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You can't necessarily make a good movie with a handful of guys and some talent.

Have a look at the recent Half Life short movie or movies like The Man from Earth or Primer, you very definitvly can make a good movie with a tiny budget. The only real disadvantage that a movie seems to have is that you need to have all the crew in the same place at the same time, while a game can be developed by people connected via the internet and can recycle lots of content from the parent game. But of course, a tiny movie budget won't give you the next Star Wars any more then a tiny game budget will give you the next Half Life, that however doesn't mean they can't be good in their own way.

including paying or compensating actors.

That's like saying you can't make a game without compensating the programmers and artists, but you very definitively can, because there are plenty people who do it for the fun of it, not the money.

TV shows will make great use of it... The ultimate of reality TV!

In 1973, D.G. Compton published an excellent sci-fi novel, The Unsleeping Eye or The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe, about a TV show in which a terminally ill woman will be filmed until her death. This will draw a huge audience in a world where almost all diseases can be cured. The woman runs away after signing the contract and a journalist with a camera implanted in his eye will arrange to locate her and, impersonating a compassionate lover, film the woman's agony without her being aware of it.

As good as the book was the 1980 movie, Death watch (La mort en direct) , directed by Bertrand Tavernier, with Romy Schneider and Harvey Keitel.

I don't have a problem with violence in good movies, e.g. I liked Eastern Promises immensely. It has good characters and an essentially redemptive message. What I do I have a problem with is violence in things like Sin City which doesn't really have any message or originality at all. It's like porn really, except its about violence rather than sex.

That said I liked 300. It's all kinds of a bad movie but it's so over the top it was fun. Also most of the recipients of the violence kind of deserved it and the violence was, to use a phrase that is often used about nudity, integral to the plot.

I don't have a problem with violence in good movies, e.g. I liked Eastern Promises immensely. It has good characters and an essentially redemptive message. What I do I have a problem with is violence in things like Sin City which doesn't really have any message or originality at all. It's like porn really, except its about violence rather than sex.

That said I liked 300. It's all kinds of a bad movie but it's so over the top it was fun. Also most of the recipients of the violence kind of deserved it and the violence was, to use a phrase that is often used about nudity, integral to the plot.

I don't have a problem with violence in good movies, e.g. I liked Eastern Promises immensely. It has good characters and an essentially redemptive message. What I do I have a problem with is violence in things like Sin City which doesn't really have any message or originality at all. It's like porn really, except its about violence rather than sex.

That said I liked 300. It's all kinds of a bad movie but it's so over the top it was fun. Also most of the recipients of the violence kind of deserved it and the violence was, to use a phrase that is often used about nudity, integral to the plot.

You've always believed this? Wait, how old are you? Right... you're at least older than 20, so then if you've always believed that 20 years from when you first started believing it that we'd have all have persistent video, then that would mean we already have it!? What are you hiding? What secret online store do I have to visit to get it? Do I gotta be a spook and have some security clearance, or be secretly enslaved to the CIA once I have it?

I haven't seen it yet, but I'm going to see it as soon as I can. I was hoping this wouldn't get screwed up, and signs indicate that it hasn't.

The surest way to screw it up would have been to get Tim Burton or Paul Verhoeven to direct it; they don't seem to be able to make a movie based on a book without wanting to change things and put their own fingerprints on it. (I'd love to watch a Starship Troopers movie. Too bad we didn't actually get one.)

Verhoeven thought the militarism of the the Starship Troopers and their absolute contempt for their enemies reminds him of the SS troopers that "invaded his homeland". His version of Starship Troopers is a parody. The Federation in the movie are the bad guys, they've started an unnecessary war and vastly underestimated their opponent's strengths. What we're watching at the start of the movie is propaganda from inside a fascist society that is in the middle of its own version of the Nazis defeat at Stalingrad. Now I know the Heinlein was no Nazi, but I think the idea that only veterans can vote would be more likely to lead to an militarist, imperialist society than the libertarian one he presumably favoured. Heinlein's design principle for society was wrong. What I liked about the movie was the way it was marketed as Beverly Hills in space versus big bugs, but it's actually much darker. As Verhoeven put it "we used to to joke that action movies are fascist so I decided to make a fascist action movie".

