Justifications are not magic beans are not stylistic choices.

As for the topic: Star Trek II. If Chekov could count, there literally would have been no movie. "Vun, two, tree … vait a minute … Keptin!" Roll credits. But nobody cares, because what happened after the plot got rolling was so great, the audience was happy to forgive the couple of dumb things that had to occur before the plot could be set in motion.

At the risk of giving away my soopa-secret ballot, I wanna clarify something: Please count my vote for Indiana Jones as a vote for Raiders of the Lost Ark. If you want to do the others in the series for completeness' sake I won't put up a fight, but neither will I be disappointed if you never do them.

Hmm. From the list above, there are a few that I'm just personally not interested in because I have no interest in the movies in question: "The Patriot," the "Kill Bill" movies, "Bicentennial Man." Seen 'em, didn't care for 'em, not looking for an excuse to see 'em again. If I were running Down in Front — and I think we all get down on our knees every night and say a prayer of Thanksgiving to almighty-god-whose-name-we-do-not-know that I'm not — they wouldn't be on my short list.

"Moon," "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "The Dark Knight" all have something in common: They were stunning successes (artistically I mean, though at least the last two also made bank) that kind of weren't supposed to be. "Raiders" was a pulp serial pastiche, "Dark Knight" was a damn comic-book movie and "Moon" was an indie from a first-time director and those tend to go bad far more often than not. I like Down in Fronts about unlikely successes and just how and why they managed to get it so right.

"Primer," "Synecdoche" and "A.I." (sort of) are puzzles. They're all three open to interpretation, and I think I'd enjoy hearing y'all's interpretations. Maybe "Memento" as well, but from my understanding (I only saw the movie once) that one's actually very straightforward, just told out of sequence. I think I remember reading that there's an option on the DVD to watch the film in chronological order, which turns it into a pretty conventional story. Not sure, though.

But really, though, I'll listen to nearly anything as long as you guys give a damn. Like if it were me — see above, re: prayers of thanksgiving — I'd do "Network" in a heartbeat, 'cause I both admire and adore that movie, and I think I could talk about it non-stop all by myself. If you guys feel that strongly about "Office Space" or whatever, go for it. I'll tune in.

In my totally unsolicited, not-worth-a-good-goddamn opinion, the best Down in Front episodes fall into two categories: There are the ones where the movie evokes some kind of really strong emotional reaction in the panel — positive or negative — and, well, "The Abyss." I've got that one off in a category by itself cause I can't think of another example like it, but I'm talking about the whole I-was-there-here's-how-it-was thing.

The episodes I find least entertaining — which is like talking about what kind of water I find least wet — are the ones where it all boils down to that old Chris Farley character: "Remember that movie? Yeah, that was awesome."

Just to pick a couple names at random off the above-reprinted list: I don't really know what anybody could say about "Top Gun" or "Iron Man." Both are very good movies, neither great-in-the-sense-of-historically-great. I don't think either is especially special, if you know what I mean.

I really enjoyed y'all's "Ghostbusters 2" ep, because of the "put right what went wrong" angle. You've done this before, I think, though I don't remember any other examples off the top of my head. But the way you guys workshopped a movie that by all reasonable accounts was not particularly successful was really fun to listen to.

All of this is to say that, with much love to Kyle, I can't think of a bigger waste of time than for you guys to do "The Room." I haven't watched the whole thing, just edited highlights. But seriously. What's there to say about that movie other than "Boy, this is really terrible?"

My platonic ideal of the best of all possible DiF episodes is one that ends with me thinking, "Wow, I never knew that/thought about that/saw it that way before." If we can laugh and learn and live and love! along the way, so much the better, but for me personally, "That was really neat" trumps "That was pretty funny" every time.

(Live events are conspicuously excepted from that rule. Only few times have I laughed so hard as when Dorkman leapt back over the couch to the mic during the "The Core" party.)

(Oh, and something I just thought of: What Steve brought up and you guys subsequently talked about regarding framing and camera angles in "The Fountain" is a perfect example of what I meant by "I never thought about that." I'd seen that movie over and over again, but I'd never consciously noticed the camera work, so I really dug that. Just a data point.)

At one point in the commentary, Teague was all "I'm more interested in the broader story than I am in Truman's story." (Or words to that effect.)

Have you seen "Network?" I may have mentioned that elsewhere on the forum, 'cause it's one of my favorite movies. The parallels with "The Truman Show" are obviously tenuous at best, but in essence it's about a character who gets manipulated and used by unscrupulous television producers in order to entertain an audience. Very little of the story is told from that character's point of view — toppa my head, I can think of only two scenes. It might suit you more than "The Truman Show" did.

"Network" is also one of the all-time great satires, although today, 35 years later, it's just barely satirical.

I really dig that movie. For a while after it came out it seemed really anachronistic, for obvious reasons, but now a few years later it's got the air of an alternate-period piece.

Also, that scene — you know the one I mean, that one scene — is up there for me as one of the most disturbing, hard to watch sequences in mainstream cinema. It's just so damn brutal.

We all have our little enthusiasms. Don't hate.

Yup, agreed. The Matrix trailer induced precisely that "oh shit must see" reaction in me.

Is Emily Browning over 18 yet?

No reason.

Oh my god I don't even that's just.

I was gonna mention the "Black Swan" trailer, only for the last few seconds. It looks like a fairly straightforward (if a bit weird) story, but then you see that one thing at the end and it makes you go "okay, now, hang on a minute."

It doesn't rise to the level of holy-shit-must-see for me, but maybe that's because I'm already gay for Aronofsky and will watch anything he commits to film at this point. I was never on the fence to begin with.