I'm a slayer, ask me how.

I feel like if you look up "There's a lot to unpack here" in the dictionary, this movie's poster should be used as the image. Because whoa.

It wants to be a lot of things:

It's part documentary about these kids that saw 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' in the 80s and decided they were going to remake it themselves and spent the next 7 years working on it on and off between school and life and such.

It's also part documentary about 3 of these kids as adults and how their relationships changed as they got older, how their dreams changed.

And IT IS ALSO a documentary about 2 of these guys attempting to get the final scene of the movie filmed 30 years later at great personal expense.

AND ONE MORE! It is also a documentary about the cult following their fan film got in the underground film community years later.

I'm not sure the movie set out to do what the guys involved intended it to do, but it is definitely an interesting study in obsession? Or perhaps also this weird issue with filling fulfilled and how people define themselves? It definitely got painful near the end when the one guy's past started to become more apparent with the abusive father and drug habit and the abuse towards his friend...

But when the climatic moment happened, all I could think was "What the hell are you guys doing anyway?"

And when that final note came on screen that said the one guy had quit his job and joined up with the other guy to start a film studio I was like "nooooooooo!!!" because that just seemed to be a really irresponsible thing to do with his family and kids and what not. It felt like the other guy convinced him to do it and we really had NO background on what he had done with his life, except he was unhappy.

Yeah, that's a lot. And I don't think it actually succeeds at any one of these things. BUT it does become an interesting artifact about real relationships and dynamics in groups. It becomes a story about obsession and adults trying to recapture some part of their youth. It is about how so many of us that grow up loving movies use them to fill a certain part of our life, even if we don't quite know what that part is.

I don't think the guys that put this together saw how this was going to reflect back on them. As the credits started rolling, I wasn't sure any of what happened in 2015 was a good idea.

Have you watched 'Raiders!' - what did you think?

Click the date to see the entire twitter thread. Only spoilers if you are swayed by opinions in gif format.

I will eventually type up my thoughts on #RiseofSkywalker but until then, here are initial reactions in GIF format:

— orangerful (@orangerful) December 21, 2019

So, this happened today.

I sat down to watch Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindlewald. I steeled myself because I knew the reviews for this were all over the place. But something about it bugged me right off the bat and I ended up sort of live-tweeting my viewing:

Why do storytellers who have created well-loved worlds have so little faith in them to bring the audience in? ‘Fantastic Beasts’ went from a new story to a prequel by bringing in Dumbledore, even for a matter of minutes.

— orangerful (@orangerful) October 13, 2019

Yeah, I signed on for the misadventures of Newt Scamander, but instead it turns out this was just a Album Dumbeldore story.

( spoilers )

TL;DR if you skipped this one, you made the right choice. The more I think about ti, the more frustrated I get with what a huge, wasted opportunity this was.

There were lots of great taglines for ‘The Last Crusade’ but I think my favorite was “The Man with the hat is back. And this time, he’s bringing his Dad.”

‘Last Crusade’ was the first Indy movie I got to see in the theaters. I was 8 years old and already a hardcore Spielberg and Lucasfilm fan – I had all the Star Wars movies memorized, and knew most of ‘Temple of Doom’ by heart. ‘Raiders’, with it’s ghosts and melting Nazis, I had convinced myself, was too scary for me. (My theory is that the first ghost caught me off guard, sort of like the first ghost in ‘Ghostbusters’, which I didn’t watch from the very beginning for a LONG time because that memory of being scared kept me away).

I know we saw this in the theater. It wasn’t my first movie theater experience (I saw E.T. in the theater but have no memory of it except for things my Mom told me later), but I definitely don’t have the strong memories of seeing a movie with my whole family like I do with this one.

This was a world with no spoilers beyond the trailer, unless you searched for them. And by search, I don’t mean hopping on your computer. No, that Apple IIe did NOT have an internet connection just yet, or, at least, no world wide web to post your fan theories to. I’m sure I could have found some magazines with interviews and what not, but, again, 8. So I went into this movie just knowing that I loved Indiana Jones and had no idea what to expect beyond what Drew Struzan’s poster artwork told me.

