Happy Post Christmas! Open Thread

Updated on December 26, 2013 By Ken Begg 14 Comments

Got swag? Dish it, sistah! Seen anything, good or bad? (No spoilers, especially on the Doctor Who special, I haven’t seen it yet. By the way, no new Who until August? BOOOOOOOOOOO!)

Saw that great Christmas movie Dredd. I’m not a Dredd fan by any means, but it was a million times better than “Sylvester Stallone Sorta Pretending He’s Dredd, But Mostly Just Being Stallone.” And it was an hour and a half! If Hollywood made more films like that, I’d be in theaters more often.

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  • Arthur Petersen

    I LOVED the new Dredd, as did Link and Grant. Not sure if Sandy has seen it yet.

  • rtpoeman

    While you are waiting for Doctor Who to resume in August, may I suggest the Big Finish audios? Close to 200 stories in the “Classic” style (four half-hour episodes each). Colin Baker really comes into his own; so does Paul McGann. There are origin stories for Davros and the Cybermen, new companions who could *never* be done on TV (a shape-shifting penguin!)…

  • Ken_Begg

    Yes, I’m only ever heard good things, so….

    Glad Paul McGann got another shot at the character on film, if only just briefly.

  • Rock Baker

    Well, Ken, let me tell you, I saw something that may make you amend your review of SANTA CLAUS. By far the worst Santa Claus movie ever made must surely be 1972’s SANTA AND THE ICE CREAM BUNNY. How bad is it? So bad the film must be interrupted in the middle by a whole other movie! (Complete with opening and closing credits!!) Moreover, a Barry Mahon movie (made for a Florida amusement park circa 1969, about Thumbillina), which looks like a Disney film in comparison to the bookend material! Words really can’t describe it….

    I also saw ALIEN RAIDERS, which was a pretty dandy flick. A friend of mine (Will Meugniot) did the storyboards for the film, and sent me a copy of the movie along with some actual storyboard art! Bully! It’s part of the Warner Brothers/Raw Feed collection, and worth a look.

  • GalaxyJane

    I more or less spent 2 straight days watching nothing but reruns of old Christmas episodes of sitcoms on Antenna TV. Bewitched apparently took Christmas very seriously, with a visit to Santa every year, including taking orphaned Billy Mumy to the North Pole to restore his faith in Christmas. And my favorite Dragnet episode, the 70 version of “The Big Little Jesus” featuring Barry Williams as a pre-Brady acolyte. Then I popped in my copy of “A Ford Family Christmas” which makes me wish we still had old-school live variety shows at Christmas. Then I remember how awful NBCs live “Sound of Music” was this year and I realize that’s why we can’t have nice things.

    I did get a copy of Rifftrax “Maniac” which is my favorite batshit insane adaptation of “The Black Cat” ever, so looking forward to seeing what the boys make of that one.
    And I saw “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians” yet again, but only because it happened to be on early on Christmas Eve.

  • Rock Baker

    I love those older Christmas specials/episodes. I made sure Jack Benny, Liberace, and Jackie Gleason were all a part of my celebration!

  • Toby’c

    Dredd is the better movie and probably more faithful to the comics, but the Stallone movie is a lot more fun.

    My highlights were watching Die Hard on Christmas Eve – with my parents, my sister, her partner and their three-month-old – seeing Frozen on Boxing Day (first movie this year I’ve been able to give a 10/10 to), finishing Dollhouse season 1 and, of course, The Time of the Doctor.

    Seconding that Big Finish recommendation, especially The Marian Conspiracy, The One Doctor, Doctor Who and the Pirates, The Holy Terror, Storm Warning and The Chimes of Midnight,

  • Rock Baker

    I like the Stallone version, but then I never read the comic book so I have nothing to judge (no pun intended) other than it being a fun action flick.

  • The really sad thing about McGann’s second shot was that how good he was in the part. We got screwed out of a good Doctor.

  • Toby Clark

    I’ve read a little bit of the comic (in an extremely badly put together “Best of 2000 AD” collection), and the five-page chapters really didn’t sell me on the concept the way either of the movies did.

  • Sandy Petersen

    I just learned that Warner Brothers originally asked Bill Cosby (no joke) to play the Doctor in the 90s movie. Alas, Cosby turned them down. What a time-and-space traveler HE would have made.

  • That might have been interesting. The dramatic stuff I’ve seen him in was pretty fine stuff. He might have been an interesting choice. Would never have thought of him for the part, though.

  • The Rev.

    The weekend before Christmas I flew back home, which only my parents knew about. I proceeded to give the rest of the immediate family a very nice surprise. The nephew said it was the best Christmas present ever and my sister cried, which she rarely does so that was touching. I also got the nephew his first Godzilla movie, going with one of my favorites, Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster. (He plays with my old toys and I was advised he really wanted to see one of the movies.) He proclaimed it “awesome.” Uncle Rev. was very pleased, to say the least.

    I got some homemade goodies from mom and sis, some money from the grandparents, a Wii game, and four Godzilla movies I didn’t have on DVD yet (Ghidorah, vs. Megalon and a two-pack with vs. Spacegodzilla and vs. Destroyah). The big gift from the lady of the house is going to be a PS3; between the PS4 release and post-holiday sales the price is actually reasonable. In return I’m getting her a tablet of some sort (she’s undecided yet on which one she wants). I worked my ass off this year; it was really nice to have a Christmas I could actually afford to spend some money on my loved ones.

  • Jamie B.

    Picked up “Doctor Who, Dalek Invasion 2150” off of Rifftrax and watched it with GalaxyJane and the boys.

    Much worse than either of us remembered. And we were not expecting that much.