#film the big bull poster

[thatsdemko]

daniel + "you're my happy place." "don't get cheesy on me."?👀👀

home is whenever I’m with you - d.ricciardo

pairings: daniel ricciardo x reader

warnings: fluff

his smile is inviting. the warmth and safety he radiates makes anyone feel comfortable in his presence, and you love that about him. you love that you feel safe under his gaze, touch, or his presence. he feels like a warm cup of coffee on a sunny afternoon; a safe haven.

he’s the poster child for formula 1, the reason why you were here in the first place. it was all because of the start of Netflix’s filming of Drive to Survive. he’s the most recognizable face, other than Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher. to many people, other than you, he’s joyful like sunshine.

the cheers and smiles were extra today, as he hadn’t stepped foot into a paddock in months. he wasn’t sure they were all for him, but when he sees you’re hollering his name, hands clapping together, and an even bigger smile on your face, he knows it’s all for him.

“you,” he drags out, arms wrapping around your body because he doesn’t do hand shakes. that’s unfamiliar to the Aussie, and ever since you began working with him it was unfamiliar to you as well. his big strong arms were all you ever knew.

“I’ve missed you.” he mumbles into your hair before pulling away to get a better look at you. time hadn’t shown any different on you, besides maybe the change in fashion style, but other than that, you stayed true to yourself. the way Daniel ricciardo taught you.

“I’ve got coffee and a present waiting for you.”

“a present?” he asks, arm wrapping around your shoulders, pulling you into his side, “who’s it from?”

“who else do you think?” you quiz him watching his eyes grow smaller from his eyelids, a smile widening even further as he says his name, max.

finally alone, he removes his backpack, lips pressing against yours. it’d been months since he’d seen you, months since his lips were on yours. he hates that your silly little job in formula 1 takes you away from him.

“no gift from you?” he asks before turning to the mini helmet that max had signed, a card from you sits beside it. the cheesy pickup line on the front makes him laugh as he reads the little note from the inside.

enjoy the butterflies… and the nice unemployment check from zak! dinner on you soon?

yours truly,

y/n

he chuckles as he slips the card in his back pocket for later, before turning to you. the smile on your face growing with each second he can’t help but comment on it, “what’s got you so smiley?”

“just you. you’re my happy place.” you reach up on your tippy toes to press a kiss to his lips, “and I’ve missed you so bad.”

he wraps his arms around your waist, pulling you closer to him, “don’t get cheesy on me.” he presses his lips with yours and for a moment you feel like the only two people in the room. like there weren’t people coming and going from the Red Bull hospitality, “and to be fair, I’ve missed you too.”

[kanmom51]

SEVEN

So there is something I only realised this morning.

I can't believe I didn't see it before, but then I was so used to how things were done so far that it totally slipped by me.

The release times.

They are all US ET.

Not KST.

How I didn't notice this before is beyond me (given there were literally 2 posters, one in English and one in Korean, but my brain was living on past experience).

My brain was on automat, cause since when do BH release songs with US ET detailed schedules? ONLY ET schedule?????

It's like even in the schedule poster they are disconnecting JK from the Korean music scene. This isn't a K-pop song with a KST release time. Not for those that see the poster in English. They separated them. One for the Korean consumer, one for the American (I'm getting there, bare with me).

And once I digested that piece of information I knew that what I was thinking all along is a given.

JK is a big part of BPD's end game. This, Seven, it's part of BPD's end game.

It's a song in English. Created for the US market, the American consumer.

It's going to be flogged, well it is already, like no other BTS or BTS member song has been before it.

That MV, it's going to be big. Production big.

A lot of thought and planning has been put into this.

They are throwing it all at this song.

And the way I see it, this will also be the first song to be played on the radio. I really believe we are going to be getting Seven played on the radio. Like A LOT. Like lots of money changing hands to make it happen A LOT. Like lots of but kissing to make it happen A LOT.

Because BPD wants Korean artists and Kpop to reach the next level. Which is not only fan acknowledgement. He wants them to acknowledged as artists, just like any other artist who releases music in the States. He wants the stupid ass stigma that stuck to K-pop erased. He wants in. And Seven is the start of it.

They always had their eyes set on JK.

That is one of the reasons they were unprepared for JM and his success hit them right in the Face. Literally. They underestimated JM's power. They didn't know what to do with it. In a way, didn't want it. It wasn't part of the big plan. JK is.

And now thinking back to Qatar - I can't help but wonder, was it the organizers request only for JK or was it what Hybe wanted?

And that's a hell of a lot to put on JK's shoulders.

I do hope that this works. Not for Hybe's sake, nor BPDs. I want JK to do well. I want this for him, assuming this is what he wants too.

Look, everything I'm writing here can be a big pile of bull crap.

I could be proven totally wrong. No radio play, no big push, no big production. But wait. I think it's safe to say that the MV was a big production (flying out a well known Korean actress to LA to film, and what is with the Recording film?). Oh, and since when did we ever get posters all over the world for a single? I kind of think I'm on the right path here...

Anyway, if I'm wrong I'll own it. But I really do think this is part of the big plan. And my question is what's next?

Well, truthfully that's just one question. And I for one have plenty more. That have to do with JK and what he wants and what it means... for him and for JM and for them as a couple.

[somnicity]

Tag Glossary

Figures Win32 - Main poster, blog curator. Meddling archival thing, manufactured angel. Digital aesthetic, esoteric techposting, angelic shit, robot gf jokes RAM - 'Director', Film Student Personality Syndrome. Pathways, choice, narrative as a tangible force, Tengu imagery, Doorways. Conducts story the way one conducts music. Task Manager - Main sword bitch. Manages some tasks. Minotaur, bells that sound the End, war-beast, mourning, loss, hope. Gentle. Bulls, swords, ink Kill process - The Wolf. The big bad wolf in a conceptual sense and its hard to get more detailed than that tbh. Sync - Things that were equally relevant to every individual above fsr ════════════════════════ Others Thread - the spouse The Cat - this weird thing in my library ════════════════════════ Misc

Chatter.exe - Text rambles Audio.exe - Music Visuals - Things that remind me of things we've seen, or things that resemble places we've been Data - Thinking about the mechanics of it all, bit by bit Reverb - Things that made our head buzz for indeterminate reasons Functioning - We are doing our job and we are doing it so well

[escarlatafox]

Okay so here’s some more substantial kfp4 thoughts/opinions (Kung fu panda 4 spoilers!)

-

Overall, as a movie experience, I mean, I didn’t have high hopes going in. I carefully kept my expectations low, so it wasn’t like, a complete and total disaster imo but it certainly had its issues. I was someone who sincerely enjoyed the third movie and didn’t actually really mind the third movie’s pacing, and while the third movie showed certain cracks of lowering quality, they could be looked past well enough. Like, for me, the final fight/villain showdown etc with Kai in the third movie, him getting beaten by Po, etc, was all narratively really satisfying to me and I was chill with the pacing for it. This most recent movie was like, kind of decent in parts… but fell apart towards the end with the villain confrontation scene and takedown. I was fine with movie 3’s pacing but this one’s was off. While 3 was narratively satisfying to me, 4 wasn’t. There was insufficient build-up, and so much of it felt unearned. The final confrontation was too quick for me, it was just… not great. Didn’t really pack the same punch that 3 did for me.

As for them bringing past villains back… man.

What was Kai even doing there. Like, my understanding of 3’s ending is that Po obliterated him within the spirit realm, thus utterly erasing him from existence entirely. You could make an argument for him just being like, kaplowey’d into spiritual Bits which could eventually make their way back together again hence him coming back into existence, but uh yeah… His presence in 4 actually cheapens the final confrontation in 3 for me. Because Kai getting “destroyed” in 3 had this sense of finality to it. Death in general just feels cheapened – I know that the Spirit Realm =/= Heaven, and it’s only kung fu masters who go there, but like, if you keep bringing these characters back + even Kai’s death wasn’t permanent, it just feels kinda ???