That article at sff.net you linked to completely misses this. You miss this too, even though after 9/11 I saw numerous conversation on American TV which seemed to echo this scene

NET CORRESPONDENT: Some say the bugs were provoked by human attempts to colonize within the AQZ, that a "live and let live" policy is preferable to war with the bugs...
JOHNNY Yeah, well, I'm from Buenos Aires, and I say kill'em all

The movie even slyly reminds us the 'hero' flunked math. Verhoeven is subverting the action movie idea that the hero is always right and everything would be ok if he had absolute power. The Führerprinzip of most action movies in fact.

It's sort of bizarre that people who claim to like Watchmen because it subverts the superhero idea can't see that the Starship Troopers movie is a parody of the novel, it's not meant to be a faithful adaptation.

I haven't seen it yet, but I'm going to see it as soon as I can. I was hoping this wouldn't get screwed up, and signs indicate that it hasn't.

The surest way to screw it up would have been to get Tim Burton or Paul Verhoeven to direct it; they don't seem to be able to make a movie based on a book without wanting to change things and put their own fingerprints on it. (I'd love to watch a Starship Troopers movie. Too bad we didn't actually get one.)

Verhoeven thought the militarism of the the Starship Troopers and their absolute contempt for their enemies reminds him of the SS troopers that "invaded his homeland". His version of Starship Troopers is a parody. The Federation in the movie are the bad guys, they've started an unnecessary war and vastly underestimated their opponent's strengths. What we're watching at the start of the movie is propaganda from inside a fascist society that is in the middle of its own version of the Nazis defeat at Stalingrad. Now I know the Heinlein was no Nazi, but I think the idea that only veterans can vote would be more likely to lead to an militarist, imperialist society than the libertarian one he presumably favoured. Heinlein's design principle for society was wrong. What I liked about the movie was the way it was marketed as Beverly Hills in space versus big bugs, but it's actually much darker. As Verhoeven put it "we used to to joke that action movies are fascist so I decided to make a fascist action movie".

That article at sff.net you linked to completely misses this. You miss this too, even though after 9/11 I saw numerous conversation on American TV which seemed to echo this scene

NET CORRESPONDENT: Some say the bugs were provoked by human attempts to colonize within the AQZ, that a "live and let live" policy is preferable to war with the bugs...
JOHNNY Yeah, well, I'm from Buenos Aires, and I say kill'em all

The movie even slyly reminds us the 'hero' flunked math. Verhoeven is subverting the action movie idea that the hero is always right and everything would be ok if he had absolute power. The Führerprinzip of most action movies in fact.

It's sort of bizarre that people who claim to like Watchmen because it subverts the superhero idea can't see that the Starship Troopers movie is a parody of the novel, it's not meant to be a faithful adaptation.

Yes indeed they did, and apparently they're into mascara, lipstick and eyeliner as well, with just a hint of blush. Of course, you need a good foundation.

Why bother with makeup when all you need is grease?

Good news for you sir!

I haven't seen it yet, but I'm going to see it as soon as I can. I was hoping this wouldn't get screwed up, and signs indicate that it hasn't.

The surest way to screw it up would have been to get Tim Burton or Paul Verhoeven to direct it; they don't seem to be able to make a movie based on a book without wanting to change things and put their own fingerprints on it. (I'd love to watch a Starship Troopers movie. Too bad we didn't actually get one.)

Everyone agrees that a perfect, 100% faithful adaptation is impossible, unless you do it as a miniseries that is around 12 hours long. The best we can hope for is that the screenwriter and director do a good job of streamlining the story and keeping the important parts intact. Kevin Smith says that this has been done.

I've read several reviews, and they illustrate how impossible it is to walk the tightrope. The movie keeps large chunks of the original dialog intact, and reviews have complained about dialog-heavy, boring long scenes. As a fan of Alan Moore's writing, I'm expecting that I will like or love these "boring" scenes. You can't please everyone.

