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Cameron H.

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Posts posted by Cameron H.

  2. Posted

    But now, that I think of it: if you are a shop owner during that time, would you care where the money comes from? Even if you know that the boy might have stolen it, it is still money.

     

    Yeah, I had a similar thought; however, due to the heavy-handed Dickensian overtones of the scene, I can't imagine the analogous scenario wherein Oliver Twist just rolls on up to a grocer with a fist full of flow and the shopkeeper doesn't immediately call Johnny Law to slap his thug ass in irons. Then again, I think the more likely outcome would be the shopkeeper would take his money and then drop a dime on him as soon as he peaced out. The single most important ingredient to running a successful criminal empire is to remain inconspicuous, and having a grubby, street urchin make it rain at the local bakery is hardly a good way to do that.

     

    Once again, I think this just adds further proof that if JCVD had not gotten his sorry rump dragooned by a bunch of gun running pirates, his inept leadership and callowness would have certainly seen all of those kids dead or in jail by year's end.

    • Like 1

  3. Posted

     

    I think the beginning was supposed to be in the 1970s from their dress, and in the tournament portion I think JCVD was a "Beverly Hills 90210" early 20s so he was probably only in his 70s when he beat up those punks.

     

    Agreed. In fact, I think JCVD may have even being played a little bit younger than that. I was thinking only a few years older than the other orphans, like maybe around 18 or 19. Basically, old enough to be a role model for the other boys (as sort of the de facto "grownup") , but naive enough to think a few thousand dollars would last them "forever and ever."

     

    Also, was anyone else concerned when JCVD sent the one little boy off with money to buy food for the entire gang? This is a little, street urchin boy, shabby and dirty, and probably a well known associate of Chris,' who is pocketing a large wad of cash. I think in that day in age, if a child fitting that description walked into a store with that much money and demanded a truck load of food, he would have (rightfully so in this case) been accused of stealing it and promptly arrested. JCVD would have been better off doing it himself or divvying up the cash between them as to not arouse suspicion. JCVD is...not smart.

    • Like 2

  4. Posted

     

    I didn't even notice that!

     

    My first thought is that they wouldn't have taken the Canadian Northwest Passage as at the time it was a multi-year trip, and had only been done once before by ship. Amundsen did it in a ship in three years (1903 - 1906), and it wasn’t sailed again until Larsen did it in two years (1940 - 1942). If they found a ice-free passage it might have been quicker, but I don’t think they would have considered it.

     

    But, I must also consider the awesome power of JCVD. Could he pull the boat over the ice? In his own movie, I think yes. It took Rasmussen 16 months to dog sled from the Atlantic to the Pacific during the Fifth Thule Expedition, though. So, no disrespect to JCVD, but I don't think he could pull a ship across the Arctic quickly enough for them to make the contest.

     

     

     

    You're right! I dismissed the idea that they went around the African cape because the boat looks so tiny and the ocean there is so dangerous. And I didn't look at the cost. But having looked at the figures, I don't think they could have afforded it.

     

    In 1925 the average cost to get through the Suez Canal was $1.4 per tonne. I based this on the figures in Panama and Suez Canals: General Comparative Statistics, which has $38,282,901 gross tolls for 1925 from 26,109,882 net tonnes. The Suez tolls were based on the net tonnage of a ship, so not counting engines and crew areas. I spent most of the afternoon trying to figure out how much the ship would hold (I am not a crazy person, I am on sick leave from work and bored out of my mind), and how much it would weight and eventually came to 92,000 tonnes.

     

    92,000 tonnes at $1.4 dollars per tonne is $128,800. Tommy guns, which is what I'm guessing they were smuggling, were about $200 a piece. If they had 1,000 on board (which seems a high number given what we see of how they're packed) that only comes to $200,000 earned - out of which they had to pay all expenses. There's no way they could have afford the canal and must have gone around the Cape of Good Hope.

     

    Adding in the 30 days to my original estimate brings it up to 3 months, and maybe even longer if they encountered bad weather.

