#rhett will occasionally compliment link's appearance

[asherlockstudy]

Seriously what can I say about Friday’s GMMore. The foreign language compliments were clearly designated to be plainly gay and then also Link throwing a “you don’t love your wife” to Rhett in his typical antagonistic to Jessie fashion but then Rhett no-homo-ing it up so hard…

So I won’t bother, I will just say thanks to Link for appreciating the harmony of the Greek language despite butchering it as much as the rest!

Wild Greek theory follows, I acknowledge that it is wild and there’s not enough evidence for it but I thought about it and I am just dumping it here.

I have said it before, I have noticed Link has a feel for several things Greek (very superficially of course), minus the cuisine obviously, he has mentioned famous ancient Greeks, some other facts about Greek history, Ithaca island (!), he consistently pronounces Greek much better than Rhett and… I have a theory about it, because knowing even very few details for a foreign nation he’s never been to is quite out of character for him. So… I think… I dare say… the loose boundaries and conceptualisations between friendship and romance that are known to have occasionally existed in Ancient Greece might or might not have something to do with his interest…….

On the contrary, I have said before how Rhett used to appear off when Greeks were mentioned in the past. He also has a habit of being consistently wrong about almost anything Greek-related he has discussed. Rhett would also always misidentify Greek as Latin with a very strange maddening confidence. I remember that time a Greek word was mentioned and he was like “who do you think I am, I know my Latin hahaha” and it was such a big facepalm. Even today, he guessed Greek was Portuguese (a Romantic language) and was so strangely stubborn that looked at Stevie in disbelief when she said it was Greek 😂 Rhett, my dude, you can’t even pronounce gyro, how much do you think you know about Greek in order to master disbelief?! My theory about this one and his general off attitude especially in the past is that he has some deep engraved beliefs regarding Greeks due to his church teachings, the very fanatic Protestants accuse the Greek Orthodox of being pagans allowing ancient practices to survive rather than true Christians etc etc And I think this slips out of him still a little and he probably has minimised the contribution of the Greeks to Christianity or believed in false stereotypes too much…

Anyway I KNOW this is not necessarily true because there is not enough evidence at all, it is just a feel and something I have fun exploring, that’s all…

[bleakcreek]

It's interesting how not only does Link hate giving Rhett actual compliments but man he be pretty harsh sometimes. He's always teasing him about Jessie crazy to marry him, how he parents his kids, his looks, etc.

it’s definitely interesting. i think it’s a combination of link doing it for comedy, link not wanting to give rhett the satisfaction of it (because obviously rhett knows that’s not how link really feels), and link just feeling self-conscious about it in general where his relationship with rhett is concerned. i think part of it is that it’s just part of the way link shows his affection though. rhett knows link is lying, and rhett has done the same thing in the past (though he’s less prone to it now), so i think it’s like -- almost a way of acknowledging how he feels without the embarrassment of actually being genuine. 

hell, there have been a ton of times when link has been trying to insult rhett and has accidentally complimented him instead. remember in one of the earlier seasons when he was trying to mock rhett and accidentally said he loved him instead?

during times when they’re less “on” though, they’re a lot more likely to compliment one another, especially in reference to something they’ve done creatively together. 

[loulougoingsolo]

Spot the big bird

I woke up this morning around 6 a.m. to the sound of a pheasant rooster screaming toot-toot under my window. After that, there was wing flapping, as the bird hopped to another spot. He kept making noise all morning, making it impossible for me to sleep. I don’t normally wake up at 6 a.m. on a Saturday, so the rest of my day has been more or less foggy. But I think I get 50 points for spotting a big bird, right?

In this week’s vlog, Rhett and Link go biking by the L.A. river. I know we are currently mostly making jokes about Rhett’s hair going wild, but can I just say that Link looks a bit like an older lady who has just removed the curlers from their hair after the night and forgot to do the final swoop through the curls, in the beginning of the video? (I admit I occasionally have that hair-do, too, even without the curlers. But I feel I had to mention his hair.)

