TM2YC

SilverWook said:

Looks like The Enemy of the World and An Adventure in Space and Time have been out in Canada for a while, and Ebay prices are insane. When the heck do we American fans get to buy them?

 It's karmic payback for all the amazing 'Criterion Collection' DVDs/Blu-Rays being US region-locked and triple the price of other releases here in the UK ;-)

I suggest finding the container ship with all the imported BBC DVDs on and tipping them into Boston Harbour.

EyeShotFirst said:

Ryan McAvoy said:

DuracellEnergizer said:

I've decided to say that the 21st century is the worst era in human history, as I hate most of the movies, music, slang, fashions, technology, celebrities, etc, etc, etc. made in the last fourteen years.

 In purely musical terms it's the worst for sure because since about 1990 no new music has been invented and I suspect there will never be anything new ever again for the rest of human history. Rap was the last earth shattering advance to happen in music where you could honestly say “Wow I’ve never heard anything like that before!” and that's it folks… sorry. It's been almost a quarter century now and based on that I've concluded that there is no more, all discoveries have been made.

With space travel, we will go to Mars, then outside our solar system, we'll invent FTL travel, we'll colonise other worlds!... but musically I'm afraid the human race reached the pinnacle of it's evolution about 23 years ago.

(This pessimistic appraisal of the situation, from a former music blogger)

 I'd say it's been longer than that. Music hasn't advanced much at all in the last 40 years. Sure, we got fancy gadgets, and people like Pink Floyd played with them, but you strip it down, it's still not different than what came before. Jazz died when it turned into nonsensical phrases of pure soulessness. Rock died when guitarists became the only focus. Blues hasn't had it's moment since Muddy Waters played with James Cotton. Folk music remains the same, though I won't knock a genre for keeping it's integrity. Electronic music hasn't advanced too far. Really, about the only difference from Deadmau5 and Kraftwerk is the ease in which things are done now. Country hasn't been right since the 60's. If you count anything after to be good, it's because they emulated the past.

Movie soundtracks are the closest to classical we'll ever get, and even they have lost their flare.

Music has gotten far too easy to create, and as long as the normal person can bob their head to it, they don't care if it blows their mind. People these days don't want Dark Side of the Moon. They just want the same ol stuff.

 I agree with the gist of what you say but I still think the late 80s is the last creative peak (Not the early 70s).

Sure, despite it's utter awesomeness, late 70s Punk can be written off as nothing more than a remix of ideas that had been well worn by 60s American Garage Rock and 50s Rockabilly, and acts like The Stooges and Patti Smith had laid down the complete Punk template years before 1977. Also the Electronic era of the 80s could be said to have been a reheated version of the work of Kraftwerk, Pete Townshend and Walter/Wendy Carlos. As well as the vast experimention with synthesisers going on in the Prog Rock and Disco movements throughout the 70s.

But with the late 80s you get Rap, Sampling and Rave/Dance (The latter two, I omitted from my above post, whoops) that sound like nothing else before. Sure there were inspirations from the past for these forms of music but they were nothing more than vague sketches. The late great Gil Scott-Heron had spoken over records in the early 70s but it is worlds away from Public Enemy and NWA. The Beatles had done (Almost unlistenably bad avant garde) sound collage experiments in the late 60s but these bare no real relation to the catchy Pop music from sample-created albums like '3 Feet High and Rising' and 'Paul's Boutique'. With Dance I'd conceed it sounded a little less 'fresh' than the other two, you could trace it's roots to Disco and to the Electronica of Kraftwerk but even Kraftwerk weren't experimenting with the pure hedonistic Dance beat until the late 80s.

EyeShotFirst said:

Do I think music is dead? Absolutely not. It's just harder to find good music than it used to be.

 I think the oposite might be true in an odd way. In the 90s (When I was in my teens) the charts were awash with pretty decent Pop and Rock music. Good enough that I did little digging into the underground or into the past, it wasn't really needed. It was only from the late 90s onwards (When most chart music had become almost universally drab, awful and corporate) and armed with this new internet thingy that I was forced to go find music for myself rather than wait for the record companies to dish it out. So in that way it was easier to find the goodies when the top layer of drek was bypassed. There are many huge Pop acts around now that I keep seeing on posters, who get movies made about them and are always in the papers that I have never heard a single song by because I've checked out of that machine a long time ago. The internet allows me and the kids today to find anything we want from any decade in seconds, it's easier than ever to find good music.

