Today by Chuck

Before I Slumber

Wind down before getting your sleep on. Try and de-stress before you close your eyes so you sleep more peacefully.

Tomb Raider (2018 - Review)

*You won't have to hire a tomb raider to find that there are spoilers contained in this post

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First off this film was no way near the Angelia films. I appreciate what they did with the film, but it would have served better as maybe a prequel to the original 2 films. It did have some good action scenes, but I just felt it was lacking something. Don't get me wrong, as a action film I did like it, I just liked the original 2 films better. The only saving grace to the film I feel was the twist about Trinity at the end of the film.

Overall we give it a 8 out of 10 stars.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1365519/

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Plot

Following the disappearance of her father, Richard Croft, Lara Croft makes a living as a bike courier. When she is arrested after a bike accident involving a police car, Richard's business partner Ana Miller posts her bail and warns her that if she does not claim her inheritance, her father's estate will be sold off. Lara reluctantly accepts and gains access to her father's office. There she finds a pre-recorded message from Richard detailing his research into Himiko, the mythical Queen of Yamatai who was said to command the power over life and death. Richard warns Lara to destroy all of his research but Lara decides not to so she can investigate further.
Lara travels to Hong Kong where she hires Lu Ren, captain of the ship Endurance, to sail into the Devil's Sea to the island of Yamatai. The ship capsizes in a violent storm and Lara is washed ashore where she is knocked unconscious. She is revived by Mathias Vogel, the leader of an expedition to locate Himiko's tomb. The expedition has been funded by a shadowy organisation called Trinity that seeks to harness and weaponise Himiko's power. Vogel takes Lara prisoner, claiming that he killed her father and intends to use Richard's research to continue his expedition. Lara escapes with the help of Lu Ren, who also survived the storm and has been put to work with the local fishermen digging for Himiko's tomb. She evades capture but is seriously wounded in the process and passes out from her injuries.
Lara regains consciousness after nightfall and is forced to kill a Trinity guard when she is nearly discovered. She follows a mysterious figure wandering the island and discovers that the figure is her father, who himself had been held captive on Yamatai. After Lara convinces him that she is real, Richard treats her injuries. Despite his protests, Lara sets off to recover his research from Vogel's camp. Lara makes contact with Lu Ren, and he, along with the fishermen, stage distractions that allow Lara to infiltrate the Trinity camp and recover her father's research. In the ensuing chaos, Richard makes his way to the Himiko's tomb and is captured by Vogel, who persuades Lara to open the tomb.
The party navigates a series of booby traps and locates Himiko's sarcophagus. Two Trinity soldiers attempt to remove her corpse but become infected by Himiko's "power," which is actually a disease so potent that mere physical contact triggers immediate bodily disintegration. Vogel shoots the infected soldiers, concluding that he cannot remove Himiko's body. He instead settles for detaching a finger, which he seals in a pouch. In the confusion, Lara and Richard overpower the remaining soldiers, though Vogel escapes and Richard becomes infected. Knowing there is no cure, Richard proposes destroying Himiko's tomb to prevent the virus from spreading across the world. Lara pursues Vogel as Richard sets off a bomb, killing himself and sealing the tomb. Lara confronts Vogel and the two fight. Lara force-feeds him Himiko's severed finger and kicks him into a deep chasm as the infection takes over. She is rescued by Lu Ren and the fishermen, who commandeer a Trinity helicopter to escape Yamatai.
Lara returns to London, where she formally accepts her inheritance and inadvertently discovers that Trinity's front company, Patna, is actually a subsidiary of Croft Holdings. She proceeds to investigate Trinity further among her father's files and begins to suspect that Ana Miller is one of its agents who manipulated her into accepting her inheritance in order to have Lara sign over control of Croft Holdings' business operations to her when Richard Croft stopped cooperating with Trinity. Having witnessed Trinity's ruthlessness firsthand, she prepares for her next adventure.

Today by Chuck

Before I Slumber

Let the stress of the day melt away like the uncounted minutes that float away as you dream the night away.

Today by Chuck

Before I Slumber

Get a good night sleep. Tomorrow is Monday and we all need the rest.

