Ankai

I would like to know the exact context of the quotes, which would be easy to do if I had access to the interview. As of yesterday, however, I could not find it anywhere, in French or in English. There were not even snippets of it save for the two tiny quotes that were revealed.

That was some Spartacus levels of carnage. I had made a long post about why I thought Flint unleashed the cannons on Charlestown, but a simply bad keystroke took me a page back and erased the entire thing. So, short version. 1) He had to be unambiguously sure that no troops could follow him. 2) Trying to be the good guy did not work and Britain did not deserve his attempts. Might as well be worse. 3) Britain is now officially the enemy to Flint. And it is a vast and powerful enemy. As such, he cannot simply rely on a fair fight or just cause. He has to exploit a weak point as much as he can. 4) The narrative of a brutal pirate getting captured and making a violent escape still has the narrative of a pirate running away. The narrative of a pirate getting captured, escaping, and DESTROYING AN ENTIRE TOWN shifts the focus and strikes fear into the enemy. This last bit might make future raids easier, but it might simply mean that that group of ships near Nassau will soon get reinforcements. And it seems quite likely that the arrival of that Spanish gold will bring problems even before a wrathful Flint returns. Can Nassau survive a British attack? Additionally, what happened to the group of Vane's men who took over the fort in Charlestown? Did they return to the ship? Did the Colonial troops overrun them?

No, I am definitely referring to Floki's wife. I don't remember when or where, but someone said that she was Floki's slave and no one seemed to dispute that at the time, so I accepted that. Whether it was correct or not, that is what was said.

The worst were those complaining about "values" as if the girl-on-girl stuff would not be completely unacceptable as well by those so-called moral standards.

Well, I guess that my memory is shot.

You may be right about that, though I honestly do not remember that.

The pirate show Black Sails had two of the four major female characters be bisexual during the first season and the second season has now made it three out of four. There have been a few complaints that such a male-driven show would have do this to the majority of its primary female characters while largely leaving the men out of it. The men either seem to be straight or their sexuality is never an issue. There had been speculation that maybe one character or another may be gay, but nothing was made official. In the previous episode, the show revealed a gay male character...or bisexual, it is unclear at the moment. I am putting spoiler bars over this part of the post only because Apparently, this was planned before the show began filming, so it is not a just another simple case of the showrunners having not thought about it and just throwing in a gay character to appease critics from certain sections. Now, granted the scenes of male homosexual activity have not been quite as...graphic...as the lesbian ones...so I guess that that is a "wait and see" thing for the show at the moment. Perhaps we shall find out tonight when the next episode airs...maybe not, but maybe.

It is really difficult to tell what is going on through Ecbert's mind, but I wonder if maybe he is less concerned about Judith than he is about the alliance between him and her father breaking down. Also, as learned or curious as Ecbert is about these foreign people, I wonder why he never brought up that the Saxons themselves came to England four centuries earlier as an Eastern force that was possibly hostile to the local populace and perhaps also pagans. I believe that this was discussed at length on TWOP, but was Old English and Old Norse that mutually unintelligible at this point? I can sort of pick up an odd word here or there, but the characters seem to not even make an effort to understand the other unless they commit to learning the language. As for the supernatural thing, I had accepted it as a clear possibility, especially during the Season 1 finale when things got weird. Still, if one really wants to keep it ambiguous at most, one could theorize that the three women were doing the "me too" game like seven-year-olds who totally have that hot new toy. Sure, that does not explain the guy at the end, but maybe someone overheard. Also, I find it amusing that a queen, a former jarl's wife, and a (former?) slave are just hanging out together, though I hope that their dialog goes beyond dream matching. And...has anything actually changed for Ragnar in practical terms now that he is king?

From now on, I don't care if some blogger or reporter claims to have an inside source: Official Statement or I DON'T believe you. OSOIDBY

What if theaters got the movie mislabeled as Interstewer and Into the Voods and just played them for a week? If there was no e-mail evidence to the contrary, the people at Sony could deny having any knowledge of how this happened.

So, it sounds like one of those "We would personally love to do that in theory" statements that lead to nothing.

My favorite Christmas movie is a little movie called Joyeux Noel, or "Merry Christmas" in French. It is actually quite an appropriate time to watch it, as it is a fictional account of the 1914 Christmas Truce during the First World War. In the movie, French, Scottish, and German troops somehow are able to put aside their fight during their separate celebrations on Christmas Eve and come together in peace. And the peace holds past Christmas. While the movie takes several liberties regarding what happened and when, a lot of the things depicted are based on real stories and a few of the more unbelievable parts were actually toned down from what actually took place. It is not the happiest Christmas movie ever, as it is made obvious that it had come about only after months of terrible bloodshed and that years of bloodshed were to follow after the higher ups put a stop to such acts. Still, the movie shines a light on a small moment of humanity in one of the bleakest times in modern history. And is that not what the Christmas spirit is all about?

