LINKS: Weekly link summary in case you missed any of the individual posts (weekly)

• CARTOONS: Researchers strive to understand brony culture

  best headline ever!

  also, “bronyologist” is not a word. hahahah

  tags: media video TV shows cartoons MyLittlePony MyLittlePony:FriendshipIsMagic bronies brony research researchers science scientists sociology DailyDot news articles

  • After getting over his initial shock,
  • tattoo
  • tattoo
  • no because I have to keep my objectivity
  • the Fox people even mentioned drug use
  • bronyologists.

• VIDEO: MOVIE: REVIEW: John Carter (2012)

  Clint/Carolyn: 5/5 stars, 9/10. Clint is considering upgrading to 10/10.
  Native ratings: 3.8/5 stars (Netflix’s better guess for us=4.3), 6.9/10. 

  Based on Edgar Rice Burroughs books, this movie entered development in 1931, and was almost the first animated movie in America. But things got held up for (puts pinky to corner of mouth) ***79 YEARS***. It finally left development-hell in 2010, and they’re already working on a sequel.

  I’m glad once the studios finally move (a literal lifetime later), that they are rushing to do as many of these as possible.

  BECAUSE THIS WAS EXCELLENT!!!!!!

  Would have been nice to see in 3-D, but completely unnecessary. It is a great story, and a long movie that properly fleshes out characters and plots. I’m not going to go into too much detail, but simply: Science fiction done right, with an epic story and an epic budget. I’m still trying to figure out if I should really be rating this movie 10/10, because there’s not really any flaw.

  (BTW, You may recognize the main couple in this movie as Gambit and Silverfox from X-Men Origins.)

  tags: media video movies reviews JohnCarter JohnCarterOfMars sci-fi 2012 Clint Carolyn IMDb Mars EdgarRiceBurroughs

• VIDEO: MOVIE: REVIEW: Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005)

  Clint/Carolyn: 8/10.
  Clint: 5/5 stars, Carolyn: 4/5 stars.
  Native ratings: 3.5/5 Netflix (guess for us=3.4), 6.2/10 IMDB.

  What a delightful sequel to Jumanji! And nobody knows about this, because they didn’t call it Jumanji 2! However, it’s basically the exact same movie, but with SPACE instead of JUNGLE. It’s not as dark as Jumanji; a little more lighthearted. But the EXACT SAME FORMULA. This is truly a sequel.

   All the Kristen Stewart haters have really missed out on a gem of exploitable screenshots from this movie: Stewart is LITERALLY frozen during a lot of the movie. These could be memes, if someone would just screenshot and capture them.

  Directed by Jon Favreau (Iron Man, Elf).
  With Dax Sheppart from Without A Paddle, and Tim Robbins as the dad.
  And oh, the younger brother in this movie was the kid in the recent Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011) movie, and the older brother was in Journey To The Center Of The Earth (2008) as well as Peeta in The Hunger Games (2012), and Bridge To Terabithia (2007).

  tags: media video movies sequels Zathura ASpaceAdventure Zathura:ASpaceAdventure Jumanji Jumanji2 IMDB Clint Carolyn reviews

• VIDEO: Epic – Slinky on a Treadmill

  The music, especially, makes this video! I can’t think of a video that’s made me this happy in awhile.

  tags: media video reality toys slinky treadmills YouTube comedy epic

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

 

JOURNAL: YARD SALES: 20120519: 2012 Expedition #5: The Motherload. Most stuff we’ve gotten yardsaleing in a long, long time!

SUMMARY:

Got up around 8:10AM, ate breakfast at home for once, and made it out driving by 8:43AM, out yard saleing until 2:25PM.

There was a 20 minute Burger King break when our route took us right by it, so the total yard saleing time was 5 hours, 22 minutes!!!! Damn that’s a long time! 3hr 15min driving; 2hr 7min shopping.

Spent $59.20 plus ~$17.95 gas for 56.3 miles of driving (12.2 mpg @ $3.89/G), for a total cost of $77.15.

We bought 52 items – 99 if you count separate hooks/pillows/gift bags – for a total estimated value of $680.69, leading to a profit/savings of $603.54.

So in essence, we multiplied our $77.15 investment by 8.82X. (We have to earn $663 on the job to get $603 in cash!)

Anyway, this works out to a *post-tax* “wage” of $112.46/hr as a couple or $56.23/hrper person. That’s about as high as we can ever get on the “wage scale”!

COMMENTARY:

What a weekend!

We pre-planned via CraigsList and DrivingRoutePlanner, with an extra Freecycle pickup stop thrown in (and that was probably the least profitable leg of the trip, as it was a mistake). The thing is, of the 9 pre-planned stops we had, several of them were FULL COMMUNITY sales that had their own maps.

Twice we had to get a community map, trace out a path, and visit ~10 sales just to get to the next item on our itinery. Plus there were at least 2-3 “bonus sales” not on our route, including one that turned out to be 5 houses having a sale at once.

This was a LONG LONG LONG expedition. Not the most miles we’ve driven at once — we’ve broken 70 — but close.

It was near the beginning that we felt this woman was hitting on me at her own yard sale in front of her husband and my wife. First she comments on my Misfits shirt. Second, I try to round $9.50 to $10 and she says pay $8 — why the random discount? Then she asks where we live. Then we commented on some tech thing, and she was like, “oh, i need a techie to come and show me all my stuff”… yea… i’ll show you all your stuff all right. ;) Then asks me/us to come back later. Plus she’s blonde, even tho she’s in her 50s {wink wink}. But more than all that was the vibe of actually experiencing it. Carolyn agrees. It was weird. We circled her address on the map haha. Very odd. Something similar happened once about 10 years ago, but the attention seemed to be on both of us then, not just me.

No cars broke down this week! Yay! First time in 3 expeditions that we haven’t had to get towed!

What sucked was that there were so many yard sales that we could not get to them all during prime time. In the morning, the selections are great, and the prices good. In the afternoon, the selections are way worse, but the prices are way better. We’ve even swung back to the same yard sale twice to re-make an offer that was accepted the 2nd time but refused the 1st time. By noon, a lot of people are just giving things away for free, becuase they are hot and want to go back inside, but don’t want to lug their stuff back in. This is great if you have use for things nobody else wants, but if you are picky, you really want to get there early.

