I was dropping in to see how we're all doing and

I see we're all on the same page.


Hang in there, fellas. We'll get through this... maybe by the skin of our teeth, but we'll survive.

We?re fucked. That?s it. Game fucking over.

Every nightmare comes to an end sooner or later. It's bad. It'll get worse.

Do what you will, but I'm not giving up.

Denial isn?t just a river in Egypt.

But drowning yourself in sorrow won't change anything or help yourself. And in case y'all haven't heard, Biden has called for recounts.

https://i.imgur.com/omTjex0.jpeg

But no seriously, things suck and they're about to get a whole lot suckier, but there's nothing we can do until 2026 elections, so I've decided to instead try to focus on positive, productive things. Dooming and glooming and bringing down everybody around you isn't going to help anybody at this point.

Anyways, for me personally, I had some other personal things go wrong on election day as well, which just added to the suck of the day. Sigh...

You guys don?t get it, do you? Red senate, red house of reps, a corrupt Supreme Court, and a corrupt White House. Trump is going to make all of this shit PERMANENT. No more elections, no more chances of any democrat getting into power, and now our allies across the pond are screwed. Stop being in denial!!!

This is starting to sound like one of those fear mongering alt-right forums. Except not alt-right.

Not really fear-mongering since it?s all going to happen soon.

This is exactly what I mean.

Learn from the other side. Defeat is a setback, not the end. Fall back, rally, come back and fight with fervor and fury.

I'd rather gain an inch by fighting than lose all ground by giving up. You're free to disagree, but that's what I was taught, how I was raised, what I honestly believe. Oo-rah.

Eric, stop it. Gashat has a point, his is exactly what fear-mongering is. Constantly doomsaying and not even trying to find a ray of hope.

EXACTLY! We have to find the rays of light and hope wherever we can, and hold onto them.

"No use waiting for the cavalry, because as this moment, the cavalry is us."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFC2o44koIA

Fine. Live in denial, fight back, believe whatever you want to believe, do whatever the hell you people want. Unless you're straight, white, male, and Christian, you're all dead people walking.

I wasn't counting on living forever anyway.

Gay, white, male Pagan here. Who dafuq wants to live forever anyways? Lol! If I gotta go, I'mma go out swinging and burning like a fire.

No piece of knowledge I've acquired in my 33.6 years on this bitch of a planet of ours has come quite so close to driving me completely and utterly mad as knowing about Steven Seagal's music career.

Who?

No one important or significant

He was a big "martial artist/action" actor back in the 80's and 90's. Big in terms of both size (wide and tall) and renown. He wasn't exactly that great at his job, but he was popular for some reason. If memory serves correct, he was Buddhist? Although, I'm shocked to know he had a music career.

Bro just shut up. Please. We're not trying to say that things are beautiful and perfect - we're all aware of the current situation and are clearly worried about what will happen...but there's nothing we can really do right now, and sitting around dooming and whining is not helping ANYBODY, in fact it's making things worse.

He had some awesome movies, like Under Siege, but seems like he's kind of gone the route of Hulk Hogan - nobody likes working with him and turns out he's actually not a great person.

Personally, what I liked about Seagal in his heyday was that his characters weren't beaten up. In action films of that period, especially with an emphasis on hand-to-hand combat, it was customary that in the final battle the hero would turned into a punching bag for the villain and only after thousands life-threatening injuries would he have the strength to win. But Seagal always allowed the strongest of the enemies to carry out a couple of good punches, no more. And sometimes he received minor wounds. Therefore, by the way, it is strange that jokes about coolness were told specifically about Chuck Norris, and not about him.

Is that really a thing in ? I feel like I see it a lot in anime, but not really in films (from that era). Maybe Rocky movies, but the typical Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, for instance, has him just straight dominating most encounters.

I guess Die Hard featured that trope. Any other famous examples? Not saying this to doubt you, I just never noticed. Or maybe I've watched the wrong movies, lol.

A hack fraud martial arts actor whose claims as a martial artist rank a littlbe bit above George Dillman and Ashida Kim, most notable for a forgettable film career and crapping himself after choked out by Gene LeBell. Oh, and also being a rancid human being.

Except as the poster child of failing upwards.

I wouldn't say big in terms of popularity... He always seemed to have presence but nobody was ever flocking to the newest Seagal flick because I swear the man is the reason Direct To Video/DVD/Streaming was invented.

Because generally speaking they were terrible.

For one thing, the Chuck Norris jokes started as Vin Diesel jokes and just took off due to a heavy(er) dose of irony. For another: That's because Seagal was never actually cool. He was in movies but literally not one that came after Under Siege was particularly notable, because he was an absolute asshole that nobody wanted to work with.

And also just a shit martial artist.

Die Hard was kind of where the "invincible hero" trope started losing ground, due in no small part to the fact that McClane was played by a then-better-known-for-comedies Bruce Willis, who looked absolutely nothing like the typical Action Hero embodied by Schwarznegger and Stallone, and didn't have the sort of martial arts skills that others like Van Damme had. Though I think martial arts heroes became more common after Die Hard as well as the scene transitioned from muscle men to eventually the likes of Keanu Reeves.

