The Old School Otaku Lounge

Saw John Woo's Hard Boiled last night. Watched it before as a kid. I didn't realize how ridiculous the body count actually was in this. I think this movie may have the highest body count of any movie NOT about an actual war. Naturally, this means I love it.

Greg I know how you feel about those shows from the 90's especially the scifi tv shows. They really were getting good then. Also, I like to watch some kungfu movies. Has anyone every seen "Versus"? I really like the kungfu on that one.

Saturday was my birthday, and I watched Return of the Jedi with my daughter (on LD, unaltered!). I remember as a little kid, looking at my red and black Revenge of the Jedi poster on the wall (man, I wish I'd preserved that collectors' item!), wondering what the movie would be like. I vaguely remember my reaction upon hearing the news that it involves another Death Star and I thought, "Well that is exciting, but why would they do another movie about another Death Star?"

While ROTJ is certainly the weakest of the trilogy and I am sure that the movie would've been far better if Gary Kurtz had persuaded George Lucas to not do another Death Star story, have Han die, Luke and Leia aren't siblings, etc, there really are a lot of cool things about this movie. The Tattooine setting and the Jabba subplot is pretty cool (although Boba Fett deserved to go down in a more dignified, yet badass way). The Endor speeder bike chase was awesome to me as a kid and it is still incredibly cool; not only for the excitement of the scene, but for the tehnology used for it. The space fleet battle is incredibly cool. It is still way, WAY cooler than the crappy fleet battle in Revenge of the Sith---especially since that scene was preoccupied with stupid subplots about completely impractical droid attacks. The attack on the 2nd Death Star is so freaking cool. I saw a Cinemassacre video review of the Japanese movie Message From Space that said that it was essentially Japan's answer to Star Wars. However they pointed out that it was very possible that Lucas had seen this movie, because the space attack in tunnels in that movie seemed to be mirrored by the fighters flying into the Death Star superstructure in ROTJ. Visually, ROTJ is still superior to anything seen in the dumb prequel movies.

Happy Birthday Greg! I would say more but I am off to bed!

Return of the Jedi was the first movie I can remember watching in a theatre. I'm sure my parents might have went to other movies before with me, but this film was my first 'real' moviegoing memory. My parents were surprised I was awake for the whole thing, and not acting like a "typical" kid. Apparently, most of the kids my age were just running up and down the aisles throughout most of the film and/or falling asleep, but I was totally "into" it.

I don't have as big an attachment for the Star Wars franchise as most people my age do, but ROTJ was definitely a seminal part of my childhood.

The first movie in the theater I remember seeing was Superman in 1978. I was only 2 years old at the time, and I fell asleep. Later when I watched it on TV, I fell asleep again. I don't think I have ever seen that movie the whole way through. Only Superman 2 held my attention as a kid. Now, when I saw Empire Strikes Back in the theater, that was one of the biggest experiences of my life, and probably the one moment that really influenced my childhood and shaped my identity. There didn't need to be any fart jokes or spastic rabbity geckos stepping in doodie to hold my attention, nor did I need Luke or Han to be children for me to relate to them. That movie was the pinnacle of Star Wars movies. It inspired my imagination and I was forevermore a science fiction fan from that moment.

Two years old? Wow, I don't remember much before 4 years old, to be honest. The biggest memory I have between ages 1-3 is my dad once parking on a hill and not setting the hand brake while I was inside the car. He stepped outside for a smoke and the car rolled backwards down the hill with me still inside! OH YEAH, I remember THAT very well! I still bug him about it today, and he finds it exasperating that it was THIS episode that I remember most out of all the things I went through during those years.

Ha! That's quite a story. I actually remember not having teeth. I used to smack my gums together while making baby noises. Once I started teething, I couldn't do that anymore and was disappointed because I liked the feeling.

Now if you were to ask me what I did two weekends ago, I couldn't tell you. Oh wait, no, I took the train to go see the new Hobbit movie. It rained a lot that weekend and we had to hang our laundry inside. I guess my memory isn't that bad after all.

Mr. Peabody. Brought a tear to this old Jay Ward fan's eye.

Next up: 300 Birth of an Empire. April 4th: Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Will check out the making of special on next week instead of the S.H.I.E.L.D. episode which it replaces. Should be good.

I saw Zero Black Blood. It's a spin off of a mature tokusatsu series called Garo. If you are familiar with that franchise, it is worth recommending. Well, it was six episodes composed as two movies to be more accurate. I plan on watching the Heisei vs Showa Kamen Rider next weekend.