But now I shall call MasterZap "MasterZangstromp"!

Meh. "How we got there" IS a type of frame story. Imagine if the Titanic frame story ended not with old Rose wistfully remembering Jack with an idiotic empty gesture but with the same iceberg crashing into the dock, coming ashore, and running amok. Same thing (and way better than Cameron's version).

And LAZY? HOW DARE YOU, SIR? I say lazy is opening with a completely unrelated scene of a little girl getting nipped by compies off-screen.

/tucks umbrella under arm, smooths mustache, and stalks off

Finished watching.

I think the movie just needed another draft. Smooth out Ian’s motivations, dump Kelly entirely, eliminate some of the red shirts (Aliens-style massacre, maybe), and punch up the dialog (only Goldblum got decent lines).

If Spielberg wanted to bring a T-rex back, then make that central to the story by becoming the third act and not a superfluous fourth ("Your girlfriend went to stop my nephew!"). The panel is right that the ship crash would be a great opening scene, but you could do that by making it a frame story. Start there, then go "ONE MONTH EARLIER" and get rid of the rich picnickers.

Inception was great fun, guys! And thanks to the chat room!

/now trying to get Eleventh Doctor's theme out of my head
//hey, anybody else notice that DiCaprio and Nolan look a lot alike?

I think the difference is that the temple isn't sneaking around in the dark and killing people for a while before being revealed.

Having thuggees sneaking around in the jungle as the heroes travel and then attacking one night, killing and running off the porters, would have probably helped the pacing quite a bit, assuming something else could have been trimmed, like the river run earlier or some of the Lao Che stuff.

Those are two complete sentences. Using a mere comma would make it a single run-on sentence.

Grammatical

• DORKMAN KNOWS THAT [negative space] NOW YOU KNOW THAT

• DORKMAN KNOWS THAT. NOW YOU KNOW THAT.

• DORKMAN KNOWS THAT; NOW YOU KNOW THAT.

• DORKMAN KNOWS THAT—NOW YOU KNOW THAT.

• DORKMAN KNOWS THAT, AND NOW YOU KNOW THAT.

Also, "every time" is two words.

See me after class.

On what? JEALOUSY? Ha! No, seriously, I agree.

Fincher seems very competent but always going for something that doesn't quite resonate with me.

And LA Confidential was terrific but just a bit too arch to be great. It was like the late-90s swing dancers who went a little too far playing dress-up.

Collateral is a classic case of a psychological thriller that falls apart in the third act because the writer was trying too hard to tie everything up with a bow.

Heh heh heh. I've dinged Nolan before myself, altho I mainly like his work. But putting Parker and Stone on the list is just bizarre. I don't love everything they've done, but they are absolute masters at storytelling.

Heh heh heh. That's my point, tho. You can't yada-yada-yada the Vader-Luke fight. It's got THINGS in it!

I will say that, sometimes, action-for-the-sake-of-action is great. Because maybe it's the payoff to some build-up ("Don't make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry.") or speaks to character in a broad way ("Oh shit. Everybody HOLD ON!") or whatever.

Still, a GREAT action scene is certainly one that has THINGS in it. The hero unmasks the baddie, shows his mettle, saves somebody, stops the monster, or whatever.

That is a great way of looking at things. That makes me think differently about movies.

I'm not saying I completely agree, but it's something I will have to think about.

Okay, I'm willing to give this flick a shot. Filmspotting liked it too.* So why are we all surprised that it might not be terrible? Just Gyllenhaal? His Donnie Darko street cred has worn off? Did he catch Nick Cage Disease?

*They don't know much about genre films.

It's been so long since this was recorded, I think I'll have to listen to it again. I can't remember anything that was said other than JGL seemed to be enjoying himself.