philraid

Anybody else remember this one?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_Math:_Jabba's_Game_Galaxy

I’d watch a Futurama episode of just “Palpatine vs Nixon”!

“I AM the senate!”
“I’m not a crook.”

I already knew beforehand what Yoda looked like, so I just remembered being confused why Yoda didn’t just say who he was.

If he does have a name, it’s either Frank or The Senate.

JadedSkywalker said:

I hate the name Sheev

I’m glad I’m not the only one that doesn’t like that name. I just call him “The Emperor” or “Palpatine.”

The Crystal Star

FDR, maybe? Gave inspiring speeches about how they’d make it out of a crisis, while also staying in office for a long time while a war was going on (granted they didn’t have term limits yet, but it was controversial at the time).

I’ve only ever been able to watch the entire thing once. Reading about the production of it and watching reviews of it is much more fun (the Red Letter Media review of it is hilarious for example). Whenever people ask me about it I always warn them not to watch it.
I am very interested in that documentary. I’m not sure when they’re releasing it, but the production history of that thing is so fascinating to me.
I love that when Harrison Ford was asked whether he’d seen it, he said “I was there, man. I didn’t have to see it.”

My ranking changed slightly:

1. The Empire Strikes Back
2. Return of the Jedi
3. Star Wars
4. Revenge of the Sith
5. Rogue One
6. The Force Awakens
7. Solo
8. Attack of the Clones
9. The Phantom Menace
10. The Last Jedi
11. The Rise of Skywalker
12. The Clone Wars movie

I do see a bit of overlap between Palpatine and the Futurama version of Nixon.

Updated to include Ahsoka:

1. Clone Wars (2003)
2. Andor
3. The Mandalorian
4. The Clone Wars
5. Ahsoka
6. Rebels
7. Visions
8. Obi Wan Kenobi
9. The Book of Boba Fett
10. Ewoks
11. Forces of Destiny
12. Droids
13. Resistance

I rewatched them about a month ago. There’s some good jokes and I agree with some of their points. Before those videos I hadn’t really seen a long form review of a movie like that, so it was very new at the time. Also the first time I saw them I didn’t really understand why people hated the prequels so much, so seeing those reviews helped me understand the criticisms. I do enjoy a lot of Red Letter Media videos, although I think they can be too cynical sometimes.

I’d always heard it was in The Empire Strikes Back, so I guess that’s why I was never able to find it.

I guess Palpatine is what Nixon would have turned into if Watergate hadn’t happened.

I’m kind of reading two books at the same time. I’m re-reading Dune since the second movie is coming out this year. Really looking forward to that movie.

I’m also reading the novelization for Revenge of the Sith. So far it has a very different feel from the movie. Almost all of the dialogue is different and it goes more in-depth on the story, characters and their motivations.

Updated to include Dial of Destiny, which I just saw today:

1. Raiders of the Lost Ark
2. Temple of Doom
3. Last Crusade
4. Dial of Destiny
5. Crystal Skull

Raised Eyebrows: My Years Inside Groucho’s House by Steve Stoliar. I’m a little over halfway done with it and I’m really liking it.
It’s about a guy who’s a huge fan of comedian Groucho Marx that ended up working for him as a secretary the last few years of Groucho’s life. Parts of it are funny and parts of it are depressing because of what he had to deal with in his later years. They’re making it into a movie, and based on what I’ve read of it so far it should be an interesting movie.

The last one I finished was a rewatch of Black Books, which is probably my favorite TV show. It was just as funny as I’d remembered.

More recently I’ve been alternating between episodes of Babylon 5 and Farscape, which I’ve never seen before. It’s too early for me to tell if I like them or not.