I’m a simple girl living in the country side, and for me, the idea of a river turned into a concrete ditch is a bit odd - even though I know my brother living in a more urban environment, often goes biking by a similar “constructed” river. Not knowing anything about the L.A., I went on to google the bicycle route the guys are taking in this video, and was glad to find out it has its own Wiki page, in case you’re interested!

It seems there is a bit of a power play going on between the guys, as the drive to the start of their path. Rhett is driving this time, but Link is more familiar with the biking route, so who is in charge? I don’t quite know how a bike trip could be turned into a commune living arrangement type of a situation, or how a commune could suddenly turn into a sex cult, but evidently, whoever tells the others they can only have sex with the one in charge, but not with each other, is the leader. So...how does this apply to biking? Also which is it, if there is always a leader? And how the heck did we get to sex cults this early in the video?

I just love how self-concious Rhett is feeling about wearing the bicycle helmet. And, he actually asked for Link’s opinion about which helmet he should wear. I think it’s very adorable, really, and I just love how Link always finds new, innovative ways to compliment Rhett’s mane. This is the first time I’ve heard the word asinine, but Link says it in the most loving way possible, and to be quite honest, he isn’t wrong. But thankfully, Rhett fixes his lopsided hair, and everything works out just fine.

I have to say, bicycle helmets make me feel very self-concious, too. I actually have a helmet that is almost identical to the one Link has - solid black and practical. Why do we need to feel stupid when wearing something that can literally save our lives? (But since helmets do look kinda stupid, at least solid black goes with everything.) And here’s a Grandson of Anarchy, Rhett McLaughlin, for y’all to enjoy, in his full glory:

We have more lakes than rivers around where I live, and most bicycle routes here are basically dirt roads surrounded by rural landscape, but I think I prefer it that way. The scenery around the L.A. river is too open, too loud and way too constructed for my liking, but there is something very grandiose about the river. Rhett also looks pretty grandiose next to Link. I should be used to their size difference by now, but Link looks so tiny, again. He’s small enough to fit in Rhett’s pocket.

I wasn’t getting at all bored by watching the guys on their bikes, but I admit, the idea of a scavenger hunt is pretty appealing, even if the guys probably won’t find people with old money in the river. But there might have been someone rich there, since who in their right mind throws away a fairly functional looking stroller? Don’t they cost a fortune?

I don’t think the river cleaning crew was joking about finding dead bodies in the river. I know in the nearest bigger city in my area, which has a rapid with dams running across the centre, they empty the river of all water every now and then (usually in the spring), and bodies have been found more than once. (Which reminds me, one time I was on a bicycle ride with my mom, and we took a short cut through the woods, and found a dead goat there. It was horrible. It smelled so bad. There were flies everywhere. And now I’ve given everyone reading this nightmares. Sorry.)

I just realized that the L.A. river was probably where they filmed that one chase scene in Terminator 2. Am I right? I knew those concrete slopes looked somehow familiar. No wonder I had an unpleasant feeling about that river. I saw T2 way too young - they should never have allowed me into the theater at the age of 12. But never mind about that.

There is a lot of junk in that river, and it does make me kinda mad, too, just like Rhett. I once found a whole VCR  in the place I like to go pick mushrooms, so a VHS tape in a river isn’t surprising. One thing good about the digital age is that there aren’t quite that many old VHS or mix tapes lying around. The mix tape of 2020 is a Spotify playlist, I guess.

Since I clearly have nothing better to do, I ended up doing an internet search on different cross symbols, to find the one carved in the tree stump Rhett and Link find. It appears to be a cross potent. No idea why one would be in L.A. river, unless it’s just a very complicated way to make the tree stump rot quicker.

I think my new favourite thing is seeing Link just give up and start laughing, after trying to get Rhett talk about littering without threatening to kill someone. I think it’s only fair to talk trash about people who throw their trash in nature, and a message coming from an angry biker is probably a good idea. But I just love hearing Link snort and giggle.

