George Lucas is more clever than I thought. For those of you who even care about Episode III coming out next year but don't understand why there's yet another new villain in the final prequel (when Count Dooku from Episode II is still alive and Anakin finally becomes Vader), I found this neat little theory at The Force.Net:

"Many people could not understand the reasons for having a new bad guy, when Dooku was available to be developed as a character. But when you think about it, having Grievous is a logical progression. First bad guy was Darth Maul. Shadowy, silent and deadly. Intense use of the Dark Side. Devoted to his master and to his missions. Second one was a fallen Jedi Master, Count Dooku. Knows the Jedi inside and out. A manipulative and devious character. He can twist and turn people and situations to his advantage. Third one is General Grievous. A cyborg with no pity or remorse. His only purpose is to bring death and destruction to the Republic and the Jedi. If Darth Sidious can combine all these traits into one person, that would be the ultimate apprentice. That apprentice's name would be DARTH VADER."

Pretty cool! Here's a neat fan-made drawing that I also checked out at TheForce.Net:

KILL BILL VOL. 2... I saw the film last friday, and I liked it in that it was more story-oriented than Vol. 1. And Pai Mei was hilarious! And dope, 'cause he kicks ass. In case you haven't seen the movie yet, don't expect an action-packed gorefest at the end, since (I said before) it's all story.

Godzilla vs. Mothra: The Battle For... I didn't type the whole title since I don't know what the whole title is--since it couldn't fit the TV screen when I was watching the movie at one of my friends' house. Anyways, Godzilla vs. Mothra was one of 3 cheesy-ass movies that I watched on cable TV today after my friend and I got back from the Laker training facility in El Segundo (near Los Angeles International Airport)...where I got autographs by Slava Medvedenko and Brian Cook. But NO Shaq or Kobe. Or Payton or Malone for that matter. Could've gotten an autograph by Devean George if he didn't drive off once I walked up to his car window (all the players were already in their cars and there was a pretty large crowd of fans who showed up). Where was I?

Oh yea, I watched Drumline, a movie about freakin' college bands; Kangaroo Jack, a live-action movie about a Kangaroo who wears a red shirt during most of the movie (and talks in one sequence, although that part fortunately passed when I began watching the movie); and of course, Godzilla vs. Mothra: The Battle For Pornography (not the real title, but I didn't feel like typing "..."). These movies, however, were so damn cheesy they were entertaining (and my friend and I watched American Ninja 3 at one point). To sound like a snotty film critic, I was engrossed in their banality...although I'll shoot myself if I ever get the urge to type a screenplay that's inspired by these movies. *Shutters...*

UPDATE: I watched The Apprentice on NBC for the first time today...and needless to say, I was missing out! Great show-- But you know Kwame's team is gonna lose! The Spider-Man 2 trailer wasn't so bad either.

UPDATE #2: The full title is Godzilla vs. Mothra: The Battle for Earth. Too plain... I like The Battle for Pornography better.

IF YOU'RE EAGERLY awaiting the DVD arrival of the original Star Wars trilogy--which comes out on September 21st--here's how the box covers for the full screen (gold cover) and wide screen (silver) versions will look like. Can't wait!

The new Batmobile... From next year's Batman Begins:

DID ANY OF YOU see the 8:00 PM episode of The Simpsons today? It spoofed The Phantom Menace with a movie called Cosmic Wars: The Gathering Storm. Despite the fact The Simpsons is like, 5 YEARS LATE in having this major parody...this episode gave a hilarious indictment on the prequels and George Lucas carrying more about digital technology than storyline. Pretty funny. So anyways... General Grievous is gonna rule in Episode III! He's gonna be the NEXT DARTH MAUL! (Thinks about what happened to Maul at the end of Episode I...) No wait...

Don't you guys like it how I always contradict myself over the prequels? One minute I'm calling Lucas a biatch for the failure of The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, the next minute I'm posting up several photos of that General Grievous fella on this page! Make up your mind, Parman! Anyways, it's almost 10:00 at night, and I have to get back to studying!!! But before I do... Here's an old pic of Britney Spears. She can't sing for squat, but I'd still do her.

