the machine

Total guess, because I never watched Veronica Mars, aside from a couple of clips I saw around the time it was cancelled:

Hot dog vendor?

It's a good show, you should watch it. And no, he was not a hot dog vendor.

Eh, I'm not offended. Anyway does the buffer rule not apply in this thread? You asked the last question. Besides, you're wrong, he's not a car salesman.

In Freaks and Geeks what actor played the original school mascot before Sam took over

Shia LeBeouf!

Correct, when I watched it I was thinking... no way it can't be but sure enough when the credits rolled it was the future Samuel James Witwicky.

sooo did it take long to google the answer :-p

Sir, you have offended my honor! I'm just a fan of the show who watched it after Shia was already relatively famous.

Anyways, Joss Whedon made a rare appearance as an actor (playing a character with a giant head, obviously) on Veronica Mars. What type of business was his character involved in?

In Freaks and Geeks what actor played the original school mascot before Sam took over

Shia LeBeouf!

But yeah, Deathcry was terrible. You know a character sucks when while taking apart the Avengers team they have to specifically take her to her home planet. Editor's Note: Deathcry died on the way to her home planet. Or at least, she's never been seen since.

According to her Wiki page, she was in Annihilation and will be in an Avengers special series called "Chaos War", so... Sorry

I may not have been 100% correct that she never appeared again but you seemed to miss what I was going for: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ThePoochie

I hate linking to TV Tropes, so realize that I was making a reference to that character who had to go back to their planet. My point is that the character was so awful it wouldn't be enough to just stop writing about her, she had to be put on a plane with a one way ticket to her home planet just so fans would be able to breathe easier knowing she wasn't going to show up at the next Avengers softball game.

Of the 3 legacy/ripoff characters (Thunderstrike, War Machine and USAgent), USAgent is the one who should have been killed off (Eric Masterson should have just been depowered). The name Asshole America, which is what I usually call him, fits.

And I meant worst choice when it comes to team chemistry, not gimmick or powers (or lack of powers). I agree with all those you listed, but I'd also toss in:

Doctor Druid - Considered a Dr. Strange wannabe despite the fact that he actually pre-dates Dr. Strange (first appearance was in 1961, under the name Dr. Droom that was later retconned to Dr. Druid), has a lame as hell costume, and oh yeah, he went nuts and was killed by Daimon Hellstrom!

Starfox - Do I even have to explain why? He's used his powers to basically commit sexual assault, and last time I checked he's a fugitive. Was almost useless when he was an active Avenger.

D-Man. Super-powered homeless wrestler with one of the lamest costumes ever.

I could keep going, but I'll just mention Deathcry and Silverclaw, then stop.

It's so sad when I think about how the industry was moving forward before the 90's. New characters like Thunderstrike actually becoming prominent, X-Men becoming adults and moving out of the X-Mansion, but since the mid-90's it's become a big nostalgia fest run by a bunch of writers who grew up reading during the 70's. I mean granted, the near-collapse of the industry to the point that it basically exists as a medium to pitch movie ideas probably didn't help, but it sucks to see how much comics from the big 2 have made negative character progress in the past decade and a half. As much as I'm not naturally a big Morrison fan he's one of the few guys who sets long-term goals to push characters forward.

I agree US Agent is asshole America, he's basically just Guy Gardener only without the dumb haircut, and to my knowledge he was never taken out in one punch, although I know he got in a punch up with Hawkeye. The only other guys that are almost as bad for team chemistry are probably Namor and Quicksilver. Namor because he's a prince who thinks he's better than everybody and doesn't care much about humanity, Quicksilver because he's impatient from waiting around all the time for normal-speed jerks. Plus he's the son of Magneto and is sometimes creepily over-protective of his sister.

And I liked Silverclaw! She had an interesting twist on the shapeshifting power, and she's a POC who doesn't run around calling herself "La Gaucha" or anything lame like that. Plus, I don't think she was ever anything beyond a reserve Avenger, so it's hard to dislike her as much as Dr. Druid, who was the focus of entire awful storylines. But yeah, Deathcry was terrible. You know a character sucks when while taking apart the Avengers team they have to specifically take her to her home planet. Editor's Note: Deathcry died on the way to her home planet. Or at least, she's never been seen since.

