The official Batman Begins website has finally put up two photos of the movie’s Batmobile, which in this story is a Wayne Industries military vehicle that never finished development and finds it’s way into Bruce Wayne’s hands.

Batman Begins is certainly looking to be a very different take on the Batman legend.

There’s a new trailer at some movie theaters out there, and here’s a poorly lit video of that trailer here. (14MB, Quicktime .mov)

Due to nearly constant exposure to Battlefield Vietnam over the last week, I went ahead and purchased a copy of Full Metal Jacket yesterday.

It’s interesting how often director Stanley Kubrick uses eyes to heavily convey plot in his movies, from the wild eyes of Jack Nicholson in The Shining, to HAL’s unblinking, red, murderous eye in 2001. Early in the Vietnam scenes, mention is made of “the thousand mile stare” that soldiers who’ve seen hell on earth obtain, and it’s interesting watching the exact moment where Joker’s face goes from fear and confusion while he tries to muster up the courage to shoot the sniper straight into that very stare afterward.

It’s also interesting to note that in nearly every case in which someone from the squad gets killed, it’s related to a mistake on their part, rather than simply luck of the draw. From the Lieutenant who doesn’t pay attention to the dangers ahead, to the soldier who picks up the booby-trapped stuffed rabbit, to Eight Ball’s mistake in navigation.

It’s a very powerful, disturbing movie, intentionally ugly as befitting its subject.

I faced off against the Fiero’s electrical system this past weekend. Ever since the fusible links blew and it was taken to a mechanic there had been problems with the internal lighting, headlights, radio and starter all failing to work on occasion.

After a bit of research, I tracked down the single point of failure for all of the above to a single point near the starter where everything daisy chained off of each other. It was a hard to reach spot, but I had noticed a good deal of black electrical tape wrapped around the connectors, and after taking off the air intake unit, I was able to removed the tape and replace most of the connectors. Several days have gone by and not even a single hiccup in the electrical system, so I’m considering this a minor success.

Now I only have to attack the clutch pedal, speed sensor, fuel filling hose and brakes, and I’ll be pretty much where everyone else with their vehicles. The joys of keeping a twenty year old piece of the 80s running.

RIP Peter Ustinov.