slikmar

4 hours ago, unclevlad said:

Diamondbacks have come back down from their June run.  Lost 8 of 11 in July.  Worse, scored 7 once, 5 once...ok...but 3 runs twice.  Yeah, 7 times, 2 runs or less.  Game yesterday in Toronto...the 2 they did score, were by a whisker.  Runners on 2nd and 3rd, 2 out.  Ground ball to second, but the Toronto 1st baseman moves a step or two too far trying to field it.  He tries to get back to the bag, the pitcher's trying to cover.  1st baseman has the ball...his foot is coming down *just* as the runner's foot is, as well.

 

Call went to appeal.  SOOOO close that whatever the call on the field was, was gonna stand, it was way too close to overrule.  Batter called safe.  The runner on 2nd was heads up and scored.  

 

But that was it.

 

Same thing with game 1 of the series, Friday.  Bad baserunning...both sides, actually, but more by the D'backs.  Repeatedly failing to get the key hit with RISP.  Dodgers have now surged into 1st...again.  Next 6 games?  In Atlanta, in Cincy.  Reds might've cooled off some, too, but they're an incredibly dangerous offensive ballclub now, and given the scoring issues...not a good arrangement.  

Wait, are you sure that A doesn't stand for Angels? Sounds just like them.

20 minutes ago, csyphrett said:

Read Dark Side of the Road by Green. Ishmael Jones is a faceless cog invited to his employer's family manor for Christmas for a killer holiday in the middle of a blizzard.

CES  

I love Simon Greene's stuff from way back. Started with the Hawk and Fisher and have progressed through almost all of it (Nightside, Deathstalker, Secret Histories (Golden Torc), Ghost Finders). Problem I started having was every pairing he did became variants of Hawk and Fisher - same mannerisms, same attitudes, same sayings. I had high hopes for Jones, but halfway through the book he and the woman helping him morphed into the same characters. Again, I am a fan of his stuff and loved all I had read, just became too repetitive. Was hoping for more.

Not me, last thing I want is what most people call a Life. Way to many other people in it.

So, much like Ryan Reynolds didn't play Hal so much as played Kyle Raynor; this flash is more early Wally then Barry, the scientist. It's too bad, as I really thought their CW Flash was very spot on.

14 hours ago, Grailknight said:

Ok, just saw The Flash and it was a mixed bag.

 

The opening action sequence is fairly nice, too bad it's mostly Batman.

 

Flash's powers are hugely inconsistent. He needs snacks to save civilians in a dangerous situation, but this never comes up when fighting the invading Kryptonians.

 

The "feels building" sequences are weak and even older Barry realizes younger Barry is annoying and immature, heck even young Barr realizes it.

 

Keaton's Bruce Wayne/Batman is on point. The best parts of the movie occur once he enters the picture.

 

The writing is fairly decent, especially around the serious parts of the film.

 

Barry's roommates are hilarious but could have been cut without disturbing the plot whatsoever.

 

The DC Multiverse shots are very well done. You even get to see the Nicolas Cage Superman.

 

The ending is pretty depressing, and the post credits scene is just there for laughs.

 

All in all, I'll give it a 2.5/5. There is a good movie in there but Miller's cringy Barry drags it down.

This was my take also, and I would add that I miss the supersmart Barry. I also think something was screwed up in this, Barry claims he was working the Crime Lab when he got his powers, which is DC canon, but the problem is, didnt he, at the end of Justice League get the job at the Crime Lab? So had he worked there then quit?

And also, I really don't like his Barry.

Last season Seattle made the playoffs in 1 run games, basically, this year back down to earth and it shows in their record.

Saw Asteroid City today. Lot of good people in it, subtly humorous, and can't really describe it except to say is not what you think. I do recommend it though.

Yes, and now here are the detractions you have put in.

A ) was against the A's, who field a AAA team at best right now.

B ) This is the guy who TWICE this season was caught with extra sticky stuff on his hands - ejected once, allowed to pitch the other.

Just Saying. but still, is an amazing feat.

scream and answer yes, no matter what.

