Bundle of Holding - They Came From Beneath the Sea!

 

1950s horror-movie tabletop roleplaying! From Onyx Path!

This is the first I have heard of this line of RPG releases, and I wonder how I missed it. This is the type of gaming that RPG conventions are made for, and I'm grabbing my copies right after this post goes up. I want to run a session using Them! and one for the Blob! :)

They Came From Beneath the Sea (B-Movie Collection) is 12.95 at Bundle of Holding.

EEEEYAAAHHH! This all-new They Came From Beneath the Sea! Bundle presents They Came from Beneath the Sea!, the tabletop roleplaying game of drive-in B-movie horrors from decades past – of melodrama, science fiction, and farce – from Onyx Path Publishing. PLAY heroic humans driving back watery threats that seek to invade, destroy, or subjugate humanity! CAPTURE everything great about monster movies of the 1950s and 1960s – the thrills and (optionally) the campy humor – using the cinematic Storypath dice-pool system! GRAB your chocolate malt, turn on the jukebox, and ready your harpoons! Don't be caught unawares when it's revealed that They Came From Beneath The Sea!

For just US$12.95 you get all twelve titles in our B-Movie Collection (retail value $58) as DRM-free ebooks, including the complete They Came From Beneath the Sea! Core Rulebook, plus the Party Beach Creature Feature Jumpstart, the Beneath the Sea Quips and Cinematics Cards, and the Director's Screen; the bestiary Monsters of the Deep! and the character book Heroic Land-Dwellers!; the scenario collection Tales of Aquatic Terror; and five "Tasty Bits" mini-scenarios that highlight the many places They Come From: The Bikini Beach Party!, The Bermuda Triangle!, North Herald Beach!, Outer Space!, and Plan 9!

Onyx Path has also provided purchasers a coupon code good, while supplies last, for 50% off one copy of the hardcover They Came From Beneath the Sea Core Rulebook at Indie Press Revolution. Your coupon code appears on your Wizard's Cabinet download page.

 

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Two Weeks in: D&D Honor Among Thieves

 

So it's been two weeks since the D&D movie came out and I've been seeing a metric butt-ton of YouTube videos about it. A lot of reviews, good and bad, but I'd say at least half were "explanation" pieces trying to point out all of the D&D references or make me understand the ending of the movie.....I didn't know it needed to be explained, but whatever.

For the most part I'm so not a fan of having things pointed out or explained to me, but I did have one of these video slide-in behind the video I was playing in the background and I did learn something  that I will not outright share because spoilers and whatnot.

The real question I did have though was, "Is Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves" successful? Of course this depends on your definition of success, but I'm thinking along the lines of....."Did it make enough money to warrant a sequel?"

I've read online that the movie "cost" $150M, which....IIRC, is roughly 50/50 production costs and advertising.  According to Screen Dollars, the movie has made $37.2M in the opening weekend and $74M in the first two weeks (week three began on April 14th). Almost half of these sales are from overseas. Further reading online tells me, as much as these things can.....movie studios are known for doing weird math.....that for a studio to think a movie "profitable" it has to make 3x the production budget, so for the D&D movie that would be $225M. 

Personally I think that this movie might kill it with DVD/Blu-Ray sales, but that's even more fuzzy math I can't even fathom. What would be a better indicator is the drop-off in sales between the opening weekend and the second. "Normal" is about 40%, but 60% is considered problematic. This movie went down 47%, so more than normal, but not terrible......

....which not be a bad thing. The Super Mario movie is decimating the box office right now and John Wick 4 is doing twice as well as the D&D movie. If you factor in all of the box office shuffling because of COVID (yes, it's still affecting the movies and will be for a while)...well the jury is still out.

Sorry.....I started this post before I started my research, so let's look at some "critical" reviews:

Metacritic gives it a 72 (Generally Favorable)

Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 90% Tomatometer (Professional/Critical Reviews) and a 93% Audience Score

My gut says that the movie will probably be declared a success, but not make enough extra cash for Hasbro to pony up for an additional film in the franchise.

