NoWillToResist

I didn't hate it but...I...have questions? I keep reading that seeing the creatures made people see their worst fear and kill themselves but I did not get that from what I saw. Most seemed to go into a trance and then self-harm. Mallorie's sister seemed to see something awful/scary but Malkovich's wife started speaking to her (dead) mother before she sat in the burning car. Can't recall anyone getting all screamy and freaked out...they seemed to zombify and seek death like some kind of lemming. Would have loved if the show had been ballsy enough to let one of the newborns look out the window. Does there have to be a certain degree of intelligence to be affected? Babies don't have the means to self harm, so what happens then? Could the creatures have actually interacted with humans? Could they have taken off the humans' blindfolds? I ask simply because everyone freaks the fuck out when the creatures (i.e. the wind) appear and I was all "ok, so the creatures are there...so? Your eyes are covered, so you're good, aren't you?" As with almost all apocalyptic movies, it's the humans who are the real evil and, I must confess, I'm kind of over it. I blame The Walking Dead. I rolled my eyes too many times when the group was secluded in the nice suburban house. BD Wong chooses to see if watching the creatures on screen would be safe and all these fuckers do is tie him to the chair before they not only LEAVE the room, but CLOSE THE DOOR, and then GO DOWNSTAIRS?! My jaw hit the floor. Like, was there any particular reason not a single one of those assholes either stayed in the room with him or waited outside the door? I laughed way too much at them using the GPS to otherwise blindly make their way to the grocery store. I'm supposed to believe that the only impediments were a couple of bodies that they could easily drive over? Really? And much as I loved Tom, yeah, he was WAY TOO CHILL when the truth about Gary was being yelled at him by John Malkovich. I mean, he comes downstairs and sees those disturbing drawings and is all 'la-la nothing to worry about'? Why didn't Tom let John out once he realized that the dude tried to kill the birds? I felt bad for Malkovich's character; he fucking warned them. And he got killed by their kindness. Kind of felt ripped off that they flash forwarded five key years. I would have been interested to know how Tom and Mallorie travelled with newborns and survived all that time. I didn't really feel that the ending was very hopeful. I got the sense that I was supposed to but...aren't they essentially trapped? Never mind the utter implausibility of a school for the blind being tucked away in a fucking forest (how the fuck did that work before everything went to shit?)...the creatures and crazies are still out there and apparently have a hard-on for harassment/murder. For how long can the people in the school be safe? Why is the school only accessible from one direction? Dude's all "gotta come by the river, don't bring kids (even though they already have a ton of 'em there), take off your blindfold at the rapids, and then follow the sound of the birds" and I'm watching all "what in the everlasting fuck? Is this a trap? It seems like a trap? This is ridiculous." I mean "follow the sound of the birds?" IN A FOREST? Did they trap all the birds and keep them under lock and key? That Mallorie was able to outrun the wind while clutching on to two kids, running full tilt, and somehow ended up right at the door of the school was just...sigh. And the wind/creatures were right on top of them so can they really not enter a building or something? Ugh. Also, if they are radio-ing an invitation to all and sundry, how long before the crazies roll up? How do they plan to feed everyone? There are in the middle of ass nowhere. And a world of fuck off for Mallorie's OB/GYN being there. That's more contrivance than I can handle, I"m sorry. I felt that this whole thing was just to make Mallorie find joy in and embrace motherhood and that's just doesn't do it for me. As with most apocalyptic movies, I'm more interested in how people try to recreate communities and whatnot. The brief glimpse we were given of how Mallorie and Tom were training the kids to not rely on sight etc. were more interesting to me than large parts of the "story". Wow, this was a lot of complaining. Eek. The acting was fabulous. There, that's a silver lining... :D

This was a big, dumb movie. But, I was somehow still entertained. Some of The Rock's lines made me laugh...especially the one where he was choking some guy out and he was all "it's a big arm...let it happen". *snort* Sometime, someone will have to explain to me how Malin Akerman gets work. I just don't understand.

Oh fuck that, then. It's December. That part of the province is off limits until, like, May. ;)

I was surprised by how 'meh' I was about this movie but...I was 'meh' about the movie. :) I thought the acting was great but the plot was...less so. It really bothered me that, for three ladies who were allegedly not involved in their men's criminal activities, how quickly (and well) they took to it. There were also too many "oh, that's convenient" moments for me. The one which really stood out to me was how the blonde somehow managed to tinder up with a guy who could identify the building which the blueprints belonged to. That was too much for me to buy. Her mother was awful, but I suspect there are MANY people whose sole ambition is to get a sugar daddy to take care of them. And, I mean, there's nothing wrong with that (IMO) as long as all parties are aware and happy with that arrangement...