Okay, I am even more impressed by Danielson, but then it adds to my belief that it makes Okada look lesser. Basically, the MAN in the NJPW (and I know Sanada champion right now, but really, Okada is their headliner) lost to a guy from AEW who is not a champion, lost to our champion and had a broken arm. I am not trying to downplay the toughness or skill of Danielson, but from an appearance viewpoint, this looks bad.

12 hours ago, unclevlad said:

Semi-freaky stat of the night...

 

We're at pretty much the halfway mark of the season, and the Angels had only 1 walk-off win.  On a wild pitch.

 

1-1, bottom of the 9th.  Trout gets on;  Ohtani forces a walk.  None out, the relief pitcher ignores them.  Trout breaks, the pitch is a breaking ball in the dirt.  Trout was already diving into 3rd, and it's debatable if the ball got far enough away anyway.  One has to be VERY sure there...2nd and 3rd with none out is too good a chance.  The batter strikes out...then Mike Moustakas comes up.

 

The pitcher, yes indeed, bounces another...and Trout dives in safe.

 

2nd walk-off.  ALSO on a wild pitch.

 

Cue the Toccata and Fugue in D minor....

As an angel fan, I will take wins any way I can get them. And given that in previous years the Angels have lost on walkoffs where the throw back to the pitcher bounced off his glove and the guy on third scored and another game where the relief pitcher dropped the ball, it hit the mound and bounced all the way to the dugout allowing the man on third to score (strangely, both against the A's and I believe same season) I do not regret any way we win.

I am only surprised by Danielson beating Okada (I think this lessens Okada, not that I don't like Danielson) and Los Ingonerbles beating Empire.

3 hours ago, Pariah said:

More fallout from the Rockies debacle:

 

Rockies trade Mike Moustakas to Angels shortly after losing to them by 24 runs

 

You can't make this stuff up, man.

and strangely, given his being used to hitting there, in ninth with 2 on and 2 outs and down by 1 run, Nevin chose to use Rengifo (who hasn't been that good) to pinch hit instead of Moustakas. Makes me wonder if Moustakas asked not to play on sunday against his old team. Was not a righty/lefty thing as Rengifo is a switch hitter and batted left.

And as often happens in a game you score that many runs, Angels offense basically sleep walking through sunday. And sadly, our big free agent pitcher we picked up who was great for Dodgers continues to be average at best. This was one of his better games, and came in Colorado, 3 runs 7 innings. Rookie Soriano (think rookie) gave up 1 so we lost game 4-3 and series to a bad Rockies team.

I liked the FF in that movie, I thought they were all really good, problem was, as usual, the powers that be REFUSE to do a correct Dr. Doom but then want to use him as an enemy. The later one with the 4 kids wasn't bad portrayals of the FF (except the Ben as a army weapon) but again, instead of using Annihulus OR Blastaar as the villain from the Negative Zone, instead you got another bad Dr. Doom. Funny thing, they could have even used the teenage/rival of Reed messing with the experiment, being kicked out and nobody catching it in time, Victor. Both bad versions of Doom ruined the movies.

8 hours ago, Old Man said:

5 hours ago, Duke Bushido said:

Screw the entire internet opinion system; I loved the Green Lantern movie.

 

 

5 hours ago, Bazza said:

ditto. and FF (first 2) and thought Evans was good in the role as Cap. 

thirded and thirded.

4 hours ago, death tribble said:

The card for Forbidden Door is all but complete.

Okada vs Danielson is the stand out match.

Jericho, Sammy Garcia and Minoru Suzuki will be fighting Sting, Darby Allin and a mystery partner from New Japan. The hint was it had to be someone who Jericho upset previously. I think it is Naito.

Naito would make sense as he seems to be the big name missing from the show. Especially as Ishii is now in the 5 on 5 match. not looking forward to Takahashe losing to MJF but they will have to offset Okada beating Danielson, which, given the 2 involved, I can't see not happening. Having Okada lose to Danielson, IMO, downgrades NJPW too much.

7 minutes ago, Ternaugh said:

How Labyrinth Should Have Happened

But then we wouldn't have gotten the Fierys and learned your not allowed to throw someone else's head, only your own head.