I Saw the D&D Movie So You Don't Have to! (Mostly Spoiler-Free Post)

 

Ok, kind of kidding with the title. I did see the movie Friday at the 1st "regular" showing my local theater had, but I had an afternoon date and it was the best movie time that worked with both our schedules.

I mention the date thing because she is not a gamer and had pretty much no clue about anything RPG related, so I was able to get her completely different perspective on the film.

It is important to note that this isn't so much of a review because I don't want to spoil things, but assume there will be at least one important spoiler that you may actually want to hear....I think it is important to hear, because I think this alone makes it worth seeing the film:

If, like me, you saw pretty much all of the previews and teasers, you already know the rough storyline. No....no you don't. The movie I saw was NOT the story that was presented in the teasers and trailers.

This is HUGE....at least to me. I am sooooo tired of already knowing what's going to happen when I sit down for a film. I mean it can still be a good time, but films hardly surprise you unless they go out of their way to do so. I can think of a couple of examples, but one is a big spoiler (the most recent Red Dawn flick) so I'll mention the Southpark: Bigger, Longer & Uncut movie. When the boys went hard R singing a few minutes in it was like a refreshing slap in the face if all you were used to was the TV show.....to me that was a great surprise.

Anyway, there was some good humor, plenty of Easter Eggs that didn't get in the way of the film (so no biggie for those that didn't recognize them) and I'll admit when the BBG fight went down I was going all Gamer and thought the PCs were going to zig...and they zagged. Did not see it coming at all and while I thought my idea was gamer-creative, I think it'd have been lost on the non-gamers in the audience and probably not a good cinematic/storytelling way for the PCs to win.

The only thing I didn't really like about the film is it just felt like there was a bit of name-dropping that might not have really added much, but my date didn't really notice because to her one name was just as good as another.

Honestly though, I think it has been the best D&D movie to date, which might not be saying much. It was enjoyable and I'll get it when it comes on Blu-Ray for sure. I would recommend seeing it, even if you bring a non-gamer. I'm hoping that they'll release a tie-in adventure or even a campaign (for all I know they've already done this) because there is plenty of main-storyline adjacent stuff to work with.....

New D&D Movie: Honor Among Thieves

I really haven't been a fan of the "Dungeons & Dragons" movies out there. The first one was, maybe OK, but the second one......yes, there was a second pretty-much-straight-to-DVD second film, well let's just say I know I watched it, but I remember jack squat about it.

I do watch a lot of movies, but to basically purge it from memory except for my recollection of the perception (I don't remember anything about Eragon, except for the abrupt ending and me thinking, "Where the F*%k is the rest of this shitty movie?!"

No, the best D&D movies, to me, were so NOT D&D movies....well at least not outright:

• In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale
• The Gamers
• That other Gamers movie (The Gamers: Dorkness Rising)
• Willow
• The Last Witch Hunter
• Conan the Barbarian
• Dragonslayer
• Ladyhawke
• Time Bandits

OK, I added Time Bandits to see if you were still with me here, BUT it did have a bunch of time & space jumping Dwarves stealing everything in sight. It fits with the Fantasy and SciFi mashup that a lot of those early guys seemed to enjoy.....

So I'm not super excited about the new Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves movie that was just announced as the track record isn't that great. I mean the first one had some big names and fancy (for the time) special effects too. It's not like Jeremy Irons phoned it in or anything, but the movie was...again, just OK. I think the problem was that instead of telling a good story with some D&D elements they went with D&D-ish elements that were more important than the story.

Remember the Beholder?

Yep, a Beholder running around acting as an overgrown guard dog. New one for me.

Still, I'm holding out a little hope for this movie, even if my expectations are low. There really isn't much to go on right now but the trailer. I'm guessing the lead character is a Bard, but the others....no clue. Just seems like generic fighter-type, maybe thief-type, maybe a paladin-ish-type, a magic-user-type, and....druid-type? Actual classes, who knows. Is that one PC, er character, actually a high-level druid that can shape-shift into an Owlbear, or is there a weird new lycanthropy in the newest edition? Hell if I know.....just hits me a bit like the D&D-ish elements of the previous attempts. 

