1,218 thoughts on “Wangapalooza: Big Trouble in Little China”

  7. hurr derr….missed the new episode update again. So, I’ll have to repost this one:

    A few weeks back, I picked up the Blu-Ray edition of “Legend” – the 1985 fantasy from Ridley Scott with Tom Cruise and Mia Sara. Always had a fondness for it, though apparently Scott’s director’s cut was quite a bit different from the U.S. theatrical release. I had only ever seen it with the Tangerine Dream score. I didn’t know that Jerry Goldsmith did the original score and that the studio replaced it with the Tangerine Dream score. The Blu-Ray has both the theatrical and director’s cut, along with a commentary from Ridley Scott. I saw the director’s cut last week and watched it again with the commentary yesterday.

    I’ve definitely gained a new appreciation for this one and the efforts that Scott had to go through to pull it off. Two thumbs up from me.

    • My childhood self went squee when I found out Brian Henson is married to Mia Sara. In my mind Labyrinth and Legend got married.

      On a different, more serious note, I will have to watch the director’s cut, but I have always felt the soundtrack was very dated, but not enough to take away from Tim’s brilliant performance.

    • I haven’t seen it in about 10 years. As a TD fan, I appreciated their soundtrack – – especially “Is Your Love Strong Enough” with Brian Ferry, over the closing credits.

      I remember thinking Tim Curry and his makeup were really the only good thing about this movie, but I’d probably be willing to brave the director’s cut.

          • I never got into Supernatural. It’s too CW-ish. But I get what you are saying: even with the comics, it’s not like the material is original. It’s the character, Constantine, that makes the comics and the show interesting. 🙂

          • I like how well it’s being received. It jumps around in several of the storylines from the comics, but I like how characters that are familiar to the stories are showing up. It may be a little too self referential though, but it is early in the series. I enjoy the actor playing Constantine. He gets the cheekiness/sarcasm of the character, although my friend who is watching it with me thinks he gets a little too cryptic or distant for his companions. It wasn’t a series I had planned on watching, so I’ve been pleased so far.

  16. CD: Real Ale – Brewhouse Ale. Drinking Texas beer that I bought in Texas on the cheap at a Texas Walmart. The reality is that CD: too much. I’m also watching an “obtained” copy of Jodorowsky’s Dune and it is blowing my mind. Not only because it would have been an incredible film with astounding people behind it. But because the “obtained” copy I have does not have subtitles. I speak reasonable Spanish (lived for a year in Spain) and not a lick of French. What would be the subtitled parts are in Spanish and French. So I can understand most of what Jodorowsky says and nothing of his French cohorts. In my book that is exactly as it should be. Much like Gary Larson translated human speech to animals as “blah blah blah”, I get the French parts as “I’m a pompous French douche bag and nothing I say is really important.” Guess that makes me a pompous ‘Merikan douche bag, but whatever.

    • Oh shit! H.R. Giger just showed up and started speaking un-subtitled German. There goes my whole house of cards anti-French bigotry in a puff of smoke. Damn you Giger!

    • From the Wikipedia entry on Dune, specifically the 1984 David Lynch movie “Around that time Lynch received several other directing offers, including Return of the Jedi.” So now I will turn in and hope that I dream a brilliant David Lynch version of Return of the Jedi that might have included Everett McGill, Brad Dourif, Dean Stockwell, Max von Sydow, Sean Young and maybe even Patrick Stewart. Ahhh to sleep… perchance to dream.

    • That is a fascinating movie. Jodorowsky’s movie would have been utterly batshit, had it happened.

      Giger looks like he’s in pain every time he speaks, like some tiny creature is about to burst from his chest.

      • There’s a woman in our neighbourhood that takes her cat out for walks when it’s nice outside. From what I can tell, the can seems ok with it. I’ve never seen her dragging the cat, or carrying it, or coaching it, etc. The cat seems to trot merrily beside her.