I read an interview with the director, Zack Snyder. He said the movie studios pushed on him to cut some of the more shocking scenes, such as a rape, and a scene where a pregnant woman gets shot; but the scenes were important to the story, and he got them kept in. In the book, the alienation of Dr. Manhatten is shown visually in the way he stops bothering to wear clothes; this is kept as well. The pirate-themed side story would have made the movie too long... but they filmed it anyway and it will be available as its own feature on DVD.

I read that Zack Snyder gave each actor a copy of the graphic novel, and authorized them to edit their characters' dialog to more closely match the graphic novel. I have real hope that this movie will make me happy as a Watchmen fan.

P.S. Alan Moore is not happy with it, but as far as I can tell, he is automatically not happy with any attempt to turn his work into a movie. You could get Peter Jackson with an unlimited budget, and he still would not be happy. I read that they offered to have him help with the adaptation, but he declined. (Which makes perfect sense... that way he can complain about everything, and no one can say "well, you had the power to change that, why didn't you?")

steveha

I haven't seen it yet, but I'm going to see it as soon as I can. I was hoping this wouldn't get screwed up, and signs indicate that it hasn't.

The surest way to screw it up would have been to get Tim Burton or Paul Verhoeven to direct it; they don't seem to be able to make a movie based on a book without wanting to change things and put their own fingerprints on it. (I'd love to watch a Starship Troopers movie. Too bad we didn't actually get one.)

Everyone agrees that a perfect, 100% faithful adaptation is impossible, unless you do it as a miniseries that is around 12 hours long. The best we can hope for is that the screenwriter and director do a good job of streamlining the story and keeping the important parts intact. Kevin Smith says that this has been done.

I've read several reviews, and they illustrate how impossible it is to walk the tightrope. The movie keeps large chunks of the original dialog intact, and reviews have complained about dialog-heavy, boring long scenes. As a fan of Alan Moore's writing, I'm expecting that I will like or love these "boring" scenes. You can't please everyone.

I read an interview with the director, Zack Snyder. He said the movie studios pushed on him to cut some of the more shocking scenes, such as a rape, and a scene where a pregnant woman gets shot; but the scenes were important to the story, and he got them kept in. In the book, the alienation of Dr. Manhatten is shown visually in the way he stops bothering to wear clothes; this is kept as well. The pirate-themed side story would have made the movie too long... but they filmed it anyway and it will be available as its own feature on DVD.

I read that Zack Snyder gave each actor a copy of the graphic novel, and authorized them to edit their characters' dialog to more closely match the graphic novel. I have real hope that this movie will make me happy as a Watchmen fan.

P.S. Alan Moore is not happy with it, but as far as I can tell, he is automatically not happy with any attempt to turn his work into a movie. You could get Peter Jackson with an unlimited budget, and he still would not be happy. I read that they offered to have him help with the adaptation, but he declined. (Which makes perfect sense... that way he can complain about everything, and no one can say "well, you had the power to change that, why didn't you?")

steveha

The story of the EV1 is much more complex. There is a great movie about the EV1 called "Who Killed the Electric Car." http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0489037/ It's clearly produced from an anti-GM standpoint, but it raises a lot of questions about GM's practices, motivations, and their current inability to provide a hybrid-electric vehicle that works.

I can see you're obviously not a Joss Whedon fan...

And he's gay!

Yes, in that movie Wanted , they describe in detail of an interesting method of infiltrating a nearly impenetrable castle using rats. Collect rats outside a dumpster using peanut butter and arm them with miniature time bombs. Activate the timer just before you let the rats loose in front of the castle, the idea is, that rats are able to go through places small enough to storm the inside of the castle and detonate their payload.

It is likely that had Bill Gates not sold BASIC to MITS in the beginning, he wouldn't have been able to succeed at the other stuff he did. Remember, he wrote the Altair's BASIC demonstration by hand on punch tape without being able to verify it - and it worked. (At least, that's what Pirates of Silicon Valley would have us believe.)

That is something that takes skill, and I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the role of his 10,000 hours in developing that skill.

Harold P. Warren would like a word with you.

Really? I was thinking it was from Idiocracy. Though, they were both written and directed by Mike Judge, I don't recall "electrolytes" being used in that film.

