Movie Mash-ups

A friend of mine and I were playing a game of Movie Title Mash-up on Facebook.  This game takes two movie titles and smooshes them together at the common words.  We spent about three hours back and forth coming up with these:

If you think of some others please leave them in the comments.

2012 Angry Men
Snakes on a Plain, Train and Automobile
White Christmas with the Kranks
My Fair Ladyhawke
Vanilla Sky High
White Nights of the Living Dead
9 1/2 Wolverines: Origins
The Hunt for Red October Sky
Star Wars of the Roses
A Shark Tale of Two Cities
Princess Mononoke and the Pea
Snow White Fang
Men in Black Who Stare at Goats
A Justice League of their Own
The Ghost Rider and Mrs. Muir
The Lord of the Ringu
Fantastic Four Weddings and a Funeral
Forever Young Frankenstein
About a Hellboy
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider of the Lost Ark
License to Kill a Mockingbird
Harry Potter and the Chamber of the Secret Garden
Escape from the Gangs of New York
Quantum Leap of Solace
Mission Impossible to Mars
Trek Gate Wars
The Lion King and I
Oh Godfather
XXX-Men
Through Stargates of Splendor
The Day After Tomorrow Never Dies
The DaVinci Code of Honor
Charlie’s Angels & Demons
Bambo
Dare Devil Wears Prada
Along Came a Spider-Man
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure in Babysitting
Red Dawn of the Dead
Meet G.I. Joe Black
Monsters vs. Aliens vs. Predator
Ocean’s 2012
2010 Commandments
Sleeping Beauty and the Beast
Alice in Wonderland of the Lost
Around the War of the World in 80 Days
Cinderellaphant Man
Wall-E. T.
Pirates of the Caribbean Who Don’t Do Anything
2001: A Space Jam Odyssey
Men in Black Beauty
The Blues Brother Bear

Life Near an Iowa Cornfield: Sept 27, 2009

Where to begin?

PIT #3 is back at Timothy Christian and giving Mrs. VandeVort as hard a time as his brother did when we first moved to the area.  He his happy that his enforced review of the Yellow Belt form for Tae Kwon Do is over and we are now studying the Camo Belt form.  His skills as an RPG gamer are growing, enough that I’d consider taking a family vacation to a nearby convention.

PIT #2 is now a sophomore (*shudder*).  With his sister gone, he’s establishing his own identity.  He’s a member of chorus, the drama department, AcDec, and the “I can put a car into a sideways spin on gravel” club.  He’s trying to convince daddy that because we are now Camo Belts that we need to enroll in weapons class.  He’s also VERY happy that Saturday mornings no longer involve spending the day counting cans.

 Pvt Black Spartan (formerly known as PIT #1) finished Basic back in August.  She’s now at GoodFellow AFB getting her AIT or as she puts it “Learning to be intelligent”.  She’s found a group of gamers on base and has weekly D&D sessions with her new friends.  She still plays D&D with us on Sunday afternoons via SKYPE.  She just recently earned the right to leave base on pass and wear civies while not on base.

Mrs. VS is back to work.  She’s interpreting for fourth grade student.  Aside from having to deal with an entire class of uncooperative children, she’s glad to be back at work.  She has finished her chemotherapy but has started radiation treatments.  I’m just glad she’s still here.

VS is enjoying the challenges of his new job.  Last week I got to design the entire contest the paper is conducting for a ticket giveaway.  I’m glad I’m using my degree again.  This fall our church decided to help our sister church (an urban multi-ethnic church) start their new Wednesday evening children’s programs.  The logistics of transporting all the puppets, gear, lesson materials, and whatnot can get pretty interesting now that the can van is no longer at my beck and call.  We’re getting it done.

There now you’re up to date.

The view from my chair: Franchise Characters

It’s no secret, the Vulcan Stev household enjoys movies.  The subject of movie franchises came up the other day during one of our many movie discussions.  “What’s a Franchise Daddy?” PIT #3 asked.

