When I order a pint of bitter will you deliver a pint of lager to another table?

What will you care if it costs 25p, even if you have ordered six months in advance?

If you're doing that, I'm gonna open the iDeli. I'll sell hugely over-priced iSandwiches in which the filling is no better than in much cheaper butties, but the bread looks a bit fancier. Watch all the gullible morons come flocking!

Do you want to open a Subway franchise, then...?

And I'll mention all the people I know who've had three PCs while I've had one Mac – and linked mobile devices.



And also that easyJet haven't complained over campaigns against what have been termed 'easyCouncils'.

Oh – and to repeat: the story about the pub says that the legal firm wants the pub to remove all names ...

Super ironic since Tolkien's story wasn't even original.

I knew it wouldn't take long! All you iPhone drones are so precious!

All you PC geeks are such – well, geeks!

Er, guilty. Ooh, just thought of another idea to make my iDeli even more authentic: I'll hire a load of Chinese workers, pay them six quid a week, then beat the crap out of them to ensure they produce an acceptable number of iSandwiches per hour!

The artwork on the signage does not appear to have come from the films. In fact as far as I can tell from the article, the only thing directly linked to the films is the picture of Elijah Wood's face on their loyalty card. And unless it's a picture of him in his Frodo role then that would be more of an issue for his lawyers than SZ's.

The whole thing is, at the very least, pointlessly heavy-handed. Just how much damage is this place doing to the 'brand' that SZ own? Are people wandering in expecting to see the movie or something?

Where is your PC made?

Despite some miserable pompous gets on here, the Facebook page already has 40,000 'Likes', and the pub now has [url=http://www.mckellen.com/cinema/hobbit-movie/120314.htm[size=150 Gandalf himself onside[/size[/url.

So follow that, whingers!

Meh. I knew that would be the response as I was typing it. My PC was woven from hemp by well-paid western workers in luxurious, unionised factories.

I think this is the most pertinent point. It's patently obvious that the pub and the film aren't linked. Do they think that a person suffering a bad pint at 'The Hobbit' will subsequently decide not to go and see 'The Hobbit'?

The answer is: no, they'll already have decided not to see it based on the fact that it's likely to be as drawn-out and tedious as the Lord of the Rings films.

Don't dis the LotR movies.

I couldn't possibly dis the last two, because after the first one I promised that I would never suffer such interminable boredom again.

I think they must have spent so much on the CGI that they didn't give any time at all to rehearsals with the humans.

Sean Bean, who is not the finest actor I can think of, manages possibly his most wooden performance ever.

I think that any decent acting comes from the sheer gravitas that McKellen and Lee can give anything, on the basis of longevity and experience and charisma (reminiscent of Alec Guinness in [iStar Wars[/i) and Bernard Hill, who actually managed to imbue his death scene with enough pathos that I was – finally – actually moved.

I don't remember enough about it to pass judgement on the acting, as I've tried to erase the whole sorry experience from my memory. I have this vague recollection of spending half an hour thinking "the special effects are impressive", a further half hour thinking "when is the storyline going to get moving", and two hours thinking "FFS, please let this be over soon". If it wasn't for the fact that I was on a first date (her choice of film, I hasten to add), I'd have left after an hour.

Thats a question for the owners of the copyright, if they feel that they've been infringed then they are entitled to ask the infringer to refrain, it would also be interesting to find out what copyright they own and for how long.

For pure artwork the artist retains the copyright by default for 70 years after his/her death unless it is specifically sold, selling the artwork is not the same as selling the copyright, an artist can sell artwork but does not transfer the right to copyright to the purchaser, so you can't start printing and selling birthday cards from a painting you bought - are you paying attention Mintball





I don't know what the situation is with written work or indeed with films but it would appear that if you're a sci-fi or fantasy geek then its gloves off when the big corporations want to protect their work or purchases, presumably Tolkeins estate won't be joining the Facebook group, not after they apparently sold the copyright anyway

<fx>crosses Rock God off the invite list for my "LotR -All 3 Extended Versions plus bonus features" party over Easter</fx>

Well said.

I had the misfortune of seeing the first one.

Run away, argue, get attacked by people on horses, run away, argue, get attacked by people on horses, run away, argue, get attacked by people on horses, run away, argue, get attacked by people on horses, run away...

God it was crap.

You'll need more than an Easter break for that lot. And some crack, probably.

It was superb. But - I accept - only for LOTR fans. I was hoping it wouldn't be a let-down after the book, and it certainly wasn't. Though the film was better if you had read the book as you could fill in all the stuff they couldn't find time for.

But two things are true. First, LOTR is one of those rare-ish things that there is little middle-earth of opinion about; people either love it, or detest it. I would say the same is exactly true of the books. I loved reading them when a lad and have enjoyed rereading them to my kids. But I have friends who have started the books and abandoned them in short order, with a loud "WTF??". So, you either get it, or you don't. That's fine. As it happens, many millions do get it.

The second thing? Well, how to put this politely? OK. The people who claim to not like LOTR invariably do so in either an insufferably smug, or more often an obnoxiously rude and patronising "I know much better than you what is rubbish" kind of way. It's as if they need to constantly justify to themselves why they don't like it, by going totally OTT with their views of just how terribly, unfeasibly bad it all actually is, if only the gullible and unwashed millions could see it for the total rubbish that they alone know it to be.

You don't like it? Cool. I don't need to know just exactly precisely HOW ridiculously awful it is to your finely honed critical faculties, thanks all the same.



SAVE THE HOBBIT !

Don't go near the books, then. There's loads of stuff in there they cut that would probably have you catatonic in short order. And definitely avoid even being in close proximity to a copy of The Silmarillion.



Personally I love the books and the movies, but I understand why some people can't stand either.

The acting isn't great. Then again, the dialogue in the books doesn't really lend itself to character-driven performances.

We've been know to watch those in a day.