xhonzi

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/10/26/091026fa_fact_goodyear/

Your link didn't work for me.

I watch a lot of youtube... can I get paid for that?

I blame Ric Olie.

Hey Warb, don't worry about it.  My "what did I do to you" was meant to be tongue in cheek.

Vincent, there's a copy of that McQuarrie book on ebay right now.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350270989355&ssPageName=ADME:B:ONA:US:1123

It's around $50.

These are not the droids I'm looking for?

Warbler said:

obviously, with have different tastes when it comes to Bond.  I prefer the classic style of Bond movies.   That is why I like Tomorrow Never Dies.   

 Classic like Connery or classic like Moore?  I thought Tomorrow Never Dies was more along the silly lines on Moore's stuff.

Also, I think the end of the Cold War put Bond in a tough spot.  They weren't quite sure what to do with him for a while.  It's kind of like the the Post RotJ books... they don't quite know what to do with the Empire gone.

Warbler said:

GoldenEye never appealed to me too much.   I'm surprised you didn't pick License To Kill as your favorite Dalton movie.   You seem to be the kind of Bond fan that likes that one. 

Ouch!  What did I do to you?  I actually think License to Kill is one of the worst of the series.

Ah... the post I was waiting for.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=790210

This is a good thread over at AVS that tracks all of the current 3D at home goings-on.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1167617

This one too.

I almost took the troop to see the Toy Story Double Feature in 3D.  Until I saw the ticket total came to $60, and that's without snacks or parking or anything.  And I doubted my kids' ability to sit still and enjoy 3 hours of movies they've seen 100s of times.  It's too bad... I was really looking forward to it.  I guess they'll just have to figure out how to get 3D to me at home better.  I'm willing to spend a $k or so to get high quality 3D at home (as long as there are plenty of movies to watch).  As long as I don't have to drop $100 per movie to take the fam to the cinema.

Sony keeps saying 2010 is the year they bring 3D home.  My concern is that there will be a 3D format war between Panasonic/Dolby and now Sony hinting that they will have their own format to throw in the ring.

Sony never saw a an oportunity for a format war they didn't like.

xhonzi said:

Craig - Casion Royale

 

Those are the only Bond movies I need.  Maybe with Quantum of Solace if the third Craid movie makes a solid trilogy of his films.

 Man, my fingers suck at spelling when left to their own!

If I had to pick another Connery, I would be hard pressed between Goldfinger and Dr. No.  As it is, I can just pick From Russia with Love and be done with it.

Brosnan's best movie, or the best movie with Brosnan?  As a Gen X'er, I think Brosnan was perfectly suited to my generation's Bond.  GoldenEye is my favourite Bond movie of all time... I was totally pumped to see Tomorrow Never Dies on opening night... and I just couldn't get past how uninspiringly over the top it was.  It felt, to me, souless.  And it seemed to only go downhill from there.  It was just too smug... too self aware, maybe.  Too rote and too cliche. 

Martin Campbell seems to do Bond right by me, since I didn't care for any Bonds after his GoldenEye until his Casino Royale (I really thought I was done with the franchise until someone made me watch Casino Royale).  My wife even loved Royale, and she hates all other Bonds.  We watched OHMSS afterwards, because Royale was most like that one, I would say. 

She didn't hate it. 

Quantum of Solace started to leave the "realistic" Royale behind and go back to goofy Bond.  Like I said, if they can pull of a 3rd Quantum movie, I'll be really excited about that.

The Spy Who Loved Me is my #2 Roger Moore.  And the theme song to A View to A Kill.  ;)

Bingowings said:

Here I go with AOTC.

Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan are charged with protecting Senator Amidala after assassination attempt. Their efforts to keep her from danger uncover a .... things blow up and shit.

*tee hee*

Seriously, I agree with most if not all of your post, but this first line made me regurgitate some of my hot coccoa.

Connery - From Russia With Love

Lazenby - OHMSS

Moore - For your Eyes Only

Dalton - Living Daylights

Brosnan - GoldenEye

Craig - Casion Royale

Those are the only Bond movies I need.  Maybe with Quantum of Solace if the third Craid movie makes a solid trilogy of his films.

C3PX said:

xhonzi said:

C3PX said:

Irregardless :) of everything else... (and then I stopped reading).

 IGNORE!

 

Wow, you weren't kidding! Irregardless of the fact... (skipping!)

Irregardless of my use of the "word" "irregardless" in the offending post... (blast! and spit!)

IGNORED!

Muwahahahahahah!

I just got an e-mail saying CP3X has commented in this thread!  But I can't see it because I ignored him!

