One of my favorite new sites, FlickChart, has now released an iPhone-optimized version of their page. You can find it at http://iphone.flickchart.com.

We RandomChatter people like to show up early to movies to make sure we get good seats. In our area, that means about 30 minutes in advance, sometimes more depending on the film. For Dark Knight tonight, we're gonna be waiting in line even before that.

So there we are, all standing around. What better time to break out FlickChart? Sure, we talk about what's been going on with each other recently too, but who can turn down conversations like "which is better, Ghostbusters or Back to the Future?" It's a great way to kill some time waiting for the theater to open or for the trailers to start.

If you still need a beta invite, check out their home page or let me know.

iTunes may be the most popular and the easiest way to automatically get podcasts, but it's not the only way. There's apparently still a big misconception about what a podcast is. Even the name itself is a misnomer; a "podcast" isn't inherently related to an iPod in any way. Some people still don't realize that our shows are merely MP3 files, just like most of their music files.

For those who don't (or won't) use iTunes, I've included new information on the left side of the site. You can now...

• Listen to our shows in your browser
• Get our RSS feeds to use in other programs
• Read a more detailed explanation of how to get podcasts without iTunes or an iPod

Looks pretty good. Maybe I should read the graphic novel before seeing the movie.

One of us said Hellboy 2 was a lot of fun, with creative imagery, great action scenes, and enjoyable characters. One of us said Hellboy 2 was even worse than Indy 4, with caricatures rather than characters and a plot that made him go from bored to frustrated to angry. As you can imagine, it was a fun show to record.

With this episode, we're going back to a format we used long ago, where we start by giving a quick spoiler-free review, and then (with warning) enter into a longer spoiler-filled discussion. Rather than merely doing reviews, we want to facilitate discussion about films.

UPDATE: Check out Ren's review here in the forums.

MC_012: Hellboy 2
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For those who missed it, Heroes is also doing webisodes during the off-season. You can find them at http://www.nbc.com/Heroes/Webisodes/. Here's the first of them:

If you're visiting our site on an iPhone, you'll now get a site theme optimized for iPhone viewing. It strips out the sidebar and header links providing a page you can easily view without zooming. Yes, even when the phone is vertical.

We don't have a forums skin specially designed for the iPhone, but you'll notice that if you turn your phone into landscape (horizontal) mode, reading our forums can easily be done without zooming.

Well, alrighty then.  This week on the show:

• iPhone 3G launch problems
• 1 in 3 people rip DVDs?
• Microsoft feels your pain

TC_002: Apple fall down go BOOM!
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More "non-news" about the possible actor's strike. Warner Brothers talks to D.C. about future superhero flicks. Robert Downey Jr. moves to Baker Street. In-flight movies get left at the gate. Robocop might be getting a very interesting director. A certain Pet Detective spawns an offspring. Andrew tries to convince me that Pi isn't the most horrible movie in cinematic history. All this and more!

RC_014: Pi in the Sky
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Just a quick note to let you know about new reviews on our new forums:

• Be Kind, Rewind
• Charlie Bartlett

You can also see these (and more!) on our new Reviews Index page.

This is sad news. Apparently J. Michael Straczynski ("JMS") has decided it's the big-screen or nothing for Babylon 5. And he concedes this probably means it'll be "nothing".

I absolutely loved Crusade. And Legend of the Rangers wasn't too bad (keep in mind that the Babylon 5 pilot wasn't great either). The Lost Tales was much like meeting an old friend for lunch -- it's nice to see them again, but you don't really get to spend enough time together for it to mean much.

JMS still has a Babylon 5 story to tell -- specifically Earth acquiring, experimenting with and using Shadow technology (and not in a benevolent way). This is where he was allegedly going with Crusade, and it's what the theatrical release The Mystery of the Shadows was supposed to have involved.

It's sad we may never see more Babylon 5 content. Click "continue reading" below for JMS's entire posting to his USENET newsgroup.

Continue reading ‘Babylon 5: R.I.P.’ »