"My name is John Silver. And I have a long f-ing memory!" Love that quote!

Thinking whether or not to continue my run on Vikings and my rerun on Rome. I'm also at a crossroads between genres at the moment; on one hand I'm being snagged by ancient history/low-fantasy/general-fantasy stuff, while on the other I'm being doped up by gangster/noir thingmabobs. Case in point for the latter; just watched the Godfather part one and two. Again. Hmmmmmmmm.

Might Khajiit suggest Boardwalk Empire, if you are wanting gangster stuff? This one has seen seasons 1-4 and he enjoyed them. I know you can watch them for free if you have Amazon Prime.

Oh ho. Oh ho ho ho. OH HOHOHOHOHOHOHO.

Sometimes I wonder why I don't encounter these shows earlier...

THANKS FOR THE SUGGESTION, MY FINE FELINE FRIEND! I just watched a trailer of it on YouTube and hooooooo boy. It being set during the Prohibition instantly hooked me up!

I just watched Suicide Squad. Just as a heads up to any 4k'ers out there, the 4k version is not the Extended Edition. The Extended version is only on blu-ray and dvd. Thankfully I found that out before I bought it.

It was ok, but nothing great. Amanda Waller was well done by Viola Davis. But it was disappointing that she was still alive at the end. She's the real villain of the story. But I kind of see why they need her around if they want to do more SS movies. The suicider who really stood out to me was the Ese, Diablo. He had the most interesting story and personality.

The others are kind of what you would expect from any movie. Deadshot is the honorable warrior who wants to see his daughter again. Harley Quinn is crazier than even the Joker. But ultimately rather one-dimensional. Jared Leto's Joker was ok, but the weird thing with his teeth distracted me all the time. It didn't freak me out, it just made me keep thinking WTF? all the time that I should have been paying more attention to what he was saying. The rest of the cast is just kind of there. Being that it is a big team movie, you never really get to know anyone very well. That is the problem with films like this or the X-Men movies.

I did see a rather cute Zack Snyder/Watchmen easter egg. In one scene Deadshot looks in a store window and there is a giant yellow smiley face inside. I thought that was fun.

Exccccellent! Hope you enjoy it as much as Khajiit did!

So would you say the movie was entertaining?

If you like superhero movies it is a fun watch. Nothing special though.

Oh good, Khajiit is not especially fond of superhero movies so he thinks he'll pass! Thanks for the info!

I just got back from seeing Rogue One. It was very cool. It has lots of cameos which I assume were done by cgi. But they might restored lost/previous footage and audio for some. I don't want to give all the cool surprises away, but Red Leader and Gold Leader from A New Hope are two such cameos. Tarkin is in it as well. I am not sure how they did him. I am assuming they did some cgi on top of a real actor for his parts. Stephen Stanton did his voice (he did a lot of voices in Clone Wars and Rebels). Vader is in it as well. But both are only in small parts. Vader looked odd, as his neck seemed a lot thicker than normal. Jimmy Smits also appears in the flesh as Bail Organa, and I wanted to cheer when I saw him. I have to say I cannot imagine anyone other than him playing the role.

In other cameos, I am sure I heard the voice of the same guy who does Zeb in Rebels - Steve Blum - doing the voices of several stormtroopers. But I don't see his name in the credits on the IMDB. And I am sure I caught a glimpse of the guy who played Stiffler in the American Pie movies go past in the Rebel base, when the X-Wing pilots are being driven to their fighters. But I could be wrong on both.

The original characters all shine as well. They are very cool. My favorite was Donnie Yen. He was pure awesome! Felicity Jones is good. as are a bunch of other actors whose names I don't know. It is basically a team movie, and the rebels are really cool to see in action. In spite of having about six people on the team, each member is unique, and has something about them that makes them stand out. One warning, do not get too attached to anyone.

Time to eat. I'll be back later to add more interesting tidbits.

Back with some tidbits that won't spoil anything.

First off, it starts with the classic Lucas traveling shot. But unlike all the other SW films, there is no opening crawl. Perhaps that is to distinguish the ancillary films like Rogue One from what we have to now start considering the "core" movies?

