Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine Ricks Pics and Reviews

Hi all. I've done a lot of books and movies, but they tend to be spread out all over the place, so if you don't mind, I am going to concentrate my movies and novels on this thread. Rules are: I review whatever strikes my fancy in movies and novels, and you feel free to tell me whether you agree, disagree, or want me to shut the heck up.

First up: Twilight

Okay, so, my wife wanted to watch some horror movies for her birthday. One of which was twilight. And oh my god she was right. This movie was HORRIBLE! I can honestly say that it is NOT like my own personal heroine...truly.

Okay, I'm being harsh for what it was, which was a movie based on a book for tweenie girls. Honestly, I get it. But c'mon.

"Oh, I'm dark and brooding. I have a terrible secret...AND ITS' TEARING ME APART! Let me lean on this doorway with my back to you to hint at how torn up i am about this." "Oh dark and brooding androgenous love, I know that you are hiding your terrible secret, and it only draws me to you even more. Our love can never be, therefore, we are starcrossed and must go on, no matter what. I am sixteen, and I know this isnt puppy love, Its the real thing. Deep, abiding, wait, what does abiding mean? Oh Brick, see my chest heave at the thought of you..."

Even my wife thought it was cheesy as hell. And this is a woman that loves her some geekfest.

It wasn't a total wash for me. It was, unintentionaly i think, funny in spots...well, I was openly mocking it anyway. And I did like the chick that was the pitcher during the game, she was cute. Oh, and the song that they used during the baseball game.

This was a movie for the tweenies. The difference between it and the sometimes overly dramatic potter movies (with Harry and Hermoine being played by...well, bad actors...) is that the Potter movies are made to appeal to all audiences for the most part. Twilight was made specifically for the tweeniegirls who draw unicorns on their book covers.

For tweeniegirls, I would give it a hamfisted A+. For everyone else, I would recommend drano in yer eyes.

Appalosa:

This is a western vehicle for Ed Harris and Viggo Mortenson.

I like westerns, and I've seen a few over the years. What looked like a good sequeal(sp?) to the later day westerns like Unforgiven at the theaters and on the commercials...didn't hold up as well on DVD. Which was a shame.

It's a lot more realistic. Even the violence is much more in keeping with the way it would have happened in real life. There were very few long drawn out battles like the cinematic Gunfight At The OK Corral. Things tended to be bloody, violent, and quick. This movie even tends to highlight that in one sequence.

At the same time, its more workmanlike than you want a western to be. The plot is lifted straight out of Rio Bravo and the umpteen dozen other John Wayne westerns like it. The same story told over and over.

Robert Parker, the writer that penned the story originally, is a fine craftsman, but I haven't read his version so I don't know how well the story cleaves unto his work. The climax isn't really the climax in the movie, its just setting the stage for the final. Ed Harris seems to disappear the last portion of the movie, and even that is more realistic than the old classics. He becomes the bystander, the old sheriff who has passed his prime and is there to be fodder for the bad guy, but doesn't even become that in the end.

It's Viggo's Show. It shows through the movie. Perhaps Ed was busier than he thought he would be as director, I don't know, but the movie rates about a C when I was looking for a first class A.

For those that need it, there is a shot of "supposedly" a nude Renee Zellwegger bathing in the river. Don't know if it was her or not, but...it really didnt add much visually.

The best parts of this movie are the quiet moments, of which there are a lot. I've always been a fan of the quiet, laconic sense of humor that is displayed magnificently in this picture.

Its just a shame that it doesn't hold the drama, the tension that a western needs.

I do think, though, that Ed Harris is one of the finest actors working today, and I have no doubt we will see much more and much better from him in the future.

Oh, and Renee, Red is not your look.

The Suckfest Trifecta:

Okay, so, in the course of normal human events, I rented some movies for the missus and myself. They were, in no particular order: Bride wars, a chick flick for my wife. Is it just me or is Anna Hathaway falling into the so skinny i look like a cadaver category now? This movie had potential, but its like they ran out of ideas for them to do to each other, and then cut out all the funny parts, and you were just left with a bad pastiche of cliched chick flick moments. Urgh. They just weren't mean enough, and they didn't do enough to each others weddings. They needed more nasty turns.

