Special K

You should know, after fucking with people's PMs! Time to say goodbye after 8 years.

It's about a polygamous family. It has a fucking killer cast. Bill Pxcton, Chloe "blow" Sevigny, Jeanne Tripplehorne, Amanda Seyfreid. It's a kickass show. I think it's one of HBO's better offerings, recently. PLus it has Tina Marjarino. Who is establishing herself as consistently awesome.

I've been a little leery about raw shellfish. It just sounds wrong, and clams are CRUNCHY raw. Yeck. (though I've always dug raw oysters) However, I just had scallops raw, and they are delicious. There's very little I really dislike, sushi-wise. Squid and raw shrimp are tasteless. Clam's gross. I don't see the point of tamago/egg omellette. That's about it. There are certain things that aren't worth the price, like Sea urchin. Eel, mackerel, halibut, each and every type of tuna (toro being the best) those are king.

If we're going cute girls with unreal cow tits, I like Shay Laren.

Ha ha, I'm reading Emma too! Also Spook Country by William Gibson. And Queen of Sorcery by David Eddings because I'm apparently eleven years old again. Just finished Neal Gaiman's Neverwhere, looking forward to picking up American Gods.

At least your taste in characters is paramount! I was going to suggest you do Pembleton next... but there you go. Best cop character ever, IMHO.

^Indeed they are! In fact, I think the ad in the theater said in stores now... but I'm not sure.

There's a reason the best, most affecting part of the movie is Jon's reflection on the moon. In the movie, it exists as essentially a series of still images and narration, not dialogue. Also, I doubt it'll be fun to go back and pick through the movie frame-by-frame to find all the little visual nuances you missed, like little subplots going on the in the background foreshadowing events to come, counting how many times you can find the 'splatter', etc. It could be, Snyder could have hidden all sorts of fun stuff, but I doubt it, subtlety not being his strong suit and all.

I wonder what will happen when the current systems fall out of vogue and networks die off. Granted, I hope the current generation of hardware stays around for QUITE a while, but retrogaming might be a huge pain in 10-odd years. Of course we might be downloading Blu-Ray games in a flash on the next consoles.

This is the only show I can watch that has a laugh track. (besides old reruns of Seinfeld)

SJ, everyone in this thread was having a perfectly fine time agreeing and disagreeing on the merits of this film. You know, having a conversation on a topic. Something you apparently can't do without making broad generalizations and blanket statements and failing to back them up. The only thing people can agree on is that you have shit for brains. Is everyone else in the thread wrong or just you? You don't know what irony is. You seem to think that ironic means 'apt' or 'fitting'. It kind of means the exact opposite. Do you misuse the word 'literally' a lot too? You further compound this by seeming to think sharing that you think something is kind of apt or fitting (or in your world 'ironic') is making a joke. It is not. You cannot present a cogent argument. Everything you say is a non sequiter. State specifically what you did or did not like, or share an observation. Do not start screaming about how everyone takes the movie way to seriously. We don't. We just think you are incredibly fucking stupid. Stop derailing the thread. Stop making terrible non-jokes. You are awful.

I LOVE that movie, though you're right about Glover carrying it. Dumb, pretty teenage Keanu acting like a dumb, pretty teenager is quite poignant, really! I liked Constantine quite a bit. And he's hilarious in Much Ado About Nothing! I've heard a couple actors day that Keanu is pretty much dumb as a bag of hammers, and is also just about the nicest guy in the world. I feel that comes through in most of his movies. He's can't emote, or hell sometimes read lines, but he's instantly likeable. He's like an adorable puppy.

I don't think Moore had a stint on The Authority... But issues 1-12 are fantastic. Can't speak past that. You might be thinking of Moore's run on Supreme (maybe?) which is really fun. It's flagrantly just Alan Moore writing Superman and calling him Supreme. To be honest, I really loved the first collection of League, and didn't like the second. Volume 2, the plot barely seems to move, and it's very anti-climactic. A few great moments for Hyde, and that's it. If you're looking for some newer Alan Moore stuff, I really can't recommend Top 10 enough. It's so damn fun. Probably the most humorous thing he's ever written. Still quite twisted though! Have you used ScrapeTorrent, Kotz? That usually works for me.

Really, if the movie had been the same up until the ending, and then they had just NAILED it, I would have been VERY happy. But they pretty much killed every emotionally resonant moment in the ending: Every one of these, fucked up or omitted entirely. It really makes the film land with a thud. Jerk, stop pouting because people asked you to explain your opinions and you don't know what irony is. Not one person has simply pointed out differences and whined, they've explained clearly why they do or do not like the changes. You sound like CronoT. For shame.

Ha ha, I'm not busting your balls Lushus. Just saying, Watchmen has its problems but League was SO bad. You know speaking of, that makes Sean Connery share the honor (with Uma Thurman) of being in TWO of my least favorite movies ever: Avengers and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. And shit, they're both based on Alan Moore comics! That's... something.

Okay, those two aren't even remotely close! League is like easily a top 10 worst movie of all time. Sin City is also infinitely more adaptable to a screenplay, as it's not really dialogue heavy or cerebral. Watchmen is.

Oops, disregard. +1.

I don't think Goode is necessarily a bad actor. I think he was consciously directed so the character was bloodless and emotionless, with a thin, false veneer of smarm. For whatever reason, they consciously took out his Again I have no reason why they thought it would make the character more compelling, it does not. This is a probably a 3 star movie, but it had its work cut out for it. Watchmen is the greatest graphic novel ever. I can understand why they changed some things, but I don't have to like it. Their reasons show contempt for their audience. Everything they changed served the purpose of dumbing it down. The ending was the thing I was MOST okay with actually. I didn't have to try hard to compare things to the graphic novel, because I remember reading it for the first time like it was yesterday. You know why? Because it was fucking brilliant. And I imagine it's the same way with many other people. Again, it's a fun movie, totally worth $9.50. But I was at no point awed. And I was awed reading the graphic novel. EDIT: Oh, I did forget that the opening credits were STELLAR.

