| WIKI | FAQ | Tech FAQ | |
 http://csua.com/feed/ | |
| ||||||
| 11/23 |
| 2007/10/18-19 [Reference/Religion, Recreation/Media] UID:48358 Activity:kinda low |
10/18 who is this 5 foot 10 blond on Regis & Kathy Lee?
oh, it's rebecca rojim-stamos.
she must have knocked them dead at Berkeley High.
\_ Jesus Christ now she's talking about how she wakes up in the
morning thanking God for being female and needs to feel
her breasts just to be sure.
\_ oh it's about a tv show.
\_ well crap she's convinced me! she has a new show about
feeling herself up premiering tonight on ABC, 8pm
\_ I thank God everyday we have such quality culture on tv.
\_ I bet Regis makes more than she does for the same work. I
also doubt she will be on a show with some young hunky guy
when she's 70 (Regis is 75). Still better to be a woman?
when she's 60. Still better to be a woman? |
| 2007/10/17-18 [Computer/SW/Languages, Recreation/Media] UID:48354 Activity:nil |
10/17 Have you seen the print ads for the new Bionic Woman tv show?
Are the main characters breasts as huge as they look, or is it
a trick of the light?
\_ Take a look:
http://www.fitnessmodelsmagazine.com/MICHELLERYAN.htm |
| 2007/10/13-17 [Health, Recreation/Media] UID:48306 Activity:nil |
10/13 Bono is pure crap.
\_ You just figured this out...?
\_ I think he's referring to the Southpark episode this week.
That said, I need more fiber in my diet. It has been painful
for me the past few weeks. |
| 2007/9/20-24 [Recreation/Media, Politics/Domestic/President/Bush] UID:48134 Activity:nil |
9/20 Dan Rather pulls back the curtain on the whole "liberal media" thing:
http://www.csua.org/u/jk6
"Viacom, CBS and some of the senior management sacrificed supporting
independent journalism for their corporate financial interests,"
he added.
\_ Sorry Dan, those memos are obvious fakes, get over it.
\_ Why would I trust Dan Rather? He's obviously part of the
corporate media with an agenda to slander the liberal executives
at Viacom and CBS.
\_ This has nothing to do with liberal or corporate or anything
agendas. It is Dan "I Got Busted Being A Dumbshit" Rather
trying some last ditch pathetic effort to recover his self-
stained reputation before he keels over and dies a laughing-
stock. |
| 2007/9/10 [Recreation/Media] UID:47983 Activity:nil |
9/10 The Roger Ebert Thumb War
http://www.eonline.com/news/article/index.jsp?uuid=4098f6ca-b6e8-4343-
8792-43c08fda420d
http://redirx.com/?7vpj |
| 2007/9/7-10 [Recreation/Media] UID:47934 Activity:nil |
9/7 Tobey Maguire is slated to star in a "Robotech" movie, which will
make him an even bigger star among nerds.
\_ Except the movie will suck. Maybe they should film Wing Commander2? |
| 2007/8/30-9/3 [Recreation/Media] UID:47828 Activity:nil |
8/30 This is one of the top 10 movie moments of all time:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kPqI1VivAI
\_ A cheesy Steven Seagal line? If that was a top 10 movie moment
no one would watch movies. "I'm going to take you to the bank,
Senator... the blood bank!" Ooooooh, aaaaaah... top 10. Chills
running up n down my spine! |
| 2007/8/28-30 [Recreation/Media] UID:47785 Activity:high |
8/28 World's luckiest 12 year old boy
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/615050/monica_bellucci_melena_scenes
\_ This is hot! In which country is it legal lets you feature a boy
\_ This is hot! In which country is it legal to feature a boy
actor in such a movie?
\_ I think France.
\_ What part was hot? She's very attractive but seeing an adult
woman coming on to a young boy wasn't hot.
\_ The boy came on to her too you know. (actually I haven't
seen the movie but I gather that the scenes are fantasy and
he only gets to sleep with a prostitute his dad sets him up
with)
\_ "Boy comes on to woman making it ok for woman to come on
to boy" is not 'hot'. Child molesting just isn't.
\_ Not just "woman". Smoking hot woman. Therefore, hot.
\_ Child molesting. Therefore, not. If it was a little
girl and an incredibly handsome man you'd say it was
sick and he should be in jail.
\_ Boys are not girls.
\_ Boys are not girls. And he's 12, not 6. And it's
a movie, not reality.
\_ Sorry, you're right. A movie depiction of
child molesting when the victim is a boy is
ok. Not. Care to try again?
\_ Care to read your own post? What the fuck
are you even saying? Movie depiction is
"not ok"? Are you some censorship freak?
\_ Welcome to the motd, the only place on
the net where people will seriously
defend child porn as a good thing that
needs first amendment protection.
\_ Seems like only straight child porn
is defended here.
\_ I hope you're not saying that you
think "straight child porn" is ok.
\_ yeah, and people should be arrested for all
those movie depictions of murder. -tom
\_ I don't understand why you still post
your strawman junk after all these years.
\_ I notice Monica Belluci's giant heaving bosoms are featured in
a new guns and Clive Owen movie.
\_ 35C. Not small, but not giant either especially that she's 5'10"
and wears size 10 shoes.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000899/bio
\_ What kind of crazy size is 35C ?
\_ This is bust size, not bra size.
\_ I'm 5'2, nearly 5'3, and weigh between 125-130lbs
depending on the day. Back during high school days,
I was about 112 lbs, and only wore a 32D bra.
This didn't change until the middle of my sophomore
year (last fall), when I gained 10 lbs
and went from a 32D to a 32DDD in two months.
\_ Thanks for the troll.
\_ Hauling these things around all day is
torture! Torture I tell you.
\_ Yeah, it is torture to all the guys that stare
at you.
\_ I doubt anyone biologically female posts to the motd.
\_ The Matrix Reloaded was the first movie that I saw her.
\_ I think I saw something more explicit in the movie 'Leolo' |
| 2007/8/27-28 [Recreation/Media] UID:47762 Activity:moderate |
8/27 funny review of new jet li movie
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/27/DD85RP2NK.DTL
Problem No. 1: Not enough people get spin-kicked in the head.
Next to Li's character, Matt Damon in "The Bourne Ultimatum" looks
like he's remaking "My Dinner With Andre."
\_ I love this quote: "Advisory: This film contains nudity, adult
language and violence. There's also a San Francisco police detective
who lives with his family on a big plot of land, giving the false
illusion of affordable Bay Area housing for the middle class."
Awesome
\_ ... or a corrupted bribe-taking cop. :-)
\_ Way to give up a plot point, although it doesn't matter
in this case since no one should bother seeing this movie.
\_ Real review: plot twist should have been a lot more interesting
but was ultimately a failure due to weak/lack of character
5A\sdf background, tremendous amount of film time spent building up
background, tremendous amount of film time spent building up
interest in a character who ultimately wasn't that important,
fight scenes poorly choreographed and not that interesting. C-
\_ I don't know martial arts, but I once read an article in a martial
arts magazine in a grocery store that said spin-kicking only looks
good but is not an effective attack move, because the time between
the start of the move and the impact is too long. Any superior
power of impact is offset by the time lag.
\_ The difference between movie martial arts and real martial arts
is that the former is all about "looking good." You get a free
clue point. Spend it wisely.
\_ I was KIDDING. obviously Iam not going to 'go past
the guard' of some dude in a bar fight. he'll just stick
a bottle in my eye and i'll die. everyone knows real martial
arts and stuff that looks pretty in movies are 2 different
things. this does not disprove the writer's assertion
that Jet Li's new movie could use a few more spinkicks. |
| 2007/7/23-28 [Recreation/Media] UID:47391 Activity:nil |
7/23 I don't get it. Blockbuster is killing Netflix, yet Blockbuster's
selection is crap.
http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/070723/netflix_results.html?.v=2
\_ Last think I read, just a month or so ago, was that Blockbuster
was failing miserably.
\_ I used to be a Netflix customer about 7 or 8 years ago -
whenever it was that DVD was still pretty new and most video
stores didn't carry them. I didn't see the point in staying
with them. I paid a monthly fee whether I rented or not and the
service started degrading over time. You could have fewer
with them. I paid a monthly fee whether I rented or not and
the service started degrading over time. You could have fewer
movies out at a time, they had to be received before they would
ship new ones, and they got lost or stolen in the mail. I know
Blockbuster has now adopted a similar model, but I just go into the
video store when I want a movie. I find that cheaper and more
convenient. I liked the Netflix selection, but it's not really about
selection. One nice thing about Blockbuster's plan is that you
can return and checkout movies at the video store in addition
to using the mail.
Blockbuster has now adopted a similar model, but I just go into
the video store when I want a movie. I find that cheaper and
more convenient. I liked the Netflix selection, but it's not
really about selection. One nice thing about Blockbuster's plan
is that you can return and checkout movies at the video store
in addition to using the mail.
\_ My guess is that the average American consumer doesn't care
about "selection," they are interested in having the latest
Hollywood release the day it comes out. Netflix is pretty
bad about that sort of thing, especially if you live in a
remote location. BB is much better for the average american
because they only stock the latest Hollywood POS.
Personally, I'll stick with Netflix b/c they have a better
selection of foreign, pbs, bbc, nat'l geo, gay, &c. than even
the Cupertino library. |
| 2007/7/20-21 [Recreation/Media] UID:47356 Activity:low 50%like:47320 |
7/20 Rejected Harry Potter Endings:
http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/joyimages/987.gif
\_ Can I get the 30 seconds of my life back that it took me to
paste this worthless link into a browser and read it? ok tnx.
\_ What inspired you to read it anyway? |
| 11/23 |
| 2007/7/17-19 [Recreation/Media, Computer/SW/WWW/Browsers] UID:47323 Activity:moderate |
7/17 **SPOILERS REMOVED**
\_ Who gives a flying shit?
\_ Barack Obama does:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvY3cSmW1cw
\_ Burbage?
\_ I'm reading Le Morte D'Arthur instead, without wearing
pants - !psb
\- just out of curiosity, what is your point mentioning
LMdA in the same breath as HP? Are they supposed to both
be "kids fatasy books with adult appeal" or something?
Maybe Once and Future King, but not LMdA, I dont think.
\_ I'm reading the Malazan book of the fallen series. I
read it on the toilet so my pants are half off.
\_ I'm reading Charlie Stross's _On Her Majesty's Occult
Service_, which is really good but may seem dated in about
five years. --erikred
\_ I d like to point out that Harry Potter sucks, and doesn't hold a
candle to Tolkien's stuff. And has the adult appeal of Barney
the fucking dinosaur. -- ilyas
\_ Cue unholy CS_LEWIS/PHILLIP_PULLMAN/TOLKEIN/ROWLING/STMG blood
bath. --erikred
\_ "Harry, I am your father." -Darth Voldemort
\- http://tinyurl.com/2ozkrv
\- http://tinyurl.com/2ozkrv (washingtonpost.com)
\_ Maybe when the next Hemingway starts writing people will
start reading fiction again.
start reading [new] fiction again.
\- yes, it is too bad as with Livy most of Hemingway is lost
to history and everybody has read all of what has survived.
\_ What I mean was new fiction, rather than existing
fiction. I've fixed it.
\- i dont think the failure-to-read is the lack of
quality fiction. also, i dont think reading pulp
fiction [at least for adults] is any different from
watching tv. reading the da vinci code is really
mentally the same as watching desperate hwives.
\_ I guess I disagree re the failure-to-read.
I used to try to find new fiction to read
whenever I went to the library, but it was
almost all universally bad (except for the
occasional mystery novel), so I've sort of
given up.
I agree re things like da vinci code. That
sort of crap is really fit only as kindling.
\_ So what, you already read all the old fiction?
I'd expect most new fiction to be rather bad,
as frankly most people don't really have much
to say but they say it anyway. If they can
come up with some nice mindless entertainment in
book form then more power to them.
\- "is there good fiction being written today"
is a separate question from "are people reading
less today than 20 years ago". if the first is
true it might explain the second, if it is true.
i dont have an opinion on #1. and i think #2 is
better explained by more competion ... like i
think internet surfing, dvds, internet chat etc
i dont have an opinion on #1. and i think #2 is T
but better explained by more competition ...
i internet surfing, dvds, internet chat etc
has reduced tv viewing more than "there is nothing
good on".
note also, i wasnt saying davinci code was
good/bad. i was just saying reading pulp like
that ... or michael chichton, or john grisham,
or james patterson ... is the brain equivalent
watching tv than reading shakespeare ... i.e.
the "at least they are reading" is totally
hollow argument.
watching tv ... i.e. the "at least they are
reading" is totally hollow argument.
\_ Oh, I don't know. Books require more patience,
reading comprehension, imagination. They are
not saturated with commercial marketing.
It seems most people can't even read the pulp.
\- this might apply to children ... which is
why i restricted my comments to adults.
my old housemate has an mba from mit/sloan
and is more or less retired before 50, and
reasonably informed about the world ... so
reasonably successful and not a dumbass.
the "can" read pulp ... he just doesnt.
he reads 0 fiction, and maybe 0-2 nonfic
per year (usually a practical/howto book).
judging him differently because
he read a james patterson mystery instead
of watching dvds/tv would be silly. he'd
be the same person. on the other hand,
somebody who goes though 20 books a year
including 5 "challenging" books would be
a different person if they replaced that
time with tv.
\_ So what, you already read all the old fiction?
I'd expect most new fiction to be rather bad,
as frankly most people don't really have much
to say but they say it anyway. If they can
come up with some nice mindless entertainment in
book form then more power to them. (re: desperate
hwives) |
| 2007/7/17-19 [Recreation/Media] UID:47320 Activity:nil 50%like:47356 |
7/17 harry potter:
http://bayimg.com/album/NaaacAaAB |
| 2007/7/6-7 [Recreation/Media] UID:47206 Activity:nil |
7/6 opinions on jsl watching the transformers movie?
\_ hot |
| 2007/6/30-7/4 [Reference/Military, Recreation/Media] UID:47139 Activity:low |
6/29 MMC - Live Free, Die Hard, is it really as good as the original?
http://daveslongbox.blogspot.com
"That was some loco shit
gruesome deaths, helicopters strafing, outrunning fireballs,
hanging over great heights, jumping on moving objects, jumping
off moving objects, shooting things to make them explode, head
butting, speaking ill of the dead, helicopters flying in formation,
PG-13 profanity, machine guns, a command center where people
explain the plot, a Joint Strike Fighter piloted by the most
bloodthirsty maniac in the Air Force, collapsing freeways,
parkour, annoying meta references to the first three films,
lots of broken glass, elevator shaft fu, and car crashes.
Oh, the crashes. There are enough car crashes in Live Free or
Die Hard to fill ten normal movies.
Understand: I am not saying it is a good movie, but darn it,
I kinda liked it."
\_ I saw it. It was ok, nothing special. I won't remember it in
6 months. The earlier ones were better, especially the one at
the 'Nakatomi Tower'. Running over glass in bare feet? Hard to
top that.
\_ I saw it and hated it. The antagonist is a computer hacker who
manages to hack into everything from tunnel lighting systems to
closed circuit dormitory elevator surveilance cameras. Maggie Q
is hot, though. But the annoying I'm-a-Mac guy cancels her out.
is hot, but the annoying I'm-a-Mac guy cancels her out.
\_ It's called "suspension of disbelief". Are you a star trek fan?
You're ok with warp speed but not a computer hacker? The movie
still sucked but not because it was a computer terrorist. |
| 2007/5/31-6/4 [Recreation/Media] UID:46812 Activity:nil |
5/31 The Mach V looks surprisingly accurate, maybe the movie will be
decent: http://urltea.com/o7b (usatoday.com)
\_ I never noticed how much the Mach V looks like a '76 corvette
Stingray before. |
| 2007/5/23-28 [Recreation/Media] UID:46737 Activity:nil |
5/23 Recruit of the Jedi:
http://urltea.com/mbj (atomfilms.com)
\_ too lame to waste time on. move along. or rewatch the
obi won buys a car. was the directory one of those
high school theater geeks who wasn't as funny as he
thought he was?
\_ My favorites fan films have been "Troops" and "Jedi Preachers":
http://www.theforce.net/fanfilms/shortfilms/troops
http://www.theforce.net/fanfilms/shortfilms/jedipreachers
\- i couldnt make it more than half way thorugh the
jedi preachers one. troops is a classic. the insult dog
vs darth vader is great.
\_ Another good one is the Star Wars Gansta Rap Special
Edition. Not quite Star Wars, but still well done is
George Lucas in Love. |
| 2007/5/21-24 [Recreation/Celebrity/BritneySpears, Recreation/Media] UID:46716 Activity:nil |
5/21 Neuromancer movie is coming:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/2v2rbj (firstshowing.net)
\_ Gee, they got the guy that directed the Britney Spears "Toxic"
video to direct. This may be nearly as good as "Johnny Mnemonic."
\_ with a taste of your lips i'm on a ride |
| 2007/5/2-4 [Recreation/Media] UID:46510 Activity:kinda low |
5/2 Tonight on Glenn Beck's HNN show will be featuring the *other* side of
the Global Warming debate. He doesn't say it's the final answer, just
presents those who don't agree with Al Gore's movie. -emarkp
\_ Is this a followup on why Gore == Hitler?
\_ I just saw him talk about that. He sounded like a complete tool.
Do you really respect Glenn Beck at all?
\_ Yep. Watch an episode and/or listen to his radio show, then tell
me what you think. -emarkp
\_ I've never heard his radio show. I've seen his TV show.
This is why I am questioning your judgement, he appears to
be a complete idiot, one of those 'I can't imagine why
any left leaning element would think I am taunting them!'
types. I guess at least he's not Hannity. |
| 2007/5/2-4 [Recreation/Media] UID:46509 Activity:kinda low |
5/2 RMS gets a katana:
http://www.gnu.org/people/jag/rms-with-katana/100_0034.jpg
http://www.gnu.org/people/jag/rms-with-katana/100_0035.jpg
http://www.gnu.org/people/jag/rms-with-katana/100_0036.jpg
\_ That's RMS? He looks clean. I thought he would be filthy
like a homeless guy.
\- oh the stories i could tell you ...
\_ oh, do tell!
\- search wall archive, e.g.
( cd /csua/lib/wall ; egrep -w -e '(rms .* bacon)|(bacon .* rms)' * )
Also ^bacon^crenshaw.
\_ eww.
\_ Do you have a full stories written up anywhere?
I wanna read RMS vs Kahan.
\_ ^bacon^crenshaw didn't come up with anything new?
\- there are even worse things than the melon episodes
... worse than you can imagine. well actually, maybe
THE WORST thing you can imagine. let's just say
his west coast behavior was better than when he was
in his native habitat at mit-ai/lcs. the custodial
staff there was not amused. the best story was probably
when he was kicked off the airplane on the way to
the 1998 usenix technical conference in NOLA.
<DEAD>www.monkey.org/~dugsong/1998/neworleans/neworleans16.html<DEAD>
i guess the episode where heb met my parent was pretty
i guess the episode where he met my parent was pretty
good too, but you'ld have to know my parent.
\_ What was bad about the crenshaw episode, aside from
the bacon in his hair?
\_ Is one of his front teeth blacked out or something?
\_ http://blag.xkcd.com explains why |
| 2007/4/20-24 [Recreation/Media] UID:46382 Activity:nil |
4/20 Darth Vader Hot Air Ballon:
http://www.darthvaderballoon.be/en/index.html
\- ObThisBattleBalloonIsNowFullyOperational |
| 2007/4/16-18 [Politics/Domestic/California, Recreation/Media] UID:46310 Activity:kinda low |
4/16 Just a quick question for those who aren't upset about Imus being
fired...If the two reverends who had gotten Imus fired were Robertson
and Fallwell, and talked about "cleaning up the airwaves", would you be
upset? -emarkp
\_ this isn't about "cleaning up the airwaves". imus has said many
horribly offensive things in the past. so have many other radio
hosts. he got fired because this time the story grew legs. the
same reverends you are so upset about have complained about him
before, but it never led to his firing. the story got legs, the
advertisers got worried, they pulled their support, he got fired.
now, if you want to examine why it got legs this time around, that
may be an interesting topic. but tom's right. this is a red
herring. --scotsman
\_ Rather a red herring, don't you think, considering those are both
bigoted assholes who would never call on anyone to be fired for
racist remaks against blacks.
If Imus had instead called the University of Utah basketball
team a bunch of "Mormon white boys screwing their own sisters,"
I think he should have been fired for that, too. -tom
\_ I don't think those two got him fired. I think advertisers
threatening to not advertise with CBS anymore got him fired.
I am curious, do you listen to Imus' show? Are you really
going to defend someone who hired someone just to
write nigger jokes? I had more respect than that for you.
\_ Sharpton and Jackson were in on the board meeting of CBS
before he got fired. They also were publicly calling for
pressure on his advertising. From that I conclude that they
were involved. -emarkp
\_ See tom I see the problem as anyone being able to point at
someone and get him fired. Imus has been making nasty comments
for decades, but this time the Reverends pointed their fingers
and he was gone. I would think that would raise eyebrows here
considering how much antipathy there is on motd for organized
religion. -emarkp
\_ Imus has gotten fired numerous times without Jackson and
Sharpton being involved. And frankly, it is sad that he
wasn't fired immediately by CBS and that it took community
pressure. -tom
\_ He wasn't fired by CBS immediately because he was making
money for them. And has been for years. I've never listened
to him and given his history I wouldn't ever listen to him.
However, I *also* wouldn't call for him to be fired.