     

    This isn't a correction at all! It's a confirmation of what Paul was saying. He was right all along. I should never have doubted!

     

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    • Like 1

  8. Posted

    Idk why but I'm really starting to think I should actually put the spaces between my names now. I swear all those years ago it wouldn't let me do that and I never rebranded myself. Or the change could cause anarchy and the forums would burst into flames.

     

    You mean you would be, "Taylor Anne?"

     

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    • Like 4

  9. Posted

    Okay, we haven't done this in a while...

     

    Fuck/Marry/Kill

     

    Frank Dux--Bloodsport

    Chris DuBois--The Quest*

    Col. Guile--Street Fighter

     

    For me, it would be:

     

    Fuck -- Frank Dux (I'm totally down with his flexibility and stamina)

     

    Marry-- Col. Guile (He's incredibly faithful to his friend Charlie, so I can only assume that would translate to a loyal husband.)

     

    Kill-- Chris DuBois (He doesn't really bring much to the table. He doesn't have the youthful athleticism of Dux, doesn't have a steady job, and his loyalties seem to bounce all over the place [i'm doing this for the kids! No, I'm doing this for Maxie! No, I'm doing this for me! No, I'm doing this for Dobbs])

     

     

     

    *Was it ever discussed what exactly the titular "quest" might be? According to the definition I looked up, a "quest" is "a long arduous search for something." What exactly was he searching for? Is it just for a way home? That seems like it's cheating somehow. He doesn't need to search for a way home, he just needs to escape and hitch a ride. Oh, fuck--is it something intangible like self-respect? Fuck that!

     

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    • Like 5

  11. Posted

    Correction: It would take JCVD only 2 months to get from New York to Thailand.

     

    Assuming they went through the Suez Canal, it's about 12,120 nautical miles from New York to Bangkok.

     

    I know they didn't go to Bangkok, but I felt like making it that distance covers every island 'near Siam' they could be going to. In the 1920s Thailand included Cambodia as a vassal state, so the secret island could be as far away as Phu Quoc, I think it's more likely to be somewhere in the Andaman Sea - Bangkok more or less splits the difference.

     

    I estimate the speed of the boat to be about 9 knots.

     

    I'm not sure what sort of boat they were travelling in. But I thought it looked a lot like the SS St Fergus, which was a cargo ship built in 1913 (I think gun runners/pirates are probably not getting a brand new ship). The St Fergus was a steam ship, but we don't see JCVD shoveling coal and I doubt that opportunity to flex (with all the sweat and the coal dust) would have been missed, so I've assumed that the ship was diesel.

     

    The 1910s-built diesel ships of the East Asiatic Company (A Danish company that had cargo ships in and out of Bangkok in the 1910/20s) had an average service speed of 11 knots. These were well maintained and properly crewed ships, though. So I've made it 9 knots to account for lack of engine maintenance and also to account for the size of the ship. It's pretty small compared to other ocean crossing cargo ships of its day. The St Fergus sailed around the UK and Ireland, it didn't cross the Atlantic.

     

    So, 12,120 nautical miles at an average speed of 9 knots is 57 days, add in 3/4 days for refueling stops and that makes it approximately 2 months.

     

    Well done, my friend!

     

    Did you also happen to notice (since there isn't a significant time jump or edit to indicate otherwise), that immediately after JCVD is captured, they seem to be, based on the setting sun, on a northwest bearing? Which seemed odd to me, considering, y'know, Canada being in the way and all...

     

    However, assuming it was a time of year that such a course was even amenable (i.e. no ice packs), they could have been attempting to reach the Pacific by braving the treacherous Arctic waters of the Canadian Northwest Passage. This would have shaved a considerable amount of time off of their journey and would have been much faster than either the Panama or Suez Canals.

     

    Navigation: There ain't nothing nerdy about that!

     

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    • Like 4

  12. Posted

    Have you tried Maltin on Movies? I really look forward to it now because Baron and Leonard are so genuine with their recommendations. I've seen a ton more movies that I've never heard of before that really should be crazy popular. Plus they never fail to make me laugh.