Somebody tell me... did he come back beggining on his knees for forgiveness?  Was it easy to tell the depths of shame and remorse that he felt?  Maybe I was a little too hard on the little fella...  Maybe I should, you know, be the bigger person here and offer my forgiveness...  Yeah, I think I can safely put this behind me and unignore the guy.  He's good people.  And a little thing like intentionally using poor grammar is not really something to be upset about.  Let alone 'ignore' a friend.

Pals?

I think that was my pont.  (I think.)  That the part of the story that is ?good? is reduced to half an hour or so.  I think the way Palpatine manipulates the galaxy in the Prequels is actually rather well done... but that seems to be the focus of the PT and not "The Adventures of Anakin Skywalker."

I saw this thread and thought Moth3r wanted me to post more.  ;)

Yeah, that's nice.  I'm trying to come up with a young Anakin for 1985, but I think I can't because I subconsiously don't want a young Anakin in the movies.

That being said, how would an '85 Elijah Wood look for a young RDjr?

The Phantom Menace:

A boy born into slavery on a backwater planet meets some strangers who are actually warriors marooned on his planet after a battle in an intergalactic Space War.  The boy is intrigued by the strangers and the idea of life away slavery.  He helps them repair their damaged spacecraft so they can return to the War.  The boy leaves his life of slavery with the warriors and is introduced to the vastness of the galaxy.  He joins the War effort and is trained by the warriors.

Well...  that's maybe shorter than it needs to be, but that's the kernel of story in Phantom Menace that I do like and think could actually be quite good if executed differently than TPM.  Reminds me of the White Mountains of the Tripod Trilogy for those that have read them.

I've seen attempts to make the Prequels better through editing, and while I appreciate the effort... I just don't think there's much you can do with what's available.  It's like putting a sprig of parsley on a tuna casserole.  It's nice to see the parsley, but underneath... it's all tuna casserole.

It got me thinking when I read the leaked plotline for Attack of the Clones.  When I read about Dester's Diner and Peggle the Lesser and the rest of the plot, I thought for sure that it was Adamwankenobi or someone trying their hand at writing Episode 2.  And then I saw the movie in theatres... :(

We normally blame the acting (which is bad (except for Ewan who was excellent!)) and the dialogue and the effects heavy visuals... but is the actual storyline broken from the start?  I think it is, but then I find myself thinking about my immaginary Infinites Prequel Trilogy (which Tim Zahn and I write after we push George Lucas into a wood chipper) and I find myself coming back to some of the same moments or themes that are in the actual (but somehow to me, non-existant (how's that for relative truths?)) PT.  Is this cause for concern?  Are the plot outlines bad?  Or are they just poorly executed?

Is the one paragraph summary of The Phantom Menace bad?  How about the one page outline of Revenge of the Sith?  I think the plain old 5 page (or so) outline of Attack of the Clones was already trash...  How short would it have to be to be good?

And here's where the homework comes in:  Write the longest summary of a Prequel movie, without it turning to poop.

Let me try with The Phantom Menace:

C3PX said:

Irregardless :) of everything else... (and then I stopped reading).

 IGNORE!

I was thinking about this more on a 2 hour drive I had to make today.  Here are my thoughts:

As I said above, "I think truth is truth, and good is good, and that there are people who wrongly disagree."  I mean by this something similar to what an Atheist believes about believers in God.  The Atheist doesn't believe in God, but he readily admits that believers do.  I don't believe in Moral Relativism, but I readily admit that some people do.  And, more to the point, that a lot of bad people do.  In fact, I think that it is hard to be a truly bad person if you don't believe in Moral Relativism. 

When you watch the Godfather (or Watchmen, or countless others) you see people that are bad, but they don't believe that they are.  They don't sit around and think of themselves as the bad guys.  They think of themselves doing what needs to be done in their circumstances.  Sometimes the storyteller is also telling you that YOU would also do as they do if you were in their circumstances.  Sometimes the storyteller is simply telling you how the bad people rationalize what they are doing so that they can continue doing the things they want to do.

Would you really like to see villains who are simply bad for the sake of being bad?  How interesting is that?  How many people are really like that?  I think an honest non-Moral-Relativistic storyteller has to show the logic that villains use to do the bad things they do.  I think the storyteller can do this without showing Moral Relativity.  Unless the Storyteller begins to make the same case the villains do, and then you have something else on your hands.

Are you suggesting I edited my own Wikipedia page?  The nerve!

And, as long as we're at this point in the pageant, shouldn't you, Mr. Ric Olie (if that is your real name) also have to present a Birth Certificate?  Mine has been presented, where is yours?

Did ferris just post in here?  I can't quit tell because I'm IGNORING him now!