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Since I suggested it, I guess I'll do it... Here's a thread to discuss what horror movies, books, shows, comics, and etc that you're looking forward to watching during the holiday. I'm actually thinking about doing a Scooby-Doo movie marathon: Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost Scooby-Doo Meets KISS: A Magical Mystery (yes, this movie exists) Scooby-Doo and the Curse of the 13th Ghost What about the rest of you?

My son and I just found this series on YouTube: Man at Arms: Reforged Great series where a team of people at Baltimore Knife and Sword make various weapons from video games, comics, books and movies (among other things) and occasionally historical weapons, and show you how they make them.

The new teaser trailer for J.K.'s return to the world of wizarding: The teaser didn't wow me, but it is cool to see the 1920's New York setting.

I haven't actually seen "Frozen" yet. Movie's been out awhile, but I've been busy. But I can tell you chapter and verse what HAPPENS, oh yeah. And the snowman is named Olaf. And it's an allegory for bein' gay. Except when it isn't. And it's a feminist fable. Except when it's an allegory for oppression of women. And best of all, you can have "Frozen" cereal for breakfast, "Frozen" Campbell's soup for lunch, and a "Frozen" frozen dinner for dinner, and in between, you can play with enough "Frozen" toys to recreate the entire movie, before finally going to bed on "Frozen" sheets, pillowcases, and comforter! I am starting to dislike a movie I have never actually seen. It's happened before, too. I didn't WANT to hate "E.T." It came naturally, though. The movie came out in 1982, and I went and saw it in a theatre. I thought it was a bit kid flavored for my taste, but not a bad movie at all; rather liked it. And I forgot about it about ten minutes after I walked out of the theatre. "Star Wars," it wasn't. For about a month, everything was OK. And then, the happy meal toys appeared. And the collectible set of glasses. And the marketing tie-in with Reese's Pieces. And the coloring books. And the toilet paper. And the sheets. And the windup toys. And the cereal. And... for something over a year to 25 months, I literally could not go out in public without having ET shoved down my throat in some form or fashion. Staying home didn't help. They attached ET to anything they thought might possibly sell better with a frog-faced alien on it. Reese's Pieces' sales went stratospheric, and everybody else wanted a piece of the action. I literally couldn't watch a half hour sitcom without seeing some commercial with a clip from the movie in which ET was trying to sell me anything from hair conditioner to brake fluid. And one day, I turned on the radio, and Neil Diamond of all people sang, "Turn on your heart-liiiight..." and I literally jumped back from the radio in horror. No, NO, NOT HERE, TOO! And the [expletive deleted] song went gold, and they played the fraggin' thing every five minutes, and I literally went out and bought my first Sony Walkman so I could listen to music without having ET stuffed into my poor ears. I wondered in calm horror, did they pay Neil Diamond to sing an ET song, or was he so wild about the movie that he wrote and sang the fraggin' thing out of sheer enthusiasm for the Culture God that was ET? The phenomenon was that saturated in the fraggin' culture. To live in America was to eat, breathe, drink, and sleep ET. And to this day, if the thing comes on TV, I'll change the channel as fast as I can reach the remote. I've only seen the actual movie twice, but after a couple of years of marinating in the cultural phenomenon 30 years ago, I'm marked for life. Pavlov's dogs drooled, and I flee ET. I mourn "Conan The Barbarian." I didn't want to dislike "Conan." I really liked it when I went to go see it in the theatre. But later, my roommates and I splurged for cable with ALL the premium channels, and that night, we made popcorn and prepared for the SHOW. And we clicked on HBO. What's on? "Conan The Barbarian," with Arnold Schwarzenegger. How about it, guys? Meh. Seen it. What else? Showtime! They try harder! What's on? James Earl Jones? No, Thulsa Doom.... in the middle of "Conan the Barbarian." Ah. Well. What else? Cinemax! Awesome! The Home Nudity Network! What have they got? Ah. "Conan The Barbarian." A couple of months later, we had the cable company pull the premium channels. And for 25 years, I haven't been able to watch "Conan The Barbarian." It's especially bad with songs, though. I don't hate "All About The Bass." Not yet. Or "Take Me To Church." I'm getting there, though. But they haven't been ramrodded HARD enough yet. I don't walk into stores and hear it blasting at me through the sound system yet. And they haven't coopted the song for commericials. Yet. So far, I can escape from it by simply twisting a knob. Not so "Elvira." Not the erstwhile Mistress Of The Dark, Bad Movies, and Cleavage. Her, I still like. But the song of the same name by the Oak Ridge Boys, I cannot stand. Because once again, back in the 80s, something went wrong with reality, and the dumbest song ever written became legally mandated to play on every broadcast medium, nonstop. "Ail-VAH-ruh, ah oom poppa, oom poppa mau mau, Ail-VAH-ruh..." There were days I kept the Walkman headphones clamped on my skull nonstop, to keep the earworms OUT. There was no ESCAPING it. At least one radio station in central Texas played the [expletive deleted] thing four times an hour. I heard it leaking from car windows, in sandwich shops, walking down the street... it Would. Not. Stop. To the point where I finally snapped, and killed that one guy who was walking down the street singing, "...oom poppa mau mau, oom poppa, oom poppa, oom poppa mau mau..." Yup. Snapped. Shrieked like a banshee with kidney stones, and with strength borne of sheer wrath, I uprooted a STOP sign and beat him to death with it, right there on the street corner. I'm lying, of course. I gritted my teeth and kept walking. But it was a near thing. Anyone else got a tale of a thing that may or may not have started out as a good thing... until sheer involuntary immersion in it threatened to make you crazy?

