What should you watch before Avengers: Endgame?

What should you watch before Avengers: Endgame? This is an easy question with a complicated answer.

I would argue, on the one hand, that you should watch everything from the Marvel Cinematic Universe to get the full experience. You’re going to be so hopelessly lost about certain characters, plot developments, and, heck, minor background details, that you’ll end up in a theater full of people chuckling and nodding their heads and crying and you’ll have no earthly idea what any of them are responding to.

It’s also sort of impossible at this point to recommend just a few of these movies, since there are so many characters, and each of them has his or her own story threads to navigate. For example, you might want to know everything there is to know about Thor. Well, that’s the three Thor films at minimum, along with the other movies he appears in (which if you include cameos, means eight movies in total). And that’s one character out of dozens.

Of course, you could read a cheat sheet to get caught up. A year ago at this time, I wrote a significant amount of word salad trying to catch folks up on all of main plot beats and characters of the MCU in advance of Avengers: Infinity War. If you’ve missed some (most? all?) of the movies along the way, or if you’ve just forgotten some of the details, it’s still a decent guide. You can read it here.

But really, where I ended up, after all of that, was to recommend a short refresher to anyone who was at all already familiar with the series. For Infinity War, I recommended watching Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain America: Civil War, and Thor: Ragnarok to make sure you were caught up (I stand by that recommendation.).

I feel like an abbreviated refresher this time around is good too. I mean, if you’re new, watch ALL the movies or read a guide like the one I linked to above. If you’ve been around for awhile, however, picking and choosing just some of the movies to revisit should suffice.

But which ones should you pick?

Continue reading What should you watch before Avengers: Endgame?

The Empire Strikes Back retrospective: Hitting hard

In 1976, a little-known writer/actor by the name of Sylvester Stallone saw the release of his most critically acclaimed and culturally significant work, “Rocky.” Rocky told the story of a (seemingly) past-his-prime boxer being given the ultimate underdog’s title shot against the champion of the world, and it gave us all the drama one could ever hope for from such a scenario. Moreover, it had the good sense to lean into an incredible score, fast, hard-hitting imagery, a romantic subplot, and against every instinct modern Hollywood will try to bring to bear on any project ever, the hero lost.

That this movie has inspired 800 sequels/spinoffs is merely the cherry on top when trying to draw a comparison to what many consider to be George Lucas’ most inspiring work, his sequel to the smash hit “Star Wars,” “The Empire Strikes Back.”*

* This is where we note that Lucas didn’t actually direct this movie; Irvin Kershner did. While some like to use this fact as a weapon against Lucas in a personal vendetta sort of way (“Hur hur, Lucas didn’t even direct the best movie in the franchise! Hur hur.”), I think it is enough to note that Lucas was heavily involved in the making of the sequel, and that many people contributed to making Star Wars what it is today, Kershner included.

“Empire,” for short, had the unenviable challenge of trying to surpass the most popular film of all time, and it shares a weird amount of characteristics with what is ostensibly a boxing movie in “Rocky.” The most important and obvious, of course, is its total disregard for normal Hollywood endings. But I actually like the thematic comparison as well.

“Rocky,” and especially its sequels, became very well known not only for its incredible synth-scored training montages, but even more so for its over-the-top violence and depravity within the ring. Watching blood and sweat (and sometimes even body parts like teeth) sail through the air in super slow motion may not have meant much thematically beyond “this movie hits hard,” but good lord I couldn’t come up with a better description for “The Empire Strikes Back” if I tried.

This movie hits hard.

Continue reading The Empire Strikes Back retrospective: Hitting hard

Trying to get a handle on the future of the Big 12

Recently, I’ve been reading more message board and social media chatter from Big 12 fans, specifically Oklahoma and Texas fans, about the next round of realignment, and where their schools might ultimately end up.

So let’s roll up our sleeves and jump back into this puddle of mud, shall we?

Continue reading Trying to get a handle on the future of the Big 12

Halloween fun in New Orleans

Hey all, here’s another update from my work sphere, as I’ve produced a few thing for Southern Weekend over the past few weeks. Leading off is this fun video about a cool New Orleans haunted house we take the kids to visit every year now.

A few more things after the jump!

Continue reading Halloween fun in New Orleans

The best NES games of all time

(Last updated July 15, 2026.  Originally published Sept. 18, 2018.)

The ranking of my top NES games has traditionally been one of the more popular posts on this blog, so I thought I’d invest some time and expand it from 40 games to a full 100.