So the opening sequence with a young Indy was a new idea. I didn’t really know who River Phoenix was so I didn’t see him as anything else but Young Indy. And then this happened:
Henry Jones Jr. gets his fedora and is magically turned into Indiana Jones.



Henry Jones Jr. gets his fedora and is magically turned into Indiana Jones.

and the movie really got started.

I don’t remember too much else about the viewing experience. Mostly just sitting in silence, probably munching on popcorn because how could you see an Indiana Jones movie without popcorn?

Yet, there is one moment, one scene, that I still remember, deep in my mind, deep in my gut, because of the reaction I had to it. When Donovan pulls the gun on Indy, threatening him to go in and find the Grail. Indy smirks and quips ” Shooting me won’t get you anywhere.” Donovan looks straight at him and says ” You know something, Dr. Jones? You’re absolutely right.” and then…



Donovan pivots ever so slightly and shoot Indy’s Dad.

Right – so I’m 8 years old here. I don’t know movie tropes. I don’t realize that Steven Spielberg doesn’t kill a Dad. I don’t understand that Indiana Jones movies are not going to go that dark. All I know is that Indy’s Dad just got shot. I remember feeling my guts squeeze, the heart stop, and my eyes just filling with tears. I remember my Mom leaning over, sort of giving me a rub on the back and perhaps whispering that it would be okay or not to worry or something along those lines. Something to calm me down so I didn’t lose it completely.

I believe once I saw that Henry was stable and talking, that Marcus was going to hold that little cloth over the wound, I calmed down, hopeful that Indy would save the day.

Of course, there was a happy ending (unless you were a Nazi, but then you don’t deserve one, do you?) and like all good stories, the heroes ride off into the sunset, laughing and smiling, with John Williams’ classic theme playing.



Since then, I have watched the movie many many times. I quote it constantly, especially the classic “No ticket.” line. I could probably act out entire scenes if I needed to. It is perfect from beginning to end. No downtime, no throwaway scenes, all of it important for the story.

I grew up in the 80s and 90s, straddling the Gen-X and Millenial line. I didn’t get to experience Star Wars or the first two Indiana Jones’ films in their initial theater releases, and I’d say this movie marks the end of that Lucas/Spielberg summer domination era in some ways. Speilberg went on to make some fantastic, but heavier, films. Lucas waited another ten years to go back to a galaxy far far away. I’m so glad I saw this in the theater and have this memory, even if it was a bit of a traumatic one. This was the last great summer romp before both creators matured and grew apart.

If you haven’t seen this movie in awhile, sit down and watch it again. Turn out all the lights, pop some corn and settle in. 30 years later, it is still a lot of fun keeping up with the Joneses.

What are your Indiana Jones memories? Please comment or link to your post! I’d love to chat with other Indy fans.

I did make a bunch of end-of-the-year posts in December to wrap up the year. But I was so excited about my paid Wordpress "public" blog, that I forgot to post them here!!!! **facepalm**

I mean, most of the stuff you've heard me babble about in other posts one by one, but sometimes it is nice to have them all in one place.

And I made such pretty graphics too!!!

Not sure I can copy+paste all the code without making a mess, so I'm just going to be annoying and link you to the Wordpress posts. But I shall include the pretty graphics because hotlinking those is easy.

Next time I will post in ALL THE PLACES! My apologies actual online friends!

My 2018 Movies


My favorite books of 2018


My favorite video games of 2018


Though if you want to subscribe to my Wordpress blog...I wouldn't be upset. I even splurged and paid so I could use my ULR www.orangerful.com - so easy to remember when you're bored and need something to read! :D

OFF TO GET MY NEW PHONE!!!!!!

Look at me! Only a week into 2019 and I've watched two movies! I'm hoping to get through two more this weekend because I need to return everything Monday.

Anyway, wanted to give some brief, non-spoilery thoughts (though if I go into spoilers, I hide them under a cut, so you have been warned!)



This had been on my to-watch list for awhile, all I knew about it was what was on the cover and that it had fantastic reviews.

It is a documentary about three guys who find out they were triplets separated at birth! There is SO much more to it, but it is best to just watch the film and see everything unfold, piece by piece. Every time I thought this thing was coming to a close, some new bit of information came out that kept me in my seat.

