Will There Ever Be A Robin…

It’s a question many of us have asked ourselves and our friends over the years. I mean sure we had that one guy a couple of years back, but the moment he slipped into that suit with the nipples he became a joke. See that’s the problem with introducing Robin into the Batman universe. The moment you do it detracts from the seriousness of the movies. Suddenly you have this kid running around in green and red drumming up memories of the “BANG” “POW” “BOP” Batman of the sixties.

“Holy rusted metal Batman!” Paying homage to the past can be a great thing if done properly and as much as I enjoy Batman Forever for it’s call back to the sixties Batman, the way it handled the character of Robin was the first strikes on the nails to the coffin that nearly killed the franchise. Batman and Robin was the hammer that sealed that coffin for nearly a decade.

Okay so it was only eight years, but a decade sounds so much more dramatic so we’re going to go with that.

For nearly a decade we waited patiently. Surviving only on the occasional rumor of which actor they would get to play Batman. We heard everything from Joshua Jackson to the future Superman Henry Cavill. Even Jake Gyllenhaal was batted around our imaginations before our thirst was final quenched with the announcement of Christian Bale as the caped crusader. Which people of course bitched about like they do with every announcement of every actor that has been cast in the role. With a new Batman cast, Christopher Nolan at the helm, and a villain we had never seen on the big screen we waited patiently to see if they would take a chance on our favorite sidekick.

For three films we waited. For seven years we wondered if he would make an appearance. There was much speculation as to who would play The Boy Wonder if the role was written into The Nolanverse, but in the end we were left with a halfhearted suggestion  at the possibility of the chance that John Blake would carry on the work of The Batman as possibly Robin or Nightwing in a movie that all of us knew was never coming.

It would be four years before we would look up into the night sky and see the Batsignal again. The next mention of Robin came in Batman v. Superman, and it came in the form of a graphited costume incased in plexiglass leading us to believe that Dick Grayson had moved on to become Nightwing and that poor Tim Drake had met his fate at the hands of The Joker.

So will we ever get the Robin we deserve? I choose to remain hopeful that at some point in the future they will find way to bring the character into the story, but chances are it will be the Death in the Family story line. I mean after all they wouldn’t want Robin cluttering up the universe for very long. That just another character to get in the way, and they already have trouble balancing the ones they have.

So to answer the question: Yes and No.

Yes there will be mention of Robin, and he may even pop up from time to time. Don’t look for him to hang around for very long though, and I’m kind of okay with that. If they did the Death in the Family story and really dug into it, then they could possibly get at least two really strong movies.

No, sadly kiddies I really believe that Robin will never stick around long enough to become  a card carrying member of the Justice League. He’s good for a story here and there, maybe, but if you add him to the mix full time then he would distract from Batman too much, and possibly confuse the audience that may be unfamiliar with the character. I know that sounds crazy, but there are some people out there that only know Batman from the movies. Plus DC/Warner Bros. has issues when they have more than one main character in a movie.

We must hold on to our hope that one day they will find a way to bring the Boy Wonder in to the fold. Even if they wanted to do a solo Nightwing movie I think we’d all be cool with that. They could skip the origin story and just dive into it head first. Thankfully we now live in a world that gives us multiple comic book movies each year so we have lots to keep us busy until then. Till next time friends, stay entertained 

Her (review)

Her is one of the films that I have been looking forward to seeing since the preview was released some months ago. I missed it during its theatrical run so I finally got around to watching it tonight and I couldn’t be happier that I did.

This film is such a unique, yet familiar at the same time, concept. It tells a very common love story just in a way that, at least in my experience, has never been done before. This film conveys so many different emotions in such an interesting and complex way. It also raises several questions about technology and the continuing disintegration of human to human interaction but doesn’t present it in a negative way necessarily.

Her also presents love in such a way that could be a lesson to everyone. It proposes the age old message that love should not be based on appearance, or lack thereof in this case, but rather personal connection. Yet again, it is a story that has been told numerous times, only in vastly different contexts. 

The cast and crew behind this film did a phenomenal job of telling this incredibly complex love story. Writer/director Spike Jonze created a timeless film that I truly feel will go on to become a modern classic. Joaquin Phoenix gives the performance of his career as the reclusive, heart sick lead character Theodore. Personal favorite Scarlett Johansson shows off her acting chops by stealing the show as the operating system Samantha, never appearing on screen because she only exists in computers as a voice. Somehow, she still commands your attention. Amy Adams and Chris Pratt make for a great supporting cast rounding out the film re

ally

well.