Bought a bunch yesterday as a belated birthday gift. A lot of it was just me buying stuff that I couldn’t believe I didn’t already have:
The Addams Family and Addams Family Values- DVD
Back to the Future Trilogy- Blu-ray
The Big Sleep (1946)- DVD
Never Say Never Again- DVD
Coming to America- DVD
Deliverance- DVD
Dumb and Dumber- DVD
Escape from New York- Blu-ray
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off- DVD
Flash Gordon (1980)- Blu-ray
Forbidden Planet- Blu-ray
Ghostbusters 2- DVD
King Kong (1933)- DVD
The Last Starfighter- Blu-ray
The Marx Brothers Collection boxset which has A Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races, Room Service, At the Circus, Go West, The Big Store, and A Night in Casablanca- DVD (technically was a rebuy as I had six of these, but I didn’t have A Day at the Races or the boxset)
Short Circuit- DVD
Total Recall (1990)- Blu-ray
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)- DVD

Taxi Driver
Animal Crackers (although picking a favorite Marx Brothers movie is almost impossible)
RoboCop (1987)
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Being There
Dr. Strangelove
2001: A Space Odyssey
The Princess Bride
Brazil
Goldfinger
Network
Blade Runner

“One Year of Love” by Queen.
I rewatched Highlander recently, so I’ve been listening to the soundtrack a lot the past few days.

Definitely one of my favorite bands. Rubber Soul’s my favorite album of theirs. “In My Life” and “Nowhere Man” are currently my two favorite songs of theirs. George Harrison is probably my favorite of the four, although John Lennon’s a close second.

My favorite band is Queen, so you’re basically asking me to pick a favorite Queen song, which is impossible. I did rewatch Highlander recently for a podcast, so I’ve had a lot of their songs from the soundtrack stuck in my head.
I couldn’t list favorite songs. I could list favorite bands and artists, though. The aforementioned Queen, The Beatles (George Harrison’s probably my favorite), Pink Floyd, Frank Sinatra, Frank Zappa, The Who, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Tom Lehrer, Randy Newman, John Williams, Van Halen, Aerosmith, Billy Joel, David Bowie, Harry Nilsson, Warren Zevon, 70’s era Joni Mitchell, Erik Satie, The Doors.
As you can see, some of it is a bit eclectic, although I definitely favor stuff from the 60’s and 70’s.

I should point out that the Top 3 are all 10/10 movies for me, so ranking them is kind of pointless.

1. Raiders- Perfect escapism. Perfect hero, perfect villain, perfect action set pieces, an engaging plot line. Good balance between intensity and humor. What else is there to say?
2. Temple of Doom- I like that they took risks and tried to do something different. It’s such an insane ride. Of the four, it feels the most to me like a 30’s adventure movie.
3. Last Crusade- Used to be my favorite and I do still really love it (mainly because of Sean Connery), but I like the intensity of the first two more. I will say though, this one is the funniest of the series and probably the most quotable.
4. Crystal Skull- I don’t think it’s as bad as some say, but it’s not good either. Has its moments, but it’s pretty lackluster. It loses me around the halfway point. I didn’t think the plot or action scenes were that great. Hopefully Dial of Destiny is better.

They were good. Felt like a logical extension of the original trilogy, especially compared to stuff like Darksaber or The Crystal Star.

I liked that Leia was a politician in it. Luke felt like Luke. Han felt like Han.

Mara Jade’s a cool character. I have mixed thoughts on the expanded universe (at least the parts I’ve read, I’ll admit my knowledge of it is pretty limited), but she’s definitely one of the best characters to come out of it.

I’m gonna be honest, I don’t really get the big deal with Thrawn. He’s an okay villain, but I guess I don’t entirely understand the hype around him. I get that he’s a military tactician, but I guess I just don’t find him cold and ruthless enough.

Also, The Last Command I thought they kind of dropped the ball with the story. The whole Luke having an evil clone plot point (and that they got the DNA from his severed hand) I thought was pretty stupid. Especially the fact they named him Luuke. That was dumb.

But overall, I thought they were decent. Not great, but good. I can see why Timothy Zahn’s considered one of the better EU writers.