Possible Avengers spoiler, so...

How do you guys feel about the Red Hulk becoming an Avenger? Quite honestly, I think they should have just killed off the character or rendered him powerless. The way he's apparently going to join makes it seem like he'd be more suited to the Thunderbolts than the main Avengers team. Urgh.

Its definitely a bad idea. Hopefully it will be short term.

Finally, USAgent (aka Asshole America) gets replaced as `worst choice for an Avenger'. Red She-Hulk would be a better choice, but both characters need to be permanently de-powered. (Red Hulk turning out to be Thunderbolt Ross was really stupid)

Hey US Agent rules! There's far worse choices for Avengers. Off the top of my head:

Moon Knight (unreliable powers, less of a team player than Batman, schizophrenic)

The Sentry (unreliable in general, schizophrenically becomes his own arch-nemesis)

The Falcon (why does earth's mightiest heroes include a guy who can... fly? And talk to a bird?)

Lionheart/Captain Britain (Chuck Austen is terrible and all his ideas are terrible, including Captain Britain)

I'm sure there's worse.

Also that spoiler is really depressing. I don't see him actually joining any avengers team long-term. What a terrible character.

On The Simpsons, when Sideshow Bob's brother Cecil came to town to build a dam, he hired Cletus The Slack Jawed Yokel's relatives to carry out the construction. What was their dog's name and alleged breed?

I don't think I can answer, but I can say:

"Oh, cousin Merle, REALLY?"

Ashlee Simpson

Yup. She dated Simon, and then dated one of the dozens of random kids that lived with the Camdens over the course of that show.

What terrible pop singer had a role as a recurring character on the show 7th Heaven?

Name three of the four actors from Robocop who have appeared in the tv show 24.

Kurtwood Smith, Peter Weller, and, um.... the guy from Twin Peaks. Ray Wise?

Harley Quinn and Renee Montoya.

Yup. That was probably still too easy. Also would've accepted Lock-Up, the forgettable one-off villain that was made into a forgettable comic book villain in the 90's.

Been re-watching my old 90's Batman DVD's, so here's a question about Batman:

Name two characters created for Batman the Animated Series that would later be introduced into Batman comics (one is way too easy).

He also said he doesn't like LOTR, which means he stopped existing to me. ¬¬

Name the first badass to ever play The Punisher.

Dolph Lundgren!!!! He must break criminals!

I just ordered the Clone Saga, parts 1 and 2, off of Amazon for $46.

Parts 3 and 4 have yet to come out, and I'm not sure if there's a 5th part or not.

I remember the clone saga being one of the more interesting storylines of the 90s for me. I'm not expecting a masterpiece by any means, but I never read it. I saw the action figures, the stuff from the video games and tv show, and it always interested me.

My memory of the clone saga is that it started off being pretty decent, but eventually turned into a huge mess. I hated the ending in Spider-Man #75. At the time it was about the vilest Spider-Man story I had ever read. Of course this was before vile Spider-Man stories became par for the course. I wish there could've been a way to keep Ben Reilly around, as his character at the time was a lot more relatable than Peter Parker.

Jesus, we just had this discussion yesterday. Just because he's not on your favorites list doesn't make it unfathomable that somebody might include him on their's.

And do you really want to get into an argument on acting merits when you have Colin Farrell on your list, whose only really good role was in In Bruges?

Yes, Ferrell was great in In Bruges, but he was also great in the New World and solid in Crazy Heart. He's young, he has charisma, and he's improving: so what if he's not the best, at least he hasn't thrown in the towel. I don't feel like it's that hard to defend an actor that actually acts. If it were a narration contest or a "who do you wish your grandfather was" contest, everybody's love of Freeman would make a little more sense.