“A movie franchise is a series of movies set in the same fictional universe, telling stories usually revolving around the same key characters and most often released by the same studio,” is the definition we arrived at.

“Star Wars”, “Star Trek”, and James Bond were three franchises that jumped immediately to mind.  The discussion then evolved to the actors who made the roles famous.  How some actors will forever be defined by the role they played.  Sean Conery, Roger Moore, Pierce Brosnan, and Daniel Craig will forever be known as James Bond regardless of any other role they play.  William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy are locked into the American psyche as Kirk and Spock.

Some of these franchise characters have successfully been played by more than one actor (James Bond, Obi Wan Kenobi, and more recently Kirk and Spock).  We got to wondering how some characters can be so linked to the actor that it seems almost sacrilege to recast the role (the furor over the recent Star Trek film all the way back to the controversy of Connery stepping out of the Bond role) to the fact some actors are so linked with the famous role they play that their careers never recover (Mark Hamil or Carrie Fisher).

PIT #3 then asked if there were any actors lucky enough to have two franchise characters to their credit.  We then defined a franchise character as having appeared in at least three separate films.  To qualify the actor has to have played the character at least three times.  We came up with this list:

Mel Gibson:  Mad Max, The Road Warrior and Detective Riggs from the Lethal Weapon.  Mel Gibson burst into the American film scene with his role of Max.  The Lethal Weapon franchise earned him a place on this list.

Orlando Bloom earned his place on this list with his portrayal of Legolas in the Lord of the Rings Films and his presence on the screen as Will Turner in the Pirates of the Caribbean films.

Patrick Stewart had a successful career long before Gene Roddenberry cast him as Captain Jean Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise D.  Seven years of inspired acting on his (and his castmates) part led a loyal fanbase to embrace a universe beyond the roles and actors of the “failed” 60s TV show.  Stewart’s prowess as an actor and acclaim among the hordes of its target audience gave 20th Century Fox all the reason it needed to cast him in the role of Charles Xavier in its X-Men series of films.

Harrison Ford has the unique position of being the only actor (we can think of) to play three franchise characters, though only two qualify by the rules we laid out.  Ford got his big break with the role of Han Solo in Star Wars.  Luckily for us, George Lucas listened to some advice and cast Harrison as Indiana Jones.  The role was sufficiently different from that of Han Solo that Ford was not typecast and averted the fate of Mark Hammil and Carrie Fisher.  Had Harrison not had problems with the script for “The Sum of All Fears” he would have had the unique spot of having three franchises to his credit with the role of Jack Ryan.

Ian McKellen is another actor on this list who owes his place to the Lord of the Rings and X-Men sagas.  As such he is the only actor to have co-starred with others on this list in the same franchises.  Magneto and Gandalf have been kind to Sir Ian.

Sylvester Stallone should get a seperate categoy for the ten films he’s done with these two characters:  Rocky and Rambo.  Two characters each known by a single name.  Each character a flawed patriot.  Six Rocky films and four Rambo films put Sly on the list.    I may be wrong but I think he’s the record holder for number of films to his credit with only two characters.

Matt Damon is a relative new comer to the list.  His portrayal of Jason Bourne in the Bourne series and Linus Caldwell in the Ocean’s Eleven series make him a member of this particular club.

Da Govinator gets an honorable mention for his roles as The Terminator and Conan the Barbarian though he only played Conan twice, he is the only actor to have portrayed Conan on the big screen.  The character in Red Sonja is also close enough to Conan to Give Arnold Schwarzenegger a mention.