     

    I have not. I should remedy that. :)

    • Like 1

  13. Posted

    My current catch-ups:

    1) Blank Check - David Sims (film critic for The Atlantic and formerly for AV Club) and actor Griffin Newman started the podcast as a way of analyzing the Star Wars prequels as films in their own merit. The first miniseries was simply asking, "What is The Phantom Menace about?" They actually give some quality analysis and helped me see some things in the prequels that I had never picked up on, and - most importantly - it's not just bashing on the prequels, which is a pretty tired schtick, as we've talked about on these very forums. After making their way through the Star Wars films, they switched gears and decided to focus on filmmakers who, like George Lucas, were incredibly successful early in their career and allowed to do pretty much whatever they wanted afterwards. They're currently almost done with M Night Shyamalan's filmography, and I'm not sure what's up next, but it's been a lot of fun catching up on this one.

    2. Black Men Can't Jump (in Hollywood) - I actually found out about this one because David and Griffin mentioned it during their episode on The Force Awakens. This podcast reviews movies with POC leads and talks a lot about representation. I've only listened to a couple episodes so far, but the live Hancock episode is pretty excellent.

     

    Backlog:

    Reply All

    The Worst Idea of All Time

    I Was There Too (I've listened to some of them, but I'm REALLY far behind)

    Beautiful Stories (this one just started, but I love the premise, and I need to get on it before it gets too far along)

     

    Also, this seems like as good a time as any to bring up Lexi Alexander's appearance on Fatman on Batman last week. I don't recall it having come up in another thread yet, but it's delightful. I'm not a big Kevin Smith fan, so I tend to avoid this podcast, but I couldn't resist Lexi talking about Punisher in the new Daredevil series (also, Smith's not in this episode).

     

    Blank Check sounds cool! Actually, both sound pretty great, I'll have to check them out.

     

    As far as Fatman on Batman...I like it. It is the only one of his podcasts I actually listen to. I'm not sure what to say about Kevin Smith really. I think I like him more as a personality than a film maker. I think there's something endearing about how much he cares about comics and pop culture. I think I may have liked FMoBM a little more when he was just doing interviews with creators, and I particularly liked the episodes where he just read a couple of his favorite issues--crying, of course. That being said, he does have a tendency to prattle on and on and repeat himself, so I can see why he can grate on one's nerves.

     

    I guess I like him since he comes of pretty genuine, he steers clear of bad mouthing pretty much anything (sometimes to a ridiculous degree), and generally, seems like the type of guy I could just geek out on different nerdy topics.

     

    I'm currently going through Jonah Raydio and The Indoor Kids. Both of which are currently on hiatus until their work lives calm down so it's much easier to catch up.

     

    But I've still been considering downloading Who Charted and I Was There Too and adding that to my long ass list of podcasts.

     

    I love I Was There Too, I think it's the only Wolfpop show I have actually stuck with. What's amazing to me, is the episodes featuring guests I feel like I'll care the least about are some of my favorites. The Stephen Tobolowsky Groundhog Day episode is one of my favorites. Much more interesting than I thought it would be.

     

     

    I've been listening to YMRT since it debuted, and it's one of the few shows for which I'll drop everything as soon as a new episode arrives. (The others include Doughboys, Bodega Boys, and The Allusionist.) If nothing else, it has ringing endorsements from film obsessees Patton Oswalt and Dana Gould (around 05:30.)

     

    Yeah, all I've listened to so far of YMRT are the two most recent episodes about Chaplin--which I just tried out to see if I'd like it Once that arc wraps up, I'm going to have to start playing catch up. What I've heard so far has been pretty great.

    • Like 1

  15. Posted

    The Worst Idea of All Time is in my podcast backlog. I'm currently working my way through Blank Check w/ Griffin and David and Black Men Can't Jump in Hollywood. But a team-up with some of the WorkJuice all-stars might be just what I need to start digging into that one (even if Annie Savage isn't in the mix).