Doom: Connecting the storylines

I remember back when the original Doom from ID Software came out. I remember opening the box and installing it from floppy disks. Since then the game has evolved and as it has I have played all the versions of it. I even love the, not so highly rated, movie with the Rock from 2005. I picked up the newest installment of Doom a bit back and played it like crazy, but got side tracked and never completed it. Recently I decided to pick it back up and start from the beginning. With starting to play it again I went and explored some of the Doom story timeline. After some scouring the interwebs, video review, and pulling back out my older versions of Doom I found some interesting theories.

On the surface, Doom seems like a clean break from the previous games, merely borrowing the same premise: you’re on the surface of Mars and fighting demons from Hell. But there’s evidence suggesting it’s more, and that id Software found a way to connect the series together. Maybe.

Let’s start by looking at the opening moments of the new Doom. It begins with a quote from...well, someone. It’s not clear who’s actually speaking.

“They are rage, brutal, without mercy. But you. You will be worse. Rip and tear, until it is done.”

Things kick off with a problem: you’ve been strapped down. But you’re not strapped to a table per se, it seems more like a coffin or...sarcophagus?

In previous Doom games, you played a marine assigned to Mars security detail for the Union Aerospace Corporation, the fictional megacorp that’s messed with teleportation and other ways to contact Hell. The situation becomes more mysterious as you try to leave the room. People are praying in front of the box you emerged from, either as ritual, worship, or fear. One of the game’s main antagonists, Olivia Pierce, suggests it might be the last. “We have to contain this,” she utters. Around the corner, the player discovers the series’ familiar green armor, which appears to have been encased in a protective box. But how come?

Here’s where we start going down the rabbit hole.

Not much is explicitly said in the game itself, but if you pay attention to the text attached to collectibles, it starts filling in the gaps. The game explains that a UAC expedition into the Hell dimension found the green armor, dubbed the Praetor Suit, and the player’s character side-by-side.  In Latin, Praetor roughly translates to “one who goes before the others.” One of the collectibles describes another age called “the first battle,” in which only “one” stood in opposition to them. This was you, the player, and the demons dubbed this relentless killer the Doom Slayer. At the end of the original Doom game, the player fights their way to the spider mastermind, an upper tier demon behind the initial Hell invasion. But in a twist, it’s revealed everything has been for naught; Hell has already invaded Earth. That sets up the next game, Doom 2: Hell on Earth. The new Doom says the player was “burned by the embers of Armageddon.” Given Armageddon is how we usually describe life-ending events on Earth, it sure seems like a reference to Doom 2. It goes on to say the Doom Slayer chooses to enter Hell and kill everything, which is basically what happens in Doom 2, as the player ventures into Hell. The end of Doom 2 brings a hiccup into this theory, however. Here’s how the ending text reads, after you’ve defeated the massive Icon of Sin:

“You’ve done it. The invasion is over. Earth is saved. Hell is a wreck. You wonder where bad folks will go when they die, now. Wiping the sweat from your forehead you begin the long trek back home. Rebuilding Earth ought to be a lot more fun than ruining it was.”

That seems to suggest the character portrayed in Doom and Doom 2 has nothing to do with the Doom Slayer, but...well, ready to go deeper? It’s time to talk about Doom 64.

Years after its original release, Doom was ported to every new platform that game out, and that included the Nintendo 64. When Midway Games picked up the rights, though, it didn’t just convert Doom to Nintendo’s new hardware, it developed a new game that picks up after Doom 2. In Doom 64, Earth has been reclaimed, but demons still linger on Mars. Earth’s government bombs Mars with radiation to knock them all out, and for a moment, it seems to have worked. But the radiation prevented the military’s sensors from tracking an entity with the power to resurrect the dead. The player is sent into Mars to save the world—again. Key to continuing this theory, however, is the ending to Doom 64.

“The blood pours from your eyes as you stand in defiance. As the only marine to endure the slaughter, you decide to remain in hell an ensure no demon ever rises again. The end.”

The end? Maybe not. Though Doom 64 wasn’t developed by id Software, the new Doom makes references to all sorts of Doom lore, including an obscure comic book that became an Internet meme. Anything is possible.  And here’s where the new Doom picks up, per a codex entry:

“Burned by the embers of Armageddon, his soul blistered by the fires of Hell and tainted beyond ascension, he chose the path of perpetual torment. In his ravenous hatred he found no peace; and with boiling blood he scoured the Umbral Plains seeking vengeance against the dark lords who had wronged him. He wore the crown of the Night Sentinels, and those that tasted the bite of his sword named him...the Doom Slayer.”