Half the sales we went to, we could not even get to until 1PM. So we were denied some selection. But we were supplied some cheap prices – a lot of our stuff was FREE: The Best Price.

THE BOOTY:

• $10.00: digital picture frame, 8.25″ screen (6.5×5), 800×600, HP, serial#K01010055570, model#df840a1-16 (EV:$45 for recertified,but 70 if new, and this is brand new. The list price is 80, but I’ll count it as 70 since that’s what I could find it for. Some are trying to sell this for $100. Buyer beware!) – of course, we did have to buy a 16G USB drive to fit our 16,000+ pictures on (even after shrinking them all to 800×600, they were 5G). But i don’t count that in the cost for this item, becuase when the frame eventually brakes, we’ll still have a kickass 16G USB/thumbdrive – big enough to bring 8-gig movies to friends’ houses without having to spend 25 cents + 35 minutes burning a dvd-r :)

• $6.00: hooks (7), HIGH-END ceiling hooks, swivel, Dr. Iler, white (6@$1/ea+1 free), 122415 (EV:7*5.79/ea=$40.53) – I’ve totally spent $18-$24 buying 3-4 of these hooks in the past! I broke one, and it was such a mental blow to lose $6 over it. I even called their 1-800 number to get help with installing it. It’s a weird hook. But now that I have 7 of these for the price of 1, I think my hook needs will never be so worrysome again.
• $5.00: VCR, Mitsubishi HS-U51 (hard to estimate a value for this. people are trying to sell BROKEN ones on Ebay for $52 for parts — good luck with that, it’s not going to work. New VCRs are more expensive than they should be. Used VCRs are posted for $20, but no clue if they’re selling for that. And that’s if they work. This isn’t tested as working. We’ll just call it worth what we paid for it: $5.) – Ever since the TV-out died on our downstairs computer, along with the X-Box harddrive — the downstairs 36″ tv doesn’t do much. Playstation, and that’s it. It sure would be nice to have SOMEthing hooked up to it that can play video. Like… a VCR.  Some of our old $5-yardsale VCRs and inherited VCRs finally broke. The only 2 that are still working well are the ones me & Carolyn bought full-price brand-new in the 1990s. So at this point, I get VCRs if they are $5. Automatically. Note to self: Lower to $4 for future purchases.

• $5.00: chair, camping, DOUBLE, blue (EV:$33.52, but ours is without cupholders, so we’ll say $25) – a bit heavy for our usual camping spot, as it’s twice as heavy as a normal chair, and neither of us want to bear that burden. But for drive-car-up-to-site camping, this is the best camping chair we’ve ever owned.

• $5.00: shelves, modular, metal, black (EV:$32.98) – perfect. I’d cover every wall in the house with these, if I could afford it. We have ours in a horizontal tower to the ceiling, with one 2-square-high spot for our blacklight lamp. Good stuff.

• $4.00: pan, Thomas Rosenthal Group, M262S3 skillet with lid, new with manual, diameter 11″, deepness 3.5″ ($40) – Probably the best pan in the house now! Plus: Brand new! Oven safe, even.

• $3.00: pillows, Pier 1 Imports, red w/gold ribbon (EV:$40 based on most of their fancy pillows being $20 each) – christmas present
• $3.00: game, Rummikub, new in shrink-wrap (EV:$14.95) – another present, since we already own this

• $3.00: throw, electric, 59×51″, Sunbeam, E23623 (EV:$20.00) - no such thing as too many electric blankets: We already have an electric throw AND a king-size 2-outlet-taking electric blanket. At $3/each, I’d buy 10 more if I could. Just because.
• $2.00: table/shelf, white, cube, 16x16x16″ (EV:$24.99) – stuck this under our new cat tree! This reclaims some of the space the cat tree stole, PLUS the cats’ top-level perch is now high enough that they can touch the ceiling. Life tetris win.

• $2.00: power strip, 6 plugs, SnapIt2, 15A 125V (EV:$8) – can’t believe I finally used all of mine! I wasn’t sure if we needed this: The guy was selling like 10. But we bought it because his yard sale was SOOOO far off the beaten path that I didn’t want the gas to be a total waste.

• $2.00: book, I Am Ozzy, 2009 ($26.99 Borders price) - I’d never pay $27 for this, and I’d probably never read it on a PDA either. But in the bathroom? Sure. I wonder how many poops will this take.

• $2.00: bags (gift bags), HUGE MY LITTLE PONY GIFT BAG full of other gift bags: 27 total various plus some misc gift card holders, wrapping paper, adhesive notes, gift box, tissue paper, magnets, bows, which brings total to 39 (most had prices:we calculated the average price of those that did, extrapolating out a total price of $124.02) - This last christmas in particular, relatives took presents home instead of opening them, so we didn’t get to reclaim as many gift bags. It’s always my goal to use gift bags instead of wrapping paper. We’re set for next christmas!
• $1.00: towel, beach, sunset palm trees, Sherry Mfg. (EV:$8.50: cheapest beach towel of similar size on Amazon) - to replace Carolyn’s other beach towel that was washed into the ocean ;)
• $1.00: game, Jumanji (EV:$16.99) – we JUST watched the movie this week! My first time! 5/5 stars for me! I did not know this exists, but what were the odds of running into it right after watching the movie?

• $1.00: game, Cranium Turbo Edition (EV:$12.00 used) - after finding out some versions of Cranium sell for $90 on Ebay, I always snatch cheap Cranium variants

• $1.00: container, plastic, 3.4L/3.6qt, ClickClack 2030, pinchable-lid-sealing-device for extra freshness – now the largest sealable container in the house! JAR WIN! (EV:$15)

• $0.50: ball, Powerpuff Girls, MMondo, ~4″, barcode#81033051719 (EV:It’s a rubber ball! Can’t be that much! But it’s also licensed. So we’ll go with $3.) - can never get enough licensed cartoon junk ;)

• $0.50: basket, wicker, w/lid, 15x10x12″ picnic basket (EV:$30! WTF! I got to about here before I even got to wicker baskets with lids. Who is paying that for these?!?!?!? Even on Amazon… Same thing. Get up to baskets that have lids and we’re in $30 territory!) – was maybe going to use this for Carolyn’s shoes and such, tho lately it’s just been a mini-dirty-clothes-hamper / caddy for large objects between floors
• $0.50: game, Cranium Cadoo For Kids (EV:$6.99)

• $0.50: toy, plush, Mario Brothers, Wario, BD&A, 6″ (EV:$20, though ours has red coveralls and brown shoes) – It’s a you a-Wario!

