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NEIGHBORS 2
Haven't seen the first one. Heard it was funny and tried the second.
Didn't quite work for me. Might have worked better flipped with emphasis on the girls and their effort to create their little society and fend off the kooky adults.
Cast seemed to have the comedic chops but not the situation or material. If they made script doctoring SOP for every moderate/big budget film, it wouldn't reflect negatively on any one screenwriter.
For a thousand dollar painting, respect the individual integrity of the artist. For a 200 million dollar feature production, get a few more pairs of eyes on the thing.
2 or 3 doctors at the end of prepro with enough time to make necessary extensive changes to even the storyline, and another couple of doctors on hand during production who specialize in changes on-the-fly.Well, if concern for original SW as established by ANH and ESB was discrimination, this site would be a hate group :PZOOTOPIA
Everything about the production was first rate. Good humor.
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
This one joins TOMMORROWLAND, THE GIVER, and AMERICAN ULTRA among my list of all-time favorites! Finally, we have a movie about predators and prey living in harmony!
Due to Neanderthal parents, we have young people fearing predators. This just goes to show why these unenlightened cattle deserve to SUFFER and DIE. But first, they deserve to watch as the predators take their children.
But how do we attain this progressive nirvana?
We now have a perfect mass-psychology progra....I mean....delightful animation with an important message for our youth. And a PERFECT theme song to go with it! "TRY EVERTHING!"
As we all know, this fear of turning comes from these despicable "lambs" who are ALL really just Westboro Baptist hatemongers......... -"Be cheaper than a two dollar whore" *BEE-BOP BE-BOP THUMP THUMP* "TRY EVERYTHING!"-...... Yet they would still DARE to teach their offspring that the predators are the problem with their mind opening drugs, and destruction of "normal" sexuality, and revolutionary overturning of all that humanity has considered essential in order to live as "our creator" has intended for such beings to live. Now this youth can recognize that ALL evil can be traced back to the prey that DARES to have ANY concern about their VASTLY morally superior predators......... -"Do meth, crack, weed and pills" *BEE-BOP BE-BOP THUMP THUMP* "TRY EVERYTHING!"-........... Why, predators are the real victims of slander and conspiracy of the prey. Because that's what PREY does, NOT PREDATORS.......... -"Run trains for foreign gangbangers and pretend you don't notice they want the rest of your family to die" *BEE-BOP BE-BOP THUMP THUMP* "TRY EVERTHING!"...."Don't worry about consequences you just get back out and" *BEE-BOP BE-BOP THUMP THUMP* "TRY EVERYTHING!"...
Of course, there will be those who DARE to suggest that girls have wound up as addicted prostitutes and even been killed by "TRY EVERYTHING!" Others have destroyed their futures by out of wedlock births along with every other "social pathology". They might claim to know some of these girls. There might even be some who would try to point out that this is a PERFECT expression of the enlightened philosophy of needing to experience bad in order to have a balanced appreciation of good and evil. They might DARE to say that it is bashing your neighbor's child's head against a brick wall to have a balanced understanding of not hitting one's head, but that just proves how evil those naysayers are...... -"Wreck your natural sexuality and desensitize yourself to the filthiest practices then say you were born that way" *BEE-BOP BE-BOP THUMP THUMP* "TRY EVERYTHING!"-.....
I saw tween girls in the theater jump up and dance.... -"Be a drugged-up oozing slop-skanks" *BEE-BOP BE-BOP THUMP THUMP* "TRY EVERYTHING!".........
If you can’t make simple posts in the text editor instead of copy/pasting, I’m going to request your permanent ban from management.
Hey, indents. I figured out how to make indents. Important progress.
… In fact, I did think that ESB Lando was pushing up to the limits, but adventure heroes have always sailed off to exotic “lands” and encountered tribal chiefs and bosses. It was ROTJ Lando that went over the top as an allied general in what was, in part, a WWII propaganda feature. He could have served as a Tuskeegee squadron commander. Ackbar was better as an allied naval commander.
Adywan said … Welcome to the real world where there are other colours apart from white. You must really love the prequels with its racist portrayals of characters.
In the mid-seventies, around the release of SW while GL was developing his story, the pop culture figure perhaps considered the funniest and most popular with blacks and whites was J-J from the sitcom 'GOOD TIMES'.
His function was to provide zaney, silly humor and to be over-the-top so that the other black characters in the all black cast could seem more straight and reasonable.
I can see why those unfamiliar with this would wonder if the character, in isolation, was a stereotype. They could have recast Luke Skywalker as a 13 year old Tanzanian girl who happens to be a lesbian.
