Recently, the insightful hosts over at Geek Girl Soup had a recap of the most recent season of True Blood, HBO’s Vampire Drama. Because they’re great over at GGS they requested input from their listeners, and because they are awesome, they posted my email on their blog entry that accompanies their podcasts. (You should just go to http://www.geekgirlsoup.com and check them out. I really enjoy their TV coverage but particularly their big movie season reviews and spotlights.)I decided that since I’d already gone to the trouble of sending a huge email to them about the season, I’d just post it here to for an easy blog entry. I’m lazy like that. And here it is:
Thoughts on the True Blood Finale (More or Less)
Posted: September 10, 2013 by patricksponaugle in TVTags: Review, Season Finale, Television, True Blood, Vampire, Vampires
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In Defense of Ned Stark
Posted: September 4, 2013 by patricksponaugle in Game of Thrones, Opinion, TVTags: Game of Thrones, King Robert, Ned, Ned Stark, Opinion, Robert, Sardaukar, Summer Island, TV, World of A Song of Ice and Fire
(Warning, SPOILERS for the first book in a well known series that’s been out for a long while, and has been made into a cable television event.)
People love to bash on Lord Eddard “Ned” Stark. I get that. But I don’t have to stand around like Barristan Selmy and let it happen. Let me tell you a story…
Once upon a time, there was a nobleman who lived with his loving family and loyal retainers in their ancestral seat of power. Things were good.
The World’s End Hasn’t Ended (my review, I mean)
Posted: September 2, 2013 by patricksponaugle in Movie ReviewTags: Movie Review, The World's End
Well, this will be less of a review than a continuation of my discussing the movie. In a rambly fashion.
Recently I posted a review of the Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Edgar Wright movie The World’s End. As I recall, I liked it and said all you people should go see it.
The End.
Oh! But I had more!
I wanted to bring up a few points about the movie that struck me, and that’s what I’m going to do. This will be spoilery, so be warned. It won’t be too long.
The World’s End Movie Review
Posted: September 1, 2013 by patricksponaugle in Movie ReviewTags: Movie Review
I’m a fan of Simon Pegg, although I admit to have not seen much of his work. Yes, I’ve seen him as Scotty in the new interpretation of Star Trek, and in Mission Impossible, and I was delighted to have seen Shaun of the Dead, but I missed Hot Fuzz, Spaced, Paul, and even Band of Brothers.
But I do know Pegg was the visual inspiration for Wee Hughie in “The Boys.” (Film dudes, if you don’t know what I’m talking about, look it up.)
Anyway, when I saw that Simon Pegg was going to be in a movie with his frequent collaborator Nick Frost (who, again, I’ve only seen in Shaun of the Dead), along with Martin Freeman (who I really like), I was already on board.
Enough backstory about me.
Tonight my wife and I had a chance to go see The World’s End at our local theater, and we did not leave disappointed. We had a really great time.
Stupid People Are Allowed to Vote? That’s Unpossible!
Posted: August 30, 2013 by patricksponaugle in OpinionTags: Critical thinking, Facebook, IQ, Opinion, Stupid, Voting
Recently, one of my buddies on Facebook posted this status:
Whenever I see a post about “killing all the stupid people”, my first thought is, “we are all somebody’s ‘stupid people’.”
I got what he was getting at. Don’t be so smug, smarty-pants. After all, it’s natural for most people to consider themselves above average intelligence, and we know that’s mathematically impossible. (It is, right?)
Elysium Review
Posted: August 29, 2013 by patricksponaugle in Movie ReviewTags: Cyberpunk, District 9, Elysium, I Robot, Judge Dredd, Matt Damon, Metropolis, Starship Troopers
This is the last of my Facebook movie reviews. Anything after this will be premiered here, I guess. I’m sure this will one day be considered an event in future blog historians, who might be writing a dissertation in all things Sponaugle.
This is a long review. I apologize in advance.
Movie Review of ELYSIUM by Pat Sponaugle (this guy)
Recently, my wife and I managed to see Elysium, written and directed by Neil Blomkamp, the District 9 guy.