I believe the parent poster was getting in to the feel of the film while describing it.

Really? I was thinking it was from Idiocracy. Though, they were both written and directed by Mike Judge, I don't recall "electrolytes" being used in that film.

In Idiocracy, the future is dumb and they replaced all forms of water (except the toilet) with Gateraid(tm) like product and frequently promote it as better because it has "electrolytes". Including watering plants with it. Which happens to be destroying the crop population and no one can figure out why... except Luke Wilson, smartest man in the world. =P

Happily bought this film for $6 for my show of support. =)

Not that I think it's disgusting in the first place but there's nothing to say he's not a "senior Slashdotter" of a similar age to Kate Mulgrew... she's only 53 years old after all...

I'm 47 for heaven's sake! Not all Slashdotters are spotty teenagers or whiny CompSci graduates...

Firefly got nothing, but damn it, it's still my favourite space show next to Doctor Who!

A fucking theater-released feature film is "nothing"???????

That movie would be "Thir13en Ghosts"...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0245674/

Aaww, I watched a movie last night called Humboldt County that taught me the devices couldn't be faulted!

Joshua...

Ha! Ha!

LOL!! Until your post on this thread, I was happily remembering helping my buddy code a war game in BASIC on his TRS 80. He was converting the table top w/dice(think D&D style game in WW2, with rulebook and dice taking the DM's place) game they developed/modded into a computer game. The goal was to recreate the tabletop game on the PC.
The idea came about from the group playing chess with each other over modem. LAN COOP play in the early/mid 1980's!
The game was very similar to what ended up as Panzer/Allied/People's General style turn-based strategy games in the 1990's. (not claiming 'me first!!', just trying to provide a reference for what we were doing on the TRS80)

Good times! But now thanks to you, I too am showing and feeling my age. Oh yeah, "you insensitive clod!". Almost forgot...damn senility is messing with my mind. No, I don't mind. What? Wait, is this a trick question? Who are you?...

'Have pink flamingo, will travel'[Harry Aldrich]

I hope to be Harry someday...(movie worth watching-good family fun!*spoiler* especially watching 'mom and pop' find ways to get themselves killed for the insurance money)
Good Clean Fun(tm), yet still entertaining...a recommended 'must see', if convenient.(purely dished up as IMHO)

> it's almost impossible to not get your money's worth at $2

I direct you to this

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109729/

I would need to be paid a lot to actually watch this fully. It is like a slow form of torture. I you hate people buy them a copy.

For some reason this reminds me of this Caddyshack 2 quote

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094824/quotes
[Chandler Young has gotten Hartounian Construction's power turned off]
Peter Blunt: [on phone] That's hard to say, huh? Well, when can we get the power turned back on? That's hard to say, huh? Well, tell me something. Is it as hard to say as "Oh, my god! Somebody help me! There's a man in my office with a *flamethrower*"?

several english books were recently translated into Japanese and were very popular

You mean Super Karate Monkey Death Car?

pair of glasses[...]zombie outbreak

They Live!

Though, I think they were aliens that looked like zombies.

Be careful with "CGI Celebrity" plots, you don't want to get any epic fail on you.

A silicon valley company conceals the death of their reclusive but revered founder and CEO to prop up their stock price using high technology.

SPOILER ALERT

This was the principle plot behind Arnold Schwarzenegger's movie, The 6th Day, although there it was cloning, not holograms.

You should also watch Idiocracy http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387808/. It's a more minor movie but it shows the other side of the problem.

Gattaca shows the issues with doing designer babies.

Idiocracy shows the problems with not doing it.

You should think about what problems are worse and what ones are more likely to happen.

(sorry for the double post, how can I delete my top level post on this?)

While I didn't read the article, I did see the movie a few years back. It was kinda boring, so I do not support this.
I'll just go ahead and godwin this thread right now too: You know who else had a program to breed designer babies based on hair/eye color? Mod it funny or troll. Either way, history comes back every time and the movies/literature tell us how it'll happen.

It's titled : Into the Wild Green Yonder.

And how much will "high probablility of hung like a horse" be worth?

