S.K.o.S.

2 things that I don't think have been mentioned yet: - Seems to be a trend of Bryan lifting the finishes of Chael Sonnen fights. He did the missed spinning backfist sequence with Punk last year or whenever it was, and then the guillotine choke from this weekend. - While it could develop into a new killer finisher, the knee for the finish in Bryan-Cena sort of signalled to me that there would be a MITB cash-in. Kind of like when Cena won an Elimination Chamber match with a rollup as the final fall, which was a bit of a weird flat finish, then Edge cashed in on him.

Well, the screenshot kind of gives away the video here, but yeah.

To boil my above review down to one sentence: The cops in The Chaser were so terrible at their jobs that it ruined things for me. You guys were ok with that?

it's okay. I think this happened before. I was number one for like a month and then fell to the pits of hell. Yeah. I could check to get the exact number, but I think over the history of this thing you've been number one for something like eleven weeks in total, without ever winning anything.

HONG KONG VS. CZECH REPUBLIC 2046 was a bit difficult for me to wrap my head around. The movie begins and ends in the year 2046, shown as a digital blur of colors, with lots of LG product placement. There's talk of time travel - a train that goes to 2046 - and a man, Tak, who wants to leave that time, even though most people are happy there. I guess the official line is that none of what we see in the future is actually happening, that it's all a story being written by a man in the 1960s, which is where most of the movie is spent. And that probably makes the most sense, since women who are there in the 1960s also show up in the future, meaning the writer is using real-life acquaintances in his story. But as I was watching, it was never completely clear to me if the 2046 stuff was fictional, or if the guy in 2046 had left the future and travelled back in time to the 1960s, or if he had travelled forward in time via that train and was remembering his past life. The whole idea of time is pretty elastic here, with characters seemingly able to freeze themselves in one position for days. The guy from the 1960s I've been mentioning is Chow Mo-wan, played by Tony Leung, who has a Clark Gable look going on. We check in on him every year around Christmas time from 1966 to 1969. He's with a different woman each time, and is really only serious about the first one, Su Li-zhen, played byGong Li. But she rejects him, and after that, he seems to become less serious about his relationships. The craftsmanship here is second to none. Everything screams high quality. I noticed there are quite a few scenes where there'll be some large object right in the foreground, or the camera will be looking around a corner, and half of the screen will be black. What that means, I'm not sure, but it was definitely a recurring theme in the shot composition. There were a lot of points where I was left wondering what all this was supposed to mean. It doesn't help that a woman shows up late in the movie with the same name as Su Li-zhen, doing the same things as her namesake, but played by a different actress (Maggie Cheung). Mo-wan sees them as two different people, but the second one seems inexplicably attached to him. So on top of single actresses playing multiple characters, we may have had single characters played by multiple actresses. Zelary, which was nominated for an Oscar, is another movie set during World War II. We begin in 1943, midway through the war, and go straight through until its end in 1945. A couple, Richard and Eliska, a surgeon and a nurse, are involved in some sort of resistance of which the Nazis wouldn't approve. When it starts looking like they've been found out, they have to go into hiding, and that means splitting up. A recent patient, Joza, agrees to hide Eliska, and they go all the way with it, changing her name, moving her into Joza's mountain village, and even going through with a sham marriage. The movie isn't really about Eliska hiding from the Nazis, because she's never really in danger of being found out, other than one scene reminiscent of Inglourious Basterds where German soldiers drop by Joza's cabin. It's more about whether Eliska and Joza can coexist. And later, as time passes and the war intensifies, the focus shifts more to just what's going on in the village. There's another family in the village where the father suspects there's something going on with the Eliska-Joza union. And it'd be a stretch to call the village a war zone, but both German and Russian soldiers are regularly passing through, causing a lot of bloodshed.This is a 150-minute movie, so they've got time for all these shifts in focus. There are a couple of instances of pretty explicit violence, surprising considering it's a period piece, but not unwelcome. There are also a couple of quick but interesting fight scenes, one of which ends with a karate chop. Zelary was more engaging and had more "wow" moments. 2046 looked much prettier, but that's about the only area where I can honestly say it was better. WINNER: CZECH REPUBLIC

