Star Wars: Attack of the Clones (My Two Favorite Characters)

Star Wars: Attack of the Clones (My Two Favorite Characters)

What better way to end and begin a New Year than relaxing and enjoying a StarWars marathon.

This time, as I watched these classics, I began noticing the wide array of character personalities that George Lucas created for his acclaimed series.

I thought you might enjoy a few of my StarWar-deian academic endeavors…

My two favorite characters from Attack of the Clones are the Kouhans (the deadly caterpillars) and the Shaaks (the bronco-busting cow-ticks).

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Wookiepedia

Facts about the Kouhans You My (or May Not) Know.

1. Kouhans were arthropods- they were invertebrates (belonging to the families of spiders, insects, crustaceans, and centipedes and millipedes).
2. Kouhans were in the centipede/ millipede family.
3. The native home for Kouhans was the jungle-habitat of the planet Indoumodo.
4. Kouhans were creatures that hunted in packs. Rarely did you find a single Kouhan on the prowl.
5. They hunted their prey isolating on the prey’s body heat.
6. Kouhans could release their venom (they could sting) from the front and from the rear.
7. A single sting from a Kouhan wass incapacitating. Death followed within minutes.
8. Kouhans were far more terrifying than the ‘killer caterpillars’ one thinks about here on planet Earth. They could grow to be a foot long!
9. Virtually undetectable by advanced technological scanners, Kouhans thrived in almost every habitat.
10. Kouhans, as you already know from the movie, were useful tools of assassins.

FYI: Thanks you Wookieepedia for your assistance in honing my knowledge of the many beings from Star Wars.

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StarWars Fandom

Facts about the Shaaks You My (or May Not) Know.

1. The Shaak was the bronco-busting, rhinoceros-sized tick that Anakin Skywalker tries riding to impress Senator Padmé Amidala.
2. A shaak was a herbivore (plant-eating) mammalian creature.
3. Shaak were gentle, non-threatening animals. They were non-sentient beings (lacking ‘human-like’ intelligence).
4. They traveled slowly on four very short legs. They had a leather-base hide.
5. The balloon-like body of a Shaak was filled with fat. This made its body very buoyant.
6. The fatty-surroundings of a Shaak allowed each Shaak to be injury resistant.
7. Shaaks were raised and often herded as we shepherd cattle on our farms.
8. They were used for food consumption as well as industrial manufacturing (hide-base products and fat-based products).
9. Shaaks avoided the many swampy areas of Naboo and enjoyed the drier regions.
10. Shaaks were reproductively prolific! One female could host numerous babies from several males.

FYI: Thanks you Wookieepedia for your assistance in honing my knowledge of the many beings from Star Wars.

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Written for Movie Critiques.

Young Sheldon

Amazon

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Young Sheldon

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Young Sheldon is a spin-off from the hit show The Big Bang Theory.

Young Sheldon explains where the ‘true’ Sheldon Cooper- world-renown scientist and playboy- set his roots.

Nine-year-old Sheldon is attending high school. His mother, a caring, somewhat protective, caretaker and his father, the school’s football coach, continue to assist in smoothing the path ahead for Sheldon as he finds ways to make friends and interact in a world not-at-al as he actually envisions.

Sheldon (Iain Armitage) is FANTASTIC! While Sheldon is more than intellectually brilliant in the world of sciences, Sheldon has virtually no understanding of the world of human interactions. Even his basic understanding of human interaction is usually flawed.

One saving grace for Sheldon … He is confident in his mother’s love! (Zoe Perry plays Sheldon’s mother.)

Sheldon’s father (played by Lance Barber) has little understanding of what makes Sheldon tick, but he is always in Sheldon’s corner. Often my Mr. Cooper’s personal reflections he allows himself to share with Sheldon, Sheldon grasps very basic understandings of the world of human relationships.