I can imagine that Tai Lung fans would be annoyed with this movie, what with how he was teased (being on the poster and everything!) I was actually cautiously optimistic for a little while before seeing the movie about how Tai Lung’s role would be handled, but no. It felt off, and like, if they were gonna bring back the character, I really do think he should have played a greater role. He just feels like set dressing/weak fanservice and imo didn’t add much. His presence is/should be a big deal and it felt kiiind of cheap to me, idk. I just wish it was handled better. On learning that he + the others got their kung fu abilities taken away thus rendering them useless, that was a fun idea to me – it would render them quite ‘harmless’ and put them all out of sorts. I would have loved to see more of Tai Lung and/or the others struggling with the simple fact that their abilities have been wiped and they’re kinda ‘helpless’ (I mean, in the case of characters like Tai Lung, their still strong and imposing, but have none of the actual kung fu moves). I was misled into thinking Tai Lung would be ‘tagging along’ with Po or something like that within this movie, and while I was on the fence/worried about how it would be executed, none of that even materialised anyway. Why was he on the poster he was barely in the film and given so little to do…

Like. Seeing e.g. Shen there was just jarring as well cause he’s just There. He doesn’t do anything. And apparently he was a late addition to the film like they slapped him in there last minute and I’m just like. hm

THE VILLAINS BOWING was very egregious to me. I call bull. Unearned. Out of left field. They WOULDN’T! And even if they would. It was absolutely not sufficiently set up for THAT kind of payoff. You need to put in WAY more work to even try pull something like THAT off. Yeah, they were annoyed by their treatment from the Chameleon. They would be ‘grateful’ to be saved by Po or w/e but even THEN. I cannot see it. I was in utter disbelief when that happened I was just like… there’s no way. I saw Masha talking about how Shen would ‘never’ bow like that and I agree 100% I’m just like… Hello?

Again… For me personally the Tai Lung stuff just felt kinda awkward and unearned. Like, if they wanna do that, they gotta give him more screentime. They gotta give him more stuff to DO. Let him get free somehow and briefly fumble/awkwardly try to help out Po in the absence of his kung fu abilities idk (the enemy of his enemy is his friend, etc etc, he’s fed up with the Chameleon so he wants her taken down, and so on). Of course, part of this stuff comes down to the movie’s short runtime + poor pacing. And if it’s true that this was done very intentionally because ‘kids can’t watch long movies’ then man that is just so depressing to me. This movie badly needed a longer runtime and it could have done so much with it.

Okay random positive thing to end this off... I love the whole deal/concept with a building like, on the edge of a cliff and w/e and the lampshading of how much of a bad idea it is amused me (but tbh I do think there are in-universe reasons, like, the 'danger' aspect of it is part of the appeal/point of its establishment in-universe as well). I'm a sucker for fight scenes that make use of the idiosyncracies of the surrounding environment so that's always gonna be a plus for me.

The villain lady was cool she had a nice imposing atmosphere. I like her voice

It was like, not a disaster. It was fun. it amused me. But it wasn't satisfying in a way that 3 was for me. Movies 1 & 2 were perfect, no notes. 3 was still GOOD. 4 was like... :/ like it was alright. Just didn't hit the spot.

[greensparty]

Remembering Sixto Diaz Rodriguez and Robbie Robertson

What a day for music fans! Here is my combined remembrance of two musicians we lost today:

Remembering Sixto Diaz Rodriguez 1942-2023

movie poster

The singer-songwriter known as Rodriguez as died at 81. He released some folk albums in the early 70s that went largely unnoticed in the U.S. but had a big impact in South Africa. In the 2012 documentary Searching for Sugar Man (which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary), they document the search for the singer who was rumored to be dead but was living a humble life in Detroit. Sadly the documentary director Malik Bendjelloul died in 2014. Even if supposedly the documentary glossed over some elements of Rodriguez' life, it made the point that a long lost musician can still have an impact years later and far away. I included the doc on my Best Docs of the 2010s and picked up the soundtrack.

The link above is the obit from Hollywood Reporter.

Remembering Robbie Robertson 1943-2023

movie poster

The Band leader and accomplished solo artist Robbie Robertson has died at 80. The Band - just The Band nothing more - were critic’s darlings of the 60s / 70s. A folk rock band that made truly timeless music and all members played off each other so well. Their 1969 self-titled album is a classic and I have it on vinyl. When they did their farewell concert in 1976 (they later re-formed), Martin Scorsese directed that concert and it was released in 1978 as The Last Waltz. That 1977 concert film is arguably the greatest concert movie of all time. Whenever music or film geeks debate the greatest concert film ever made, it always comes down to The Last Waltz and Jonathan Demme’s Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense. Both The Last Waltz concert film and the live album were time capsule-worthy. Ringo Starr even sat in on a song. George Harrison was a close friend and admirer or Robertson and The Band as well. Also worth checking out are the albums Robertson / The Band did with Bob Dylan, notably Dylan's masterpiece Blonde on Blonde.

Scorsese and Robertson

In addition to numerous solo albums and music producing, Robertson became a close collaborator with Scorsese on a number of his films, composing music, songs and/or doing music supervision on Raging Bull, The King of Comedy, The Color of Money, Casino, Gangs of New York, Shutter Island, The Wolf of Wall Street, Silence, The Irishman, and the upcoming Killers of the Flower Moon. What a great team they made! Music has always been a big part of Scorsese's films and the music Robertson was responsible for truly enhanced those films.

Robertson also appeared in numerous documentaries including Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World (read my interview with director Catherine Bainbridge here), Elvis Presley: The Searcher (read my review here), and of course Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson & The Band (read my review here).

The link above is the obit from Rolling Stone.

[fractangle]

I tried this (the non-alcoholic version) tonight and it is An Experience. The tl;dr is what most of the posters have been saying, do not do this, but I wanted to give a little more nuanced review of this very serious and professional recipe.

The first thing you notice when dropping the "spaghetti" into the liquid is that it bubbles a little bit, but continuously, for quite a few minutes. Admittedly I did like watching this part.

Then you start to notice a gritty, sludgy film start to form on the surface. I wasn't able to replicate what a previous poster said about bubbles that don't pop but just have a hole, however, I was able to gather some of this gritty, sludgy film on a toothpick to taste it by itself. The texture was unappetizing for sure, but the taste was actually a lot less strong than I was expecting; surprisingly somewhat bitter.

Next, I took a sip of the liquid. This was pretty uneventful; it tasted mostly like the Red Bull I'd used as my energy drink base, but slightly worse. Honestly not too bad, but a definite disimprovement over simply eating and drinking the components separately.

Now, I had been hanging out on a discord call the whole while, and at this point I just got to chatting and kinda left it sitting for a bit. But then it dawned on me, I hadn't tried the spaghetti part! So, I grabbed a crochet hook (don't ask) and fished a couple "noodles" out of this potion. This was easier said than done because they were quite slick, but I eventually managed to get a couple into my mouth.

It is at this point that I realize I have fucked up.

Up until now, everything has been at least semi-palatable, and I've been having a good time hanging out, laughing and joking about the whole experiment. Saying things like, "yeah, this isn't great, but I don't know that I'd say 'do not do this' the way people have on this post. I am now saying: do not do this.

The spaghetti part of this was the consistency of noodles that have been cooked about three times too long. They are slimy, and with the slightest bit of chewing, they turn into the worst kind of mushy paste imaginable. It's not even solely a flavor thing. Like, the flavor is bad, don't get me wrong, but the texture is vile. Really, really repulsive.

But remember, I'd been essentially live-reviewing this in a discord call. And the running bit in this whole post had been the "do not do this" punchline with every addition, which hadn't really tracked with my experience prior to trying the spaghetti itself. Now I get it. And I want to say the line, Bart, but 1) I have a mouthful of horrific sludge-paste, and 2) because now I get it, I'm laughing. When I'd first read this post, I was in tears laughing at each additional "do not do this" even harder than the last. Yet I still did this to myself, and honestly, I deserved it. It's fucking hilarious to me.

I almost wish I had some big spectacular ending to the story, but I don't. The mush didn't go flying out of my mouth from laughing, I didn't throw up, I didn't spill the rest of it onto anything problematic. It just sucked. This is a bad recipe.

Admittedly, I'm glad I tried it (for reasons that are not clear to me), but this just sucks. Do not do this. Or do. But don't expect to like it.

peeling those sour rainbow gummy strips into long thin strings and putting them into cheap energy drink to create something im calling battery acid spaghetti will update once ive finished it

[salmankhanholics]

★ Exclusive: ‘I don’t think Salman Khan is a superstar’, says actor on superstar tag!

Nov 24, 2023

Salman Khan is currently basking in the success of 'Tiger 3' that released on November 12. In an exclusive conversation with IndiaToday.in, the actor talked about his 'superstar tag'.

Salman Khan might be one of the biggest superstars of the country, but he thinks otherwise. In an exclusive chat with IndiaToday.in, Salman Khan said that nothing about him is 'superstarry'. The actor's Diwali release, 'Tiger 3' is a huge blockbuster with the film crossing Rs 250-crore mark in India.

