Also belated, but I spent Christmas away from the computer and the day after at work (retail and all )
Merry Christmas and hope everyone had a safe and fun holiday. Happy New Year  as well

A possible misquote from Robert Heinlein.

Hip, hip... (say Hooray)
hip, hip...(say Hooray)
Good job, Teague.

*runs to listen*'

Edit: Quick question, Teague- what software do you use to record and compile the episodes?

Maybe, but it really isn't Christmas without TSO

I don't, really...wait

Actually, it amazes me the amount of shootings that have been happening lately, at least in the United States of America. I heard an interesting talking point about the whole "blame the media" bit is the attitude of Hollywood (speaking broadly, not anyone in particular here) and the cheapness of life in many movies. The argument was made that death no longer seems real to many young people, at least as presented in the media, as the actors are still fine at the end, thus blurring the line between fantasy death and real death.

Its an odd argument, but maybe movies have gone too far with wanting high body counts to create a sense of stakes.

/discuss

See, I will honestly never understand this and someone please help me to understand it. Why do things to have this chilling, dark, and R rating to have weight? What is it about torture devices that lend so much more to the story?
Maybe I'm too soft (I'll admit to that) but this movie is not the same as LOTR. The world is not at stake, evil is not about to unleash across Middle Earth in the same way Sauron was the threat in LOTR. The Hobbit is a lighter journey-why does it have have the same dark tones as LOTR?

(Apologies for spelling errors- had an 8 month old trying to help)

Granted, but you would miss out on Hug Weaving, which I'm not one to do

I think knowing a little more about the tesseract helps too.

I'm rather amused by the skepticism about this film. It seems that most people are in a wait and see mode than an excited mode.

I get that the first film was not everyone's cup of Earl Grey, but I mean, wow...not sure what to make of it all.

Yeah, I normally like Confused Matthew (his Star Wars prequel reviews are pretty interesting) but his Avengers comments just were a rant.

I mean, I get not liking it, or not liking parts of it, but not even watching Captain America before hand and then not caring, doesnt bode well for a movie review.

The "What's Wrong with..." video reminds me of the "Sins of Spiderman" video-nitpicks that are not really nitpicks so much as just complaints for the sake of complaining.

I'll agree with that, given that the eagles are kind of an enigma within the LOTR films. Given most people's reaction to them, I think Tom Bombadil would have been a huge mistake.

I for one, found Radagast's hovel and interesting hodgepodge, with the spiders reflecting the evil that was coming in to the world. The fact that they ran away may have been due to Radagast's use of his power to heal the hedgehog. He clearly is powerful enough to withstand a Nazgul so the spiders may have sensed his power and fled.

Bilbo probably wasn't thinking about the how of getting back-just that he wanted to get back. Thorin's rejection of him was probably abrupt due to the conflict within himself about whether or not Bilbo was worth keeping around. And Bilbo nearly proved him right.

Thorin wasn't dead. I kept expecting him to stab the Orc or Azog. So, Gandalf didn't strike me as any more a Necromancer than Aragorn in Return of the King.

Eagles-oh, why did you do that? They're not Gandalf's pets but I was waiting, and still am, for Trey's comments. I withhold them for now