The official thread for Lord Of The Rings - The Return Of The King [LOTR ROTK TROTK ROK] (NOW CONTAINS SPOILERS)

It wasn't the exact quote, but he talked about loving the films (fine enough) and then made some sort of half-assed 'reminds me of my own struggles' followup. I'm so glad I only read my news these days, I can't imagine what hearing that would have made me do.

The seventies Medved is long, long gone.

He and his brother Harry helped codify bad movie love as an art form in the seventies with their (very funny if often sophomorically so) books The 50 Worst Films of All Time, The Golden Turkey Awards (and its later sequel) and The Hollywood Hall of Shame, which specifically looked at big budget bombs. To give you an idea of their impact, a poll in 50 Worst was reported and tallied up in Golden Turkey and the winner was Plan 9 From Outer Space, which at the time was the first real codification of that film and Wood himself as the ne plus ultra of bad movies. To a large extent, the cult started right there. There's next to nothing in the books which would indicate that Medved would first turn into a boring flack and then a self-righteous hard-ass conservative (and apparently his brother Harry has followed suit, alas). A real loss to populist film mania for its own sake.

Long and short of it

http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20040114/capt.mil10501141644.italy_men_fashion_mil105.jpg

Italian fashion label Etro unveiled its own little and large show in Milan yesterday as two hirsute models hit the catwalk to show off its latest collection.

Sporting checked suits, the models looked more like they had stepped off the set of a Lord of the Rings film than the glamour fashion houses of Milan.

The Etro label was created in the 1960s and is characterized by a Paisley motif, which is its hallmark.

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Hurrah! (Well, you have to start somewhere.) I'm more just surprised at the existence of a piece which functions as an attempt to fight a rear-guard action in the name of Edmund Wilson and modernism -- did literature stop for this guy in 1940 or something?

Another magnificent achievement, which I would like to see again (in a more comfortable environment than the local multiplex - so roll on the DVD!)

Visuals: I had thought before that the Elves at Helms Deep were reminiscent of the fallen angels in Burne Jones' The Fall Of Lucifer , & I was struck by the same similarity as Faramir led his troops back to their doom at Osgiliath down the twisting street of Minas Tirith.

Then again, the Grey Havens are a dead ringer for any of a dozen of Turner's seaports (colour/light), take Dido Building Carthage as an example, with the final shot of the ship melting into the light even having echoes of Ulysses Deriding Polyphemus

Gripes: the second seeing confirmed to me the crassness of juxtaposing barmy old Denethor's "blood" (from a tomato?? wtf) stained lips & chin with those of the Orcs occupying Osgiliath who have presumably been feasting on a few Gondorian soldiers. I wish there had been some exposition of the reason WHY he had been driven bonkers.

I dislike the introduction of Frodo's rejection of Sam on the stairway up Cirith Ungol for the same reasons that I find the mistrust between Rohan & Gondor irksome - it doesn't ring true with my memory of the book.

Shelob, for some reason looked more male than female to me. I missed the dragging belly, but most of all I couldn't see any eyes on the beast! which I remember as being its central feature, expressing all the creature's emotions. It also seemed a little dangerous using the light of Eärendil to ward off a descendant of Ungoliant, but I checked that chapter & if it is an inconsistency it is paralled in the book.

The compression of all the action sequences contrasted unfavourably with the too long drawn out Hobbit-hugging farewell shots.

Maybe my seat was too uncomfortable but I find the hobbit love scene music reminiscent of the old Hovis ad theme which makes me expect them to break out into a Yorkshire accent at any time.

That enough bollocks from me.

When's The Hobbit coming out?

Yep, still brilliant. Now, the extended version. *sets some part of brain to somehow wait patiently for seven months*

I BLAME GORGE LUCAZ

::waiting anxiously for the multi-hour orgy to come when all three extended editions are in my hot hands::