Because The Undertaker has a bad-ass gimmick.

Drago is the roided-up Russian. Nobody has yet to surpass Taker, Rusev has already surpassed Drago.

Lana is also more ravishing than Ludmilla.

I will give Drago this - he did draw an impressive buyrate.

He's a fucking zombie walking around with a borderline albino chubby guy who's most known catchphrase sounds like it comes from some fetish porn video. OHHH YESSSS. Not that badass.

Drago was the epitome of Russia in a time where the Cold War mattered. You don't get any more heel heat than that , especially after killing an American in the ring. I mean literally killing him. Everyone The Undertaker ever buried came back. You know who didn't come back? Apollo fucking Creed. That's how you book a fucking casket match.

Rusev isn't even Russian. He's Bulgarian. He's an imposter and not fit for this conversation.

I thought your opening line was about Drago for a second because he moved like a zombie in the ring. Yes, The Undertaker gimmick can be under-sold but the fact that people buy it and are willing to travel all across the world to see him wrestle in his 50s against other 50 year olds is a testament to how bad-ass he is.

Drago being a product of cheap heat is a minus in our book and exposes the feud for what it really is.

Mindless propaganda.

Now I'm still going to watch Adonis Creed take on Viktor Drago, but that's only because of the respect I have for Apollo. If Adonis decides after this he's going to take on a Saudi Prince, I'm done with him for good.

I'm in the right age group for Harry Potter. I grew up with the books, I was obsessed with the books, and I faithfully watched each Harry Potter movie with my mother the week it came out. It's a trend that continued with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

Talking as my near 30-year old self, the Harry Potter films aren't great films, but they absolutely succeed in bringing the wizarding universe to life and conveying JK Rowling's increasingly intricate and dark story. Hogwarts school and its surroundings is one of the greatest film locations/sets committed to screen. I especially like how the first two Harry Potter films mirror the books in that they are basic and clearly aimed at a younger audience, while the later films are more teenage-oriented, just as the books were.

Unsurprisingly, the best acting performances belong to the older members of the cast. Alan Rickman is the star of the series. He absolutely nails every aspect of Severus Snape, the greatest character in the entire series. He plays a reprehensible villain to a tee but is still completely convincing as a tragic hero as is revealed in the final scenes of the final film. Maggie Smith is incredible as McGonangall. Richard Harris was an amazing Dumbledore, and was faithfully and competently followed by Michael Gambon. I wouldn't say the three main stars put on great acting performances besides the odd scene here and there, but they were good enough. Of the younger members of the cast, Tom Felton's Draco Malfoy in Half-Blood Prince is one of the best acting jobs of the series.

Don't try to bury Harry Potter by sneaking him in while people are still Rocky ranting!

I'm doing my damnedest to try to get Wife to write and post her love letter to the Harry Potter franchise. It's probably her absolute favorite thing after cats.

Oct 25, 2018 16:28:55 GMT 🤯 said:

Don't try to bury Harry Potter by sneaking him in while people are still Rocky ranting!

I'm doing my damnedest to try to get Wife to write and post her love letter to the Harry Potter franchise. It's probably her absolute favorite thing after cats.

Tell her Emperor will be very happy if she shares her Harry Potter love letter. I'll even rank it out of ten. If she wants. Or maybe if she doesn't want. You know what, scratch the rank.

Aww I didn't get a notification for tagging myself. I don't count

How were you introduced to HP, Emp? My Grade 4 Class dedicated an entire term to HP where we'd read the book, decorate the classroom like it's Halloween, get dressed up on occasion and just embrace the fictional world. It was inescapable and thinking back, probably an overt marketing ploy by the publishers/Warner Bros. to get us into the books. It succeeded as I picked up the first two books pronto and was there at launch for Prisoner of Azkaban.

Let's talk about those movies.

Philosopher Stone - The school organized an excursion on opening day in the cheapest theatre to see it. I was really disappointed with the family film approach to it and thought the series struggled to translate to the big screen. It felt like they tried to fit everything in and a lot of important scenes felt rushed. I was impressed with the cast and the music score, but it just wasn't for me.

Chambers of Secrets - Maybe it's because I never got around to reading the book, but I loved this. Since it no longer had the task of introducing the world, it spent more time on the plot and fleshing out all the characters. I was also surprised at how well Dobby was written. He was a far more tolerable version of Jar Jar Binks. I saw this again a few days later with the family and they all loved it. It started a tradition with my mum and I that no matter how busy we were, we'd always find time to go to the theartres to see the HP movies.

