Please bear with me.

In the 80's, I watched Star Wars many times on TV. I did not see films in a theater until I was in my late teens/early 20's. Do you recall Luke saying he saw a sandperson? What was he talking about? There is no sandperson on screen. The TV version cut that side of the film. It bugged me for over a decade until I finally saw a letterbox version of the film.

In Wild Wild West, the Fresh Prince is in a water tower with a lady early in the movie. It's unhygienic. It's highly unlikely anyone would do that. When the tower falls and he is unscathed, it is improbable. But, these things establish the style and tone of the movie. The fact that the naked sexy lady vanishes is...problematic. I am slightly invested in the character after seeing her all nakedy. A falling water tower could crush and kill someone. Did she die? Did she land just as safely, grab a blanket and run off? I don't know and I am left confused.

CinemaSins is just what they claim to be. They count the things in movies that they choose to call "sins". These are not an indicator of how amusing the movie will be, etc. But, there is often a correlation between high or low counts and good or bad movies (in my opinion of movie enjoyment). It's just like the audience % on RottenTomatoes. It suggests there may or may not be something you won't like. As an example, lots of things bugged me in HP and the Order of the Phoenix (the book also). Everything that took me out of the movie or annoyed me or broke my suspension of disbelief was mentioned by CinemaSins. I do not look for these things. The term 'fridge logic' confounded me for over a year as it occurred to me immediately that a fridge is not protection from an atomic blast; That simply being hurled a distance in a fridge would pulp poor Indy. As another example, the end of Edge of Tomorrow is deeply flawed and confusing. I may watch it again but I cannot call it a great movie, as a result. I see these things and it is my curse that I cannot stop seeing them. 

TREY:
I have loved your insights and value your experience.
If the following quotes refer only about people who broadcast about film mistakes, you are name-calling and insulting and it's pretty harsh.
However, if you are talking about everyone who notices these things, I'd like an apology. You are entitled to your opinion of nit-picking, but these are not things you say to a person unless you are trying to hurt them. You certainly hurt my feelings (and that is hard to admit).

"I'm going to hear from those jack-offs and who cares. That's just life. But, Fuck those people. Being one of those people I think is it's own punishment because what kind of human does that? I mean, if you're going to be one of those people that's fine."

"I would never have noticed that because I am a normal human being who, you know, has touched girls"

I'd like to think there is at least some tiny part of you that will read this and think "that's not what I meant" and that you'll say so. I think you know you can say very mean things and this time some of it was directed at people you didn't mean to hurt.

And, let's not gang up on me here, OK? I'm not a hippy, feely guy trying to get attention.

fireproof78 wrote:

Well, is that not the principle behind Species 8472 is to establish a force that actually is harmful to the Borg and makes us more sympathetic?

Personally, I'm going with a bias here of those who present the material. Because, in one view, we see the Borg who assimilate entire cultures in the name of perfection, or their view of it, and that is shown as villainous behavior. I'm really not inclined to argue against that point of view.

However, we are later presented with Species 8472, a force bent on destroying all life not like them. Despite the fact that the Borg are the aggressors, the point of view is one of sympathy as the Borg are facing annihilation. However, given previous encounters with the Borg, should we really be sympathetic?

Is Tatooine a part of the New Republic? Is was only a part of the Empire in name only, really.

Also, my question still remains, we are not Anakin and Anakin is not the average, everyday, person. He is a Jedi. Should a different standard be applied?

I don't pay attention to the psychotic adventures and ramblings that come from the Voyager mission. Remember that time they said traveling faster than light would turn you into a salamander? You might as well reference stories from The Onion.

Tatooine is a part of the New Republic in the sense that the New Republic is now the dominant regime in the galaxy.

No, a different standard shouldn't be applied when it comes to dealing with rapists who literally fuck people to death. Treating them with mercy would be vastly more immoral than swiftly ending their parasitic existence.

Invid wrote:

Ewing wrote:

Ask yourselves, why is it okay to exterminate Xenomorphs but wrong if it's a tribe of Tusken Raiders?

So many ways to answer this, but the idea that you're just trolling is too great. Not worth it.

Typical elitist New Republic response. You people have gotten to the point where it's only a matter of time until you stand up for the Borg's right to exist too.

Doctor Submarine wrote:

This is just life in Obama's Galaxy, Ewing.

I'm not saying things were better under the Empire but at least they knew how to handle obvious threats to their prosperity.

Well the real problem is there's no Ministry of Film Criticism that can hand down hard-and-fast definitions of these terms or settle disputes when gray areas arise. What is and isn't criticism, what the role of the critic is, etc., have always been exactly the questions critics have debated. Every critics' panel discussion I've ever been to addresses these exact questions. This conversation is as old as criticism itself.

Now technology has complicated these questions, but technology has always complicated these questions. (Watch Life Itself: S & E got shit from Richard Corliss and others for doing criticism on TV.) Since there is no ministry for film criticism that can just define these things by fiat, the prerequisite for debating these questions should be for everyone to first to acknowledge that to some extent these distinctions are subjective, informed by one's personal philosophy on art and art criticism. We can argue for our philosophy, beginning sentences with qualifiers like "To my mind" and such, but saying criticism absolutely IS this or a critic's job absolutely IS that, full stop (as if it were just a matter objective fact, binding on everyone without exception), isn't doing much because no critic is under any obligation to accept someone else's definitions for her own work. It's an ongoing conversation that will continue to evolve as the times do. It's not a discussion in which someone can just say "This is what it is, Q.E.D." Never has been.

Doctor Submarine wrote:

Does anyone want to talk about "unpopular opinions" as a concept? Personally, I love 'em. I spent too long shutting out the voices of anyone who disagreed with me. I think we need dissent to put our own opinions in context. If someone wants to argue the artistic value of the Transformers films, I'm all ears.

Agreed. I often go on Amazon and other such places to read negative reviews of things I like, and positive reviews of things I dislike. If the reviews are well-thought out and have valid points, I enjoy reading them and thinking about them; however, one has to separate the wheat from the chaff, to abuse a cliche, and avoid the uneducated/just plain trolling opinions. Those aren't enlightening for obvious reasons.

You could do a Christmas in July thing. Home Alone, It's a Wonderful Life, The Santa Clause.

And you've never done The Iron Giant, right? Why is this?

I'll second the request for Jumanji, as well. It really would be a good fit for you guys. And I recently got it from a thrift store so I can actually follow along for once.

Location photos and tests of the kids and lightsaber components.

http://public.fotki.com/Tysto/showdown- … ?view=roll

My thought is that Butterfly will come thru the overgrown part, and we track her up to the fallen tree. Niken lands in the clearing and goes after her. (I might try to find another location that is clear but less manicured. I didn't realize my brother-in-law had neatened up the area so much.) They fight either right by the fallen tree or on the stone path next to the pond. The stone wall there is great, but the reverse angle is a broken-down boat house.

As for the lightsabers, my plan is to paint the grips black and the add-on pieces silver for the Sith and copper for the Jedi. I'll use the tape on the blades. Since the pieces will come apart (they're PVC compression fittings), we can take them off the blade and put them on a scrap piece so there's just the handle for the activation and deactivation shots. We'll probably stiffen the PVC blades with a dowel rod or something.

How long should the blades be? The kids are about 5 feet tall.

EDIT: The things next to the tape are LED flashlights. They come apart and might be added to the grips for more bling, or just hung from the belts for show.