  25. from one of my investment newsletters – discussing McDonalds.
    “(snip)… Specifically, the management team has built out the ”next generation” kiosks in two-sided tablet style, with clearer interfaces. The new kiosks will appear in 60 of its U.K. stores out of 1,240, and 150 of its France stores out of 1,320.

    These efforts have led to a faster order process, which means less labor (the people taking the order) is needed at the front end of the store. This could lead to a meaningful improvement on the cost front.” (snip)

    If this becomes the trend in commerce … one wonders at the varied implications.

    • I want to play!! It’s installed but I’m finishing Assassin’s Creed first. Probably another week or so before I get to DA. But! By then, most of the bugs will be worked out and I’ll be playing a fully patched version.

  33. Morning Pan

    Once again hubby has a late night. He told me to expect late nights every Wednesday until the Christmas break. Except next week. He’s travelling to Edmonton so that will be an overnight trip. I guess that makes it a really late night.

    • Its always fun to have a good hockey school in the region. I’d like to see them and Denver become rivals… if they played each other enough

    • Yes! Guilt trip successful!

      Foserious, no guilt on anyone. I’d hate for the conversation to ever sputter out, but lulls are natural occurrences. I myself am slammed with work stuff, so I myself am quieter than usual.

      • Removes the gag order.

        Seriously, I go in spurts. I sometimes feel like I’m not contributing any color or vice versa (that’s all I’m contributing). This week has been busy.

  38. I am currently in the midst of cleaning my house in anticipation of my parents’ coming to visit on Saturday. I am done for the day as soon as I take out the trash and fold the laundry. After that: writing.

  41. Ugh. It appears my All-In-One printer/scanner has printed its final document.

    Im super sad and super pissed, as I believe the culprit to its demise was using off-label ink cartidges, which clogged, then damaged the printhead.

    Totally sucks.

  43. Stolen from Hugh Brackett on FB:

    QA Engineer walks into a bar. Orders a beer. Orders 0 beers. Orders 999999999 beers. Orders a lizard. Orders -1 beers. Orders a sfdeljknesv.

  45. Speaking of the first scene in BTiLC, the lawyer is played by classic character actor Jerry Hardin. Jerry Hardin also played Deep Throat in The X-Files. Being that these are my favorite film and TV show respectively, this makes Jerry Hardin the greatest actor in the world.

  57. Tru Channel presents Worlds Dumbest…

    Outlaws 2 & 3 …. Great fun to watch at work, while waiting for the heart surgeon to show up to perform his job.

    • Some will try to make that into some sort of dark conspiracy but I think that it shows that the major networks think this is a “non-issue” among their key demographics. Last pole I saw showed that more then 60% of the American public supported some sort of Amnesty for working immigrants. The average, non-Faux news watching, ‘merican is fine with this action and in fact, is wondering why this has taken so damn long and can’t we move along to other stuff now ?

        • Definitely disrespectful but I don’t think that was the motivation. They simply put profit in front of respect.

          I still think that the “glass half full” side of this is that, by not carrying his announcement on this, the major networks snubbed the Tea Baggers just as much as the President. The were saying in effect, “The President’s actions on this are so NOT controversial and so NONE newsworthy that we aren’t even going to cover it live. Contrary to your DIRE predictions about a public backlash, most Americans will never even notice this has happened and have moved on.”

  68. Looking for a decent dystopian novel, YA preferable, one shot even better (not part of a series).

    Any recommendations?

    Hunger Games and 1984 already read.

  71. Crap joke for the day:

    A man goes to a golf pro for some advice.
    “Well, what should I do?” asked the man.
    “Hold the club gently,” the pro replied, “just like you’d hold your wife’s breast.”
    Taking the advice, he took a swing, and POW, he hit the ball 250 yards straight up the fairway.
    The ecstatic man went back home telling his wife the good news about his lesson, and the wife couldn’t wait for her lesson.
    The next day, the wife went for her lesson.
    The pro watched her swing and said, “No, no, no, you’re gripping the club way too hard.”
    “What can I do?” asked the wife.
    “Hold the club gently, just like you’d hold your husband’s penis.”
    The wife listened carefully to the pro’s advice, took a swing, and, THUMP! — the ball skipped down the fairway about 15 feet.
    “You know, that was a lot better than I expected,” the pro said. “Now, take the club out of your mouth, and hold it in your hands.