This is the second film released in 2014, the first being The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, that has forced it’s way into my all time top ten films. I can’t say enough good things about this film. It is such a deep and heartfelt film that I think everyone can relate to in some way. This should be the next film you watch without question. Til next time…

-Heath

@ShitAboutFuck
@OneTripDown
@dhbates87

Russian to ban foul language or WHAT THE FUCK PUTIN

By now most of you will have heard about the latest batshit crazy kick Russian President Vladimir Putin is on, banning all fucking foul language from fucking films, fucking music, the god damned theatre, fucking books, cultural gathering or exhibits and pretty much just fucking eliminate all the swear words people enjoy using. What the fuck?

Before we proceed I feel I must warn you dear friends that this will most certainly contain tons of swear, curses, foul language and dirty words. I personally am of the mind that words are just words and there are no “dirty” words. Thats not to say I walk around in public constantly spewing forth George Carlins list of seven (which are: cocksucker, motherfucker, fuck, shit, cunt, cock and pussy) in casual conversation. Lets take a second to reexamine that list, back in Carlins day you couldn’t utter any of those on television but I can recall recently hearing at least three of those on a basic cable station. So I’m sure other words have taken their place. After all, These times they are a changing fuckers.

Imagine just how fucking boring life is going to be in Russia. I’m not sure it was all that exciting anyway and now shit will become even more mundane. It may not be much of a stretch if you’re one of those conservative, religious fuckers that only uses swear words in the privacy of your own bedroom closet while you jerk it to animal porn but I would lose my shit if I had to stop cursing. My fucking head wants to explode just from thinking about those poor people. Only G rated movies. Having to buy all your music through Wal-Mart so it comes censored. All my favorite books have swears in them, so those would have to go. For fucks sake, what are people going to do for fun?

Speaking of fun, what the fuck are people supposed to scream during sex? You’re having a really good night, things get wild and instead of screaming “intercourse my intercoursing brains out” she screams the old stand by and in come the coppers to fine or possibly arrest you both. Batshit right?

I can not imagine living in a country without the freedom to say whatever the fuck I wanted. I fear a lot of Americans don’t truly appreciate our freedom of speech but just how free is our speech. We hear daily about our right to speak our mind but flip that coin and you’ll hear the stories of people getting in trouble for speaking their mind. So just how fucking far off are we from being in the same boat as our Russian counterparts. Our films are already subjected to a counsel of cocksuckers, looking at you MPAA, who get to determine whether or not our sheep like brains can handle the violence, nudity and if the movie would be just as good with thirty-six fucks instead of forty-one.

By this point you’ve either given up or have giggled a couple times. For those of you that may have gotten offended by my liberal use of expletives, fuck off. Offending you was not my intention but merely a happy side result. For the rest of you still hanging in there with me, wondering if theres a point buried amongst the swears and curses, not really. It was late, I was listening to nineties music and felt like writing. Hopefully you’ve enjoyed reading. Till next time friends, stay entertained.

-D

@ShitAboutFuck
@dhbates87
@onetripdown

A Hard Truth

Starting from the time I became aware of my surroundings and was able to begin comprehending the world around me in the simplistic manner of a child, I have been inundated with religion. Whether it be the importance of having beliefs, or something as simple as being quoted scripture in relation to a situation, it has always been there. You see, I grew up in the heart of the Bible Belt and down here, religion is not just a part of life but, rather a part of society as a whole. The town I’m from has a population of less than than two thousand, is roughly four square miles, and has upward of 15 churches. Our nearest larger city has upwards of triple that number. Religion is not a choice around here, it is something you are burdened with the obligation of accepting or facing ridicule and shame and the hands of believers.

In the area I’m from you are either a believer in God or you are looked down on as a heathen or a worshiper of Satan, depending on who is doing the looking. That’s right Atheists, if you don’t believe in anything, you worship the Devil…let that sink in for a minute. That pretty well explains the level of logic and reasoning, and common sense for that matter, here and most other small towns im sure. Blindly accepting these deeply held, yet incredibly fragile, beliefs is expected and “God” forbid you stray.

I said all that to give a bit of better understanding on the experiences I’m going to talk about now. Religion is something that I’ve struggled for most of my life. Even from a young age I always had these feelings that what everyone was talking so much about was kind of untrue to a certain degree but, like a good little sheep, I didnt give that too much thought and just went on following blindly. Side note, my parents divorced when I was around three and a half and lucky for me they were both religious so along with two Christmases, I got two churches. They both remarried pretty quickly and both to, how should I say, assholes. Shortly after my dad’s new wife moved in, the abuse began. She began a regimen of daily beatings, with belts, hands, or whatever was handy, for any little reason or for no reason at all. Now, for a four to five year old thats a bit excessive but, what do I know, I don’t even believe in “God”. I don’t want to give the wrong impression and think this is turning into a “sad bastard, feel sorry for me” pitty party, quite the opposite. The point is, I can clearly remember wishing and praying even at such a young age that “God” would make it stop. Surprisingly, that never happened and it took the legal system to set that situation straight. Shocker, I know.

