DuracellEnergizer said:
Tobar said:
Oh and did anyone else notice Maul's yellowish orange lightsaber?
Now that's an alteration I can get behind!
Does it look like this on the blu-ray?
Alright, I guess I'll be the one to ask...
Ady, how did you accomplish adding the new walkers? The accurate, incredibly obscure walkers to boot!
TheBoost said:
More on "The Thing" (2011)
I think the creature effects were awesome.
That's what I was most disappointed with in the film. They shot the film intending to do it for the most part with practical effects and then erased all that hard work and replaced it with CGI.
My jaw literally dropped and stayed that way for the duration. o_o That was just....wow.
Here's the new cover:
Story seems to be picking up. Loved the reference to the radio drama character.
It's also on Netflix. Been wanting to watch that for a while now. Waiting until my run through Trek gets me to Enterprise. Not far off now....
So Pablo Hidalgo just posted a new blog on the official site:
Star Wars Mysteries: The Rebel Commando That Wasn’t
Shows a fun bit of research. I just wish they'd turn their attention to the whole Gribbet=Rybet nonsense (he's clearly a Chubbit!). But what I found to be the most interesting bit in the entry was this:
Luckily I had the opportunity to go back to the original unedited documentary footage and skimmed through the Jabba’s palace scenes, hoping to see evidence of this guy on set.
Doesn't that just turn you green with envy?
Finally got that clip to download. The new Dewback looks fantastic. It's hilarious how they shook the Jerba to make it look more lifelike. =P
Well that's cool. Definitely want to check it out once he's opened it. I thought it was a little funny he wants to open his museum around the same location Starfleet Academy is supposed to be. =P Oh and did anyone else notice Maul's yellowish orange lightsaber?
Predator (1987)
1987 was a busy year for Kevin Peter Hall. I don't think he could have played two characters that were more different Harry and the Predator. I got a hold of the original blu-ray release of the film as the subsequent releases were all DVNR'd to death. Frankly I don't know why they did it. This transfer of the film looks great and the audio was great too. It's odd to me how they apparently find it so hard these days to make a film like this anymore. Every character in this film is interesting and has their own personality. If this had been made today...well I guess you need not look any further than Predators to see how it would go. =P
Darn, I keep trying to dl the new clip but it refuses to go through.
Check out this trailer for Darth Vader and the Ghost Prison!
This is why I love Dark Horse. What a cool way to advertise your latest graphic novel. I really hope they keep the license. I don't want to imagine what Marvel would do if they got their hands on it again.
Stubbs is a great game. It's a shame, it used to be available on the Xbox Marketplace for download but it looks like they've retired it.
Just in case anyone was still wondering...Black Mesa is out now. =P
Johnny Ringo said:
Did anyone buy Colonial Marines? I've been looking at youtube clips and reviews and it looks to be an absolute trainwreck. Interestingly, some of the stuff they showed while the game was in development looks far superior to the final product.
I did. It's....playable. The worst thing about it is the lost potential. Which was intensified by the marketing which was pretty much false advertisement. I've seen a stack of official screenshots that show stuff that is nowhere in the game. Well the lost potential and the terrible story. =P The writing in the game is just terrible. There are plot holes out the the wazoo and the dialog is just awful.
The level designers and audio engineers certainly did their jobs though. The locations feel authentic and the sounds and soundtrack are great. The graphics in general are pretty subpar though.
Six years in development and this is what we end up with. It's a real shame. Ultimately, I'd say the blame would definitely have to fall on Gearbox shoulders. Sega paid them to develop the game and instead they outsourced it to another studio while they focused on their own games. Which sounds like pretty dishonest business practice to me. There are something like five studios credited with developing the game.
Sadly the next Aliens game to be released will be an RTS. Not counting the new AVP game that was just released today for mobile devices.
Harry and the Hendersons (1987)
One of my all time favorite films from my childhood.
DuracellEnergizer said:
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Does no one else see Sandra Bullock?
zombie84 said:
...the games I enjoy the most aren't even being made any more anyway.
What games would those be?
darth_ender said:
Not a bad idea. May just have to do this myself. Thanks for the ideas. I haven't had the chance to try bkev's idea yet, but I'll get to it as soon as I can. Either way, it may just be easiest to have the older system.
I just stumbled upon this guide that might be of some help.
The Last Stand (2013)
He's back. This movie wasn't awful, nor was it great. Felt like a by the numbers 80's action flick. The acting is TERRIBLE. You can really tell Arnold has gotten rusty while he was away. His fellow cast members don't fair too well to either. Ultimately it falls into the bad in a fun way category.
Bullet to the Head (2013)
Bullet to the Head is about two steps above The Last Stand. Better production values, better acting but lacking a heart. Where The Last Stand was bad in a fun way, this was just bland.
Bottle Rocket (1996)
Moonrise Kingdom was my favorite film from last year. So I decided to go back and check out his earlier films. Went into this one completely cold, didn't know what to expect. It's was an odd fun little film.
