BB 11/25/16

Good morning Phoenix! Today is Friday, so it is time for another edition of Friday Flicks. Christmas Day is 1 month from today. Who’s done with their Christmas shopping? Who hasn’t started yet? *grins*
Today’s selection is playing now in theaters: Bad Santa 2. It took them only 13 years to get this sequel out. Billy Bob Thornton reprises his role as the title character, with Kathy Bates as his mother.

Plot: Fueled by cheap whiskey, greed and hatred, Willie teams up once again with his angry little sidekick, Marcus, to knock off a Chicago charity on Christmas Eve.

Trivia:
• In this film, Billy Bob Thornton plays the son of Kathy Bates. In reality, he is only seven years younger.
• Brett Kelly (AKA Thurman Murman) will return; he is 22 years old now. Brett Kelly was slimmer after becoming an adult but gained more than 40 pounds to reprise his role as Thurman. He consumed many smoked meat sandwiches in Montreal, where the film was shot, to quickly obtain the desired weight.
• Willie claims his birthday is August 4th in the film. This is actually Billy Bob's birthday.
• Lauren Graham could not reprise her role as Sue, due to her commitment to the Gilmore Girls revival on Netflix.

Goofs: None yet reported.

This movie premiered 2 days ago. Has anyone seen it yet? If so, what did you think of it? If it’s a real bad Bad Santa, save us the money!

Have a fangtastic Friday! <3 Brock V"""V

BB 11/24/16

Good morning Phoenix family and friends! Happy Thanksgiving to those of you from the States (and a very happy Thursday to those of you living elsewhere). Today's top 10 is our wish for you on a day that is normally spent with family and food.
1. We wish you good times with family.
2. We wish you good health.
3. We wish you have enough to eat.
4. We wish you have a place to lay your head.
5. We wish you memories in the making.
6. We wish you safe travels.
7. We wish you love and happiness.
8. We wish you a close parking spot if you are going shopping later.
9. We wish you plenty of friends.
10. We hope you will always be our friends.
<3 Brock V"""V

BB 11/18/16

Good morning Phoenix! Are you ready for some Friday Flicks? Today’s selection opens in theaters today, so for Mira and the rest of you Harry Potter fans, here we go with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
Plot:
The year is 1926 and Newt Scamander has just completed a global excursion to find and document an extraordinary array of magical creatures. Arriving in New York for a brief stopover, he might have come and gone without incident...were it not for a No-Maj (American for Muggle) named Jacob, a misplaced magical case, and the escape of some of Newt's fantastic beasts, which could spell trouble for both the wizarding and No-Maj worlds.
Trivia:
• Within the Harry Potter universe, Newt Scamander's "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" was first published in 1927 and became a massive bestseller, as well as an approved textbook at Hogwarts. By the mid-1990s, when the Harry Potter series is set, it was in its 52nd edition. Scamander also has the distinct honor to have his own Chocolate Frog Card.
• The name Newt Scamander appears on the Marauder's Map in the movie Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004).
• Was originally intended to be a trilogy, but as of October 2016 it has been confirmed as a 5-part movie series.
• It has been revealed that "Ilvermorny" will be the name of the American School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (referenced, but supposedly not featured in this movie), much like Hogwarts is for the UK.
• Author and screenwriter J.K. Rowling has announced that this is first of a series of five and she has stated that she will be writing the screenplay to every single one of the films. The two other sequels have already been announced and been a release date 2018 and 2020 however there is no date for the other two sequels, so there is no knowing how long this series will go on for, although she has announced that it won't continue for as long the Harry Potter series.
• Saoirse Ronan, Dakota Fanning, Kristen Stewart, and Lili Simmons were considered for the role of Queenie before Alison Sudol was cast.
• 1926 the year the film is set is also the year Voldemort was born.
• The pendant that Graves gives to Credence is The Mark of the Deathly Hallows, the same pendant worn by Xenophilious Lovegood in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010).

No reported goofs yet – the film is about magic, after all!

Have a fangtastic Friday! <3 Brock V"""V

BB 11/17/16

Good afternoon Phoenix! It’s Thursday once again, and time for another top 10! Here’s 10 amazing facts:
• Birds do not urinate. They have no urethra. Their only method of elimination is through their anus. (and onto your car windshield)
• Hippos have red sweat. Their skin secretes a natural sunscreen type substance that is red, but quickly turns brown.
• Chocolate was once used as currency. The Aztecs traded with the Mayans for cocoa beans, which were heavily desired as currency. They believed they were a gift from the God of Wisdom.
• Your ears are used for more than hearing. They also help you keep your balance using the vestibular system fluid.
• Right handed people live an average of 9 years longer than left handed people. This is because machinery, tools, and everyday objects are set up for right handed people, causing lefties to suffer more accidents trying to use them either backwards in their left hand, or using them right handed as was intended, but with their non-dominant hand.
• It’s likely you have mites living on your eyelashes. These microscopic mites live on dead skin cells, and usually cause no problems.
• Blind people can also experience dreams. If they became blind after birth, they can still see images in their dreams. If they were blind at birth, they will still have vivid dreams, but they involve their other senses. Their brain automatically compensates by creating the dream and enhancing their other senses.
• A person will create enough saliva to fill two swimming pools in their lifetime.
• Your heart does not stop when you sneeze.
• The average person walks the equivalent of 5 times around the earth in their lifetime. An average stride results in 216,262,500 steps for a lifetime.
Have a fangtastic afternoon! <3 Brock V"""V