Wipe out racism, sexism, ageism, and homophobia with one fell blow! :) If I had been responsible for the production of ROTJ, the PT, and the ST, I would have taken a bold Sharpie and written across my forehead in reverse "AS CONSISTENT AS POSSIBLE, IN EVERY WAY POSSIBLE, WITH ANH AND ESB!!!!" so that it would be the first thing I see every morning. But hey, I shouldn't expect guys who frequent a site titled 'ORIGINAL TRILOGY' to understand that. ;)
Back to first principles. 'Science FICTION' is forward looking, 'Science FANTASY' is DECIDEDLY BACKWARDS looking. It's about rooting itself in the legendary and mythical PAST. "A long time ago...." The moment someone starts thinking "Ooh, we need to portray a better future!" he/she has FAILED SPECTACULARLY.You’re saying yourself that Finn being black didn’t affect the plot in any way. Are you now suggesting that every time an actors ethnicity doesn’t influence the story, it should be the standard to chooose the white one? Does there always need to be a special reason to have a non-white (or non-male, non-hetero etc.) character? The people outside don’t have a specific reason to be asian or hispanic or whatever, they just are the way they are and for Star Wars, this is now unthinkable?
Also, Star Wars has a tradition of being inclusive since 1980, do you complain about Lando, too?
I'm saying that principal characters in an upgraded Golden Age adventure serial should be white, Black Panther should be black. An actor's ethnicity ALWAYS influences the overall character of the production. It's the most obvious aspect in the visual medium.
I've always admired GL's subtle but powerful inclusion of other races in his Flash Gordon series. 3PO and R2 as loyal companions facing discrimination in cantinas and treatment as third-class, Chewie as fierce and constant co-pilot, Yoda as wise oriental....
In fact, I did think that ESB Lando was pushing up to the limits, but adventure heroes have always sailed off to exotic "lands" and encountered tribal chiefs and bosses. It was ROTJ Lando that went over the top as an allied general in what was, in part, a WWII propaganda feature. He could have served as a Tuskeegee squadron commander. Ackbar was better as an allied naval commander.An argument can be made that it was not derivative enough, but here goes…
Interpreting “originality” broadly, no PC for the sake of PC. We are already getting “Black: check. Hispanic: check.” everywhere and with everything.
I thought Ridley, Boyega, and Isaacs did a fantastic job, Ford couldn’t have carried the production to 2 billion by himself, but this series is supposed to be essentially a '30s-'40s adventure serial. Also, it was white male characters and white male fans that carried the franchise to greatness. The Black Panther movie is in production. Imagine how distracting it would be if they decided the lead was black for too darned long and there needs to be a white lead to demonstrate inclusion. I can’t wrap my head around a black guy as 007 for the same reason. To top it off, there’s just no way to divorce this kind of thing from the element of “Yyyyyeeeeeaaaaaahhhhh!!! Now we’re really sticking it to whitey!!!” Unpleasantly distracting. They’re lucky they had a lot of watercooler buzz.
On the business side, I don’t believe for a second that sales would have suffered if Finn and Po were fair blue-eyed white guys, all else being equal. Without the distraction, if anything, they would have blown past Titanic to threaten Avatar. Titanic and Avatar had white male leads, Jurrassic World had whites as the three principle males, and Avengers had all but one male as white (though an Italian American for Bruce Banner instead of Hulk was a slight switcheroo.)
I’m tired of the nasty, and even downright hateful attitudes that inevitably get attached to these PC efforts, and I feel the greatest problem with the PT was the refusal to be consistent with the OT in every way possible.
I still hope that the screenwriters will find a way to satisfy most everyone with this, but I’m still looking for that shamelessly '30s-'40s serial SW movie.
Edit: Where the hhheeeeeeelllllll are my indents?!?!? I need indents!
Life in prison? Pffffft. Just wait for the Big Glitch and The Great Culling. You and your brothers/sons/nephews will be given a full understanding enlightened liberal tolerance.T1: A+
T2: A-
T3: C+ Should have had 2 bad bots and one good.
TS: meh, Not necessary. Cast was fine.
TG: Interesting basic concept with places to go. The failure to cast actors who look and come across as the originals always throws me. Look at Ridley/Rey. Always go with unknowns, before someone who is supposed to draw an audience, for those who are supposed to be the same as or closely related to another actor. No cronyism nepotism favoritism… I thought the Gen cast were basically good actors who just couldn’t come across as the characters they were supposed to be, regardless. Why didn’t they cast that Fin Odare guy from Hunger Games?! They might have dropped some expo about the timeline altered before birth.
