In the Name of Love

I just finished watching Stonehenge Apocalypse with the intent to review it for this blog, but…I just couldn’t do it. While it’s nowhere near as bad as Raptor Island or Ice Spiders, it was, well, it was not good.

It did, however, give me an idea—craptacular movies I’ve watched in the name of love for the boys.

Let’s start with Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who, let’s face it, is the reason I started watching the show in the first place.

“Dead and Breakfast,” a zombie movie with hints of humor that Tanya would never forgive me for mentioning. JDM plays a sheriff who leads the young tourists in their fight against the zombie horde. Nothing redeeming in this movie. Nothing.

“Six: The Mark Unleashed,” a religious movie set in a prison, otherwise completely forgettable. One of the Baldwins was in it. Oh, just terrible.

“Taking Woodstock.” He was in it about a minute, and the other minutes I was bored. Bored bored bored.

“Kabluey.” I actually bought the DVD and he’s in it about 10 minutes, as the lecherous boss of the main down-on-his-luck character’s sister.

“Live.” There is NO WAY I would have watched this movie without JDM. It was a horrible concept, people playing Russian Roulette on live TV, with portraits of each contestant shown to sway your pity. Terrible terrible terrible. But he looked really good.

Now Jensen has had slightly better taste in the roles he’s taken. Well, actually, he’s been in more good TV than bad movies.

“Devour” was the worst. So bad I’ve actually blocked it out. All I remember is the last scene, which was very bloody.

“My Bloody Valentine” was as good as Jensen could make it. Not particularly suspenseful, though, even if I hadn’t been spoiled.

For Jared, there are three:

“House of Wax,” though he’s very heroic.

“The Christmas Cottage,” which I know others didn’t mind, but drove me nuts with its sappiness,

“Friday the 13^th,” but he looked REALLY good, and it was filmed in Texas. Totally worth my time. Twice.

What movies have you watched out of love for the boys?

Review of JDM's "The Losers"

Back in January when I went to visit MJ, we went to see a couple of movies. While paying for the tickets for one of those movies, I earned a free movie pass. Monday was the last day before it expired, so I zipped over to the nearest theater to see The Losers, starring Papa Winchester...ah, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Chris Evans (the Human Torch in the Fantastic Four movies), and some dudes I didn't know but ended up liking. Seems appropriate that I used the free pass to see a JDM movie since MJ is such a JDM fan.

The Losers is based on a series of graphic novels and has a bit of an A-Team vibe to it. In fact, there was a trailer for the new A-Team before the movie. Since I like JDM, wise-cracking humor and movies where things go boom, I and the five or six guys scattered around the theater were set for a good couple of hours. The premise is a familiar one among summer popcorn movies -- team of elite military types goes on mission, something unexpected and crappy happens on mission, a truly evil bad guy emerges as the focus of the team's hatred, and they proceed to kick some ass and take some names while going after said evil bad guy. Oh, and throw in a hot, kick-ass chick (this time Zoe Saldana of Star Trek and Avatar, my two favorite movies of the past year) just for good measure. This setup can be a recipe for a good movie or truly awful dreck, depending on how it's handled. The Losers was very entertaining for several reasons.

* JDM as the team leader, Clay. He can still kick butt, but he doesn't have to be all serious, all the time Papa Winchester.

* Chris Evans is so darn funny. He's one part dweeby computer hacker, one part wise-cracker, one part soldier. Plus, his character's name is Jensen. How funny is that?





























* Columbus Short, who plays Pooch, has some really funny lines too, even calling himself the Black McGyver aka Blackgyver. He and Evans play well off of each other.

* A new-to-me actor named Oscar Jaenada. He's the strong, silent, deadly-with-a-rifle type named Cougar. I admit it, I may have drooled. I also admit this character might now be my computer wallpaper.





























* For a girl skinny enough that she looks like a good swift breeze might break her, Zoe Saldana sure can more than hold her own against all the guys she plays against. For someone I'd not heard of before Star Trek came out last year, she has become one of the actresses I enjoy watching quite a lot. I might outweigh her, but I wouldn't want to meet her character, Aisha, if she didn't like me.





























* Jason Patric as the deliciously evil, impeccably well-dressed Max. He's the guy you love to hate but can't help but chuckle when he delivers some of his lines.