• $0.50: mask, skull, silver & black (EV:$6.90 similar to this one, but ours has 10 smaller horns) – too evil to pass up!
• $0.10: action figure, G.I. Joe, Cobra, 4″, bendable (EV:really old, could be G1 even, but the joints are so loose it can’t stand up, so: $0.50)
• $0.10: action figure, X-Men, Wolverine, McDonald’s 2010, 4″, extendable claws, turnable head, worst Wolverine figure ever though (EV:$2 because $2.50 auctions are running out with no bidders.)

• $0.10: action figure, Batgirl, 3.5″, twistable waist, bendable arms, blue gloves/boots/cape (already have one of these) (EV:$1 cause I’ve found this twice so it can’t be that rare)
• $0.10: action figure, Batman, JLA edition, 4″, twistable waist, bendable arms (EV:$7 on Ebay, tho you can get it new in the box for $10 at Newegg?!?! WTF?)
• $0.10: action figure, Pirates Of The Caribbean, Captain Jack Sparrow, 3.25″ (EV:$2 random estimate, there are so many PotC figures out there, and I can’t find this one)
• $0.10: action figure, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Appa, 6″x2.5″, mystery button probably means other parts missing – NOT the $30 Deluxe one (EV:$2 random estimate)
• $0.10: action figure/toy, screaming ghost with purple troll hair and light-up eyes, 4.5″ (EV:$3) – this thing is horrifying, like a troll doll and a horrible scream wrapped up together
• $FREE: scanner, Acer, model#6687-01A, manufactured 4/1998 with external parallel port card for newer computers (EV:$2 – i used to count old scanners as $5, but after buying 2 or 3 and having them not work, I’m downgrading the value of old scanners to $2!)
• $FREE: monitor, viewable area 16″, KDS [Freecycle item that we drove almost 10 extra miles for, only to find out 19" was the monitor dimension, not the viewable area dimension! DOH!] (EV:CRT monitors are scarecely being manufactured nowadays, but when they were, they were all over $100. But I have paid $10 for a monitor SOOOO many times at yard sales, that I will just call this $10)
• $FREE: movies: VHS: The Breakfast Club, Poltergeist, Gremlins (EV:$1.50 + $1.25 $0.25 = $3.00)

• $FREE: Kaz inhalant steam medication (for bedroom vapomist vaporizer that Carolyn uses, which is a $30-40 vaporizer/humidifier we got for $2 at another sale years ago), 6oz, with 1tsp Kaiser-Permanente plastic dropper (EV:$5.61) - Carolyn has made her own vapor solution using camphor oil and such, but it’s nice to get some pre-made for FREE

• $FREE: planets & stars, glow-in-the-dark, Zany Brainy 7955500092 (EV:$2) – for our blacklights/ceilings!

• $FREE: lighter, pipe, Nimrod Pipeliter (EV:$9.99) - no fluid, unfortunately

• $FREE: bucket, 22lb, Brill White Drizzle Icing (EV:$2) - can never have too many buckets, I’ve been discovering
• $FREE: book, Toy Story: The Essential Guide ($14.95 cover price) - future Sagan gift?

• $FREE: duster, Static Charged Poly Duster, yellow (EV:$4.98) – free cat toy is what we we’re thinking

• $FREE: lanyard, lionambassadors.com (EV:$0.59) – free camera-strap is what we’re thinking

• $FREE: containers (2), plastic, rectangular, 5.375×4.625×3.875″, white, used to hold cheese says one of the lables (EV:$0.10)  - ALL THESE FREE CONTAINERS were JUST what we’re looking for after ordering 50 lbs of diatomaceous earth and not realizing it was A WHOLE CRATE FULL. I filled up every one of these containers, every one of our spaghetti jars from the last 1.5 yrs of cooking spaghetti, a popcorn tin (metal cylinder) from a previous yardsale … and STILL haven’t managed to package all my diatomaceous earth! But at least we have a good start.
• $FREE: container, plastic, circular, Ziploc, Twist ‘N’ Loc 32oz, ~3.875×6″, clear (EV:$2.13 because that is a pack of 2)
• $FREE: container, metal tin, rectangular, 7×4.875×7″, house-themed, roof-shaped protruding lid ($4.00 store price tag)
• $FREE: container, metal tin, rectangular, 3.5×3.5×2.75″, blue (EV:$0.50)
• $FREE: container, metal tin, circular, 9.8×1.9″, Christmas poinsetta/candle-themed (store price tag ruined, but probably $3.00 judging by others from this lot)
• $FREE: container, metal tin, circular, 7.125×3.375″, Rainforest Crunch Chocolate Chip & Brazil Nut Cookies ($2.50 store price tag)
• $FREE: container, metal tin, circular, 7×2.65″, African Elephant-themed ($2.50 store price tag)
• $FREE: container, metal tin, circular, 6.5×3.125″, fleur-de-lis-ish-themed (EV:$1)
• $FREE: container, metal tin, circular, 5.25×1.875″ ($0.50 store price tag)
• $FREE: container, metal tin, circular, 8.5×1.5″, red top, white-red stripes sides, Swiss Colony Nut Shop ($1.20 price tag, EV:$0, because it was bent and unusable)

Click here for other Yard Sale-related postings. * EV stands for “Estimated Value”, which I estimate by looking things up in Google Shopping/Google/Amazon/Ebay. I don’t always deduct for an item being used, unless it’s actually in worse condition in a way that matters. For example, I estimate books at the cover value. I also try to only count shipping if it’s the type of thing that would need to be shipped, and only if the price isn’t “fixed” (i.e. 1 cent items that cost $10 to ship would not be $10 in person).

 

PICTURES: 1 new photos on my Flickr!

1 new photos uploaded just now (May 25, 2012 at 07:49AM).

If this post is fresh, take a look at my photostream here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/clintjcl/

If this post is old, look at the latest photo from this upload batch here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/clintjcl/7267107604

 

PICTURES: 7 new photos on my Flickr!

7 new photos uploaded just now (May 24, 2012 at 10:01AM).

