Tobar

I think comments on the strips being posted in the link in my sig would be interesting.

We have any comic book readers? I really only got into comics because of Star Wars. I’ve since branched out a little but for the most part stick to licensed franchises.

Star Trek Ongoing #1

This is a pretty cool new series. It’s the continuing adventures of the Star Trek reboot. I know a lot of trekkies have issues with the reboot but I liked it. What’s pretty great about this series is that this first storyline is a retelling of the episode Where No Man Has Gone Before. This issue only covers half of the story but they stayed incredibly faithful to the original teleplay from what I remember of it.

Star Wars a la The Dam Busters

The only influence I've seen have all originated from TPM. As when people talk about Star Wars they're always referencing the OT but you'll sometimes hear the term padawan or Darth Maul mentioned. So far those have been the only things I've heard brought up in day to to day life. On multiple occasions as well.

Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928)

Just finished watching this. What a great movie! I've been wanting to watch some of his films for a while so it's great that they've been having Buster Keaton Sunday's on TCM.

none said:

Made a stupid DVD, sent them copies, they never replied.

So what was on the DVD?

Well I've been pushing through about three different shows on a regular basis on Netflix for a while now. I watch an episode of each a night.

Lost - A lot better than what I thought it would be and a lot more coherent than it was made out to be as well. Though still need to see how it ends as that apparently is where the most complaints begin.

24 - Didn't really know anything about it other than it takes place in real time. Also that Jack Bauer was supposed to be the new Chuck Norris because he's supposed to have some crazy body count by the end of each season. That hasn't panned out at all. But it's an entertaining show, I like it.

The X-Files - I jumped into the show kind of late when it originally aired so it's been nice starting from the beginning. Good stuff.

I've made pretty good progress in these three but still have a long way to go. Except for Lost, that's almost over and I'm kind of sad about that.

I don't remember this being posted. Toward the end it's slightly NSFWish?

SMBC Theater - George Lucas

The People vs. George Lucas (2010)

Finally got to see this. Overall I thought it was a pretty decent documentary. I wish it had been more focused on the preservation movement but what it did cover was done well. It was also pretty cool to see this site in a film and I thought Jay did a great job.

I finally got to see this as well. You can rent it on Youtube for like 4 bucks. I'd really been looking forward to seeing it since the first time I'd heard about it. In the end I thought it was pretty decent. I was worried about where it was going toward the beginning but it finally found a good stride maybe a quarter of a way into it. I do wish they had spent more time on the preservation movement but what they did cover was well done.

doubleofive said:

Remember that one time Tobar posted one of the best essays on the Special Edition

Aww shucks...

It's funny I actually wrote a letter to Jimmy Mac of the Forcecast just last week that mentioned how I felt that the SE's aren't the real films. Here it is if you're curious:

Hey Jimmy, just wanted to say first of all that I've been a big fan of the Forcecast for a few years now but I have to say I'm really disappointed in your coverage of the blu-rays.

I'm listening to the latest Forcecast right now and there are just some things that are bothering me. First of all, you keep saying that forcecast fans are the kind of fans that freeze frame every scene and study them looking at every minute detail but then you have Jason who's never noticed Han's neck jerk during the Greedo scene. 

I'm a part of a community that actually does study these films frame by frame looking for changes and documenting them. It was one of us that called out the "humdinger glitch" that they managed to fix at the last second for this release and there are still a lot of errors left in the films.

Second is your depiction of the fans who are boycotting this release. Are there people out there who claim that George Lucas raped their childhood? Yes there are but they're in the extreme minority and most of us like you find that highly inappropriate language. Also, we're not boycotting this release because we don't want George changing the special editions. We're boycotting because we want the release of the original theatrical editions alongside the special editions. And no, the 2006 bonus disc release does not count. Those were laserdisc masters from 1993 that are absolutely riddled with DVNR artifacting, stabilization and aliasing issues. I'd go into that more but I know you and Jason both agree that you'd like to see the theatrical editions released as well.

Third is your claim that the boycott didn't do anything. To that I disagree, the main purpose of the boycott was to raise awareness and in that I think it did a great job. A lot of sites ended up writing articles about this and discussing the issues. Articles that I have to note were not covered on the Forcecast or TFN but they were out there and people did read them.

Lastly is your claim that we're cheating ourselves by not buying this release of the films. I don't feel cheated at all because I don't consider the special editions to be the real films. Now don't get me wrong, I think George has every right to keep tweaking the special editions as much as he wants, let him have at it. 

