I May Need These Like I Need Oxygen

Lookit the little Hawkeye in the drivers seat!

And Black Widow's in the Quinjet! But where's the Captain America? I may have to purchase a third set.

All I can say is, Toys R Us better have these if I give in to my nerd brain and go there after work, or I'm gonna be pissed.

Movie: The Usual Suspects

I literally have a hard time talking about this movie because of my Deep and Abiding Love for it. It's kind of like The Princess Bride or Inception in that way. I start making squeeky noises (even in my head) and flailing my arms around because you just have to watch these movies, okay? Okay?

But I'm going to try to explain why you should see this movie without resorting to, OH MY GOD HOW HAVE YOU SURVIVED WITHOUT SEEING THIS? IT'S LIFE CHANGING! Emphasis on the 'try' there.

The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist. 

The movie is told back to front. It opens on a man named Keaton (played by Gabriel Byrne), wounded and bleeding on the docks. He speaks to a man named Keyser, who then shoots him and sets the docks on fire, blowing up the ship behind them.

The next day, the FBI and U.S. Customs come in to investigate what really happened. They are left with two survivors of the incident; a man with cerebral palsy named 'Verbal' Kint (played by Kevin Spacey, which should be enough to make you go watch this movie all on its own) and a Hungarian criminal named Arkosh Kovash who is badly burned and will likely not survive.

Most of the story comes from Verbal, who is promised immunity for telling the story of what happened.

His tale begins six weeks earlier when he is taken in for a line up of the 'usual suspects' for a robbery. The line up consists of Verbal, Keaton, a man named McManus, Fenster, and Hockney. While the five of them are in lock up over night McManus convinces them all to go in on a robbery, carjacking the 'New York's Finest' taxi service. This is a group of corrupt policemen who will, for the right price, drive drug dealers, diamond smugglers, or whoever, through the city in order to keep them from being picked up.

The group successfully rob the diamond smuggler and fly out to LA to sell the loot through McManus' fence. When they get there they discover that it's not diamonds, but heroin and that the job was sent to them by Kobayashi, a man who works for Keyser Soze. Soze is, in the criminal world, a ghost story. A boogeyman. A Moriarty whom no one has seen but everyone fears.

Who is Keyser Soze? He's supposed to be Turkish. Some say his father was German. Nobody believed he was real. Nobody ever saw him or knew anybody that ever worked directly for him, but to hear Kobayashi tell it, anybody could have worked for Soze. You never knew. That was his power.

Soze, through Kobayashi, forces the group to do a job for him. He claims that they all stole from him, so in order to pay him back and not die for the offense, they need to rob a ship sitting in harbor. The men do go and rob the boat, though it turns out that there's nothing on the boat to steal. Through Verbal's eyes we watch as every other man on the team is killed, ending with Keaton who is shot by a mysterious man in a fedora and trench coat. This brings us back to the beginning of the movie, where Keaton and Soze speak before Soze kills him and destroys the boat.

This is obviously a mystery movie, with the question at the heart of it being, who is Keyser Soze. This man who even hardened killers fear, who manipulates and uses people with ease. He's responsible for a slaughter at the boat, for so many instances of death and destruction. That is the question that everyone wants to get to the heart of in this movie.

And it's what makes this movie incredible. The way it is handled, the way it is revealed. You don't know, until the end, the answer. I clap and giggle Ever Single Time.

Who is Keyser Soze?

He's a ghost. He's the wind. He's the devil. He pops up, wreaks havoc and destruction in carefully choreographed dance, and then...

And like that...he's gone.

Now with 900% more fangirling than you may be used to

WHAT DO YOU MEAN BARTON'S BEEN COMPROMISED, COULSON? Do you mean he's a Skrull? Has his undercover mission been blown? Or has Tony compromised his virtue? These are IMPORTANT things that need to be known!

The Skrull theory could explain why Natasha appears to be trying to kick Clint in this still here from the trailer:

Because otherwise, BAD NATASHA! Do not kick Clint!

Undercover mission being blown is bad, because Hawkeye is so adorbs.

See?

So he needs to be rescued, of course.

And if it's Tony. Well. I can't blame you Clint!

Because the man is like a force of nature.

A delicious, delicious force of nature.

*cough*

And I have had the realization that I totally should have made Marcone be the undercover identity of Clint in that one fic where Marcone and Phil Coulson are exes. Because it would make perfect sense and then I wouldn't have to tell people that no, just because I made Marcone's real name be Tony I didn't mean TONY.

The Arc Reactor wouldn't survive close proximity to Harry for one thing.

In conclusion:

Natasha is made of all the things that are lovely and awesome.

Clint is adorable and I want to put him in my pocket.

Tony and Harry would have a torrid affair that would last all of maybe ten minutes until the excitement made Harry short out the Arc Reactor. Then Tony would have to be removed in a hurry. Clint, however, has the aim and the badassness to be John Marcone.

And Joss Whedon had best not kill anyone in this movie, OKAY?

Unpopular Opinion #93

First, welcome to the All Avengers All the Time Blog. Which is not an unpopular opinion. It's AWESOME SAUCE. We will be bringing you More Avengers Than You Probably Want for the next...month or so. You've been warned!

And now for the opinion:

I don't like that places close for holidays.

I've never liked it. It seems silly to me.

Religious, secular or otherwise holidays. I'm not picky. I just think that places should be open every day of the year. So, in my Very Important Opinion, places should stay open - they can have shorter hours or whatever - and any employees who want to work, can. Because you know there are the people who need the money, or the people who just don't care that it's a holiday, or the people who follow a different religion and so Easter, Christmas, Passover or Eid mean nothing to them.

And yes, I am one of those who puts her money where her mouth is. I volunteer to work holidays since the paper is open every day of the year.

Seriously. Not even half way through reading The Scottish Prisoner but it reminds me of how much I love this woman and her work.

Lord John is made of win.

My reaction to Lord John and Stephan finally getting together?

Fangirl squee followed by the explosion of my ovaries. The *only* pairing that would make me happier in that world would be Lord John and Jamie and dammit I *know* why that's never going to happen and understand. But *still*.

Here's hoping everyone survives the book!