I'll try to explain some of those huge jumps and drops. Super Ape had neither Elysium nor Planes on either of his lists. So those movies don't affect him, and he gets 0 points for the week, while most other people gained a whole bunch of points. Similar deal with SorceressKnight, who left Elysium and Planes off his box office list and Planes off his RT list. Ligerbusa had Planes 4th on his box office list, Elysium 2nd on his RT list and Planes 7th on his RT list. All of those were significantly too high. Same thing with JRGoldman, who had Planes 5th on his box office list, Elysium 6th on his box office list, Elysium 2nd on his RT list and Planes 7th on his RT list. All too high.

UPDATE 15 OF 19 - through August 15 Standings 1 [↑ 4] Yeti - 54 points (24/30, tiebreak 0.268) 2 [↑ 5] K.J.C. McMahon - 56 points (26/30, tiebreak 0.551) 3 [↓ 2] Suicide King of Spades - 58 points (28/30, tiebreak 0.24) 4 [↑ 22] Super Ape - 62 points (22/40, tiebreak 0.116) 5 [↑ 8] RossWB - 62 points (34/28, tiebreak 0.237) 6 [↓ 3] Gonzalez - 64 points (24/40, tiebreak 0.003) 7 [↑ 9] Genesis - 64 points (32/32, tiebreak 0.251) 8 [↑ 12] The Erotic Terrorist - 66 points (24/42, tiebreak 0.127) 9 [↑ 14] -MJ- - 68 points (20/48, tiebreak 0.29) 10 [↓ 6] Hobo Joe - 68 points (34/34, tiebreak 0.323) 11 [↑ 16] Pavel6969 - 70 points (34/36, tiebreak 0.003) 12 [↑ 21] Televiper - 70 points (36/34, tiebreak 0.004) 13 [↑ 15] blitzkrieg - 70 points (14/56, tiebreak 0.6) 14 [↓ 11] Paco - 72 points (30/42, tiebreak 0.124) 15 [↓ 1] Ligerbusa - 72 points (36/36, tiebreak 0.303) 16 [↓ 10] Death From Above - 72 points (40/32, tiebreak 0.459) 17 [- 17] The Natural - 74 points (36/38, tiebreak 0.115) 18 [↑ 23] TheZ - 76 points (32/44, tiebreak 0.4) 19 [↑ 30] SorceressKnight - 76 points (44/32, tiebreak 0.687) 20 [- 20] Rippa - 76 points (46/30, tiebreak 2.756) 21 [↑ 24] Stennick - 78 points (32/46, tiebreak 0.547) 22 [↓ 18] Mushroomjones - 78 points (40/38, tiebreak 0.669) 23 [↓ 19] DreamBroken - 78 points (34/44, tiebreak n/a) 24 [↓ 13] Trocar Slush Weasel - 80 points (26/54, tiebreak 1.086) 25 [↑ 26] jaedmc - 84 points (36/48, tiebreak 0.242) 26 [↓ 7] JRGoldman - 88 points (38/50, tiebreak 0.235) 27 [↓ 25] IVPvideos - 88 points (34/54, tiebreak 0.664) 28 [↑ 29] Raziel403 - 90 points (38/52, tiebreak 0.261) 29 [↓ 27] shoogbear63 - 92 points (30/62, tiebreak n/a) 30 [↓ 28] Control - 94 points (44/50, tiebreak 0.006) 31 [↑ 32] Lacelle - 96 points (42/54, tiebreak 0.382) 32 [↓ 31] gregjr - 100 points (34/66, tiebreak 0.149) 33 [- 33] Phantom Lord - 104 points (42/62, tiebreak 0.141) Box office 1 [- 1] Iron Man 3 - $376,745,285 (28 days) 2 [- 2] Despicable Me 2 - $311,818,088 (28 days) 3 [- 3] Man Of Steel - $276,169,878 (28 days) 4 [- 4] Monsters University - $239,128,654 (28 days) 5 [- 5] Fast & Furious 6 - $224,008,865 (28 days) 6 [- 6] Star Trek Into Darkness - $203,716,697 (28 days) 7 [- 7] World War Z - $181,741,067 (28 days) 8 [- 8] The Great Gatsby - $131,945,118 (28 days) 9 [↑ 10] The Wolverine - $116,033,156 (21 days) 10 [↓ 9] Hangover 3 - $109,060,272 (28 days) 11 [- 11] Pacific Rim - $95,229,531 (28 days) 12 [- 12] This Is The End - $87,437,228 (28 days) 13 [- 13] The Lone Ranger - $85,790,291 (28 days) 14 [- 14] After Earth - $57,924,070 (28 days) 15 [↑ 16] 2 Guns - $53,649,345 (14 days) 16 [↓ 15] Red 2 - $50,274,891 (28 days) 17 [NEW] Elysium - $42,314,306 (7 days) 18 [↓ 16] R.I.P.D. - $32,204,325 (28 days) 19 [NEW] Planes - $31,949,868 (7 days) Rotten Tomatoes 1 [- 1] Star Trek Into Darkness - 206/236 = 87% (28 days) 2 [- 2] This Is The End - 155/185 = 84% (28 days) 3 [- 3] Monsters University - 135/173 = 78% (28 days) 4 [- 4] Iron Man 3 - 205/264 = 78% (28 days) 5 [- 5] Despicable Me 2 - 122/162 = 75% (28 days) 6 [- 6] Pacific Rim - 170/237 = 72% (28 days) 7 [- 7] Fast & Furious 6 - 122/173 = 71% (28 days) 8 [- 8] The Wolverine - 135/198 = 68% (21 days) 9 [NEW] Elysium - 124/184 = 67% (7 days) 10 [↓ 9] World War Z - 157/234 = 67% (28 days) 11 [↓ 10] 2 Guns - 88/140 = 63% (14 days) 12 [↓ 11] Man Of Steel - 150/268 = 56% (28 days) 13 [↓ 12] The Great Gatsby - 117/232 = 50% (28 days) 14 [↓ 13] Red 2 - 52/127 = 41% (28 days) 15 [↓ 14] The Lone Ranger - 51/188 = 27% (28 days) 16 [NEW] Planes - 23/91 = 25% (7 days) 17 [↓ 15] Hangover 3 - 36/181 = 20% (28 days) 18 [↓ 16] R.I.P.D. - 7/60 = 12% (28 days) 19 [↓ 17] After Earth - 18/172 = 10% (28 days)

