caley

I can see how WWE would think it's a good idea. It's the two biggest starts they can get (Assuming Rock is out) wrestling in the main event. Plus, with all the smark rage/hate of Triple H, people will tune in to see Austin win.

I'm surprised the article in question doesn't even make a glancing reference because everything else is justifiably controversial: Bush, anarchism, Global Warning, Christianity, etc. and then you've got WWE employees.

Oh man it was Jude Law! I should've figured it out because I was thinking "Hmm, McGregor's fake American accent didn't bother me nearly as much this time around". Makes sense. So yeah, take my paragraph and substitute McGregor with Jude Law.

I haven't watched much lately (Gotten into Homeland, and rewatching Freaks and Geeks and Chappelle's Show) and keep straying from watching movies I did see Side Effects: Which is an entirely different movie than it is presented as in trailers. Rooney Mara is a woman who tries to kill herself and is prescribed anti-depressant drugs by her psychiatrist (Ewen McGregor), then, under the influence of drugs, she does something worse. As she tries to figure out what's going on, McGregor sees his reputation and career destroyed in the backlash as he searches for answers. It's got some good twists, and a completely unnecessary make-out sequence with Catherine Zeta-Jones and Mara. Channing Tatum kinda steals the film, whenever he's on. Entertaining, if fairly forgettable afterwards.

The best, most subtle Arrested Development joke of the season! So, George Michael (the boy) is upset about being compared to George Michael (the singer) and wants to change his name, so the name he stumbles upon is George Maharis, right? What you may or may not know is that George Maharis was an actor in the 60s/70s. What you probably didn't know was. http://www.nndb.com/people/554/000091281/ So he was arrested for pretty much the same thing as George Michael (the singer) which is exactly the kind of thing George Michael (the boy) was trying to get away from! And just for an extra little joke, check out the name of the man Maharis was arrested with. Now that is some amazing research/writing!

Oh yeah it works.

It appears they're going exactly the direction I'd hoped with Mark

Tell me that last photo doesn't look like Ben Stiller's head photoshopped onto someone else's body. Randy Orton apparently got injured tonight at the Smackdown tapings (He was in the post-show main event, so either he got hurt then or didn't feel it until after). Minor Spoilers, so I'll put the news in here One site says full recovery from neuropraxia can take 8-10 weeks.

As Critts said, Barry Fraser actually spent the last few years as Head Scout commuting from a place in Mexico City. He parlayed some very excellent early scouting into a long-time career in which he maybe didn't do a whole lot. For all the shit Oilers fans give Kevin Lowe, he did have the guts to let go Fraser in 2000 which was...what?...6-10 years overdue. He still pretty much did ruin the team. For all the weak 1st rounders, the Oilers still managed to turn up serviceable to good players in the later rounds (Kirk Maltby, David Vyborny, Miroslav Satan, George Laraque, Tom Poti, Fernando Pisani, Jason Chimera, Shawn Horcoff, and Mike Comrie were all taken outside the first round and all played more than 450 games each, granted many of them made their marks outside Edmonton, but they were assets one way or the other). And Glen Sather was still a wizard at getting young assets in trades (Doug Weight, Anson Carter, etc.), it's reasonable to believe that if the Oilers had kept the core of Gretzky, Messier, Kurri, Lowe, and Fuhr intact (Gretzky played 11 more seasons after leaving Edmonton, Messier 13, Kurri 8, Lowe 6 (two of them back in Edmonton), Fuhr 9), and supplanted it with young players returned in deals for less important players like Tikkanen, Simpson, Anderson and even Fuhr as they priced themselves out of the market, the Oilers could have taken a run at 3-4 more Cups (Gretzky almost got one himself, Messier did). The fact is Pocklington's failing meat business and lack of funds led to the dismantling of the team. Another owner with deeper pockets could've kept that core intact for at least a few more years, as Gretzky didn't really want to go, he was ticked off at the trade talk that sent him out, and the rest of the players jumped ship after he did. That said, as bad as Pocklington is remembered in Edmonton, imagine what it would be like if he'd had his way in the 80s and made that deal with Ballard to send the entire Oilers team to Toronto in return for theirs. I don't think the Oilers would still be in Edmonton if that had happened. Watching the Leafs roll to repeated Stanley Cups with the Oilers players would've soured the fans completely on the team and Pocklington and they would've quietly moved sometime in the 90s, I think.

So, the Wyatt Family segment was pretty something, eh? Probably the debut they should've had last week but still awesome. I'm quite surprised how Harris' first promo on Raw/National TV was so perfect, no stuttering or repeating or forgetting his lines. And his finisher, with the little kiss, looked pretty awesome, too. And I love Rowan wearing the sheep mask to the ring so much that it's going to be my new avatar, unless I'm stealing somebody else's, at which point I will go back to Steven Seagal in a chef's hat.