I really enjoyed District 9. In fact, I think I’ve only met one person who didn’t, and his reasoning behind why he didn’t like it was, in my opinion, full of asshattedness. If that is a word.
But, I’m here to talk about Elysium (although, as is my way, I’ll be talking about a lot of stuff too.)
Enter the Dragon (Part Two)
Posted: August 29, 2013 by patricksponaugle in Movie ReviewTags: Bruce Lee, Enter the Dragon, Human Trafficking, Jim Kelly, John Saxon, Kung Fu, Martial Arts, Martial Arts Tournament, Shang Chi, Social Justice
Part Two of my Enter the Dragon review, originally posted on Facebook in July. This is the post-recap discussion where I talk, for perhaps too long, about my reactions to the movie.
ENTER THE DRAGON Review, by Pat Sponaugle (that would be moi)
(PART TWO – In PART ONE, I basically wrote a (long) recap of the 1973 martial arts movie with a few observations and several promises of “I’ll Talk More About This Later.” Well, now it’s later.)
Okay, I owe the Internet some thoughts on Enter the Dragon as a movie, now that I’ve recapped it. I’ve already enthusiastically urged everyone to see it, so if I begin to criticize the movie, it’s from a position of crazy unconditional co-dependent Love.
Enter the Dragon (Part One)
Posted: August 29, 2013 by patricksponaugle in Movie ReviewTags: Bruce Lee, Classic Martial Arts, Enter the Dragon, Jim Kelly, John Saxon, Kung Fu, Martial Arts
Once again, I’m pulling over a movie review that I made in Facebook this July (July of 2013).
My wife and daughter had gone up to Boston for a few days. This gave me a chance to watch a quality action movie, and I was moved to post observations. Like World War Z, it took two postings over two nights, below is the (mostly) unedited review from Facebook.
World War Z Review, (Part Two)
Posted: August 28, 2013 by patricksponaugle in Movie ReviewTags: Brad Pitt, Fast Zombies, I Am Legend, Peter Capaldi, Vampires, Will Smith, World War Z, Zombies
This is the second part of my extended World War Z review, first seen back in July on my Facebook feed.
I have a few more movie reviews to be brought over in this fashion, thank you for your indulgence.
Even More of a Review for World War Z, by Pat Sponaugle (again, that’s me.)
I realized that I hadn’t really covered some of the SPOILERY topics of the movie that I kind of touched on. So I’ll do it here. Oh, and just to be warned, I’m going to be talking about I AM LEGEND, the book and the movie. I have my reasons.
Read at your own risk because I danced around topics in my previous review. Rather than dancing with the topics, I’m going to smooch them. Gross!
World War Z (Part One)
Posted: August 28, 2013 by patricksponaugle in Movie ReviewTags: Brad Pitt, Brad Pitt's Hair, Fast Zombies, World War Z, Zombies
Over the summer, my wife and daughter went up to Hershey Park (an amusement park in the state of Pennsylvania) to see One Direction in concert. So what does that have to do with zombies?
Well, it freed me up to go see an action movie about zombies: World War Z. I enjoyed the movie, so much that I wrote a review on Facebook (since I didn’t have this blog at the time.) It was a pretty long review, plus observations on book to movie adaptations and Richard Matheson’s excellent vampire novel I Am Legend. The review was so long, it took me two nights (and two Facebook postings) to cover WWZ.
Below is my original WWZ review from July 5th, 2013, part one. (And here is Part two.)
(In the future, I hope my review/recaps/observations will be better organized. But don’t hold your breath.)
World War Z Review, by Pat Sponaugle (that would be me.)
I’ll point out that I have no reasonable credentials as a movie reviewer, except that I actually saw the movie.
I’m going to ramble a bit and be non-spoilery, then I will talk about the book that the movie’s name comes from, and then I will actually bring up some spoilery bits about the movie. Be warned. I’ll give a heads up when I get to those parts.
By the way, if a zombie outbreak ever happens, I’d want it to be the movie WWZ type of outbreak, and not a Walking Dead kind of outbreak. If either happened, you’d all be welcomed to the Sponaugle Fortress of Solitude in West Virginia. That’s right, I invited you all.
I Can't Possibly Be Wrong All the Time 