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Monster Rap.

Hello!

I was going to post this as a comment, but considering that the last thread is nearing 1000 comments (all positive) and takes about seventeen minutes to load, we may as well start anew.

I'm alive and unchanged. Seriously, I've just been working. A lot. It's been a less-than-ideal grind and I very much look forward to the current wave passing so I can get back to doing what I love to do best: Nothing, with a side of you.

Some of you have expressed interest in an early return for the Halloween Juke. I couldn't agree more and will try to include this soon as a partial mea culpa. I've been listening to that shit constantly, though I don't know if it has as much to do with me wanting Halloween as it does the fact that Geico's "Somebody's Watching Me" commercial airs 772 times each hour.

Also, there was an a site in circulation that evidently attempted to redirect users to a bad place. I cannot lie: I thought you guys were mistaken, but you were right, and the ad guys at UGO (and me) really, sincerely apologize for any trouble it caused. It's been eradicated and you should have no further trouble.

I finally watched that Clone Wars movie. Now, I was as hard on the prequels as anyone, but despite what seemed to be common opinion, I really didn't think it was bad at all. Granted, I fell asleep halfway through, but I'm assuming it grew no more offensive from there. Plus, the first reveal of Jabba's son, suddenly crawling out and goo-goo gah-ing with absolutely no build or fanfare, cracked me up so much that I had to rewind the scene seven times before watching the rest of (or the rest of the first half of) the movie.

Very odd to hear an ice cream truck's jingle playing during a thunderstorm in early April, but I swear, I just did.

Posted by Matt on 04/06/2009. E-mail me!



Discussion Thread: 568 comments

Cameron T.&Goob: It must be just the one in my town. And here I thought all DQ closed in the cold seasons. Although there’s another Ice Cream place that stays open year round in my town, but I don’t like them as much as DQ. Oh well.
Whats twitter?

Chestnuts roasted by ULTRAMAN @ 04/07/2009 5:22 AM

ULTRAMAN

Twitter is a descent into madness. But a good kind of madness. Really it’s hard to explain…just go to twitter.com and poke around a bit.

I have read/heard somewhere that the coldest months of the year actually have the most ice cream sales.

Chestnuts roasted by Cameron T. @ 04/07/2009 7:18 AM

Cleared RE5. Got infinite ammo for the M29, fully upgraded the handcannon. Just raising points for infinite ammo.

Chestnuts roasted by Neg does a happy dance @ 04/07/2009 7:24 AM

Just created my Twitter account. My username on there is RetroBJ.

Chestnuts roasted by BJ @ 04/07/2009 8:32 AM

My saga micro reviews:

Phantom Menace – corny dialogue and some iffy performances, yes. But special effects that blew my mind, awesome villains, epic 3-part battle finale, Qui-Gon and pod racing (wizard!) 7.5/10

Attack of the Clones – corny dialogue and some iffy performances only made up 15% of the film IMO. Dooku rocks the house, Fett v. Kenobi rain fight, Dexter Jettster is awesome (American Graffiti references are always winners), final third is non-stop excitement, CLONES, BRUCE “YODA” LEE and cool Harryhausen-like creatures. 8.5/10

Revenge of the Sith – Acting is top-notch 90% of the time. Palpatine owns this film. Awesome from beginning to end, even beating out ROTJ in the “What Star Wars film should I watch?” contest. 9/10

A New Hope – Classic, though I need to be in a relaxed mood to enjoy the first half. Love all the Tatooine scenes and yes, I love the Jabba/Fett cameos (in the DVD Special Edition). 8.5/10

Empire Strikes Back – Best one hands down in story and acting. Drags a bit in the middle, but I love the conclusion. This one always feels like Autumn/Winter to me. 10/10

Return of the Jedi – Great first half, JABBA! Speeder bikes are the highlight of the finale. Another awesome 3-part battle mirroring TPM. The Special Edition conclusion featuring all the planets and the newer emotional music brings tears to my eyes (Yub-Nub never felt like an epic ending theme to me). 8/10

Chestnuts roasted by Barry @ 04/07/2009 8:41 AM

Twitter really is addicting after you get past the initial “What the hell is the point?” Its even better if you have an iphone or blackberry to use it with. It’d be nice to get updates from Matt letting us know that he’s still alive!

