slikmar

I am in the "they are trying to ride the coattails of the Marvel Cinematic Universe successes". I mean, even the "failures" for Marvel would at least be considered ok to other studios, I would think. Of course, not learning the lesson that the reason for Marvels success was due to directors, writers,  and for the most part, actors who actually understood the original medium and enjoyed it, is another matter. I have said before, and I know not all agree, but even the bad MCU movies are better then most the stuff put out by any other studio.

And all this reminds me of the 90s FF so they could keep the license, without even releasing a movie.

3 hours ago, mattingly said:

Whereas Never Say Never literally was a remake of Thunderball.

your right, wasn't thunderball. Felt like You Only Live Twice, only Submarines instead of Spaceships. not exact, but felt very similar.

On 2/18/2024 at 11:40 AM, Old Man said:

The Spy Who Loved Me (1977).  One of the better ones so far, with very little goofiness and probably the best direction yet.  It's a bit uneven--a somewhat noir spy thriller featuring two competing spies who are involuntarily attracted to each other, giving way to a kind of ridiculous war movie towards the end.  I definitely preferred the first part and I actually wish the film had leaned into the relationship more.  Still, it's probably the second best of the pre-1980s Bond films I've seen so far, after FRWL.

This movie, especially the ending, always felt like a remake of Thunderball(?)

14 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

I don't understand why they don't hire the people making their Spider-Man video games to write their movies. Those folks obviously know and respect the characters, and they know how to tell a compelling story.

I think you answered your own question.

Taxidermy?

On 2/18/2024 at 10:08 AM, mattingly said:

I find it hard to believe that Bert and Big Bird would give an angry bird, though the Elmo/Oscar makes total sense.

2 hours ago, death tribble said:

Dungeons and Dragons Honor Among Thieves

Got this on DVD over Christmas and have now seen it. As someone who grew up with the game this was something I was dreading after the first attempt some years back and that awful cartoon. But this was so good. Whoever did the script paid attention to what the game could do and what players got up to. And didn't Hugh Grant have fun ?

No Purple Worms and no Ropers and no Shambling Mounds. But we did get an Owlbear, Displacer Beasts, a Mimic, Gelatinous Cube and a fat Red Dragon. It was delightful.

I so hope the same people come back and do more of these. And the fat Dragon was hilarious, far more then I thought would be. "What does a Bard do?", how many times in a game did we ask that.

2 hours ago, death tribble said:

I disagree entirely with this. Butcher has been building this for years. And in Battleground we get a culmination of a lot of things that have building for a while.

 

Battleground by Jim Butcher

Set over the course mainly of one night, Chicago becomes a battle field as a Titan and her Fomor allies try to take the city apart and anyone who stands in their way. They pick the fight on the Longest Day when Mab's power is at her weakest. And oh boy do we get a fight. There is no easy way out or reasoning this away after all the death and destruction. But it was impressive.

And we get an explanation of stuff that happened in the earlier books as a hidden enemy is finally revealed and thwarted. But there is something to come in the next books. There was stuff I did not expect from Marcone for one and the sad death of another character in a way that I did not expect. And Harry is on the outs with the White Council once more.

You have to have read most of the other books to really appreciate this one and you have to have read Peace Talks.

And now the long wait until the next paid of books comes out.

I agree with you on Battleground and was a culmination of a lot, reminded me of Changes in that respect. Speaking of, if the spell CRT spoke of was the one from Changes, Harry couldn't have cast that spell, the vampires set it up, he just changed a parameter. If not, well, Harry has always been a powerhouse, what he has learned is control and maximizing that power. On the other hand 

I have been listening to the Junkyard Druid series, all of them, and there are a lot of parallels, including the power creep. If you like Dresden, I recommend it by M.D. Massey.

I smell scapegoat: 49ers fire DC Wilks.

<sarcasm almost always on>Might as well fire special teams coach, cause if kicker makes the extra point like they are paid for, 49ers win. obviously coaches fault. <sarcasm temporarily off>

I smell scapegoat: 49ers fire DC Wilks.

<sarcasm almost always on>Might as well fire special teams coach, cause if kicker makes the extra point like they are paid for, 49ers win. obviously coaches fault. <sarcasm temporarily off>

Perhaps start by NOT making Dr. Doom the villain and use one of the, I don't know, 100s of other villains in their pantheon? Its probably one of the most annoying thing about the last one with Kate and Mara is it would have been a perfect opportunity to use Blastaar as the villain from the Negative Zone, thereby setting a future Annihilus.

