I noticed the currency thing too. Pre-decimalization British currency was pretty confusing. Don't forget the "ha'penny" and "groat" in addition to pounds, shillings, and pence! 30 pounds would have been about a year's wages for a good job (Cratchit made 39 pounds a year as clerk), so it's hard to imagine too many people owing Scrooge that much. Scrooge & Marley's was some unspecified sort of investment business, probably a bit of import/export and commodities investing, real estate, and smalltime moneylending (he is "welcome" at the London Stock Exchange and has a warehouse, probably for loan collateral and wholesale goods).

Yeah, I wrote that December 2010 and posted on the forum. (Nobody cared. ) Yours is of course quite different, and the original is already a ghost story; it's not that big a leap to make it a horror story.

Great beginning!

I think the twist works just fine. The thing that might work better is establishing why this Camaro-American man needs to be in a hurry. He seemed quite leisurely in the first half.

By the way, what sort of microphones do potential participants have? I have a high-quality Samson USB mike. The Snowball USB mikes are also very good. Headset mikes vary broadly.

Sound quality on these depends to a great extent on everyone having a decent mike and knowing how to avoid puffing and whatnot.

Why should we care about theatrical ticket sales as opposed to overall revenue? That's like worrying that sex is in a slump even tho births are up just because fewer people are doing it missionary style.

/was planning on making that analogy about cars
//not sure what happened

Now I've just watched Pirates 4. It was fairly fun, but the storytelling was weirdly inept. Characters waft about on the perimeters for most of the movie and then are trumped up as important. Motivations and loyalties are murky at best. Magic beans are sort of hand-waved into existence (zombiefied deck officers? a prophecy?).

Just watched Super 8. Down in Front really needs to do that and play spot-the-Spieldberg. First one to 20 points wins.

Really? I don't remember it that way. I thought it was fine, and I kind of LIKE the second movie, even tho I agree with all the criticism. (I even immediately watched the third one again after the recording session, partly because I totally dig Keira Knightley in that Chinese suit.)

/add "Keira" and "Knightley" to spelling dictionary

This was great!

I also am a fiend for crew commentaries. I listen to them less now than I used to, but I still listen to nearly every commentary on nearly every movie that I buy. And I too frequently buy DVDs almost solely because they have commentaries.

One of the things that bugs me about it-was-so-cold commentaries is that these are usually Californians talking, and I'm from the snowbelt. I'm betting it WASN'T all THAT cold, so screw you. (I offer obvious exceptions to Kurt Russell on The Thing and the crew of Empire Strikes Back.)

The English Patent
Rory Butcher (Steve Coogan) takes out a patent on being English and tries to get all English people to pay him for the privilege of having tea and saying “brilliant” and “bollocks” and “wanker”. He is roundly denounced in Parliament by Michael Caine, who explains a lot of things about being English that not many people know.

Weekend at Ernie’s
Young producers fired from the BBC (Elijah Wood and Tom Felton) use arcane magic to resurrect the corpses of British broadcasting legends Morcambe and Wise. Over a weekend at a beach house formerly owned by Ernie Wise, they learn to puppet and command the zombies convincingly enough to avoid being murdered by a hit man AND create a hit comedy show.

The Station Gent
An American woman (Kate Hudson) about to embark on a scenic train ride across England meets a dapper Englishman (Jude Law) who turns out to be an impoverished East End actor hired by the tour company to give tourists a taste of Jolly Olde England. He redeems himself to her by beating up some chavs.

Look, I will use this new power, but I will not abuse it.

By the way, Teague, please extend franking privileges to Brian. Don't ask; it's complicated.

You were right on the money, Seth.

/Teague, give him a dollar

Corps Bride
Amber Heard is a lesbian Marine who fights sexism, homophobia, and—from both senator Paul Reubens and superior officer Kristanna Loken—sexual harassment. She endures all to get the chance to marry the love of her life, Tila Tequila. Key scene: "I'm a lesbian, Senator." "I know you are. But what am I?"

A Few God Men
A Scientologist chaplain in the US Navy prosecutes a tight-knit group of Catholic chaplains for unspeakable crimes of the usual sort. Key scene: "You can't fondle the youth!"

Ra, NCIS
The Egyptian god of the sun comes to earth and joins the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, accompanied by Set, his donkey-headed companion, who travels inconspicuously by taking the form of a talking mule. Key scene: "O great Ra, we have built a temple in your honor, as you have commanded! Will you now investigate the case of a petty officer's wife whose body was found in a submerged car?"