The basic plot seems like some type of redemption story, with the idea that the main character recovered a super-powerful magic relic and handed it over to the bad guy who does bad things and now he's forming a group to get the macguffin back? Interesting putting the lewt acquisition way up-front like that, but if it works....

...if.

I want to be optimistic because if they do a good job and the movie makes money outside of the nerdcore audience, maybe we can get more? I'm thinking if it does good, maybe not great, we can at least get a few more definitely-not-D&D-type movies out of the deal, and some of those might make it to the short list right above Time Bandits....

Here is a little info from a SDCC Panel.

Special Note: I started this post on Friday before Erik posted this same movie clip...and I finished it before he finished his post, but it was scheduled for "my day". I already gave him crap, so no need to bug him (or me) about that fact......instead bug him about other stupid shit. He just loves that!

New Dungeons & Dragons Movie Trailer is Live

 

A fine-looking Mimic

The new trailer has been released for the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons movie starring Chris Pine. I am pleasantly surprised to say "it looks fun" and possibly even good. I know, go figure.

Here's the link to the video. Enjoy:

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D&D Movie News - Chris Pine (Capt Kirk in the new Star Trek Movies) Will Star

While I'm not a huge fan of the new Star Trek movies (they aren't horrible, they just aren't Star Trek), I thought that Pine was a decent pick for Kirk.

Choosing Chris Pine to star in the new D&D movie at least shows that the powers that believe in the project. It gives me hope.

You can read the full article here:

Is Chris Pine more of a lawful paladin or a neutral rogue? Deadline reports that the Wonder Woman and The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement actor has closed a deal to star in the Dungeons & Dragons movie, which means we’ll finally have an answer to this very important question.

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Appendix N Video Collection

 

I'm just about to enter a mandatory two-week quarantine for work (required for travel, evidently) and I'll freely admit I have more than enough to do during those two weeks.....BUT if it's anything computer related then odds are I'll be doing it in front of the idiot box, er television.

Technically I don't watch "television". I mean clearly I view stuff on the device commonly known as a TV, but I don't have cable, nor do I watch on-air broadcasts. Between Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, Vudu, and my massive video collection streaming from my home's Plex server.....I'm good. My setup is such that I can easily replicate this setup wherever I travel, as long as I have a decent internet connection. 

I know, you've read the 1st two paragraphs here and have probably already gotten to the "that's nice, quit bragging you SOB" level of excitement and are already thinking...."what's the point?"

Man you are impatient!

My point is that I watch a lot of movies and long before my Appendix N book collection started, I had been collecting Appendix N movies. Now I wasn't collecting Appendix N movies deliberately, it's just that I like to play OSR-ish RPGs and I like to watch movies, so there is bound to be some overlap. Speaking of overlap, since I do tend to collect "stuff" in general, and in this case books and movies specifically, it is real easy to accidentally buy movies I already own. I use a service called Libib to catalog my libraries and it's free for the 1st 5,000 items. I highly recommend it. You can even publish you library so others can see what's in it....mine is cstogdill.libib.com (only my movie and wanted book libraries are public.)

I thought I'd share 10 specific titles from my Appendix N (Movie) Library, and hopefully solicit some recommendations to add to my collection:

The 13th Warrior is a great RPG flick and does a great job of showing a low/no magic campaign as well as a culture clash of sorts. One of my favorite aspects of this film is the transition from the lead not knowing the Viking's language to being able to speak it. Lots of cool touches that just make me feel like it could have been an actual campaign brought to the big screen.

Army of Darkness is totally a RPG movie. It literally has swords & sorcery and seriously?.....the hero chops off his arm and attaches a chainsaw (I know that was in the previous movie, but still...). With all the weird stuff going on, you can't tell me there wasn't a GM coming up with some crazy rolls behind the screen. Hail to the King Baby!