Prisoner of Azkaban - Had mixed feelings of Cuaron taking over. I was used to Columbus' vision of Hogwarts and the grittier take on Hogwarts and casual clothes took me out of the world. However, I thought Cuaron did a good job of translating the book into a movie and I was as captivated by the movie as I was when I read the book. Saw this three times in theatres and for a time was a go-to DVD. It's my favourite book and movie of the entire franchise.

Goblet of Fire/Order of the Phoenix/Half-Blood Prince - I enjoyed moments from each, but this was when it became obvious that the books were becoming too difficult to translate onto the screen. So many sections had to make way for new original scenes and interpretations to help Frankenstein the movies into a reasonable run-time. They were all solid movies, but they all run together for me.

Deathly Hallows Part I and Part II - Originally this seemed like a greedy ploy by Warner Bros to extend the franchise further, but upon seeing it, they made the right call. They sort of hit that sweet spot where they could include a bunch of scenes that work better on film, and set-pieces from the book that could have been condensed or altered considerably. Whatever problems I have with the movie originate from the book and they absolutely nailed a few scenes. I won't get into specifics, but this was right up there with Toy Story 3 as far as emotions go.

Haven't bothered with the spin-off series yet. I haven't thought about HP since I saw Deathly Hallows Part 2 in theatres.

Oct 25, 2018 16:30:28 GMT Emperor said:

Oct 25, 2018 16:28:55 GMT 🤯 said:

Don't try to bury Harry Potter by sneaking him in while people are still Rocky ranting!

I'm doing my damnedest to try to get Wife to write and post her love letter to the Harry Potter franchise. It's probably her absolute favorite thing after cats.

Tell her Emperor will be very happy if she shares her Harry Potter love letter. I'll even rank it out of ten. If she wants. Or maybe if she doesn't want. You know what, scratch the rank.

Wife says she requires more demand than just Emp and me apparently to be bothered with posting.

UT, help! Rally the troops!

You are discouraging young Harry Potter fans all over the world from showing their love of Wizardry and Harry Potter! Don’t discourage a whole generation of young women Wife!

Nobody wants to see that love letter. Because of people like Wife, Emma Watson had a career so rather than celebrate her fandom I am SHAMING it.

Oct 25, 2018 20:28:57 GMT Ness said:

Nobody wants to see that love letter. Because of people like Wife, Emma Watson had a career so rather than celebrate her fandom I am SHAMING it.

What the hell, man? Just...what the hell?

The first 3 Harry Potters were money, 4 was disappointing. Haven't seen any of the others.

Oct 25, 2018 21:25:12 GMT thereallt said:

The first 3 Harry Potters were money, 4 was disappointing. Haven't seen any of the others.

You're missing out on 5. It and 3 are tied for my favorites.

Still working on Wife.

Also, she's gonna be so hurt by that, Ness; you're one of her favorite PW posters. Seeing you rag on her/Emma "Hermione Granger" Watson/Harry Potter is gonna potentially set the Vendetta monster upon you.

Solid enough franchise, would have ranked it highly, but don't quite love it. First 3 were great, a bit hit and miss after that, but nothing terrible.

Oct 26, 2018 0:59:41 GMT 🤯 said:

Oct 25, 2018 21:25:12 GMT thereallt said:

The first 3 Harry Potters were money, 4 was disappointing. Haven't seen any of the others.

You're missing out on 5. It and 3 are tied for my favorites.

Still working on Wife .

Also, she's gonna be so hurt by that, Ness ; you're one of her favorite PW posters. Seeing you rag on her/Emma "Hermione Granger" Watson/Harry Potter is gonna potentially set the Vendetta monster upon you.

Now I'm starting to wonder how many of those likes come from [][] himself or if it's through the wife. Maybe that's why it happens so often since they're feeding two people with those endorphins.

I only watched the movies. By time the first Hallows film came out I was kinda burnt out. I mostly blame that because I didn't get into the franchise until Blood Prince was fresh in theatres, so I ended up binging the movies up to that point. Because of that I never got around to watching either of the penultimate. Oddly enough the same thing happened with Twilight...

Oct 25, 2018 17:42:34 GMT Big Pete said:

How were you introduced to HP, Emp?

I don't know. I was 8 years old when the first book came out. Somehow I got the book and that was that. I assume it was hyped in England and my parents got it for me, but I honestly don't know.

Oct 26, 2018 8:47:27 GMT Ness said:

Oct 26, 2018 0:59:41 GMT 🤯 said:

You're missing out on 5. It and 3 are tied for my favorites.

Still working on Wife .

Also, she's gonna be so hurt by that, Ness ; you're one of her favorite PW posters. Seeing you rag on her/Emma "Hermione Granger" Watson/Harry Potter is gonna potentially set the Vendetta monster upon you.

