Sunday, September 23, 2018

The Disgruntled's Real World Heavyweight Champion

Here's hoping that my new employer only looks at the web history when the dung hits the fan. Perhaps it is too early in my tenure with my new employer to be bringing back my Saturday/Sunday blog, but if they do not seem to mind other(s) doing their junior college stuff on it, why should I worry? Why should I care?

And why aren't the "The Oliver and Company" characters featured in "Kingdom Hearts"? Can a game have too many Cheech Marin-voiced characters? Am I the only one who appreciates the 80's animated films between the ones that they gave sequels to? Where is "The Great Mouse Detective 2: Basil Boogaloo"?

Speaking of appreciation, that is something I do not have much of for in regards to WWE. This is something that I really do not need to delve into right now, except for the championships. Do we really want to call Roman Reigns THE champion?

Even if we can all be satisfied with The Phenomenal One at the top of the game, there have definitely been times where the WWE offers us no one worthy to hold the top belts in their company (Randy Orton and Brock Lesnar after Wrestlemania 33). During the Monday Night Wars we could have the argument of who was the best in the business based on waist wear. The fun of going to the magazine aisle of a pharmacy was to see how Bill Apter ranked grapplers based on hardware.

Working night audit on week nights at a hotel that was overstaffed and to scrutinizing about bettering oneself (the owner at the I Hotel "allegedly" fired a kid for doing Big Ten schoolwork on the clock), jotting down notes in regards to the concept of which championship was the championship helped keep me sane for a few weeks. In other words, I tried to also determine which title was the one to claim in the tag team and women's divisions.

This brings me to my biggest issue with working for a biker for Trump (no allegedly on that) or some asset a conglomerate is trying to sell while leaving everyone with unrelenting repetitive tasks with no encouragement or benefits. You can be creative with those moments that allow you to breathe, but how are you going to find the strength to regurgitate those moments on to the keyboard?

On top of all those questions, I have to determine how to address the title history I developed in the most reader friendly way. Do I start back at Starrcade 1983 or work backward from me cancelling the incredibly sexist Network (it was not NJPW World)? The easy thing to do would be to start at Royal Rumble 1992 when the recently fired NWA champion won the WWF title, but that throws away all my effort to tell the story of the real world champion.

If I am going to do that, I might as well find somebody to podcast about it with. Hey Jake Lloyd (@liquidjake), you may need another podcast on Dragon Wagon Radio if listeners get sick of the WWE-centric podcast you have right now. You can find me @maineventzombie on Twitter and Instagram.

Ground rules probably need to be laid out, and they will not make much sense if I do not start at the beginning. This is the time when the 10 Pounds of Gold was the only gold that mattered.

See the first part of the list at the Rip'Em System Tumblr and relive "No Holds Barred."

https://www.instagram.com/p/BQbvWkggL-P/

Tuesday, September 18, 2018

90-Minute Netflix: Lockout: Mainstream for the Troma Fan.

John Carpenter Sued 'Lockout' Creators for Plagiarism, and He Won

Could this new job be too good to be true. Downtime and access to Blogspot. A chance to be prolific again. Better invest in a mirror to make sure the boss doesn't catch me.

It was an interesting week to say the least. New wheels, off the phones for the first time in three years, officially and indisputably an uncle. Enough has happened to almost forget about my shortcomings as an adult. Unfortunately my taste for cinema and drama kept me relative grounded. Great film, but wrong time to see Jason Reitman's "Young Adult." So to bounce back, I watched some ill-regarded space themed pictures last night.

Receiving unfair assessments by the masses (so these flicks are just like me), I watched Disney's "Treasure Planet" and Luc Besson's "Lockout." The prior may receive too much heat, but probably the correct amount of attention (is it me, but traditional animated Disney has not looked vivid since "The Lion King?"), since I did a lot more playing around with my phone than the latter. This is probably only because the Guy Pearce flick was just louder (almost redundant to say when you think back to "Priscilla").

See the rest of the review at "NinetyForChill.com - A more appropriate runtime"

The Undrafted and Wrongfully Drafted

"Bull Durham" was not drafted on the Baseball Draft (A film that can only be drafted at #1)
"No Fear of a Black Hat" on the Fictional Band Mini-Mega Draft
The entire George Lucas Draft
"The Birdcage" instead of "La Cage Aux Folles" on the Drag Draft
"Road Trip" was not even mentioned during the Road Trip Draft
"Major League" instead of "Drop Zone" on the Wesley Snipes Draft
"Black Swan" instead of "Mermaids" on the Wynona Ryder Draft
"Akira" instead of "Ghost World" on the Comic Book Movie (Non-Super Hero) Draft. Tetsuo is a Supe.
"Now You See Me" instead of "Diggstown" on the Con Artist Movie Draft
"The Onion Movie" instead of "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask" on the Sketch Comedy Anthologies Draft
"The Big Lebowski" not being marked eight on the Coen Bros. Draft
"Labrynth" or "Dark Crystal" not receiving the number 1 or 2 spot in the Jim Henson Draft
"Stage Fright" on the Giallo Draft. It is a slasher despite the presentation.
"Assault of Precinct 13" and "Prince of Darkness" Instead of "Escape from New York" and "The Thing" on the John Carpenter Draft
"Con Air" instead of "US Marshalls" and "Universal Soldier" instead of "Time Cop " on the 90's Action Draft
"WarGames" instead of "Spies Like Us" on the Cold War Draft
"Traffic" instead of "Side Effects" on the Steven Soderbergh Draft
"Fight Club" instead of "The Virgin Suicides" on the 1999 Draft ("Suicides" made the Actor Directorial Debut Draft)
Any Kirk Douglass instead of "The Shining" being on the Kubrick Draft
"Return of the Jedi" instead of "Tokyo Drift" on the Threequels Draft (there's only one "Return," okay, and it ain't "of the King," it's "of the Jedi.")

Deserves a Second Chance

Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016).

I find the DC movies, or at least Zack Snyder, was trying to bring comic books to the big screen as opposed to adapting comic books for the big screen. If you read, (or watch the excellent animated adaptation of) "The Dark Knight Returns", it is a very slow build to the battle between the Bat and Supe. This is regarded as one of the best threads in comics.

As a guy who fell in love with wrestling in the 1980's, the very methodical showdown is what I loved. It's a love letter to comic book fans who read and note every detail and want to try figuring out the plot before the character do. Come at the flick this way, and I think you will get something out of it.

Tropic Thunder (2008)

This is a feature that dares you to be offended. When director Ben Stiller is that forthcoming like Robert Downey Sr. was with 1969's "Putney Swope", an audience saying that something is in poor taste, hence not funny, means they are afraid to make a mockery of a concept.

My own experience with junkies bankrupting me allows me to thoroughly enjoy Jack Black's making addiction seem ridiculous. Robert Downey Jr. nails his taboo performance and I would say helps the call for actors from a demographic to be the first people called on for the roles representing them. As for the "Forest Gump" knock off jokes, they serve as a way to ridicule us for what we accepted (and encouraged) as fine a decade prior. The narrative that controls the pace in the second act can drag, but the content that is delivered cannot be cut.