This post has nothing to do with Jaws.  I'm suspicious.  And I really like John Carpenter's Vampires.  But no one seems to remember that.

Didn't even recognize it as her while I was watching.  I hope that was some method acting.

Each individual element is great. 

Like Doc, I don't know jack about computer effects, but to my eye it looked good, if not a touch video-gamey.  I see enough there that I'd feel comfortable bringing you in on a project.  But you'd have to work faster than 6 months per shot.

Also, I have no idea why the ship lands in the mountains and then she's under a city bridge... or why it looks like Mars in the ship shot, then magic hour in Canada... but I assume you had $0 budget.   So you're forgiven.

Don't knock the personal shopper - my friend started a company called Trunk Club and is making a killing.  You might want to check that site out, Matt.  You could probably do something similar with what you're talking about.

But know your audience.  No one who makes under 80k a year is going to hire personal researchers.

The idea, as is, sounds ok.   Going off of what Zarban said, a Rotten Tomatoes for products could be really interesting.  Take all the review sites for, say iPads and consumer cameras, etc, and give an overall rating.

Dunno.  I'll think about it.

Old Lady:  I was talking to Zeus the other day and he thinks youre a bad influence on me.

Mike:  That's interesting because I think he's a bad influence on you.

Old Lady: In what way?

Mike:  He makes you think the voices in your head are real.

Teague:  Well, I have a couple ideas.  I'll make it and you guys can decide what, if anything, you want to do with it.

Doc: At least two of the wandering shots feel SO excessive.  But that could be because I've seen it so many times.  I lost perspective.

John:  Man, the sound was a pain in the ass.  Especially since I had to learn FCP while I was doing it.  I had toyed with FCP a few years ago when I was recutting a Spider-Man trailer.  But I bit off more than I could chew.  One of the reasons I didn't just edit this down is because I didn't know how to work the multi audio tracks - I was mixing the song track WITH the quotes.  I screwed something up that if I cut the music track, the quotes got wacky.  Whatever. 

Sure.  If you don't mind downtown Chicago.  While there isn't much of a film industry, they DID film Transformers 3 in front of my condo.  I woke up one morning and my childhood was under the balcony.

For the most part, pleasant matters to me because, outside of a working environment/paying bills, being correct or incorrect rarely means jack on the personal-level.  I could have a proof that shows god doesn't exist.  That won't change anyone's mind today or tomorrow.  It's like that guy who stores vast amounts of trivia and waits for the moment to correct someone.  Rarely is it for the benefit of the corrected.  It's to make the corrector feel better about himself.  That's what a lot of these types of debates become.  Pissing contests.  Not here, of course, because we're civilized, damnit.

Fair enough.  You're a smart dude, Mike - and it would be unfair for me to expect you to know advanced economics or radiology.  That's not your expertise.  However, you're making an assumption that he hasn't mulled over it critically.  You might be right.  I don't know.  It was hard enough to get him to look at me as an undergrad student, much less sign off on my work… much less ask him about god.  And you're also right that smart people are good at defending whatever the hell they want.  It's hard to be challenged when you're smarter than everyone around you, can see systems, can poke holes, and can find intellectual refuge.  But these are a lot of negative assumptions. 

Man. We've really gotten off track. 

One of the reasons I latched on to what Matt said is because in the commentaries I've noticed an annoying trend where anyone who has a sense of faith gets dismissed as an idiot.  Granted, this is usually a theoretical idiot.  But there are smart people who believe in dumb things.  Why dismiss them wholesale?   I mean, you like Super Mario Bros - no one is perfect.

When I said "a lot," I was speaking from personal experience.  On the whole, you could be right.  If I get a chance I'll do a JSTOR search for studies, or suggest it to someone getting a PhD in one of the social sciences as a research topic.  But I'm willing to bet money it's more than very, very few.  And there is a difference between religion, faith, and agnosticism.  For the sake of this thread, I was speaking in terms of religion.  But again, you're assuming no one else is applying critical thinking.  Granted, for most people that's true.  Hell, I'm not even critically thinking through this reply.  Hitler!

The major problem with organized religion is the "everything I don't believe in is evil" attitude.  So yeah.  I try to avoid it.

EDIT - I'm sorry the thread has become this.  I'M SO SORRY.

This.  Hard.  Teague: from a more civilized time.

Thought of another one.  Titanic should be remade from Jack's perspective.  He was conning Rose the whole time, and Billy Zane was right.

PLEASE say you have video of that outro.  Please. 

A Calvin & Hobbes that hops Calvin on Prozac... that probably leaves you with a really slow, depressing, non-fanciful 2nd act.  And has C&H ever really been about the value of imagination?  Obviously it's the gear that makes the comic turn, but if anything, his escapism causes him to screw up in school and with people.

I'd rather see a movie where C's overindulgence of imagination has led him to neglect a real world McGuffin and is at a crisis point with reality.  The third act would be finding some balance between responsibility and flights of fancy.  Or harnessing his flights of fancy to solve the problem. 

I dunno, sorry.  It's all I could think about once you guys mentioned it.

So yeah.  Howard the Duck.  Was my first time watching.  Won't be doing that again.

EDIT:  The more I think about it, the more I kind of like Prozac C&H - like Clockwork Orange, but with kids.  Clockwork Orange and Black Tail.