Honorable Mention to The Sarah Conner Chronicles (It was a TV series, so it was easier to think of it as an entirely separated timeline.)
Sigh Farewell and Godbless, Mr. Rickman.
I think it’s about time someone reminded us of the forum rules before a moderator does.
As for something new to moan about has anyone mentioned how odd the crawl looked?
To me it seemed more yellow than usual and the stars were much brighter or was that just because it wasn’t some crappy blu-ray transfer? 😄I thought the crawl looked a little different in the 3D presentation and normal in 2D.Were you trying to write in crawl font?
LOL. I don’t know why my computer keeps switching fonts.
I think it’s about time someone reminded us of the forum rules before a moderator does.
As for something new to moan about has anyone mentioned how odd the crawl looked?
To me it seemed more yellow than usual and the stars were much brighter or was that just because it wasn’t some crappy blu-ray transfer? 😄
I thought the crawl looked a little different in the 3D presentation and normal in 2D.Another significant part of my youth. Some great classics.
Ground control to Major Tom, check ignition and may God’s love be with you.
I worked my way through all the Blu-Rays that I got for Christmas finally.
Alien: A+
Aliens: A+
Alien 3: B+
Alien Resurrection: C
Alien vs Predator: D
AvP Requiem: D
Alien: agree
Aliens: agree
Alien 3: Revoltingly morbid in places. Unnecessary. Some interesting concepts but otherwise kinda meh.
Alien Res: Had to pick up where 3 left off. The swim scene rates as maybe the most terrifying sequence in a monster movie, imo, but otherwise wasn’t my favorite.
Alien v Predator: I don’t understand all the hate on this movie. I liked it. Maybe B+.
Alien Req: Unnecessary and meh.
Continued....
On New Alderaan Han could offer Finn a platoon of untrained lightly armed local defence militia. Finn has some serious training as a trooper. Finn could argue against fighting the Order and then catch a freighter off planet. Han accepts and tells him it's the sensible choice. Sees a defence unit in trouble and goes to take charge. Alliance commandos show up and he has them take over his unit of locals and leads them into a fight to get him to Rey.Maybe the SW General Discussion needs two threads?
One for expressing general appreciation of TFA and specific elements that were enjoyed (Spoilers) with no detractors allowed, and another for general annoyance and the specific elements that annoyed (again, spoilers) with defenders welcome to come and troll.
“Not all can accept this word, but only those to whom it is granted. Some are incapable of marriage because they were born so; some, because they were made so by others; some, because they have renounced marriage for the sake of the kingdom of God. Whoever can accept this ought to accept it.” (Matthew 19:11–12)
“He who marries does well; and he who refrains from marriage will do better.” (1 Corinthians 7:38)
I’m not sure what passages talk about the individual churches being individually governed, but every church has a certain degree of autonomy, and dioceses have fuller autonomy, though they of course have to accept official Church teachings.
“Calling no man father” is arguably not referring to the word itself:
“I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me.” (1 Corinthians 4:14-16)
“And Stephen said: ‘Brothers and fathers, hear me. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran…’” (Acts 7:2)
There are also a few other New Testament passages that refer to Abraham as a spiritual father. So either Christians didn’t take Jesus seriously, or he meant something else: that we need to recognize God as our ultimate father and teacher, and not look up to people who adopt titles for themselves without putting into practice what they teach, or do not provide valuable guidance (Jesus also said to call no man rabbi/teacher earlier in the passage). Keep in mind that Jesus was a known user of hyperbole.
Baptism can be understood as superceding circumcision, which was performed when a baby was eight days old. It makes sense, therefore, to stick with that age. Additionally, a few passages make reference to people being baptized along with their “entire household.” Presumably, this would include children. After looking for them, I cannot find any Biblical passages that state that one must receive instruction of the gospel before baptism. (The Church does, however, require adults to go through the RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation), which includes instruction on the gospel and Church teachings, before being baptised). I have not come across a passage that states that one must fully understand the gospel in order to be baptised, only that this is necessary in order to be saved, which is not the same thing according to Catholic teaching (and the Bible).
When you say that the original manuscripts called for full immersion, I assume you are referring to the fact that that is implicit in the Greek word for baptism. I fail to see that as being sufficient reason to require full immersion, as it is the spiritual aspect of baptism that is most important, with the physical symbolism being secondary.
A place for everything, and everything in it's place, but I'll respond to this list here.
Paul was a missionary who's primary concern was spreading the Gospel far and wide. This work is very difficult for those with wives and children. It was not so difficult in the established local congregations. Paul recognized that in the polities of the empire, the city states and small provinces, it was important to have well grounded, sober, decent men with an understanding of how normal healthy human communities should function. For this you need good husbands to one wife, where at all possible.
