Hey Scott, reader since (I think) 1999.
Questions :
(1) I read the hell out of the PWI 'family' in the 1987-1991 period (I was born in 1975). How did the so-called 'mark' magazines work? I mean, I know that a number of the 'writers' didn't actually exist, but did the magazines contact the feds about upcoming angles they wanted to promote? Did they get quotes from wrestlers 'in character'?
(2) Who is / was the greatest ever female wrestler (taking into account drawing ability, wrestling ability, promos etc.)?
(3) Pop culture 'lightning round' (I hear that you 'rule at lightning rounds'!) :
(a) Pacino or De Niro?
(b) Best Guns n' Roses album?
(c) Sammy Hagar or David Lee Roth?
(d) Nirvana or Pearl Jam?
(e) Out of the nominees for Best Picture in 1994 (one of the great years in film) – Pulp Fiction, 4 Weddings and a Funeral, Shawshank Redemption, Quiz Show and Forrest Gump – which has stood the test of time?
1. It was almost all made up by Bill Apter under the variety of aliases. Generally there was no cooperation from the promotions and the magazines unless the promotion wanted something out of them, so any quotes were just fabricated as needed.
2. Probably Akira Hokuto or Madusa in terms of actual drawing ability. I mean, I love Trish as a worker and promo, but she was never in position to draw money outside of one match.
3. I do rule at lightning rounds.
a) Pacino! Although his bad movies are REALLY bad, whereas DeNiro is at least pretty consistent. They're two of my all time favorites though, so it's really an unfair question.
b) Use Your Illusion II is generally the one that lands in my phone's music player most often. Civil War, Knockin On Heaven's Door, Estranged, Pretty Tied Up, Locomotive...all tremendous.
c) I certainly like Sammy better as a solo artist and the only Van Halen concert I've had the opportunity to see was with him as singer, so he gets my vote. But I own all the DLR Van Halen and solo CDs too, so I'm cool with both.
d) Nirvana until 1994, at which point Pearl Jam take over for a while. I kinda got bored with them never touring here or doing videos and stuff, so I've drifted back to Nirvana again as a result and I've been very into Bleach and the box set lately. Basically with Pearl Jam I'll listen to Ten, Vs, Vitalogy, No Code and Yield and sometimes the greatest hits if I want Yellow Ledbetter too.
e) I haven't watched Pulp Fiction in a while, and I'm compelled to watch Shawshank whenever it's on TV, but obviously Pulp Fiction is the movie that has had the biggest impact on movies in the long term.
I'd say DeNiro easily only because he can transition into comedy easily. Analyze This is one of my favorite comedies.
ReplyDeleteUmmmmm
ReplyDeleteAppetite for Destruction is one of the greatest rock albums ever. Period. Not sure how that isn't the answer.
Still have never seen Pulp Fiction, caught bits and pieces but never the whole movie. Have seen Shawshank about 1,000 times, Forrest Gump is cheesy as hell now that I am not 11, but it's good for what it it is, Quiz Show is very good.
ReplyDeleteI post this whenever the subject of Apter comes up: I went up to him outside the Hershey Arena where a Raw taping was taking place in 1996 and asked him if he knew wrestling was fake.
ReplyDeleteHe was standing with some woman who I think was another writer for the magazines at the time.
I fluctuate between Appetite and UYI2 depending on my mood. Appetite is raw, young, hungry, horny, and angry rock music while Illusion is more mature. There's a big place for both in my collection.
ReplyDeleteI never really liked Nirvana much, so I guess I'll go with Pearl Jam by default.
I don't watch movies, so I've got nothing on the others.
While Analyze That sucked ass...
ReplyDeleteIt's Appetite for me. And some of those Apter writers were real people. Eddie Ellner is a real guy. I read somewhere that he just quit writing for them rather abruptly and became yoga master or something like that. I've heard that Brandi Mankiewicz is a real person too.
ReplyDeleteDamn I didn't realize that Pulp Fiction, Shawshawnk Redemption, AND Forrest Gump all came out the same year. That's a pretty incredible year. Pulp Fiction definitely reigns supreme for me for those, but it doesn't surprise me that Forrest got the awards that year.
ReplyDeleteA. DeNiro. Goodfellas, Raging Bull, Meet the Parents, and I liked his character in Heat better!
ReplyDeleteB. Appetite
C. Hagar as a singer, DLR-era as a band
D. Pearl Jam by a MILE.
E. Forrest Gump. Love Pulp to death, but Gump holds my attention more and touches me to this day.
Check out 1995... Even better year
ReplyDeleteA. no preference on DeNiro or Pacino
ReplyDeleteb. Appetite by a mile
c. The Roth era VH is way better
D. Pearl Jam has been more versatile, NIrvana more influential, I guess I prefer Pearl Jam these days
e. Pulp Fiction is the most overrated movie ever. Yeah Gump is cheesy but I constantly find myself stopping and watching some of it when they show it on TNT (which seems to be constantly, Forrest Gump on TNT, Legally Blond on Oxygen, or Knocked Up on E are the most overshown movies on cable).
Cena out 4-6 weeks? Can they please take him off TV during that time!
ReplyDeletea. De Niro, and it's not that close. Don't get me wrong, Pacino's probably my third favorite actor ever, but the gap between second and third is definitive. Now, if you'd asked De Niro or Brando, that's a debate...
ReplyDeleteb. Appetite for Destruction. Is this even in question, we're not talking about the Beatles here?
c. Roth, I guess. I find Van Halen to be amongst the most overrated bands ever, so it's whatever.
d. Nirvana. They burned shorter, but far brighter.
e. Pulp Fiction. And again, it's not that close when you get down to it.
Lightning round is FUN!!!