The game goes onto say that the Doom Slayer began systematically wiping out everything in Hell, becoming so notorious that “scribes carved his name deep in the tablets of Hell across eons, and each battle etched terror in the hearts of the demons.” The notion was that he would “come, as he always had, as he always will, to feast on the blood of the wicked.” You also discover the corpse of the Icon of Sin, the final boss from Doom 2.

The Night Sentinels, a story element introduced later in the game, are a tough one to work out, and the game doesn’t give us clear answers here. They were apparently a group of ancient protectors, part of another world, and one that ultimately gave the Hell dimension great power. The Night Sentinels, wearing a medieval-like armor, drew strength from a set of creatures called the Wraiths. A betrayal allowed Hell to tap into the Wraiths’ power, destroy the Night Sentinels, and subjugate their world. The Doom marine’s armor seems imbued with this same power, but it’s unclear why your armor would look so different—it seems from another age entirely. The game briefly touches on where this armor came from:

“And in his terrible rancor between worlds and through time, the Hell Walker found the wretch who shall not be named, but in his heresy was loyal to the evil cause. The wretch downed the Doom Slayer in a mighty armor, wrought in the forges of Hell, impenetrable and unyielding.”

But why does the armor look decidedly man-made? And how come the player is able to understand and respond to English, which presumably this ancient civilization didn’t speak?

How’d you end up in a sarcophagus, then? As the Doom Slayer worked his way through every layer of hell, a trap was eventually laid for them. “And blinded by his fervor, the lure drew him in. The priests brought down the temple upon the Doom Slayer, and in his defeat entombed him in the cursed sarcophagus. The mark of the Doom Slayer was burned upon his crypt, a warning to all of Hell that the terror within must never be freed. There he lies still, and ever more, in silent suffering.” And that, presumably, is where the new game picks up. There’s a much simpler theory than all of this, of course. It posits that the Doom Slayer, who “wore the crown of the Night Sentinels,” is a soldier that fought the Hell dimension ages ago. A demon became a fan of their work, and helped augment their armor to be more effective against the legions of Hell. (It’s possible, but not clear, the Night Sentinels and Hell itself were technologically advanced. Thus, the new look. Anything symbolic from Earth or the UAC may simply be branding upon discovery.) But let’s say the new Doom really does represent a continuation of what’s come before. What about Doom 3? Do we simply throw away the last Doom that id Software luminaries like programmer John Carmack worked on? Maybe not! Doom 3's storyline involves the UAC finding relics of an ancient civilization, one that had clearly encountered the Hell dimension by dabbling with teleportation. That civilization was ultimately wiped out, though a lone “hero” managed to defeat them. The remnants of Mars relocated to nearby planets, including Earth, to try and start over. That could very easily be the events of another Doom-like event from the past. You can also stumble across a Soul Cube, key to the events of Doom 3, in the new Doom. It could be an easter egg, or fodder for this unifying theory!

It seems possible the Doom marine has been fighting this cyclical battle for ages. Whenever the Hell dimension rises, he’s called upon, which is why the demons chained him up and locked him away. This might explain why one of the new Doom’s antagonists calls you “the only flesh and blood to walk between dimensions, between our world and theirs.”

These are just theories, but who knows. One thing I do know for sure... I love the Doom games and playing them.

Check out the Doom Wiki for more Doom facts and info.

Before I Slumber

Don't be afraid to walk away. There will be other days and new views on the challenges you face. Rest yourself and take in the new day with your head held high.

Tweets from the Last Blockbuster @loneblockbuster: Colleen is making us work a full day on Memorial Day yet she has no problem shutting down the store at 4pm on International Margarita Day.

http://twitter.com/loneblockbuster
(The last Blockbuster in the US south of Alaska located in Bend Oregon)

Before I Slumber

Moral of life... don't worry about it.