The feel of the movie is definitely different from the other Star Wars movies. They are all adventure stories set in space, with wars happening around the story. Rogue One is a war story all the way. It may sound like I am nitpicking, but there is a big difference in the events and overall mood. From beginning to end Rogue One is a story about sacrifice. People give their lives for what they believe in. In contrast the older films are a wild romp through space by characters we know are going to live. This is what I meant about when I said in the Now Reading topic that Rogue One is much more gritty and harsh. Do not get attached to anyone, and I mean anyone.

The costuming is great. The rebels are dressed in a wide variety of gear that looks like it was collected from every corner of the galaxy. Rebel Spy Cassian Andor has a brown outfit with a jacket that reminded me a lot of the original Battlestar Galactica warrior uniform. The black stormtroopers we saw in the trailers are Orson Krennic's personal bodyguard. There is also a new kind of stormtrooper we meet on the final planet of Scarif (which is a beautiful tropical atoll). I think they are called Shoretroopers. Here is an article with some pics of both.

We get to see both a massive space battle and a ground battle in this movie, and neither disappoints. On the ground we have Imperial walkers of both the elephant and chicken varieties. The Empire has a cool new fighter that looks to be atmospheric only, given the look of its wings. Another neat addition is a space station in orbit of Scarif that acts as a doorway through the planetary energy shield. It is formed in a ring, and any ship trying to land on the planet or rise to orbit has to pass through its ring. This way the Imperials never have to lower the entire planet's shield so ships can come and go. They just lower the shield inside the ring to allow passage. Or raise it to block anyone in or out.

The Rebel fleet is in full force as well. And I do mean full force. The flagship is named Home One, but even though it is crewed by Mon Calamari, it is not one of their ships. It looked like a Providence class CIS destroyer. In many SW behind the scenes features I have often seen people say that the Rebel Alliance ships were basically an outgrowth of the CIS fleet. In Rogue One this is really hammered home when we see this old CIS ship surrounded by the Rebel Transports and Nebulon B Frigates we first saw in Empire Strikes Back. Finally, the rebels have a really cool new shuttle called a U Wing. Its wings fold forward to make a U when in space, but fold out sideways like standard wings for atmospheric flight.

Another cool cameo I just remembered was a chance run in with the two hoods from the Mos Eisley Cantina who picked with a fight with Luke, and met the business end of Obi-Wan's lightsaber. We bump into them briefly, and they are just as unpleasant!

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Dec 18 2016, 04:40 AM

Donnie Yen is a great actor! I'm looking forward to Rogue One a lot more now after reading your thoughts!

Go see it. I have not seen a movie in the theater in years (I don't like going to the theater. I always have to use the restroom half way though, etc...). Normally I wait for things to come out on disc/Netflix. But this was worth going out to see.

And go back and re-read my original post. I dumped a whole ton of more spoiler-free info.

Why are you still here reading? Go see it!

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Dec 17 2016, 09:42 PM

GAAAAAH! I got busy and missed the season finale of Project Runway!

Sheesh, so pushy! Lol


OH BOY!! Amazon Prime video has Batman: The Animated Series starring Mark Hamil as the Joker! Used to love watching this as a cub!

Watching some contrived XMas romance Hallmark style movie for one reason and one reason only ... it stars Amy Farrah Fowler as the female lead !!!! WOOOOOOOOOOT !!!!

Bahahaha is she just as awkward as her Big Bang character?

In some ways, but not in others. And of course, she is made to be prettier in this due to her role being to catch the man.

Oh of course! Gotta get that special Holiday Man, lol

Oooh Kung Fu Panda 2 is on as Khajiit wraps presents!

Hallmark = SO contrived! Poor writing and non-existent plots other than he+she+Santa= ZZZZ er, I mean Christmas Magic/love. I can't watch them without my eyes being in danger of permanently rolling back into my head as I slip into a self induced coma; but since this one had Amy Farrah Fowler - had to give it a shot.

It would be interesting seeing her do something besides poor Amy. Wasn't she Blossom back in the day?


Yay Ben Hur is on!! The old one.