You know who else is better than Freeman? Tim Robbins. That guy never gets a lot of attention but he was a solid leading man who could also do great work in smaller parts, particularly as pretentious jerks.

Mr. TKzorrance, my point was that your statement was regrettably incorrect. So I corrected you. No doubt Caine was the man in the 60's and 70's, but there's also no doubt he took a lot of checks to make an appearance in the 80's and 90's and even into the 00's. More power to him if he wants to start acting again, but my point is lauding Freeman for anything post-Shawshank is up there with lauding Caine's role in Jaws: The Revenge. I only included living actors on my list but Alec Guinness is another great actor that I haven't seen on these lists.

Also let's just move on: I made an off-hand comment that I don't get why everybody loves their fake grand-dad, and yes, it's a position I can defend, but there's really no need to get anything in a twist over it. And by name-dropping other people hopefully somebody reads this and picks someone who's not Morgan Freeman, like Caine or Guinness or Duvall.

...I'm pretty sure the only film Freeman has narrated and not acted in is March of the Penguins, isn't it? I know he narrates Shawshank, but obviously he's in that film as well.

From the Corner (2008)

A Raisin in the Sun (2008)

Slavery and the Making of America (2005)

A Remarkable Promise (2004)

The Hunting of The President (2004)

The Long Way Home (1997)

And that's not including the dozen or so TV shows, IMAX movies, and children's bar mitzvah's narrated by Freeman over the past 15 years.

I'm baffled by the love for Morgan Freeman. Are we talking "favorite actors" or "favorite narration/voiceover guy"?

The guy has been in a load of films....a load of good films....where he acts good in them. It's not that hard to fathom people voting for him.

I guess it wouldn't be if that were true, but it's not. If by "acts good" you mean turns in the same performance a dozen times? It's a little like saying post-retirement Michael Caine is your favorite actor. I mean yes, he was in Dark Knight and Prestige and Inception, but would anyone argue he "acts good" in them, or did he just turn in the same standard performance he'd done dozens of times already?

Oh, but you know who's Freeman's age and still acts? Robert Duvall. That dude's awesome.

1. Jack Nicholson

2. Leo DiCaprio

3. Julianne Moore

4. Johnny Depp

5. Cate Blanchett

6. Colin Ferrell

7. Daniel Day-Lewis

8. Robin Williams

9. Sean Penn

10. Maggie Gyllenhaal

Honorable Mentions: Catherine Keener, Steve Buscemi, John Malkovich, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Guy Pearce, Kate Winslet, Sam Rockwell, Alec Guinness.

I'm baffled by the love for Morgan Freeman. Are we talking "favorite actors" or "favorite narration/voiceover guy"?

Man that poster is em-bear-assing.

What?

Fuck me! That was awesome. I went into it with really high expectations because Nolan is a pimp and the trailer was the right ratio of mystery and strange shit and it went beyond my expectations. It's not a film I can watch again any time soon, but that's the same for all of Nolan's movies. And for me it goes Inception > The Dark Knight/Memento/The Prestige > Batman Begins. I can't differentiate between the middle three because the only one I've seen more than once is The Dark Knight and I didn't enjoy it nearly as much the second time around. Inception is just first at the moment because I've still got a hard on for it, but I don't think I enjoyed The Dark Knight quite this much. Memento's obviously hampered because whenever I see it again I'm gonna know exactly how it all pans out. And The Prestige... shit I really should watch that again.

While you're watching the Prestige you should really watch Memento again. Just like Inception, it's worth seeing more than once to understand some of the ambiguity in the story and see how Nolan tells the story in such a creative way. Knowing the plot really shouldn't effect the enjoyment of movies like that.

Everyone should watch The Prestige if they haven't seen it. Jackman's never done anything nearly as good. And Bale is on top form. It's a really complete movie.

The Prestige really is class. Hell, I got really upset on a different forum a few weeks back when people were talking about copyright infringement versus "borrowing" ideas and then mentioned that The Prestige and The Illusionist came out at roughly the same time and compared them.