Solo: A Star Wars Story (Review)

*This post contains spoilers. Run away like a scared little droid if you haven't seen the movie

Even though this movie didn't get a huge reception with its premiere I still enjoyed it. I loved the building of Han's story and how encompassed some of the story lines from the book series as well as the other Star Wars movies. The humor that has been displayed in the books as well as other Star Wars movies between Han and Chewie was spot on in this film in my opinion. I also loved Warwick Davis reprising a new Star Wars role. There was a nice little Easter egg, (out of the several) that I loved, the Mandalorian armor in Drydon Vos's chamber room. The portion of the film that depicted the Kessal Run was a great portion of Han history I liked seeing brought to the big screen. The scene with Lando and Han playing cards for the Millennium Falcon and then Han flying off with Chewie talking about a big crime boss that he heard of that had a huge job they could go do, (Jabba reference) was a classic as well.

Overall I give this movie a 8 out of 10 stars

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3778644/

Plot

The galaxy is in a state of disorder, with criminal syndicates competing for valuable resources such as hyperfuel. On the shipbuilding world of Corellia, orphaned children are made to steal in order to survive, and a young Han and his lover Qi'ra long to escape the clutches of a local criminal gang. They successfully bribe an Imperial officer who grants them passage on an outgoing transport, but Qi'ra is apprehended by their pursuers before she can board. Han vows to return for her, and with no means of income, joins the Imperial Navy as a flight cadet, with the Imperial recruiting officer dubbing him "Han Solo" in absence of a surname.

Three years later, Han has been expelled from the Imperial Flight Academy for insubordination, and is serving as an infantryman during a battle on the planet Mimban. He encounters a gang of criminals posing as Imperial soldiers led by Tobias Beckett and his crew that consist of his wife Val and a four-armed alien named Rio Daurant. He tries to blackmail them into allowing him to join, but Beckett has him arrested and condemned to battle a "beast" held in captivity. The beast is revealed to be a Wookiee named Chewbacca. Owing to Han's ability to speak Shyriiwook, the two stage a fight for the benefit of their captors and escape after collapsing their cell. A sympathetic Beckett rescues them, and enlists the two for a planned train heist to steal a shipment of the hyperfuel coaxium on the planet Vandor. The marauder Enfys Nest and her crew show up and Rio and Val are killed. They get put into a difficult position when Han, on the ship, is pulling one side while Nest and her crew pull on the other side. Han enrages Beckett when he ditches their shipment, destroying the coaxium.

Beckett reveals he was ordered to steal the shipment for Dryden Vos, leader of the Crimson Dawn criminal syndicate, and he now fears Vos' wrath. Han and Chewbacca volunteer to help him steal another shipment. They travel to Vos' yacht where Han is confused to discover Qi'ra, who confesses that she is a member of Crimson Dawn. Han announces a plan to steal unrefined coaxium from the mines on Kessel. Vos insists on Qi'ra accompanying them. To procure a ship for the heist, Qi'ra introduces the team to Lando Calrissian, an accomplished smuggler and pilot. Han challenges Lando to a game of sabacc, with the wager being Lando's ship, reputed to be the fastest in the galaxy. Lando uses sleight of hand to win but is convinced to join the mission in exchange for a share of the profits. The team boards his ship—the Millennium Falcon—and head for Kessel. After reaching the planet and infiltrating the mine, Lando's droid co-pilot L3-37 instigates a riot. They use the confusion to steal a consignment of unprocessed, volatile coaxium, but L3 is severely damaged and Lando is injured during the escape. Han pilots the ship, knowing that they must make the infamous "Kessel Run" in less than twenty parsecs if they are to reach Vos before the coaxium explodes. Han's prodigious piloting skills allow them to evade an Imperial blockade and they rendezvous with Vos on the planet Savareen, although the Falcon receives severe damage during the journey.
Being confronted by Enfys, who had tracked them from Vandor, Lando abandons the crew on the Falcon, however, the group discover Enfys is not a pirate, like they believed, but instead just trying to stop the criminal syndicates from gaining more power, and trying to rebel against the Empire. Wanting to help Enfys, Han then tries to trick Vos by giving him fake coaxium, while giving the real coaxium to the Cloud Riders, however, Vos surprises the team by knowing of their trap, revealing that Beckett has betrayed them and informed him of Han's plan. Vos then sends all of his soldiers to kill Enfys and the Cloud Riders, however, Han announces that he anticipated Beckett's deception, with the Cloud Riders being decoys, with the actual Enfys killing Vos’ men, while also revealing the “fake” coaxium with them is real. Beckett takes Chewbacca hostage and escapes with the coaxium, betraying Vos. A gunfight between Han, Qi'ra and Vos results in Qi'ra killing Vos. She urges Han to save Chewbacca from Beckett and insists she'll join him shortly. After Han leaves, Qi'ra seals the room.