ReplyDeletea) Pacino
b) Appetite for Destruction
c)Diamond Dave, baby!!!
d) Nirvana
e) Pulp Fiction, although i think Quiz Show is one of the most underrated films of all time
Back when they came out, UYI II was #1 in the charts, and UYI I was #2.
ReplyDeleteDid anyone ever get the version that had the "banned" advisory sticker? I knew someone who got it and stuck it on his stereo.
http://www.gunsnflowers.com/gunsnroses4/Banned/UYIbannedsticker.htm
man did it ever. Also Meet the Parents is gold, the sequels are awful. Apparently De Niro gets 1 great comedy out of material and then it goes down the tubes.
ReplyDeleteStu Saks was in the Wrestlemania documentary a couple years ago. Blew my mind that he was a real person
ReplyDeleteI'd have to go with Manami Toyota for greatest female wrestler.
ReplyDeleteLightning Round
ReplyDelete1) DeNiro. I always prefered his baroque brooding to Pacino's live wire bat shit crazy persona. Ricky Roma, Lefty Ruggerio, and Michael Corleone probably top most of the stuff I like from DeNiro, but DeNiro had more and varied characters. Rupert Pupkin, Travis Bickle, Johnny Boy, and pretty much any character he did with Scorsese were revelations where as most of Pacinos characters are just a really great ride.
2) Appetitie for Destruction
3)HaHaHa! Please! David Lee Roth and not even close.
4) Nirvana. That Unplugged album is one of the most gut wrenching things I can think of. Cobain singing "Jesus Don't Want Me For a Sunbeam" is amazing and affected me in a way that Pearl Jam never really did. Pearl Jam had better songwriting but Nirvana was a better all around band.
5) Pulp Fiction, and it isn't even close. This really is a repeat of the year "Raging Bull" lost to "Ordinary People." "Ordinary People" "Shawshank Redemption" and "Forrest Gump" are extremely well made movies that never get past being really really good movies. That's not meant as a slam on them, just that "Pulp Fiction" is a step above.
And yet most of those movies were passed over when it came to Academy Award time. 1995 may have had better movies, but 19894 had the better Best Pic nominees. I'm still pissed about Se7en getting passed over.
ReplyDelete1) Pacino.
ReplyDelete2) Love Use Your Illusions 2, but Appetite is possibly the greatest album ever. So Appetite it is.
3) David Lee Roth, by a mile.
4) Nirvana, also by a mile.
5) I've grown more fond of Shawshank over the years and no longer worship at the altar of Tarantino, but it's still Pulp Fiction for me.
How about Jake LaMotta, end of story? It could be the greatest performance ever in American cinema, and definitely beats anything Pacino's ever done.
ReplyDelete"Appetite is possibly the greatest album ever." Wha-huh?! Great album, definitely *****. But not one of the 50 best albums ever, much less the greatest.
ReplyDeleteCan't answer most of the questions, but I'll give opinions on three:
ReplyDelete2) It may not be the same as selling tickets, but I have to imagine that Trish easily sold the merchandise. That's definitely a form of "drawing money".
3a) De Niro. Pacino's great, but De Niro's even better and has wider range. Still waiting for that dream movie that stars Nicholson, De Niro, and Pacino, though. Spacey, too; I love Spacey, and absolutely feel that he's on the same level as the other three. Although, I think we all have to give it up to Hugh Laurie, probably the greatest actor going today; talk about subtlety and nuance.
3e) I know I'm in the minority, but I can't stand "Pulp Fiction". I've seen it twice, and just don't get the big deal. And I hate any ending that is "left to the imagination". To me, that's not "bold" or "poetic" (or "daring" or "artistic" or "visionary" or anything else), it's a friggin' cop-out. It's the writer and director going "we couldn't think of an ending, fuck it, you figure it out". Didn't like "Reservoir Dogs", either, what a stupid hand-waved plot-hole at the end.
"
ReplyDeleteProbably Akira Hokuto or Madusa in terms of actual drawing ability."
Um, hello? Crush Gals?
Yeah, fuck Daniel Day-Lewis, House is the best going.
ReplyDeleteIt's too bad Matt Brock was fake though. WWE should actually make a backstage interviewer with a character like that. A crusty old world weary reporter, kind of like a more cynical Mean Gene.
ReplyDeleteLiz Hunter? Brandi...Mankiewicz? I think she was supposed to be "Matt Brock's niece" or something. If they've had any other women, I'm unaware of it.
ReplyDeleteTo each their own. I'd rank it, Master of Puppets, OK Computer, The Wall and possibly ...And Justice for All in the top five.
ReplyDeleteThat goes under the category of "Performances I respect more than I really feel." It's an absolutely amazing performance, but because the character is such a despicable human being, it's hard to really get into the character. It depends on your philosophy of films I suppose. "Ragin Bull" may be the "greater" movie, but I connect a lot more with "Taxi Driver" which is almost as challenging of a movie.
ReplyDeleteI don't disagree with you that it may be the greatest performance ever, but DeNiro made me care more about Johnny Boy (also a pretty deplorable character) a lot more than he did with LaMotta. Do I have to empathize with a performance for it to be great? Is it better to be moved by a performance, or challenged by it?
What was left to the imagination in Pulp Fiction? The chronological story was pretty much wrapped up (Travolta's dead, Jackson walks the earth, Honey Bunny and Ringo are left to walk out, Willis is free, Marcellus is painfully scarred, and Zed's dead, babe, Zed's dead).
ReplyDeleteHey Scott
ReplyDeleteCheck out Colt's podcast with Apter. Besides being a great listen, Apter laughs at all the rumors that his writers are fake when indeed they exist. He did however say most of the wrestler quotes were written by him bc the wrestlers thought he'd have more interesting things to say than they would of.
Thank God they ditched "Early Morning Run."
ReplyDeleteYeah, the article about Eddie is here where I saved it on my site: http://z6.invisionfree.com/BoardWithEverything/index.php?showtopic=3490 I had saved the original link of the article as well but apparently, it reverted back to GoDaddy or something.
