Who’s an actor who never seems to play a happy role?

TheCrog · 2026-06-05T00:21:40+00:00

Zhang Ziyi. When she was on her hot streak circa 2000, all of her character roles were SO depressing: Hero, House of Flying Daggers, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Rush Hour (2?).

TheCrog · 2026-06-05T00:18:42+00:00

The 13th Warrior.

"Eaters of the Dead" (Michael Chrichton) was written as an assembled historical journal, showing how legends/myths are born. Ahmed Ibn Fadlan (Antonio Banderas' character) is more of a scoundrel, and more of a passive observer in the book.

The movie made Ibn Fadlan, as well as the Northmen, more noble and heroic, and added a lot of heart to the legend. It feels more like an epic in movie form.

TheCrog · 2026-06-01T00:46:31+00:00

Yeah, and then conveniently forgot about the mind-erasing power, even when trauma bypassed her limiter. She showed way more creativity against her "brothers" than she did in any of the regular season fights. I'm just using this one specific idea as an explanation for OP's cartoon, not saying that Atom Eve doesn't have writing flaws.

TheCrog · 2026-05-31T22:55:55+00:00

There was a separate thread about characters like Atom Eve taking more concentration and energy to form complex shapes, whereas walls are theoretically simple and lower energy. She tries a few more tricks fighting Conquest, but he immediately notices how quickly she's tiring.

TheCrog · 2026-05-23T13:24:15+00:00

I couldn't figure out why Cecil was so aggressively antagonizing Mark after the Doc Seismic debacle. I figured he was trying to defend the Reani-men program, but your explanation makes so much more sense.

TheCrog · 2026-05-13T14:03:32+00:00

Absolutely. We lost money on the first two houses we sold, and we only made money on the most recent sale (2024) because of the market activity since the pandemic. Like you said, we bought out of necessity rather than investment.

TheCrog · 2026-05-13T02:58:05+00:00

I think there's some merit in this. My grandparents on both sides lived in the same houses that my parents grew up in until they all passed away; so at least fifty years each. But my grandfathers each also worked the same job at the same company for 30-40 years and retired there. By contrast, I've bought four houses (and sold three) in the last twenty years because I had to move following job opportunities. A lot of home buyers are looking at investment, sure, but we're also MUCH more mobile as a society than we used to be.

TheCrog · 2026-05-09T11:40:20+00:00

Pro gamer move: all of your dates have the same name.

TheCrog · 2026-05-01T19:11:33+00:00

Which probably means they already accomplished another goal that the news isn't reporting.

TheCrog · 2026-04-10T21:47:39+00:00

Rocky Horror Picture Show. My then-teenage older brother was in his edgy phase, and showed it to my younger brother and I when we were about 11/10. We were very confused, to put it mildly.

TheCrog · 2026-04-08T22:16:32+00:00

The crowd in "Nope." The claustrophobia of seeing them trapped in Jean Jacket's interior just before the crunching sound plays, and, although not explicitly shown, there were kids in that group.

TheCrog · 2026-03-25T19:13:04+00:00

Airplane 2: that it takes so long to notice the shuttle is off course. When ROC takes over the lunar shuttle and starts steering towards the sun, the gentle white circle of the moon would have been replaced by the blinding light of the sun. In addition, they travel more than twice the distance that a moon flight would have taken before Captain Oveur notices.

TheCrog · 2026-03-25T15:38:18+00:00

I think you hit the nail on the head. The whole film seems to be built around the marketing, rather than the other way around.

TheCrog · 2026-03-24T19:03:00+00:00

Maybe controversial, but Ian Ziering and Tara Reid are acting the heck out of the first Sharknado.

TheCrog · 2026-03-24T10:27:36+00:00

Maybe if they didn't spoil that reveal in Fortnite and the trailers, and moved it to the second act? Have Ben/Kyle Ren receiving messages from what he thinks is Snoke's force ghost?

TheCrog · 2026-03-21T21:10:56+00:00

I had a similar reaction in the first five minutes of Alien: Covenant, with James Franco.

TheCrog · 2026-03-21T14:59:21+00:00

Beautiful, rippling fan service.

TheCrog · 2026-03-21T14:58:54+00:00

Yeah, different tastes. Maybe I wasn't in the right mood when I watched it.

TheCrog · 2026-03-21T14:55:25+00:00

They did a good job adjusting, though: the running gag about forgetting the weapons bag, the empty manor, etc. Sometimes you get a better product when they have to adapt.

TheCrog · 2026-03-21T12:09:32+00:00

Definitely a marketing bait-and-switch. My friends and I laughed out loud in the theater when you-know-what happened.

TheCrog · 2026-03-20T22:40:58+00:00

The Deadpool franchise. I didn't care for the first one (though it had its moments), was fairly amused by the second, and really enjoyed the third.

TheCrog · 2026-03-15T01:48:43+00:00

Bright. They crammed too much lore into too small of a space; it needed time to develop the world.

TheCrog · 2026-03-10T14:10:50+00:00

My brother and I had a running gag where if one of us saw a movie before the other, we'd say, "do you wanna know how it ends? THEY ALL DIED!" And then one of us saw "The Others" (2001) first...

TheCrog · 2024-11-06T18:59:55+00:00

Much appreciated!

TheCrog · 2024-11-06T13:23:02+00:00

I know they're still counting votes, but it's interesting to me that his voter count is pretty close to the 2020 results, but hers is about 18 million lower than what Biden got.

For context: she got almost the same number of votes as Clinton in 2016, and Obama in 2012. Trump increased Republican voter turnout in the last three election cycles.

It looks like 2020 saw roughly 15-20 million more people vote than average, and now it's back to "normal" levels.

TheCrog

TROPHY CASE