The Losers is set up to be the first in a series of movies, so I hope it can rise above mediocre weekend numbers at the box office and so-so reviews in some places so we can get those additional installments.

Have you seen The Losers? What did you think? Here's the trailer for your viewing pleasure:

Supernatural News as We Count Down to the End

But we won't mention how there are only three episodes left. *sob*

Hooray! Last week's episode matched season high ratings!

TV Guide launched a series of articles with this one about the 100th episode, with quotes from all the major players, followed by a recap that calls it a "just about perfect episode." And THEN, Mark Pellegrino compares and contrasts his two roles on Supernatural and LOST.

Want some behind-the-scenes? Go here for a BTS video done by Jim Beaver of the zombie episode (I adore the actress that played the sheriff, she's adorable!) and some footage of the 100th episode party. Both clips are 2 1/2 minutes long.

Last week Terri posted about the new Ghostfacers webisodes. There will be two eps each Thursday until Supernatural's season finale on May 13. You can find a behind-the-scenes interview here. There are interviews with the stars here.

While we're doing videos, here's a long interview with Jeffrey Dean Morgan.

Variety, the entertainment industry newspaper, did an interview with Ackles and Padalecki a couple of weeks ago. It's mainly on their path to the show and what comes next, after the show's eventual end. Non spoilery.

A trailer is now available for Batman: Under the Red Hood, in which Jensen Ackles voices the titular villain.

Jensen accompanied Danneel Harris to the premiere of her movie The Back-Up Plan. There are some nice pictures here.

In a six degrees kind of thing...Lindsay of Support Supernatural interviewed psychic Dakota Lawrence here, and now author Tracy Madison, a huge Supernatural fan (thanks to me :) ), is giving away a prize package that includes a FREE reading with him! Hey, if one of us wins, we can ask him whether season six will be brilliant or anticlimactic... (Enter the contest here.)

Natalie's Recap-That's-Not-Really-a-Recap of "Fallen Idols"

Many fans of Supernatural had issues with the first four episodes of this season. They felt it was too dark, too depressing, that everything they'd loved about the first four seasons was gone. I never felt that way, so I can't speak for those who did. But I hope this week's show was at least a few steps toward bringing back that love.

For me, after the intensity and suspense of the last several episodes, I felt like something was missing. I'm not sure the simple plots of these stand-alone episodes can satisfy me anymore. On the other hand, it had a classic feel and self-contained story, with lots of humor and brotherly back-and-forth. They even had the Impala-road shot from "Monster Movie," the road (maybe even the actual shot, with some trees added and the sign removed) from "Phantom Traveler," and the parking lot from "It's the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester" (and maybe that was also the hotel from "Something Wicked," but I'm not positive about that one). And any remaining tensions and push-pull between our boys seems to have been taken care of by the end.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

My apologies to Kripke and all other car geeks for not knowing what "Little Bastard" was. I knew, however, that Dean would explain it, and guess what! He does!

We had an obligatory discussion setting up how they can get away with a traditional hunt in the midst of the apocalypse. Can't find the Colt, timeline established (three weeks of searching), get back into it slow, Dean still doesn't trust Sam but relents and says they both need a fresh start, so Sam can give in rather than keep butting heads. Okey-dokey.

So this monster-of-the-week-style ep mixes it up a bit. The pre-show hype re: Paris Hilton always referred to her as a demon. Deliberate misdirection? Apparently, because first they think it's ghosts. Celebrity ghosts, to be specific, and they're killing fans of those celebrities. Why here? A local wax museum (with really good wax figures, BTW, I wonder if they made them or borrowed them?) has actual effects of the actual celebrities. Remains!

Dean was pretty clumsy in his interrogation, and it wasn't the first time. Would you believe I'm not sure if that's an aberration or not? I mean, yeah, it's a given that Sam has always been better at drawing people out and Dean's not known for his subtlety. But the museum curator's looks at him were quite amusing. As was his wearing of the Fonzie jacket. :)

Eventually they figure out that it's not a ghost, and they didn't kill it when they evaporated Ghandi. Quite telling, beyond Dean's brotherly ribbing, that Sam is a fan of Ghandi. And very in keeping with who we all thought Sam was, back when we were saying stuff like "No way! Sam's too good! You can never convince me that he'd go bad!" Maybe that was just me.

