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This lawsuit is just a money grab by some lawyers. There isn't anything wrong with the DVDs. MGM had a description of what widescreen meant that was correct for anamorphic movies, not movies shot open matte.

Please watch Red Corner before leaving to china.

these testimonials are so much like the TWO THUMBS UP !! type things you see for movies like this one

[Vyvyan talking about his potion] The person who drinks it will become an axe-wielding homicidal maniac, it's a cure really... for not being an axe-wielding homicidal maniac.

I loved that show... The Young Ones

So much for random thoughts for the day...

You want to have your cake but not eat it? I hate to think what you do want to do with it...

Maybe this?

well there is no word for that kind of evil, that i know of.

Yes there is... Badong...

This is more profound than my Caine/Hackman Thesis!!

They want their TV series back!

It's pretty much my favorite animal. It's like a lion and a tiger mixed... bred for its skills in magic.
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0374900/

Come to think of it a human crossed with a dog had already been done.

Aw, how are we going to get the kangaroo dudes from Tank Girl if we don't do this!?

Right. Because with the "Air America" URL in your ID we can reallllllly take you seriously.

After all, if you can't trust this guy to give you dead-on climatological analysis and astute political advice, whom can you trust?

Sheesh...

Heh, heh. You said "beaver".

To eventually use computer hardware and software that's too well known and vulnerable? It's the Praetorians from The Net. They want to get their Gatekeeper software onto all military hardware.

Reynolds is a Senior Research Scientist

I liked him better in Smokey and the Bandit. Seriously though, there seems to be no mention of neural networks in this book, so it seems to be just another guide to procedural if-then-else quasi AI. Does it even cover the alpha-beta pruning algorithm?

What's to prevent this being used by police to block their images when they're beating or otherwise mistreating people?

Reminds me of the scramble suits worn by narcotics agents in Phillip K. Dick's excellent A Scanner Darkly?

Hmmmmm. . .

[Soon to be a major motion picture too!]

Most obscure movie reference ever: The Ring

I've never watched BSG, but from reading your description it sounds a lot like Firefly.
Firefly was an awesome show put out by Joss Whedon (of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel fame). His writing is excellent, and he deals with some very strange issues that Trek wouldn't touch either. No aliens (to speak of, deranged humans though), just humans interacting in a futuristic western setting. The cinematograph is awesome (all handheld cams), the ship's set is huge, good character interactions (criminals, a doctor, a preacher, a hooker and more all on the same ship!) and all the actors are top notch. The worst part is Firefly didn't even survive its first season (due to bad marketing decisions, like releasing the second episode first..?), but the DVD releases are superb (and only $40 for 13 45 minute episodes). Thankfully, Joss is bringing it back in movie form with all the same actors, entitled Serenity due out in September. You should definately check it out, it sounds right up your ally.

You obviously have never seen this classic.

See sneakers at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105435

First off, the Carmack poster references the 1973 movie The Mach which has nothing to do with rap whatsoever (and predates it anyways). Maybe a pimp movie, yes, but not an 80's rap star.

And as far as the submission says, "You may not think it, given the proliferation of sequels and movie tie-ins that clog up the charts like that sickly white glue in the veins of heavy smokers." ...What?

So Halo 2, Half-Life 2, GTA:SA aren't good games?

Video games are completely opposite movies and TV shows. Sequels are usually better, or, at least, of very equal quality. Look at some of the obvious progressions like SMB -> SMB2 -> SMB3 -> SMW. All of those games were amazing but each one was able to top the one before it.* Halo 2 is far far better than Halo:CE in many respects. The SSX series improves from title to title. It's the nature of the media. Games, by nature, are repetitive. Especially things that are multi-player or non-mission based. You play them over and over and over. Think of your favorite game. You've probably played it well over 100 hours, possibly even 500 hours or 1000 hours or more. Who has ever seen a movie more than 50 times?

Saying "sequels are bad" in videogames is like saying sequels are bad in software or cars or appliances. It doesn't really apply. Even with movies, sequels get a bad rap. Sure, there's Leprechaun in Space and Air Bud: World Pup but look at IMDB's top 250 -- there's a lot of sequels or franchises in there.