Man, the guy who writes the Raw write-ups on the Torch is the worse Uh, they were singing his theme music? Was he not listening. Since when has WWE established #1 contenders by winning streaks. Ryback turned a series of losses, then a cheap-shot attack on Cena into a World Title series. Mark Henry got a #1 contendership after faking retirement. WWE rarely sets up #1 contenders as "this guy's on a winning streak" anyways, but it's all moot because Daniel Bryan HAS been on a winning streak which negates the whole complaining. "WWE's insecurity issues"? There's been a pretty consistent storyline with Bryan since WM feeling he's the weak link, getting over that and becoming the most popular guy on the roster, with the announcers putting him over pretty hard every week. I don't understand how Cena choosing the most popular wrestler/with a pretty consistent winning record comes across as a "sweepstakes" winner. Anyways, I missed most of the RVD-Y2J match...was it bad? Cuz the crowd was super into it. Also, I really wanted Henry to stand toe-to-toe with The Shield for a little longer. Actually, I really wanted to see him beat them into a retreat, but it was still a pretty awesome segment. Can't believe I missed the Wyatts.

And he looks like a muscled-up Ken Kennedy

I think that was refuted when the board went down.

My favourite Busts: -Nikita Filatov, Columbus: 6th overall in 2008 (taken ahead of Colin Wilson, Cody Hodgson, Tyler Myers, and Erik Karlsson): It's funny because he actually slid a bit because of the Russian factor, some outlets had him as high as #2 which puts him ahead of Luke Schenn, Alex Pietrangelo, Zach Bogosian and Drew Doughty but he slid because of the "Russian Factor" and Columbus was thrilled when they got him under contract right away and brought him over to apprentice in the AHL and he looked like a real find at first, putting up 32 points in 39 games in the AHL as an 18-year-old and then 4 goals in 8 games with Columbus. And then the warning bells started to go off the following year when he had just 2 goals in 13 games in the NHL and wanted to go back to Russia rather than play in the AHL. And then he came back and played for Ken Hitchcock which went about as badly as to be expected and got traded to Ottawa for a 3rd round pick and Filatov apologists the world over talked about how Columbus got ripped off, but Filatov just was...terrible. But the reason he's one of my favourite busts is for the story out of Columbus after he left (I know, I know, beat writers always release these stories after a player leaves, see Seguin, Tyler) that a coach took him aside and said "You've got to drive to the net and get rebounds, you'll pick up a lot of goals that way" and Filatov supposedly responded "Filly don't do rebounds"! So awesome. -Alexandre Volchkov, Washington: 4th overall in 1996 (taken ahead of Ruslan Salei, Derek Morris, Dainus Zubrus and Daniel Briere): For a supposed sniper, he was a spectacularly unproductive player once he turned pro (56 points in 146 AHL/IHL games and 0 points in 3 games) which isn't surprising as he was supposed to have attitude issues, even during junior. Once he turned pro, he continued his attitude issues (supposedly even walking out on a team during a playoff game in the AHL!) but he's still one of my favourites for, also a nickname-related story. Supposedly, after Edmoton acquired him for a 4th round pick, he told Edmonton coach Kevin Lowe that he only wanted to be referred to as The Volchinator. The Volchinator then went back to Russia where he played for another 11 years. and a big bust discussion wouldn't be complete without mention of -Hugh Jessiman, NY Rangers: 12th overall in 2003 (taken ahead of Dustin Brown, Brent Seabrook, Zach Parise, Ryan Getzlaf, Brent Burns, *take a breath*, Mike Richards, Ryan Kesler, Corey Perry and that's not taking into account the other rounds including Loui Eriksson, Patrice Bergeron, Shea Weber, Joe Pavelski, Dustin Byfuglien etc.): What's funny about Jessiman, is if you look around, there's a number of scouts who claimed they had him as No-Draft that year, that they just didn't see enough talent/ability to warrant taking him, though I suspect a lot of that is revisionist history (I think Tom Renney eventually took ownership for this pick, but don't quote me on that). But the biggest factor going for him was his size (6'6, 213 lbs hence the nickname Huge Specimen) and New York took what was only 1 of 2 players in that historic first round to not play more than 20 games in the NHL. I believe Jessiman is playing in the KHL this season.

