The Blade series has done it all backwards. It started on a high that proved to big to top, and has conceded ground over the course of the series. Blade Trinity, the third and (hopefully) final part, does not regress this trend.

The original film had a powerful main villain who became a God (played by Stephen Dorff), the second had Luke Goss as the tortured head of the Reapers (a character that had more depth than the original’s Deacon Frost), and Blade Trinity has Dracula (only in it for the name) and a bunch of annoying vampires with vague motivations.

The original film had some decent sword and gunplay. The sequel had seamless live action to CG (with great use of depth of field) long before The Matrix Reloaded touted it for the ‘burlyman’ sequence. The third film has some lo-fi fights, nothing impressive. For what is essentially an action film, it got it all wrong.

More than anything this film suffered due to its lineage. That is not to say it is a bad film (the humour was hit or miss but still an appreciated addition), it was just lacklustre compared to what has gone before.

The premise of Churchill: The Hollywood Years (that Winston Churchill was actually an American marine, rather than a British statesman) is quite an astute piece of satire on the Americanisation of history (U-571, anyone?). It does, however, fall down in one key respect: there is nowhere near enough material to fill a film, even one as short as this.

While there are some amusing moments (none readily come to mind, but there was some laughter), it does get to be a bit cringeworthy. This is not just because of the ridiculous ideas, but the truly awful acting on display by everyone; there’s slapstick and bizarre, and there’s just plain shite. This falls in the latter category far too often.

It’s not dramatic, it’s not character-driven, and it’s not funny enough to have warranted more than a recurring character in a sketch-show. Had the writer gone down that route, we’d have a fairly well-liked character. As it is, Churchill is a bit too drawn out to be entertaining.

So, Google have got a new toy. Google Suggest uses some funky javascript to get the top results for your request as you type it, character by character. Although it was a little sluggish at first (slow connection that was being used to download a lot at the same time), it works pretty well.

Just for fun, figure out your own Google Length Weighting. Type in your name, character by character, until a search result appears in the suggestions which will list you at the top (spaces count towards the count). The number of characters is your Google Length Weighting. At the moment, I’m about a 7. What are you?

Update: Of course, within twenty minutes of posting, I find out that someone else has had the same idea. Ned Batchelder has the same Google Suggest game (sans numbers).

Update 2: As it is with all things hackery, good suggestions get made. That is why we now have the Google Suggest Firefox Extension. It’s proof of concept at the moment, but I’m sure it’ll be taken further.

Without wanting to turn Solitude into a running commentary for the BBC, a news piece on PlayStation 2 shortages caught my eye. Hmm, so Sony has “blundered” again with it’s shipping and the net effect is that PS2 is in high demand in the UK? Again. For how many years in a row?

Now, not that I’m cynical, but could this just be the same thing they do every year to get artificial demand up and get some cheap press (“PS2 sells out…”) before releasing the vast number they have in warehouses after New Year? Or, are they really incompetent at this whole numbers thing? I think we all know the answer.

Don’t buy the hype, kiddies, get yourself a console with fun games instead (X-Box or GameCube will be fine), unless you like fighting over the last few copies of a console (I’ve seen it happen – men and children arguing over that last box or the shipment that might come in next week) that will be flooding back onto the market when it means less to PR.

A thanks to Derek for pointing to a BBC news story about the French royally screwing up an explosives exercise. That is absolutely shocking.

It’s one thing to train sniffer dogs in an airport, it’s the real situation they’ll face, but to plant plastic explosives in a random passengers luggage is just madness. You’re really just asking for the dog to mess up and let it get away. Surely someone saw this coming.

I’m sure with this being in France and all that some will put this in the “News that isn’t news to anyone” category, but I’m genuinely stunned that anyone thought this was a good idea.