Priyanka Chopra is a pretty huge deal in India. I have seen only...three and a quarter movies with her in it. I absolutely hated the movie Krrish, but that was not her fault at all. I watched part of Don, but got bored and stopped watching forty-five minutes in. I saw Fashion and thought that it was okay. I absolutely loved the movie 7 Khoon Maaf, but it seems to have not done very well in India. Oh well. There does not seem to be much information about this new project, so it is unclear whether she is playing Indian, Indian American or...erm...Middle Eastern. So, I watched Marco Polo because it was about Kublai Khan and it was...okay. I figured going in that it would exoticize the story as much as possible, and it pretty much did that. There were other issues, of course. And the show probably would have been served better had Kublai or someone else in the court have been front and center instead of the only White character for most of the series. Still, I enjoyed it for what it was. And, of course, a whole lot of Actors of Asian and Middle Eastern descent. Benedict Wong was wonderful as the Khan. Chin Han and Joan Chen were great too. The cast beyond that was a mixed bunch, but I did not mind the actor playing Marco quite as much as others seemed to.

It is not in the rest of the song, but that little melody in the "bridges" segment that was shown reminded me way too much of "Trapped in the Closet" by R. Kelly.

Why would that matter? He could just make most of the protagonists White and tweak whatever narrative obstacles that there may be in order to make it fit. That has worked so well before, it is happening RIGHT NOW, and I see little chance of it changing much soon. Why would this be different?

There was an episode of the Canadian sci-fi show Continuum where the main character, a cop from the future, is working on a case in the year 207...I forget. Anyways, she says something about questioning some woman's wife and I am guessing that it was meant to come across as no big deal, but the way that the actress emphasized the word "wife" seemed to suggest either that she almost flubbed her lines and said "husband" instead or that the show deliberately wanted to make sure that the audience heard correctly...even though it is totally not a big deal. A similar thing happened in the latest episode of The Flash. One of the detectives asks the police captain to allow him to form a task force to track down the Flash...or something like that. In any case, the captain, who is apparently not taking this request seriously and pretends not to hear what the detective had said, decides to go on a tangent about how his...boyfriend...wants him to eat only healthy things, which is why he is eating what he is eating now. It was totally out of the blue and was delivered so awkwardly. But, you know, totally not a big deal.

I recently watched a Japanese movie that takes one of the most important moments in the last 500 years of that nation's history and turned into a bit of a farce. It is called The Kiyosu Conference and it is about Japan's first political meeting. It was supposedly meant to determine the new heir to a powerful warlord, but was really about the rivalry between two military leaders trying to gain influence over each other. The movie pretty blatantly plays fast and loose with historical fact, and frequently plays things for comedy. The music especially makes this all seem like a comedic adventure movie. People are portrayed as either stuffy or clownish. There is this gleeful cynicism throughout the whole thing, especially if one knows what will take place in the years after the events shown in the movie. I suppose more of an emphasis on how brutally violent all of these people were in real life may have made the film more of a darker comedy, but it was more interested in the devious politicking than bloodshed. And, perhaps a de-emphasis on the violence may help allow the political satire to seem more universal. It is kind of odd to call this a fun little film, given that it could have been a serious film with only a bit of tweaking...and it is also 138-minutes long. Still, I did find it a lot of fun. And...I kind of would like to see a sequel...given what happens in the years that follow.

I enjoyed this movie. I did kind of wonder, though, how many storytelling decisions were due to its being based on a book that Jane wrote. You know, she is the one who notices him at the party and falls in love with him. She takes care of him all the way through. Stephen ultimately gives his blessing for her and John. Aaand...she remains youthful-looking throughout.

I love that movie. It was the first time that I really took notice of Giancarlo Esposito. And, of course, I would notice him in things afterwards, even rewatching movies that I had seen before this one.

This may very well have become a meme already, but this just occurred to me yesterday. The actor who plays the Black Stormtrooper got his big break in a movie called Attack the Block, where he played a character named...Moses.

That would be their fault for not looking up the actor. Seriously, though, I would be interested to hear how he does with an American accent in a full-length movie. He did fine with his small role in 24 (better than a couple of the other actors in that season did), but I am not sure if that flat affect would hold up for me for much longer than that.

I think that the real issue is not that he is a Black Stormtrooper, but a British Stormtrooper; he should be in the mid-range officer class at the very least.

Well, it is a vicious cycle, isn't it? Nobody will know about them if nobody talks about them. And nobody will talk about them if nobody knows about them. That is why I mentioned them. You didn't know about them; now you do. Also, you could check out Joint Security Area. It is by the same director and is one of my favorite movies.

The assumption is that this movie takes place in the real world and that there even is a McDonalds in that city. If someone said the word "dollars" or if we see any American currency, then it is settled. I just don't remember either being in the movie. Me too. Then again, I also wanted to see more of the daily life in the apartment complex in The Raid.

I thought that the actresses making out was weird too, but I kind of figured that it was part of the meta casting and probably would not have been there had Naomi Watts not been cast. There were at least three actors who have been in superhero movies, with Keaton's character being a stand-in for either himself or Adam West. Norton seemed to be playing up his own image as a troublesome actor, though there may have been hints of other actors, like Shia. Even before the two actresses started making out, I got inklings that Naomi's character had shades of her character from Mulholland Dr. I am pretty sure that that was her big breakout role, wasn't it? Even Spider-Man was briefly in the movie for some reason. I quite enjoyed the movie, as pretentious as it may have been.