To me, the 'Husky Harris' chants don't come off as people protesting the bad booking of the past, they come off as people going "Look at me, I know his old name!" And so what if WWE gave him a bad name once, that gives fans carte blanche to shit all over everything involving said wrestler in the future?! We would never have gotten the Monday Night Wars/Attitude era (Whether you liked the wrestling or not, that was a goddamn goldmine for professional wrestling) if fans shat all over the NWO by chanting Razor Ramon at Scott Hall instead of reacting to whatever the storyline onscreen was, or if WWE fans refused to cheer/boo Steve Austin and The Rock instead chanting "Ring-master" and "Rocky Maivia!" at them. Look, if you're going to watch professional wrestling in a live setting, there's a number of suspension of disbeliefs you're already making (That the punches are really connecting; that the wrestler's stomping as they punch is just from the force of said punch and not just to make it sound good; that the referee "really" didn't see that bad guy cheating; and that a guy thrown towards the ropes has no choice but to run toward said ropes and bounce off of it rather than stop), so why would you differentiate between these suspensions and that of a "new wrestler" debuting? I mean, you're okay with a guy running across the ring and bouncing off ropes only to get clotheslined/booted/backdropped instead of just stopping himself from running but you can't accept the fact that a debuting new wrestler used to have a different name?! To me, being the guy chanting 'Husky Harris' at a "new" wrestler is akin to being the guy at a wrestling show who goes "You see how fake that was? He didn't even hit him", "See? Look! He's cutting himself with a blade" or "That move wouldn't even hurt", sure, you're right, but you're also being a huge douche to anyone else trying to enjoy the show.

2013: The Last Stand 2012: Seven Psychopaths (McDonagh) 2011: The Tree of Life (Malick) 2010: Four Lions (Morris) 2009: Observe and Report (Hill) 2008: Shotgun Stories (Nichols) 2007: The King of Kong (Gordon) 2006: The Fountain (Aronofsky) 2005: Junebug (Morrison) 2004: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Gondry) 2003: All the Real Girls (Green) 2002: Punch-Drunk Love (Anderson) 2001: Amelie (Jeunet) 2000: Yi Yi (Yang) 1999: Bringing Out the Dead (Scorsese) 1998: The Big Lebowski (Coen) 1997: Hana-bi (Kitano) 1996: Fargo (Coen) 1995: Heat (Mann) 1994: Chungking Express (Wai) 1993: Fearless (Weir) 1992: Hard-Boiled (Woo) 1991: Only Yesterday (Takahata) 1990: Goodfellas (Scorsese) 1989: The Killer (Woo) 1988: My Neigbor Totoro (Miyazaki) 1987: Planes, Trains and Automobiles (Hughes) 1986: Manhunter (Mann) 1985: Commando (Lester) 1984: This is Spinal Tap (Reiner) 1983: National Lampoon's Vacation (Ramis) 1982: The Thing (Carpenter) 1981: Thief (Mann) 1980: Airplane! (Zucker) 1979: Being There (Ashby) 1978: Days of Heaven (Malick) 1977: Stroszek (Herzog) 1976: Rocky (Avldsen) 1975: Hard Times (Hill) 1974: Young Frankenstein (Brooks) 1973: The Last Detail (Ashby) 1972: The Getaway (Peckinpah) 1971: The Last Picture Show (Bogdanovich) 1970: Five Easy Pieces (Rafelson) 1969: The Wild Bunch (Peckinpah) 1968: Once Upon A Time in the West (Leone) 1967: Play Time (Tati) 1966: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (Leone) 1965: Red Beard (Kurosawa) 1964: The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Demy) 1963: Charade (Donen) 1962: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (Ford) 1961: Breakfast at Tiffany's (Edwards) 1960: The Apartment (Wilder) 1959: North By Northwest (Hitchcock) 1958: Mon Oncle (Tati) 1957: A Face in the Crowd (Kazan) 1956: The Searchers (Ford) 1955: The Night of the Hunter (Laughton) 1954: Rear Window (Hitchcock) 1953: Mr. Hulot's Holiday (Tati) 1952: Ikiru (Kurosawa) 1951: The Lavender Hill Mob (Crichton) 1950: In A Lonely Place (Ray) 1949: Kind Hearts and Coronets (Hamer) 1948: Red River (Hawks) 1947: One Wonderful Sunday (Kurosawa) 1946: It's A Wonderful Life (Capra) 1945: Spellbound (Hitchcock) 1944: Arsenic and Old Lace (Capra) 1943: The Ox-Bow Incident (Wellman) 1942: Casablanca (Cukor) 1941: Sullivan's Travels (Sturges) 1940: Rebecca (Hitchcock) 1939: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Capra) 1938: Bringing Up Baby (Hawks) 1937: Make Way For Tomorrow (McCarey) 1936: Fury (Lang) 1935: It Happened One Night (Capra) 1934: (none) 1933: 42nd Street (Bacon) 1932: Scarface (Hawks) 1931: Frankenstein (Whale) 1930: All Quiet on the Western Front (Milestone)