Ok, back to the main subject. Clearly, my struggles with religion and disbelief began pretty early on and with good reason. The older I got, the more the feeling of disbelief, and alienation because of it, grew. The deeper into my teens I got it became more and more difficult to feign enthusiasm and the more I hated myself because of every belief that had ever been forced upon me. I had doubts and therefore I was a dirty, broken, worthless sinner who was doomed to an eternity roasting in hellfire, so they say.

When I was a senior in high school though, something changed. Towards the end of my senior year I began attending a church with some friends of mine and it seemed like it finally all clicked for me after all those years. I had belief and even more than that, I had faith. I felt like I belonged, like I had found a second family…like I was on the right track. It didnt take very long, though, before all those old doubts and feelings of inadequacy crept back up. A few moths later I left that church and took a sort of sabbatical from church and began to explore my personal thoughts and beliefs and really attempt to find myself, because everybody knows that once you turn eighteen you become the person you will be for the rest of your life, right? Right? Anybody?

I tried my hand at church a couple of more times over the next few years with all attempts being unsuccessful. Then, everything changed. A few years ago I met the mother of my child, now my estranged wife. Once we found out we were having a baby, I felt some sort of paternal instinct to raise my child with religion. When he was born, my world changed. I really began to think as I looked down at this helpless little bundle of happiness that there may be some divine purpose, some grand order to the universe and we began attending church regulary and actually got very involved for two full years until about a year and a half ago. After we stopped attending, I really began to take a look at my beliefs and more importantly, to really critically question them all for the first time. After months of introspection, I came to the conclusion that I have no beleifs, at least of the religious variety. It was a hard truth to come to grips with, growing up the way that I did.

I spent 25 years trying to accept the beliefs that were pushed on me. Trying to accept creationism and divine purpose and the afterlife only to realize that I thought it was all a cleverly conceived lie. Now, at nearly 27 years of age I am struggling to make peace with the fact that there is nothing after this. The fact that this life is all I get to enjoy the people and things that I love. That I only get one lifetime to spend with my son who I love and adore more than the very breath of life, for whom I would give my remaining years if it gave him more life to enjoy. This revelation is not one that makes me sad or discourages me, instead it makes me savor every day, every minute that much more. There are times when the idea of death scares me more than anything ever has and then there are times when I think about how poetic it is that when that day finally does come, my atoms and molecules will disperse out into the universe that one day some of them might re-form as something else. These are the things that give me peace now. These are the things that comfort me through difficult times, in addition to good conversation with good friends and family. I don’t need a fairy tale to make me feel better, life is more beautiful without it anyway.

Til next time friends…

-Heath

Significant Shit

Hey guys, nothing too in depth just kinda wanted to drop a line and recognize some noteworthy films I had seen lately. Some new, some not so new but all worth your time/money. So here we go…

American Hustle
The Wolf Of Wall Street
Dallas Buyers Club
Out Of The Furnace
Mud
Homefront
Delivery Man
47 Ronin
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues
Gravity
12 Years A Slave
The Counselor.

Planning on dropping some in depth posts on a few of these but for now, time is of the essence. Til next time friends…

The Walking Dead

It should come as no surprise that we here at YDKSAF are fans of the Zombie genre and are awaiting the coming apocalypse with bug out bags packed and ready. What may be surprising is that we haven’t taken the time to discuss it here. Well friends I’ve come here to do two things: chew bubble gum and talk about The Walking Dead…and I’m all out of bubble gum.

For those of you out there that haven’t caught up with the rest of us, I’m going to try and do this without spoiling anything from this past season. If you haven’t been following our favorite biter beaters, nows your chance to catch up and join the rest of us as we learn how to survive in a world where the dead may not be the worst monsters out there.

Each week The Walking Dead takes us into a world where who you were no longer matters. All that matters is who you are now and who you are now better be handy at taking down walkers, if you’re gonna run with Rick and his group as they try to reclaim some sense of a normal life. Thankfully any sense of normalcy keeps getting snatched away from their grip because none of us want to watch Farmer Rick tend to crops. No we want Bad Ass Rick slangin dick, saving peoples asses and bashing heads…be they zombie or dumbass.

We love The Walking Dead because it makes you care about the people. From week to week we watch as they struggle to survive and we plan and learn from their mistakes. Because when the shit goes down there will be two main groups of people: those that weren’t prepared and us, the ones that have been waiting for years. The ones of us that read the story about a man eating another mans face in Florida and wondered why someone didn’t just shoot the fucker in the head. Sure our friends laugh at us…now.

When The Walking Dead returns this fall for its fifth season join us for our weekly recap, till next time friends, Stay entertained.

-D

@ShitAboutFuck
@dhbates87
@onetripdown

Attention Friends

Hello friends,

We have an announcement to make today. Starting today we will exclusively be covering films from The Asylum Production Company and SyFy Films. We feel that the overall cinematic direction of these companies is the future of the film industry. Films like Transmorphers, Shark Vs. Octopus,  and Sharknado need to be acknowledged. They need to be recognized for their technical achievements, their revolutionary special effects, and the overall quality of the films.

