xhonzi

Tobar said:

Alexrd said:

Monolithium said:

So much better than anything in the prequels.

I think that's a very exaggerated remark.

I think it's spot on and I've heard it from multiple people.

 Seconded.

I need your help!  I only have 4 years to bring to pass the 2015 seen in Back to the Future Part 2.  It's quite an undertaking, but if we get started now... well, "Anything is possible if you put your mind to it."

I'm not quite sure how we're going to get hoverboards or flying cars that soon, but let's focus on what we can do:

Teens- start wearing your pants inside out.

Everybody- start wearing as much neon lycra as you can get your hands on.  Yes, you will look stupid momentarilly, but people will remember you as being a fashion pioneer once it catches on.

Only frequent shops/restaurants that are like the 80s Cafe or Blast from the Past.  If entrepreneurs start to see how much money can be made from 80s nostalgia prodcuts and services, then they'd open many more of them until they're pretty much the only places to eat or shop.

Start wearing two neckties at the same time.

Get out your fax machine.

Wear hightops, so that when auto-laced shoes are invented, they look just like 30 year old sneakers.

Bundle all of your laserdiscs together in clear garbage bags.  We probably don't have enough to put them on the curb for bulk pickup, but get them ready!

Use the picture-in-picture mode on your TV all of the time.  Or just watch WookieeGroomer's Addicted to Star Wars a lot.

Buy as many talking appliances as possible, but make sure that they have the simplest of computer voices.

80s style haircuts are a must.  Trust me, they will come back in style.

Maybe glue a bunch of sound effect boards to random parts of your clothes.  So that you can taunt people with them at appropriate times.

Let's see, what else?

I'm contracting with a guy I found on instructables to make me lots of those acrylic hats.  Like the little record player one that the girl with the hoverboard had.  Those cost a few pennies though, so I'll need your help for financing.

Petition the Gov't to set up a "Weather Service".

And write DuPont and see how they're coming on that dust repellent paper.

Start buying Jaws movies and memorabilia by the truck load.  They'll have to make 14 sequels in 4 years, but I'm sure they can do it if they have all of our money.

What else?

(Kind of sad that this movie's "prediction" was way off on just about everything except for gas prices.  We look to be on target for the $7/gallon prices in 4 more years.  Assuming we don't overshoot it. (Even more sad that the movie wasn't trying too hard to actually predict things and were probably trying to be as sensational as possible with things like gas prices.  Instead, they were just right)).

SilverWook said:

A good director and or FX guy will help the actors visualize what they can't actually see.

If they do that, acting in front of green screen shouldn't be any more difficult than doing a stage play in which there's just a couple chairs and a black backdrop.

 Stageplays.  Psh.... since when was that considered acting?

Wouldn't you like to know...

3D TV prices are coming down and several people around my office have recently bought in.  I think 3D as a fad may soon be over, but the here-to-stay 3D is, er... here to stay.

The only question in my mind is this: Did the studios/hardware manufacturers  only push 3D for the premium they thought they could charge?  As 3D gets more mainstream, I think the premium will all but disappear.  Will this kill studio's interest in producing it?

So many people I've me In Real LifeTM (who don't work with animals, apparently) think 'fodder" means "poo" because of its use in RotJ.  With its recent use as a curse, I'm sure that's only strengthened their misconception.

timdiggerm said:

You're going to hate this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clnozSXyF4k

 That's a great clip.  I roll my eyes when I hear people say, "The CG was so obvious.  I could tell everytime it was used."  It would probably shock them to know how much it was really used.  They probably noticed less than 10% of it. 

But they don't know what they don't know.

skyjedi2005 said:

I find Kinect as laughable as the wiimote.

Why?  They're both very good when used well.  They have their proper applications.  Just because they are also used improperly doesn't make the tool itself bad.

Catfish.  Don't let anyone tell you about it.  Just go see it.  It's not for everybody, but you won't know until you see it.

(Not yet available on Netflix Streaming)

DVD Profiler.