The Beastmaster was one of my favorites growing up. I saw it again recently and it wasn't at all how I remembered it, which was actually a good thing as it was almost like watching a new movie. I think of Dar as more of a sword-wielding Druid than a barbarian, but whatever. Just don't watch Beastmaster II or Beastmaster III!

Conan the Barbarian is a great Appendix N addition, but I specifically mean the 2011 version with Jason Momoa. I know this won't be a popular opinion, but I liked it far more than the Schwarzenegger version. I liked seeing that young Conan was clearly born a bad-ass and wasn't some muscle-bound jock slave that was taught to kick ass. I also liked how there were more references to the larger world and Conan's other adventures (like his pirate days) as well as there was more sorcery going on. Just overall a better film and I wish it had done better in the box office so we could have gotten some sequels.

Heavy Metal is not something that seems appropriate for this list, but hear me out. 1st off there are some sequences that do fit this list, but the real reason this is on the list is because of the fact that Heavy Metal was in heavy rental rotation with my peer group growing up. I can recall watching this while we rolled up PCs or even just talked about gaming. I have fond memories of watching this while reading the PHB and DMG, so if there is any movie that will take me back to the early 80's, this is it.

Now, switching RPG genre's from Medieval Fantasy to Western (I'm thinking very much about Aces & Eights here) the movie Open Range gets me wanting to sling dice. I there's a couple reasons why, but at its core is how I see the main protagonist had one occupation and then clearly transitioned to another, something that is a thing in Aces & Eights.

Ok, while we're switching genres, when I first saw Underworld I was 120% convinced it was a straight-up rip-off from White Wolf, and clearly I wasn't the only one who saw that. I could explain why this film is worth watching, but I'll make my most persuasive argument: Kate Beckinsale wears skin-tight leathers....constantly.

Ok, back to more a Medieval Fantasy, but only for one more film. I actually remember seeing Willow in the theater when it came out. I was off for an evening at the very beginning of Boy Scout Camp Mitigwa and I saw it with some of my new counselor friends. We ended up quoting this film all summer. It has swords, sorcery, .....clearly a multi-classed hero. I have no idea what the Nelwyns are supposed to be, because I think they're more halflings than dwarves, but clearly neither. In any regard, big fantasy film that I think aged quite well.

Ok, last, but not least is Zombieland. As far as a modern-day zombie film I get that this is largely a comedy, but it is also a good story about the formation of the party. If you've ever played Zombies!!! or possibly Final Days (I know, another KenzerCo game), then Zombieland is a fitting addition.

Now I deliberately skipped some no-brainers, like the Lord of the Rings or Monty Python & the Holy Grail, but U was only limiting myself to 10 entries and if you factored in some of the cheesy sci-fi films....Appendix N entries in the DMG had plenty of Sci-Fi in there....., not to mention the numerous other gaming genres there are these days, and my list could have been just huge. No, 10 entries seemed sufficient.

Now I've stated, and kind of shown, that I have many other titles that would qualify for an Appendix N Video Collection, but I am wise enough to know that I don't know what I don't know........so I would ask if there are some particularly good movies I should be watching for RPG inspiration. Bonus points if they are available on the main streaming services!

Dungeons & Dragons Movie to Focus on the Eye of Vecna, Will Feature a Forgotten Realms Character (Comicbook.com)

Comicbook.com shared an article about the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons movie (due Summer of 2021) - Thanks to Luke Gygax for sharing the article on Facebook

The upcoming Dungeons & Dragons movie will feature at least one character with ties to the Forgotten Realms and will focus on a quest for an iconic magical object. ComicBook.com can exclusively report that the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons movie currently in development by Paramount will focus on a group of adventurers looking for the Eye of Vecna, a powerful artifact that dates back to the earliest days of the game. Vecna is a powerful lich turned god whose hand and eye (remnants from when Vecna was a mortal) grant unspeakable power. Both the Hand and Eye of Vecna come with a terrible cost - in order to use either artifact, the user must remove their existing eye or hand and then replace it with the artifact. 

