Even if you don’t love professional cycling I’d still recommend watching this movie. It’s easily one of the most beautifully shot documentaries I’ve watched, and as a peek into the side of the Tour de France that you never get to see, it’s invaluable.

Highly, highly recommended.

See, here’s the thing.

The movie version I watched wasn’t really why I recommended it.

It was rushed – really rushed, the character development was pretty much non-existent, they missed out a bunch of the good stuff in the book and skipped over a ton of the reasons why it’s as good a read as it is, but here’s what I’m hoping (and why I still recommended it):

Given what happened with Lord of The Rings, I can see them getting the initial movie releases out the door, then releasing a proper “Directors Cut” version that more closely matches the books and fills things out properly.

That’s what I’m hoping for anyhow. Whether it happens remains to be seen, but if it gets more people to read the books and find out what all the fuss was about then it still deserves a recommendation or two.

Absolute genius.

I’m not a programmer by any stretch of the imagination, but this was still a fascinating lesson in how people much smarter than I think.

Maybe one day I’ll actually be able to read it and understand it, but I’m glad to have taken the time regardless.

This is a wonderful movie, but seriously. What has happened to journalism that fights this hard to report the truth?

Jaws is one of the best films ever made – I never, ever get tired of watching it.

I loved the original for the endless gang-members vs. the few inside setup. The tension it created with the seemingly endless waves of attackers made up for any plot holes.

Because this is a few people (I’ll leave out the transparent spoilers) vs the few inside the tension is almost completely removed.

On the whole, it’s not terrible, and the actors involved are still watchable enough, it’s just not as satisfying to me as the original.

I love this movie.

It’s the perfect mix of stupid sci-fi, cold war paranoia and cheesy horror. You can’t go wrong with giant ants wanting to infest LA.

It’s a half-way decent short story by William Gibson, but let’s face it, it’s still silly.

Keanu almost out-Keanu’s himself with wooden acting, Beat Takeshi does, well, not very much except look dour and Japanese, Dolph Lundgren is a demented cyber-priest, Henry Rollins is an shouty cyber-surgeon, Ice-T is the leader of the cyber-rebellion who all dress like bad guys from Mad Max with worse make-up, they use the word cyber way too much, and the internet is the usual 3D skyscrapers and traffic visualisation that sci-fi’s been telling us is coming since Gibson wrote Neuromancer way back when.

Still, it’s pretty funny in an MST3K-without-the-robots kinda way. Turn your brain off and you won’t hate it that much.

Simply put, it’s bloody hilarious.

If you’re a fan of stupid comedy-horror nonsense of the ‘Bad Taste’ variety you’re gonna love it.