Handman

OriginalStarWars1?

My condolences.

Anything that sparked a stupid longer argument.

The thought of another Trump v. Clinton election in 2020 is severely depressing. I don’t think the nation wants to relive 2016 again.

I’m moderately conservative but have never and do not intend to support Trump. There’s really not much to be said right now to be debated.

ray_afraid said:

Dek Rollins said:

ray_afraid said:

Dek Rollins said:

darthrush said:

Possessed said:

^

I concur. Much better than the “amazing” reboot from a few years ago. Totally don’t get the hate for toby as Peter Parker. I thought both of those movies were very well done.

I disagree. Garfield was far better than Toby for me. The first of the Amazing reboots was quite good. The only one from the Raimi trilogy that impressed me all that much was the second. Never understand the mass amount of love for the first one. I still think it is a pretty mediocre flick.

Well, first off, you’re just plain wrong. 😛

But really, the first two Raimi films are what I consider masterpieces of modern cinema, and they are among the most perfect comic book films ever made.

Not only is Raimi an amazing director, but he was pretty much the perfect director they could’ve gotten. He’s a fan of the comics, he enjoys and understands the characters, and he’s just plain fun. Everything he brought to those films blows Marc Webb out of the water. Who wants a “dark and gritty” Spider-Man film? I’d rather have some comic book optimism.

And the hate for Tobey Maguire as Peter has no legs to stand on. He was perfectly cast (along with everyone else, actually). People seem to complain about a few things in general; he makes weird faces at times/is just goofy looking, he cries too much (understandable and well performed every time save for the third film), and he’s supposedly not “transformed” enough under the mask. None of these complaints that I’ve read/heard make any sense. Andrew Garfield is just awful as Peter IMO. He’s not a genius nerd who gets picked on by bullies, he’s a genius hot guy who protects those who are bullied and he’s just kind of a jerk sometimes, and his performances are just bad most of the time.

J.K. Simmons is J. Jonah Jameson.

Cliff Robertson is Uncle Ben.

Rosemary Harris is Aunt May.

Willem Dafoe is Norman Osborn.

The only complaint about those films that I understand is that Maryjane is underdeveloped. This is somewhat valid, but even this I don’t feel is really that valid either, because she is developed as much as she needs to be, and though she may be a primary character, the films aren’t really about her. I’m fine with what they did, because she does have a developed character, despite being weaker than some others. And Kirsten Dunst does a great job with her.

If you’re interested in wasting an hour of your life, this shows a lot about why people love the first two Raimi films:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wD3h_bT0Mfg

Also this, this and this.

I agree very much. Best superhero movies by a long distance.
I only wish they’d used the animatronic Goblin mask they developed and went with a more traditional Green Goblin costume. That PowerRangers suit they used is silly to the point of breaking some scenes for me and the animatronic mask looked so great!

I’m curious though, how do you think that kind of Goblin face would’ve been explained in the film? The animatronic mask doesn’t make any sense so they’d have to figure out a really good reason for that mask to even exist. The armored mask appears the same as the rest of the armored flight suit, so it’s logical to assume it was something that was made for the suit, as silly as that may seem. I just can’t think of a logical explanation for his face turning green and eyes turning yellow, not to mention where that purple getup came from. 😉

I dunno about all the details, but I’d make it (and the purple cowl attached) a Halloween mask, a la Micheal Myers. Something he grabs almost at random to whip up a disguise based on some sort of art type thing he has in his house, as is hinted at in the actual film. I can’t remember the origin of his mask in the comics, but I’ve always thought of it as a Halloween mask. Sure, it’d be a stretch that it moves and contorts with his real face, but I’d buy it.
That the suit and mask in the film were supposed to be used for military soldiers is flat-out stupid.

I just assumed the animatronic mask was the result of a physical transformation ala Jekyll and Hyde.

darthrush said:

Continuing with my plan of watching every film on the AFI top 100, I watched Casablanca for the first time.

I must say that I was quite tired when viewing so hopefully it did not hinder my judgement too much.

Overall, I really enjoyed it. Great acting, witty dialogue, a good character arc. I just felt that I did not connect with the romance all that much. The flashback sold me on the romance and I genuinely felt really bad for Rick and what he had to go through, but once they reconnected, they fell back in love all to quickly and made the ending not feel as emotional. But I still appreciated the ending more for the fact that Rick decided to finally fight for a greater cause. That was an arc that felt earned.

In the end, I liked It’s A Wonderful Life A LOT more and I think films like La La Land fleshed out a romance far better which paid off more in the end, but I still appreciated this. Onto the Godfather Part Two and 12 Angry Men! As you can tell, I am not really moving through the AFI Top 100 in numerical order.

If you enjoyed Casablanca (and how couldn’t you?), I recommend you also watch To Have and Have Not. The romance is probably more “fleshed out”.

Jeebus said:

Possessed said:

One could argue that legalizing gay marriage and marijuana are conservative standpoints as that means less government limitations on your personal life.

You would think.

That was essentially Barry Goldwater’s argument for gay marriage, but he also suggested putting drug addicts into the slammer for life at the same time.

EDIT: CatBus said it first, Goldwater would probably be considered a libertarian today.