If this post is fresh, take a look at my photostream here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/clintjcl/

If this post is old, look at the latest photo from this upload batch here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/clintjcl/7261748434

 

CARTOONS: Researchers strive to understand brony culture

CARTOONS: Researchers strive to understand brony culture

best headline ever!

LINK URL: http://www.dailydot.com/society/bronies-brony-my-little-pony-study/

 

PICTURES: 2 new photos on my Flickr!

2 new photos uploaded just now (May 23, 2012 at 12:26PM).

If this post is fresh, take a look at my photostream here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/clintjcl/

If this post is old, look at the latest photo from this upload batch here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/clintjcl/7256444960

 

VIDEO: MOVIES: REVIEW: National Lampoon’s Ratko: The Dictator’s Son (2009)

[IMDB link] [Netflix link]

PLOT SUMMARY: Dictator’s son goes to college, without realizing how evil his dad is.

UNCOMFORTABLE PLOT SUMMARY (inspired by this): [highlight for spoilers]→ Dictator’s blood money pays for college kids to party.

PEOPLE: Savage Steve Holland made this movie?! We ***loved*** the Eek! The Cat cartoon, and liked his movies How I Got Into College, One Crazy Summer, and of course his best-known classic Better Off Dead…! (“Where’s my two dollars?!?!?!?!?”) He didn’t write this like he wrote all the others, though. He just directed it. Glad to see him doing something for adults again.

Starring Efren Ramirez as Ratko (Pedro from Napoleon Dynamite, Kaylo from Crank 1, Venus from Crank 2:High Voltage, DJ from the movie Gamer), and Katrina Bowden (Ms. Tasty from Sex Drive, Cerie from 30 Rock) as the girl.

With Curtis Armstrong as a foreign bodyguard (Revenge Of The Nerds, Moonlighting, American Dad, Pucked, Van Wilder 1, American Pie:The Book Of Love); Jeffrey Ballard as Ratko’s roommate (he had bit parts in John Tucker Must Die and Mission To Mars).

And Adam West as Ratko’s dictator father! He’s always hilarious.

The 2 wives that showed up midway in the movie were very small plot points. However, we concluded that Ildiko Ferenczi was definitely hotter than Lucia Oskerova. I guess Hollywood agrees, since Ildiko has had several eye candy roles – 3 different minor characters in Smallville, Bride #3 in Stan Helsing, Goat Mans Girl in Reefer Madness:The Musical, and latex girl in a deleted scene from The Lost Boys 2 (haha).

They also cast 3 porn stars (including Lucious Lopez) as the sexy mexican maids at the hotel.

QUIRKS: A college comedy-romance. A bit better than your average National Lampoon college movie.

Lots of comedic devices that are the same as Borat: Talking about your weird country and its weird traditions. Being clueless about American social situations. In a sense, this is a “rip off” — not to imply that “make fun of foreigners” is a unique concept pioneered by Borat.

The “you’re so skanky” / “do you think Mario’s dick grows when he gets the mushroom?” scene between the 3 girls was a 5-star scene if I’ve ever seen one.

At first, there didn’t seem to be a very cohesive plot. For instance, they have multiple scenes with characters who don’t relate at all to the rest of the movie (which reminds me of American Pie 6, if I recall correctly). But then the plot eventually rears its head. Really, this movie is a framework for jokes. And there were indeed some howling-out-loud moment sof laughter — which was all I wanted!!!

SOUNDTRACK: Lots of Spanish songs. Even though Ratko is from Europe. This movie purposely makes no sense at times :)

MORALS: Dictator’s sons don’t always realize the sins of their fathers.

POLITICS: Dictator-funded blood money isn’t so bad when you’re spending it on booze and partying :)

BAD STUFF: Using an obviously Hispanic character (Pedro!) with an exaggerated South American accent is a bit weird, when his fictitious country of Handjobia is in Europe. But since it was a fictitious country — like Elbonia from Dilbert — I will allow a mixture of accents and appearances that wouldn’t make sense in the *real* world.

There’s also one scene in particular that is so poorly edited that I had to play it three times just to make sure I wasn’t seeing things. It made no visual sense. But it was just a dialog scene, so we’ll just chalk that up to sloppy directing. But I’d expect more from Savage Steve Holland, after so many decades of directing.

CONCLUSION: A bit funnier than your average modern-day National Lampoon college movie. This was a bit like Borat meets Coming To America. Glad to see Savage Steve Holland working on something for adults again.

RATINGS:
Clint: Netflix: 4/5 stars. IMDB: 7/10.
Carolyn: Netflix: 4/5 stars. IMDB: 7/10.
The native public rating for this movie is: IMDB: 4.2/10 (ouch!), Netflix: 3.0/5 stars (This was based on *ONE* rating. Never seen that before! Guess it will be 3.5 now.).

RECOMMENDATION: It’s better than the summary makes it sound. Not a great movie, but I think it’s still worth seeing. Especially if you already have a long track record of seeing National Lampoon movies.

SIMILAR MOVIES: Borat. Coming To America. National Lampoon college movies.

 

VIDEO: Epic – Slinky on a Treadmill

VIDEO: Epic – Slinky on a Treadmill

The music, especially, makes this video! I can’t think of a video that’s made me this happy in awhile.

LINK URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=711bZ_pLusQ

 

PICTURES: 4 new photos on my Flickr!

4 new photos uploaded just now (May 22, 2012 at 09:59AM).

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PICTURES: 5 new photos on my Flickr!

5 new photos uploaded just now (May 21, 2012 at 10:44AM).

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LINKS: Weekly link summary in case you missed any of the individual posts (weekly)

• FREEDOM: Police Preemptively Raid Apartment & Arrest Activists Ahead of NATO Summit

  USA likes to espouse itself as being the freest country in the world, defender of life and liberty.

  Yet people are pre-emptively arrested for wanting to exercise their first amendment rights, 25% of all prisoners on planet earth are in our jail system, we have the highest imprisonment rate, and have killed tons of civilians in our various oil wars (Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya).

  America’s dead. Perhaps a better use of everyone’s energy is to figure out how to get the fuck out of America, because our “freedom” is mostly based on economics, not principles of actual liberty.

  Fuck Chicago Police (for the 10,000th time).

