveheart sure, but then it's a boring, incoherent, badly cast trainwreck of a movie with little to no redeeming entertainment qualities.

For christ's sake, there's a moment where two horses kick in the heavy wooden door to a fortified town... you know, those doors that are built to withstand battering rams?

I'm so not surprised you switched off - the opening is atrocious. From the badly written and pointless title card to the unexciting siege of Chalus (which shock fucking horror was actually where Richard was at this time...).

The moment when Richard yells "Kill the French" I knew we were in trouble... but by the end it's almost a parody. Imagine if Forrest Gump lectured Nixon about Watergate and shamed him into resigning - that's pretty much the absurdity of what Robin Hood does in this film.

And you're correct Matt - Richard spent about 6-9 months of his reign in England but thanks to the Victorians we English now laud Richard as one of our greatest national heroes. They've got a great statue of him in Westminster outside Parliament and it's hard not to be impressed.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c … iament.JPG

And they'd be idiots. Same as those fools in Cornwall who want independence. There, it's like a thousand years from now Manhattan deciding they want to be Dutch...

Scotland and England first became united under a Scottish King in the early 17th century, followed by a formal act of union in the very early 18th century (under Queen Anne).  Often times there'll be this misconception that England conquered Scotland and brought her under her heel.

Scots have always held a surprising amount of influence over the union relative to their 'junior position' and were just as involved in all the activities of the Empire as the English. So this concept of hatred of the British being actually a hatred of the English is some pretty good PR work on the part of the Welsh and Scottish.

Scotland is more or less independent already and they don't want to have to go it alone without London supporting them. Scotland gets lots of benefits from being glued to England's hip.

And yeah, there's an unfair perception that Americans should know all about other countries when most people in those countries know jack shit about the US. Even among well educated families not everyone can name and locate every country on the planet - let alone be familiar with cities, towns, mountain ranges etc.

I always thought it would have been an interesting dynamic to contrast Neo's invincibility inside the Matrix with his extreme vulnerability outside it. That's got to screw with anyone's head a bit.

I just wanted to say thanks for doing this at a time when those of us in the UK can join us. Because, if you did this in the evening I'd have to get up really early and I hate that.

Why does Skynet know Kyle Reese? The concept of Skynet somehow knowing that Kyle is Connor's father is an impossibility. The only people who know are Sarah and John, and there's no reason why they would announce this to anyone else, let alone make that information available to Skynet.

Has Skynet watched the movies as well?

I have just very recently (two days ago) bought myself a Canon DSLR 550d and it's capable of brilliant things. It's just a great camera with an excellent film-like quality. My brother has one as well and these are the cameras we'll be using to shoot a short film later in the year (as well as the 48 Hour Film Project next month in London).

I'd definitely recommend one of the Canon DSLR models. Have a look through youtube and vimeo at all the tests and short films that have used the various DLSRs so you can see the results.

The one out on DVD/Bluray so I assume the original theatrical release.

Also, I thought the film was way too long, so the idea of it being even longer doesn't bode well for pacing. The whole middle section with him learning how to be one of them just went on and on.

And on!

Further, it's a very predictable story. By making human Jake a cripple and having the human leaders be total shits, Cameron undercuts any tension in the story. The 'going native' turn is a foregone conclusion, there's no question that that is what's going to happen. And without an internal conflict, it's just not very interesting when it does happen. Remember all those undercover cop stories, where the policeman wrestles with divided loyalties  and the story is much more powerful? There's none of that here.

Interesting... hadn't thought about that before. I can't remember what the nine rings for mortal men actually do (beyond corrupt their wearers and bend them to Sauron's will), but it does seem somewhat lax for everyone just to leave it lying around so that Bob the Gondorian or Harry the Rohirrim pick it up and start trouble.

What happens to the body in the books - does it evaporate or something?

Actually, Tolkien does explain it somewhere - cannot remember where though. The story is that Elendil and Gil Galad, the leaders of the Last Alliance, battle Sauron in combat. They all die of their wounds and then Isildur comes up and cuts off Sauron's finger to get the ring (yup, from the corpse) as a trophy.

That's the books. In the movies, Sauron is attempting to grab Isildur in a chokehold to roast him. There's a deleted scene/concept where he does this to Gil Galad.

Of course, you have to find this information out on your own.

But you know, having the big monster grab the hero isn't a silly thing to do. He's overconfident and doesn't think a broken sword can hurt him. The problem is that for some reason PJ and Co thought it'd be a great idea if Sauron dies if he gets his ring finger cut off. Seriously? So what if he just takes his ring off for a moment, does he explode then as well? The effect is the same.

This is some really nice stuff. Bravo! My favourite was probably the woman in the window reflection.

And well done for moving the camera. Most shorts lock the camera off and use lots of unnecessary shots instead.

Really good work. I usually get bored really quickly with shorts, but this was really engaging. Of course, the whole concept helped!