ReplyDeleteI get what you're saying, it took me a while to really get inside LaMotta's head. I tend to prefer challenging performances, as I think they better reward repeat viewing.
ReplyDeleteSo basically, Apter was writing fan fiction.
ReplyDeleteHugh Laurie is pretty damn impressive when you look at his earlier work and see that he completely transformed himself from a foppish comedian to a narcissistic genius.
ReplyDeleteMaybe not as good as Daniel Day Lewis, but he's not that far off.
Which plot hole are we talking about with Reservoir Dogs? The who shot who thing?
Fair enough. None of those albums would make my top 30 (The Wall being the closest), so we're just on completely different pages.
ReplyDeleteJust to be awkward, I'd like to point out that Alice In Chains were better than either Nirvana or Pearl Jam. Emphasis on WERE though, the current version with the Lenny Kravitz lookalike is just depressing.
ReplyDeleteIt was the one who was Matt Brock's niece. She was a real person.
ReplyDeleteLiz Hunter was not.
The eternal "What was in the suitcase?" discussion.
ReplyDeleteBUT WHAT'S IN THE BRIEFCASE?!
ReplyDelete(Who gives a fuck, it's a MacGuffin?)
SPOILERS!!!
ReplyDeleteThe main boss admitting that he knew that one of the guys was a cop.
D) I was always a Soundgarden man myself, but gotta go with Pearl Jam. I have every Nirvana album... let me repeat, I have every friggin' Nirvana album... but they are still deified and overrated.
ReplyDeleteWith Pearl Jam, Ten is one of the most kickass and complete studio albums there is, but it may be TOO polished. Fine, I'll grant you that. But then Vs. is another 5-star album, in my opinion, and it was looking like Pearl Jam might push grunge/rock to some completely different level of consciousness and ability. Listen to Pearl Jam's Vs. again--it doesn't exactly sound like anything else, and in that sense, can still be played without sounding dated. And then... ... ticketmaster happened, then the MTV video thing happened, and then Vitalogy was pretty weak.
However, you can go back to No Code, Yield, and Riot Act and really appreciate them for what they are even it's not the Pearl Jam we wanted/needed them to be. AND the work Ament, Gossard, and McCready did with Mother Love Bone and Temple of the Dog shouldn't be ignored, either, in that era.
E) You can't make me choose between Pulp Fiction and Shawshank. YOU CAN'T MAKE ME. But Scott's right on in his assessment.
A) DeNiro. From 73 to 04, he was either in a critically acclaimed movie or a cult classic every other year. There was never more than a two year gap in between doing something extremely awesome on the screen. I mean, the guy did Awakenings and Goodfellas in the same year--that's pretty good range.
1) As much as I was a big mark for Scarface and Donnie Brasco among other things that Pacino did, I have to go with DeNiro. Besides all the great performances listed in the thread, always loved his directorial debut with A Bronx Tale too. Heat should be getting some love in these parts too.
ReplyDelete2)Tough but UYI2 gets the nod here. Still hard to think of GnR as classic rock these days but thats what they are now.
3)I dont mind the Sammy edition of VH and I think it made the band cross over more but when you think VH, you think DLR. 1984 is easily their best album.
4)I always thought Nirvana was extremely overrated, so Id obviously go with Pearl Jam.
5)Big fan of all those films, think Shawshank was the film that got hosed by the academy, not Pulp. But Forrest Gump winning wasnt a travesty like when Raging Bull, Goodfellas or Saving Private Ryan lost.
To be even more awkward, I liked their last album with the Lenny Kravitz lookalike. Much better than Cantrell's solo stuff, I thought, even if it doesn't approach Chains 1990-94. For me, it still goes 1. Soundgarden 2. Alice in Chains 3. Pearl Jam. 4. Nirvana. 5. Screaming Trees. I'd love to throw Jane's Addiction up there as they were one of the founding fathers of the alternative movement, but not necessarily the grunge movement (and they were LA based).
ReplyDeleteHe even talks about one or two of the writers dying and fans still wanting to joke about how Apter was really the dead writer.
ReplyDeleteNot so much, no. . . . .
ReplyDeleteI really don't like DeNiro in comedies. Meet the Parents WAS gold, but despite (not because of) DeNiro. That head-bobbing thing he'd do got annoying, for instance.
ReplyDeleteOh. I guess you're right on that one. I was interested in it the first couple times I watched it, and then I just saw it as plot device thereafter as just part of the job/something the boss wants in his possession.
ReplyDeleteI go back and forth. Sometimes I want Tarkovsky, sometimes I want Spielberg. Johnny Boy kind of hits the sweet spot for me. It's a challenging performance but one that I immediately connect to.
ReplyDeleteIt had to have been Brandi Mankiewicz, as she is a real person (although not the niece of the made-up Matt Brock). Liz Hunter was fictional.
ReplyDeleteAccording to an article I saw on Cracked, it was diamonds.
ReplyDeleteNetflix (instant) has A Bit of Fry and Laurie, and by gawd, it may be the best sketch show ever, but everyone's sense of humor varies. So, Brian is pretty much right in his argument--Hugh f'n Laurie has range. He can make me laugh until I cry or just cry until I cry (like in quite a few House episodes).
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to see Day Lewis as Lincoln, though. I think we're looking at something epic there... even if he's not slaying vampires like the badass we all know Daniel Day Lewis can be.
I thought the ownership of WCW was in the briefcase.
ReplyDeleteAgree that Nirvana is overrated, I think they're terrible. GNR sucks too.
ReplyDeleteI go with DeNiro and here's why. Out of all of his and Pacino's movies my favorite by far is Goodfellas. That breaks the tie.
ReplyDeleteEarly Morning Jog?
