Haven't we seen this somewhere before?

Shipwreck: Recently we headed down to the local multi-plex to see what all the hoopla was about with this new movie Avatar.



Clutch: We put on the 3D glasses and were completely blown away by the special effects!

tFidy: Loved the Battletech like tanks (although they should have been robotic if you ask me).

Shipwreck: All the crazy 6 legged jungle creatures were awesome too.

Clutch: Is it wrong that I found the 9 foot, blue, CGI version on Sigourney Weaver w/ the Stanford University tube top on attractive?

Shipwreck: Absolutely not! It can’t only be about the slave Leia outfit!

tFidy: To be honest, I was a little confused for about the first hour of the movie… where was Aang? The Earth Benders? Fire Nation? This is not the Avatar I know...



Clutch: Yeah, different Avatar. Heard there’s going to be a live action movie on that one called “The Last Airbender” later this year. Looks cool.

Shipwreck: A lot has been said about the political overtones and the cliché characterization in Avatar.

Clutch: We didn’t let any of that get in the way of our enjoyment of the movie!

tFidy: One of our buddies mentioned the Giovanni Ribisi played a stereotypical corporate pr*ck.

Shipwreck: We’re ok with it because the corporate world is full of guys just like him!

tFidy: One thing we haven’t heard how this film’s base plot is a complete copy of one of our favorite 80’s action movies “Red Scorpion”. Dolph Lundgren plays a Soviet Spetznatz who is part of the invading force in a 3rd World Nation. He ends up living with them, becomes sympathetic to their cause and eventually helps them repel the invading Soviet Army.














Shipwreck: Sound familiar?

Clutch: One of the more famous scenes is where the locals are defeated and don’t want to fight the Soviets anymore…

tFidy: Very similar scene in Avatar...

Clutch: Sully gives the “Blue Man Group” a rousing speech to unite the tribes. Dolph, never one for long speeches simply grabs a weapon and says “Let’s go kick some a*&.”

Shipwreck: Dolph could always say a lot with a minimum of words.

tFidy: I recently learned that there’s a Red Scorpion 2 that was made in the mid 90’s. Has nothing to do with the original…
It’s about a team of five commandos with special skills who take down and extremist group… who’s leader appears to have killer ‘hockey hair.’

Clutch: That’s reason enough to take them down! If anyone has a copy, please send it our way!

Shipwreck: Another familiar thing in Avatar was the special effect for when the human scientists’ consciousness was transferred to their avatar.

tFidy: That was right out of one of our favorite Sci Fi shows “Sliders”.














Clutch: That effect is such a trademark of Sliders, that when it was used on Buffy once Oz turned to Xander and said “I saw that on Sliders.”

Shipwreck: For those of you not familiar with the show, it chronicled four adventurers as they ‘slid’ from one reality to another trying to find their way home.

tFidy: You had to know a little bit about history in the early episodes, to get what was different about that reality. The show was dumbed down over time and the Sliders spent most of their battling the ‘monster of the week...’

Clutch: Jerry O’Connell was the ‘boy genius’ who discovered sliding and John Rhys-Davies, who’s been in about a zillion movies we’ve loved, was his mentor. The fifth and final season the cast had almost completely turned over. It was still fun, but not quite the same.

Shipwreck: The first four seasons have been out on DVD, but it looked like season 5 would be doomed to obscurity, but it’s just been released to iTunes and Amazon on demand. (On DVD in Europe.)









tFidy: We’re 2 eps in to the final season, the only one without Jerry… we still love it, but it’s kind of like when Ted McGinley was living at the Cunningham’s house in the last years of “Happy Days.”

Clutch: Ah, Jenny Piccolo… wonder whatever happened to her?

tFidy: Don’t know, but ‘Ralph Malph’ was on an episode of Sliders… as was Freddy “Boom Boom” Washington from "Welcome Back Kotter."

Shipwreck: We’re not going to lie, one of our interests in the later seasons is the talents of the lovely Kari Wuhrer.

tFidy: She was maligned by many hardcore Slider fans, because she replaced the original female lead, Sabrina Lloyd.

Clutch: Not us, the Brothers have plenty of love to go around!

Shipwreck: The show ended with a cliff hanger and we never found out if the Sliders made it home or not. I think it’s time for a movie! Reboot, continuation, we’re on board either way.

tFidy: Sliders ended 10 years ago, I don’t hold out a lot of hope on that one.

Clutch: Dude, I just saw a trailer for a new A-Team movie! Anything is possible!

Shipwreck: Wow! That’s huge… and a topic for another blog...

tFidy: We out!

Clutch: Peace!!