May I draw your attention to Cas/God for reference, so that you can prepare yourself? I mean, Cas spent a season looking for dear old dad, lost faith, got resurrected a bunch of times, blah blah blah...they write God into the actual narrative and Cas has Not. A. Single. Scene. with his father. I think they didn't even exchange a single word. Like, really? REALLY? Well, shit. I'm going to drive around the province like an idiot, looking for this. Heh. :D

I've only been slightly tracking what's been going on with SPN via the internet for the last several years but, with the meteoric rise of Jack to prominent status (both the character and actor), I can't help but wonder if he's being groomed to be the show's 'next generation' to allow the show to continue when Jensen and Jared finally call it quits. I admit to being curious about when that final "we're done" will come. What will it take for J&J to walk away? Having young kids hasn't done it, and they shouldn't need to stick around for the money. Do they really just love their coworkers and crew that much? If they want less of a workload, why not try to bargain for shorter seasons? That way, we don't get Sam and Dean (the "heart of the show" per everyone involved in the show) relegated to supporting players so the actors can have some time off. Cut the season in half and that solves both issues, IMO.

I didn't realize this hadn't aired yet in the States. Guess it's because it's filmed in Canada? Awkward because I can't recall exactly how far into S2 I am now and so I really have to be careful with what I say. :) In general, I will say that S2 has been annoying me for various reasons yet I still feel compelled to watch it. Grace has landed on my last nerve and seems determined to stay there. I will have to confirm where exactly I am in the season before commenting more specifically since I don't want to spoil details if I'm in the wrong episode... Update: dammit. I only have one episode left to watch in season 2. Guess I'll have to wait until those ep threads are started/opened to vent. :D

mother: real beauty comes from within child: Yeah, well, so does the colon and it's also full of crap!

Sweet Jesus, I hated this. After about the second episode, I mentally checked out. I cared about precisely no one. What a nasty little enclave of freaks. Did anyone live there who wasn’t hiding a secret or willing to commit crimes on a whim? That place was ground zero for assholes. There were so many conveniences and contrivances that my eyes got sore from rolling them. So, a small group of kids burned down a school and inadvertently killed 8 other kids. As adults, almost all of them live on the same small ritzy gated community? Really? So, a teen girl reads her dead mother's journal and decides to Nancy Drew some mystery "event" mentioned there. She visits her mother's neighbour who was mentioned in the journal. Said neighbour oh-so-conveniently is an epic hoarder. Said neighbour conveniently retrieves a yearbook, which conveniently happens to be in a box in the same room where she's sitting with the daughter; the box also conveniently contains THE TAPE, which of course the daughter sees and steals the second she has an opportunity. So, the daughter's boyfriend conveniently has access to a VHS player and they watch the tape TOGETHER. When she finds out that her mother and some childhood friends were involved in the fire, she decides to confront the surviving criminals because...reasons? I mean, if she wanted justice, why not go straight to the cops? So, she decides to confront (?) Bobby, but tells her bf to not confront Sophie. They go to a party and I guess plan to meet Bobby afterward because...? So, at the party, she conveniently finds something weird on her phone and conveniently knows a guy at school who can conveniently identify that a tracker is on her phone. She concludes it was her dad and is pissed. So, the daughter can't find her boyfriend (guess she didn't even look in the backyard?) and so makes up some bullshit to her dad's friend to get a ride home. She then immediately proceeds to go to the bf's house to look for him (?!! did she think he left the party without her?) and when she can't find him, goes about her mission solo. She conveniently runs into the cop's ex-husband on the train platform and asks him to not say anything. So, the daughter goes to the club with her fake i.d. which she got from some dude off Facebook or something and ends up not being able to speak to Bobby. Instead of going home, she...goes to the hoarder neighbour and stays there? Without even sending a basic decency text to her father? Or returning any of his increasingly frantic phone calls? FOR DAYS?!? Fuck this bitch, man. WHO BEHAVES THIS WAY? And the 'fuck off with this shit' behaviour and contrivances are not limited to the daughter. I'm supposed to accept that: - Sophie conveniently decides to go the party to drag her son home and goes to the backyard. Because...? And there she conveniently runs into the ONLY party goer who is outside. At a home which has a pool. Really? And of course it's the bf who knows her secret. Bf is of course pissed at the hypocrisy and decides to be a dumbass shit and confront Sophie about what he knows. And then, in keeping with the dumbassery, threatens her. She kills him. No one sees or hears anything. She leaves, dripping wet, and no one sees or hears anything. At no time in the next week does she miss her necklace. - Tom conveniently knew a tech expert who could install spyware on the daughter’s phone. Said expert is also conveniently available whenever Tom calls. Honestly, had the dude not answered his phone and identified that Jenny was using her phone on the home wifi, that lead would have been utterly lost. - Tom (and occasionally Pete) decide to play coppers and proceed to spend most of the next week interrogating suspects, trespassing, breaking and entering, assault, intimidation, theft...etc. Jobs? What jobs? Sophie, a cop, warns him off a billion times instead of charging him. If it had been any other person, she'd have probably arrested them. - new cop approaches Pete all “I’m your daughter” and he totally accepts it and is delighted. I get that I’m supposed to attribute that to his loyal and loving nature, but I mean…really? She name drops an ex-girlfriend of his and that’s all the proof he needs? - I'm supposed to believe that Sia's parents (well, mainly the father) were so worried about Sia getting in trouble for selling drugs (again? and gee, maybe the cow needs a consequence or two, hmm?) that they chose to hide a dead body, stuff it in a freezer, and then eventually wrap it up and dump it in a lake. But before dumping the body, they warmed it up enough to use his thumb to unlock his phone to post fake Facebook updates to make people think he’s still alive. They give the most ridiculous, easily disproven confession of all time, putting themselves in even hotter water. WHO BEHAVES THIS WAY? - I'm supposed to believe that a husband upset about his wife's affair planted fake docs in his wife's locker and then anonymously tipped off the authorities? WHO BEHAVES THIS WAY? - a community centre kept a dead woman’s office like a shrine after she died instead of…you know…emptying it out like normal people would do. They allowed her daughters to come and…hang out among their dead mother’s things? Like, what the actual fuck? WHO BEHAVES THIS WAY? I just...it's too much. What a fucking mess. I figured Sophie wasn’t one of the good guys. Because every episode followed the same basic pattern: “focus on x character. Make them act suspicious. Absolve them of the murder.” The only people who didn’t seem to get this treatment were Jenny and Chris’ siblings…and the cops. And since the head cop was romantically involved with Tom, it wasn’t at all a stretch to assume she was involved.

