Got a comment not related to a specific review? Seen a film you want to recommend (or anti-recommend)? Just want to say ‘hi’?
This is the place for off-topic chat!
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and you call yourself a scientist!? 
Imma just leave dis here… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BF4dRapN8tA
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Oh. My. God.
Not a single line delivered like a normal piece of dialogue.
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That link is dead now, so here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KH_OpyK4yrg
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I’m very much afraid this is my fault. I’m sure I complained somewhere about there *not* being a shark in the water behind The House—didn’t I??
(Ahem. Which reminds me, I still owe you money, right…?)
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Well, technically I suppose you do, but I’m not too concerned (I’d be satisfied knowing I contributed to your reviewing). Plus I haven’t been able to send those to you since I don’t have the necessary info. Once you’ve got them we can worry about it. 🙂
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We’re really quiet around here lately. I hope everyone is doing well under the current circumstances and taking care of themselves.
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Well, I’m here. So I must be about to apologise, right?
Yeah. Sorry. I’ve been dealing with a family medical emergency (not the obvious one, which frankly is just piling on at this point), and pretty much everything else has fallen off the table.
I’m hoping to start picking up the pieces over the next couple of weeks. Meanwhile, there is an update at Et. Al, which sadly enough represents almost the sum total of what I’ve been able to watch in the interim.
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Oh, I’m so sorry about that! Naturally that would take precedence. I hope everything is improving.
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My ap-po-lo-geez (sp?)
(from Blackadder)
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I have now found something worse than the OCR. The OCR with a rooster.
I just watched War Gods of the Deep (aka City in the Sea) with Vincent Price. It was about 90 minutes, with 20 minutes of the heroes wandering through underground passages (with the rooster), and 20 minutes of an undersea chase (with the rooster inside one of the heroes’ diving suits). Very little time for the actual plot, which tried to cover an ancient sea curse, a deserted underground sea, immortality (until you get in the sunlight), and a heroine who is maybe Price’s reincarnated wife, although maybe 4 sentences covered that part.
I love Vincent Price, but this movie strained my love for him.
I’m having fun watching good, bad, and terrible movies right now..
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I approve of watching the good and the bad to maintain the cosmic balance. After purchasing and watching seasons one and two of Buffy the Vampire Slayer I cleansed my palette with Velocipastor.
Some, but I think not from the regular visitors here would argue those are both bad. Buffy is remarkably well written at times. And very well written the rest of the time.
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My friend, I would love to see you tackle ISLE OF THE DEAD (RKO, 1945), produced by Val Lewton, starring Boris Karloff and Ellen Drew. I saw it a few years ago and recently viewed it, again. It’s just up your alley, as it has a major plot thread of science vs. superstition. The story’s central threat of septicemic plague has a certain relevance to current affairs. But, most important, I’d love to hear your take on it. This was one of those rare films for me, in that the first time I saw it, I really didn’t know what it was about. It emerged as one of my favourite Karloff films.
Sorry to read about your family medical emergency. I sincerely hope that has resolved itself for the better, or at least is on the mend.
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Hello, my dear!
Of course I should have gotten to all of the Lewtons by now (“should”, ha!), but I too have a fondness for Isle Of The Dead as being one of the lesser-known ones…and of course for Boris…and for “vorvolaka”, which I say obsessively whenever I watch it. You are quite right that our current circumstances add to its interest, though there is plenty going on there anyway.
Thank you, I appreciate that.
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Speaking of movies with violence and children (although not as graphic as Lone Wolf and Cub) this is the perfect place for some experts to help me track down a title. It’s a western, and eventually the family is either in a cabin or in circled wagons with Indians attacking. The boy was played by not the greatest actor, apparently, as when shot (I believe fatally) with an arrow instead of a blood curdling scream of pain like AAAARRRGGGHHHH!!!! all he said was, “Ow.” “Ow.” “Ow.”
It seemed so unnatural and fake it caused my whole family to bust out in inappropriate laughter.
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Yes. Well.
My previous effort at getting things moving again didn’t exactly go to plan. Hopefully this time around it sticks. In the meantime, you may take these posts as a promise of better things.
And of course as an apology. Always an apology. Lots of apologies…
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I don’t think you need to apologize, considering your last post above and what you’ve no doubt been going through, but thank you nonetheless. As for “better things,” well, your two most recent offerings definitely fit in there, considering the quality of the movies you’re reviewing (the quality of your writing never being in doubt, naturally). As you can imagine, I’m quite giddy about one in particular!