* OK, Super Mario Brothers 2 wasn't that cool, but you could pick stuff up and it set the visual themes for Mario games for the next decade.**

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105435/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZn xteD0yMHxzZz0xfGxtPTIwMHx0dD1vbnxwbj0wfHE9c25lYWtl cnN8aHRtbD0xfG5tPW9u;fc=1;ft=21;fm=1

Or even Sneakers from 1992..

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105435/

Yes, the last episode of DS9 was very weak, however it was because they were expecting the next season to be the final season, but then was told "Nope. Sorry. This is it." with something like 3 unproduced episodes left in the last season. Given that, the "And then I surfaced" vibe is somewhat understandable. The crappy ass Sisko is the prophet's champion, Dukat is the pah wraith's champion in a boxing match is not.

See also Colossus: The Forbin Project.

Test screening for THGTTG are underway, May in cinemas.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0371724/

See James Bond, Goldeneye

He also directed Thunderbirds. I haven't seen it, however from what I hear, I suspect any optometrist would advise against it.

... although Firefly does seem better suited as a movie than a TV series -- there is only so far you can get with character development before things turn absurd (possibly a reason for the downfall of Farscape?)

if you don't like it DON'T WATCH IT YOU 'TARD

Okay. Enterprise sucks. I don't watch it.

don't talk about "ruining the reputation" and "devaluing previous Star Trek". that's crap. Star Trek is far too big for that.

I wish I could agree, but after nearly fifteen years of Berman crapping all over Roddenberry's work, he's made it start to stink.

if the original motion picture didn't ruin the show, then Enterprise sure as hell won't.

What are you talking about? The first two ST movies were great! One one more cerebral -- real "big idea" Star Trek stuff. Two was action-adventure. The best of what ST has to offer.

I haven't really liked any of the others that much. (If any movie could kill a franchise, it's the fifth one -- truly an embarassment.) Undiscovered Country was okay. But I can't forgive Berman for what he did to the TNG universe in Generations -- the emotion chip *and* the Borg queen?

The Enterprise series is just rigor mortis setting in.

If want to see the re-animated corpse of Star Trek -- look at what I just found on IMDB - "Star Trek XI" -- "In this prequel to James T. Kirk's era, but set after the era of 'Enterprise', the Romulans are close to beginning a war with Earth." ...I think I'm going to puke.

Serenity should be comming soon.
Rejoice.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0379786/

One thing I would take issue with here though is that "American-Style" democracy is not necessarily synonymous with liberty (the two can exist independent of each other).

The post you are responding to didn't say anything about democracy, American-style or otherwise. Certainly one can have great personal freedom under, say, a benevolent dictatorship - although I'd suggest that democracy is a better bet for preserving freedom in the long run. But you seem to be suggesting that American-style freedom is not necessarily the kind of freedom that is appropriate to other people, and with that I disagree.

...liberty cannot be imposed, for if it is, it is not liberty.

No. If A tells B, "you can't go outside without a veil", and I tell A, "you can't stop her", and make it stick, I have imposed liberty - that is, the only freedom I have taken away is the freedom to take away others' freedoms. A society in which a man cannot tell his neighbor how to dress, or how to worship, is more free than one in which he can - even though he has lost the "freedom" to tell his neighbor how to dress.

Iran is moving slowly in a direction of popular democracy with a strong religious aspect... there is no separation between church and state.

Do the Iranian people have the freedom practice any religion they want? To preach any religion they want? The freedom not to be bound by the laws of the government-sanctioned form of Islam? No. "Apostasy, specifically conversion from Islam, can be punishable by death."

You are treating the Iranian people as though they were a collective, Muslim hive-mind. You talk about the right of self-determination without asking whether that means the right of a Muslim majority to impose its will on Christians, Jews, Baha'is, and atheists - and on Muslims who are not Twelver Shi'ites.

You are right that American intervention would likely be counterproductive, but I'd be glad to have the U.S., or the U.N., or benevolent aliens impose freedom on Iran and the world, if I thought it were possible.

you mean eXistenZ?

Here (in France) you get movies in theaters either in "VO" (version originale, original version, with subtitles) or VF (version française, dubbed into French). Most of the time I go see them in their original version whether I speak the language or not because whenever I've seen both versions, I always felt the dubbing was horrible (of course I could just avoid seing the original version).

Anyway I remember some years ago seing Woody Allen's Midsummer Night Sex Comedy and there was a fast paced dialog at the end of which the character played by allen went to brood outside in a dark field.