George “Georgie” Cooper, Jr., Sheldon’s older brother (played by Montana Jordan), constantly harasses Sheldon. Georgie is ‘not too bright’ academically. But eth lovable thing about Georgie- what you see is what you get. He wears his life on his shirt-sleeve.

Missy Cooper, Sheldon’s twin sister, is not academically intelligent, but she has a grand understanding of basic human relationships. When she is not teasing Sheldon, she often provides Sheldon with the necessary insights to allow him success in navigating the world around him.

A truly funny show!

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Written for Movie Critiques.

Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (My Two Favorite Characters)

Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (My Two Favorite Characters)

What better way to end and begin a New Year than relaxing and enjoying a StarWars marathon.

This time, as I watched these classics, I began noticing the wide array of character personalities that George Lucas created for his acclaimed series.

I thought you might enjoy a few of my StarWar-deian academic endeavors…

My two favorite characters from The Phantom Menace are Jar Jar Binks and Watto.

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Wikipedia

Facts about Jar Jar Binks You My (or May Not) Know.

1. Jar Jar Binks was cast out of his society for being ‘clumsy’.
2. He wass a member of the Gungan race of Naboo.
3. The Gungan’s werehumanoid amphibians.
4. They were known for their long rabbit-like auricles (ears) which, while drooping long below a Gungan’s shoulders, can easily swirl around their heads.
5. Gungan’s had long, elastic tongues (much more resourceful than the tongue of an anteater).
6. The Gungan’s were very tall, lean, but muscular, creature.
7. Gungan’s were born as tadpoles.
8. A Gungan’s body produced a mucus covering that alloweds them to swim swiftly through waters.
9. A Gungan had a swift and harsh ‘spitting’ skill. They could spit for great distances.
10. Gungan society thrived on peace- abhored any kind of violence. Their normal punishments for even minor crimes were usually a form of corporal punishment or banishment from the settlement.

FYI: Thanks you Wookieepedia for your assistance in honing my knowledge of the many beings from Star Wars.

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StarWars Fandom

Facts about Watto You My (or May Not) Know.

1. Watto was the junk-dealer who owned Anakin Skywalker as well as his mother, Shimi.
2. Watto was a Toydarian- winged, humanoid wasp-like creatures who thrived in the mudded homes built in the soggy landscapes on the planet Toydaria.
3. Toydarians were often involved in human-trafficking and indulged heavily in gambling.
4. Toydarians were known for their combination of ‘fairy-like’ wings but ‘troll-like’ personas.
5. They also had trunk-like snouts, complete with matching tusks, and webbed feet.
6. Toydarians could not be mind-manipulated by The Force.
7. Toydarian society was a hierarchy. The wealthiest lived (similarly to humans) in huge estates and palaces on mountain peaks.
8. The Toydarian society functioned in family groups or clans.
9. Toydarians usually moved in flocks.
10. Since we see no other companionships with Watto, we can assume he was from a lower-rung of the Toydarian society seeking monies for upward mobility.

FYI: Thanks you Wookieepedia for your assistance in honing my knowledge of the many beings from Star Wars.

Written for Movie Critiques.

The Hobbit (The Novel)

ChristianBooks

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The Hobbit

J. R. R. Tolkien

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I enjoyed watching The Lord of the Rings movies recently. This caused me to become inspired to reread the novels from whence the movies were birthed.

First, I had to find the novels in an acceptable print size! The original versions…. definitely saved paper!

Now I am anxious to read the remaining three LOTR books to see what my memories (as I am sure they is not always all-inclusive) missed!

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Written for The New York Time Best Sellers.

The Bourne Ultimatum (The Movie)

IMDb

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The Bourne Ultimatum (The Movie)

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Once again, aside from Jason Bourne, there is no correlation between The Bourne Ultimatum (The Novel) and The Bourne Ultimatum (The Movie).

Simon Ross, a journalist of The Guardian (out of Turin) learns about Operation Blackbriar and Jason Bourne and begins to publish snippets of his research.