For those playing the home games, about the only decent comparison between those movies is that they both have magicians. The similarities end right there.

Comparing two movies with distinctive plots that came out in the same year doesn't seem like that big of a stretch as far as comparisons go. While they both developed in different ways, is it so hard to believe that somebody at Yari heard that Warner Brothers had greenlit a film centered around a 19th century magician and turned around and came out with a similar project? That'd be like arguing that Lionsgate was in no way influenced by word that 20th Century Fox was doing a Tom Cruise/Cameron Diaz action comedy about a spy in their decision to make Killers, an action comedy where spy Ashton Kutcher runs into blonde normal person Katherine Heigl.

Also I saw the movie again, and it's so amazing. For a big budget action film to develop such an amazing system of visual and audio storytelling is an accomplishment that can't be emphasized enough. Not only does it have sound editing that's equally amazing as the Dark Knight's, it gives us a storyteller's eye that shows us things that we don't immediately understand: these images are then planted in out subconscious so that later when we get the context the symbols become loaded with meaning. The shaking train tracks, the spinning top, the wine glass crunching underfoot: we see and hear all of it before we know what they mean and when we finally learn their meanings they have that much more emotional weight because we've already been introduced to them. Critics complaining about the shot to shot moments not feeling like a dream are out of their minds because this is exactly the sort of sensory recognition and subconscious symbolism that dreams are full of. The film also contains numerous examples of "dream logic," where things with no inherent significance become increasingly important. In the top level dream, Fischer seems to just make up six numbers: they don't have any independent meaning. We see those numbers again when Eames, as the blonde woman, writes them down in front of Fischer. Then the numbers correspond to two hotel rooms that are inexplicably below one another even though common sense says that 428 would be under 528. Finally, in the third level, these random numbers are the combination to the locked room. This isn't inception as Fischer made up the numbers in the first place, but he's taken these random numbers and turned them into the keys that unlock his father's final wishes.

That a movie that features car chases, emotional weight and incredible sound mixing also features this level of psychological depth is an incredible feat. It's an action film with real emotion and intellectual depth. Movies like this are why I love movies.

Yeah, they seemed to contradict themselves with "it's only when we wake up that we realize something was strange" and "don't get too strange in here or the mark will know they're dreaming."

The subconscious (soldiers, pedestrians, etc.) is what was recognizing something foreign and try to kill it (kick it out of the dream), while the conscious mind wouldn't realize they were dreaming until afterward, if at all. Not really a contradiction.

Yeah that was easily the most original and thought provoking big budget film since the Matrix.

I also wish Bendis would just stop writing the Avengers and let absolutely anyone else do it. His dialogue is just so bad. And while I like a lot of his ideas, his follow through is... not great. To be fair, he is a lot better on non-team books.

I just read the first cupple of Irredeemable Books and it´s terrible. I have no idea how this was nominated for an Eisner Award.

I love 20th Century Boys and The walking dead though, so i hope the other nomines are less disapointing, will check them out soon.

If it makes you feel any better, I think the Walking Dead is terrible. I read the first 3 trades and while I liked volume 1 okay, the next two volumes were just unbearable. As much as Bendis bugs me when he makes everyone sound the same, at least everyone doesn't sound like an identical exposition robot. Here's some choice never-ending monologue that drops about 5 pieces of useless information into one convenient speech:

"Rick: I'm just making sure we do what's right, Lori. I was put in charge after we left Atlanta. Honey, listen to me. I'm a cop-- I've been trained to make decisions like this. I'm the only one here in a position of authority. I'm making the choice that's best for all of us. That's what you all look up to me for. That's why everyone comes to me for advice and guidance. I'm in charge."

Also the art got worse, the plot was dull, and there was no character I cared about at all: all of them felt like cardboard props destined to be killed off dramatically except for Rick, who just irritated me. I get the appeal, but god that book bugs me.

Sucks to see Captain America passed over except in the single issue category for the Colan story about vampires, but Incognito being nominated for best limited makes up for it somewhat. Also J.H. Williams should win an Eisner for everything he does.