HBO Rotation: The Chronicles of Riddick

Although the XBOX game by the same name is actually really cool, The Chronicles of Riddick (for which Vin Diesel passed on the Fast and Furious franchise) is interesting eye-candy at best. HBO has it on HBO 2 right now, so I guess it is in the rotation. If you need some background noise for other activities it is a pretty good bad movie. Diesel has lots of raspy stupid lines like "It's an animal thing" and the movie is filled with a whole slew of odd religious undertones and a few overtones that all kind of fall dead because they are set in this weird sci-fi universe that has very little whatsoever to do with the grim bleakness of Pitch Black. The movie really wants to be Dune, but it's not even comparable to that horrific Dune mini series Sci-Fi network released a few years ago.

Also, I don't want to spoil it, so I'll just say this: the ending makes no sense and leaves you wondering if they suddenly ran out of money and decided to wrap things up.

I give it 3 ehs and a ha.

John Cleese with Aardman

According to BBC Online, Monty Python and Fawlty Towers alumni, John Cleese is writing a film for stop-motion animation pros Aardman Animations, makers of the always goofy and lovable Wallace and Gromit and the always goofy and rude Angry Kid.

This hasn't shown up on Aardman's studio news site as of yet, but according to the BBC, Peter Lord, Aardman co-founder, announced at Cannes on Tuesday that Cleese was "currently writing the 'pre-historic comedy'" and that the film will be Aardman's "fourth feature-length film in a deal with US film studio Dreamworks." As far as the subject matter of this "prehistory," Lords said, "It will be great comedy adventure about a pre-historic culture clash between two tribes, one comparatively evolved tribe, and one un-evolved tribe. . . . Let's just say it's the start of the Entente Cordial and it explains why the English Channel is there." An animated French versus English prehistory, eh? Count my interest piqued.

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