-emarkp
\_ Really? Why not? There's nothing stopping him from
spewing his shit somewhere else. If he is going to
to be a well paid moron, he should be tough enough to
face hard economic consequences.
\_ I think freedom is very important, especially
freedom of speech. For instance, I hate smoking but
voted against the massive taxes on smoking (prop 10)
and outlawing it in all buildings. I could never
vote for McCain because of his assault on 1st
amendment (campaign finance). -emarkp
\_ Imus makes money for CBS, therefore it's OK
for him to say what he wants--is that your
position? Well, I think it's also freedom of
speech for the people affected by his bigoted
speech to use *their* free speech rights to
call CBS's advertisers (the ones paying Imus)
and tell them to fire the guy. -tom
\_ No, it's for CBS to decide if he should be
fired. I just wonder why people aren't pointing
out that it's clergy that are calling for the
air to be cleaned up. And as for others using
their speech, I think it would be better for
others to respond to it and stop listening if
they're offended. Wasn't that what people were
saying when Janet Jackson flashed her boob?
-emarkp
\_ Of course when Janet Jackon showed her
boobies THE GOVERNMENT (FCC) was involved
in punitive actions. Do you see the
difference between government action
and private citizens taking action?
Imus managed to fly under most people's
for a long time, went way over the line
and suddenly people noticed "hey, what is
this asshole doing this schtick that makes
CBS many millions a year?" and found
a way to make it clear to CBS that hey,
if they wanted to keep him around it was
going to cost them via private economic
boycotts.
\_ People *are* pointing out it's clergy. You
are. It's completely irrelevant, which is
why no one else is. And are you really
trying to equate insulting people based on
their race, with flashing a nipple? Who
did Janet injure? -tom
\_ My children were injured. Tom, if you
injure my children, I WILL GET YOU. |
| 2007/4/12-15 [Recreation/Media] UID:46273 Activity:nil |
4/12 Are Matt and Trey gay? Season 10 and 11 show waaaaay too much
explicit gay sex in South Park (both with Mr. Garrison) and I
no longer find the show enjoyable to watch. Maybe I'm just
getting old.
\_ South park hasn't been worth watching since around season 3.
\_ The Tom Cruise in the closet episode and the death of chef
thoroughly redeemed the series for me. -!op
\_ South Park is still very worth watching. The first few
minutes of "With Apologies to Jesse Jackson" was the
funniest thing on TV all year. |
| 2007/3/23-26 [Recreation/Dating, Recreation/Interesting, Recreation/Media] UID:46071 Activity:nil Cat_by:auto |
3/23 Best CAPTCHA ever
http://hotcaptcha.com
\_ wow this rules.
\_ is it just me, or is the 'male' version
\_ is it just me, or is the 'male' version broken.
\_ It is just you. Though the author has kind of a strange idea
as to what constitutes a "cute guy." Think twink. |
| 2007/2/16-20 [Recreation/Media, Recreation/Humor] UID:45748 Activity:nil |
2/16 Harry Potter book 7 Spoilers! (Ok, not really, funny comic)
http://www.homeonthestrange.com/comics/2007/2007-02-16.png
\_ Remind me never to trust your opinions ever again. |
| 2007/1/21-28 [Computer/HW/Drives, Recreation/Media] UID:45564 Activity:nil |
1/21 Star Trek (TOS) coming to BR/HD-DVD:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/2goxdp (homemediaretailing.com) |
| 2007/1/21-28 [Health, Politics/Foreign/Europe, Recreation/Media] UID:45563 Activity:nil |
1/21 Blood Diamond, awesome movie. Beautiful sceneries of Africa and
Europe in the background. It all makes it worth it to watch it
on the big screen. If Leonardo weren't in it I'd give it an A+. |
| 2006/11/28-12/12 [Recreation/Media, Consumer/TV, Computer/HW/Drives] UID:45378 Activity:nil |
11/28 DirecTV totally sucks. I ordered the internation channel for my dad
and after waiting 1 whole day, the serviceman installed the box but
didn't install the HD/internation box because his order list didn't
include it. The phone rep fucked up. When I rescheduled for the
HD/international box, they said there's a surchange of $129 for
the HD installation. I asked why this was not disclosed to me
the first time I ordered, they said the phone rep probably messed it
up. So basically, there's a surchange of $129 for the HD box. At
any rate international programs really suck compared to Dish Network
which offer more choices at the same rate. Conclusion:
FUCK DIRECTV. DIRECTV SUCKS. Dish Network offers more at a lower cost,
and they disclose all the hidden costs. |
| 2006/11/16-27 [Recreation/Computer/Games, Recreation/Media] UID:45343 Activity:nil |
11/16 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-274981837129821058&pr=goog-sl&hl=en Coca-cola + mentos = explosion. Fun video. |
| 2006/10/26-27 [Recreation/Media] UID:44981 Activity:nil |
10/25 link:tinyurl.com/yj8nhs -- Darth Tater -John |
| 2006/10/25-27 [Consumer/TV, Recreation/Media] UID:44973 Activity:nil |
10/25 dish network or directv? yes/no and reasons for why. okthx
\_ neither. If you can't download torrents of your shows, they're not
worth watching anyway.
\_ UR s0 K3WL!!11 1 1uv U ]<3\/\/1 p1r8 g1ze!11 ]<@/\/ 1 B leik U?!!!
\_ No real difference. Get the one that has the channels you want
at the cheaper price.
\_ Dunno about dish, but my parents have directv and I swear that
after midnight every other channel is paid programming. |
| 2006/10/23-25 [Recreation/Media] UID:44936 Activity:nil |
10/23 http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/story?id=2600380&page=1 KANG Well, the Earthlings continue to resent our presence You said we'd be greeted as liberators! ... KODOS We had to invade. They were working on weapons of mass disintegration. |
| 2006/10/19-23 [Recreation/Humor, Recreation/Media] UID:44876 Activity:nil |
10/19 The latest MMORPG WoW South Park is totally funny! Watch it now!
"I am socializing artard. I'm logged on to an MMORPG with
people from all over the world and getting XP with my party
using teamspeak." |
| 2006/10/4-6 [Recreation/Media, Politics/Foreign] UID:44672 Activity:nil |
10/4 Screech my name!
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/456179p-383834c.html |
| 2006/10/1-3 [Finance/Investment, Recreation/Media] UID:44619 Activity:low |
10/1 Casino Royale Trailer is up:
http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/casinoroyale/trailer1a
I miss Sean, Bond is not just yaActionHero.
\_ Yeah, that's the trailer that makes me think that this guy will be
George Lasenby (sp?) II
\_ Does new Bond's perpetual Zoolanderish lip pucker annoy anyone else?
\_ Does new Bond's perpetual Zoolanderish lip pucker annoy anyone
else?
\_ I can't stand the new guy. Why did they have to switch from
Brosnon? Was he getting too old?
\_ I liked the new guy in Layer Cake and Munich. Give him a
chance. --erikred, who also like Pierce Brosnan
\_ Well, I'll still watch it. I always watch Bond and
Star Trek movies (even the odd numbered ones!) -stmg |
| 2006/9/6-12 [Recreation/Media] UID:44298 Activity:nil |
9/6 Life of a cell: http://csua.org/u/gul -mrauser \_ "art" for undergraduate education it is http://www.xvivo.net/press/harvard_university.htm This is the correct way it's done: http://tinyurl.com/q7s2s (Google video, oldie but goodie) |
| 2006/8/29-31 [Recreation/Media, Computer/SW/Languages/Python] UID:44181 Activity:nil |
8/29 Halo meets Monty Python:
http://tinyurl.com/fss3y (kotaku.com) |
| 2006/8/27-28 [Recreation/Media] UID:44167 Activity:high |
8/27 You got the BFG:
http://www.wickedcoolstuff.com/dobfggunlied.html
\_ That's not the BFG. That's the plasma cannon.
\_ 12" long? Dude, that's way scaled down from the movie.
\_ 12" long? That's way scaled down from the movie.
\_ It's the MFG (Medium-Sized Fucking Gun.) -John |
| 2006/8/24-25 [Recreation/Media] UID:44138 Activity:low |
8/24 Paramount ditches Cruise:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14472455
\_ funny that they blame Cruise's antics for the failure of MI:3,
rather than accept the fact that they created a crappy movie. I'm
surprised they're not blaming internet movie pirates too. |
| 2006/8/15-17 [Recreation/Media] UID:44004 Activity:nil |
8/14 So I'm watching South Park now, the old episode, Super Hero
Best Friends. They showed an image of Mohammad, with flames coming
out of his hands. What's up? I thought they don't show images
of Mohammad anymore.
\_ Not when they build up to it, apparently.
\_ They didn't show the image of Mohammed in the Family Guy episode
just to show how cowardly people can get. Plus, manatees.
\_ He's cute. -average Muslim girl
\_ That's why the Cylons hate us. |
| 2006/8/11-14 [Recreation/Media] UID:43973 Activity:nil |
8/11 Star Trek Inspirational Posters:
http://echosphere.net/star_trek_insp/star_trek_insp.html
\_ You are so sad. -not a nerd
\_ Pot, Kettle; Kettle, Pot. Look in the mirror. |
| 2006/8/4-6 [Recreation/Pets, Recreation/Media] UID:43897 Activity:nil |
8/3 Whoo dog! Oklahoma family entertainment!
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5854686068870249151
\_ That's almost as good as http://www.retard.com -proud American
\_ Redneck alert! |
| 2006/8/2-6 [Computer/SW/Security, Recreation/Media] UID:43863 Activity:nil |
8/2 What do you guys think about http://www.wtcmovie.com ? \_ I don't think much either way, but it's clear we're still in what I'd call "The Rambo Years" -- a very glorified version of historical events. I don't think it's outright propaganda, I think it's actually a fairly collective view the US has on 9/11. Make this movie in 10 or 20 years and it will be entirely different. I can't wait for the FMJ kind of take on it. --michener I'd call "The Rambo Years" -- a very glorified version of historical events. I don't think it's outright propaganda, I think it's actually a fairly collective view the US has on 9/11. Make this movie in 10 or 20 years and it will be entirely different. I can't wait for the FMJ kind of take on it. --michener [formatd was here] \_ who/what is FMJ ? \_ Full Metal Jacket? \_ I prefer http://www.tawnyroberts.com -proud American |
| 2006/7/24 [Computer/SW/WWW/Browsers, Recreation/Media] UID:43770 Activity:kinda low |
7/24 The Internet is for Porn (Sort of SFW)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5430343841227974645 -John
\_ I just wasted a minute of my life.
\_ 3 minutes, if you watched the entire thing.
\_ Sorry for forcing you. -John
\_ Oh! No, no, I enjoyed it. -!pp
\_ I only made it through a minute of it.
\_ Ditto. It was interesting for about 30 seconds. It is
\_ Ditto. It was interesting for about 30 minutes. It is
not bad, has a lot of potential to be better. |
| 2006/7/9-11 [Recreation/Media] UID:43606 Activity:nil |
7/9 Pirates of Caribbean 2. Sucked mule's balls. It is basically
a long, boring tease for Pirates 3.
\_ I liked it. You are stupid. Keira Knightley is still flat.
\_ I liked it. You are stupid. Keira Knight is flat.
\_ I liked it. Greatest movie ever? No. As good as the first? I
don't remember the first. But it was fun, it was funny, and it
was pretty, and hey, that's why I went. --dbushong
\_ Are you comparing the movie to mule's balls based on personal
experience? Movie reviews are not a matter to be taken lightly! |
| 2006/7/4-6 [Recreation/Sports, Recreation/Media] UID:43559 Activity:nil |
7/4 Does anyone have the Fox Soccer Channel, and if so, is it worth
it? It sounds like it televises lots of great leagues. Thanks. |
| 2006/7/2-5 [Recreation/Media] UID:43553 Activity:low |
7/2 Superman movie review: please do yourself a favor and avoid this
wretched piece of cinematic crap. The best I can say about it is
you don't have to worry about someone giving away the plot because
there isn't one. Incoherent, meandering, plotless, lifeless
characters, dangling plotlines, internally inconsistent and a
complete waste of time, money and effort.
\_ If you can turn off your critical thought processes long enough,
the special effects sequences are really well done. That said,
yeah, there's not a whole lot of real movie here, and not enough
sf/x to make up for the lack. Still, if you have nothing better to
do and time for a matinee, it's okay.
\_ My take on it is the only reason I will be seeing it is to see
Kevin Spacey chew the scenery. Everything else is just in support
of this singular goal.
\_ It wasn't that bad, it wasn't that good, I expected more
from a quarter billion dollar movie. It doesn't
(and probably could never) live up to my 20 year
old memories of Superman I and II. - danh
\_ I'll grant it was not the worst movie ever made. Here's a few
things they did right: they kept the original musical score,
\_ Some of it. I was always a big fan of the Lex Luthor
music from I and II (never saw III and IV), it wasn't
in the new one. - danh
\_ Specifically the opening theme music.
they gave a cute tip of the hat to Star Wars in the opening
during the credits, they did have a couple of good lines, but
\_ Was that really hat tipping? That was how the
opening credits appeared in the first Superman movie - danh
\_ The bit where they fly down the asteroid channel and
through a hole and out a la the MF avoiding the fighers?
only during the first 1/3rd or so and not that many, they had
some nice Superman-ish quality saving but only near the start,
they got someone to play Lane who was easier to like than in
the first two movies (until she turned out to be a somewhat
vile creature), and uhm, the closing credits. I do give huge
props for keeping the music but that's only because Hollywood
has this thing about using forgettable top 40 trash they can
sell a few CDs for music the last several years. --op |
| 2006/6/30-7/3 [Recreation/Media] UID:43534 Activity:nil |
6/30 Al Gore in Futurama commercial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BjrOi4vF24
\_ The comments seem to be for... a different video. |
| 2006/6/23-28 [Health/Women, Recreation/Media] UID:43486 Activity:nil |
6/23 http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,200698,00.html Fox News movie critic reviews Superman Returns: Clark Kent is not very expressive (okay, he is supposed to be a shy geek), Lois Lane bland, "sass-less", and inarticulate, Lex Luthor is just Kevin Spacey echoing Gene Hackman - first hour rocked (a re-telling of Superman 1+2), rest dragged on at points. |
| 2006/6/5-9 [Politics/Domestic/California, Recreation/Media] UID:43281 Activity:nil |
6/5 http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060605/ap_on_sc/black_brant Fox Kill = good. |
| 2006/5/31-6/3 [Recreation/Sports, Recreation/Media] UID:43241 Activity:nil |
5/31 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7029307448920014564 Modern Talking is so gay! \_ i thought you wrote "Takei" |
| 2006/5/30-31 [Health/Men, Recreation/Media] UID:43218 Activity:nil |
5/29 So I just sat thru 2 hours of Napoleon Dynamite and I was like,
what the f*??? What's so special about this movie? Sheesh.
\_ I got through about 35 minutes. I'm not sure how you made it
the whole way. Stoned? Drunk? Tied to the couch with metal
appliance used to force your eyes open?
\_ Finally! My gf and I went and saw it in the theatre and were
quite let down also. -scottyg
\_ I saw it in the theatre. Initially, I thought it sucked too.
Now I'm more mediocre on it -- hardly worth a buy or even a
rent, but maybe worth watching on cable if it's your only
option. It can be amusing at points, some points more than
the first time I saw it, but mostly, not.
--michener
\_ you motd people are probably too smart for ND. Me and my
low IQ friends loved it. My brother was literally falling
out of his seat laughing, tears coming from the pain of
holding his side. Uncle Rico is one of the greatest movie
characters ever.
\_ I didn't "get" ND when I first saw it. With repeated
viewings I like it more and more. I agree that Uncle Rico
is great!
\_ I felt this way about Robin Hood: Men in Tights
For some reason the more times I saw it, the funnier it got.
--dbushong
\_ http://www3.state.id.us/oasis/2005/HCR029.html
"Girls only like guys who have great skills." --great googler
\_ At first I didn't get it, but after reading it more
thoroughly, I'm going to vote this as the funniest shit
I've ever seen on motd. Thanks great Googler!
\_ my gf and I loved it, saw it several months ago via netflix |
| 2006/5/27-31 [Recreation/Media] UID:43209 Activity:nil |
5/26 Anyone see X-Men 3 yet? Opinions?
\_ I thought it was pretty cool. Thumbs up. Criticisms include
being a little short, and related to that the pacing is a
bit fast. It's missing something, some weight to push it
into true greatness territory, although there are glimpses
of that, but in the end it's fun. Just don't expect too much.
Tip: sit through the credits.
\_ was it better than the first two? rolling stone said the
ranking is: 2 > 1 > 3
\_ To me, that's a bad review. I really didn't think 1 was
anything to write home about. -op
\_ all that says to me is don't listen to RS. It was more
like 1 = 3 >>>>> 2 (which sucked except for the wolverine
fight with the other claws/healing chick). 3 was fast,
dark, brutal, and about as realistic as a supers movie
can be. I saw MI:3 last week but I can barely remember it.
XM3 was way better.
\_ I liked 1 quite a bit. 2 sucked. I haven't seen 3. I
generally dislike superhero lovies (even though I
generally dislike superhero movies (even though I
liked the comics 20 years ago) so liking 1 says a lot.
\_ I liked 2>3>1. My wife, who's not at all interested
in comics, concurs. --erikred
\_ X3 was terrible, a D+. Without giving too much away:
- Iceman: no ice surfing, what a tease, that's like showing Superman
w/o flying, that's what Iceman does, surf on ice!
- Too disjointed: the pacing was terrible, it was cut/ edited really
badly, it felt like 50 scenes melded together
- Corny characters: the new characters didn't translate to the
screen well (Beast/ Angel) Beast walks around a a suit that looks silly
on him, Angel just flies around like a fairy
\_ ??? What, like Tinkerbell? Must've missed that part.
\_ They ALL look silly. Silly nerd.
\_ You have to admit, previous characters were not quite as
hard to translate to the screen (sans Nightcrawler).
- One Liners: they were bad, Wolverine had a few good ones, but
mostly bad
- New bad guys: TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE...a transvestite mutant that
claps and destroys things??? Porcupine-man??? New grunge bad guys,
so grunge people are considered mutants?
- Plot holes
\_ haha, and the others had no plot holes? which ones annoyed you
the most? At least the story was more meaningful this time.
\_ I purposely left these out to not spoil it for anyone. The
holes were more apparent in this one.
- Underutilized new characters: why introduce Angel or Beast when
they only got to use their powers very rarely?
\_ It's flavor. So what? They are also plot elements.
- Wolverine too soft: babysit Rogue, practically crying all the
time, Grey love slave, etc.
- Forgetable movie
- Overall feel: felt like a TV movie at times, pacing, sets,
cinematography
\_ So, did you like 1 and 2?
\_ X1: B+, X2: A+
\_ Well that explains a lot. You liked X2, one of the worst,
most forgettable and disappointing movies in the genre.
What exactly was going on there? Something about a dam
being blown up? That's all I can remember. X2 and The
Phantom (from the mid 90s) go hand in hand.
\_ You realize pretty much no one agrees with you
here, right? X2 is generally regaurded to be far
superior to X1. You're entitled to your divergent
opinion, but there's no need to be caustic.
\_ Who is this everyone? There's about three people
here.
\_ No, really, everyone thinks X2 >> X1. -dans
\_ I don't. -not guy above
\_ Yes, you and the guy above are what one may
generally refer to as the exception that
proves the rule. -dans
\_ You have a strange definition of
"everyone".
\_ Wow, you didn't know there are people outside
the motd? That explains a lot.
\_ You mean like the second highest opening
weekend take ever? Yeah, no one liked this
film. Word of mouth got around fast and it
got crushed by movie goers. Or er, oh wait,
no it didn't. It did fantastically well
because it rocked and a zillion people agree
with me on that by putting their money down.
So, I've got the second highest opening ever
plus a few motders and you have Rolling Stone
reviewer plus a few motders. I guess you win. |
| 2006/5/25-28 [Computer/SW/OS/Windows, Recreation/Media] UID:43187 Activity:nil |
5/25 The Davinci Code review:
-waaaay too long
-ending is lame, should have ended it 15 min earlier
-bashing on Opus Dei is not cool
\_ Erm, how much do you know about Opus Dei? They're a pretty
bashable bunch. -John
\_ Bear in mind that OD in the movie was presented in two lights:
overzealous bishop and henchman, and sympathetic cop. This was
actually the way most of the movie was: for every bad example of
a group there was an equal good example. The movie was remarkably
value neutral on OD, conspiracy nuts, historical evidence of the
Grail conspiracy, etc. Hell, even the albino was creepy for very
personal reasons.
-tried to put in too much stuff from the book into 2 hours
like 95% of the audiences don't even know what the Fibonnaci
function is.
+girl was cute. very very cute. they should have slept together
\- see ALANE review in NYker
\_ For those too lazy to use google (or not tall enough
to understand psb-speak), that's http://csua.org/u/fzz
\_ http://csua.org/u/fzz for those too lazy to use google
(or too short to understand psb-speak).
(or not tall enough to understand psb-speak). |
| 2006/5/19-22 [Recreation/Media] UID:43101 Activity:nil |
5/18 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=446315409505108355 Toot Tone http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8140479593465458255 Two stooges. |
| 2006/5/4-7 [Recreation/Media] UID:42938 Activity:nil |
5/4 Any comment on South Park, episode Mohammed?