"Lester Bangs (Not the real one, the one wot was off 'Almost Famous' done by that Truman Capote) here, Rolling Stone Magazine..."

"Which is a more bizzare and hilarious press conference... this thread? or this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cIlr-LcFsI

?"

DuracellEnergizer said:

I've decided to say that the 21st century is the worst era in human history, as I hate most of the movies, music, slang, fashions, technology, celebrities, etc, etc, etc. made in the last fourteen years.

 In purely musical terms it's the worst for sure because since about 1990 no new music has been invented and I suspect there will never be anything new ever again for the rest of human history. Rap was the last earth shattering advance to happen in music where you could honestly say “Wow I’ve never heard anything like that before!” and that's it folks… sorry. It's been almost a quarter century now and based on that I've concluded that there is no more, all discoveries have been made.

With space travel, we will go to Mars, then outside our solar system, we'll invent FTL travel, we'll colonise other worlds!... but musically I'm afraid the human race reached the pinnacle of it's evolution about 23 years ago.

(This pessimistic appraisal of the situation, from a former music blogger)

"Sacharissa Cripslock, reporter with The Ankh-Morpork Times..."

"...It has been reported that Mr. Kobayashi off of Brassed-Off said you had an IQ of "85". Care to respond to that?"

"Hi, it's me Tintin (Get down Snowy!), intrepid reporter for Le Petit Vingtième..."

"...Rumour has it that George Lucas is planning a new film that would be like a blend of the best plot elements of 'Catch me if you can', 'The quick and the dead' and 'Pretty Woman'. He recently commented that he's stuck for a title, can you suggest one?"

"Margo Litzenberger, San Francisco Chronicle..."

"...Who has the best evil force powers, Emperor Palpatine or David Lo Pan?"

DuracellEnergizer said:

Ryan McAvoy said:

Seeing the Clone Wars was the main reason I bought cinema tickets to those films. But all we got was Yoda saying they'd started in AOTC, one battle above Coruscant in ROTS, a couple of montages and then they were over. What happened to 'Episode II.5: The Clone Wars' Where we spent 2 hours having fun and beginning to actually like our two heroes Anakin and Obi-Wan?

If the Clone Wars were only going to consist of CG Temuera Morrisons fighting CG battle droids, then I'm glad they were glossed over. 

  Yes you're probably right (Sad face)

timdiggerm said:

Perhaps the worst is yet to come.

 The year 2099 for example...

The Earth is very different from today. Following a number of environmental disasters, such as "the Withering" – which resulted in the loss of a great deal of human knowledge including the vacuum cleaner and fire (although the latter came back fairly quickly) – and a "Cattle-clasm" that killed off most of the livestock.

The Earth has been reduced to a wasteland separated between "Withered Zones" and the remaining inhabitable areas. The Withering shifted the Earth into a new orbit, resulting in disruption to the seasons and a reformed calendar. Every day of the week is now 25-hours long except for Thursday (which, due to time anomalies, has not occurred in over a decade), while the change in the length of the year led to the creation of new months such as Janril, Febtober, and Marchuary. In addition, the dreary season of Hamble was created, which is permanently dark, cold and drizzly. The Withering resulted in vegetarians, pigeons and gays becoming endangered species, and completely wiped out tarts.

The Earth's geography is also radically altered. A new mountain range was formed in Britain by a day-long ice age, and the Earth now has twelve and a half continents. Many locations have been displaced and reduced to islands, including Oxford University and the London borough of Deptford, which is now in the Indonesian Ocean as a part of the Cockney Islands. The solar system is equally altered: Jupiter has been deep fried by Harry Ramsden's, Mercury and Neptune have been knocked together, and there was an initiative to destroy the Moon, which was deleterious to the nightlight industry.