And I will admit, the Star Wars prequels are a bit of a guilty pleasure for me. I was in middle school when Ep. 1 came out, so needless to say I was pretty pumped and couldn’t see its flaws as easy as I can now, but I don’t care too much.

Chestnuts roasted by Tommy Day @ 04/07/2009 8:55 AM

Barry I wholeheartedly agree with your rankings, EXCEPT Jedi. I despise ewoks and the Emperor goes down far to easily. Sith is indeed the #2 film. I mean Vader beheads Dooku and aces a bunch of kids in the film, cold blooded just like he was meant to be.

Chestnuts roasted by drew do @ 04/07/2009 9:09 AM

For those who wanted the Halloween jukebox a bit early this year….the Disney channel is having a “Halloween in April” week starting Sunday the 12th. Nothing like watching a made-for-Disney-Channel Halloween movie while chomping down on chocolate bunnies.

Chestnuts roasted by Mystery @ 04/07/2009 9:30 AM

Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi, now THAT is what the Star Wars saga is, a two part movie. The other four are just prequels… I’m not saying they’re bad, just that they’re an extension of the two part movie, you see?

Chestnuts roasted by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret Of The Ooze @ 04/07/2009 10:02 AM

A friend of mine and I joked about an elite type of movie geek who claimed to see A New Hope as the one and only Star Wars movie, and disavowed the rest of the series.
The elite geek saw the Star Wars story as a stand alone film (titled simply “STAR WARS”) in which the ultimate goal of the Rebel Alliance was to receive medals, the robot Vader died in space, Luke and Leia married and Han paid off his debt to the unseen “Job-ah the Hut”.

Chestnuts roasted by Barry @ 04/07/2009 10:14 AM

I personally have mixed feelings about Jedi. First half? Pretty entertaining stuff. Second half? Euuhhh…okay I guess. I guess it’s a fitting ending for the series but something about it leaves me a little cold. It feels to me like ol’ George was running out of creative steam even back in ’83.

Empire is one of my favorite movies period, but I really like the first film too, which, oddly enough, seems to be overlooked by most people these days. The Battle of Yavin is so freaking epic.

As for the prequels: pretty meh all around if you ask me. When I was 16 and retarded, I went to see Phantom Menace like 5 times in the theatre, but then I realized that it wasn’t all that great of a movie and that I was just being dazzled by cool special effects (which it has plenty of). The lightsaber fighting and really cool costumes is about all that movie has going for it. Kid Anakin kinda makes me want to shoot myself. I wish they had started the prequel trilogy with him as a young adult instead of a kid.

Also, if the prequels were supposed to be children’s movies, then Lucas didn’t do a very good job keeping it child-friendly, what with all the child-killing and arm slicing and barbecued Anakin and stuff.

Chestnuts roasted by Annette @ 04/07/2009 10:23 AM

Yeah child Anakin is extremely difficult to watch, even more than Jar Jar. But Qui-gon is badass!

Chestnuts roasted by drew do @ 04/07/2009 10:43 AM

Here’s Lesson #1 on how to ruin a classic song. Don’t know whether to laugh or cry:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5X4TSbGreA

I actually like Jedi the best of the original trilogy.

Chestnuts roasted by King JLA @ 04/07/2009 10:43 AM

Wait, Annette, you were once retarded but were somehow CURED?! Tell the scientific community ASAP!

Chestnuts roasted by Barry @ 04/07/2009 10:45 AM

I touched on this in the last thread, but I am honestly ready for them to refurbish the Star Tours ride at Disneyland and make it into a pod race or something like that. Throw in a side trip through Coruscant, and you got yourself a ride right there. Don’t get me wrong, I love Robot PeeWee and helping blow up the Death Star, but graphics have come so far since then.