I have to respectfully disagree. Yes, Mary Pat was dealt a bum hand with the dead hubby. And yes, she was going to be used in a criminal activity without her knowledge or consent. I understand that she needs money. BUT. She extorts the women for (net) 10K a month. That is some greedy shit. That's what made me dislike her; the amount she demanded. Most working couples don't bring in that kind of money. And she wanted it without doing anything at all. I fully understood Stan's reaction. Yes, he loves his daughter and wants her to live but Ruby has done some serious crimes here. She's essentially forcing him to either arrest his wife (and mother of his children) or make him an accomplice to her crimes (thus jeopardizing his career and freedom, and their children's future re: no parents). I think he will eventually forgive Ruby (after all, their daughter is alive because of the crimes) but I can completely understand him being angry/hurt/disappointed at Ruby and having to walk away from her. It's a lot to take in! I for one would be fine for Beth to point the gun at Dean and pull the trigger (I also don't think it's loaded). That fucker cheated on his wife, made shitty money choices which would have resulted in his family being penniless and homeless, and then, just when you think he can't be more of a dick, he lies about having cancer so that he can come home. He's disgusting. He and Boomer should be best buddies. He contributes nothing except apparently driving the kids around. Have you SEEN this idiot though? I am not surprised that that's what bought him. This is the guy who puts 20K worth of merchandise in his car (which doesn't lock); this is the "security" guy who couldn't chase and catch a turtle; he's one of the reasons I'm so annoyed at Annie since she's the one who recruited his dumbass into their shopping ring. As if he had ever given her any reason to think he was competent and ANYTHING EVER. I just don't know how to feel about this show. Retta is killing all her scenes, IMO. But boy are there some things which are hard to swallow. Not sure how much longer I can accept the ridiculousness, but damn the chemistry between the leads is hard to argue against...