OMG, I'm glad I didn't drink something when I read this, my monitor may of ended up all wet. I just started the movie "The Witches of Eastwick" and in it either Michelle Pfeiffer's or Susan Saradon's character says how her former husband was hugh and she couldn't take it all.

Falcon

It seems Gattaca was a documentary. When will it become socially unacceptable to irresponsibly have a natural baby, potentially introducing bad genes into the human gene pool?

In the movie "Where the Heart Is" Natalie Portman plays a character named Novalee Nation and she names her daughter Americus Nation. When asked "why Americus" she says she wants her daughter to have a strong name.

Falcon

Go watch the movie GATTACA http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119177/ The basic premise is in the not too distant future a company has come up with a way for parents to determine all of the genetic qualities of the baby so that when the baby is born it is already determined what it will become/do in it's life based upon it's DNA. Prior to birth they know if you'll be a physician or a garbage man. "Natural" babies, those with no genetic selection are unheard of. The plot is a "natural" born character tries to fool the system into thinking he's got the DNA to be an astronaut...

Interesting concept.

Rough water stabilized, diesel electric propulsion and radar stealthy. Me likely. I want to live on it. Too bad it would probably cost a fortune to move and retrofit. The ultimate party boat, though it would be a little tough to fish off the back.

And you could always fit it with missiles and have endless fun making the great navies of the world think they were shooting at one another.

That was the plot of the 1997 James Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies.

"The stealth ship is not a fictional invention. Lockheed secretly constructed and demonstrated one in the early 1980s, but the US Navy finally decided they didn't want any. The prototype, called the Sea Shadow, was 160 feet long and the movie's ship closely resembles it in shape."

the builders were saying how much easier it would be to build a second one, now that all the design work was done and they have experience putting it together

First rule in government spending: why build one when you can have two at twice the price? -S.R. Hadden

Seriously...what ever happened to requiring basic computer skills to get an office job?

Very few of them ever approached technical knowledge in general and knowledge of computers in particular with any of the formalism or rigor required for competence or mastery during their formative years. Those few of us who did, mostly the geeks who now inhabit sites like Slashdot, used that knowledge to pursue a career in IT, software development, or hard science. The rest of the people learned enough to barely get by and called upon one of us whenever they got in over their heads (which is all to often if the market for computer support services is anything to go by). The generation which has "grown up digital" is only now beginning to enter the worst job market in decades after completing their undergraduate degrees and with few really marketable technical skills other than the ability to butcher the english language at rapid fire speed in SMS.

As for what happened to basic computer skills courses, the high schools in this country have enough trouble turning out students who can read, write, and perform algebra at basic levels, never mind anything else. Many four year universities spend several months just bringing freshman students up to speed on subjects which they should have learned in high school. For a preview of coming attractions, check out Idiocracy

Half Baked (wikipedia;imdb)

The movie Red didn't see wide distribution after its release. I saw a trailer for it, but I think it was shown at a single movie theater in the entire Phoenix metropolitan area for a grand total of one week. Brian Cox just doesn't have the star power of Sean Penn and the rest, so he's under-appreciated.

Fact is, you call this film a nominee, but I can't find mention anywhere that it even got considered for Oscar nomination. (By contrast, I had heard early reports that The Dark Knight was considered for Best Picture, though it missed out on that nomination. I suppose that would be an overly ambitious goal for a comic book adaptation, which few people take seriously still to this day.)

Maybe running on the spot and sudden jerks of the hands to indicate "recoil"? Either that or hook in an audio system and get the user being even more stupid by yelling "bang" for each shot.

Real Men the videogame?

Yeah, I didn't realizes that Idiocracy is a documentary...

You say that now, but you'll change your mind when Twitter and Co get all deep and meaningful about The Hottie and The Nottie

Between the video quality and the quality of the selection, "watch instantly" is just about unwatchable.

What's wrong with the selection? You get to see real cinema instead of the facile pabulum you're fed at the theaters.

Don't forget the other downside about how insecure and easy to hack they'll have to be to interface with that alien technology.

I recall a remote-controlled cockroach in this movie...

Kind of gives new meaning to the "this room is bugged" cliche.