mtracy64

I don't really have suggestions for what to put there, unless it's to expand the 'Popular Now' section. I don't see the 'New Members Today' section now - the 'Announcements' section is at the top of my list.

I have a bound edition of Vampirella Morning In America 1 - 4. The details are fuzzy now, but my understanding when I bought it is that it wasn't ever available in stores. I paid attention to modern Vampirellas for maybe five years in the early 2000's and only saw it available the one time.

The bar for being allowed entry here is quite low compared to many internet discussion boards and is clearly stated in a location where it is virtually impossible to miss - one short sentence in green text if I recall correctly. I participate in other discussion forums where it is required to write to the administrators and explain your reasons for wishing to gain entry, and where the moderation policy is zero tolerance. Insult another member, bring up religion or politics, mask certain four-letter words (or their relatives) one time and you're permanently banned. This place is easygoing compared to most, and that's a breath of fresh air in my opinion.

Rogue One was very good, but I doubt people will flock to theatres to see it again so many years down the road. I assume many Star Wars fans will at least give Andor a look when the series lands, but I don't think interest is high enough to draw large numbers of fans to theatres.

I could be wrong I suppose, but it seems to me that the MCU is in a precarious position with Fantastic Four and X-Men. It's difficult to imagine the general public having positive thoughts about Fantastic Four from the previous films. Many do have positive thoughts about a few of the many X-Men films, but most or all of the memorable characters will need to be re-cast. It therefore seems that the MCU needs to really nail it with their first film for both franchises, and it's been a long time since they nailed anything.

As long as the writing continues to be subpar, it doesn't matter which characters they use or who the actors are. The general public knew little or nothing about most of the characters in the Phase 1 - 3 films; they were successful due to good writing and top-notch talent who had strong chemistry.

And Aunt May dropped half an F-bomb to end one of the Spider-Man movies.

The slam-dunks for me are the first two Godfather films and King Kong (1933). Perfection is a difficult term to use, but I'm tempted to use it for: True Romance. Quentin Tarantino wrote that and Reservoir Dogs around the same time, and sold True Romance to fund production of Reservoir Dogs. Tony Scott bought True Romance and directed it. I fell in love with it five minutes in and have re-watched it numerous time. Great story, phenomenal casting and terrific music by Hans Zimmer. Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back. Goodfellas, Casino, The Wolf Of Wall Street, The Departed - I can't pick a Scorsese favorite, so all of these or none for me. Ditto for Tarantino. Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill (both), The Hateful Eight. Coen Brothers. Miller's Crossing, Blood Simple, Fargo. Christopher Nolan. Dark Knight Trilogy. MCU. Avengers, Captain America: Winter Soldier, Avengers: Infinity War. Million Dollar Baby. Comedy? Young Frankenstein, Airplane, Naked Gun, Caddyshack.

Oh, and the best part of the Boba Fett show for me was Fett's time with the Tuskens. And Ming-Na Wen, of course.

Luke was unnecessary in The Mandalorian - the show was a critical and commercial success already. It was kind of cool, though. I grew up on the original trilogy, but the way fanboys were wetting themselves over his appearance was a bigger surprise than the appearance itself. Vader was unnecessary in Rogue One in my opinion, but it was great to finally see him portrayed onscreen as he was described in countless novels and comics - an utterly remorseless murderer of billions, 100% beholden to Palpatine and his machinations, fueled by anger and hate for himself. I did not expect (or want) to see Vader fight Obi-Wan, and what I got out of it is that Vader had a weakness towards Obi-Wan similar to the one he had towards Luke in the original trilogy. Ten years deep into the dark side, he should have been able to snap Obi-Wan's neck at 1,000 yards. Obi-Wan was considered a superior lightsaber duelist, but wasn't particularly strong in The Force as Jedi go.

Christina Ricci was amazing as Wednesday as a child and should be as an adult. Carolyn Jones is a tough act to follow, but I thought Anjelica Huston did a fantastic job. Zeta-Jones has some big shoes to fill, and Guzman seems wrong on the surface. I'll definitely check this out, though.

It's hard to say how much this will help in understanding the movies. It presumably will explain the motivations and power of the Bene Gesserit in great detail, but I can't think of a book I've read that would be more difficult to adapt for the screen than Dune. The six Dune books by Frank Herbert are very much worth reading, but even reading just the first one will give you a serious leg up on any subsequent movies.

My point was to show the different points of view and thereby illustrate the futility of a discussion of this nature. It's not perfect the way it is, but the membership won't reach consensus on a definition of "better".

