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> Let us see some other of the well-known authors filmed. Asimov's "Nightfall" [...]

Let's not.

Even if Will Smith isn't that bad it may not be a good idea to incorporate him in such a movie - there will be too many associations with MIB.

I'm sure Hollywood today can do for Dune what they did for Beowulf, a rather great epic with a much simpler storyline. Feh.

But I still think that any new movie has to be measured against this. As I have understood it that movie was cut down quite a bit. I heard that there was 8 hours cut out of the original filming. But I suspect that some of it were bad scenes and duplicates and that the remaining parts have been destroyed by now so a "full version" or anything else may be lost to the void.

But another question is - Why redo that book again? Let us see some other of the well-known authors filmed. Asimov's "Nightfall", Gordon Dickson's "Way of the Pilgrim", Frederick Pohl's "Gateway", Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land" (which gave us the word "Grok") or "Citizen of the Galaxy", Keith Laumer's "Galactic Odyssey", Jack Vance's "The Demon Princes", Alfred Bester's "The Stars My Destination", Jack McDevitt's "A Talent for War", Brian Aldiss epic "Helliconia", Christopher Anvil's "Pandora's Planet", Steven Gould's "Helm", Alfred Elton van Vogt's "The Empire of Isher".

There are also books that are better suited for TV series of course. Gordon Dickson's Dorsai books and the many Sector General stories from James White.

And there are books/authors that has produced enough material to allow creation of an epic series that sure could take on Star Wars (but sure be very different) like Iain M Banks Culture novels, the "Hope" series of David Feintuch, Asimov's foundation books, Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game" and following books.

But maybe this just indicates that Hollywood needs to play it safe - but I think that they play it too safe in this case. One movie that's available on DVD still and the mini-series that was released a few years ago must surely have blunted the market for a third movie on the same story.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0137523/quotes

Narrator: A new car built by my company leaves somewhere traveling at 60 mph. The rear differential locks up. The car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside. Now, should we initiate a recall? Take the number of vehicles in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one.

It seems like all Hollywood does these days is re-cover movies they've already made (which were generally adaptations of books in the first place).

Seriously, there's only one of two reasons why these are successful:
1) Nostalgia.
2) The idea was good the first time around.

We're rarely improving on the ideas at all. It's just mindless drivel rereleased again and again.

NBC's fall line up consists of a Jekyll and Hyde remake, followed by Knight Rider, followed by... A movie studio (not sure who) is making another "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure", and yet another is making a sequel to Wargames.

Seriously Hollywood: stop. Just stop it. You're embarrassing yourself.

There are plenty of other books that you could make into movie that would translate well. For example, the Feist series of books, starting with Magician: Apprentice would translate pretty well to the screen.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082677/

From TFA: "to tackle unforeseen natural disasters"

But then it goes on to talk about mostly foreseeable natural disasters. If you live on a flood plain or a low-lying coastal area subject to hurricanes, you're going to get flooded. In an earthquake zone you're going to get earthquakes. Lot of vegetation in an area that has dry spells, fires. And so on.

Legitimately unforeseen natural disasters would be things like a comet impact, volcanoes erupting in downtown LA, or perhaps alien invasion. Oh wait, that last would be an unnatural disaster, wouldn't it? But come to think of it, the ones I just mentioned have all been foreseen too.

I guess I just don't foresee a need for this software. Maybe they should work on software for foreseeable disasters.

From TFA: "to tackle unforeseen natural disasters"

But then it goes on to talk about mostly foreseeable natural disasters. If you live on a flood plain or a low-lying coastal area subject to hurricanes, you're going to get flooded. In an earthquake zone you're going to get earthquakes. Lot of vegetation in an area that has dry spells, fires. And so on.

Legitimately unforeseen natural disasters would be things like a comet impact, volcanoes erupting in downtown LA, or perhaps alien invasion. Oh wait, that last would be an unnatural disaster, wouldn't it? But come to think of it, the ones I just mentioned have all been foreseen too.

