cabbageboy

Well I heard that Matt Hardy is possibly being traded to Raw sometime soon....could this Christian/Lita thing end up as a Christian/Matt feud over Lita? In all honesty I have no idea where the Jericho/Trish thing is going. I'd like them to surprise me by having Jericho NOT use this as just another heel tactic.

I actually think Eddie has to win this handicapped match tonight if for no other reason than to prolong this feud till Series when of course the Guerreros lose and Chavo turns heel.

The stuff with a chick suddenly getting old has been in quite a few movies. I was also thinking of Lost Horizon, when Margo leaves Shangri La and gets old REAL fast. Not a horror film however.

ROTK is coming out Dec. 17. There's plenty of time for the TV ads and all that. I'd imagine New Line and Jackson are waiting till after Matrix Revolutions pisses everyone off and then unleash the hype. Incidentally I took a look at rottentomatoes.com and currently Revolutions has a really sad 22%.

Ok let's go back to that Vader comment. I think the whole "I cheer for Vader" thing is just a poseur bullshit remark. In the original trilogy they do such a good job of getting us to care about the heroes that it's hard not to root for them. Considering that Vader reunites with Luke and redeems himself in the end, I'd say that he does win. Sorta. However, I think a lot of people seriously don't care much for Neo and Co. There is actual support for Smith, and really if you want to think about it, is he that bad of a guy? To sum up: --Smith originally is just doing his job maintaining order in the Matrix vs. a group of rebels who threaten the system and everyone in it. --After being defeated in the 1st film he is hung out to dry as a scapegoat and banished. Instead of just diminishing he still goes after Neo, this time as a more personal vendetta for being humiliated and also for losing his job as an agent. Since this pertains to the 3rd one, I shall use the spoiler: Spoiler (Highlight to Read): --Smith now is replicating himself and generally fucking with everyone. He hates Neo and the rebels, he hates the Matrix itself. In short he is out to destroy it. After reading all that and seeing the various motivations for Smith's character and development, it is easy to see why people think he is cool. Besides, who doesn't mark out for "Mrrrr. Anderrrrson!"

When it's all said and done that whole Architect scene will go down as one of the biggest brainfarts in movie history. Personally I haven't ever seen a scene that did so much to harm a series. Let's review: Spoiler (Highlight to Read): --Neo isn't actually The One, but more like the 6th or 7th. So in other words he ain't so special. --Everything Morpheus said turns out to be wrong so he looks like a fool, thus killing his credibility. --Most importantly, the Architect says that 99% of the people inside the Matrix ACCEPT the Matrix. What kind of shit is that? How can we back our heroes to destroy the evil Matrix when most people actually think it's just fine and dandy? Anyway when ROTK comes out you'll see the full extent of how much Peter Jackson will make the Wachowski Bros. his bitches.

Was that Maniac the old 1934 movie that is really, really hilarious and awful? It's a more vicious Ed Wood type movie, seriously.

Heh, it's never a good sign about the heroes in your trilogy when people are actively wanting the heel to win. I talked to a guy recently who said he wanted Agent Smith to be the only survivor in Revolutions. Yeah I'll probably go see it too but frankly I'm resigned to the fact that there is nothing good they can possibly do in this film. After Reloaded there is just no good way to end it.

Dawn of the Dead vs. Psycho (1960)...as much as I like DOTD, I cannot put it over Psycho. Psycho. The Exorcist vs. The Shining. Blah, Exorcist has never scared me at all. Shining easy. Halloween (choice) vs. Friday the 13th (choice). Well, Halloween 1 is better than any Friday movie, so I'll go with the original. Halloween. Night of the Living Dead (1968) vs. Texas Chainsaw Massacre. NOTLD has a few lulls in it that bore me, so I'll give it to... Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

I think Benoit eventually has to win the belt, Eddie as well. I mean who else can win it on SMDN at this point? Lesnar hasn't drawn a dime since he debuted, Angle has had it too many times with varying results, UT is old and played, and no one else is really ready yet (Cena possibly but he should hold a secondary belt first, in this case the US title). In short, Eddie and Benoit are really the only options that make any sense whatsoever. People have badmouthed SMDN of late for the lack of wrestling but they've done a lot of nice things storyline wise. To wit: --Benoit is now a force with Team Angle at Survivor Series, and also getting a subtle, steady push. --Heyman is a fascinating choice as GM. --Several people are turning face or heel (Haas/Benjamin, Chavo, Cena) so the card isn't as stagnant. --Eddie's angle of losing belts and apologizing for his lacking efforts is compelling and surely will lead to something of note besides a Chavo feud. I hope. SMDN has been a good show for wrestling for over a year now. Thing is the storylines have been mediocre. Now they're building some storylines that can pay off.

Halloween 3 is a good movie? I think I'm in the Twilight Zone. I tried watching that movie on AMC yesterday and damn near fell asleep on it. I mean NOTHING was going on in it. It really shouldn't have been called Halloween I don't think. It just sticks out like a sore thumb in the series.

