The Trial was better and much more Kafka-esque.

I never saw the Kyle Maclachlan one, but I did see the Orson Welles one with Tony Perkins (several times). I'm not sure it's really all that Kafka-esque either (more than KAFKA, though) but it's definitely Wellesian. I like it a lot. Some of the sets are just amazing.

From what we can tell from the "Blade" series, vampires are as easy to kill as ducks and there's no limit on them.

That was one of my complaints about the second movie - we saw from multiple confrontations with Donal Logue's character that anything less than a heart or head strike with silver weaponry was no more than an inconvenience. Then in Blade 2 they were going off like Roman candles even though we saw in slow motion that the bullets were hitting them in places that might not even be fatal to normal human beings. I expected to see a leftover Indian from a John Wayne movie keel over at some point.

Also, the conceit that vampirism is an arbovirus that can be manipulated by genetics. Yeah, an arbovirus that makes its host organism instantaneously disintegrate in a shower of sparks if its heart or brain is ruptured by silver—certainly nothing unscientific about that.

Has anyone seen Stephen Sonderbergh's Kafka ?

I liked it. It was weird and maybe a bit slow, but interesting. I'd say it's at least worth a look.

Also, the conceit that vampirism is an arbovirus that can be manipulated by genetics. Yeah, an arbovirus that makes its host organism instantaneously disintegrate in a shower of sparks if its heart or brain is ruptured by silver—certainly nothing unscientific about that.

Yeah, the "scientific" explanations of the second film were total crap.

Still? I rather enjoy both films. I may be kind of sad.

Has anyone seen Stephen Sonderbergh's Kafka ? One of the Greek newspapers includes DVDs of movies and TV shows, and I just discovered they play in my computer despite region issues. The only one that looks appealing, sadly, is this one (well, other than The Mirror Crack'd, but I've seen that.)

I liked it. It was a bit studied, but the b/w photography was very cool and I liked the visual expressionism. For wacky Kafkaesque fun though, I'd have to recommend Franz Kafka's It's A Wonderful Life with Richard Grant. Which (being a short) came with a supercreepy puppettoon about the Sandman (not the DC character).

I'd have to recommend Franz Kafka's It's A Wonderful Life with Richard Grant.

I'll second this recommendation. Hugely amusing.

Reading an interview in prep for tonight's showing of Blade: Trinity, this cracked me up:

RYAN REYNOLDS: Four months after we finished shooting, I'd been in New Orleans shooting another movie and my agent and I were having a bite to eat – actually in London – and he's sitting there and goes, “Wow, I just can't believe how ripped you are.” And I pulled up my [shirt] and my gut flopped over. And he just looked like he wanted to cry. “How?!”

Horrible visual.

A coworker suggested this (use a@a.com to see page 2) is why the Matrix sequels didn't live up to the original.

I saw that linked from Penny Arcade Monday, and your co-worker's thought was the same as mine after I read it. Though I still think what the last two films really needed was an editor.

I'm reading Fametracker's audit of Natalie Portman, and they end with:

Current approximate level of fame: Sarah Michelle Gellar
Deserved approximate level of fame: Sarah Jessica Parker

I'm not sure what that means. They seemed to be saying she's underperforming -- but I'm so Buffy-skewed. Isn't SMG a bigger movie star than SJP right now?

Isn't SMG a bigger movie star than SJP right now?

As far as movies made, and probably for box office grosses for those films, probably.

But I think they're crediting SJP with a significantly higher profile because of Sex and the City.