In the "movies I thought would never get a sequel" category, they're going to do ABCs Of Death 2. http://www.firstshowing.net/2013/full-abcs-of-death-2-director-list-revealed-26th-director-contest/ Big thumbs up to Chris Nash getting a wider audience.

Kick-Ass 2 is at 28% on RT right now, which is going to hurt me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmQQN9lrezk

So, don't do something I already wasn't doing? Done and done.

http://web.archive.org/web/20130502175323/http://board.deathvalleydriver.com/topic/61327-2013-summer-blockbuster-movie-pool/ That's a link to an archived version of the pre-crash thread. Everyone's lists should be in there, if you want to take a look. Also, since I'm in second place right now, here's a reminder that I declared myself ineligible to win any prizes.

UPDATE 14 OF 19 - through August 8 Standings 1 [- 1] Ligerbusa - 36 points (16/20, tiebreak 0.382) 2 [↑ 4] Suicide King of Spades - 40 points (14/26, tiebreak 0.24) 3 [↑ 6] Gonzalez - 42 points (14/28, tiebreak 0.019) 4 [↑ 7] Yeti - 42 points (16/26, tiebreak 0.268) 5 [↑ 8] Cameron Swift - 42 points (16/26, tiebreak 0.731) 6 [↓ 3] Hobo Joe - 46 points (26/20, tiebreak 0.323) 7 [↓ 2] JRGoldman - 48 points (14/34, tiebreak 0.235) 8 [↑ 11] RossWB - 48 points (26/22, tiebreak 0.237) 9 [↑ 12] Genesis - 48 points (24/24, tiebreak 0.251) 10 [↓ 5] Death From Above - 48 points (26/22, tiebreak 0.447) 11 [↓ 9] Paco - 52 points (20/32, tiebreak 0.124) 12 [↓ 10] The Erotic Terrorist - 52 points (20/32, tiebreak 0.127) 13 [↑ 15] Trocar Slush Weasel - 54 points (18/36, tiebreak 1.086) 14 [↓ 13] -MJ- - 56 points (16/40, tiebreak 0.29) 15 [↓ 14] blitzkrieg - 56 points (12/44, tiebreak 0.6) 16 [↑ 22] Pavel6969 - 58 points (28/30, tiebreak 0.003) 17 [- 17] The Natural - 60 points (28/32, tiebreak 0.115) 18 [↑ 24] Mushroomjones - 60 points (36/24, tiebreak 0.863) 19 [↓ 16] DreamBroken - 60 points (20/40, tiebreak n/a) 20 [↑ 21] Rippa - 60 points (36/24, tiebreak n/a) 21 [↓ 18] Televiper - 62 points (34/28, tiebreak 0.004) 22 [↑ 25] Super Ape - 62 points (22/40, tiebreak 0.116) 23 [↓ 19] TheZ - 62 points (28/34, tiebreak 0.4) 24 [↓ 20] Stennick - 62 points (26/36, tiebreak 0.547) 25 [↑ 27] IVPvideos - 66 points (20/46, tiebreak 0.519) 26 [↓ 23] jaedmc - 68 points (30/38, tiebreak 0.269) 27 [↑ 28] shoogbear63 - 70 points (22/48, tiebreak n/a) 28 [↑ 31] Control - 72 points (32/40, tiebreak 0.006) 29 [↓ 26] Raziel403 - 72 points (26/46, tiebreak 0.261) 30 [- 30] SorceressKnight - 72 points (44/28, tiebreak 0.687) 31 [↓ 29] gregjr - 78 points (22/56, tiebreak 0.149) 32 [- 32] Lacelle - 84 points (36/48, tiebreak 0.466) 33 [- 33] Phantom Lord - 92 points (40/52, tiebreak 0.141) Box office 1 [- 1] Iron Man 3 - $376,745,285 (28 days) 2 [- 2] Despicable Me 2 - $311,818,088 (28 days) 3 [- 3] Man Of Steel - $276,169,878 (28 days) 4 [- 4] Monsters University - $239,128,654 (28 days) 5 [- 5] Fast & Furious 6 - $224,008,865 (28 days) 6 [- 6] Star Trek Into Darkness - $203,716,697 (28 days) 7 [- 7] World War Z - $181,741,067 (28 days) 8 [- 8] The Great Gatsby - $131,945,118 (28 days) 9 [- 9] Hangover 3 - $109,060,272 (28 days) 10 [↑ 13] The Wolverine - $103,986,170 (14 days) 11 [↓ 10] Pacific Rim - $95,229,531 (28 days) 12 [↓ 11] This Is The End - $87,437,228 (28 days) 13 [↓ 12] The Lone Ranger - $85,790,291 (28 days) 14 [- 14] After Earth - $57,924,070 (28 days) 15 [- 15] Red 2 - $47,411,222 (21 days) 16 [NEW] 2 Guns - $37,388,905 (7 days) 17 [↓ 16] R.I.P.D. - $31,511,195 (21 days) Rotten Tomatoes 1 [- 1] Star Trek Into Darkness - 206/236 = 87% (28 days) 2 [- 2] This Is The End - 155/185 = 84% (28 days) 3 [- 3] Monsters University - 135/173 = 78% (28 days) 4 [- 4] Iron Man 3 - 205/264 = 78% (28 days) 5 [- 5] Despicable Me 2 - 122/162 = 75% (28 days) 6 [- 6] Pacific Rim - 170/237 = 72% (28 days) 7 [- 7] Fast & Furious 6 - 122/173 = 71% (28 days) 8 [↑ 9] The Wolverine - 133/194 = 69% (14 days) 9 [↓ 8] World War Z - 157/234 = 67% (28 days) 10 [NEW] 2 Guns - 75/122 = 62% (7 days) 11 [↓ 10] Man Of Steel - 150/268 = 56% (28 days) 12 [↓ 11] The Great Gatsby - 117/232 = 50% (28 days) 13 [↓ 12] Red 2 - 52/125 = 42% (21 days) 14 [↓ 13] The Lone Ranger - 51/188 = 27% (28 days) 15 [↓ 14] Hangover 3 - 36/181 = 20% (28 days) 16 [↓ 15] R.I.P.D. - 7/60 = 12% (21 days) 17 [↓ 16] After Earth - 18/172 = 10% (28 days)