The early Church, before Constantine and his Luciferian, Mithratic, Mystery Babylonian priests got into the act, was a peculiar nation organized as a sort of confederation of local congregations giving respect and accepting guidance from a great council or Sanhedrin located in Jerusalem and headed by James, son of Mary, brother of Jesus. The RCC functions as a completely centralized absolute tyranny.
Jesus specifically commanded against the use of the title or style 'Father' as an HONORIFIC. Of course you could address your biological father as such, as well as your biological forebears, as with Stephen and Abraham. Abraham is also LIKENED to a father in the spiritual sense, but that isn't about elevating some mere mortals you meet in everyday life. In the Epistles, Paul sometimes LIKENS himself to a father in his function of raising the congregations, he wasn't demanding or suggesting that he be formily addressed so as a form of exaltation. In these ancient societies, the Pater Familias held tremendous power and commanded great respect over the households. Petty tyrants in politics and the mystery cults would also insist upon this title as a way of glorifying themselves and confusing their subjects into believing that their corruptions and usurpations should be regarded as a proper love of father for children.
As for Baptism, I confess it's unclear to me. I'm a 'Form follows function' type of guy. I prefer to look at purpose, function, objective first, and regard particular ritualistic forms as secondary. The objective is to save the baptized through Christ. If infant Baptism assists to that end, well enough. If it leads to forgetting or a false sense security, maybe the infant baptized should have their baptisms renewed.FWIW, Catholic teaching allows for believing that the laws given in the Pentateuch were not given by God (or at least that Moses didn’t sit up on a mountain and memorize all the minutiae about God not being cool with eating pork), and that the events contained within those first books of the Bible have far more theological than historical value.
Catholic teaching allows for using any part of Scripture as Kleenex as it suits the hierarchy.How do you define freedom?
I know not whether God exists or not, but if he did, my definition of freedom is the ability to keep secrets from God, no matter what he does. With out that ability, in a world where there is a God, all other freedoms are meaningless, as we would all be accountable to God in the end.
Freedom from depravity, sin, one's own cruelty and hurtfulness... is the ABSOLUTE ENSLAVEMENT to True Law.
Freedom from True Law is the ABSOLUTE ENSLAVEMENT to depravity, sin...
It's one or t'other. There is no third option.
We live in a created universe. Our Creator can and will observe anything in creation as it pleases that One. That’s just the way it is.
But why should that concern you? Why all the worry about your Creator’s opinion? If you are being careful to not be hurtful, depraved,… if you gladly enslave yourself to True Law, a Creator Who is Just and True cannot think ill of you. That True Law is an aspect or part of such a Creator and so you are offering worship. A creator who cares nothing about Justice or it’s Word of Honor isn’t going to be bothered by your activity in any ethical sense.
I believe that the central objective of 8 and 9 should be to convince everyone one that, yeah, this time, no kidding, it’s happily ever after and the galaxy is in for peace and pleasantness for thousands of years.
I, personally, had major difficulties going in to TFA.
I was nowhere near as prepared for post-ROTJ activity as I had thought I might be (a problem for the above stated reasons.)
I was not at all prepared for a "second act" sort of episode much darker than ESB. I believe I appreciated ROTS more than most fans and it was because I had made a considerable effort to brace myself for a great tragedy.
I find PC for the sake of PC to be extremely distracting and disturbing. Billions of people around the world have been conditioned since they were small children to HATE Western, Christian values. Pandering to these blind, vicious passions in global entertainment contributes to consigning ALL OF US to totalitarian agonies beyond imagining.(not to mention that it's piss-poor awful storytelling.)
I could never be a fan or watch a series like Breaking Bad.
I confess I don't know exactly where they intend to take these plotlines(or storylines.) These are very clever screenwriters and maybe they will subvert expectations.
To story development, Kylo breaking bad is, at least to me, a very great problem. I didn't need to see him kill Han, I was thinking "Uh-oh" 5 minutes into the movie when, with no apparent need or purpose(not even an unjustifiable need or evil purpose), he coldly and contemptuously ordered the village slaughtered. BY FAR the single worst thing in STAR WARS was Anakin killing the younglings. In the OT, we never saw Vader kill a noncombatant. A minute before he strangled Antilles that captain was ordering his men to kill Vader and his troops, and he was still resisting by lying in a matter that could cost hundreds of thousands of troops. We don't know if he personally ordered the burning of the homestead. He spoke with contempt of the "technological terror" as though he knew of and preferred an alternate method for order that might not involve killing billions of defenseless innocents in a destructive conflict. He personally did violence to his own officers in ESB. My point is not that Vader could be excused of the heinous crimes he was assisting(he paid for them with his life), but that we never saw him personally commit the most heinous deeds against helpless non-combatants out of cold dismissive contempt. This made the "There's still good in him" seem not entirely impossible. More importantly, it left a little bit of room for me to accept a possibility of his redemption. I could also tolerate Luke's effort to save his father.
