Anyway... Gabrielle Anwar is one of my favourite people in the world.

Just to further Dorkman's rebuttal point above, science fiction stories are usually allegories for contemporary issues rather than literal representations. The prawns remind us of the apartheid, but they're not supposed to be a direct substitute for those under apartheid.

So calling the film racist for its portrayal of the prawns is taking the allegory too far. After all, prawns fly space in ships and black South Africans don't.

Crazy thought, but have you guys considered doing any of the Bond films?

I'm hearing-impaired as well. Can barely hear anything using just my left ear. And would you know it... it's always my right ear/headphone that breaks first.

Return of the Jedi is probably the weakest entry in the OT, but it still has some great moments. All the Luke and Vader stuff is right up there amongst the best of Star Wars and the space battle, oh my. There's a shot of a few fighters flying across the Death Star surface, an X-wing darting in and around towers and pylons and then diving into the superstructure entrance that is just... fucking brilliant.

It's hands down the best special effects shot of the entire series (and possibly ever).

For the commentary, I guess you could talk about the aborted sequel trilogy and Lucas' growing ennui over Star Wars, about Lucas' divorce and its effect on the editing, about the transformation of Star Wars into a merchandise-driven enterprise, about how the experience of ESB changed Lucas' approach and resulted in him getting gun-for-hire Richard Marquand instead of someone who would make the film their own... also, you could probably mention how Lucas ended Star Wars prematurely to go on to make other 'independment art' films and yet 30 years later he's done nothing else in his career but exploit Star Wars in some way or another (and Indiana Jones).

In terms of storytelling, Jedi is a bit of an oddity because it doesn't really follow the 3-act structure. It's first half is like an extended James Bond intro, with the heroes all getting involved in an adventure that has very little to do with the main plot. It's only at the midpoint of the film that we are told what this story is about, ruining the Emperor's day and winning the war. And I find that unusual.

Performance-wise, in this one it's Ford and Fisher that don't do quite so well, whilst Hamill knocks it out of the park. Ian McDiarmid's Emperor was a truly terrifying character and I distinctly remember that it was him more than anything else in Star Wars that scared me, the way he grits his teeth as he's killing Luke in particular. It's not a subtle performance, but it's definitely minimalist - which is the complete opposite from his acting in the prequel trilogy where it's over the top and almost pantomime.

Definitely... at the moment they really need funding. Their first major challenge is to make a full scale prototype and prove the concept of their heat exchanger works, the key to making the two-in-one engine work.

The folks at Reaction Engines also have a concept for a mission to Mars which is pretty cool (though I'm not sure why they advocate the ludicrously more expensive method of launching 3 simultaneous missions).

There are some other advanced propulsion concepts. VASIMIR is an electro-magnetic thruster which promises a very cheap way of pushing stuff around in orbit, and will soon be tested on the ISS.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasimir

Then there's some sort of fancy laser-propelled concept, which sounds pretty far off but could be something interested. Reminds me of an 80s anime called Odin, where much of the space travel in our solar system was being done along these laser highways.

Weight and costs are major obstacles that we'll need to overcome to fully get out there. Moving away from solid and chemical fuel rockets is definitely the way to go.

Otherwise... we're going to need some help from outside:

For another first milestone, the shuttle Discovery is going to be taking up the first humanoid robot, called the Robonaut in February (or whenever they sort out the leakage problems and clear it for flight).. which will also mark Discovery's final flight.

And another wow moment for you. Voyager 1, launched in 1977, is approaching the edge of our Solar System. It's now a staggering 10.8 billion miles away from our Sun! It's such a long way away now that even if it did want to come home, it would take another 30 years. The mind boggles at just trying to imagine how many football fields that is.

I liked this quite a lot, and probably like it more than any of his other movies (I think True Romance is his best script) - mainly because of the first scene and the scene in the tavern. They are well written, smart, and full of tension.

There are two ways she can get recognition. First is to persuade Duane to put her name back on as Co-Director. The second is to create a loud scandal that tells everyone what she did on the film, a viral message that tells the story behind the story. The two are mutually exclusive, and the latter course is an awful idea.

Even if the reasons behind Duane's turnabout are bullshit,  going behind his back is going to rub the right people up the wrong way. She might be the greatest editor in world, but if she gets a reputation as 'that woman who raised a stink about being co-director', then her career could suffer. Especially so if the reasons aren't credit-stealing bullshit and more "well, she was only in the editing room and didn't actually direct anything". If she tries to damage Duane's reputation then he'll just come after her - and that's a battle she'll lose.

And there's no guarantee that her story will even be heard by those she wants it to reach. I bet Jessica isn't the only person to feel that she's getting short-changed, but I've never heard a story where, say, some assistant DoP finally achieved recognition for the look of a film he felt he influenced more than the DoP.

If she can't persuade Duane to give her due recognition, then she should just take the editor credit and move on. It's just not worth it at this point in her career. And yeah, don't work with the arsehole again.

Don't mean to put you on the spot there.

I've got to give it to them, they don't let a lack of money affect  their ambition. On the other hand, that's probably the greatest flaw of all their movies. Usually you don't try to make a monster movie about a giant whale smashing cruise liners, submarines and helicopters on a shoestring budget. Usually, you play to your weaknesses rather than try to compete with those who do have the money. It seems almost every one of Asylum's movies is a special effects extravanga wannabe and yet that's precisely the type of movie that needs a bigger budget.  They feature almost hundred CGI SFX shots, which are the most difficult to get right. The best effect of the whole movie was the sliced off limb at the beginning.

I like it. Make it so! How much choreography have you done?

Would you guys consider doing commentaries for From the Earth to the Moon and the Right Stuff?