Star Wars marathon. May the Fourth be with you!

Just finished watching Miss Congeniality for the fifth or sixth time. I still love that movie.

Thanks to Netflix, I am now watching The Six Million Dollar Man. I used to watch this when I was little. There were three pilot movies before the actual series, and I just finished the third one. They were... not the best in the world. I do still love the little quips he makes when someone sees him doing something impossible, like knocking down a stone wall: "Vitamins," he'll say.

What was really interesting is that the x-plane accident he was in during the first pilot was not nearly as interesting as how it looked in the title sequence of the series proper. They added in all kinds of stuff for the tv show, and it is a lot better. Even after all these years, I think it is one of the coolest tv show intros ever.

BwaaHaa! I remember, didn't they show some accident and then the voice said "they made him better...stronger..." and then they showed him running on a treadmill and it was going really fast or something?

That was it!

Omg, the link didn't show up in my mailbox! For some reason I thought the actor's name was Steve Austin - didn't remember the name Lee Majors till I saw it, lol. - and wasn't he married to Farah Fawcett? I remembered that, but not his real name, lol. Urk.

"We have the technology..." - what a line! I do remember that now that I saw it in your link! What a great little moment of nostalgia, lol. Thanks, SubRosa!

He was married to Farrah Fawcett. I forgot all about that. They were one of Hollywood's first power couples. Like Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez were. Or before that Ben Affleck and Matt Damon... Now that makes me remember the hooplah over that picture of Farrah getting out of the car with no underwear under her dress...

I still remember her left nipple from that movie with Kirk Douglas,

Wow, I forgot all about that!

Just finished watching Mystery Men. Still love that movie. Eddie Izzard is my favorite as the leader of the Disco Boys. Now I am digging out Oceans Thirteen, for his little part as Roman.

Well I never forgot it, it was like the first real nipple I ever saw (my own and other girls my age certainly did not count in comparison, lol).

I haven't seen Oceans Thirteen yet, but wanted to.

Just finished Oceans Thirteen. I have seen it over a dozen times, and it is still lots of fun. I love all the little things and inside jokes. mALX, if you liked Oceans Eleven, you will like this one too.

I haven't seen Oceans Eleven, but in general I do like heist movies if they are well done and not overplayed. The cast is a mix of some of my favorites (Like Damon) and some actors I refuse to watch (Clooney) - so when that happens I won't seek out the movie to watch, but if it comes up I'll give it a chance.

Well, so far Ocean's Eleven never came up for me to give it a chance - but actually I like the sound of Ocean's Thirteen more because they have dumped Julia Roberts off. I will watch Julia in some things, but in a movie like Eleven I was afraid she would cheese it up.

I forgot you don't like Clooney. You might want to stay away from the Oceans movies then, unless they happen to be on tv and you are bored. He is a major part of all of them. The films are named after his character after all.

Today I saw Black Sea. It was a good thriller. Lots of tension, a few twists, and some of the worst kind of people being the worst kind of people. Jude Law turned in a good performance as the Captain Ahab-ish captain. I believed in him right up until the end.

Clooney used to be a doctor in a hospital show and was excellent in the role; (I think it was St. Elsewhere) but then suddenly overnight he played a role in a movie and became some kind of supposed sex symbol.

Then his head seemed to swell with the image and his acting ability took a nose dive - or actually that could have been caused by the roles he took in the movies where all they cared about seemed to be showing him off as a stud figure.

After that he went around with a "I'm hot and I know it" look on his face and attitude, and all the great acting he showed in St. Elsewhere went elsewhere. So I crossed him off my list, and started avoiding his movies like the plague.

mALX, I think you have one great hospital show mixed up with another. Georgie Boy was on ER, while Mark Harmon (my hero as Special Agent in Charge Leroy Jethro Gibbs on NCIS!) was on St. Elsewhere, along with David Morse and Denzel Washington (another one who went down the stud idol path before he started showing serious acting chops in better quality movies).

I do agree with you about George Clooney, though I think the rot started while he was still on ER. I never cared for him. Funny, though, I loved "Rocket" Romano! He was a riot!

I couldn't remember the show, only that it was a hospital show and serious (not a comedy). But yeah, after that first film he started getting hammy, and never went back.

Just watched Jupiter Ascending. Expected an action adventure film with spaceships and Sean Bean (the reason I decided to watched it). Got a cringey romance story starring Mila Kunis and Channing Tatum.

The action parts were good, the CGI was nicely done, Sean Bean was as good as I expected him to be. Other than that the film was 'meh' and I had to skip several scenes that made me groan with how rom-com-worthy they were.



Next up I'm going to rewatch the 'Sharpe' series for the 8347385756th time.

