xhonzi

Davnes007 said:

 

xhonzi said:

I was sitting in this diner when this man came up to me and said: Hey, man.  Hey, buddy... I haven't had a- *hic* I haven't had a bite in a long time!

SO I BIT HIM!

...Fixed :D

 That's not nearly as funny as mine.

Cookie Monster said:

Xonzi, of course I am not really Cookie Monster.  I just have to be around Sesame Street a lot because of my son and i think he is really funny.  Yes Cookie Monster usually eats cookies but he also talks different to.  You could just as easy complain that I dont say things like OF COURSE ME NOT COOKIE MONSTER.

To make you feel better Xhonzi, ME EAT ALL THE COOKIES!!!

With the swearing I saw that it isnt agianst the rules, so I guess I will have to live with it.

 

 Alright.  Me am convinced.

RARAWARARWARSARARARARA AARAR

*cookie*

It's a great way to search posts you've made!

:)

I used to do it- a couple years back.  Someone made fun of me for it so I stobbed.  But when I search for 'xhonzi' those are the only posts I can find!

I think this pretty common.  I refused to read the books until after the 2nd movie.  I thought the 2nd story took the "gee-whiz" element of the first and actually started to tell an interesting story.  (This comment probably belongs in the "sequel/sequal" discussion Boost and I are having in the other thread.)

So my wife and I read all of the books (4 was out at the time, if memory serves) and I immediately disliked 3.  I thought it was

a. missing critical information that made the denoument make sense.
b. Hyping style over story
c. Dismissing magic.  The lack of "school robes" and their replacement "street clothes" and Mike Gambon, I thought, was a poor replacement for Richard Harris, especially as he (and the director?) were set on rebooting the character at the same time. 

Rewatching HP1 the other month with my kids made me think maybe Richard Harris wasn't as perfect as I remember him being... but that was my thought at the time.

4 was sort of 'meh' to me, even if it had been a little bit since I had read the book.  5 was awesome to me (longest book = shortest movie?) probably because it had been long enough that I had forgotten what was in the book that I could enjoy it again.  I think 6 was decent enough, but I had to ask my wife what the deltas were.

If we're to continue this conversation... you really need to start spelling 'sequel' correctly.  ;)  Seriously, I don't know how Frink can stand it.

I had a thought while watching RLM's AotC review:

Basically I agreed with his sentiment in TPM that there was no main character- but I thought AotC would not be guilty of this (surely Anakin is the main character!).  Sure!  It has two main story threads: 1. Anakin and Padme go on a picnic, fall in love, and kill some Tusken Raider babies and 2. Obi-Wan chases down a lead to who might be trying to kill Padame, finds some clones, and starts the war which leads to the "dark times" he is so fond of... 

But how different is this than ESB?  1. Luke goes to train with Yoda for a bit until he decides to rescue his friends and teach Vader what he gets when he messes with the Skywalker family and 2. Han and Leia are on the run from Imperials, hiding out in asteroid fields and mining cities in the clouds, fall in love, and eventually get caught by said imperials (and taught what they get when they mess with the Skywalker family).

Who is the main character of ESB?  Luke, of course.  But Han & Leia are also main characters... but Luke is certainly the mainiest of characters.

So why doesn't the same hold true of AotC?  As far as I can tell, it really comes down to this: The Plot.  The Plot of Attack of the Clones is about... the Clones... Attacking.  This Plot is the "action" of the piece.  And it's about Obi-Wan.  Anakin and Pandame are in the "romantic sub-plot", like Han and Leia are in ESB. 

Since a romantic subplot is required for the Prequels to make any sense (assuming Star Wars babies are made in the same way as xhonzi's babies) it's tempting to put Anakin and P* on this romantic subplot for a whole film.  Since Star Wars films by nature are small ensemble pieces, it makes it really easy to say, "While A and P are off falling in love, the other plot (the action!) can be handled by Obi-Wan (& Bail (& Owen (& Red Lid'r (& Young Han Solo)).  Note: Most other action movies do not have this problem.  Indiana Jones and James Bond can handle falling in love AND kicking bad guy butt and solving the mystery/saving the day AT THE SAME TIME!

