I can absolutely see why... ...

We're about to watch that rather funny new Anna Faris comedy, Mom...We love it!...

This post has been edited by McBadgere: Mar 26 2014, 08:39 PM

Getting ready to re-watch the IT Crowd again!

Fair dues, loved that series...

*Sighs*...Katherine Parkinson... ...

Anyways...Watched Castle last night...

Bloody hells that's such a good series...

*Sighs*...Stana Katic... ...

...

Worst part of BSG is that they create an atmosphere that pulls you in and makes you love it as well as the characters within, and then they completely negate all of that love that has been cultivated in the last two episodes. It was a very entertaining show (my favorite Sci Fi series) that had a terrible ending.

In between waiting for Wolverine and the X-Men discs to come in the mail last week, I had an X-Men Evolution marathon (thank you Hulu.com for free episodes, even if with ads and only online). I watched all four seasons, and I loved every minute. It was much better than the previous animated X-Men show from the 90s, especially when it came to the writing. The characters feel much more alive and real.

Having a sharper focus on a select group of people helps, where the 90s show tended to go more over the place. In Evolution they keep their real attention on the X-Men, The Brotherhood (not of Evil anymore), Magneto, Mystique, and just a few others. What I really loved was the rivalry between the X-men and the Brotherhood. We saw how it started, one person at a time. We also see a really sharp contrast between the two teams. The X-men are constantly training, while the Brotherhood is just lazy. No surprise who tends to lose...

But OTOH, they are not always openly at odds with one another either. They are all going to high school together for starters. Avalanche is trying to date Shadowcat, which adds a neat layer to things. Avalanche even joins the X-Men at one point. The way they are on again off again enemies make the show more interesting, because they can have actual relationships beyond "Let's get 'em!" At least sometimes. Even Toad, who was a rather loathsome and throwaway character in the comics, really comes alive. Partly because he is great comic relief, but also because he is useful. He's basically the Brotherhood's equivalent to Nightcrawler. He has a neat episode where he teams up with Nightcrawler in fact, to rescue his lady love: The Scarlet Witch.

Cyclops, who I usually find a rather dull character, turned out to be pretty cool. He was not quite such a stick-in-the-mud when he was a teen. Though you can still see the maturity there beyond everyone else. And of course I still love Rogue - my absolute favorite X-Man - who is a weird green goth. Nightcrawler just looks incredibly cute, and he and Shadowcat make a fun duo. Even the New Mutants make appearances, especially in the later seasons. Magma especially gave Rogue some serious competition for my heart.

My favorite episodes tended to be the ones that focused on one mutant dealing with their powers. For example, there was one where Jean's powers got stronger, and she couldn't cope with them, especially her telepathy. She would hear everyone's thoughts at once and freak out, would have nightmares and wake up floating above the bed, etc... These stories were good because they showed why the Xavier Institute exists in the first place: to help mutants learn to control their abilities. That is something that often gets lost in the shuffle between saving the world every other week.

Now whenever I think of the X-men and Brotherhood, I always remember how they started out as teens. It makes it a little weird now that I am back to watching Wolverine and the X-Men, because I see Avalanche and all I can think of is to wonder if he is still pining for Shadowcat?

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Mar 29 2014, 02:13 AM

I used to enjoy catching the odd episode when the kids were watching it...It was more fun because I'd not long been watching Gundam Wing and Dragonball-Z, and the same voices that were in X-Men had been dubbing those...Kirby Morrow, who was Scott was one of the Gundam pilots and Goku...And Nightcrawler was another of the pilots and Goku's son, Gohan...So I really enjoyed X-Men for that...(That and it being funny...)...

Ooooh, wasn't Chris Judge from Stargate SG-1 in it?...Wasn't he Magneto?...



We watched Person of Interest last night...*Sighs*...I love that series...Completely barmy stuff...Love it!...

Chris Judge was Magneto. Which was really weird, because I kept picturing Tealc whenever Magneto said something!

I went to see Noah last night. It was awful. There were about ten minutes worth of neat effects but most of it was eye-rolling nonsense or just plain boring. I would have much preferred to hang out in the lobby and talk with our friends rather than sit through the movie.

There were some moments of unintentional comedy, however. Like when Russell Crow states to another character that he is going to sing. That produced fits of giggling and elbow nudges throughout the audience and more than one whispered rendition of his songs from Les Miserables. NOW prisoner two-four-SIX-oh-one…your time is UP and your paROLE’S begun… Same guy, wrong boat, different beard!

Yeah...McWife read the Wikipedia entry for it out to us this morning...Not that it was really something we were really wanting to see...But...Yeeesh...It sounds a tad...Depressing... ...

Aaaamywho...

On the other end of the scale is Captain America 2!!...Awesome film!!...

*Applauds heartily*...

There's so much about that film that I loved...

I was a big fan of the first one too...They just feel slightly grittier, somehow, than the other Marvel films...Which is ironic, given the All-American-Hero™ kinda thing...

Yes, gone in very high in the Marvel-Film-Rankings list... ...

Though, despite the tagline of The Winter Soldier™...He's hardly in it...*Shrug*...Good film, definitely so...

Cobie Smulders!!!... ...Agent 13!!!... ...Jenny Agutter kicking arse!!!...*Sighs*... ...Oh, and that Johanssen wench too...*Sniffs*...Y'know?... ...

Captain America 2 opened already across the pond? You Brits have it so good. I have been looking forward to seeing it too. The first Captain A was definitely my favorite of the recent crop of non-X-men, Marvel movies.

I was thinking that Winter Soldier might not refer to just the new Bucky, but in a way to Cap himself.