Religion still exists, pieced together following the Withering, theologians conclude that there were four true deities: the evil twins Yin and Yang, Feng Shui the destroyer, and merciful Bod, based on the children's television programme Bod; the theme tune of which has become a hymn, sung in Gregorian chant. Bod is analogous to God, hence the commonly used phrase "Oh my Bod!"

CO said:

I always thought the Prequels should have been 1 movie, and I think it would have been alot more accepted among the SW fanbase.  Coppola was able to tell Vito Corleone's backstory in one movie, why did we need 3 movies to see the backstory of Anakin Skywalker other then to cash in on the SW name?

If Lucas would have done 1 Prequel movie, he could have crafted a 3 hour no holds barred movie where it would have been all red meat to the fans, and we wouldn't have to deal with pointless exposition that makes the trilogy move like molasses sometimes.  

When Puzo died he and Coppola were planning on a 4th film that would have told Vito's long missing backstory between the end of GF2 and the start of GF1, so this analogy doesn't totally work.

I agree it could have been covered in one movie but in a galaxy as big as SW 3 movies should have still been exciting and fast paced. Obi Wan was barely in TPM and Anakin wasn't developed at all either. Lucas could have stuffed all 3 of the PT with exciting adventures we never saw (The "Nest of Gundarks"? or "That business on Cato Nemoidia"?) or call me crazy but he could have shown us what happened in the bloody CLONE WARS?!?

Seeing the Clone Wars was the main reason I bought cinema tickets to those films. But all we got was Yoda saying they'd started in AOTC, one battle above Coruscant in ROTS, a couple of montages and then they were over. What happened to 'Episode II.5: The Clone Wars' Where we spent 2 hours having fun and beginning to actually like our two heroes Anakin and Obi-Wan?

Vincent Hanna: Country Gentleman's Pig Fertilizer Gazette.

Are all hairdressers really in the employment of the government?

Rented a couple of Dalek serials this week.

First was 'Death to the Daleks' with Pertwee's Doctor again. Some beautiful atmospheric location photography (With a nice alienish colour grade).

The setup was interesting focusing on an abandoneed power-draining techno-city. This causes the Tardis to have a blackout and The Daleks' rayguns to malfunction. Resulting in a funny moment when they issue their usual Dalek threats and suddenly find that the humans aren't at all scared and have no intention to "Obey!".

The Doctor and his new little friend Bellal (A great character) have to solve a series of puzzles including this boobytrapped floor...

...which had me wondering if the later "Easy as Pi" scene from 'The Five Doctors' was a homage to it...

As long as Randy Newman does the theme tune I'm on board ;-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqNG_SrSa4o

A classic debut LP by a legendary Band...

Contains such hits as...

"Tell Me When My Lightsaber Turns Green"
"The Teams That Meet in Cantinas"
"Kamino"
"Twelve Parsecs Too Long"
"Thankfully Not Living on Alderaan It Doesn't Apply"

timdiggerm said:

We want Billy Dee!

 Truth.

He could be like the Skywalker/Solo kids cool uncle in EpVII. Who takes them out to Rock concerts and buys them Beer and Death-Sticks.

If you are looking for continuity errors being corrected, subtle little fixes and respectful FX tweaks etc then Adywan's ANH:R (And forthcoming ESB:R) are the way to go.

If you want preservation of the OT, go for Harmy's Despecialised Editions of the Trilogy.

I alternate between these two ^ very happily (Depending on my mood).

thejediknighthusezni said:

      Transvestite lapdancers have suffered discrimination and intolerance for too long. OTOH, enlightened appellate court justices have proven their infinite moral superiority and right to rule by decreeing homosexual "marriage" HARD down the throats of the evil backwards peasants. >:-) 

      If we are ever to achieve true equality and justice, it's clear what must be done:

      We must elevate the dignity and status of tranny lapdancers by appointing them to be justices on appellate courts and seating them next to those justices who have given us "equality" in marriage. Justice and tranny would each be given half a vote. Of course, every measure must be taken to ensure that the trannies are percieved as equal members. Instead of black robes they would wear string bikinis and hot pink lipstick under their moustaches. every ten minutes of a session there would be two minutes of shimmy dancing on the lap of the enlightened justice while that justice gives a speech about the glories of all-inclusiveness and why the court has suffered NO loss of necessary dignity or prestige.