Anyway. They learn Paris Hilton has taken a teenage fan, which helps them figure out--as, "as far as we know," Paris isn't dead--what they're actually dealing with. I'm not sure why Sam decided to cut open a body. I was too distracted by his scrubs. Yummmmmm.

Where was I? Oh, yeah. Why did Sam go digging in the body cavity? Who knows, but he found The Clue, the one that leads them to a pagan god (they used that screenshot on his laptop in "A Very Supernatural Christmas," too) who drank his victim's blood, and cue the annoyed fans for the pagan-god-bashing. *sigh*

That reminds me. In the beginning, when the blood poured down over the car name, I thought, "Nice effect, but not realistic. That's too much blood." But it was a clue! I felt both smug for noticing and chagrined for criticizing. :)


Some random comments:

Jared was totally making his Blue Steel face when he was doing stuff in the trunk. I wish they'd used a different shot--it's too jarring, takes us out of the show, and makes him look silly. I'm very tired of seeing it, after the overuse in the outtakes. I think, if I were a crew member, I'd have threatened him with face-slapping every time he did it. If I weren't too scared/star-struck to speak to him, that is.

I loved the Spanish conversation, and how I could follow it without knowing any Spanish at all, and therefore believe Sam could do it with his "freshman Spanish" despite how many years have passed since he took the class. :)

Research squared! Yes, Dean ditches Sam to go bar-hopping, but I love the little detail of them both having laptops now, obviously related to the rift because Dean didn't have his geek research brother with him anymore and had to do his own (which we know he's capable of doing, ref. "Wishful Thinking"). I also loved that, apparently, Sam is a Mac and Dean is a PC.

Okay, now, show of hands: When Dean tells Paris he's not her BFF, so she can't drink his blood, she says she can read his mind and knows Daddy's his hero. How many of you held your breath, hoping for the best kept secret surprise in the history of fandom? *raises hand* Alas, Jeffrey Dean Morgan did not magically appear for a 30-second showdown. *sigh*

I laughed a lot in this ep, but danged if I can remember any of the funny lines, except Dean's crack about not seeing House of Wax, and Sam's reaction to that.

The show ended with "Superstition," which meant it left me bubbling with happiness.

Okay, so let's talk about the most important thing. No, second most. Where Dean Stops Being a Dick, Sammy is the Mature One, and The Boys Are Really Back Together.

First, Dean levels a truly dark look at Sam when he mentions the apocalypse. Then Sam overhears Dean saying something about "we know who's fault that is, I'm sorry, but it's true." Sam of course thinks Dean's referring to him, but he could just as easily be talking about himself. Or both of them, as they are equally to blame. Then Sam says look, this isn't working, it wasn't working before, we need to be partners, not boss and baby brother. *cheers* It didn't even break my heart when he said he went with Ruby to get away from Dean--his frustration has been evident since the last few episodes of season 3, when he kept trying to assert his plans and ideas and Dean just kept cutting him off.

Finally, at the end, we get Dean admitting they were both at fault but neither knew it. He's sincere when he says "who would have ever thought killing Lilith would be a bad thing?" I'm pretty sure we saw Sam driving the Impala already this season (though I could be wrong), so the handing over of the keys didn't have the impact for me that it had for many other people. Still, it feels like we're finally where we were meant to be. I'm sure the boys will still have some struggles. Dean's not going to get over the habit of being "in charge" that easily, and Sam may have grown up, but his own habits are just as ingrained. It will be great fun to see how they manage this.

Which brings me to the most important point of discussion: SOON.

SPOILERS BASED ON PROMO SNIPPETS AND EPISODE TITLES



I won't list all the awesome things we saw in the extended promo, like Sam getting hit in the balls *pauses to wait for inevitable offers to nurse his injuries* on a Japanese game show, Dean's perfect 50s sitcom smile, the oh-so-sexy CSI sunglasses, the shock and horror of the half-demon baby and Castiel's intentions toward the child, the awesomeness of the upcoming guest stars (the demon-baby mom is from Eureka, the guy who wins years of his life from Dean in poker is most recently from Kyle XY)...and all that stuff.