Han catches up with Beckett, and Chewbacca, and kills Beckett after a stand-off. Han and Chewbacca deliver the coaxium to Enfys, who reveals her plans to use the fuel to aid the rebellion against the Empire. She offers Han the chance to join her but he declines, and Enfys states that some day he may feel more sympathetic to the rebels' cause.
Alone aboard Vos' yacht, Qi'ra contacts his superior, who is revealed to be Maul; she informs him of the mission's failure and assumes Vos' position. Elsewhere Han and Chewbacca track down Lando and Han again challenges him to a sabacc game for possession of the Falcon. Han subtly relieves Lando of the cards hidden in his sleeve and wins the game. Han tells Chewbacca his plan to go to Tatooine, where Beckett told him a gangster is putting together an organization.

Before I Slumber

There is no challenge you can't handle or overcome.

Revisiting The Black Hole (1979)

The Black Hole is a 1979 American space opera film directed by Gary Nelson and produced by Walt Disney Productions. The film stars Maximilian Schell, Robert Forster, Joseph Bottoms, Yvette Mimieux, Anthony Perkins, and Ernest Borgnine, while the voices of the main robot characters are provided by Roddy McDowall and Slim Pickens (both uncredited). The music for the film was composed by John Barry. It was the first film from Walt Disney Productions to receive a PG rating. The film was released on December 18, 1979 in the United Kingdom and on December 21, 1979 in the United States.

Plot

Nearing the end of a long mission exploring deep space, the spacecraft USS Palomino is returning to Earth. The crew consists of Captain Dan Holland, First Officer Lieutenant Charlie Pizer, journalist Harry Booth, ESP-sensitive scientist Dr. Kate McCrae, the expedition's civilian leader Dr. Alex Durant and the diminutive robot V.I.N.CENT ("Vital Information Necessary Centralized").The Palomino crew discovers a black hole in space with a spaceship nearby, somehow defying the hole's massive gravitational pull. The ship is identified as the long-lost USS Cygnus, the ship McCrae's father served aboard when it went missing. Deciding to investigate, the Palomino encounters a mysterious null gravity field surrounding the Cygnus. The Palomino becomes damaged when it drifts away from the Cygnus and into the black hole's intense gravity field, but the ship manages to move back to the Cygnus and finds itself able to dock with it. The Cygnus appears abandoned.

The Palomino crew cautiously boards the Cygnus and soon encounters the ship's commander, Dr. Hans Reinhardt, a brilliant scientist. Aided by a crew of faceless, black-robed android drones and his sinister-looking robot Maximilian, Reinhardt explains that he has lived all alone on the Cygnus for years. After the ship encountered a meteor field and was disabled, he ordered the human crew to return to Earth, but Kate's father chose to remain aboard and has since died. Reinhardt then reveals that he has spent the past 20 years studying the black hole and intends to fly the Cygnus through it. Only Durant believes it is possible and asks to accompany Reinhardt on the trip.
The rest of the Palomino crew grows suspicious of the faceless drones' human-like behavior: Booth sees a robot limping and Holland witnesses a robot funeral and discovers the Cygnus crew's personal items in the ship's living quarters. Old B.O.B. ("BiO-sanitation Battalion"), a battered early-model robot similar to V.I.N.CENT, explains that the faceless drones are in fact the human crew, who mutinied when Reinhardt refused to return to Earth and had been lobotomized and "reprogrammed" by Reinhardt to serve him. McCrae's father had led the mutiny and was killed. Using telepathy, V.I.N.CENT tells Kate the truth about what happened. When Kate tells Durant, he removes the reflective faceplate from a "drone" to reveal the zombie-like face of a crew member. Appalled, Durant tries to flee the bridge with Kate, but Maximilian kills him. Reinhardt takes Kate prisoner, ordering his sentry robots to take her to the ship's hospital bay to be lobotomized.