At Castle Bedlam, in the Iyanden Craftroom, where miniatures are painted, quilts made, and various projects undertaken, there is the Garage Sale TV, which has a built in VHS player. Being who we are in this house, there are still VHS cassettes hither, thither, and yon, and recently, I wanted some back ground noise while I painted, so I stuck a cassette in there. I hadn't actually LOOKED at this cassette since 1994 or so, but it still played fine... and gave me a surprise. Used to be a show on USA about bad movies. It was called "Reel Wild Cinema," and consisted of Sandra Bernhardt doing kind of a postmodern Elvira gig as they show really bad old movies, edited down to allow for the time constraints. She also conducted a short interview segment, once per episode, with a bad movie celebrity... some included Russ Meyer, Dave Friedman, and Mamie van Doren, among others. This particular segment was themed "Sword And Sandal," and the main movie treat was "Medusa Vs. The Son Of Hercules," an ancient Italian dog from the sixties, in which the Son of Hercules must scare up an army FAST before the evil invaders come, but for some reason, Thessaly's entire army went out, one at a time, to deal with the Medusa, and never came back. So now it's up to Junior to go out and kill Medusa, which will make all the stoned soldiers come back to life! If they did this today, it might be an entertaining piece of cheese... but when we finally see the Medusa, it's hilarious. Rather than do the whole "woman with snakes for hair," thing, they decided to dress someone up in a tree costume with a sort of face hung on the front, and a spotlight for the single eye. It doesn't look much like a tree... but it looks more like a tree than anything ELSE, including a Medusa. And if you look into its spotlight, you suddenly become frozen and painted gray! ...well, I hadn't seen this show in twenty years. I'd forgotten I recorded the episodes, back when it was on. And I wound up forgetting all about painting as I watched this gawdawful movie. And I had more fun than kittens doing just that. I went online looking for the show. I'd gladly buy the entire series on DVD, but it doesn't seem to have ever been compiled or released, and it barely appears as a footnote anywhere. And I mourn for this awful but gloriously entertaining show. It reminded me of another show I liked, once... "The Evil Touch." Ever heard of it? Didn't think so. I used to think I had imagined it, until I finally found it on the Internet. Australian TV show, kind of a Twilight Zone thing, anthology show with each episode being self contained and having a different cast. Anthony Quayle did the Rod Serling duties, and the first episode featured a monster in a lake. I ate this show up when I was a kid. But after its initial run, it vanished, and never went into reruns, and I never saw it again. Until there was IMDB, I seriously began to wonder if I'd just imagined the whole thing. Still wish I could see the episodes again, just to see if they're any good after 40 years... Anyone out there have a fondness for something obscure that most other people haven't heard of?

So I'm looking to expand my western movie collection. While I know we all have our favorite western films this time around I'm looking for those definitive western films. Along the lines of a director's best western film, an actor or actress' best western film. The only restrictions are: 1) You have to tell me why you picked that film so state whether its for the director or the actor. You can only name a director, actor or actress once.For instance you could name Clint Eastwood twice, once for his best (or defining) western role and once for his best (or defining) western film he directed. He could still appear in other films you have selected. 2) Don't just throw a list out there, I want to know why I should consider hunting down that film. 3) You can name as many movies as you like as long as they fulfill the 1st restriction. Ready......Go!