The question is, WHY did we get a SOON? Number One (my oldest daughter) and I both cried "No!" when we saw it, and all the people I chat with after the show thought it meant hiatus. I mean, historically, that's when we get it. But also historically, they usually go 10 or 11 episodes before they start breaking it up with reruns.

Luckily, my DVR lists "I Believe the Children Are Our Future" as next Thursday's episode, as does IMDb. The other two eps on IMDb are "The Curious Case of Dean Winchester" and "Changing Channels," which certainly looked like the scenes we got in SOON, right? The Buddy TV recapper said it must have been a short episode, and it definitely was, so that explanation rests much easier with me than my friend's comment that we started earlier in the season than we normally do.

No matter what, "SOON" definitely got me excited for what's coming!

Okay, your turn! What important bits did I miss? Did you like or dislike this ep? Meh or yeah! ? Good break from the hard stuff, or a let-down? Comment away!

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Images all courtesy The CW

This Week's Supernatural News

Since news is light this week (and a lot of it is related to slipping ratings--but we won't talk about that), let's start with the pretty...

Remember that issue of Entertainment Weekly last spring that got the whole "final season" conversation started? All of the photos from the shoot have been released (or accessed/stolen/snuck out/whatever). Here are a couple of my favorites:



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Jensen Ackles is rumored to be attached to the 2010 movie Resident Evil: Afterlife with Milla Jovovich (confirmed) and Eva Mendes, Ali Larter, and Jason O'Mara (all rumored). I haven't been a huge fan of the RE movies, but I did go see Resident Evil: Apocalypse becuase Oded Fehr was in it. How can I do less for Jensen?

Jensen also gets a mention in this We Are Movie Geeks article about making a movie about The Flash. It's a brief mention, referencing Jensen losing the Green Lantern casting battle as a popular underdog, with a half-sentence speculation about his suitability for this role. I also saw some polls including him for the Captain America role, which of course is fan speculation rather than industry info, but it's fun to contemplate. I for one would love to see either J get a superhero gig. Or a romantic comedy, for pity's sake!

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Two Entertainment Weekly issues ago, the Must List contained a reader-supplied description of Supernatural. It would be nicer if they'd mention the show every week in the Must Watch section (which they did do in the latest issue), or even half as often as they talk about Gossip Girl, but every little mention helps!

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This isn't news, it's gossip, although it's at least confirmed gossip. :) Since so many of us Supernatural fans are also Joss Whedon fans, I thought it worth a mention:

Alan Tudyk (Wash from Firefly, Alpha from Dollhouse) and Adrianne Palicki (Jessica from Supernatural, Tyra on Friday Night Lights) are dating! Adrianne is also currently filming Red Dawn with Jeffrey Dean Morgan.

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2010 conventions are being announced all over the world! In the U.S. (+Vancouver), Creation Entertainment has the most events. They've got Chicago this November, then LA, New Jersey, and Vancouver scheduled for next year. (LA and Vancouver sold out their Gold Package tickets already!) There will also be Jus in Bello in Rome in April, Brazil in May, and Asylum in the UK, also in May. A source for lots of information on cons is the Supernatural Wiki.

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And finally, for those of you who aren't trying to keep completely spoiler free, this link has a clip and TV spot from this week's show.

Supernatural News

Keith R. A. DeCandido is coming out with two Supernatural novels in 2010. The first, Heart of the Dragon, is out February 16. Love the cover.

Rolling Stone listed Supernatural as Reason #27 in its “50 Reasons to Watch TV” article in the Sept. 17 issue. It’s a teeny blurb that compares the Winchesters to the Duke boys, but it is #27.

Sadly, Supernatural came in last in its time slot both weeks. The first week, everything was reruns, but this week The Office and Fringe had season premieres. Supernatural fell 14% from the previous week. This week it goes up against Grey's Anatomy. GULP! So get the word out!

Jeffrey Dean Morgan is signed to be in the remake of Red Dawn. It will be out next September. Currently, he’s filming The Losers, another movie based on a graphic novel. He would like to return to Supernatural for an episode or two but hasn’t been formally approached.

