Tobar

'86

Mondess122 said:

DuracellEnergizer said:

Mondess122 said:

Black Christmas (1974)- Some people argue day and night about what the first slasher film is...and I think it's this one. It's not as well made as something like Halloween, but it's also much more stylish and moody than Friday the 13th.

I'd disagree with you in regards to Halloween. I think Black Christmas is a much more engaging film with more interesting characters and a far scarier murderer.

I do agree with your point on Friday the 13th, though. Of course, the entire Friday the 13th franchise is an exercise in derivative mediocrity, so it's hard not to.

If we're talking about the main character, then yes; the side characters are on the same level for me. The ones in Black Christmas are more realistic and generally less stupid, though. As for the killers, they're different kinds of scary. I was more talking about the films on a technical level; Halloween has the advantage in cinematography by having Dean Cundey behind the camera, and I think John Carpenter perfected the 'killer POV' introduced by Bob Clark. And let's not forget that pulsing theme; that scene where Loomis gets to the insane asylum and the music kicks in still gives me some shivers.

DrCrowTStarwars said:

Granted I don't watch a lot of slasher films so i am not an expert but I always thought psycho was the first slasher film since it was a horror film that was more bloody then anything made up to that point and Norman Bates killed woman with a knife.  Then again I am not an expert.  i will have to track down Black Christmas and give it a shot.

 A lot of people say that, but it doesn't really fit with the slashers of the 1980s. I think it was Black Christmas that got the ball rolling for the genre as we know it, considering that Carpenter was obviously inspired by that film's opening. Black Christmas does have a lot of the elements that later slasher films would imitate (except not from this film, but from Halloween, which was inspired by Black Christmas); POV shot from the killer, characters get killed one by one in usually one location, the killer uses a knife (or a sharp object) and the killer stalks his victims. Not that these elements weren't used before, but Black Christmas was the first to use them all together. James Rolfe made a pretty good video about it:

http://cinemassacre.com/2009/12/17/black-christmas/

 Where does Silent Night, Bloody Night (1972) fit in. It was shot in '72 and released in '74, some seven months before Black Christmas. I've never seen it but I've heard it pronounced as the first slasher, establishing many of the tropes of the genre.

Coincidentally, apparently it was announced just three days ago that it will be getting a direct sequel set 40 years later.

First film turned out to be The Fly. =/

SilverWook said:

Spectre was the forerunner of X-Files and all the spooky paranormal shows we've had since.

 I think you're thinking of Kolchak: The Night Stalker ;)

Jetrell Fo said:

Without any other NEW Trek on the horizon...

Actually...

And then...

Oh and let's not forget...

Welp, I just finished showing season 2, episode 7 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to my roommates. Getting them caught up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Once I've got them caught up with AoS, I'll probably show them the One Shot shorts, Captain America: The First Avenger and then cap it off with the Agent Carter One Shot in preparation for the series premiere.

I'll continue my journey through the entirety of Doctor Who. Currently in the middle of the 16th season finale with the Fourth Doctor.

I also still need to catch up with Gotham and Boardwalk Empire.

I think I've given up on Falling Skies.

There are now a confirmed SIXTY TWO cover variations for issue #1!

How many more can they squeeze in before publication time?

The Muppets Christmas Carol (1992)

I hadn't seen this since its original release. What a delightful film! And a surprisingly good adaptation of the story. It perfectly injects Muppets humor where appropriate but knows when to rein it in for the sake of the story. I think this is now one of my favorite Muppet films.

Gremlins (1984)

An always good, classic film.

When he has his eyebrows he's quite recognizable as the same dude:

Danfun128 said:

Allow me to defend JJ Trek.

I don't think you need to turn your brain off to enjoy it. Sometimes small events do make big changes in history. While some people may have the same position in life, their life experiences may have brought them there in different ways.

The whole altered timeline thing is just ridiculous. It was their pathetic attempt to reboot the franchise without alienating their entire fanbase. And I'm saddened to see there are still people who try to defend it.

An altered timeline wouldn't:

• Drastically affect technology, not from just a decade of time passing from when it occurred.
• Affect Spock before Nero got a chance to kill his mom. When we first meet NuSpock he's already an insufferable douche.
• Move the Gorn from their home in the Beta Quadrant to ruling an entire neighboring galaxy (This is from the video game but its story was written by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci)
• Do THIS to the Klingons:

• Physically alter Khan from being a brown Sikh to a pasty skinned Brit

This is just from off the top of my head, I haven't seen either film in quite a while but I know there's plenty more.

Some of the constant just plain story inconsistencies are covered here and here.

But honestly, why is anyone defending a film series that claims a single star going super nova is a threat to the entire galaxy? If that's not a request to turn off your brain I don't know what is.

doubleofive said:

TV's Frink said:

And what's wrong with that?  JJ Trek is not TOS.  That doesn't mean it isn't fun.