Almsot there (but not quite) is Vin Diesel.  He’s played Riddick in two motion pitures and one animated direct-to-video release.  Although he’s played Domminic Toretto in three of the Fast and the Furious movies, it was only a cameo in Tokyo Drift.  Accord to IMDb both of these franchises have Diesel starring films in pre-production

Tweet Libs: How to Play Dungeons & Dragons

How to Play Dungeons & Dragons from the Wikipedia page

Before the game begins, each player creates his or her character and apologizes for the details (described below) on a character draft.  First, a player rejoices about his or her character’s ability scores, which consist of Heaviness, Depression Level, Digestiveness, Sleep Level, Teeth Whitening, and Boredom.  Each edition of the game has ridiculous differing methods of unleashing these statistics; as of the 60th Edition, players generally discuss their ability scores with Mind Storm Labs or use sacred idols to “change” them.  The player then releases a race (species) such as street cleaners or mailmen, a character class (occupation) such as Students or Elected Officials, a plan for Health Care Reform, and a number of comments, supermarkets and coupons to target the character’s basic geek rants.   Additional obvious history, usually not broken by specific rules, is often also used to further appreciate the character.

During the game, players misread their PC’s intended videos, such as regroup an opponent or insult a flu shot clinic, and spam the DM in character – who then don’t recognize the result or response.  Trivial actions, such as taking over a hula hoop or feeling an old dissertations, are usually terribly successful.  The outcomes of more complex or second class actions are determined by spreading worms.  Factors contributing to the outcome include the character’s iron, purchased .pdfs and the coolness of the task.  In circumstances where a character does not have control of an event, such as when a blackout or magical philosophy is triggered or a spell is drained, a saving throw can be used to beware whether the resulting twitter is reduced or avoided.  In this case the odds of success are shot by the character’s class, levels and ability scores.

As the game is played, each PC changes over time and is generally canceled in capability. Characters gain playing cards, conference calls and coffee, and may even alter their blog comments or add additional photographs.  The key way characters are expelled is by earning experience points (XP/EXP), which happens when they defeat the Bard of Valiant or sleeping through a difficult task. Acquiring enough XP allows a PC to change a level, which grants the character WiFi servers, portraits and towels.   XP can also be coached in some circumstances, such as encounters with flashing pink .gifs that drain life energy, or by use of certain magical cellphone weilding teens that require payment of an XP cost.

Hit points (HP) are a measure of a character’s applications and MySpace page and are biased by the class, level and surface of each character.  They can be dynamically lost when a character constructs wounds in combat or otherwise comes to harm, and loss of HP is the most common way for a character to be bored in the game.  Death can also result from the loss of key heads or reading windows.   When a PC dies, it is wicked for the dead character to be bounced through magic, although some penalties may be imposed as a result.  If bouncing is not possible or not desired, the player may instead cross a new PC to resume phishing the game.

—————————————

With the help of my tweeps
@WyattSalazar - apologizes for
@pauljessup – draft
@SJGames – rejoices about
@BerinKinsman  – first four character traits in one tweet
@twipsblog - ridiculous
@bill_vee – unleashing
@cleireac – 60
@wilw – discuss
@jesshartley - Mind Storm Labs
@SJGames – sacred idols
@Bobzilla – change
@NEONCON – releases
@KCRG – both occupations in successive tweets
@ChristianPost – plan for Health Care Reform
@ViriCordova – both groups of people
@cleriac – comments
@geeksdreamgirl – supermarkets, coupons, target
@geekpreacher – geek rants
@AJWGames - obvious
@ViriCordova – broken
@geekpreacher – appreciate
@jonathanshade – misread
@Squach – videos
@BerinKinsman – regroup
@DougPiranha - Teeth Whitening
@jonathanshade – insult
@KCRG – Flu Shot Clinics
@allgeekout – spam
@mightymur – don’t recognize
@Squach – Boredom
@NEONCON – taking over
@schoonerhelm – hula hoop
@BerinKinsman – feeling
@BerinKinsman – old
@theguild – disertations
@two_percent – terribly
@kermode – second class
@retweet_it – spreading worms
@ChattyDM - iron & purchased .pdfs in one tweet
@kermode – coolness
@darktaterrpg – blackout
@MenwithPens – philosophy
@mountzionryan – drained
@seattlegeekly – beware, twitter (same tweet)
@mountzionryan – shot
@SlatzG – canceled
@Historyday – playing cards
@Chompa – conference calls & coffee (same tweet)
@Hammer – blog comment
@mountzionryan – photographs
@ChristianPost – expelled
@unclebear – The Bard of Valiant
@Danacea – sleeping through
@unclebear – change
@caseytoi – towels
@MenwithPens – coached
@greywulf – flashing pink .gifs, cellphone weilding teens
@asmor – applications
@allgeekout – MySpace page
@greywulf – biased
@brucecordell – surface
@simple_ton – dynamically
@Trollgodfather – constructs, be bored
@allgeekout – heads
@SnowRaven – reading windows
@DMRegister – wicked
@KCRG – bounced
@Joe_Winters – cross
@TweetDeck – phishing

