Spartan Girl

I saw it last night, and I was shocked that it wasn't as dark as the trailers made it out to be! It was more like a fractured fairy tale than anything. Points for creativity though. Angelina of course nailed Maleficent, and I loved Diaval. Easily the two best characters in the movie. Elle Fanning was fine as Aurora, but I wish they had given the character more substance. The only thing I really didn't like -- other than the fact that Maleficent didn't turn into a dragon because that was the best part about her as a villain -- was how they turned the three fairies into morons. I guess it was all part of making it Maleficent's story, but Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather were way more kick-ass fairies than the Three Pixie Stooges! My favorite part, other than the christening, was Philip's reaction when the pixies were trying to get him to kiss her: "It wouldn't feel right, I've only just met her!" Ha! So true. I did like how they made Aurora and Philip a more realistic pairing -- not true love at first sight, just "Hi, I like you, let's see how this works out." I do not want Disney to make a Cruella De Vil movie, not only because I think Glenn Close was fine, but also because there is NO WAY IN HELL they can make Cruella sympathetic. She wanted to skin PUPPIES, for God's sake!

I read them all the time! I've read most of the big Greek epics, like the Illaid and the Odyssey, but if you want a change in mythology, read The Ramayana. It's a Hindu epic and while the treatment of women still grate on my nerves, I still love it.

I love Jesse. He's one of the characters I managed never to lose sympathy for, even though he did his fair share of terrible things on this show. Him strangling Todd is one of the greatest moments in a series finale ever. I hope he made it to Alaska.

ITA with everyone previously said about Big. He had his faults and he certainly isn't absolved of cheating on Natasha, but when he and Carrie were dating, she was the one who kept pushing for a commitment and making mountains out of molehills. Any man with any common sense would have made it work with Natasha and stayed as far away from Carrie as possible...so I guess in that way, he and Carrie were perfectly matched in being crazy idiots. Seriously!!!!! The fact that Carrie would think, even for a second, that Natasha would have ANYTHING to apologize for showed just how much Carrie thought of herself. And I hated how Samantha enabled her in that episode with her "Who does (Natasha) think she is?!" comment at the restaurant and her convincing Carrie that she did not break up a marriage. Again, Big was just as guilty as she was, but sleeping with a married man IS breaking up a marriage.

Because Lester isn't exactly the criminal mastermind he thinks he is. Even Walter White was more well thought out when it came to his evil plans. The only reason framing his brother worked was because the cops sans Molly were too dumb to double check the brother's alibi or follow up on the evidence that put Malvo and Lester together. Any halfway competent authority figured would have known something was up the night it happened because of the BULLET WOUND ON HIS HAND.

Henry Cavill is definitely a movie crush for me. It's a pity that he can't seem to find himself a good movie -- Man of Steel was okay, but I feel like it's going to be ruined by Batman vs. Superman. This one cannot be said enough: Chris Evans. CHRIS EVANS. Oh my freaking God, he is perfect. Every time was a closeup of his face in Captain America 2, I wanted to reach up through the screen and touch his jawline. And those tight T-shirts almost made up for the fact that we didn't get to see him without a shirt. But he'd better get a topless scene in Captain America 3 or Avengers 2.

Can I add Lester in Fargo? I really hate him. People compare him all the time to Walter White, but I actually PREFER Walter White to him. Walt was just as much as an evil sociopath, but at least he was smart when it came to his plans, while Lester just skates on dumb luck and dumb cops. And the way he pretends to be a nice guy/victim is absolutely sickening.

Yeah, I didn't like Meryl Streep's character either, because I thought it was tremendously unfair of her to want to take custody of Billy after he and his dad had the chance to bond and build a life together. You can't disrupt a child's life whenever you feel like it.

I was so pissed at Bill's blantant close-mindedness and disregard of Molly's intelligence that I almost wanted Malvo to kill him too. But after the stuff with the African boy (which I felt was really out of place with this show, but then again, everything is out of place on this show), I calmed down. I do want him to get fired from being police child since he obviously sucks at it. Not too happy about the year time skip, but at least Molly and Gus are married. That made me happy. And Gus being a mailman is probably for the best. He's a good guy, just not a good cop. I hope to God they stay safe; there's no way this show would kill a pregnant cop...right? Right?! Word. I am so past ready for him to go down.

The "Not Gonna Phone It In Tonight" cold opening is a classic. I remember that one. Jim Carrey blended in so well when he hosted that I can't believe SNL didn't hire him before he got big.

Oops, I'm sorry, I must be mixing up Book Sansa with Show Sansa. No, because that evil look she exchanged with Littlefinger implies that she's apparently plotting with Littlefinger to kill Robin. Or at least that's what it looked like to me. But I guess we won't know for sure until the end of the season.

