For Dave and all the other Ed fans out there, this might give you some hope:

Brian Ford Sullivan: Before we start - I have to ask, who do I have to kidnap, blackmail and/or threaten to get "Ed" on DVD?

Rob Burnett: We're working on that. [Laughs.]

Jon Beckerman: Yeah, it's been sort of confusing especially since everything else that's ever been made for television seems to be on DVD now. But our understanding is that things got kind of tied up in between the different entities that were involved in producing the show. Because it was a joint production of Viacom Productions, which no longer exists, and NBC Productions and I guess Viacom kind of got absorbed back into Paramount and I don't know, it's just a whole maze of executives and confusion. But we've had a lot of requests for it come our way and so we just want copies for ourselves mostly. [Laughs.] We'd like that to happen.

RB: I think that the real reason is that the show is so good they fear that if they put it on DVD people would die of laughter. So it's really a precautionary measure.

If there's money to be had, I'm sure things will work themselves out and we'll all get our wish. I haven't seen all the episodes yet since stupid TBS stopped airing it, so I've got my fingers crossed for this one too.

According to Hutch, today is Middle Name Pride day. I take great pride in my middle name all year round. For those who don't know, my middle name is John. I was named after my grandfather, Brendan John Connelly. I didn't know him that well since he died when I was 5, but I take great pride in being named after him. It also adds to my Irishness, which is cool. Any interesting middle names out there?

I know it's been talked about before, but I've never had a need to use it. So let me just say now that Portable Firefox and the Portable Apps Suite is amazing. Now I can use Firefox instead of IE and with the del.icio.us extension I can access all my bookmarks and such. I haven't even tried using the other portable apps. I probably need a bigger flash drive for those, but they look great.

I was probably a little biased against this film from the beginning. From the time it was announced that Zack Snyder was adapting Frank Miller's graphic novel, the movie was constantly compared to Sin City, Frank Miller's previous and highly successful film adaptation. Even the director talked frequently about using the same techniques as those used in Sin City. So from the beginning I was afraid that the filmmakers would just do what worked before, rather than actually do what is best for this material.

Having finally seen the movie, though, I have to admit I'm impressed with the job they did. The filmmakers went to great lengths to replicate the look of the comic, which is actually quite different from Sin City. The bold red and gold colors dominate the movie, and the characters are strikingly similar to their comic book counterparts. The cinematography is also well done, with exciting camera angles and movements that mimic Miller's drawings.

I even thought the acting was fine. Obviously, the most crucial character in the story is Leonidas, and Gerard Butler filled the role off surprisingly well as a king who is passionate, stoic, and ruthless when fighting for his people.

My one complaint about the movie is with the story. Among Frank Miller's talents is an impeccable sense of timing. His stories are mostly visual with the minimal narration added wherever needed. They also move very quickly. 300 takes less than an hour to read. To stretch the story out to the length of a feature film, the writers padded it with an entire secondary story involving the queen at home trying to convince Sparta's leaders to send reinforcements. This thread ultimately has no bearing on the outcome of the film and kills the momentum of the story the audience actually wants to see.

Unnecessary plot elements aside, 300 is still mostly an exciting film that doesn't aspire to be much more than two hours of eye candy. If you're comfortable with that then the movie makes for a pretty fun night.

Plain View #62 - February, 2007

This one was a long time ago. I don't even remember what we talked about. A couple movies. Not sure what else. Enjoy.

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