     

    I got about 13 or so episodes into The Worst Idea of All Time before I finally gave up on it. It wasn't that it was bad, just that I got bored with the premise after awhile. I think, had I jumped in on the ground floor (with a week between episodes, instead of trying to listen to them in a row) I might have stayed on board. It's kind of the same way I feel about the Gilmore Guys. I love what I've heard of the podcast, but my feelings about the show itself (which I didn't like, then grew to enjoy in an ironic way, and now can't stand at all) made it so I couldn't listen to them talk about it anymore. I think I may just jump ahead and listen to GG episodes with guests that I enjoy and call it quits. That's just me, of course. I'm sure opinions will vary.

     

    But, you bring up a couple of interesting questions: What podcasts are in everyone's backlog, and what podcasts are you currently trying to catch up on?

     

    For me...

     

    Catching Up

     

    1) Oh No Ross and Carey

    2) Judge John Hodgman (I may drop this one. It's not like I don't like it, but it's one of those "If you've heard one episode, you've heard them all" kind of deals. I find I've lost some interest...)

     

    Backlog:

     

    1) Sawbones

    2) Philosophize This!

    3) The British History Podcast

    4) You Must Remember This

    5) Myths and Legends

    • Like 2

  16. Posted

     

    Did she though? On one hand, she says her father owns the paper, but I got the sense that she saw through Dobbs' nonsense but found him interesting, and was inflating her own importance. So, oh, you're a lord...well my father owns the New York Times. Having fun by bullshitting a bullshitter.

     

    I mean I'm not 100% sure on that, one could make the case that if she wasn't connected why would they send her across the world to "get her out of our hair" instead of just firing her...but on the other hand, if she was, why would you ever tell her that? Plus, the guy on the phone didn't recognize her by her by name immediately.

     

    Interesting...

     

    Yeah, I guess I assumed she was on the level considering she didn't come off as particularly shrewd and the server introduced her as someone with "Castles in Scotland." I figured if she wasn't what she said she was, then the waiter would have had to be in on it too. Which brings up the question again: what was she even doing there? If it wasn't for the tournament, which (as it was portrayed in the movie) she had no prior knowledge of before meeting Dobbs, what exactly was she covering?

     

    But, you bring up a good point about the guy on the phone a) not getting her name right and b ) saying she was sent there to "get her out of [their] hair." If she was the daughter of the owner, there's no reason why he would not know who she was or how to say her name. And if she wasn't his daughter, then it seems more cost effective to just fire her rather than pay her to cover an area of the world they apparently have no interest in...

     

    I did like the fact that she was finally able to convince him to maybe run her story about a secret blood fight in the middle of nowhere. It's like the movie itself wasn't even interested in the plot of the movie.

  17. Posted

    I have to say, I found it hilarious how quickly Khao buys Dobbs story that Carrie is journalist. Granted, he's not lying, but Khao had just gotten through telling Dobbs off for being a thieving scoundrel. Dobbs then brushes Khao off and introduces Carrie as an "American journalist" and Khao just eats that shit up! He doesn't ask for any credentials or seem to think Dobbs might be up to his old tricks. I think I'm starting to realize why Dobbs liked working with him so much. In fact, if anyone can send me Khao's email address, I've been in touch with a Nigerian Prince who would very much like to get in contact with him.

     

    Also, I'm tickled by just how proud Carrie is at proclaiming how she got her job through nepotism. It is especially apparent that she didn't get her job through talent when, after watching JCVD fight for the first time, she tells Dobbs, "You have to get me this story!" Um...isn't that you're job?

  18. Posted

     

    And the training camp that Moore sells JCVD is in Phuket, which is about 5 miles away from Scaramanga's island in The Man With The Golden Gun (and I apologize if I just Jim Steinmaned this piece of knowledge. I have been very busy lately both at work and at home and am just trying to catch up on this thread.)

     

    STEINMAN!!!!!!

