Jimbo wrote:

The thing that really Pissed me off about the remake robocop had a taser gun. why would you give robocop a funkin taser gun?

Robocop is not worthy to sniff the gum under Dredd's boot

It's impossible to spoil this. Everyone already knew a year ago this was DOA, as soon as it was announced that it'd be PG13.

http://redlettermedia.com/half-in-the-bag-robocop/

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(38 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Back to the Future
Just don't call him yella. Or a mofo. 'Specially not a yella mofo.

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(38 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Mulholland Drive
You figure it out

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(373 replies, posted in Off Topic)

I'm sorry, we're going to have to let you go...

http://www.theonion.com/articles/humani … god,35230/

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(135 replies, posted in Off Topic)

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/arts … 4021083429

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(11 replies, posted in Off Topic)

Systematic Murder: Inhabitants' Lands Emptying

PRUDE, to describe a lewd sex act

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Amassed Wardeaths Empties Syria Or Middle East

A White Eastern Shark Oppresses Me Eternally

Angelic Wood Elves Smash Orcs' Meaty Entrails

Next, NOLAN to describe a movie

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(23 replies, posted in Off Topic)

We're gathered here because we love movies. We love the craft, the escapism, the spectacle, Plato's shadows on a cave wall, etc.

But in the last few years, there's been just as much anguish and ambivalence. We also hate movies - the bland remakes, nothing-but-superheroes, too many zombies and vampires, the overuse of CG, the by-the-numbers construction, the hacks, the hams, the shoddy storytelling, the disrespect for the material, etc.

So the question is, when was the last 'Perfect' movie? When every set-up paid off to end satisfactorily? When all the elements clicked: the casting, the score, the screenplay, the effects. Ideally the perfect movie will have surprises, yet be re-watchable many times. It'll usually have depth and heart and ideas as well as spectacle. It'll push the envelope of the craft in some new direction. It'll have something iconic (a performance, a line, a scene) that leaps over into pop culture. Often a perfect movie will also both have mainstream and cult respect, giving it a combination of box office and critical success.

There are plenty of examples 'Perfect' movies from the past: Raiders, Back to the Future, Star Wars, Terminator 1&2, Alien(s), Jurassic Park, Pirates 1, Fight Club.

When was the last movie to join those classics?

I was thinking maybe The Dark Knight. It ticks a lot of boxes. But it lacks a little heart and tries to compress two movies' worth of plot into its running time.

So I'm going to nominate The Return of the King. It delivers on every level, and no movie since then has matched it.

http://theathleticnerd.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/The-Return-of-the-King-Sam-Carries-Frodo.jpg

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Withkittens wrote:

Blind faith (i.e willful ignorance, i.e stupidity) is quite possibly the largest detriment to the human race. /rant

Diderot said (in French) in the 18th century: Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.

Emile Zola later wrote something similar (also in French): Civilization will not attain to its perfection until the last stone from the last church falls on the last priest

Probably slightly over-aggressive for modern tastes and a tad exaggerated, but colourful & quotable nonetheless.

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These knuckleheads don't just have cardboard and bad spelling. They also have a megaphone...

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Anyone who's got 2.5 hours to waste can see Bill Nye (the Science Guy) struggle to wade through an avalanche of bullshit from a dickhead Australian Creationist...

The main argument was over the age of the Earth. The chief tactic of the douchebag was to muddy the waters by referring to one supposedly anomalous dating result many years ago and this is supposed to discredit all of science. He claims you can't know anything about things you can't observe i.e. the past. If you freeze frame his Powerpoint slides and actually read them, they're full of lies, but it's all too much for Bill Nye to handle in real-time given the time constraints of a formal debate.
In any case, all these debates are ultimately futile. Those that want to believe in mumbo-jumbo will continue to do so. The internet allows anyone with genuine curiosity and critical self-reflection to already have come to their own conclusions.

iJim wrote:

It's not a sustainable relationship. Hermione would get bored with Ron.

Redheads never get the hot birds, or do they...