Additionally, ComicBook.com can exclusively report that Paramount was looking for a male actor to voice the dragon Palarandusk, a dragon that lives in the Forgotten Realms. Palarandusk hasn't played any major roles in any D&D adventures, but the dragon was named in several Dungeons & Dragons sourcebooks as a protector of the village Ieirithymbul who concealed his true identity as a gold dragon. While Palarndusk's involvement in the Dungeons & Dragons movie indicates the movie will take place in the Forgotten Realms, our source indicates that the dragon will act as an ancient leader of a group of Triadic Knights. In D&D lore, Triadic Knights are followers of the gods Ilmater, Torm and Tyr. 

Our source indicates that Dungeons & Dragons will feature a group of adventurers led by Raven Hightower, a warrior with a magic flamesword that's haunted by his sister's death. Other characters include the "half-dragon" Hack Karroway, the gnome thief Olivan Trickfoot, and a masked warrior named Alyssa Steelsong who is set to take over Palarandusk's role when the dragon dies. Additionally, the main villain of the movie is a male drow named Razer Horlbar who once kept Raven and his sister as slaves, along with a female tiefling named Damala and a brutish warrior known only as "The Beast."

You can read the rest of the article here.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Justice League Comic-Con Trailer / Footage

Wow.

Simple wow.

Looks good. There is hope for DC yet ;)

As a bonus, here's the Wonder Woman trailer:

The New D&D Movie has it's Title - Hands of Chaos

I know you are all looking forward to the future blockbuster titled Dungeons & Dragons: Hands of Chaos, right?

Ain't it Cool has what details there are. It will star Ansel Elgort (who?) as Raven Hightower.

Sigh. Maybe it will be as entertaining as the first Police Academy movie was.

New Dungeons & Dragons Movie set in the Forgotten Realms - Drizzt & Elminister Anyone?

It's official. There's a new Dungeons & Dragons movie and the works, and it might actually NOT SUCK.

Warner Bros. Pictures, Hasbro’s Allspark Pictures and Sweetpea Entertainment are moving forward on a feature film franchise based on Dungeons & Dragons, the world’s most popular role playing game. Hasbro’s Brian Goldner and Stephen Davis, Courtney Solomon and Allan Zeman of Sweetpea Entertainment, and Roy Lee (“The LEGO Movie,” “How to Train Your Dragon”) are attached as producers. 

Highlighting the priority being given to the project, Warner Bros. Pictures already has a script, written by David Leslie Johnson (“The Conjuring 2,” “Wrath of the Titans”).
“We are so excited about bringing the world of Dungeons & Dragons to life on the big screen,” said Greg Silverman, President, Creative Development and Worldwide Production, Warner Bros. Pictures. “This is far and away the most well-known brand in fantasy, which is the genre that drives the most passionate film followings. D&D has endless creative possibilities, giving our filmmakers immense opportunities to delight and thrill both fans and moviegoers new to the property.” 

“This is such an enormous opportunity to bring the rich fantasy setting of the Forgotten Realms to life and, together with the creative powerhouse of Warner Bros., use movies to tell the stories that have enchanted passionate D&D fans for decades,” said Stephen Davis, Executive Vice President and Chief Content Officer of Hasbro, Inc. “D&D is the role-playing game that started it all and now we have the opportunity to ignite a franchise for its legions of avid fans in a way never done before.”

Comicbook.com has the rest of the press release.

Notice the Forgotten Realms is the setting?  Can Drizzt and Elminster be far behind?

Kickstarter - Dragon Warriors (It's a Movie, Not an RPG)

Uhm, for a movie that is going 95%+ green-screen, this is pretty damn amazing.

Definitely a "B" movie, but looks far better than any of the Dungeons and Dragons movies that have been made.

Heck, even includes nipple twisting ;)

Watch the trailer at the Dragon Warriors Kickstarter site. It's not half bad...

Magic the Gathering to be a Movie Franchise!