Rushmore (1998)
I remembered watching part of this film years ago and not particularly liking it. Now having watched it, I thought it was okay. Gotta love Bill Murray.
So...I got excited because of the release of Aliens: Colonial Marines. The game was....okay. But a side effect of my excitement was that I finally delved into the Aliens universe proper. Been reading the original pre-Alien³ comics and ended up stumbling upon a pretty dedicated fanbase. To my surprise the hardcore Aliens fans LOVE Prometheus. It's....weird. This is the kind of stuff they have to say about it:
Saw this last night in Imax 3D. Really enjoyed it, although I'm going to go back to watch it in 2D because I think the beautiful cinematography warrants seeing it as a "regular film" (and plus I just want to watch it again). I've read some very mixed and confused reviews about Prometheus, and after reflecting on it although there are some inconsistencies (mainly to do with the obvious cutting, it should have been at least 30 minutes longer) it is a superb film and well worthy of the Alien canon.
SPOILERS GALORE BELOW THIS POINT
So, firstly my take on the plot. The engineer at the beginning of the film ("Adam") is seeding the Earth with engineer DNA. He takes the black goo, which disintegrates his DNA and allows it to propagate on Earth. The engineers return to Earth at various points to check up on the progress of their seed. This is pretty well established, and follows on from various interviews I've read with Ridley Scott talking about "Chariot of the Gods", the Erich Von Daniken book from the 70s about how humans are descended from a space faring race.
Flash forward to the future and Weyland Tech is subsidising a trip to LV-223 to investigate what the star maps are pointing to. Clearly this is so that Weyland himself has one last roll of the dice to try and extend his life (one of the many Blade Runner references throughout: "I want more life, fucker"). Quite a few people seemed to be confused about why the medical-pod was setup for a male rather than female, obviously it's been brought along for Weyland, as has Vickers' escape pod. They land, find the goo and get back to the ship just before the storm (awesome scene). This brings us to the bit that most people seem to struggle with, what is the black goo?
My take is that the goo is a catalyst for life, and death. Adam uses it at the beginning to create life, but the outpost on LV-233 is a cache / research centre to develop the goo as a biological weapon. The goo changes the host into something else, a killer, and the way it changes the host depends on how they are infected. Look at the evidence: Fifield is infected from direct contact with the goo, goes insane and is killed. Holloway is fed the goo by David (on the orders of Weyland) and becomes infected from within, after impregnating Shaw. She incubates the seed inside her and pulls it out as it's gestating. This then impregnates the last engineer in the standard Alien way (seed down throat) which creates the proto-xenomorph that we see at the end. So, the goo is a weapon and we have been seeded on Earth to be the hosts of that weapon, hence the reason that the engineers are sending the ship back full of it.
I thought the subtext to the storyline was subtly brilliant in many ways. The main themes are to do with creation, parenthood and, as with Blade Runner, what it means to be human. Taking creation first, the engineers created us and we created David. This sets up an ongoing theme throughout the film about what it is to be "human". There are many examples of this - the conversations David has with the crew, specifically Holloway, the exchange between Vickers and Janek when he "just wants to know if she's a robot". Just like the replicants in Blade Runner, David is actually "more human than human", he shows more emotional depth than the rest of the crew- look at the way he stares reverentially at Weyland, his “father”. If we know that we are not a form of pure evolutionary Darwinism ("You want to throw three centuries of Darwinism out of the window?") and in fact we are another being's creation (just like David) then how different is our existence to his? The engineers created us and we created David and just like the replicants, how much "more human" are we than our creations? In many ways LV-223 is our Voight-Kampff, and we fail the test.
The mission Prometheus is on is also a quest for our parents, or more specifically, our fathers. Just as the first Alien films are about motherhood and birth (the Queen alien, the aliens gestating inside the hosts) Prometheus is about fatherhood. This goes right down to the way the engineers look, they are huge, muscular, silent creatures, just as many children see their fathers . Fatherhood in Prometheus is about creating something in your image that becomes something else (just as the goo changes its host into something different) and in the end becomes a threat that has to be destroyed; “A king has his reign, and then he dies. It's inevitable.” Ridley Scott is saying, if god can be killed, then god is dead.
For me Prometheus shows Ridley Scott is still a wonderful sci-fi director. He picks up the big themes and creates films that entertain as much as they make you think. I think Prometheus will be looked back upon as a classic, I already consider it one.
What do you guys think?
The Elstree Project is a unique oral history project. Over the past two years we have recorded 32 interviews with film and television industry veterans from the studios of Elstree and Borehamwood. The interviews showcase the rich and fascinating history of the studios; telling the stories of how some of the world's most well-known and best-loved film and television shows were made, from the people who helped make them.
One of the great benefits we have been able to offer is regular work experience for film students and allow them to not only participate in the filming and recording of these interviews, but also have them meet the veterans from the very industry they are looking to work in and hear first-hand what it was like.
They're running a Kickstarter right now.
Edit: I just realized they used a quote from jambedavdar in their pitch video. =P
Interesting. Where did you come across this?