ReplyDeleteCharles Rocket died in 05 so unless he is playing a corpse, Id be shocked if he got hired for anything.
Shawhank got hosed and withstood the test of time. Forrest Gump is actually pretty good though provided you only watch it every few years or so.
ReplyDeleteLiz Hunter and Eddie Ellner are not real? This news is devestating :( I always assumed they had really good hate sex. I...I'll shut up now.
ReplyDeleteYou people care crazy. Nothing can touch the Axl Rose Magnum Opus of Chinese Democracy.
ReplyDeleteKevin Spacey is awsome.
ReplyDeleteThat's not really a plot hole.
ReplyDeleteMost of the movie is about gut instincts, why we make decisions that don't make sense, why we ignore our better instincts, and why trust/friendship develops in certain situations.
Joe didn't know Mr. Orange was a cop, he had a tickle in his gut, the same way Edward G Robinson's "little man" in his gut gave him signals (In "Double Indemnity"), though not always clear ones. Joe knew something was "off" but it was only when the robbery went belly up, and when Mr. Blonde was found dead that he knew. He's a man of action, not proof, and he made his decision. Maybe it was right, maybe it was wrong, but in his world you go with your best guess because there is no such thing as Internal Affairs to hunt out the rat and obtain evidence.
The whole movie is about instinct, so why shouldn't the resolution be about instinct?
Also, can we stop calling plot wrinkles or weaknesses "plot holes?" A plot hole occurs when a movie sets out rules and then violates those rules. Character A is in location X, but then shows up in location Y. Most "plot holes" that people bring up are inconstancies or sometimes really good ideas that people just don't want to follow. Everybody's in such a hurry to prove how damn smart they are that we've thrown suspension of disbelief out the window. SPOILERS
"How did Batman make it back to Gotham from Nepal?" is not a plot hole. Maybe it's a stretch, maybe it's a cheat, but it is not a plot hole. And besides, he's Batman. He made it back the same way he did in the first movie. How was that? I don't know. Do I care?
I may not agree with Bane's motivation for allowing Gotham time to find and diffuse the nuclear device, but it is not a plot hole, it's a character motivation I don't agree with. In Christopher Nolan's universe, villains do things to prove a point. They play mind games. Do I agree with it? Maybe, maybe not, but it is not a plot hole.
I thought DeNiro was exceptional in Midnight Run which was an action comedy. One of my all time favs btw.
ReplyDeleteId put Appetite over all of those except The Wall. I guess its due to not being a metal guy,lol. The Wall isnt even Floyd's best album, DSOTM and WYWH were better.
ReplyDeleteYeah, cant watch Gump every time it is on. Pulp on the other hand, I can watch every time its on the tube. While I love going to the Bubba Gump restaurants, I always think the people that work there probably cant watch the flick anymore being it runs on a continuous loop there.
ReplyDeleteEddie Ellner IS real...not only is he a yoga instructor (with his own site) now, he also made news back in 1996 for running out on the field at Yankee Stadium and tossing his grandmother's ashes out on the field.
ReplyDeleteI know you were being sarcastic but there is some stuff on there that is pretty good. I know it wasnt what he made it out to be but that thing was doomed to fail after all the hype and all the waiting. Still prefer it to anything the rest of the GnR guys have done.
ReplyDeletePacino or DeNiro? Damn that's tough. I just watched Dog Day Afternoon yesterday which totally blew my mind, so I'm kinda leaning towards Pacino. They both were great in Heat which is one of my favorite movies ever.
ReplyDeleteI'm a huge GNR fan. My favorite would have to be Illusion II. If I rank them I'd go:
Use Your Illusion II
Appetite for Destruction
GNR Lies
Chinese Democracy
Use Your Allusion I
Their only bad album is Spaghetti Incident.
Pearl Jam
Pulp Fiction is one of my favorite movies and I think it has aged gracefully. Interesting story and dialogue ages well.
Weirdly, I'm a De Niro fan and I like Scorsese too..but I never got into Raging Bull. It just meanders along until the finish. Lamotta wouldn't rank in my top 5 De Niro performances.
ReplyDeleteAs a sequel to "Midnight Run" a fictional sequel that would have taken.....nevermind, joke fail
ReplyDeleteI kinda like this speech, so I "Liked" it. Fair points.
ReplyDeleteThey actually did announce a Midnight Run sequel. I loved the original and as much as I loved the characters, this would be a bad idea.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if there's a page somewhere that lists which ones are real and which ones aren't.
ReplyDeleteThe heel supporter Eddie Ellner is a fellow Yankee fan....I kid of like that.
ReplyDeleteOh man, I HATE Chinese Democracy. Especially Axl's vampire voice.
ReplyDeleteYou know what I just never listen to and have no desire to? Appetite for Destruction. I've seen GNR live a few times and I enjoy the songs in that setting but I can't see myself ever sitting down specifically to listen to that album. If I never heard Sweet Child again for the rest of my life I'd be fine. I tend to jump between Use Your Illusion 1 and 2. 2 was always my clear favorite but 1 grew on me. I think I neglected it in favor of 2 for so long that a lot of it was essentially new to me since I hadn't listened it into the ground. I think Coma is probably an over-looked masterpiece and the last three minutes of that song is my favorite moment on either album.
ReplyDeleteI liked Chinese Democracy. I don't deny it.
Nirvana hasn't aged well for me at all. I don't know why, I loved them in the late mid to late 90's when I was a teenager. Sort of forgot about them until the first Greatest Hits came out. Played the fuck out of that for a while...and now I really can't stand them. If they come on in the car I usually get through the first chorus before I get bored and turn it off. I'm not really sure why, I always liked them and today I listen to what I grew up with 90% of the time rather than anything new, but somewhere around 2005 I just started to hate Nirvana....still love Pearl Jam though.