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(4 replies, posted in Episodes)

O Children

Ron could have loved Luna real good

http://www.bforbel.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Luna.jpg

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Eddie wrote:

I SO do not get the Affleck hate.

I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror

http://i60.tinypic.com/23l0a4y.gif

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(121 replies, posted in Episodes)

Doctor Submarine wrote:

The villains could have gotten away with being broad caricatures if the rest of the world was just as broad. But it isn't. It's a very realistically gritty world, and cartoonish bad guys don't fit into that at all. It's a major disconnect.

Ever seen Fox News for, like, 20 minutes? It's full of cartoon villains that are beyond parody.  big_smile

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(121 replies, posted in Episodes)

It's a movie - and standard movie grammar is that everything is heightened, exaggerated and accelerated. The douchebag has to be a cartoon asshole, the hottie has to be a supermodel, the smart one has to be a genius, the rich guy has to be multi-billionaire, the punching has to be bone-crunchingly over-the-top, the witty banter is too perfect, and so on.
We give movies a pass on this exaggeration effect all the time. They all virtually do this, so I don't see why Elysium is singled out for not reflecting the rich-poor dynamic exactly 100% For all intents and purposes, it's effectively the same. Rich westerners COULD save more lives with minimal effort if they wanted to, but don't. It's a metaphor. The rich ring world is a gated community. Perhaps the problem is that it was too obvious (we weren't allowed to work it out for ourselves), but the relevance to Earth's inequality still holds IMO.
My problems with the movie were more to do with the good guy v bad guy punch-up, the choppy editing, the need for that mech-suit (back to superhero superpowers yet again), the lame love story, the Jodie Foster acting, the lack of detail re: internal politics on the ring world, etc. But the rich-poor dynamic wasn't that much of a hindrance, for me anyway.

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(121 replies, posted in Episodes)

We just learned in the last week that just 85 people have the combined wealth of the bottom 50% (3.5 billion) people.
I agree with sellew - many of the mega-wealthy would rather buy their 50th vintage car, gold-plate their taps, fly by interior-designed private jet, etc than lift a finger to help the poorest realize their own opportunities. We still see millions dying of preventable diseases. If you looked at the spending behind FIYH's malaria-athon choice of charity, it's quite easy to save lives, but we in the west don't do it enough. Bill Gates is trying, as are a few others (e.g. eradication of polio) but for every virtuous philanthropist, there's the Koch Brothers or Rupert Murdoch.

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Yeah, I've heard almost all of them but never once synced to any movie. Travelling, commuting, queuing, chores (e.g. shopping) are the activities that FIYH accompany and alleviate.  big_smile

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kick it while it's down...

http://hollywoodandswine.com/34-actors- … -instinct/

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Doctor Submarine wrote:

Hey, I just remembered a detail from the movie that I'm sure you science nerds will LOVE.

The finale is predicated on the impending reanimation of this Frankenstein's Monster Army. The demons need bodies to possess so that they can return to Earth, but those bodies are useless if they aren't alive (?) so they need a body that's alive but that doesn't have a soul (???). So there's a ticking clock element introduced when the villain starts the reanimation process, and we see an LED screen on each of the machines that reads "0% REANIMATED."

And it starts going up. "1% REANIMATED. 2% REANIMATED."

Meanwhile your brain is doing the same thing, in reverse.

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(30 replies, posted in Off Topic)

http://www.theonion.com/articles/aaron- … vie,35072/

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(121 replies, posted in Episodes)

redxavier wrote:

Not many directors are good with action direction these days - Michael Bay is pretty bad at it (or is now) and Peter Jackson isn't terribly good either (either in the LOTR or Hobbit).

The best I've seen recently is The Raid.

Matrix and 300. Give me it to me sloooow and smoooooth and sliiiiiick

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With any luck it might be 'so bad it's good', but you don't get many of those these days. More 'so bad, it's time to have a shower'.
It might be okay to flick through on Netflix one day so you can enjoy the nerd-snark when all the critics rip into it e.g. it's a portent of the demise of the western civilization.