It Doesn't Matter What Your Name Is: Arrow Season 3 Finale "My Name Is Oliver Queen"

If you have listened to our podcast or spoken to me in person, you might know two things about me. One is that I love pro wrestling. The other? That I think Arrow is the #BestShowOnTV

Seriously, this show embodies the best of comics and the best of action spy movies. It’s in your face and keeps at a hectic pace, despite the fact that it mostly involves an entire season of a major villain playing a cerebral chess match and planning out everything meticulously to best foil our heroes’ efforts. This in my opinion is the piece which allows Arrow to keep my favor over the far more flashy adventures of its sister show, The Flash.

The Flash is amazing. Don’t get me wrong. If I were to pick a number two, I’d be hard-pressed to say there’s a show more deserving than Grant Gustin’s high-octane exploits.  But even though the whole season of The Flash has led to Barry Allen’s showdown with Eobard Thawne, it also spent a large portion of time dealing in the “bad guy of the week” business. Which, hey, is a pretty cool racket to be in! It just doesn’t have the aim and focus of Arrow.

Myself, I just love the tactical feel of Arrow. Every person has their place and is critical. Oliver does not get far against the likes of Deathstroke or Merlyn without Felicity on tech support, without Diggle as his lookout and back-up, or without Roy assisting him as Arsenal.  Fans talk about Team Arrow because they adore the dynamic composition and how each member complements one another.

The city needs saving, but first we gotta take our nap.
Can't fight evil if you're tired!

The One With The Supermen: Extreme Rules review

Our podcast, The Syan & Rican Podcast, has a new episode available.

We talk Dragon Ball Super, One Piece,  and give a full review to the WWE Extreme Rules 2015 show.

The One With The Supermen

Give it a listen and post any thoughts here or on the Syan & Rican PodOMatic page

Don't forget to hit the subscribe button so you never miss an episode!

And check out our Youtube page for occasional fun videos like this:

Thanks!

Syan Vs Movies: Ex Machina

As this is my first movie review here in the No Kayfabe Zone, I want to preface that, unless I note otherwise within a review, I never give out any real spoilers for a film, just set up and character moments that are interesting. I also do not like to give score ratings for movies, a la 3/5 stars or B+, because I would rather describe how I feel about the movie at the end and note if I would rewatch it.

Caleb, Ava, and Nathan
Who do you trust?

Any movie that has a principle cast of only three characters has a huge hurdle to jump as far as keeping the audience entertained. All of the actors need to captivate and own their screen time. Some of the best performances people have given are under these circumstances, such as Sandra Bullock in Gravity, Ryan Reynolds in Buried, and James Franco in 127 Hours.  There are also some of the most boring films if the actors aren’t given much to do, such as the terrible Open Water. Luckily, Ex Machina is amazingly well-acted.

The No Kayfabe Era Begins!

As some of you may have noticed, and I apologize for how abrupt the change in the page and URL went about, Rican's Beach House (www.strawhatrican.blogspost.com) has been wholly absorbed and changed into "The No Kayfabe Zone" (www.syanandrican.blogspot.com). And there's a few reasons why this came about.

"The House is closed, for now..."

Number one was the need of a cohesive webspace for our columns and a platform to spread our podcast audience instead of solely relying on Podomatic's page. We are obviously less constricted here (and Syan would tell you I'm the tech guy in this particular case), and we can change the page more to our liking and post more than just podcast episodes. Which, because of our vast array of opinions on wholly different shows/interests/genres is a good thing.

Number two, we can only cover so much on an episodic format (even if some episodes are a staggering 2+ hours, for which I apologize - unless you enjoy it, in which case "You're welcome...?"), but with this Blog space, and our separate Twitter accounts; which we do try and use for live tweeting and breaking certain news/interests/random factoids, we feel confident this was the best route to go and hopefully you will all enjoy the journey as Syan and I attempt to take you all along for the ride.

Number three, and this goes without saying, and judging from the decor on the site at the moment (which I consider to be very much an "Alpha approaching a Beta" Phase) we are extremely wrestling inclined, but we still have a passion for other avenues of storytelling (and make no mistake, our love for the "sport" comes from almost unanimously its unique method of storytelling)

Let us know what you think: as always I'm available @strawhatrican on the Twitterverse, as is my partner in crime @syanofflame!

