* Would you like to watch all four seasons of Lost online for free? Then go here and here, because ABC has recently signed a deal with Veoh to stream their series online

* B-Sol at the Vault of Horror concludes his series on the modern zombie movie, taking us from the mid-’90s video game Resident Evil through the 28 Days Later-inspired zombie renaissance to the present day. If anything, I think he undersells the degree to which this decade has seen George A. Romero’s zombie films, particularly Dawn of the Dead, enshrined as the apotheosis of contemporary horror, the template against which other horror movies are now judged by critics.

* I was pretty convinced I blogged about this when I saw it but apparently I didn’t: Quentin Tarantino says that his long-discussed World War II action epic Inglorious Bastards (which I didn’t realize was a remake, of a movie by Enzo Castellari) will be split into two parts, Kill Bill style.

* Kristin Thompson notes that the London Times has largely retracted an article that made it sound like Christopher Tolkien was trying to singlehandedly take down production of the Hobbit films in some sort of grudge match.

* Lara Flynn Boyle rounds out her week of blogging about Twin Peaks. As with past entries you wonder if she correctly remembers who any of her female castmembers were, but aside from that it’s a fun glimpse into just how green she was at the time.

* In referring to The Happening as a fun and original B-movie, I think Adam Balz has found another way to accurately describe the deliberately off-kilter tone I was trying to describe with my “satire with violence instead of comedy” formulation. Anyway, please see the comment thread in my post for interesting back-and-forth between Jason Adams, Jon Hastings, Shaggy, Rickey Purdin, and hopefully myself if I get a few minutes.

* Speaking of back and forth, I enjoyed a little comment-thread debate I had with my favorite music writer, Matthew Perpetua, about the new album from renowned sample-pirate Girl Talk–go here and here. I also recommend you listen to him offer a pretty even-handed assessment of GT’s ouevre generally and new album Feed the Animals specifically on NPR. I think I finally grok his objection to the aspects of GT’s work he doesn’t like: the result of its juxtapositions are sometimes merely additive (eg. cocky rap vocals plus cock-rock metal anthem equals cocky cock-rap) or non sequitur (eg. big hip-hop beat plus Dawson’s Creek theme song equals “haha that’s hilarious!”) rather than “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” (eg. Young Jeezy’s “Soul Survivor” plus “Scentless Apprentice” plus “Passin’ Me By” plus “Juicy” plus “Tiny Dancer” equals a song about the horror of being trapped in a seemingly inescapable sociopolitical/mental environment and the euphoria of transcending it).

* In labeling The Incredible Hulk a failure with interesting visuals, Reverse Shot’s Matt Connolly serves up a couple of great lines about facial hair and your quote of the day:

As if in response to Lee’s intellectualized (which is not to say intelligent) infusion of convoluted psychological underpinnings into comic book mythology, director Louis Leterrier and screenwriter Zak Penn have streamlined their film’s focus to the body itself, specifically the male specimen: how it flexes, morphs, and bulges in frightening and entrancing ways.

This makes a lot of sense. After all, what else is Tim Roth’s Emil Blonsky looking for but gamma-Viagra, and what else is the purpose of the scene where Bruce refrains from bedding Betty due to his uncontrollable prowess than proof that his Jade Giant is bigger than Blonsky’s?

* The next best thing to being there: Tom Spurgeon reviews Heroes Con 2008, to which I was invited but regrettably could not make it.

* Evil on Two Legs looks at Camp Crystal Lake fashion. It’s, um, not hot.

* Check it out: Monster Brains’ Aeron Alfrey has a creature gallery of his own–1,000 beasts strong!

* Long ago, when reviewing Children of Men, I wondered if the film’s depiction of anti-immigrant hysteria amid economic privation of the sort that could be alleviated by immigrants made sense given what one would think would be the native people’s self-interest. This post from Matthew Yglesias points to a real-world analogue that shows it makes all too much sense, unfortunately.

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