DrCrowTStarwars

DvD profiler is the best.  It even links up with it's website on my internet connection so if I am out and can't remember if I own a movie all I have to do is log onto the website and check.  It's easy to use and doesn't require constant upgrading or highspeed internet.

I play Halo on both my original Xbox and PC, but not online I am afraid.

Still I sometime have people over and we play multiplayer in the living room.  I pretty much suck at it but it is still one of the most fun games out there.

Strange how Hollywood is still making the same excuse.

I only saw two movies in theaters this year and it wasn't because I pirated them and I don't know anyone who didn't go see a movie for that reason.  No the reason is with tickets now costing $13 a piece and there being an hour of ads before the movie, going to the theater just is not a good value any more.  When i was a kid you could go to the movies for $4.50 if you went to an afternoon showing, now a ticket costs almost three times that much but most of us are not making three times what we made when i was a kid so we literally can't afford to go to the movies.  In my family if we go to the movie it would cost us more then $70 just to get in the door for one showing that doesn't even start on time.  That is just under what we spend on food for a whole week, who can afford that.  No one.  Do have the money we use Redbox or buy the movie on Bluray where one flat fee covers everyone in the house watching the movie as many times as they want, the movie starts on time, and we can pause it if someone needs to go to the bathroom.

When with careful shopping my family can buy a Bluray for ten bucks why should we pay more then seven times that much just to see the same movie once in a setting full of rude people where the film doesn't start on time?  That and not piracy is why theaters are not doing well.

Going to the theater isn't fun any more and lots of working families can't afford to go.  In short the theaters have priced themselves out of the market place.  I mean i didn't even go to see the last Hobbit movie and I have loved every Peter Jackson movie i have ever seen but i just couldn't afford to spend $13 seeing a movie once.

Lower ticket prices, put cellphone jammers in the theaters, and ditch the ads and then I will come back. Until then I am people like me will be staying home.

My favorite comedy team of all time.  I grew up watching their films on PBS.

If you can track down a copy Groucho's book Groucho and me is well worth reading.

"They got gun, we've got guns , all of god's children got guns."

I am pretty sure that verse is the state song of Texas.

Happy Halloween.  Be sure to eat so much candy you throw up.

I have to be the first person who has said this, this year.

I love this film.  It is on the top of my list of films to get on bluray if I ever find a job and every have cash to spend in the future.

Yep, it killed the franchise.

Still I think that had more to do with the first film being a mash up of the first Spiderman movie and Batman Begin that didn't quite get Peter's character right(I mean he steals from a store just because he has had a bad day?  He is fine with letting a guy get hauled off by the police for a crime he didn't commit?  This is not the Peter Parker I know at least it wasn't before One More day and everything had to be dark and gritty)and the second film being completely unfocused and not really having a story.  it has a plot but not a story. 

There were moments in both films where i thought he could work, but sadly the scripts were a disaster and that doomed the franchise.

Still it is funny to read old articles where people all assume this franchise is going to be the next big unstopable thing.

DuracellEnergizer said:

DuracellEnergizer said:

It'd be nice to see Hollywood shot in the foot. It'd be even better, though, if the same happened to the music industry.

With a grenade launcher, I might add. 

 No that would be too quick.  I want to see them drawn and quartered while being set on fire.

We are talking about an industry that things they are owed millions if someone uses a thirty second clip of their product when they review said product as an example and cries out against censorship whenever some store decides not to sell their products but then they turn around and try to have all negative reviews of their products pulled off of the web.

Let them burn I say.

You know this franchise reminds me a lot of Highlander, I like the first film but everything else with the logo on it causes me a great deal of pain.

Possessed said:

If you can find the coke and sprite and fanta that comes in glass bottles that were made in Mexico, they have real sugar.  (all the information on the bottles are in spanish... that should be your tipoff :P)

I live in southern Illinois, and alot of gas stations and grocery stores sell them.  They come in glass bottles, and the Coke/Sprite logo is intact and underneath it it says "Un bebe refresco de coca cola company" (not exactly that but something very similar and probably more correct).  They are delicious, seriously they are so much better than the normal cokes because they use cane sugar.  They are wonderful.  Plus coming out of a glass bottle also makes the taste better.

If you can't find them look for your "local" sodas at walgreens or other similar places that come in glass bottles,  a lot of the small brand sodas still use real sugar. 

 Okay thanks, I will have to check that out.

I really like Coke a lot better then Pepsi but lately the fact that you can buy Pepsi with real sugar has turned me into a Pepsi drinker, so thanks a lot.

SilverWook said:

Blame the dentists. ;)

Seriously, I recall some health educational film where they immersed a tooth in sugary soda overnight, and it like it had been dipped in acid or something.

Must be a regional thing, because real sugar sodas easy to find in Southern California. I think it's imported from Mexico. In some smaller supermarkets, I've found brands of soda I didn't even know were still around!