I rewatched Charade with Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn for the second time, after a few years of it slowly becoming a favorite. Great soundtrack and quirky dialogue, but not as fun as I remembered. Still a favorite.

It looks like I broke the rules of the thread, but I hope it’s obvious there was no ill will in the post and all in fun.

Ratio Tile said:

My nose is so big I had a former boss who would call me the Nose. He would often say “ask the nose. The nose knows.” Everyone knew who he meant.

“If you’re not a Jew with that nose, you’re an eagle!”

I want to do something with film, but am pursuing engineering. Hopefully I can combine the two interests, I want to work in the Packard Campus of the Library of Congress to help preserve the cultural heritage of the US.

NeverarGreat said:

There are two opposing narratives concerning the firing of Comey. The Democrats claim that he fired him because he was worried that the investigation would find evidence of his collusion with Russia. The Republicans claim that he fired Comey because of various and changing reasons concerning Comey’s job performance.

I don’t find either narrative to be convincing, for several reasons.

With regards to the Democratic narrative, Trump seems all too calm (for someone who is usually animated) to be fearful of impeachment. His interviews show a man as casual with the truth as he ever was on the campaign trail, a man who should surely be more guarded in his answers if he thought that he was guilty. His tweet, that Comey should be fearful of ‘tapes’ existing of their meetings in the White House, would be childish and thuggish intimidation if it was meant in all seriousness. However, Trump may be continuing some form of personal joke in the vein of Obama wiretapping Trump Tower. In other words, ‘you’d better hope that Obama didn’t wiretap us both, or your previous boss may be in a lot of trouble’ (JEDIT: What Catbus said). This seems like the type of moronic trolling that Trump is accustomed to, and the fact that he doesn’t spell this out is potential evidence that he is slyly pushing the Democrats’ buttons at the same time as he is speaking to Comey and his base.

With regards to the Republican narrative, this was too abrupt a firing to be merely a further ‘draining of the swamp’. His attempts to spin this as such are transparent. He is clearly acting to put the chill on the Russia investigation, and he is genuinely surprised that the Democratic establishment would be angry at this, since he so blindly assumes that he is innocent. How could it be problematic to fire the man in charge of the Russia investigation if he isn’t under suspicion? He wants Russia as a friend and so he doesn’t consider that this investigation is relevant to his administration at all. This is why he abruptly fired Comey. He’s the decider, and to have an independent lawman who won’t kiss his ring is beyond offensive. I believe that Trump was acting very much as his role on The Apprentice in firing Comey, and didn’t care that it may be seen as improper.

This is an unprecedented event in our nation’s history, and a foreboding one. Trump clearly doesn’t care about democratic norms or even pretending to act like anything other than a glorified mob-boss. He thinks that he’s fabulously smart and politically savvy, and though he is neither of these things, he does have the lizardlike sense of how to manipulate large groups of people. Case in point, he did little to erode his previous support (the polls are basically unchanged in this regard), and he also made the Democratic establishment and media overreact by acting in ways that looked from their perspective like he was guilty as sin. Taking the cynical approach - and I hope I’m wrong about this - this looks like a win for him. Of course, it’s devastating for norms, democracy, bipartisanship, and anything other than Donald J Trump.

This is a fascinating perspective, and a very good post. I want to see more of this.

I want to believe.

I just found this ranking:

The Force Awakens - 3.5/5
Rogue One - 3.5/5
The Empire Strikes Back - 3/5
Star Wars - 2.5/5
Revenge of the Sith - 2.5/5
Return of the Jedi - 2/5
Attack of the Clones - 0.5/5
The Phantom Menace - 0.5/5

I had an America Online address around the same age. Why I needed one, I do not know.

Username: I’ve used it since 2005.

Avatar: Spock is an idol of mine. The background is an OT.com meme that I edited in.

Title: I don’t think these exist anymore.

Signature: A good Spock quote and a hypocritical Lucas quote. Not much more to it than that.

That’s so weird. I think the original uncorrected images (at least the desert) are more appealing to the eye, but evidently I must be mistaken. Surely there’s another way to interpret the images?

They didn’t even ask any questions…

rodneyfaile said:

She is Rey and she is a girl and is awesome. Deal with it.

Look, criticizing the character is perfectly fine! Just because she’s a woman shouldn’t put her above reproach. I don’t recall any of these criticisms being made against Leia, and she wasn’t exactly your everyday damsel in distress.

CHEWBAKAspelledwrong said:

Jeez, even Bill is running with this Kennedy shit journalism. Did he even listen to the tape? I thought he was smarter than this.

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/columns/my-two-cents/042517-1500

He updated the text today to better reflect what she actually said.

This week will determine whether I can bullshit enough to become an engineer or to continue on with a life heading nowhere fast.

The Digital Bits just put a link back here again after Kathleen’s statements. Hi Bill!

Fang Zei said:

This discussion of changing writers from one movie to the next kind of begs the question of whether VIII and IX will even vaguely resemble George’s outlines for VIII and IX or if Lucasfilm is totally and completely doing its own thing now.

Evidently The Force Awakens doesn’t really follow George’s outline, hence the “white slavers” comment and all that. I don’t think there’s a chance they’d ever try to return to them now.