Tropic Thunder: I heard rave reviews about this movie, and after watching it, decided that those rave reviewers were either bought off or dumb as hell. Now, I realize that halfway through I was turned off at the repeated use of the "retard" joke. As someone who's sister is mentally handicapped, i find poking fun at someone that cannot fight back about as funny as a bullet to the head. So i realize that I am biased. But, forget the lead guys name, he plays the same dumbassed character in every other movie. Then there was Tom Cursed in the movie producer guy role, then there was ...well, it was about as funny as a brick. I don't remember so much as a chuckle from it.

And last and not least, was the highly stylized The Spirit. Okay, I think this move suffered from the highly stylized making. We had been too conditioned from Sin City to take this style and be able to adapt the broad comedy bits to it. Combine that with the noir aspects and it just didn't seem to work. yes, Eva Mendez nekid works for just about any man. But there wasn't enough of that to save the movie. Yes, scarlett johanson is pretty, but her acting in this one was right there with Uma's in B&R...and we all know how that turned out. The story itself...was typical. The look was great..in Sin City.

So, here's my ratings...

Chick wars...D
Tropic Blunder...F
Dispirited...D-

In the Electric Mist

Tommy Lee Jones seems to be a fairly bankable leading man for hollywood. He is seasoned, as one female member of my family says, "he's got it! He's not a pretty boy..." Well, you get the picture. And honestly, I'm secure enough to admit that I like him as an actor. In point of fact, he reminds me of my dad in a way.

And in the Electric Mist, I must say that while all the components are there, something is missing.

I have been a fan of James Lee Burke's Robiceaux (sp? I'm a fan, not a speller) series for over a decade. I found the series with Heaven's Prisoners, also made into a movie. It had the distinction of having Terri Hatcher nude, which as a male I unabashedly liked. Unfortunately, it also starred Alex Baldwin, who has zero understanding of southern ways and cadences. Dave R. is a complex character of a man. You might want to call him a tragic figger uhv a man, but you would be wrong. He's an alcoholic ex military man now home in the bayou's of Louisiana and a cop.

Most of the cop stuff is standard. You dont' read a Robiceaux novel for the plot. You read it for the richness that Burke imbues his characters and stories with.

Southerners can be, amoungst many fine and many not so fine qualities, maudlin. And this is the one overriding characteristic that seemed to imbue Confederate Dead to me. The absolute and unavoidable evils of the past come home to roost.

In Burkes writing, you can feel the humid southern weather on your skin, feel it leeching the sweat out of you, making it almost ooze out sticking your shirt to your back. You can feel the old evils simmering, coming to a slow boil. You can smell the fecund decay of nature and society in equal parts.

And while the movie tried to capture this, it didn't. One change was obvious. The book had long been written before Katrina, and its obvious that monetary breaks are what caused this movie to be able to be made.

Jones did a good job of acting, but he never really seemed to wear the skin of the character the way he was written in the book. Oh, he got the anger, the sudden and brutal violence, but he was at points almost chipper. Thats not Dave. Dave is the walking offended. He's offended at the evils, the humiliations that life casually tosses at characters at their lowest points of life.

John Goodman is Baby Feet Balboni, and while Dave goes to some measure to tell us that Baby Feet is an evil man in this movie...at some point that should have been shown. The unasumming menace of the character in the book was not borne out in the movie.

Mary Steenburgen played Dave's wife, Bootsie. Let me be honest, I have never really cared for Ms. Steenburgen. She always seemed to be crusing through roles, having little impact and average attraction in those roles. But, I would say that this role, more than any other I have seen her in, shows what she is capable of and what should be brought to each role. Tall and slim, she never seemed to have that certain something to me. This role, however, seemed to bring out the life in her. She seemed wholly feminine, wholly authentic, and rich in attraction. Very few women seem to become more as they age. Most seem to lose a certain something. Ms. Steenburgen has gone the opposite route and gained, whether it be in stature, in maturity, in presence I don't know. But she seemed to be the single most real character in the movie.

Perhaps my love of the books has colored my perceptions, but I'm okay with that. It wasn't a soulless, slavish adaption, but it wasn't a hollywood blockbuster action til you drop movie either.

I don't know if this movie went straight to video. If it did, it was a shame. I know it wouldnt have done, say, Iron Man money, but it wasn't that type of film.

I give it a solid C and hope that the franchise can pull off something better if it is lucky enough to be given another shot.

