It was either the show or it might have been a movie, if X-files did a movie. All I know is I was terrified of it crawling out from under spaces for a few weeks.

The X-files has two movies although I have only seen the first

Or it could have been the strechy guy - Tooms. He could elongate his body parts, so that he could crawl through air vents or even the cracks under doors. He was in two episodes.

I have been watching Inside The American Mob on Netflix. Fantastic. It starts out in 1970, and mostly concentrates on the New York mafia and The Commission. Though there is one episode solely about the Philadephia mob - which was controlled by the Commission. It's from a combination of mobsters and Feds - including Joe Pistone - aka Donnie Brasco, Rudolph Gulliani, etc...

GAAAAAAAH!!!!! Not Rudy!!!!

I finished Inside the American Mob. So today I watched Goodfellas. Even after all these years, it's still a great gangster movie.

This afternoon a watched what is as of this date the most recent QI episode available at YouTube. I have felt this season's QI episodes to be comparatively lackluster, but think this one darn good one despise a slow start.

Either yesterday or this morning I concluded my second viewing of Yogscast Sips LP of the game Banished. Good stuff.

Just a few minutes ago I finished DVD disk one of the 1993 Turner Pictures movie Gettysburg, which ends only a few minutes after one of the film's most stirring climactic scenes. If memory serves, it was chancing upon this clip at YouTube that led to me researching the movie and eventually buying it on disk. I'll likely watch disk two either tonight or some time tomorrow.

(2015-12-17 ADDENDUM: I did indeed finish watching Gettysburg last night.)

I finished The Frankenstein Chronicles today. An absolutely fantastic end to a thoroughly enjoyable series. They managed to squeeze so much drama, intrigue, and excitement into 6 episodes and told a fascinating story that rivals or beats any other show I've seen in a while.

Sean Bean's portrayal of John Marlott was really really well done, and the show also introduced plenty of actors I'm unfamiliar with but hope I see more of in the future.

Yesterday evening I watched Akira Kurosawa's Ran on Laserdisc. For a relatively long movie it sped by in the blink of an eye. Alas, my LD is in the old pan-and-scan format, of which I am a sworn enemy. (Pan-and-scan is why I bought very few movies on VHS, that format never adopting 'letterboxing' beyond rare exceptions. Letterboxing on Laserdisc was more prevalent but not universal.)

Also watched, the supplemental commentary tracks on my DVD of Gettysburg.

Several nights ago I attempted to watch Laputa: Castle in the Sky but fell asleep early on and didn't wake until fairly far into the film. I didn't feel like backtracking so threw in the towel.

Been to see the new Star Wars film this evening. It was ok. About what I expected.

Very nice CGI, nice soundtrack, overall a technically good film. I would have preferred more storytelling and interesting characters, but that's why I watch the Clone Wars cartoons.

The new Stormtrooper armour looks quite nice.

I just rewatched a clip focusing on half-swording. The combatants don't hold back as much as one often encounters in such demonstrations, surprising in that one man is not armored. Watching this shows, amongst other things, how inadequately even the best video games depict true medieval combat techniques, though Kingdom Come Deliverance promises to be a step in the right direction.

Relatedly, I watched an interesting answer to the question, "Which movie or TV series has the most realistic arms, armor and fighting?" and a very brief talk on the role of historical advisors in film.

Off the subject, I enjoyed another video from the fellow who talked about film advisors.

I loved the new Star Wars movie. The Grits family went Thursday night to a theater that a friend had rented for his practice’s Christmas party, so it was full of people that we know. It turned out that we even knew a bunch of his patients who were there. The experience was very much the movie night of old before the Internet and on-demand everything. It would be difficult to separate the movie from the overall cultural experience. Lots of fun to see everyone in their Star Wars gear wandering through the bars and restaurants around the theater before the movie. It was hilarious to see the plaza outside empty in two seconds when it was over. After all most of us were there with our kids, and it was a school night.

The "new" Star Wars movie...?