Sales of the season 4 DVD doubled from the sales of Season 3 DVDS, the first week of release. This year, 238,081 copies sold the first week, earning $8.7 million. Last year, 104,979 copies sold, earning $4.1 million (I think I just got my word problem for the day for my class ;) )

Winchesters on other TV shows

I know, you're thinking, "There are other TV shows besides Supernatural?" Unfortunately, yes, there are. And I wouldn't have come to SPN without first falling for Jeffrey Dean Morgan on Grey's Anatomy, so I have to credit that show.

Here are some other shows you might have seen the Winchesters in.

Daddy

Grey’s Anatomy 2006-2009

Jeffrey Dean Morgan played Denny, a heart patient that intern Izzy Stevens falls for, risks her career for, and then he DIES. How rude. He returned last season as a symptom of her brain tumor, but this was the speech that had women around the country falling in love with him.





Sam

Gilmore Girls 2000-2005

Jared pretty much jumped from high school to Gilmore Girls, where he played the very nice boyfriend Dean Forester to very nice girl Rory Gilmore.




Dean

Days of our Lives (1997-2000)

Jensen played Eric Brady, twin son of Marlena and Roman Brady. I know I had to be watching this when he was on, but I mostly remember when his character was a baby.



Dark Angel (2001-2002)
Wow, I didn’t realize this was so long ago. I bought this season on DVD because he was just adorable. He was a genetically engineered super-soldier, raised by the group Manticore, and assigned as Jessica Alba’s character Max’s breeding partner in Season 2 of Dark Angel. He’s a charmer, though, once he leaves the Manticore facility and enters Max’s world. He also plays the evil twin of Alec (named because of his smart-alec attitude.) I liked this show, but it had no resolution before it was cancelled.



Dawson’s Creek (2002-2003)

I didn’t see him on this, but he played Jen’s boyfriend.




Smallville (sorry, Natalie, this clip has Lana) 2004-2005

He played a man who fell for Lana when she was on a trip to France. He followed her back to Smallville and got a job as an assistant coach who had an inappropriate relationship with a student. As a teen-aged girl, I would have bought into the fantasy. As a teacher, I’m creeped out.



What’s your favorite show from our Supernatural boys? Did you know about the actors before you followed them to Supernatural?

SPN Alum on the Screen Pt. I

The show keeps our boys too hard at work for much else, but the extended cast has been busy, busy, busy. This isn’t everyone or everything, by far, but I thought I’d give you a sneak peak at some upcoming projects from SPN alum. Thanks, mostly, to the prodigious Jeffrey Dean Morgan, I’ll be doing this in two parts.

Ruby might be dead, but look for Genevieve Cortese in December’s American Empire. An indie “film noir, dark comedy of errors” with one heckuva hot cast.

Our beloved Jeffrey Dean Morgan (John Winchester) continues to be one sizzling star with at least six things on the slate.

First up is July’s All Good Things. This mystery has Jeffrey playing a detective trying to unravel a missing person’s case that could doom the heir to a NY real estate dynasty.

Come August, we’ll see him playing the lover of a closeted gay man who inadvertently sets in motion the generation-defining concert of 1969 in Ang Lee’s awesome looking, Taking Woodstock.

Then in September, Jeffrey does this thing we wish he’d quit doing--he dies--which acts as the catalyst for his best friend (John Cusack) to return to Shanghai in the months before Pearl Harbor.

And, OMG, in 2010, he’s playing a stalker landlord with an obsession for his new tenant, Hilary Swank, in Invasion of Privacy. (Wicked Jeffrey is just so yummy.)

Also in 2010, Jeffrey’s turn as a “twisted, sado-masochistic henchman” in a yet-to-be-titled Beatle Boyin project.

And, finally, his first 2011 project is another graphic novel adaptation in which he’ll play a CIA black ops agent who’s out to get those responsible for attempting to assassinate his team in The Losers.

Katie Cassidy (former Ruby) has yet to bite the dust on Harper’s Island, but even if she never makes it to her wedding day she’s got a bright future ahead of her.

First, or maybe never, is the super secret Chris Carter project she filmed. Fencewalker was written, financed and directed by the X-Files scribe who says it’s a "coming-of-age semiautobiographical character piece with no supernatural elements." Hmm. Clear as mud, eh? Recently Katie called the script “amazing” and said it was a challenging, emotional role for her and she thought the film would be out at the end of the year. Let’s hope so!

