Out of curiosity, how many of the recent 3D converted films -- CLASH OF THE TITANS, ALICE IN WONDERLAND, PIRANHA, LAST AIRBENDER -- have you seen? I worked on two of the above; if you want to talk about what I "fucking know" about how STAR WARS 3D is likely to turn out, I can tell you, but you "fucking know" you don't want to hear it.

For my part, I'm no more interested in a 3D STAR WARS than I am in a colorized CASABLANCA.

I really think Brian's mistake was, as he himself has phrased it, reading into the movie instead of out from it.

Duncan Jones doesn't know that Brian Finifter wants to see "the APOLLO 13 that hasn't happened yet." It's not his fault that he didn't make the movie he had no idea Brian was going to think he was making.

We can't do that either.

Well, Al Franken can. But the rest of us not so much.

I also have been to Loch Ness and seen nothing.

I'm just making an analogy. It was less addressed to you than to the people who think subtle differences in similar appearances should be instantly obvious to everyone else just because they themselves have daily experience with them.

Not naming names but Gregory.

Yes, that's my point. I said without a cultural cue -- or, to complicate things, with a misleading cultural cue -- I'm not gonna be able to tell the vast majority of the time, unless like you say they look REALLY [whatever they are]. Hearing the language would be a cultural cue.

Unless they're wearing a kilt and carrying bagpipes. Then I think it's justifiable to go "Hey, it's a Scottish guy."

By the same token, which Asian culture is most closely associated, stereotypically, with schoolgirls?

My grade school, high school, and college all had a big Asian population and the majority of my best friends throughout my life have been Asian. I don't say that in the "some of my best friends are Asian" way of exonerating myself from racism, I say that to mention that I've spent a lot of time in my life among many people of varying Asian descent, but to this day, if you showed me a picture of an Asian person I don't know -- without a cultural cue of some kind, just looking at the person's face -- I couldn't tell what their heritage was if my life depended on it.

I'm sure if I, for example, lived in Japan for several years, I'd get a better frame of reference on the differences and with daily exposure they would be apparent to me at a glance. But I haven't, so they aren't.

Which I don't think is particularly unique to Asians, despite the stereotype. I also couldn't tell an Ethiopian African from a Liberian African, nor could I distinguish a Brazilian from an Ecuadorian. I also couldn't tell a Welsh Caucasian from a Dutch Caucasian from a Canadian Caucasian. Unless I was familiar with their culture and they did something culturally significant, or I spent a lot of time there and began to see patterns in hereditary traits.

In the case of this film, we have a cluster of Asian girls in schoolgirl outfits as background extras in a gay French comic book future. The only cultural reference we have is the schoolgirl thing, and even that isn't particularly reliable given the aforementioned gayFrenchcomicbookness. So for lack of expertise in the nuances of the epicanthic fold, and trying to judge with Ruby Rhod all up in my grill, I don't think it was an unreasonably "culturally insensitive" comment to make in passing.

Also replicated more explicitly for THE DESCENT.

I'm sure it would be a simple matter of handwaving around it with a careful definition of what constitutes "highly" addictive substances.

But alcohol can get you fucked up and it's legal. You can't drive on alcohol. You can't very effectively learn while drunk. But it's legal.

So, why should cocaine be illegal if alcohol is legal? "It can get you fucked up" isn't an answer. I can see making the operation of heavy machinery illegal under the influence, as it is with alcohol already, but I don't see how it's the government's job to concern itself with whether or not you're going to class.

But you're fraternal, not identical, twins, which is a bit different.

I don't smoke pot, but the idea that alcohol should be legal and weed not is senseless, puritanical madness.

I say legalize it all, frankly. You want to get all fucked up in the comfort of your own home, go for it. You go outside and start trying to drive around that way, you get to go to jail just like if it was alcohol.

Oh, I thought that was going to be about the cats. But the movie's cool too. I guess.