I guess I just don't foresee a need for this software. Maybe they should work on software for foreseeable disasters.

From TFA: "to tackle unforeseen natural disasters"

But then it goes on to talk about mostly foreseeable natural disasters. If you live on a flood plain or a low-lying coastal area subject to hurricanes, you're going to get flooded. In an earthquake zone you're going to get earthquakes. Lot of vegetation in an area that has dry spells, fires. And so on.

Legitimately unforeseen natural disasters would be things like a comet impact, volcanoes erupting in downtown LA, or perhaps alien invasion. Oh wait, that last would be an unnatural disaster, wouldn't it? But come to think of it, the ones I just mentioned have all been foreseen too.

I guess I just don't foresee a need for this software. Maybe they should work on software for foreseeable disasters.

The other night, I watched an old Robert Redford movie where the protagonist worked for the CIA, his job was to sit in a cushy chair and read novels all day, then write up a memo summarizing the plot points of concern. My thought, "does ths job not exist anymore?. Or maybe, they just don't read Clancy.

You know that Michael Madsen and Ben Kingsley star in Uwe Bolle's "discrapungent" film BloodRayne http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0383222/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0448134/

The scientific facts in this movie are... simply not facts. But the visuals, man what beautiful sun images this movie has.

For a minute there I thought it was part of the April 1st thing.... but nope, today is the 2nd!
And I keep thinking of several lines Lloyd Bridges (McCroskey) had in Airplane: "Looks like I picked the wrong day to quit sniffing Glue!" http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0006134/quotes
-Nope, it's just the new /. layout!

Oh ya, Ontopic: Ha Ha Ha Microsoft. I can hear all their lawyers giving out a big ol' Homer Simpson DOH!

I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.

I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.

You obviously haven't seen Pirates then.

My main concern is that some hacker kid is going to break into the traffic management network and use their monitoring systems to analyze the tire pressure on my trucks to figure out which ones are decoys and which one actually has the gold in it, at which point by manipulating the traffic signals he'll coerce it over to the right spot and blow up the street out from underneath it so it drops underground, where thieves are waiting to steal the gold.

He's world famous in Poland!

The movie Looker (1981):

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082677/

Great 'cover version' of 'Looker Theme' from Looker:

http://medievalfantasy.com/downloads.html

If Looks Could Kill (Looker Mix)DeVorzon/Schulte

also another Looker 'track' there:

The Final Battle(Donovan Mix) DeVorzon/Schulte

No direct links to the .mp3's to minimze Slashdotting.

Perhaps the two .mp3s could be mirrored somewhere else to save the guy's bandwidth?

Enjoy!

P.S. Not a shill, I just thought mentioning a movie which depicts using computer software to grade feminine beauty was appropriate. And the 'Looker Mix' .mp3 track mentioned above is great!

Seriously, did no one think of the Tremors series while reading this?

John Fitzsimmons: Well Sheila, I guess even you and your liberal cronies have found the light at the end of love with our beloved president. The intellectuals have been much agitated and now, having gotten the presidency by exploiting the problems they themselves have manufactured, he has done his best to fuel their anxieties about him. Sheila. Will you and your pack of bleeding heart liberals never learn that expanding welfare roles only accelerate inflation and inevitably hurt most those they purport to help?

Sheila Hamilton: Why John, you old stick in the mud. I've been listening to that horse shit of yours for months, and you can take that crap and blow it out your ass. And for good measure, sit on THIS [flips the bird], John.

Your real name wouldn't be "Private Joe Bauers" by any chance would it?

Been done already.

Yes, but it didn't go over very well.

Yes, but it didn't go over very well.

You're friend is Wednesday? Must have had a sex change I guess... http://imdb.com/title/tt0101272/quotes#/name/nm0573523/ Fourth quote down.

The first one was a B movie that was on scifi

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0433883/

Ever see the movie Atomic Cafe? Whatever worries they had, they soon got over - a little too much. I remember one of the government films saying something along the lines of "If you're not killed immediately, you'll be perfectly safe as any radiation will be blocked by your skin."

