I hate it when a long time passes without an update, but then I've been very busy at work (went to office on Saturday as well as today).  Anyway, here are the highlights of what happened between the last post and this one.  First, the movies I watched, then about a couple of Doom levels that I played, and then some other interesting bits of news.

• 300 — Watched on 6 Apr at Sathyam Cinemas ("first day, second show".  I've already written a review of the book this movie is based on, so the story needn't be told again.  The movie is a very close adaptation of the book, and director Zack Snyder has done a fantastic job bringing Frank Miller and Lynn Varley's work to life.  You wouldn't believe for a second that what you're watching on the screen is largely rendered on computers.  Good acting, breathtaking action sequences, nice music (by Tyler Bates — largely traditional music, but I loved the short bits where a heavy-metal-type music kicks in) as well.  9/10.
• Hellboy Animated: Blood and Iron — Hellboy and the BPRD are called in to investigate phantoms in a house recently bought by a millionaire.  What the team encounter are ghosts of murdered women, and Prof Broom must face an old enemy — Erzebet Ondrushko, a very powerful vampire who used to bathe in the blood of young women to retain her youth.  Much better than the first Hellboy Animated feature, this one has a better storyline and lots more of atmosphere.  It is effectively scary and there are some good action scenes too.  8/10.
• Deja Vu — When a ferry explodes killing more than 500 people, ATF agent Doug Carlin (Denzel Washington) is called in to investigate.  He joins a team of FBI agents who have a unique device, that allows one to view events from four days and six hours ago — and must use it to figure out who was behind the explosion.  A dead woman whose body was discovered at the crime scene may be the key to solving the mystery, hence Carlin decides to watch her life during the four days leading up to the explosion.  Interesting storyline and good execution, this is what I call "science fiction lite" — the film has some time travel concepts in it, but that is not the primary focus.  Instead, some well staged action sequences and drama are, which makes for an entertaining film.  8/10.
• Grindhouse — I wrote about Grindhouse in an earlier post some months ago, and was very glad to have finally watched the film.  Or rather, the two films, Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror and Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof.  Rodriguez's segment is about a town that is slowly being overrun by zombies (here called sickos), created by a poison gas that has been let loose in the atmosphere.  It is a non-stop thrill ride, with outrageous scenes of splatter and gore, with an excellent music score (by Robert himself)!  Tarantino's segment is about Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell), a psychotic stuntman who uses his "death-proof" car to kill people.  It was actually a bit of a letdown, as some parts of the film are more talky than they need to be, which kind of slows down the pace.  But there is one key car-chase/stunt sequence which is quite intense.  The fake trailers were also nicely made, and with the exception of Rob Zombie's Werewolf Women of the SS, I thought the other three trailers (Rodriguez's Machete, Edgar Wright's Don't, and Eli Roth's Thanksgiving) were all excellent.  I could write a whole post about all the "cool" things that the filmmakers put in to create the "grindhouse" experience, but I'll save that for an eventual detailed review.  9/10 overall (I'd rate Planet Terror a 9 or even a 10/10).

I also watched The Road Warrior (a.k.a. Mad Max 2), Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome and 2010 (all 8/10).

There are also some trailers that were released recently, that are worth watching —

• The US theatrical trailer and the UK trailer for Live Free or Die Hard (a.k.a. Die Hard 4.0)
• The full international trailer for 28 Weeks Later
• The trailer for Rob Zombie's Halloween (the trailer seems to have been removed now for some reason).

About these trailers, I guess Die Hard 4.0 would be a fun movie, but I don't know if it'll live up to the standards of the other three movies.  The Halloween remake seems interesting, but the standout was the trailer for 28 Weeks Later.  Seems like an awesome movie (director is Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, whose previous movies I have not seen, but the dude seems to have done a great job here).  I'm looking forward to watching the movie itself.  The non-movie related news is coming up, in the next post!