This fall she’ll return to blonde and the CW when she stars as Ella Flynn, a bi-sexual publicist whose tongue is as sharp as her stilettos in the Melrose Place redux.

And since slasher remakes are all the rage, as Jared and Jensen proved this summer, watch for Katie in next year’s A Nightmare on Elm Street where she’s sure to fall victim to Freddy Kruger’s grisly glove.

Finally, keep your eye out for Samantha Smith (Mary Winchester) in next month’s blockbuster Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen where she’ll reprise her role as Sarah Lennox. (That’s the wife of hot Army Captain William Lennox (Josh Duhamel), in case you didn’t remember).

So, which of these grabs your interest? ‘Til next time….

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

MJ: I've been looking forward to this movie since I heard Jeffrey Dean Morgan would be in it. I read Watchmen in January 2008, and understood why Jeffrey said fans of Denny would lose their....well, they wouldn't be getting the same character at all. I urged my teen-aged son to read it (okay, maybe not the best parenting move) but not until he saw the trailer was he a convert. So I thought the two of us could write a joint review of the movie for you.

JF: I was first introduced to Alan Moore through V For Vendetta, unaware that his true genius lay in a novel recommended to me by my mother. Hurm.

MJ: I loved V for Vendetta, the movie, but never read the book. I had actually never read a graphic novel before Watchmen (thank you JDM).

JF: Watchmen takes place in an alternate 1985 in which Richard Nixon is still President, the United States won the Vietnam War and superheroes have been outlawed except for the God-like Dr. Manhattan and the nihilistic Comedian whose murder kicks off the plot.

MJ: The man dies IN EVERYTHING.

JF: Hehe, "Deady."



MJ: FUNNY. Poor JDM. He said when his agent sent him the graphic novel, he thought the agent was playing a joke on him-he died on page three. The agent told him not to be a...well, to just keep reading. He went to meet Zach, who told him the role was his if he wanted. I think Zach was the perfect director for this-he clearly had a vision going in.

JF: Yeah, my friend Sam said he would've rather seen Terry Gilliam direct it. Isn't he cute? The movie stays ridiculously faithful to the novel in all aspects but the ending, which honestly does not bother me.

MJ: The movie was so close to the book that I was actually ticking events off in my head: This needs to happen, and this, and this. I agree about the ending. It seemed to make more sense and create more conflict this way.

JF: There's violence. Lots of violence.

MJ: I hid my eyes pretty much every time Rorschach was on the screen. He was not sane, but he did have some of the best lines in the movie. I loved the line, "God didn't much care what any of us did that night." Also, "I'm not locked in here with you. You're locked in here with me."



JF: He had some of the greatest lines in the history of superhero movies. Speaking of greatest, best opening credits in the history of mankind. Bob Dylan makes everything better.

MJ: Agreed. It worked as a terrific prologue, giving the viewers who read the book AND the ones who hadn't a history of these costumed heroes....who weren't really all that heroic. These people wanted to help society but ended up being consumed by their own egos, or by their own power, or hiding behind their masks. It's a great character study.

JF: Psychologists will love this movie. It's definitely more mature in that aspect, as well as giving the existence of superheroes cultural and political aspects, i.e. Ozymandias (Matthew Goode) partying with David Bowie and The Village People and the United States using Dr. Manhattan to win the Vietnam War. Although...the political bits left something to be desired but the first bit with the McLaughlin Group: perfection.

MJ: It did a good job of setting the time period-I never watched the McLaughlin Group, but I remember SNL making fun of it. During the credits, I saw that Annie Leibowitz was portrayed. I recognized the Andy Warhol character and of course JFK and Jackie. My quibble with Nixon was he looked like a caricature. Yes, I know, this is a movie about superheroes, but everything else looked "real," even the big blue guy.

JF: Where's Frank Langella when you need him? Even though I think this guy did a good job, just the nose...long. Like the movie, actually. But despite its length, the film is really fast-paced due to the fact that it has a lot of ground to cover, but stay with it, it's worth it.



MJ: Yet some scenes, like the love scene, were a hair too long. I would have rather they built up other parts of the story, like the big revelation that I'd been looking forward to. It lost some of its emotional punch because a lot of the backstory was compressed.