Below are three pics that I found online dealing with Episode III. The one on the left, taken from a British newspaper, is of Anakin Skywalker after he is burnt from lava after the big lightsaber duel with Obi-Wan Kenobi, and the photo to the right is of the Jedi killer General Grievous...how he is gonna look in the movie...not of his crappy animated version that fans will soon see on the Cartoon Network. The pic below these two is concept art of Darth Vader being born as the Emperor looks on. And of course, another pic showing Grievous from different angles. If you think the general doesn't look cool enough (or at all), keep in mind that there are reports that this (SPOILER... Highlight to read.) deadly leader (who is half droid / half alien) of the Separatists' droid army uses four lightsabers simultaneously in the film. Guess how.



UPDATE: Since TheForce.Net didn't provide spoiler warnings for these aweseome artwork, I'll post these drawings here... Go to TheForce.Net to view these in their original size.

Top-left pic: ILM-quality artwork of the Anakin/Obi-Wan lightsaber duel over lava
Middle-left pic: An altered shot from the SW: Insider magazine with General Grievous ready to kick some ass
Bottom-left pic: An awesome drawing of Grievous, also with his lightsabers decked out
Right pic: Presumably the teaser poster for Episode III
Last pic: A cool comic book drawing of Grievous, taken from the Official Site

BATMAN BEGINS... This just in from batman-on-film.com: Gary Oldman, the dude who played Dracula and a Russian terrorist who punked Harrison Ford in Air Force One, plays Commissioner Gordon in Batman Begins!! That's gonna be cool... And don't forget about Katie Holmes being the damsel in distress in this film... David Julyan, Chris Nolan's composer on Memento, will be doing the music for Batman Begins. The last time I saw Memento was about three years ago, so I don't remember how Julyan's music sounds like.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. It was a clean sweep for the epic film, winning a total of 11 Academy Awards and tying with fellow Best Picture epics Titanic and Ben-Hur. Of course, there were other highlights during the 76th Annual Academy Awards...among them being Charlize Theron, the fact Billy Crystal did a great and humorous job as the show's host ("I first hosted the Oscars 13 years ago...back when Bush was in office, the economy was tanking, and we just finished a war with Iraq." Hi-larious!), Jeff Black and Will Ferrell singing a song ("You're boring!") that made fun of Oscar winners whose acceptance speeches went a minute too long, and Ben Stiller wearing his outfit from his upcoming film, Starsky & Hutch. Overall, this was a pretty interesting Academy Awards ceremony--if you ignore the fact there was as much suspense in wondering who the Best Picture winner would be as watching the ending for The Passion of the Christ. Of course, I hadn't watched the show in its entirety since Gladiator (I think) and Titanic (you didn't hear me say that). I was rooting for L.A. Confidential to win that year. No I wasn't.

The Passion of the Christ. Two of my friends and I went to Downtown Disney today to watch the 7:00 PM showing of the film. So what did I think? Overall, it was intense...pretty powerful actually. On the other hand, it may have been too intense. I think there were some parts of the film where Mel Gibson just overdid it on the depiction of Jesus getting roughed up by the Romans. And it's no wonder why the Jewish community was concerned that this film was going to spark more rounds of anti-semitism. Watching certain parts of the movie, I thought to myself, "It's no wonder why Jews have been getting persecuted for the past 2,000 years. And why a million of them died in World War II." What was Mel Gibson thinking??? Anyways, the shot of Jesus rising from the dead inside the tomb was the saving grace of the film (what a surprise, heheh)...considering for the previous 2 and a half hours Jesus was covered in blood and scars and whatnot. We should ALL be glad the Roman Empire is gone. Those heathens!! Although I don't know why, in my faith, we're called Roman Catholics...

And discussing the depiction of Satan in the film: Why am I not surprised that he wears a black hood for most of the film? A la the Sith in the Star Wars films, the Ringwraiths in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Voldemort in Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone, and even the mummy Imhotep in The Mummy (1999). Villains seem to be getting more stereotypical in fantasy and epic films these days...

By the way, Jim Caviezel did a commendable job playing the Messiah.