Maybe DSOTM, but not WYWH. Wall is awesome and often criminally underrated.
ReplyDeleteAgreed, it's really a good album that had no chance at succeeding due to the wait, the hype, the resent towards Axl for breaking up the original band, etc...
ReplyDeleteAs the guy who asked the original question, I'd better give my answers :
ReplyDelete(a) Pacino, mainly because his best (Godfather I & II, Scarface, And Justice For All, Glengarry Glen Ross) is better than De Niro's best by a hair, and when De Niro's movies suck, they REALLY suck (adventures of Rocky and BUllwinkle, comedy sequels)
It's an okay album. It's definitely not as good as the stuff with the original band, but it's got some decent tracks, even if one of the songs sounds like the inspiration for the musical in Forgetting Sarah Marshall.
ReplyDelete(b) Appetite for Destruction is better as a cohesive 'album' with no real weak spots, but the highlights on UYI2 are unmatched : Estranged is still in my top 5 rock songs of all time, along with other tracks like Locomotive, Civil War and You Could Be Mine.
ReplyDelete(c) Lee Roth was more innovative, while Hagar had a better 'pop-rock' sensibility.
(d) Nirvana were more groundbreaking, although I would still say Vs and Vitalogy are the most ambitious albums by either artist. I must admit, I still think the best ever band from Seattle is Queensryche.
(e) Shashank Rredemption by miles, and I still think Forrest Gump is the weakest movie by far out of the five.
That sticker was on all the cds / albums in Australian shops. Loved it.
ReplyDeleteEven with Internet and great sites like this one I still subscribe to PWI and Inside wrestling. Something nostalgic about flipping open a magazine and also each issue u can find several real good stories. The 60 minute interview in Inside Wrestling/ the wrestler is a MUST read. And believe me that's a true sit down intvw and not apter! In the 60 min intvw they break kayfabe and speak of some sensitive subjects.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget The Lion King was out in theaters the same time Forrest Gump was and was a huge success. Even people without kids or families were flocking to see it.
ReplyDelete(I was alway confused by the grammatically awkward phrasing of "Stupid is as stupid does" or why it was so popular. Does that make me stupid?)
Not sure about the US but weren't the Crush Gals the biggest drawing female wrestlers?
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of music...is there anything these days that would be like a modern equivalent to Nine Inch Nails? That sort of electric music, preferably darker, but not the upbeat rave, trance, whatever they call it these days stuff.
ReplyDeleteIf we're talking about who was most over at any one particular time, I don't think that any woman has ever matched the high of Wendi Richter. Maybe Lita came close, but she just didn't have the mainstream crossover appeal of Richter (though that may have been her leeching off of Cyndi Lauper's heat...)
ReplyDeleteCrush Girls started quite the book in Japan, and probably drew the biggest crowds of any female act.
For impact * longevity, I'd have to go with Moolah.
A tangent to 3c: Michael Anthony or Wolfgang Van Halen?
ReplyDeleteI'm with you, I love the in-depth analysis of characters and rivalries. I'll always remember reading about how Doink's father was a circus clown that died a lonely, depressed alcoholic. Their speculation on things such as who the next "nWo" member would be or who "Nexus" may be working for always made for fun reading.
ReplyDeleteThey also make some good points when talking about which wrestlers
benefit the most from other wrestlers' big matches; for instance, if a
face wins/retains the title at WM, it benefits the other heels on the
roster, since heels are more likely to get title-shots against the new
face champ. As another example, they'll mention that Sheamus beating Bryan in eighteen seconds not only makes Bryan look bad, but also makes all the guys that Bryan beat look bad, too; since Bryan beat Show and Henry, and Sheamus beat Bryan so convincingly, then it stands to reason that neither Show nor Henry are worthy of a shot at Sheamus.
And if it had been diamonds (or money, or drugs), then you could at least make sense of what was going on, as well as understand how high-level the two characters were, or what was going through their minds.
ReplyDeleteLeaving it so ambiguous as to lead many viewers to believe that it was one of the character's souls, though, means that there may be an entirely different context to the entire movie, one that is never touched upon or explained. If it WAS his soul, then that raises a lot of questions about the movie: First of all, where does the movie take place? On Earth? In Purgatory? In one of the characters' imaginations? He does have that band-aid on the back of his neck, is that a hint? If so, who or what actually sucked his soul out? God? Satan? One of the other characters in the film?
Stuff like that really bothers me. It's like they just couldn't be bothered. You know how we feel when WWE just drops a storyline? That's the impression I get, that the writer and/or director wrote 95% of a great story, and then just couldn't commit to an ending.
If the crime boss thinks, for even the briefest second, that one of the guys around him is an undercover cop, it doesn't make sense to just compartmentalize it. He should have investigated.
ReplyDeleteWhen Tony Soprano suspected Big Pussy of being a rat, did he just say "ehh, whatever"? No, he met the problem head-on.
You're right their post WM "real" winners and losers is great. As is Top 500 and year end awards. Some Wrestlers actually take their 500 rank serious. I've spent several nights at a few NYC bars with ROH guys bitching about their rank. And they were 100% legit upset.
ReplyDeleteGreatest female wrestler would have to be one joshi or another, those girls were doing shit in the 80s that would STILL seem cutting edge. Maybe not the top drawing but definitely classics.
