Seems to me the movie was pretty clear that the prawns can't get jobs at McDonald's or "work within the system" because the system forbids them from doing anything like that.    There's no outreach program to teach prawns to become part of human society, and no effort to acclimate humans to the idea either.   

While it was also difficult for people living under apartheid to better their situation, it was at least possible.   And Japanese-Americans in WWII internment camps also had some options, for example they could still enlist in the military, and so on.     The prawns' situation is more like a Nazi concentration camp, there's no path to a better life available to them at all - they can only survive, if that.

It's also suggested that the prawns don't organize to use their weapons to force the humans to release them because its simply not their nature, they need their leader caste to organize them to do it, and there aren't any.  The most the worker prawns can do is act out in unfocused, disorganized ways, as seen in the news report when some rogue prawns harass humans at a gas station.

I had no problem with the prawns being so unlikable myself, that to me is what the movie is dealing with - to us they're downright disgusting and unlikable and never will be able to "blend in" to human society, so what do we do with them?    Are they worthy of any respect, should we at least try to make a place for them, or do we just warehouse them and hope they die off?  Or just call it quits and exterminate them?   

It's a tough question and the movie never offers "the answer" to it, because there may not be one.   Instead it tells a small-scale story that suggests there are still ways that humans and prawns can interact and relate to one another, because if you look close enough they do have traits that we can recognize and empathize with.  At the very least, they're intelligent beings that deserve better than what they're getting.

Dude, that's racist.

FYI, the fan-of-all-things-Asylum "Committed" blog has come up with a fun little diversion he's calling the Looney awards, with nominees in various categories selected from all of Asylum's 2010 releases.   

Moby got a few nominations (tho not as many as others... Shane Van Dyke was on FIRE this year. ) and the final voting is to be done by blog readers sending their votes via email. 

To recap:   Looney Awards.  Moby nominated.  Anyone can vote.

Just sayin'.

I think this guy wants to capture some of that Red Letter Media vibe, with less than perfect success... but I love that he used 2010 Moby Dick as his subject.   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLZdNwKwJgU

I give extra bonus points for being yet another review that says it's the best movie Asylum has ever made....

Damn right I do.   

/five

I'm a big fan of having the key content of a site on the main page, whatever site that might be, so that consumers don't have to look hard to find what they came for.   So I agree with keeping the list of available commentaries most prominent on the front page, because (I assume) that's what most people will be looking for when they go to zarban.com.   

That said, an alphabetical click-thru is probably a good idea, because the list of commentaries is so long.    A random person might come to the site thinking "i wonder if there's a commentary for Wuthering Heights?" and hitting the W link will probably get them an answer faster than scrolling.

I also think, while we're on the topic, that that functionality is sorely lacking on DIF's page.   The archive section is far from ideal - unless you can recognize the tiny thumbnail of a movie's poster, it's very difficult to tell what commentaries are available here.   There aren't even <IMG> tags to pop up the movie title on mouse rollover.   Hell, I know what movies we've done and I have a hard time finding a particular one when I want to.  So it'd be nice to have an alphabetical text list option available here as well.

For Teague was easily swayed by the ancient meme that the LOTR movies were "all about walking".   And in the end, it consumed him...

[Seriously, get Cate in here to do these voiceovers.]

I am very much on board with the marathon idea already.  Just within the past couple of months I've watched all three extended versions, along with all of the ancillary materials which is like a millionty-three hours of stuff.   I'm as keen to do a LOTR marathon as a dwarf is keen to chase orcs.

I've advocated Lethal Weapon more than once, I think it's a true classic.  But some of these kids I work with haven't even seen it.  ptui.

One of the areas where my movie-making knowledge is lacking is the topic of lenses.   I happily lean on the DP to deal with that, I just say stuff like "let's go wider" and they do something with pieces of glass that makes the picture embiggenate.  This is clearly some kind of dark wizardry and it frightens me.

So if you're looking for an answer like "we used the Canon Wogambo kit with a custom spleetch extender" then I can't help you.  Unless what I just said sounded like it could be true, in which case we'll go with that.   

But if you were looking for a more general answer, then I can say it looked to me like the same kinda lens package that I've seen being used on other shoots. So once or twice during the shoot I would get sneaky and say something like "let's try this with a 50" as if I knew what the hell that meant.   If I didn't like the result, then I would say "hmm, nah, let's go wider".  It seemed to work, and I recommend this clever trick to all directors.

Also, the lenses were all kept in a gray metal box with some writing on it, if that helps?

Just discovered Moby is now available on iTunes. 

Just, y'know, fyi.

Could have done all five with just Jim Carrey, but to play fair:

1.  Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Jim Carrey)
2.  Requiem for a Dream (Marlon Wayans)
3.  Hollywood Shuffle (Kim Wayans)
4.  Quiz Show (Kelly Coffield)
5.  Beverly Hills Cop (Damon Wayans)

Next:  Top Five awful performances by great actors