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About Me, Movies

Dental surgery–and today’s Murkworks Movie Suckoff!

Went in to see my new dentist for gum graft surgery today, which is because I’ve got a few spots in my mouth where the gums have pulled back enough to expose the roots of my teeth. This has caused me all sorts of sensitivity issues, and my new dentist’s recommendation was that we do some simple gum graft surgery–not only to return protection to the affected teeth, but also to prevent the problem from worsening as I grow older.

I’ve had work done on one side of my mouth today, and some time next year, we’ll be doing the other side. Then the problem will be done and dealt with.

Fortunately the procedure was pretty simple. I had to show up an hour early for my 9am appointment, at which point they had me take a tablet of Triazolam, and hang out waiting for the succeeding hour. I noted with interest that about twenty minutes in, I started feeling slightly drunk. And between that and how they gave me nitrous during the actual procedure, I went almost right out. I had massive time compression, and pretty much remember only the doctor asking me to turn my head a couple of times–and then the nurse was taking the gas mask off of me and I was mumbling, “Whuh? Are we done?”

They gave me four, count ’em, four different prescriptions to go pick up after–some Vicodin, some prescription-strength Motrin, this mouth rinse I’m supposed to use in lieu of brushing my teeth for the next few days, and some amoxycillin as well. They told me to rest a lot today, with my head elevated, which I’ve been doing in between doing the latest Murkworks Movie Suckoff! And I figure I’m going to pretty much be zzzzzzz for the rest of the weekend. By Monday though I should be fine, and should be able to use the prescription-strength Motrin during the day if I need it, and hold the rest of the Vicodin for the evenings. I’m supposed to come back on the 15th to have stitches out, and that will be that until next year, when we do this again to the other side of my mouth.

As for the Movie Suckoff, I report to my chagrin that we were unable to find Deep Blue Sea on Paul’s Netflix account! So we swamped it out for Empire of the Ants, a 70’s Bert I. Gordon schlockfest, notably featuring Joan Collins. We did still get 2-Headed Shark Attack, though! I got really sleepy during the shark flick and had to come back and watch the rest of it later, but once that was done, Dara and I decided that Empire of the Ants definitely sucked more. It committed the crime of starting off being stultifyingly boring, mostly! At least in 2-Headed Shark Attack, you got to see things blow up.

There may be a second Suckoff tomorrow depending on if I’m feeling up for it. More on this as it happens, Internets!

June 1, 2012 by
Movies

The Avengers: Glorious Symphony of Awesomeness

If you’ve known me or followed my posts on the Net for any length of time, you’ll know I’ve been a Joss Whedon fan for ages. Buffy, Angel, and Firefly, oh yeah, down with all of those. And I’ve also certainly enjoyed the Marvel superhero movies leading up to this one–both the Iron Man flicks, Thor, and Captain America being the ones I’ve seen. (I never caught Edward Norton as the Hulk.) So I was absolutely expecting to enjoy the hell out of the Avengers.

I was not disappointed. There was no moment of that movie that was not a GLORIOUS SYMPHONY OF AWESOMENESS. <3

This is going to be less 'review' and more 'fangirl squealing'! Look behind the fold for overall reactions!

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May 12, 2012 by
Movies

Bring out your crap, redux

It has been proposed to me by userinfostickmaker, O Internets, that a little Danish flick called Reptilicus is a potential candidate for a future Murkworks Movie Suckoff! Inspection of this flick’s IMDB entry shows promise.

But for a proper, truly well executed Movie Suckoff, my friends, we require another vital component: a Sci-Fi Pictures Original, ideally in theme with this movie, to compete!

So I put it to you: name me your titles! What’s a good Sci-Fi Pictures Original Crapfest we could put this movie up against?

September 13, 2011 by
Movies

More dwarves than you can shake a Goblin-cleaver at

Behold, my fellow Tolkien fans, this newly released composite picture of all of the dwarves in the forthcoming Hobbit movie! If you click through on the link to the post on TheOneRing.net, it includes a full list of names from left to right, both of the characters and of the actors playing them.

That is, if I do say so myself, a pretty badass-looking company of dwarves. Although I’m having a bit of a hard time reconciling these guys with the visuals from the old Rankin-Bass animated Hobbit, from which I keep hearing Gandalf intoning, “Oin, sir, and Gloin, sir!” Also, I’m having a bit of a hard time with Kili on the far right there actually being kinda hot. ;D

July 21, 2011 by
Movies

Smashy hammer + Norse gods = silliness

As I mentioned a couple nights ago on Twitter and Facebook, userinfospazzkat scored a couple of free tickets to a sneak preview of Thor. So we spent Tuesday night amusing ourselves with that.

Spoiler-free picoreview: fairly silly overall, and not nearly as much substance and gravitas (for such values of ‘gravitas’ as you get in a Marvel superhero flick) as the Iron Man flicks, especially the first one.