ReplyDeletea) I've been on a Pacino kick lately because I recently saw Glengarry Glen Ross for the first time, but in the end, while Pacino may have been Ricky Roma and Tony Montana and Serpico and Michael Corleone, he wasn't Travis Bickle or Max Cady, so I gotta go DeNiro.
b) Appetite for Destruction all day every day. That belongs in the top ten of greatest rock records of all time. Maybe even top 5.
c) Anything that sucked about Van Hagar was all Eddie's fault for being a music geek who didn't know much about making mass appeal music. Dave used to reign him in, which is how they reached their glory days. But in terms of personality and likeability and factoring in solo careers, I gotta go with Sammy. Dave's a dweeb. I once had this whole convoluted analogy comparing the twists and turns of Van Halen to the Big Lebowski, with Sammy as The Dude and Eddie as the Big Lebowski and Dave as Jackie Treehorn, but I was too high to remember it.
d) Nirvana at one time were an obsession of mine, although I honestly have grown to hate Nevermind. Not just because it's overplayed but because after hearing it for years and years I think Butch Vig's production is overdone. Seeing that VH1 Classic Albums on it kind of took away some of the magic, and seeing how much trickery Vig put onto it to beef up their sound makes it sound plastic and hollow to me now. Now, in my opinion, Pearl Jam have never had songs with as much personality and strength as Nirvana did. But Stone Gossard and Mike McCready's combined guitar sound is vastly underrated. They made tone that sounded like you could curl up and take a nap in it. But Pearl Jam never did anything like Unplugged. So I gotta give the edge to Nirvana.
e) Pulp Fiction is my favorite movie of all time, so no question there. I was majorly obsessed with Quentin Tarantino and his movie universe a few years ago, and I'm still a huge fan. At one time I could recite every single line of dialog from Pulp Fiction, all three hours of it, including deleted scenes. I seriously don't think a movie will ever mean as much to me as that one did. Although Shawshank is pretty universally beloved. I get the feeling that in ten or twenty years when more of our generation becomes the norm, Shawshank will be at the top of that greatest movies list where Vertigo just upended Citizen Kane. Gump gets too much shit for being treacly, it was still a great American epic movie that had a wicked sense of humor. Quiz Show was a well made movie about a subject that still kind of makes me think people didn't know what to do with themselves in the 50s. I mean, who honestly gives a fuck that some game shows were rigged? Never seen Four Weddings and a Funeral. But yeah, Pulp Fiction all day.
Something that often gets overlooked about Shawshank is how incredibly guy-centric it is. I mean, there are literally TWO lines spoken by women in the whole movie (the woman at the supermarket and the secretary at the bank). Could you imagine how publicized it would be if guys only had two lines in an entire beloved movie??
ReplyDeletea) De Niro for me. I love Pacino, but De Nero's been in more movies I love (Goodfellas, Godfather II, etc.). No knock on Pacino, though...Ricky Roma is fucking classic.
ReplyDeleteb) Appetite for Destruction is a classic. Guns is probably in my 5 favorite groups of all time so I love all their stuff, but Appetite is a masterpiece.
c) Both were good, and I only saw Sammy live at the Monsters of ROck tour (holy crap, that was long ago). But overall, I prefer Dave.
d) Pearl Jam is my favorite group ever by 10 country miles, so this one isn't even close for me. I saw them 3 times when they played the last shows ever at The Spectrum in Philly in 2009. The almost-4-hour closing-night show is my favorite music event ever. (A solid second place goes to the Guns N Roses/Metallica/Faith No More show at Giants stadium back in 1992)
e) Pulp Fiction is one of my 10 favorite movies ever (maybe even top 5) and it had a huge impact on cinema, so that's the clear winner for me.
A handful of guys over the years have used pen names (most of which are variants on their name), but only a few of the writers were "fake." Brock and Liz Hunter and I think one or two others.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree about Richter, she was getting Hogan like pops and could probably main event a card back then. I do think that Lauper gave her a big rub and would be surprised if Lauper doesnt go into the HOF this year. She was probably more important than Tyson in the grand scheme of things for the WWF.
ReplyDeleteNever thought of it like that but you are correct, it does feature some songs that sound like an inspiration for the musical in that flick.
ReplyDeleteWho knows, with the way Axl has gone about his career, he might be reduced to doing puppet musicals soon.
WYWH is the one that is criminally underrated and pretty much the bands favorite work. Dont get me wrong, I love the Wall and spent a ton of money going to two shows but it does have a few things that bring it down a bit. WSYW is short and sweet.
ReplyDeleteI HATE, HATE , HATE G'N'R's wretched, overblown version of "Knockin' On Heaven's Door." One of the worst Dylan covers ever (and it's got a lot of competition...). Even worst, everyone who takes a crack at the song seems to use the same arrangement with that fucking "heYYY heYYY" shit.
ReplyDeleteShawshank over Pulp. Tarantino's schtick has aged poorly. I don't give a shit what a contract killer does in his spare time.
Hagar over Roth. Hagar could sing.
I always used to wonder about the letters in PWI. Were they real? Surely there couldn't be that many deluded marks in the United States.
I truly hate Bruve Vig's production. He goes too big on everything and overdoes everything so it sounds like a mess. The shame is Nirvana could really play, but it's all hidden under Vig's showboating.
ReplyDeleteI'm going with DeNiro over Pacino. While both have had pretty rocky movie choices since Heat (and that's being kind), DeNiro's been sleepwalking through a lot of different kinds of roles while Pacino has become a total self parody and keeps playing his role from Scent of a Woman in every movie.
ReplyDeleteI'm not much of a G'N'R fan, but I do enjoy Use Your Illusion II.
I do not enjoy the music of VanHalen, so I can't comment there. Although Sammy seems like he'd be a lot more fun to hang out with. In my opinion, Nirvana is as close as we'll ever get to having a modern version of the Beetles. There was just so much talent there and the real shame is Cobain died before he was able to fully realize his potential.
Pulp Fiction is one of the greatest, most influential movies ever made, but it certainly feels dated now. I think that's largely because people have been ripping it off for 20 years, but whatever. Shawshank is a great story with greater acting. Forrest Gump is a wonderful movie that brought the Baby Boomer generation to nostalgic tears. It's really hard to pick a best because all 3 worked so well at what they were aiming for.