\_ Some of the most measured, reasonale criticisms of The Family Guy
to date. Manatees explains everything. |
| 2006/5/4-7 [Recreation/Media] UID:42932 Activity:nil |
5/4 Lucasfilm to release original, unaltered Star Wars DVDs
http://csua.org/u/fpk (Reuters)
\_ ObHanShootsFirst
\_ Can you say "New Coke"?
\_ Got them already from Bittorrents. Lucas missed the boat.
\_ What's the source material for the torrents?
The best format it ever came out on was LD...
\_ LD. I wonder how many Star Wars nuts actually bought
all the different editions of the same damn movies.
\_ Lucas is an !@#$. |
| 2006/4/6-7 [Reference/Law/Court, Recreation/Media] UID:42700 Activity:nil |
4/6 Netflix sues Blockbuster for patent infringement:
http://tinyurl.com/qvqpw (reuters.com) |
| 2006/4/5-6 [Recreation/Media] UID:42668 Activity:kinda low |
4/4 The new South Park episode (S9E2) is pretty cool. They portrayed
Prius Hybrid fanatics and San Franciscan smug pretty well. The
portrayal of SF's attitude of "We are progressives so we're smarter
and better than everyone else" attitude is pretty funny. Good job,
jolly good show.
\_ Why do South Park San Franciscans like to smell their own
fart? Is it to show that they're so eco-conscious that
they'll take in their own pollutions (meaning San Franciscans
are crazy and full of shit), or does it have other
subtle meanings?
\_ The lead-in for the joke was that they're so smug they think
their own farts smell good.
\_ But we ARE better than everyone else! That's all right,
I can take the ribbing.
\_ Every time someone mentions South Park, I consider buying a TV again,
but every time I go past to the thrift store I just can't part
with the ten bucks.
\_ Every time someone mentions South Park, I consider buying a TV
again, but every time I go past to the thrift store I just can't
part with the ten bucks.
\_ TVs are usually more than 10 bucks, and Comedy Channel
is more than $10 bucks thanks to our monopolized cable
television that bundles a lot of other crap you don't need.
\_ Then you'd have to pay for cable ($40+) a month too.
\_ Do what the rest of the world does, torrent the eps.
\_ any pointers on how to find torret files?
\_ http://mrtwig.net
\_ Or purchase the episodes on iTunes. -dans
\_ Minor correction, it's S10E2 |
| 2006/4/4 [Recreation/Food, Recreation/Media] UID:42652 Activity:nil |
4/4 http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060403/ap_on_he_me/diet_black_kids_ads Yoyo, what's up home boy? Ya want KFC for finger licking good dinner? |
| 2006/4/3-4 [Recreation/Media] UID:42626 Activity:nil |
4/3 The Simpsons Movie teaser trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Roj6U79xuh4
\_ This video has been removed due to copyright infringement.
\_ http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/thesimpsonsmovie/teaser |
| 2006/3/31-4/3 [Recreation/Media] UID:42595 Activity:nil |
3/31 Awesome Ebert review of "Basic Instinct 2":
http://csua.org/u/fec
"My 1-1/2-star rating is like a cold shower, designed to take my mind
away from giving it four stars."
\_ We care why?
\_ Other than really good movies, this is the kind of unpretentious
movies I like. Good review. |
| 2006/3/27-28 [Academia/Berkeley/CSUA/Troll, Recreation/Media] UID:42469 Activity:nil |
3/27 Wait, what if motd boob guy, star trek movie guy, and movie critic
guy were all the same person? Wouldn't that be like some sort of
stereotypical geek trifecta? Or would he need to be Asian, too?
\_ I think that person exists and his name is Roger Ebert.
\_ I thought Russ Meyer was the boob guy.
\_ You are of course aware Roger Ebert cowrote
"Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls" with Russ Meyer
\_ Roger Ebert lives with boobs 24/7
\_ Anyway, when did Ebert get a CSUA account and
start posting URLs from bustywebshots?
\_ "I thought the acting was wooden, there was no character
development, and the ending was predictable, but check out the
chick's boobs! Two thumbs up!"
\_ I don't watch enough movies to be the mmc. And I'm not much
into boobs. Though I would not turn down the opportunity to
watch Jadzia running around DS9 shooting people w/ a concussion
phaser rifle. -stmg |
| 2006/3/27-28 [Politics/Domestic/President/Bush, Recreation/Media] UID:42456 Activity:moderate |
3/27 Can someone post a link to the text of the Wall Street Journal's
review of "V For Vendetta"? Obviously I am not a WSJ Online
subscriber. Thank you.
\_ please delete after you are done. :
\_ Why did someone delete the review? Thanks for posting it. -!op
\_ Because it was stupid to post the content rather than a link
in the motd.
\_ It's not deleted, it's behind the paywall.
\_ I mean someone posted it to the motd then it was gone from
the motd a few mins later. Nevermind, I got to read it. I
hop the op did, too. Thanks to whoever posted it.
\_ stubborn and stupid person try 2:
---
FILM REVIEW
By JOE MORGENSTERN
V for Violent, Vapid:
Sci-Fi 'Vendetta' Celebrates
Love, Liberty -- and Terrorism
In "V For Vendetta," an action fantasy set in London in 2020, the
masked hero calls himself V, models himself on the 17th-century
political bomber Guy Fawkes, and says that words will always retain
their power. He certainly uses them with verve -- especially v-words,
as in his devotion to "vindicating the vigilant and the virtuous."
Eventually this literary veneer devolves into vexatious volleys of
cultural ventriloquism, or, if you will, a vichyssoise of vapid
verbiage. But images have power, too, and several sequences in this
film are powerful indeed, as in the apocalyptic fulfillment of the
Gunpowder Plot, Fawkes's failed attempt to blow up the Houses of
Parliament. "V for Vendetta" is a veritable gallery of forceful
images, and provocative notions, recycled from such sources as "The
Phantom of the Opera," "The Mark of Zorro," "1984" and "A Clockwork
In "V For Vendetta," an action fantasy set in London in 2020,
the masked hero calls himself V, models himself on the
17th-century political bomber Guy Fawkes, and says that words
will always retain their power. He certainly uses them with verve
-- especially v-words, as in his devotion to "vindicating the
vigilant and the virtuous." Eventually this literary veneer
devolves into vexatious volleys of cultural ventriloquism, or, if
you will, a vichyssoise of vapid verbiage. But images have power,
too, and several sequences in this film are powerful indeed, as
in the apocalyptic fulfillment of the Gunpowder Plot, Fawkes's
failed attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament. "V for
Vendetta" is a veritable gallery of forceful images, and
provocative notions, recycled from such sources as "The Phantom
of the Opera," "The Mark of Zorro," "1984" and "A Clockwork
Orange." It's also a sententious piece of pop pap that celebrates
terrorism as a necessary evil, and peddles anarchy in a user-friendly
package. [Hugo Weaving]
The film was written by Andy Wachowski and Larry Wachowski, the
brothers who created "The Matrix" trilogy; they based their screenplay
on the comic book series of the same name by Alan Moore and David
Lloyd. (The first-time director, James McTeigue, was assistant
director on all three "Matrix" productions.) For a while "V for
Vendetta" draws expertly, and extravagantly, on the primal power of
its pulp antecedent. The fancy language, the mysterious protagonist,
the pervasive sense of evil in an England tyrannized by steely
fascists and religious crackpots, it all promises to be great fun. And
so it is when the epigrammatic swashbuckler V, who's played by Hugo
Weaving (Agent Smith in "The Matrix") crosses paths with Natalie
Portman's Evey, a frightened little mouse who doesn't know what to
make of him -- "Are you like a crazy person?" she asks -- or when V,
like some latter-day Vaughan Williams with a vicious streak, conducts
his own explosive London symphony from a rooftop. (The film is also
being shown in IMAX. I haven't seen it in that format, but I'll bet it
terrorism as a necessary evil, and peddles anarchy in a
user-friendly package. [Hugo Weaving]
The film was written by Andy Wachowski and Larry Wachowski,
the brothers who created "The Matrix" trilogy; they based their
screenplay on the comic book series of the same name by Alan
Moore and David Lloyd. (The first-time director, James McTeigue,
was assistant director on all three "Matrix" productions.) For a
while "V for Vendetta" draws expertly, and extravagantly, on the
primal power of its pulp antecedent. The fancy language, the
mysterious protagonist, the pervasive sense of evil in an England
tyrannized by steely fascists and religious crackpots, it all
promises to be great fun. And so it is when the epigrammatic
swashbuckler V, who's played by Hugo Weaving (Agent Smith in "The
Matrix") crosses paths with Natalie Portman's Evey, a frightened
little mouse who doesn't know what to make of him -- "Are you
like a crazy person?" she asks -- or when V, like some latter-day
Vaughan Williams with a vicious streak, conducts his own
explosive London symphony from a rooftop. (The film is also being
shown in IMAX. I haven't seen it in that format, but I'll bet it
looks impressive.)
At its entertaining best, "V for Vendetta" has the courage of its
borrowings, and conviction in its posturings. (What's not entertaining
is the smarmy tone of its potshots at an America in the throes, we are
told, of a civil war. "Here was a country that had everything," a TV
voice intones at one point, "and 20 years later it's the world's
biggest leper colony.") Some details of the musty English dystopia may
seem familiar to moviegoers old enough to remember Terry Gilliam's
"Brazil." Still, the movie is pitched shrewdly to young audiences,
what with its heroine, Evey, in constant jeopardy, and a hero who
turns out to be tortured, horribly mutilated -- Darth Vader with a
smirky if not quite smiley face -- and conflicted in the bargain,
since his ostensibly principled terrorism is tainted with a mad lust
for revenge. ("Do you really think blowing up Parliament will make
this a better place?" Evey asks him earnestly. The answer is yes, he
does.) [V] Evey (played by Natalie Portman) is held prisoner in 'V
For Vendetta.'
Yet the film is beset by incoherence and implausibilities that are
perplexing, given the close relationship between the Wachowskis and
the director, Mr. McTeigue -- this is not one of those familiar cases,
it's safe to say, where the writers lost control of their material
when it went into production. Evey's background clearly makes her ripe
for radicalizing, but it's never clear who she's become, or what she's
up to. At work as a secretary for a TV network that resembles the BBC,
she's middle-class. Away from work she could pass for a Dickensian
shop girl. An older, rebellious man who works at the network stars in
At its entertaining best, "V for Vendetta" has the courage of
its borrowings, and conviction in its posturings. (What's not
entertaining is the smarmy tone of its potshots at an America in
the throes, we are told, of a civil war. "Here was a country that
had everything," a TV voice intones at one point, "and 20 years
later it's the world's biggest leper colony.") Some details of
the musty English dystopia may seem familiar to moviegoers old
enough to remember Terry Gilliam's "Brazil." Still, the movie is
pitched shrewdly to young audiences, what with its heroine, Evey,
in constant jeopardy, and a hero who turns out to be tortured,
horribly mutilated -- Darth Vader with a smirky if not quite
smiley face -- and conflicted in the bargain, since his
ostensibly principled terrorism is tainted with a mad lust for
revenge. ("Do you really think blowing up Parliament will make
this a better place?" Evey asks him earnestly. The answer is yes,
he does.) [V] Evey (played by Natalie Portman) is held prisoner
in 'V For Vendetta.'
Yet the film is beset by incoherence and implausibilities that
are perplexing, given the close relationship between the
Wachowskis and the director, Mr. McTeigue -- this is not one of
those familiar cases, it's safe to say, where the writers lost
control of their material when it went into production. Evey's
background clearly makes her ripe for radicalizing, but it's
never clear who she's become, or what she's up to. At work as a
secretary for a TV network that resembles the BBC, she's
middle-class. Away from work she could pass for a Dickensian shop
girl. An older, rebellious man who works at the network stars in
a broadly comic TV show that electrifies the nation by making a
mockery of England's dictator, yet he's confident he won't be fired --
an inexplicable misjudgment on his part for what was obviously
seditious conduct.
V, the only character with sufficient magnetism to hold the narrative
together, drops out for an extended period while Evey endures a
hellish imprisonment that's contrived in more ways than one, and in
the end awfully silly. Natalie Portman, as skillful as she is
attractive, does have her moments -- it's affecting to see her hair
being shaved, like Joan of Arc -- but wide-eyed Evey whimpers
endlessly, and tediously, on her way to becoming a fearless woman
who's able to love. And speaking of love, things go blooey instead of
gooey whenever heroine and hero come close enough to touch; far from
being sensual, let alone erotic, the movie proves to be not much fun
at all.
But then fun isn't high on the agenda, crowded as it is with solemn
debates about the role of terrorism in the face of tyranny. The
movie's heart, a mechanical pump connected to a reservoir of
adrenalin, throbs for the smash finish in which the biggest bomb goes
off, and the Houses of Parliament come tumbling down, along with Big
Ben, a frequent casualty in disaster movies. "V for Vendetta" wasn't
meant to be a disaster movie, of course, and there's no reason to
think it will be a disaster, even though its original opening date of
November 5th -- Guy Fawkes Day -- had to be pushed forward after
real-life terrorists attacked London last July. These days filmmakers
who play with fire don't get burned, they get rich.
---
\_ Why did someone delete the review? Thanks for posting it. -!op
\_ It's not deleted, it's behind the paywall.
\_ I mean someone posted it to the motd then it was gone from
the motd a few mins later. Nevermind, I got to read it. I
hop the op did, too. Thanks to whoever posted it.
mockery of England's dictator, yet he's confident he won't be
fired -- an inexplicable misjudgment on his part for what was
obviously seditious conduct.
V, the only character with sufficient magnetism to hold the
narrative together, drops out for an extended period while Evey
endures a hellish imprisonment that's contrived in more ways than
one, and in the end awfully silly. Natalie Portman, as skillful
as she is attractive, does have her moments -- it's affecting to
see her hair being shaved, like Joan of Arc -- but wide-eyed Evey
whimpers endlessly, and tediously, on her way to becoming a
fearless woman who's able to love. And speaking of love, things
go blooey instead of gooey whenever heroine and hero come close
enough to touch; far from being sensual, let alone erotic, the
movie proves to be not much fun at all.
But then fun isn't high on the agenda, crowded as it is with
solemn debates about the role of terrorism in the face of
tyranny. The movie's heart, a mechanical pump connected to a
reservoir of adrenalin, throbs for the smash finish in which the
biggest bomb goes off, and the Houses of Parliament come tumbling
down, along with Big Ben, a frequent casualty in disaster
movies. "V for Vendetta" wasn't meant to be a disaster movie, of
course, and there's no reason to think it will be a disaster,
even though its original opening date of November 5th -- Guy
Fawkes Day -- had to be pushed forward after real-life terrorists
attacked London last July. These days filmmakers who play with
fire don't get burned, they get rich.
[ reformatted - formatd ]
\_ Placed in /tmp/VforVendetta.WSJ for posterity. --erikred
\_ And if you put it on HTTP it'll be archived in Berkeley MOTD
forever! Yeah!
\_ Btw, I found WSJ's dislike of "the [movie's] smarmy tone of
its potshots at an America in the throes... of a civil war"
to be laughable. What, it's okay to have a totalitarian
England but it's unforgivable to imply a failed USA?
\_ Agreed, but they are right when they say that the Evey
character is incomprehensible. In the comic book she was a
teenage prostitute, but the story clearly had its rough
edges sanded off for mainstream appeal.
\_ plus the movie ending took out the entire reason for
her being in the comic, which was one of the most
powerful parts of the story.
\_ Reread the book: She was _not_ a teenage prostitute;
her one foray into prositution (out of desperation)
was the incident that led her to meet V. However, I do
agree that her straitened situation would have been
more evocative than what featured in the movie.
\_ thanks for your help. - stupid and stubborn wsj scrounger |
| 2006/3/17-20 [Recreation/Media, Recreation/Dating] UID:42301 Activity:nil |
3/17 Where can I find the Dalek lesbian porn movie?
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2005550115,00.html
Best quote from article: "The reason the Daleks are still the most
sinister thing in the universe is because they do not make things like
porn." |
| 2006/3/16-17 [Recreation/Travel, Recreation/Media] UID:42279 Activity:high |
3/16 I have an expensive hobby. I have a few providers I found through
my friend's escort connections. There are a few providers and
AMPs I go to frequently and I really enjoy some of them. Anyways,
after they provide full services, how much should I tip them? For
some providers, even if I don't tip I still get great services
from them.
\_ Err, what is your hobby, visiting prostitutes?
\_ I think that's it. I'm guessing AMP = Asian Massage Parlor. |
| 2006/3/15-16 [Recreation/Media] UID:42239 Activity:low |
3/14 Cool. Most recent episode of Battlestar Galactica riffs on Mario
Savio's most famous speech. -dans
\_ Which part? (of the ep.) --dbushong
\_ Toward the end of the episode, when chief Tyrol(sp?) is
speaking as the union president. -dans
\_ Hmm. It definitely sounded like it could have been based on
a famous speech ("we hold the tools of production, we have
the power, yadda"), but doesn't to me sound anything like
the Savio one. --dbushong
\_ The podcast on http://scifi.com on the episode talks about the
tie-in with Savio's speech. --erikred
\_ Cool. The podcast links are broken at the moment. -dans
\_ Ah hah! I was looking at the wrong speech/part of his
speech. I was looking at the autocracy bit, not the
odious machine bit; yeah, that's cool. --dbushong |
| 2006/3/13-14 [Recreation/Media] UID:42219 Activity:nil 87%like:42218 |
3/13 Isaac Hayes (Chef) quits South Park over
religion^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^HScientology:
http://tinyurl.com/lo98q
\_ Well, in fairness the scientology episode may have awakened him
to his own hypocrisy, but yeah, probably not.
\_ "James Taylor, what the hell are you doin' in here?! Singing'
about prostitutes to the children! Get out of here!" |
| 2006/3/13 [Recreation/Media, Reference/Religion] UID:42218 Activity:high 87%like:42219 |
3/13 Isaac Hayes (Chef) quits South Park over religion:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2006/03/13/entertainment/e133318S62.DTL
\_ Dude, he's a Scientologist! Hah! |
| 2006/3/13-14 [Recreation/Media] UID:42211 Activity:moderate |
3/13 Why I love Walmart. http://www.slate.com/id/2137955 \_ That sounds great. I could actually buy movies I want to see. \_ Sounds great. This is only one step removed from legalized download on demand. \_ Hey, if Wal-Mart can pay a licensing fee per movie, why can't the guy who sells them out of the back of his van? \_ Welcome to the 21st century: rights of individual / rights of corporations = 0 \_ Ability to police Walmart >> ability to police white van guy. Not to mention, scale of Walmart >> scale of white van guy, so ROI on Walmart >> ROI on white van guy. \_ FYI, movie ticket cost about $11-$12 USD on some of the nice theatres in Beijing. Consider how much people make there, you can do the math. *FURTHER* the bigger problem is that the titles which is allowed to be shown in mainland is VERY limited. People would much rather go to see an uncensored version on a much cheaper price. \_ I paid a quarter to see Waterworld in a crappy home theater in Xiamen about ten years ago. Despite that being about what the movie was worth, we split after fifteen minutes. --erikred \_ To apreciate Waterworld, you have to be living and working at sea when you see it. We used to watch this when I worked on a boat, and it ruled. "Dry land is not a myth!!!" \- Is this the "have you served" form of movie critic "vetting"? |
| 2006/3/12-14 [Recreation/Media, Consumer/TV] UID:42198 Activity:nil |
3/12 OBL's niece gets her own TV show:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/TV/03/10/leisure.binladen.reut/index.html
\_ Lots of people get their own TV show. So what?
\_ link:tinyurl.com/hwhnv -John |
| 2006/3/10-11 [Recreation/Media] UID:42174 Activity:nil |
3/9 The Simpsons remake (category: humor):
http://youtube.com/watch?v=49IDp76kjPw |
| 2006/3/9-11 [Recreation/Media] UID:42168 Activity:nil |
3/9 Welcome to Dongmakgol: http://imdb.com/title/tt0475783 Aside from the main characters being idiots in the end, an excellent movie. Magical, almost have the feeling of a Hiyazaki movie sans the cute monsters. Must for Korean movie buffs. |
| 2006/3/9-11 [Recreation/Humor, Recreation/Media] UID:42153 Activity:moderate Cat_by:auto |
3/9 So I've now seen two wonderful movies with disappointing endings in one
week: Corpse Bride and Howl's Moving Castle. How can they put so much
work into having such beautiful movies, then so obviously blow the
endings? Bah, I say!
\_ you got sucked into watching it and paid the same amount of money
had the ending been better. So, u=teh suxor.
\_ Eh, they were still worth the ~ $1.07 I pay per movie on the
2-at-a-time Netflix plan. What frustrates me is that they were
so good...until the endings.
\_ just like War of the Worlds?
\_ Yeah, I gave that one some slack for being based on a book,
though I guess Howl's was too.
\- "I saw the best movies of my generation
destroyed by bittorrent ...
destroyed by piracy ..."
\_ Huh? (I get the song reference, but not
why)
\_ Clearly you don't get the reference.
\_ I hate the beats, but you make me sad.
google for "ginsberg" and "howl"
\_ Hah, never knew that. I never thought
to see where the TMBG lyrics came
from.
\_ The MOTD makes the baby Cassady cry.
\_ This is not related to this song, is it?
http://www.lyricsdepot.com/they-might-be-giants/i-should-be-allowed-to-think.html
http://www.lyricsdepot.com/they-might-be-giants/i-should-be-allowed-to-think.html
\_ How would you have like Corpse Bride to end? I thought it
was a normal, predictable ending.