After the rat chase vlog, and today’s episode, I think there soon is enough material for a full Rhett and Link horror movie. I would love to hear what the people, who asked if everything was okay with the guys, were thinking. One day, the title of these vlogs is going to be “The One Where They Get Arrested”.

I’m not a qualified gif maker, so I can’t capture all the pelvic thrusts of this vlog in their full glory. As enjoyable as it was to see the guys do their solo acts, some things just are more fun when done together. My only excuse for the edit below is that if they have the audacity to film something like this without even moving the camera between takes, they are asking to be edited together. It took me less than 5 minutes to do the edit, which, yes, is pretty crappy, but I just couldn’t miss the opportunity, when it was served to me on a silver platter.

[spryfilm]

“Deadpool 2” (2018)

Action

Written by: Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick and Ryan Reynolds

Directed by: David Leitch

Featuring: Ryan Reynolds,  Josh Brolin, Morena Baccarin, Julian Dennison, Zazie Beetz, T.J. Miller, Brianna Hildebrand, and Jack Kesy

Deadpool: “Sorry, I’m late. I was rounding up all the gluten in the world and launching it into space where it can’t not hurt us ever again.”

Critical Commentary:

Here we are after the undisputed success of “Deadpool” (2016) this time two years ago, there was never a doubt that a sequel would be produced to cash in on what was a tough road to the screen for the self-titled ‘merc with a mouth’. The perfect combination of R rated violence, humor and action was something sorely missing in comic book movies to that point – it could have been said to have filled a niche with it’s over the top everything. Not only that but its main champion writer/producer/ star Ryan Reynolds who after years of trying to be an A lister was, before this breakthrough, being shown the door to ignominy. In fact, the first movie was not even on studio Fox’s’ radar until test footage was leaked that gave a taste of the possibility of what “Deadpool” could be – the rest is history, on a modest US$58 million budget managed to not only set the record for the opening R rated weekend box office but generated over US$750 million worldwide. “Deadpool” also led to the possibility of other serious R rated comic book movies being produced which now seems like a no-brainer but until this time it was thought to be commercially unviable.

After a few false starts, the main one being the jettisoning of original director Tim Miller for “John Wick” (2014) and “Atomic Blonde” (2017) director David Leitch, this new movie arrives fully formed as well as being a very good sequel,  and compliment to the first – audiences will be pleased with the ramped-up action, characters as well as fourth wall breaking humor while sidestepping the issues of success, as the budget for this movie is still modest by Hollywood comic book standards. I have to be honest that when I heard that Leitch had replaced Miller as director my heart had sunk as his first solo outing “Atomic Blonde” was not close to being a movie I thought was good, in fact while the action was acceptable, the narrative was wholly unoriginal as well as being sparse. However, given that both Deadpool movies are light on story but heavy on action it seems any issues with director are going to be on the back burner, for now anyway.

This time around Deadpool forms a team of mutants called the X-Force to protect young mutant Russell from the time-traveling soldier Cable. That’s pretty much the story, the complications arise with the interaction of our titular hero with almost everyone else in the movie, so it’s basically a pretty familiar plot with the twist that no-one really likes the hero and the fact that it plays much more comedy than anything else.

There is no doubt that both Deadpool movies are driven by Ryan Reynolds who has taken it on himself to not only be the face of the franchise (yes, I know he wears a mask) but will seemingly shy away from nothing to remind everyone who the hero is as well as what kind of movie he is making. It may seem like his efforts are tireless but after two failed goes at superheroes as well as a few other franchises Reynolds recognizes what he has, that it may not last long so he had better make hay while the sun shines. To his credit he carries out everything Deadpool related with as much originality as he can, no one is safe from his humor, no star, studio or property which in the days of trying not to be offensive, he is a welcome relief. This new instalment may not have the cutting wit of the first but it still manages to bait and switch many characters and storylines in under two hours.