Pretty much the same for me. Got my license on my second try, during the summer after I finished high school, but I hated driving so much that I never got my own car until I was 31 (and re-took driving lessons before making the purchase, since I was more than a little out of practice). And I absolutely can't parallel park. Have never tried since I got my license.

I should probably repost everyone's lists - or it might be better if I just linked to an archived version of the board before it crashed. Anyway, I've got bad news and good news. The bad news is that this week's update will be late yet again, since I'll be in Washington from Thursday to Saturday. The good news is that the prize dvds have all arrived.

Amused that the sports ticker under Raw was saying "Rodriguez: I am disappointed with the penalty" as Del Rio was killing Ricardo.

I take it you're aware that Davey teased the apron headstomp in the Wolves-Hooligans match.

UPDATE 13 OF 19 - through August 1 Standings 1 [- 1] Ligerbusa - 28 points (14/14, tiebreak 0.658) 2 [- 2] JRGoldman - 36 points (8/28, tiebreak 0.235) 3 [- 3] Hobo Joe - 40 points (28/12, tiebreak 0.323) 4 [↑ 13] Suicide King of Spades - 42 points (16/26, tiebreak 0.24) 5 [↑ 11] Death From Above - 42 points (24/18, tiebreak 0.379) 6 [↓ 5] Gonzalez - 44 points (16/28, tiebreak 0.143) 7 [↓ 4] Yeti - 44 points (18/26, tiebreak 0.268) 8 [↓ 6] Cameron Swift - 44 points (18/26, tiebreak 1.455) 9 [- 9] Paco - 48 points (20/28, tiebreak 0.124) 10 [↑ 12] The Erotic Terrorist - 48 points (18/30, tiebreak 0.127) 11 [↑ 16] RossWB - 48 points (28/20, tiebreak 0.237) 12 [↓ 7] Genesis - 48 points (24/24, tiebreak 0.251) 13 [↓ 10] -MJ- - 50 points (16/34, tiebreak 0.29) 14 [- 14] blitzkrieg - 50 points (14/36, tiebreak 0.6) 15 [↑ 18] Trocar Slush Weasel - 54 points (18/36, tiebreak 1.086) 16 [↓ 15] DreamBroken - 54 points (20/34, tiebreak n/a) 17 [- 17] The Natural - 56 points (24/32, tiebreak 0.115) 18 [↓ 8] Televiper - 58 points (38/20, tiebreak 0.004) 19 [↑ 22] TheZ - 58 points (24/34, tiebreak 0.4) 20 [↓ 19] Stennick - 58 points (28/30, tiebreak 0.547) 21 [↑ 25] Rippa - 58 points (40/18, tiebreak n/a) 22 [↓ 21] Pavel6969 - 60 points (30/30, tiebreak 0.003) 23 [↑ 24] jaedmc - 60 points (28/32, tiebreak 0.425) 24 [↓ 20] Mushroomjones - 62 points (38/24, tiebreak 1.642) 25 [↓ 23] Super Ape - 64 points (24/40, tiebreak 0.116) 26 [↑ 27] Raziel403 - 64 points (26/38, tiebreak 0.261) 27 [↓ 26] IVPvideos - 64 points (18/46, tiebreak n/a) 28 [- 28] shoogbear63 - 70 points (22/48, tiebreak n/a) 29 [↑ 31] gregjr - 74 points (18/56, tiebreak 0.149) 30 [- 30] SorceressKnight - 74 points (46/28, tiebreak 0.687) 31 [↓ 29] Control - 76 points (34/42, tiebreak 0.006) 32 [- 32] Lacelle - 78 points (36/42, tiebreak 0.759) 33 [- 33] Phantom Lord - 86 points (42/44, tiebreak 0.141) Box office 1 [- 1] Iron Man 3 - $376,745,285 (28 days) 2 [- 2] Despicable Me 2 - $311,818,088 (28 days) 3 [- 3] Man Of Steel - $276,169,878 (28 days) 4 [- 4] Monsters University - $239,128,654 (28 days) 5 [- 5] Fast & Furious 6 - $224,008,865 (28 days) 6 [- 6] Star Trek Into Darkness - $203,716,697 (28 days) 7 [- 7] World War Z - $181,741,067 (28 days) 8 [- 8] The Great Gatsby - $131,945,118 (28 days) 9 [- 9] Hangover 3 - $109,060,272 (28 days) 10 [↑ 12] Pacific Rim - $88,406,670 (21 days) 11 [↓ 10] This Is The End - $87,437,228 (28 days) 12 [↓ 11] The Lone Ranger - $85,790,291 (28 days) 13 [NEW] The Wolverine - $73,313,850 (7 days) 14 [↓ 13] After Earth - $57,924,070 (28 days) 15 [↓ 14] Red 2 - $39,503,139 (14 days) 16 [↓ 15] R.I.P.D. - $28,072,240 (14 days) Rotten Tomatoes 1 [- 1] Star Trek Into Darkness - 206/236 = 87% (28 days) 2 [- 2] This Is The End - 155/185 = 84% (28 days) 3 [- 3] Monsters University - 135/173 = 78% (28 days) 4 [- 4] Iron Man 3 - 205/264 = 78% (28 days) 5 [- 5] Despicable Me 2 - 122/162 = 75% (28 days) 6 [- 6] Pacific Rim - 167/234 = 71% (21 days) 7 [- 7] Fast & Furious 6 - 122/173 = 71% (28 days) 8 [- 8] World War Z - 157/234 = 67% (28 days) 9 [NEW] The Wolverine - 122/182 = 67% (7 days) 10 [↓ 9] Man Of Steel - 150/268 = 56% (28 days) 11 [↓ 10] The Great Gatsby - 117/232 = 50% (28 days) 12 [↓ 11] Red 2 - 49/119 = 41% (14 days) 13 [↓ 12] The Lone Ranger - 51/188 = 27% (28 days) 14 [↓ 13] Hangover 3 - 36/181 = 20% (28 days) 15 [↓ 14] R.I.P.D. - 7/59 = 12% (14 days) 16 [↓ 15] After Earth - 18/172 = 10% (28 days)

