Open this Thread twice to activate the PANIC feature, which will enclose your mind in a steel cage and purge all crimethought.
Big news this week, obviously, is the early passing of Steve Jobs. Mosey on over to our eulogy thread if you want to participate in that discussion.
The box office this weekend offers both highbrow and lowbrow entertainment (picture The Rock arching his brows in opposite directions), with Oscar-bait The Ides of March, starring Ryan Gosling as a Presidential campaign manager whose idealism gets tarnished, and Razzie-troll Real Steel, starring Hugh Jackman as a robot boxing coach. He’s a ro-boxing coach. A roboxoach. This movie is being released at the swell of awards season, people.
(Not to get excessively personal, but yours truly just got back from a week in Hong Kong and you can not escape posters for Real Steel. It’s everywhere. The Pacific rim has decided what it wants from America)
Want some TV news? How about new horror series American Horror Story, from the … creator of Glee. How about another movie adaptation of Friday Night Lights, only this one based off the hit TV series? Or how about the Season 4 finale of Breaking Bad this Sunday?
(for fans of BB, I’ll have a post this coming week that will talk about visual and thematic motifs in S4. Feel free to chat in the comments here, but please throw a SPOILER ALERT at the top of any BBS4 comments. One love)
Oh, and, hey: did you like Disney Week? Any theme weeks you’d like us to tackle next? No promises, but we’re always looking for inspiration.
Could the ghost of Steve Jobs (played by George Clooney) coach a team of robot football players to the New Mexico state championships? Or is there something we missed? Sound off in the comments, for this is your … Open Thread.
I don’t care what anybody says, I’m kind of excited about Real Steel. First off, when is the last time you’ve been able to really enjoy Hugh Jackman? The Prestige? X2? He’s a guy I really like who makes a lot of movies I just can’t care about (Jack Black is another one of those) and I’m glad to see him in a fun little PG-13 action film.
Sure, it’s not going to win awards, but it might combine some fun fight scenes, some cool “let’s build something” montages, and a few touching father-son moments. I can’t fully explain it, but I’ve got a good vibe from this one. It’s going to make me smile a big smile when that rusty homemade robot destroys those shiny corporate robots.
By the way, welcome home John!
Now that I think about it, I don’t know why I like him considering all the movies I’ve seen him in. Oklahoma, X-Men, Someone Like You, Van Helsing, Scoop, Australia…he does not have the best track record. Yet I will still probably see Real Steel (not in theaters) and Les Miserables (if/when it comes out). Also, does anyone know what character he played in Snow Flower and the Secret Fan? It seems like a very odd movie for him to be in It’s one of those books I own (to learn how to be a female Asian writer who writes about being female…and Asian) but haven’t read but I’m about 70% sure there’s no singing, fighting, brooding, or attempted-murdering, at least for his character, in a story about two best friends who communicate through a secret fan language.
New Mexico is not a strong football state. Granted, I don’t know much about it at a high school level, but the New Mexico Lobos and the New Mexico State Aggies have both been awful for years, despite playing in the MWC and WAC respectively, two of the lesser conferences (although the MWC has gotten a boost in years from teams like TCU and now Boise State). Admittedly, NMSU looks a bit better this season, even though starting quarterback Andrew Manley went down with an injury, but the Lobos are still terrible, and are probably the worst team in the FBS, and they are probably worse than a couple of FCS teams as well.
I guess my point is this: Breaking Bad is awesome, and I can’t wait for the season four finale. That is despite the fact that Bryan Cranston gave some super vague spoilers on Marc Maron’s podcast. Even though he really didn’t say anything with any level of concreteness, I still felt a tinge of disappointment for having heard it.
I might sound crazy here, but I think Breaking Bad has become an inferior version of “Death Note” (the series, not the movie). Not so much in the actual plot, but in the character dynamics with no one is truly good, etc, etc.
I keep picturing Wolverine with a cigar in his mouth welding in Tony Stark’s basement. Pretty excited.
I sincerely hope that Epic Megagames (I never knew why they dropped the mega, or else didn’t upgrade to Giga and then Tera) are asking some serious questions about IP to Real Steel, which has more in common with their 1994 game http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Must_Fall:_2097 One Must Fall: 2097 than the Rock’Em Sock’Em Robots on which it is ostensibly based, at least to my eyes.
Although, maybe they shouldn’t ask too many questions, as OMF is simply Mortal Kombat with robots.
So The Playboy Club has been cancelled…evidently because I was the only person who liked it. Who’s ready to do a collab post on its three-episode run?
Hank Williams Jr. is fired from Monday Night Football, most likely to take his talents to South Beach and play with the Miami Heat next season.