SilverWook

If we ever get a convention or some other sort of thing going someday, that dream could come true! ;)

You say that like it's a bad thing! Henson had a darker side a lot of muppet fans overlook.

I wasn't aware Lucas even had anything to do with the script. He was likely still banging out a draft of Willow at the time. ;)

I do recall an old L.A. Times article about a well known (inside the industry) script doctor who did an uncredited rewrite of Terry Jones' script.

If cracked.com thinks Christopher Lloyd's part in Star Trek III was a cameo, they are cracked indeed!

Bingowings said:

Jim Henson let Lucas near Labyrinth.

How exactly did Lucas negatively affect the film?

Movies are only ruined if you let them be ruined in your own mind. Star Wars isn't ruined for me yet, not by a long shot.

It takes several years to view most blockbusters in perspective once they are removed from the hype and mania. The Matrix is a fun SciFi flick, with some Kung Fu and fortune cookie wisdom tossed into the mix. Like Star Wars, it borrowed from other works. (It's no secret the Wachowskis were influenced by "Ghost in the Shell".) Technology wise, it built on the FX that had come before. There was proto bullet time FX in movies and a couple tv ads before Neo ever faced down an Agent.

The BSG finale was unintentionally hilarious to me. Either a disease they brought with them wipes all the native humans out, or vice versa. Throwing out all their technology must lost it's appeal after the first dozen or so people got eaten by lions.

Mind you, the original series could have been interpreted as being our past as well. The whole "ancient astronauts" theory was all the rage in the 70's.

Too bad the SciFi channel doesn't seem to want anyone to see the Cylon War prequel, as the trailer looked promising.

Sim's decent into misogynistic madness is well known in comic book circles. Cerebus was a pretty fun book before it turned into complicated politcial storyline. Almost mirrors what Star Wars became with the prequels. One still has to hand it to Dave Sim for completing the twenty years he set out to do.

Does Matt Groening really have that much to do with the Simpsons anymore?(Aside from cashing the royalty checks.)  I had the impression he handed off the reins and turned his attentions to Futurama long ago.

There was a 4:3 version released on Laserdisc.

http://www.lddb.com/laserdisc/10935/8968-80/Abyss-The:-Extended-Version-%281989%29

Are live action HB characters okay?

Lucky for Bingowings there was a Banana Splits animated special. ;)

I could see the chorus playing monotonously over the droid factory scenes. If it gets too much, a stray laser blast or something could kill the speaker it's coming from.

I think I've found the weirdest bit of Titanic merchandise ever.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/90s-vintage-Titanic-boat-transformers-space-toy-robot-/320893676981?pt=UK_ToysGames_ActionFigures_ActionFigures_JN&hash=item4ab6c0edb5

I really hope Michael Bay doesn't see this! It might give him ideas...

Stumbled across an amusing youtube clip that proves the existence of Disney Vaultbreaking at the dawn of home video. Sort of. ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mTg4t1JdMo&feature=relmfu

I'm very familiar with recycled LD transfers. I avoided a lot of early DVD's at the time since LD wasn't quite dead yet.

The soundtrack on LD seems to have more oomph for whatever reason.

Got the '94 LD today. It seems to be the same print. The 1.75:1 listed on the jacket would seem to be in error though.

Some unfortunate mild rot on side 2, but not enough to affect the soundtrack, thankfully. (My older player will probably ignore the rot.) I'll try to get the Anthrax bit audio captured, and put it up somewhere this week.

ChainsawAsh said:

 

2 was also when they started casting the same people for different generations of characters - Michael J. Fox plays Marty and Marty's two children, for no good reason.  It's distracting, even though the fact that Marty, Jr. looks exactly like his dad is a plot point.  It's just a bit ridiculous.  Of course, 3 makes this even worse by casting the same actors as their century-prior ancestors - but that's to be expected, since 3 is basically a parody of itself.

You'd be amazed at how the gene pool repeats itself in some family trees. My father had an Uncle that was the spitting image of him, only much older. An old friend of mine once showed me picture of his grandfather from WWII, and I thought he was pranking me. The resemblance was uncanny. Unless he actually went back in time and was part of a bomber crew!

I've had more than enough odd encounters in my life to make me think I have an evil twin out there someplace. ;)

I suggested the "love theme" from Airplane! a couple pages back.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnY42XX7nSg (At 8:20)

Then there's Queen's wedding march from Flash Gordon...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVMLqeNwDlE

Too bad there's probably no way to have the priest say Ming's wedding vows. ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5YtyW1aXIY&feature=related

georgec said:

I think 10 minutes with MS Paint and a color printer would do it.

What we need is someone to hack a GPS unit, and have an animated X-Wing targeting display when you near your destination. ;)

Correct. Newbies started out as Padawans and you made Jedi master if you had enough posts. This often lead to superfluous postings merely to increase one's rank.

I'm fond of 80's heavy metal hair band Klaa...

Awesome! And with a THX reference to boot!  I wonder if that's a licensed item?

msycamore said:

SilverWook said:

In the case of Kubrick, it gets complicated. IIRC, there is a storyboard glimpsed on the Blu Ray supplements for The Shining that clearly shows the intended theatrical ratio. Might be some framing marks on a playback monitor as well.

Yes, I recall the intended ratio for The Shining was 1.85:1 according to that storyboard. I think the latest video release is in 1.78:1 instead of 1.85:1, don't you still see those helicopter blades in the opening? An interesting article related to this discussion: http://www.hdvision-mag.com/2012/03/was-the-terminator-shown-in-two-different-formats.html

IIRC, you can barely see the blades in the current release. The infamous helicopter shadow in an earlier shot is gone though.

I don't think Stanley lost any sleep over those anymore than his reflection in an astronaut's visor in 2001. ;)

Got the DVD in yesterday. (The date on it is actually 1998.) Much to my surprise it's the same print Criterion used, sans Anthrax extension. Also, it's 1:85 not 1:66.

Some weird video gremlins watching it upscaled with my Blu Ray player on scenes with flames and wind whipped banners. Actually looked better on my older upscaling DVD player, but that one can't zoom non-anamorphic letterbox very well.

Mono sound was 192kps, although the sound seems lower than on later releases.

Wondering if the 1994 LD is a totally different master now. Still waiting on the mailman.

timdiggerm said:

SilverWook said:

Shinzon

You keep using that name...

Sorry about that. It was too soon for another evil bald guy in a Trek movie anyway! Not to mention a big creepy all black spaceship right out of a Disaster Area concert. ;)

Some music suggestions for the Clone's arriving to save the day and/or the big battle scene.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kw_Lf-JhdSU

http://youtu.be/ASJJTto1gpc