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zombie84

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21-Nov-2005
Last activity
12-Jan-2024
Posts
3,557

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Post
#304277
Topic
Celebrity Meltdowns
Time
Originally posted by: lordjedi
Originally posted by: sean wookie
Teenagers are the stupidest animals known to man.


There, fixed that for ya!


LOL, was thinking the same thing.

You know this whole thing just makes me think: why does anyone even care? Why even start a thread about it? I just don't get why this stuff even gets notice in the first place.
Post
#304261
Topic
Indiana Jones IV
Time
Personally I would rather have a TOD clone than a Raiders clone--we already have Last Crusade for that. TOD is my personal version of the way Indy should be--hacking through a jungle in search of ancient stones and gems, not fighting Nazi's and commies for Christian symbols. To me that aspect was always kind of tired, especially when Crusade basically repeated it all. The opening sequence to Raiders is what I always thought the franchise should have had as its heart, and thats what most of the imitators like Tomb Raider and Romancing the Stone sourced.
Post
#304154
Topic
Blu-ray Disc or HD-DVD?
Time
Well, I wouldn't go that far. My reasoning is this: open a flyer for an electronics store. They are all HD tv's. The dinky 19" $300 sets? They are flat-planel 16x9 HD or HD-ready. Standard-def 4x3 TV's practically are not sold anymore. So pretty much anyone who buys a TV from now on will be ready to hook up a high-def player.

Whether that player is BLu-ray or HD-DVD depends on if they both survive past 2009. But probably they will, and with the marketplace being upgraded in hardware the way it is, a lot of people will jump in and give it a shot.
Post
#304071
Topic
Blu-ray Disc or HD-DVD?
Time
Pricewar or not, Blue-ray is winning 3-1.

But I don't think the war will be over any time soon.

Here's what I do see happening:

Okay, even with all those studios that Microsoft bought, Blu-Ray is still in a huge 3-1 lead--again, after they bought all that studio alliance. These figures are more or less the same as they were in the spring, so it seems that HD-DVD has had no gain whatsoever. And I think that the 3-1 gap will continue to grow, especially once all the people that just got Blu-Ray for Christmas start buying titles in the new year. By mid-2008 I don't think the 3-1 gap will widen significantly, but I think that the sole HD-DVD exclusive distributor (who is it?) will go format neutral, because it just doesn't make business sense, even if MS pays them big bucks to stay they could be making quadrupal the revenue. And when that happens support for HD-DVD will slip steadily, hopeful by the end of the year we'll be seeing a 4-1 gap, and theres really not much room for Toshiba to lower their prices so they've basically used up their leverage ammo already, and when this happens stores simply won't stock HD-DVD anymore. I think it will take into the spring of 2009 for things to be really finalised though, before the towel is officially thrown in--if these trends hold true then i can easily see a 8-1 gap snowballing by then and all the parties involved would basically be out of business if they kept at it any longer.

But you never know, I said the exact same thing at this time last year, and then Microsoft surprised everyone by buying out studios. My reason for thinking that it will actually happen this time is that even after Microsoft persuaded studio alliance, it seems to have done nothing to help (only draw things out), and after the hardware price-cutting that realistically can only be lowered by a tiny bit more, I really don't see any wiggle room here. The only thing that would screw things up is if the Blu-ray exclusive distributors somehow, miraculously, went HD-DVD exclusive, but with the 3-1 gap that would be financial suicide even if they had payoffs--going format neautral will draw things out another few months but thats it.
Post
#304060
Topic
"The People Vs. George Lucas" documentary...
Time
This will only get us cemented as forever-unsatisfied whiney fanboys. But if people complain "where the fuck is the original Star Wars??" maybe it will be another loud voice to ring up to the ivory tower in Skywalker Ranch. That is really the only in Star Wars fandom that requires us to actually address the guy, complaining about Jar Jar and Anakin is lame, Lucas just lapsed as a filmmaker and you can never change that so move on. The OOT issue is something that can have something done about it, however. Eh, being a Star Wars fan makes me tired sometimes.
Post
#303443
Topic
Blade Runner 2, 4, and 5-disc sets in December
Time
Well, sound mixing is usually so subtle that 19 out of 20 people don't ever notice, so theres less pressure or incentive to get it that exact. As long as its faithful to the effect and intent of the original and sounds the same people not only don't mind, they don't notice. I think a lot of the time since mixers have to go back to the stems or original elements anyway they think why not sweeten it up, since theres usually room to improve in the original mixes with the new technology available, and the changes are so minor that the original four or six-track mixes become superfluous. At the end of the day it usually becomes unnecessary, except in the cases of original mono or stereo tracks that sometimes are offered (more for novelty than anything else). If you included a new mix plus the original multi-channel then you'd have to sacrifice picture quality--which people do notice.

Star Wars is a bit of special case though, not in the least because the six-track mix is a bit of a legend itself, but also because its a distintcly different version of the soundtrack, along with the stereo and mono versions. It would be awesome to have all three on a disk of the original 1977 version of the film, and the six-track, though perhaps not as nice as a new 5.1 mix of the original would be for home theater, would probably suffice as a high-quality multi-channel version of the film. Would be awesome to have all three original mixes plus a new 5.1 but I'm not sure if they could fit in on a disk without taking away something from the image. I would say though that because of the demand and notoriety of the 1977 mixes that theres a very good chance we'll see these with a restored 1977 version of the film one day.
Post
#303440
Topic
The Secret History of Star Wars
Time
Originally posted by: caligulathegod
Content is excellent, as before. I did notice that the new edition still refers to Anakin's virgin birth as an "immaculate conception." Immaculate conception is not virgin birth. It is a Roman Catholic concept created to reconcile how Mary, as a human and subject to Original Sin, as are all humans, could give birth to a sinless Jesus. It was decided that Mary, unique among humans, was gifted a special grace by God and was not stained by Original Sin from the moment of her conception by normal sexual intercourse. So of Anakin Skywalker, Christ, Buddha, or Heracles, none was born by immaculate conception. Mary was.