So...has Sansa officially gone to the dark side? It definitely makes her character more interesting. After everything she's gone through, I guess it's understandable: she thinks her whole family is dead and has figured that if she wants to save herself she needs to start playing the game of thrones. But I feel like she's always kind of had this in her. Let's not forget how she blamed Lady's death on Arya and Ned -- not to mention how she lied about Mycah attacking Joffrey when she knew that wasn't what happened. Or how she blabbed to Cersei about Ned's plan to take them away from King's Landing. Granted, those actions were more about selfish, willful stupidity than outright evil. And God knows she probably beat herself up about it afterwards. Still...

Bringing back this topic from TWOP so that we can unleash our scorn for our least favorite characters. I'll start with the characters I hate the most these days: Fitz from Scandal, who is quite possible the most pitiful excuse of a man, let alone President, I have ever seen. For a guy that's apparently skated through his political career on his so-called charm, there's nothing much really charming about him. He's whiny, petulant, obsessive, hypocritical, and oh yeah -- a MURDERER. And yet we're supposed to root for him and Olivia as a couple?! Xander from Buffy: I probably shouldn't talk about how much I hate him in his character thread because then I'm met with a bunch of defenders. But no matter how many times someone will take his side and defend his actions, it's never going to make me like him. IMO, he's a petty, self-righteous, immature hypocrite that never really grows up. Even in the comics I find him utterly unlikable. Marge Simpson: Once upon a time, she was an average housewife and a decent character. Nowadays, she's a spineless ninny that divides her time between obsessing over Lisa's love life (even though she's EIGHT FUCKING YEARS OLD) and nagging Homer.

Even funnier than the jokes about Amanda's eyes were Charlize bragging about how hot she is. And even though I'm still very bitter over HIMYM, I grinned when NPH said "Challenge accepted."

Since we are now allowed to have more SNL threads for this forum than we did on TWOP, I was thinking we could start various discussion topics about some of the past cast members, living and dead, so that we can pay tribute to some of the late greats like Phil Hartman, Gilda Radner, Chris Farley...so but because he was the first to go, I thought I'd start with John Belushi. His sketches were always hilarious: The Hulk in Superman's housewarming party, The Samurai, Blues Brothers, the Bees, and especially the Weekend Update rants. But looking back at the first four seasons, there were some sketches that unintentionally foreshadowed his fate. There was the classic "Don't Look Back in Anger" skit, but one that was even creepier was this backstage cold opening where he joked that he planned to be dead by thirty. Gave me chills. I do love reading about him. By all accounts, underneath the drugs and whatever faults he had, there was a good guy. I hope the upcoming biopic with Emile Hirsch gives him the respect he deserves. We do not need a repeat of that godawful Wired.

*squeals* A Bone thread! I'm a huge fan of this graphic novel! I keep wondering when the movie adaptation is going to come out because it's been in production for ever, but even if it stays just a graphic novel, I won't mind. LOL. Although to be fair, I do like Phoney. He's a greedy piece of work, yes, but he has some redeeming qualities. Don't forget when Gran'ma Ben offered him an escape route in the middle of the final battle, he said he couldn't leave without his cousins. A very defining moment if you ask me.

So I guess I'm the first one? Alrighty then. I honestly can't stand Xander. Never have, never will. It would have gone a long way if, after everything with Anya, Xander had taken Buffy aside and told her he now understood that she couldn't help still loving Angel after everything he had done and that he wished he had been a better friend about it. But he didn't. The one time Buffy brought it up in "Selfless" Xander just brushes it off with the old "That's different" excuse. There are other examples of Xander being an ass in the show, but I think the hypocrisy is his biggest character failing.

Restarting this thread from TWOP, let's talk about some of the worst movie parents to disgrace the silver screen: Andrew's dad from Chronicle: That abusive jerk was the whole reason Andrew went psycho with his superpowers. The fact that his wife was terminally ill was no excuse. It's a shame Andrew's friend had to save him after Andrew threw him off the roof because he totally deserved to die. Tea Leoni in Spanglish: What kind of woman makes her own daughter feel terrible about her weight, then goes around and lavishes someone else's daughter with attention?! Even if she hadn't cheated on her husband, I wouldn't have liked her because she was already a terrible wife and mother. Why the hell Adam Sandler still stays with her at the end of the movie is beyond me. Paige's parents in The Vow: This was a stupid movie, but Paige's parents were still meddling snobs that took deliberate advantage of their daughter's memory loss. That's a low even for most meddling movie parents. Speaking of which, I feel like Robert De Niro's character in the Meet the Parents movies deserves to be on here, because his overprotectiveness of his daughter and his constant meddling in her love life and subsequent marriage is just awful.

So...did anyone see this movie? I did, and while it wasn't as good as Ted it was still a funny movie. NPH, Charlize Theron, Sarah Silverman, and Giovanni Ribisi particularly were hilarious. The only one I wasn't feeling was Seth MacFarlane: his character was too much like a modern guy that happens to live in the Old West. And like on Family Guy, Seth has the tendency to do a joke to death. Best part of the movie -- aside from the moustache song -- had to be the cameos. Great Scott!

Any thoughts about the preview This Is Where I Leave You? I didn't like the book that much, but after watching the parts with Tina Fey, I am tempted to see this!