1 hour ago, Logan D. Hurricanes said:

 

Finally finished this one. I didn't realize I started this so long ago. Geez. (I don't spend nearly as much time reading as I used to mainly due to physical discomfort of eyes... but that's a different story.) 

 

I really liked the central premise of this one and wanted to learn more about the world so I may have to explore the sequels. Imagine a boarding school of sorts for children that come back from different fantasy realms (i.e. Wonderland, Never-Never Land, Narnia, etc.) and have trouble coping with the idea that they can't go back and nobody in the real world--like their parents--believes them about what happened. In this story, not only does this happen all the time but each of these children goes to a completely different realm. (None of the trademarked ones, naturally, but there are some pretty obvious allusions.) They classify these realms with terms like nonsense and logic and say the students went to a "high logic" realm or "she was stranded in nonsense." That's what I wanted to see more of. 

 

The main character is Nancy who went to the land of the dead. The similarities to the Wednesday series on Netflix are pretty jarring, especially when her roommate is from Nonsense. Also like Wednesday, it finished up as a murder mystery that the main characters needed to solve. (A little disappointing.) It is clearly a YA novel, but it didn't really feel like it until the last half when they dove into the murder plot. 

 

My favorite character was Jack, one of two sisters that went to the same realm together (very rare) called The Moors. Jack (nee Jacqueline) became apprenticed to Dr. Bleak, an obvious Dr. Frankenstein homage, while Jill fell in love with her vampire master who was obviously Dracula. 

 

The story is really about acceptance; acceptance of what happened to you, acceptance of your current situation, and lack of acceptance from the real world. There are some heady themes that it starts to tackle (including a trans character that has that on top of everything else to deal with) but it feels like it stops short to start the action movie portion. The murder details are quite gory, too, so the author does not go into that part halfheartedly. 

 

Some of the details are great. Nancy is not morbid at all, and she learned an almost supernatural ability for stillness so that she would not disturb the dead when she was there. One realm is populated by skeletons, another by spiders, and we don't learn nearly enough about them. I'm hoping for more in later books. 

 

Overall I enjoyed it, but it showed so much more potential than it realized. 3/4

 

BTW: I hate the title, just horrible. I kept forgetting it because it doesn't really mean anything. Oh well, minor nitpick. 

I am a fan of Seanan's writing (Cryptid and October Daye) and have read this series also. It is an excellent series exactly about what you say, which is accepting yourself regardless of what others think. I recommend you getting the rest. One book goes back to Jack and Jill and their story.

5 hours ago, mattingly said:

The thing that strikes me, left picture 21, right picture 27, and she looks like she aged a lot more between those 2 images.

Somehow the Angels have also played 3 more games then the others in their division.

On Ohtani, I think that Nevin will start looking after all-star break to give him days off. Problem is, Ohtani doesn't like days off.

I really liked the guy from Gotham, thought he was great.

The Show - The description of the movie is "A man's search for a stolen artifact leads him to the haunted town filled with Voodoo gangsters, masked adventurers, Depression-era private eyes and violent chiaroscuro women." That does not do the weirdness of this movie justice and I highly recommend it. It is possibly the strangest, though not necessarily in a bad way, movie I have seen behind Everything, Everywhere all at Once.

There is a lot to like about the movie, but my favorite part may be the Noir Detectives. The movie isn't high drama, seems to not take itself too seriously and made my wife and I laugh at some of the dark humor in it.

1 hour ago, Cancer said:

Needs a rubber tentacle or a few arthropod legs sticking out from under.

Schroedinger's critter?

5 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

What was your impression of Jason Momoa? This looked like a rather different role for him.

I saw it also, and for what it is worth, he played totally over the top, as you would expect in a movie like this, but he came across as smart and psychopathic, so played the role well, to me.

On 6/4/2023 at 3:38 AM, mattingly said:

Across the Spider-Verse. A very worthy sequel!

 

Agree, saw it myself today, enjoyed it a lot. Warning, and not a spoiler really, but it is a part 1 of 2.