Okay, so, since my last review was In the Electric Mist, a book based on the Dave Robicheaux novels by James Lee Burke, I decided to give my review of Heavens Prisoners, the first such movie as far as I know.

This movie starred Alec Baldwin, Terri Hatcher, Eric Roberts, Mary Stuart Masterson, and Kelly Lynch.

First up, let me say flat out that the movie should have been a hit. It took all the best elements of the book and wove a very compelling story. It was all there.

The problem was Alex Baldwin. Now, I may not like him as a person due to his and his estranged/ex wife's airing their dirty laundry in public, but i don't discount that he can act...when he is in his element.

To the role of Dave, a very southern, very brutal character, he brought...yankee pep. He swaggered like a Drunken John Wayne when he should have just walked. He seemed lost as to how a southern man carries himself. And as a producer, he should have realized that there were just a few too many closeups of his baby blues and capped teeth.

Not shaving does not make a gritty southerner. And attitude, its the one essential to getting the southern man portrayed correctly. Witness the scene with the DEA agent Deautrive. There is a line in there where he basically says "Hey, I know you.." Dave bounces. Baldwin was trying to show a desperation to connect with the character to retain an orphaned child, Alafair. That is not the way a southern man would act. And it is most definately not the way the title character would act.

Eric Roberts did a fine job as the cuckolded in his own business villian. And Terri looked beautiful, but in need of a bra (sorry guys, I lusted after her back then too, but honesty is honesty) and turned in a fine job as the demented wife of Eric.

Kelly Lynch, well, whats there to say? She did't do the typical hollywood thing and try to affect an accent that grates on the ears of any southerner (Folks, I don't try to sound like a new jersey thug or a Boston blue blood because it would sound horrible, why do you think you can do a southern accent with an appropriate drawl? Watching Elizabeth Taylor in anything Tennessee Williams is not good...don't copy her. Don't do it!) and her acting was spot on. And she's pretty easy on the eyes as well.

Like I say, all the elements where there. It was just that one crucial lead character that was so off and jarring that it just didn't work. It took the watcher out of the movie every time he spoke.

As for Ms. Masterson, well, i have to admit, I'd watch her read the telephone book.

Heaven's Prisoners without Alec Baldwin, a solid and very respectible B+.

Heaven's Prisoners with Alec Baldwin, a very disappointing D.

A plea to hollywood. If you come down south and really listen, you will find as many dialects as you can imagine. But please, don't try them. Its okay, we know that if the actor isn't from the south, it isn't going to work and we wont hold the bland, accentless speech patterns against you. We understand. Try it, and you'll only smoke yer own ass.

Trust me.

A new review of an older movie. Again, my reviews, my rules, lol.

Jurassic Park III-

Having seen the first two movies, and having been somewhat disappointed by the second, despite being a fan of Jeff Goldblum, I expected this movie to be...well, a big steaming pile of what they found a phone in.

It wasn't.

Dr. Grant is back, yes, and so is his lady love. Only, they aren't a couple anymore. She's actually a mom and with some other guy. The we have the new smart kid on the block, an intern. He's an okay kid, but rather bland as a character. Then we have the Kirby's, William H. Macy and Tea Leoni.

Lemme just say this upfront...Macy is a fine actor but he needs to get away from the more wimpy parts for a while, the more whitebread parts. He did a turn on sports night that he needs to explore much more. His danger is that of typecasting himself as the wimpy, squishy guy. Still, he is a fine actor and inhabited this role as if it was him in real life.

Tea Leoni...well, all i can say is that a sex obcession by Dumb Duchovny...geez, man, what more do you want? Anyway, Ms. Leoni plays a mom. Not just any mom, but one that has lost her son and on occasion, looses her...well, steaming pile of her own, when confronted with things that not only want to eat her and her companions, but have no trouble dispatching a T-rex.

Throughout the movie, the action scenes are very well done, no doubt. Some not so derivative, and some kinda. The characters are not very well fleshed out at times, but thats okay, this is a popcorn movie, not Shakespear on Monster Island...although, thinking about it, I would have to root for the monsters if it was shakespear they were after. *grumbles* read a whole damn page and miss one 'not' and get the entire passage wrong...dang english class...