Thanks to +Erik Jensen and +James Aulds for bringing this to my attention.

From the Hollywood Reporter website:

20th Century Fox has closed a deal to acquire the hugely popular fantasy card game from Hasbro and will develop the property with an eye to launch a massive franchise on the scale of Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings.

This will be either really sweet or suck ass. We do know the Dungeons & Dragons movie franchise sucks ass.

My favorite quote from the article:

Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner and Stephen Davis and Wizards of the Coast president Greg Leeds will act in produce capacities. (emphasis mine)

So, are we going to push the movie in the "produce aisle" of the local supermarket?

Yeah, I make typos all of the time, but I'm a lowly blogger ;)

Will the Real Dungeons & Dragons Movie Please Step Up!

This was going through my G+ feed and blog roll earlier this week:

Warner Bros Acquires Rights To Make ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ Movie - the interesting part to note is that the working title of the script is "Chainmail"

That script, Chainmail, was acquired last year as a free-standing project, based on an obscure game that was also hatched by D&D designer Gary Gygax before he and Dave Arneson launched D&D. It is being retro-fitted to fit the much bigger game creation. 

Now, Chainmail is not all that obscure, and is at least known of by most of those in the hobby (even if many of those have never seen a copy). It has no where near the pull with the general public as Dungeons & Dragons does tho'. It could be that this is their work around to using the D&D Brand - or not, because as you read further, they might have both companies might have the rights to make a D&D movie.

Now we have the latest update:

Rights Battle On ‘Dungeons & Dragons’: Warner Bros and Universal/Hasbro Tangle -

Hasbro spokesman Wayne Charness said that “Hasbro owns the intellectual property rights to Dungeons & Dragons, period, because of Hasbro’s acquisition of Wizards Of The Coast in 1998.” Insiders on the other project maintain this has come up before, and that in a binding arbitration decision, Solomon prevailed and was proven to hold the underlying rights necessary to make the Warner Bros movie possible.

Interesting, as Universal apparently also has a movie in the works:

the project at Universal (is) to be developed as a directing vehicle by Chris Morgan, the scribe behind the last five films in The Fast And The Furious franchise (including the upcoming Fast 6) and 47 Ronin.

It almost looks like the D&D Movie Brand has gone OGL ;)

Friday Night Matinee - ARGO (Complete With "Gaming Thoughts")

So, my wife and I just finished watching ARGO on DVD. She has wanted to see it since the trailers were first playing on TV during it's theater run. Me? I wanted to see it from the perspective of a History Major, but I wasn't all that excited, even with it winning the Academy Award for Best Picture. Half the time "Best Picture" seems to mean "Artsy Movie Most People Never Saw".

I admit, I was wrong. This was a damn good flick.

Actually, it wasn't just a "damn good flick", it was also inspirational for a spy-thriller type RPG session. Heck, it could easily play out as an extended story arc. No guns. No violence (well, there is violence in the movie, but it's part of the setting and atmosphere). It's all out smarting you opponent and beating the clock.

Yes, I could see running a Top Secret / 007 game without all of the killing and shooting that used to happen during my Top Secret games. Well, that and I'm about 30 years more mature, so maybe I could actually pull it off. Well, not actually using the Top Secret rules, as I recall they were not very intuitive. Never actually played the 007 RPG - was that Victory Games?

In any case, as much as I enjoy the Jason Bourne movies and 007 franchise, this is the first "spy" movie that really hooked me from a gaming perspective. Somehow my Top Secret games always had body counts that would do James Bond proud ;)

Friday Afternoon Double feature at The Tavern - Dredd and Prometheus

So, when you are on vacation AND sick as a dog, what is one to do?

Watch DVD's of course!

So, I settled into bed with the dog and the cat and watched some movies this afternoon.