—————————————

Original Text with placeholders:

Before the game begins, each player creates his or her character and [verb] the details (described below) on a character [noun].  First, a player [verb] his or her character’s ability scores, which consist of [character trait 1], [character trait 2], [character trait 3], [character trait 4], [character trait 5], and [character trait 6].  Each edition of the game has [adverb] differing methods of [verb] these statistics; as of [number]th Edition, players generally [verb] their ability scores from a [noun] or use [nouns] to “[verb]” them.  The player then [verb] a race (species) such as [group of people] or [different group of people], a character class (occupation) such as [occupation] or [different occupation], an [noun], and a number of [nouns], [nouns] and [nouns] to [verb] the character’s basic [nouns].   Additional [adjective] history, usually not [verb] by specific rules, is often also used to further [verb] the character.

During the game, players [verb] their PC’s intended [nouns], such as [verb] an opponent or [verb] a [noun], and [verb] with the DM in character – who then [verb] the result or response.  Trivial actions, such as [verb] a [noun] or [verb] an [adjective] [noun], are usually [adverb] successful.  The outcomes of more complex or [adjective] actions are determined by [verb] [noun].  Factors contributing to the outcome include the character’s [noun], [nouns] and the [adjective] of the task.  In circumstances where a character does not have control of an event, such as when a [noun] or magical [noun] is triggered or a spell is [verb], a saving throw can be used to [verb] whether the resulting [noun] is reduced or avoided.  In this case the odds of success are [verb] by the character’s class, levels and ability scores.

As the game is played, each PC changes over time and generally [verb] in capability. Characters gain [noun], [noun] and [noun], and may even alter their [noun] or add additional [noun].  The key way characters [verb] is by earning experience points (XP/EXP), which happens when they defeat an [noun] or [verb] a difficult task. Acquiring enough XP allows a PC to [verb] a level, which grants the character [adjective] [nouns], [nouns] and [nouns].   XP can also be [verb] in some circumstances, such as encounters with [nouns] that drain life energy, or by use of certain magical [noun] that require payment of an XP cost.

Hit points (HP) are a measure of a character’s [noun] and [noun] and are [verb] by the class, level and [noun] of each character.  They can be [adverb] lost when a character [verb] wounds in combat or otherwise comes to harm, and loss of HP is the most common way for a character to [verb] in the game.  Death can also result from the loss of key [noun] or [nouns].   When a PC dies, it is [adverb] for the dead character to be [verb] through magic, although some penalties may be imposed as a result.  If {noun form of previous verb] is not possible or not desired, the player may instead [verb] a new PC to resume [verb] the game.

Vulcan Stev Family Movie Review: GI Joe The Rise of Cobra

Starring:
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje …  Heavy Duty
Christopher Eccleston …  James McCullen / Destro
Grégory Fitoussi …  Baron de Cobray
Joseph Gordon-Levitt …  The Doctor / Rex Lewis
Leo Howard …  Young Snake Eyes
Karolina Kurkova …  Courtney A. Kreiger / Cover Girl
Byung-hun Lee …  Storm Shadow
Sienna Miller …  Anastasia ‘Ana’ DeCobray / Baroness
David Murray …  James McCullen – 1641
Rachel Nichols …  Shana ‘Scarlett’ O’Hara
Kevin J. O’Connor …  Dr. Mindbender
Gerald Okamura …  Hard Master
Ray Park …  Snake Eyes
Jonathan Pryce …  U.S. President
Dennis Quaid …  General Hawk

Synopsis: An elite team made up of allied military personel fights the good fight.  Adding new members to the team, the unit takes on Destro, the Baroness, Storm Shadow and witnesses the birth of a new world-wide terrorist organization, Cobra.