The subtitles had trouble keeping up so the written dialog kept going for a good minute while Allen was walking around in the dark on his own. I expect whoever wrote them wanted to carry their full meaning but it didn't work out very well...

from the fantastic film, Apoclaypse Now.

Marlon Brando is an amazing actor in the way he delivers the above text.

"You want to know the best way to manipulate someone? Don't try."

Google has us all fooled!!

Well, since MST3k came out in 1988, I really wouldn't understand it when I was 2 years old. However now, as a 18 (almost 19) year old, I understand it and find it funny.

Joel sucked.

It's okay, we've got a few things up our sleves to take care of that problem.... We can fire up our own butlerian jhiad, or just call in NEO, or we can page that Sarah Connor lady and her kid.

It's okay, we've got a few things up our sleves to take care of that problem.... We can fire up our own butlerian jhiad, or just call in NEO, or we can page that Sarah Connor lady and her kid.

It's okay, we've got a few things up our sleves to take care of that problem.... We can fire up our own butlerian jhiad, or just call in NEO, or we can page that Sarah Connor lady and her kid.

Seriously, some people are very impressed by CLIs. Especially green ones. Try "cat /dev/urandom" on a green terminal to make dummies think you are doing real work...

Dude! That's so cool! We should make a movie about this! What? They did already? Damn.

You sure that's a good idea?

Whoa. ;^)

I'm pretty sure you mean The Wizard. The Wiz is something completely different.

I'm pretty sure you mean The Wizard. The Wiz is something completely different.

I'm pretty sure at least part of this video, if not all of it, was in Pirates of Silicon Valley . I've DEFINITELY seen some of it before.

p

I keep thinking of Toys, that Robin Williams movie, where this guy takes over a toy factory, and begins to manufacture military machines that will be remotely piloted by brainwashed children who think they're playing video games.

Imagine the movie Adaptation set in a San Francisco bath house instead of a New York apartment. That's collaborative metafiction. Then imagine the same thing happening on the internet. That's collaborative metafiction on SubEthaEdit.

Any questions?

For anyone who wonders, it is from Ghost Busters.

"British accent"? Which particular accent is that? Irish? Scottish? Welsh? Scouse? Geordie? Cockney? Werzel? Mancunian?

I doubt many of those sound much like Anne Robinson. Can't you be a bit more specific?

See how meaningless the phrase "British accent" is?

Heck, if you'd called her accent "American" (esp. NE USA) you'd be closer to her real accent than some of those "British" ones.

Answer: she's Liverpudlian, but she doesn't have much of a Scouse accent, IMO. At any rate...describing her accent as 'English' would be closer - Scottish, Welsh, and (Northern) Irish are completely different.
OK, so Northern Ireland isn't part of Britain; it's part of the U.K. (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland).

I read the article before seeing the link, and never in its many pages did being "anti-internet" seem like a salient point of the story. It was a fascinating exploration of a sexual predator who doesn't fit the common dehumanized stereotype, who wasn't himself abused as a child, who gets along very well with his coworkers (who still hang out with him), who suddenly awakens to this destructive fetish well into his 40's.

The author reports on a number of perspectives: the offender, the leaders of support groups (discussing their design decisions), the offender's coworkers, and his wife's. I found two points particularly interesting from a policy perspective. One was that recidivism rates for child abuse are actually lower than 20% (still pretty high, but not as high as other crimes, and not as high as made seem in popular depictions). Second, a few very gossamer layers of denial are all it takes to seed the fields for future transgressions, and how that denial can be so hard to catch, even under the seemingly very close scrutiny of a wife and support group.

What I DIDN'T take away from the story was how dangerous the internet in general is, and how everybody needs to worry about scary relatives over the internet any more than in person. I especially didn't take the article, as some post patronizingly suggested, as a befuddled and clumsy strike by Old Media against New Media. Seriously guys, can't you get your heads out of the Slashdot talking-point framework for an issue as important and undiscussed as the sexual ause of children?

I imagine that this will be one of the next big awkward social issues that U.S. society has to deal with, as was the Kinsey Report fallout (e.g. widespread infidelity), domestic abuse, drug abuse, etc were in decades past. A possible artifact of this starting trend of reckoning (if it is one) is that recent Kevin Bacon movie which got pretty good reviews; I plan on seeing it.