  But fuck america for allowing this to happen, and fuck americans for voting in leaders like Bush and Obama who only decrease total freedom, and for having no backbone to fight this bullshit.

  tags: politics AbuseOfAuthority government Freedom police pre-emptive raids MinorityReport Chicago ChicagoPoliceDepartment Illinois NATO summits warrantless Constitutionalrights rights 1stAmendment FirstAmendment FreedomOfAssembly protesters

• VIDEO: MOVIE: REVIEW: Hostel 3 aka Hostel: Part III (2011) (direct to video)

  5/5 stars, 8/10 from Clint.
  3/5 stars, 7/10 from Carolyn.
  Major disparity here.

  Native rating: 4.7/10 (vs 5.8,5.4 for first 2 movies), 3.1/5 stars (vs 3.2,3.2).
  Netflix guessed 3.9/5 for us. Considering I rated the first 2 Hostel movies 5/5 stars, Netflix really should know better.

  I thought this was one of the more sinister Hostel movies. The major spoiler of the movie is WAY more evil than anything that was done in the first two Hostel movies.

  I actually think the franchise has been improving with each release, which is contrary to most popular opinion and common sense.

  Hostel 2 > Hostel 1, because after seeing the 1, watching 2 is an exercise in extreme paranoia. But after going that route, Hostel 3 is more of an experience in “living large” and making the franchise more grandiouse, with the hell on earth no longer in a 3rd world eastern European country, but in Las Fucking Vegas.

  This is also the most unique of the 3 films (due to large similarities between Hostel 1 and Hostel 2).

  I am glad that in the IMDB comments I found other people who liked this better than Hostel 1 & 2. It is probably the opinion of a 10% minority, but I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks 3 > 2 > 1.

  FREAK ALERT! John Hensley, the fucking idiot son from Nip/Tuck, plays a handicapped person here. Interesting to see him again, if only to be reminded of how much I hated his character on Nip/Tuck. He also has a kind of weird look to him, which lends itself well to playing someone with a physical malady.

  tags: video movies reviews Hostel Hostel3 sequels horror IMDB Clint Carolyn

• VIDEO: MOVIE: REVIEW: Jumanji (1995)

  8/10 from both of us. 4/5 stars from Carolyn, 5/5 stars from Clint. Carolyn had seenthis before, but Clint had not. Carolyn enjoyed it as much (if not more) as the first time she saw it.

  Native rating: 6.5/10, 3.6/5 (Netflix incorrectly guesse3d 3.1/5 for us, thinking we’d like this worse than average. WRONG!)

   We are both very much into board games, fantasy, imagination, and darkness, and this movie had it all, so it spoke to us.  I really thought it would be more of a “kiddie” movie, but there were actually a lot of dark, fucked up moments. Homicidal gun maniacs and animals that try to kill children? Nightmare insects? Holy fuck. WAS. NOT. EXPECTING.

  I was enthralled. Carolyn adds: “It was more enjoyable watching it with you because you liked it so much.  hehehehe”

  Another weird thing: Seeing Kirsten Dunst so young. Too bad she was TOO young, if you catch my drift. But that was made up for with Bebe Neuwirth (Lillith from Cheers/Frasier). SHE IS HOT AS SHIT. Plus this was 15 years ago. Too bad this is a movie about her kids and not her, or we could have stared at her longer. But I digress.

  This was way better than I expected. I’d been putting off watching this movie for almost a year (17 years, if you want to get pedantic), but apparently I should have watched it much sooner!

  tags: media video movies Jumanji 1995 reviews Clint Carolyn KirstenDunst BebeNeuwirth RobinWilliams

• VIDEO: MOVIE: REVIEW: Sherlock Holmes 2: A Game of Shadows (2011)

  MMmmmm, Sherlock Holmes sequel! Yay!

   4/5 stars, 8/10 from both of us (whereas the first movie only got 7.6 from Carolyn).

  Native rating: 7.5/10, 4.1/5 (guess for us=4.2), so for once we’re in line with most people.

  NOOMI RAPACE! THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO! She is in this movie, in an English-speaking role!

  This was actually better than the first Sherlock Holmes movie, but only slightly. I reread what Carolyn said to me about the last one, and she said her attention had faltered some during the first one, and that didn’t happen with the 2nd movie.

  And that is why this movie gets a slightly higher rating (8.0 vs 7.6).

  tags: media video movies reviews SherlockHolmes SherlockHolmes2 sequels AGameOfShadows Clint Carolyn RobertDowneyJr. JudeLaw NoomiRapace

• VIDEO: MOVIE: REVIEW: Event 16 (2006)

  New Zealand low-budget time travel movie not available on Netflix.

   Got a 3.6/10 on IMDB, but Clint gave it 6/10 and Carolyn gave it 7/10.
  We both rated it only 3 stars, but then later Clint changed it to 2.8/3 stars after seeing its rating in comparison to other 3/5 star movies and realizing this is a worse movie.

  The effects were super-cheesy — like someone just did it all on their computer. And the story was confusing. David Lynch-level confusing by the end, with characters actually being other characters. And since  it wasn’t directed well enough, I didn’t even understand which characters were becoming which other characters. It was just hard to follow. And the New Zealand accents sounded really bad.

  But the story was still kind of interesting, and we are such huge time travel fans that we sought out and found this movie despite its rarity and low rating.

  It was still enjoyable.

  Just not really GOOD.

  tags: media video movies reviews Event16 NewZealand TimeTravel IMDB

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FREEDOM: Police Preemptively Raid Apartment & Arrest Activists Ahead of NATO Summit

FREEDOM: Police Preemptively Raid Apartment & Arrest Activists Ahead of NATO Summit

USA likes to espouse itself as being the freest country in the world, defender of life and liberty.

Yet people are pre-emptively arrested for wanting to exercise their first amendment rights, 25% of all prisoners on planet earth are in our jail system, we have the highest imprisonment rate, and have killed tons of civilians in our various oil wars (Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya).

America’s dead. Perhaps a better use of everyone’s energy is to figure out how to get the fuck out of America, because our “freedom” is mostly based on economics, not principles of actual liberty.

Fuck Chicago Police (for the 10,000th time).

But fuck america for allowing this to happen, and fuck americans for voting in leaders like Bush and Obama who only decrease total freedom, and for having no backbone to fight this bullshit.