\_ Exactly! It didn't fit the movie at all! |
| 2006/3/8-9 [Recreation/Media] UID:42141 Activity:nil |
3/8 Okay I found out the name of the 1964 movie Gladiator ripoff of:
The Fall of the Roman Empire
Lots of big stars in the movie. Here's its plot:
http://www.allwatchers.com/Topics/Info_4046.asp |
| 2006/3/7-9 [Recreation/Media] UID:42135 Activity:high |
3/7 What are some of the popular movies you've always hated but didn't
dare to express it in public because you didn't want to be
ridiculed?
\_ Totoro. It was such a torture watching something so silly and
stupid. It's almost like watching Who Framed Roger Rabbit. What
the hell is the point of the story? I mean, what is the message
or the moral values that it is teaching our kids? It's worse
than Pokeman, which IMHO, is also pointless and stupid. The
creator of Totoro was probably on meth and weed at the same time.
And I have no idea why everyone wants to go to JTown to buy
little pillow/beanbags that you attach cheap plastic eyes on,
printed with Japanese tags and the word "Totoro" on it, for
$89.99 for a 12" model and $259.99 for a 24" model. There, my
confession is out. Go ahead and ridicule me because I'm stupid
and "I just don't get it"
\_ Not a ridicule, but I do have a couple of questions. Are you
asian or white? If asian, how old are you and where did you
grow up? If you tell us that, I can understand why you
hated Totoro so much and just didn't get it. -totoro fan
\_ Uhm, as a long time fan of anime, I think I can confidently
say that racial ethnicity as a measure of "how much or why
you like Totoro" is a crock of shit. I know people of all
demographics that like it, and hate it.
\_ What does it matter if you're asian or white, taweisan?
\_ I pity you. Lord of the Rings Trilogy was weak. Peter Jackson is
a mediocre director at best, and badly needs an editor. BTW,
what's with the ungame questions? -dans
a mediocre director at best, and badly needs an editor. -dans
\_ Blah. Jackson's a great director, and Heavenly Creatures proved
that. LOTR cemented his rep not because the movies were well-
directed, but because he directed the three simultaneously
in a plethora of locations. The logistics were mind-blowing.
Also see his low-budget offerings for further examples of his
technical mastery. --erikred
\_ HE CHANGED FARAMIR!!!!!!1!1!1 THE MOVIE IS A FRAUD!!!1!!!
\_ I can't stand LOTR. I hated Empire Strikes Back. I cannot forgive
Lucas for freezing Han. I also didn't like major parts of TWOK.
-stmg
\_ I haven't even posted to this thread, but somehow I feel
that I am being made fun of.
\_ Flaming Flying Denethor! What makes you think that?!?
\_ I'll check out Heavenly Creatures. Depends on the production,
but it's usually the producer's responsibility to handle
logistics. Usually the director's role is very focused on
what's happening on-set (or on-location) right *now*. -dans
\_ Not so for LOTR. Jackson took advantage of realtime
vid-conferencing and other such to review work as it was
done by the ADs. The extras on the Extended Edition DVDs
cover a lot of this. It was an amazing piece of film-
making. --erikred
\_ It's pretty common to view the dailies. I think
there's a disconnect here. Dan is talking about the
logistics of production, which the producers do
handle. You are talking about directing (artistic
direction) three movies at once. Both are feats,
but Jackson was really only responsible for the
artistic direction. Yes, Jackson had a lot of
autonomy from New Line. I know this because I went
to a lecture given by one of the producers (and
Sean Astin). There was some sense of "We've given
Jackson $xxx million and we haven't heard anything
in a while. What's going on over there? Get on a
plane and find out." But that's from the standpoint
of the executive producers at New Line. The line
producers were handling all of the logistics for
Jackson (at his behest). Also, I have to say the
the editors probably contributed a hell of a lot,
turning all of that footage into three movies which
made sense. --dim
\_ Pax. I certainly didn't mean to belittle the
contributions of the editors or the producers. That
said, I say he's a great director because he was
able to ring-lead the entire enterprise.
\_ I can't stand LOTR. The books were terrible, the movies were worse.
I hated Empire Strikes Back. I cannot forgive Lucas for freezing
Han. I also didn't like major parts of TWOK. IRL I keep these
opinions to myself b/c I don't want to be accosted by over-zealous
LOTR and SW cosplayers. Not that they would hurt me, BUT being seen
w/ such people might reduce my street cred as a hard core star trek
fan. -stmg
\_ Do you write http://www.the-editing-room.com ?
\_ I love your unswerving lack of nerve in failing to stand up for
what you love in a non-anonymous forum like IRL. --erikred
\_ Hey, the topic asked for people who had no nerve to
post and be counted. If I had a backbone, I'd be
wearing my Vulcan ears to class. -stmg
\_ You do know that Lucas didn't direct the Empire Strikes Back,
don't you? -dans
\_ Lucas has writing credit for the story.
\_ But Leigh Brackett scripted it. She's awesome.
\_ The freezing of Hans seems like a story element rather
than a screenplay element.
\_ Yeah, actually I just wanted to get it a Leigh
Brackett plug, 'cause she's awesome.
\_ Yeah, so what? If Lucas had said "I read your crappy
script and I hate the part where you freeze Han. Let's
freeze that stupid long haired looser dweeb Luke instead."
Do you think they would have said no? Of course not. I
cannot forgive Lucas for failing to do the right thing.
-stmg
\_ I couldn't stand Gladiator. Terribly predictable movie.
\_ I think Gladiator sucks too. The screenplay is also a direct
copy of an older 60ish movie, which I saw on TV. It's like
wow, isn't this movie exactly the same as Gladiator? Did
they acknowledge the older movie (forgot it's name)?
\_ Spartacus.
\_ I'm Spartacus!
\_ *I* am Spartacus!
\_ No! *I'm* Spartacus!
\_ No it's not Spartacus, which I've seen. I found
out the name of the movie - The Fall of the Roman
Empire:
http://www.allwatchers.com/Topics/Info_4046.asp
Read the storyline above and you can see Gladiator
is a shameless ripoff of the above movie.
\_ I liked it because I'm a sucker for that kind of historical
recreation. The sets and costumes are really entertaining,
and the fighting is ok (but the opening battle had too much
cutting). I also enjoyed Kingdom of Heaven a lot, for basically
similar reasons. Actually I enjoyed KoH more. I guess I'm a
heretic for thinking Braveheart was overdone though. It's overly
long. I guess I still liked it too though. They are all a bit
predictable especially if it's based on historical events.
I also saw Troy and thought it mostly sucked, but still enjoyed
the sheer spectacle of it and the subject matter. I'll have to
check out Alexander sometime.
\_ I am also a sucker for historical recreations, but I didn't
like Gladiator. I think the reason is because the plot
is too naive and the characters flat and without depth.
I liked Braveheart. I even liked Troy. For Troy, I liked
the unique take on Achilles and Briseis. I also
didn't mind the Agamemnon all bad, Hector all good
portrayals. I watched Troy on TV only recently because
the reviews were bad. Could've found a more intimidating
looking actor for Hector, but Bana did ok otherwise.
Haven't watched Kingdom of Heaven.
\_ E.T. I just don't get it.
\_ It's simple. Kids are kind in heart and sees good in people
\_ It's simple. Kids are kind in heart and see good in people
(and in this case ET) regardless of their looks. Adults on
the other hand are mostly motivated by fear and greedy thus
want to quarantine and open up ET "for the good of mankind."
I guess *kindness* and *tolerance* were the messages. So,
are you a conservative or something? -liberal troll
want to quarantine and disect ET "for the good of mankind."
I guess *kindness* and *tolerance* were the messages.
\_ Well, the message I got when I was 8 was that DIRT BIKES
KICK ASS.
\_ Wow, now I'm quite sad that I never got that message. I
still am not an E.T. fan, but I figure I should have been
able to analyze it. Damn.
\_ I'm with you. I don't think there was that much to get.
Glowing finger, ugly little alien, flying bicycle. Shrug.
\_ I think this depends on whether or not you were into BMXing. |
| 2006/3/6-8 [Politics/Domestic/Gay, Recreation/Media] UID:42114 Activity:kinda low |
3/6 http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/what-did-i-tell-you Hollywood blogger says: a) "this year's dirty little Oscar secret was the anecdotal evidence pouring in to me about hetero members of the [Academy] being unwilling to screen Brokeback Mountain" b) I told you so: Crash might win because of homophobic Academy voters c) Crash and Brokeback "both good, if flawed, films" d) There was "hardly at all" any controversial political statements d) "The forces that hate Hollywood salivated for Brokeback to win Best Oscar", but oh well \_ As someone with connections in Hollywood (including members of the Academy) let me say that a) and b) seem very unlikely given the prevalence of gays in Hollywood. It didn't seem to stop them from voting for, say, "Monster". As you know, "Brokeback Mountain" has been well-received by Hollywood. I think this blog is full of crap. \_ blog entry: "I found horrifying each whispered admission to me from Academy members who usually act like social liberals that they were disgusted by even the possibility of glimpsing simulated gay sex." Okay, granted it's a blog, but it has a lot of history behind it and cred to lose. Who are you and how reliable would you say you are? I can understand if you don't think it's worth it. \_ I would say I'm pretty reliable given that my girlfriend works in Hollywood. Her boss won a freaking Oscar (producer) and is a member of the DGA. Her officemate was a screenwriter for "Walk The Line". I think this blog person is trying to stir up shit. If the Academy was that biased they would have never nominated it. Hollywood is full of gay people. Even though some of the members are older and more conservative I really doubt they are homophobic. Are you telling me they won't vote for Dreamworks movies, too, because of David Geffen? Or Digital Domain movies, because of the VP (a lesbian)? Titanic did pretty well! Come on! Next thing I'll hear is that they are biased against Jews! --dim \_ Props to you for ID'ing yourself. Turns out blog author is also columnist for L.A. Weekly: http://www.laweekly.com see bottom-right. Could be she's totally wrong, after all it's all "anecdotal". Natural hetero aversion to watching man-on-man romance shouldn't be enough to sway sophisticated academy types from voting for it if it truly deserved it. \_ The major complaint I've heard about BB from people in Hollywood is that it's boring. I think some people want to champion it because it's a gay film and the reality is that there are some people who might have said: "I am not voting for that because it's a gay film", meaning "Just because it's a gay film doesn't mean I like it" and not "I refuse to vote for it because I hate gays." \_ There's a difference between supporting the concept of gayness, and wanting to watch a movie fairly graphically (for Hollywood) depicting gay sex. But I don't really think that's why it didn't win; it didn't win because it was subtle, and Hollywood hates subtlety. -tom \_ It's not about 'wanting to watch... gay sex.' People don't want to watch serial killers and yet 'Silence of the Lambs' won. If it was about gays then why did Hoffman win for 'Capote'? I am not really sure what the 'Hollywood hates subtlety' line is getting at, BTW. Hollywood appreciates subtlety a lot more than the average theater-goer does. \_ Your analogy needs work. People are far more comfortable with depictions of violence, even extreme violence, than they are with sex - heterosexual, homosexual, or otherwise. That said, the sex scene in Brokeback was pretty damn tame. \_ It's not an analogy. It's an observation that you don't have to be comfortable with the subject matter (or want to watch it) and yet still praise a movie. There are some disturbing movies I'd never want to see again that I can still find merit in. It's not supposed to be 'most entertaining movie' or 'movie most people would like to see if given a chance' or 'movie best suited to repeat viewing'. It's supposed to be the best movie. Again, if there is a bias then why did Ang Lee win? That's pretty good evidence that there's no bias. \_ no, it's not. \_ Yes, it is. The movie won several awards, so obviously people in the Academy had no problem voting for it when they feel it deserved it. \_ You're begging the question. If we assume that Brokeback is at least as good as, say, Titanic (which it's much better than in reality), and Titanic won 11 Oscars and Brokeback won 3, there must be some bias going on. Personally, I think the bias is that the Academy has no taste, but it's entirely plausible that there's a bias against the gay theme. -tom \_ Tom, are you a closeted gay? \_ Are you asking for a date? -tom \_ This sounds too stupid to be tom. --dim |
| 2006/3/6-8 [Recreation/Media] UID:42112 Activity:moderate |
3/6 "Crash" was good. Why is it considered an upset?
\_ Cause it sucked sucked sucked
\_ Because everyone was expecting the gay issue movies to win. Or at
least they were getting the ype.
\_ "Crash" was good, but not great. It doesn't really stand up to
most Best Picture winners. Then again, Best Picture hasn't had
many strong candidates in recent years. BTW, I think I would've
gone with "Walk The Line".
\_ Have you also seen "Capote" or "Good Night, and Good Luck"?
I haven't seen any of the nominees. All I watched was stuff
like Batman. But those two do better on http://rottentomatoes.com
than Crash (or Brokeback).
\_ You can get a very high http://rottentomatoes.com rating just by
being a movie that almost everyone sort of likes, like the
last Harry Potter movie (89%).
last Harry Potter moving (89%).
\_ A real upset would be giving an Oscar to a movie that was
watchable, such as Batman Begins or Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
But then again, I would have have picked The Voyage Home
over Platoon for best picture in 1986 and First Contact
over English Patient in 1996, so what do I know? -stmg
\_ Platoon was very good. But my mom, my sister, and all of my
girlfriends hated that movie.
\_ Never said I didn't like Platoon. I said that I
thought that STIV:TVH was better. I mean anyone
can make a watchable movie about Vietnam. It takes
really skill to make a movie where the crew of the
Enterprise has to travel back in time aboard a hi-
jacked Klingon BoP to find some whales and bring
them back to the future to save the planet earth.
-stmg
can make a movie about Vietnam. It takes real
skill to make a movie about saving the earth by
traveling back in time to find some humpback
whales. -stmg
\_ Forget my previous post. I confused FMJ w/ Platoon.
I didn't like Platoon. I thought FMJ was okay.
\_ You didn't think "Gladiator" was watchable? Actually, I am
surprised you didn't like "Platoon" but did like "Mr. and
Mrs. Smith". Oooooooookay. Different strokes...
\_ I didn't really like Gladiator. I guess I just
prefer guns (and phasers) to swords (ex. I hated
LOTR). I guess Lightsabers are okay, but I'd have
to say the only watchable SW movie was EPS4. -stmg
LOTR). Lightsabers are okay in my book, and EPS4
deserved to win over Annie Hall in 1977. -stmg |
| 2006/3/1-4 [Politics/Domestic/Crime, Recreation/Media] UID:42058 Activity:nil |
3/1 http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060301/od_nm/cannibal_film_dc Proof that Germans are the weirdest people in the world. \_ http://snltranscripts.jt.org/90/90asprockets.phtml http://www.pistolwimp.com/media/42170 |
| 2006/2/24-27 [Recreation/Media] UID:42000 Activity:nil |
2/23 I had to share. Don't ask why.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080846/usercomments
\_ Saw this back in the early 80s, on TV. Must say that, at age 12,
this was simply epic. Watching it now, however, would just be...
sad.
\_ http://www.badmovies.org/multimedia/moviesu/hawkslayer1.mpg |
| 2006/2/16 [Recreation/Media] UID:41891 Activity:high |
2/16 Today on the radio I heard a commercial for this electronic/TV/
appliance shop that I had never heard of, which claimed that they'd
been around for over 20 years. At the end of the commercial the guy
said "I *AM* the king." I've heard something similar from Seinfeld
where this guy dressed up as the king for another appliance shop in
NYC. What is this "I *AM* the king" deal? What the hell does
it mean? Is it a 60s thing?
\_ Mr. Leonardo Cappuccino in Titanic?
\_ Better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool...
\_ And your contribution to this thread is ...
\- Hoc volo, sic jubeo; sit pro ratione voluntas
\_ Was it Howard's? He has claimed to be the king of big screen
since the 1980s. Maybe you live in a cave.
\_ in LA, Paul is the King of Big Screens
\_ The Seinfeld episode was of a guy saying he was the "Wiz". |
| 2006/2/14-15 [Recreation/Media] UID:41850 Activity:nil |
2/14 RIP, Andreas Katsulas. Goodbye G'Kar!
\_ http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=1&id=34628 |
| 2006/2/5-7 [Recreation/Media] UID:41712 Activity:nil |
2/5 more from cringely on wiretaps: (ignore steve jobs blather)
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20060202.html
maybe he doesnt actually know what he's talking about as a pp
said, but at least in this episode he quotes someone who
claims to. |
| 2006/1/24-25 [Recreation/Media] UID:41504 Activity:low |
1/24 DIS to acquire PIXR
\_ Oh well, PIxar was such a good movie house.
\_ Oh well, Pixar was such a good movie house.
\_ Time to sell. Not a bad deal, though, +200% in five years. -tom
\_ So what do some of the Pixar Sodans think of this move? |
| 2006/1/24-25 [Recreation/Media, Consumer/TV] UID:41494 Activity:nil |
1/24 have you thought you watched all episodes of STNG and discovered
that you missed an episode or two many years later?
\_ Nope.
\_ Yeah. I missed one s2 eps when it aired on TV and only
discovered it again on DVD. -stmg |
| 2006/1/5-9 [Recreation/Computer/Games, Recreation/Sports, Recreation/Media] UID:41253 Activity:nil |
1/5 I just found out about the underground flash phenomenon. Here's
a few of my favs, skewed to video game heads:
SFII vs MK3: http://tinyurl.com/7wb2f
Scorpion Addicted to Mortal Kombat: http://tinyurl.com/c9qd4
Star Wars Gangsta Rap: http://tinyurl.com/8ogyy
\_ welcome to the 21st century |
| 2005/12/31-2006/1/4 [Recreation/Media] UID:41182 Activity:nil |
12/31 If you saw the movie GRIZZLY MAN, watch this:
http://tinyurl.com/bdhus - danh |
| 2005/12/21-22 [Reference/Religion, Recreation/Media] UID:41106 Activity:high |
12/21 emarkp, did you ever see the South Park episode about the Mormons?
They make the Joseph Smith story look pretty ridiculous. Are they
misrepresenting it in any major way? If so, how?
\_ Didn't see it--don't watch South Park. jrleek gave a short review
of it a while back:
http://csua.com/?entry=36159
[addendum: I typically don't turn to comedy cartoons for historical/
factual insight.] -emarkp
-emarkp
\_ Ok thanks. By the way I thought you hate kchang's guts and
you're boycotting his crappy web site, why are you using
it now?
\_ I wasn't boycotting it, nor do I hate his guts. I find the
archive quite useful, but the "guessing the identity" feature
to be a serious problem (which is part of the "diff" part, not
the archive proper).
\_ I find no distinction between his crappy products. If
one part of his program is poorly written, how can you
trust other parts of the program, such as the archiver?
\_ Thanks for the link. Do you have a URL to an accurate summary
of the Mormon take on historical events that the tablets/BoM/
whatever talked about?