Thank you, TV's.

 No it's not TOS, but they are supposed to be the same characters. Their bastardization isn't even the worst offender of those films. The plots are so incredibly stupid and contrived it beggars belief.

I'll grant you that Abrams as a director is able to make a thrilling well-paced experience out of it but I should not ever need to turn off my brain to enjoy "Star Trek."

The fact that his productions make that a requirement immediately sucks any "fun" out of them for myself and many others.

Paul Bateman, a close associate of Ralph McQuarrie, posted this comparison on his Facebook:

DominicCobb said:

The other thing people forget is that they are MOVIES. With a TV show you have more time to explore those things.

 Most Star Trek episodes are self-contained stories. They have about 45 minutes after commercials to tell a complete story and were easily capable of doing so. With a movie you have anywhere from 90 to 120 minutes to tell a story.

That excuse does not compute.

DominicCobb said:

What I always loved in the original Star Trek was the adventure and the character dynamics. As far as I can tell JJ's got that, so I am satisfied.

TOS had a charismatic captain that adamantly believed in what the Federation stood for and strived to follow its laws and edicts to the best of his ability. It had a half-Vulcan First Officer who quietly struggled with his humanity. Lastly, it had an honorable if ornery Chief Medical Officer who found joy in taking jabs at his green blooded friend.

JJ Trek has a reckless maverick with a complete disregard for the rules who skirts by on the seat of his pants. It has a pointy eared psychopath who regular pummels others when he loses control of his constant seething rage. Lastly it has an ornery Chief Medical Officer who doesn't get to do much.

JJ Trek just takes the pop culture stereotypes of the characters and turns up the dial.

Beatleboy99 said:

My understanding was that they just photoshopped him into the actual MF picture

 Yeah, I'm calling shenanigans on that Fortune article. It sounds like it was written by someone who has no basic understanding of CG and conflated the creation of the two images.

The Iger photo is just a shoop of him in front of the full size Falcon.

It's....

I think they did an excellent job of working him in that way.

They also released another clip that explains what Kanan is doing there.

Which is interesting in that it seems to contradict what they established in the Clone Wars. With Yoda discovering the cave on Dagobah to complete his training from the warrior in the PT to the wise sage in the OT.

Which is fine by me really. I had always thought there were these kinds of places throughout the galaxy that Jedi would go to as part of their training. Yoda using one to mask his presence.

I haven't seen anyone mention this so I figured I should. If the only thing you had released was the scope teaser, it would have been worth it. It's beautiful! Thanks so much for that! =)

SilverWook said:

I do wonder if Marvel is going to reprint any DH material down the line.

 They've already released a list of the first 50 DH titles they'll be re-releasing digitally. 

As for actual physical printings, looks like there's been two confirmed so far.

team_negative1 said:

Here is the 720p version of the Yoda cleaning test sample.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/k6VazzwXeR9Cea9EAub

Tobar said:

I noticed some really odd flickering on the ground and on the front landing gear. Is that an artifact from some automated clean-up process?

team_negative1 said:

Perhaps, but more likely from the actual scanning process. This was from the oldest print we have. The newer Fuji prints exhibit a different appearance.

Is the "Grindhouse" release based on the new Fuji prints? There was a complete absence of the strange flickering on the ground and on the landing gear in that uncleaned version of the scene.

It really looks like an automated scratch remover went to town on any white reflections it detected and tried to mask them. Wherever there were bright white reflections in the Grindhouse release is where that strange flickering manifested itself in the cleaned sample.

Phew, now that the boards are back up I can finally spill all of this out.

Man! So first of all, James Gunn was on a movie podcast I listened to frequently. It was a fantastic interview where Gunn revealed a lot of great stuff about alternate versions and cut scenes.

Turns out James Gunn and myself run on pretty much the same wave length. All of his ideas for what he wanted to do with a space opera were the same as mine. I also had no idea they hired Chris Foss to design their ships! I thought they looked heavily influenced by his work but they actually got the man himself!

So anyway, that podcast got me all fired up to watch all of the making of stuff on the blu-ray. WHAT A TEASE THAT STUFF IS. Gunn talks about some awesome cut stuff in that podcast but none of it is included in the deleted scenes or seen anywhere in the bonus features. There's so much material they held back and I WANT IT NOW!

Not my beautiful thread!

Humbug, Life Day is analogous to Thanksgiving!

They actually celebrate Christmas in the Star Wars universe.

So this awesome BTS footage from STAR WARS was posted to Youtube recently. The video description credits this forum. What thread was this in?

Edit: Wait have I talked about this footage before? It's late and my brain isn't getting the best reception at the moment.

We have an entire thread for that.

I think Tolkein wrote a book called Here and There Again...or something. Don't quote me on that.