I got the DVD from the library, doesn't look like anyone has the streaming rights just yet, but it is worth the rental price.

SPOILERS under the cut, for sure, DO NO CLICK if you haven't seen it!
( Read more... )

Because it is a documentary, so many things are left unanswered because the people who know the truth are either dead or have buried the records. And if viewers feel frustrated by this, think how upsetting it has to be for the people whose lives are directly effected by all of these dangling threads.

It's a quiet night at the library so I thought I would begin to type up my reaction to TLJ...and I'm up to two pages of notes in Google Docs. So rather than posting a TL;DR length ramble, I'm going to break it up into chunks. Consider this part 1 of whatever haha.

Spoilers, obviously.

( a long time ago...I mean, seriously it's been almost three weeks since I watched it! )

Yup, finally watched this. I had hoped for so much more but I knew it was overrated when the Oscar buzz started flying around.

I mean, it was a movie about making movies. It homaged lots of classics. But it never even gets close to the level they were. Heck, John Legend's character even chides Gosling's for being obsessed with OLD jazz and not embracing anything new, asking how they can save the music by holding on to the past? Yes, those movies are classics, they were groundbreaking, but when you just try to recreate them, you can't hold a candle to them - we don't have a Fred and Ginger now. We don't have a Gene Kelly. Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling are both great but they are not that multitalented.

Don't get me wrong - the only reason this movie was so well liked it because of Stone and Gosling. I adore both of them, it made watching the whole thing a lot more fun. I mean, they really are not singers, they are barely dancers, but I didn't care because THOSE EYES. On both of them - THOSE EYES!

And this scene was, by far, my most favorite scene:



But, yeah. I can't deny it had some beautiful cinematography so I'm okay with that award. I'm also okay that it didn't win best picture because it was no where near as good as 'Moonlight'. It's a pretty forgettable movie. Even the songs didn't do much for me. Or maybe it was just one song?

But, yeah, since I adore Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, I didn't mind spending two hours in a dark room with them.

But, yeah, pretty much this:

I had been looking forward to this adaptation of Patrick Ness' young adult novel A Monster Calls since it was announced. It just felt like the kind of story that would work well on screen. I was very happy with the results.

Just like the book, this is a visually gorgeous tale (Jim Kay's illustrations reminded me a lot of Stephen Gammel's artwork in Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark). It is a coming of age story wrapped in a fairy tale. Conor's mother is very sick and he is dealing with it about as well as you would expect a young boy to deal with it. He buries himself in his artwork and conjures up The Monster, who visits him at night and tells him a story. With each story, Conor begins to peel away the fairy tale world and begins to see that the real world is not so simple. That there are always layers, that acceptance is a part of life and so is great pain.

It is bittersweet and even though I had read the book, I still found myself crying in the end. Everyone did a fabulous job, but Liam Neeson as The Monster was just perfect casting (and according to the extras, he was the one and only choice).

The only flaw in the movie was the casting of Sigourney Weaver since I felt her British accent wasn't so great. But luckily her character doesn't actually talk very much as most of the story rests on Conor's shoulders.

If you have tissues handy, I highly recommend this one.

"This is a rebellion. I rebel" says Jyn Erso in the Rogue One trailer.

Except she doesn't say this in the movie. In fact, a lot of things shown and said in the trailers for Rogue One never made it to the big screen. (for an in-depth look at the movie that wasn't, check out this great Slashfilm article)

I will say that this is the BEST of the Star Wars prequel films. I would not rank it anywhere with the classic trilogy and I still found Force Awakens more fun and engaging.

( more thoughts, with spoilers )

I didn't hate it, I enjoyed the movie for the most part. I'd rather watch it than AoTC again. I think it is cool that they made a Star Wars movie that didn't rely on a sequel or Jedi. But there was a lot of potential for this film to be much more than it was but I think they were distracted by the same things that got Lucas during the prequels - the ability to use CGI in new ways. If they had focused less on that and more on the real people and their stories, Rogue One could have been a much stronger film.

3.5 out of 5 stars