magicdog

Where does the time go? I liked his earlier songs, and Garden Party isn't bad either. A friend of mine grew up in the same neighborhood as Nelson and his family. She used to tell me funny stories about his twins Matthew and Gunnar. Last I heard those two were taking their dad's act on the road performing his greatest hits.

This title change would have to go with a movie that could have been something special. The Monkees had a film called, "Head" (1968). I had mentioned in a different thread how the vignette style of the film was all wrong (not to mention being inspired by smoking pot one weekend) and the title itself was too avant guard for their younger fans. If they had gone with a more conventional storyline it likely would have done better box office and alienated fewer people. I would have titled it "The Monkees Save The World". I also mused over their film being spoofs of the Beatles films so they could have titled it, "The Monkees Have Help on a Hard Day's Night during a Magical Mystery Tour In a Yellow Submarine". I also hate films that are given titles from their main soundtrack song (which were not specially written for the film). That leaves us with films like "Something To Talk About", which I would have renamed, "Cheated".

I think that was done on purpose. I remember hearing that Hitchcock had a thing about twins and duality. Just about every film he made had a reference to it (like the main character thinking about something while we see the reflection in the window, or the parallels in "Vertigo" ). Gavin's character was what Norman could have been, but was lost in his insanity.

Jut curious, but if you hate FNC so much why do you watch it? It's usually bundled with CNN & MSNBC for cable and satellite packages.

Don't feel bad. I'm not much a fan of this song either even when it was first released! In fact, I've found myself not liking a lot of songs I listened to on the radio when I was a teen. I may have liked them at the time since they often had great music videos on MTV and were played to death on the radio and seeing Casey Kasem on TV to recite the Top Ten that week on TV (or the Top 40 on the radio). Then a local station plays the song and I find myself thinking, "How could have I ever listened to this?". Luckily I didn't buy all those songs at the time, or else I'd have a ton of tunes I can't play! Nowadays, I trust my ears and personal taste when it comes to deciding what music I like, and not the marketing shills.

This. I'm finding plenty of uniformed people as well. I was arguing with my dad not too long ago about how people are more informed now due to the improved technology. He told me people don't care and at random we asked a couple people if they had heard about a recent or current highly discussed news story. One was a waitress at a local restaurant; when we asked her about the news item in question, she immediately said she didn't follow news because she only went online for "happy and positive" news. I was floored! I thought she was an aberration, until we went to a medical clinic and I asked a therapist the same question and she responded the same thing! That is hella weird IMO. Unfortunately most of them do. I think we were separated at birth! I never give to panhandlers. Charity can be meted out at one's local church via donation or established trustworthy organizations. Most panhandlers are frauds anyway. I've seen many of them busted when they slipped into a brand new SUV parked nearby.

Most of those tickets weren't even available to the general public - they went to VIPs, etc. The MGM had them on sale literally for one minute on their website before they were "sold out". The majority of them turned up on Stub Hub where the prices were inflated even further. I honestly can't imagine spending 100K on a ticket to a sporting event - even if I had that kind of money. Which leads to another pet peeve: price gouging due to a major event. Since the date of the fight was announced, the hotels here have tripled their regular room rates. Even the dive hotels and motels are charging as much as 500+ bucks a night! I'm not even going to get into what you have to pay just to watch the fight on CCTV at one of the approved properties.

That would be Obscurus Lupa. She did all 8 seasons, and is still doing reviews, etc. although she has since changed the name of her series to "Movie Nights". The first season of Charmed reviews (she went in order by season) is here. She's also done reviews of various films, Baywatch (and Baywatch Nights), and a few other treasures. She even had the now adult Mara Wilson in a guest appearance.