I don't know how the movie did at the time, to be honest, but viewing it years later I can say that I had fun with it. It was enjoyable and stands up well. I had heard at the time that there were problems, folks saying that they were literally writing the movie as they were shooting. Now, from what I understand, that takes place quite a bit as things have to be changed or adjusted as a movie goes on, due to actor constraints, budget constraints, etc... I do remember a bunch of fanboy hoopla, and some people saying it was a flop before it even came out. But thats about all I remember about that.

Just one thing, folks...and its completely sexist. Tea Leoni, a "mom" character yes, but...its the jungle and she runs around dressed like she's in Iran and about to be stoned if she shows some wrist. Folks, Its Tea Leoni...you know....hot babe. If you are gonna show us an endless supply of barely post pubescent girls dressed like two dollar hookers at fleet week in the movies, when you finally do make a movie with a gorgeous mature woman, why not give us older men something to root for? Not saying she needed to be nekkid or in a bikini, but dang, man...dressed like a nun on holiday?


All jokes aside, this was a fun movie, it gave us a new and genuinely deadly antagonist in the Spinosaurus or whatever the heck it was called, and a genuine reason for him to be on the island. Notice, I didn't say back. Very important feature in the movie. See, I can remember things.

Jurassic Park III- Solid B+ outing.

I wasn't very impressed with JP3 when it came out, but I saw it on TV recently, and it was better than I remembered it being.

Kinda the same with me, EDE's. I was never a dinosaur type, though my son is. We actually rented the movies JP i and II for him and he loved them, even the scary parts. When I saw three on sale for 5 bucks I picked it up. Sometimes, especially in a bad economy, mindless fun is whats called for. And while the dino's were fun and a little informative, the movie itself was really just a fun pic that moves popcorn and lets you forget your economic woes for a few hours.

Movie Time Review:

Beer for My Horses

Okay folks, I don't know if this was a country tv movie of the week or what, but its obvious that some folks thought that this was the kind of mindless country fun that folks have. Bad acting, cheesy situations, cheesier dialog..its all there. It's so bad, its kinda fun, which is what I think they were going for all along.

Its an old story, boy re-meets girl, boy has girl for one night, girl gets kidnapped by "evil forners", boy assembles posse to invade forn country to rescue girl. Happens all the time.

Now, Toby Keith is kinda funny in a big dumb way. Heck, he's just a big old country boy like me, and he isn't as dumb as he lets on, kinda like me. And as the lead, its obvious that his acting talents really lie in his music video's. In other words, he can't act for sh...uh, he can't act. But, he's so bad, he's actually kinda funny.

Claire Forlani...musta really needed the money. Sorry, the girl can act, but this was years beneath her. She's basically there to be pretty and rescued. Okay, that happens in blockbusters as well as c movies.

the rest of the cast...including Willie...well...hmmm. Lemme be kind and say that this movie was obviously tongue in cheek and tried to just have fun. Willie, we know you need the money, but really, Hoss, some jobs you can turn down.

Now, don't get me wrong. This wasn't a great movie, it wasn't even really a good movie. But, it was a fun movie...if you approach it the right way. If you actually go at the movie as a critic...well, just go ahead and throw up in a bucket somewhere and get it out of your system. This movie wasn't made in an attempt to win awards. If you go at it as a goofy, country romp, hey, you'll have a fun time.

Serious movie- F
Fun Movie that enjoys what it is- B+

Anzio- Robert Mitchum as a reporter in WW II that is at the landing of Anzio, in Italy. Mitchum...is money. But it seems like the rest of the film was just an exercise in using old props. The acting was nothing short of ...sleepwalking. Even the great Peter Faulk couldn't help out.

As a film, Anzio seems like a series of events strung together without the spit and bailing wire. There is no glue that binds or allows the movie to ever elevate. Made at a time when war and political tensions were high in america on a losing cause, the movie cannot seem to make up its mind. The cast is there, but the performances were apparantly phoned in from Pennsylvania they are so wooden. It seemed like standard 'big event in the war' storytelling, but at the same time it seemed to want to have one foot in the then current political climate.

As well, the infolet with the movie made it seem as if it was the story of the grueling four month long invasion, but the movie centered around a group of about seven men, most of whom were killed pretty quickly.

Sorry, love watching Mitchum at work, but this movie was one of his stinkers.