The first movie up was the new Dredd. Now, I remember the pretty campy movie with Stallone from back in the day (and the "You can do eet!" guy), which was fun if horribly stupid. The new one (in which I have absolutely no idea who the actors were) was surprisingly good for what it was - a slow motion bloody gorefest. I tried to reconcile it with the on 2000ADs I used to buy on newsprint back in the day, but I'm so far removed from that I couldn't tell you how well it kept to the Dread mythos. Still, a damn fine thrill ride.

Next up was Prometheus. It was - not bad, but not all that great either. Plot spoiler, but I still don't understand why the android infected the Ben Afleck (Charlie Halloway) look alike. Yeah, it's like Aliens with the serial numbers scratched off, until the last scene where they put the serial numbers back on. Which makes sense, as it's the same universe, but I found stuff to be both confusing (again, why the  infection? to bring back a bio agent to earth? if so, why the acceptance of the doc after she aborts her ill conceived aberration?) and predicable at times (I know I've watched too many movies when I can say the lines of a new movies before the character does

I mean, Judge Dread left me all hyped at the end, and I'm sick as a dog. Prometheus left me still feeling ill.

What Movie Best Represents "Dungeons & Dragons" in Your Eyes?

This question came up in last night's / this morning's game session. Yeah, we are pretty good at derailing game sessions, even those that are not rail roadie in the least ;)

In any case, for me it was Hawk the Slayer. Cheesy as all shit, but it was nice to see a true Crossbow of Speed in action. Maybe I'm still looking at it with the eyes of a teenager, but it rocked back in the day.

Besides, it has Jack Palance - need I say more?

So, what movie best represents D&D to you and why?

Friday Night Movie Tavern - Conan the Barbarian

When the wife was away for the evening taking a stained glass art class, your tavern keeper decided to stream Conan the Barbarian via Netflix. You know the one - the 2011 Blockbuster hit. Huh, it wasn't a blockbuster? Shit!

Alright, first things first - I'm not all that up on my Conan fiction, so I'm not married to the canon. I can't sit here and say "this shit never happened in a Howard story!" because truth be told, most of my experience with Conan was the Marvel comics series' (oh, and Conan the King - I really enjoyed that one).

What all this means is that I got to watch Conan the Barbarian as a fantasy movie first and a Conan movie second. As a fantasy movie? One of the better ones to come out in recent years. As a Conan move? Call me a heretic, but it was better than the Arnie version from my youth. I really enjoyed it. My wife wouldn't have, but she fell asleep 15 minutes into The Fellowship of the Ring ;)

If there is one thing I need to yoke it's the sand warriors. That fight scene was many layers of awesome and I'd love to put my layers through something similar, at least opponent-wise. Maybe I'll write them up in the next few days OSR compatible...

Movie Review - The Avengers

Can I make this simple and to the point?

You'll laugh, you'll cry (and laugh), cheer, and laugh some more.

I drank a large (movie sized) soda and never once got up to pee.  There was no time to do so.  The movie MOVES constantly.

My one complaint:  Why is every NYC cop portrayed in movies as some late 1950's Brooklynite?  "Ey!  I'm talkin' ta youse!"  Sorry, I don't talk that way, 99% of my fellow officers don't talk that way, but the one talking scene with a NYPD Sergeant sounds like it's cribbed from a B&W movie I'd catch on AMC.

Yep, my only complaint.

As usual with the Marvel Movies these days, you need to sit through the credits.  So sit, don't fucking stand in front of your seats as the rest of us are fucking sitting as were watching the credits scroll by so we can catch the two epilogue easter eggs thrown in.  Sit, read some emails or send some texts on your phone, but just please sit!

Off to See The Avengers on the Morrow

Took off from work tomorrow, as I have things to do around the house and want to read up on some stuff in preparation for the kick off of my ACKS campaign this Saturday Night.

I mentioned I was off to a friend at work, who said he was also off, so he could catch the opening of The Avengers movie.  Yep, there are geeks and gamers on every job, every type of occupation ;)

Next thing I know,we have tickets to see it in IMAX 3D at 0930 in the morning.  Leaving me plenty of time for the other stuff I need to do later on.

I'll give you my review sometime tomorrow.