Hermit

The Big Sleep 1946
This is another Bogart film and he plays a detective asked to help the daughter of a general. The dialogue is crisp an there is a plot hole with the death of the chauffeur. It is one of the films with Bogart and Bacall and is good..
 
The Maltese Falcon 1941
Bogart plays a detective trying to recover the maguffin which is the falcon of the title. It also stars Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet. It is one of the most famous of all detective films.

ME: "Do you think Kevin Bacon refers to his nipples as 'Bacon Bits?'"
 
BOSS: "How do I keep forgetting to fire you?"

I often joke about Australia being a postapocalyptic hellscape, but now that entire districts are unable to evacuate from the megafiires there, I realize that was in poor taste. If there is anything we can do to help, NGD Australians, let us know. 

My mother had a hearing test today and consequently got new hearing aids. Free. They are about £2000 roughly $2,200. The television has thus had the volume turned down

Well, it has already been politically effective... at ending the demonstrations by Iranians fed up with their government. Who can demand reform when the crazed, murderous Americans have just committed a real, no kidding, internationally defined act of war?
 
I am not intrinsically opposed to assassination. I can imagine specific circumstances in which it might be the most effective course to prevent greater harm, or be the only way to stop certain enemies. This is not one of them.
 
Dean Shomshak

"The new discovery in Russia marked the first time multiple generations of Scythian women were found buried together, according to the researchers. The youngest of the bodies may have belonged to a girl roughly 12 or 13 years old. Two others were women in their 20s, according to the researchers, and the fourth was between 45 and 50.
Mayor said the findings suggested that young girls were trained early on, just like boys, to ride horses and use bows and arrows.
“This was an egalitarian society,” Mayor told The Washington Post on Tuesday. “The fact that you have a range of ages is important because people previously thought that mothers wouldn’t be out fighting because they had children.”
“In these small tribes on the harsh steppes, it makes sense that every single person has to have the same skills and competence to defend the tribe as necessary,” she added. “It confirms that these women really were warriors throughout their lives.”
The discovery also represents the first time such a remarkably well-preserved headdress was found on a warrior woman’s head. According to the researchers, the headdress was 65 to 70 percent gold — a far higher portion than is often found in Scythian jewelry, which is typically about 30 percent."
 
In short, previous unearthing of warrior women's remains were suggestive but isolated, but this one offers far more evidence that female fighters were an integrated part of Scythian society, and could rise to prominence and positions of authority.

Maybe I missed something but I think I was the one who said it was a" PR trick" used by some studios etc. But no offense taken on my part. I disagree that it has nothing to do with the actual problem of fan toxicity or cyberbullying, as it can have a dangerous "boy cries wolf effect' that makes it much harder for victims of the real incidents. Calling out sexism as toxic is fine because, well, bigotry against people is toxic, but deciding to deride what would otherwise be mere disapproval of quality or adherence to canon as 'toxic'  is at kindest, hyperbole, and at worst,vilification. Looking back at the interview, it seemed to me like the interviewer was complaining about fans of superhero movies being too picky and labeling it as toxic. Cavill explained that he just saw that as passionate for they truly loved the characters etc. I think he's right not to assume toxcity is the norm for even passionate fandoms.
 
But, of course, as a fan of superheroes myself I might be biased
 
 
 
 

Sapkowski has got to be pickled tink by all this...
The Last Wish is currently a best seller at Amazon and has been for a week
 
and then you have THIS sort of Advertisement
 
 

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Dominathor?

Maybe I missed something but I think I was the one who said it was a" PR trick" used by some studios etc. But no offense taken on my part. I disagree that it has nothing to do with the actual problem of fan toxicity or cyberbullying, as it can have a dangerous "boy cries wolf effect' that makes it much harder for victims of the real incidents. Calling out sexism as toxic is fine because, well, bigotry against people is toxic, but deciding to deride what would otherwise be mere disapproval of quality or adherence to canon as 'toxic'  is at kindest, hyperbole, and at worst,vilification. Looking back at the interview, it seemed to me like the interviewer was complaining about fans of superhero movies being too picky and labeling it as toxic. Cavill explained that he just saw that as passionate for they truly loved the characters etc. I think he's right not to assume toxcity is the norm for even passionate fandoms.
 
But, of course, as a fan of superheroes myself I might be biased
 
 
 
 

Dominathor?

Dominathor?