I just learned about Jupiter Ascending when I saw an outtake from it on a show Mila was on advertising the movie. That outtake centered around Mila (of course). My impression was mixed. To begin with, I like Mila as an actress, so I was expecting to like it if she was in it; and she didn't disappoint in her role that I saw in that outtake.

But then I followed up by watching some trailers for it (to determine if it was "Rent-Worthy") - and found her role seemed a lot different between the trailers and the outtake. She was stretching to still be good in her role, and therefore the role itself lost a lot of believability (imo).

BUT - many times when all you see are excerpts they can be taken out of context, so that could be a completely wrong opinion, and I did keep that in mind; so it was just a minor flag against it.

The action looked good to an extent; but it was a little too obviously computer graphics in all the collisions. I think it would have been a lot stronger with some more realistic collisions so we weren't reminded every time that they were keeping a tight budget on a film.

Then there was the believability of those crashes:

(Example: When a man crashes into a building and through it, I expect to see some indication he has just done that - some body twisting/spinning/wincing or flinching/some bodily damage/even just a flailing arm or change in facial expression! Nothing. He crashed into a solid structure and came out the other side as if he had just walked in through the door.

At least a change in facial expression to show either strength and determination or pain - anything. Instead there was a crash into the side of the building and Channing emerged without any noticeable indication he had just plowed through a thick wall of concrete! Nothing whatsoever to show it just happened, not even people below ducking from falling rubble! Who was the Director that let that scene pass?

Then he flew straight to Mila's side unimpeded while armies just stared at him coming; and he lands with gun in hand pointed at the enemy. It was way too uber; and way too much of a "Now we know why the other side is losing all the time" moment.

Now again; that excerpt they showed may have been taken out of context, but it is the only thing I have to base my judgement on. It blew it for me wanting to watch the movie.

Something like that breaks any chance of immersion for me, because it makes sure you know you are watching a movie instead of really seeing these things take place. So then your outlook is at a disadvantage for everything else the film has to offer, like dialogue/storyline/etc.

Some of the acting was good, but some bordered on predictable and wavered between overplayed and underplayed. In one scene it was almost trite. And truthfully, I wanted it to be good because Magic Mike was in it, lol.

What I ended up deciding was that if this movie was free on television or someone else rented it - I'd watch it through. Otherwise, it won't be seen, I won't make the trip to BlockBuster for it, lol.

Aww that's disappointing. I liked the ambition that the Wachowskis showed in the Matrix trilogy and, to a lesser extent, in Cloud Atlas. I had high hopes for Jupiter Ascending before it disappeared into 'reshoot hell' for nine months. The movie was pretty much doomed after that.

I watched The Dark Knight Returns part 1 and 2. They are great and highly recommend them.

I'm currently watching what might just be my favourite movie of all time: Dungeons and Dragons. Love this film.

Also, I watched episode 1 of Vikings earlier. Looks promising.

If it is the one where they have duplicated a trapped dungeon and have a real person trying to work his way through it - I loved that one! It was so well done!

I have been having a Fast and Furious-thon. Last week I did the 4th, 5th, and 6th movies in order. Yesterday I did the first one. Wow, Vin Diesel had such a baby face in that one! Now I am down to the 2nd movie, which at least has the bright spot of Ludacris. Then that will be all (I refuse to subject myself to the horror of the 3rd movie...)

My older son looks like Vin Diesel:


http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/qq67/Ma...zps6eb1f5a1.jpg



(sorry about the finger, he was tired of having his picture taken).

What I'm NOT watching: "Whispers."



GAAAAAAAH!!!!!



*shivers*

Your son needs to shave it all off, and drive a little faster and furiouser!

Just saw Mad Max: Fury Road. It was ok. Basically it is one big car chase, with lots of fire, explosions, and people being killed in extremely violent ways. What we all look forward to in a Mad Max movie!

The Good: The vehicles in this are more amazing to look at than in the previous movies. They are really weird, over the top devices concocted from a mad man's brain. Like what is basically a tank, but with the body of what I think was a 1970 Challenger. The car battles are also way beyond anything we have seen in a Mad Max movie as well. They got really inspired, and quite inventive in thinking of ways to annihilate vehicles and people.

The bad guys are also far beyond what we have seen before. They are a bunch of religious psychopaths called the War Boys, whose only wish is to die in battle on the road, in order to go to Valhalla. They spray their faces with what might be silver paint before they go all kamikaze. Chroming themselves up like a car. They are also really sick. I don't just mean morally. They seem to have various forms of cancer and/or leukemia, thanks to the post-nuclear armageddon fallout. So they use the few healthy people left in the wasteland as 'blood bags', literally living off of transfusions of their blood.