I guess it comes down to this: Obi-Wan (and company) will feel like a 5th wheel if they're hanging around the whole time Anakin and NotPadme are trying to fall in love.  Getting them off on their own romantic adventure seems like a priority... So what do you do with everyone else?  Why not send them on an adventure!

So, if you can solve this little proble: Give Anakin the major plot action and some alone time with Notpadme so they can fall in love- I think you will have solved the major problem of the middle part of the NPT.

I saw that on a friend of mine's Facebook page.  Referring to wakeboarding as waterboarding.  English is his second (third or fourth, even) language, but that didn't stop me from giving him a hard time!

Cookie Monster said:

Have a cookie and enjoy!

I smell a rat!  Gentlemen, turn out your pockets, ladies- empty your purses.  There is an impostor among us.

I ask you- those of you raised on the street- the "Sesame" Street.  Can you please summarize for the court what Cookie Monster's relationship to cookies is?

Does he:

A. Offer them as rewards for good behaviour?
B. Suggest you eat your own cookies and enjoy them?
C. Devour every cookie in sight without regard to
 I. The calories
 II. Other people perhaps wanting a cookie
 III. The safety of his fingers as they deliver cookie-ery goodness to his digestive system.
D. Post on Star Wars forums.

Wait, again?  Or is he still there?

By-the-bye... I believe Warbler has finally snapped and he has become the wrong kind of conservative.

Waterboarding for everyone!

Where's "Show the Other Survivor's Cute Pictures of Cats Whilst They're Trying to Fend Off the Horde?"

The sidebars seem to run a little long in places.  I don't mind them for the most part... but I thought they were a little overindulgent in the AotC review.

Frink:

Wait...is this why LexX is ignoring me?

Yes, it's because you're so complex.

Boost:

Jedi is even more complicated than Empire.

You think so?  The three way split during the ending, I guess, is what's making you say this.  But most of the movie is in "single narrative", versus Empire which is "dual narrative" for most of the movie.

Then, at the end, one of the dual narratives is a duel narrative.  Whoah. </keanu>

Yeah, I call bullcrap on that argument for LotR.  LotR fans often claim that there are LotR sequels (non-sequels), and then everything else.  LotR is one particular kind of trilogy/series.  Transformers is another, and James Bond is yet another.  Star Wars, Pirates of the Caribbean, Matrix, etc... There are no constants.

I was sitting in this diner when this man came up to me and said: Hey, man.  Hey, buddy... I haven't had a- *hic* I haven't had anything to eat in a long time!

SPOILER:

SO I BIT HIM!

BUWHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!

Biff Tannen said:

Huh, it almost sounds like a bunch of buttheads in here. Must be the wind.

Why don't you just make like a screen door on a battleship, and GET OUTTA HERE!

Our company Christmas party this year was to go to Cats.  I had seen it when I was a teenager and didn't want to see it again- but it was free and my wife really wanted to dress-up and go downtown to see it.  A lot of my co-workers were very excited as well.

I felt like the lone voice of reason in the group- I told them, "It's just about Cats, right?  It's just a bunch of dancing to poems about actual Cats.  It's not any more profound than that."  Still, people were excited to go.

We got downtown and mixed/mingled with my co-workers and their plus ones.  Then the show started and we took our seats.  An hour and a half later and I was just about to hang myself... I assumed my co-workers were genuinely enjoying themselves... and then the intermission starts.  Their heads turn- single eyebrows are raised.  "What the crap is this?!?!" many say.  My one friend says he doesn't think he can take anymore. 

We walk out to the lobby where we chat with some other co-workers.  One says, "It makes you think of ways that you could leave gracefully in the middle without offending someone..."  I said, "You want to see how it's done?  It's done like this!"  And my friend and I and our wives bolt for the front door and go eat appetizers at Rock Bottom.