 That seems like a really dumb reason for pulling the stuff since I don't soak my teeth in it, I brush my teeth, I can't believe HFCS doesn't hurt teeth too, and everything else we eat has a ton of sugar in it.

I really wish they would keep real sugar versions of sodas on the shelves as an option since they taste and feel better and they don't upset my stomach the way HFCS sodas do some times.

Maybe I am just an old fart but I want to be able to get Coke and Sprite with real sugar!!!

Why is it so hard to get a hold of soda made with real sugar?  It has a much smoother and fuller taste and other soda feel watered down compared to it, who decided that it was a good idea to replace this stuff with the watered down garbage that is 99% of sodas today.

I like Coke a lot more then Pepsi but i have now had to become a Pepsi drinker because you can get Pepsi made with real sugar so now I can't stand the texture of Coke any more.

All sodas need to be made with sugar from now on!

SilverWook said:

I thought the TOS remastering crossed the line a tad when they erased a statue that was part of the set in Wink of an Eye. Redoing a matte shot is one thing...

It would be really funny if the original TOS FX raw footage turned up someday. There were so many FX and optical houses involved, it was probably scattered to the winds after the show ended. One of the FX guys later worked on the horror classic Phantasm, and reused the transporter effect for when the mortuary dissolves at the end.

 The funny thing was that the bigger changes they made were a reaction to fan complaints, I know because I was there on the sites when it happened.

The team doing the new effects asked for fan feedback and when it became clear the old effects would be kept on home video a lot of fans started complaining that the new effects were not worth seeing because all they were doing was reproducing the old effects with CGI.  So after that the team started making changes like the one stated above and doing things like adding rocks impacting against the halls of a ship and stuff like that and at first the fans were happy and saying things along the lines of "If you are going to make changes you should go all the way" but then it didn't take long for a backlash to start.

I think it just goes to prove you can't listen to fans because fans are really just a group of people routing for this thing to fail.  Even when you give them exactly what they ask for they will still attack you.  Back in the 80s no one tried harder to get Doctor Who pulled off of the air then the show's so called "fans".

Organized fandom can really be an ugly thing some times and I don't really think there is a way for the producers of new content to win since every fan wants the show they watch to stay exactly the way it was when they first saw it and never try anything new, but the general public wants the show to try new things and take chances so there is no way to please both these groups.

If I were Paramount I think I would just ditch Star Trek and and burn everything related to it since it is clear there is no pleasing the fans so having anything to do with this franchise will just get you personally attack.  Far better to just make it as if Star Trek never existed so people will forget about it and stop bugging you.

The only way to win with fans is to just stop producing anything they claim to "like" because fans are really just hate filled people looking for any excuse to complain and threaten the lives of people who produce the stuff they claim to like.

The way we speak today would be seen as uneducated slang to many people in the past so why shouldn't people be required to speak old French or Latin?

TV's Frink said:

Danfun128 said:

 

Do it right or don't do it at all.

 Thank goodness someone invented adblock so I can block all images posted by some people.

Yeah i guess I misremembered that detail but the upshot is the same, no one was trying to destroy the old shots, the fact is compared to everything else they look grainy and fuzzy and I say that as someone who supports the preservation of film, has no problem with the special effects of Blake's 7, and always watches my Blurays with the original effects and audio track.

Still the fact is it wasn't done just to change for change sake or to destroy the old shots, it was done to give a constant look to the episodes and so all the content would look like a real HD print to the average viewer.  The fact is that a full restoration of the original effects shot just could not be done, it's sad but it's wat happens to a show after 40 years.

The original shots are still out there for anyone who wants them so I really don't see why the people who made the new shots or the shots themselves should be attacked as if they are a thing of pure evil.

My objection to the Star Wars SEs has never been that they were done in the first place(As a matter of fact I enjoyed some of the changes when I first saw them as a kid)it's that the originals were not kept out there as an option. Paramount has kept the original effects and mono audio tracks out there and that is a lot more then other film companies do with their releases of old TV shows and movies(In many cases you can only get a 5.1 remix of an audio track these days)so I have no problem with what they did or the people who did the work.

Danfun128 said:

DrCrowTStarwars said:

...They only went the CGI route because the original negatives for the special effects shots were lost so those could not be restored and broadcast in HD like the rest of the content...

Explain the original shots being used in the blu-ray's then...

 Those were not in HD.  I never claimed that it wasn't possible to make copies of the copies but just because something is on a Bluray disc does not make it HD.  I placed back up copies of all my classic DW episodes on several Bluray discs because it makes for easy storage, but that doesn't change the fact that the stories were shot on video tape and are only on HD.

The local stations wanted HD content so Paramount redid the special effects in HD for Tv but kept the original shots on home video.  I really don't see anything wrong with that.  I talked personally to some of the people who redid the effects and they had a lot of respect for the the people who did the original effects and were not out to destroy them, just to keep Star Trek on TV.

If they really were out to destroy all the old effects then why did they include the old effects shots on the home video release?

Also some of the effects in the first couple of years of TNG looked awful even for the time but they were not replaced and the reason was that the original negatives were found so HD prints of those shots could be made for TV and Bluray.