SALMAN ON THE 'SUPERSTAR' TAG

When asked if he feels he has the superstar tag on him whereever he goes, Salman Khan told IndiaToday.in, "I have never felt that way. I have never felt like a superstar ever. My habits are not that of a superstar. The way I travel, the way I dress, there is nothing I do that speaks superstar. My mind is not tuned that way. Nothing about me is any superstarry. Nothing at all. I don't think Salman Khan is a superstar. It is all bulls**t. I have never felt it. I am just happy to wake up in the morning, have my coffee and start my day. I just want to give my best."

HOW SALMAN GOT THE FIRST 'TIGER' FILM

Salman Khan also talked about how he got the first 'Tiger' film, 'Ek Tha Tiger' in 2012. He said, "I heard the narration at my farm and it was about 2.30 in the afternoon. I heard the synopsis and then the whole script, and I thought it was good. It was my first time working with YRF. Our fathers have been very close."

WILL HE PLAY 2ND LEAD WITH A FEMALE ACTRESS?

Salman was asked if he was okay playing the second lead or a supporting role with a female actress headlining the project. The actor said, "It doesn’t matter if it is male or female. If the actor can bring in audience he or she should be big on the poster. They should be able to mint money for the producers and exhibitors."

[sonita0526]

अभिषेक बच्चन ने इंस्टा पर शेयर किया अपकमिंग मूवी 'The Big Bull' का पोस्टर

अभिषेक बच्चन ने इंस्टा पर शेयर किया अपकमिंग मूवी 'The Big Bull' का पोस्टर

[ad_1]

डिजिटल डेस्क, मुम्बई। बॉलीवुड एक्टर अभिषेक बच्चन की अपकमिंग फिल्म द बिग बुल का पोस्टर रिलीज हो चुका है। फिल्म के पोस्टर में अक्षय बहुत ही गंभीर दिखाई दे रहे हैं और उनके चेहरे पर अंधेरा दिख रहा है। अभिषेक इसमें अपनी अंगुलियों में कई अंगूठियां पहने नजर आ रहे हैं और होंठ पर अपनी अंगुली रखे हुए हैं। फिल्म के पोस्टर को अभिषेक ने सोशल मीडिया पर शेयर किया है।

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[shihlun]

Jacques Rivette

- Le Pont du Nord

1981

[srbachchan]

DAY 4801

Jalsa, Mumbai                     Apr 20,  2021                Tue 11:09 PM

.. the path to goodness and well-being is paved with prayers ..

.. among the darkness that envelops the environ about us here , the lighted ray of goodness and achievement glides past in the pride and appreciation of the Father in prayer ..

.. the Big Bull does 10 million streams in 10 days .. is No. 1 and there is the emotion that it rides within ..

.. nothing more to be said , or expressed .. 

43 years of film ‘Kasme Vaade’ .. and the poster of the film when it released in Israel , as provided by Moses .. and its popularity there .. 

.. he also gives me information of the 1978 releases .. Kasme Vaade, Don , Trishul , Muquaddar ka Sikandar , Ganga ki Saugandh .. all blockbusters .. in one year .. !! doing 50 to 100 weeks .. 

.. those were the days .. 

.. to those that suffer, prayers and wishes each hour for well being .. for those that come out .. God is Great and kind and benevolent .. may HE ever be in the protection of all .. 

.. each hour is filled with despair of news and information of the conditions of loved ones .. but the medical and front line warriors work relentlessly to save to serve to bring relief .. they are the Angels of the Almighty .. 

.. in the silence of our homes .. in the company of those that be family , we spend time together .. learn each hour .. read the consequences and considerations .. give opinion and discussion .. view points from all directions give a vast panorama of the situations around .. communication of and to all has made it possible to get diversity .. and be known .. not to say that it was not there before, it was, but never so widespread and known as now .. a delight and at times a distraction .. at times its honesty .. at times its mistrust .. and most of the time on the learning of any news an immediate react to whether it be correct or fake .. whether hacked or genuine .. and that be the tragedy .. reality shall perhaps ever be presented with several question marks .. each question mark demarcating barriers - non existent , perhaps - but there all the same .. minds and thoughts have all been through the washer , detergent smacked , perfumed in temperature controlled laundry  .. some having exclusivity with all of it yours in one .. or in one all of it .. ironed and folded hung in placid hangers by the cupboards of time .. noticed at times of need .. or never noticed at all .. forgotten .. unknown when in time was it ever worn ..

.. wear your prayers in the purity of its being .. in its inherent divinity ..

Amitabh Bachchan

Birthday ABEF team - Arijit Bhattacharya .. Wednesday, April 21 .. birthday greetings and wishes to be safe ..

[chowtrolls]

After Everything, Its Just You.

Length: 1208 Words TW: Lusus death, mentions of lab/hospital setting.  Credits: “creepy tealblood” is actually @/ask-them-bois ‘ Bladepen.  Extra: Thunder wakes up after Kaspar, his ex-moirail, helped “rescue” him from Bladepen. He’s a little mad about it.  Google Docs Link

Thunder woke up in a cold sweat. His chest ached from how fast his pusher was racing. The hive he woke up in was not his own, but that wasn’t an uncommon occurrence. And for a moment, a brief moment, he thought it had all been a dream. No creepy tealbloods, no lab tables, no needles. The violet sighed shakily, letting his chin drop to his chest. 

This wasn’t his shirt. Instantly the panic picked back up. He never let anyone see him shirtless, let alone some late day drunken fling. Shaky hands grasped the fabric so he could get a better look at the horror movie poster printed on the front. The anxiety eased slightly, it was probably Bruuno’s. It was certainly big enough. Though the hive was hardly familiar…but simple enough to be an Airbnb, perhaps? He wasn’t left to ponder long. A familiar fuchsia made himself known, poking through the doorway to check what the commotion was about. 

“Hey.” 

Thunder glared at the fuchsia. There was nothing but contempt in his pusher, though it was difficult to maintain. Despite it all, despite the sweeps spent apart, despite the anger Thunder allowed to grow, there was still a nostalgic softness when it came to Kas. The fuchsia didn’t react to the hostility, rather he just leaned against the doorframe and waited. 

“How’re you holding up?” 

“Waiting to wake up from this nightmare too.” Thunder’s voice was low and cold, though his shoulders relaxed. 

Kaspar didn’t hide a slight grin, “Awfully harsh. At least you’re not getting cut open here.” 

“Wouldn’t put it past you,” Thunder paused to pat his pants pockets, “Where the hell’s my palmhusk?” 

“Dunno. Your weird little friend called me from it, though. I thought you had me blocked.” His voice was a little too smug for Thunder’s comfort. 

“I did, asshole.” 

Kaspar pushed off the wall to step closer, which made Thunder jump to his feet defensively. “The fuck is your problem, Church? I saved your ass and you-”

“You killed my fucking lusus!” Thunder didn’t let him finish. The anxiety spilled over violently. ChimaeraMom had been dead for sweeps now, but the reality of her death was still heavy on his shoulders. The air crackled around him as he drew in electricity, ready to strike.  

“I don’t know how many fucking times I’ve apologi-” 

“That’s not something you can just apologize for, Kas!” Thunder’s voice cracked. For once, the wall of anger seemed to really crumble and show the sorrow beneath. “She’s fuckin’ dead! You can’t just say sorry! She’s never coming back ‘cos of you! Sayin’ sorry doesn’t fix any of it!” Tears formed in his eyes, threatening to spill down his cheeks.

Kaspar was silent. That alone was impressive, but Thunder was too frantic to notice. The trauma of abduction was too much to grasp, so he shoved it down and replaced it with the death of his lusus. It was an easier bitter pill to swallow. The violet shakily ripped the shirt over his head. His chest was bare, no tattoos to hide the garish scars left. A knot rose in Kaspar’s throat. He looked away, crossing his arms over his own chest. 

“Sayin’ sorry ain’t shit, Kas! It doesn’t change any of it! You can come up here and be all fancy ‘n famous and it doesn’t mean shit! You didn’t save shit!” Thunder clasped a hand over the scars on his chest, nails digging into his skin, “You can’t change the fucking past, stop fucking trying.” 

Kaspar finally looked back to the smaller violet, expression as flat as ever, “I’m not trying to change shit, Church.” 

“Bull-fucking-shit, Kas.” Thunder scoffed, “You don’t want to be the stupid villain. You’re a fucking monster- in your stupid films and outside of ‘em.”

“Is it such a far off thought to believe I helped you because I care about you?” The edge of Kaspar’s tail twitched, the only sign of his annoyance. 

“You don’t care about anyone but yourself.” 

“Then why did I answer your stupid friend’s call and save your ass?” 

Silence fell between the two. It was a question neither had the answer to. Thunder was here, living another day free, at the cost of everyone the two used to know. That wasn’t something the Kas that Thunder had known would do. Even when they were young, the fuchsia was so dedicated to the colony. So to sell them all out, trade their lives, for one…it just seemed odd. 