LINK URL: http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2012/05/17/police-preemptively-raid-apartment-arrest-activists-ahead-of-nato-summit

 

PICTURES: 1 new photos on my Flickr!

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VIDEO: MOVIES: REVIEW: The Invention Of Lying aka This Side Of The Truth (2009)

[IMDB link] [Netflix link] [The Comic Critic comic review]

PLOT SUMMARY: In a parallel earth where people are incapable of lying, one man invents the act, and uses it for his own personal gain.

LIMERICK REVIEW: There once was a loser named Mark,
who’s life was no amusement park.
His love life was awry
until he learned to lie–
And a bland society was imbued by his spark.

HAIKU REVIEW: The truth often hurts;
Lies make the world operate.
Ergo, religion.

UNCOMFORTABLE PLOT SUMMARY (inspired by this): [highlight for spoilers]→ To bed superficial woman, man destroys honesty of entire species.

PEOPLE: Written, directed, and starring Ricky Gervais, original creator of The Office. Also starring Jennifer Garner (Juno, Daredevil, Electra, Alias). With Jonah Hill (Funny People, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Walk Hard, Superbad, Knocked Up, Click, Grandma’s Boy, 40 Year Old Virgin, I Heart Huckabees), Louis C.K. (SNL, Role Models), Jeffrey Tambor (Hank Kingsley from Larry Sanders, Arrested Development, Max Headroom:20 Minutes Into The Future), Rob Lowe (Wayne’s World, West Wing), Tina Fey (30 Rock, Mean Girls, Ponyo On The Cliff By The Sea).

And a bit part by Jason Bateman (Arrested Development, Juno, Sit Down Shut Up, Valerie, Silver Spoons, Hancock, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Extract, Dodgeball), hilarious as always.

QUIRKS: The whole movie is a huge quirk — a parallel earth where nobody lies. The way things operate in this alternate reality is nothing short of brilliantly hilarious. Not only are people incapable of lying, but they are in general incapable of making ANYTHING up. There is no fiction, no fantasy. The world goes around, but many things are worse for the fact that nobody lies.

MORALS: The moral of the story seems to be that lies help make the world go around. This is a very subversive moral!

POLITICS: Religion is what happens when people get together in groups, willing to listen to someone else’s lies. This movie is extremely subversive, religiously. Once someone develops the ability to lie — just tell people something happens when they die. They will surround you in droves, hanging off your every word. Who can resist being a Prophet?

BAD STUFF: It is based on a romance — and Jennifer Garner is a superficial bitch. Granted, she’s just being honest about the way most people work, as most people are superficial. Self included. But such brutal honestly simply can’t come off as anything but bitchy. The main conflict of the story is Ricky Gervais trying to make himself in the “same league” as Jennifer Garner, which, due to his looks, social status, and income, can only be done via attaining fantastic power. And in a world where no one lies, such power is quite easy to gain. I wish I could teleport to this alternate earth and live there instead.

CONCLUSION: An awesomely surreal alternate earth, and an incredibly subversive message, morally and politically. Lies make the world go around, the world would be worse without them, and religion is just what happens when a bunch of people who are willing to listen to liars do so. Romantic subplot aside, I thought this movie brought up singularly unique situations. Like Liar Liar if the entire planet had to act like Jim Carrey did.

RATINGS:
Clint: Netflix: 5/5 stars. IMDB: 8.4/10.

Carolyn: Netflix: 4/5 stars. IMDB: 8/10. “Deep, lighthearted, nice take on religion & the sky fairies. Wasn’t as comedic as I was expecting. There was a lot of romance to it, but it was more than a romantic comedy.” (My counterpoint is that I found the whole thing extremely comedic.)

The native public rating for this movie is: IMDB: 6.7/10, Netflix: 3.3/5 stars (Netflix‘s predicted rating for us was 4.1/5 stars).

RECOMMENDATION: A must-see comedy! It says a lot about honesty, people, relationships, and even religion. More importantly, it’s an eye-opening look at how things might operate if lying didn’t exist.

SIMILAR MOVIES: Liar Liar?

MOVIE QUOTE: “Anna McDoogles: I was just masturbating.”
Mark Bellison: “That… makes me think of your vagina.”

 

PICTURES: 2 new photos on my Flickr!

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PICTURES: 1 new photos on my Flickr!

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PICTURES: 9 new photos on my Flickr!

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PICTURES: 8 new photos on my Flickr!

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VIDEO: MOVIES: REVIEW: Bitch Slap (2009)

[IMDB link] [Netflix link]

HAIKU REVIEW: Someone else beat me to a haiku review for this movie, and it can be found HERE.

UNCOMFORTABLE PLOT SUMMARY (inspired by this): [highlight for spoilers]→ Females lie.

PEOPLE: The 3 leading ladies are mostly-nobodies, but I really want to see Julia Voth and Erin Cummings in more movies. I suppose I’d settle for America Olivo (who was in the Friday The 13th reboot), but she simply wasn’t as hot as the other two.

Cameos from Xena and Gabrielle (Lucy Lawless, Renee O’Conner). Hercules and Iolas (Kevin Sorbo, Michael Hurst) play small parts as well.

But mostly this movie is about the 3 sexy ladies, and their quest for millions in diamonds.

Oh, and it’s directed and written by people who worked on [some] Xena:Warrior Princess and Hercules:The Legendary Journies.

QUIRKS: This is a modern day exploitation film! A movie MADE to be a cheesy b-movie. Troma mentality, but with a better (?) budget. Hot chicks gratuitously used and filmed to advance a plot which is merely a device to have these hot chicks on the screen.

Oh, and they’re all apparently bisexual. Yes, they make out. And more [*see below].

And there’s plenty of violence.

And cat fights.

And a major twist.

The movie also doesn’t follow linear chronology. There are 2 timelines: The present, and the flashbacks. As the present story continues, the flashbacks go farther and farther back, gradually explaining the events that have been happening. It would be interesting to see a chronological fan edit of this film.

It also has some hilarious b-movie-style dialog.

VISUALS: The visuals of this movie caused me to cease all thought for minutes at a time. I was too busy drooling. Seriously… These chicks are hot as shit.

They used greenscreen a lot. It helped add to the cheese factor.