They did. Of course he wasn't meant to become a regular character. Fans (and presumably TPTB) liked him and Piper so he stayed on. You should have been around when we had the "...and Phoebe died in the process" thread. Phoebe was endearing but once SD/Prue was gone, her character went off the rails; I don't know if it's due to her influence or not (Brad Kern had a habit of playing favorites and AM seemed to get what she wanted back then) but Phoebe as a character truly suffered after Season 4. I loved the truth spell but even the writers messed up when Prue was able to lie when she was directly questioned by the 3-eyed demon. I DID love how Phoebe was able to get around answering Andy - by preventing him from asking her anything! A very Phoebe move! Double on the love of seeing the truth come out when it came to Hannah and the demon. I was disappointed in Prue using it to gauge Andy's reaction - I understand why she did it but it wasn't fair to Andy. How many times have we answered a question that was truthful at the time it was originally asked but you have since come to a new truth? Andy was forced to answer on the spot as the spell was ending, and given that choice, he gave his answer which could have been different if he had time to discuss it more with Prue. Before he died, he probably would have tried to make it work with Prue eventually. This episode began another inconsistency for the series - in how the magic is passed on in the Warren line. In this episode, Prue answers (truthfully since it was said while she was under the spell) that boys could be born to Warren women, but only women would have the powers. By season 5, Grams claims not a male was ever born to the Warren women, yet the infamous family tree also proves this wrong. I wish they had kept it with only the women have the powers but males could father witches. In fact, I wish we could have seen more Halliwell/Warren cousins in the series. Surely not all of them were killed by demons. If they had kept with boys having been born to Warren women, we could have had plenty of witchy relatives. I loved Piper's truthful response to her boss, only to learn that when the spell ended he had no knowledge of the day's events. I loved it whenever Piper stood up for herself. The spell would be used by Paige later on, but she left off the last stanza and unfortunately the spell worked differently. I don't give credit to the writers claiming it worked differently because Paige didn't read the complete spell. Interesting about the future demon (who was occasionally referred to as a warlock) looking to kill those who would end his kind. However, I had a problem with the concept of a vaccine to stop a race of creatures from being born. If it had been other witches (or the Charmed Ones themselves) who created a potion or spell to cleanse this evil from a potential child it might have made a bit more sense.

How many episodes is that? Must have been at least 400!

Funny you should mention sitcom. It was made into a short lived sitcom not long after; Dolly Parton's sister played Dora Lee, and Rita Moreno played Violet.

Didn't see that one either ;o)

ITA! One could edit Julie's scenes out and there'd still be an enjoyable film. As for Julie herself - I hadn't read her blog nor her books (she has since published another) but from what I'd read of her, she seemed like a real.....shall we say, piece of work?

Thank. You. I have no clue why this movie is so liked. My coworker is an anchor for a popular morning show and loves this film. Almost every Friday in the last hour of the show, he had clips of the show play on screen. It looks stupid from all the clips I'd seen. Coming from a family of Sicilian heritage, my father refused to watch this film or have it on our TV at home. I saw the first film last week on TV and I have to say it's boring. There are two versions of the novel - one made in 1931 and the better known remake. The pre-code version is worth a look - they got away with stuff the Code wouldn't allow in the 1941 version. Other films: Avatar - As mentioned, I already saw Dances With Wolves and I didn't need to see how a bunch of military meanies seek out "unobtainium". The Thor Movies Iron Man 2 - I was told it paled to the first one anyway and only meant to set up the Avengers film. Lauded horror movies like "Friday the 13th" (any version/sequel/reboot), Freddy Krueger movies ("Nightmare On Elm Street", et al), "Blair Witch Project", "The Amityville Horror" "Saw", "Hostel" or "Carrie". Maybe I'm soft, but slasher films and gore fests just aren't what I'm looking for in films. The Color Purple 13 Years a Slave Selma Precious Django Unchained Crystal Skull - I thought the Indiana Jones films ended just fine with the third film, and this one was unnecessary. Almost Famous TLOTR trilogy and The Hobbit film - Nothing against Tolkein, but it just doesn't grab me. Planes, Trains & Automobiles Good Will Hunting Patch Adams The Crying Game Ghandi Children Of A Lesser God Shakespere In Love Cider House Rules The Green Mile Philadelphia Gladiator Chocolat Like Water For Chocolate The Piano Lost In Translation Sideways Million Dollar Baby Juno There Will Be Blood Milk The Blind Side The King's Speech The Social Network The Help War Horse Silver Linings Playbook Birdman - Whenever I hear the title, I keep thinking of this guy. Gravity - the previews alone made me want to puke with all that spinning! Theory of Everything - I'd read that according to his first wife's original memoirs (which were republished and reedited) Hawking was a bit of a douche to her and made her feel stupid and small because he was such a lauded genius. Boyhood - a co-worker told me he'd seen it and said the only thing this film had going for it was the gimmick of being filmed over a period of years. Nearly every Academy Award Winning film for best picture for the past 35 years (with three exceptions). More often than not, most films I end up not seeing are those which get tons of press from "auteurs" who INSIST I'd be a mouth breather if I didn't see them.