Could you imagine the quality of ONE cd called 'Use Your Illusion'? Imagine this tracklisting :
ReplyDeleteNovember Rain, Estranged, Coma, Locomotive, You Could Be Mine, Don't Cry, Civil War, Shotgun Blues, Pretty Tied Up, Garden of Eden, Dead Horse, So Fine.
"who's side did you take in the big david lee roth van halen split?"
ReplyDelete"what kind of question is that?"
"Who's side did you have halen or roth?"
"Van Halen"
"He's a cop"
Trick question, Lemmy is God.
ReplyDelete3 things: Fuck Eddie Vedder, Nirvana> Pearl Jam(although I'd say Soundgarden is better than both), and we'll still be talking about Pulp Fiction in 20 more years more so than Shawshank.
ReplyDelete1994 was such a great year for Movies and Music, it might be the most important year in 90s(with 91 a close second)
ReplyDeleteGenerally I prefer Nirvana to Pearl Jam, but Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, PJ and Nirvana are all absolutely
ReplyDeletefantastic and although I can pick favourites at times, my preferences can shift. Kurt was a fantastic song writer and a deceptively good guitarist, Krist is a sloppy bass player, but he came up with some catchy lines and Dave is a fucking powerhouse drummer. I think Pearl Jam had a tendency to write mediocre funk music and relied on Eddie Vedder's charisma to lift their material. Pearl Jam are better as a "greatest hits" band to me, although they do have some fantastic album tracks.
I had the great fortune of seeing
Pearl Jam live in a stadium show in 2009. My city, Christchurch, the second biggest city in New
Zealand (not that big by US standards), gets jack shit in terms of live events. Most major acts only
play Auckland, the biggest city, and maybe the capital Wellington tacked
onto the end of an Australian tour. We get even less now due to the
thousands of earthquakes we've had since 2010. But Pearl Jam came to
Christchurch, so the crowd here was fucking pumped because the last big
stadium show here had been U2 in 1993. They put on a fucking amazing
show, 7 song second encore and they brought out Neil Finn from Crowded
House and Split Enz to play some songs with them. Just a fantastic show. It was also Matt Cameron's birthday, so the whole stadium sang him happy birthday. I'm also pretty sure Vedder was tanked, as during Mike's overlong wanky guitar solo (my friend and I, as a bassist and a guitarist, weren't that impressed. Scale runs are boring), he was off in the wings drinking wine.
ReplyDeleteRight, that's the Sopranos, which was about these huge dramatic, almost Shakesperean plotlines that were being given a gritty realistic treatment. There are deep truths and revelations in the Sopranos because that's the what the writers want to write about.
"Reservoir Dogs" is the crime version of "Rashomon." What do you know? How do you know it? Did Joe really know something was wrong, or is it only in hindsight that he did? How many times have you looked back on a mistake and thought that you knew better? Did you really know better, or does your mind want you to think you knew better because our minds lie to us to prop up our self image. There are no deep truths or revelations in Reservoir Dogs because that's what Tarantino wanted to write about.
Look at the way Mr. Pink and Mr. White decide that there is a rat in the first place. There's no proof, they just guess, and they happen to be right. Look at Mr. White's reasoning for protecting Mr. Orange: Mr. Orange got shot so clearly he couldn't be the cop, or else he wouldn't have gotten shot. But in the adrenaline rush, and because he really likes Mr. Orange, he forgets that Mr. Orange wasn't shot by a cop, but by some fluke. The last person you would expect to have a gun did. They picked the wrong car, not because they were "wrong" but because they're better judgement didn't work out.
Again, not a plot hole. You may disagree with it, and that's cool. I'm not saying you have to like Reservoir Dogs. It's a pretentious movie that, despite being shot with gritty realism, has maybe the least convincing plan for robbing a bank. I mean, no group of bank robbers is going to dress the same and eat breakfast together before they pull the job. They aren't going to have six cups of coffee and talk loudly about Madonna in a public place. They aren't going to strut down an alley still talking loudly about pop culture. It's not realistic, but it fits in the theme of the movie. Just because a writer or a director makes a storytelling choice does not mean he is wrong, it means you don't agree with the choice, and that's your prerogative 100%.
But calling something a "plot hole" suggests that it is objectively wrong; That anyone who likes it is clearly missing a basic tenant of logic. And I know there's a flip side to this. You've probably been told that if you don't like Reservoir Dogs, then you just don't get movies etc etc, you probably just like True Lies etc etc. and that line of elitist bullshit sucks too. I probably came off a bit harsh in my other post, and if I did I'm sorry. the plot hole thing is kind of a pet peeve of mine, and causes the whole net-ragey troll face side. Oh, but the whole premise of "Memento" ? Total plot hole.
I really do wish there were more comedies that didn't try to be funny. I mean, yeah, they're funny, but "Midnight Run" is kind of like "Beverly Hills Cop" which didn't start out at comedy. It started out a thriller, and then Eddie Murphy showed up and started riffing and being all Eddie Murphy, and you've got a comedy.
ReplyDelete"Midnight Run" could have been a thriller, but because Grodin and DeNiro have such great chemistry, it's hilarious. I love the way Grodin is in absolute pain when he can't have the eggs and chorizo. Then you find out later, he's so upset because he has the money for a million plates of egg and chorizo with him the whole time, but couldn't blow his cover.
"Beethoven" was probably the best and worst thing that happened to Charles Grodin.
Her or Aja Kong.
ReplyDeleteThriller is the greatest album of all time.
ReplyDeleteI am not trolling.
Disagree with you on Appetite b/c I love it but I'll agree with you on Chinese Democracy. I think it got an unfair rap and people prejudged it b/c Axl's a crazy asshole but it's not a bad album. I love Street of Dreams, Madagascar, IRS and Prostitute. Some of the songs are a little overblown but fuck it, what do you expect from Axl Rose?