The term came from a group of Vietnam Veterans who spoke out against the war, and gave testimonies about war crimes they had committed. They wanted to show that massacres like at Mai Lai were not rare, one-time occurrences, but a predictable and even inevitable result of the policies coming from the military high command, and the White House itself. They even revealed that the government was conducting a secret war in Laos, which no one knew about at the time (and was technically illegal, as was the secret war in Cambodia).

As John Kerry said in the hearings:
"We call this investigation the “Winter Soldier Investigation.” The term “Winter Soldier” is a play on words of Thomas Paine in 1776 when he spoke of the Sunshine Patriot and summertime soldiers who deserted at Valley Forge because the going was rough.

We who have come here to Washington have come here because we feel we have to be winter soldiers now. We could come back to this country; we could be quiet; we could hold our silence; we could not tell what went on in Vietnam, but we feel because of what threatens this country, the fact that the crimes threaten it, not reds, and not redcoats but the crimes which we are committing that threaten it, that we have to speak out."

Obviously I have not seem the movie yet, but the impression I get from the trailers is that Shield has gone too far, and turned into tyrants, and that Cap and Co. are fighting to stop them. That would make him a Winter Soldier as well, for he too would be challenging the morality and validity of what the government was doing.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Mar 29 2014, 05:05 PM

Well, firstly...Spoilers sweetie... ... ...

Secondly, I did not know all that Winter Soldier stuff...There's so many levels of awesome to what you put, it's untrue...(the thing itself, that you knew about all that in the first place etc...The sheer Geek level that you posess...*Shakes head in wonder and sighs*... ...)...

*Coughs*...

Um...Without spoilers it's hard to go into detail...Not that it'd actually make a difference to the enjoyment of the film...It really is a brilliant piece of filmmaking...So looking forward to the next one...And there'll have to be... ...

But, yeah...It did provoke some head scratching as to the future direction of a little tv series that's going on at the moment, that's for sure...

Btw...Falcon is just pure awesomness in it...Even more than Rhodey in Iron Man...And that's saying something.. ...

Hey, bow ties are still cool...

I am looking forward to seeing it. Falcon looked really neat in one of the trailers, and he was always one of my favs from the Captain America comic, so he's one of the reasons I want to see the movie. Aside of Chris Evans of course, and naturally Scarlett Johannson. I think Cap, Falcon, and Widow make a great team. Just wish we had some more female superheros in this new Marvel lineup of films...

Yes, yes they are...



Yes, yes they are... ...Them and*Sound of gunfire...Robert dives away from computer*...



*Nods vigorously*...Completely agree... ...Have you seen Zoe Saldana in Guardians of The Galaxy?...Karen Gillan's arse kicking?...Oh, and Scarlet Witch is going to be fun...

Oh, addendum to the btw...There's a mid-credits scene and a post-threemillionyearlong-credits scene...Which is all of twenty seconds long, but the girlies thought it worth the sitting there for...

So as to not derail the thread...Tonight we're watching more Magnum, I think we're on the last two of season (!) 6...And the NCIS that we recorded last night...

Ahhh, Bishop (*Sighs* )...

Watched Fast Five last night. Wasn't bad I suppose, though I definitely prefer the first three fast and furious films.

And I've no idea why they decided to go all Ocean's 11 in this one, I kept expecting George Clooney to wander in to tell them what to do

And I've thrashed my way through Battlestar Galactica. It started well, and the first three seasons were great, but after that I feel it went downhill. Some things were dragged out far longer than necessary, others were dealt with too quickly, and I found all the "acts of god" that popped up annoying. The religious side had been there from the start, but after four seasons of it without anything really coming from it, suddenly seeing it used to handwave acts of god through to support the plot just pissed me off.

I'm about to watch this week's episode of Vikings.

Right? I expected some deeper Cylon plot points hidden in there some place and not just "God did it, the end".

Overall I found the show to be very enjoyable but some things don't make any sense.

Yeah, using the religious thing they had going to gloss over plotholes as acts of god just reeks of bad writing and desperation.

I agree, I think the trial was probably the best part of the show for me. Despite glaring character flaws, I always felt that Baltar got shafted costantly throughout the series.

Even with the annoying ending, I still felt that BSG was a good way to waste 70 hours of my life. Excluding a few plot holes and the terrie ending, I still thoroughly enjoyed it.

Yeah, they never really established why no-one in a position of authority trusted him. I mean sure, he was a narcissist, and seemed a little crazy at times, but from the moment he arrived they disliked him. I think the only person who liked him from the beginning way Gaeta, and look what they did with him.

Movie of the day: The wolf of Wall Street.

First, I'll say this. It is extremely similar to Goodfellas, the main characters are almost cut-n-paste alike. THe only difference: one is played by Ray Liotta and the other by Leonardo DiCaprio.

This was a very controversial film, and not without reason. There are drugs, sex, and swearing everywhere (this film is now in the top spot for most uses of the F-word ever on a movie). And that's the point. These are not good people, and what they are doing is not going to end well. The movie makes this damn clear. You are supposed to not like these people; Jordan Belmont is both the protagonist and the antagonist of this film. He is his own worst enemy.

And I have to say, it had me laughing. The sheer ridiculousness of what was going on just makes it happen. Whether it's public blow-jobs or Leo trying to strangle his partner while wrapped head-to-toe in a phone wire, unable to walk or speak coherently from being so high. There is some really good black humor in this film.

And seriously, it is not for the faint of heart, it is really vulgar. I do recommend it, but know what you are getting into. Jordan Belfort is the playboy from hell.