saveferris

saveferris's picture

History

Member for
2 years 46 weeks
Blog
View recent blog entries

Karma

Current value
2

Recent Comments

Date Title Body
13 hours 11 min ago And....

And it's hearsay without any attempt at providing context. 

- In 2009, Rodriguez probably had good reason to feel a little bit paranoid what with the media actively trying to screw him over, tepid departmental support, and a lack of senior leadership.  Can you imagine the headlines if some of the underclassmen like Forcier were caught smoking weed?  Normally, that would be the type of thing you could have your seniors taking care of in house, but we didn't have many seniors to speak of at this point.

- A coach trying to gauge the morale of his team?  What a novel idea.  So Rodriguez is the first coach who ever tried to find and isolate players who had bad attitudes and try and keep them from ruining the chemistry of the lockroom.  No, no, Rich Rod is Big Brother!  Beware!  What Orwellian hogwash.

- Forcier had already proven himself to be a bit of a discipline case, what with losing his wings, other players criticizing his offseason work ethic, and the trouble with this grades.  I'm willing to give Rich the benefit of the doubt for him questioning Forcier complaining about an injury rather than interpret that he was running some kind of sweatshop.  If Forcier couldn't convince his coach he was really hurt, he probably bears some responsibility for leaving that doubt in Rodriguez's mind.

Now granted, my explanation is just as much hearsay as Mick's, but without the Machiavellian overtones.  Context people.

Rich Rodriguez made a lot of mistakes.  So did Bil Martin...and Mary Sue Coleman....and Lloyd Carr.....and so on.  The man is gone.  It's not necessary to piss on his grave and descrate his memory for Christ's sake.
1 day 6 hours ago Damn, Wikipedia research

Damn, Wikipedia research fail. This one was harder to do since I had no firsthand memories of this time.
2 days 10 hours ago I struggled with Red Grant as

I struggled with Red Grant as well, because he's such a great antagonist (Robert Shaw is the man), but I concluded he's a henchman, not villain.  I mean if you just follow hierarchy, Blofeld is pulling the strings of Klebb and Kronsteen and they're pulling the strings of Grant, so Grant is clearly more henchman than villian, but for me, he's the best henchman of the Bond series.  His character is like a mirror of Bond, with really the only difference between them being motivation.

Of course, From Russia With Love is filled with great characters.  Ali Karim Bey is a great character.  Rosa Klebb is a great character.  Red Grant is a great character.  From a pure story-telling standpoint, this is the best Bond movie.
2 days 11 hours ago Raising the Bar
  1. Goldfinger
  2. From Russia With Love
  3. Thunderball
  4. Casino Royale
  5. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
  6. Goldeneye
  7. Dr. No
  8. For Your Eyes Only
  9. The Living Daylights
  10. The Man With The Golden Gun
  11. Quantum of Solace
  12. You Only Live Twice
  13. Live and Let Die
  14. License To Kill
  15. Octopussy
  16. Tomorrow Never Dies
  17. The Spy Who Loved Me
  18. The World Is Not Enough
  19. Moonraker
  20. Diamonds Are Forever
  21. View To A Kill
  22. Die Another Day

I feel pretty solid about 1-9 and 19-22.  I listed those without hesitation.  I struggled more with 10-12, all of which I consider to be of comparable quality, with the same being said of 13-18.  So if we were going to categorize these, I'd go with 9 great films, 3 strong films, 6 meh films, and 4 awful films.
2 days 11 hours ago Point taken on TWINE

As I said, I could've gone any number of ways with number 5 on the list.  I think it's a lot easier to identify the top 5 or 10 Bond films than listing the ones at the bottom, which can be ranked low for any number of subjective reasons.  For me, plots that stretch credibility or villains who are just too over the top don't resonate with me.  That's why I rate films like TWINE lower than others like Octopussy. 
2 days 12 hours ago Any Bond worst movie list

Any Bond worst movie list that doesn't have "Die Another Day" on it is flawed and incomplete.
2 days 12 hours ago Oh, I disagree

I think the Hold 'Em poker plot point was a complete concession to an American audience that was on the tail end of the internet poker craze, televised celebrity poker tournaments, and the World Series of Poker.  I think they made the showdown with Le Chiffre a Hold 'Em Poker tournament because more Americans would relate to it.  The fact that they spend nauseating amounts of time explaining the game to the audience just makes the whole plot line that much more frustrating.  That and then the villain, who is supposed to be a poker genius, loses to Bond on a hand that had so many win possibilities was pretty unrealistic.  An experienced poker player would never push all his chips in on a hand like that when every other player is pushing his chips in, it's ludicrous.

I'm with Seth in that it would've been better to just have made the touranment something more glamorous but less familiar like baccarat.  It would'nt have detracted from the story at all and been much more Bond-esque.  The poker thing just made it feel like Guys Night in my basement.
2 days 13 hours ago Invisible Cars and Ice Castles Are Nothing

Ridiculous plot points in "DIe Another Day"

  • Sun powered death ray that is controlled by a exoskeleton suit that seems inspired by the Power Rangers
  • Villian is a North Korean strongman wanna-be who has been genetically re-engineered at some clinic in Cuba into an English aristocrat. 
  • Villain needs to spend time every day in a "dream machine" to prevent insanity because the re-engineering process has left him a chronic insomniac.  The relevance of this plot point to the story is never really explained.
  • Bond escapes the preposterous death ray by rigging the remnants of his rocket-powered ice sled into a parasail apparatus and para-surfs to safety.
  • Villain's brother is a partially re-engineered villain with diamonds embedded in his face....which apparently can never be removed.
  • Madonna makes a completely superfluous cameo as a fencing instructor
2 days 13 hours ago Another Fun Bond Topic Not Worthy of a New Thread

Top 5 Bond Villains (non-Henchmen)

  1. Auric Goldfinger (Goldfinger) - "Nooo Mr Bond, I expect you to die!"  Supremely competent without coming off as too crazy.
  2. Alex Trevelyan (Goldeneye) - Sean Bean does a great job of portraying a guy who you never doubt is more than a match for Bond
  3. Ernst Stavro Blofeld (On Her Majesty's Secret Service) - Telly Sevalas portrays a cool, debonair, intelligent, calculating and purely evil Blofeld.  Stands in stark contrast to other portrayals where Blofeld is shown as some kind of mentally-disturbed misfit.
  4. Dominic Greene (Quantum of Solace) - Mathieu Amalric plays the genius sociopath to perfection.
  5. Dr. Kanaga/Mr. Big (Live and Let Die) - Yaphet Kotto rises above the blaxploitation themes of the movie to play a truly menacing guy who transcends the ethnic stereotypes of the movie.
2 days 13 hours ago Would I want to spend

Would I want to spend Christmas in Turkey with Denise Richards?  Certainly.  That doesn't make the character of Dr. Christmas Jones and all the stupid puns related to her name any less stupid.

If we want to go through hottest Bond Girls....well that is a whole other topic.
Theme provided by Roopletheme; sidebars adapted from Chris Murphy.