We head back to our cars afterward and run into a pair of other couples in the elevator.  One asks, "Did you leave Cats early too?"  "No," I lie, "Is it still going?"  I believe I am insanely clever for this turn about.

That is my review of Cats.  Other than that, I like Phantom & Joseph.  Evita is okay, I guess.

We can't tally without LexX... How else will he win?

That's sort of like asking if anyone wants a cookie?  Sitting on the bag of cookies... and then counting the people that still eat one.  That's BS market research and they know it.

TheBoost said:

This thread is odd to me.

Isn't the idea of a 'perfect' film series, really just a way of saying 'Sequals are almost always not as good as the originals." In almost every case people mention here, they just eliminate the later entries in the series (with the exception of Temple of Doom).

Isn't that the nature of sequals; not to be as good as the original?

For the first movie in a series to be good enough to fully warrant a sequal, it almost by definition needs to push the boundaries of how much good story a certain concept can have, or else it will feel watered down and unimportant. Very few great films leave you feeling "Wow! That movie is sure open-ended!"

In the extremely rare cases of sequals that are highly respected (Bride of Frankenstein, ESB, Godfather II) they acheive that level by taking an original film that wasn't terribly deep character-wise, and exploring the all-ready beloved characters.

But usually a sequal is forced to find some way to dilute or reinterpret the original tale in order to continue it (Matrix, Highlander, Terminator). If not a diluted continuation the sequal either tries to go a different direction to mixed results (Temple of Doom, Back to the Future III, Futureworld) or is just a glorified remake (Rocky II-XXIII,  ROTJ, the Jurassic Parks, French Connection II).

Oh yeah, and I love ROTJ.

Most movies are not very good.  So the fact that a lot of sequels are not very good, I think, is more an extension of the fact that most movies suck- and sequels are movies.

Honestly- I think sequels have the potential to be the best kind of movies.  They are unsadled by the burden of establishing milieu, or establishing character...  They can focus on plot development (and twists!) and character development, arguably the better parts of story telling.

What I think happens is what happens to me every weekend: During the week I think of all of the things I want to do with my time- but CAN'T because I'm selling it TO THE MAN.  Then- Saturday finally comes and I sleep in- have breakfast at 11- Get dressed at noon, go run errands with the wife and kids- have lunch at 1, get home at 3, watch cartoons with the kids until 5, make dinner and eat at 6, put the kids to bed at 8, and then think of all of the things I didn't get done until 11.  Arguably, Saturday is my least productive day of the week despite the fact it has the potential to be the most productive day of the week... especially when weighing the "products" that I really care about.  During the week, I work for THE MAN and do awesome things for him that I don't value enough to do without a handsome compensation.  Saturday is my one day to get done the things I'M WILLING TO DO FOR FREE!  But still...

Sequels...

Do you think the LotR could be as epic if they had crammed it into one film?

Now all you need is this:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B003707YUY/ref=nosim/cheapassgam08-20

DarkGryphon2048 said:

I can freely admit I've never seen a Seth Rogan movie.

Sadly I saw Monsters Vs Aliens (with my kids, no less!) and so I've lost this right.

Also, I thought this thread needed a bump.

*bump*

Yeah, where's BAKeith?

I'm not reading that, but I will concede that it IS indeed longer.

Does new information change behaviour?  I have observed that it does.  Also- old information beheld in a new light can also change behaviour.

But, to your point, people that have heard your argument (aka "information") and have rejected it... generally don't need to keep hearing and rejecting your same argument.  Unless, of course, the repitition is the catalyst to considering the old information in the new light.

"A watched closet never boils."

Ha ha.  I think you need to attribute 005 on that one.  It just goes to show that you can post on the boards 100 times a day, but if you miss the semi-semi-semi-annual L4D night... you are on the outside looking in.

Yeah, Frink sent me the punchline.  It was actually much funnier to have the punchline censored after such A LONG JOKE.