\_ I can point you to historical overviews of the LDS church from
the LDS perspective. Critics will say that we're hiding the
ugly parts of history, but I've never seen an even-handed
handling of the religion and history. I've heard good reviews
of a new book called "Rough Stone Rolling" which is supposed
to be precisely that, but I haven't read it yet. -emarkp |
| 2005/12/19-20 [Consumer/CellPhone, Recreation/Media] UID:41074 Activity:high |
12/19 http://upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20051217-074635-6362r So theaters want to allow cell phone blocking in theaters. Here's a better idea: throw the people who talk on their cell phones in theaters out. And allow responsible cell phone owners to receive emergency calls. \_ Wow -- you are the troll master! I bow before your trollish expertise! I've seldom seen so much traffic generated with such an innocuous post. \_ Sadly, I was serious, not trolling. \_ I think throwing someone out of a movie theater when they're not willing to give up their $10-15 is likely to be far more disruptive than a typical phone call. \_ Huh? What does that even mean? \_ how do you throw them out from the middle of a packed theater? \_ I think when calls are being blocked signs should be required saying so. I've been in several stores where they are obviously blocked and could've lost important calls. If they block signals they should be obligated to say so. \_ Sure. That seems pretty reasonable. \_ No it doesn't. I want to receive emergency calls. I set my phone to silent when I go to the movies, and I want to receive emergency calls. \_ Don't go to those theatres that block calls then. No one is forcing you to patronize those establishments. \_ Well, yes that's the point. If they don't want my business, I guess they won't get it. \_ If they want mine, they'll block your calls. Your emergency is my disturbance. I paid to be there to see a movie, not hear your conversation. If you are so important you can't be out of touch for 2 hours, don't go to the movies. Question: are these "emergency calls" from work? No one's work is that important. If you're a brain surgeon you can afford a nice home theatre. If you're some techie, they should hire more people and get an oncall rotation. \_ What if it's the babysitter calling you to let you know the kid's in an accident? \_ the babysitter should know where you are. At least this was how it was before cell phones. \_ I'm confused. Are you saying that there are some circumstances (babysitter/ accidental kid) where it's ok to interrupt a public event with a cell phone call? Or that since the babysitter should know the number of the venue, it's never ok? I can imagine it could be difficult to find a movie theatre employee to communicate an emergency if cell is blocked. Also, what happens if you make an unscheduled stop in a cell-blocking venue, or if you don't realize the venue is cell-blocking? \_ There was life before cell phones. If you make the decision to watch a movie you should be able to be incommunicado for that time. \_ There was also life before fire. Are you saying that there is no circumstance under which you would consider acceptible to interrupt a public venue with a cell phone call? \_ Give me an example. Whatever it is probably won't be helped by someone being notified in their movie, or else someone didn't plan properly. \_ Movie theatre, babysitter, accidental child. Let's even say accident serious enough for ambulance and hospital emergency room. Movie theatre number leads to voicemail (at best) or just infomercial (at worst). Is it ok to call the cell directly then? \_ I thought "accidental children" are what you MAKE at the [drive in] movie theater. \_ How would it help? Sure, leave a message in their cell voicemail. I don't care if people call the cell, I care if they answer it. I'm just saying blocking it wouldn't be a big deal. Honestly in that situation calling the parent RIGHT NOW would probably not even matter. Parent will go OMG and race over to hospital etc, who cares. I don't know why I'm discussing this though because I don't even care about this subject. Damn you motd! \_ If it were your child, would you want to take the call immediately, or would a message be good enough? If you have trouble imagining a child, what if a parent/sibling/other loved one had an accident? Would a message be good enough or would you want the call? Don't we all have children or other loved ones? You might find the question difficult because your position that no responsible would want to take a cell call in a theatre is untenable. What if you have a stroke, and you need emergency medical help? Do you want to wait for someone to find a land line or to find the theatre staff? Or would you want someone to call 911 on a cell? If you're this _/ neurotic about it, then either don't go to the movies or find a theater that doesn't block (if it should come to that). Making the rest of the theater suffer rude morons because of your hangups is stupid. Of course they'd WANT the call, that _/ is beside the point. They would have the choice not to go to the theater. How are you going to call while you are having a stroke? Just yell help. There should be plenty of other ways to get help. \_ Ob I said "want someone to call". Ob I also said "do you want to wait..." You realize you'r grasping because your position is not defendable. \_ Ob you kept adding to your post and I kept merging my reply. You realize you're stupid. \_ You realize that accidents and medical emergencies are by definition not likely to be predictable. You're still grasping because your position is still not defendable. \_ This reply is not relevant. Non-cell-phone communication is sufficient. QED. (I suppose you never fly because your precious cell phones have to be turned off.) \_ Quite the contrary. This directly addresses your repeated claim that "they would have the choice not to go". If they knew they were slated for an emergency, then they would have a choice. But accidents and emergencies are by definition not predictable. So you asked for a scenario, and I've given it. Are you saying that even under the 2 scenarioes I've described (accident to loved one and stroke), a cell phone call in the theatre is still not acceptable? \_ As a patron that doesn't give a shit about your problems, yes. I'm there to spend my $10 and have a good time, not listen to every doofus in the theater dealing with their 'emergencies'. \_ You mean you will be more annoyed than sympathetic if some- one in the theatre has a stroke? \_ I don't see that as likely enough to take seriously. \_ That's exactly what I am saying, yes. Well, to be more precise, the possible benefit is outweighed by the negatives. \_ OK. And I am sure everyone agrees with you. Let's just pray that you and yours are not accident prone. \_ I bet > 90% of the people in the theater agree that your emergencies are annoying. \_ Do you never travel to anywhere without cell phone coverage? \_ Often. But in those cases there is always someone (airline, hotel, office, etc.) who will be responsible for messages. \_ so you never like go hiking in a national park, or go biking or rafting? Right because if the world isn't _/ stopped and you notified, then your loved ones would die. How else are you gonna know to put on your supersuit and fly into orbit to divert the rogue asteroid? \_ You're saying because I couldn't instantenously fly home from Europe (let's say), I shouldn't want to drive across town to a hospital? \_ You'll do it when you find out. Chill. \_ And if the health of a loved one is at stake, would you want to go immediately or wait for the movie to be over? \_ Not everything revolves around what you want. \_ No, I am asking you. What would *you* want? And we're all "you", since all of us have loved ones. want? I wouldn't know, _/ seeing as how my cell was off, so I'd wait for the movie to be over. What is your job? Do you micromanage everything and never delegate any responsibility? \_ I asked what you would *want* to be able to do, not what you might be able to do. Why is this such a difficult question to answer? And I notice that you keep try- ing to this a professional responsiblity question, while I keep trying to ask questions about family and loved ones. Why try so hard to dodge a simple question? If it were your loved one who had an acci- dent, when do you *want* to be notified? [tick tock] Still no answer? Tsk tsk. Scared of answering the question, no? In any case, I have a meeting I have to take, so you're off the hook. Would you *want* to _/ get paid $20000/yr for no reason by the government? Quite honestly, I wouldn't want to be paid _/ $20k by the government. I make plenty on my own, and I am sure there are others who need the money more. To answer your question generally, the government does in fact give out money, and there are processes set up to determine if your have governmentally- approved need to qualify for the money. You don't understand the context of the question. It's an either/or thing. Would I want to know? yes. I also want not to be bothered by phones. I don't arrange my life such that being on instant's notice is important, and when it is I don't go to thtrs You keep saying that you are able to arrange _/ your life such that you don't have emergencies. You seem to not understand that by definition you cannot predict when an emergency will occur. So when an emergency occurs (when your child is hospitalized, to use the current example), you are willing to wait until you are out of the theatre to be notified. Can you predict when your child will be in an accident and require medical attention? You seem to claim you can, and you can therefore arrange your life around that event. I tend to believe you can never predict when an accident will happen, and therefore arranging to be available for one is impossible. But your position is clear, and your claims are consistent. (Though to be quite honest I don't believe in your claim one whit when an actual emergency does accur. YOu'll want that phone call and scramble out the theatre like everyone else). impossible. \_ now you're putting words in my mouth. just forget it. look, *I* am not the one who will adminster medical attention, comprende? \_ you can always hire a part-time personal secretary (kind of like a baby sitter) to stay outside the theatre with a cell phone in case there's an emergency. I mean isn't your child's life more important than the $40 per hour cost of hiring a personal cell phone answering messenger? In fact, I don't think you should even go out to watch a movie. It's mere entertainment. what if some drunk driver hit your car and kill you. Your kids would be left without a parent. Would you want your kids to lose a parent because of your selfish desire to watch a movie?! Also, why are you carrying a cell phone? Didn't you know that many people believe that they cause tumors? Do you want to die of cancer and leave your kids without a parent?! You motherfucking selfish bastard! Please answer the simple choice questions above. If you can't, please STFU! movie to be over. \_ You're an idiot. Just because medical emergencies are unpredictable doesn't mean you can't prepare for the worst. Stay home and let other theater-goers be, okay? \_ I didn't say I wanted to have a conversation in a theater. My phone is silent when I go to the movies. If it vibrates, I'll leave the theater to answer it. Pay attention kid. \_ I agree. Like it or not there ARE people who use the cell phone infrastructure to do emergency preparedness, and this is something the government wants. Cell phones are quite good at fullfilling these tasks while allowing freedom of movement. What will happen when a cell phone jammer blocks a call from someone say at a cafe right next to a theater? \_ Oh fuck! Good point! You might have to go OUTSIDE and make the call! Oh woe, woooooe! \_ Hell, what if you have a stroke while you're watching a movie? What additional damage will your body suffer while you're trying to find a land line if cell phones are blocked? \_ I've got an easier solution: kick out anyone who makes noise in the theater. Really, which is worse: a) someone whose phone is on vibrate, answers it, then TALKS on it b) someone whose phone rings, but they quickly silence it c) screaming kid d) non-stop yakkers See my point? \_ a) hit them with a bat, b) boot to the head for having it on in the first place, c) hit their parents with a bat, d) hit both of them with a bat. \_ You know.. that's not the solution to everything. What would you do if someone threw a ball at you? Huh? \_ CSUA bat uber alles! \_ The kid should be hit with a small bat so it will learn. \_ My personal opinion is that if you block cell phone signals, then you also need to not allow people to bring infants into the theater. Afterall, if a cell phone rings, most people can turn it off within seconds. Not so easy with a baby. I think that in the future, maybe they can have a system that will automatically turn everyone's cell phone to silent mode if they are in the theater. Restricting the signal might be the best solution in some ways, but that's unfortunate. People should just have the courtesy not to have a conversation (phone or to the person next to them) during a movie. \- i actually would be perfectly happy with the disruption of a movie to see the spectacle of somebody thrown out. in fact if that were a likely possibility, i would go to theathers so that were a likely possibility, i would go to theathers to see that and would feel disappointed if it didnt happen. in fact i think if it happened 5 times, that would be fine too. i dunno where marginal returns become negative. i realize this will never happen in amercica tho. i also wish a strong norm would evolve about how late you can save seats in a crowded theater. the problem of somebody tall sitting in front of you at the last min doesnt seem solvable. minute doesnt seem solvable. |
| 2005/12/18-20 [Recreation/Media] UID:41066 Activity:moderate |
12/18 Brokeback Mountain, best movie I have seen in a long time.
Just go see it.
\_ Is it another one of those movies about gay cowboys eating pudding?
\_ Yeahhh. Hollywood just can't seem to get out of that rut.
\_ Homo on the Range
\_ Homo, homo on the range
Where the queer with the anal lube play
Where condom is heard an encouraging squirt
And the guys are all kinky all day
\_ Bring ass shielding.
\_ Oh my god it is a movie about GAY PEOPLE! I bet watching
it will turn you into a big fag, well unless you just get
raped by all those homosexuals in the audiance.
\_ Gah! Nobody got the reference! -pp
\_ I did. --dbushong
\_ As I went a-walkin' one mornin' for pleasure,
I spied two fudgepackers come ridin' along;
Their hats was throwed back and their spurs was a-jinglin'
And as they approached I was singin' this song:
Yippee ki-yi-gay, git along, little homos;
It's your misfortune and none of my own.
Yippee ki-yi-gay, git along, little homos;
You know that Wyoming will be your new home.
It's early in spring that we round up the homos
We wash 'em and lube 'em and test 'em for AIDS
We round up the condoms and load the fuckwagon
And then throw them homos out onto the trail
Yippee ki...
\_ I don't believe you. Where did you see it?
\_ It was released only in SF, LA and NYC.
\_ I saw it at Embarcadero One. I got tickets about three hours
in advance on Saturday.
\_ Before I spend $10/ticket to see anything, I'd like to know more
than an anonymous motd person told me to go see it. What exactly
did you like about it? What other movies have you liked and why?
\_ My female coworker told me that I should see this movie because
"there is nothing hotter than seeing two cowboys making love to
each other".
\_ Without revealing spoilers, I can only say that it is a powerful
and compelling story about something I have never seen
examined on the big screen before. Having grown up in the
rural West, I can say that it did a good job portraying attitudes
rural West, I think that it did a good job portraying attitudes
and culture there. The acting was really great, too, at least
one Oscar worthy performance. I also liked Godfather, Blade
Runner and American Beauty. Look at the imdb ratings, they
are all 9's and 10's (and 1's, probably from people who did
not even see it). |
| 2005/12/17-19 [Recreation/Media] UID:41061 Activity:nil |
12/17 Previews seen before King Kong: a Miami Vice movie? A freakin' remake
of the Poseidon Adventure?!
\_ That's great. So how was the movie?
\_ Movie's good, but long - bring ass padding. |
| 2005/12/16-18 [Recreation/Media] UID:41053 Activity:nil |
12/16 http://www.boxofficemojo.com/daily/chart/?sortdate=2005-12-14&p=.htm Nothing in particular. |
| 2005/12/15-19 [Recreation/Media] UID:41041 Activity:high |
12/15 For Star Trek movie guy: Shatner, Stewart, and Bakula to team up in
ultimate unholy movie of horribleness:
http://www.hollywood.com/news/detail/id/3472202
\_ Why do star trek writers love time travel so much? Do they all
have the fantasy of going back in time and sleeping with their mom?
\_ Because it allows unlimited cross over episodes between the 3
time periods they wrote material.
\_ They have the fantasy of going back in time and child-molest
their own selves.
their own selves. Screwing a young virgin asshole with your big
fat dick while having your young virgin asshole screwed by a big
fat dick ...... oh it's so HOT!
\_ Time travel is a crutch that lets writers to indulge in their
favorite setting. Instead of creating new scenarios and
implications, they go to the past and play "alternate history,"
but somehow they end up back in the same exact world they left
from because the "true" outcome is pretty much the "best" one.
No one kills Hitler, stops WWI, or saves Kennedy. Only small
personal victories are allowed. Sigh. Thinking is hard.
\_ When I was in middle school, my friend and I who were
obscessed with time travel swore that if we ever got our
time machine to work, the first thing we would do was go
back and tell our middle school selves about it. By the
end of 8th grade we pretty much concluded that neither of
us would ever invent a time machine. The difference between
us and those wankers at MIT was that we had the excuse of
being 12.
\_ What was so great about Kennedy? Bay of Pigs? Nuclear war?
\_ More interesting is the time, not the man. Vietnam, civil
rights, and the cold war.
\_ The original plot line for ST2 had Kirk et. al. traveling
back in time to assassinate Kennedy in order to restore
their timeline.
\_ If they're doing this Mirror, Mirror bs, they sure as hell better
bring Avery Brooks back into the project.
\_ Damn straight. They won't, though. He was the most interesting
captain by far, but the ST fan base never took to him.
\_ Pre Shaved Head Sisko was a loser, Shaved Head Goatee Sisko
rocked. He was my 2d best captain in the ST universe (Kirk
being the best; although Spock technically was a Captain by
rank, he doesn't count b/c he never had an independent cmd).
I'd love to see a movie w/ Sisko. -stmg
\_ IMHO, DS9 >> ST:[TNG,TOS,E,V]. I love TOS, but sometimes
you have to get over the first love and move on.
\_ As much as I like DS9 (enough to play both Harbinger
and The Fallen), I still think that TOS is better b/c
of the cast. DS9 had too many losers (Jake, Dr. Bashir,
Rom, Nog, &c.) and they managed to mess up stuff like
the really cool Section 31 plot line. -stmg
\_ It was a better show with losers. Everyone in the
other ST shows were idealized paragons. Blah.
\_ I can agree that in TOS the characters were
nearly perfect, but not in the other shows.
The only near perfect characters in TNG were
Data and Lore. There were no perfect characters
in Voyager. Seven of Nine was not bad, but you
can only watch so many episodes where she walks
around in a one piece with a concussion phaser
rifle :-). -stmg
\_ That's because it's B5 with the serial numbers filed
off. And of course B5 is LotR with the serial numbers
filed off.
\_ B5 was ass. About the only good things on B5 were
Kosh (good and bad), Chekov and Marcus and JMS
killed off Good Kosh and Marcus. Pox on JMS. LotR
is even worse than B5. About the only thing worse
than LotR I've ever seen was Attack of the Clowns
(Yes, even Final Frontier was better). -stmg
\_ Lord of the Rings is worse?
\_ If B5 was ass, it was supermodel ass. Don't let
your love of the One True Space Opera cloud your
ability to appreciate other well-done series.
\_ You mean Dune? Cause that's what Lucas copied
\_ The only good thing about Dune was that
Picard was in it. -stmg
\_ You suck.
\_ I like SG-1. I've watched ever eps. of B5
and I still think it is ass. My opinion
might have been different if (1) JMS didn't
might have been different if JMS didn't (1)
make Evil Kosh act like a sniveling child
in front of the first one and (2) JMS didn't
kill off Marcus. -stmg
in front of the first one and (2) kill off
Marcus. -stmg
\_ Huh, I don't really see how B5 is LotR. Please
elaborate.
\_ There were some obvious nods. The First One named
Lorien. Sheridan's leap into Z'ha'dum to come
back later (compare to Gandalf's plunge into
Khazad dum). The Elder races going away to leave
man (the Third Age of Man). Etc.
\_ As you say, those are nods. "B5 is LotR
with the serial numbers filed off,"
suggests wholesale lifting of the plot.
/
http://www.bbspot.com/News/2003/07/babylon_5.html
\_ If you go to Khazad-dum, you will die. -geordan
\_ I thought DS9 would be B5 with SNs filed off at
first, too, but subsequent viewing proved me
completely wrong. It was its own original thing.
\_ DS9 has actual plot arcs and something unique
to offer ST viewers, conflict.
\_ Except their entire war thing was stolen from
B5. The thing with the gods dragged on way too
long too. At least it wasn't like ST:TNG,
"Sir! We're under attack!" "Raise shields,
conference!"
\_ No, I'm pretty sure war existed before B5.
What you did have was shifting alliances
and actual reasons for war. And DS9 touched
on religion as an actual subject matter in
character lives instead of a plugin addon.
\_ Even better, TAS might be coming to dvd next year:
http://www.thedigitalbits.com/rumormill.html#1215
-stmg
-stm |
| 2005/12/13-15 [Recreation/Media] UID:40998 Activity:nil |
12/13 http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/12/13/051213173239.bo5ciosh.html "Ticket sale revenues dropped five percent in the first 11 months of 2005 while the number of Americans going to the cinema fell by 6.2 percent compared with the same period in 2004" So once again the revenue-per-consumer goes up, and they wonder why we're spending less on the movies. \_ A 1.2% annual increase is less than inflation, so quit yer bitching. \_ And your source that the numbers were not inflation-adjusted is? \_ What about DVD sales. I bet those were higher than ever. \_ DVD sales are actually dropping. Too many DVDs. |
| 2005/12/4-6 [Recreation/Media] UID:40839 Activity:kinda low |
12/2 Hope springs eternal! Picard says there might be another
Star Trek movie:
http://www.darkhorizons.com/news05/051204c.php
- star trek moive guy
\_ This the same Patrick Stewart who said Nemesis was a great film?
I'm not listening to him anymore.
\_ After the debacle that was called Enterprise, I'm willing
to give TNG another shot. -stmg
\_ Dude, they can _both_ be bad.
\_ What does Enterprise the TV show have to do with another
bad ST:NG movie's quality?
\_ I'm having a hard time coming to terms w/ the fact
that there hasn't been a good Star Trek show since
DS9 ended. I'm also struggling w/ the fact that 1st
Contact was the last watchable Star Trek movie. I
desperately need an infusion of new Star Trek content
(Enterprise failed spectacularly in this regard b/c
even SeaQuest was more watchable). -stmg
\_ After the other ST:NG movies I'll happily stay home and maybe
catch it on cable a week after it hits the theatres.
\_ Nemesis was so bad I felt cheated when I downloaded it. Blarg.
\_ You too? I thought I was the only one who felt it was
a waste of bandwidth. -stmg |
| 2005/12/2-5 [Recreation/Media] UID:40815 Activity:kinda low |
12/2 Recent movies that have not been screened early for crititcs (like
Aeon Flux):
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/news/comments/?entryid=267200
5% -- In the Mix (2005)
8% -- The Fog (2005)
24% -- Cry_Wolf (2005)
0% -- King's Ransom (2005)
14% -- Cursed (2005)
\_ You're saying that if their scared to show it early to critics,
it probably blows?
\_ That and apparently they're already selling off the props:
http://premiereprops.com/store/index.php?cPath=40
\_ I saw the preview for this, and there's a part where the 2
assasins are attacking someplace, jumping around, etc. Anyway,
there's some killer grass that she almost lands on. The
other assasin then says something like, "Keep off the grass."
WTF? Who decides to put anachronistic groaners like that in?
Does someone think that's funny or cool?
\_ didn't the star of aeon flux say "i will not wear skimpy
outfits"?
\_ Yes. Basically she said she's too important to wear the
kinda of outfits the original character wore and screw you
kind of outfits the original character wore and screw you
fans who expect the movie to be anything like the source.
\_ I didn't think she had much left to hide after _2 Days in
the Valley_.
\_ The playboy spread in '99 hid even less.
\_ And it's currently at: 11% |
| 2005/11/28-30 [Consumer/Camera, Recreation/Media] UID:40755 Activity:kinda low |
11/28 Watched Electra on cable. I was expecting a real turkey and
was surprised to see that it wasn't, at least compared to the
other Marvel films out there. The only ignificant gripe was
that it was too long. Most of those flashback scenes could
have gotten cut resulting in a better flow. According to the
net: DD2 is a good possibility. Supposedly electra 2 is being
considered as well.
\_ I caught Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Definitely
Charlie Kaufman's best film yet.
\- editing becomes electra
\_ yeah, batman begins actually had cheesier moments
\_ yeah, batman begins was actually cheesier imo
\_ batman begins had a lot going for it, but quite a bit that
didn't really work. it had enough that i hope they continue
in this vein and work out the kinks.
\_ you're kidding? the cameraman spent half the film pointing at her
flabby stomach. maybe i saw a different film.
\_ Well, I wasn't thinking of it like a porn
flick. If you want that; try Entrapment.
I am thinking in comparing it to other superhero
films.
\_ I was trying to focus on the positive aspects of the
film. "Flabby stomach" was the best it got. The
acting sucked. The fight scenes mostly sucked. The
plot.. well I'd say it sucked but that implies it had
one. Even the worst of the batman movies were better
because they actually attempted to entertain the
audience. I'm not sure what this film was trying to do.
plot.. well I'd say it sucked but that implies it
had one. Even the worst of the batman movies were
better because they actually attempted to entertain
the audience. I'm not sure what this film was
trying to do.
\_ Elektra. God, I thought it was horrible. The action was close-in,
dark, and poorly choreographed... and that's really all there was to
the movie. You didn't really understand her motivation, powers,
future...anything
\_ This is actually something I can agree with. My
original point was keeping in mind that all superhero
movies are cheesy and campy. Its just puzzling considering the
relatively good reviews that Batman begins got compared to
other superhero moviews of late. Yet it suffered from many
of the same problems. The most vitriol seems to focus on
Jennifer Garner which is similar to what Clooney got when he
was batman (now that was just plain bad).