Do you ever watch a movie and just want to slap the hell outta the people, and then five minutes later, slap the hell outta yourself for wasting however many minutes of your life the movie is?

Quarantine.

Seriously. I bought it for my wife, she has this thing for horror movies and end of the world apocalypse movies. I wound up watching the last half myself as she put our kid to bed, and honestly, I wish she had put me to bed instead.

The movie has everything that really gripes my ass. Shaky camera work...look, it may be cool to the attention deficit generation, but it literally gives me a headache. Cloverfield was more more much more than enough. Dumbass characters. yes, I said dumbass. "hhhh, there's this freaky woman with blood trailing down her face that has just bitten my partner in the neck...I think I'll try and reason with her." Dumbass. Then, there is the screamer and trembler. The main character for the last fifteen minutes of the film did nothing but stand around, scream, and tremble. Twenty seconds in, I thought "okay, now she's hamming it up". Five minutes into it, I wanted to reach into the screen and slap the ever lovin' s#!t outta her.

Maybe people like that last one. I don't know, but I had a grandmother that would fall apart at the slightest provocation and it irritated the hell outta me. What good is that? How does it help? Really. You wanna fall apart, do it after the crap has come down.

As to the movie, most of it was lost to me in that "frenetic" style that hollywood is loving right now. I think this is the 2000's trend, like uber gritty realism was for the 70's. I just finished watching it 20 minutes ago and I can't name a single character. I do know that I was applauding the ending where she was dragged away at high speed.

And thats another thing about it. That seems to be the rage lately. Drag me to hell, paranormal activity, quarantine, and there have been a couple of others lately. Yeah, its fun to see a movie where the typical ending doesn't take place. But it's wearing its welcome out fast.

gonna give this one a D for Damned Annoying.

Hate the shaky camera thingy. Didn't think it was cool even once.

The Vampire's Assistant:

Okay, its a tweeny flick that my wife wanted. Don't ask me why, espccially since Salma Heyak is in it (My hot crush from waaaay back), but she did.

Anyway, the acting by the kids is ...about what you would expect. Nothing great or bad there, just like harry potter, mostly unknowns that try hard, but the "acting" is obvious.

Anyway, there are some interesting characters in it, but what really struck me was John C. Reilly's performance as Crespley.

It wasn't....it didn't....hmmm. It just wasn't good. I know it was a difficult one. He had to inject humor into what was supposed to be tense situations. But his speech was off. He couldn't walk the fine line of doing dramatic stuff and switching over into wimsy or light humor as the script called for.

Hey, whatayagonnado. I calls them like I sees them. I'd give it a C+.

Kentucky Fried Movie:

Lemme just say up front..I love goofy movies. I even have a thread on here somewhere that some just updated not long ago. Loves me some Airplane! and Police Squad or whatever that was. I have an affinity for the slapstick over the top humor with a bit of ribald humor to boot.

Thats why this movie was so disappointing to me when I finally got to see it a few nights ago.

This was a ZAZ production with John Landis as the director. And I had heard that it was laugh out loud funny for years. I should have known. Heard the same thing about Animal House and it ranked right there with 2 girls, 1 cup as far as I was concerned.

I knew it was a vignette movie, different skits, and I was thinking we'd probably see some frenetic, fast paced fun, much like Amazon Women on the Moon or the aforementioned Airplane!

No,not really. There were a couple of funny skits, the movie theatre with feelavison was okay. There were plenty of T and A shots from back when women had real boobs, and trust me, I had no problem with that, either. But...

The enter the dragon skit went waaay too long and wasn't funny. The funniest one of all was the couple that put on the how to sex record, and they showed nothing.

There was a voice Cameo by Leslie Neilson if I am remembering the voices correctly. And the Point Counterpoint thing was funny for a moment, but thats what I was really expecting.

The rest was a huge letdown. Now, granted, the humor was a lot more oldschool, some might now be considered offensive (The daredevil, the adventurer), but its greatest sin was that it wasn't very funny. I got one or two chuckles out of it. By the early middle of the bruce lee spoof skit, I was apologizing to my wife for subjecting her to it. And thats a shame.

F-. And I almost never fail a movie. But this one, even with some great boobage flashed across the screen, was a real stinker.

