The Saboteur

The Saboteur is a third person action-adventure video game set during World War II and developed by Pandemic Studios.The game has been called the developer's swan song, since Pandemic Studios was liquidated after its completion.

I'm having tons of fun playing this game which seems like a blend of Grand Theft Auto and Saints Row with all the car jacking going on. However, the setting of Paris during the Nazi occupation means you get to jack classic cars and kill Gestapo and SS instead of street criminals, much more satisfying to say the least. The Frank Miller effect, like in Sin City & The Spirit,uses a great black & white & red look for occupied territory. The music's brilliant too, lots of Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Glen Miller and even Django Reinhardt as well, tres cool, eh, mon ami!

A Christmas Story

"A Christmas Story is a 1983 American/Canadian Christmas comedy film based on the short stories and semi-fictional anecdotes of author and raconteur Jean Shepherd, including material from his books In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash, and Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories. It was directed by Bob Clark. The film has since become a holiday classic and is known to be shown numerous times on television during the Christmas season..." Make sure you watch it and remember not to shoot your eye out!

Ridley Scott's Robin Hood

Finally we can get a glimpse of the upcoming Ridley Scott epic film Robin Hood. The trailer just became available on Apple Trailers, so I've posted the link here. It looks like it's going to be a really great adventure like Gladiator and Kingdom of Heaven. Ridley does wonderful period pieces, can't wait to see it. Also I snagged the photo of Russell Crowe skulking through Sherwood forest, no doubt looking for Cate Blanchett who plays Maid Marian. The movie will be released in May 2010.

Anne's First Edition

A first-edition copy of the Canadian classic Anne of Green Gables was sold by Sotheby's New York Friday afternoon for $37,500. This is a live auction record for the famous debut novel by Lucy Maud Montgomery that originally retailed for $1.50.

Anne of Green Gables is a bestselling novel by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery published in 1908. Since publication, Anne of Green Gables has sold more than 50 million books. Also, this book is taught to students around the world.

Anne is really popular in Japan and the influx of tourists from Tokyo I witnessed by the coach-load when I was doing the shrines and theatre production in Charlotetown and Cavendish. Anne crosses all boundaries and is dearly loved worldwide. Wish I had my own first edition!

A Christmas Carol

I got around going to my local theatre to see the latest version of Chucky D's wonderful yarn, A Christmas Carol, and was somewhat disappointed in the anticipated experience. Granted, I did not have the 3-D bells and whistles movie house extravaganza in which to see my all time favourite Christmas story. However, I did enjoy the amazing computer generated eye-candy. Marley and the three others were just brilliant to gaze at. I did not get emotionally moved by the story though. No warming of the cockles of my heart by so much great dialogue spoken by these computer created beings. Give me any of the older movie versions for getting the uplifting glow of the tale itself, this effort unfortunately left me cold. I'll probably view it again when it comes out on dvd though, just to savour some of the immortal lines of Charles Dickens sounding great by Jim Carrey and Gary Oldman. Maybe there's a compact disc reading of the story or screenplay.

Day of Infamy 68th. Anniversary

It's the sixty eighth anniversary of the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the day of infamy that killed 2,395 Americans and hurled the United States into World War Two. It has been imortalized in films, books, paintings and even excellent video games....it remains a major turning point in twentieth century history. National Geographic has a very good documentary dvd about the event and there are many fascinating sites on the net that keep the memory alive and well documented. This post is a redux version from way back in 2006 when I started this blogsite, I scooped it from my own archives, famous photo and all!