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On the contrary, apologies are warranted, imperative and hopefully forthcoming shortly. 😦
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As you wish. 🙂
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just a quick family update you all might appreciate.
I posted on Facebook, saying in part, “I’m not sure what’s happening next, but I’m afraid zombies will be involved.”
My brother commented, “Just remember, headshots on the zombies.”
Yep, we’re definitely related.
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I read your review on pumpkinhead and am watching the movie rn and wanted to ask you, in the review you say “Chris is weak, not deserving of Tracy,” why? It seems like he’s well intended and tried fighting the other guy before getting knocked out. Clearly Steve comes across as the best guy in the group of people as he’s the only one who stays with the kid but Chris did try to fight the other guy and hasn’t come across to me as overly weak or anything.
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Well, I wrote that about fifteen years ago so it’s all a bit fuzzy; you’ll have to wait until I get around to a re-watch / revision, to see if I can figure out why I said what I said.
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I made a comment almost over a week ago and it said it had to be approved by mods and then just never got pushed through, wth?
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The “mods” is me and I missed the notification, that’s all.
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just checking, are you still ok? a lot of stuff happening this year.
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I’m okay; others are not. 😦
Thanks for checking in, I should try and do that a bit more myself…
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Well, Lyzzy, you’ll be happy to know you don’t have to worry A Chinese Ghost Story. All three movies are on Amazon Prime right now. Also The Bride with White Hair and its sequel, which I’ve also been waiting to see. I’m going to be set for this holiday weekend, for sure!
I hope all is well with you. Or as well as can be expected in Hell Year.
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See above. 😦
You’re very wise to go ahead on your own, as that has *still* not come out of the box. I’m glad you found another source: at least that’s one teeny but of guilt off the table…
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Oh, hon…I’m so sorry to hear that. You know where to find me if you want to talk about anything.
No guilt was necessary about that, although I’m not one to talk about unnecessary guilt. I still feel bad about those movies I have for you, even though there’s really no way for me to get them to you at present.
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Right. Let’s try this again. Again again.
Again…
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Lyz, I thought you might like this. A baseball player helps a bug.
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what a surprise, votes are still being counted. I’ll spend the next few days watching all the movies I recorded from TCM. The Mummy, The Mummy, The werewolf, The Ghoul, Island of Lost Souls, Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed, The Leopard Man, and a bunch more.
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Just an update, I’m watching ‘The 4 Skulls of Jonathan Drake’, and I learned something new. To shrink a head, you have to remove the skull! I never realized that, although it makes sense once you think about it – bone is pretty much unshrinkable, without a lot of brute force.
I’m embarrassed to think that if I was ever asked how to shrink a head, I would have been woefully wrong. I’m not sure when I would have been asked that (maybe Jeopardy), but now I’m a little more prepared.
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I feel like I speak for everyone when I say GOOD FUCKING RIDDANCE to The Year Which Shall Not Be Named. I hope you’re all well, and may we get more wonderful reviews from Lyzzy in the new year.
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Again again again…
Working on something. No promises. Fingers crossed.
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Hello Lyz,
Here’s a very pro-SCIENCE episode of Ultraseven that you might enjoy. I’m not sure if the link will work for you directly but I checked and Tubi is available in Australia. (Turning on closed captioning gives subtitles.)
https://tubitv.com/tv-shows/556288/s01-e38-ultraseven-s1-e38-the-courageous-battle?start=true
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Ooh, thanks! 🙂
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One of the many things I enjoy about the Ultra series is that the Science Patrol and all its descendents do pretty well for themselves against giant monsters with their scientific know-how and nifty gadgets.
Not that having regular assistance from giant superbeings from the Land of Light hurt any.
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A new Lon Chaney Jr movie I never saw before!
“Man Made Monster”, with Lionel Atwill as the mad doctor. Sort of a combination of Mad Monster and Indestructible Man.
Why do they always have a doggie that breaks my heart?
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If you need a not heartbreaking dog to maintain the cosmic balance there’s Love and Monsters. The new movie, not the ridiculous Doctor Who episode.
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Happy Easter.
I saw a Snopes article that surprised me, which discussed the history of chocolate eggs for Easter (spoiler alert, they used to be really expensive). The article was obviously from England, referring to prices in pounds.
It got me to wonder – who buys chocolate eggs vs chocolate bunnies? Here in the US, bunnies are definitely more common. There are chocolate eggs available, but the bunnies rule all the way.
So what is your vote? eggs or bunnies?