\_ This is actually something I can agree with. My original
point was keeping in mind that all superhero movies are
cheesy and campy. Its just puzzling considering the
relatively good reviews that Batman begins got compared
to other superhero moviews of late. Yet it suffered from
many of the same problems. The most vitriol seems to
focus on Jennifer Garner which is similar to what Clooney
got when he was batman (now that was just plain bad). |
| 2005/11/28-30 [Recreation/Media] UID:40753 Activity:kinda low |
11/28 Got myself the Kodak c340 digital camera at Fry's ($199) that
does movies with sound. Anyone have reccomendations on video
size and codec that give decent results(default was 640x480
QT which resulted in a rather large and fuzzy movie) This is
a 5MP camera.
\_ My Nikon Coolpix 3200 also has 640x480 15fps movie mode which also
yields large and fuzzy QT movie. Why are QT files so large and
fuzzy?
yields large and fuzzy QT movie. Why are QT files so large? It's
about 500KB/sec.
\_ I don't think any of these cameras let you specify codecs, only
resolution and framerate. From what I've come across, "QT" files
are merely containers that can use any number of codecs.
Chances are, the manufacturers are choosing codecs that require
the least amount of processing power to encode, hence the size.
Movies in digital cameras are gimmicks at best.
\_ I see. My Coolpix 3200 only lets me specify resolution, not
frame rate or codec. QuickTimer Player says the format of the
video track is "Color: Millions, Data Format: Photo-JPEG".
Does that mean the "movie" is just a series of 15 JPEG still
pictures per second? Is there any tool to convert QT files to
other smaller file formats?
\_ from the desktop ? try radtools. It has a
decent QT converter |
| 2005/11/18-19 [Reference/Law/Court, Recreation/Media] UID:40643 Activity:kinda low |
11/18 "Tom cruise won't come out of the closet!"
\_ How long before Scientoligy takes Trey and Matt to court?
\_ WWXD?
\_ Don't you mean WWLRHD?
\_ I work for the loyal opposition.
\_ The end credits were great.
\_ Link?
\_ ???
\_ http://cnn.com has a 3 minute video blurb about this weeks episode.
\_ episode of what?
\_ South park, duh. Sadly probably the best political/social
commentary on TV today.
\_ My DVR cut out the end. What happened in the last two minutes
of that episode?
\_ Basically kyle or stan or whoever it was said scientology was
a big scam then all the scientologists said they were gonna
sue stan or kyle or whichever one it was for bad mouthing
scientology then the credits ran and everyone in the credits
were jan smith or john smith.
\_ thanks. it might be john smith - Mormons. Did the
three celebreties get out of the closet?
\_ It was John and Jane Smith as a joke, so the scientologists
don't know who to sue.
\_ Um, the LDS founder was Joseph Smith, not John Smith.
-emarkp
\_ Was the whole part about "This is what Scientologists actually
believe" really what they believe?
\_ Yes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology |
| 2005/11/4-6 [Politics/Domestic, Recreation/Media] UID:40443 Activity:nil |
11/4 Last night I was tuned into Air America on the radio, and the host
said, "we'll be listening to ATRIOS next from ESCHATON/blah".
I thought use of handles outside of geek culture only happened in the
movies. Welcome to the FUTURE!
\_ cb radios had handles long time ago
\_ ob cb nerds are a part of geek culture
\_ All those interstate truck drivers are geeks?
\_ Overweight, poorly socialized, generally libertarian,
and utterly convinced that you can't live without them?
Yeah, I'd say they're geeks.
\_ ok, truck geek culture |
| 2005/11/4-6 [Recreation/Media] UID:40441 Activity:nil |
11/4 http://www.gamespy.com/articles/664/664147p1.html heh, article about the new game "The Movies" |
| 2005/11/3-4 [Computer/SW/Apps/Media, Recreation/Media] UID:40418 Activity:nil |
11/3 Can anyone tell me who wrote the original version of "If I didn't
have you." recently made famous by them movie _Monsters INC_ ?
\_ It's an original by Randy Newman.
\_ are you saying it was original for the movie? 'Cause I would
have sworn I had heard that basic song long before the movie.
(though, this would not be the first time I thought a new song
was an old one).
\_ 1) It's a Randy Newman song, so it sounds like EVERY OTHER
RANDY NEWMAN SONG EVER. 2) It's a common turn of phrase in
many standards.
\_ If by "Randy Newman song" you mean "Randy Newman song that
was written for a movie", then sure. You might want to
compare "You've got a friend in me" to, say, "Rednecks" or
"Birmingham". -gm
\_ Ooh, a two step instead of swing! How ... adventurous?
\_ Why do you hate LA? -gm |
| 2005/11/2-4 [Computer/SW/Languages/Misc, Recreation/Media] UID:40410 Activity:nil |
11/2 Splinter Cell the Movie:
http://www.latinoreview.com/scriptreviews/splintercell/review.html |
| 2005/10/21-24 [Politics/Domestic/RepublicanMedia, Recreation/Media] UID:40221 Activity:nil |
10/21 So, is anyone going to go see Doom?
\_ Maybe on DVD. My freshman year at Cal ('94-'95) we used to
talk all the time about the rumors that someone was creating
a Doom movie. I can't believe how bad it looks after all
these years of thinking about it.
\_ Wait, do you mean you have some idea on how a Doom movie
could be good?
\_ Heh, good point. Well, at least I wouldn't shoot the
film in fps format. That looks ridiculous.
\_ Umm, actually according to the "Rock" on the Daily Show
last night, some scenes ARE shot that way.
\_ Umm, that was his point.
\_ oh gawd, the trailer was painful
\_ My favorite critic line on Doom is "It's Aliens for dummies"
\_ "The only downside is that you can't use cheat codes to
reach the end of the movie."
\_ WorldNetDaily thinks that Doom is anti-military, anti-
Christian and neo-nazi:
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46980
\_ Wow. I was on the fence, but now I'm going to have to go see
a matinee tomorrow. |
| 2005/10/19 [Recreation/Media] UID:40169 Activity:nil |
10/18 "Commander in Chief" on ABC a TV show or a campaign ad?
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,172663,00.html
\_ Is that better than fox news, which is one long non-fiction (so they
claim) campaign ad for Bush? |
| 2005/10/17-19 [Recreation/Media] UID:40137 Activity:moderate |
10/17 Anyone buy Firefly? I think people will start wanting to bring
back Firefly after Serenity.
\_ There is no chance of Firefly getting another network season.
\_ Serenity's only made $22M
\_ I bought it. The first episode (two-hour pilot) was long and kind
of boring. I'm seeing the movie tonight for my b-day -- hope it's
better.
\_ First two episodes are very dull. The third one is when things
start to click in terms of story, pacing, actors getting into
their characters, etc.
\_ Well, I just got back, and while the theatre had only four
other people (and two left half way), the movie was an 8/10
in my book. Not bad, but the Zephram Cochrane movie was better.
\_ I hate time travel movies like that. It's like going back in
time and forcing your dad to nail yermom at "precisely the
right moment" to insure your birth. (Potential porn plot!
Added twist: timing off, guy turns to gal! But the threesome
continues.)
\_ I thought Serenity was horrible, there's no way it will spark
interest in Firefly. In fact, now I'm certain I'll never watch
the show after seeing how bad the movie is. My date hated it
too. It's definitely a cult-film and series. A few things that
made me want to leave half-way through...
- Really bad acting
- Really bad lines (script)
- Bad action scenes
- Bad, TV-like cinematography
- Weak, boring villian
- Bad, TV-like special effects
- Weak story (something about [spoiler removed])
+ Girl who knew karate, fight scenes with her
\_ Uhm, sometimes we see movies that just aren't our thing. I
didn't see the TV shows so I'm not a cultist but I really liked
the movie and so did my date. Some of the things you say were
bad about it are the things we liked most. It just wasn't your
taste, I guess.
\_ Interesting. If you replace "bad", "boring", and "weak"
in your post with "not cliche", you have my take on it. The one
thing you liked was the most mainstream element of the movie,
I'd say. Oh, except the special effects, which were indeed
mediocre... but the movie cost $22M, not hundreds of millions. |
| 2005/10/14-15 [Recreation/Media, Reference/Religion] UID:40086 Activity:nil |
10/14 I can't make this stuff up: http://tinyurl.com/bmrfj Arab version of Simpsons (Homer Simpson -> Omar Shamshoon) not as funny as the original. |
| 2005/10/14 [Recreation/Humor, Recreation/Media] UID:40081 Activity:nil Cat_by:auto |
10/13 THIS is modern art. (video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch.php?v=vwl98dU0kY8 |
| 2005/10/10-11 [Recreation/Media] UID:40037 Activity:high |
10/10 Serenity: I didn't build a shrine but saw it last night and really
enjoyed it. I figured out the 'secret' about halfway through which
I normally don't (I don't analyse movies while viewing) but that
didn't detract from the film. Good stuff.
\_ This movie is misnamed, and there are a few plot-holes, but I
liked it too. It's a notch above the usual hollywood trash. --PM
\_ Is cowboy bebop misnamed?
\_ What do you think it should be named?
\_ I was afraid it was going to suck, but I really enjoyed it.
\_ why does someone keep typing about no newline?
\_ why are some people on soda so clueless? |
| 2005/10/3-5 [Consumer/TV, Recreation/Media] UID:39958 Activity:nil |
10/3 Wow, Serenity only pulled $10.1 million at the box office.
http://www.cinematical.com/2005/10/02/weekend-box-office
\_ Which is about what the studio expected. By comparison, "Corpse
Bride" got $2100/theater on opening Friday, Serenity got
$1800/theater.
\_ 1800? The numbers I saw showed Serenity getting 4600/theater.
The movie was very good though, hope word of mouth makes it
sucessful. It was #1 in australia.
\_ http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?page=daily&id=serenity.htm
\_ It wasn't heavily marketed. And the target audience was quite
small.
\_ How much did it cost (including marketing)?
\_ http://Boxofficemojo.com says $39 M for production, no listed marketing
costs.
\_ It will easily make its money back, Firefly was very popular
in UK for example. And DVD sales will be strong. The question
is will overseas sales and DVD sales be enough for 2 more sequels.
is will overseas sales and DVD sales be enough for 2 more
sequels.
\_ I felt that the movie did a lot of things to make it difficult
for a decent sequel. I'm not gonna go into details for those
that haven't seen the movie yet. Of course, Joss Whedon's
experience shows that it's not gonna hold him back. But I
think certain mysteries and character/team dynamics of the
TV series is now gone. It almost feels like Joss and the
cast knew or decided that the movie will be the end of the
series and tried to go out with a bang with it in mind.
\_ I had the exact opposite impression.
\_ Joss Whedon said it best. TV shows ask questions,
and movies answer them. The two big questions from the
series were kind of settled but it is a fantasy universe,
Joss can make up whatever he wants.
\_ How much did it cost?
TV series is now gone. |
| 2005/10/3-5 [Recreation/Media] UID:39955 Activity:nil |
10/3 Serenity: I know the basic background and saw 2-3 episodes. Was the
movie any good for someone who hasn't built a shrine?
\_ Two of my friends who only came because they thought it would be
funny to make fun of it admitted that it was a good movie.
\_ Our friends loved it and they had never heard of Firefly. They
said they were going to recommend the film to their friends.
\_ I never saw Firefly. Serenity rocked hard. -- ulysses |
| 2005/9/21-23 [Recreation/Media] UID:39783 Activity:nil |
9/21 Have you dumped a girl in this way before? (Sep 18-19 entries)
http://thexgirlfriend.blogspot.com
\_ To be fair to the guy, he didn't dump her for cable. He
dumped her for satellite.
\_ It might have been Hi-Def for all we know.
\_ It sounds like he wanted to dump her any way and was relieved
when she finally got the hint.
\_ No, I once refused to talk anymore to an ex who was verbally
abusive and harrassing me with hourly phone calls all night,
but nothing like that
\_ I had a friend who took his gf to the movies - but she wanted
to watch a Disney movie, he vehemently did not want to - they
basically parted ways, and it was over.
\_ So he gave up access to sex in favor of avoiding a Disney
movie. The guy is a fricking genius.
\_ Only in Seinfeld do people break up for stupid reasons
like that. It's more like the episode made the guy
realize he didn't want to deal with her anymore.
\_ actually, they just became friends with benefits. |
| 2005/9/14-17 [Consumer/TV, Recreation/Media] UID:39683 Activity:nil |
9/15 any recommendations for projectors below $1000? i just want
to watch movies at home on my computer.
\_ Look at the InFocus X1 or X1a
\_ There is one at the Audio store in the Bay Street Plaza (Emeryville
that is HDTV/DVD widescreen compliant (16:9 1320x760?) which costs
$1100 but comes with a $100 rebate. Looks beautiful. Stunning
really. |
| 2005/8/2 [Recreation/Media] UID:38944 Activity:high |
8/2 Which came first.. the South Park episode about special olympics
and steroids? Or the Family Guy episode about special olympics
and steroids? Someone has got to pay. Dammit, don't nuke this,
I must know.
\_ since Family Guy looks like Michael Moore, i'd have to
say South Park came first
\_ Family Guy episode first aired 12/20/2001. Dunno for the South
Park, but I would guess it was later.
\_ Family Guy episode first aired 12/20/2001. South Park was 3/24/04.
Some day you will realize Parker and Stone for the hacks they've
always been. And you shall walk in the light eternal
\_ While I don't disagree about South Park, I have to note the
vast majority of Family Guy plots were ripped from the Simpsons.
Except the Family Guy doesn't have the notion of a Halloween
Except Family Guy doesn't have the notion of a Halloween
special. They are all like that. -- ilyas
\_ I think trying to evaluate shows like Family Guy or The
Simpsons based on "how original is the plot" is missing the
point. They both ironically poke fun at standard sitcoms
by recycling their plots, so pointing out that they have
similar plots doesn't mean the Simpsons is "being ripped
off".
by recycling their plots, so just because they have similar
plots doesn't mean the Simpsons is being "ripped off".
\_ Eh, if SP had stopped after a handful of seasons, they might
have managed to remain funny.
\_ Simpsons started making me sad when all the writers left for
Futurama. -- ilyas
\_ I will answer your questiong with another question: "Which
came first the chicken or the egg?" I believe it is provable
that this more general question implys your question. CS170
buffs are welcome to comlete said proof. -mrauser
\_ This is such a stupid false dilemma. Eggs evolved before
chickens. |
| 2005/7/31-8/2 [Recreation/Media] UID:38893 Activity:kinda low |
7/30 Doom movie trailer:
http://media.filmforce.ign.com/media/490/490104/vids_1.html
It looks terrible. Why is it that every movie based on a
video game (except perhaps Street Fighter) is terrible?
\_ I would guess it is something like Roger Ebert's definition of a
sequel: "A filmed deal."
\_ Because talented people don't work on mere video game movies.
\_ Well, it looks like it might be better than D&D: The Movie.
\_ Well, Mazes and Monsters was pretty awesome.
\_ I tried to watch that once. I found that I was unable to drink
enough to make the pain go away. -geordan |
| 2005/7/30-8/3 [Recreation/Media] UID:38889 Activity:nil |
7/30 I'm tired of hearing people whine about sequel-itis in
Hollywood yet support them with their box office dollars while
skipping movies of original content. Put your money where your
mouth is. For instance the top 20 movies (Yahoo Movies 7/30):
-Sequels (10) = $1.2M (i.e. Charlie Chocolate,War Worlds,Batman)
-Originals (10) = $486K: (Mr Smith, The Island)
\_ People are not supporting sequel-itis; income at movie theaters
is down from last year, despite the continued rise in movie
prices.
\_ Charlie isn't a sequel.
\_ No, it's a remake, which is even worse.
\_ Considering that the first was a film adaptation of a book
that doesn't seem like that big of a deal. Also this one
is tons truer to the source material.
\_ Why? Society has this irritating habit of evolving over
time. After awhile, films tend to look dated, and to not
make much as much sense -- so the film gets remade with a more
contemporary style/script. Just because it's new, doesn't
automatically mean it's bad. It makes classic films more
accessible to a wider audience; I have a hard time
understanding why that's a bad thing.
\_ I support your idea. I think we ought to print a new,
modern version of The Bible - but with a happier ending.
The original is such a downer, and modern audiences really
like an upbeat ending!
\_ Batman wasn't a sequel. "The Island" was a remake of "Parts: The
Clonus Horror" with a little "Logan's Run" mixed in.
\_ People go to movies that their friends tell them are good. The
Island was obviously going to suck from watching the previews.
Same thing for a bunch of others. If you want sequels, think
Star Wars. Your list is really print-to-movie adaptations.
\_ The "III" was dropped from "The Madness of King George" because
test audiences kept assuming the film was the 3rd in a series.
Since sequels consistently do better at the box office, I was
surprised they didn't take advantage of the confusion. Fine
movie, btw.
\_ Wot, wot! |
| 2005/7/29 [Recreation/Media] UID:38875 Activity:nil |
7/28 Murderball == awesome movie. - danh |
| 2005/7/27-28 [Recreation/Media] UID:38853 Activity:nil |
7/27 Flying StarWars ships:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=373593 |
| 2005/7/18-19 [Recreation/Media] UID:38678 Activity:nil |
7/18 For those of you who don't want any Harry Potter Spoilers:
http://www.frozenreality.co.uk/comic/bunny/index.php?id=317
NOTE: Bunny is a comic and there are NO Harry Potter Spoilers
in this particular strip. |
| 2005/7/14-15 [Recreation/Media] UID:38624 Activity:high |
7/14 Transformers: The Movie directed by Michael Bay, coming in 2007.
Possible new entry in Worst Movie Ever contest?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/eo/20050714/en_movies_eo/16938
\_ Michael "Pearl Harbor" Bay? What a fucking putz.
\_ Don't worry, you'll get an earlier chance to see one by him.
The Island (Logan 5 re-make) opens next week.
\_ He also directed "The Rock" which was a pretty good action
thriller movie. He also has some decent commercials to
his name: http://www.michaelbay.com
\_ If you think "The Rock" was a good movie, you have even
worse taste than Star Trek Movie Guy.
\_ the WRATH OF KHAN is one of the best geek movies
ever, what are you talking about?
\_ The Rock was a fucking entertaining movie. -someone else
\_ I like the Ferrari vs. Hummer car chase scene. |
| 2005/6/16-18 [Recreation/Media] UID:38160 Activity:nil |
6/16 As disappointed as I was when Darth Vader's mask was removed
by Luke to see a weak pale man, I was more disappointment when
they put in that weak little boy into the Darth Vader suit for
the first time. Agree?
\_ Not really. I mean, I was surprised that Anakin was so young
when he was put into that suit, but he did look pretty big
during the movie. He was a weak little boy in episode II.
\_ When the mask was removed in VI, it was like this horrible
monster was suddenly revealed to be human and have pathos.
When the mask was put on, it was a cheap Frankenstein rip
off, and he only got whinier than before. No mean feat. |
| 2005/6/15-17 [Recreation/Media] UID:38150 Activity:nil |
6/15 My girlfriend made me go so Batman Begins tonight. I have to admit, I
enjoyed the whole movie, which I can't say of any of the others. Worth
the $7.50 -scottyg
\_ Where'd you find a $7.50 ticket?
\_ You thought the movie where Batman voluntarily drives an SUV was
better than the one Jack playing the Joker? -- ilyas
better than the one where Jack plays the Joker? -- ilyas
\_ I read somewhere Nicholson made 90 million off of that movie.
\_ Because clearly, the presence or absence of Jack Nicholson, and
Batman's choice of wheels are the only deciding factors in the
overall quality of a Batman film. -dans (haven't seen it yet)
\_Nothing strikes fear into my criminal heart like a SUV...although
it's more of a cadillac of tanks. Jack was good, but he always
plays a crazy guy, so of course he got the part right. -scottyg
\_ Is Bruce Wayne a Democrat or a Republican?
\_ Neither. He's more of a Teddy Roosevelt Progressive. |
| 2005/6/14-15 [Recreation/Media] UID:38113 Activity:high |
6/13 What are your favorite independent films? Please tell us the title,
your summary or synopsis, and why you like it. Thanks.
\_ Motorcycle Diaries. Really powerful, touching, and funny.
\_ Cemetary Man. Rupert Everitt before he became famous. Italian
horror with an interesting message. Also anything Jim Jarmousch,
though my favorite is Down By Law. Tom Waits, Roberto Benigni and
John Lurie trudging through Louisiana swamps.
\_ I shot Andy Warhol: Fun flick. Lily Taylor is a great actor. She
captures absurdity better than just about any actress around.
\_ Terminal USA, by Jon Moritsugu. Defies explanation. -- !danh
\_ wow did I make you watch that? - danh
\_ Yes. I'm scarred, I tell you, scarred!
\_ Why can't you be like your brother Marvin?
\_ I love anything and everything by him. The one with
the meat industry band and the music video of cow bodies
is my favorite.
\_ If it's a movie that danh advocates, an acurate description
is probably "buckets 'O blood." :P
\_ I'm not a slasher movie fan. Terminal USA is really
odd, I think you can rent it at Reel. I really want
to get the Godzilla rip off that Kim Jong Il kidnapped
a director from Japan to make it. - danh
\_ Pulgasari
\_ http://csua.org/u/cct
\_ http://www.cultdvdzone.com/view_product.php?product=PULDF0LR4
\_ http://csua.org/u/ccu
maybe we should buy a copy for the CSUA.
(Also at Amazon)
\_ Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back
\_ That's an independent film?
\_ It sure is! lucas financed it and published it
himself. george lucas's lawyer suggested to lucas
that he ask for the merch. rights to the first star
wars movie since 20th century wasn't paying him very
much to make it, and 20th century agreed, because
they didn't know better and no one, not even lucas
expected the movie to do that well and no one had thought
of tieing a movie to selling pantloads of crap to kids
before. this all made lucas very wealthy and
he has been able to finance his movies himself,
not always with good results.