Jason Bourne contacts the journalists and sets up a meeting. Soon assassins intervene to stop all further negotiations the newspaper writer might be having.

AGAIN: Nothing like the novel…. But a fun watch!

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Written for Movie Critiques.

The Bourne Supremacy (The Movie)

Amazon

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The Bourne Supremacy (The Movie)

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Once again, the novel, The Bourne Supremacy, has nothing whatsoever in common with the movie, The Bourne Supremacy, except for the main character Jason Bourne.

Jason Bourne is forced from retirement because he has been set-up by an evil Russian oligarch, Yuri Gretkov.

The US Government accuses Jason of stealing twenty million dollars. They, once again, seek to kill him.

WARNING: Nothing like the novel- but a fun watch.

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Written for Movie Critiques.

The Three Musketeers

Radio Times

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The Three Musketeers

A BBC Series

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This great series takes the characters from Alexandre Sumas’ novel and allows them life in Paris, 1930.

The Musketeers (Athos, Aramis and Porthos) purpose for being- protect the King and Country.

My favorite Musketeer is the FOURTH Musketeer, D’Artagnan.

Each Musketeer has a life of his own that often interferes with life as a Musketeer.

A fun show to watch!

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Written for Movie Critiques.

The Bourne Identity (The Movie)

Wikipedia

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The Bourne Identity (The Movie)

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An ‘unidentified’ man is thrown into the waters just before a yacht blows up. He is adrift until a fishing boat rescues him. The ‘unidentified’ man claims to have amnesia from his head injuries.

This man is sent to shore by the heroic fishermen and is nursed back to health by a local ‘drunkard’ doctor. The doctor tries to assist him in finding his ‘lost’ self.

Through a series of flashbacks and mental images (and an imbedded microchip) the unidentified man comes to the knowledge that in his former life he access to 7.5 million Swiss francs, he has a connection to an agency called Treadstone, and his name is Jason Charles Bourne.

As you already know (unless you have been marooned on an island for the last twenty years), Bourne finds out that he is an assassin of sorts.

From here on out, the novel and the movie have nothing in common!!!

Complaint: In the novel, I came to love the Bourne’s ‘girlfriend/ wife. She is a strong, passionate, opinionated woman who knows how to look after herself.

In the movie, this ‘same’ character is suddenly a teenybopper, crashing from shore to shire, trying to find herself. I think that they were trying to portray ‘the woman’ he had lost to the evil villains before the storyline actually began- but it was not welcome in my world!!

Once I realized that The Bourne Identity (Movie) had nothing whatsoever to do with The Bourne Identity (Novel).

I enjoyed the movie!

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Written for Movie Critiques.

New Tricks

IMDb

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New Tricks

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New Tricks is a BBC series detective show.

The premise- Three retired cops are rehired as a type of consultant with police affiliation under the direction on one senior police detectives’ oversight.

They comb through ‘very old’ unsolved cases in hopes of bringing closure to them.

The unit is called UCOS- Unsolved Crime and Open Case Squad.

OCUS is based in London, England.

Each episode focuses on a new criminal case and interweaves the wisdom (and old-school techniques) of semi-sound police investigative skills along with the enjoyments of aging elderly men.

“You can’t teach an old dog new tricks”.

FYI: At one time, this was the #1 watched British television show.

If you haven’t seen it, it’s a hoot!

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Written for Movie Critiques.

Abominable [DVD]

IMDb

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Abominable [DVD]

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This is a fun, ‘escape-from-the-world’ movie.

A baby yeti is captured by a group of ‘scientists’ who want to ‘study’ him.

Hints of biospies and dissection are in his future.

A uyoung girl, a fomiable violinist, eeks to return her ‘friend’ to his homelands.

It’s really a kid’s movie- but I think ‘kids’ of all ages will enjoy much of the magical happenings.

I did.

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Written for Movie Critiques.