The Roman Catholic doctrine of Incarnation refers to the virgin birth of Christ. Immaculate Conception and Incarnation are specifically Roman Catholic doctrines rather than generic terms for the concepts to which they refer.


Yeah, but in common understanding when you say "Immaculate conception" people understand "virgin birth." To me, it seems that since "Immaculate (free of sin, virginal) conception" is not just a title but also simply a description it is still apt to use it in this broader sense, though its true that in Catholic theology it refers to a specific event (ie Mary's conception).
Post
#303030
Topic
Religion
Time
Well since the Bible contains the judicial code of the primitive tribal groups that wandered the middle east 5,000 years ago, and among other laws contains codes that insist a woman must be brought to her fathers door step and stoned to death if she is not a virgin on her wedding night, it should come as absolutely no surprise that there are passages restricting voting and such. Since said ancient tribal peoples for whom the laws were written were not a democracy to begin with, the issue of voting is somewhat moot, but as it was a strict and often violent patriarchy there are indeed very many passages restricting women's participation in community and government, which by extension would include voting in modern times. Technically speaking, its not legally possible to live by the Bible in any strict sense so its all bullshit in the first place. People just pick and choose the bits they like to support whatever views they already subscribe to.
Post
#302958
Topic
The Empire Leicester Square London A THX JBL Installation
Time
Awesome stuff JT--some people don't have an interest in this sort of thing but I find it fascinating. I work as a motion picture camera technician so this is the whole other end of the process that I never get to see (the final product), and the Leicester Square Empire theater is a legend in its own right. This is how movies are supposed to be seen--its a shame that its really not done like this any more.
Post
#302844
Topic
Blu-ray Disc or HD-DVD?
Time
Originally posted by: JediTemple70mm
Originally posted by: zombie84
Well missing frames often comes down to the print itself--the VHS tapes probably sourced a different print than the new digital master. So you'd get the extra seconds of footage but the sacrifice might be a less pristine image overall.

Actually, speaking of the coloring mishap on the first Lawrence DVD, I shouldn't applaud the new Searchers restoration too much since the coloring on that is equally off.


No it’s a pure and simple fault in the authoring of the DVD of Lawrence of Arabia, lack of supervision of the transfer, LOL or ether someone feel asleep though it as it is a long film, but that’s no excuse for taken consumers for mugs.


To their credit though they redeemed themselves somewhat by correcting it. The Superbit LOA is beautiful--its just a shame you have to own the previous version if you want all the extras.

Post
#302838
Topic
Blu-ray Disc or HD-DVD?
Time
Well missing frames often comes down to the print itself--the VHS tapes probably sourced a different print than the new digital master. So you'd get the extra seconds of footage but the sacrifice might be a less pristine image overall.

Actually, speaking of the coloring mishap on the first Lawrence DVD, I shouldn't applaud the new Searchers restoration too much since the coloring on that is equally off.
Post
#302818
Topic
Blu-ray Disc or HD-DVD?
Time
Originally posted by: JediTemple70mm

and after there’s a respectful, disc category to chose from, then I’ll consider it.


Lawrence of Arabia and The Searchers-- you know you want Blu-Ray!

Actually, Lawrence of Arabia fans will be keeping a close eye on the HD version when it comes out next year--what with the infamous color disaster on DVD. Hopefully this will be the first LOA package of proper extras and the proper image.
Post
#302761
Topic
Silly Obi-Wan ANH question
Time
Well I have the novel. It says first of all that Artoo heard it too, and actually specifies that this means it wasn't "an auditory delusion" but a real physical sound. In the novel Kenobi does it again, after he says the sand people might be back--to which Luke recognises it as a Krayt dragon call.

From pg 72 of the 1994 (?) reprint:

"...The sand people are easily startled but they'll soon be back and in greater numbers. A landspeeders not a prize readily conceeded, and after all, Jawas they're not."
Placing both hands over his mouth in a peculiar fashion, Kenobi inhaled deeply and let out an unearthly howl that made Luke jump. "That ought to keep any laggards running for a while yet," the old man concluded with satisfaction.
"That's a Krayt dragon call!" Luke gasped in astonishment. "How'd you do that?"
"I'll show you sometime, son. It's not too hard. Just takes the right attitude, a set of well-used vocal chords, and a lot of wind."
Post
#302718
Topic
Silly Obi-Wan ANH question
Time
In the 2004 SE they gave Obi Wan the call of the Boga, that lizard thing from ROTS. Which makes little sense seeing as the sand people wouldn't know what that is and would be less plausible to clear out from Obi Wan imitating it, whereas they would instintly recognize the Krayt dragon call and know that they had better clear out or be eaten.
Post
#302559
Topic
Info Wanted: the bare minimum - what would you want put back?
Time
Originally posted by: Baronlando
Han shooting first isn't a "lost shot", in other words, they wouldn't need to restore any film elements (the cost of which is what LFL was bitching about last year when they were asked why the orig versions weren't done right) to put that back the way it was, they'd just cut the extra shot of greedo firing.


They removed the shot of him exploding and I think hitting the table as well. Plus Han's line right before that is shortened. So its more than simply hitting the "undo" button, there would be some reconstruction involved.
But its all moot anyway, since LFL's whole "cost" angle is a complete manipulation (aside from the fact that the O-neg is not a necessary requirement).