Just as the process begins, Holland, along with V.I.N.CENT and B.O.B., rescues Kate. Meanwhile, fearing the situation is escalating dangerously, Booth attempts to escape alone in the Palomino. Reinhardt orders the craft shot down, but the weapons fire sends the ship crashing into the Cygnus, destroying its port-side anti-gravity forcefield generator. A meteor storm then destroys the starboard generator. Without its null-gravity bubble, the Cygnus starts to break apart under the black hole's huge gravitational forces.

Reinhardt and the Palomino survivors separately plan their escape aboard a small probe ship used to study the black hole. Reinhardt orders Maximilian to go and prepare the probe ship, but then a large viewscreen falls on Reinhardt, pinning him down. His lobotomized crew stand motionless as he struggles helplessly. Maximilian confronts the others and fatally damages B.O.B. moments before he himself is damaged by V.I.N.CENT and drifts out of the broken ship into the black hole. Holland, Pizer, McCrae and V.I.N.CENT reach the probe ship and launch, only to discover the controls locked onto a flightpath that takes them into the black hole.

In a surreal sequence inside the black hole which resembles Heaven and Hell, Reinhardt becomes merged with Maximilian in a burning, hellish landscape populated by dark-robed spectres resembling the Cygnus drones. Next, a floating, angelic figure with long flowing hair passes through a cathedral-like arched crystal tunnel. The probe ship carrying Holland, Pizer, McCrae and V.I.N.CENT then emerges from a white hole and is last seen flying through space towards a planet near a bright star.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078869/ 

Cast

• Maximilian Schell as Dr. Hans Reinhardt
• Anthony Perkins as Dr. Alex Durant
• Robert Forster as Captain Dan Holland
• Joseph Bottoms as Lieutenant Charlie Pizer
• Yvette Mimieux as Dr. Kate McCrae
• Ernest Borgnine as Harry Booth
• Tom McLoughlin as Captain S.T.A.R. ("Special Troops/Arms Regiment").
• Roddy McDowall as Voice of V.I.N.CENT (uncredited)
• Slim Pickens as Voice of Old B.O.B. (uncredited)

Replacement concept idea for the new Thundercats Cartoon

The reboot of the ThunderCats cartoon was sadly canceled after a single season and with the new re-reboot coming out perhaps they should have looked to Phil Postma's radical samurai-themed redesigns for inspiration. Here's a massive gallery of Postma's ancient Japanese ThunderCats, as well as their nemesis Mumm-Ra. The new campy version, in my opinion, is just so sad and a bashing on the original cartoon series.

Make sure to visit Phil Postma's blog for more of his awesome art at Minion Factory.

Random Writing Prompt

One day, you lose your wallet, and it is found by a mob boss. He figures out that you aren't in such a good place financially, and takes pity on you. So they start anonymously sending cash, clothes, and furniture to you in the mail, eventually, the mob boss sends you a letter too. The letter states that they bought you a house, and it lists and address.

What do you do?

The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air Theories

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is an iconic sitcom and 90's staple and its theme song still inspires impassioned singalongs in bars and cars across the country. No one can stop themselves from joining in when they hear "Now this is a story all about how..." As loved as this show is, many viewers aren't aware of all the Fresh Prince fan theories that cast the show in an entirely different light. The internet is filled with crazy Fresh Prince ramblings that suggests that Will died during the opening credits fight and that the mansion in Bel-Air is heaven. Supposedly, the whole show is actually set in the afterlife, not sunny California. As far fetched as some of these seem watching almost all of the episodes of this show these theories do actually make some logical sense to me.

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Will Got Killed During His "One Little Fight"

What if the "one little fight" that Will gets himself into in West Philadelphia - the one that scared his mother so much she sent him to Bel-Air - was so bad that Will didn't make it out alive? What if he was shot or stabbed instead of being picked up and indelicately spun around? This theoretical fight then becomes the inciting incident of the series that sends Will to the afterlife. 

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Maybe Jazzy Jeff Is Thrown Out The Mansion For A Reason

Jazzy Jeff is frequently and forcibly removed from the mansion by Uncle Phil for generally causing mischief and for hitting on Hilary Banks. Fans suggest that this happens because Jeff is constantly in the hospital for terminal injuries. A doctor always resuscitates him, though, and he is abruptly yanked from heaven and thrown back to the land of the living.