SPOILERS all over the place, etc. etc. Hmm, I saw it last night. Some goods: Great casting with the notable exception of Ozymandias. He looked like Dana carvey. It's a pretty gorgeous movie all around. Lots of eye-candy. Lots of bads. I'll stick to the three that stood out most in my mind. You could nitpick this movie to DEATH and be completely justified in doing so. Ozymandias. Instead of beating a mentally broken old man, killing him, and seeming to enjoy it, then genuinely mourning at his funeral, he's expressionless. He screams "villainous mastermind". They even took that wonderful moment when all that arrogance and self-certitude finally break free. He joyously, disgustingly, celebrates his victory, as the others look on in shock and horror. Taking that out is ridiculous. IT IS THE CLIMAX OF THE STORY. They amped up the blood and violence all movie and then pussied out on the doomsday. That is amazingly lame, and a perversion of the comic. The violence in the comic is largely very quick, brutal and ugly. Ozymandias killing the Comedian is not balletic. It is a murder. Hollis gets killed like a dog for no good reason. Etc. Then the doomsday scenario happens and reading it, I was really quite shocked and breathless. Mounds of human bodies and blood. It really starkly brings home how monstrous a thing Veidt has done. Watching the movie I thought wow, an Independence Day special effect. What do I care? I just saw a fat guy get his arms chopped off with a dremel. I don't even mind that they changed the alien to framing Jon for the carnage. It films better, and can be explained much more quickly. But taking the horror out of it is so unbelievably pussy. As a caveat, when killing people singly, why the fuck would Jon leave blood and guts laying around? That's just goddamn silly. OH right. visceral thrills! Lastly, Dan's NOOOOO moment. I hated this so, so much. First, I just hate people screaming NOOOOO up into the camera in movies. Hate it. Second, being snuffed out of existence alone and unmourned in the middle of a snowfield is a much more fitting and tragic end for Rorschach. And it cheapens Dan's character. In the comic Dan KNOWS he ain't giving Rorschach a ride home. And he lets him be killed without a fuss, because it's nothing more than empty bluster at that point. He's shell-shocked and all he wants is to go home and fuck his new girlfriend and not live in fear for a while. Which is generally all most people really want. He's not a hero, he' a decent man, and he's a sellout, and he sells out his friend in the end, because what's the alternative? He's impotent. In general, amping up the blood and guts, and softening the faults of the characters is pretty sad. In the end, it was a pretty fun 2.5 hours. I probably would have enjoyed it quite a bit more if I hadn't read the comic first (but I'm really thankful I read the comic first). As it was, some good action. The characters were warped, but it was sure fun to see them on the big screen! Alan Moore: That's pretty much the attitude I took after the movie. So, I curled up with my copy of Absolute Watchmen and proceeded to get lost in the perfect comic book once again.

I second Neuromancer, which is my favorite book. Really anything by William Gibson is great. Excellent writer, who was very ahead of his time in the 80's and 90's. Always great for a jarring simile, and some beautiful language. In terms of classic Asimov, read his Foundation series! It's really, really great. You'd think the material would be quite dry, but it's taut and well-paced. the first few Dune books. I've never read such amazing world-building as this series. Not even Lord of the Rings. It also just reads well as a good old sci-fi actioner, but it's so much more. If you count it as sci-fi, I heartily recommend Slaughterhouse Five :-) And lastly, a personal favorite. Harry Harrison was a hell of an author back in the day. The first few Stainless Steel Rat books, Bill the Galactic Hero (none of the wretched sequels), Make room Make room! (Soylent Green!) and Deathworld are all fuckin' GREAT. Oh, and I thought Ender was very good (though hardly the be-all end-all of sci-fi) Speaker was Ok, and Xenocide was shite. One of the dullest books I've ever read.

God, so much flailing around with nothing connecting.

A little backgound, I'm 6'4", 266 lbs. I carry it as well as one could hope, having 200-205 lbs of lean body weight. I'm down from 310 lbs a year ago, which was mostly due to my truly prodigious amount of boozing at the time. Been sober about 13 months now. However, I don't look so great naked. I'm about 40 lbs overweight, and no matter how much Subway I eat, I'm not losing weight. So I'm starting this crazy-ass diet. What is it? You take a hormone (HCG) every day in the morning. Some inject it, others put it under the tongue, I'm doing the latter. For two days you gorge yourself on the fattiest foods possible. (I had a triple whopper for the first time, it was almost gloriously awful.) Then you eat 500 calories a day for the next 26-40 days. The make-up of those calories is very specific, and you can find plenty of resources on the web. You supposedly lose an average of a pound a day. Then you get off the hormone and start a maintenance diet. I wouldn't have tried a diet as nuts as this if I hadn't seen it work for my female friend first; she lost 30 lbs in a month and looks really healthy. I'm on my second day of the 500 calorie diet. It's tough, but not unreasonably so. The HCG really curbs the actual physical hunger, but I still crave junk food. So I thought I'd just create this little topic to let y'all know if it works.

It didn't go that well! But at least I just bounced back to the former weight, not any higher. Now I've been doing it the old fashioned way. Healthier diet and lots of cardio. It's more fun anyway. And, y'all told me so.