We really feel that the industry needs to stand up and recognize the talent of the actors and actresses that star in these films and start including them in awards show nominations. It’s appalling how much these companies get ignored by Hollywood amd the general public. From now on we will be doing our part to promote awareness for these underrated and under appreciated cinematic masterpieces by only covering them. Thank you for your support friends we hope you will help us spread the word.

-YDKSAF

P.S. April Fools.

The Wolf Of Wall Street

Hey guys, I know its been kind of a quiet month here at YDKSAF but, to be honest, doing five straight months of themes and almost daily posts kind of tired us out a little bit. We will be back at full force in April or May I promise. In the meantime, I bring you The Wolf of Wall Street. This is the latest film from Martin Scorcese and finds the legendary director dealing with subject matter that he handles like no other…crime and the more unsavory groups of American society.

Wolf is an adaptation of former stockbroker, drug addict, and con artist Jordan Belfort’s autobiography of the same name. Only some of the names and actual events have been changed to protect the guilty and you know, avoid huge lawsuits. Obviously some elements have been changed for dramatic effect but, for the most part, it is spot on to the actual events that took place.

Jordan Belfort was a middle class kid from The Bronx who had aspirations for much, much more. He manages to swing an entry level position at a large brokerage firm where he meets an experienced broker who shows him the ropes until the market crashes and the company closes. He quickly finds a job trading penny stocks and becomes a hot shot eventually starting his own firm to rip off the rich instead of the middle to lower class. He soon develops a taste for drugs, hookers, and general debauchery. Nothing could possibly go wrong, right?

Stellar performances all around, specifically Leonardo Dicaprio and Jonah Hill, make the daunting three hour run time fly by, barely feeling like 90 minutes. Scorcese falls back into his niche this time around after a couple of unsatisfying forays into psychological horror and childrens films. The whole experience is an enjoyable one and is worth multiple viewings. Give it a look to see a director who is back on top of his game. Til next time…

-Heath

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Dallas Buyers Club

I wanted to wait until after the Oscars to write this discussion of Dallas Buyers Club. After having watched this film I was ninety percent positive that McConaughey and Leto would walk out with awards but waited to see if the film would capture the Best Picture award as well. As we know now, that honor went to 12 Years A Slave a movie based on the novel 50 Shades of Grey I think…I haven’t watched it yet.

So heres Ron Woodroof, your stereotypical homophobic, redneck Texan banging chicks, doing drugs and placing bets on the rodeos. Then theres Rayon, a down on her luck tranny who likes to chase the dragon in her spare time. Two lovable characters with nothing in common…or so it would seem. Turns out they both have the HIVy and things get out of control when these two cats from different sides of the tracks meet in the middle…sorry Failure To Lose A Guy To Ghosts Of Girlfriends Ten Days Past Launch is on and I got distracted.

So Ron has the HIV in 1985 and is told he has thirty days to live. He doesn’t accept that shit cause he’s a man god dammit and he sets out to cure or kill himself. Big drug companies are trying to push through dugs that are killing more people than they are helping, which they see as one way of curing the patients. Ron ends up in Mexico where he finds drugs and supplements that actually help but aren’t approved by the FDA back in the USA. Ron and Rayon form a partnership and start helping others but this isn’t Disney, our heroes aren’t Magic Johnson and we all know this story doesn’t have a happy ending kiddies.

With amazing transformations from two stars and outstanding performances from all, Dallas Buyers Club is an amazing movie. McConaughey and Leto both get lost in their respective characters in this low budget, independent film that was years in the making and worth the wait. Till next time friends, stay entertained.

-D

@ShitAboutFuck
@dhbates87
@onetripdown

The Lego Movie

“Everything is Awesome”

I was excited to see this film from the first trailer I watched. I had enjoyed some of the Lego video games and a movie done in that style intrigued me. Add to that an all star cast featuring Morgan Freeman, Will Arnett and Will Ferrell to name a few and I was on board. Lets build a story.

Emmet is just your average construction worker living his average construction worker life and loving it. Out of no where comes WyldStyle to shake things up for him and the adventure begins. Bring on the laughs, explosions, amazing animation, Batman and a twist of an ending and we’re all left with smiles in the end.

I was worried that this film would end up feeling like a hundred and forty minutes of Lego commercials. With the help of a great story the film makers were able to entertain without leaving you brainwashed to buy. There were more adults than children in the theater where we watched The Lego Movie, so if you’ve dismissed it as “kids stuff” then you don’t know shit about fuck and should give it a chance. Till next time friends, stay entertained.

-D

@ShitAboutFuck
@dhbates87
@onetripdown