The timeline was altered slightly due to Phoebe not being at the top of the stairs to read the spell to vanquish Shax and make it easier for Leo to save Piper & Prue. Much of the action (Leo, Phoebe & Cole escaping the Underworld ) took place off screen, but infers that while they escaped as fast as they could once they realized they were tricked, the delay caused Leo to choose which sister to save - Piper was supposedly less injured than Prue and not as far gone. Piper later tells him he should have tried to save Prue instead of her and accused him of saving her only because she was his wife. Despite the bad blood between SD and TPTB, she had a better "character death" than most (see Professor Arturo on "Sliders" for more reference) since the writers could have really put her through hell onscreen if they wanted to. I would have loved this - and it could have been one of the ways SD could have revisited Charmed. One of the suggestions at the time was the alternate reality created in "Deja Vu All Over Again" - a reality in which Prue lost both her sisters, or one in which Piper and Phoebe were never born. She also could have made a visit in "Death Becomes Them", in which Zankou has Prue brought back the same way he brought back Phoebe's boyfriend and Inspector Reese. Imagine how devastating it would have been for Piper and Phoebe to find themselves battling Zombie!Prue and having her constantly blaming them for letting her die. It goes without saying that I had hoped SD would make another appearance on the series - even if it was the finale, but it was not to be.

Which goes back to his actions early in Season 6. He killed a Valkyrie to get access to Valhalla, he was treated with suspicion by baby Wyatt (who seemed to have a bit more sense than his mother and aunts!), sent Leo to Valhalla to get him away from the sisters, went to a demon to keep the sisters distracted with their own fantasies (putting their lives at risk), and had a potion made up to purposely block Phoebe's empathy power so she couldn't get any clues off of him. It never made sense for him to go through all that, risk his existence and "make a surgical strike" to save Wyatt from becoming evil in the alternate future. If he was evil (or at least morally gray), he could have obtained the powers via another WL, or he wasn't originally going to be Piper's son at all (perhaps another WL half breed).

Totally with you on this one Spartan Girl! O'Hara's character DID have it coming. I was curious where the snobby behavior came from - since she was out on the frontier with her husband, McClintock and dealt with all the things they had to do to survive before the area was tamed. Plus, they had a great spread and servants and all the modern niceties of the era; it wasn't as if she left a patch of dirt and a lean to.

Love this film! It's so watchable and so much of what occurs in the film is still affecting vets to this day. I also enjoy silent - I was impressed by the original version of "Ben Hur" . It's a spectacle in its own right. Metropolis was also fascinating! I saw a version that was reedited from film pieces located from prints all over the world. It had a few black gaps with title cards describing what the action we were supposed to have been seeing but was no longer extent on film. I'm guessing it was from an original shooting script.

Oh I know all that. It was weird but memorable. Back then of course most series finales didn't have "wrap up" storylines. If The Monkees could have had one, I'd have wanted to see them realize their dream of being rich and famous (since all through the series, they were depicted as a struggling band). Personally, I'd have loved to have seen the Monkees variety show play out; trouble is Raybert/Screen Gems/NBC had enough of them and were ready to dump them as soon as they legally could do so.