Gaffer Tape said:

RE: Xhonzi

Geez, out of everything I wrote, this is what you pick up on? I dunno. To be honest, I'm surprised I even need to explain it.  Most of it's right there in the title:

Semi-Annual:  Twice a year

Sale:  When items cost less

And it's a really, really, really big deal.  Rather than the usual setup of nicely-organized sets, bras and panties are arranged in bins on tables, marked down to exceptionally low levels, and there's a huge free-for-all.  I've heard people save up for months in anticipation for the SAS.  From what I've seen of it in the past, it's pretty crazy.  But this is the first time I'll really be in the thick of it, so, hmm, not really sure what to expect.  Don't think I've ever happened to be around a Victoria's Secret in the first couple of days of SAS.  It might be its own Black Friday.

I love black underwears.

doubleKO said:

Hi Gaffer, sorry about your week. You can use an HDTV as a monitor. Your laptop will have a port for a regular VGA monitor cable (with blue ends) and many HDTVs have this port as well. If yours doesn't get back to us.

Or any of the following that both your laptop and TV support:

Laptop      TV
-----------------------

DVI    ->    DVI
DVI    ->    HDMI
HDMI ->    HDMI
DisplayPort->HDMI

I've used all of them at some point in time.

Oh, and Kinect Fun Labs is pretty cool.  If you have a Kinect.  Nothing earth shattering, and the Kinect Me thing made an Avatar that looks less like me than my current Avatar does... but it can copy the logo on your shirt, which is cool.  It hooked us for several hours straight.

I do play Borderlands.  But I'm at the mercy of the people I play it with.  My wife doesn't really want to play more than the 3 or so hours we already put into it.  My Bro-in-laws-Bro that I played 6 or so hours with moved away.  My zombie friend (zombriend?) and I play it when we can't get 2 other people to join us for L4D, which we've been able to do recently.  I'd be happy to play 4 player BLs, but the other two people don't have level 15 characters, so that would be awkward.

I've really wanted to play BLs some more... zombriend and I will have to set up a private date for some 1-on-1 splitscreening.

RE:Halo 4

Like C3PX, I have to say I'm more interested in Halo 4 then I ever was for Reach.  I ended up getting Reach for Christmas last year, which was probably 6 months earlier than I was planning to get it.  I get very few games the week they're released, but Halo is a frequent exception.  Reach was an exception to my Halo exception. 

It will be interesting to see what 343 does with it and how it compares to the Bungie releases.  I have to say I'm not sure if Bungie will fare better without Halo than Halo will without Bungie. 

Anyone who beat Halo 3 on legendary or read Ghosts of Onyx has been waiting for an official Halo 4 announcement for a while.  So I don't think it's a terribly big surprise.  I do hope, however, that the story of the Flood and the Covenant is over.  Halo 3 was advertised as your chance to "Finish the Fight".  I'd like to see a new direction for Halo 4.  Inasmuch as they've advertised it as a "new trilogy" I imagine they have a new direction for it.  Hopefully it's a good one.

BloodnoseThePirate said:

Wait, WHAT?

http://www.comicvine.com/news/uncanny-x-men-series-ends-in-october/143181/

Yeah, what?

It'll be back.  I give it two years tops.

skyjedi2005 said:

I like <snip> Hal Fosters Prince Valiant.

 

Oh, man!  You're the guy who liked Prince Valiant!  I've been wondering who that was!  Now, if you're also the guy that read Rex Morgan, MD. I can finally understand why they were always in the funny pages and were ALWAYS terrible.

TV's Frink said:

TV's Frink said:

Naboobian.

Anyone remember who came up with this?  My guess is either me or xhonzi.

Irregardless, I found a way to get Qui-Gon to say it in my edit!  Oh, and "you mean you're a..." as well :-)

I'm pretty sure it was me.  In the "Beautiful Thrown" thread, if I recall.

Ziggy Stardust said:

TV's Frink said:

Seems like it was more face calling....

Exactly! I was being mean at all! I was just quoting a skyjedi post while showing a picture a a acne-ridden nerd.

Those two things are not associated at all. I just have them in the same post. ;-)

 Ah... the "not the majority and not anyone on this forum" defense, eh?  Well played.