5 hours ago, death tribble said:

Taylor Swift got a lot of coverage but not to the detriment to the game. We don't get the same 'feed' so you will have seen things I did not. Apparently she downed a pint of beer quite impressively so the presenters said but no-one saw it except in the stadium. She got into it. And kudos for travelling all the way back from Japan to see the game.

 

That game will have shredded nerves.

All hype, and there is a lot, aside, at least, unlike a lot of celebs who seem to be there for the camera and have no real emotion showing (Jay-Z comes to mind), She did seem to be living and dieing on every play in the 4th and OT, much like any fan of either team.

My brother always likes to talk about Dak's numbers while game is in jeopardy vs blowout times. He says look at the number of times late in half/game when other team is playing prevent defense or out of it and given up.

There was some stat that Tua set the Dolphin record for TDs in a season or something and I was shocked considering Marino, but apparently true.

I noticed that Jack Perry showed up in NJPW a couple weeks back wearing an armband that said Scapegoat and tearing up an AEW contract. Not sure whole thing, but given that both Moxley and Kingston were on the card where he showed up, wondering if he will continue in NJPW or return to AEW, funnily enough playing a part much like Punk used - anti BS as it were.

ok, time for that lifetime supply of double expresso latte's for me. Thanks for that.

1 hour ago, Bazza said:

Today I had the nastiest, slowest, rudest cashier I've ever had. I guess it's my fault for using the self checkout

I seem to get that person every time. Extremely sarcastic and annoying, then they follow me out and home. 

21 hours ago, Clonus said:

Ah, Tunnels and Trolls Wizard, where your magic was based on physical strength.

right now?

1 hour ago, Pariah said:

"Lord, I'll never pick another pocket again as long as I live. I swear it. But here's the problem: You've got to let me live. How can I prove my good faith to you? If you've heard me, this ledge will remain steady as a rock, and that thing coming at me won't be what I think it is. If it is, there's no hard feelings, of course, but I'd be very disappointed."

Man I love that movie, and not just for the first time I remember seeing Michelle Pfeiffer, thought that helped. After seeing it, went and bought the book and read it.

12 hours ago, unclevlad said:

The Niners are REALLY good...

 

To me, the strongest test of a coaching staff is making the adjustments, and I'd say we can all agree Kyle Shanahan and his staff's adjustments worked rather well.

 

Oh well, I really did want the Lions to make it.  

 

And man, got to love a QB who can make plays with their legs.

 

I'm hoping McCaffrey's fine;  that last big run of his, that landing was NOT good.  Hopefully it's just a little neck tightness/soreness.

 

This is gonna be an interesting matchup.  Line's already set at Niners -3.  

And yet, If Reynolds catches EITHER of the balls for first down that hit him in the hands (and the 2nd stomach), I think Lions win. I am ok with the coach going on 4th downs when they did, shows your trying to win and its what he has done all season.

7 hours ago, Old Man said:

 

I recently taught the Astronomy merit badge for the troop.  When the scouts come to me with their cards to sign off, I give them a verbal final examination: Is the Earth round or flat?

 

Fortunately no one's gotten it wrong yet.

Round, like a pizza. Hence all the hills and valleys and stuff.

They talked about Mauer also being a top rated, if not the top rated QB coming out of high school. Conjecture is if Twins didn't draft him (local boy) that he might have opted for football.

6 hours ago, Starlord said:

Bet if you had bad suspension you could still find them.

In the Rachel Morgan series, she once commented that the most horrendous thing she had seen was a battlefield after a Pixie vs Faery fight. The carnage was terrible.

5 hours ago, tkdguy said:

This game has been around since 2000:

 

"It Bit Me"

"What did you expect it to do?"

"I thought Fairies were nice"

"Shows what you know"

1 hour ago, Old Man said:

It’s true, I have two of them. You can also forget about reading and writing cursive. 

school age kids or analog clocks? and if the 2 clocks are set to different times and stuck, do they get to combine the number of times their right?

Zweihander should also include I am Germanic, if I were Scottish, it would be a Claymore.