Evil Dead vs. Dawn of the Dead (!!!!) Dawn of the Dead The Exorcist vs. The Omen Tough one...Exorcist Friday the 13th (choice) vs. From Dusk Til Dawn From Dusk Till Dawn...no Friday movie can touch it. Halloween (choice) vs. Evil Dead 2 Halloween 1 Night of the Living Dead (1968) vs. Suspiria Night of the Living Dead Nightmare on Elm Street (choice) vs. The Shining The Shining Psycho (1960) vs. An American Werewolf in London Psycho Texas Chainsaw Massacre vs. Alien Texas Chainsaw Massacre Why the controversy of TCM and Alien? I don't really think Alien holds up as well as the sequel does.

I wouldn't know about Halloween 3 because I've always refused to watch it. Anyway, Bogart is not in Doctor X. You would be referring to The Return of Doctor X (which isn't a sequel strangely enough). Bogart was a creepy scientist type dude in that. No, the REAL Doctor X was made 7 years earlier and starred Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, and Lee Tracy. It was in two color Technicolor too. SYNTHETIC FLESH~!

Devil Doll is a weird little horror outing with Lionel Barrymore, directed by Todd Browning too. See, TCM at least will bust out the semi obscure old stuff like that...the Universal classics of course, Val Lewton RKO stuff, etc. All I need is a triple feature of Doctor X, Mystery of the Wax Museum, and the Vampire Bat. Gotta have some Lionel Atwill and Fay Wray in a Halloween fest. Anyone else like Doctor X? I love that movie.

The words 80s cheese and AMC are two things that should never go together. I weep for the days when AMC was actually good. I watched the 1951 Death of a Salesman tonight, since I got it in a trade recently. It was extremely good. ***1/2 I caught a bit of the Black Cat as well though I've got a factory tape of it (on a dual tape with the Raven no less). Incidentally how is the Seventh Victim a run of the mill thriller? There are Manhattan satanists that predate Rosemary's Baby by 25 years. A shower scene with Kim Hunter that predates Psycho by 17 years. And a jolting, downer of an ending that you just didn't see in 1943. I think it's the best of the Val Lewton horror cycle, but that's just me.

10. The Others: What a boring movie, not remotely scary. 9. The Blair Witch Project: More nauseating than scary really, disorienting. 8. Carrie: I actually haven't seen this. 7. Scream: More funny and wry than scary. 6. An American Warewolf in London: Nah, not real scary. Humorous though. The Howling is probably a better scary werewolf movie. 5. The Sixth Sense: Why would anyone be scared by this? 4. Psycho: I can see how this shocked the hell out of people, but since everyone knows about Norman Bates now the original shock of him in drag is gone. 3. The Omen: Good but too high on the list. 2. Halloween: I can at least kinda see this. 1. The Exorcist: Vastly overrated. I watched it recently and half of it bored the hell out of me and the other half made me laugh. Why exactly is the Texas Chainsaw Massacre not on this list? It at least has a realistic sense of terror....I wouldn't be too worried about werewolves or a dude in a Shatner mask, but a crazy redneck with a chainsaw would freak me out.

Where's the love (or in this case hate) for Tim Roth in Rob Roy? I actually came up with a scale of heel villainy based on his assholery in that movie. Kinda like the Muta scale for blading.

Thing is though, when a film is so insanely complex that it just fries your brain thinking about it it ceases being entertaining.

Ah, ok. Makes sense. Heh, good point regarding SW Ep. 5 doing about as good of a job possible with setting up the last film, and the Matrix Reloaded not doing a good job at all. Can you imagine Luke meeting Vader at the end of Empire and instead of something cool like "Luke I am your father" we get "Mr. Skywalker, you are smarter than all the rest I have encountered....99% of the universe prefers the Empire to life under the Republic," and so on. After seeing Empire, I immediately want to put my tape of Jedi on so I can see what happens next (even though I obviously KNOW). After seeing TTT I feel very satisfied with the way it ended, and there's enough of a cliffhanger to leave the viewer wondering what will happen next (who is this "she" Gollum refers to? what will happen when they fight Sauron's troops?). After seeing the Matrix Reloaded I honestly didn't give a shit at all about Revolutions. There was just nothing that could be considered a cliffhanger, nothing left me wanting more.