I'll admit that I initially was amused by Negan's snark, but his utter inability to STOP TALKING EVER quickly made him lose any appeal for me. If the show was so determined to keep the character around, I feel like they really needed to do a better job making him less repellent. Our heroes' inability to kill him, despite threatening to do so every fucking time they saw him (and having plenty of opportunities), has soured my attitude towards characters I previously liked/loved. I felt nothing when Rick died. There, I said it. His inability to kill Negan ruined the character for me; he'd killed other characters for way less atrocious offences. The point of no return for me was when Rick organized his big raid on the Sanctuary, with, I think, the express purpose of killing Negan. Rick is behind cover and Negan comes out into the open, an easy target. Instead of, oh I don't know, using his gun and killing Negan, Rick has to have a year long back and forth discussion/argument with him first. I was literally shouting at the screen "Why aren't you just killing him like you fucking vowed?!" It's like he thought it would be foul play to just kill him with no heads-up but...uh, no. It's Negan. You just go ahead and kill him. It just seemed like ego at that point; like, Rick had to know that Negan would know it was Rick who finished him off, instead of just taking the opportunity to rid yourself of a psychotic murderer who doesn't deserve a heads up on impending doom. I guess this is why Carol was forced into retirement over at the Kingdom because that woman knows how to kill shit that needs killing (RIP, crazy murderous child whose name I've forgotten, and most of the cannibals at that other place whose name I've also forgotten). By the end of last season, I had thrown up my hands and come to terms with the fact that Rick would never kill Negan (and likely none of our "heroes" would either). For whatever reason, TPTB have invested so much in Negan that they are willing to make the regular characters behave like fucking idiots in order to keep him around. If not for my husband, I wouldn't even have bothered watching this season. Hell, we didn't even start watching the new eps until after ep 6 aired. So much for must-see tv! And this season, I had to suffer through watching dumbass after dumbass visit this asshole so that I could sit through MORE TALKING and watch our "heroes" fall prey to this guy's taunts and mind games over and over again. What the actual fuck? Is this entertainment? And then he goes on a hunger strike and instead of shrugging it off all "well, we're providing food; it's on you if you don't eat it and kill yourself. We tried.", Michonne is called in to bully him into continuing to exist. And why? Because fucking CARL thought Negan watching a peaceful future would...what? Change his mind or something? Rehabilitate him to the point that everyone would forget how he gleefully and brutally murdered two of their friends/family? The fuck? They are wasting time and scarce resources on this blight upon humanity (and have been for 6 years!!!) because of Rick and Carl. Makes me respect the remaining characters even less. And now he's free again. So I can listen to him spout more bullshit and presumably try to regain power. Oh goodie. I can't wait. Oh, actually, I totally can. If the show wants to take a Game of Thrones' length hiatus, I don't think I'd even notice or care. At this point, in my opinion, the only shocking thing this show could do would be kill Negan.

No, I remember that he bribed him...what I meant was how did he FIND a bribeable doctor? That’s some license-losing worthy shit right there. Why would a doctor risk it?

I have been enjoying this show but boy howdy, does it have issues. I find myself constantly amazed (and also frustrated) at how consistently Annie fucks up. I mean, how does so much incredible boneheadedness manage to fit into such a petite package? I just cannot handle her anymore. I found myself utterly floored that Annie decided to ROB THE STORE SHE WORKS AT. And not only that, but was the one who went with the manager (her boss) to take the money from the safe. Like, really? Never mind the "tramp stamp" contrivance...did they not think her voice might be recognized by him? Next level stupid. Then, after they agree to lie low, she goes out and buys a flashy car and a bunch of tech gear. Sooo subtle that even her 11 year old is all "Uh, how'd you afford this?" Had she not done that, her skeevy boss probably wouldn't have had a leg to stand on re: his blackmail. He can claim that she robbed the store but he'd have no proof (just he said/she said) and his so inappropriate interactions with her could cast his accusations into doubt. Also, if the store was hanging onto gang money, doesn’t that implicate Boomer in some kind of crime? Why didn’t they leverage that to get him to back off (You tell, we tell) rather than promise sexual favour(s) in return? Then the dude goes to her home, drunk, and tries to rape her. After Beth knocks him out, rather than call the police all "um yeah, my creepy boss (who's been hitting on me) turned up at my home, pushed his way in and tried to rape me", they...tie him up and put him in a treehouse. What? Again, their initial contrived fuck up with Boomer results in them not doing the normal thing of calling the police. Then, she recruits the dimbulb incompetent security guy from her store to be a fake secret shopper. Naturally, dumbass fucks up and they’re in shit again. Then, she decides to fuck over her ex’s new wife by stealing drugs from her spas and selling them to the drug dealer who also works in her store BEFORE CONFIRMING THAT IT’S A PRODUCT HE DEALS. Then, she gets drunk and sleeps with her ex and it’s all blah blah blah why is my life so awful? Well, maybe because you’re a fucking idiot who makes terrible decisions/choices? Did I black out and miss the explanation of Annie and Matt Saracen’s failed marriage or do we not know the details? I adore Stan and Ruby’s relationship so much but I agree that their house looks way nicer than they should theoretically be able to afford. I would like to know the story of how Beth’s useless husband found a doctor willing to lie about a diagnosis for him. Like, how does that even work? Did he just visit a bunch of doctors until he found one willing to lie about him having cancer? Did he google “sketchy as fuck doctors in my area”? Mary Pat? Talk about overreaching. Damn. Sure, she’s in a shitty situation but, like, get in line. I can understand her blackmailing them for hush money (after all, they did intentionally embroil her in criminal activity without her knowledge or consent) but fuck you lady, my husband and I together do not pull in 10K a month, so sit the fuck down. Be reasonable. Time to let Rio do his thing, IMO. Count me in on the “there’s something about Rio/Beth” train. I do see a chemistry there; not a ‘love’ chemistry, but I do believe they would tear up some sheets to very mutual satisfaction. ;)