     

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    • Like 2

  20. Posted

    Not-so-subtle racism aside, the African warrior represented the continent as a whole as there were virtually no countries on the continent until the decolonization period following WW2. At the time this movie took place, the only independent nations in Africa were Liberia, the Kingdom of South Africa, and the Kingdom of Egypt. For example if he were from the area now known as ghana, he would then be representing England.

     

    I'm 100% sure this is what they striving for: historical accuracy.

    • Like 1

  22. Posted

     

    Dunno about ugly. But definitely odd. Much of the human body is. What is with earlobes?

     

    Oh, I know. I was just being hyperbolic. There are many handsome dicks out there. Besides, there's nothing on the human body that's quite as disgusting as that most hideous of all human features...

     

     

    elbow skin *barf*

     

    • Like 3

  23. Posted

     

     

    I dunno, I guess I must be a little weird. I don't think dicks are ugly. And I don't mind dick pics as long as A ) I ask B ) I'm asked if I want to be sent one. But I'm also not super uncomfortable with seeing/being around flaccid dicks, or nudity of any kind really, because I don't put any kind of sexualization on it unless that's what the intent is*.

     

     

     

    *My comment earlier about liking the trend of male full frontal was mostly a joke, but I really do like it when it's an actor I think is hot (Like Michael Fassbender). but other than that I do think it can be funny in the right situation.

     

    I'm getting to be a little too much of an oversharer in this department, and I should probably stop before I make everyone uncomfortable.

     

    Oh no, you don't! I will not rest until everyone on this forum has revealed their deepest, most carnal, and dabacherous of desires.

     

    Maybe we could set up a poll?

     

    Dude Buns vs. No dude buns

     

    Male splits: Yes or No

     

    Dick pics: Yes, No, Sometimes

    • Like 3

  24. Posted

    Let's not keep this between such a small group. Everyone needs to know. People have been confused about this for too long.

    After watching Amy's super cut of buns, I have to say, I do think I am with June in saying, for the most part, it doesn't do anything for me. Would much rather see chest or arms. Though buns over dick pics.

     

    As a heterosexual male, I would very much like to chime in on the "buns" debate. Personally, I agree with you Elektra, I think it's about the whole package. A nice butt is fine, but if the rest of the dude's form is squishy, then I don't think it's that much of an asset (heh--I said asset).

     

    As for dick pics, that has never made any sense to me. I think EVERYONE can agree, no matter what you're sexual orientation, that dicks are downright ugly. By nature, especially when you include testicles into the equation, they simply flout the Golden Ratio! I mean, I guess I can see being somewhat aroused by an erect penis, if it is appropriate to the situation and the feelings are reciprocated (i.e. "Yeah, we're gonna do it!") but otherwise, I don't see why anyone would find that appealing or think anyone else would either. And to be very clear, I don't want to see a random pic of a vagina either (It happens all the time! My inbox is flooded with these). What the Hell am I supposed to do with that?

     

    And, let's not get into flaccid dicks--which just look like floppy, angry hobgoblins.

     

    I guess what I'm saying is: stay symmetrical people! You're all beautiful!

    • Like 7

  25. Posted

    While I think it can be funny when they think a movie is garbage, we have to remember that this podcast was built with the premise that the three of them actually "enjoy bad movies." While the determination of what constitutes as "good" or "bad" is highly subjective, I wouldn't want them to burn themselves, and their audience out, by just doing dreck all the time. Aside from the movies Joel mentioned above, in past year they also did Perfect, Top Dog, and Theodore Rex--all of which I found borderline unwatchable. So, in that regard, I think they're striking a pretty fair balance between "good/bad" and "bad/bad." It might just be they're in a period where you personally unironically like a lot of the movies they're doing. According to Paul, in response to some similar complaints I made regarding the amount of Canon Films being done, he said that they tend to go through periods (i.e. lots of Stallone, 80's movies, etc.), so don't worry, I'm sure they'll circle back around eventually and get to the movies that you suit your sensibilities.

     

    Hollywood is nothing but inept, and there will never be a shortage of movies for them to cover.

    • Like 2
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