WILHELM SCREAM: No Wilhelm scream, actually. But they most certainly sampled the Grape Lady falling, as one of the characters was shot to death. Frickin’ awesome!

Oh, and anytime someone gets punched in the vagina, they play a cat-meow sound. Haha.

MORALS: Nope, not here.

BAD STUFF: This is a low-rated movie that most people on IMDB did not like [but most on Netflix did]. Some people call it an abomination, or just simply think that it sucked. Others exclaim that it’s not exploitation cinema, but I find that akin to arguing whether a band is thrash metal or speed metal. Still others have a more nuanced view of the flaws in this movie.

CONCLUSION: It wasn’t trying to be anything it wasn’t. In some ways, it’s one of the cheesiest movies I’ve ever seen. And one of the most gratuitous in terms of using sexy women (who all happen to be, at the very least, bi). Total exploitation. Entertaining trash. I want to see these women in more movies. They did a great job at making a modern day exploitation b-movie. I would imagine Troma to be jealous of a production like this.

RATINGS:
Clint: Netflix: 5/5 stars. IMDB: 8/10.
Carolyn: Netflix: 4/5 stars. IMDB: 8/10.

The native public rating for this movie is: IMDB: 4.7/10 (ouch!), Netflix: 3.4/5 stars.

RECOMMENDATION: If you like b-movies, beautiful women, catfights, and tend to like Troma movies — this is for you! Get it in HD!

SIMILAR MOVIES: I’ve never seen it, but this is supposedly somewhat influenced by Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

MOVIE QUOTE: Plenty.

Here’s the 3 leading ladies kissing Carrie Keagan or something to that effect.. Not as good as what’s in the movie, of course:

(This image is more than the 500px wide I have it scaled here.. feel free to zoom :))

 

LINKS: Weekly link summary in case you missed any of the individual posts (weekly)

• POLICE BRUTALITY: 85 shots: US cops use more ammo per man than Germans per year

  Slightly confusing, but what the headline really means is “there are many instances where police used more bullets against 1 person than Germany used in an entire year against all criminals in the country”.

  Now, if you extrapolate out the fact that the U.S. population is almost 4 times that of Germany’s, the real number to compare is not 85 shots, but about 340 shots.

  Contrast to America, where *to stop a reckless driver* last year, police fired over 110 shots, including shooting 7 innocent bystanders. We routinely shoot unarmed people 40-90 times.

  Yeah…. It’s not just our larger population at work. When our police use more bullets in a single incident than a country previously associated with fascism does all year — it gives one major pause at how fucked up and broken our system is, and how piss-poor our over-militarized, trigger-happy police operate. 

  Not making assumptions here. I’ve worked them them, eaten lunch with them, and heard them talk about how they want someone to cause them to have a chance to shoot them. It’s sickening.

  tags: politics AbuseOfAuthority police brutality PoliceBrutality shootings bullets comparison compared Germany 85 2011 RT news articles triggerHappy government freedom policeState violence deaths

• CARTOONS: *FAN-MADE* My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Trailer [Final Cut]

  Here’s what happens if someone takes the darkest 25% or so of My Little Pony:Friendship Is Magic episodes, and makes a serious movie trailer out of them.

  I gotta say… this is fucking awesome. Deal with it.

  tags: media video videos cartoons TV shows MyLittlePony MyLittlePony:FriendshipIsMagic trailer trailers fan-made fanmade YouTube

• RELIGION: Loyalty to your church is more important than not raping children – Not just in Catholicism, but Judaism too

  But anyway, here’s a story of a Jewish person who turned in the person raping his child, and was shunned by his community, harassed, and kicked out of his residence.

  Hasidic Jews, that is. These are the hardcore orthodox types. People who take their supernatural beliefs way too seriously, and then inflict them on other people.

  Religion has got to be one of the top enemies for children.

  (Islam is even worse in that they don’t need to worry about covering up chid rape quite as much as the other religions, because Mohamad set the awesome example of marrying a six year old while he was in his 50s, and Sharia says you execute the rape victim, not the rapist, so what’s left to cover up?)

  In general, fuck religious people. Even the ones that do no wrong help prop up communities like this by passing on supernatural beliefs that have nothing to do with the modern-day world. If you don’t like my attitude, here is a cup of I don’t give a fuck that you can drink.

  This is basically looking like the same bullshit the pope and various bishops have pulled repeatedly.

  tags: politics religion Judaism Jews childMolesters molesters rape rapists pedophiles shunned Hasidic HasidicJews MordechaiJungreis Brooklyn NewYorkCity NewYork children PearlEngelman NYTimes news articles mesirah YonaWeinberg KiryasJoel OrangeCounty sex Joseph

• ABUSE OF AUTHORITY: Kelly Thomas video: Homeless man beaten and tasered to death as he cried for help

  Freshly released: Actual video of police killing a homeless man. The video is FORTY MINUTES IN LENGTH, with TWENTY MINUTES OF BRUTALITY.

  If 6 officers couldn’t take this guy down in less than 20 minutes, none of them deserve to keep their job.

  For once, the pigs are actually charged with murder and manslaughter. But wait. Only 2 of the 6 officers were actually charged. Seems to be that if you mindlessly dogpile onto an existing situation, you’re just fine. They never charge everyone who actually did it.

  “I just started smashing his face to hell” -one of the officers

  tags: politics AbuseOfAuthority PoliceBrutality tasers police brutality CaughtOnVideo beatings deaths murders violence government freedom KellyThomas LaTimes blog posts ManuelRamos JayCicinelli JoeWolf St.JudeMedicalCenter Fullerton

• VIDEO: MOVIE: REVIEW: Underworld: Awakening (2012)

  7.6/10 from both of us (imdb avg is 6.5/10).
  4/5 stars from Carolyn, 3.6/5 stars from me
  (avg Netflix is 3.9/5 stars, with a guess of 4.1 for us)

  I call this Underworld 3 because it’s the 3rd non-prequel movie in the 4-movie franchise. We now have 0 through 3.

  Anyway, this was an improvement over the 3rd movie, Underworld 0:Rise Of The Lycans. Kate Beckinsale is back, since she was barely in the prequel movie (though it’s easy enough to mistake Rhona Mitra for Kate, if you forget the eye color difference).

   It’s been too long since the first two Underworld movies for me to really say whether this was any better or worse than 1-2.