Hated trope #12899: People eating Chinese food with chopsticks. Every. Single. Time. I'm not against trying it when the opportunity arises, although it can be quite tricky for those not used to them. Everyone I know (including myself) just use a fork - especially when it comes to eating rice! I honestly believe it to be a superior eating utensil. Hated Trope#12900: When the good guy is battling a villain, and the good guy is in a position to use a weapon to destroy said villain. Despite encouragement from everyone else viewing the battle, the good guy announces s/he won't do it, because "That would make me no better than you, [Villain]!". Give me a break! Considering the villain WOULD use the same weapon against you if the situation were reversed, there's nothing wrong in killing your deadly enemy in self defense. I know in many ways this trope was to promote good behavior in young viewers and it allows the villain (say, The Joker) to return to fight another day. An internet commentator once brought the subject up and mentioned heroes like Batman never killed their villains despite the horrible things they did. His job was to capture them and minimize the damage. It was the justice system that was supposed to punish them. Of course when you think of all the times The Joker (or others) came back over and over again, it makes you think the system is pretty screwed up since they keep letting them go or just put them in sanitariums rather than the electric chair.

This is a bit of a conundrum since TTA tried to do what the original Looney Tunes shorts did - use topical situations for humor. It's true the 90s references are dated but so was Bugs' joke about James Petrillo in "Hurdy Gurdy Hare" (1950). It wasn't until after Petrillo's death was announced in the media before I got that joke. Or how about the references to Bing Crosby's horse in "The Old Grey Hare" (1944)? Did the viewing audience of the original shorts know actors like Bogey, Bacall, Edward G. Robinson, et al were going to be known decades later? Probably not, although it helps that their performances have lasted the test of time and the Looney Tunes humor can cross generations. Did the writers for TTA know about Mel Gibson's meltdown? Obviously not. Sometimes you just can't tell what will stick and what won't.

Largely it was due to the meandering clues and red herrings. By the time HMC was pregnant, the writers were still not sure what to do with him and then said they would make Chris the product of Piper's affair with the firefighter. HMC finally put her foot down and insisted that Chris be Leo's child.

The problem was Chris had a different storyline altogether, but it was changed hastily when it seemed unpopular. Initially he was going to be Prue's reincarnated self. That was tossed when it was realized they could receive backlash from Prue fans since it would have meant SD would NEVER have been able to return even in ghost form. Then he became something else potentially evil (since little Wyatt put up that forcefield when they first met) with an agenda we had yet to see. Then HMC got pregnant and insisted Chris be her second son with Leo. That's why there seemed little reason for the character to jeopardize his very existence (like sending Leo to Valhalla) or kill that Valkyrie early in Season 6. Agreed. Cole had lots of potential but it was squandered with the "is he good or evil now?" storylines. He deserved better - especially since the storyline about his father's soul was dropped with nary a word! We needed to know why he was targeted by his demon mother or why his soul was kept captive all that time. It could have lead Cole to a special destiny all his own. I rooted for him and Phoebe to make things work, but the writers messed it up.

Dead Man Dating: This was a good episode but it is also the beginning of the inconsistent way the dead/ghosts are depicted on the series. Hard to believe Jon Cho would become so popular thanks to the Harold & Kumar movies! I'd like to see him in something other than a latter day Cheech & Chong series. Plenty of contradictions in this ep about ghosts - Mark couldn't be seen by anyone except the sisters, and couldn't turn the TV on, but he could sit on their couch and Piper even opened the car door for him! No way the gangster could have been mistaken for Mark - huge difference in height and build. Not to mention dental records early on should have confirmed who the charred remains were. I don't know if the legend of Yama is real in Chinese folklore, but it was interesting to have to keep hiding Mark's soul. I'm assuming it's only Chinese souls he's after? I felt sorry for Mark's mom by episode's end; she had already lost her husband and had no other children and was now alone. A sweet scene when Prue & Phoebe comfort Piper over losing her latest "boyfriend". Poor girl had a bad track record wtih men. The final scene at the funeral in which Mark and his dad go off into eternity was quite sweet, but again, seems to contradict what we'd see later on with The Angel of Death. Regarding the B-plot with Phoebe at the hotel: was she really giving a premonition to the manager to convince him to hire her or just faking it? I would have loved it if she could have kept that job a bit longer - it did help her help one innocent and maybe she could have found more. Her past self (P. Russell) did the same thing.

Exempting his true motives, I took it a bit differently. I pictured Piper crying her eyes out, and Jeremy came to her to offer comfort. I can imagine him talking to her, telling her some jokes to make her feel better, letting her rest her head on his shoulder and then giving his number to her telling her she could call him anytime for additional support. Then he had her.