Gaffer Tape said:

and with the Semi Annual Sale starting up this coming Tuesday,

Pics or it didn't isn't happening.

I mean, Please!  Tell us more!

I recommend this thread be done.

generalfrevious said:

Thinking on a philosophical point, maybe the reason third installments suck is that the universe is binary (one view and its opposite view), and no human being can conceptualize a third view, so we have to rehash or go off the deep end to in the third installment of a franchise.

I think this is part of it.  If in part one you consider one angle, and in part 2 you explore its opposite...  what's really left?

I would like to also reiterate my philosophy from post #1-  The worse #2 is, the better chance #3 has at being good.  Generally (but not always) the rule of sequels is they get worse as they go on, but sometimes they hit the bottom and bounce back.  See Episodes 2 & 3 of the Prequels (yes, I first didn't mention it because #1 it is part 6 and #2 I like to pretend it doesn't exist).

See also Star Trek 2,3,4.  After letting someone other than Nicholas Meyer make 3, they learned their lesson and let him return for #4.  (Then they forgot it for #5 and remembered again for #6)

To be self-referential (again), http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Act-Breaks/post/433382/#TopicPost433382 this thread.  The whole thread (minus the usual fluff) but especially from that post and the next several and most of them through until the end.  Looking at trilogies as macro examples of the three act structure.  Especially comparing Return of the Jedi to Pirates of the Caribbean 3.  While we found easily recognizable three act structure in parts one and two of the trilogies, there was a slight issue with the third parts. 

In the terms of RotJ, we found no internal structure to the third part and only found resolution of the macro structure, and resolution of unresolved character issues from parts 1 & 2.  A small portion of RotJ (the first third) seems to have its own mini act structure.  Then the rest of the playtime is devoted to the bigger story.  We wondered whether this was a cause of Return of the Jedi's apparent weakness?  Or a source of its strength?

PotC3 was both similar and different.  The first part (roughly a third?) was devoted to its own "rescue the hero who was captured at the end of part 2" bit.  But then the rest of it, instead of really giving over to resolving the macro problem, seemed to introduce a lot of new elements (the pirate counsel, the sea-witch, whatever else I've purged from my mind). 

Comparing this "introducing new content" to RotJ's "resolving old content" is interesting.  I find both movies to be disappointing sequels, but I'm generally pretty happy with RotJ as it wraps up the macro storyline (despite its inclusion on the "known duds" list above) and find PotC3 to be all but unwatchable.  That being said...  Appealing to just these two examples, one can not make a conclusive statement as to whether having its own TAS (PotC3) or simply serving the resolution of the Macro TAS makes for a better finale to a trilogy...  But I'm leaning toward this thought:

Not having a rigid three act structure in the third part of the trilogy is a risky business.  In the first place, it creates a flexibility and a lack of competing content which allows the movie (or whatever) to resolve the unresolved from the previous parts, and to make good on the unmadegood promises of the previous parts.  Cramming all sorts of new content in there iprevents the movie from doing that.  However!  (This is an important "however")  It also means that you need to have enough stuff to properly fill out your two hours (or whatever).  It's like walking the tightrope without a net.  It's great when it works- it's disasterous when it doesn't.  So, when you're making the grand third part to your trilogy, you have to either play it "safe/mediocre" and make a film that can't be fulfilling... or play it dangerous and make a film that can exceed expectations... or completely fall flat.  Whether is succedes or fails depends on a lot of factors, including the intrinsic interest in your unresolved story and character threads... and on your competency as artists to work without a net.

Great scott!

Baronlando said:

xhonzi said:

Yes, all classic films irreversibly engraved on all of our minds.  An average of about 6.5 on imdb (for what that's worth).

Not much. IMDB people are all from the devil's a**hole.

 :(

I'm an IMDB person.  From time to time.  Not that I'm sticking up for the lot of them, just I think your swing is a little broad.

Couldn't she have meant the prop kind?  A Master Replica or something?  Tell me she's not actually that dumb.

Well, the meek are supposed to inherit the earth.

Whatever that means.