  The main twist here is that vampires and werewolves are now known to exist by the general public.

  For the most part, this just feels like a Resident Evil movie. Moreso than any of the previous Underworld movies. Whether that is good or bad is your choice.

  This had some good action, as expected — but the story could use a bit of work. The movie was kind of short. Not too much happened. There needs to be more movies in the franchise, because this one created more new issues than it resolved.

  But it was still good. High-budget, polished action.

  tags: media videos movies reviews Clint Carolyn Underworld Underworld3 Underworld:Awakening 2012

• VIDEO: MOVIE: REVIEW: Cougar Club (2007)

  Both of us: 7/10 (IMDB average:4.1/10).
  Clint: 4/5 stars, Carolyn: 3/5 stars, Netflix: 2.7/5 stars, with a 3.1/5 guess for us.

  So yea, we liked this better than the general public, which is true for most movies.

   I’m still trying to figure out why the general public — who spends more money on porn than all non-porn movies combined — tends to rate sex comedies so low. Are they upset they aren’t actual pornos? 

  This is a movie about cougars, and stars such older women as Fayne Dunaway, Carrie Fisher, Loretta Devine, and other 40-55 year old cougars. But it’s not a porno. There’s barely even nudity in it. The marketeers marketed toward the sex angle to capture peoples’ money, and I think that is what they are angry about. If you watch it not expecting much sex, the sex is simply a pleasant surprise instead of a disappointment.

  We found it to be a fun movie. Nothing great, but a good testament about scenesters and creating scenes, and with some fun eroticism to boot. The Cougar Club in this movie could just as easily be ANY self-aggrandizing, private sex-themed party-throwing organization. The parallels were obvious.  And the two bros that were main characters had a good comedic chemistry with each other, even if there was nothing uniuque about it.

  But Amanda? God…The Amanda character was SOOOOOOO annoying. The filmmarkers did this on purpose, I think, to highlight the maturity of older women by showing how annoying a younger woman can be. 

  I did not realize one of the main characters had been in 8 episodes of 24! Weird. 

  Anyway… I’m glad we finally got around to watching this.

  tags: media video movies reviews Clint Carolyn CougarClub 2007

• VIDEO: MOVIE: REVIEW: Death Machine (1994)

  4/5 stars, 8/10 from both of us, though the general public only rated it 2.7/5 stars (Netflix guessed 2.6 for us!) and 5.5/10.

  This is the closest film I’ve ever seen to the movie Hardware (1990).

  There are a few scenes that seem to be in DIRECT homage to Hardware. It lacks some of the comedy and psychedelia in Hardware, as well as the amazing cameos…

  But in terms of cinematography, subject matter, style, and even character appearance (including the “villain”), this is simply a Poor Man’s Hardware. It even has William Hootkins (“we all sing, the wibbery-wobberly..walk!”), though he’s playing a suit instead of a perf.

   Despite this being a poor man’s Hardware, it’s still better than 95% of scifi horror movies from the 1990s. So it gets 4/5 stars and 8/10, instead of the 5/5 stars and 9/10 rating that Hardware received.

  Brad Dourif is pretty fricking crazy in this, and a lot of people are saying Heath Ledger must have watched this film at some point as inspiration for his insane portrayal of The Joker in The Dark Knight.

  We watched the 111-minute (PAL/Europe) cut, though I would have preferred to get the 128 or 120-minute cut. Stay away from the 99-minute Netflix cut. You’ll be sorry. Get the PAL (europe) DVD if at all possible.

  This movie also gets a very special LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD for having THE STRANGEST MARIJUANA JOINTS TO BE FEATURED IN ALL OF FILMDOM.

  tags: media videos movies reviews Clint Carolyn DeathMachine 1994 scifi horror BradDourif WilliamHootkins

• VIDEO: MOVIE: REVIEW: The Smurfs (2011)

  Clint & Carolyn: 3/5 stars (Netflix avg=3.6, guess for us=3.3).
  Clint: 6.4/10 (high 6)
  Carolyn: 6.6/10 (low 7)
  IMDB: 5.3/10.

  There is so much wrong with this, but could I really refuse to watch a Smurfs movie because I think it MIGHT be lame? No, I could not. Especially with Hank Azaria, Neil Patrick Harris, Jayma Mays (Hiro’s perfect match from Heroes), and Sofia Vergara.

  And was it lame? Yes, in some ways.

  Of course, the original 80′s cartoon is pretty goddamn lame if you sit down and watch an episode of it in 2012, so one could argue that this movie was actually an improvement. The problem is peoples’ rose-tinted nostalgia that causes them to reject everything made on an old idea. But The Smurfs WERE ALREADY AN OLD IDEA when they came to American television. The Smurfs as a franchise are 50 years old; the cartoon is only 30 years old. It was already an adaptation before it was adapted for this movie. So get over it. The movie was fun.

  They went into the real world, which is a cheesy plot device used in so many cartoon movies, as well as an excuse to cheap out on the animation budget by using live-action people.

  But there was also a real charm in seeing Gargamel as a ridiculous live-action person caught in a world he doesn’t belong to. He assumes homeless people are other wizards. It’s funny, in a 3rd Rock From the Sun Season 1 kind of way, to see someone try to figure out a world they don’t belong in.
  And the CGI on Azrael was really cute.

  When all is said and done, we have to admit to liking this movie, even if it wasn’t great.

  tags: media videos movies reviews Clint Carolyn cartoons Smurfs TheSmurfs 2011 HankAzaria NeilPatrickHarris JaymaMays SofiaVergara

• VIDEO: MOVIE: REVIEW: Scream 4 (2011)

  4/5 stars, 7/10.
  Native ratings: 3.4/5 stars (Netflix’s guess for us=3.9), 6.3/10 IMDB.

  We definitely had to read the wikipedia summaries of the last 3 movies, because it has been soooo long since the first 3 Scream movies came out. Plus, the 2nd and 3rd ones weren’t as good.

  Fortunately, Scream 4 seems to be continuing the trend of resurrecting old horror franchises with a sequel better than the last few sequels.

  Final Destination 5 was better than FD3, 4, and maybe 2. And Scream 4 is better than S3 & S2.

  Horray for fixing broken franchises!

  tags: media videos movies reviews Clint Carolyn Scream Scream4 2011

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