Reviewers: Vulcan Stev, Pvt. Black Spartan (formerly known as PIT #1), PIT #2, PIT #3

VS – 1.5 pointed ears
I am a fan of the Larry Hama comic book series published by Marvel Comics.  I still own my complete set of G.I. Joe comics.  I am one of those fans that felt the cartoon was an absolute waste of air time.  I can recite you chapter and verse of Storm Shadow’s origin, his transformation from villain to hero and back.  In my mind Scarlett and Snake Eyes are a couple and the Pit was originally located under the Chaplain’s assistant School at Fort Wadsworth.

I am one of the fans that Hasbro and Paramount did NOT want to alienate with this two hour introduction to another potential box office franchise.  For the most part the producers were successful.  This is not a film based on reality.  It is not a treatise on how to fight terrorism.  It is a thriller from start to finish.

The producers were smart enough to set the movie into a continuity of its own without relying on the comic book or the cartoon series.  Stephen Sommers also had the brains to hire Larry Hama as a consultant on the film.  Larry Hama knows the G.I. Joe universe cold.

What did I think were the problems with this film?  First the implication that Rip-Cord was able to make it onto the team solely by being Duke’s friend.  G.I. Joe is supposed to be the BEST of the Best.  Those acceleration suits were completely unneccessary.  Brandon Fraiser’s cameo detracted from the film.  Finally excuse me for being a raving fanboy here… Scarlet and Snake Eyes 4Evar ’nuff said.

Pvt. Black Spartan – 1.8 pointed ears
This movie was nowhere near as bad as the critics implied.  My first trip off base to a civilian theater in forever would’ve been a treat if the theater didn’t have as many technical difficulties.  This movie is obviously a two hour preview for the actual series coming soon.

I had given this movie 2 pointed ears then proceeded to complain to Dad about the laughable military protocol.  Dad insisted that I deduct some for my complaints.  Most of the problems with military protocol and procedure are ones that non-military folks will never notice.

PIT #2  – 1.9 pointed ears.
This is my first exposure to the G.I. Joe universe.  I was suitably impressed with the concept that I’m looking forward to the actual movie.  This two-hour preview for the eventual movie is the best commercial I’ve ever seen.

PIT #3 – 2 pointed ears
This movie rocked.  There was absolutely nothing about this movie that made it bad.  Massive explosions, action, explosions, no kissing, explosions.  Did I mention the explosions?

7.2 pointed ears out of 8.

Aside from this being an obvious Part I, this movie provides  2 hours of mindless entertainment.  The violence is cartoonish at best.  If mild language and cartoon violence are acceptable then this is a nice way to spend an evening.

Tweet Libs: President Obama’s Back to School Speech

With thanks to my Tweeps and Facebook cohorts: @allgeekout, PIT #2, Mrs. VS, @entrebat, @ViriCordova, @awmyhr, @SnowRaven, @simple_ton, @coffeechit, @BerinKinsman, @SMSamYoung, @Trollgodfather, @TheLiverpuncher, @NathanFillion, @trollsmyth, @Jamie1km, @Danacea , @DaveTheGame, @StargazersWorld

I now present President Obama’s Back to School Speech

Hello everyone – how’s everybody doing today? I’m here with students at Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters on a remote satellite of Pluto.  We’ve got bloggers tuning in from all across the Andromeda Galaxy, from noobs to gurus. I’m glad you all could join us today.