The Church that Kaspar had known was just as gone, a troll he hardly recognized. This wasn’t the troll that took out his eye. But it was still the troll he hurt. Kaspar knew he couldn’t fix or change anything that happened. And maybe rescuing his ex was selfish. But what was done, was done. 

Thunder shuddered suddenly, folding his arms up, “Your stupid hive’s fucking cold as shit.” 

Kaspar slowly bent over to pick up the shirt Thunder had discarded to hold it out to him. Thunder hesitated before accepting it. Their fingers brushed. Yet, Thunder didn’t try to shock Kas. He just slipped the shirt back over his head.

 “I don’t know what happened to your shirt. I think that teal might’ve cut it off. Your gill was cut open, probably bloody…” Kaspar trailed off as Thunder brought a hand up to investigate his gills. No pain, but it was definitely not treated. He glanced at the fuchsia, curious why he hadn’t done anything while he was asleep. 

“I think I have some peroxide, probably needs cleaned, right?” After Thunder nodded, the fuchsia parted briefly to retrieve the peroxide as promised. He took a seat on the couch while he waited. Everything still felt raw and tender. He wasn’t sure what to do or feel. Thunder wanted to run, to leave, to avoid everything like he always did. But he had nowhere to go. If Cyther really did call Kaspar, that meant nobody else answered. It was to be expected. After everything, it's just him. Same as it always has been.

Kaspar returned and sat beside him. Thunder watched closely as the other seadweller doused a cotton ball in peroxide, and he allowed Kaspar to tilt his chin up to press the cotton against the gash. He winced slightly, more out of habit than pain itself. The silence was heavy, but didn’t last long. 

“Can we try again, Church?” Kaspar met Thunder’s eyes with a soft voice and flat expression. The seconds ticked by like hours before the fuchsia finally looked back to his hands close to Thunder’s neck. He set the now violet cotton ball down. The hand holding Thunder’s chin up moved to his cheek, gently holding his face. Physical touch that wasn’t violent or hateful sent sparks down Thunder’s spine. He couldn’t resist leaning into it. 

“Why d’you keep calling me Church?” His last name was hardly used these days, Kaspar had never used it beforehand either. 

“I don’t know your name.” Kaspar’s flat expression dropped at last, brows furrowing, “I know your old name, but that’s it.” 

Thunder couldn’t help but chuckle weakly, “We have a lot to catch up on.” 

“Can we start with your name?” 

“Yeah, I guess we can.” 

[hetahonda]

hetalia college AU headcanons

North Italy/Feliciano Vargas:

Fine Arts

Considered joining his brother Lovino in culinary arts, but wanted to try something outside of the Vargas family restaurant business, so here he is now

Feliciano’s favourite thing to draw is people, so his sketchbook is usually filled with drawings of his friends, family, and the occasional cat

Likes watching conspiracy videos on Youtube before bed, but scares himself to the point where he has to camp with Ludwig for the night

His Spotify playlist for when he’s working on coursework ranges from Monteverdi to songs from the Veggietales soundtrack

He’s usually really chatty, but is radio silent whenever he falls sick (which is pretty often, his immune system is terrible), and it’s unnerving as hell

Tells his professors that he’s ‘resting his eyes’ a lot to cover up for the fact that he can’t stay awake in class

Somehow, he’s friends with everyone on campus

Germany/Ludwig Beilschmidt:

Mechanical Engineering, because he’s a nerd like that

Ludwig’s notes are a work of art. He meticulously colour codes and binds all his material, and often receives offers to buy his notes during exam periods

Tends to forget to eat, so he eats a lot whenever he has the time to. His roommate Feliciano’s usually kind enough to share, his brother Gilbert not so much

President of the Student Council, and uses his Council privilege to get away with bringing his dogs into his dorm room

People call him a square - he’s a rigid, straight-edge rule follower to a t, but football season is when Ludwig is really in his element. That’s when he and Gilbert bust out the jerseys, beer, and go absolutely ham in front of the TV

Secretly wants to quit Council to join the football team

Japan/Kiku Honda:

Kiku deliberated between Digital Animation and the more ‘traditional’ route of engineering before deciding that if he was going to suffer for three years he was going to suffer doing something he liked

He only has the motivation to study at night, so he games all day and mugs all night. He lives off a diet of Red Bull and cup noodles

Roomies with Alfred. The both of them throw the sickest gaming parties every Friday night, just so that they can trash their guests at Super Smash Bros

Has a whole bunch of anime keychains and pins hanging off his bag that probably weigh more than the actual contents of his bag. Kiku’s cousin Yao’s hair got caught in it once and it took a lot of screaming before they managed to pull him free

Somehow manages to maintain that 4.0 GPA with that shitty sleep schedule/diet of his? How does he do it

America/Alfred F Jones:

ASTROPHYSICS ALL THE WAY BABY!

Al really loves his course but he also really loves putting work off until the last minute. You can usually spot him camping outside the printing room trying to print an essay minutes before submission time, but it doesn’t matter because he usually gets by with a B anyway

Overloads the fuck on extra-curriculars and clubs, so he’s quite well known around campus. He’s in the football team, track team, is Vice-President of the Student Council, and President of the anime club

He’s the poster boy of the school. College website? Alfred. College pamphlets? Alfred. Anti-smoking advisory that’s hung up in every godforsaken toilet in college? Alfred. What can he do? He’s just too damn handsome.

The biggest Halloween fucker on campus. He shows up to class every Halloween without fail in the exact same Captain America costume as last year’s

England/Arthur Kirkland:

Literature with Creative Writing

Tends to come off as snobby, but is actually really nice when you get to know him better. He’ll show up to your dorm armed with a kettle and a box of teabags if you need a study buddy or just someone to talk to

He’s also a terrible chef. The student dorms have had 6 fire scares in the past term, and they’re all Arthur related incidents

Talks big about only reading fine literature but writes fanfiction in his dorm room every night. It’s a secret he’ll take to his grave, especially since TheSlytherinGentleman is one of the biggest Harry Potter fanfiction accounts on AO3 right now

His room smells like tea and regret, because he opted for a four person dorm and now he’s living with Francis, Antonio and Gilbert for the next two years

Argues that his half brother Alfred’s GPA is higher than his because “Literary arts is subjective”

France/Francis Bonnefoy:

Film student

Francis’s favourite past time is renting out old movies and watching it on the library’s old VCR. Netflix just doesn’t have that same a e s t h e t i c

Among the four of them in the same dorm, he is the only one with a skincare routine and a 10pm bedtime

The mom friend of the house. He’s the one to call for hangover remedies (Antonio), or if something gets broken (Gilbert), or if something’s on fire (Arthur)

Resident heartthrob. Receives the most amount of chocolates and gifts every Valentine’s Day, and is always happy to share

Francis, Gilbert and Antonio have a “bully Arthur day” every year to commemorate the day Arthur moved in with them. It’s Francis’ favourite day of the year (apart from Christmas)

Goes all out on decorations for Christmas. The whole dorm is like a palace once he’s done with it

China/Yao Wang:

Business student, though everyone says he should’ve taken culinary instead (jokes on them, he’s starting his own restaurant empire after college)

Yao’s stuffed toys take up 80% of his bed space

Irregular sleeper, and wakes up at really odd hours of the night. There’s nothing to do until daybreak and it’s hard to fall back asleep, so he just wanders aimlessly around his dorm and scares the living hell out of Ivan from time to time

Listens to music at max volume. Likes to start his day with aggressive death metal in order to help himself stay awake for morning classes

He destresses by cooking. There’s always tupperware boxes of fried rice/egg noodles stacked in the dorm kitchens during exam season

Always has backache. He claims that the chairs in the lecture halls suck, but his kid brother Leon tells him that he’s just an old man with back problems

Russia/Ivan Braginsky:

Medical student, but doesn’t look like it

Ivan keeps really gross photos in his phone to help him reference back to the stuff he’s learning in class, and it tends to scare unsuspecting friends

Has so many stories from his time as a hospital intern. It grosses people out, that’s why he loves to tell them

“Did I tell you about the time I had to help sew a man’s fingers back one by one after his hand was crushed by a steamroller”

Likes the sun, but doesn’t really like sports. He’s the medic for a bunch of sports teams, and he likes to sit and watch the games

There’s also never a week that goes by where Alfred doesn’t get hurt. Seriously, can that Jones kid chill?