Didn´t that come in the 80s?



*loads up VHS tape*

I forgot to mention, I finished Jessica Jones. Loved it. Now Mr. Grits and I have embarked upon a Walking Dead journey. I didn’t like it the first time I tried to watch it, but it’s better now with a more forgiving attitude and few cocktails on board.

Made the mistake of checking out the Banished lp Decrepit linked in What Are You Playing? It makes for remarkably compelling viewing.

Bravo! The only problem with actually watching these videos and reading the old longswording manuals is that once you see it, you realize how silly most movie sword-fighting is. Especially people chopping through armored opponents with arming swords.

However, some films do manage to sneak in real longswording moves in when the director isn't looking (or whoever it is in the film industry that hates real sword fighting and bans its depiction). Ironclad did that in a few places, which got me cheering. But then that same movie had armored men literally being chopped in two from skull to groin... Troy was like that too. It sneaked in some real sword and spear moves between the silliness.

Now I am looking for Maria the Virgin Witch...



Congrats on Jessica! That was the best superhero show I have seen for a long time. Maybe ever. Like I said in my review a few pages back, it is all so very personal. Plus, David Tennant! It has me looking forward to the Luke Cage series.

I never got past the first two seasons of Walking Dead. The women are depicted as Suzy Homemakers, and in the second season the Queen Bee even gives a big speech about how all women should do is clean the house and have dinner on the table for their man when he gets home. The one female character in those seasons who defies the apparent ban on XX Chromosomes carrying a weapon wants to kill herself, and then allows someone else to try. So she's not a role model either.

I know the show went through multiple showrunners, and I think the later ones changed that by introducing new female characters who weren't damsels in distress - like the pics I see of the African girl with the katana. But it was all too little, too late for me. I was thoroughly disgusted by the show in season two.

That is the vid that made me beg SubRosa for the game, if I'm not mistaken in the vid you are referring to,

Sipsburgh and its amusing housing situation?

That narrator had me in hysterics, lol.

SubRosa, I’m starting to remember why I didn’t make it far with Walking Dead the first time. The characters seem like they were written by people who don’t know much about people. The plot moves along, though, so tonight we’re going to watch a few more episodes paired with some seasonal brews.

That is what makes or breaks a show for me. Do I like the characters? Or maybe a better way to put it is do I enjoy watching the characters. I did not like David's Tennant's character in Jessica Jones. But he was an awesome villain. I just loved watching him, and all of his rationalizations and half-truths, as he tried to justify his sociopathy and casual cruelty.

TWD had way too much soap opera melodrama in it for me. Because of that I could really could not care less if they all lived or died. That is always my cue to stop watching.

OTOH I loved Z-Nation - I even bought it on dvd - because I liked the characters in it. They were a lot of fun to be around. The rest of the show could be campy, and had cheap cgi. But none of that detracted from the joy of watching Murphy, Abbie, 10k, Doc, and the rest getting into a new z-venture every episode.

I saw Mr. Holmes yesterday. It was good. It is not an action adventure movie like the Sherlock Holmes' films that starred Iron Man. Rather it is a moving drama, about a very old Mr. Holmes, who is losing his memory and facing his mortality. Plus, Ian McKellan.

I started watching season one of Rebels last week. I am liking it a lot. It is much lighter in tone than The Clone Wars, and I like that it is focused on a much smaller cast, allowing us to see more of each individual character than Clone Wars could allow for. It is also fun seeing a show set in the same general era as the original trilogy, with Tie Fighters, Stormtroopers, and the like. Most of all I like the characters, and have a good time watching them.

I'm watching Pitch Black. It's a damn good film, and the closest I get to a horror film. And I have to say, I prefer Riddick in this, as opposed to Chronicles of Riddick(haven't seen Riddick, no idea what he's like in that) because they don't try to make him a hero.