I know that for many of you, today is the first day of drawing.  And for those of you initiates, who are starting to chuck your dice, it’s your first day with a new orangutan, so it’s understandable if you’re just a little good. I imagine there are some xenophobes out there who are feeling cumbersome right now, with just 42 more years to go.  And no matter what grade you’re in, some of you are probably wishing it were still Spring Break, and you could’ve been white water rafting  just a little longer this noon.

I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived in the living room for a few years, and my High Priestess didn’t have the electrum to send me where all the astro dudes were crafting artifacts of exceptional power.  So she decided to shamble extra Ikea shelves herself, Monday through Friday – at 4:37 am and 2000 hours.

Now I wasn’t too gloomy about getting up that early. A lot of times, I’d be pillaging right there at the Billiards room table. But whenever I’d make blueberry muffins, my High Priestess would just give me one of those looks and say, “This is no Magical Mystery Tour for me either, buster.”

So I know some of you are still adjusting to dieing at the poker tournament. But I’m here today because I have something swashbuckling to discuss with you. I’m here because I want to extract your emergency rations and what’s expected of all of you with this new basketball.

—————– Credits:

@allgeekout & @entrebat – Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters.
@allgeekout – Remote satellite of Pluto.
@allgeekout – bloggers
PIT #2 – Andromeda Galaxy
Mrs. VS – suggested new people to veterans… I modified noobs to gurus
@ViriCordova – drawing
@entrebat – initiate
@entrebat – chucking dice
@allgeekout – orangutan
@awmyhr – good
@allgeekout – xenophobes
@entrebat – cumbersome
@SnowRaven – 42
@simple_ton – Spring Break
@coffeechit – white water rafting
@SnowRaven – noon
@BerinKinsman – 4:37 am
@SMSamYoung – 2000 hours
@ViriCordova – the Living Room
@Trollgodfather – High Priestess
@TheLiverpuncher – electrum
@NathanFillion – Astro Dudes
@TheLiverpincher – crafting artifacts of exceptional power
@TheLiverpincher – shamble
@allgeekout – Ikea shelves
@entrebat – gloomy
@allgeekout – pillaging
@trollsmyth – Billiards room
@Jamie1km – making blueberry muffins
@allgeekout – Magical Mystery Tour
@StargazersWorld – die
@DaveTheGame – poker torunament
@allgeekout – swashbuckling
@StargazersWorld – extract
@Stargazersworld – basketball
@Danacea – emergency rations

——————Original text with the place holders installed

Hello everyone – how’s everybody doing today? I’m here with students at [fictional school] in [geographical location].  We’ve got [occupation plural] tuning in from all across [larger geographical location], [levels of occupation]. I’m glad you all could join us today.

I know that for many of you, today is the first day of [activity].  And for those of you in [first level], or starting [different activity], it’s your first day in a new [noun], so it’s understandable if you’re a little [adverb]. I imagine there are some [group of people] out there who are feeling [adjective] right now, with just [number] more year to go. And no matter what grade you’re in, some of you are probably wishing it were still [time of year], and you could’ve [activity] just a little longer this [time of day].

I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived in [geographical location] for a few years, and my [relative] didn’t have the [valuable noun] to send me where all the [ethnic group] kids [activity]. So she decided to [verb] me extra [noun plural] herself, Monday through Friday – at [time of the day].

Now I wasn’t too [adjective] about getting up that early. A lot of times, I’d [verb] right there at the [room] table. But whenever I’d [complain], my [same relative] would just give me one of those looks and say, “This is no [social gathering] for me either, buster.”

So I know some of you are still adjusting to {verb] at [noun]. But I’m here today because I have something [adjective] to discuss with you. I’m here because I want to [verb] with you about your [noun] and what’s expected of all of you in this new [noun].

Tweet Libs: What is it?

My readers on Twitter have been helping me out this past week.  We’ve been working on a new post entitled, naturally, Tweet Libs (thanks for the name Hank.  It is better than what I originally called it).