BB 11/11/16

Good morning Phoenix. It’s time once again for Friday Flicks. It’s Veterans Day, so be sure to honor all veterans, past and present.
The selection for today honors those who served – Hacksaw Ridge. It tells the story of WWII American Army Medic Desmond T. Doss, who served during the Battle of Okinawa. He refused to kill people, and became the first Conscientious Objector in American history to be awarded the Medal of Honor.
Trivia:
• When asked how many lives he saved, he says approximately 50. However, individuals that witnessed the heroic event said it was closer to 100. The mutual agreement was reached at approximately 75.
• Pfc. Desmond Doss was not wounded and evacuated in a daylight assault at Hacksaw Ridge. He was wounded a couple of weeks later in the Okinawan Campaign during a night attack near Shuri. As per his Medal of Honor citation, he was wounded in the legs by a grenade but had to wait 5 hours before stretcher bearers could reach him, during which time he dressed his own wounds. While being carried back to safety by three stretcher bearers, they were attacked by a Japanese tank. At which time Doss crawled off the stretcher to a more seriously wounded man and insisted the others evacuate that soldier and then return for himself. While waiting for the stretcher to return, he was shot by a sniper as he was being carried by another soldier. Thus, causing a compound fracture on his arm, for which he improvised a splint using a rifle stock. He then crawled 300 yards to an Aid Station for treatment.
• Not the first conscientious objector to receive the Medal of Honor. Sergeant Alvin York was a conscientious objector also. Gary Cooper portrayed him in "Sergeant York". According to Wikipedia, "He [Sergeant York] also disclaimed ever having been a conscientious objector." The important difference being that York did carry a weapon but Doss did not.
• Producer Hal B Wallis had previously tried to buy this story from Desmond Doss in the 50's, and hoped that Audie Murphy would star but Doss had no interest in motion pictures and didn't want his story turned into a typical Hollywood movie.
• The film actually received a nine minute and forty-eight seconds standing ovation, Gibson timed it himself.
Goofs:
• Harold Doss (Desmond's brother) was wearing an Army uniform at the kitchen table when in fact he enlisted in the Navy and served aboard the USS Lindsey.
• Desmond Doss was not the first Medal of Honor winner to claim conscientious objector status. Alvin York claimed that status when he registered for the draft in 1917 but his claim was rejected.
Have a fangtastic day and thank a veteran or someone currently serving! <3 Brock V"""V

BB 11/10/16

Good morning Phoenix! It's time for another Thursday Top 10!
How about The Top 10 Most Annoying Songs? Instead of listing them, which is kinda boring, check out the video where you also get to hear a snippet. You're welcome for the song bombs. *grins*
Have a fangtastic day - <3 Brock V"""V

Top 10 Most Annoying Songs Ever

BB 11/4/16

Good morning Phoenix! It’s time for some Friday Flicks! Since Halloween is over, we’re done with the Fright Flicks for now…. I’m sure you’re glad about that!
This week’s selection opens in theaters today, and promises to be a powerful film. It is based on a true story – Loving.
Plot: Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple, are sentenced to prison in Virginia in 1958 for getting married. The only way to avoid prison time is to forever leave the town and State where they were born and raised, never to return. Homesick amid the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s, Mildred writes to Attorney General Robert Kennedy. The ACLU takes their case before the US Supreme Court. The rest is history.
Trivia:
• Before their 1967 Supreme Court victory, Mildred and Richard Loving had two years earlier lost a lower-court appeal of their conviction for violating the Virginia law against interracial marriage. The judge who refused to vacate that conviction, Caroline County Circuit Court Judge Leon M. Bazile, wrote in his decision that "almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his [arrangement] there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix."
• The U.S. Supreme Court decision of Loving v. Virginia (388 U.S. 1, argued on April 10, 1967, and decided June 12, 1967) unanimously held that Virginia's "Racial Integrity Act of 1924," which forbade marriage between people of different races, was unconstitutional. This decision therefore effectively voided all such laws in other states as well (at the time, interracial marriage was still illegal in at least 15 other states) and was used as precedent in Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 Supreme Court decision that likewise declared all laws banning same-sex marriage to be unconstitutional.
• Director Jeff Nichols was able to tell the story of the Loving family as accurately as possible by relying on Nancy Buirski's documentary The Loving Story (2011), which captured many details of their private lives: "We had this beautiful documentary footage unearthed from the mid-'60s where we got to go into their home and see them and watch them," Nichols said. "It's an unusual thing to have access to." [2016]
• Mildred Delores Jeter Loving's 2008 New York Times obituary reported that her ancestry was both part African American and part Native American on both sides: Rappahannock on her maternal side; Cherokee on her father's. The obituary also said that she preferred to self-identify as Native American rather than African American.
• Received a standing ovation at its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2016.
No known goofs in filming at this time.
May we never return to times such as those.
Have a fangtastic Friday everyone! <3 Brock V"""V