      If we all unite to raise our consciences and carry through this social reform, we will put a soon end to this intolerable unfairness.

 Wow, that's hot stuff ^, especially the bit you wrote about "Instead of black robes they would wear string bikinis and hot pink lipstick under their moustaches". You've clearly got a talent for writing gay fiction, I suggest finding a publisher where you can let your fantasies run free. Even though I'm hetrosexual, I have to admit phrases like "Shimmy dancing on the lap of the enlightened justice" really revved my engine!

OBI-WAN37 said:

I was just about to get a possible answer to my arguments I made in the three posts just before yours. And, although I'm not totally sure this is by coincidence, someone always seems to prevent a direct response from coming from an OT fan after his argument is challenged well, whether it's the OT fan making the argument or someone who's watching, and this seems to be one of those times. So, I'm asking as politely as possible, can any of the individual posters I was responding to please give me a response to the response I gave them in any of my previous three posts?

 Sure.

OBI-WAN37 said:

Ryan McAvoy said:

OBI-WAN37 said:

I'm amazed at how many very minor flaws people on this site manage to find in the prequels.

The make-up on ian mcdiarmid? First of all, I didn't notice anything wrong with it when I watched the prequels, and secondly, even if there was, it's not a big deal.

Secondly, the plot for the Phantom Menace was great: saving an endangered planet (naboo). And the plot for Attack of the Clones was good enough, and the plot for Revenge of the Sith was fantastic (Anakin's turn to the dark side).

Thirdly, I don't even care about the not-so excellent dialogue. Sure some of it was cliche. Like Darth Vader's "nooooooooooo"... but who cares? The films were an awesome tragedy.

Fourthly, the original trilogy wouldn't mean nearly as much to me if the prequel trilogy didn't exist. I mean, sure the acting's better. But not by much. I mean look at Ewan McGregor, Samuel Jackson, Ian Mcdiarmid, Liam Neeson, Christopher Lee.... all fantastic actors from the prequels.... and sure the story in the Original Trilogy was just as good as (but not better than) the prequels when you compare the two trilogies as individual episodes, but overall as one big, single movie the original trilogy just wasn't as good as the overall story of the prequels was as a single movie....

I mean, you can't deny that the awesomeness of the action in the prequel trilogy was far greater than the awesomeness of the action in the original trilogy... and the ships abundance of great-looking ships was greater too... combine that with the awesome story of the prequels and you have one pretty fantastic trilogy.

 Setting the top image aside for a moment (And that the bottom one is unfinished),

You say "The plot for Attack of the Clones was good enough" and "I don't even care about the not-so excellent dialogue. Sure some of it was cliche. Like Darth Vader's "nooooooooooo"... but who cares?"

Too quote Luke "I CARE!". Since when was mediocrity acceptable in films? Plus since when was admitting that something was average a valid defence of how good it was? (We're through the looking glass on this one chums).

 Okay, you must admit you didn't mention how I also said that the story for the phantom menace was great and that the story for revenge of the sith was fantastic, and how I also said that the story for the prequel trilogy as one full story was even better than the original trilogy as one story, and you also didn't mention how I called the story a "fantastic tragedy". So that is how the prequel trilogy is still fantastic.

 I didn't repeat you saying the story in TPM and ROTS was great because I obviously disagree with that (And it was a ridiculous statement), but I thought I'd voice my agreement with your other points.

Leaving the godawful TPM and AOTC aside. I actually think ROTS is okay-ish, I can tolerate it just fine but to say it is superior to the OT is madness. I'll defend the few things that are good and I have before.

e.g. Hayden gets a bad rap IMO. He was a young inexperienced actor faced with the impossible task of essentially introducing a new character (Little Annie was a different character played by a different actor in a different time) that had to immediately turn bad before we were given a chance to like or even know him. If George had cast Hayden in TPM and Hayden had a whole film of adventuring for us to like him (The way we liked Hamill's Luke) before he ever does anything bad, then TPM and by extension AOTC and ROTS would have been better films as a consequence (Not fantastic but watchable).