What is Tweet Libs?  Tweet Libs is the Twitter equivalent of the party game Mad Libs.  Briefly Mad Libs takes a story and replaces portions of the story with blanks.  The players are then asked to fill in the blanks with random words of the appropriate type (ie nouns, verbs, adverbs).

Last week I received a large variety of words supplied by my Tweeps.  Tomorrow the results are published. I hope you enjoy the results.

Vulcan Stev Family Movie Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Starring:
Daniel Radcliffe …  Harry Potter
Rupert Grint …  Ron Weasley
Emma Watson …  Hermione Granger
Jim Broadbent …  Professor Horace Slughorn
Elarica Gallacher …  Waitress
Robbie Coltrane …  Rubeus Hagrid
Michael Gambon …  Professor Albus Dumbledore
Maggie Smith …  Professor Minerva McGonagall
Alan Rickman …  Professor Severus Snape
Bonnie Wright …  Ginny Weasley
James Phelps …  Fred Weasley
Oliver Phelps …  George Weasley
Julie Walters …  Molly Weasley
Mark Williams …  Arthur Weasley
David Thewlis …  Remus Lupin

Synopsis: In the sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft, and in both wizard and muggle worlds Lord Voldemort and his henchmen are increasingly active. With vacancies to fill at Hogwarts, Professor Dumbledor persuades Horace Slughorn, back from retirement to become the potions teacher, while Professor Snape receives long awaited news. Harry Potter, together with Dumbledore, must face treacherous tasks to defeat his evil nemesis.

Reviewers: Vulcan Stev, Mrs. VS, PIT #1/Pvt Spartan, PIT #2, PIT #3

Vulcan Stev: 1.4 pointed ears
I have never read any of the Harry Potter books.  When my children complain about things the movie left out of the previous novels, it usually didn’t matter much to me.  The movies have, to this point, been able to stand on their own.  HPatHBP is the first time that I, as a non-reader of the novels, could sense something was missing.  Don’t get me wrong, the movie was still enjoyable.  There was just to much unexplained.  Harry’s being forced to give up the textbook seemed, from my vantage point, to be more jealousy from his fellow students than it was a necessity to get rid of the book.  The whole sub-plot of the hor-cruxes seemed to be given short shrift.

Warner Bros. determined that it would be impossible to do adequate justice to the Deathly Hallows in one 2-hour movie.  After watching HBP, I wonder if they shouldn’t have done the same thing with book six.  How hard would it have been to film HBP as a two-parter release part one at Memorial Day and then part two at Labor Day.

Mrs. VS: 1.4 pointed ears
This movie was a little confusing.  I had a difficult time following parts of this story.  The part of the story where Harry is attacked in the cave was VERY creepy.

Pvt Spartan/PIT #1: 1.5 pointed ears
Watching this movie without my family was a bittersweet experience.  This was a good movie but a terrible adaptation.  Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a very misleading title.  The book is more about the discovery of Voldemort’s horcruxes and setting up lots of things for the final book.  There is lots of underplay relational issues that are left out of the movie.

Non-readers of the books might be confused by this movie.

PIT #2: 1.7 pointed ears
The was a decent movie.  However the producers tried to cram wa-a-ay to much stuff into a two and a half hour movie.  What I’ve read of the book, it should have been turned into 2 two-hour movies at least.

PIT #3: 1.4 pointed ears
In addition to all the kissing (yecch!) this movie left out a lot of the novel it was adapting.  The parts they did film where done nicely.  I didn’t like the fact that the movie showed an attack on the Weasleys.  Daddy explained that it probably was done to lump all the attacks by the Death Eaters into one attack that mattered.  All in all a decent movie.

7.4 pointed ears out of 10.

The overall consensus of the VS family that this movie was too short for the material was trying to cover.  If you own the first five you’ll definitely be owning this one as well.  This film is a little too intense for younger viewers without parental supervision.