  74. I’m looking at the pile of work that was handed to me this morning and I’m seriously thinking of playing hookie for the rest of the day. I think people are trying to clear their desks before the holiday next week.

  79. What’s this? – Lo Pan dissing Last Starfighter and defending Prometheus? Van, it’s a good thing we’re not in Colorado right now.

    Though, I must confess, ground breaking as they were, Last Starfighter’s CGI has aged….poorly. Tron seems to hold up better to me for some reason, even though I know it’s a lot more primitive.

    Now, Discs of Tron, on the other hand – man, I loved that came…30 years ago..god dammit!

    https://archive.org/details/arcade_dotron

    It’s amazing what I remember as cutting edge graphics. I think my $15 LCD watch could do better today.

  91. So someone on Twitter posted a quote that basically said:

    ‘You can’t achieve greatness if you keep asking for permission.’

    I have to admit my first thought was ‘well that worked for Hitler’

    I’ll get my coat.

  95. So I tried my hand at curling on Friday night!

    Link to photo

    I went to the local hockey rink with a group of people from my church who were interested in giving it a try. There is a local curling club here that will show you the basics for a nominal fee. It was fun!

  97. Just finished watching Space Station 76. Don’t listen to the reviews and write up. It is not a light silly movie. It’s actually a deep sad movie. I am not being facetious. It really is

  105. http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2014/11/24/165004/

    New Turing test proposed. My reactions.

    1. Claims of “objective measurement” are obviously made by someone that doesn’t understand the difference between subjective and objective because the test definition is still quite full of “human evaluators” and “human referees”.
    2. I think the real Turing test should be when an AI says “why the hell should I try and impress humans in the first place”, and then gets up and leaves the room. I call it the Jerry Springer AI test, otherwise known as “You don’t know me… I’ll do what I want.”

  107. Today’s movie is Haunter

    The DVR write up: a teenager is the only member of her family to realize that all of them are reliving the same events, repeatedly, from a foggy day in 1986

    • I had an alien ware once. When it came time to replace it, I found I could have a better gaming rig for a lot less if I built it from parts. I’ve had my current system for three years and it still runs most games at their highest settings

  249. I pretty much like everything I’ve seen Stephen McHattie in, and this one is the same. A slightly different take on your normal haunted movie.

    I know there have been several versions along the same theme, but still, not enough to make it old (being very unspoilery here)

    If you are into the B scary movies, I would recommend this one. There was no blood or gore. Nothing really jumped out at you. It was mostly atmosphere, which is the best way to do these kinds of movies in my mind.

    Don’t get me wrong, I am in no way saying this is anything other than a B movie. I just think it’s cut slightly above most

  271. So if you were really evil and access to a time machine, you could go back n time and make sure George Lucas got the Flash Gordon license in the 70’s.

  272. Canada post is warning any parcel sent within North America sent after December 11 May not make it in time for Christmas. Amy, when will the Secret Santa pairings fi out. I know there is still a week to December but, those of us sending across borders (and I’m sure oceans) need extra time

  276. Hey, Deadpan!

    The Annual Deadpan Secret Santa Gift Exchange is here!

    It is my pleasure to host the Secret Santa exchange once again this year. Each and every person who is reading this now is welcome to participate.

    Secret Santa FAQ

    How does this work?

    I will randomly assign each person who signs up to send a Christmas present to another person. The person you send your gift to will be a different person than the one you receive a gift from. I usually send out assignments within a few days after Black Friday. No hard-and-fast rule regarding cost, but most of the gifts in the exchange are usually in the $10-$20 USD ballpark.