Also Hayden has said that George wouldn't let him play the character the way he wanted to (The way he was allowed to in ROTS) during AOTC. I really like the Anakin we see during the opening act of ROTS for about 15 mins (But it was too little too late, we should have spent 4hrs plus with that guy up to that point). Also all of Hayden's good scenes are on the cutting room floor because George had no idea what he was doing on the PT. I also suspect that all the good takes from all the actors are on a hardrive somewhere in the archive.

I really wish I could love the PT because the 6 hours of Star Wars that the OT offers isn't enough for me. I've even done my own fanedits of the PT to get them into a state where I can watch them more comfortably but as I've said to imagine that they can ever be better than the OT is just silly.

^ Good choices except IMO it should be...

Jason Robards as Ben...

Yes that was very nicely performed and written. Liked the archers ref at the end :-)

xhonzi said:

Ryan McAvoy said:

The original 'Arkham Asylum' is the best of that bunch ^ IMO. But my favourite titles on the PS3 (Excluding AA) have been (In order):

1. Deus Ex: Human Revolution (By a huge margin. Characters you care for, complex story, action, stealth, gorgeous design, it has it all)

2. Red Dead Redemption (GTA on horses. A vast world in meticulous detail)

3. Tomb Raider 2013 (Emotional stuff. Puzzles and stealth in a semi-sandbox. Becoming a crackshot with the bow is just magic)

4. Fallout: New Vegas (You could almost live in this game it's so frickin' massive and involving)

5. Wolfenstein 2009 (Big guns and evil Nazis to kill. It's pure action FPS fun)

Also Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection is a great way to get an instant and large collection of oldskool classics for very little. Plus the triple-bundle 'HD Collections' (Metal Gear Solid, Tomb Raider etc) are cost effective packages.

Honourable mention for 'Max Payne 3'. It's by a long way the hardest game I've ever played. It starts off near impossible but becomes more playable later on, after much practice. If you can get past the initial painful difficulty spike, it gets very good indeed.

None of those are even exclusives! 

 

 I never said they were???

Think I've only got two exclusives, 'Heavy Rain' and 'The Last of Us'.

HR is only average but it is worth getting on the cheap for the experience as it's unlike anything else. Like an interactive film (With a lot of interaction) where you decide the plot (In a very limited fashion) including everything from the mundane like brushing your teeth and getting dressed to the unsettling like self-mutilation and murder. Your morals will be questioned, your nerves will be shredded but ultimately you'll feel like the game fulfilled about 10% of the potential it had.

Only recently got TLOU. I'd heard reviews that said things like "The best game ever but the first couple of hours are soul crushingly boring". I've yet to force myself through the tedium of the opening. I got the impression the developers wanted to make a movie and resented the fact that I had to be allowed to press a button every few minutes.

OBI-WAN37 said:

I'm amazed at how many very minor flaws people on this site manage to find in the prequels.

The make-up on ian mcdiarmid? First of all, I didn't notice anything wrong with it when I watched the prequels, and secondly, even if there was, it's not a big deal.

Secondly, the plot for the Phantom Menace was great: saving an endangered planet (naboo). And the plot for Attack of the Clones was good enough, and the plot for Revenge of the Sith was fantastic (Anakin's turn to the dark side).

Thirdly, I don't even care about the not-so excellent dialogue. Sure some of it was cliche. Like Darth Vader's "nooooooooooo"... but who cares? The films were an awesome tragedy.

Fourthly, the original trilogy wouldn't mean nearly as much to me if the prequel trilogy didn't exist. I mean, sure the acting's better. But not by much. I mean look at Ewan McGregor, Samuel Jackson, Ian Mcdiarmid, Liam Neeson, Christopher Lee.... all fantastic actors from the prequels.... and sure the story in the Original Trilogy was just as good as (but not better than) the prequels when you compare the two trilogies as individual episodes, but overall as one big, single movie the original trilogy just wasn't as good as the overall story of the prequels was as a single movie....