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Bel-Air Is Heaven

What's a better setting for heaven than a huge Bel-Air mansion? Though there is an episode when Will gets shot (some fans think that this is representative of him coming to terms with his death) and an episode when he and Carlton experience racism from police, Will's living in the lap of luxury and he rarely has to deal with anything other than contrived sitcom inconveniences. The greatest support for this theory is the house's white aesthetic - it could easily be described as heavenly.

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 This Is Also Why We Rarely See Will's Parents

 Appearances by Will's parents are few and far between throughout the entirety of the series. Some fans think that because Will is in heaven, the only time his parents show up on the mansion set is when they visit his grave. In the episode Papa's Got a Brand New Excuse, Will's dad, Lou, shows up after a 14-year absence. Perhaps it took him so long because word of Will's death only reached him when it was time for the funeral.

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 Jazzy Jeff Thinks It's Far-Fetched 

The man behind the Fresh Prince's banging tunes and the character of Jazzy Jeff, Jeffrey Townes, talked to the Huffington Post about this fan theory in 2015 and said:  

"It’s just, that’s so far-fetched you just laugh... To see someone take all of that stuff and almost create a whole world around it, you’re kind of like, ‘Wow, it wasn't that deep, but that’s amazing that their brain took it there.” 

He's obviously a little skeptical about whether or not the show is a big metaphor for heaven but maybe that's because his character was being kicked out of it constantly. 

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There Are Clues In The Lyrics 

Some of the lyrics in the full-length version of the show's theme could be interpreted as supporting this theory. If you assume that Will had been hospitalized because of a grievous injury during his "one little fight" then you can also assume he had to be put in a coma. Maybe his mother is coming to terms with pulling the plug. Consider that scenario with these lyrics:  

I begged and pleaded with her day after day
But she packed my suitcase and sent me on my way
She gave me a kiss and then she gave me my ticket
Put my Walkman on and said I might as well kick it 

It may be a reach, but one could read that as the mother sending Will to heaven. Now check out the next verse: 

First class yo this is bad
Drinkin' orange juice out of a champagne glass
Is this what the people of Bel-Air live like
Hmmm this might be all right
But wait I hear they're prissy, bourgeois, and all that
Is this the type of place that they just send this cool cat?
I don't think so I'll see when I get there
I hope they're prepared for the prince of Bel-Air 

These lyrics could definitely be read as Will's internal conflict about whether he's worthy of admittance to heaven. He might not be sure that he'll fit in with all the fancy-pants good folks. Regardless, he makes it to the cab. 

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The Taxi Driver Is God 

Many fans think the taxi driver that takes Will to Bel-Air in a "rare" cab is God. The cabby escorts the young Philly native to the pearly gates of Uncle Phil's Bel-Air mansion - which has been already established as heaven.

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Boyz II Men Are Truly Angelic In The Fresh Prince
In one of the Fresh Prince's Christmas episodes, "'Twas the Night Before Christening," Will promises the family he can get Boyz II Men to perform at Nicky's christening. In line with this (surprisingly) used sitcom trope, Will is about to finally admit defeat as the popular R&B group miraculously waltzes through the church doors perfectly harmonizing "Silent Night."

It always seems a bit far-fetched when this sort of thing occurs in other sitcoms, but if the "Will is actually in Heaven" theory is to be believed, then Boyz II Men would be an appropriate choir of angels. Not to mention, it would lend some credence to this ridiculous, albeit fun, comedic trope.

Today by Chuck

Before I Slumber

Take time to slow down and enjoy beauty in the simplest of things.

Tweets from the Last Blockbuster @loneblockbuster: Colleen just ran outside and broke a car's window because there was a baby inside but it turned out the car was on and the driver was in there too.

http://twitter.com/loneblockbuster
(The last Blockbuster in the US south of Alaska located in Bend Oregon)

Today by Chuck

Before I Slumber

Do things for her not because you have to, but because you want to. Open her door for her, hold her hand, surprise her with thing like doing house work so she doesn't have to. Be there for her, support her, make her feel special. Spoil her not because you have to, but because you love her.

Splinter words of wisdom

Today by Chuck

Before I Slumber

Don't let anyone tell you you're anything but super! Believe in yourself and others will follow.

Today by Chuck

Before I Slumber

We were made for each other so let's enjoy every minute of it! A subtle dedication to my lovely wife Saun.