Chestnuts roasted by squee4242 @ 04/07/2009 10:53 AM

I’m sure you all know but it bears repeating: All three of the first Star Wars movies were actually one movie in three acts. There was so much material that Lucas decided to make each act it’s separate movie. Of course, this was riding on whether the first movie would even be a hit or not. There’s also that story that Lucas and Spielberg were vacationing in Hawaii the weekend that the first Star Wars movie came out. Lucas was worried that his movie would not be the success he was hoping for. He actually gave praise for Spielberg and thought that his movie, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” which Spielberg was making at the time, would do WAY better than Star Wars. By the way, that was also the time when the Indiana Jones concept was brought to Spielberg who was complaning because he wanted to do a James Bond film but the producers of that franchise wouldn’t let him.

Personally, I sometimes wonder what would have happened had Star Wars not been a box-office succcess. Would there even had been a sequel, let alone a trilogy? Probably not. The movie would have faded away into obscurity and we wouldn’t have the phnomenom we have today, and we definetly would not have had the Expanded Universe either! Also, none of the prequels can ever come close to the original trilogy. The closest is Revenge of the Sith and even that falls short. The original trilogy came out at the right time it needed to come out, late 70′s to early 80′s. Also, I’m going to say this and I hope there are others that agree with me, there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with the way the first movies came out before the Special Edition. All the extra effects were there for eye candy mostly and not necessary. I can see where a lot of people liked the Jabba scene. It’s an okay scene but I like it better keeping him hidden and just refering to him in the first two movies. Keeping him a mystery builds up the suspense to when we finally do see him in Return of the Jedi. Also, I think the scene between Luke and his childhood friend Biggs is not needed. If they had to have that scene, they should have also put another scene that comes near the beginning of the movie before Biggs goes off to flight school and I think it’s even before Luke and his Uncle Owen purchase the droids. If it is not necessary than neither is the later scene.

Bottom line, I just want to say that overall, I like my preferences but I can accept the six movies as a whole. To me, I will always think of Star Wars as being the first three movies before any of the prequels. If I ever have children (and that is a big if because I don’t even know if I will ever get married), the way I would show the movies to them is show them the way I saw them, but I would show the first trilogy in order because I actually saw Jedi first (complete but I saw bits and pieces of the first movie before then and I think I even saw parts of the Holiday Special as well), and it would be the old copies and NOT the Special Edition. That’s something they can discover as they grow older on their own as well as the prequels.

Oh yes, and one final word: The Star Wars movies are NOT kids movies. They are Space Adventure movies for the whole family! There, I had my say.

Chestnuts roasted by BJ @ 04/07/2009 10:55 AM

Also, there was an a site in circulation that evidently attempted to redirect users to a bad place.

That’s where AdBlock Plus comes in handy; apparently, a banner ad on Hotmail was compromised and sent me to a website I didn’t want to be at (and this wasn’t due to opening an email attachment or even clicking a banner ad on my part, it just loaded on the main page) which left me infected with spyware on my work computer. After I had everything cleaned up, I installed the FireFox plugin and – knock on wood – haven’t had a problem since.

Of course, I feel bad for denying Matt his ad revenue … but banner ads have just become too much of a security risk; sad but true.

Chestnuts roasted by Al Boondy @ 04/07/2009 10:59 AM

I guess I don’t have as many harsh feelings toward the Special Editions as others do– my first exposure to the original trilogy was when they did the big Special Edition theatrical release back in ’97 (I got into Star Wars pretty late, I know). Saw ‘em all on the big screen and was hooked.

The ’97 SE versions are mostly fine with me EXCEPT the Jabba scene in the first movie, ugh, looks bad and wasn’t really necessary. I actually liked that they put the little scene with Biggs back in, because then you can better understand why Luke is upset when Biggs gets blown up.