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0089869/

the Supreme Court of New York ruled that the terms of the shrink-wrapped license document were enforceable because the customer's assent was evident by his failure to return the merchandise within the 30 days specified by the document

It seems like with that logic one could setup a great scam with refund checks issues from the "Arse Tickler's Fagots Fan Club" a la Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. You don't even have to lie to the people, just make the EULA totally insane.

(Posting anon, to avoid karma whoring): http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0231627/

Whatever happened to the days of using paintball guns that looked like real guns?

If the doctor's likely to get calls regarding medical emergencies (I assume that's why you specified that profession) while he, or she, is on an aeroplane that's about to take off, or already in flight, I strongly suspect they wouldn't answer anyway.

This in itself is not illegal. It's a very common practice in many different verticals. A while ago I was involved in an online startup in the motorcycle industry. Twice a year, there is a dealer expo in Indianapolis, where everybody, who is anybody in the industry, goes to catch up with their existing partners and scope out new ones. If you're a new kid on the block, that's where you go to get your place on the distribution chain.

I was amazed at how close-knit the industry is. There are a few major catalogs. Any dealer that wants to carry products with good margins has to deal with these catalogs, which demand exclusive contracts. If you're not in one of these catalogs, you're not making money -- it's just that simple. We realized that what we were doing was revolutionary to the industry. We were coming in with minimal contacts, asking manufacturers to distribute via our distribution channel and go around their catalog partners. We made some deals, but it was incredibly difficult. In the end, our company became a piggy-back on top of an existing brick-and-mortar shop that already had the catalog deals necessary for us to get the products through the catalogs at dealer cost. In other words, we plugged ourselves into the existing network. The consumer still saw some discounts, but nothing like what could potentially be done if the good old boy clique were to be erased and people were put in a room and forced to make deals from scratch.

But you know what, it would eventually come down to the same thing we have now after some rehashing. And every industry I know of works this way. A huge percentage of what comes out of consumers' pockets goes towards paying a whole lot of middlemen that take their cut to ensure the dealers upstream don't have to worry about making deals closer to the consumer. It's one big inefficient rat race. It's stupid, but that's how it is. What MS did is nothing new and not an iota different than how business works. I swear, every time I install a commercial piece of software that supports something (printer/fax drivers, music players, anti-virus, etc.) I have to weed through and refuse to install a bunch of software that's bundled with the core offering. How is any of that different than what MS did with the browser?

This whole notion of attributing human characteristics to large corporations is ridiculous. Companies are neither good nor evil. They simply operate for their and their shareholders' best interest. That's all. You wanna know why company X does something? Look at their market position. You wanna know why a politician does something? Find out who lobbies them. Even individuals can act wholly in accord with their circumstances. There is a film Red by Krzysztof Kieslowski, in which an old retired judge confesses that he'd have probably done exactly the same thing as all the people he sentenced, given their life story.

You got your flying car way back in 1979.

And I think there was a certain black Trans-Am that flew at least once a couple years earlier than the General.

Human-based KNOWLEDGE searches vs. automated INFORMATION searches.

Very fun, charming little movie, all about the perils of automation. Check it out, even if you have to use up your next Netflix delivery. Worth, if for nothing else than seeing Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn onscreen again. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050307/

What if they spent 5 years or however long it would take for getting these two robots to get within spitting distance of each other, then had them attack each other Battlebots style while recording the encounter with whatever orbiters Europe and the US have circling Mars?

I can't hold back.... http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0418279/ . I'm sure pretty much an engineering student picked at random could have made a better transformers movie. And by engineering student i mean any lifeform that qualifies as sentient. There might be some truly good art out there ... but theres also ALOT of crap. It is hard to say who would do better in film making. However, for non-scifi non-fantasy novels the nerd crowd might get beat down. As well i believe formal training is required for painting/drawing, or a significant amount of time (one thing all engineering students lack). Certainly, engineers have a better chance of doing art students jobs than arts students have at doing engineers jobs lol. I wouldn't bitch though as most of the world realizes this which makes an engineering degree worth way more in almost any field.