Weekend + Warrior Footnote + Terms And Conditions May Apply

Yeah, I'm looking forward to London-Elgin, and Steen-Kendrick actually sounds interesting even though I'm a little sick of Steen. I'm sitting 5th row on the south side. I'll shoot you a PM tonight.

I'll be there. It's a 9-match show... I think you're looking at 3 hours minimum, and the tag title match seems to be the main event, so it doesn't sound like your chances are real good. Honestly I was just hoping they'd finish before midnight so I could see the Aldo-Korean Zombie UFC fight.

Best: Mike Awesome vs. Masato Tanaka at November to Remember 1999. There was also an Ibushi-Generico ROH match in Chicago. Worst: Only thing that comes to mind is L'Artiste vs. Jamie Jackson in a ladder match in AWF in 1999. About 3/4 of the way through the match the belt partially came off the harness, hanging low enough that you could've just reached up and grabbed it without the ladder, and they tried to work around it.

I don't want to steal his thunder, but I did find it disturbing on a level that most horror films don't reach. That doesn't make it a bad movie, though. Then, yeah, for parts 4 through 7 you're in dreary, "should've been direct to dvd except that it was making all this money" territory.

Not a board game per se, but Telestrations is just flat-out fun.

Just bought BOLA tickets for myself. Got me a front row seat on night 2. This is very good. edit: And apparently Davey Richards just dropped out of the tournament. My cup runneth over!