40Cent @ the movies

[BanzaiCat]

For God's sake, DO NOT let her see Highlander II: The Quickening!

[mirth]

For God's sake, DO NOT let her see Highlander II: The Quickening!

+1 Dreadful

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I watched 2010 version of 13 Assassins on Netflix and thoroughly enjoyed it.  Very well done samurai period piece.  I prefer it to the original.  The story takes place in the 1840s.  The Shogun's half-brother, Matsudaira Naritsugu, is gaining political influence but happens to be an evil, sadistic, and possibly insane piece of work.  One of the Shogun's chief advisers, Sir Doi of the Akashi clan is torn between his Bushido code of duty and loyalty to the Shogun and his desire to rid Japan of what could very well be the next ruler.

He decides to assassinate Naritsugu and brings together a team of samurai and ronin to take him out.  The story is a bit slow going at first but once the plan is set in motion, it really picks up.  The final battle is excellent and involves some truly fantastic improvised defenses.   I suspect the director must've played some Rome: Total War in his day.  Animal rights fans will not be pleased.

9/10

[JasonPratt]

Never mind sword fighting I'm still waiting for your mysterious conclusion to the ' has anyone read Patrick rothfuss' from 2 years ago

Me, too!  :D

He owes me a big favor, but we haven't worked out yet how to pay it off.

Originally our plan was to have us either fence a duel after New Years' somewhere (we're both ex-instructors), and have people register for one side or the other to win when making their Worldbuilder charity pledges, with a PS3 or something like that as an extra raffle for the people who picked the winner. Or alternately, do a turn-based game which would take longer but might be easier on everyone's schedule (with my side being hosted here at Grogheads). The idea was to use my favor to help market and compound his charity efforts a little more.

He had to clear it with the Worldbuilder board of directors first, though, and I guess neither option flew. Don't know why. His scheduling is super-insane, too, so that was always going to be a problem.

[undercovergeek]

seriously?

that would have been awesome - the turn based thing anyway

so is there a big 'gentleman writers of dastardly deeds' club you all meet up at with cigars and brandy and oversized red leather chairs?

[JasonPratt]

Yeah I wish!  ;D

No, I had been saving up money to donate to Heifer International and that year Pat was auctioning off favors so I put that money toward the auction. I ended up applying part of the donation to Heifer directly and the other half to help sponsor their charity drive this past Christmas.


Personally I think watching us two early-middle-aged swordfighters trying to spar would have been hilarious.  I did have a clever scoring system set up so that if one of us pulled away hard in the first two rounds the other one still would have had a good chance to win in the final round.

The proposed bout rules:

1.) Fight epee, so all we need are some buzzers on the back of our uniform and the judges don't have to deal with explaining right-of-way rules to the audience.

2.) Standard strip size, or smaller if necessary.

3.) If possible, three guest judges to watch for out of bounds and to vote if necessary on who buzzed first or ties for close calls. (But this could be waived; as instructors we'd both presumably agree to call shots fairly. It would just be a way to get more of his writing friends involved at a Con or whatever, if he wanted.)

4.) Two three minute rounds, reversing positions between rounds for the benefit of the spectators. (Time could be shortened for the audience's sake, since 6 minutes plus rest is a longer time than it seems.)

5.) After 2 rounds, each fencer's total score is ratio'd for the final round. The lower score is the defender, and will win the match if he does as well or better than the ratio in the final round, including forcing a tie (even 0/0). We'd probably need at least one person as timekeeper anyway, and that person would keep track of the final round scoring ratio and stand with a sign on the side of the fencer currently winning so the audience would clearly know the relative score.

[BanzaiCat]

Just got home from seeing Guardians of the Galaxy with the kids.

Not much to add other than what's already been discussed. Easily 35/40, probably more like 38/40.

Though why the hell I sat around to watch that nonsense after the credits...really? Howard? Are you kidding me?

[Centurion40]

Just got home from seeing Guardians of the Galaxy with the kids.

