Police Squad, which spawned the Naked Gun movies.

At least OJ wasn't on the original series!

We saw Serenity on Saturday afternoon and immediately went into the adjoining mall to buy the DVD of Firefly (we'd never seen any of the eps). The DVD was sold out in every store, which should bode well for getting the series uncancelled someday.

The movie was just amazing. On the other hand, we saw Tim Burton's Corpse Bride today, which is the very definition of "underwhelming." Just blah.

Next weekend - The Wallace and Gromit movie! Can't wait!

Maybe the success of Serenity will convince Fox (or another network) to revive Firefly, ala Family Guy.

A revival of the Firefly TV series is unlikely; Fox owns the rights to any television series that's made within the next ten years, and Joss Whedon has stated he refuses to work with Fox anymore after the way they gave Firefly the shaft.

I hafta say I haven't seen a Sci-Fi movie as quirky and energizing as this since the fitst Star Wars. It was breathtakingly good. At the end I exhaled an honest "Wow!"

I saw the movie with someone who had never seen the series; he liked it more than I did. My hopes for a second movie are starting to rise.

I just got back from seeing "Serenity," and thought it was okay at best. Nothing special here that my eyes could find. The acting was competent, the scene design was excellent, but the story left an awful lot to be desired.

A few bits made me laugh with the post-modern humor, but an equal number just fell like bricks.

Were you to tell me this was an adaptation of a comic book story, I'd find it believable because it was thin gruel. No real complexity, no plot turns or twists. I'd put it in the same category as the hundreds of B-movie westerns that no one watches anymore. I certainly see no need to see it again or hope for a sequel.

Sorry to be contrarian...

No problem on being contrarian, Mr. Burgess. I've found that contrarians for good movies tend fall into one of several categories:
1)Those that are just "too cool for school," and pee on anything that seems popular;
2)Those with tastes too narrow and restrictive to truly enjoy a good movie;
3)Nitpickers. . the kind that moan that LoTR didn't include their favorite minor scene that would have dragged a movie down, for instance
and 4)The rare few who just didn't click with the material.

Critics usually fall into categories one and two. I'd think you were in category 4, except for the comment about No real complexity, no plot turns or twists, which after seeing the movie twice already seems an unlikely characterization from anyone who watched the movie.

The movie was a fun ride, but the plot was 110% ridiculous. The crazy time line of what, 10 years, for the reavers to grow from failed experiment to full blown interstellar menace, and a miniscule 10 million of them at that. Vast volumes of space reduced to the size of a kiddie pool, the remarkable lack of advanced, or even lethal, weapons, the archaic technology... really now, it was silly, silly, silly.

But it was fun.

Since we don't know the physics behind the show, I can't really comment on the travel times.

The weapons though make sense if you watch the show. There are advanced weapons available, but the main characters are existing on the frontier without sophisticated manufacturing centers. The same with other anachronisms. As I stated in my review, at least one other author (actually two now that I think about it) have postulated a similar scenario.

The rise of the reavers while implausible is a duex ex machina device that allows the story to move forward.

Despite these "flaws" the underlying story was enjoyable (very enjoyable in my opinion).

They weren't really flaws. Whedon was just doing what scriptwriters are supposed to do. They "show" instead of "tell". Some people are just too dense to see. He made the assumption that we're familiar with the universe he is writing in without a ton of annoying (and movie dragging) speeches about the whys and hows.

I have never seen a single episode of Firefly and I really loved Serenity. I thought it was unique and new in a fresh way that Sci-Fi movies need.

I really dug the way they spoke as well. I believe it was so well handled by the cast becuase they had such familiarity with it. If done by fresh actors who were new to it, I think it might have not worked quite as well... but with Fillion and crew, it went swimmingly smooth.

Also, just a fan of Tudyk since I had seen him in Spamalot the night before. He's soooo funny.

Regarding the trivia question, there are a lot of good movies that spawned extremely short-lived TV shows. That might be a fun one for later.

I don't think that would be a very fun trivia game, Chrees. The winner by a mile has to be "My Big Fat Greek Life," the ill-advised sitcom spawned from the sleeper hit with the similar name. It ran for a grand total of six episodes, but rumors persist that the show was actually cancelled halfway through its debut.

If you're really curious, the whole show is available on DVD for the bargain-basement price of $22 and change, which is a hell of a lot more than it's worth.

I don't think the mix of low- & high-tech is that unlikely.

I'm sure there are plenty of people who have outhouses and cell phones.