JF: What the hell was up with that sex scene? It was unreasonably long when it was only depicted in a few frames in the novel. And to "Hallelujah?" There are so many things that are wrong with this scene.

MJ: There is only so much of Patrick Wilson I want to see, you know?

JF: I was more comfortable with Dr. Manhattan's person because at least his nudity highlighted his gravitation away from humanity.



MJ: Yeah, and his need for PANTS? I thought it was just because he didn't shred his pants like the Hulk when he got bigger.

JF: Maybe he just likes the breeze.

MJ: My son, ladies and gentlemen.

JF: Moving on, fans of Grey's Anatomy and Supernatural ...

MJ: That would be me.

JF: ...have been trying to tell me this for ages and I finally agree: Jeffrey Dean Morgan is a horribly underrated actor and he was great as The Comedian. Only he could look so cool beating up hippies to KC & The Sunshine Band.



MJ: He was wicked. Not adorable or redeemable at all. But that music was terrific. I've heard people complain that the soundtrack drew them out of the movie. I enjoyed it, though. "Unforgettable" was playing as a backdrop for the Comedian's murder, "Sound of Silence" during the funeral, "Hallelujah" during the love scene....well done.

JF: Gah, "Hallelujah..." The score was perfect though, it had a real Blade Runner feel to it, but...cooler? Zack definitely liked contrasting themes just as Moore did in the novel. The symmetry that is so prominent in the book also presents itself in the film, but most of it requires a second viewing to understand.

MJ: I do want to see it again. It's a long movie, though, so....maybe after a week or so.

JF: True that, yo. My butt's still flat from two viewings. But Jackie Earle Haley makes it worth it because Jackie Earle Haley is absolutely brilliant as Rorschach. Role of a lifetime despite Christian Bale voice. Lives in San Antonio. Must investigate further. Jackie Earle Haley.

MJ: I loved his scenes with Dan (Nite Owl) and when he was unmasked.

JF: The scenes on Mars are some of my favorite scenes in cinematic history. They're just so beautiful. Towards the end, it kind of has a Return Of The King feel to it, just in how it's edited and in the sense of urgency. Maybe that's just me.

MJ: I didn't get that comparison, and to be honest, Dr. Manhattan was probably the least compelling character for me.

JF: You take that back!

MJ: Come on-the Comedian was intriguing, Rorschach was fascinating, Silk Spectre was interesting...okay, maybe Nite Owl was the least compelling. While Billy Crudup did a terrific job, I felt a distance from the character.

JF: Which makes sense if you think about it. Isn't he getting further away from humanity? Therefore, humans would fall out of touch with him.

MJ: Right. Well, they did a good job with that. So the Mars scenes, while cool, weren't my favorite. I know those scenes were very important to Watchmen fans.

JF: Very much so, but Zack Snyder may be upsetting some Bob Dylan fans with My Chemical Romance's cover of "Desolation Row." But despite my moral opposition to their cover, it fit. "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding?" by Elvis Costello would've been a better fit.

MJ: While I love Elvis, I thought the song they used fit great. So, final analysis...best movie of the year?

JF: What could possibly top it? The Wolverine movie? Please.

MJ: Dude. GAMBIT.

JF: Anyone in Watchmen could easily destroy Gambit. AND THEY DON'T EVEN HAVE POWERS!

MJ: Hey, it's your fault I even know who Gambit is. Remember those cartoons we'd watch over and over?

JF: Uh huh, and who's the one who recommended a comic book to her son? That just happened.

MJ: My fault....my son has WAY too much exposure to pop culture. Back to the movie....I've not been able to get it out of my head for days, and not just the JDM parts (he's actually only in a handful of scenes because, you know, he DIES at the beginning.) Still, really a powerful movie.

JF: You can forgive Zack Snyder for 300 now.

MJ: Hey, now! How can you forget, "THIS IS SPARTA???"

JF: By memorizing the first lines of Rorschach's journal or anything that has artistic merit.

MJ: You like having gas in your car, right?

JF: Most car thieves don't know how to drive a stick, I do.

MJ: Because I taught you. Behave.

JF: "Rorschach's Journal, October 12, 1985..."

MJ: This could go on forever.

Have you seen the movie? What did you think?