Tweets from the Last Blockbuster @loneblockbuster: We're happy to announce we're officially doing away with all late fees on select educational video games rented Monday and Tuesday.

http://twitter.com/loneblockbuster
(The last Blockbuster in the US south of Alaska located in Bend Oregon)

Today by Chuck

Before I Slumber

Don't be afraid to create your own reality. It's yours, do with it what you will.

Before I Slumber

Every once and a while we all need a reality check. It's the weekend don't let things get you all worked up.

I'm gonna make a mix tape!

This evening I decided to tinker around with a GE 3-5027 personal portable recorder and cassette player I picked up a while back at a thrift shop. It didn't work so I decided to open it up and see what work it may need. I was assuming possibly just a belt, but there was a little more than that wrong with it. After a bit of repair work, a couple replaced parts, and 2 replaced belts (with nice rubber bands) it now works great again. Now I can record a awesome mix tape old school style on some vintage cassette tapes (still sealed in the original package that my dad supplied me) for my sweetie Saun!

Puppet Master: Axis Termination

Just got ahold of a copy of this gem to add to my Puppet Master collection. Now just to wait for the Littlest Reich to come out later this year!


Puppet Master: Axis Termination is a 2017 Puppet Master movie which continues where Puppet Master: Axis Rising left off. It was the last of the Axis movies which was announced by Charles Band on September 2015. The movie began filming in September 2016 and was directed by Charles Band.

Timeline: This film falls in the Puppet Mater timeline right before the original 1989 Puppet Master movie.

Plot:

In PUPPET MASTER XI – AXIS TERMINATION, the final chapter of the AXIS Saga, we find our heroic band of lethal puppets—BLADE, PINHEAD, TUNNELER, JESTER, SIX SHOOTER and LEECH WOMAN joining forces with a secret team of Allied Operatives, all masters of psychic powers, as they face off together against a new bunch of evil Nazi adversaries and their collection of vicious Axis Puppets in a showdown that will decide the future of the free world!

Quick Movie Facts

• Last of the Axis trilogy (Evil, Rising, Termination)
• Filming started on September 12th, 2016.
• This movie will be the first in the series to be made via crowdfunding.
• Charles Band teamed up with the El Rey Network TV station to run a contest where the winner could star in the movie and be killed by the puppets also fans could pay via crowdfunding to get a small role in the movie.
• Six-Shooter wasn't originally in the script but added in after they had gotten more donations.
• Blade has a syringe hand in this movie, as a tribute to the Re-Animator films.
• Charles Band promised that this would be the bloodiest/goriest entry in the franchise.
• Kip Canyon and Jean Louise O'Sullivan reprise their roles as Danny & Beth from 'Axis Rising'.
• Torch was set to be in this movie which would have been his first appearance since Puppet Master 5, however Charles Band decided to cut him from the final movie and remove him from the poster as he could not find a way to work him into the story.
• This is the first time Jester will use his shocked facial expression since Puppet Master 5.
• This is the first time Blade will have his vocal noises since Retro Puppet Master

Tweets from the Last Blockbuster @loneblockbuster: Who should be the next James Bond?

http://twitter.com/loneblockbuster
(The last Blockbuster in the US south of Alaska located in Bend Oregon)

Talk of Rambo V

I am looking forward to this possible upcoming instalment into the Rambo story.

Sylvester Stallone is attached to reprise his role as former Green Beret John Rambo in Rambo V, which Millennium Media will bring to Cannes this week.

Production on the fifth instalment in the 36-year franchise that famously launched with First Blood in 1982 is scheduled for a September 1 start and will encompass London, Bulgaria, and the Canary Islands.

Millennium Media is financing Rambo V and handles worldwide sales rights. Avi Lerner and Kevin King serve as producers and Matt Cirulnick wrote the screenplay. A director will be announced shortly.

Stallone’s return to action in the long-running series finds him living in a ranch in Arizona, deeply troubled and wrestling with PTSD as he picks up casual work wherever he can.

When long-time family friend and estate manager Maria informs Rambo that her grand-daughter has gone missing after crossing into Mexico for a party, he sets off with her to find the youngster.

What ensues is a violent descent into hell as Rambo uncovers a sex-trafficking ring. He teams up with a journalist whose half-sister has also been kidnapped and must deploy all his skills to save the girls and bring down a vicious crime lord.

Today by Chuck

Before I Slumber

Get some rest the weekend is almost upon you.