I posit that RUR is just Frankenstein, so the dichotomy should really be "Pinocchio or Frankenstein".

Which actually sounds like the greatest game show ever.   "Get ready to play.. Pinocchio or Frankenstein!"  *cue jazzy theme music*

So much so that  - I suddenly realize - it was  immortalized in an often-covered country song.   So that's what "The Battle of New Orleans" is about...

Go figure, most of my knowledge about the war of 1812 comes from a Charlie Daniels cover of a novelty tune.

I'd been getting this wrong my whole life, and only recently decided to study up on the English/British thing.   (But I maintain that my confusion of Angles and Saxons and Normans in the M&C commentary was just a misspeak.  I meant to say Normans, I really did.) 

But now I can say with certainty - until an actual Brit shows up to correct me  - that "English" applies only to someone from the actual country of England, while "British" includes Scotland and Wales (which along with England are collectively "Great Britain).    So a Scot is British, but not English.

And "The United Kingdom" is all of the above plus Northern Ireland. 

And finally the "British Commonwealth" is all of the above, plus a bunch of their former colonies including: (the rest of) Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, South Africa, etc.   

I'm pleased that I now finally know this.  I feel all worldly and shite.

An advantage of being an American is our own history is the easiest to learn in the whole damn world.  We had a war with England and became a country and then we had a war with ourselves and stayed a country and then we had a war with Germany and Japan and won, the end.   The rest is just cars, rock and roll, and a moon landing.   

I can only imagine how much harder it is to learn British history, for starters there's two thousand more years of it. Criminy.

and like a bat out of Hell, I'll be gone when the morning comes.

I actually like The Patriot quite a bit.   It's got some surprisingly brutal moments, and I like being brutally surprised. *

However, I can say with certainty that we won't be recording a commentary for Master and Commander anytime in the future. **

* in movies, not in real life, so don't get any ideas.

** think it through, it'll come to you...

Actually yeah - the dividing line between Pan's Labyrinth and Labyrinth is extremely thin.   They share a lot of the same problems - most everything maul2 just said about Labyrinth applies to Pan's Labyrinth as well.  Both movies are a lot of cool visuals in service of a story that doesn't hold together.   

And fairy tales - which both movies pretend to be - should be the simplest, most straightforward kinds of stories, all about action and consequence and overcoming a problem and learning a lesson therefrom.   

But instead, both Labyrinths are a collection of near-random events that meander about until they decide to roll the credits and let you get on with your life.    It's odd that the Henson people didn't sue del Toro for plagiarism.

For the last couple years I haven't expected to go and then some good reason comes up and I end up going after all.     

So far no plans for this year, but ya never know.

Hey, I went to film school too - in The Big Picture the movie that Kevin Bacon's character makes is the closest in style to my own awful film school movie. 

This topic is making me want to watch The Cowboys right now, but it's not on Netflix streaming, darn it.  (But The Big Picture is, hint hint.)   Also for those that care, The Cowboys was scored by that talented newcomer John Williams.

To Zarban you listen.   

However, on the topic of John Wayne specifically - while I'm not a fan of Westerns in general, Wayne's last three westerns are all worth watching.   The Cowboys, True Grit and The Shootist were '70's revisionist westerns that broke the established rules of the form.  And in all three Wayne played versions of himself - an old lion well past his prime, but who could still kick your ass if you crossed him.     

Even if those are the only John Wayne movies you ever watch, you can still see why he was the biggest star in Hollywood in his heyday.  The Cowboys might even get a slot on my all-time movie Top Ten List. If not top ten then darn close to it.

For the sticklers, yes, I left out Rooster Cogburn and The Lady, which is a sequel to True Grit and kind of a half-assed remake of the African Queen.    It might be worth a look but I don't think it's as good as the others.    However, it does co-star Katherine Hepburn, and she's another old-Hollywood actress who was truly one of a kind.

And for a glimpse of Wayne in his prime in an old-school Western, I think The Searchers still holds up surprisingly well.

The idea of a magic bean - at least the way we intended it when we coined the term, tho the concept itself we ripped off from Blake Snyder - is that it's the thing that requires no explanation.   

We called it a magic bean as a reference to Jack and the Beanstalk, in which magic beans grow a beanstalk up to the clouds overnight.    For the sake of the story, you just have to accept that that's what those beans do.     

Trying to actually give any real-life explanation of how in the hell that actually works is exactly the wrong thing to do, because there's really no way to justify that.   You're usually better off just saying, "it just works that way, deal with it".

A McGuffin is different, it doesn't have to be a magical thing.  It makes the plot happen, but that's nothing to do with what it IS.      So Marcellus Wallace's briefcase is a McGuffin.     It doesn't  matter what's in there, the actual contents don't affect the story in the least.   It only matters that everyone wants it and that's why the story happens.

No, but I won't go so far as saying "it sucks" because I can't make that case.  I only know I tried to watch it twice on DVD and lost interest halfway thru both times.   

Might give it another try someday, tho it's not very high on my to-do list.

Okay, all of you just SOTP it already.