Right, I didn't see the perspective of sellers until you started that thread. I'm still relatively new here, but talk of rearranging the selling forum is a recurring theme and there's nothing close to a consensus amongst buyers or sellers.

Perhaps this is why?

A 42" Sony HD TV and a blu-ray player was sufficient for me to forego the theater experience - I haven't been in a theater since 2005. Upgrading to a 65" Sony 4K Smart TV 6-7 years ago was a huge leap forward, and the thing still blows me away every time I turn it on. I was never one to run right out and see the latest releases on opening weekend, and I have no problem waiting for movies to release on physical media. I got rid of cable in the mid-1990's and didn't have any pay TV until my free trial of D+ expired and I decided it was worth paying for. I do have very fond memories of going to the theater with my mom and sisters as a kid, and even more so with my dad because I was the oldest and he'd take me to movies like Jaws (props to mom for taking us to see Star Wars, though). My only real fond memory of the communal experience noted by some is Star Wars. I prefer the comfort of my own home, being able to decide at the drop of a hat I want to watch something rather than having to plan it, being able to back up if I feel like I missed something, being able to pause, food/drink options, director's cuts, etc.

The practice does seem borderline indefensible, but it's also become commonplace over the past 20 years. Some places prattle on about inventory control methods, items held at different warehouses, or whatever, but for whatever reason many businesses will not combine orders placed at different times. I don't like it, but I've also never been caught unaware by the practice and would be pissed if I was. I generally try to find enough to qualify for free shipping on each order, and if I can't I decide on a case-by-case basis whether I need the item enough to pay the shipping.

I recently had a similar experience with Fedex. I made the calls as you did, and was surprised when my package magically showed up in my apartment lobby a few days later. I don't know whether the Fedex driver or a neighbor originally absconded with the package, but somebody either grew a conscience or had management breathing down their neck. I certainly hope your situation has the same happy ending.

Hell, I tried, I really did. I didn't get into comics until my late 30's, about 20 years ago. I changed groups at work and became fast friends with a guy who collected all genres since the 1960's. He got me hooked on Star Wars first, then started throwing E.C.'s, Planets, Crime Does Not Pay, etc. at me. I quit Star Wars cold turkey, comics and novels, as soon as I heard about the de-canonization of all the stuff I'd read. For a long time, the only "new canon" thing I'd read was 'Dark Disciple', which I bought before I knew about new canon. Then I saw The Force Awakens - not a great movie, but not bad either. It set up some decent possibilities, which we now know were subsequently crapped all over. I thought Rogue One was very good, and Solo was decent. Verizon offered me a year of D+ free, so I got it to catch The Mandalorian, Clone Wars Season 7 and Rebels, all of which I enjoyed. I picked up the Bloodline novel at some point and really enjoyed it, and Zahn's pair of Thrawn trilogies were excellent. Then I started picking up TPBs of the Darth Vader comics, which led me to some of the other Marvel Star Wars comics. I have zero interest in the First Order timeframe and I'm underwhelmed by The High Republic, but much of the rest is good and I'm enjoying the D+ shows. I suck, I guess.

The D+ show The Book Of Boba Fett showed Fett and Fennec Shand recovering the ship after he got free of the sarlacc pit he fell into in Return Of The Jedi. It's the same ship Jango Fett had in Attack Of The Clones.

I've been re-reading my well-worn Robert A. Heinlein books I purchased in the early 1980's over the past few months - I'm through Friday, The Number Of The Beast, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, To Sail Beyond The Sunset and The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress so far. Heinlein is the master of science fiction in my opinion, and I can read him endlessly.

I rate Deadpool as "amongst the best MCU films" already - not quite at the level of Winter Soldier or Infinity War, but a bit ahead of Ragnarok and well ahead of Civil War. As such, I'm not sure whether to be excited by this news or afraid . . .

They can do that for other reasons too - renaming Boba Fett's ship from 'Slave 1' to 'Firespray Gunship', throwing out decades of Expanded Universe content and creating an inferior replacement, killing off Asajj Ventress, and of course for The Last Jedi and The Rise Of Skywalker.

Is it working? I don't know, wasn't the only goal to keep Disney's reputation as pure as virgin snow? The only impact I saw was prices doubled or tripled on existing iconage featuring the outfit. I already had the pieces I wanted, so I suppose it worked for me. It's interesting that there was no mention of Oola. In checking whether eBay selling prices are still up seven years later (they are), I found an interesting photo of the Gentle Giant Oola mini-bust. Mine is sealed, so I didn't know the costume could be pushed aside like this . . .