I mean, you can't deny that the awesomeness of the action in the prequel trilogy was far greater than the awesomeness of the action in the original trilogy... and the ships abundance of great-looking ships was greater too... combine that with the awesome story of the prequels and you have one pretty fantastic trilogy.

 Setting the top image aside for a moment (And that the bottom one is unfinished),

^ This is a direct comparison of how Palpatine looked in ROTS and then ROTJ. Thank the maker that Adywan is sorting out the abomination in the second image because as I hope you'll agree (If you have functioning eyes) that they are not the same makeup or the same character (So incompetent where the PT wardrobe and makeup department that the hood isn't even the same shape, size or fabric for goodness sake!).

You say "The plot for Attack of the Clones was good enough" and "I don't even care about the not-so excellent dialogue. Sure some of it was cliche. Like Darth Vader's "nooooooooooo"... but who cares?"

Too quote Luke "I CARE!". Since when was mediocrity acceptable in films? Plus since when was admitting that something was average a valid defence of how good it was? (We're through the looking glass on this one chums).

Also you said "Ewan McGregor, Samuel Jackson, Ian Mcdiarmid, Liam Neeson, Christopher Lee.... all fantastic actors from the prequels". I agree they are fantastic actors... but in the PT they turned in career low performances without exception (That's how badly written and directed they were). Fine young actors like Natalie and Liam who had built the foundations of their careers on early work like "Leon and "Trainspotting" have spent years trying to claw their way back from the humilation of being the worst thing in one of the worst made films of all time.

As for preferring the action. Each to his own but I suggest you'd be happier with a fireworks display. There is no story and no characters you care about... just lots of loud bangs and bright colours.

xhonzi said:

OBI-WAN37 said:

Fourthly, the original trilogy wouldn't mean nearly as much to me if the prequel trilogy didn't exist. ... but overall as one big, single movie the original trilogy just wasn't as good as the overall story of the prequels was as a single movie....

The PT is like a cancer on the body of Star Wars.  The only way to save the OT is to remove the PT and then maybe it will survive.

The Prequels coming out was almost enough to make me think I just hated Star Wars.  The re-edits of the OT, and the current batch of EU books and comics just about sealed the deal.  It was getting my hands on theatrical preservations, despecialized editions and Star Wars Revisited that reminded me how much Star Wars there was to love.

 ^ This exactly. Guys like Adywan and Harmy have brought Star Wars back to me, after the awfulness of the PT made me fall out of love with Star Wars for much of the last decade.

EyeShotFirst said:

I don't know about a full cast, but I think everything could use some Lee Van Cleef.

 Boba Fett? I could hear Lee saying...

"This Sand-Skiff'll stop at Tucumcari"

or better yet, Jabba is gloating about finally getting even with Han and Boba leans over and whispers...

"Even a filthy scoundrel like that has a protecting angel... a golden-haired angel watches over him"

The original 'Arkham Asylum' is the best of that bunch ^ IMO. But my favourite titles on the PS3 (Excluding AA) have been (In order):

1. Deus Ex: Human Revolution (By a huge margin. Characters you care for, complex story, action, stealth, gorgeous design, it has it all)

2. Red Dead Redemption (GTA on horses. A vast world in meticulous detail)

3. Tomb Raider 2013 (Emotional stuff. Puzzles and stealth in a semi-sandbox. Becoming a crackshot with the bow is just magic)

4. Fallout: New Vegas (You could almost live in this game it's so frickin' massive and involving)

5. Wolfenstein 2009 (Big guns and evil Nazis to kill. It's pure action FPS fun)

Also Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection is a great way to get an instant and large collection of oldskool classics for very little. Plus the triple-bundle 'HD Collections' (Metal Gear Solid, Tomb Raider etc) are cost effective packages.

Honourable mention for 'Max Payne 3'. It's by a long way the hardest game I've ever played. It starts off near impossible but becomes more playable later on, after much practice. If you can get past the initial painful difficulty spike, it gets very good indeed.

ray_afraid said:

Bingowings said:

^

 We'd have been lucky if Palpatine looked that good in the PT.

 Too true. It's like they just went on a vague memory to recreate the makeup for ROTS, instead of doing some research into how it was achieved, how it looked and how it would photograph.