I've got two for you today: Amazon Women on the Moon and Metropolis (kinda fitting, here, at least name wise)

Amazon Women on the Moon: This movie, that also involves John Landis much like Kentucky Fried Movie did if I remember correctly...suffered much the same fate. Funny at the time, but did not hold up well. Basically, a skit movie held loosely together by the thread of an afternoon movie from the fifties, suffering frequent technical difficulties that allow the skits to show. Some stuff still holds up okay, such as Arsenio Hall having a bad day, but much doesn't. Some stuff seemed to be very prescient, such as the Guttenberg skit that involves a woman that receives very detailed info on his dating past via a dating service that requires "two valid forms of ID". Its been two days, and thats really about all that I can recall of it. My memories of it made it much funnier. The funniest skit of all involved a record (wow, does that date the movie) instructing a young couple on the ins and outs of lovemaking. Beyond that, Sybill Danning jiggles a lot, and there is some nudity from the days of natural boobs.

Metropolis: The restored version.

I've heard about this movie for years. It's from 1927 and it is cosidered one of the greats for its use of what to me is inspired art deco, but is considered german impressionism. the story is a simple allegory. Dad has built a city with two classes, the haves and the have nots. The have nots suffer brutal conditions underground, the have's live a life of frivolous excess above ground. The theme is that the working class and the white collar class need something (heart) to mediate and bring them together. The story is told in scifi mold, with robots, special effects, etc. (I have to say that the turning the robot into the girls likeness was very good, even for the time, even for now in some cases.)

Both sectors of society had their problems. The have nots were portrayed as having to work under brutal conditions, but not educated enough to understand that they were putting their own children at risk destroying the "heart" machine that ran the city. The Have's were shown as uncaring users that had no concern for others well being as long as they were being serviced in their hedonistic lifestyles. There was a typical mad scientist to effect the story moving along.

Honestly, while the movie was not my cup of tea, the special features that cobbled together the making of the movie originally was pretty great. Fascinating stuff.

Amazon women on the moon: Then, B, now, D+
Metropolis: C+, the making of, A for interesting.

Tonight's movie selection: Dear God, Why oh Why? or Twilight: New Moon

Yes, I watched this abomination. I have a wife who wanted to watch it. To begin...

Technically, the movie was fine. They had the lighting, the sound, the special effects all working perfectly. They did a really great job on it.

As to the story, I'll pay you five dollars to cleave my skull in two with a hatchet if I ever have to watch it again.

This movie was not made for me. I acknowledge this. I understand this. I desperately yearn for the ability to have never seen it. Although the redheaded chick was really cute. Other than that..really, just shoot me.

You'd think with adult actors that look like young'uns there would be good acting. I've seen blocks of cinder that would be better. I'm sure all the girls, gay men, and adult women with pedophilia fantasies loved the werewolf scenes. But when he was standing in the rain they could not edit the scene well enough to cover the fact that he was skaking from head to toe with cold. Or the fact that the young lady lead was flatter than a corn fritter...and I ain't talkin' bout her boobs.

After three minutes I just had that old song "torn between two lovers" in my head and thinking..."A bullet would solve my problems, either through their heads or mine."

At one point I was actually playing in my head the episode of JLU where the young Japanese girl runs up to Stargirl, kicks her in the skins and says "Supergirl could melt you with her eyes." I said it out loud. My wife laughed.

Then there was the sequel to the worst line in movies ever ("You're my own personal heroin"), "You are your own Sun."

It's funny because its painful. I'm sorry, some editor somewhere should be horsewhipped for allowing that to be in a movie, a book, a pamphlet, a fortune cookie.

It wasn't even "fun bad" or "unintentionally bad funny", it was just...I can't really finish that thought. I cannot come up with something that conveys the absolute stinkatude this movie has.

And, being a loving husband, my wife insisted on showing me the previews of the upcoming threequel. Bryce Dallas Howard, while pretty, should RUN LIKE HELL, TO STUPID BASTARD! *bonus points for anyone that knows where that comes from.

Technical aspects- A+
Story- Y-

I totally turned down the "opportunity" to watch that movie today!

You rotten lucky bastard. I'd give an actually valued member of my distant family to not have seen it.

Never seen it or the other one...also never seen any of the Harry Potter movies.

Any regrets I have about being middle-aged are completely erased by the knowledge that I would never have been able to endure Junior High or High School surrounded on all sides by Twilight fans. Not that those years were a bed of roses in the first place, but...