They are led by a really creepy guy who spends all of the movie wearing this horrific mask and armor. I took one look at him and thought "If that is supposed to scare me, it's working!". He keeps a harem of the last hot girls in the wasteland, and my guess would be is the only one allowed to breed. As villains go, these guys are the best in the series, for both menace, and creep factor.

Said women escape with the help of Charlize Theron's character Furiousa. She was very cool. She has a half-shaven head, paints her forehead with black grease, and has a mechanical left arm. She basically drives the whole movie, literally as well as figuratively.

The Bad: Tom Hardy as Max. He is the worst part of the movie. Mel Gibson may be an anti-semitic ass, but at least he has charisma, and some measure of actual talent. You were always looking at Mel whenever he was on the screen in the original movies. Tom Hardy is just boring, and his Max does not really do a whole lot of anything. He spends the first 20 minutes or so as a captive of the War Boys, and is just along for the ride for the rest of the film.

It really is not a Mad Max movie at all. It is a Furiosa movie. I think it would have been better if they had just not named the character Max and dropped the idea of it being another Mad Max movie. It would have been better as Furiosa: Fury Road (or maybe something a bit less alliterative). That way we viewers would know exactly what we are getting.

The plot is not much to talk about either. The movie is basically one big chase, with occasional pauses between explosions and gory murders. But hey, no one goes to see a Mad Max movie expecting a brilliant script. So I don't really hold that against the movie.

I saw the trailer the other day. It seemed much more focused on Furioso than on Max. In fact, Max seemed like such a wallflower next to Charlize Theron.

I loved Mad Max though I'm saying this as someone who has never seen or really heard of the others. I can definitely see where Borderlands got its inspiration from! Max definitely was a wallflower. He could have been left out of the entire movie and it would have been just as good.



While I wait for Orange is the New Black, I've gotten into a novela called Maria la del Barrio. I think I know why my great-grandma and great-aunt would spend hours watching these shows! Maria la del Barrio is about a you girl who lives in a slum with her godmother. Together, they go through the dump and get things to recycle or sell (I think). When her godmother dies, a wealthy man takes her in as an act of charity. She's had a love at first sight going on with the elder son, Luis Fernando, for awhile ever since she passed him in a church.

Luis Fernando is an irresponsible drunk who is feeling very bitter towards women after his ex cheated on him. Being the eldest, his parents want him to be more responsible, but his mother babies him too much.

Meanwhile, his distant cousin, Soraya, schemes to marry him in order to secure the family fortune and resorts to he Nanny Calixta's witchcraft to try and force his heart.

The younger brother has feelings for Maria, but she's head over heels for Luis Fernando.

One of the maids cares for Maria like a mother and another maid despises her.

If nothing else, I'm learning a lot more Spanish watching this!

Dragonheart.

One of my favourite movies of all time.

And the only film ever to capture Sean Connery in his true form

That is among my list of favorites too; it is timeless, funny, touching, and so well done.

Colombiana



http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1657507/

Whispers. Hope the lights don't go out with the storm tonight ....

I have been watching the Alien Quadrology. Wow, these movies are still great. I was stunned at how good the first movie looks on blu-ray. While the exterior shots of the Nostromo were obviously done with models, the interiors look like a real spacecraft, that you could step right into tomorrow. Naturally I watched the Director's Cut from 2003.

Today I am on Aliens, and watching the Director's Cut of that too, which adds another half hour or so of footage. One interesting thing is that Aliens was made with the Theatrical version of Alien in mind. So when the marines get to the Alien nest Ripley is just as puzzled by how it all looks as everyone else. But in the Director's Cut of Alien, there is a scene where Ripley finds the Captain and skinny maintenance guy in a similar nest, all cocooned up against the walls. That was shot with the original movie, but ended up on the cutting room floor (probably to reduce the running time, the reason most things get cut).

I do love the little Terminator references that James Cameron worked into Aliens. When Ripley first meets Bishop and learns that he is an android, Burke says the android from the Nostromo was a Hyperdyne Systems. In the Terminator, Cyberdyne Systems was originally Hyperdyne Systems in the first draft of the Terminator script.

A little later in the dropship Hudson is bragging to Ripley about their firepower, and says they have phased plasma rifles. That was in the Terminator, in the gun shop scene, Ahnold asks the owner for "a phased plasma rifle in the 40 watt range".

Watched another couple of episodes of Vikings today. Still think it's a damn good series, for the most part. There are one or two bits that really piss me off though, like that damn malformed mystic, who has no business being in the show.

But apart from that, I'm loving the show

That annoys me too. My guess is that they are trying to appeal to their predominately Christian audience by portraying the Pagan holy person as being a twisted creature, rather than a healthy, 'normal' person. Even that aside, the guy is completely useless. I don't see why anyone would waste their time talking to him. He never has anything useful to say, not even in the form of generic advice like: "Odin Say: Don't Run With Scissors."