What the filmmakers have done with this new movie is to expand the cast as well as bringing a character that many readers will recognize from marvel lore, not only that but he is a major part of the Marvel Comic book Universe, that being the time travelling mutant, Cable, played here by Josh Brolin who is perfectly cast as the movies central antagonist. The definite new star of the movie is Brolin who seems like perfect casting as the gruff Cable who really does steal the movie, as he has already done this year as Thanos, in fact as he does in almost all of his performances – he plays off Reynolds like a master, in fact this is more like a buddy comedy movie than anything else which is where it succeeds over the first instalment. Returning after the first movie are Morena Baccarin, T.J. Miller and Brianna Hildebrand who all serve very different purposes as girlfriend, comedy counterpart and a link to the X-Men which are always made fun of. While I enjoy Baccarin I can see that she may have a been a character to hold Deadpool back, as for Miller he is having issues of his own so he will not be back for a third. As for Hildebrand who was dynamite in the first film as well as featuring in the second season of “The Exorcist” television show, here she has grown more assured and is a bright spot among bright spots, I hope she returns for a third film or even a possible X-Force movie. The newcomers include Julian Dennison, Zazie Beetz, and Jack Kesy who all add so much, along with Brolin, but of the three it is Beetz who has spent a few years in small roles grabs the reins and runs with the best character in the movie besides the titular hero. Beetz as Domino is as much fun as Deadpool who has a super power just as odd, she has great lines and at times is a co-lead as capable as Deadpool himself – I hope she returns for any sequel or spinoff.

One of the major strengths of the first movie was the humor which is on full display here with the breaking of the fourth wall to address the audience as well as to make comments on not only the incestuous nature of hero films but of the repetitive nature that all audiences have to recognize by now. Deadpool the movie and characters are all about trying to subvert expectations so it is with great relish we see “Hunt for the Wilderpeople” (2016) star Julian Denison here as a young mutant as well as the maguffin of the piece, he has a natural wit that fits in well with Reynolds and compatriots as well as again not being the typical ‘kid’ in a movie as the annoying brat that is more the norm in Hollywood movies. This all goes back to the humor as well as commentary that is to be made which is done by Reynolds himself who for the most part speaks from experience having been through the mill himself, as a young and now a middle aged actor.

My only concern is with director David Leitch who on the surface may seem like a good fit but obviously has a hard time understanding the difference between plot and narrative as well as how to seamlessly fit these two elements together while maintaining the action as well as the edge to the movie, this was something Tim Miller from the first movie was able to do, his absence in my mind is all too noticeable. The problems that befell Leitch’s first solo outing “Atomic Blonde” are all to visible here, what makes for a great stunt co-ordinator may not make for a good director.

If you enjoyed the first movie then this will be right up your alley, it moves the story along as much as possible and also lays some groundwork for a spinoff or direct sequel. It is apparent Reynolds has as much fun playing the part as audiences do going along to see him. This is that rare sequel that raises the bar delivering what should be one of the blockbusters of this year.

Technical Commentary:

4K Ultra HD Blu-ray:

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment brings Deadpool 2 to Ultra HD Blu-ray as a four-disc combo pack dubbed the “Super Duper $@%!#& Cut.” The accompanying flyer is a code for a Digital HD Copy, which can be redeemed via FoxDigitalMovies, Movies Anywhere and VUDU, unlocking the 4K HDR10 version with Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 audio. A pair of dual-layered UHD66 discs — one containing the 119-minute theatrical version and the other the 134-minute extended cut — are joined by another pair of Region Free, BD50 discs containing the movie and special features. The added fifteen minutes are a variety of extended sequences, like Deadpool’s samurai fight in the bathhouse, or new never-before-seen scenes, like the different ways Deadpool tries to commit suicide.

All four are housed inside a black, eco-elite keepcase with a center spindle and a glossy slipcover. At startup, the UHD hilariously commences like a badly-aged VHS tape that’s been recorded over a few times and in 4:3 aspect ratio while a-ha’s “Take on Me” plays in the background. With full-motion clips and the usual options along the bottom, the effect lasts for about a minute before switching to a more traditional appearance in 16:9 aspect ratio.