I know what Nogroth is talking about. One example, IIRC-The Ghostbusters 2016 reboot trailer got a lot of flack on youtube comments.  Some where embarrassing examples of sexism "Girls? Really" "SJWs are the worst" stuff, but 90% of the  complaints were about how a reboot wasn't needed, the fact the trailer looked awful, the CGI seemed sub par... and other complaints that had nothing to do with the team being all women. Sony went in, and deleted that 90% and left the Sexist comments behind so it looked like ALL downvotes were because of sexism. It was spun as 'If you dont' go to see this movie, if you see it and don't like it- you're toxic fandom'
 
Star Wars fans who blasted the Last Jedi yet didn't take part in the abominable treatment of Tran (And it was horrible and I maybe one of the only folks I know who LIKES the character of Rose minus the rushed romance plot) still got lumped in with those that did by the director.
 
 
Toxic fans exist...
but the label is sometimes used against those that don't deserve it as a PR trick.
 
 

Tri-tip at the in-laws tonight.
 
Hubby got me a claymore sword! ❤️

I know what Nogroth is talking about. One example, IIRC-The Ghostbusters 2016 reboot trailer got a lot of flack on youtube comments.  Some where embarrassing examples of sexism "Girls? Really" "SJWs are the worst" stuff, but 90% of the  complaints were about how a reboot wasn't needed, the fact the trailer looked awful, the CGI seemed sub par... and other complaints that had nothing to do with the team being all women. Sony went in, and deleted that 90% and left the Sexist comments behind so it looked like ALL downvotes were because of sexism. It was spun as 'If you dont' go to see this movie, if you see it and don't like it- you're toxic fandom'
 
Star Wars fans who blasted the Last Jedi yet didn't take part in the abominable treatment of Tran (And it was horrible and I maybe one of the only folks I know who LIKES the character of Rose minus the rushed romance plot) still got lumped in with those that did by the director.
 
 
Toxic fans exist...
but the label is sometimes used against those that don't deserve it as a PR trick.
 
 

I know what Nogroth is talking about. One example, IIRC-The Ghostbusters 2016 reboot trailer got a lot of flack on youtube comments.  Some where embarrassing examples of sexism "Girls? Really" "SJWs are the worst" stuff, but 90% of the  complaints were about how a reboot wasn't needed, the fact the trailer looked awful, the CGI seemed sub par... and other complaints that had nothing to do with the team being all women. Sony went in, and deleted that 90% and left the Sexist comments behind so it looked like ALL downvotes were because of sexism. It was spun as 'If you dont' go to see this movie, if you see it and don't like it- you're toxic fandom'
 
Star Wars fans who blasted the Last Jedi yet didn't take part in the abominable treatment of Tran (And it was horrible and I maybe one of the only folks I know who LIKES the character of Rose minus the rushed romance plot) still got lumped in with those that did by the director.
 
 
Toxic fans exist...
but the label is sometimes used against those that don't deserve it as a PR trick.
 
 

I have never played the Witcher games but heard amazing things about it.
I have read one of the stories, and liked it, though of going back to it.
 
Honestly, my one complaint about it was that it was a bit of a jumble at the start. Switching time periods back and forth is a time honored tradition, but I think they could have done it more smoothly and perhaps more overtly. But that is a minor gripe and nothing actually flexing a bit of brain power couldn't fix
 
I absolutely adored Jaskier but that might be because as a Game master i have often used Bards that choose to sing a warrior PC's praises, whether the warrior wants it or not, as a running gag.
One of those songs will be in my head for hours.
I also just liked how he and Geralt interacted. 
 
Speaking of our hero, this was some seriously good acting by Cavil. The strong silent grunting type is not an easy role to make stand out let alone charismatic, but he sold it really really well. There were some moments of body language and expression that really filled out what might have otherwise been 'big guy finally speaks' . the Script writing is not great in parts, but overall you get the feeling Geralt is a good man who is understandably cautious about revealing that he IS a good guy.
 
Yennifer has a moral compass set on "I will never be helpless again" and it's a bit scary.. and completely understandable
I find myself liking her when I know she is not that good a person, at least not yet. 
 
The young princess on the run is sympathetic but honestly the area where I found myself least interested in. Not that it was bad per se, but I thought the other characters more engaging.
 
Sword fighting was amazing, or maybe that was just me?
 
If Lord of the Rings movies were a 10
This would be an 8, maybe 8.5?  Really enjoyable
 
 
 

This was a mistake! Save yourseeelves!

Happy New Year to the East Coast

Yeah, that happens. I just believe the label of "toxic" is applied way too often though and now seems to be the default excuse for a poorly constructed product's inevitable failure. I imagine it is a very subjective bar though.

For what its worth,  I enjoy Crystal Skull more than Temple of Doom.