That was pretty much my guess as well. If anything it just makes me madder. I can only hope he doesn't pop up too much later on(I'm only five episodes in) otherwise I'm going to spend ten minutes ranting everytime he does.




On another note, just watched Enemy at the Gates. Pretty good film. Didn't like that last bit in the hospital though, seemed kind of unnecessary.

Watched the new Disney Pixar film, Inside Out.

It follows the story of a young girl, but through her emotions (Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness) which are personified as little people working in her mind. It explores the human mind as the young girl goes through a stressful time in her life. The way things like memory and personality are shown is really fun and the whole concept is great.

The way it deals with things such as depression is really really well done, as it doesn't just try to make light of the whole situation, and you can really see where they put the effort in. During the film's design and writing they consulted psychologists to help them get these things right, and it really shows.

Fun, cute, one of the best animated films I've seen for a while. Definitely recommend it.





Also watched Jurassic World. It was ok.

The idea is that some fancy corporate types splice some DNA together and make a super dinosaur, which of course breaks loose and starts killing everything in sight. Why they didn't make a super herbivore to start with, I have no idea.

Enter Chris Pratt, the military-man-turned-dino-trainer who dashes around saying cool stuff and being a badass. Accompanying our hero is a corporate lady whose only notable feature is the ability to run in heels, and two children - One of whom is more interested in girls than dinosaurs, whilst the other is very excitable and annoying. The entire film is a big game of hide and seek with the big scary dinosaur, and we see very little of the park itself.

Special effects were good, fight scene at the end was quite good, first 3/4 of the film was average. I was looking forward to it so much, but I just prefer more dinosaurs with my dinosaur films

Watched episode 6 of Vikings earlier.

Damn did it piss me off.

Some of it, most of it actually, was great, but there were two things that ruined it for me.

That bloody burning boat funeral scene.

And that scene talking about Ragnarok. It was a beautifully done scene, utterly ruined by that malformed mystic jackass delivering the most pathetic and inept summary of Ragnarok I've ever had the misfortune to hear.

Such a damn shame.

I'll keep on watching though, the good does outweigh the bad.

I'm in the middle of being charmed/suckered by a new show, and I just had to share it with all of you Skyrim/Dragonborn/Dragonblood fans:

Dragons: Race to the Edge is a fairly new Netflix/Dreamworks exclusive series about - well, you guessed it - dragons. It's like a bit of Pern mixed up with the Little Rascals with a smattering of the Vikings. Quite fun, actually. And the episodes are really short, which makes it go by quickly.

Some of the characters ring very true - I can just about see the actors voicing them, which is typical of Dreamworks/Pixar films. The one named Snotlout really reminds me of Jack Black. And Ruffnut makes me think of a girl I knew back in high school.

Exclusive to Netflix!

Oooh I didn't realise it had been released already! I've seen the first two seasons, and I love the How to Train Your Dragon films. I don't have netflix though, so I'll have to wait until it surfaces elsewhere on the web

Just watched Ultraviolet.

Gods is that film terrible.

Even by the standards of dumb action movies, it's moronic.

Now watching: movie trailers.

Marvel is great and while I cant wait for Deadpool.... DC is shaping up with their connected superhero movies.

I am excited for Suicide Squad. http://youtu.be/PLLQK9la6Go

And Batman vs Superman: http://youtu.be/bha24P9uw-E

Man of Steel was q great flick, and these will be even better.

I've been dying to see this; but like you I thought there would be a rampage of dinos! Hearing it is one super one is kind of a turn off!

Well the whole story for Jurassic Park was that they mixed in frog DNA to complete the dinosaur but ended up being a mistake since the dinosaurs changed sex like the species of frogs they used to complete the DNA strain... Dr. Wu should've learned that. It was a good movie... Especially seeing some old faces from film.

I loved the original (much better than the sequels); and was kind of hoping this one would be a knock out of the park. It was kind of disappointing to learn that the premise is one super dino though. I mean, it is not like dinos weren't a super power in themselves already, but to genetically alter them to make them even more dangerous just for a park attraction kind of makes no sense.

I mean, if they planned to ship it to an enemy country and secretly release it on them for warfare, it would make more sense.

Watching a documentary on Netflix called Earth: Power of the Planet. Quite good so far. The first episode is about volcanism and plate tectonics. In talking about what happens when two plates collide, they showed mountains. I immediately pointed at the tv and exclaimed: "That's Middle Earth!" A moment later they were showing the eastern gates of Moria, and the Dimrill Dale. I may have even seen a Ranger and a few hobbits sprinting across the landscape. But that might have been my imagination. Then the narrator said that it was the New Zealand...

Instant recall! So now we know where Middle Earth is, it's in New Zealand!

That is where the movies were filmed. 100% Pure Middle Earth.