Ronin (1998) was not as good as the first few times I've seen it.  Regardless, I enjoyed the car chase scenes (especially the one in Nice) and Jonathan Pryce was great as the villian.

Le Deuxieme Souffle (1966)--this one was tedious and plodding.  I nearly fell asleep several times.  The acting was pretty good as I liked Paul Meurisse as Inspector Blot--he was charming, daft--and Lino Ventura was convincing as Gu.  When compared to Le Cercle Rouge it falls short even though some of the same themes are explored. 

OT: I'm planning to go see Gran Torino either this weekend or next week.  Would it be better to create a seperate thread for that specific movie?

I read this years ago and enjoyed it even though I don't know how to play chess.  Did you ever read the club dumas by the same author?  The Ninth Gate was based on this book.

Currently, I'm reading The Seventh Sacrament by David Hewson.  It's a police procedural set in Italy.

Interesting.  Who'll do the heavy liftining in the match though?  Hogan had to be carried in the HBK match in 2005 and Austin has multiple knee and neck surgeries over the years and hasn't wrestled for a while (I'd like to say 2002 but I'm not sure).  Ultimately, though the pre match buildup will be a lot more entertaining than the match itself.

It's been that way for a while.  At some point these guys gets pissed off at one another for some reason or another.  At the end of the day the money brings them all back to the table.

Yes.  He also has that civil lawsuit to contend regarding the injuries suffered by
John Graziano.

This doesn't bother me as much since we got a great Savage-Flair feud over Elizabeth, culminating in their Wrestlemania 8 match.

Can he really be compared to Axl though?  Austin was the guy in the WWE from 1997-2002.  After that he was around for a year with some on air role.  Axl was basically MIA from 1994-2001.  Personally, I'm not sure I want to see Austin wrestle, didn't he have major surgeries on both knees and his neck too?  He changed his wrestling style too from a technical aspect to favoring a brawling style.

I think the Nwo in WWE angle was pretty much doomed to failure.  Hogan always has some sort of issue with McMahon.  Hall has substance abuse issues.  Nash can't stay healthy enough to be reliable.  The only interesting thing that came out of that was the Hogan face turn in his match with the Rock at Wrestlemanina.

See this is what frustrates me about McMahon, he makes great business decisions.  However, when it comes to the actual storylines and stuff sometimes he fails and FAILS miserably.  There was the entire Katie Vick angle.  The angle last year where he blew himself up in the limo is another one.  The entire booking of John Cena where he is seen as a current day Hogan is laughable considering half the fan base HATES him.  Although, I'm wondering how much of this I should be blaming on Stephanie Mcmahon-Helmsley since she's been head booker since 2002 I think.  IMO they should give those powers to Shane McMahon he seems to have a better grasp on what the audience actually wants.

I think Warrior was just difficult to deal with and a general pain in the ass.  He returned at WM 8 and was scheduled to be in the main event at Survivor Series in the tag team match with Flair and Razor Ramon vs Randy Savage and himself.  He left like a month before the event.  Mcmahon was indicted in summer of 1993.  The changing of the guard really shouldn't be that suprising.  Hogan, Savage and Flair were all old, even though they left on separate issues.  Hogan-ego issues with WM.  Flair, I think he was unhappy and wanted to go back to WCW.  Savage--I'm not sure why he left.  I do think the fact that WCW had emerged as a player in this does account for some of the changes.  They signed Rick Rude and Jake the Snake in 1992 I think.  As far as Mr. Perfect goes, he was battling a persistent back problem that limited his in ring involvement.  I think  he had a high insurance premium which would have benefited him if he didn't wrestle.  The 1992-1993 upheaval hit its nadir when they had Hogan run in and win the WWF title in a ludicrous fashion at WM IX.  That was a horrible PPV as well.  Luckily Hogan left later that year.  The significant point of the change of 1992-1993 was the rise of the smaller wrestler.  Hart (Owen and Bret), Michaels and Razor (to the some extent) weren't the big well sculped guys favored by Vinnie Mac.  They had great work rates (Razor wasn't a full on drunk at this point, that would come later) and could go.  Didn't Sean Waltman aka 123 kid breakout as a star at this point too?  Unfortunately, Vince's big man fetish didn't totally go away--Giant Gonzales anyone?  If were looking at Spring 1993, does the fact that Monday Night Raw debuted during this time factor in here at all?  Anyway this is an interesting discussion that I hope continues.  I first started watching WWF during this period.  So this is a trip down memory lane for me too.