I have a problem with the portrayal of RPGs and their players in the mainstream media. EVERY TIME, it seems, when RPGs and their players are portrayed on mainstream film or TV, they can't resist going for the stereotype. People who play RPGs are maladjusted nerds; normal people simply do not do such things. When we see it on "The Big Bang Theory," it's because all our male characters are maladjusted nerds. When we saw it on "Community," it was because our regular cast of attractive, if quirky, people, wanted to make the maladjusted nerd feel accepted and not like such a loser. When we saw it in "The Gamers," and "The Gamers II" ... well... actually, it was pretty good, but neither of these productions are what I'd call mainstream... the feel of these two productions is more like "made by nerds for nerds," to be honest. Independent films can afford to aim for smaller audiences. So I'd been hearing about this movie, "Zero Charisma," about a gamemaster, his game group, and how this hipster guy joins the game and shakes things up and the gamemaster winds up taking a dislike to him. I was curious; I wanted to see it. It's an indie film, and I had hopes. Regrettably, those hopes were dashed. Our protagonist, Scott Weidemeyer (Sam Eidson) is very quickly established as a stereotype; he's in his late twenties, perhaps early thirties, and lives exactly like he did when he was fifteen: heavy metal music, still lives with his grandmother in a room plastered with heavy metal band posters, fantasy art, and assorted Renfaire props, and has a lousy job as a donut deliveryman. He USED to have a job at the Friendly Local Game Store until he got canned for being too obnoxious and opinionated. Oh, and he's convinced that Hollywood stole his movie idea for "The Matrix." Our protagonist... is an angry, immature, maladjusted nerd. His friends aren't much better. One member of his group discovers his marriage is falling apart because he doesn't spend enough time with his wife. The others lack wives and/or girlfriends entirely, and tolerate Scott's tyrannical gamemastering and overbearing attitude because... well... we never get much explanation for why they put up with this guy. We establish quickly that this whole group is a pretty sad bunch, and that the center of Scott's world is that for a few hours every Thursday, he gets to be God. After twenty minutes of this, I began to wonder precisely who this movie was aimed at. Who wants to see this? Ordinary folks would be saying "Yeesh, what an unlikeable nerdy bunch of people. Why are we watching this?" and gamers would be saying, as I was, "Yeesh, what a poisonous, unlikeable stereotyped nerdy jerk being abusive to his poor geeky friends. Why are we watching this?" The zit scene in particular made me feel like I was watching staged bumfights between children with Down's syndrome; it literally plays as if you're watching a date rape. ...but then, we introduce Miles (Garrett Graham), a likeable, well-adjusted individual with an interest in gaming, fantasy, comics, and so forth. He has a decent job, an EXTREMELY popular fantasy and gaming blog, and a gorgeous, sexually insatiable girlfriend. He's lighter, funnier, more pleasant, and far more interesting than Scott... and when Scott's social circle starts gravitating towards Miles at the same time Scott's relatives invade his home life and start making it into even more of a living hell, the movie really gets rolling. Regrettably, it grows even less pleasant and more uncomfortable as it goes. The movie is pitched as a comedy, but it ain't real funny. It's the story of a bunch of squalid clueless losers caught between a loud, obnoxious, maladjusted nerd and a much nicer seeming person who is ultimately no less of a jerk. And as a gamer and general nerd myself, it made me feel kind of nasty and unpleasant. I shouldn't want to take a shower after seeing a "comedy." Even a "black comedy." This is a flick that can't decide if it wants to make fun of its loser protagonist or not, but ultimately can't decide what to DO with him, either. In short, if you're not a gamer, this movie is rather squalid and unpleasant... and if you're a gamer, it's rather squalid, unpleasant, and INSULTING. Either way, it's frankly kind of depressing. Not recommended. I really hope "Knights of Badassdom" is a better experience...

Spoilers For this I just found a solution: Choose the third top Icon 'Special BBCode', look in 'please select' and enter a text. I think it can be also used for to hide pictures and other stuff. Resize Pictures Does anyone know if it is possible to insert pictures with a BBCode and make them smaller until you click on them? Movies How to enter movies? I saw already other users putting youtube videos in the post, but I don't know how. Others Ok, not really a question, but if someone has question how to do something, I thought we could collect them all in this thread.

Haven't seen any of the other Marvel movies ... ummm, ever, but I am an *old* fan of the comics, so I could watch it without irritating my kids by asking who the heck people were and what was going on, 'cause it was dead obvious from looking at them even if they never mentioned, say, Volstagg's name once the whole time. I did like that no part of the nine worlds was racially monocultural, not even the elves. It was a rip-roaring fun movie, even if they gave the Asgardians Star Wars-like tech (shouldn't they have had cooler developed magic instead?). I always found Malekith a little ridiculous, but the movie and Christopher Eccleston made him magnificently scary. The visuals were nicely designed, I thought. Svartalfheim's sun looked convincingly black, for mindflayer and Spelljammer fans. I liked the Celtic knotwork force fields. All the Asgardians had great hair, fabulous hair, amazing hair, unbelievable hair. Their armor was cool too. The svartalfs had the creepiest helms, all serene faces and big dark eyes. I will say, it was one of the least English films set in England I have seen since Angela Lansbury did a Miss Marple, and this film didn't even have the excuse of being filmed in America. There were more British accents in Asgard than in London. Anyone who does not sit through the entire movie credits is a philistine anyway, but virtue is well rewarded here.