Roomies with Yao. They’re the most functional room in the entire campus. No noise complaints, no dirty dishes, no undone laundry, and they PRIDE themselves on it

[photolover82]

The Masked Singer Season 6 Episode 3: Time to meet Group B! (Commentary & Guesses)

Hello fellow humans! Welcome (or welcome back) to Ana’s Masked Singer recap, where I recap and talk about this show called The Masked Singer if you wanna stick around for that. So, this time around, we get to meet the other group, Group B, who we might not see again for 2 weeks, since we are going to see group A perform again this upcoming week with a new wildcard, Pepper. Anyways, let’s get started with the recap:

Group B was introduced and they consisted of Dalmatian 🐶, Queen of Hearts 🫀, Mallard 🦆, Cupcake 🧁, and Banana Split 🍌🍦. They performed, and one was eliminated unfortunately, let’s start with that…

So the contestant that was eliminated/revealed first in Group B was:

Dalmatian 🐶

Performance Commentary: ok, so I wasn’t super surprised by this elimination honestly, I expected it since he was the weakest vocally of this group. He sang Beautiful by Snoop Dogg ft Pharrell Williams and I gotta give him props for actually singing when most rappers just decide to only rap and not sing at all on this show. However, he did sound a bit like they put way too much of that auto tune stuff on his voice so it sounded like a robot him singing, which kinda made him the weakest link. However, his rapping was awesome (duh because that’s what he does professionally… and btw not spoiling who he is with that comment because when you hear the performance, you’ll know 100% it’s a rapper)

And he was revealed to be…

*DRUMROLL PLEASE*

Tyga

Omg I knew it!! Thank you Twitter for helping me out, y’all are the best. I thought at first it might have been Chance the Rapper but then people started saying Tyga and I was like hmmm lemme see the clues, yup makes sense, well great segue (segway) Ana because imma show you some of the clues you might have missed:

Scream Poster= he was in the Scream series

Cat Doll= play on words because his name is Tyga (like Tiger… man these producers are really into puns, it’s kinda clever tho)

Was discovered by a big player= in 2007, he started doing mixtapes and he was discovered by Travie McCoy who offered him a record deal

Now, that we have that out of the way, let’s get into our remaining contestants (big warning: this group has left me all types of confused when it comes to guesses so I apologize if my arguments aren’t perfect with some of these):

1. Cupcake 🧁

Performance: This performance is so confusing to me. Idk if this is a man or woman, sometimes I think woman with deep voice and other times I am like no that’s a man. So I don’t know about this one, it’s a very good performance of Heat Wave by Martha and the Vandellas but I need to hear more because I am confused. I am in between a specific man or a specific woman but I am not sure so unfortunately for this one I don’t have a guess

Sorry y’all no guess for this one :(… hopefully, next time they perform I will have a better idea*

*(I will say the guess I am leaning towards that a few people have said *just in case the cupcake leaves next* is Ruth Pointer from the Pointer Sisters because there were supposed to be multiple cupcakes and not just one, and in the PKG, cupcake said they were used to being in a group)

2. Banana Split 🍌🍦

Performance: They were 1000% my favorite performance of the night even though only Split/Ice Cream sang A Million Dreams from the Greatest Showman. She is amazing, I absolutely love her, she has that iconic Broadway sound that I absolutely adore. Just her singing this makes me so confident on who she is omg I’m stoked!

Having said that, I am so positive, like way too certain none of y’all will convince me otherwise like Todrick level confidence they are…

Katherine McPhee and David Foster

Ok, so you guys are probably like “Ana, how can you be so sure if the damn banana didn’t even sing a note, he just played the piano?!” Well, my friends, you have a point, but I know who she is and honestly I don’t even care if I am wrong ab him (I won’t know for sure until he sings a note) but HER I am absolutely positive….and they are a married couple and the banana has heart eyes so in my head it makes sense with the clues too, but before I go to the clues, I have a funny story on how I know who Ms. Katherine McPhee is… so like I was watching this performance and was like omg her voice Sound so familiar! Where have I heard her before?! This is driving me nuts… And then I saw people on YouTube saying that it’s them and I was like wait Katherine McPhee that name sounds so familiar. Then I looked her up and I found out that I knew who she was because I randomly watched a show on Netflix called Country Comfort (which side note: LeAnn Rimes or the Sun from Season 4 guest starred on that show and LeAnn’s husband stars in it… so connection there?), which to explain the show briefly it’s literally the Nanny but with country music and in Tennessee instead of NY. Anyways, she sang a lot on that show and it clicked, I was like BINGO OMG THAT IS HER IT CANNOT BE ANYONE ELSE (similar to how I felt about Todrick being the bull when I saw that damn sneak peak performance). Anyway ya, that was unnecessarily long, now onto the clues:

She left school to move to the city= she attended Boston Conservatory for 3 semesters and left to move to LA to try out for TV pilots

Thought she got her big break, but it wasn’t it= she got an MTV soap opera plot but it never made it to air

Collaborator who sticks with me through sweet and sour= they have known each other ever since she was on the 5th season of American Idol in 2006 and their collaboration is that he is a music producer and she sings (on American Idol, he would play the piano while she sang… does this sound familiar to you guys yet? Ringing any bells? If not, rewatch the performance Banana Split did)

3. Queen of Hearts 🫀

Performance: She sang Born This Way by Lady Gaga and I already knew she was going to be good, but this was like Black Swan all over again. This beginning song wasn’t the best for her voice, but she had fun and she did the damn thing. Closest Lady Gaga singing impression I’ve seen, but I am positive it ain’t Lady Gaga. Also, she slayed that ending.

Ok, so I am not too sure about this guess but after a bit of research and voice matching, I think it might be…

Jewel (the singer, not an actual jewel)

Again I say, with a bit of research, I feel like she’s the closest guess I can give you guys especially matching the singing voices, but let’s look at the clues:

Grew up in a house that lacked warmth= she grew up in Alaska (born in Utah)

Tin man from Wizard of Oz= she played Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz in Concert: Dreams Come True in 1995

Hilary Swank photo= Swank has a dog named Jewel (when I read this I laughed, wow Masked Singer really?! 😂😂)

4. Mallard 🦆

Performance: This performance was not my cup of tea tbh, it was real deep country which is not my jam at all. The song title says it all: Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy) by Big & Rich. Like it was great no lie, but like I just don’t really enjoy that kinda music so it wasn’t for me.

Again, this one is a shot in the dark guess but I am gonna stick with it and it is the one I am leaning towards voice wise:

Willie Robinson (yes the guy from Duck Dynasty)

Ok, so again hear me out, this might sound stupid (and half of me thinks it is) but it kinda makes sense in a strange way especially looking at the clues:

Surrounded by dollar bills= Duck Dynasty merch raised a ton of bills

Photo of Chris Pratt= they worked together and became friends filming Jurassic World in 2014

Platinum Album= Has a certified platinum album “Duck the Halls: A Robertson Family Christmas” (I can’t believe this one, I was pretty surprised)

Anyways, that’s it! I can’t wait to see Group A next week.. again yeah but with Pepper this time so woohoo another Wildcard. I just hope we can see more of Group B too because it feels like too much of Group A is being seen. Anyways, see y’all next week with the recap for tomorrow’s episode! Bye guys! Remember to do all the social media things! Like, comment, follow me for more, all of that 👋🏼

[greensparty]

Movie Reviews - Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie / Master Gardener

A few weeks ago I attended the 2023 Independent Film Festival Boston and as is always the case, I sometimes don’t get to see some films they are screening because there’s too many other films or events at the same time. Kind of a good problem to have. But among those films I didn’t get to catch are two that I got to review this week. Lucky me!

Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie

One of the biggest stars of the 1980s was hands-down Michael J. Fox. The Canadian-raised actor came to Hollywood and completely ran with the role of Alex P. Keaton on TV’s Family Ties (NBC 1982-1989). In the Reagan 80s, young Republicans loved him and thought he was there guy, but then liberals loved Fox because it seemed like he was making fun of the GOP. In the end, everyone loved him! But through his knack for comic timing, it lead to leading man roles in movies like Teen Wolf, The Secret of My Success, and most notably as Marty McFly in the Back to the Future trilogy (one of my favorite trilogies ever)! He tried to show his range as a dramatic actor in Light of Day, Bright Lights Big City and Casualties of War, which I actually liked and was impressed by, but it seems audiences wanted Fox to do comedy. After trying movies that were hit or miss, he returned to TV with Spin City (ABC 1996-2001). It was around 1998 that Fox announced he had been living with Parkinson’s Disease since 1990. Since then he has slowed down his acting, but has shined with appearances on Curb Your Enthusiasm and Rescue Me. Now at age 61, Fox is getting the documentary treatment from Oscar-winner Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth) with Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie.

movie poster

Fox tells his own story about his career and life. As with any good biopic of a Hollywood star, it intercuts various clips of his work. But it also intercuts with fly-on-the-wall moments of Fox working with his physical therapist, spending time with his family and introspective interviews. There are also some “re-enactments” interspersed. I say “re-enactments” because they are different than most re-enactments you would see on A&E or such, these are more over-the-should or from afar stand-ins for Fox heading to a set, doing a stunt or getting ready for a big event. 