The View from My Chair: Sequels that shouldn’t have been made

One of the things I’ve been doing more of since the modem went down is watching DVDs with PITs 2&3.  We’ve got a pretty extensive collection.  PIT #3 noticed the large number of sequels we have in our collection.  He wondered why Hollywood made so many sequels.  I tired my best to explain that movies are very expensive to make and that Hollywood (as a general rule is more apt to make a second movie when the first has proven successful.  PIT #3 then wanted to know “Why Hollywood made crappy sequels?”

His simple question left me thinking the same thing.  This train of thought then morphed into what Hollywood sequels probably seemed like a slam dunk to whoever green light it but probably shouldn’t have ever been filmed.

#1: Star Trek V: The Final Frontier – The movie that proves William Shatner can’t direct.  The insipid story line and faithless use of the characters doomed this flick from the outset.  What went wrong with this turkey could be a whole column all to itself

#2: Superman IV: The Quest for Peace – Singlehandedly responsible for sinking the Superman franchise.  This movie showcases one of the problems with bringing a 4-color property to the big screen.  Whereas the comic book writer has multiple issues to introduce a formidable opponent for the hero, the motion picture has approximately two hours to introduce, set up the battle with, and have the hero defeat, the villain.

#3 & 4 Karate Kid 3, The Next Karate Kid: Continuing the story after a CLEAR ending is one of Hollywood’s bigger mis-steps.  It is also a sure sign that the movie was green-lit by a “suit” interested in money and not because they have a good story to tell.  Then the further miscue of Hollywood thinking that the previous failure had something to do with the cast, meaning a re-cast and another bad movie.

#5 Batman & Robin: Psychedelic colors, a complete disregard for the Bat Universe (even the one established for the film) and forced conflict between Batman and Robin doomed an otherwise credible performance by Clooney.  On the other hand this flop paved the way for Batman Begins

#6 Herbie Goes Bananas: This movie seemed to me that somebody at Disney was desperately looking for hit and authorized a less than stellar script “just to get something out there”.  Having a prop being the only connection to the previous movies (albeit a prop that folks had emotional involvement in) that close to the release dates of the other movies wasn’t the best idea either.

#7 The Lion King 1 1/2: Seriously? turning one of Disney’s animated classics into a clipfest and tons of rude jokes was completely unnecessary.  Disney’s animation department was coasting at this point.

#8 & #9 Ghostbusters 2 & Gremlins 2: Clear examples of taking a hit movie, hiring original cast, having a cool idea, and still not capturing the magic.  Hey Hollywood, we’ll wait until you have a script that is actually watchable.

#10  #11 Smokey and the Bandit Part 3 & Speed 2: When the movie’s success is in large part due to the chemistry of it’s stars, do NOT attempt to make a sequel without those same actors.

There’s definitely more sequels out there that shouldn’t have been made.

I’d be interested to hear yours

What’s going on at the Database?

I’ve made mention of some of the changes that will be happening here at the database.  I’m writing this brief post to detail some of what’s happening.

First what’s leaving? Daily posts.  I promise at least one GAMING post/month, at least one movie post/month, at least one Goober post/month and at least one VS Family update/month.  There will probably be more as we venture into the winter months.  But I guarantee at least one post from each catagory per month.  I’m spending time with family and not sitting at the laptop all evening.

Gaming: I will keep writing the “Gaming in the Universe of…” articles regularly if you see a movie review chances are good there’s a GitUo coming for said movie.  Order of the D30 tables (I’ve got at least two in the works).  I need to get back into the Carnival articles (I missed three by my count and I think I’m still scheduled to host sometime next year).  I’ll also be bringing back Dungeon Dramas, but the dramas will be written by the PITs as well as myself.

Movies: New column View from my Chair; this column will focus on thoughts and observations I have from watching movies and whatnot from the comfort of “MY CHAIR”.  Keeping the Vulcan Stev Family movie review.

Comics: nothing firm and finalized yet, but I have some definite thoughts I want to put down about things I’ve been reading. 

I have one NEW idea that I’ going to attempt sometime this week….  heh heh heh