The people who did the work have said repeatedly that the only reason they touched the effects on TOS was because there were no negatives to make HD prints of and I see no reason to assume they are lying since when negatives could be found for TNG they used those and they went out of their way to include the old effects shots on the Blurays.

Again if you do some research you will find that Bluray discs to not have magical powers granted to them by wizards that make non HD content that is burned on to them HD.

ray_afraid said:

I watch the original series on METV on Saturday nights. They air the "remastered" versions with the cgi effects though. It bugs me. I've never seen the originals, but every time I see an unaltered clip, it looks so much cooler than the boring new shots! So much more style going on!
What makes it even worse to me, is that METV is an "all classic" TV station. So shouldn't they air the shows as they were originally?
I'm preparing an e-mail about this.
I'm also preparing for disappointment.

 Well it doesn't bug me because there was a reason for that.  They only went the CGI route because the original negatives for the special effects shots were lost so those could not be restored and broadcast in HD like the rest of the content.  it's not METV's fault that is what Paramount has been giving all Tv stations because the old effects shots look really jarring when put in with the restored film.

Still they have not removed the old effects shots, on the DvDs and Blu Rays you can still select them as an option when you watch the show, it's only in syndication that they are gone.  It's not like Paramount did a Lucas, the CGI is just an option if you want to see the original effects you can.

Every time I like a new Tv show and I find it relaxing to watch it can't seem to get good enough ratings to stay on the air for more then a year or two.  Does every show have to be about heavy drama and end of the world plot arcs?  I like those things but when I am feeling stressed out some times I just like to sit down and watch a fun mystery or adventure show where I don't have to keep track of plot arcs and the character are not depressed or angry all the time.  Every time I find a show like that it get canceled, too bad:(

Yeah unless the skit has Phil Hartman in it, I don't care about it.

DuracellEnergizer said:

I was in town today, and I think I saw the Girl Whom I Loved from high school today for the first time in years. I avoided looking directly at her so as to avoid catching her attention, so I'm not 100% positive it was her, but the resemblance certainly was strong; if it was her, she's still as beautiful now as she was when she was seventeen.

Anyway, moving on with the story, she had two little girls with her -- the oldest probably being no older than five. If those girls are hers, it means she's probably settled down with someone and started a family. I, on the other hand, am unemployed, overweight, going bald, and stuck living in a pig sty with a family I can't stand to be around.

TL;DR: teenage unrequited love is a bitch -- especially when you still haven't quite gotten over it -- and seeing the girl of your dreams for the first time in a long time with the children you wanted to be the father of doesn't make it any easier.

To end this on a somewhat lighter note, I did buy me a small bottle of Southern Comfort following the experience. Now I'm going to down half the contents of the bottle and catapult myself into a daze of drunken elation while listening to the Stone Temple Pilots.

 Ouch.  All I can say is I have been there, I feel for you.

Yeah you do have a point.  Still METV play TOS every week too so there is that.

I do get your point and I think you may be right still I don't think it would hurt for Paramount to promote the new cast a little more.  Also I see Wrath of Khan and Voyage Home DvDs in Food Lion these days so it does kind of feel like you run into the old cast everywhere you go. At least to me it does. That can't do the new cast any favors.

Still I get your point, maybe I just feel like Star trek is everywhere right now.  You are right it is not as bad as it was in the 90s.

DuracellEnergizer said:

DrCrowTStarwars said:

I fail to see why I should be compared to a nazi.

I wasn't comparing you to a Nazi. I was comparing the act of burying the existence of original Trek to the Nazis burning books they didn't want influencing their culture.

In the end, though, I realize it's a rather dumb comparison in any case, so I'll happily repeal it. 

 I don't want to see old Star Trek gone forever,  I was just wondering if maybe doing a Disney style strategic release would help the movies at the box office.

I mean I am a huge fan and even I feel a little swamped by the number of Star Trek, films, tv shows, books, comics, and games out there.  It's hard to get excited about every new product out there when there is so much of it already out there.  I mean one of the reasons people are so excited about the next Star Wars movie is that it will only be the seventh movie in the series, Star Trek now has 12 plus five Tv shows.

Films only make huge amounts of money if they are events, look at the Marvel films there are so many of them that unless the film is seen as something special like an Avengers or GOTG then they all make about what the last Star Trek film makes.  I really think Paramount is making all the money there is to make on a series that has such regular releases.

yoda-sama said:

Nah, it'd have to be Benny Hill music.

 I think that would go best with the scene of Han chasing and then being chased by the Stormtroopers.

I fail to see why I should be compared to a nazi.

As I said my idea is exactly what Disney does to make their animated film releases special events.  Heck Lucas did the same thing with the VHS releases of Star Wars back in the day, Star Wars was not always out on VHS tapes.  Even now it is hard to find DvD copies of the movies.  I don't really see the problem, it was just an idea I had to make the release of Star Trek films more of an event.