Now I'm starting to wonder how many of those likes come from [][] himself or if it's through the wife. Maybe that's why it happens so often since they're feeding two people with those endorphins.

I only watched the movies. By time the first Hallows film came out I was kinda burnt out. I mostly blame that because I didn't get into the franchise until Blood Prince was fresh in theatres, so I ended up binging the movies up to that point. Because of that I never got around to watching either of the penultimate. Oddly enough the same thing happened with Twilight...

You mean the likes on your posts?

From my account, they're all he brudda.

Regardless of where Wife ends up on you, I'll always still dig you.

As far as the question going around of how folks got into HP in the first place, I only got into them by proxy via Wife.

In fact, prior to her, I actually kinda actively hated HP. Despite having never seen or read any of it. I think it was partly due to spite in reaction to all the over-hype, which is my general default setting anyway.

2. The Star Wars Franchise 

Movies 

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope 

Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back 

Star Wars Episode VI: The Return of the Jedi 

Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace 

Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones 

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith 

Star Wars: The Force Awakens 

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story 

Star Wars: The Last Jedi 

Solo: A Star Wars Story 

Notable Actors 

Mark Hamill 

Harrison Ford 

Carrie Fisher 

Ewan McGregor 

Natalie Portman 

Critical Highs 

IMDB - The Empire Strikes Back (8.8)

RT Critics - The Empire Strikes Back (95%)

RT Audiences - The Empire Strikes Back (97%)

Critical Lows 

IMDB - The Phantom Menace (6.5)

RT Critics - The Phantom Menace (55%)

RT Audiences - The Last Jedi (45%)

Box Office 

Total Gross:  $4,564,018,135 (Including Rereleases)

Average Gross: $240,211,481  (Including RR)

Box Office High (Unadjusted)

The Force Awakens ($936,662,225)

Box Office High (Adjusted)

A New Hope ($1,304,588,900)

Box Office Low (Unadjusted)

The Empire Strikes Back ($209,398,025)

Box Office Low (Adjusted)

Solo: A Star Wars Story ($208,831,000)

First and foremost - Fuck Star Wars. I'm so glad it didn't get the top spot.

I do have a few questions that peaked my interest though because there were some interesting numbers.

1. How is their such a HUGE difference in the critics and audience score for The Last Jedi? The Critics loved the shit out of it while the audiences hated it - rarely do you see the discrepancy that way around.

2. Solo was an absolute bomb? Like comparitively to the rest of the franchise - how is that the case in 2018? It barely outearned Empire Strikes Back before inflation. That's bananas. It also made less than a rerelease of the original.

I appreciate Star Wars and I fully enjoy 4 of the first 6 but I'm not all nuts about them and have no urgency to see these latest films. Too inconsistent and I have to be in just the right mood to want to watch them.

1. How is their such a HUGE difference in the critics and audience score for The Last Jedi? The Critics loved the shit out of it while the audiences hated it - rarely do you see the discrepancy that way around.

AS A stand alone film (which is how the critics rated it) The Last Jedi isn't bad at all. It's wonderfully shot and produced, and Mark Hamil's performance is a work of art. There are some very silly scenes and plot points, but that is par for the course for Star Wars.


The problem is that Last Jedi completely goatfucks the existing canon of Star Wars. Completely and utterly. ESPECIALLY the character of Luke Skywalker. Fans (including myself) did not appreciate that in the least. Frankly it was rather insulting.
  

Anyway, Star Wars was my #2 ranked franchise.   The first 3 films are legendary, arguably the greatest trilogy ever done (with Toy Story being it's only serious competitor)  That was enough for me. Add in Clone Wars, Rebels, and all of the various games and stories the franchise produced and it's a no brainer.

Oct 26, 2018 17:25:47 GMT thereallt said:

1. How is their such a HUGE difference in the critics and audience score for The Last Jedi? The Critics loved the shit out of it while the audiences hated it - rarely do you see the discrepancy that way around.

AS A stand alone film (which is how the critics rated it) The Last Jedi isn't bad at all. It's wonderfully shot and produced, and Mark Hamil's performance is a work of art. There are some very silly scenes and plot points, but that is par for the course for Star Wars.


The problem is that Last Jedi completely goatfucks the existing canon of Star Wars. Completely and utterly. ESPECIALLY the character of Luke Skywalker. Fans (including myself) did not appreciate that in the least. Frankly it was rather insulting.
  

