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philraid

User Group
Members
Join date
17-Jun-2019
Last activity
29-Mar-2024
Posts
50

Post History

Post
#1576624
Topic
Star Wars releases you previously disliked, but now like or enjoy?
Time

I’ve gone back and forth on the prequels. As a kid I loved them, then later I started hearing that a lot of people hated them and it rubbed off on me for a few years. Now I’m kind of in the middle on them. I’m now of the opinion that they aren’t as bad as some people say they are, nor are they as good as some people say they are.
I did not like Rogue One the first few times I saw it. It just seemed like a boring and pointless spinoff that distracted from the sequel trilogy. It wasn’t until I saw Andor when I finally came around to enjoying it. I still don’t think it’s as great as some people think it is, but it’s a decent movie.
I loved The Last Jedi when I saw it in theaters, but it didn’t hold up on rewatches. I can only bear to watch fan edits of it now.

Post
#1575894
Topic
Has anyone Read the Book The Secret History of Star Wars by Michael Kaminski?
Time

Very interesting. A bit long, but well-cited. I learned a lot about George from reading it. There’s too many tidbits I’d like to mention.
Just reading about the alternate directions they might have taken the movies was fascinating. Especially alternate ideas for Return of the Jedi and the prequels. One thing that was baffling to me is that originally Obi Wan was supposed to be the one that found Anakin, and Qui Gon didn’t show up in the movie until they got to Coruscant. That makes so much more sense, why would you change that?
Another idea I found interesting was the prequels were supposed to be structured differently. The first episode was about the history of the Jedi, the second was Obi Wan’s life story, and the third was Anakin’s life story. Maybe there was just too much material to cover in each of those, but that probably would have made the movies more focused.
There were also some telling quotes in there from George Lucas himself. At one point he mentions after making Return of the Jedi that he was thinking of selling Star Wars to someone else, almost 30 years before, you know. He comes across as very stressed and overworked in a lot of this.
There’s also the infamous quote from Harrison Ford criticizing George’s dialogue in the original movie. Apparently Ford regretted this comment after the movie came out. He said “I told George ‘you can’t say that stuff, you can only type it.’ But I was wrong. It worked.”
I’d put the screen shots in there, but I don’t know how.

Post
#1572906
Topic
How did you prefer to watch SW before the fan edits came along?
Time

The first copies I owned of them were the 2004 DVDs and I didn’t know there were any changes made to the movies until I saw a Cinemassacre video on the Star Wars movies. I was very upset about it, but I eventually found out about the 2006 DVDs and decided to look for those. I managed to track them down and that’s how I was able to watch the theatrical versions for the first time. They were expensive and not the best quality, but at the time I was fine with just watching those as that was the only way I was able to find the original cuts at that time. Now I just watch the despecialized versions.

Post
#1565009
Topic
<strong>The 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special</strong> - a general discussion thread
Time

I’ve only ever been able to watch the entire thing once. Reading about the production of it and watching reviews of it is much more fun (the Red Letter Media review of it is hilarious for example). Whenever people ask me about it I always warn them not to watch it.
I am very interested in that documentary. I’m not sure when they’re releasing it, but the production history of that thing is so fascinating to me.
I love that when Harrison Ford was asked whether he’d seen it, he said “I was there, man. I didn’t have to see it.”

Post
#1563483
Topic
Plinkett's Prequel reviews
Time

I rewatched them about a month ago. There’s some good jokes and I agree with some of their points. Before those videos I hadn’t really seen a long form review of a movie like that, so it was very new at the time. Also the first time I saw them I didn’t really understand why people hated the prequels so much, so seeing those reviews helped me understand the criticisms. I do enjoy a lot of Red Letter Media videos, although I think they can be too cynical sometimes.

Post
#1550397
Topic
What are you reading?
Time

I’m kind of reading two books at the same time. I’m re-reading Dune since the second movie is coming out this year. Really looking forward to that movie.

I’m also reading the novelization for Revenge of the Sith. So far it has a very different feel from the movie. Almost all of the dialogue is different and it goes more in-depth on the story, characters and their motivations.

Post
#1544019
Topic
What are you reading?
Time

Raised Eyebrows: My Years Inside Groucho’s House by Steve Stoliar. I’m a little over halfway done with it and I’m really liking it.
It’s about a guy who’s a huge fan of comedian Groucho Marx that ended up working for him as a secretary the last few years of Groucho’s life. Parts of it are funny and parts of it are depressing because of what he had to deal with in his later years. They’re making it into a movie, and based on what I’ve read of it so far it should be an interesting movie.

Post
#1543244
Topic
Your DVD Collection
Time

Bought a bunch yesterday as a belated birthday gift. A lot of it was just me buying stuff that I couldn’t believe I didn’t already have:
The Addams Family and Addams Family Values- DVD
Back to the Future Trilogy- Blu-ray
The Big Sleep (1946)- DVD
Never Say Never Again- DVD
Coming to America- DVD
Deliverance- DVD
Dumb and Dumber- DVD
Escape from New York- Blu-ray
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off- DVD
Flash Gordon (1980)- Blu-ray
Forbidden Planet- Blu-ray
Ghostbusters 2- DVD
King Kong (1933)- DVD
The Last Starfighter- Blu-ray
The Marx Brothers Collection boxset which has A Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races, Room Service, At the Circus, Go West, The Big Store, and A Night in Casablanca- DVD (technically was a rebuy as I had six of these, but I didn’t have A Day at the Races or the boxset)
Short Circuit- DVD
Total Recall (1990)- Blu-ray
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)- DVD