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We go for eggs here, but then we also run a stubborn campaign in favour of the Easter Bilby, so I guess that isn’t surprising.
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I had to look up Easter Bilbys, and they are adorable!
To tell the truth, I’ll eat almost anything chocolate.
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So, yes…I’m back again…and trying to keep the transfers ticking over, at least…but am absolutely going to promise nothing… 😦
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Didn’t want to clutter up your latest Et Al., but your mentioning the “Aww, monkey!” through-line in Rampage led me to wonder if you (or anyone else) have had a chance to see Godzilla vs. Kong yet?
I also hope you are doing well, my dear. Thank you for the flurry of activity lately; it’s been a treat.
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Things like that just don’t happen any more, I’m afraid. But yes, thought you’d be interested! 😀
I’m hoping to keep the flurry going though outside forces are gathering again. Thank you for hanging in there.
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I caught Godzilla vs. Kong two Saturdays ago.
Spoilers ahead
It’s really Godzilla and Kong have a fundamental disagreement until they meet the real enemy at the end. And they did it again. You get a sense that Kong is a bit overmatched and so, well, yeah a magic ax makes all kinds of sense. The “Omigosh we’re in big trouble how do we get out of….. Wow that was close!” escape again. Three times again. Probably trying to compensate for the human characters not being terribly interesting. I was pleased that it wasn’t waaaaayyyy too long like a Marvel movie.
But the special effects are good. Saw it on the big screen instead of streaming. And they got bonus points from me for the use of a Judas Priest song.
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A couple of things.
Not too long after I got involved with reviewing movies for Joe Bob Briggs I found “The Video Wasteland” rental service. (Now Cinema Wasteland and only deals in memorabilia and sales of merchandise.). And Accion Mutante was one of the first two movies I rented. Never thought I’d see that come up on my radar screen again. My rental copy was subtitled and probably a bootleg, but who knows for sure.
Well, I’m one of those people that’s gone through five decades of thinking a league was akin to a fathom. So far after coming out and announcing to the world what an idiot I am I’m scoring perfect on everyone I quiz on it also not knowing.
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Lyz may want to consider taking a look at Great White (I’ve just watched the trailer on youtube): Australian survival horror with sharks that are smart enough (and tough enough) to sink a seaplane, and hunt in packs. It’s clearly going to be rubbish, but it may be enjoyable rubbish, especially if one’s natural tendency is to favour Team Shark.
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Just saw a headline online, ‘Venomous sharks reported in the Thames’.
Lyz buys an airline ticket to London.
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or are you staying for the 50 million cannibal crabs crossing Australia?
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Not sure if I need some professional help, or this is just par for the course.
I sell doll clothes on Etsy, and I wanted to branch out into making baby dolls. I was planning on getting started today after work, so of course last night I dreamt that all my dolls turned into Zombies. I would wake up every few hours, think “ZOMBIE DOLLS!”, and have trouble getting back to sleep.
So what’s the consensus? Is there a market for Zombie Dolls? I figured this was the place to ask.
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I’m sure Charles Band would be happy to make a film of it.
(This is not necessarily a recommendation.)
All the best to Lyz.
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I just watched an episode of Mission Impossible (tv show), and thought of Lyz. Season 2, Episode 9, uses a cat to help steal the sacred seal of (imaginary country), currently owned by Evil American Millionaire. The cat looked just like my Buddy. Of course, if Buddy did steal something, he’d never give it up just for a treat.
I read in the Trivia section that they used 12 cats altogether for the show.
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Conjugate the verb ‘to suck’:
It sucks.
It has sucked.
It continues to suck.
But here I am trying one more time to pull it together. We’ll see.
I can’t say I anticipated that a federal election might help snap me out of my funk. I was rather expecting the final crushing blow…
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I’m sorry it took that, but I am glad that you’re feeling more motivated. Here in the USA, I’m feeling damned dispirited. Buffalo, Uvalde, abortion rights being stripped, and a minority of the people and elected officials forcing archaic religious and political ideas on everyone because they fear the future.
*sigh*
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I suppose we can hope the new administration there isn’t hamstringed by the minority, as it is here.
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Hamstrung?
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Hamstrung. 🙂
They have a majority in both the HoR and the Senate, so that shouldn’t be an issue, thankfully. If anyone gives them trouble it will likely be the Greens; though on the whole I think they and Labor and the new independents are on the same page and should be able to work together on most things.
I know you guys have been having a shocking time too, and I’m very sorry. I hope you manage to find a way through.