I watched The Force Awakens today. It was alright, but nothing spectacular. Basically what I expected once I saw that JJ Abrams was in charge. The plot is such a carbon copy of A New Hope that before it was even half-way through I was thinking "Ok this has to happen now, then this, than this, etc..." And of course it all went on schedule. That is always the case with JJ Abrams, he doesn't have an original bone in his body. All he can do is copy other people's work.

But I did like the new characters, and the old ones. Han Solo is still the coolest guy in the galaxy, and the Falcon is still the coolest ship to ever fly. I was very pleasantly surprised to see a female protagonist who actually gets to use a lightsaber and the force. We have never seen that in a Star Wars film before (just a few female Jedi in the prequels who are so far in the back that they never have names or dialogue). And wow, a second black man in the entire galaxy. It only took seven movies for that (oh wait, he's the third black man in the galaxy, I guess each trilogy gets to have one black man). It was also nice to see some aliens in the Rebel Alliance Resistance, instead of only humans. That is a lot more iconoclasm than one normally sees in a sequel, so I cannot complain about JJ Abrams too much.

But the Big Bad is named Snooki? Really? The Jersey Shore is now running the Empire? How the mighty have fallen...

I love Pitch Black.

I’m about to watch the last Harry Potter movie with the family.

Pitch Black was a great movie. There are no heroes in it. Some people might look like they are at times, but the way this movie is, no one is what they appear to be. I loved that ambiguity about the film.

I've not done much 'serious' watching these past several days . . . a little of this, a little of that, nothing particularly post worthy.

However, yesterday afternoon/evening I got wind of a 79 year old woman who began making gaming videos with commentary for post on YouTube several months ago (as of late Dec 2015). Here is episode one of her Skyrim LP. Even discounting the age factor it's a fine episode, better than a good many TES LP episodes I've attempted to watch.

I´d say the mighty fell with the announcement of the first prequel...

Thanks to Decrepit, I have been watching Junketsu no Maria. I am three episodes in, and so far it is a lot of fun. It is half gritty real world ugliness of the Hundred Years War, and half wild anime magic girlness. I noticed that it is done by Production I.G., which explains a lot. They always create excellent shows.

I finished season one of Rebels today. I absolutely loved it! Especially Sabine's Tie Fighter! Sabine is definitely my favorite character. She has the whole Mandalorian thing going, plus she's an artist.

I was also tickled pink to find out that I had guessed who Fulcrum was! Yaay! My favorite character from The Clone Wars!

Heh, I was waiting to see your reaction when she finally appeared. She looks great, and just gets better in S2


I just watched the first episode of Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands. Pretty good start, with some nice CGI beasties mixed into the medieval norse setting. Looks like it'll be a fun show.

I’m watching season 5 of The Walking Dead. It got much better after the first two seasons, and though I haven’t checked because I don’t want plot spoilers it’s pretty obvious that the writing team has changed since the beginning. I really doubt that the first crew had even met people like most of the characters, much less understood them.

It helped my enjoyment tremendously when some actors with authentic-sounding accents joined the cast. One guy in particular has a beautiful Atlanta accent, and another guy who is supposed to be from the same area but from a different social stratum sounds exactly right. Some of the original actors make my ears bleed. To be fair it’s not their fault when someone writes “ain’t” into their lines thinking that all southerners speak the same dialect. Ugh.

There are believable and complicated characters now, though it’s still a cliffhanger-of-the-week kind of show. I think they knew how characters were supposed to develop and went too far starting them as weak/self-centered/idiots/assholes in the beginning to show that later they had changed. I spent two seasons cheerfully rooting for the zombies. That probably wasn’t the plan.


Clone Wars and Rebels are next on our viewing list.

I just started Season 2 of Rebels. Rex!!!

I am putting Beowulf down on my to watch list for the future.



I think the tv series is based off the comic, which I never read. But from some of the making off interviews in the bonus materials the tv show moves at a much slower pace. Some characters who die in season two only survived it one or two comic issues. So maybe they were supposed to grow up into non-disgusting people a whole lot sooner.