Video

Deadpool comes to Ultra HD with a great looking HEVC H.265 encode but its not the best within the format.

“Deadpool 2” was shot on a combination of digital cameras capable of 3.4K resolution and traditional 35mm, which was later mastered to a 2K digital intermediate, the  transfer enjoys a notable improvement in overall definition and clarity. The fabric and coarse stitching in costumes are finely detailed. The occasional aliasing rears its head from time to time along the sharpest edges, but it’s mild. Detailing also remains strong in the darkest corners, making the prison scenes a highlight when overlooking the aliasing. The 2160p video comes with rich, velvety blacks throughout with excellent gradational differences between the various shades, providing the 2.39:1 image with a beautiful cinematic appeal.

Audio

“Deadpool 2” comes with a great Dolby Atmos soundtrack that offers a few improvements over the Blu-ray.

There isn’t a lot going on in the ceiling channels, noticeably going unused on several occasions, but when employed, they manage to generate a satisfying hemispheric environ that places the listener in the middle of the action. Various ambient noises, such as city traffic or the crowded commotion in the mutant prison, fill the above space nicely and effectively while helicopters and planes flawlessly pan across the overheads from behind and into view. The many action sequences shower the room with debris falling everywhere and convincingly raining down to the sides and rears, creating an awesome dome-like effect.

The front soundstage feels expansive and continuously broad, as many of those same atmospherics travel between the three channels and the top heights with excellent directionality. The added breathing room allows for slightly better clarity and separation within the mid-range, displaying superb detailing and distinction during the loudest, ear-piercing segments as well as in the song selections and musical score.

Special Features

Audio Commentary: Star Ryan Reynolds and director David Leitch join writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick for a delightfully funny and highly amusing discussion on the production. Naturally, with Reynolds’ presence, the chat is filled with lots of sarcasm and silly wisecracks while the other three share various anecdotes and technical details.

Deadpool Family Values (HD, 15 min): EPK-style piece with cast & crew interviews and lots of BTS footage centering around the characters, performances and the plot’s themes.

Deadpool’s Lips Are Sealed (HD, 13 min): Everyone shares their thoughts on the studio’s extreme measures for maintaining absolute secrecy and the work on visual effects.

David Leitch not Lynch (HD, 12 min): The director is given a few minutes to talk about his involvement with the production, his aspirations and tons of praise from cast & crew.

The Deadpool Prison Experiment (HD, 11 min): As the title suggests, interviews talk about the “Ice Box” scenes, its production design and its role in the overall plot.

Until Your Face Hurts (HD, 9 min): An amusing discussion on the script’s genesis, various ideas considered, the aspirational focus on the comedy and Ryan Reynolds heavy involvement.

Roll with the Punches (HD, 7 min): A closer look at the fight choreography, the action sequences, praising the stunt performers and the preference for practical effects over CGI.

The Most Important X-Force Member (HD, 2 min): A brief but funny chat on the specially ordinary Peter, who joins the team despite a lack of abilities, and actor Rob Delaney.

Swole and Sexy (HD, 2 min): Praise for Josh Brolin’s physique and friendly nature on set.

“3-Minute Monologue” (HD, 2 min): Watch Brolin joking around as makeup is applied.

Deadpool’s Fun Sack 2 (HD): Two separate collections of various media, starting with one titled “Videos” (35 min), which stockpiles all the theatrical previews & international promos, an IMAX PSA, the music video for Celine Dion’s “Ashes,” BTS featurette for said video, another music video for Diplo, French Montana & Lil Pump ft. Zhavia’s “Welcome to the Party,” and a pair of hysterical videos making fun of the movie. The second is titled “Stills,” which is an assortment of promotional material.

Deleted & Extended Scenes (HD, 3 min): A pair of excised scenes.

Gag Reel (HD, 3 min).

  4K Blu-ray review: “Deadpool 2” (2018) "Deadpool 2" (2018) Action Written by: Rhett Reese & Paul Wernick and Ryan Reynolds Directed by: David Leitch…