Not much to add other than what's already been discussed. Easily 35/40, probably more like 38/40.

Though why the hell I sat around to watch that nonsense after the credits...really? Howard? Are you kidding me?

40Jr and I just saw it for the 3rd time! Once regular, once 3D, and once IMAX.

[MIGMaster]

You're going to turn him into a movie "junkie"  :)

[BanzaiCat]

When movies were cheaper and FAR less annoying to go to, I would have easily gone and seen this one multiple times, too.

I sprung for the XD/3D Guardians experience and me and the kids cost $42 just for those tix. I pay $42 to sit and be pummeled by bad USA channel spots and stupid commercials? It was worth having to suffer through that, but damn. I know they could care less about me, but I easily went from seeing 10-12 movies a year to one or two, tops.

[Staggerwing]

That's why I usually wait and watch them at home. Ten movies a year times $42 could pay for a decent 1080 40" TV and Netflix for a year without having aliens from Planet Rectum in the seats around you.

Also, you can pause while you go make Hot Pockets and take a non-rushed piss.

[JasonPratt]

Times 2 years, and you have a swass sound system to go with the 40".

Times 3 years, and you have a PS4 blu-ray player (or PS3 for a little less time ;) ) which doubles as a very respectable gaming system.  >:D

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

I watched 2010 version of 13 Assassins on Netflix and thoroughly enjoyed it.  Very well done samurai period piece.  I prefer it to the original.  The story takes place in the 1840s.  The Shogun's half-brother, Matsudaira Naritsugu, is gaining political influence but happens to be an evil, sadistic, and possibly insane piece of work.  One of the Shogun's chief advisers, Sir Doi of the Akashi clan is torn between his Bushido code of duty and loyalty to the Shogun and his desire to rid Japan of what could very well be the next ruler.

He decides to assassinate Naritsugu and brings together a team of samurai and ronin to take him out.  The story is a bit slow going at first but once the plan is set in motion, it really picks up.  The final battle is excellent and involves some truly fantastic improvised defenses.   I suspect the director must've played some Rome: Total War in his day.  Animal rights fans will not be pleased.

9/10

Awesome 5 disk set.

[JasonPratt]

^^ Relatedly, the live-action Rurouni Kenshin film did well enough in Japan to warrant two sequels filming simultaneously, probably to cover the 2nd large story arc set in Kyoto.

Why they haven't released this as an official North American localization I have no idea. Argh. (I do have a decent subtitled edition from somewhere in the East, maybe Australia -- couldn't be Malaysia, I've never picked up a sub from there that didn't give me a migraine...)


If anyone hasn't seen the anime (or the film for that matter), this is good news. :) RuroKen is a historical fantasy featuring several real-life characters, set (mostly) 10-11 years after the last Japanese civil war and the start of the Meiji Era, 1870s-ish. Same time frame as Tom Cruise's The Last Samurai.

[Centurion40]

So the Mrs. and I went to see John Wick, and I really don't know what to make of it.  The reason is that I was expecting a typical kind of revenge flick, and John Wick is not that.  It is a fantasy, sort of in along the lines of "Wanted" (where there was a league of assassins), only without special powers.  It caught me off guard. I wasn't expecting to be taken into a hotel for assassins, where the currency is large gold coins, and the house rules exclude conducting business on the grounds of the property. Like a gentleman's club for mass murders. The critics seem to like the movie, but I'm not sure that I did.

To be fair, I like shoot-em-ups with big kill counts.  For example, I loved movies like "Smokin' Aces".  But you knew that was going to be somewhat farcical when you sat-down.  I didn't expect it here.  "John Wick" is deadpan farcical with an immense kill count.  I heard the guy behind me in the theatre say that he gave-up trying to count the kills about half-way through the movie.  There was plenty of movie violence, lots of gun play and split wigs.  Yet it still left me unsatisfied, somehow. But I still can't figure out why.

25/40