\_ Cremaster 3
\_ Bad Lieutenant
\_ Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back. It has great action, nice
cinematography, good story and a great follow-up from the first
one.
\_ It had the better ending.
\_ Pi
\_ Run Lola Run -- I think this one counts as "Independent"
\_ Winter Sleepers or The Princess and the Warrior have more
interesting story lines, but still have Franka Potente (hot!).
I think the Princess and the Warrior had the sexiest
traecheotomy ever filmed.
\_ Schizopolis. Defies explanation, with prejudice.
\_ Schizopolis is a lazy rehash of about 10 different David Ives
plays. Soderberg's a hack.
\_ but I wouldn't let that stop me from liking it.
\_ The Holy Mountain - Alejandro Jodorowsky, mind blowing 1973 sets,
tour of religion and the path of the massiah? Unexplainable really,
just watch it.
I second Cemetary Man. Gummo is funny in that making fun of white
trash sort of way. -scottyg
\_ Good suggestion. The Holy Mountain is one awesome flick, much
better than perennial Jodorowsky favorite El Topo. FWIW, I
also liked Schizopolis. I'll throw in Lars van Trier's "The
Idiots" into the list.
\_ yes. I think Zentropa is also a good introduction to LvT,
though it needs to be letterboxed (pan and scan cuts out
most of the reaaons for watching it). The Idiots is a
really good first Dogma '95 film to see, though, and a
good watch in its own right.
Anything Larry Clark is also good, though guaranteed to be
somewhat disturbing and to involve teen sex. Bully is
amazing and easy to find. Ken Park is amazing and I think
Le Video has a VHS copy.
\_ not so independent but good: Chinese Box. Jeremy Irons facing
mortality along w/ British Hong Kong. |
| 2005/6/8 [Reference/Religion, Recreation/Media] UID:38038 Activity:high |
6/8 Dear Motd Mormons and Christians, have you stopped boycotting
Disney? Disneyland, Disney World, and Disney products in general?
Why and why not?
\_ Have you stopped beating your wife? -emarkp
[For those who don't understand, I'll put it plainer: "what
boycott"?]
\_ Are you going to cry? Please don't report out hate speech!
\_ I don't think Mormons ever got the edict to boycott from AFA
because most Xtians do not consider Mormons as real Xtians.
\_ there are some groups that boycott disney for being
in their eyes gay friendly, i don't think they post to the motd.
\_ This was the Southern Baptist Convention, IIRC. I'd wager
we have at least one person from a church in the SBC on soda.
I don't recall the SBC trying to make common cause with
the CoJCoLDS. -- ulysses
\_ Disney offers employee benefits for gays and lesbians and
AFA gets pissed and asks all Christians to boycott Disney:
http://tinyurl.com/cxaew (cnn.com)
A Christian group boycotts Ford and Disney:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,158232,00.html
Maybe they should boycott Microsoft as well because M$ offers
equal benefits to domestic partners.
\_ They should boycott the Internet because many of the
founders were gays or lesbians or at least gay or
lesbian tolerant. Then they should boycott electricity
because Edison never spoke out against gay people. Next
they should boycott modern plumbing because Mr. Crapper
was a pervert. Also, they should boycott using the
English langauge because it can be used to convey
impure thoughts.
\_ They should boycott food because food sustains
gays and lesbians.
\_ Not to mention oxygen and water.
\_ Edison invented electricity? I thought it was Franklin.
\_ Someone invented electricity?
\_ Edison invented electricity? |
| 2005/6/3-4 [Recreation/Media] UID:37955 Activity:low |
6/2 scotsman - are you going to be doing another Shakespeare play
this summer? Last years was really cool.
\_ I'm not, unfortunately. I started a new job that's too far from
rehearsals, and don't have enough time off yet to do them anyway.
SF Shakes should be very good this year, though. And Marin Shakes
and Shakes at Stinson are always a pretty safe bet (though IIRC,
Stinson's not actually doing any shakespeare play this year).
Cal Shakes is really hit or miss. Also, the next two weekends
are my choir's Jazz and Pop A Cappella concert. Should be very
fun. http://pacificmozart.org --scotsman
p.s. I must have been thinking of a different festival. Stinson
is doing Richard III and Much Ado. R3 is the same director as
the 12th Night I was in last year. Hector Correa (Much Ado) is
also pretty good, but Kelleher (12th Night, R3) is also directing
SF Shakes' Much Ado this summer. |
| 2005/6/1-3 [Recreation/Media] UID:37923 Activity:nil |
6/1 How badly adulterated was Star Wars Ep5 in the Updated Edition? -mice
\_ No unacceptable adulterations. (As opposed to Greedo shooting
first). -tom
\_ None that I can think of. If you don't want bad adulterations,
definitely do NOT watch the end of Ep6, when the ghostly images
of anakin, yoda, and obi-wan appear.
\_ that's a tradeoff worth making for less Ewok. -tom
\_ Hmm, I haven't seen it but I heard one bad alteration ... Ep5 is
Empire Strikes Back, right? I heard they added a scream when he
jumps right after "I'm yer father", implying that he changed his
mind about the jump/or something like that ...
\_ Wompa monster scene was re-shot with a dismembering inserted.
There's more "open sky" and windows in Cloud City. A weather
beacon off the left was added. Stupid stuff like that. |
| 2005/6/1-2 [Recreation/Media] UID:37920 Activity:high |
6/1 Rate the following!
Star Wars Ep I: The Phantom Menace: 5/10
\_ 2/10 -scotsman
\_ 1/10 -sax
\_ 4/10 -jrleek
\_ 2/10 (at least I finished watching it)
Star Wars Ep II: Attack of the Clones: 6/10
\_ 2/10 -mice (I was mildly entertained until goddamned JarJar)
\_ 1/10 -mice (I was mildly entertained until goddamned JarJar)
\_ 3/10 --dim (pod race was the only good part)
\_ 1/10 - eric - the lightsaber duel was the only cool part
\_ Yeah, sadly I think I mostly agree with that. -mice
\_ -5/10 -dans (I want those two hours back)
Star Wars Ep II: When Clones Attack! 6/10
Star Wars Ep II: Attack of the Clones: 6/10
\_ 2/10 - eric - sucked slightly less than Ep 1
\_ 3/10 -scotsman
\_ 4/10 -sax (i watched it dubbed in french)
\_ 4/10 -sax (i watched it dubbed in french, and don't ever want
to spoil the experience by hearing the real dialogue)
\_ 4/10? -mice (I honestly don't remember much)
\_ 2/10 -jrleek
\_ 0/10 (couldn't finish watching it)
\_ -4/10 -dans (I want those two hours back, but the fight scene with
Yoda was cool)
\_ Did you leave the theater? I watched it at home and had to take
breaks, but I got through it. -jrleek
\_ Watched it at home on dvd, but after the fight between Boba
Fete and Obi Wan, I just couldn't take it anymore and stopped
watching.
\_ Um, there was no fight between "Boba Fete" and Obi Wan.
\_ There was some floating boat thing and obi wan was
fighting some dude in armor in the rain right?
I stopped around that point.
\_ You're nitpicking, and you're not helping. You could have
easily added, "It's spelled 'Boba Fett,' and Obi Wan was
fighting Jango Fett, the progenitor of Boba Fett."
\_ I was mocking the fact that he knew there was a "Boba"
character somewhere but didn't pay enough attention to
know that the person Obi Wan was fighting wasn't named
"Boba".
\_ Yeah, I also think it's pretty funny when people
think the klingon word for hello is nucneH when
EVERYBODY knows it's nuqneH! Loosers.
\_ 5/10 --dim (clearly better than TPM because of lack of Jar Jar)
Star Wars Ep III: Revenge of the Sith: 7/10
\_ 7/10 - eric - It didn't suck!
\_ 5/10 -sax (i watched it with my ipod on shuffle)
\_ 5/10 -sax (i watched it with my ipod on shuffle, ditto Ep II)
\_ 3/10 (too long, too boring, too fake)
\_ 6/10 -mice (shoulda been two films; some pretty hideous dialogue)
\_ 4/10 --dim (no Jar Jar, but bad dialogue and pointless action)
\_ Jar Jar was in the movie and he speaks.
Thankfully it is only in 2 scenes.
\_ -3/10 -dans (I want those two hours back, but there was almost no
Jar-Jar dialogue, and some cool shit blew up. Plus
Yoda Kicks more ass)
Star Wars Ep IV: A New Hope: 7/10
\_ 10/10 - eric
\_ 7/10 -mice
\- 7/10 -sax
\_ 3/10 after the stupid digital effects were added.
\_ At least this one was mostly entertaining and
had decent dialogue. Note to GL: CG does not
a movie make.
\_ 8/10 --dim (better and better when compared to the new movies)
\_ 8 to 10/10 - dans (Initially a 10 for having revolutionized
filmmaking, more recently I think of it as an 8)
Star Wars Ep V: The Empire Strikes Back: 6/10
\_ 10/10 - eric
\_ 8/10 -mice
\_ 8/10 -sax
\_ You really liked AotC as much as ESB?
\_ No I rated AotC 0/10.
\_ I can't believe GL froze Han Solo, that was SO WRONG.
Han Solo was the only redeeming thing about SW.
\_ 10/10 --dim (really good movie; best of the bunch)
\_ 10/10 - jlee (mostly Leigh Brackett's ideas who died b4 release)
\_ 9/10 - dans (by far the best of the bunch)
\_ 9/10 - dans (by far the best of the funch)
Star Wars EP VI: Return of the Jedi: 5/10
\_ 10/10 - eric - the first one I ever saw so I'm biased
\_ 6/10 -mice (Yah, you lost me on the ewoks)
\_ Ewoks?!?! Give me a break. They weren't even
cute like say a Tribble. At least Han saves
the day.
\_ 8/10 -sax (when it came out this was the coolest thing I'd
ever seen)
\_ 7/10 --dim (remove the Ewoks and this could be better; then
again the Wookies made the Ewoks look good)
\_ 6/10 - dans
Lego Star Wars: 8/10
\_ Enjoyable and cute. No number
Starr Wars:
Starr Wars (http://www.pa56.org/images/STARR.jpg
\_ Thumb Wars: 9/10
\_ Clone Wars animated series: 8/10 |
| 2005/6/1 [Recreation/Media] UID:37915 Activity:nil |
6/1 Rate the following!
Star Wars Ep I: The Phantom Menace: 5/10
Star Wars Ep II: Attack of the Clones: 6/10
Star Wars Ep III: Revenge of the Sith: 7/10
Lego Star Wars: 8/10
Starr Wars: |
| 2005/6/1-2 [Recreation/Media] UID:37910 Activity:moderate |
6/1 Wow. This is so cool. Say a few bad words about the holy geek cow
Star Wars and people freak out. -dans
\_ I think it had more to do with the attitude you brought to the
table, guy.
\_ You mean honest, direct, and necessarily critical? Whatever the
reason, the response is spectacularly amusing. -dans
\_ Anybody who thinks LOTR is an unwatchable hack job but enjoys
Spiderman is, well, irredeemably evil. -- ilyas
\_ Eh. I have my faults, and I have my attributes. Frequently
they're one and the same. -dans
they're one and the same. Addendum: Compare Sam Raimi's
Directorial filmography to that of Peter Jackson, and it's
readily apparent that:
Raimi's directorial fu >> Jackson's
This is true for both low budget and big budget films they have
each made. -dans
\_ Aaargh! For Love of the Game? The Quick & the Dead? Aaugh!
And while I'd agree with you that Evil Dead is teh r0xx0r,
there's no WAY it holds a candle to Bad Taste. And no, I
don't think PJ is that great, although LotR was pretty cool,
but c'mon, head-pus-spewing aliens and chainsaws aren't way
better than some sexually confused dude prancing around in
an insect constume? -John
\_ I'll have to check Bad Taste out as I have not seen it. A
Simple Plan is fantastic. I've actually always had a soft
spot for The Quick & The Dead, if only for the
cinematography. It's a bad film, but I dig it. -dans
\_ We'd better send in the boys. -John
\_ Don't forget Meet the Feebles. -max
\_ As often as I've tried, I CAN'T forget Meet the
Feebles. I got to watch my then-gf hug herself for
two hours. She said afterwards she felt violated. I
LOVE that movie!
\_ Don't get me wrong, I love Sam Raimi; his Evil Dead trilogy
raised (and then lowered) the bar on inventive film-making.
The thing is Jackson's just as inventive, as you'll see when
you watch Bad Taste. However, there's little to compare
between Spiderman and LOTR; the former was simply adequate,
while the latter, despite its inability to cleave to the
original material, was epic. That said, Spiderman 2 made up
for a lot of the shortcomings of 1. They're both good
directors. We're really just splitting hairs. Now that hack
Lucas, OTOH.... --erikred
\_ This is somewhat unrelated, but I don't think that
attribute is a positive word, I think it's just neutral.
Similar to 'characteristic.'
\_ Just checked http://answers.com (via google definition link), and
you are correct. Thanks for the correction. -dans
\_ I completely agree w/ you. Those Star Wars fans are nut cases,
if anyone says anything bad about their movies they take it as
a personal attack and whip out their force flame powers on you.
Perhaps the first moview (EP4) was watchable but the other ones
Perhaps the first movie (EP4) was watchable but the other ones
were complete trash (including the most recent EP3 - not worth
the bandwidth to d/l it, watching a Quicktime movie of someone
playing JK2 on Jedi Knight would have been more entertaining
than EP3).
LOTR is even worse than SW, there isn't even a single watchable
movie in the bunch (what can you expect, the books sucked).
Those SW/LOTR fans need to grow up and start watching real scifi,
like Star Trek. Wake me when GL copies TWOK. -star trek movie guy
\_ I rate this flaming troll-bait 7/10. Nice presentation,
excellent content (bashing LOTR *and* SW, while bringing in
Star Trek fans -- just wonderful!). Too long, though.
\_ I think bringing in star trek is weak. they're all pretty
much hiding after enterprise.
\_ Enterprise WAS NOT STAR TREK. It was an unholy
abomination whose creators should have been
shot for their desecration of the noble legacy
of Star Trek. -star trek movie guy
\_ *Golf clap* -flamebait fan |
| 2005/5/31-6/2 [Recreation/Media] UID:37907 Activity:moderate |
5/31 No Sith Reviews yet?
\_ I hear there's this thing called the Internet now.
\_ Sith? What are Sith? You spoiled the fucking movie now, asshole!
\_ Sith is a plural word?? Thanks a lot buddy.
\_ It didn't suck and is worth seeing.
\_ You are a cruel son-of-a-bitch. -dans
\_ why? !pp
\_ My take on it is that I don't get the 2.5 hours of my
life back. This runs counter to pp's assessment.
Fortunately I saw it on Google's dime so at least I
didn't pay to suffer. -dans
\_ how many hours yave you spent on this stupid flame
war? Are you under the impression that you'll get
those hours of your life back?
\_ Roughly 45 minutes. But unlike Episode III, the
flamewar amuses me, and, thus, is a worthwhile use
of my time. -dans
\_ I feel sorry for you and your kind. Admit it now
that you wouldn't have been happy with anything
Lucas put out. You guys are always so overly
critical, and it's very annoying.
\_ Yah, I don't see what the big deal is. Ep3
was a flawed film with a lot of problems, but
nonetheless I still found it to be very
entertaining. That IS the point of going to a
film for the vast majority of us.... -mice
\_ Actually it has nothing to do with Lucas, or
Star Wars. The movie sucked. It was over
two hours of bad dialogue, overly long fight
scenes in need of an editor. I was not
entertained. Incidentally, I thought the
whole Lord of the Rings trilogy was basically
an unwatchable hack job too. But, really, I
can't do anywhere near the justice to how bad
Episodes 1-3 were as this New Yorker article
does: http://csua.org/u/c8d
-dans
\_ Maybe you should stop going to movies.
\_ There was recently a list published
somewhere of "100 top films of all time."
It's nowhere near perfect or complete, but
has some good, solid and artistically
worthy works. I recommend having a look
at some of them. Remember, a movie does
not have to be "good" to be entertaining,
and THERE'S NOTHING FUCKING WRONG WITH
OVERLY LONG FIGHT SCENES AND BAD DIALOGUE.
What are you, a communist? -John
\_ I can't actually tell if you're being
sarcastic or not, but, by definition,
there's something wrong with overly
long fight scenes and bad dialogue. As
the term would suggest, overly long
fight scenes are, well, overly long.
And bad dialogue is, well, bad. -dans
\_ You're obviously the kind of person
who's never come home from work to
play Doom 2 with the automatic
double-barrelled shotgun unlimited
ammo cheat. You wouldn't understand
the aethereal qualities inherent in
truly bad dialogue and overly long
fight scenes. I sentence you to
watch Errol Flynn movies. -John
\_ Oh, how wrong you are...
a) I think Errol Flynn rules
b) I'm more partial to the
chainsaw cheat
c) Sorry fanboy, Episode 3, while
better than 1 and 2, was still
that bad. I mean, for
chrissakes, Jar-Jar lives!
-dans
\_ Who you calling fanboy, you
commie bastard?! I am simply
commenting on the necessity
of bad dialogue and overly
long fight scenes. And I kind
of liked Ep2. In that case I
sentence you to Plan 9 from
Outer Space, where the bad
dialogue almost-but-not-quite
makes up for lack of overly
long fight scenes. -John
\_ Hold on a second. John,
the European socialist is
accusing me of being a
commie. That's rich. -dans
\_ Um. He lives in Helvetia.
He's no socialist. Heck,
I want to move there.
-- ilyas
\_ Yes, but despite your
intelligence, you are
completely and utterly
irrational, and
Obviously you haven't seen the girls who run around -> detached from
here on a hot summer day. ilyas is displaying -> reality. So I really
pretty sound judgment, if you ask me. -> don't consider your
opinion to be a
useful gauge of,
well, anything. -dans
\_ Please. Moving half-way around the world for opinion to be a
pretty girls? There are lots of hot chicks useful gauge of, well,
right here in SF. Variety too. -dans anything. -dans
\_ Dans, meet heil cherman
chohn guy. You probably
pirated that movie, you
damn Hollywood-hating
long hair. What would
Bud Day say? -John
\_ Well, I will readily admit that it felt
like they got the guy on the set with
plumber's ass to write all the romantic
dialogue. Thank god most of that was over
within the first twenty minutes. I don't
think I'd have been able to sit through
the film if it had gone on. -mice
\_ Maybe you should stop going to movies.
\_ Why? Because I have standards? I
thought Fight Club and Requiem for a
Dream were fantastic. Spiderman 2 was
no magnum opus, but I enjoyed it quite a
bit. Hell, I liked Hitchhikers'. -dans
\_ Implying that anyone disagreeing
with you has no standards? That's
just damn silly.
\_ I was not the one that suggested I
stop going to movies. -dans
\_ I wasn't impressed with that review. He's
clearly impressed with his own wit. But I
\_ And you clearly are not a regular reader
of the New Yorker -dans
frankly think he misses the point. He's
going off on rambles about the movie's
philosophy and "vulgarity". And character
names, for chrissake. I mean, whatever.
None of this stuff is new.
By the way, I recommend that you all go
and watch the animated "Clone Wars Vol. 1"
which helps explain a couple things and
really just has a lot of cool action and
minimum bad dialogue. A DVD rip is out
there on bittorrent if you want to stiff
Lucas and all the various production and
distribution staff out of their $15 like
I did. I haven't seen any of Vol. 2.
As for Sith, and LOTR for that matter,
I actually was more upset with some of
the LOTR aspects. Sith entertained me
more. Yes there are instances of laughably
bad dialogue and acting but overall the
sheer grandiosity of the thing was well
worth the price of admission. Assuming
you like such fluff in general.
\_ I saw Clone Wars Vol 1 and 2 and it
made me excited to watch Episode III.
I was disappointed by epIII. They
Should have made the Clone Wars into
a real movie and skipped this movie.
\_ If they were gonna skip movies,
they should've skipped EP2 and
EP1 (in that order). If you're
gonna skip EP3, you might as well
skip the whole prequel trilogy.
(Not a bad idea, actually...) |
| 2005/5/30-31 [Recreation/Media] UID:37888 Activity:nil |
5/30 So where's the Star Wars discussion?
\- the best thing about SW3 is: 1. the "to yoda your cheeseburger
give" commercial 2. anthony lane's NYker review, which is really
funny. thank god that dumbass denby didnt write the review.
http://home.lbl.gov:8080/~psb/Articles/Entertainment/SithsRevenge-NYker.txt
--psb
\_ That was awesome. Thanks. -jrleek |
| 2005/5/28-31 [Recreation/Media] UID:37880 Activity:kinda low |
5/28 I noticed that the latest Star Wars doesn't show the THX
"scene" before the movie starts. Does anyone know why?
\_ Did you watch the digital version or the regular version?
I'm pretty sure the digital version I saw last week had
the THX scene.
\_ Both, actually. The digital one definitely didn't
have the THX scene; I'm pretty sure the regular
one didn't either. -op
\_ doesn't it depend on the theater? I watched it once in
Century 16 in Mountain View and didn't see the logo and once
in Union City and did see it.
\_ Yes. it depends on the theatre. The theatre showing the movie
must have a THX certified sound system. |
| 2005/5/26-31 [Recreation/Media] UID:37847 Activity:nil |
5/26 Star Wars related Darwin award nominees:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/eo/20050526/en_movies_eo/16633
\_ You're a few days late, dupe-master.