I found some concept art for the next Star Wars movie. I am looking forward to this one! Here is a page about it

That first vid was amazing! It was hard to imagine the way he was holding that sword that he could cause any real harm, but the guy actually got sick and disoriented by the blows on his helmet!

I really enjoy this guy narrating the next two vids, and most especially got a kick out of his rant about insulting art - and boy weren't those last figurines awesome!

Just watched Jurassic Park

I love that film so much

Oh, man. Got that movie on VHS many years ago. It came in a special "rocky" case and not a standard VHS case. Groovy

That first film was EPIC!!! Didn't care much for the sequels, though.

Yup, they've tried three times to make a proper sequel to Jurassic Park, and they've failed every time

Have you seen the one that came out this year? I haven't seen it yet.

I haven't, and I don't plan to. The Lost World was bad enough, but after Jurassic Park 3... *shudders*

Nope, I'm done with new Jurassic Park films. I'll stick to the original

I was hoping the long break in between sequels was a good sign that they were trying to figure out where they went wrong or something, lol. I was hoping to see it till I read something about the premise on here, and it kind of squelched my interest temporarily. But I'd still watch it if the chance came up, if for no other reason than to groan. But ... sure would love to hear what an eye-witness to it thinks of it.

LaFerrari review by Captain Slow

Watched the last 3 episodes of Legends season 2 today. They released 3 eps at once, which is a sure sign that the show has been cancelled. Pity.

The second season has been quite good overall, but they had so many different storylines going on (6 or 7 I think) that it felt a bit confusing and hectic at times. Nevertheless the last couple of episodes were great, and tied all those threads up nicely - especially the story about Sean Bean's character's past. It feels awesome when you can finally piece bits of story together to get a full picture.

Hopefully another network might pick the show up for a third season.

That's disappointing. I loved the first season of Legends. I had a Bean-tastic time watching both it and Frankenstein Chronicles.

Then I give you This!





Oh great! I have the entire second season TiVoed, but I haven't had the chance to watch it yet. Now I'm not sure that I will.

I think Angry Joe summed up Jurassic World rather well. It was all so unnecessary, and unoriginal.

Well Destri, if Legends fails, there is always Sharpe's Rifles. I think I might be breaking out my blu-rays and giving it another watch.

Thanks to Top Gear´s Richard Hammond, I think I know what car to buy next time...

Along with the usual run of police programs (American and UK), plus a couple of Marvel "Gritty in New York City" offerings... we are watching Mrs. Treydog's gift to me- the entire 1954 run of Sherlock Holmes.

It is more humorous than the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce version. Fun to see how the source material is altered to fit a 30 minute format.

At YouTube I watched a discussion of the so-called William Wallace Sword and a rebuttal to a documentary on English Longbows vs Medieval Plate Armor.

Reading The Deluge I at last reached the sabre duel whose brief film clip led to my initial interest in acquiring the Sienkiewicz novels from whence it derives. (Yes, I've linked it before.) I'm happy to report that in most aspects the film fight faithfully mirrors the book, particularly in its portrayal of the smaller, more skillful swordsman. (Sienkiewicz portrays him throughout the books as one of 'the' premiere swordsmen of his time.) The most obvious difference between book and film is that it rains in the film. Maybe the sabre 'twirling' is added, but I might be misremembering. (It is NOT, btw, a fight between near equals. The smaller man toys with his opponent, who quickly realizes he is vastly over matched. At the end, the large man says, more or less, "Don't humiliate me. End it now.") In any case it's nice to see a film of this sort remain true to its source material.

On DVD, I watched the first forty-five minutes or so of Fritz Lang's 1927ish silent "Kriemheld's Revenge", the second movie in his two-movie Die Nebilungen. The first movie, Siegfried, is considered the better of the two. I like them equally in their different ways. I will admit that Siegfried is an easier recommendation. A plus . . . these silents are a rarity in that much of their original music scores survive and have been recorded to accompany the visuals. Here's a brief clip from Sigfried, with the music in place.