oh duh, BOROMIR, of course! how did i forget him? i still think he'd be in my third slot. gandalf's and theoden's deaths were much more crushing to me.

i agree that his and gandalf's are in the top three. gandalf obviously makes my #1 slot, with Theoden in #2 slot. not sure who would be the 3rd. who are your top three, and what order?

this made me surprisingly misty-eyed. : (

his speech gives me chills and tears all at the same time. SO FUCKING GOOD.

yeah, i thought it was a conscious nod to those old errol flynn movies. it's super silly, but it doesn't bother me. it adds some laughter to a 40-minute nail-biting stretch of film.

the other problem with adapting the Hobbit was how much takes place as Bilbo's internal dialogue, or when he's not even there. hard to keep him as the focus when he's unconscious for the entire battle of the five armies, for instance.

i've never had a problem with tying up all those threads. they all happen in the books, and if he hadn't done it, everyone would now be complaining about "all the loose ends"!

i'm fine with it being gone for the theatrical release, but i REALLY wanted some of it to be in the extended editions, or bonus material on the discs.

yeah, it's one of those things that makes me say "whoaaaa…" in a total stoner voice. the things Glorfindel saw in his life!

i'll say. he totally brought Theoden to life.

hear hear! i'm not a tolkien scholar by any means — i've just read and loved the books (and all the related material) for most of my life. one thing that irks me about people who nit-pick about all the things that PJ changed or got wrong for the movies is that they completely ignore how much he got RIGHT. there is SO…

well, up until the elves showed up at Helm's Deep in the movie, that WAS the last one! ; )

i just watched that last night for the first time. i was actually excited when he showed up, and really, i liked the movie overall mostly because Magneto's story was so wrenching. oh, and the big-budget effects moments were fun, like the exploding school.

so, where's the reference to Ghost Busters? i missed it.
and this song is way too optimistic and chipper for my cold, dark world. life is apparently good in Murrayland.

yes, understood, but the point of the column is that people ("the internet") find cool, funny, obscure stuff and tell the AV Club about it, and the AV Club shares it, no? picking up something direct from the actor's feed seems to not quite fit.

i was also quite surprised that he apparently deliberately avoided the whole Hydrox/Oreo historical angle. too controversial, maybe?

i really think that the cookie cake should've been the 80s. biscotti? fortune cookies? wtf.

i beat Anderson to the punch: i never followed trump in the first place. HA!

well, I'M excited. i really loved Helplessness Blues.

while i love Tales from Topo, i definitely agree with you that Close to the Edge and Relayer are better.