Were the agents foolish enough to look in the trunk?

Well at least this was the TSA and not a Repo Man

If Pirates of Silicon Valley is to be believed, MS more or less started out with the intent of making software for Apple -- at least in the case of Office.

That's what I took away from it (well, germaine to this discussion at least).

Cop: Whatcha got in the trunk?

Parnell: Oh... You don't wanna look in there.

Oh I completely see and agree with your point. I guess I didn't word mine correctly.
But what about the flaws of the human mind? If a human writes the software that doesn't work, then the machine, or plane or whatever, doesn't work in all the cases. We, as humans, tend to jump to application far too quickly without understanding it first. In this sense, a machine is no longer a perfection, not even close. Far too many people die in car crashes than a perfect machine would allow.

I know I hit on a few topics here, but let me focus on the most relating ethical debate, which I am afraid of: use before perfection.

See Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet (1940) - http://imdb.com/title/tt0032413/. The entire ethical debate is of the same nature. Is it ok to spare hundreds when it would save millions more?

So even if this doesn't interest you, what about the legal side of things. When (or IF, if you're optimistic) this occurs, who is legally held responsible for the death or injury of an individual? The supplier of the machine material? The machine designer, the manufacturer, the doctor, the patient? All of the above?

--Although, there was a Slashdot story a couple of days ago on room temperature superconductors which would provide the kind of technological leap necessary to make such a controller possible, (that is, if my understanding of sci-fi technology is correct, i.e. Brainstorm) --And, if according the article, the superconducting medium can be pressurized to about ten million atmospheres. (Don't hurl your headset to the floor in frustration, or you might crack a gasket and blow up/flash-freeze your house.)

I think a more realistic trick would be to use eyeball tracking glasses. Not quite the same as mind-reading, but certainly a decent hands-free input device. And possibly cooler yet, was the technology described in a Slashdot story from a couple of weeks back whereby a neckband can read from the vocal nerves in your neck which combined with a voice recognition system could presumably allow for voice actuated commands. --That would make more sense for a Harry Potter game, I'd think, where spells need to be spoken before they work.

With all the real tech available, I wonder why silly ideas like EEG readers which don't have a chance of working as advertised are being developed. Of course, I don't mind so much. --The idea of people wearing goggles to use computers is a bit creepy, and the neck band thing offers such a howler of a metaphor it doesn't bear explaining.

-FL

All your fighter jets are belong to Clint Eastwood.

Not to mirror you, but I mostly agree with your argument.

My problem with reviews (and I'll spare you the history and details of it all) boils down to, "Opinions are like butt holes. Everyone has one." For the really rather small education I have on Cinema, I still find most reviews miss the mark on what I care about.

One of my points in my argument that maybe wasn't clear and your example misses, is that these are films I never would have seen otherwise. But I did see them only because of piracy and liked them enough to buy them.

My turn for an example (I was going to use Adaptation , but I thought of a better one): Requiem for a Dream . I saw it it off a burned DVD in one of my college buddy's apartment. I never would have seen this film on my own as it wasn't the type of thing even close to anywhere on my radar at the time. He put it on, we watched and, having just finished a film course, I was in awe at the genius use of split screens and montage. As soon as I saw it for sale at the local rental store, I bought it, not to watch it again, but to make sure I was supporting the creative forces and people who made it. Did I miss out because I didn't see it in the theater? Absolutely! Would I have watched this otherwise? No way! In fact, my college buddy and I live in different towns. He's always telling me to watch one movie or another and I just keep putting it off. Will I EVER watch this movie again? HELL NO! It's WAY too morbid to watch twice. Am I glad I bought the movie? Yes! If I can ever put the fact that it's a very morbid movie aside, I'll be very glad to seeing all the directing and editing tricks again and, hopefully, share it with someone else who will go out and buy it as well.