    How do I sign up?

    Send me an email at bowen1138 –at– yahoo dot com by no later than the end of the night this Sunday, November 30. I aim to get assignments sent out on Monday morning, December 1. (Don’t worry, I’ve worked in late arrivals before.) Please include in your email:
    – Your mailing address, if I don’t already have it
    – If you live in the US and need to opt out of international shipping for cost reasons, please let me know.

    Merry Christmas, and thanks for continuing to make Deadpan the way!

    -Amy

  277. Anyone remember my story about falling into money from the sale of a boat that wasn’t even mine and then having someone smash up my car. Well, the universe is at it again. My 25 year old son who has a new baby called and asked us to visit him in Colorado Springs for Christmas. This is great because relations haven’t been the best with him and we haven’t been able to actually visit him (or him us) for several years. Then my TV decides to die yesterday a mere 48 hours before Black Friday (and when I wanted an excuse to upgrade from my 40″ TV to something bigger). All great news, except for the $1500 dollars or so that I’m spending and really can’t afford. Hope I get a descent Christmas bonus this year or I’m screwed.

  282. Happy Turkey Day, Yam Sham, Feast til you burst. Anyway you say it Happy Thanksgiving. All of you are on my list of things to be thankful for 🙂

  284. Hi Deadpan.
    I am currently trying to remind myself of all the things I am thankful for.
    Thus, me here at the Deadpan saying THANKS! 🙂

    I’m also off in corner of this house, hiding.

  286. And, of course, Happy Thanksgiving to all my panny pals.

    CD: Dallas Blonde from Deep Ellum Brewing (Dallas, TX). Tagline for the beer is “goes down easy”. Took me a minute to pair the tagline with the name of the beer. How clever of them.

  288. Around now, hubby will be living Edmonton. According to the news, the highway between here and Edmonton is really icy and several dozen accidents have occurred since noon. I’m doing the typical wifey thing and plan to worry until he gets home

  289. Hubby just contacted me. The good news is, he managed to leave early and left Edmonton at about 2:30. The bad news is, he’s only as far as Red Deer. Edmonton to Calgary is normally about a three hour drive. Red Deer is considered the halfway point. This means, at this rate, travel time to Calgary is taking twice the norm. I’m still doing the wifey thing.

  301. uhg
    I am surrounded by people who would rather TALK about the movie we have all sat down to watch … then actually watch it. :/
    Then they want to discuss all the OTHER films they have seen these actors in … except they can’t remember the actors names and argue over it until someone looks it up and then they talk about the actors they THOUGHT it was and the movies THEY had been in and …
    by this time I have no idea what is going on in the film we are sitting in front of as I have heard little or none of the dialogue.
    So I pick up this computer and whine to the Deadpan.

    I need that drink.

  304. And, we’re back. I have awakened from my turkey coma. I come to find myself with a cold a living in a world where X-wings fly and supersonic speeds above the water and “Porkins” has become a droid 🙂

    Hope all had a good Thanksgiving, or at least Thursday for the rest of you fine folks.

  305. Happy Turkey Weekend, everybody!

    Im alive! Ive work every day since Monday. It turns out, holiday stuffing causes heart attacks, aneurysms to rupture and that turns into lengthy surgeries.

    Im at work all day today, and I hope not ro have to work tomorrow- so I can actually *see* Jack Mangan for longer than 1 hour and have our Familt Thanksgiving with the Wee People.

    Enj

  306. Happy Turkey Weekend, everybody!

    Im alive! Ive worked every day since Monday. It turns out, holiday stuffing causes heart attacks, aneurysms to rupture and that turns into lengthy surgeries.

    Im at work all day today, and I hope not ro have to work tomorrow- so I can actually *see* Jack Mangan for longer than 1 hour and have our Family Thanksgiving with the Wee People.

    Enjoy everyone!
    Peace out
    ~ Desert Pixie