I was watching the King of the Ring set because it's now on Netflix up here in Canada, and watching over a few years, something stuck me. When you watch WWE now, you get variations on the same guy over and over again. Like, is there really any great difference between John Cena/Sheamus/Chris Jericho (face who makes corny jokes); Randy Orton/Ziggler/Miz (face who makes less corny jokes and acts kinda intense); Tensai/Brodus/Ryder/Santino (Goofy face who does something silly and isn't taken seriously), then on the heel side you've got Del Rio/Rhodes/Sandow (pompous heels who brag and act superior); Barrett/Axel/Ryback (heels who act serious and don't make jokes); and joke heels like Fandango. I mean, if one guy gets suspended, you can literally plop two or three guys into his spot and not miss a beat in a storyline. But, you go back just a few years and you've got such a variation of characters: Austin (Intense, ass-kicking face); Rock (Cocky face who brags); Triple H (Intense intelligent heel); Mankind (homicidal heel or face with no care for his own well-being), Kurt Angle (cocky but goofy heel) but even further down the card Rikishi (ass-kicking fat guy who likes to rub his ass in people's faces); Ken Shamrock (ass-kicking MMA guy); Jeff Hardy (small high-flying face); Val Venis (wrestling porn star). I mean, it just feels like everyone is playing a unique role. If you're running, say, a Steve Austin-Kurt Angle feud and Angle gets hurt/suspended, you've got to abandon the feud because there is no one just like either wrestler. But nowadays, it feels like there's just Cocky Heel #2 vs Intense Face #4 and there are 5-6 guys who can just be rotated into either spot.

I remember a lot of fans on here being royally, deeply offended by Umaga playing a "savage" character. I remember a bunch of folks going "It's a good thing Samoa Joe didn't come to WWE, because this is the gimmick he'd be saddled with".

Oh man, I'd totally forgotten about Big E. and AJ (In my mind they've already sorta split, as I presume that's where we're headed with this). That would be a pretty fun twist. Though I'm still preferential to my Wyatt Family-Rhodes Family fantasy booking. Don't forget the part where he dressed up like Kane for a while before Kane just threw him out the back door and he was never seen again. I was on ewrestlingnews.com (or whatever it's called) and they had a big headline "BRISCOE BROS. TO WWE" and then it ended up being that Jay Briscoe had physically attended a WWE live show, not like an interview or contract signing or anything. It would be like reporting that George Clooney was in the new Star Wars movie because he went to watch Star Wars at his local theater. Okay, I really want a photo of someone wearing the sheep mask while spooning Sunny. Or maybe the Kane mask.

I've always been unclear on why the formula is "Take a good movie, hire a hip new (read: shitty) director, cast it with stars, watch it fail". I don't know why it isn't "Take movies that failed, fix what's wrong with them by rewriting/better directing/better cast, then watch it fail". For instance, I think you could actually make a pretty scary film out of 'Manos: The Hands of Fate" by getting a better director, actual actors, eliminating the giant knees, paring down the women fighting in their underwear, oh and changing that title (Hands: The Hands of Fate, what the hell is that?!). It's much better/more interesting than "Hey, this movie was really beloved by and all and got good reviews and box office, let's make an inferior version of said film!"

The rumored Kane/Undertaker vs Wyatt Family match doesn't sound all that too appealing to me (Though it probably won't happen because Undertaker is injured again). I'd rather see them go after a less monstrous face, like Dolph Ziggler.

I actually just rewatched 'TDKR' last night and it's still, by far, my favourite one in the series. The first one, for me, takes too long to get going and I don't find Ras Al a very interesting villain (Which is weird, because on the rare occasions I read the comic, I dug his character there). The second one is a perfectly decent film until Maggie Gyllenhaal gets blown up and I find everything after that bordering on tedious to unwatchable. The third one, for me, is pretty much letter-perfect from beginning to end. I love the way Bruce Wayne's tenure in prison mirrors that of the city: complete and utterly defeated with the tiniest glimpse of hope. I don't think there were many scenes in all of 2012 that were more rousing than when Batman first came back, or his subsequent return from the pit.

BTW, this is, by far, my favourite trailer of the yearhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ga0c0v-stK0 I almost don't want to see the film 'cuz the trailer is so perfect: Southern, slow-paced, Casey Affleck, Terrence Malick-influence out the whazoo.

I hope you're talking about the movie, because if you have other inside information, you should share it with the rest of us so we can reinforce our doomsday bunkers!

Oh yeah, this is why I really missed the board, I found out about this and couldn't post it here.