Saturday, June 15, 2013

Oh man, movies! Enjoy 'em while you can, as you know I used to watch a TON but those days are kinda no more. :) I've only seen three movies in the theater in the last 20 months I think (Avengers, Batman the Third and Looper the First). Although since you've got family around, you might be able to slip out here or there. Anyway, there's a couple I'm hoping to get out and see. Elysium looks cool, and I'm hopeful about Pacific Rim, although Guillermo del Toro tends to be hit and miss. (Well, Blade II was pretty great. Not kidding.)

Upstream Color/Primer -- haven't seen either of these yet, wanna.

Benny Hill -- haha. I definitely understand where both you guys are coming from. There are certainly some amazing shows that don't click with me for whatever stupid reason where I could probably watch the Yakety Sax version and be satisfied. BSG and Breaking Bad being the two examples that immediately jump to mind. And yet, if Aeryk were to jump on and say, "I went ahead and watched the Benny Hill version of The Wire. Eh, wasn't that good, but I thought the parts where they were moving around really fast were funny," I would honestly be hurt.

Yay, Father's Day weekend! Time to go to work.

| Movie Time

We've been on a movie going spree of late, so here's some quick reviews.

Fast & Furious 6 - Good times. Maybe not as good as number 5 in a lot of ways, but the banter between characters was more balanced. It wasn't all Vin & Paul Walker this time - the whole crew got a chance to shine. Also more ridiculous car racing than number 5. The standout silly "boss fight" at the end of the movie took place on the world's longest airport runway. They're trying to stop this plane from taking off so they've got their cars racing around the wheels and The Rock and Vin get on the plane to do fisticuffs with the bosses. The whole scene is like 25 minutes long. During that time this plane is going fast enough to almost take off, so I've seen some rad charts on the internet where they showed that the runway would have to be about 28 miles long for that to work. Other rad thing about the movie is that it ends and basically leads into Fast & Furious 3: Tokyo Drift. So FF3, which had a whole new cast, is actually AFTER FF4-6. Confusing! But they tied it together really well. Dudes, these movies have a crazy mythology! I highly recommend if you've been writing them off all these years.

This Is The End - Saw this last night. It was really funny. Not perfect or anything, but if you like all those Apatow kinda funny dudes, you'll like it. VERY CRUDE. Like, crazy crude at times, but nothing the Action Team couldn't handle. Danny McBride is amazing and he basically plays himself just like Kenny Powers from Eastbound & Down.

Superman - Didn't see it. Also, you're not supaman.

Star Trek - Don't remember if I mentioned it, but it was cool. It's been a while since we saw it, and it's lost some of it's shine in my memory. No heart like the old shows, but still pretty cool. Maybe it feels to actiony/frantic.

There's so much shit coming out these next few weeks. Even though it didn't review great, I want to see The Purge. Also World War Z, Bling Ring, fuckin' Supes of course.

IOS - Agricola came out. Looks really nice. Bought it day 1 but haven't played through even the tutorial yet. Hope I like it!

Wow - Harrison Ford looks older than shit!

Thursday, June 13, 2013

You're not a dick, and I'm not George RR Martin. It was just the fanboy in me being a spaz :)

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

| I Kinda Feel Like a Dick

For seemingly not caring about the significance of the Red Wedding.  It's like I'm purposefully minimizing the impact it had on the GoT fans by a) only watching the Benny Hill version, b) not recognizing the actors (well not all of them, I did see Robb in there...), and c) not being shocked by what I did see and did recognize.

I totally understand and would be equally mad if anyone pulled that shit on something that I liked.  The thing is, George set the table for a series where anything goes, and you can't get too comfy with any characters because likely they will die anyway, so when it happens in 'dramatic' ways it feels expected for me.  I've also lost my connection to the series since I fizzled out on SoS about 5 years ago, so it's easier for me to look at the series and events with a more clinical eye.