And oh god the 3D was a bad idea. If you’re interested in seeing this flick–and it’s a perfectly acceptable even if silly popcorn flick–see it in 2D. The 3D added absolutely nothing and in most of the scenes set in Asgard, it actively distracted from what looked like some otherwise beautiful imagery.

Spoilers behind the cut!

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May 5, 2011 by
About Me, Movies, Television, The Murkworks

Vacation in review

I’ve got to say, two weeks of just hanging out at home has been one of the nicest vacations I’ve had for a while. It hasn’t been fancy or exciting or expensive, but it sure has been relaxing. The last few times I’ve had this much time at home have been surgery recovery–and by comparison, this has been more like the Longest Weekend Ever. All things considered, an excellent way to round out 2010.

In brief, here’s what I’ve been doing the last couple of weeks:

  • Saw and enjoyed both Tron: Legacy and Tangled. Both were quite pretty, and while T: L had less plot than one might have liked, it actually had more plot and emotional weight to it than the first one did. And I say this as a fan of the first one, which I rewatched during this downtime, too! As for Tangled, I liked it more than I expected it would, given my prior fear that it’d screw up my favorite fairy tale. It was Disney by the numbers, but then, Disney does do awfully catchy numbers.
  • Did Longest Night with userinfosolarbird, in which we did what seems to be becoming my yearly tradition of rewatching The Lord of the Rings. We are sure you’ve noticed by now that the sun did, in fact, come back up.
  • Speaking of Solstice, and Christmas by extension, I didn’t really want much loot this year thanks to having gotten the Awesome Guitar of Awesomeness. But a few lovely bits of loot were had nonetheless! Most notably, Dara gave me a really clever little capo that lets you capo individual strings and therefore simulate different tunings. I also got Peter Jackson’s King Kong on Blu-Ray from userinfomamishka, Matt Smith’s just-concluded series of Doctor Who from userinfospazzkat, a B&N ebook card from userinfojennygriffee, a lovely hardbound copy of a Norwegian graphic novel from userinforavyngyngvar, and the obligatory pile of stocking stuffer candy.
  • The Thursday before Christmas, Dara and I went downtown and spent a lovely afternoon at Ummelina, the spa on 4th. We did their two-person Pacific Rim package, and mmmm relaxing. This was redeeming the gift card I got Dara back in April for her birthday, since we’d decided that “while I am on vacation” was an excellent time to do so. After the spa, I did a lightning-quick raid on the marketboys, catching them JUST as they were closing up shop and surprising them by my arrival. They looked pleased to see me! Or at least pleased to sell me literally last-minute raspberries. 😉
  • Christmas Day itself was fairly quiet. Dara and I went back downtown for the aforementioned viewing of Tangled, and afterwards had Chinese at a place downtown we hadn’t tried before. We didn’t care for the place much, but they were awfully overworked that night so we couldn’t quite hold it against them. And the food, while mediocre, was revived by Dara later for two more meals’ worth of nomming. So it was a win in the end.
  • Have been doing a lot of trying to fill out all the achievements on Plants Vs. Zombies, as well as trying to play through the new levels in Angry Birds. Raise your hand if you’re surprised.
  • The high point of Christmas Day was definitely the Doctor Who Christmas Special, and big kudos to BBC America for having actually broadcast it in a timely fashion and uncut, as I previously posted!
  • Also as previously posted, Dara and I had an almost impromptu totally blottoed viewing of “Spock’s Brain”!
  • Also watched a lot of MST3K as I was seriously in the mood. Bought one of the DVD box sets we hadn’t owned before and watched all of those, as well as The Brain That Wouldn’t Die (PERFECT followup to “Spock’s Brain”) and Hercules Against the Moon Men via YouTube, streamed over the Blu-Ray player. (Which worked amazingly well, I might add, and way better than playing those same videos over any of the computers in the house would have done. Even given that it’s on the exact same network!)
  • Some light reading was done, and way less writing or editing than should have been (read: none to speak of).
  • Caught a cold, which was NOT so fun. But really, it didn’t change much of what I was doing anyway, except while I was shaking it off, I was doing the same things with added blankets, Nyquil, and sneezing. George was very, very happy to occupy my lap the whole time regardless.
  • And last night, we finished off the year with a lovely visit from Jenny as well as userinfollachglin, userinfokathrynt, and their children, for consumption of homemade pizza, some more boozahol and snacks, and playing of Rock Band 3. Jenny stayed overnight with us so she wouldn’t have to drive all the way back to Issaquah with a bunch of drunk New Year’s Eve partiers out on icy roads, and we got up to have tasty breakfast cooked by Paul. A great way to finish off the old year, and start a new one, indeed.

So yeah. Feeling ready and rested if not tanned, and rather looking forward to getting back into the swing of normal things on Monday. Bring it on, 2011!

January 1, 2011 by