The SE that I have a problem with is the version they used on the DVD releases. More unnecessary changes and oh God, that Anakin thing at the end of Jedi sends me into a rage. This is why I have the limited edition DVD versions so I can watch the original theatrical versions. I have the ’97 SE on VHS, too (except for A New Hope; couldn’t find it).

Blah blah blah Star Wars and stuff. How are you guys?

Chestnuts roasted by Annette @ 04/07/2009 11:21 AM

Matt,
Are you going to the Chiller Theatre Toy Model and Film Expo in Parsippany NJ?
http://www.chillertheatre.com/

Chestnuts roasted by Mr. Mutton @ 04/07/2009 11:31 AM

Return of the Jedi was the first and only Star Wars film from the original trilogy that I saw in the theaters, and I saw that when it came out in 1983. I rented Empire Strikes Back in I think 1987 because we had a video store in our neighborhood and we used to rent movies all the time (we had just gotten our first VCR the prior Christmas). I had seen A New Hope a few times but never really saw it in its completion through the years. There’s a rumor that the original 1982 broadcast of Star Wars on CBS included the early scenes with Luke and Biggs right before Biggs leaves for flight school. I even recall Disney Channel showing the movie back when it was good (I thought Disney went to hell when they decided to go from a premium channel to a regular cable channel). It was 1994 when I got the first movie on VHS for Christmas and that’s when I finally saw it complete from beginning to end.

It would have been nice if Lucas in the Special Editions DVDs had included the deleted scenes that were never in the movie in any edition (including the early Luke and Biggs scenes) as well as scenes that were redone like the way the Han Solo/Jabba scene was when Han was talking to a human rather than the slug Jabba ended up becoming. Just a few more ideas on my part.

Chestnuts roasted by BJ @ 04/07/2009 11:36 AM

Ok,what the hell is with this twitter shite that is all of a sudden so popular. It seems that is the last few months it is what everyone is talking about. I hear you just write a snippet to tell people when your blasting some dookie, or what ever you may find fasinating to tell total strangers about your daily routine. Seriously what makes it so great. I evidently am not nearly as up to date a cool as I see myself as.

Chestnuts roasted by Saint @ 04/07/2009 11:44 AM

I personally don’t like Twitter at all (but I have warmed up to Facebook somewhat). Twitter doesn’t appeal to me because I don’t really like texting and I don’t go out of my house much right now, so what’s the point of me using Twitter? I have a LiveJournal if I want to talk about things. Everything is so damn ADD these days.

Chestnuts roasted by Annette @ 04/07/2009 11:48 AM

Twitter is just micro-blogging. Its only lame when people actually just write about what they’re eating or whatever. A lot of people use it as a promotion and marketing tool, but its a cool way to connect with people with similar interests. I don’t like social networking and having profiles and friend, but Twitter is low maintenance enough that it’s cool with me.

Chestnuts roasted by Tommy Day @ 04/07/2009 12:02 PM

Nice to hear you are busy at work, Matt. Unfortunately that’s a good thing.
It’s 68 and sunny here! After such a long winter I am so excited I don’t even know what to do first. Go running by the lake, BBQ, camp, get stoned and ride bikes, chuck the football…who knows! It’s just nice not to have numb fingers and toes anymore.

Last thing, my buddy went to Cabo last week for his spring break (been in college for 7 years…not a doctor) and he and his wife were extras in the filming for Cloverfield 2.

Chestnuts roasted by Bill @ 04/07/2009 12:31 PM

The appeal of Twitter is hard to explain. Basically it’s just a Facebook status that doesn’t force you to awkwardly write in the third person, which is helpful. But somehow it’s more fun than that. One thing it is really useful for is people who can’t get online much but have online friends they want to keep in touch with. I originally got it when one of my best friends who moved to Boston like an evil traitor lost her internet access or her computer exploded or something. I don’t have unlimited texts, but she does, so communicating through Twitter was free. Then her cell phone broke too because she’s cursed (this is someone who managed to get her iPod run over by a truck) but by then I was already hooked.

Chestnuts roasted by jazzy @ 04/07/2009 12:45 PM

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