Anyway he's done both blues and dance music and the knowledge of these things has been clawing away inside my skull like I just got spotted by a Winter Lantern.

He was not awesome in his movies and was a sexual predator/serial abuser who also made the very very very bad mistake of being a douchenozzle to Mr Judo Gene Lebell, who choked his arrogant flabby flailing arse to sleep, not just once, but twice and made him crap/pee his pants, and then, in douchenozzle fashion, tried to SUE HIM, but his lawyers( and MANY in the stunt/martial arts community) convinced him that the discovery portion of the lawsuit will show how a 70PLUS year old Grandfather wearing a Pink Gi choked out Mr Action Hero.
There is just SO MUCH MORE TRASH to this guy, it?s why he ran to Russia to avoid the inevitable consequences of his sexual assaulting behavior

I reiterate: Steven Seagull, not important or relevant to anything except a jail cell

As an example, I immediately remember films with Van Damme. Also with Dacascos and Don "The Dragon" Wilson. To a lesser extent, but it also happened with Lundgren. Albeit in a humorous way, Jackie Chan began to practice this trope almost before anyone else. Snipes in the Blade trilogy also received punches in the final fights. Yes, perhaps this is more true in films about martial arts than in action films with an emphasis on shootouts, in which Schwarzenegger and Stallone starred. And I'm not sure if Die Hard fits into this trope, because Willis suffers throughout the entire film.

Wasn`t it Bruce Lee who joked that missing a kick from Chuck Norris is like getting hit by a train?

Die Hard came out in 1988 (and the Soviet one in 1967, but that's a conversation for another day). Before this there was already Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Chuck Norris, Van Damme, Cynthia Rothrock and many others. I think it's more likely that someone like Nicolas Cage would have Willis to thank for getting leading roles in action films than a martial artist.

Part of the fun of running watch parties is digging out weird stuff to fill out intermissions. Thank Godoka for Bosnian Ape Society.

Behind the Bastards did a good episode or two on him, and I highly recommend Napoleon Blownapart's video on Make Believe Martial Arts if you just want the short version of his various utter failures as a martial artist and human being.


Couldn't tell you, I despise Norris almost as much as Seagal and as such tend not to pay much mind to his accomplishments.

But at least he could kind of act and I'll never have to live with his auto-tuned voice singing the word "punani".

Let me rephrase: Die Hard was when the Invincible Hero trope really started to become a thing of the past in Hollywood. Elsewhere in the world it was much less common, true, but in American cinema (and Italian knockoffs thereof), the trope was alive and well right up to about the 90s.

I remember Chuck Norris jokes being a thing in the 00s. I haven't seen anyone make any Cuck Norris jokes in years.

Yes, most likely, but again, I?m talking more about a different trope. Namely, how the hero gets a second wind after a good beating (as it looks in the script) or how numerous injuries only add strength to the protagonist (as it looks on the screen).
I don?t think that this and ?The Invincible Hero? are exactly the opposite thing, at least because for dramatic effect they often tried to emphasize the danger of the last enemy.

Did you stop reading my post after the first 5 words and miss the entire second half where I said he was a bad person that nobody wanted to work with? I may have put it a bit too lightly, but still.

Ah that makes more sense. My taste in 80s action movies tends to be the big guys with big guns type. I do like Jackie Chan, though my experience with him is mostly limited to Police Story and Rush Hour, which may not be the best examples.

Try checking out the Line of Duty series. No Jackie Chan, but the first two have Michelle Yeoh and damn if that's not appealing in its own way. She's replaced by Cynthia Kahn in 3 and 4 but she's no slouch by any means.

Also the first one has Cynthia Rothrock co-starring, second has Hiroyuki Sanada, and third has Hongo himself, Hiroshi Fujioka. I don't think I've seen the fourth though.

The Internet claims that there are 9 films in this series.

Watching

Sabrina The Teenage Witch (TGIF series) - WB episodes

currently.

I think most people ignore 5 onwards for some reason or other.

My first Jackie Chan movies were, if I recall, Drunken Master 1, Drunken Master 2, Meals on Wheels, and Dragons Forever. This particular scene from Dragons Forever was what drawed me into Jackie Chan when I was a kid. Fun fact, his co-stars in this scene, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao, were the inspirations for Elehan Kinpo and Pyon Pyou in Gekiranger respectively.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz5-f3mz2io

Speaking of Sammo Hung, who remembers "Martial Law", his TV series from the late 90s?
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...artial_Law.jpg

*Raises hand with enthusiasm* :lolol
I actually didn't mind it at the time.

I found out today that one of my coworkers was on-set for Kyoryuger. That's so awesome. I'm jealous.

Oh fun. What is it about? Michelle Yeoh is cool too. I have a blu-ray of Supercop that I imported from Hong Kong lol

Thanks for the reminder to watch more Sammo Hung