Alright now I'm worried again...

I just read the official site's news update on Episode II casting. They discuss the new Australian talent they've been hiring. One of them is Jay Laga'aia.

Exactly. Who?

Well, by cosmic coincidence, I was flipping channels just a couple of days ago and there was an episode of Xena on. Some Xena episodes are decent (some even good), some are very very bad -- ESPECIALLY the slapstick humor ones. And this one was one of those. Here Xena's enemy is some ancient heavy metal rock group. And the whole episode is basically a really bad music video.
Wait. Really bad just doesn't cut it. It was SO putrid it made me shudder. And I've had the misfortune to bump into re-runs of it over the past couple of days on various cable channels.

Who was this RIDICULOUS (not to mention ridiculous-looking) villain? Jay Laga'aia.

I weep for Episode II (You would too if you saw that Xena episode)

He is probably just playing some background character with no speaking lines, at least I hope.

Actually I've been geting into Xena a bit. I think I like the humorous ones more than the 'straight' eps. The whole thing is pretty campy anyway.

We already know who the main characters will be. There cousl be a FEW new people playing important roles, but most of the focus will prolly be on the Jedi and on Anakin and Amidala.

Xena has Bruce Campbell in it...

Who's Bruce Campbell?

I like the serious Xena episodes better (although some of them are a bit contrived). The best ones are the Amazon ones. I like their portrayal of the Amazon women in those episodes. Most films/television portray Amazons from a mesogenistic (sp) standpoint -- either as scantily-clad dominatrices or as men-hating feminazis. The Amazons in Xena are actually protrayed as hunter-gatherers and they are dressed appropriately. It's really cool.

Speaking of Amazons and strong women, I noticed the official site mentioned that casting director, Robin Gurland, chose the new female bounty hunter actress because of her on-stage demonstration of athletic ability. That's awesome. I'd like to finally see a strong female role filled by an actress who is ACTually physically strong. It's like when they (United Artists) actually had the good sense to cast martial arts expert, Michelle Yeoh, as a secret agent instead of giving it to some bombshell model and then giving her a 2-week lesson in martial arts. It gives the role (and the film) much more credibility.

Never been a big Xena fan, but I like the fact that the show doesn't take itself too seriously. Other Hercules/Xena-copycat shows (Sinbad, Conan, etc,etc) always seem to give the impression they think they're doing a serious action adventure show, when it's obvious they spent maybe five minutes on the plot, mostly spent figuring out how to get scantily-clad people on-screen.

Was Michelle Yeoh the actress in MI2? I think that character was vastly underused. She was supposed to be this high-profile expert thief, but after her first few scenes she mostly just stood around looking like a deer caught in headlights.

Bruce Campbell plays the Prince of Thieves (yeah that guy). :)

Autocylus is his nae I think

Bruce Campbell is THE king of horror man his the guy in EvilDeadI,II and III dude!:)

Not to mention "Jack of All Trades", "The Adventures of Brisco County Jr", "Dusk Till Dawn 2", and "Escape From L.A." The more I see this guy, the more I like him.

the actress in MI2 was Thandie Newton, and she was supposed to be a thief, but ended up just standing around looking hot.

The actress from MI2 was Thandie Newton (and yep her part was like window dressing for the plot).

I was referring to Tomorrow Never Dies (not a very good movie) with Michelle Yeoh as Colonel Lin (the Chinese secret agent, counterpart to 007). I didn't like the movie but I thought at least they chose someone credible to play a arse-kicking secret agent. Walker: Texas Ranger (eeeugh) is guilty of (among other things) adding a token female hot-body and have her fling kicks in heels to try to boost ratings. Whenever I even click past that show, I feel like my intelligence has been insulted.

Lucas really needs to do Aurra Sing justice and portray her strictly as a skilled bounty hunter -- not a lusty dominatrix.

Okay, now that I know who she is, I agree Michelle Yoh was a good choice.

Walker Texas Ranger is pretty pathetic. I love it how Walker can take on a group of terrorists, street thugs, kidnappers, etc, and he always finds a way to fight them in hand-to-hand combat despite the fact they're all packing big honkin' guns. Oh, and that theme song he sings makes me lose my appetite.

I agree about Aurra not being some sort of sexual dominatrix-type. I think that's really over-used. Seems every time there's an evil female in a film they make her act like being evil is just something she does to meet men.

art imitates life doesn't it? :lol:

hehehehhehe!:)

bruce cambell also in maniac cop 1 and 2, darkman, congo, icebreaker, mchales navy, ellen, loins and clark, hercules
and many many more tv and movie projects

I believe he does the voice for Harry in that Playstation game: Pitfall 3D: Beyond the Jungle. :)

Hey, I like video games, what can I tell you :)

yeah he did, as well as in Tacylon: The fringe. And Evil Dead: Ashes to Ashes!

And so you should be.

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