All that being said, Leslie and I have started re-watching the first season and intend to buy the second on Amazon, and I have also re-started SoS so that I can get back in the fun!

| Upstream Color

Anyone see Upstream Color? It's a newish movie that's already up on Netflix. It's another artsy sci-fi type flick from Shane Carruth. He did another rad artsty time-travel movie, Primer. Watched Upstream Color tonight for the first time and I loved it. I don't know what you call these kinds of movies. I guess it's more along the vibe of 2001. Long stretches with no dialog. Interesting music (in this case, cool ambient kinda noise). I highly recommend it, if you've got the patience.

I got irrationally angry that the only way Elrick has seen the Red Wedding scene from GoT is the Benny Hill version. I can't say why, but I was like "RAAAR".

Monday, June 10, 2013

| Wow, Benny Hill.

So I just watched it and mostly none of the characters/actors mean anything to me so while there may be some spoilers I just watched, since massive changes are always expected in the Land of Ice and Fire, I'm not sweating it.

The whole things was pretty funny (don't tell your wives I thought it was!), but the freaking slide whistle at the end was inspired.

| Bah, now where did that book go off to...

I can't find my Storm of Swords book, but the last thing I remember was the eunuch warrior invasion was pretty close to launching.... I feel like I remember reading about the wedding and maybe it didn't make much of an impact because SO MUCH of that series is "wtf, did that just happen"?

PS this made me laugh on Slashdot:

"Profanity is the crutch of inarticulate motherfuckers."
You should just watch the series! Chances aren't bad that the wife will like it, either. I have the first two seasons on Blu-ray if that's an option for you.

The Red Wedding is the scene where book 3 goes crazy.
The Red Robin Wedding for Two happens in the middle of book 3. No twincest, but lots of tripletphilia.

| Dinner

Did I mention I had Cheetos and Sunkist for dinner last night?  No?  Ah, well nevermind.

The Red Wedding

I assume this was at the end of book 3, which I never made it to...  I'm torn between likely never reading the books just jumping in and see what these shenanigans are all about and watch the clip, or steal   buying the series and watching them to then get to the Red Wedding in time.  I further assume it probably has to do with murder, torture, betrayal, incest, weapons, blood, children, fire, pain, rape, snuff, suffering, and tits?
Yikes! Tell her it was Ryan's idea.
That's the best review for a board game ever! I love how you describe the weird "boy energy" he has to release- I've totally seen that in kids and it's awesome and weird. Glad you guys liked it! I was planning on getting that game a few years back because it reviewed really well as a gateway-game, but never got around to it. Bring it to the next Man-Con.

The Benny Hill version of the Red Wedding didn't go over so well with my wife. I was watching it and she was all "why are you watching that again" before the music came on. Then she was just kinda disturbed. I kept saying "this makes it better, see!" but don't think that helped.

Sunday, June 09, 2013

| Castle Panic, FTW

So Leslie's been on her own Lady Kublacon retreat since Wednesday morning, so it was just me and the boy for some time.  It was his last week of school, last three baseball games, landscapers were coming, etc. so it's not like there wasn't enough to do, but I thought picking up ANOTHER game for us to try out and see if he has any interest in boardgames would be appropriate.  Through the magic of Amazon Prime, Friday morning arrived Castle Panic (and Mice and Mystics, which has not yet been played).

Castle Panic is a co-op tower defense game where all the players use cards to defend encroaching enemies from destroying their castle at the center of the board.  It's simple, fun, and Wy totally took to the rules.  We have played it something like 10 times in the past 24 hours and each time he is into it, then in the middle/end he sort of gets antsy and needs to do some moving around, dance moves, weird faces and sounds - basic kid/boy energy release stuff, but he has seen it through and finished every game!

If you have a 7 year old boy in your life that needs a gateway game to the more serious gaming fair, Castle Panic is it.  I rate it 5 out of 5 AAA Taxo Cabz.
Hey guys, if the idea of watching the Red Wedding bums you out, here's the Benny Hill version.

OMG, that song makes everything funny. (Even the Benny Hill show!)