Posted on 10/26/2006 7:28:46 AM PDT by ZGuy
BSG and Heros are the first shows that've given me goosebumps in years.
Ping
One of the reasons films cost so much is the unions. You've got a plethora of different unions all working on one film, each with their own contracts and rules on lunch breaks, work periods, overtime, etc. Gotta be a nightmare to keep up with.
Then you have the distribution costs. I have to think that digital distribution would cut these costs way down.
Shiny!
I gave up on movie-going a while back. One thing that did it was one of the later "Alien" movies, the odd one produced by some music video guy. I'm no prude, but the f-bombs were coming so fast and furious that my friends and I began to count them out loud about halfway through, and got to fifty, as I recall, by the end. It was totally gratuitous, and added nothing to the dialogue. I'd liken it to reading a DU thread, f-this and f-that, for what reason I really can't say.
How will they be able to afford top notch talent like Alec Baldwin to remember and recite one line a day until he gets it right?
< /sarcasm >
That was a great idea, and a great scene in BSG. I can't help stop thinking about the particulars of it, what the altitude was when they jumped, what the forward velocity was (probably 0), what the vertical velocity was at the jump point (probably 0 again). The "burning" on the outside of the ship was probably a bit much, but it sure did look cool!
This absolutely KILLED this Superman movie for me.
Now I never watched B5. That'll be a good thing to look into during the summer season. Thanks!
(Yes. I'm a Trekkie, too...)
That should not have made me grin. God, I'm a nerd.
Check this out: http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1709126
On the other hand, I just saw the Prestige this weekend. I think it is the best written and acted film to come out of Hollywood in ages. I don't recall getting preached to, though there was a moral of sorts in the story. I will not say much as a good deal of the fun is the mystery of what is going on.
"This wasn't all that new a development—even before 9/11, Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor was chided for its revisionist history and moral equivalence. But after 9/11, Hollywood's PC freefall merely accelerated, causing further alienation from the industry's domestic audience. The 2006 Academy Awards ceremony was something of a watershed. As blogger Charlie Richards noted this past February, "it's a big year for films nobody will see", to the point where March of the Penguins, which won for best documentary, made more money than any of the Best Picture Nominees. And as author and blogger John Scazi wrote at the time, "When Hollywood's best films can't compete with chilled, aquatic birds, there's something going on."
Just Another Niche Market
What was going on was that Hollywood had alienated a wide swatch of its audience-perhaps to the point where relations are irreparable. Like television networks, the two mediums once shared a monopoly on viewers. But these days, technology such as videogames and DVDs, hundreds of channels of satellite TV, the "Long Tail" of the Internet, and the do-it-yourself "prosumer" movement have made Hollywood just another niche market that competes for audiences' eyeballs."
For at least 2 decades the maggot infested elite liberals in Follywood have made us the targets of their innane movies. The Dinosaur Fishwraps have not only turned off 62 million GW voters, they have turned us into full blown enemies.
It is funny to see them continuing to do the same turn offs and getting mad when the old turnoffs don't work again and again. That is the classic description of insanity.
---It also helps for your movies to not suck.---
Truer words were seldom spoken.
Depending on where you live, this definitely has a lot to do with it. I really don't like coughing up $9 to see a film, then have to put up with the rude, self-asborbed, inconsiderate, mouth-breathing morons who make it almost impossible to enjoy the movie.
Years ago, people actually knew how to behave in public, and how to be courteous and considerate towards others. Those days are long gone.
I recently invested a considerable chunk of change in a new home theater sound system, and it was worth every penny. I still need to get the big screen TV (I currently have a 1998 vintage Sony 32" tube TV!), but I'm waiting for the TV technology to settle down. I'm not sure if I should go with plasma, LCD (which is gaining on plasma), or maybe even wait for DLP to mature.
One thing is certain though, I refuse to pay a lot of money to see most of the crap coming out of Hollywood anymore, or to have to listen to some idiot's cell phone, or some other idiot's running commentary during the movie.
There's a scifi series that I've just begun to watch regularly, that I avoided for what seems like a couple of years, "Farscape." When I was avoiding it, it was because it seemed like they were trying too hard, too exaggerated with the effects, the costumes, it was all just over the top. But, for some reason, I actually watched one all the way through, and it's very clever. Really unique characters with compelling backstories. I enjoy it now. Teen boys would get a kick out of the running gag of voices suddenly getting very high-pitched. One of the aliens has, shall we say, a touchy tummy, and passes gas frequently, but it's not methane, it's helium, lol.
b5 is a MUST SEE!
I'm married to a soldier. That really is how most of them speak. Any military movie without the F-bomb is simply unrealistic.
I also happen to think, if presented with an acid-bleeding, wall-crawling, intelligent, vicious bug the size of a large cougar my own mother would say, "F-me!"
We always watch AMC or TCM and even the bad old movies are better than what's out there now...why? Characters, stories, NO OVERT SEX or CRAZY VIOLENCE. It's not rocket science.
Gee, regular Americans stopped going to the movies once smut became regular fare on the 'silver screen'. Hmm, I wonder if there is a lesson to be learned here? Hmmmmmmm.
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