Anyway, Star Wars was my #2 ranked franchise.   The first 3 films are legendary, arguably the greatest trilogy ever done (with Toy Story being it's only serious competitor)  That was enough for me. Add in Clone Wars, Rebels, and all of the various games and stories the franchise produced and it's a no brainer.

How so for the bolded part?

I watched the Last Jedi on a whim, and actually thought it was solid. For sure one of the better Star Wars films.

Thought the same about Rogue One. It might even be my favorite of the non Original Trilogy.

The original trilogy is clearly the best. New Hope is probably my favorite of those.

Also, I feel like the only person in existence who didn't hate on Jar Jar Binks or pod racing.

I fucking HATE Hayden Christensen. He can go fuck sand. Arguably the worst part of the second and third old new trilogy.

How so for the bolded part?

LOL where do we start?


Luke, THE VERY SAME LUKE that redeemed his own father DARTH FRIGGIN VADER at the very risk of his own life actually gets it in his head to kill HIS OWN NEPHEW just because he sees a sliver of the dark side in him. HIS OWN FRIGGIN NEPHEW. If Luke never gave up on Darth Vader there is no way in hell he would give up on his nephew either.


Then after said nephew runs off Luke runs away like a coward and essentially gives up on everyone and everything. The complete opposite of the Luke Skywalker we've known for the first 3 films. The complete opposite of the Luke Skywalker that left his training with Yoda on Dagobah because he sensed his friends were in trouble.

Then to add insult to injury Luke - A JEDI MASTER MIND YOU gets his ass handed to him by a teenage girl that's been force sensitive for about a year and has ZERO training whatsoever.

The question isn't how Last Jedi fucks up established Star Wars canon, but just how BADLY it fucks established Star Wars canon.   There is a reason many of the Star Wars faithful refer to the director of this film as "Ruin" Johnson.   It's a shame too  because I really enjoyed his work on Looper.

Concerning Hayden Christensen I found him insufferable in Attack of the Clones.    Revenge of the Sith his body language and presence was pitch perfect but every time he opened his mouth I cringed.   I gave him a bit of a pass on that though because he INSISTED on wearing the Vader costume in the end, which I thought was awesome.  

Phantom Menace is the only one I'd call flat out bad, and even that had it's moments. If only Anakin had been better cast, the next two prequels were solid, Revenge of the Sith I'd call downright fantastic if not for he and Portman at their absolute worst. Original trilogy at all most great. I enjoyed TFA and TLJ well enough. Rogue One was actually one of my favorites. Haven't seen Solo.

I'd only rate them in the middle of the pack in general, I enjoy the concepts more than the overall films, son absolutely great characters.

I don’t like the original trilogy much, and I didn’t even try the prequels... but I like both of the movies in the new Star Wars trilogy. Part of that is being a JJ Abrams mark, as he can do little wrong for me, but Johnson’s film is also quite good (well it’d be better if there were no casino voyage, but alas)

1. Toy Story Franchise 

Movies 

Toy Story 

Toy Story 2 

Toy Story 3 

Critical Actors 

Tom Hanks 

Tim Allen 

Kelsey Grammar 

Ned Beatty 

Joan Cusack 

Critical Highs 

IMDB - Toy Story/Toy Story 3 (8.3)

RT Critics - Toy Story/Toy Story 2 (100%)

RT Audiences - Toy Story (92%)

Critical Lows 

IMDB - Toy Story 2 (7.9)

RT Critics - Toy Story 3 (99%)

RT Audiences Toy Story 2 (86%)

Box Office 

Total Gross: $852,653,000 

Average Gross: $284,217,666 

No shocker for #1 , as the one thing PW can almost always agree on is that the Toy Story trilogy is amazing and it's going to win pretty much any countdown it's eligible for. There isn't a ton to be said that already hasn't been , as this has deservingly come up quite a bit .... it's an amazing franchise without a bad movie in the bunch. The worst Toy Story (#2 IMO) is better than almost any other movie in any franchise I think...

I really can't wait for the fourth to come up , that will be an immediate theatre trip for me. I'm hoping they don't mess up the perfect trilogy. I have faith in Pixar and this franchise that they won't.

Happy but not surprised at that result. At least Star Wars didn't win.

1. Toy Story
2. Jason Bourne
3. View Askewniverse
4. The Avengers
5. Ringu/The Ring
6. Harry Potter
7. Thor
8. Paranormal Activity
9. Terminator
10. The Conjuring

A rare occasion that my #1 agrees with PW's #1. The factor that put it over most of the other franchises was consistency. Toy Story 2 is the worst of the series, but it's still a great film and a lot better than the worst movie of other franchises.

Toy Story not only launched the Toy Story franchine but the entire Pixar franchise, and arguably all CGI franchises.