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Thanks for the assist with verb tense. The correct choice occurred to me seconds after my reply posted. Blast WP for not allowing comment edits. I shouldn’t post when I’m as tired as I was, at that point. It seems hard to believe myself, but in my youth, I was a working journalist and my command of language was considerable. Decades away from regular practice of writing, and aging, have led to atrophy. Ah, well.
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I’d like to give you some sort of positive, encouraging response, but, consider the current state of my own life, it would feel hypocritical. Regardless, it’s good to see you active here. A new AYCYAS review is just what I needed, so thanks for being your usual insightful, intelligent, witty, and genuinely decent self. And at least it looks like things are looking up for you on a national level.
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I’m very sorry to hear you’re having such a tough time, Alaric, and glad that I could help at all.
Generally yes, though the media is still in a state of shock and basically refusing to acknowledge what’s happened: still obsessively interviewing the opposition and letting them talk about what they’ll do when they get back in and how the new government is responsible for the disasters they spent nine years creating…
ETA: This, basically:
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As always, it’s a relief to see you post again, although I wish the sucking would stop for you. (And for a lot of us, I’ll wager.) I’m glad something went in a way you found positive, I’m sure it was nice to experience.
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A relief to be here, too, but as always, We’ll See.
Yes, it’s easy to get self-absorbed and forget that I’m not the only one dealing with the ceaseless suck.
Pleasant surprises have been exceedingly thin on the ground, so yes, very much. 🙂
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And yet another almost completely irrelevant comment from yours truly.
A few years ago, I was working as a substitute teacher. One day I had 8th grade Reading. The students would read aloud from a book. Each would read a few sentences as we went around the room.
As it happened, That Conjugated Verb was used halfway through the day’s section from the book. The student who was reading stopped, gave a gasp, and giggled. Then there was a loud whispered comment, “We aren’t supposed to use that word!”
It hadn’t occurred to me before, but I said, “You can use the phrase, ‘It stinks’.” And we continued with our reading.
I had 5 or 6 classes that day, all reading from the same section in the book. So at the start of every class, I said, “There will be a bad word in the reading. When you come across it, use the word ‘stinks’.” I got really tired of saying that by the end of the day.
I’m sure the kids had heard worse language, and had probably used it too. But apparently, the school had decided that ‘It sucks’ was not appropriate for 8th graders to use.
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Can I get a date on that? We never had that expression here until The Simpsons, so early 90s for us. I objected to its use in the remake of The Amityville Horror as being anachronistic but I’ve since wondered about that.
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this would be between 5 and 10 years ago. I can’t remember which unemployment stretch it was.
Engineers make good money, but they get laid off a lot. At least last time, 2 years ago, I had a lot of company. I’ve now been working again for a year, and hopefully it won’t happen again before I retire. I turn 65 next week, and get full SS benefits at 66 and a half
I remember as a kid, ‘sucker’ was a synonym for fool, and there was no dirty connotation about it, at least not in polite society.
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“Sucks” in that sense was definitely in use in the US as long ago as the 1970s.
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On a nostalgic note –
The new Dr. Strange movie being directed by Sam Raimi does have a gratuitous Bruce Campbell comic relief cameo.
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The Bruce is never gratuitous…
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I forgot to add, I saw a new movie on Svengoolie last weekend that I had never heard of before. The Monolith Monsters.
Science! specifically, geology. Not sure it would hold up in a lab. But for a change, the monsters were not intelligent, or even alive really. It made for an interesting movie.
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The Monolith Monsters is a great little movie and one of the infinite “I’ll get to that one day”-s. And the coffee!
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The Good Mrs. Benson and I caught the same broadcast. (She’s fond of the “creature features” of the era.) And, somehow, I had never seen THE MONOLITH MONSTERS in my youth.
I had precisely the same observation that Dawn did: that, while the science may not entirely hold up, it was an intelligently done film. The characters acted rationally within the framework of the situation present. I particularly liked all the concern over getting the governor’s authorisation to explode the dam. That sort of real-life consideration isn’t found in similar films of the day.
Of course, the hero chooses to nlow up the dam, anyway. I can’t help thinking that, if the movie had been made in this century, it would’ve been followed by a sequel: THE MONOLITH LAWYERS.
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On a general note—
I will get to the other comments that have been left around the site, including the ones further up this thread. Thank you to those who continued to visit and post!
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You continue to be a Good Thing!
(Also, I don’t know how other people do this, but I find RSS feeds very useful – you may post nothing for months, but my robot servants are still faithfully checking the page every so often and telling me as soon as they see something new.)
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