But I do draw the line at his active suppression of the original theatrical versions. Don't forget he once said and I quote, "There will only be one. And it won't be what I would call the 'rough cut', it'll be the 'final cut'. The other one will be some sort of interesting artifact that people will look at and say, 'There was an earlier draft of this...' what ends up being important in my mind is what the DVD version is going to look like, because that's what everybody is going to remember. The other versions will disappear. Even the 35 million tapes of Star Wars out there won't last more than 30 or 40 years. A hundred years from now, the only version of the movie that anyone will remember will be the DVD version [of the Special Edition]"

This is absolutely incredible to hear coming from a man who sits on the board of The Film Foundation (http://www.film-foundation.org/) whose stated goal is, "dedicated to protecting and preserving motion picture history by providing annual support for preservation and restoration projects" Doubly so because he was also once quoted as saying the following in regards to film preservation, "in the future it will become even easier for old negatives to become lost and be 'replaced' by new altered negatives. This would be a great loss to our society. Our cultural history must not be allowed to be rewritten....Attention should be paid to the interest of those who are yet unborn, who should be able to see this generation as it saw itself, and the past generation as it saw itself." Can you not start to see where we're coming from now?

He never replied. =(

It! The Terror From Beyond Space (1958)

This has been on my watch list for quite a while now. Seeing as John Carpenter selected it as his second film after The Thing From Another World while guest programming for TCM, I decided it was as good a time as any to watch it. What a great film! It's all about space crew as they try to survive an attack from an alien stowaway. It also served as the inspiration for Alien. =P

twister111 said:

Forget G4?! Current G4 eh, I could take or, leave but, classic G4?!!! I was a part of classic G4!! Don't tell me to forget something I was a part of!!!

 

Has it even been around long enough for there to be a classic G4? =P

see you auntie said:

Could you provide a link the the rest of the interview, I did a google search and came up with nothing.

Yeah like Ken said it was from Star Wars Insider #128.

I'm currently reading an interview with Kayleen Walters the Senior Director of Marketing at Lucasfilm about the blu-ray release. I just came upon this little snippet and thought I should share:

What are the challenges involved in converting a series of movies that are up to 35 years old into High Definition?

We wanted to create the best possible visual and audio experience for the home audience while maintaining the artistic integrity of the movies. We had previously done a meticulous, industry gold standard restoration when the films were first released to DVD, so we had a great base to start from. We also made some technical improvements from the previous restoration–including some color matching, most notably on the lightsabers–for this release.

georgec just posted this in the youtube thread:

I think it says it all.

Anchorhead said:

bkev said:

I'm going to play devil's advocate here and say that Lucas was against colorization .....Making that speech is 100% consistent with Lucas' insistence that movie studios are completely awful. It's not as hypocritical as one might think,

 

You might want to research that a little more;

http://savestarwars.com/lucasspeechagainstspecialedition.html

Lucas said:

more advanced technology will be able to replace actors with "fresher faces," or alter dialogue and change the movement of the actor's lips to match. It will soon be possible to create a new "original" negative with whatever changes or alterations the copyright holder of the moment desires......This would be a great loss to our society. Our cultural history must not be allowed to be rewritten

 

I might also add:

Lucas said:

The copyright holders, so far, have not been completely diligent in preserving the original negatives of films they control....The public's interest is ultimately dominant over all other interests. And the proof of that is that even a copyright law only permits the creators and their estate a limited amount of time to enjoy the economic fruits of that work....Attention should be paid to the interest of those who are yet unborn, who should be able to see this generation as it saw itself, and the past generation as it saw itself.

But it's the exact same voice! He's just speaking under his breath. =P

Bingowings said:

Nice to know I'm not alone (even if Ripplin isn't convinced).

I wish I had the sound file to hand because I swear the line just doesn't sound like him.

You're both crazy. =P

Er, I didn't say you said it was stupid. I just confirmed that it is fun.

Forget G4, what about Techtv and ZDtv before it? =P

Also:

WhatsMyName said:

Tobar said:

TheBoost said:

TV's Frink said:

Is this the EU thread where the Death Star III finally blows up, and then it is THE END?

 

 Wasnt that the original Star Tours?

I always like to think that it was actually a New Republic battle simulation. Which would explain why the pilots are more annoyed than worried that a civilian craft has suddenly entered a war zone.

 I wanna try the new Star Tours they've added on. It looks fun. I went on Star Tours a couple yers ago and it was really outdated, and dusty and the whole place needed a revamp.

It's pretty fun! Some of it is kind of outlandish but if you just throw your cares away it's a good time. All of the exterior stuff and back story during the line establish that it takes place between ROTS and ANH but that's pretty much quickly thrown out the window if you happen to end up going to Hoth during the ride. Hoth was actually one of George's ideas and when the imagineers asked him how there could be a walker battle happening on Hoth if this is set long before then he replied just because you saw one during ESB doesn't mean there's never been one there before. =P Pretty silly explanation but worth it when you're actually dodging Walker fire in 3D.

TheBoost said:

TV's Frink said:

Is this the EU thread where the Death Star III finally blows up, and then it is THE END?

 

 Wasnt that the original Star Tours?

I always like to think that it was actually a New Republic battle simulation. Which would explain why the pilots are more annoyed than worried that a civilian craft has suddenly entered a war zone.