Guggenheim has addressed serious topics in a lot of his docs, but even with Waiting for Superman about the education system, he interspersed clips of TV shows. He actually is very pop culture-savvy if you look at some of his films like It Might Get Loud or the U2 doc From the Sky Down, he truly loves entertainment. Here he is making a pop-culture soaked doc that is also delving deep into a man facing the realities of a debilitating disease. The fact that Fox is easily one of the most well-liked entertainers of all-time (seriously, find me anyone who has had a bad word to say about him?) makes you care for the subject that much more. But there’s also a nostalgic element as I’m thinking back to all of the great roles I remember enjoying him in as a kid and now he’s coming to grips with his health and future. It is surprising to see a director like Guggenheim delve into “re-enactments” and normally I don’t care for them, but here I actually thought it worked.

Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie is available on Apple TV+: https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/still-a-michael-j-fox-movie/umc.cmc.njewt06q05vqbgp6w42pqb0l/

4 out of 5 stars

Master Gardener

Paul Schrader wrote one of the greatest movies ever made with 1976′s Taxi Driver. The combination of Schrader’s writing, Martin Scorsese’s directing and a powerhouse performance from Robert De Niro made that one of my 15 Favorites of All Time. Schrader’s entire filmography of both writing and directing is about tortured and haunted men, i.e. Raging Bull, The Mosquito Coast, Affliction, and Auto Focus just to name a few. But it was his late career comeback First Reformed that truly blew everyone away, resulting in his very first Oscar nomination for screenwriting (which is astounding to me). He followed that up with The Card Counter (my #5 Movie of 2021). Now he’s back for what’s being called the third in his tortured men in a room trilogy (seems there’s been a lot more than just three, but who’s counting), with Master Gardener opening this week after numerous film festivals.

movie poster

Joel Edgerton stars as Narvel, a horticulturalist of an estate owned by wealthy dowager Norma Haverhill (Sigourney Weaver). Narvel oversees the gardening and his staff. Norma asks that he take on an apprentice, her troubled great-niece Maya (Quintessa Swindell). Things change once she begins working on the property. I’m going to try and avoid spoilers as much as I can, but Narvel has a dark past that comes to light with Maya.

This movie is going to be (hell, it already is) polarizing. Some might embrace the layered and nuanced performances, others are going to have issues with the class warfare and interpretations therein. Here is my take: in the very beginning of the film as Narvel is sitting in a room writing in his journal / narrating, and it almost felt like Schrader self-parody to see this motif again. But when the movie loses its way, stay with it - Edgarton truly is mesmerizing. There is a lot more exposition and blatant dialogue, more so than I’ve recalled in Schrader’s previous films. The three main actors are fantastic and that needs to be said. But the biggest problem I have with this movie is that it had the misfortune of following First Reformed and The Card Counter. In contrast with those two, this felt so much lesser. Schrader is a master storyteller of tortured souls, but this felt like been-there-done-that. There are definitely some inspired moments...but you have to, well, wait for this garden to grow to get there. 

For info on Master Gardener: http://www.magpictures.com/mastergardener/

2.5 out of 5 stars

[aion-rsa]

Will the Rocky IV Director’s Cut Kill its Charm?

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Rocky IV remains a prototypical example of 1980s American franchise filmmaking, having conveyed a patriotic Cold-War-evocative ethos through the aesthetically shiny lens of scrappy superhuman pugilists pummeling each other over revenge and world peace, all to Vince DiCola’s absurd synthesizer-strewn score. Oh, and lest we forget, it had a robot!  While those attributes entitled the 1985 film to the smug dismissal and earnest appreciation of posterity, star/writer/director Sylvester Stallone’s upcoming director’s cut risks erasing its allure.

Stallone, who announced his plan for a new Rocky IV cut last year, has completed his redux of the famous franchise‘s four-quel. However, unlike that other director’s cut dominating current conversations, Zack Snyder’s Justice League, Sly’s upcoming Rocky IV Director’s Cut is an update of a film that was properly released by its director. Having premiered back on Nov. 27, 1985, Rocky IV was a box-office-topping hit that proved profoundly profitable for studio MGM, with a worldwide gross of $300 million ($733.3 million adjusted for inflation,) against a budget of $28 million. Moreover, despite its oft-focused foibles, the film retained enough interest 33 years later to be directly followed up in Creed II. However, to borrow his parlance from 2006’s Rocky Balboa, Stallone seemed to have “stuff in the basement,” to unleash for the fourth film.  

“We’ve just been working on punches and sounds because it’s never complete,” explains Stallone of his director’s cut approach in an Instagram update. “I’ve said this before, you can go back and see a movie that you’ve done 50 years ago and go, ‘I’ve got to re-edit that.’ And every director feels the same way. It’s not about making a movie, it’s about remaking. Unfortunately, you run out of time, you run out of money. They basically throw you out of the room. So, therefore, you don’t get a chance, but on this one, I finally got a chance, so I’m feeling great about this.”

While the full extent of the changes Stallone made to Rocky IV obviously won’t be known until he premieres his new cut, some tidbits have made the rounds. One of the earliest-known changes is the elimination of one of its most campy, pseudo-sci-fi elements, the aforementioned robot. Specifically, the Jetsons-esque talking robot—a real-life invention called SICO, created by International Robotics Inc.—that well-to-do champ Rocky gives as a birthday present to his leachy live-in brother-in-law, Paulie (Burt Young) in the film’s first act. However, the robot—complete with a fancy-for-1985 cordless phone system installed—became a punchline, even for within film, during which it was implied that Paulie eventually altered its settings to sound and act like an alluring female maid that worships him while fetching his beers. Thus, the elimination of the robot not only deletes the amusing automaton, but it also necessitates an essence-altering recut of Paulie’s birthday party scenes. Yet, Stallone’s response to a fan’s posted desire to give SICO a reprieve was met with Ivan Drago-like coldness, stating, “I don’t like the robot anymore.”

MGM/UA

And that brings us to the film’s Siberian Bull big bad himself, Dolph Lundgren’s Ivan Drago, whose claim-to-fame fight in which he beat Carl Weathers’s Apollo Creed to death will apparently be extended in a yet-unknown manner in Stallone’s new cut. The role positioned newcomer Lundgren for stardom in what was only his second onscreen appearance, having previously appeared six months earlier in 1985 Bond movie A View to a Kill as a thug named Venz; a role he acquired due to his real-life romantic relationship with co-star Grace Jones. Besides being an imposing spectacle of a human being (which he remains to this day), Lundgren’s outing as Drago was meant to depict him as the ultimate villain, a soulless Soviet slayer shaped by communism, steroids and all-around godlessness. However, while that façade was shattered by the end of the film (and even more so in Creed II), it remains to be seen if extended Drago scenes—specifically in the Apollo fight—ends up weighing the film down unnecessarily.

Read more

Movies

Rocky IV Director’s Cut Will Ditch Robot

By Mike Cecchini

Culture

Could Rocky Balboa Really Have Gone the Distance?

By Tony Sokol

If there’s one thing that critics can’t take away from Rocky IV, it would have to be Stallone’s artfully economic approach as a director. The film manifests as a slim, trim 91-minute affair that saves money by being deliberately diluted with lengthy montages—FOUR of them in total. In fact, even if we generously discount his blatant reuse of Rocky and Apollo’s Rocky III-closing sparring session for the opening scene, two of said montages fully consist of recycled footage from the previous three films. Indeed, the movie kicks off by playing “Eye of the Tiger” during the franchise-obligatory recap of the previous film’s final fight, and Rocky’s contemplative car ride after Apollo’s death is riddled with flashback scenes, during which a soundtrack song, Robert Tepper’s “No Easy Way Out,” plays out in full! You certainly have to hand it to Sly, the man knows how to get a big bang for his production buck. Yet, as with other intrinsically-Rocky IV aspects, one must wonder if Stallone has soured on his in-retrospect-amiable montage method of movie-making as much as the Robot.