\_ That's Darth Dupemaster to YOU.
\_ Clearly you don't understand what the Darwin award is. Train
harder, grasshopper.
\_ It could still work if they burned their private bits off.
\_ *shrug* Article said nothing about that; if it had, I
wouldn't have posted my original comment. |
| 2005/5/23-24 [Recreation/Media] UID:37810 Activity:high |
5/23 Do it somewhere else. How about /tmp/ep3 like someone suggested before?
\_ Why? As long as it has a "spoiler tag" I think it's time to shut up.
Seriously this movie does not have that many "spoilers" for anyone
who has followed the Star Wars stuff so far, which is most people.
\_ SPOILER ALERT! Anakin becomes Darth Vader. Padme gives birth to
twins and names them Luke and Leia. Yoda and Obi Wan are the only
surviving Jedi.
\_ NOOOOOOOOOOO! That's impossible!
\_ It seemed that she didn't hesitate when naming her kids.
Is it revealed anywhere (online, elsewhere) why she picked
the names Luke and Leia?
\_ The force told her.
\_ She saw them in a movie once.
\_ They were the only Jedi Counsel members that survived. There
may have been many more Jedis that never went back to the
temple. So if they wanted to hide the twins, why take 'em to
A: A senator or whatever high position the NYPD guy had
B: a living relative
\_ Because theoretically, anakin wiped out all the jedi, as
instructed by the emperor.
\_ Eh, fuck you. All the hardcore nerds have seen it by now. The
film, while not quite awful, probably should have a warning label.
In the interim, reviews will suffice. -dans
\_ The secret nobody wants to let out is that Natalie Portman's
character is really a dude. In the last scene you get to see
her cock. |
| 2005/5/23 [Recreation/Media] UID:37808 Activity:nil |
5/23 EP3 SPOILER ALERT: So is the reason why Vader can't shoot the lightning
in eps 4-6 because he doesn't have any real hands? Or because the
lightning would fry all the hardware that's basically keeping him
alive? |
| 2005/5/19-21 [Recreation/Media] UID:37773 Activity:low |
5/19 Why are there no discussions of Episode 3? You know you may
\_ Moratorium on EP3 discussion in the MOTD until Monday.
You can put links to a file but no discussion here.
\_ Wusses. If there's no spoilers, why can't people talk about it?
\_ Because it changes expectations. And people can talk about
it in /tmp/EP3. BTW, I have seen it so this is a favor to
those who have not.
\_ If you've seen the previous two you have expectations,
so if you don't know what to expect by now you're a fool.
But fools will be fools, no foolin'.
\_ I heard Anakin becomes Darth Vader! But how did he have
sex with Padme in that suit??!1 Force P0w3r5??
\_ I greatly appreciate this. -starwars fan who hasn't seen
sw3 yet
\_ Bwaahahhahahaaa, yer still a fan after the dreck
you've seen? I feel sorry for you.
\_ You must pay me 5 cents.
\_ Bush will soon declare himself as the emperior. "You are
either with us, or you are my enemy!"
\_ If you are a star wars nutcase you and your fellow ewoks
will love it. If you are a reasonably sane human being
who has the capability of discerning mass marketed LCD
garbage from really good sci fi you will skip EP3 and
watch your TWOK DVD instead. - st movie guy |
| 2005/5/19 [Recreation/Media] UID:37769 Activity:nil |
5/19 Why are there no discussions of Episode 3? You know you may
think you are an informed population, but in reality you are
just an impotent as the guy who works 80 hours a week at minimum
wage if you don't get directly into politics. Talking about Ep3
is a lot more fun. So did anyone miss the Bai Ling cut scene?
\_ It was the same level of badness as the first two. -=Aubie
\_ The first two weren't at the same level of badness, so what
do you mean?
\_ The first one had:
Really Bad Dialogue
Really Bad Direction
Really Bad Story.
The second one had:
Really Bad Dialogue
Really Bad Direction
Really Bad Story.
The third one had... -=A
\_ would you recommend the visual aspects at least? I'm
thinking of seeing it with headphones on, so I don't
have to bother with the bad dialogue.
\_ Wait, you think this one was WORSE than the first two?
\_ What happened in the Bai Ling cut scene? Sht gets naked? |
| 2005/5/3-4 [Recreation/Media] UID:37510 Activity:moderate |
5/3 Just watched the HHGTTG movie. Brilliant.
\_ I love the fact that kais motd has classified your post under
academia/gradschool.
\_ Yeah there weren't enough context on the subject, so it went
down to the stupid Berkeley grad student thread below. I love
down to the stupid Berkeley grd studnt thread below. I love
how people start one topic and other stupid people start a
completely different topic. -k
\_ "watched ... movie" isn't enough context?
\_ It's enough but the stuff below pollutes the result
\_ You're kidding, right? Either you have criminally bad taste, or
you are so blinded by the geek Koolaid that you are beyond hope.
That shit was worse than Episode II. More childhood memories
tainted by Hollywood slime.
\_ Whatever. I enjoyed the books and my 1st printing of "Mostly
Harmless" was signed by Adams when he visited Cody's. I don't
remember the books well enough to remember what vaguely was
called plot, but I thought the movie did a good job of tying the
jokes together with an actual plot. The account of the whale was
spot on, and the guide was great. -op
\_ No, nothing about this movie was "great." It failed utterly
to work as a movie, and worst of all it wasn't even funny.
I cracked a few smiles but never once laughed. Standard
Hollywood pap. I suppose you're going to run right out and
catch "The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl In 3D" that
was advertised before the show?
\_ So, do you have any argument other than "was not!"?
\_ I don't need one. The movie makes Ishtar look decent.
\_ Them's what makes horse races.
\_ Having talked to many people, I see a strong correlation between
people who loved/hated it and people who didn't read/read the
book. It's like the Berkeley phenomenon, where grad students
from 3rd world countries thought the quality of Berkeley housing
was decent, whereas grad students from average American
suburbs thought it was total trash.
\_ My dataset includes seven people. All liked the movie. Five had
read (and loved) the books. FWIW. -- ulysses
\- I dunno about that generalization ... i think plenty of "3rd
world grad students" come from the "servant employing class"
while plenty of moneyed americans live in coop slime. --psb
\_ Yeah. Cloyne towards the end of a semester could make one
pine for the third world.
\- I dunno about that generalization ... i think plenty of
"3rd world grad students" come from the "servant employing
class", while plenty of moneyed americans live in coop slime.
\_ Yeah. Cloyne towards the end of a semester could make one
pine for the third world.
\_ Amusingly, I left Cloyne after 3 semesters for a third
world country (and it was an improvement). -emarkp
\_ Well, I for one loved the books, and I thought the movie was
pretty decent. Definitely not "worse than Episode II". But
not classic either. Funny, but could've been funnier.
\_ Or maybe it just sorta depends....link:csua.org/u/byf
\_ I think that actually hits it right on the head. I enjoyed
the bits I couldn't quote verbatim best because they were
different and, yes, I thought funny. I enjoyed the movie
quite a bit while watching, though afterwards I realized
that the bits they added/changed often weren't thought through
very well. I mean.. not that DNA's stuff was always completely
thought through, but he usually provided explanations later.
--dbushong |
| 2005/5/2-3 [Recreation/Media] UID:37442 Activity:high |
5/1 So, did anyone catch Hitchhiker's Guide? Was it any good? I love
the books.
\_ It was bad. Bad, bad, bad, horribly unfunny, do not ever even
rent it bad. I got a headache, someone else I was with actually
fell asleep, another one almost did and the last one just didn't
want to talk about it. Did I remember to tell you how ungodly
bad it was?
\_ For calibration: Which scifi movies based on books do you like?
\_ I'm not a fussy movie goer. I loved the books, I loved the
tv show, I read and enjoyed the radio scripts. The movie was
not funny. I'm sorry if saying the movie sucked is geek
blasphemy, but the truth is out there. Yes, the factory
floor was great. That was one of the few good parts and it
was a visual treat. It was not funny. Character
development? It was standard Hollywood drivel where 1
character goes from a heavy handed coward to a heavy handed
pseudo-hero. The script has characters telling us how they
feel with a heavy handed and highly contrived plot device.
We saw a very tiny number of guide entries which is where a
lot of the best Adams humor is in the books, etc. I saw the
previews and hour+ long chat about 6 weeks ago with the
makers and I was really looking forward to it. Sheer
unadulterated disappointment. Not funny. You may shoot the
messenger now.
\_ Sounds reasonable. But... as per the question: which
scifi movies based on books do you like?
\_ I'm not pp, but I'm having some real trouble thinking of
a Scifi movie based on a book I've seen. Could you name
a few you like to get me started?
\_ You're right. There aren't many are there? I liked the
SciFi channel version of Dune but I think what happened
here is typical (viz Blade Runner vs DADoES?) Movies
based on SciFi novels often become something completely
different. I hear Larry Niven is still out there trying
to get a Ringworld movie made.
here is typical. There have been a number of Philip K
Dick stories made into movies but what happened with the
HH movie happened to those, too. The movie was a
significant departure from the written version.
\_ It was great. Really f&%king great. Loved the factory floor. Alan
Rickman was a great choice for Marvin. I also appreciated the movie
introducing things to the mix like (gasp!) character development.
And for calibration, I read all the books back when they came out
and love them dearly. I can still quote sections from memory (not
to say that's healthy). Anyway, I saw it at the Grand Lake. The
audience ate it up all the way through, starting with a lively
response to the Star Wars trailer. -- ulysses
\_ Just to be different from the above two opinions, I thought it was
all right. Some LOL moments, but it could've been a lot funnier.
\_ British humor just can not be americanized. Even if you
have the original author inputting to the script. (I am still
amazed that the fact that Ford and Zapphod were relatives was
glossed over) . I know that most of the original HHG UK cast
are still around. I wonder why they just did not use them.
Having Simon Jones replace that wuss Martin Freeman would
have been a major improvement.
\_ Except that Simon Jones is pretty old now. You did notice him
in the movie, yes? -geordan
\_ Have not seen the movie yet beyond the standard
clips. The BBC doesn' think his age is an issue in the
new series of HHG radio shows.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hitchhikers
\_ It was neither as bad as I'd feared nor as good as I'd hoped.
Ebert pegged it pretty well: if you're not already a fan, you're
likely to be torn between wanting to read more and not wanting to
bother making the effort. As a fan, I felt a lot of the gags fell
flat, but I thought most of the performances were well-done. Even
Mos Def did all right. It just... didn't shine. Ah, well. |
| 2005/4/27-28 [Recreation/Media] UID:37386 Activity:nil 54%like:37353 |
04/27 Penny Arcade's take on the new Star Wars TV Show:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2005-04-27 |
| 2005/4/25-27 [Recreation/Media] UID:37353 Activity:nil 54%like:37386 |
04/25 Star Wars TV Show in the works:
http://comingsoon.net/news/topnews.php?id=9301 |
| 2005/4/23-25 [Recreation/Sports, Recreation/Media] UID:37327 Activity:high |
4/23 Kung Fu Hustle: OH MY GOD!
Why are you still reading this? Go watch the movie now! NOW!
\_ I was amused by the homage, especially to the Buddhist Palm. On
its own as a movie it was weak.
\_ You have no soul.
\_ I like how the main character smashes the soccer ball.
It's greate on the big screen, but I also bought
a legal dvd of it in oakland chinatown weeks ago. -danh
\_ seconded. \_ OMG! WTF! legal? I rented an illegal copy of it
from my chinese dvd renter, and copied it.
\_ seconded.
\_ thirded
\_ fourthed
\_ pi'd
\_ googol'd
\_ shaolin soccer was better
\_ shaolin soccer is one of the best comedies EVAR
\_ Shaolin Soccer was also Chow's first attempt to steer away from
his usual dirty-joke comedies,although those were very funny too.
\_ I liked them both, but I think pound for pound KFH delivered the
goods.
\_ KFH was all over the place. Shaolin Soccer was close
to perfection. Then again, I'm Asian.
\_ And I'm a geeky fanboy of martial arts films. So what?
I probably got more of the obscure references, but the
real enjoyment for me was how tightly the film adhered
to the mantra: show, don't tell.
\_ Agree with pp. Shalin Soccer was a finished product.
The acting in Kung Fu Hustle was half-assed, as well as
the storyline. The action and special effects were good,
but I couldn't shake the feeling of it being unfinished
product through the whole movie. I think if they really
tried, they could've made it into an awesome movie.
\_ I'll be the first to say that I saw Shaolin Soccer with a
bunch of friends who loved it and said I *HAD* to see it.
Since I love kung fu movies and soccer it was a sure hit.
Not. I found it painfully boring for the most part. The best
thing about it is the title.
\_ who are you, so I can not be your friend?
\_ your expectations were raised too high. oh well.
\_ seconded.
\_ I don't know about your god, but it was definitely fun and different.
--dbushong
\_ I like Chow's "Made-In-China 007". |
| 2005/4/12-14 [Recreation/Media] UID:37149 Activity:low |
4/11 Everyone go watch the movie "Primer" right now. Then come back here
and explain to me what in the fizuck is going on.
\_ So, um, you want us to write you a primer on Primer?
\_ I guess, yeah. I urge you all to go rent it on DVD if you can
find it - this is the first science fiction movie I've seen in
ages that deals with actual ideas instead of just aliens blowing
shit up. And it was made for $7,500 apparently. I think I've
got a better handle on what's happening now, actually. Here's a
hint: recursion.
\_ Can't we just say that it's not physically possible to go
backwards in time and any movie which speculates on it is just
another Star Trek / STNG / Back To The Future / The Butterfly
Effect re-hash?
\_ No, becuase those are generally bad (camp value of Star
Trek aside), and this movie is Good.
\_ Okay, the NetFlix users seem to think so too, so I
put it in queue. But it's not out until next Tuesday.
Thanks! Always looking for good stuff. |
| 2005/4/9-12 [Recreation/Media] UID:37131 Activity:moderate |
4/9 "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie is bad. Really bad. You
just won't believe how vastly, staggeringly, jaw-droppingly bad it is."
http://www.planetmagrathea.com/shortreview.html
Sorta spoiler-ish, but not as spoilerish as the long review available
within the page above, a list of things NOT in the movie:
http://www.planetmagrathea.com/notinthefilm.html
No guide entry on towels?!
\_ I did not read the longer spoiler-full review, but from what I did
read I don't trust this guy. So what if the story has been
drastically changed? If you want to just see an on-screen version
of the radio show, the BBC has already done that. I'm not going
to predict whether the movie will suck, but I'm not going to listen
to the rantings of the kind of angry nerd who ends up on slashdot.
\_ Better yet, the BBC's TV version is radically different from
the Radio Version, and the book version deviates even farther
from there. Douglas himself was an inveterate last-minute editor.
\_ Comparing the original book to the movie adaptation is the classic
nerd exercise in mental masturbation. Movies are simply a different
medium, get over it. Some things that work in books just don't
translate well to movies. Also, not everything in the book can
be included in the movie due to time constraints.
\_ Douglas Adams wrote very cinematically because he worked in the
medium. His books are filled with dialogue and scene description.
Yes, time constraints are an issue, but if they did indeed simply
cut out the punchlines, that would be just stupid.
\_ Didn't read the review, did you? He address all above
points. His main point is that they've taken out the jokes
and replaced them with lame ones.
\_ As someone who did read the review, I agree with the pp.
\_ His point is still valid. The _story_ of the book is
not it's strength - it has virtually no story. If you
take out the jokes, there's no point.
\_ Took out the jokes that *he* liked. I'd have to see
it before I assumed that it was totally devoid of
humor.
\_ Yeah, I heard they changed the meaning of life
to 137. Now that's just stupid. Totally ruins the
joke.
\_ But that's approximately one over the fine
structure constant!
\_ This is funny 'cause if they really did that it
wouldn't change the joke at all, and yet, I'd
be REALLY annoyed, despite being completely ok
with them changing random stuff around. |
| 2005/4/2-4 [Recreation/Media] UID:37043 Activity:high |
4/2 Sin City = teh bomb. I enjoyed it immensely...very much like the comic\
books. -scottyg
\_ I thought it was too long, and the stories too similar. The
look was interesting, but after 2+ hours I was pretty
saturated. It was still good, but it fell short of greatness,
if only because the style was basically a one-gimmick thing.
\_ uh, then you didn't really keep up with the plot.
\_ What was there to keep up with? It's pretty
straightforward stuff.
\_ if the stories seem too similar, don't blame the movie,
blame Frank Miller. The movie is pretty faithful to the
books, modulo the way the stories are rearranged into the
movie. I didn't think the stories were all that similar,
but I can see how one can get distracted by the repetitive
violence. It's Sin City.
\_ I do blame Miller ... but if the material holds a film
back from greatness, that's just the way it is. It's
still a good film for what it is, but nothing more.
Besides, would a few changes be so wrong? Staying
true to the source material doesn't always make for
a better film.
\_I'm a bit biased as it was one of the few "violent" movies
I've seen that my gf enjoyed as much. -op
\_ I loved the movie and will certainly go see it again/buy it
when it comes out on DVD, but I also thought it dragged a bit
in the middle. On the whole, however, it simply rawked.
\_ I was really disappointed, don't believe the hype. I give
it a "C", and that's only because of the first 1/3 of the
movie. In summary (no spoilers):
+ Marve's (Rouke) scenes were GREAT!
+ Marve's (Rourke) scenes were GREAT!
+ Nice Cinematic Effects (CGI & Color)
+ Nice Cinematic Effects (CGI & Color Scheme)
+ Nice action sequences
+ Parole Officer!!! (you'll know if you see it)
- Clive Owens = creampuff, totally miscast
\_ Agreed. I think Nick Cage would have been good.
- Excessive Gore
- No plot, was all over the place (aware it's a comic)
\_ It's actually three separate comic storylines
- Too many stories, Marve could have had his own movie
- Jessica Alba can't act and didn't show any skin
\_ Agreed
- No backstory, how do these people have superpowers?
Analogy-wise, don't show Spidy just crawling on the wall
shooting webs, show the spider bite.
shooting webs without showing the spider bite.
\_ Nobody had any powers. It was all just physical hyperbole.
- Too fake (without any backstory)
- No central villain, most great movies need a strong villain
\_ I thought Mickey Rourke and Elijah Wood rocked. I wish Rutge
\_ Senator Roark was the central villain. A villain doesn't
need to be seen a lot in order to be a good villain.
\_ #f. You suh, are mistaken. Read the graphic novels.
The members of the Roark family are catalysts, but are
pretty much peripheral to the stories. Senator
Roark's son (aka That Yellow Bastard) is the only
possible exception to this. -dans
\_ Most great movies need a strong villain? That's the
stupidest, most arbitrary requirement I've read in a long
time. -dans
\_ I thought Mickey Rourke and Elijah Wood rocked. I wish Rutger
Hauer had more screen time. I thought the rest was pretty boring
and I totally didn't get the beginning/end (becky in the elevator)
but maybe I need to more of the comics.--gabriel
but maybe I need to read more of the comic.--gabriel
\_ Agreed, Harnet was never explained, I hate open-ended bits
in movies like that. |
| 2005/4/1-2 [Recreation/Media, Recreation/Humor] UID:37028 Activity:nil |
4/1 New Dr Who announces that he is quiting (no joke)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/entertainment/tv_and_radio
Weird to quit after your first episode is shown and got good
reviews and ratings |
| 2005/4/1-2 [Recreation/Media] UID:37020 Activity:nil |
4/1 LEGO Star Wars!
http://media.ps2.gamespy.com/media/694/694419/img_2667786.html |
| 2005/3/14-16 [Recreation/Sports, Recreation/Computer/Games, Recreation/Media] UID:36691 Activity:nil |
3/14 If you're bored, you can meander over to http://gamespot.com, click on Act of War: Direct Action, click on Developer Diary #2 movie, and watch as French game developers gloat over the tactical nuking of the White House. |
| 2005/3/11 [Recreation/Media] UID:36640 Activity:nil 50%like:34490 |
3/10 Anyone know where to d/l Star Wars Ep3 ROTS trailer rather than pay
lucas even more money for "Hyperspace" access?
\_ http://torrentreactor.net/download.php?id=36131
oh my bad that's the old one. new one can be googled for. see
google news. http://www.digitalentropy.net/Internapse/Index.html
\_ http://www.filerush.com/download.php?target=that_video.avi |
| 2005/3/10 [Computer/SW/P2P, Recreation/Media] UID:36627 Activity:low |
3/10 Is there a tutorial on how to use bittorrent? I downloaded Azureus
but now what? Where do I find the torrents?
\_ Depends on what you want. A good place for legal(ish) anime
is http://www.animesuki.com There are also site for bollywood movies
and such.
\_ It's really pretty straightforward. Download a .torrent file, open
it with your bittorrent client. Some things of interest:
The Grey Album (mashup of Jay-Z's The Black Album and The Beatles'
The White Album):
http://www.illegal-art.org/audio/grey.html
The Harry Potter Remix:
http://www.illegal-art.org/video/wizard.html
http://www.btefnet.net posts torrents of recently aired TV shows.
Otherwise, try googling for 'torrents'.
-dans
\_ dans, I'm reporting you to the FBI for illegal distribution
of copyrighted TV shows.
P.S. you might want to check out the official BitTorrent 4.0
client just released for Windows and Linux. I'd comment on it, but
I mostly use a Mac these days.
\_ http://www.piratebay.org
\_ARRRRRRRR! |
| 11/23 |