I do this out of love for the game(s). The original Nintendo Entertainment System deserves that level of love, to be honest. I’ve played a ton of games on this system, and these are games that merit a look from modern gamers. Bonus: many of the games are short enough to allow for almost any gamer to engage with them without much issue. 

These, by and large, are not 200-hour commitments.

But also, this is a list of 100 good games. 

Are they really the 100 best NES games of all time?

I mean, to me, sure.

I wanted to bold that part – this is one person’s ranking of 100 Nintendo games. Don’t take any of this too personally. If your favorite game didn’t make the ranking, I may still have some affection for it. This library, after all, is deeper than many people might think. And that’s even if you remove all Famicon games from consideration, as I did.

(Sorry, that means no “Earthbound Beginnings,” “Super Mario Lost Levels,” and so forth – just North American releases.)

This all was meant to be fun and to help expose younger gamers to some true bangers, originally inspired by my acquisition of an NES Classic (and yes, I still love that little guy, nearly ten years later). 

Retro gaming is good, in all its forms.

You’ll see for each game a big number with a previous ranking listed – pretty self-explanatory that. The games are color-coded, with the pink/purple denoting new additions, the green being games that have been a part of the ranking for a bit, and the blue being games on the rise.

If any of that seems familiar, it’s purely by accident.

Anyhow, if you enjoy my best NES games ranking, feel free to check out some of my other rankings, including my “Retro Gaming Essentials,” where I wax poetic on some of my all-time favorites.

And here are some more video game rankings for specific systems:
Super NES | Genesis Mini | Turbografx-16 Mini

So without further delay, here are the Top 100 NES games of all time.

Continue reading The best NES games of all time

A visit to Cajun Country

I recently put together an account of the family’s trip over to Lafayette and Breaux Bridge for work, which you can check out right here.

As part of the blog post, I put together a couple of videos. I’m happy with how they turned out, so I’ve embedded them here.

Up there at the top of the post you’ll see 5 good reasons to make the trip yourself.

Clicking through to the rest of this post will give you my magnum opus on Popeye’s chicken.

Hey, we all have our own higher calling in life.

Continue reading A visit to Cajun Country

Why Transformers: The Movie is better than Avengers: Infinity War

It recently occurred to me that there are an awful lot of similarities between the recent Marvel Cinematic Universe extravaganza Avengers: Infinity War and the animated classic, Transformers: The Movie.

(No, not the Michael Bay dreck.)

While this might seem an insult to compare a gazillion dollar enterprise to a kids cartoon with an 80s sensibility, I don’t mean any particular offense.  Moreover, I’ve come to believe that Transformers might well have done it better when you really start to look it.

Which, okay, you can read as an insult if you want to — but I still hold the deepest respect for the folks who spent countless hours building the Marvel monstrosity that is Thanos’ quest. I think it’s important to state that upfront.

This is really more about speaking up about the quality of the original animated Transformers, which if we’re being completely honest, wasn’t all that great of a television series … it was the movie that elevated the proceedings considerably. And all due credit on this realization to the fine folks (MovieBob!) who produced this video of awesome-sauce.

I mean, this is a really deep dive on why the movie has merit, and I get it if you don’t want to go there. To sum up the video, there are tons of reasons to come to the conclusion that yes, the movie is really that good.

That all having been stated, why do I make the Avengers comparison?

Well, it’s a cultural touchstone and is present on people’s minds right now. That’s definitely a part of it. But more relevantly, they really do have a lot of the same characteristics.

Don’t believe me? Let’s take a look.

Continue reading Why Transformers: The Movie is better than Avengers: Infinity War

Stories and gravy

I don’t want to labor under too much stress trying to link my latest two work videos together with one another. The point is that they’re both out there, not so much that they have anything in common with one another.

I’m leading with Drag Queen Story Time because I’m particularly proud of it. It’s an interesting story, told in the form of an engaging interview, and I’m happy with how it turned out.

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Let’s talk “Solo”

I have a tremendous amount of respect for the people involved in making “Solo.”

It was a thankless task. I mean, not literally, but let’s quickly break this down:

  1. Re-cast an iconic character associated with a beloved actor.
  2. Struggle through re-shoots, a changes in director, and a ton of bad press.
  3. Tell a smaller story that will be seen by the audience as not being essential to the overall narrative.
  4. Release the movie just 6 months after the “more essential” movie had sucked up the oxygen (and pissed off a small percentage of the audience).
  5. Attempt to release the movie on the heels of a pair of the biggest movies in history had, well, sucked up the oxygen.

Continue reading Let’s talk “Solo”