On another note, Rocky IV is also known to be riddled with major movie mistakes, and I do mean A LOT of them; proverbial warts that have also come to define the film. For example, a major continuity mistake occurs before the Apollo/Drago fight when Apollo is in the ring trash-talking Drago, shouting, “I want you! I want you!” while his bare hand mockingly points at the Russian. Of course, just minutes earlier, we saw Apollo getting his hands taped up in his dressing room, and he was clearly gloved up when he came down to the ring in a James Brown-accompanied spectacle entrance. Additionally, a similarly bizarre mistake occurs during Rocky’s mid-movie vision of Drago in the aforementioned “No Easy Way Out” montage, which shows the Russian in the red trunks that he would later wear in the film’s final fight. Yet, most egregiously, Drago is clearly sporting the actual cut under his left eye that Rocky would deliver to him in the second round! While I could see Stallone wanting to fix mistakes like this, it would still be a shame to lose them.

However, a director’s cut of Rocky IV could yield benefits. After all, it could correct Apollo’s funeral scene, in which an odd focus error occurs on the right side of the frame that blurs out a few attendees, leading viewers to think it was censored. Moreover, it could prospectively integrate legendary lost elements. For example, Drago’s iconic evil line—delivered after he just killed Apollo—declaring “If he dies, he dies” was originally complemented by another would-be famous line that wasn’t even delivered in the film, but could finally get its onscreen due. Rocky IV’s teaser trailer featured an ominous introductory monologue from the villain that, contemporaneously, was just associated with the character as the movie line. Delivered in Lundrgen’s labored Russian accent, lines such as “My name is Drago” and “Soon, the whole world will know my name” were prominent pieces of the film’s early ephemera. In fact, the latter line was famously sampled at the end of New Wave act Sigue Sigue Sputnik’s 1986 hit (famously used in Ferris Beuller’s Day Off), “Love Missle F1-11,” in which the trailer clip—along with imitated lines from Scarface and The Terminator—was included to exemplify the song’s commentary on American cinematic ultraviolence.  

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Regardless of how it turns out, fans of the campy four-quel will be anxious to see what surprises Stallone has in store for the Rocky IV Director’s Cut. However, he has yet to reveal release date.

The post Will the Rocky IV Director’s Cut Kill its Charm? appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[theparanormalperiodical]

The REAL Story Behind Sinister (2012), And The 11 Scariest Pagan Gods That You Don’t Want To Bump Into

It’s damn near impossible to find a really good horror film.

No, I mean a really good horror film.

You know, where the plot is winding, and unravels oh so gently until it snaps us back into its web, leaving us tied up in the lair of a monster as it inches closer and closer towards us.

Most horror films simply don’t make the cut.

But in recent years, there is one that does just that, twisting together an incredible plot, a truly terrifying monster, and the subtleties of gore that have you promising yourself you will never purchase a lawn mower again:

Sinister (2012).

That being said, this story of an unforgiving Pagan god and the innocent families that stumble across his path shouldn’t be shaking you to your core - it’s the real, historic legends that inspired this film.

Bughuul/Bagul is based on 3 Pagan gods, bringing the events behind the camera outside of our TV screen. But the thing is, it turns out Moloch, Baal, and Tlaloc are far from the only holy entities you don’t want to cross paths with.

Bughuul might just be more real than you’d like to think.

What Happens In Sinister (2012) And Sinister 2 (2015)?

Before Bughuul was conjured up from the darkest corners of our nightmares, and before Ellison Oswalt - the main character in the film - even signed the lease on his new house, was an idea.

Sure, the real Pagan gods inspiring Bughuul might be enough to keep you awake at night, but C Robert Cargill, the writer of the film, was inspired by something else at first:

It was a nightmare after watching The Ring (2002).

From here the fundamental building block of the plot was set in place: a supernatural entity spreads itself via films that need to be created and then passed on. The thing is, this being doesn’t channel as much sympathy as we all harboured for Samara.

The starring role of the Super 8 movies in this flick is taken by a far more terrifying being that doesn’t stick to such a rigorous time scale.

Our story follows a true-crime writer attempting to uncover an unsolved murder case to propel himself back to his former fame. But his distant family and obvious alcoholism are about to be the least of his problems when he accidentally unleashes a Pagan god.

You can’t find a Citizens Advice leaflet on that.

The tale begins when the author, Ellison Oswalt, moves into a new home. The thing is, he has a nasty habit of picking houses nearby to the cases he researches - only this time, he’s shacked up in the house where a whole family was murdered in the backyard and the youngest child went missing.

Nothing creepy here, right?

Oh, there’s a box in the attic with a Super 8 film projector and reels of film which display the murder of several families in their own horrific way.

*Inhale*

*Exhale*

Our new favourite true crime writer decides to team up with a lovable police deputy who does some digging around the murders. He discovers these murders took place from the 1960s up to present day, and occurred across the entire US. But what connected these murders - aside from that creepy figure in the background of the clips and the symbols - is that a child from each family went missing after the murder.

One quick Skype call to an esteemed occult professor later, and hey presto he’s realised he’s encountered a Babylonian deity known as Bughuul. But you can call him the Eater of Children, a nickname that caught on when they discovered he likes to consume the souls of children.

In case you can’t do the maths, Bughuul likes to have families murdered, and spare a child as a light snack post-murder.

Throughout this process of unveiling the truth of Bughuul, the paranormal activity begins. The steady climb in the supernatural peaks however when he hears the projector running in the attic. He checks out the situation, and realises all of the missing kids are enjoying a movie night - think less Netflix, more bloodthirsty Pagan god - when Bughuul rocks up via an unnecessary jumpscare.

Oswalt then makes the executive decision to burn the film and projector, and then swap this murder house for his previous residency.

Three cheers for common sense!

The thing is, Oswalt didn’t do his reading on basic horror movie monsters - ghosts haunt places, demons haunt people.

(Rooky error.)

Unfortunately Oswalt learns this when he’s mid-unpack of his old house. The professor then gives him a ring and lets him know that it's images of Bughuul that serve as a gateway for the deity to enter our mortal world. But it’s when kids come into contact with the image that they can be possessed.

That’s right - it’s the kids that do the murdering, the filming, and then the pissing off with Bughuul.

Shortly after this bulb lights up, our lovable deputy also gets on the blower, and lets him know that each family that was murdered did the exact same thing:

They realised their new home was haunted by some presence, shacked up at a new location where there were no Super 8 movies included in the rent, and then were killed by their child.

Yep - our favourite true crime writer has only gone and set off the exact chain of events he attempted to investigate.

(Rooky error.)

Just as he realises he’s been played by the B-man, he passes out. He’s just been poisoned by his daughter. He wakes up moments before being slaughtered with an axe.

The film ends with the child being carried away by Bughuul and teleported into the film with him.

Sinister 2 picks up the plotline several years later, following around the lovable police officer as he takes matters into his own hands; he attempts to destroy the houses that continue Bughuul’s spread across America.

But in this film, we actually get a behind-the-scenes view of Bughuul’s process of encroaching on children. And it turns out the possession is actually peer pressure from the missing children - but instead of trying a cigarette outside the back of the local Lidl, you’re being forced to murder your family in your very own brutal way.

And if this exclusive preview into our favourite Pagan deity wasn’t enough, Bughuul also upskills and learns to utilise a radio to spread his message.

*Deletes BBC Sounds App*

So - Who Is Bughuul?

Found footage is a difficult genre to break into.

Bughuul, however crashes into it, reviving the boring clips that dragged The Blair Witch Project into horror movie infamy and sent the Paranormal Activity viewers to sleep.

Sinister plays with the horror genre in a whole new way, using silent, grainy Super 8 movies to leave the viewers convinced they might awaken a long dead spirit by listening to their favourite murder mystery podcast.

But the visual horror - whether of the gory deaths we witness or of Bughuul himself - confines the movie to the streaming platform you chose that evening.

It’s the unnervingly real concept of Bughuul which allows the events concerning Oswalt to haunt us on a whole new level.

In the film we are told that Bughuul is a Babylonian deity - a Pagan or early Christian demon, if you will - who can possess children, is transmitted through images, likes to murder entire families, and then make do with a child’s soul.

You know, the basic stuff.

Whilst the finer details of Bughuul is not mapped out in theology, the fundamental building block of the body horror in this movie - that of sacrifice in horrific ways - has been practiced throughout history and devoted to 3 specific Pagan gods that the writers drew inspiration from.

And the first is called Moloch.

This Canaanite god was associated with many things, including agriculture and fertility, and sacrifice and fire, all of which are firmly represented in the movie. Whether it's the films’ focus on children, or its the spontaneous combustion of the Super 8 movies and the victims that do not conduct his bidding, Baghuul directly mirrors this entity.

Well, maybe ‘mirrors’ isn’t the right word.

Baghuul has the lookbook of a modern horror monster, from the Slender Man inspired suit to the smokey eye only a 13 year old could pull off. Moloch, on the other hand, is often depicted as a Bronze statue of a humanoid bull sitting down.