Thanks for clarifying his powers! However, I confess it still leaves me annoyed with him. If he can heave up the earth, wouldn't that have been a helpful deterrent when they were being chased by baddies? If nothing else, it might have delayed the baddies' progress. Could have neutralized the truck with the machine gun on top too... I get that they are kids but since they appear to have been trained (from their earliest existence) to fight and be soldiers, I'd expect a little less running scared and a little more "wanna play, mere humans? Bring it!" ;)

Ok, full disclosure: I was dragged to this and recall almost nothing of the prior films, so, grain of salt and all that. :D My meh-ness about this movie has nothing to do with Hugh Jackman; he's lovely, but I am just over the Wolverine fawning and have been for a very long time. I was (pleasantly?) surprised to discover that the movie had a solid R rating (clued in after the first few minutes when there were several F-bombs and then graphic killing/maiming). ;) I guess since this was Wolverine's swan song, they weren't going to hold anything back. And, frankly, Wolverine being all violent and slashy/stabby seemed appropriate. While I fully appreciate everyone's happiness with the film, I personally felt bludgeoned afterward. Just an endless series of fights and escapes and misery and carnage and death. It was exhausting to me. Tellingly, my husband wanted to discuss one particular part afterward and started with "when they were escaping from the convoy..." - I immediately had to interrupt and ask which time he was referencing since there were about six instances of a convoy of vehicles chasing people. I readily admit that I might have mentally shut down for a moment and missed a change in directive, but I was sure that the nurses grabbed as many of the kids as they could and got a bunch of them out because the project was being shut down and the children were scheduled for termination. So, if I heard that correctly, why in the hell was so much energy spent on trying to capture them? A sloppy fanfare of bullets into that forest would have resolved all but one of the child mutants, so did I miss a part where the doctor suddenly stated that he wanted to keep them alive? They were clearly able to retrieve genetic material from a corpse since that was Stephen Merchant (Caliphan or whatever)'s fate. Also, if the child mutants were trained to be soldiers, why did it take so long (and so few of them) to try to use their powers to attack the people chasing them? When they were running through the forest towards Canada, I was all "...um, can't any of you, you know, do anything but run away like regular folks?" I was particularly annoyed at the leader of the kids who appeared to either be telekinetic and/or could move or manipulate metal (the kid who lifted the army vehicle and dumped it on clone-Logan). Could he not have used that power to remove the guns and restraints from their attackers and captured kids? Also, I get that Wolverine isn't a fan of guns but c'mon, man. Jump on the truck with the machine gun (or whatever it was), commandeer that shit and turn it on the attackers. Way more efficient than taking them out by hand, one at a time, while being shot up. :) I really wanted more information on the big tragedy surrounding Prof Xavier. The implication from the interrupted radio news segment after the casino confrontation seemed to be that something terrible (perhaps due to an onset of his dementia in relation to his powers) had happened and a bunch of the X-men (and/or students at the mansion) died? Really kind of annoyed that that was so briefly alluded to but then dropped. Am I to presume that the weird paralysis of large groups that Prof X used to be capable of is now kind of spotty in its effectiveness due to the dementia? I don't recall Wolverine being somewhat immune before. And...Wolverine's adamantium is poisoning him? Is...that right? Did something happen in a prior movie that I have forgotten? Why can't his mutant healing power counteract that? And so does poor Laura have that to look forward to as well? Re: the adamantium bullet. Please forgive my utter ignorance of the lore, but: what? Where did that come from and why does the bullet's material prevent the mutant self-healing powers from working? Ok, enough bitching...I'll end on positive notes: - the acting was great - the fighting done by Laura was immensely kick ass - hearing Patrick Stewart throw down a bunch of F-bombs was surprisingly entertaining - yay for Canada being a sanctuary! I do not envy the next actor who will tapped to play Wolverine when the inevitable reboot/reimaging of the character/universe takes place.