ReplyDeleteForest gump is FUCK ing AWFUL!!!! I hate that movie so much. Love pulp and sr though.
ReplyDeleteAgreed on deniro v pacino.
ReplyDeleteWell it does take place in a prison.
ReplyDeleteBest part about the apter mags....having something awesome to do while waiting for your mom to finish grocery shopping as a little kid! I killed a lot of time as a 9 yeat old in the magazine aisle.
ReplyDeleteSo you finally saw "Glengarry GlenRoss", what did you think?
ReplyDeleteDefinitely my favorite movie ever.
After years of wanting to, I finally watched "Dog Day Afternoon" last night, and I have to agree - it blew me away. Just one of the most tense, edge-of-your-seat films I've ever seen.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things I loved most about it was the lack of music - the sounds of the shots, sirens, jets, etc. were more than enough to create the incredibly tense atmosphere, without the need for any type of overly-dramatic music "cluing us in" that it was time to be scared. I really hate how over-produced movies have become in the last ten years, with non-stop music, over-the-top color-filtering, and the use of special-effects in place of much simpler and more realistic-looking props.
I know a lot of fans like to laugh at the kayfabe-centric Apter mags, but isn't he doing the same things we're all doing? Trying to make sense of what is sometimes completely nonsensical?
ReplyDeleteWe complain when one wrestler gets multiple opportunities at a title (Sheamus/ADR, for example), even though they fail in every single attempt. Apter would at least try to make sense of that, questioning if maybe ADR is secretly bribing one of the higher-ups into granting him rematch after rematch.
Loved 1994 just because Airheads and P.C.U. came out that year, not to mention Pulp Fiction, Clerks, The Shawshank Redemption, Forrest Gump, Natural Born Killers, Reality Bites and Drop Zone among others.
ReplyDeleteYeah, 1994 was a great year for movies while 1995....well, 1995 brought us The Howling: New Moon Rising.
See, I absolutely love "Memento", because...
ReplyDeleteSPOILERS!!!
... I can accept the half-assed explanation of how the guy that has no memory can remember that he has no memory: he has "conditioned himself" to believe it, by repeating itself to him countless times per day, by forcing himself to "remember Sammy Jankis", where the thoughts slowly but surely build upon themselves into a story that he has conditioned himself to believe as true. The movie basically explains it as being like "muscle memory", like riding a bike.
Again, is it half-assed? Yes, it obviously doesn't hold up under a microscope. But at least it TRIES to explain the problem, it doesn't just answer its own question with "just because" or "it was a gut feeling" or "a wizard did it". That's what bothers me; I can accept a dubious answer much more than I can accept no answer.
Again, not trying to insult your taste, it's one movie we're discussing, and one part of it just bothers me a lot. "Reservoir" and "Pulp" are the only two Tarantino films I've seen, but I didn't care for either, and, thus, have never been in a rush to see his newer films. I give him props for how stylized his films are, they're certainly something else from an aesthetic point of view, but based on the two films I've seen, I've always felt that he's more style over substance. I could be completely wrong, but I really haven't been interested in finding out.
I was definitely impressed. I love small character pieces like that that are just extremely hyper-verbal. I'd know a little this and that about it from having seen parts of the "ABC" speech and from knowing that Gil on the Simpsons was based on Shelly Levine. I just loved Ricky Roma's character: the guy who would be the complete asshole in most other movies but who's basically the nicest guy in this one because he feels no threat from his co-workers and feels like their team leader. Little things like "Oh you fuck that SHIT George!" and his ego-stroking on Shelly were just such cool little character pieces. And of course, Baldwin's speech was just an insane piece of business. I know that was created expressly for the movie, but I wonder if they've ever added it to live performances, because it's just the central thing in the movie. I catch myself quoting that all the time lately, I'll grab a cup of coffee at work and mumble "Coffee is for closers" or I'll just randomly tell someone to "Fuck or walk".
ReplyDeleteI heard that Pacino is currently or at least has recently starred in a Broadway revival of Glengarry Glen Ross, but this time he's playing Shelly Levine instead of Ricky Roma. I'd love to see how he plays it.
I love "Memento" too. I was just pointing out that even great movies can have plot holes, questionable motivation, or bullshit.
ReplyDeleteAnd I know you're not trying to insult my taste. Like I said, if you want to not buy what the movie is selling, that's 100% up to you. I had a nice little argument with someone over "Vertigo" when he dismissed it as "That movie where Jimmy Stewart plays the world's dumbest detective."
Obviously he wasn't buying into the "obsession makes us do irrational things" angle of the movie.Also, wouldn't that be awesome if a wizard really was behind all of "Reservoir Dogs"?
btw: "Four Weddings and a Funeral" is a pretty good movie, too. it might not be as good as the other three (that are "great"). it's still worth watching, though.
ReplyDeleteI think the "Live and let die" cover is much worse.
ReplyDeletethis is my favorite post ever.
ReplyDeletethe reason is obvioulsy the hype. I mean, Axl Rose himself announced he had picked the best from over 300 songs he had written (in a span of what.. ten years?). of course expectations are gonna be way too high.
ReplyDeleteYeah, but LALD isn't a great song, or even a very good one, to begin with. So it's just a bad cover of a mediocre song. The version of "Knockin" is a desecration of a classic.
ReplyDelete"Who ever told you you could work with men?"
ReplyDeleteOuch!
And, wow, I'd definitely be interested in seeing Pacino play Levine. Very against character.
"Reservoir Werewolves"?
ReplyDeleteGlad you consider Nirvana as a modern day Beetles and not the actual Beatles. Nirvana is nowhere close to what the Beatles were and hate when anybody even mentions those two groups in the same sentence.
ReplyDeleteI grew up a huge MJ fan, back before all his "changes". Id have to put Thriller way up near the top too.
ReplyDeleteAgree on all points.
ReplyDelete