And it’s his statue form which lets you in on his preferred method of worship:

The statue would be heated with fire, and victims thrown in as a form of fiery sacrifice.

In fact, in both the 1920s and later in 1962, it was discovered via excavations of the ancient Carthaginian civilisations that both young people and animals were often the most popular victims, forging a link between the youth we saw on our TV screens, and the ashes left in the urns that were found.

This link was even addressed by the writers of the second film, with the promotional poster claiming Bughuul was the brother of this brutal god - but this isn’t the first time Moloch has appeared on the big screen.

Remember that episode in Buffy, you know, the one about online safety cause you won’t run into a paedophile but a glorified demon that wants to become a physical beast and wreak havoc on the world and is going to use you as a source of power?

Yeah, that’s the one.

In fact, Buffy stuck to the same premise, claiming Moloch was unleashed when an ancient text was scanned into a library system.

Sinister had less broody vampires, though.

Our next contender for coulda-been-Bughuul is Baal, a demon which has actually featured in a few other horror flicks of his own, so far. The Rite featured this ancient god who focused his attention on fertility, just like Moloch.

And, just like Moloch, archaeological evidence of sacrifices was discovered, but in a region of Egypt from which he was worshipped.

Amongst the sacrificed infants found was a collection of animals and prostitutes. Even the ancient texts detailing their powers and premise suggests a sibling-like link: Baal Hammon was worshipped by the Carthage people as a supreme god, just like the former entity, and instead of bearing the body of a bull, he appears as a ram.

Yet despite sharing both a ritualistic and physical approach with Moloch, it’s Baal’s backstory that brings us even closer to Baghuul.

Too close.

Legend has it Baal was considered more powerful than his father, suggesting children overpowering their own family is a vital premise of this god.

Our final contender for Baghuul-but-without-the-eyeliner is Tlaloc. And, once again, this entity is just like the previous gods, but belongs on the other side of the globe.

This Aztec god is the god of rain, water and fertility, and despite his rather more peaceful and popular worship today, historically things have been a little, uh, sacrificey.

The remains of war captives have been found near his statues, but this only hints towards his association with death; it is said that he was essentially the destination in the afterlife for those that died from a variety of ailments.

And one of these ailments was child sacrifices.

Think back to the Sinister movies for a second.

In the short Super 8 films we see Bughuul make cameo appearances (like Stan Lee in Marvel films, only he’s a wholesome old man and isn't going to gobble up Hugh Jackman’s soul when the credits roll). This suggests that Baghuul not only enjoys a hobby of snacking on innocent children, but also takes pleasure from the sacrifices of the other family members, and appears at their time of death.

Unfortunately, according to historic worship, Tlaloc prefers his sacrifices a little more niche than just dead parents. Typically he likes his sacrifices to have their hearts extracted from the corpses, and collected in a bowl by the temple.

If you thought Sinister was grotesque, be thankful you didn’t witness a 7 year old stabbing their mother in the chest with a cheese knife.

The 11 Other Terrifying Gods You Don’t Want To Encounter In Your Attic

Paganism is an incredible thing.

It’s a religion that puts the believer at the centre of a huge selection of gods, demons, and deities to choose from. Even modern paganism doesn’t follow any rules.

Simply choose an entity, and get worshippin’!

But there is a downside.

We already know that three Pagan gods are enough to have you avoiding your 5 year old nephew at the next family dinner. But unfortunately, Moloch, Baal, and Tlaloc are far from the only deities that will make you left eye twitch when you see so much as a polaroid camera for fear Bughuul might have taken a #vintage selfie.

There’s 11 more terrifying deities that you don’t want to know about but I’m going to tell you about anyway!

(Yay.)

#1 Chinnamasta

Self-sacrifice and sexual restraint sounds like values we should all practice, but when a Hindu goddess tells you to do it - and she has no head - you might be more reluctant to listen to her wise words.

The legend claims that a group of Hindu gods and demons churned the ocean in order to extract an elixir of immortality. Chinnamasta took a sip, swallowed the entire share for the demons, and chopped her own head off to prevent them from reclaiming it.

An alternative version tells a different story: Chinnasmasta and her crew were bathing too long and realised they were hungry. So, she satiated their hunger by decapitating her own head and allowing her attendants to drink the blood spurting from her neck.

And so, her image is immortalised by three fountains of blood coming out of her neck, and her attendants gulping back the liquid.

Casual.

#2 Pan

As well as being one of the most famous gods to date, this Greek deity is also one of the oldest. And whilst he he is the god of nice, wholesome things like cosy forests and flocks of cute animals, he would be deemed a sex offender today.

Pan would try and have sex with anything - yes, anything - that moved. And when one of these things tried to run away, such as the nymph Syrinx, he chased her down, and then turned her into a pan flute.

And when another nymph also turned him down, he had her murdered by his minions.

Fact is, you can choose which gods you can believe in, but the real horror in the world - sexual predators - will always exist.

#3 - Ishtar

Most gods are known for their brutal acts, whether in the name of justice, or for selfish purposes. The thing is, this goddess has a thing for gore.

And rightly so.

Having been raped by a gardener as she slept underneath the shade of his tree, she got her vengeance by punishing the Earth. She made the rivers flow with blood, she tormented the planet with storms, and she cast disease over our lands.

And similar to the gods already mentioned, she too has a habit of sacrifice. But she doesn’t want people to be sacrificed to her - she prefers to do her own sacrificing of her own lovers.

#4 - Cronus

Next up is the leader of the Titans. But his attempt to eat his own children to prevent them from completing a prophecy and overthrowing him doesn’t get a mention here - it’s what he did to his father.

He scythed off his genitals.

And if that wasn’t enough, he then chucked ‘em into the sea, spawning the goddess Aphrodite.

#5 - Teutates, Esus, and Taranis

Christianity’s got Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit. Paganism on the other hand has its own trio. But these guys rely on routine human sacrifice. But what really sets them apart is that each individual god has their own preferred murder method.

Teutates likes to drown his victims headfirst in ale, Esus likes to have his sacrifices stabbed, hung from trees, and left to bleed out, and Taranis likes wickerwork figures that are set alight to contain his victims in a fiery death a la Nicholas Cage.

Squad goals?

#6 - Tezcatlipoca

The second Aztec god to feature in this post continues the trend of these deities preferring bodily organs. But this deity sets itself apart by craving a far slower ritual that culminates in a sacrifice.

A priest would select a prisoner who was to impersonate the god. Luxurious shenanigans would ensue, including 4 maidens dedicated to his every need. Unfortunately, his needs wouldn’t last too long.

He would have a year of this god-like life, walk up the steps of a temple, and have his heart ripped out.

#7 - Huehueteotl

He was the god of death, hot, and cold. And he liked his sacrifices to have experienced all three at the same time, apparently.

The process of sacrifice would include drugging the victim, roasting them alive, ripping out their heart, and then burning the remains again.

According to other accounts, the victim could simply be drugged, and then dragged with hooks to platforms for the ritual. And then the heart would be cut out and tossed into the fire. And then the rest of the bodies would follow.

Your choice, I guess.

#8 - Toci

Life must’ve been hard back then.

You know, the constant fear that you - yes, you - might be the next victim to be tossed to the flames of fiery sacrifice, or an organ of your deity’s choice was to be placed into what can only be described as a ritualistic olive bowl.

But at least you’d have an inkling of what’s to come. The worshippers of Toci weren’t quite so lucky.

Toci was the goddess of healing and a patron of midwives and healers. But rather than wanting to celebrate life in all of its glory, she actually preferred dead people as gifts.

And so, women were dressed as the goddess, told they were going to see the local ruler, climb the temple, and be met with a priest with a knife. The unlucky woman would be beheaded, her heart removed, and skin flayed.

The priest would complete the ritual - yep, it doesn’t end there - by wearing the skin of the victim.

#9 - Chac

When we discuss sacrifice in the name of a god, it is often assumed that the act took place many years ago, and that the traces of the murders have long since decayed and disappeared from our world. But it turns out that you can actually visit the location of 2 wells in Chichen Itza where sacrifices took place in the name of Chac, the Mayan god of rain, water, and lightning.

But aside from casting storms over his worshippers, he encouraged human sacrifice.

And so, his worshippers obliged by tossing their young children into their wells; they believed Chac resided at the bottom of sinkholes, and wanted their human sacrifices to be as close as possible to him to ensure safe delivery.

According to the film’s lore, Baghuul lives inside of the images, and uses the pictures, the films, and any other form of media as a gateway to our realm.

In that case, God only knows what this article may have unleashed.

Traumatised? Afraid to turn the light out and turn in for fear of hearing Bughuul filming his YouTube outro in your attic? The you might as well check out my other articles in the mean time…

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