TBE? Floyd Mayweather v. Manny Pacquiao

The Match of the Century has come and gone and despite there being a unanimous decision, there is still a huge controversy amongst those who watched the fight.

Honest to God, every time with this! 

Outboxers win on points, swarmers win on KOs. It rolls like that almost every time.

Your reigning WBA, WBC, WBO, and The Ring Welterweight Champion

Don't get mad at Floyd for "running." Get mad at Manny for not having the pressure to put him down. 

The Return of the King

  16 years... No, not the time the Beach House has been on hiatus (though it certainly feels that way), but rather how long it has been since the last time Godzilla was given a Hollywood treatment. The 1998 Roland Emmerich title was a bust and considered by most Godzilla fans (perhaps even non-fans) as a pretty horrible movie. So, for this long, Godzilla has been gestating, waiting for the right time to appear in American cinema, and to leave his mark as he has done with the countless (and I mean countless) appearances in Japanese cinema. This is Gareth Edwards' vision of Godzilla!

"Guys, hold up, I seriously can't find my contacts!"

The Top (Arguably) Ten Shonen Anime Themes

  People love top ten lists... they really do. I've slowly realized that I am drawn to them even if the subject matter isn't particularly engrossing. Last week I was perusing the internet and found good ol' Nostalgia Critic doing a Top Ten F*ck Yeah Theme Songs (literally named this way). Which got me to thinking about anime related theme songs or just regular music in anime, specifically in the shonen genre. The genre lends itself to some great visuals and over dramatic situations, the music surely has to follow suit right? As I took a stroll down memory lane, I found out this was exactly the case, and I've decided to dig up the Top Ten (Arguably, of course) Shonen Anime Themes.

Who will make the cut!?

Truly Amazing

  Not even one week after I said I was keeping these short... ay ay ay! And "The Amazing Spider-Man" comes along. A movie that by no stretch of the imagination was going to be a small splash this Summer, but had become sort of a small blip in my movie radar. I knew I was going to go watch it, mind you, just because I love me some Spidey; but there was something about this movie that didn't click with me during the trailers. And man, I'm glad my hunch was wrong this time. Dead wrong.

Also known as: The Quirky, The Flexible and The Emotional Spider-Man.

UTF's Royal Ramble

Phew!

Errrmeeegheddd sshhuu teeerrrddd!!!

Been gone for a hot minute.

  Ok, so here's the update! I'm co-hosting a wrestling podcast with UTF (his Twitter username @IAmNotImportant) and we just unleashed episode 2. One more and we'll start going to iTunes :O! Here's the link for both his blog and the podcast:

Once in a Lifetime

  "Rocky, Rocky, Rocky!!!"

  "Cena, Cena, Cena!!!"

"Wanna get a latte after this?"

  The "Grandest Stage of Them All" is around the corner, on April 1st 2012, Wrestlemania XXVIII goes live on Pay Per View. And while the "Super Bowl of professional wrestling" has always been hype-worthy, this year's Main Event (booked a full year before the fact) is one of those rare dream matches that are hard to define. Sure, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has wrestled Hulk Hogan before at Wrestlemania XIX, but by then Hogan had sort of washed away from the public eye. The Rock has remained relevant via his movie roles; while not Oscar worthy performances, they are indeed relevant enough to allow him to continue working on movies that break well over $200 million in the box-office. His opponent, one John Cena has remained the top baby faced wrestler of the WWE for a good portion of the New Millennium and, by default, the World. But John Cena is in a weird spot, he's the hero everybody seems to hate. Much especially when placed next to The People's Champion (and yours truly's favorite wrestler of the 90's) in this, even stranger, PG climate in wrestling.

Can the People's Champion prevail against the once formidable Doctor of Thuganomics? Or will he be Rock Bottomed by the man who is immune to his verbal jabs with his mantra to "Rise Above Hate?"

Oh, there's also the matter of this Wrestlemania being stacked from top to bottom, so why not look at the full card?