No, I'm pretty sure I heard the Architect say something like "99% accepted the Matrix if given a choice between it and the real world" (which we all know is shitty at this point). I also kinda disagree about the 2nd film in a trilogy usually being filler or fucking things up. Look at Empire. In that movie we have: 1. The introduction of Yoda, and Luke's subsequent Jedi training. 2. Han and Leia on the run from the Empire and falling in love. 3. The introduction of Lando, who is a more fascinating secondary character than ANYONE in Reloaded. 4. Han being sent back in the casing to Jabba. 5. The stunning relevation that Vader is Luke's dad. How is any of this filler or fucking up? The Two Towers to some extent doesn't really go anywhere (Frodo and Sam don't get anywhere at all the whole movie, but the stuff with them and Gollum is so gripping and entertaining you don't really care). It does at least resolve the whole Saruman side of the Two Towers...so it's one down, and Sauron's boys to go. With Reloaded, they muddied the water so much that it's impossible for Revolutions to work. In the first film we had a fairly complex plotline but at least we had a grip on some basic concepts (Neo and Morpheus= good guys, Matrix and Agents = bad guys). And really, if someone did miss that little plot twist from the Architect....can you blame them? The whole speech was hard as hell to comprehend.

Make no mistake, I did understand most of what the Architect said. That's why it was so completely idiotic, I tried to put it into some kind of context. I mean, the guy basically dug a hole so deep that Revolutions can't dig its way out. Let's see: --Neo isn't actually The One, but more like the Sixth. Not only that, but the guys before him rebuilt Zion and then another rebellion, more destruction, more rebuilding, etc. I guess in a way you can say the US practices something like this (blow up Iraq, rebuild, blow it up again, etc.....various other countries fit the mold). In a more straight forward film (like Dr. Strangelove, a total war satire) this would be a good bit of business. In Reloaded it fell flat I thought. The Architect's whole speech just kills the whole series if you think about it. Maybe he got some heel heat in his boring way, but at what cost? At this point they can't really destroy the Matrix in the final film, since 99% of the people in it prefer the Matrix. And if these sequels haven't been about the eventual destruction of the Matrix, what the hell HAVE they been about? What exactly is the point? There isn't one.

First off, HHH and RVD matches have all been kinda weak because they don't fit either guy's strengths. Let's review two widely accepted smark mantras: 1. HHH is a good seller when he wants to be, but has boring and shitty offense. 2. RVD is a mediocre seller (good bumper, not seller), but has exciting and innovative offense that pops a crowd. Now, watch the matches. They are the EXACT opposite of this! They are all HHH doing his boring as shit offense with mediocre RVD selling. There's only so much bumping you can do for a friggin facebuster and a knee lift. And by the way, if RVD is such a bad wrestler then why is it that he's had more solid matches than most of the roster since July 2001 when he arrived?

My brother said something like that, about the Oracle lady dying. I'm not sure. The Emperor doesn't really fit anyone in the Matrix, maybe the Architect but that's about it. Thing is, the Emperor was menacing, he was scary looking, his lectures on the darkside made sense.....he was COOL. The Architect was like listening to Col. Sanders discuss probability in a college math class. I mean, this is was big shot for this guy to build his heel credibility, and all he did was bore the shit out of me. I assume this is a reference to the Kid being more significant in Revs. It doesn't fly. The kid was a totally nothing character in Reloaded, he meant about as much to me as all of the other peons in Zion. I mean, they introduce various characters in Reloaded but not a single one of them was worth a crap. Niobe? Lock? The Kid? Architect? French guy? They all were 1 dimensional, tedious characters. Particularly the Niobe/Morpheus/Lock thing. It was just mentioned by Trinity in passing...and that was it. The Wachowski's are so interested in having long boring speeches about cause/effect relationships that they fail to go into any depth on that fairly substantial plot point.

I mean hell dude, no one CARES about the Animatrix! Why would anyone watch it with the anticipation of knowing seriously relevant info? Here's an idea: if it's that important, put it in the actual movie! Spoiler (Highlight to Read): This whole thing with the Kid being the ONE is just beyond stupid. First off, no one cares about the Kid, he was only in ONE SCENE in Reloaded where he begs to join the group. Second, it makes no sense. If Neo isn't the ONE how the hell does he do stuff that no one else is doing? I mean, maybe he's not the One, but well, he's just above average. WTF? I mean, if this Kid is the ONE we should know much more about him and at least be able to envision it. Right now he's a nothing character. And yeah, I can't think of any way to really end this in a way that will satisfy people. You just can't do it, the storyline is too fucked up at this point.

This whole thing is bullshit. Obviously whoever is pushed is going to be higher on the list. I think the better barometer of who should be pushed is gained from judging crowd reactions rather than TV ratings. For instance, RVD isn't gaining many viewers, and Booker T is actually LOSING viewers. Could this be that they are involved in segments of a show that aren't even hyped a whole lot, or perhaps scheduled early in the show when fewer people watch? Whereas someone like Jericho has his own talk show on Raw, he SHOULD draw more people. SMDN might have a more logical ratings per person due to it being taped. I dunno exactly how many people read spoilers but it's at least possible to have a decent idea who will be doing what and when on SMDN (so I can say "Hey Benoit is on about halfway into the show tonight so I can be sure to watch his match, ditto Eddie 2 segments later"). With Raw the show is live so you have no idea who is going to be on the show at what point.