I don't watch local TV news. Too often they put up things like family members trying assist vicious punks and psychopaths who don't deserve such consideration. If I was the lawyer character in CAPE FEAR, it would have been the shortest feature in cinema history. "So, you've come here to threaten and perhaps perpetrate horrible violence against me and my family? MMM, okay"...*BLAM*..."Send me a postcard from hell and let me know how that plan is going."
I can't stand the more intense crime series because I can't tolerate the cold viciousness of the criminals and the stupidity of others around them who don't simply kill them and drop them in a hole. I know exactly why the monsters do it. They are vicious psychopaths who want to rid themselves of any vestige of humanity that might interfere with their sense of power and jollies from doing what we all, underneath it all, know is horrifyingly wrong.
I think the basic characterization of Kylo is great. Worships the head of VADER, wants to be free to unleash his vicious impulses without guilt, loses his cool and thrashes when he doesn't get his way. Nice contrast from cool collected Vader. I just wish I was interested in something more out of him than being put down immediately. I wish I wasn't so annoyed with those who don't try to put him down immediately.
This is the hazard of going so deep and dark in what is, at it's base, a Flash Gordon/Buck Rogers adventure serial.So anyway, picking up where I left off … having a vision. My philosophy is that you can’t write a script without an outline, you can’t write an outline without a treatment, you can’t write a treatment without a story, and you can’t write a story without a vision.
What should The Force Awakens have really been about?
I was struck by the first trailer I saw in early 2015:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCc2v7izk8wPrior to seeing that trailer, I had no interest in the new Disney trilogy. I thought the story was over, it had already been told, and all I cared about was “just give me the damn OOT”.
But then I saw that trailer (it was awesome), and I thought, you know what? Yeah, a new generation of young people should have their own Star Wars too. I was sold on the idea of passing the torch to the next generation.
So what gives with the story we got? I think Luke Skywalker should have played the mentor role and not Han Solo. Harrison Ford was terrific in this movie, no question. He wasn’t old Harrison Ford; he was Han Solo, just like old times. But what was his role in the film? Why have him (instead of Luke) act as a father figure for Rey?..
Finally, what about the setting? The world of the story, in my opinion, really completes the idea of the vision.
I loved the opening shot in that trailer, with Rey speeding past the hazy wreckage of the Star Destroyer and the X-wing lying in the background. What a fantastic shot. The war between the Empire and the Rebellion has long since passed, but has the galaxy been at peace for the last thirty years? No!
Power vacuums don’t lead to peace and prosperity – they lead to more conflict. That’s good, because we need conflict for stories. In my world for TFA, the New Republic is in the process of installing peace and order throughout the galaxy, but there are still dangerous elements out there – terrorists, gangsters / criminals, evil breakaway organizations, etc.
And TFA seems to have been going in that direction with The First Order. Well done.
But what’s the angle here? What’s the last piece of the puzzle that makes the First Order’s antagonism so compelling? This is where we come back to the idea of the vision.
If Skywalker and the rest of our legacy heroes are trying to pass the torch to the next generation, then the antagonists, The First Order, have to be doing the opposite…
I have always considered the OT and it's backstory to be a complete saga cycle. There can be no ST because the story is told. The Kingdom has come. Happily ever after. The Hero's Journey is complete. There is no more. I have always ignored all post-ROTJ EU for exactly this reason.
I was a little swept up in the idea of more of SW and seeing the OT crew. I thought TFA was well worth the ticket price with much to recommend it (while having great flaws) but I've come away with my anti-post-ROTJ position reinforced.
Trouble is, the moment we admit that there is ANYTHING after ROTJ, we are consigning the future of our favorite characters to pure tragedy and breaking the promise of victory. It's just illusory and temporary respite so the characters can feel their future miseries more acutely. And we can't trust in any success thereafter.
I suppose the ST could be set in the distant future after thousands of years of peace, freedom and prosperity, but at that point you might as well create an alternate universe and start with a clean slate.
Some day, I hope we get a truly retro(with careful modern enhancements) reboot of the PT/remake of the OT.